Peregrine - The Free, Open Source LPM Interface

Speedy78 · Apr 16, 2013

I looked at some of it but I have no idea what any of it is haha.

mhemling33 · Apr 16, 2013

What do you use to edit it on a Mac ? I am downloading xforce but I am not sure if that's the right program.

You can probably guess from the statement above I have no idea what I an doing but I would like to play around and try to learn.

Trevor · Apr 16, 2013

Download the Processing IDE, information found under the "Getting Started" section in the OP.

Link to download page: Download \ Processing.org

I use version 2.0b7.

Trevor

Atomicrox · May 16, 2013

I'm going to attempt to make some changes to the source but I've never used Processing before.

I've just downloaded Processing 2.0b8, unzipped it and tried to run Peregrine. Got a missing ControlP5 library so I installed that from within Processing. Now I'm getting

Code:

ControlP5 2.0.4 infos, comments, questions at http://www.sojamo.de/libraries/controlP5
Exception in thread "Animation Thread" java.lang.NullPointerException
	at processing.core.PApplet.handleDraw(PApplet.java:2297)
	at processing.core.PGraphicsJava2D.requestDraw(PGraphicsJava2D.java:243)
	at processing.core.PApplet.run(PApplet.java:2140)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)
Exception in thread "Animation Thread" java.lang.NullPointerException
	at processing.core.PApplet.handleDraw(PApplet.java:2297)
	at processing.core.PGraphicsJava2D.requestDraw(PGraphicsJava2D.java:243)
	at processing.core.PApplet.run(PApplet.java:2140)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)
Stable Library
=========================================
Native lib Version = RXTX-2.1-7
Java lib Version   = RXTX-2.1-7

The main window looks fine but the Serial Console looks empty. The .exe works fine. I'm on Win7 x86, BTW.

Edit: strangely it does work properly with Processing 2.0b7. Go figure...

Atomicrox · May 17, 2013

Sorry for the double post but I think this is worth it.

Here's my first contribution, IMHO an improvement to the autorange algorithm.

The old one went like (in mW): 50, 100, 200, 300, ..., 900, 1000, 1500, 2000 and continued in increments of 500.

Mine goes: 1, 2, 3, ..., 9, 10, 20, 30, ..., 90, 100, 200, 300, ..., 900, 1000, 2000, 3000, ..., 9000, 10000, 20000 and so on.
It has a higher dynamic range and IMHO adapts better to very small and very big measurements. I placed a lower limit of 1mW because all Peregrine readings show with only one decimal.

I also thought abut using an osciloscope-like scale: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000, 20000 and so on. What do you guys think?

Heres the code, just substitute lines 69 to 74 of Graph.pde with:

Code:

if(maxData <= 1)
  {
    maximum = 1.0;
  }
  else
  {
    float magnitude = pow(10, floor(log(maxData) / 2.3025850929940456840179914546844));
    maximum = ceil(maxData / magnitude) * magnitude;
  }

Feel free to include this in the next version if you like it, Trevor!

Here are some suggestions:
-Unify Monitor and "regular" measurements - this could be done by adding a few more measurement settings:
--When available time is reached (combo box):
---stop (like "regular" measurements)
---roll window (like monitor does)
---increase total time (let's say it was set at 60s and you get one reading per second - after the graph border is hit every second extends the total time by one second and resizes it) (this would be very nice for long measurements without a foreseable end)
--Separate total time and time scale. Then you could make the graph show 5min or 300s, depending on your preferences.
--Add filtering options, to help remove noise:
---Amount of samples
---Supersampling/moving average selector

-Add restart button: stops the measurement, clears the graph and starts a new one with the same settings.
-Move stop from the menu to a button.
-Replace Measurement/New... with Measurement/Settings... or something. That way it won't restart until you click the restart button.
-Move port selection under the meter menu, refreshing automatically when the meter menu is opened. Leave only connect as a button.
-Move status bar to the bottom and buttons either to the top below the menus or to the bottom above the status bar.
-Make menus behave as standard menus:
--Remove "gaps"
--Top level menus only opens when clicked
--Only one menu is open at a time
--Menus only close when you click outside

-Add software zeroing:
--A zero button, when clicked it takes a few readings, computes average (or maybe minimum) and from that point forward subtracts that from all readings.
--A raw button, which removes the software zeroing.
--A fourth panel beside Current Reading/Peak/Average, which shows the current Zero. This is needed to avoid people faking readings.
--Maybe a settings menu, with the amount of readings to use for zeroing and a selector for average or minimum.

Please don't take this huge list of suggestions wrong, Peregrine is absolutely wonderful as it is! I just think the interface could be more "standard" and intuitive with some changes.

I might try to implement some of these but I don't know anything about Processing and may not be able to do much, interface wise.

LtKernelPanic · Jul 3, 2013