Specifies le duration of acquisition / control and the sampling period
It is mandatory to place this block onto the diagram when using any other block of the Arduino toolbox.
It allows to define the duration of the serial communication with the Arduino and the sampling rate used by the blocks.
The serial communication imposes a minimum sampling period of approximately 8 ms (it is not possible to decrease the rate below 4 ms) per block
It should be tested for complex aquisitions that the sampling rate chosen is not too high (sampling period too short). One can test that the acqusition rate is correct: 10 s of acquisition time should take 10 s and not more. If this is not the case, please check the sampling rate.
The duration of aquisitions (positive) must be specified.
The sampling period must be defined taking into account the number of Arduino blocks used.
The example below shows the use of the TIME_SAMPLE block in case of the LED blink program with the TIME_SAMPLE parameter box opened.