Counter/Timer

[sugar7]

Hello

I'm trying to get synchronized analog output task and pulse counting of two counters using PCI-6110,

meaning generate an AO signal first then count incoming pulses at two different counters simultaneously.

After searching this forum and testing some methods, (like https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-5779 and https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-11755)

 I thought that this PCI card is not suitable for my purpose.

It seems impossible to trigger the counters in S series DAQ device.

I'd like to know whether this is true or not and

If so, which additional counter should I buy and connect it to PCI-6110 through a RTSI bus cable?

Thank you for your time.

[Eric_NI]

Hi sugar7,

The device user guide states that the digital trigger can be used in with the counter. Are you getting an error when trying to do it? What is the behavior? Have you tried the shipping examples that come with LabVIEW? What is your goal?

Eric NI

[sugar7]

Hello Eric

This is for a photon counting setup and I'd like to send AO signals first to my device and then count pulses from two independent photon counters simultaneously. So I tried to use use aoStartTrigger as a trigger for these tasks, but it didn't work well.

I haven't tried a digital trigger. Do you suggest any tricks to use AO as a digital trigger?

A test vi file is attached, but I guess this cannot do what I think.

Thank you for your kind support.

[Tunde_S]

Hi sugar7,

In order to synchronize the three tasks, we need to share the clock and trigger. It looks like you are trying to accomplish the same task that is discussed at the forum thread, here. Have you tried configuring your task as John P. did at that thread?

[sugar7]

Hello

Thank you for your reply.

Though I didn't notice this thread, I tried to set property nodes in my test vi to synchronize AO and counter tasks.

I just got an error 200452 occured at property node saying "Specified property is not supported by the device or

is not applicable to the task, property=ArmStart.TrigType".

I guess this is because PCI-6110 doesn't support arm start trigger and have to come up with any other ideas

to synchronize the tasks or buy another DAQ card.

It would be appreciated if you could suggest any other methods or hardware conifguration to newly purchase.

best,

[Kevin_Price]

Yeah, the 6110 is an older board with the 24-bit DAQ-STC counters that don't support arm start triggering for counter input tasks.

One of the newer X-series boards that has AO would offer you a good one-board solution, maybe a basic model like the PCIe-6321?  Other alternatives if you don't have a PCI-express slot available might be an M-series like the 6221 or a dedicated counter/timer board like the 6602.  (I'd avoid the 6601 for 2 buffered counter input tasks -- it only has 1 DMA channel and the other channel will be drastically speed-limited by using interrupts.)

The M-series would also be a one-board solution; the 6602 would require you to add a RTSI ribbon cable between itself and your 6110 for sharing timing signals.

-Kevin P