Enable Trigger

Select the checkbox to enable the trigger system. It can be turned on or off independently of the lower settings. If the trigger system is disabled, the trace is free-running.

Trigger Variable

Assign a variable. Specify which signal will be used as trigger by entering the name (and path) of the signal.

A valid trigger signal is an IEC variable, a property, a reference, a pointer, an array element of the application or an expression. Allowed types are all IEC basic types, except STRING, WSTRING, or ARRAY. Enumerations are also allowed, whose basic type is not a STRING, a WSTRING or an ARRAY. The content of a pointer is not a valid signal. Click the ... button to open the input assistant that allows you to obtain a valid entry.

Controllers that support using device parameters as triggers provide a list if you click the Trigger Variable: parameter. If you want to use a device parameter as trigger, select the item Trigger Parameter from this list. Open the Input Assistant with the ... button and select traceable parameters. Under Elements, the parameters available in the system are listed. You can also type the parameter names directly or by copy and paste (from another configuration) into the text field. Device parameters are only supported if the trace manager is used.

NOTE: If CmpTraceMgr is used for tracing, a Property that is used as a trace (or trigger) variable must get the compiler attribute Attribute Monitoring.

Trigger edge

–

positive

Trigger event on rising edge of the boolean trigger variable. Or as soon as the value defined by Trigger Level for an analog trigger variable is reached by an ascending run.

negative

Trigger event on falling edge of the boolean trigger variable. Or as soon as the value defined by Trigger Level for an analog trigger variable is reached by a descending run.

both

Trigger event on the conditions described for positive and negative.

Post Trigger

Enter a number of records per trace signal, which are recorded after the trigger is fired.

Default value: 50

Range: 0...4,294,967,295

Trigger Level

Enter a value at which point the trigger fires.

With Trigger edge, you can specify whether it fires on a rising or a falling edge of the trigger variable. It must be set if and only if an analog variable (variable with numeric type, such as LREAL or INT) is used as trigger variable.

Directly enter a value. A GVL constant or an ENUM value is allowed if their type is convertible to the trigger variable.

If IEC code is used, then you can also enter an arbitrary IEC expression of a type that is convertible to that of the trigger variable.

Default value: – (empty)

Task

From the list of available tasks, select the one where capturing of the input signals takes place.

Record condition

If you want to start the record by a condition, enter here a variable. If the trace is started before, for example by pressing the start button, and the variable assigned here becomes TRUE, the data capturing is started and the traced graph will be displayed.

If CmpTraceMgr is used, the record condition has to be a variable of type BOOL or of a bit-access. A content of a pointer is not a valid entry. Properties are also supported.

If IEC code is used, an arbitrary IEC expression of type BOOL can also be entered.

Comment

Enter a comment text concerning the present record.

Resolution

Enter a resolution of the trace time stamp in ms or μs.

For each captured signal, pairs of value and time stamp are stored and transmitted to the programming system. The transmitted time stamps are relative and refer to the start of the tracing.

If the trace task has a cycle time of 1 ms or less, use a time stamp with resolution in μs. This option is only possible when a trace manager is available in the controller.

Automatic restart

Set this option if the trace configuration and the last content of the RTS trace buffers is to be stored persistently on the target device.

This option is only possible when a trace manager is tracing in the controller.

Advanced...

Click this button to open the Advanced Trace Settings dialog box. It allows you to set some additional settings for the trace trigger.