Manual Sampling with Keyboard Entry

Using DataStudio TIP OF THE MONTH -- December 2003

By default DataStudio automatically records sensor measurements at regular time intervals specified by the sample rate, as shown here with this light intensity data in Figure 1.

This DataStudio tip is about an alternative to automatic sampling, manual sampling. In manual sampling mode, DataStudio records only single data points, and only when you command it to by pressing a Keep button.

While manual sampling by itself is not used frequently, an extension of manual sampling -- manual sampling with keyboard entry --allows you to perform two-variable experiments in which a sensor measures one variable and you measure the other and enter it in via the keyboard. Typically, the keyboard entry is something that you cannot (or at least, cannot easily) measure with a sensor, such as the volume of a liquid released from a buret in a titration.

Figure 1
In our example, we will manually sample four different light intensity data points as we simulate the revolution of the earth around the sun to explore how the tilt of the earth is related to the light intensity the Northern Hemisphere experiences in each of the seasons. We will tell DataStudio when to record each data point after we have placed the earth in a position relative to the sun that corresponds to the one of four seasons of the year. At the time that we keep a data point, we will also associate it, via a keyboard entry, with the approximate calendar date of the earth’s position. The results will be displayed in a table (Figure 2), which will show the relative light intensity the earth receives from the sun at each of the four months of the year in which a new season starts.
Figure 2
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