For a typically large scale deployment of 1000 remote probes, it can take considerable time to collect all of the trace data. For the case of 1000 probes, each with 12 channels, the system needs to setup and acquire 12,000 unique traces in each collection run. It takes 2 seconds to switch the channel and set the desired frequency range, reference level and trace mode, wait for the sweep to complete, and then retrieve the data. With this setup, we need 24,000 seconds to complete the entire acquisition run. That is almost 7 hours if each is done sequentially.

For this reason, Vision Acquire uses multiple processor threads so it can simultaneously talk to multiple remote probes at once. For 24 threads, the total acquisition time is approximately 20 minutes. You can set up to 64 threads; however, the optimal number depends on the speed and processor count of the server running Vision Acquire. The time to collect from each channel may be different than the two seconds used in the example above. It will take longer if you are using Min Hold or some other form of trace math, and also longer if the network connection between the server and the remote probes has a lot of lag time.

You will need to adjust the acquisition interval and thread count to get optimal performance on your server and network setup. If the data collection run takes longer than the set time, then the next run starts approximately 3 seconds after the previous is completed. The next acquisition run will not launch in competition with one that has not completed.