Executing NI RFSA and RFSG combined using PXIe-5646

[spramanik]

To whom it may concern, 

I'm trying to run a NI-RFSA example program called "RFSA Synchronization with TClk and RFSG.vi". I'm trying to synchronize it to run with the NI PXIe-5646R.  Most of the settings were already pre-programmed when I started looking at the program. I only changed the RFSA Clock Export Terminal to "RefOut". When I start to run the program, I'm getting an error window saying "Error 1 occurred at Refnum to Session in niRFSA Get Session Reference.vi:1940001 -> RFSA Synchronization with TClk and RFSG.vi." The possible reason stated that the "An input parameter is invalid." It further stated, "Command requires GPIB Controller to be Controller-in-Charge." I even tried to change the clock and reference settings to synchronize with the device and it still doesn't work. I'm running this on the 2015 Version of LabVIEW (32 bit) and the VST device works well when executing RFSA-Only/RFSG-Only examples on LabVIEW. Please let me know why this program cannot run on the PXIe-5646 device. Any suggestions are appreciated. 

[JMota]

The PXIe-5646 does not support TClk for synchronization. Here is a help topic on the topic of synchronizing multiple 5646s or the generator and analyzer of the same 5646 module.

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/373680F-01/vstdevices/5646_rfsa_gsynchronization/

And depending upon your application requirements, you may be able to get along by just using triggering and not worry about the generator and analyzer being tightly synchronized.

[spramanik]

So I tried to use triggers in the RFSA to RFSG synchronization program. However, I'm still getting the error, "The Session is Invalid." What type of triggers am I supposed to use? Any other suggestions would be helpful. (Start, Reference, etc.) (Also, forgot to mention this in the OP but the PXIe-5646 is connected to a PXIe-1085 chassis which contains a PXIe-8880 Embedded Controller)

[JMota]

You need to NOT be using any of the TClk VIs on the block diagram of the VI. Those VIs are not supported on the type of VST you are using. Use LabVIEW's highlight execution feature to see where the error is coming from if you haven't done that already.

You are probably better of to start by opening an RFSA-only example and then an RFSG-only example and then have them both run at the same time. Once you get that working, then you can combine that code into a single VI and go from there.

[spramanik]

Hi to all, 

That was helpful. I already combined both NI-RFSA and NI-RFSG (Analyzer and Generator). They both worked as expected in the VST. The problem is I have to synchronize it more which is not working yet. Do you know any resources for this? I could find some information on synchronizing NI myDAQ, but not on VST. Any help would be appreciated. 

[Terry_ALE]

You could check the VST1 (5646) FPGA code for how it could be controlled to sync from the Host.  If it is not supported then you could modify the FPGA code.  You need 2015 to do this (but then the bitfile can be called by a newer version of LV).

[JMota]

Is this your first time using RFSA and RFSG? What kind of synchronization do you need? Are you just trying to have an RFSA acquisition start at some point during an RFSG generation?

Assuming you are new to RFSA and RFSG, I suggest you familiarize with the concept of Markers in RFSG. There are a few examples and you can read the RFSG documentation that explains about them. And then familiarize yourself with the Trigger types of RFSA (mainly Start Trigger and Reference Trigger). Once you are familiar with those two concepts, you can route a marker from RFSG to a reference trigger of RFSA.

For many cases that is sufficient. If you need tighter synchronization or synchronization of multiple VSTs, then you will need to do more advanced things. Here are some pointers:

https://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/373680F-01/vstdevices/5646_rfsa_gsynchronization/

https://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/373680F-01/vstdevices/5646_synchronization_freq/

[JÞB]

I am surprised that anybody is still using RFSG or RFSA.

RFmx. That's right RF measurement experience has supplanted both of those verily fly-by-night and poorly written modules

[Terry_ALE]

There's some spectral measurements toolkit functions that don't seem to be in RFmx yet. Generally RFmx is preferred. We use it for LabVIEW FPGA modeling too. 

There's isn't a translation table for compatibility between RFmx and its predecessors. At least I can't find one.