Open source timing software.
Klaus Tickalot said:
Click to expand…
First of all, many thanks to you for your review, and also to the other
participants of this thread.
You are absolutely right that the amplitude is given, and also on the
method to read it. The decision not to show the amplitude in a numerical
format is actually deliberate. In fact, you pointed out quite clearly one
of the reasons that lead me to this decision: let me describe it more in
detail for the rest of the readers. The amplitude, as your figure
demonstrates quite clearly, is determined by the timing of the first pulse
of each tic or toc (relative to the third pulse, and also by the lift
angle, etc.). It happens quite often that this timing is not consistent
between the tics and the tocs, so the tics suggest an amplitude of, for
instance in your case, 300 deg, and the tocs of 280. Some difference is,
actually, almost always there. So what can we say about the amplitude in a
case like this? Honestly, the only correct statement, is that we estimate
the amplitude to be about 280-300 degrees. Any more precise figure, like
293 or something, would be a misrepresentation. This is not a deficiency
of the algorithm: you can check with Audacity, for instance, that the tics
and the tocs are actually different. The data is quite simply not there.
In conclusion, I elected to let the user, with his human brain and his
common sense, do the pattern matching and read the amplitude off the
graphs. That is in keeping with the principle of producing only
information that can be understood and checked, no magic numbers. In
conclusion, for me, it is a feature, not a deficiency.
On the other hand, I started this thread precisely to know your opinions
about this program, so I am very interested to know if you find that this
was a bad choice.
About the reason of the difference, you suggest that it is because the gap
between the pins is too large. I have completely no idea. Maybe sometimes
the actual (as opposed to nominal) lift angle of the tics and the tocs is
slightly different due to manufacturing tolerances, the banking pins being
a little out of symmetry, or some other form of the multifarious
phenomenon known as bad luck. I would love to read the opinion of a
watchmaker.
