The principle functions and features of MICAS-X are enumerated on the various web pages in the row of links at the top of this page. The list presented here are some additional features that have been added to MICAS-X to make it more user friendly. Many of these features can be very useful, while others are "bells and whistles" that improve MICAS-X in ways that many people could live without, but which nonetheless help make it a more useful and useable program. In almost all cases, these features will often NOT be included in custom software, since they would require many hours and therefore much expense to implement. Because MICAS-X has a wide user base, such features are affordable to include in it.

 

Time series graphs are critical to many users of MICAS-X, and therefore they have many features that would require significant programming in a custom LabVIEW program.

  • MICAS-X graphs allow any channel to be selected to be graphed. When a new channel is selected, it's history data is presented, not just data from the moment of selection forward. Some programs implement this functionality by buffering all the available channels for long periods of time, but that can quickly become too memory intensive. MICAS-X combines limited channel buffers with data file look-up to provide this history without impacting performance.

  • Graphs in LabVIEW have many options available by right-clicking, but these right-click menus can be quite confusing for a non-programmer. MICAS-X graphs bring the most common of these features out directly to the user interface. These include: Manual vs Auto-Scaling for Y axes, optional dots on each point, and X axis scaling and zooming options.

  • The X (time) axis of MICAS-X graphs have numerous zoom modes, including auto-scaling in only one direction - e.g. graphing data from a particular point in time forward including all new data.

  • Manual Y axis limits for each channel in MICAS-X are saved, both across multiple graphs and displays, and across multiple runs of the program. Any time a channel is set to Manual scaling, it remembers the last manual scaling values it had associated with it. This makes manual scaling of graph data significantly easier.

Many other areas of MICAS-X have "extra" features as well.

  • Configuration files for MICAS-X have a CRC checksum in them. This allows MICAS-X to automatically detect corrupt configuration files as well as configuration files that have been edited by hand in a text editor.

  • MICAS-X includes substantial written documentation, something that is very often lacking in custom-written LabVIEW programs.

  • Templates, examples, and instructions are provided showing how to create custom modules, including Calculations, Driver, Displays, Instruments, and Utilities.

  • The position of the MICAS-X window and any Displays that are configured to run Outside of the MICAS-X main window are remembered from one run to the next.

  • Menu options and commands are available that create a .png or .jpg screenshot image file of any MICAS-X display.

  • A mechanism for sending feedback about MICAS-X via the internet is available in the Help menu.

  • An automatic bug report mechanism is available which sends log entries (including errors), configuration information, and more to Original Code Consulting via the internet.

  • Sleep mode for the computer running MICAS-X is automatically suspended when MICAS-X runs. When MICAS-X stops, the sleep mode is restored to its previous setting.

  • The configuration editor for MICAS-X uses a fully graphical interface.

  • Configuration editor screens for Drivers that use serial ports can list the ports available on the current computer.

  • Configuration editor screens for Drivers that use National Instruments Daq hardware list the Daq hardware modules detected on the current computer, as well as how many channels each has.

  • A menu item allows easy access to the data folder in Windows Explorer.

  • Password enabled security is available per tab, for each of the eight options at the top of the screen, and for the configuration file.

  • MICAS-X seamlessly integrates Windows systems with NI's Real-Time systems, including automatic data archiving from RT to Windows and automatic disk space management on RT.

  • The Equations Driver allows one to easily create new channels based on values of existing channels and a rich syntax of formulas. The supported syntax goes beyond what National Instruments included directly in LabVIEW, with additional custom functions.

  • The Expressions Driver is even more powerful than the Equations Driver, and is built on the Expression Parser from G Power.

  • Numerous flexible licensing options are available, including source code vs executable, full functionality vs limited, limited time (expiration date), and a student edition.