Triggered "highspeed" Data aquisition with cRIO via FPGA?

[MVTStudent]

Hello everybody,

I'm using a cRIO 9074 with various AI and AO Channels. Currently I'm using Scan Interface. I'm aware it's only possible to aquire data at about 1 kHz.

In the future I want to use the FPGA target to reach higher sample rates.

My Setup is a little bit different than examples I already found.

To the background:

The cRIO is my hardware for a laser based particle size sensor. I only need to aquire data, when the host VI from my PC triggers the measurement.

Requirements:

write amount of samples to be measured (eg. 10.000 kSamples/s) from host-PC to FPGA Target

trigger signal from host pc to FPGA Target

Measure data on FPGA Target and send it back to host PC

The application doesn't need to run in "real time" and the trigger signal doesn't have to be precise.

What would be a good method to transfer the measurement data package back to the host-PC?

The application is not time critical.

Is a FIFO a good option or are there simpler solutions?

[GerdW · Accepted solution]

Hi Student,

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@MVTStudent wrote:

The cRIO is my hardware for a laser based particle size sensor. I only need to aquire data, when the host VI from my PC triggers the measurement.

Requirements:

write amount of samples to be measured (eg. 10.000 kSamples/s) from host-PC to FPGA Target

trigger signal from host pc to FPGA Target

Measure data on FPGA Target and send it back to host PC

The application doesn't need to run in "real time" and the trigger signal doesn't have to be precise.

What would be a good method to transfer the measurement data package back to the host-PC?

The application is not time critical.

Is a FIFO a good option or are there simpler solutions?

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• FIFO is a very good option to transfer data from FPGA to the cRIO RT target. (I don't think there is a simpler method to transfer that amount of samples from FPGA to RT.) FIFOs are explained in several example projects!
• Sending data from RT target to your host PC is explained in several example projects coming with the RT/FPGA module in LabVIEW. Basically you need to use some kind of network communication!
• When the trigger signal "doesn't have to be precise" you can also send a command from your host PC to your RT target using a network communication. (Use the same communication channel to send a message with your sample rate setting.)