Network & Distributed DAQ with Dewesoft NET

Course overview

The course empowers engineers to build flexible, scalable DAQ systems across networks. You’ll begin with the fundamentals: defining roles for Measurement Units and Clients, and understanding Dewesoft NET’s operating modes (1:1, X:1, 1:X)  . Each mode supports different applications—whether remote control, high-channel aggregation, or multi-user access.

The setup modules guide through network configuration—assigning IPs, linking via Ethernet or WiFi, and configuring TCP/IP clients and firewalls (port 8999) for seamless connections  . You’ll learn to distinguish between master (full-control) and view-only clients, and manage channel access, remote setup changes, measurement control, and data viewing/storing.

Synchronization modules then teach how to align multiple MUs precisely, either using digital sync cables or IRIG/GPS timing, enabling coherent multi-unit measurement streams  . A major highlight is the approach to data streaming: measurement is controlled from the client, but data is stored locally on each MU to guard against network interruptions—ensuring reliable acquisition even if the connection fails.

Finally, the course moves to analysis and export, where you’ll access MU-stored data remotely, use DewesoftX’s full analysis suite on the client, and export selected channels or timeframes independently of the original MU’s location.

By the end of this training, you’ll be ready to design and deploy distributed DAQ systems—whether a single remote test setup, a multi-unit synchronized measurement rig, or a shared multi-client environment—with full control and reliable data access.

The Dewesoft NET application module provides an efficient way to acquire data over a network. This makes it possible to use multiple systems as a single instrument or to collect data from different locations.

The Dewesoft NET module allows one or more measurement units to be controlled by other computers, referred to as clients. The measurement units and clients must be connected via TCP/IP.

It is important to note that although any channel can be viewed by the clients, the actual data is stored on the measurement units.

Working with Dewesoft NET consists of three basic steps:

1. NET Setup – Configure the network, ensure appropriate hardware is in place, and complete the Dewesoft NET setup (including setting up the client and measurement unit, and remotely controlling a slave measurement unit).

2. Measurement – Create displays, perform measurements, acquire data, and store this data on the network.

3. Analysis – Analyze the acquired and stored data on the network, and export the measured data.

Dewesoft NET offers three modes of operation:

With these three modes, almost any application can be supported—from single-channel expansion and remote control to distributed measurements across hundreds of kilometers. Practically everything is possible.

1:1 mode - single measurement unit and a single client

The 1:1 mode works with a single measurement system and a single client. In this mode, there are two types of operation:

X:1 mode - multiple measurement units and a single client

Multiple measurement systems and a single client are used in cases of distributed measurements or when acquisition rates are too high to be handled by a single measurement unit.

The measurement systems must be synchronized either with a hardware clock (where one unit acts as the clock master and the others as slaves) or with an external clock source such as IRIG or GPS. All measurement systems must run at the same acquisition rate. In this case, only one connection option is possible—the client always acts as the master.

The master client starts and stops the measurement on all units in the measurement network. At any time, the client has access to view mode, but only for one measurement system (a one-to-one connection, similar to the single measurement system and single client configuration). Additional viewing devices are possible, but they can access only a single measurement system.

1:X mode - single measurement unit and multiple clients

The third network configuration involves a single measurement system controlled by one master client and additional view clients.

The master client can modify the measurement system setup, define the storage strategy, start and stop measurements, and perform various other tasks. The view clients are limited to accessing a few channels from the measurement unit (up to the bandwidth limitation) and can view and store the data on their local hard disks.

The NET system is always connected via the Ethernet protocol. This connection can be established in several different ways:

Point to point connection: IP address adjustment

With a point-to-point connection, two devices are connected directly with an Ethernet cable. The IP addresses on both devices must be set manually.

To configure the addresses:

1. Open the Control Panel → Network and Internet → Network and Sharing Center.

Select Change adapter settings.

Right-click on Local Connection and select Properties.

In the Properties window, choose Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and enter the IP address.

The IP addresses on both devices must be the same except for the last number, which must be different.

• Example: First device → 192.168.10.1

• Second device → 192.168.10.2

Once configured, the device can be connected in Dewesoft X software to perform measurements and collect data.

There are several possible configurations and setups:

Each measurement unit must be configured as a slave measuring unit in order to utilize the Dewesoft NET software, however, if you are going to use one of your measurement units as the controller for the others, then you should configure that one unit as a master measuring unit.

Searching for the measurement unit

Each measurement unit must be configured as a slave measurement unit in order to use the Dewesoft NET software. However, if you intend to use one of your measurement units as the controller for the others, that unit should be configured as a master measurement unit.

To activate the appropriate mode for each system within Dewesoft NET:

1. Run Dewesoft X and open the Settings menu.

2. Set the Operation mode to Real measurement.

3. To add new devices, click the plus button and select Add new device.

4. Under Dewesoft NET, choose Measurement Unit and add it as a device.

You will now see all available measurement units (including names, MAC addresses, etc.).

It is important to note that, by default, the actual data is stored on the measurement units, even though it can be viewed from the clients. This is critical for protecting against data loss that might occur if the network goes down or if transmission is interrupted. Even in such cases, the data remains safely stored on the measurement units. Once the network connection is reestablished, reconnection is possible automatically.

The core idea of Dewesoft NET technology is to provide a distributed system in situations where:

• The required computing power is too high for a single measurement unit (e.g., many channels sampled at a high rate).

• The distance between units is too great for analog data transfer.

• The measurement unit is not physically accessible (e.g., hazardous environments, test rigs).

• Data from measurement units needs to be displayed on several client computers.

• Measurements must be remotely controlled or supervised.

Within Dewesoft NET, the master client has full control over the slave measurement unit. For example, when the master client switches to the setup screen, the slave unit also automatically switches to the setup screen.

If your Dewesoft systems are all configured as slave measurement units, you need one master client to control them. Let’s assume you are working at this computer with DewesoftX properly installed and ready. Open the Settings menu.

Next, use the selector to assign this computer as the Master client, as shown below:

After confirming the Dewesoft NET setup, the following window will appear:

Select the Connect button to establish a connection with the measurement unit. Once successfully connected, the measurement unit will appear as shown in image 16.

You can also change the Channel prefix. For example, instead of the default [Host name] (which in this case would be 192.168.10.2), you could use MU, which stands for Measuring Unit.

Note that the slave measurement unit with the IP address 192.168.10.2 was already detected in our example. However, if you have not yet configured or connected to a measurement unit, simply click the Add button and select one or more measurement units to add them to the system.

Next, click OK to close the dialog. You will then notice a new addition to the top bar of the Dewesoft X screen—a NET icon:

Click the NET icon to open the connection screen. Selecting the Measure bandwidth button will check the network performance. On a 100 Mbit network, the transfer speed is approximately 10 MB/second, while a Gigabit LAN offers speeds close to 100 MB/second. Please note that the actual bandwidth may also be limited by system performance.

If you want your unit to be configured as a slave client, you must first enable remote connections.

In the example below, the system detects several measurement units on the network, named MU1, MU2, MU3, and so on.

Further setup can be done in the Master Client Settings:

• Store data on remote measurement units (enabled by default and highly recommended).

• Store data on slave clients.

• Disable mouse and keyboard on measurement units – useful if you want to prevent a local operator from changing settings on the measurement unit or interfering with the test. When this option is checked, the measurement unit cannot be operated locally, giving you complete control from the client.

In this section, you will learn the procedures for controlling data acquisition from the client:

• Creating a display on the client

• Storing data on the measurement unit

• Transferring stored data to the client

• Using the NET menu option

Creating a display on client

Before you begin storing data, you may want to set up a local display. In earlier steps, you may have configured the display of one or more measurement units, but you will likely want to view the data on the client as well.

To do this, switch to Measure mode on the Master client. At the top of your screen, use the Add Widget button to create displays with any combination of channels from any measurement units.

As mentioned previously, all measurement units must have a SYNC method in place to ensure:

• Truly synchronized data files from multiple measurement units.

• The ability to display channels from more than one measurement unit on the client.

• The ability to create math channels on the client using channels from multiple measurement units.

Note that the CHANNELS list now automatically shows channels with the “name” of the MU they originate from. This makes it easy and convenient to identify the source of each channel.

In our example, the name of the MU is added in front of the transfer channels.

The channels from each measurement unit will be displayed this way automatically. This is the only difference compared to setting up a screen in the standalone mode of Dewesoft X.

Storing data on the measurement unit

With the client and measurement unit properly configured, you can now store data. Simply click Store in the toolbar, just as you normally would.

Transfer stored data to the client

As soon as storing is stopped, an important button appears automatically: the Transfer button.

Click this button, and the data file(s) from all measurement units used will be downloaded to the client. A transfer box will appear, showing the progress and final completion of the download.

In this case, we only had one measurement unit, so only a single file needed to be downloaded.

NET menu options

Click the NET menu option to view the list of available options:

From the menu, you will notice several useful capabilities:

Once the captured data files are downloaded to the client, you can replay them directly.

Click the Analyse button and locate any transferred files. By default, the name of the measurement unit is included in the filename so you can easily identify which unit the file came from.

In this example, the filename was set to Test, so the displayed name is Test.192.168.10.2.

Double-click the file to open it, and then use the standard tools for analyzing, reviewing, printing, and more.

USB 2.0 Bandwidth Limitation

One reason for using NET configurations is that USB bandwidth is limited. A USB port has a lower bandwidth capacity compared to an Ethernet port:

• 35 MB/s (in practice ~30 MB/s)

• Dewesoft USB limit: 26 MB/s

• USB 3.0 does not improve upstream performance

General formulas for calculation

NET transfer limitations

The limitations of NET transfer depend on:

• The speed of the Ethernet link in cases of large bandwidth.

• The write speed of the hard drive in cases of large data storage.

• CPU performance in cases of advanced mathematical operations.

Data transfer is limited because all PCs are connected using a 1 Gb LAN cable.

The following table shows the upper limits of transferred data (in samples per second) per PC. Each PC can store approximately 25,600,000 samples per second, and this number of samples can be distributed randomly across measurement units.

At this maximum sample rate, a PC stores approximately 100 MB/s of data.

The basic idea of synchronization is to provide a clock signal from a time source. A clock slave receives the signal from the clock provider, and the devices are synchronized.

Devices can be synchronized in two different ways:

• Software synchronization – The accuracy of software synchronization is around 2–10 ms, which is sufficient for simple measurements such as temperature monitoring. This solution requires no additional hardware.

• Hardware synchronization – A hardware-based solution that can synchronize all USB devices (e.g., SIRIUS, DEWE-43) as well as EtherCAT devices (e.g., KRYPTON).

In the example below, one SIRIUS, one DEWE-43, and one KRYPTON measurement unit are connected to the S-BOX.

Time source

A time source provides the clock for synchronization. It can be selected from the following options:

• Dewesoft DAQ devices – when a Dewesoft measurement device is connected to the computer.

• External sources – Clock/Trigger, IRIG-B DC, NTP, GPS PPS.

• PC clock – when only a computer is available, without a measurement device.

• GPS devices – Dewesoft RS232 (Topcon/Javad/NVS), NMEA-compatible GPS, etc.

Type of synchronization

If a Dewesoft DAQ device is selected as the time source, the clock provider must also be specified from the available options.

Synchronization between Dewesoft USB devices

Any Dewesoft device can be precisely synchronized using hardware (e.g., SIRIUS, DEWE-43, Minitaur, DS-CAN2).

Synchronization connections

When using the NET system, there are several options available for synchronization:

Synchronization with ECAT-SYNC-JUNCTION

The ECAT-SYNC-JUNCTION works in the same way as other Dewesoft devices. It is automatically recognized within Dewesoft X software (supported from version X2 SP4). By default, the ECAT-SYNC-JUNCTION is configured to synchronize between KRYPTON EtherCAT® and SIRIUS USB devices.

With the ECAT-SYNC-JUNCTION, several connection options are possible, including:

• Synchronization of SIRIUS/DEWE-43 USB with KRYPTON/SIRIUSi EtherCAT® devices, achieving synchronization accuracy of less than one microsecond.

Synchronization of KRYPTON modules with an external IRIG-B DC triggering source

Synchronization of KRYPTON and SIRIUS USB with an external IRIG-B DC triggering source

Synchronization of KRYPTON/SIRIUSi EtherCAT® with triggered cameras

Synchronization of SIRIUS/DEWE-43 USB with KRYPTON/SIRIUSi EtherCAT® and triggered cameras

This step is only necessary if you want to have a display screen on the measurement unit for local observers. If no one needs to view the local display on the measurement unit (for example, if it is in a remote location without any operators nearby), you can skip this step.

However, if you do want a local display on the measurement unit, it can be set up in two ways:

• Locally on the measurement unit

• Remotely via the Master client

Setting up a display locally on a measurement unit

Open Dewesoft X directly on the measurement unit and go to the Measure tab. Then, set up the screen as desired using the standard Dewesoft X methods and conventions for screen design.

The measurement will run without being stored in this mode, allowing you to freely configure the measurement displays. When you switch to Measure mode on the Master client, this display will then be previewed locally on the measurement unit.

Setting up a display remotely over the master client

You can also set up a display for a measurement unit remotely through the Master client. First, configure the remote connection in Settings using one of the following options:

• Remote Desktop Sharing

• Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)

• UltraVNC (third-party viewer)

If you are using the Remote Desktop Protocol, you will need to enter the credentials for the remote measurement unit. The display will then lock when you exit the remote view of the measurement unit on your Master client.

If you go to Channel Setup → NET on a Master client, you have three screen views to choose from:

• Channel list

• Remote channel setup

• Remote display setup

By switching between these views, you can remotely connect to any of the measurement units and configure their channels or displays.

In the Remote channel setup view (see image 54), you can configure all the channels on the selected measurement unit. Essentially, this works the same way as setting channels in the input tabs on the Master client, but without the remote preview. For details, refer to the section How to Remotely Control and Set Up the Channels of the Measurement Unit?

In the Remote display setup view (see image 55), you can create a display for a selected measurement unit. This display will only be previewed on that specific measurement unit, but you can later add it in Measure mode on the Master client.

If you switch to Measure mode on the Master client (see image 56), you can create displays using all the channels from any measurement unit that you have selected as Transfer. This display will only be visible on the Master client.

If you switch to Measure mode on the Master client (see image 56), you can create displays using all the channels from any measurement unit that you have selected as Transfer. This display will only be visible on the Master client.

It is very important that the client computer has a display resolution higher than that of the measurement units. For example, if your measurement units have 1024 × 768 screens, the client should use the next size up or greater. Otherwise, you may encounter issues seeing some screen objects near the bottom when remotely controlling measurement units from the client.

The display shown in image 56 is the one that will appear on the screen of the remote measurement units. It is not the same display that you will see on the client.

Adding a remote display to the master client

You can also preview entire displays that are defined on the measurement units. To preview all channels applied on a remotely added display, the channels must be set as Transfer channels, and the option Send display from slave measurement units must be enabled (see the following images).

Finally, we will set up the transfer from the measurement unit. What does this mean?

Transfer: the channels that will be sent across the network during recording for storage and display on the client.

That is the entire scope of what “transfer” means. It has no effect on the storage of all channels on the measurement units (assuming local storage is enabled—the default and highly recommended setting). This is important to understand. You can have multiple measurement units, each with dozens or even hundreds of channels, yet transfer only a few channels—or even none—to the client.

Transferring channels only means that you will be able to preview and store those transferred channels in real time on the Master client. Channels that are not transferred can still be retrieved later, since the complete data file is recorded for each measurement unit once the measurement is finished. This process is described in the section How to Set Up the Measurement and Start Measuring? under Transfer Stored Data to the Client.

Because of network bandwidth limitations, we recommend being selective about transferring channels. Keep bandwidth in mind and transfer only the channels that are essential for monitoring and controlling the test from the client.

In image 49, you can see that on MU1 we have selected two channels, so they will be transferred in real time to the client. Naturally, they will also be stored on the local measurement unit, because this option is selected by default on the Hardware Setup → NET page. If we had not selected them as Transfer channels, they could still be transferred later in Measure mode, either during or after the measurement.

In this section, we are using only the Master client computer to remotely configure and control a measurement unit. The measurement unit is already connected to the client using the steps from the preceding section. All configuration steps are performed on the client.

We are not interacting with the measurement unit directly. It could be a few feet away, in another part of the building, or even miles away. As long as it has a reliable network connection to the client, it can be controlled entirely from the Master client.

Local setup - NET

Click the Ch. Setup → NET button. In this case, we have used 15 Measurement Units (MU). If you are familiar with the Dewesoft X setup screen, you will notice a subtle but important difference: there is a tab for each measurement unit, allowing you to remotely access each one (see the section Remote Channel and Display Setup on the Measurement Unit).

As mentioned earlier, there is a section with multiple MU tabs. If you have more than one measurement unit, their names will appear in this section as tabs. The local computer is our Master client and, in this case, does not have any physical measurement channels of its own. Here, you can also define channels as Transfer or not, which will be explained in the next section, What Does the Transferred Channel Mean?

However, the Master client still has a Math button.

It is important to note that you can perform math functions in real time on the client using any channels transferred from the measurement units. You can even combine channels from multiple measurement units into math channels—as long as the measurement units are synchronized.

Flat List - list of all the Analog Inputs on a master client

In addition to the NET tab, you also have a Flat List of all the Analog Inputs available from your measurement units. Here, you can also define your remote inputs. Simply click on the Analog In tab and set up the channels remotely.

In our example (see image 48), we have 15 measurement units in the Dewesoft NET system. In the Flat List under Analog In, you can now view all analog channels from all measurement units.

Setting up the channels is essentially the same as with a standalone unit. You can activate channels using the Used / Unused buttons, scale them using the Setup buttons, and adjust other parameters as needed. You can also configure dynamic and reduced sample rates, choose filenames, and more. In this example, our Master client computer handles more than 2,000 analog input channels.

Additionally, as mentioned before, Math channels can also be created, allowing you to use channels from any measurement unit.

The Cross Trigger function is an additional triggering option provided with Dewesoft NET, where the condition of one measurement unit (MU) can trigger another measurement unit within the network.

Normally, in Channel Setup → Storing, you can define global triggering conditions that apply to the Master client in the network. However, enabling the cross-triggering option on different measurement units allows you to trigger units based on local conditions defined on any specific measurement unit.

To properly use cross triggering, you need:

• Multiple measurement units connected over Dewesoft NET.

• The cross-triggering option enabled in Storing mode on the chosen measurement unit.

• All units connected to an Ethernet switch.

Example Setup

In the following example, the analog channels of Measurement Unit 6 (MU6) are used as trigger conditions to control all other 14 units:

• Enable local cross triggering on all 15 MUs.

• Set the Start storing trigger condition on MU6 → Analog Input 2 (AI2).

• Set the Stop storing trigger condition on MU6 → Analog Input 3 (AI3).

Setting up the cross trigger

To trigger all measurement units in the network, you must enable cross triggering both on the Master client and on all other measurement units.

1. On the Master client, go to Channel Setup → Storing (see image 61).

Set the Storing type to Fast on trigger, slow otherwise.

Enable the options Cross trigger (send and receive network triggers) and Send and receive stop trigger (see image 62).

To make cross triggering functional between all measurement units, you must enable the Cross Trigger and Send and receive trigger options on all 15 measurement units.

This is done by going to the NET tab, selecting one MU, switching to the Storing tab in the Remote channel setup of the selected MU, and enabling these two functions as you did on the Master client (see image 63). This process must be repeated for all measurement units that you want to include in cross triggering.

If you now switch from Remote channel setup to the Channel list on the right, you will see that the defined Storing type is also displayed in the Channel list.

Defining start and stop storing conditions

Start storing conditions can be defined either on the Master client or locally on the measurement units by clicking the plus (+) button → Setup.

In the following example, MU6 will be used to trigger Fast storing on all other MUs. When the trigger level of 1.5 V on Analog Input 2 (AI2) of MU6 is reached, fast storing will be activated on all MUs.

Essentially, when a cable carrying the generated signal is connected to the AI2 input of MU6, the trigger level will rise above 1.5 V. When the cable is disconnected, the signal will return to zero.

We will also set a Stop storing condition on Analog Input 3 (AI3) of MU6. The same trigger level used for AI2 will be applied here. When the trigger level of 1.5 V on AI3 is reached, fast storing will stop on all MUs, and the system will revert to Slow storing.

Essentially, when a cable carrying the generated signal is connected to the AI3 input of MU6, slow storing will be active.

Measure mode with cross trigger function

In this example, we performed a measurement where a cable carrying the generated signal on MU6 was switched between its analog inputs 1, 2, and 3 (AI1, AI2, and AI3).

Since we set the Start of Fast storing condition on AI2 and the Stop of Fast storing condition on AI3, we can see in image 68 that switching between these analog inputs successfully triggered the storing type. The same behavior occurred on every other measurement unit that had the Cross trigger and Send and receive trigger options enabled, where the storing type (or storing speed) changed accordingly.

An example of a large system connected through the NET system:

Channels:

• Analog, 19 Sirius slices

• XSENS

• GPS

• ARINC

• CPAD

• Power module

• GigE cams

• Controlled via Master computer

• Sync: IRIG Master / IRIG Slave

• Three Slave measuring units

• Different SR

• Ethernet to optics extenders

• USB to optics extenders