Amplitude Modulated Burst?

[shm student]

Hi,

I am trying to get a Amplitude Modulated Burst by using Labview to control the Agilent 33120A. I am using the labview example Agilent 33XXX Series Generate Modulated Waveform.vi. With this I am able to generate a hanning signal. But I am looking to receive one burst instead of the continuation that I am currently receiving.

[Dan_N]

Hello,

I looked at the example that you are referring to, and I believe that you need to configure the Configure Modulation VI on the block diagram to Burst mode. To do so, you need to change the drop down menu underneath the Configure Modulation VI to "Modulation (Burst)." At this point, you will then need to rewire all of the inputs to your Configure Modulation VI in order to obtain the desired burst settings, as the input parameters will have changed. The manual for the 33120A and the context help for the Modulation VI in LabVIEW should be useful for you in configuring the Burst modulation VI. Please post back if you have further questions.

Best,

Dan N

Applications Engineer

National Instruments 

[shm student]

Thank you for you reply.

We have tried what you suggested. When we put in the Modulation Burst we do get a burst but not Amplitude modulated. We did try using both Modulation Amplitude and Modulation Burst together, but we are still not able to generate an amplitude modulated burst.

[Dan_N]

Hello,

I checked the user manual for the Agilent 33120A, linked here:http://mntl.illinois.edu/equipment/docs/agilent33120auserguide.pdf, and it seems that it cannot perform both Amplitude modulation and Burst modulation at the same time. Specifically, page 88 says "Only one modulation mode can be enabled at a time. When you enable the burst mode, the previous modulation mode is turned off." I am not familiar with the 33120A, but it seems to me, then, that it may not be able to create an Amplitude Modulated Burst. You may want to contact Agilent to confirm this. As a workaround, you may be able to configure your VI to only output an Amplitude Modulated signal for a short burst of time, possibly by configuring the VI to create an Amplitude Modulated signal, and then toggling the Enable Output VI back to false after the amount of time that you want to generate your burst has elapsed. 

I believe that wiring the Amplitude and Burst modulation VIs together should not work, since it seems to be a situation where you use one VI or the other. 

Best,

Dan N

Applications Engineer

National Instruments