Data Storing & Triggering in DewesoftX

Course overview

The Data Storing & Triggering course guides you through DewesoftX’s powerful storage and trigger features, ensuring efficient and precise data capture.

You’ll start with understanding storing strategies—choosing between continuous full-speed recording (Always Fast), interval-based reduced storage (Always Slow), or hybrid/triggered approaches (Fast-on-Trigger variants). Triggered modes allow capturing critical events without filling up disk space.

Next, the course delves into trigger configuration, covering level-triggering, window conditions, slope detection, pulse durations, and using RMS or min/max values. These triggers automatically control data recording behavior within your acquisition setup.

You’ll also learn how to implement multi file setups, where files are automatically rolled based on file size, elapsed time, or priority events. Learn how to name files by timestamp or sequence, including pre-trigger data storage for context.

Sessions on Data Manager and storage options explain setting storage paths, enabling automated compression (DXZ), overwriting rules, and disk space safeguards to prevent data loss during long tests  .

An optional module shows scope-linked triggering, allowing users to arm or adjust triggers directly from the display panel, streamlining test control.

Finally, in Analysis mode, you’ll explore reviewing triggered data effectively: the interface enables browsing through events, zooming into each trigger, and exporting only relevant data segments.

By the end, you’re equipped to configure robust, event-driven recording setups, automate large data collections, and conduct targeted analytics with triggered data—all while optimizing file management and disk usage.

Storing strategies are very important for the entire measurement system. That's why DewesoftX offers many ways to store data.

You can see all the storing options in Measure mode under the Storing tab.

These are the possible storing options:

• Always fast

• Always slow

• Fast on trigger

• Fast on the trigger, slow otherwise

With always fast and always slow storing options you can choose between different static acquisition rates and units.

When you select one of the trigger storing options Trigger setup tab will automatically appear on the setup screen.

Before we explain other functions on the screen above, let's first take a look at how to name and save files that will be stored.

We can change the folder where data is stored under the Folder section. 

• Project data files folder: Storing folder. The default path can be set in the project settings.

• Custom folder: Arbitrarily chosen folder from local storage.

We can define the file name for each measurement separately by entering it into the edit field.

For repetitive measurements, we use the Create a multifile function.

Multifile automatically assigns a new file name for each cycle (start) of storage. File names can be either consecutive (such as 0001, 0002, 0003) or by the date and time.

Additionally, you can define how a new file will be created by selecting the Make a new file after checkbox. The criteria for switching to a new file are either the file size or time interval, which can be defined in seconds, minutes, or hours.

• MB: Creates new file after defined file size in Megabytes is reached.

• h: Creates a new file after a defined time in hours is reached.

• min: Creates a new file after a defined time in minutes is reached.

• sec: Creates a new file after a defined time in seconds is reached.

• triggers: Creates a new file after the trigger occurs.

This can be very useful when acquiring data for longer time periods. If we choose to switch the file each hour with absolute time, then the switching will be done exactly on the hour (01:00, 02:00, 03:00...). The time will be taken from absolute PC time (or another more exact timing source, if available, as defined in the hardware setup). The file switching is done in such a way that no data point is lost in the process.

First, let's look at how to store full-speed data. Let's perform a short measurement with the SIRIUS data acquisition system and explain the use of basic buttons.

First, we will learn how to store data. Let's perform a short measurement with acquisition hardware and explain the use of basic buttons.

To store measured data, we need to be in Measure mode, where we can see a Store button.

To start storing, we need to click the Store button on the main menu.

Once we do that, a small Warning window will appear if the file that we want to write to already exist on the hard drive. We can either overwrite the previous file or use another file name.

Now the data will be stored in the file at full speed.

When we start storing, these are the actions that we can select between different storing options.

The Store button changes to and if we click the Pause button.

Data will still be acquired, but storing in the file will be paused. At that point, the Pause button caption changes to the Resume button.

The Store button remains the same.

If we click the Store button again, storing will be resumed. Due to this, there will be two sections of data visible in Analyse mode.

We can also Stop and freeze the data storing.

If we don't make any changes in the Storing settings and go directly to the Measure marker, the data will be stored all the time with the selected Dynamic acquisition rate. The data will be stored in the file at full speed.

The procedure of how to store data is the same as we mentioned in the beginning.

To start storing, click the Store button in the main menu.

Now the data will be stored in the file at full speed.

The Store button changes to 

 and if we click the Pause button data will still be acquired, but the storing will be paused.

At that point, the Pause button caption changes to the Resume button.

The Store button stays the same.

If we click it again, storing will be resumed. Due to this, there will be two sections of data.

If you navigate to Analyze mode, you will see two sections with data, and the space in between will be blank as no data is stored there.

Th Always slow storing function stores data at intervals, set with Static/reduced rate settings. Even though storing is set to slow, DewesoftX will acquire the data at full speed, calculate the minimum, maximum, average, and RMS for this time interval, and store only these values.

If we look at the example below the static acquisition rate is set to 0,1 second which means, that in this case, we will use much less disk space for storing our data.

If our data consists of events that can be captured, we can choose to store it with two options of triggers. The trigger event can be defined in the software and then DewesoftX will wait for this event and store only the portion of interest.

If the Start storing automatically is selected, the data storage will be automatically started as soon as you change to any online display (scope, recorder, etc. ).

If you want to stop storing, just press the Stop button or press the F7 key on the keyboard. This function is independent of the storing type (fast, reduced, triggered, etc.). This function can be used together with the autoload function for the highest automation.

If we want to acquire the data at a slow speed, we can choose the always slow storing option.

The data will be stored at intervals, which are set with a static/reduced rate.

In our case, this is set to 0,1 seconds. That's why much less disk space will be used for storage. Even though storage is set to slow, DewesoftX will still acquire the data at full speed, calculate the minimum, maximum, average, and RMS for this time interval, and store only those values.

Let's store some data and take a look at how the data appears in the recorder. This is what the data looks like at full rate in Measure mode.

And now let's switch to Analyse mode. The data will be shown as the envelope of the original signal since the full rate is no longer available, merely the 0,1-second values. We can also switch to average or RMS modes in the recorder setup to see those two parameters.

The recorder below shows the RMS of the signal. We can judge from the average, RMS, and min/max values what the original signal could be. For example, if there is a big maximum and the average value did not grow, we can deduce that there was a short spike in that channel.

If Fast on trigger is chosen, data will be stored with the dynamic rate once the trigger point occurs.

If our data consists of events that can be captured, we can choose to store it as fast on the trigger. The trigger event can be defined in the software and then DewesoftX will wait for this event and store only the portion of interest. This can be set by choosing the fast on trigger storing option. After doing this, the new tab Trigger will appear where we are able to set up the trigger condition and strategy.

First, we can choose to define the pre-time, post-time, and holdoff-time.

Pre time

This is the time that will be stored before the trigger event occurs.
We define the 100 ms before an event as the pre-trigger. This means that Dewesoft X will keep the data in the buffer until the trigger event occurs and then store this data in the file before the trigger in addition to the data after the trigger occur.

Post time

This is the time after the trigger event which will be stored. If this is not defined, DewesoftX will continue to store until we stop it manually or a stop condition occurs.

Holdoff time

This is the time which is between the last trigger and the next one.

For this example, we want to capture trigger shots, so the post-trigger should be set to 200 ms, so a total of 300 ms of data will be captured per trigger event. Now we need to define the trigger conditions for the beginning of storage. Let's add one trigger condition by clicking setup to define it.

In the Trigger setup window, we can choose Channels for triggering. We can select several channels for triggering, but since this example deals only with one, there is only one choice.

Then the trigger criteria need to be defined. The user can trigger on-time data, time, or FFT.

Time triggering includes edge, filtered edge, window, pulse-width... on real data, average or RMS values.

For this simple application, only the simple edge with a trigger level of 0.5 will be selected. This means that when the value crosses the 0,5 V limit, it will produce a trigger. One can already test the behavior of the trigger from the scope on the lower left side of the setup window.

Now let's take some measurements. The user just needs to meet the trigger criteria with the sensor to produce the necessary trigger. We can see from the recorder that the first shot was not high enough, therefore we hit it harder. That did it, and we can see the beginning of the storage event, the trigger event, and the end the of storage event.

Note that the Store button changed the name to Arm button

 and an additional Trig button

This is the manual trigger to issue a trigger even without an event.

Let's review the data being stored. We can see that only the trigger events are stored, yet for the rest of the time, the data is blank. Note that there is a new button, called TRIGGER MODE, in the data preview. This gives us a chance to review the trigger events without zooming in on the data. If it is clicked, the first trigger event is automatically zoomed in.

The trigger mode button changes to an "arrows" button, where we can browse between the events. If those two buttons are clicked, the recorder shows the trigger events one by one. On the data preview, we can see the currently selected trigger event. Right, click on the recorder to zoom out to the full region and to leave trigger mode.

Data will be stored with the dynamic rate at trigger points, and with the reduced rate when there is no trigger..

To be able to acquire data at two speeds, we need to use a different strategy: Fast on trigger, slow otherwise. All the settings for this mode are the same as for fast on trigger. It should be noted, however, that if the user acquires and reloads similar data with this strategy, the data is also reduced for the regions without the trigger event. This can be seen in the picture below.

By zooming in on the data, one can see the reduced, stored data before the trigger, where only the maximum and minimum of the signals are seen, and then for a region with the trigger the full speed data can be seen.

When the static mode is selected, the system will still run at the dynamic sample rate shown in the box DYNAMIC ACQUISITION RATE, however, it will not store every data point. Instead, the system will reduce the data continuously according to the static/reduced rate selected here.

You can select the value from the drop-down list, like 0.1 seconds. This means that every 0.1 seconds the reduced data will be available.

If you select AUTO, the static/reduced rate will be adapted automatically depending on the setting of the dynamic acquisition rate.

You are also allowed to enter your own values, but be aware that not all values will be accepted - if so the real value will be mentioned below the dropdown list.

For example, if we have a dynamic rate of 1000 Hz, and a static rate of 5 seconds, and we check that we wish to store the static rate, the system will sample at 1000 Hz, but will store a set of min/max/ave/RMS values for each input every five seconds.

This means that 5000 samples are going by for each channel, every five seconds. Are they ignored? No - they are used to derive the min/max/ave/RMS values which are saved for each active input, at the static rate!

So, each set of reduced samples is based on all 5000 samples that were seen for each channel between static intervals.

Change static/reduced rate scaling

Sometimes it is required to change the units for the stating/reduced rate (Hz, sec, min, samples).

Simply click on the small arrow below the drop-down list to select another scaling.

For each unit (scaling) DewesoftX will adapt AUTO value automatically (and show in Adjusted to the field), depending on the setting of the dynamic acquisition rate.

On this screen start and stop trigger conditions can be set:

• Trigger setup to set the storage time before and after the trigger event.

• Start trigger setup defines the start and stop trigger condition. With Don't store setup.

• Stop trigger setup defines when the storage should be stopped.

Trigger setup

The Trigger setup can be used to influence the storage before and after the trigger event. Four settings can be used to achieve the desired result:

The following example is set to 0,1 sec Pre and 0,2 sec Post time, so we will capture 300 ms of data in total per trigger event:

Start trigger setup

When you select the trigger setup for the first time, there is no start trigger condition defined:

When you press:

• + (Add button): A new trigger condition will appear immediately in the list.

• - (Remove button): The selected trigger condition is removed from a list

Use the Add button to add a new Start trigger condition:

After pressing Add button beside this new trigger Start storing conditions also appear:

• empty Don't store conditions section on the Start trigger setup part of the screen

• empty Stop trigger conditions in the new Stop trigger setup column

As a standard, the trigger condition is set to a Simple edge trigger with a positive edge at the first active analog input channel.

When we select the Setup button on the trigger condition line on the DewesoftX Setup screen, the Condition setup window appears to enter the trigger condition settings.

''Don't store'' setup

The Don't store trigger condition and Setup works in exactly the same way as the Start trigger setup. This function can be used to suppress data storage for the defined condition.

For example, a machine is producing a certain part and you measure the pressure. The system should trigger when the pressure grows above a certain limit. But you only want to store the data if there is really a part in the machine. Then you can connect a signal to another channel that reports if the unit is present or not and use this result as a Don't store function

Stop trigger setup

The Stop trigger condition and Setup work in exactly the same way as the Start trigger setup (see above). The only difference is that this section defines when the storage should be stopped.
Use the Post time feature from the Timing setup to prolong the storage time if required.

Remove a trigger condition

To remove a trigger condition simply click on the trigger illustration or the description field to select the condition, the selected field becomes darker - and press the minus button.

Trigger control elements

To activate the selected trigger condition, just switch into an online display (scope, recorder, etc.) and press the Arm button on main DewesoftX toolbar or the F5 key on the keyboard. As soon as the trigger condition appears on the input, the data will be stored in a file.

When the trigger condition is activated, we see additional 

Trig button, which tells us that we are using triggered storing. We can also press this button to issue a manual trigger.

If you want to force a trigger event even when it isn't available, press the Trig button or F6 on the keyboard. Trigger shots will appear in the scope and the Trig button flashes.

If several trigger events appear, all of them will be stored in the same file. DewesoftX offers a special analysis feature in the Analyse mode for easy data analysis.

DewesoftX offers several different trigger conditions, which can be set in the Condition setup window. Trigger conditions can be combined completely independently when combined with an OR function. That means any defined trigger condition has to become true to activate the trigger.

When we select the Setup button on the Setup screen - trigger condition line, the following Condition setup window appears:

In the Condition setup window, we can enter all the trigger condition settings. The Source section contains a channel list in two different tabs. All chs tab represents all used channels and the AI tab filter only analog input channels.

In the lower part, the current signal value is displayed. The white vertical lines are displayed to indicate when the trigger condition became true.

On the right side of the screen, the Trigger on section represents trigger settings. These fields depend on the selected trigger type, below trigger settings symbolic trigger curve is displayed. 

Choose the trigger condition according to your requirements and press the OK button to accept the trigger settings.

Trigger type

The following trigger types are supported:

• Data

• Time

• FFT

To set up a data trigger follow these steps:

1. Define the trigger

2. Define the mode

3. Set up other trigger conditions

Define the trigger

When the data trigger is selected, you can also choose between Real data, Average, or RMS from the dropdown list for your trigger condition.

Define the mode

Select the trigger type Simple edge, Filtered edge, Window, Pulse-Width, Window, and pulse-width or Slope from the dropdown list.

Set up other trigger conditions

These settings (e.g. Slope, Trigger level, Rearm level, Pulse time...) depend on the selected trigger type in the Mode field.

Trigger mode and settings

Dewesoft offers the following triggering options:

• Simple edge

• Filtered edge

• Window

• Pulse-width

• Window and Pulse-width

• Slope

Simple edge

This is the most used trigger condition with data acquisition systems. The trigger event is a rising or falling edge, which crosses a defined level.

Positive slope

Negative slope

Filtered edge

This is basically the same as the simple edge trigger, except for the rearming level. This level can be used to define a second level, which must be crossed before the trigger condition can become true again. This trigger type is mostly used with very noisy signals.

Positive slope

Negative slope

Window

The Window trigger works with two independent levels, which build some kind of window. The trigger condition can become true when the signal enters or leaves the window.

Enters range

Leaves range

Pulse-width

Pulse-width longer than time checks in addition to the level (like the simple edge trigger) the duration Time of the event and triggers only if the event is longer above the selected level.

Positive pulse

Negative pulse

Shorter than time checks in addition to the level (like the simple edge trigger) the duration Time of the event and triggers only if the event is shorter than above the selected level.

Positive pulse

Negative pulse

Window and pulse-width

The window and pulse width condition combines the features of the window and the pulse-width trigger. It is very powerful, but you really have to know what you expect to trigger.

Longer than time

Level in range

Level out of range

Shorter than time

Level in range

Level out of range

Slope

Smoother than Delta time

Positive slope

Negative slope

Any slope

Steeper than Delta time

Negative slope

Any slope

You can set up the time trigger by selecting Time from Trigger on dropdown. Time trigger offers the following time format options:

• Absolute (time only)

• Relative

Absolute (time only)

Relative

Up to now, we triggered the system only on amplitude values over time and/or directly on time. The FFT trigger allows us to trigger amplitude values in the frequency domain.

This type of trigger is very helpful in any kind of dynamic application where you want to supervise the frequency behavior of the system under test.

FFT trigger options

To trigger on frequency changes you have to define the FFT options to get a useable result to trigger on:

• Number of lines (256 to 64k),

• Window type (Rectangular, Hanning, Hamming, Flat Top, Triangle, Blackman and Exponent down) and

• Overlap (0, 25, 50, 66 and 75%)

The preview at the left bottom area shows the change effects on the FFT immediately. This display can be selected beside Logarithm (see the display below) also Linear display.

Limit table

After you have done your FFT option settings you have to define:

• Number of points (limits on Limits table)

• the limits - Ampl. levels for f [Hz] on the Limits table.

The default (standard) Number of points is 2. The standard amplitude level is 1 for 0 and max frequency. You can click on this field and change this value.

You can increase the number of points to expand the table (e.g. 6 in the example below).

You can now define the limits in two ways:

1. Enter the values manually: When you enter the values manually into the table, you normally take just a viewpoint to define the frequency mask.

2. Take the current measurement from the system: The second way is to take a frequency mask out of the currently displayed signal. To do that simply press the Get current data button.

The currently calculated FFT will be stored as a mask and displayed both on the preview display and in the table at the left bottom.

Now you can manipulate the mask by editing the table or - much faster - pressing the button to move the limit up / down and the button to add/remove the limit in the frequency domain.

Examples:

Data header allows us to define input fields in which operators can enter additional not measured parameters at the start or end of the measurement.

Icon bar

The icon bar at the top of the window allows you to change the right section of the window. We will now check the icon by icon the functions. They can be used to create, delete, or move fields. The currently selected field will have an orange box around it.

Info field

The Info button adds a new line in the right section of the window.

Just click on the new line and enter the desired text, for example, "File header information".

Input field

The Input field can be used for any single line values or comments (you can use it for example for location information). Let us create a new field with press the Input icon:

and rename it (for example to "Location"). To rename the field, just click on the input name and overwrite it:

Selection field

The Selection field can be used for creating the list of values and is very useful when you have to use the same value very often, e.g. a list of user names or also a list of departments within your company.

Let us create a new list with press the Selection icon:

and label it (for example "User" - click on Selection and overwrite it):

Now you have to define the content of your list. To do that, press the ... button on the right side. The Create Selection List window appears.

Enter the desired names in the New Item field and press the Add item button:

The name will appear in the list on the left side, in our example labeled User 1: 

Enter as many names as required. You can also edit values directly in the list by selecting an item.

To remove an item, just select it from the list on the left side and press the Remove Item button. When all names are entered, press the OK button or press Cancel to reject all entries. The result of the upper entries is the following dropdown list in the global header window:

Position up/down

With both buttons up and down, you can now change the position of the:

• File name field

• Comments field

• Input field

• Selection field

• Info field (like created above)

You can change the position of fields at any time. Just select it (the red box will appear) and move it up or down using the appropriate button.

For example, we want to move the above-created info field to the top of the window, press the Move up button twice:

Delete field

To remove unused or non-required fields, select the field and press the Delete icon. The only field you can't delete is the File name entry field.

Ask for the header on the start option will pop up a window with all entries before the start of storing. Ask for the header on the end will open the same window when the measurement is stopped.

The data manager is a new DewesoftX plugin for copying acquired data to a FTP server or to a local folder.

Data manager's main functions:

• Copy files to network drives

• Copy files to FTP server

• Stop measurement / Shut down the PC

• Remove old files

You can download Data manager from our Download section on our web page.

To add a data manager extension first, let's go to Settings in the right upper corner of the screen and enter Settings. This is the screen that opens. We need to go to the Extensions section and select New extension on a + button.

After we press OK, we can see, that the Data manager was added to our Extensions list.

Our next step is to go to Channel setup and enter the DataManager by pressing the Data manager from the toolbar.

The data manager screen is divided into three sections:

• stop and shutdown,

• transfer files and

• remove files.

Stop and shut down

We can choose when we would like to stop storing or shut down the computer. We can do it after the selected Async channel has no new data to store within the specified timeout or after the file is transferred.

If we choose the first option, then we need to select the Async channel option, timeout, and action type.

Transfer files

We can transfer files to a specific location on a disk or to the FTP server. We can decide whether we would like to copy all files or every x-the file.

If we transfer files to a Disc location, we simply select the Directory where data will be copied. We can also see all the existing files.

If we decide to transfer data on an FTP server, we need to type in the specific information, like Host, Port, local folder, etc.

There are also some additional options. We can choose to rename the existing file, overwrite it, skip it or resume it. we can also decide to delete the files after transferring them and copy files which transfer wasn't successful. Some FTP servers demand passive connection, so It is always good to test the connection to make sure that it works properly.

Remove files

Our last field allows us to remove specific files.

We can select the number of days that need to pass before the files are removed from the local folder. Please don't skip the WARNING note. This option will remove all old files from the data folder.

The time at which DewesoftX stores the files by default is always Coordinated universal time (UTC), but it can display stored data in local time, UTC time, and telemetry time.

The problem that can follow is that for example if the files were recorded in Russia at 10 pm, it was stored in the UK at 7 pm (local time) which is exactly what is shown when you look at the file time in the UK.

When your work with customers doing long-range rockets, it becomes even more complicated as the time zone changes during recording every x minutes. That's why in DewesoftX you have the option to show the file time format in local time, UTC, and telemetry UTC (day of the year).