Troubleshoot Flexlogger: Hardware Works but Returns Incorrect Values

The focus of this guide is to help start troubleshooting Flexlogger hardware that returns incorrect values, this is part of a collection of guides aimed at troubleshooting Flexlogger. If "hardware returning incorrect values" is not the problem being experienced head back to the Overview of Topics.

This guide is split into general troubleshooting steps and a number of more specific examples of potential issues. The specific examples should not be treated as a list of steps to work through, rather a set of examples that can help you in your troubleshooting process. (Though they may be the answer!)

By the end of this article, you can expect to have been through the generalised troubleshooting steps common to this topic area. By reading through the specific examples, you will know more search terms related to "Unexpected Flexlogger Hardware Behaviors" that can help inspire questions and different ways to look at the problem.

The first step should be to check the Manual information on “Configuring I/O Channels” if the device is detected but no values are returning.
 

Generic Troubleshooting steps:

The following steps follow a methodical approach, each step has an increased level of effort than the previous step.

1. Check the Manual information on “Configuring I/O Channels” if the device is detected but no values are returning.
2. If receiving an Unknown Error when trying to stream to disk from X-Series devices, check your performance capability for the Host PC CPU, Hard Disk and Number of Channels.
3. If the numeric Indicators values are not updating on the screen tab while using Plug-In's make sure the folder of the Plug-In and the FlexLogger folder are the same to prevent misbehavior.

Specific Troubleshooting Examples:

The following example is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all potential problems. However, it can be used to help identify useful search terms by introducing keywords important to the troubleshooting of this topic

• When considering incorrect readings on the physical units or scale, confirm the configuration settings such as “Slope” for scale settings as well as “physical units” For further information, please view Example 1.
• If working with DAQmx and CAN XNET events, trouble may arise from the t0 timestamp not being synchronised, this is expected as the signals will be synchronised but with different t0 due to the trigger events being different
• If the issue is related to Flexlogger’s response rate, consider that Flexlogger is software-based. For smaller reaction times, use LabVIEW or deterministic operating systems.  Consult page 27 of the Complete Guide to Building a Measurement System for a discussion on the Right DAQ Software.
• Counter behavior depending on the frequency settings.

Example 1

Here is an example, the apparent issue of incorrect readings on the physical units or scale appears if selecting a different measurement type, for example “Current”, and are wanting to switch from A to mA in the main scale, it seems in the log files and on the display, it is still the same value in A range and not mA. 

As a solution, manually adjust the values. The 'Slope' features accomplish the desired decimal shift.
Is this example, change first the physical unit to Milliamp (mA) and then the ‘Slope’ from 1 A/A to 1000 mA/A

Next Steps

If you are still experiencing a problem then either head back to the list of troubleshooting topics or look at the next troubleshooting guide: Interface and Use of FlexLogger