Just wanted to share this with everyone.
I've attached the "output" folder that the NI instrument creates for each test session. In the results file you'll see a text doc called results.txt that lists the comma delimited parameters that get measured followed by the measurements themselves:
Current Cycle Average,Current Cycle RMS,Current Mean (DC),Current Negative Peak,Current Peak to Peak,Current Positive Peak,Current RMS,Volt Cycle Average,Volt Cycle RMS,Volt Mean (DC),Volt Negative Peak,Volt Peak to Peak,Volt Positive Peak,Volt RMS
See:
https://docs.google.com/a/linaro.org/file/d/0B3pUtxWjZbP9bFhqNGZfYzNSMWs/edi...
Included in each record is a Record Number that indexes into the "report directory." Each directory is marked with an index and under that directory is the graph associated with the data for example:
https://docs.google.com/a/linaro.org/file/d/0B3pUtxWjZbP9VnVQS3M4WWx1OVk/edi...
In addition, controlling the instrument is super easy. You connect to the box over TCP/IP the you can send 5 single character commands in any order: 1,0,s,e,r
1 turns the power on 0 turns it off s starts a measurement e ends a measurement r records
r is destructive, so if you send an r it erase the previous data record. The data record does survive instrument restarts (as opposed to having an implicit r at the start of the measurement.
At any point the existing data set can simply be uploaded.
One minor point. This instrument produces a lot of data, instead of moving all this data around, the instrument can be configured to do all the measurement, making the analyzed data set easier to understand and faster to upload.
Comments and questions welcome.
See it in action at: https://plus.google.com/u/0/104422661029399872488/posts/NU4pZ36L13U