Rigol DP832: convert the .ROF files (recorded data) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: ElektronikLabor
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2014, 03:53:28 pm
content: Hello,I recorded some data with my DP832 and exportet the .rof file to an USB flash drive. Does anybody know how to convert the .rof file to an .cvs or something else? I would like to use the data with Excel or Matlab.I installed UltraSigma, but I think that's the wrong software for that?Thanks

author: thn788
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2014, 09:57:25 am
content: Rigol unfortunately uses their own proprietary binary file-formats on the DP800-series. Couldn't find any converters, so far, but most file-formats seem to be quite straight-forward and some (including .rof-files) are documented in the attachment below.In particular for .rof-files you can even get along without writing a converter: just strip off the 16-byte header at the beginning, dump everything else as 4-byte values to an ASCII-text-file using your favorite hex-dump tool and then import into Excel/LibreOffice/etc. . Please note that DP800-series at least up to FW 1.09 can't seem to write .rof-files longer than 131072 data samples, though.BTW: The document below is in fact more or less directly from Rigol. They are really helpful when you ask them for further documentation, release notes for Firmware, etc.Hopefully such useful information will be included in future revisions of the User Manuals or Programming Guides directly.

author: ElektronikLabor
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2014, 08:00:07 pm
content: Thanks thn788,I made it now with your help!It's a good solution, although it's a lot of work converting hex to decimal values which can be used with excel.

author: thn788
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2014, 08:54:33 am
content: If you have access to a Linux system (or install cygwin or mingw or something similar under Windows) you can use the command-line tools "dd" to strip off the header and "hexdump" to convert the rest to 4-byte decimal values with arbitrary separator signs. Hexdump can use printf-like strings to specify output formats.I've done this only once some months back, so far. Unfortunately I therefore don't have the proper syntax at hand, but if you have to make such conversations on a regular basis it should be possible to write a simple two- or three-line bash-script to convert .rof-files at least into CSV-format.

author: ElektronikLabor
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2014, 11:48:04 am
content: It's a good hint with the command line in Linux; I will try it out.No, I don't need to make the conversion regularly, only from time to time, I think.How I do it:with HxD I convert the data to HEXimport the file to Excelswap the characters in to the right position with the MID function: instead ofFDC00100I make0001C0FD(conversion from big endian to little endian?)convert to DEC with HEX2DEC funktiondivide the result by 10kI need 1 minute to convert one file. The Excel file is already prepared: if I import the HEX data it will be automaticaly converted into DEC.In the Atachment I added an example:Resistance of an 20W 12V halide lamp vs. Power