I need to count intermittent high speed pulses from an outside source with cFP-CTR-502 and labview.

[tinfish]

I need to count intermittent high speed pulses from an outside source with cFP-CTR-502 and Labview 8.2 . I've found example code for generating pulses and creating intricate count setups but no straightforward examples of a simple counter. Any suggestions?

[Charlie S.]

Hello tinfish,

I could not find a simple example that implements simple counting either, but it should be straightforward enough for us to try. Do you have the CTR module configured properly in MAX? If so, can you monitor the channels on your CTR 502 for input? Try connecting a square wave or some other digital pulse to the terminal to test the functionality of the counter module first (before programming). If you monitor the input channels with somethign connected you should see the count increment each time it sees a rising edge (assuming default configuration).

Once you've verified that everything works in MAX, you can set up your CTR module in a LV 8.2 project. If you need help with this, refer to the help document (look in the "Configuring FieldPoint in LabVIEW" section):

C:\Program Files\National Instruments\FieldPoint\documentation\Online Help\fplv.chm

You should be able to just read a channel tag from your CTR 502 using an FP Read VI. (Simply drag the channel from your project onto the block diagram). Since counting is the default behavior of the 502, there is no special programming involved to make it work.

I hope this helps -- if it's too high-level we can talk details about specific questions you have.  Have a good one!