PlViewer is a small Java utility that can be used to view pdb and csv format log files created by PocketLOGGER. It provides a graphical display of logged parameters, allowing one or more graphs to be displayed with each graph showing one or more parameters for easy comparison.

PlViewer has been tested successfully on PC Windows, PC Linux (SuSe, RedHat), and Sun Solaris.

PlViewer is a Java2 application and requires the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.2.2 or later. Sun's JRE (or JDK) can be downloaded from java.sun.com/products.

Reasonable performance can be achieved on a 200MHz Pentium PC with 48Mb RAM.

Approximately 100k of disc space is required.

PlViewer comes as a single Java archive (PlViewer.jar) file about 60k in size. To install, simply download and copy this file into a suitable directory. When downloading, some browsers may rename the file PlViewer.zip. If this happens, simply change it back to PlViewer.jar.

On MS Windows systems with Java2 installed, running the application should be possible by double-clicking on the PlViewer.jar file. It is also possible to execute the program from a DOS box or Linux/Unix command shell by typing;

If your path is not set up correctly, you will need to type in the full pathname of the java runtime (e.g. c:\jre\bin\java –jar PlViewer.jar).

Once the viewer starts, you will be presented with a small application window titled 'PocketLOGGER Log Viewer'. A menubar will provide four menus, 'File', 'Preferences', 'Windows' and ‘Help’. These are discussed in more detail below.

The file menu provides six options, 'Open', 'Page Setup', 'Print Preview', 'Print', ‘CSV Convert’ and 'Exit'.

Open

This option brings up a standard 'File Open' dialog box which allows you to browse the file/directory hierarchy and select a log file. Once a log file has been loaded, graphs will be displayed according to the last saved configuration, or if no configuration has been saved, the default configuration of two graphs, displaying RPM, O2, Knock and Timing will be used.

Page Setup

This option brings up a standard print setup dialog, allowing you to select various printer options such as portrait/landscape and paper size. The exact capabilities of this dialog box depend upon your operating system.

Print preview

This option will be disabled unless you have a log file loaded. Once enabled, it displays a dialog box with a scaled version of the currently viewed graphs as they will appear when printed out.

Print

This option will be disabled unless you have a log file loaded. Once enabled, it displays a standard Print dialog box that allows you to print the currently viewed graphs.

CSV Convert

This option will be disabled unless you have a log file loaded. Once enabled, it allows you to save the currently loaded log file in Comma Separated Variable (CSV) format. After selecting this option, a standard ‘Save’ dialog will be displayed, allowing you to select the name of the CSV file.

Exit

This terminates the application.

This menu gives you three configuration options, 'Parameters', 'Graph' and 'Save'

Parameters

This option displays a dialog box that allows you to configure the minimum and maximum values for each parameter, as well as the display colors. By changing the minimum and maximum values, you can control the vertical scaling and location of graph parameters when they are plotted on a graph.

Clicking on the colored button for a parameter will display a color chooser dialog that allows you to select the display color for that parameter.

'Ok', 'Apply' and 'Cancel' buttons are provided. 'Ok' will accept the current changes and close the dialog. 'Apply' will accept the current changes but leave the dialog displayed. 'Cancel' will close the dialog and discard any changes made since the last 'Ok' or 'Apply'.

The are two sets of parameters that can be displayed in this dialog box, one for DSM logs, and another for OBDII logs. The parameter set displayed will match the currently loaded log file. If no log file is currently loaded, it will display the parameter set matching the last log file loaded.

Graph

This option displays a dialog box that allows you to configure various aspects of the graph layout. There are three configuration categories, 'Options', 'Scaling' and 'Colors'. As with the Parameter Configuration dialog, 'Ok', 'Apply' and 'Cancel' buttons are provided.

• Legends enabled - Toggles the display of legends on and off. Legends are displayed immediately above a graph, showing the color for each parameter, and the value of the parameter at the currently selected time sample.

• Second marks enabled – Toggles the display of second markers on the graph x-axis.

• Sample cursor enabled – Toggles the display of the sample cursor – a vertical line drawn on the graph at the location of the last mouse click.

• Timeline at bottom - This toggles display of the 'timeline' slider (used to scroll through the samples) from the bottom to the top of the current window.

• Time/Pixel Ratio - This provides the time (X-axis) scale for plotting the parameter graphs. All parameters use the same time scale, measured in pixels per second. Increasing this value will 'stretch out' the graph, decreasing it will compress the graph.

• Graph height - This specifies the height of each graph, in pixels. When the main window is resized, the graph height remains unchanged. Changing this value is the only way of adjusting the graph height.

• Graph width - This specifies the width of the graph, in pixels. This value is updated whenever you resize the window.

• Graph background - This gives the color to use as the background for the graphs.

• Graph axes - This gives the color used to draw the graph axes.

• Legend text - This gives the color used for text in legends.

Save

This option allows you to save the current configuration. All parameter and graph configuration, as well as the current number of graphs and display parameters, will be saved. The next time the application is run, these saved values will be restored.

The configuration options are saved in a file called PlViewer.conf, in the current working directory.

This menu provides three options, 'New Graph', 'Legend' and 'Data'. All three of these menu options will be disabled unless a log file has been loaded.

New Graph

This command adds a new graph at the bottom of the current window. Initially the graph will be empty. You must add parameters to the graph using the graph pop-up menu (right click over a graph). A graph can be closed from the pop-up menu.

Legend

This option displays a dialog box that shows all the logged parameters, their display colors, and the value at the currently selected time sample.

Data

This option displays a dialog box that shows the raw data in table form. This window can be used for viewing only.

This menu provides a single ‘About’ option that simply displays a dialog box giving the current PlViewer version information.

Once a graph has been created using the Windows->New Graph menu option, the parameters it displays can be configure using the pop-up menu. To display the pop-up menu, right click over the graph itself, then select the 'Parameters' submenu. Parameters can be toggled on/off by clicking on the appropriate parameter name.

By clicking on a graph (or clicking and dragging), PlViewer will display the time value at the selected location, and will update the legends with the parameter values at that time sample.

When printing graphs, PlViewer will automatically scale the graphs horizontally and vertically in equal amounts so that they will fit across the width of the paper. You can use the Print preview option to check the effect of resizing the graphs.

If a minimum or maximum value for a parameter is not configured in the Parameter Configuration dialog (Preferences->Parameters), PlViewer will determine the bounding values from the log data.

Some versions of JRE 1.2.2 have problems when trying to print, or use print preview. This appears to be fixed in version 1.3 on most platforms.

Clicking to the right of the Timeline slider button will cause the graphs to scroll to the right, but clicking on the left of the slider button does not cause the graphs to scroll to the left.

If a log file contains more than one log (i.e. you started, stopped, started again and stopped), it won’t draw correctly. If you absolutely must view the log, you will need to convert it to CSV format and split it two using a text editor.

PlViewer currently does not distinguish between DSM and OBDII CSV format logs. It assumes it is a DSM log and will use the DSM parameter set for scaling and colors.