Datalog sample rate in FPM

FlashPro Manager software
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Gernby
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Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2009 2:53 pm

Datalog sample rate in FPM

Post by Gernby »

I've noticed that the datalog sample rate while recording in FPM is widely dependent on the performance level of the laptop, and that a very high performance laptop will datalog at a rate that starts to get close to the rate of the FlashPro's internal datalogging. I've also noticed that the datalog rate is very dependent on the power management settings in Windows. This has me wondering if there might be any performance tweaks withing Windows to improve the datalogging performance even further.

Does anyone know if there are any USB related settings that might help?
'06 NFR S2000
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Spunkster
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Re: Datalog sample rate in FPM

Post by Spunkster »

I do not know of any specific settings for USB, but I know you can close all other running programs and also close windows within our software to get better frame rates.
Gernby
Posts: 307
Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2009 2:53 pm

Re: Datalog sample rate in FPM

Post by Gernby »

Yeah. After doing some testing with a new laptop (5th gen i7), I've found that the biggest impact on datalog sample rate is from the power settings. When I run with any sort of "low power" mode, the datalog rate is below 10 frames per second. However, if I tweak the settings just right, and the CPU is cold (unburdened, so that it can turbo boost the CPU speed), it will hit almost 26 frames per second! That's essentially equal to the frame rate of the datalog that is recorded internally on the FlashPro! Of course, the internally recorded datalog will have 6 times as many rows in a CSV due to each column being duplicated 5 times.

This leads me to a feature request! It would be uber-awesome if you could enable some sort of dynamic datalogging rate, so that the laptop can save battery life AND improve sample rate. Basically, if the user could set parameters (similar to the datalog overlay parameters), so that the datalog rate could be slow while the parameters are NOT met (i.e. throttle pedal < 90%), but jump to the fastest datalog rate when the parameters are met (pedal goes above 90%). It would also be cool if you could allow the screen updates to be suspended while the datalog rate is "bursting".
'06 NFR S2000
Gernby
Posts: 307
Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2009 2:53 pm

Re: Datalog sample rate in FPM

Post by Gernby »

After some more testing, I found that the biggest impact on the datalog rate on a Laptop is actually caused by the Tables window. If I record a datalog with no windows open at all while in "High Performance" power mode, I get over 28 frames per second. If I open the Display, Graph, and Sensors windows, the datalog rate drops to about 24 frames per second. I was pretty happy about that, since those screens provide a lot of value while datalogging.

However, if I also open a fuel grid in the Tables screen, the datalog rate drops another 8 frames per second down to 16! If I display ONLY the Tables window, the datalog rate is below 18 frames per second, which seems really excessive.

While observing the tables screen, it seems to have some flicker to it, with random cells in the grid looking like they are being activated or something for no reason. Do you think you might be doing some unnecessary processes while updating that window? Would you please take a look to see if there might be some low hanging fruit there? Could you add an option to disable live tracing of the grid OR charts?

I suspect this issue would also have an impact on battery life...
'06 NFR S2000
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