Using Clisp Studio Part 3–Getting the best performance from Clisp Studio

Welcome to part 3 of our Clisp Studio user guide. To get the best performance from our advanced software you must become familiar with all the facilities in Clisp Studio to help your testing run smoothly.

How Do You Turn off Power Saving Settings?

One common problem encountered by Clisp Studio users is that a test terminates prematurely because of the power saving settings that are set up on their PC or laptop. Therefore it is important to turn off Power Saving Settings to avoid premature Test termination and loss of data.

Click on the ‘Start’ button and then select ‘Control Panel’ from the pop-up menu.

In the displayed ‘Control Panel’ window, select the section heading ‘Hardware and Sound’.

In the ‘Power Options’ section of the resultant window, select ‘Change power-saving settings’.

In the resultant window, select ‘Power saver’ as the Preferred Plan and then click on ‘Change Plan Settings’.

In the resultant window, ensure that the ‘Put the Computer to sleep’ option is set to ‘Never’ and then click on ‘Save changes’ if available. (Note that this option to turn off the computer may have been disabled by the System Administrator and not be selectable – in which case the System Administrator will need to be contacted). Close all windows.

How Do You Save the ‘Windows’ Event Log?

If a serious problem is encountered during Testing and assistance is required from VJ Tech, it is important to send as much diagnostic information as possible to simplify fault finding.

As well as any error messages displayed by Clisp Studio, ‘Windows’ has the facility to save the event log which records important actions up to the time of the problem. Click on the ‘Start’ button and then select ‘Control Panel’ from the pop-up menu.

In the displayed ‘Control Panel’ window, select the section heading ‘System and Security’.

In the ‘Administrative Tools’ section of the resultant window, select ‘View Event Logs’.

In the resultant window, click on the Expand arrow for ‘Applications and Services Logs’ and select ‘Clisp.Events.Log‘ from the list presented. To save the required data, select ‘Save All Events As…’.

In the resultant window, navigate to an area to save the Event File, give it a meaningful name and click on ‘Save’. Before clicking ‘OK’ in the ‘Display Information’ window, select the ‘Display information for these languages’ radio button and check English. Note that the Event File saved will be of file type .evtx for Windows 7 and file type .evt for earlier versions of Windows. Close all windows and then send the Event File to VJ Tech with any other applicable details.

Performance Information

The greater the number of Tests running concurrently, the greater the processor load. If too many Tests are carried out at one time, a large number of software controlling threads will be trying to run, the processor may be unable to cope and data corruption may occur. Knowing the number of software threads running and having a visual indication of their approximate load is extremely useful as it will give an indication of the capabilities of the system configuration in use.

To see the current performance of your machine and the number of threads running, click on the ‘Settings’ option on the main title bar and then select the ‘Performance..’ option.

The Performance Monitor screen is displayed.

This will show the following;

• The Thread Count (with progress bar)
• The GDI (Graphic Device Interface) Resource Count and User Object Count
• The Memory Used and Available
• The GC (Garbage Collection) memory
• The ‘G.C. Collect’ box which if clicked will force garbage collection

Indicator Lights

The top right hand corner of the main screen displays 3 indicator lights;

• Threads
• Comms
• Alarm

Threads

The ‘Threads’ indication light should remain grey in colour. Hovering over it will provide further information.

If it starts flashing red, the load is becoming too much for the processor and one or more Tests should be closed.

Comms

The ‘Comms’ indication light should remain grey in colour. Hovering over it will provide further information.

If it starts flashing red, there is a communications error. Click on the ‘Comms’ indicator light, to display which Instrument(s) has (or have) a problem.

Clicking on the name of the Instrument will display the Instrument’s basic control screen. Expanding the Comms section of the instrument will enable the User to view the set up and rectify the problem.

If this occurs when the system is first started after configuration, it usually means that there is something wrong with the connections; the relevant User Guide should be able to help.

If it occurs during a test, it usually indicates that one of the interfaces has a problem. This could be due a number of different reasons. Check that all cables are intact with the connecting plugs secure and an instrument has not inadvertently been switched off.

Alarm

The ‘Alarm’ indicator light flashes when a variable (s) within CLISP Studio is (are) in an Alarm state.

Click on the ‘Alarm’ indicator light, to display which Variable(s) has (or have) a problem. Clicking on the name of the Variable will allow the User to view the problem. If the problem is not easily rectified, contact VJ Tech for assistance.

Contact Us For Help

For further assistance with Clisp Studio please call +44 (0) 118 945 3737