Flashback is one of the most powerful features in LeCroy’s LabNotebook documentation tool. Not only does LabNotebook save a report of a user selected test, it also can store the acquired waveforms and oscilloscope setup. If you find yourself in the position of having not taken a specific measurement during the test, with Flashback you can recall the data and make additional measurements.

Figure 1 shows the LabNotebook dialog box. The Flashback button will recall the oscilloscope setup and all traces stored at the time the LabNotebook entry was created.

Figure 1:

The Flashback button in the LabNotebook dialog box is used to recall traces and setups from the LabNotebook Database.

In Figure 2 we see a typical result of using flashback. Waveforms are recalled into the original source trace and the acquisition mode is switched to stop. The oscilloscope setup is also recalled so the entire state of the scope is returned to the way it was when the LabNotebook entry was created.

Figure 2:

The result of pressing the Flashback button.

If you need to process or analyze data from multiple acquisitions you can combine LabNotebook with sequence mode acquisition. Sequence mode segments the acquisition memory and saves multiple acquisitions in the memory. If you store sequence mode data using LabNotebook multiple acquisitions can be recalled using flashback. This allows the user to use analysis techniques like persistence displays and histograms which show the history of multiple waveforms.

Figure 3 shows an overshoot measurement being made on 20 segments of a sequence mode acquisition recalled using Flashback. The multiple acquisitions are displayed individually using the mosaic display mode for sequence waveforms.

Figure 3:

Overshoot being measured on a Flashback of a 20 segment sequence mode acquisition

The same technique can be applied if you need to view persistence displays of multiple acquisitions from a recalled waveform. This is shown in Figure 4. In this example 1000 segments of a trace exhibiting some metestability were acquired and saved in a LabNotebook entry. After a Flashback recall the sequence mode trace was displayed in color persistence mode to show a waveform history over the full 1000 acquisitions.

Figure 4:

Persistence displays of multiple acquisitions from a recalled waveform

Flashback is a unique tool within LabNotebook that gives you an easy way to store multiple waveforms and setups with a single button push. This data can be shared with multiple users or archived for later analysis.

LabNotebook is standard with all WaveMaster®, SDA, DDA, WavePro®, and WaveRunner® Xi, MXi, and 6000 Series digital oscilloscopes. It is also available on the WaveSurfer MXs series oscilloscopes.