PICO USB TC-08 User Manual

Technical reference
10
© 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.
USBTC08044-2
3
Technical reference
3.1
Introduction
The USB TC-08 is supplied with driver routines that you can build into your own
programs. The USB TC-08 driver supports the following versions of the Windows
operating system: 98SE, ME, 2000, and XP.
Once you have installed the software, the
DRIVERS
directory will contain the drivers and a
selection of examples of how to use the drivers.
The driver is supplied as a Windows
DLL
. The DLL uses the C
stdcall
calling
convention and can be used with C, Delphi and Visual Basic programs. It can also be
used with programs like Microsoft Excel, where the macro language is a form of Visual
Basic.
3.2
Modes of operation
3.2.1
Introduction
The USB TC-08 is designed for three specific modes of operation to suit a variety of
applications. The following modes are supported:
Streaming mode
Get Single mode
Legacy mode
3.2.2
Streaming mode
Streaming mode
is an operational mode in which the USB TC-08 unit samples data and
returns it to the computer in an unbroken sequence, using the onboard clock to ensure
accurate timing.
The unit can buffer up to two sets of readings at once. To avoid loss of readings, make
sure that another application on the PC - including the one you are writing - does not
prevent the driver from collecting readings for more than three sampling intervals.
To allow the driver to sample continuously, call the Windows
Sleep()
function in any
sampling loops (see example below) to make sure that your application does not use too
much processor time.
Hint:
Try not to use a
Sleep()
call for less than 50-100 milliseconds, e.g.,
Sleep(50)
or
Sleep(100)
. If you are programming a Windows GUI application, a good alternative
to sampling loops is the
WM_TIMER
message.

PICO USB TC-08 Specifications

General

Brand	PICO
Model	USB TC-08
Category	Data Loggers
Language	English