Datasheet

Evaluating Performance with the ADCPro Software

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9 Evaluating Performance with the ADCPro Software

The evaluation software is based on ADCPro, a program that operates using a variety of plug-ins. (The

ADS1256EVM plug-in is installed as described in the installation section, Section 8.)

To use ADCPro, load an EVM plug-in and a test plug-in. To load an EVM plug-in, select it from the EVM

menu. To load a test plug-in, select it from the Test menu. To unload a plug-in, select the Unload option

from the corresponding menu.

Only one of each kind of plug-in can be loaded at a time. If you select a different plug-in, the previous

plug-in is unloaded.

9.1 Using the ADS1256EVM-PDK Plug-in

The ADS1256EVM-PDK plug-in for ADCPro provides complete control over all settings of the ADS1256. It

consists of a tabbed interface (see Figure 22), with different functions available on different tabs. These

controls are described in this section.

You can adjust the ADS1256EVM settings when you are not acquiring data. During acquisition, all

controls are disabled and settings may not be changed. When you change a setting on the ADS1256EVM

plug-in, the setting is immediately updated on the board.

If you unload and reload the plug-in, the software attempts to load settings from the board.

Settings on the ADS1256EVM correspond to settings described in the ADS1256 product data sheet; see

the ADS1256 data sheet (available for download at www.ti.com) for details.

In the upper left corner, the Averages control sets the ADS1256 averaging mode. This control may be set

to 1, 4, 16, or 64. Note that this is a setting for the ADS1256 device itself; no software averaging is done in

the ADS1256EVM-PDK plug-in.

The PGA pull-down menu controls the PGA gain in the ADS1256.

Because the effective data rate of the ADS1256 depends upon the settings of the multiplexer mode,

clocks, switch time delay, chopping, and averages, the Effective Data Rate indicator in the upper right

corner of the plug-in interface is always visible and updates whenever a setting that affects the data rate

changes.

The previous controls are all found at the top of the ADS1256EVM plug-in and shown in Figure 29.

Figure 29. ADS1256EVM-PDK Plug-In Averages, PGA Gain, and Effective Data Rate Controls

ADS1256EVM and ADS1256EVM-PDK SBAU090C–November 2003–Revised July 2010