Serial Decoding output to ASCII or BLF format

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ashtray1987
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Serial Decoding output to ASCII or BLF format

Post by ashtray1987 »

Hi Guys,

One for the support guys here I guess.

Is there any possibility in the future of being able to output the serial decoding log to ASCII or BLF format?

I see at the moment there are only .csv and .ods format available

The reason why I ask is because ASCII and BLF format can be imported into Vector CANalyzer.

I appreciate that this is not something the majority of your customers would benefit from, however I work as technical support for a premium manufacturer that currently only has the possibility of doing CAN traces.

However some of these dealers, and in the very near future all dealers will be using the Picoscope which has the possibilities of doing CAN/LIN/FlexRay etc. If the format can be outputted into either of these formats there is a huge possibility of not only being able to log traces, but also to be able to view the physical layer concurrently. The time stamp would be very useful for synchronizing this data.

Of course there are some limitations with using a scope for this, like data loss between buffers, but I still believe this function could prove to be very useful, and certainly cost effective compared with dedicated dataloggers/hardware interfaces.

I believe that the OEMs that Pico is providing equipment to would be very interested in this functionality.

Appreciate your feedback.

Cheers!
Ash

ashtray1987
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Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:52 am

Re: Serial Decoding output to ASCII or BLF format

Post by ashtray1987 »

I can send an example ASCII recording if required, but the forum does not accept this type of file.

Thank you.
Ashley

ben.martins
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Re: Serial Decoding output to ASCII or BLF format

Post by ben.martins »

Hi Ashley,

Sorry for the late reply and thank you for a new feature request.

I'm sure you are already aware that although we cannot export to *.ACSII or *.BLF we can change the decode table from HEX to ACSII but it will still export only to *.CSV or *.ODS.

Rest assured I will add this to the new feature request list to potentially add this as a feature to PicoScope.

Kind regards

Ben

ashtray1987
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Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:52 am

Re: Serial Decoding output to ASCII or BLF format

Post by ashtray1987 »

Hello Ben,

Thank you for your feedback.

Hopefully in the future this can be implemented, this way I can have workshops send me CAN/LIN/Flexray trace data via the Picoscope.

Cheers,
Ash

RolandDube
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Re: Serial Decoding output to ASCII or BLF format

Post by RolandDube »

Hi Ben,

I was just reading the post on this output format. I too work for an automotive company and I work with our dealers in the field. The engineers work with these file formats and it would be great feature to help pin point problems. I see that the post is almost a year old, I was wondering when we might see this option.

Kind regards,

Roland

ashtray1987
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Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:52 am

Re: Serial Decoding output to ASCII or BLF format

Post by ashtray1987 »

Or if the software cannot do it, a separate software converter would be very handy. :-)

Really really would love this feature!

Thanks
Ash

ben.martins
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Posts: 539
Joined: Tue May 16, 2017 1:02 pm

Re: Serial Decoding output to ASCII or BLF format

Post by ben.martins »

Hello Roland,

Thank you for your post. The new feature request is still very much in the queue. Over the past year our software teams have been focused on something that will hopefully change the way our users interact with PicoScope. As such, sadly I cannot give you any news regarding ASCII or BLF format. I understand there is a use case for it and rest assured I will include your feedback on the feature request.

We really appreciate feedback and if there are any others you can think of to improve PicoScope, please email into us support@picoauto.com.

Apologies again and hopefully we can get this moved up the list when the current project reaches it's final stages.

Kind regards

Ben

ben.martins
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Posts: 539
Joined: Tue May 16, 2017 1:02 pm

Re: Serial Decoding output to ASCII or BLF format

Post by ben.martins »

Hi Ash,

A software converter, now there's a thought. Like a stand alone app that could work alongside PicoScope?

I'll add on the list!

Kind regards

Ben

ashtray1987
OneWave
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Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:52 am

Re: Serial Decoding output to ASCII or BLF format

Post by ashtray1987 »

Hi Ben,

Exactly!

Actually in theory it shouldn't be that complicated to convert the .csv file into the ascii format, it just needs the columns shuffling correctly.

Maybe a simple batch file might do the trick.

Vector CANalyzer has a few options for converting traces, but it won't convert a .csv file.

I would add an example format, but the forum doesn't accept .asc files to be uploaded.

That being said I understand that you can connect the PicoScope 5444D-034 to CANalyzer with the option .scope. This allows you to see the physical layer with the scope if there are any communication errors.
So my assumption is here that maybe Vector could provide support with this conversion process?

If this is possible it would be great if this can be done for FlexRay, CAN, LIN and SENT protocol :-)

Thanks for your help!

Cheers
Ash

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