CHANNEL

Type: CLASS

Purpose: Generates a new VECTOR.

Each channel in a multiplexed technique has a set of parameters that are unique to the test on that channel. A Channel object is a way to encapsulate these parameters and display or edit them on one line in the setup dialog box.

Usage:

The creation and use of Channel objects can be complex. For this reason, you may want to supplement the discussion here with examination of an Explain™ code script that uses Channel objects. The MUXRPEC.EXP script is a good choice.

There is normally one Channel object created for each multiplexer channel. These Channel objects are normally arranged into an Explain VECTOR. The creation of the Channel objects thus looks something like this:

Channel = VectorNew(8)

i=0

while (i lt 8)

Channel[i] = CHANNEL.New(.......)

i = i + 1

...

If the Channel objects are in a VECTOR, the function call for the Setup() function looks like this:

Setup(

& CHANNEL, ; get channel header

& Channel[0], ; 1st row of channel matrix

& Channel[1],

etc.

Notice that both the CHANNEL class and Channel objects have a Dialog license. This is a unique feature. A group of Channel objects is displayed in the Setup dialog box as a matrix of editable fields. Each row of the matrix is a channel. Each column is a type of field (test ID, Notes…, etc.).

The CHANNEL class appears in the Setup dialog box as a row of column headers. These headers are intended to label the columns in the channel matrix. With the Setup() call above, the column used to enter electrode area has the label “AREA” above the column. The other columns are also labeled according to their function.

The function call syntax for a Channel object that’s in a vector looks like this:

Channel[1].Ident()