docs: add documentation for the DAC plugin.

Signed-off-by: AlexandraTrifan <[email protected]>

docs/plugins/dac/dac.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
+.. _dac:
+
+DAC plugin
+================================================================================
+
+The DAC plugin is used to interface with IIO DACs that implement the IIO buffer
+mechanism or a DDS mechanism. The plugin consists of an instrument with two
+data generation modes.
+
+The plugin is compatible with contexts that have at least one IIO device that 
+implements an output IIO buffer or at least one DDS (ALTVOLTAGE) output channel.
+
+Both generation modes feature a few common items in their layout.
+
+1. Tutorial button
+
+ The top left side information button will start a quick tutorial for basic
+ usage of the instrument.
+
+2. Right side menu
+
+ The right side menu is controlled by device or channel buttons. If only one
+ DAC device is detected in the current context, its button will be available
+ at the bottom of the instrument. If more DACs are detected, a left side
+ device list will appear allowing the user to control which is the active
+ and visible one at the moment. All device buttons can control the right 
+ side menu and all their IIO attributes are displayed in there.
+
+ All the buffer capable channels of an IIO device are also capable to control
+ the right side menu. More on these channel buttons can be found below in 
+ the buffer mode section.
+
+
+Buffer mode
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+.. image:: https://github.com/analogdevicesinc/scopy/blob/doc_resources/resources/dac/dac-buffer.png?raw=true
+   :align: center
+
+If the IIO device implements a IIO buffer mechanism, this mode will be active 
+and visible by default.
+Find all the sections of the instrument described below.
+
+1. Dac Buffer Settings
+
+ Browse and choose a .CSV file containing the channel data you want the 
+ DAC to output. 
+ Use the "Load" button to check and parse the provided file.
+ The file is interpreted as one column per channel so make sure to structure
+ your file accordingly. The file should not contain any comments or header 
+ data as loading will fail.
+
+ If loading is successful the "File Size" will be populated with the parsed 
+ file size and a new section will appear below.
+
+ .. note::
+    Only CSV (Comma separated values) accepted for now.
+
+2. Channels
+
+ List of detected IIO channels that are buffer capable. These can be 
+ enabled or disabled using their left side check.
+
+3. Cyclic
+
+ Choose whether to push a cyclic IIO buffer or stream non-cyclic buffers.
+ If disabled, a new section containing "Buffer size" and "Kernel buffers"
+ will appear.
+
+ By default it is set to true.
+
+4. File Size
+
+ The size of the loaded file. It is populated once loading is successful
+ and can be changed to a lower value, truncating the data loaded from file.
+
+5. Run Button
+
+ Start output generation on the currently enabled channels. If anything 
+ is invalid in the setup it will appear in the bottom "Console Log" once 
+ the Run Button is pressed. 
+
+ Some scenarios might be:
+  - no channels are enabled
+  - there are more enabled channels than data available in the file
+  - errors appeared while trying to configure the IIO Buffer
+  - the combined enabled channels are not compatible (for I/Q channels)
+
+6. Data Configuration
+
+ This section allows the user to scale the data before output.
+
+7. Console Log
+
+ All errors or status messages are displayed here.
+
+8. File Configuration
+
+ This section is visible only when the buffer is non-cyclic. It contains a 
+ control for buffer size and one for kernel buffers. Both are automatically
+ computed and populated when the file size changes.
+ The buffer size can be in range [16, file size] while the kernel buffers
+ can be in range [1, 64].
+
+
+DDS mode
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+.. image:: https://github.com/analogdevicesinc/scopy/blob/doc_resources/resources/dac/dac-dds.png?raw=true
+   :align: center
+
+If the IIO Context contains an IIO Device with DDS capable channels, this
+mode will become available and will provide an automatically scanned structure
+for available TX channels with I/Q corresponding channels.
+
+1. TX header section
+
+ This section contains the name of the TX. It can be TX1..TXn or it can be just 
+ the index. This is determined based on the detected channels, whether 
+ I/Q channels or just simple tx channels are found.
+
+ The next area in this section is the DDS MODE selector. The options available are:
+  - disabled
+  - one tone
+  - two tones
+  - independent I/Q control
+
+ The last item of this section is the Read button which will refresh the values
+ of all attributes below.
+
+2. Tone area
+
+ Based on the selected DDS MODE the layout of this area will change, having 
+ visible only the number of tones selected in the previously mentioned
+ selector.
+
+ Each tone has three modifiable attributes for "frequency", "phase" and "scale".
+
+ .. note::
+   For scale, "-Inf dB" is equivalent with scale=0 or a disabled channel.

docs/plugins/index.rst

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ General IIO plugins
 
 * :ref:`ADC Plugin <adc>`
 
-* DAC plugin
+* :ref:`DAC plugin <dac>`
 
 * :ref:`Datalogger <datalogger>`
 
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ Contents
    :maxdepth: 3
 
    adc/adc
+   dac/dac
    datalogger/datalogger
    debugger/index
    registermap/registermap