notes.rst

Useful notes

Timestamping

There are two common approaches to register a timestamp to a reading. Either one can rely on a software timer of the master PC --suggested: python:time.perf_counter -- and log a timestamp inside of your ~Worker_DAQ.DAQ_function routine. Or one could rely on a hardware timer build into the I/O device and have this timestamp additionally being send back to the PC together with the other requested readings. In general, the latter is superior in high-speed applications. There are pros and cons to each of these approaches, which is a topic in itself and will not be discussed here.

Increase process priority

Snippet:

import psutil

# Set priority of this process to maximum in the operating system
print("PID: %s\n" % os.getpid())
try:
    proc = psutil.Process(os.getpid())
    if os.name == "nt":  # Windows
        proc.nice(psutil.REALTIME_PRIORITY_CLASS)
    else:                # Other
        proc.nice(-20)
except:
    print("Warning: Could not set process to maximum priority.\n")