3.2.3 Initialisation of the hardware

As long as the Hardware Initialisation button on the main toolbar is not pressed the system does not

communicate with the hardware. All commands, which relate to the hardware, are either ignored or disabled. The system is in the Test mode. The initialisation of the hardware attempts to configure the hardware specified in the current hardware configuration. This configuration can be viewed or changed on the Hardware configuration form. The hardware initialisation process also configures the hardware by sending to the hardware all parameters currently defined in the system. If these parameters or settings have not changed since starting the program or reading the last configuration file the hardware settings will be the ones specified in the current configuration file. The hardware configuration is stored in the main system configuration file Lap_sys.ini. This is a text file having a standard Windows initialisation file structure. This file does not need to be modified unless some very general parameters of the hardware have to be changed, e.g., the lowest bias possible to be applied by a specific piece of the hardware or a top sampling rate possible for an acquisition card. These changes have to be consulted with a manufacturer of the given hardware. There are also a few additional setting of the hardware possible to configure in the Lap_sys.ini file (see the following chapter).