Release Notes

Changes for this alpha version.

Changes 5.0a1 (9/96)

• New ITC-18 support!
  - Supports the Instrutech ITC-18 PCI interface as well as the ITC-16 PCI and NuBus (68K and PPC) interfaces. Diagnostic output in the Stimulus and Event Tracker windows remains in this alpha release to determine the maximum readFIFO used when at the shorter sampling intervals. This version uses device driver software included in the XOP rather than the hardware driver and is native on PowerPC Macs.
  - Note: The ITC-18 has a resolution of 1.25 microseconds (different than the ITC16 resolution of 1.0 microseconds). Sampling intervals that are not integer multiples of 5.0 microseconds will be different when an ITC-16 experiment is run with the ITC-18. We have attemped to add wavenotes items to indicate the true (non-integer) sampling interval used in all portions of our XOPs but there may be unforseen problems with this new code. In Event Tracker, the file format only allows integer values for the Sampling Interval and was not changed in this version.
  - Added a new command to the PulsePattern XOP: PC_Reset can be used in place of the Reset command available in the ITC16XOP. The ITC16XOP is not available from us in this release.
  
• Bug Fixes
  - Fixed problem with TTL in a Wave Interval type. A Pulse Pattern Interval type of Wave allowed entry of TTL values but did not use these settings when running a stimulus. The TTL output immediately goes to the value specified in the following interval, losing synchronization between TTL and DAC output for the remainder of the Pattern. (This had been the case since Wave interval types were introduced in version 4.6.)
  

Changes for recent beta versions.

Changes 5.0a0 (8/96)

• New PCI support!
  - This version adds support (in a relatively untested alpha version) for the new PCI interface card to the ITC16 from Instrutech. The version should work on 68K NuBus, PPC NuBus and PPC PCI interfaces. Since this has not been tested as completely as we prefer, we are labelling this an 'alpha' version. A small amount of diagnostic output has been left in to help in determining the limits on speed in Pulse/Stimulus and Event Tracker acquisitions. Note: The ITC16XOP is not included in this distribution. The next version will add a PC_Reset command in the PulsePattern XOP to replace the old ITC16XOP reset command.

Changes 4.7b6 (5/96)

• Bug Fixes
  - Pulse Patterns with display enabled to a previously created graph window now will auto-scale correctly for each new stimulus.
  - The 'Try It' button in the pulse pattern editor has been disabled to prevent a crash that could occur in cases where a file dialog box is opened from within the editor.

Changes 4.7b5 (4/96)

• New Features
  - A new set of Operations has been added to the TimerXOP to allow opening starting, stoping, resetting from the command line. These are: PC_Timer, PC_TimerStartAll, PC_TimerStopAll, PC_TimerResetAll, PC_TimerOnOff timerNum and PC_TimerReset timerNum.
  - XFuncs added to MiscXOP: string = PC_StrWaveNote(wave, "NoteName") and variable = PC_NumWaveNote(wave, "NoteName").

Changes 4.7b4 (3/96)

• New Features
  - A new set of Operations has been added to allow opening all the major windows from a macro or command line. These are: OpenGlobalControl, PC_OpenScope, PC_OpenCap, PC_OpenET, and PC_OpenStimSet [name].
• Changes (little new features)
  - Some operation names have been changed to reduce potential name conflicts. Affected operations are: pulse -> PC_Pulse, RC_Check -> PC_RCCheck, PP_CAP -> PC_CAP, Average -> PC_Average, Bin -> PC_Bin, Concatenate -> PC_Concatenate.
• Bug Fixes
  - Display pattern info when doing Add Pattern.
  - Repair Stimulus Set SaveI menu item to correctly save the set.
  

Changes 4.7b3 (3/96)

• Changes (little new features)
  - Improved response to a double click in the Stimulus Set Window.
  - Changed times recorded in the IGOR History to reflect the time the Stimulus execution was started.
  
• Bug Fixes
  - Fixed bug from 4.7b0 that incorrectly used aliases in the distributed Stimulus Set to search for pattern and table files in the wrong locations.
  - Fixed bug from earlier versions that would execute the old version of a table after it was edited during an Igor session.
  - Fixed bug remaining from 4.7b2 causing table pop-up to be incorrect when editing a pattern.
  

Changes 4.7b2 (2/96)

• Bug Fixes
  - Fixed bug from 4.7b0 that caused table pop-up to not appear when adding a pattern to a stimulus set.
  - Fixed memory leak in Capacitance system and improved some memory management.

Changes 4.7b1 (2/96)

• New Features
  - The "DAC0Info" globals now also keep track of output limits for each DAC in addition to values for holding potential, sub-holding potential, units name and P/N enable status.
  - The popup menu for the "DAC0Info" globals now displays the current value for each item.
  
• Changes
  - The "Channel0Info", etc globals have been renamted to "ADC0Info", etc. to provide a more consistant naming scheme.
  - All places in the Pulse Pattern XOP that make use of variables managed in the "DAC0Info" globals now use the DAC-specific information rather than the old global. For example, the Scope window now uses the holding value specified in DAC0Info rather than the global "HP".
  
• Bug Fixes
  - None Listed -
  

Changes 4.7b0 (1/96)

• New Features
  - Added features to enable output of pulse patterns to multiple DACs in Pulse Pattern system.
• Changes
  - We now call a group of pulse patterns a "Stimulus" to signify that it may now contain up to four patterns (one for each DAC output).
  - A new global variable called "GC_auto_save" may be set to "false" to disable auto-saving of waves in Pulse Pattern and Capacitance systems.
  - The Stimulus Set window should now remain the "front" window when running a stimulus set.
  - A new set of globals: "DAC0Info", "DAC1Info", etc. and associated controls have been added to GlobalControl to control new features used by multi-DAC Stimulus output. Where appropriate, these DAC items are used in other places throughout the program.
  
• Bug Fixes
  - The "Channel0Info", "Channel1Info", etc. globals now may be changed from a macro or command line and will update the checkbox in the GlobalControl window.

Changes in the version 4.6 release.

• Fix ADC_CHAN in Event Tracker block structure and in ET wave note utilities.
• Add error messages to some MiscXOP utility functions when a wave cannot be created.
• We have now included a fat version of the ITC16xop.
• A few cosmetic changes have been made.

Changes in the 4.6 beta versions

Changes 4.6b8 (8/95)

• A Cap acquisition may now be started from the IGOR command line (or macro) using the command "PCCap".
• Cap now reports data overrun conditions more reliably.
• Ramp values in Cap are now checked against the 16-bit limits of the ITC-16. Older versions could sometimes allow the endpoints to go outside of the word range, resulting in surprising ramp values.
• The PulsePattern Prefs file is working correctly again on 68K versions. Likewise, some features in the MiscXOP correctly print on separate lines instead of using linefeed chars.
• The XOPs are again accessible from Igor 1.24 as well as Igor Pro.
• The sound in RapidPulser now gets turned off when the acquisition is halted.

Changes 4.6b7 (8/95)

• PulsePattern and Event Tracker now calculate Sampling Interval correctly when multiple A/D channels or different SIs are selected. Wavenotes are updated with the values used.
• Cap now makes a better approximation to the requested size of the first PulsePattern interval while still making the entire pattern a multiple of the C&G point size in length.
• Event Tracker no longer increments the record number if not saving to disk.
• Event Tracker now has a display field for the Sampling Interval (per channel) actually used in an acquisition.
• Event Tracker now will display the data with the correct, selected time scale for any combination of sampling interval and timebase.
• Fix bug in Event Tracker and PulsePatterns introduced in 4.6b6 that sometimes created spurious data overrun conditions.
• PulsePattern now has wavenotes for the number of channels and the A/D channel used.
• The PulsePattern Editor sine wave interval Params dialog now dims the OK button if the values entered are not valid.

Changes 4.6b6 (8/95)

• Fixed AD overflow bug in Event Tracker and improved robustness of acquisition in Pulse Patterns.
• Fixed problem where Cap did not properly update the PulsePattern popup selection after changing the Pattern Set.
• Cap now displays a 'Stop' icon button when running.
• Event Tracker no longer sets channel 0 output to zero when acquiring.

Changes in version 4.6B5 (7/95)

• Added multichannel acquisition support in Event Tracker.
• Fixed a bug in Pulse Pattern editor relating to use of special amplitude and special duration values. (sin or ramp interval type with run-time duration).
• Updated MiscXOP to support ramp interval types with MakeVoltageWave command.

Changes in version 4.6B4 (6/95)

• First version generated with CodeWarrier development environment.
  
• First version compiled with PowerPC native code.

Changes from 4.5 to 4.6 (6/95)

• Added the ability to output an IGOR wave in the Capacitance system.
  
• Added the 3-parameter (Cm, Rs, Rm) calculations in the Capacitance system.
  
• Fixed a bug in IGOR wave output in pulsing for waves longer than 32K.
  
• Improved phase synchronization for long pulse patterns in the Capacitance system.
  
• Actual values for 'd' wave are saved even when holding potential is zero.
  
• 'I' waves are now optional in the Capacitance system.

24Sep96