OCTOPUX HOWTO

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INDEX

• calibration
• cleanup
• pattern

HOW TO CLEAN UP A DIGITAL PATTERN?

• Use (empty-pattern p) or (empty-pattern p t) to clean up everything. The pattern will find itself in its new-born state with no data, no digital channels, no statistics and default settings.
• Use (empty-pattern p nil) to sweep out acquired data only. There will be neither structural nor parametric changes in the pattern.
• Use (config-pattern p :length 0) to clean up both acquired data and the pattern structure. The pattern yet does not loose its digital channels' assignments.

HOW TO CALIBRATE OCTOPUX?

1. Calibrate the linear coefficients of every regular DAC that you plan to use either as a digital stimulus or as a low-power supply:

   (calibrate *dac-alpha-beta* (list ... ... ... ))

   Now you can use DACs as voltage sources.
2. Caibrate the linear coefficients of every power DAC that you plan to use as a high-power supply:

   (calibrate *pdac-alpha-beta* #P...)

   Now you can use PDACs as voltage sources.
3. Calibrate the internal loading resistors of all of the above:

   (calibrate *dac-iload* (list ... ... ... ))
   (calibrate *pdac-iload* #P...)
   

   Now you can use DACs and PDACs as rough current sources.
4. Calibrate the external loading resistors of all channels used for any kind of current supply:

   (calibrate *dac-eload* (list ... ... ... ))
   

   Now you can use your channels as fine current sources. Note that there is no special function to calibrate the external loading resistors of power DACs because they share the resistors with regular DACs. Also keep in mind that the resistance you get includes the resistance of low-pass filters (ca. 25 Ohm).

   At this stage, you can also extract the resistive tree of your chip. Use keys ":cal-tree t" and ":cal-probe-current ..." to ensure the proper tree extraction.

5. Calibrate the linearity limits of all regular DACs that you intend to use for low-power supply:

   (calibrate *dac-limits* (list ... ... ... ))

6. Calibrate the linear parameters of every ADC that will be used for sensing the digital responses from the tested circuit:

   (calibrate *adc-alpha-beta* (list ... ... ... ))

   Now you can run digital patterns.
7. Save the results of the calibrations into a file so that you do not have to carry out the calibrations every time you start Octopux:

   (load "save-calibr")
   (save (list *dac-alpha-beta* ...) "mycalibr.lsp")
   

   Do not name the save file "calibr.lsp"!
8. Add the following to your "init.lsp" file:

   (load "calibr")	  ; to provide a fallback in case 
   		  ; you use a channel that has not 
   		  ; been calibrated
   (load "mycalibr") ; load your real calibrations