# MEASUREMENT

In the main screen of SensorControl, you can make various measurement graph options

The general type identifier of the sensor in use is shown at the upper right-hand corner, below the Sensor Control. The type identifier is automatically identified, as soon as the software has found the sensor.

The MEASUREMENT screen displays a graph of the latest measured spectrum. The options are:

• By default, the X-axis values are different wavelengths, automatically scaled according to the sensor specification.

Note:

Right-clicking the Y or X-axis opens up a menu, where you can enable or disable the autoscaling for the axis.

• You can select the Y-axis values yourself, by using the Display Mode selector at the bottom left-hand corner. Changing the display mode during measurements will force next completed measurement to be displayed with the new display setting.

Note:

The Display Mode selector is only available, if the Dark and/or Reference values have been measured (the DARK/REFERENCE button is lit green). Otherwise only the Raw Intensity option will be available.

The three default options are:

• Raw intensity — The raw intensity signal value, which has a scale of 0 – 65535.

• Transmission/reflectance — The transmission/reflectance value (in percentage).

• Absorbance — Absorbance units, where:


absorbance A = -log10(Reflectance)

Note:

For this calculation, convert the % Reflectance/Transmittance value to fraction.

• Lamp intensity — The lamp intensity control allows you to set the voltage level of the Spectral Engines tungsten filament light sources. This applies to devices with integrated light sources.

Click this button to set the lamp voltage in percentage from 0% to 100%, in 10% increments. The new setting will be applied upon selection.

The latest setting used for the spectral device will be saved in the Settings.ini file upon exiting the software by pressing the Exit button.

• Show ref. & dark — Press this button to view the white reference and dark reference measurement graphs.

• FREEZE — Pressing the FREEZE button activates and deactivates the FREEZE 1, FREEZE 2 and FREEZE 3 buttons. If you press any of these three buttons, the next measured spectrum will be saved to the temporary memory, and the spectrum will be frozen on the screen.

You can release an individual spectra by pressing the button again. You can release all the FREEZE buttons at once by pressing the main FREEZE button.

The Scaling function is used to scale the frozen and latest measured spectra on the screen. Pressing the button activates and deactivates the scaling to the set value.

The latest measured spectrum and all frozen spectra can be manually saved to a file. Right click anywhere on the main graph and select Export > Export Data to Clipboard. In this way, you can copy and paste the selected spectra as numerical data to, for example, a text file or Excel file.

• Status indicators:

• System OK unlit indicates that the software has not detected a sensor.

• System OK on indicates that the software has detected a sensor, and is ready for use.

• Saving... switched off indicates that sample saving is not active.

• Saving... unlit indicates that the saving cycle is active, and the software is waiting for the next saving timepoint in the cycle.

• Saving... on indicates that a sample spectrum is being saved.

• Measuring... switched off indicates that measuring mode has been disabled.

• Measuring... unlit indicates that the measuring mode is active, the software is sending the latest measurement data, getting ready for the next measurement.

• Measuring... on indicates that the measuring mode is active, and the software is measuring new data.

• Point avg. — The point average setting defines the amount of measurement samples taken for every wavelength point. The displayed result will be updated as soon as the averaging is completed. This mean value calculation is done in the sensor hardware. The minimum and maximum values are 1 and 10 000, respectively.

• Scan avg. — Scan average defines the number of individual full spectra that will be used to calculate an average spectrum. The spectra will only be updated when all of the individual spectra have been measured. The minimum and maximum values are 1 and 1 000, respectively.

• Meas. time (s) — The Meas. time (s) box displays the time needed for a measurement in seconds, but only if Averaging mode is set to Averaging.

• Graph tools — You can use this set of tools to visualize graph to better suit your requirements.

• Averaging mode — Two averaging modes are available:

• BufferingBuffering refers to a moving average calculation, based on the latest measured single spectra. In this mode, the averaging value sets the number of spectra that will be saved and used in the moving average calculation. For example, with value 500, 500 single spectra will be saved and used in the average calculation. The green light indicator next to the Averaging value will indicate it, when the entire register is full of values for the calculation.

• AveragingAveraging indicates the amount of measuring samples taken for every wavelength point. The displayed result will be updated as soon as the averaging is completed. This mean value calculation is done in the sensor hardware. Minimum and maximum values are 1 and 10 000, respectively.