Introduction to DataStudio and the 750 Interface
This lab course relies heavily on computers for data acquisition and analysis. One of the tools you will use
is a software package called DataStudio and the accompanying 750 Interface. Measuring devices will be plugged
into the interface, and the software will do most of the work for you. For successful results you need to be familiar
with the interface and the software. This brief introduction will teach you the basics. Then, when you actually use
the software you will become very familiar with what it can do for you.
The 750 interface is the flat, black box on the lab table. It has 7 device inputs labeled 1, 2, 3, 4, A, B, C.
The lab manual will tell you what gets plugged where, so you don’t need to worry about that. If your interface is not
switched on (the small green light on the front left indicates power) then you may need to turn it on or plug it in.
There is a power switch on the back right of the interface. The interface runs off of a special power supply that
should be plugged into the back of the interface and a standard outlet. Please do not turn off or unplug the
interface.
To access the DataStudio program from the lab PC enter the Start menu, go to Programs, then Labware,
then DataStudio. Open the program called “DataStudio”. A screen appears that lets you choose between four
options (see Figure 1): 1) Open Activity. 2) Create Experiment. 3)Enter Data.4)Graph Equation.
You will not need to “Create an Experiment” in DataStudio. This part has already been done for you. The
experiments that have been created for you are also called “Activities”. To open a file for a specific lab exercise,
choose “Open Activity”. If you are already in an activity and you would like to load a different activity, you can do
so directly from the file menu: Choose “open Activity” from it. The program will ask you whether you would like to
save the activity (that you are about to leave). DO NOT SAVE THE ACTIVITY, CHOOSE “NO”. Then choose
the appropriate file that you wish to open and click OK. So far all of these instructions should be self-explanatory to
someone familiar with Windows95.
Once you are in a DataStudio activity you will probably need to collect data. There are two modes in
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which this can be done. One mode is to just “monitor” the data as they enter the computer. In this mode, the data are
not retained but just displayed. In the second mode the data are actually recorded. To “monitor” data, choose
“Monitor Data” from the experiment menu. To collect data choose “Start Data” from the experiment menu(see
Figure 2).
There is also a convenient shortcut for starting the data collection: Just click the “Start” button in the toolbar above
the graphs (see figure 3).
As soon as you hit that “Start” button (or choose “Start Data”) the “Start” button will turn into a “Stop” button.
Notice also the clock to the right of the “Start/Stop” button. It will change color (like a stoplight) depending on
whether data collection is stopped (red), counting down towards data collection in a delayed start (yellow), or
running (green).
Each time you run the data acquisition with the start button, a new data set will be collected. The data sets
are called “run1", “run2", etc and they are color-coded..You can delete runs by choosing either “Delete Last Data
Run” or “Delete All Data Runs” from the experiment menu.
The “monitor mode” displays the data acquisition but does not save the data. As soon as the acquisition
stops the data disappear. The monitor feature is useful to set up or test the equipment without saving meaningless
data or when it is not necessary to save data.
The STOP button stops data acquisition during either mode. Data collected in Start/Stop mode will be
saved, but datacollected in monitor mode will never be saved. STOP can be pressed when you need to end an
experiment before the default run time has expired or if the experiment is not going correctly.
Typically data are either displayed on screen in a graph, on a “scope”, in forms of digits or meters, or in a
table.
If the experiment uses graphs, then you will need to be familiar with DataStudio’s graph options. When
you open a specific activity it should be set up and ready to go with the appropriate graphs. The buttons above the
graphs (see figure 4) are tools for manipulating and analyzing the graphs. Note that not always all of these buttons
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are displayed. The person who created the activity may have opted to omit some of the buttons that are not needed
for the activity. Once you slide the mouse button on top of a button (without clicking), after a second a yellow tag
appears that reminds you of the buttons name/function.
These are the most important buttons from figure 4 in detail:
This is the “scale to fit” button. Clicking on this button will rescale the graphs axes such that the data points fill as
much area of the screen as possible without omitting any data points.
This is the “scale to fit” button. Clicking on this button will rescale the graphs axes such that the data points
fill as much area of the screen as possible without omitting any data points.
The “smart tool” allows you to analyze data point values. Click on the “smart tool” button. Inside the graph
two crossing dashed lines appears with the four corner brackets at the intersection forming a square. Initially this
intersection will not be on any data point. To move it to a data point, place the
cursor in the middle of the square such that the cursor symbol changes into a
hand with two crossing lines. Now press the mouse button down and slide the
square near any data point. Notice how it “snaps” towards a data point as soon
as the square moves over the data point. As soon as it snaps onto the data point,
the data points x,y values
are displayed next to the
square (see figure 5).
You can also use
the smart tool to determine
the coordinate differences
between two data points. Proceed as in the paragraph above.
Once you have snapped the smart tool over the first point and
released the mouse button, move the cursor over the edge of
Once a hand appears with a
small triangle (it is actually the
“Delta” symbol in the Greek
alphabet and is used customarily
in Physics for “difference”) press down the mouse button and drag the cursor to the
location of the
second point
and then release
the mouse
button once it
has snapped
onto that data
point. Figure 6
illustrates how
your graph
should look like.
You can read off
the coordinates
of the first data
point and you
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can read off the x and y differences of the second data point relative to the first data point.
Once you click on the “Fit” button you are given a
number of choices as shown in Figure 7. As the name
suggests, this button allows you to fit mathematical
functions to your graph data. Suppose you would like
to perform a quadratic fit on your graph data. Simply
select “Quadratic Fit” from the menu and the fitted
curve will appear together with your data in the graph.
The curve fit parameters are also displayed in a box as
shown in Figure 8. You may move that box with the
cursor if it obstructs the view of the data.
If you would rather just fit a few of you data points (a
subset of your data), you can do so with the
help of the cursor. You can select the data points that
you wish to fit by clicking down the mouse button
inside the graph and, while keeping the mouse button depressed, dragging the cursor diagonally
across the screen. Notice how a box is drawn. Any point that is inside the box is being
highlighted. as soon as you release the mouse button. Simultaneously the curve fit will only be
performed on the selected subset of data as shown in Figure 9.
The statistics button is indicated by the Greek symbol  (Sigma). Next to the 
there is a small triangle. When you click down on this triangle, a list is displayed.
You can check per mouse click which statistics functions you would like to have
performed. For example, in Figure
10 the Minimum, Maximum,
Mean, and Standard Deviation are
selected. However, in order to
display the results of these
calculations, you need to click on
the  - symbol itself. It will change
slightly in appearance then (looking as if it was a button that is “pushed in”). Similarly you can undo the display
again by clicking again on the  .
The results of these calculations are then displayed in the legend box of your graph (Figure 11). In addition,
similar to the “fit” function, you can “highlight” again a region of data points and have the statistics performed only
on the selected points.
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Rescaling your graph without using the “scale-to fit” button:
Another method to change the scale of the x-axis is to position the cursor over any number on the x-axis until the
cursor symbol changes to this symbol:
Once you see this symbol, click down and hold the mouse button while sliding the cursor left or right for expanding
and contracting the x scale.
You can proceed similar for the y-axis, except that the cursor symbol will change to:
In order to shift the origin of your graph, position the cursor over either the x or y axis until the cursor symbol
changes to a hand:
Click and hold the mouse button and move the cursor to the left, right, up, or down to reposition the origin of the
graph.
These features described here are just a few (but the most important) offered by DataStudio. Other features will be
described in individual experiments on a “need-to-know” basis. Your TA should also be familiar with the software
and you should ask for help when in doubt.
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