User Manual
Slam Stick User Manual
Version No. 2.0
57
Post Processing Slam Stick Recording Files
The Slam Stick Lab offers a Slam Stick user a very easy to use free software tool for simple data
analysis. Its greatest strength is its ability to provide a quick overview of a particular dataset.
There are some limitations with this software package for post processing data recordings.
Midé’s .IDE file format is optimized for efficiency on the device and to describe all the sensor data
that the Slam Stick is capable of recording (at varying time rates and start times). But this
optimization on the device creates some inefficiencies when loading and analyzing the data.
The .IDE file format is based on Extensible Binary Meta Language (EBML), a structured binary
format; recordings are not stored in simple arrays which requires some parsing of recording files
to generate arrays for post processing. Midé offers two command line utilities which parse
through an .IDE recording file to generate more user friendly files with simple sensor arrays.
Midé also offers some example MATLAB scripts and Python scripts for completing this analysis.
is a programing language designed specifically for technical computing and analysis.
MATLAB arguably has a higher processing capability and can generally complete an analysis in
less time than a comparable Python script. But MATLAB costs over $2,000 for a commercial
license (only $150 for a home license). If cost is a concern,
offers an excellent alternative
because it is open source and free! Their
library offers a collection of analysis toolboxes
with similar functionality to MATLAB.
The following sections will go through some examples with the car engine vibration recording
detailed as part of the how-to video series:
http://www.mide.com/pages/slam-stick-how-to-
Command Line Executables for Converting
IDE
Files
These utilities are run from the command line (also called the DOS shell). To begin run the
command prompt from your Start menu by searching for cmd or command prompt.
The command prompt will begin in the default location, typically the Windows user directory in
the C: drive. If the utility is located in another drive, change the drive by entering the drive letter
followed by a colon as shown. Then change the directory by entering cd followed by the folder
location as shown. Some additional basic instructions for entering and using the command line
can be found
raw2mat
– Convert Raw Data in
IDE
to
MAT
The raw2mat utility creates a .MAT file from an .IDE Slam Stick recording file with all raw sensor
data. It is a command line utility with the same functionality built into the Slam Stick Lab under
the tools menu: “Raw Data to .MAT Utility.” Running raw2mat.exe –h will bring up the help menu
as shown below with some more information on its capabilities. This utility offers the user the
most time efficient tool for accessing raw data; but no calibration is applied.
