Customizable Files

This section goes into detail on various system files that may be interesting from the researcher’s perspective. All of these files can be modified by the user as to add filters and transmit shapes, or change parameter ranges.

Digital RF Filters
There is a file that defines all of the RF filters used by the system called filters.txt which is located in the folder: C:\Program Files\Ultrasonix\Exam\Data\Settings An entry into the file has the following format:

Example:
 * <43>
 * Cardiac1
 * Band-pass filter at 4MHz with 15 taps
 * 15
 * -20 -63 -84 -72 -29 31 81 101 81 31 -29 -72 -84 -63 -20
 * 1

The filters are chosen through the parameters:
 * RF FIR A
 * RF FIR B
 * RF FIR C

Transmit Shapes
There is a file that defines all of the transmit shapes that the system can use called pulses.txt which is located in the folder: C:\Program Files\Ultrasonix\Exam\Data\Settings. An excitation is defined as a series of +,–,0 characters, with the maximum length being 96. Each excitation is placed on a new line. The first line is identified as index 0 from the Pulse A/B/C parameters, the second line is identified as index 1, and so on. Combining similar characters does not bring the signal down, but rather stays high to allow the combination of frequencies. For more information, see Transmit Control.

Element Masking
Element masking allows elements to be turned off or on for transmit and receive. There is a file mask.txt which is located in the folder: C:\Program Files\Ultrasonix\Data\Settings. This file is comprised of lines of 128 0's and 1's which correspond to element on (1) and element off (0). To select a mask from the interface, adjust the 'Element Mask' parameter. When this is set to 0, it will select the first line in the file, setting to 1, selects the second line, and so on. Note that setting the mask affects both transmit and receive, these cannot be adjusted individually at this time.

Parameter Ranges
Most parameters have specific ranges in which they can be adjusted from within the research interface. The range and increment step are taken into consideration when changing a parameter’s value. Take the Depth parameter for example; it may have a range of 2 cm to 10 cm, and an increment value of 1 cm. If the current value of depth is 4 cm, and parameter is incremented, the value will change to 5 cm. If the parameter is continually incremented, it will keep changing by 1 cm until it reaches the maximum value of 10 cm.

The Boundary File
There is a file called boundaries.txt. This file contains all of the parameter ranges and increment steps. Typically, parameters will have boundary entry that is common for the entire system, such as gain, however, there are some parameters that will have boundary entries specific to a probe, such as frequency or depth.

The sections of the file are organized as follows: the entry under the selected probe.
 * $N denotes a section of boundaries specific to a probe, where N will take a value of the probe identifier. When N is $, this refers to the common section, where boundaries are valid for all probes.
 * If a parameter has a boundary in the common section as well as under a section for a probe, the boundary will be always default to

Each section is followed by the boundary entries themselves, the format is organized as follows: [ Section Header ] [ Variable ID ] [ Boundary Text ] [ Variable ID ] [ Boundary Text ] ...

The boundary text format is as follows: [ min ] / [ max ] ( [ increment] ) * [ min ] / [ max ] ( [ increment] )

Examples

An example of real boundary file data:
 * 15
 * -3000/3000(25)
 * 18
 * 0/32 (1)
 * 27
 * 20/2000 (20)
 * 29
 * 1000000/10000000 (500000)
 * 32
 * 64/64 (1) * 128/512 (64)
 * 33
 * 64/64 (1) * 96/96 (1) * 128/128 (1) * 192/192 (1) * 256/256 (1)
 * 64
 * 0/15 (1)
 * 100
 * 0/1 (1)
 * 101
 * 12000/12000(1)*8000/8000(1)*4000/4000(1)
 * 12000/12000(1)*8000/8000(1)*4000/4000(1)