Time out even though a measurement is made for pulse width

[VicL]

CT,

I need to fix a typo in my response.  It wasn't 1 sample per SECOND or 2 samples per SECOND.  It was 1 sample per CHANNEL and 2 samples per CHANNEL.  Setting the timing to Implicit/Finite with 2 samples per CHANNEL gave me a pulse width reading without the timeout error.

[Kevin_Price]

To VicL:

Welcome to the hardware forums.  Good job finding a workaround, let me help you out with a little more explanation about some things.

1. The best way to take 1 single measurement with DAQmx is to *never* call DAQmx Timing at all.  DAQmx Timing is used to reserve a buffer and set up a sample interval clock, neither of which is particularly useful if you're only taking one measurement.

2. As you found, DAQmx insists that if you *do* set up a buffered task, the buffer size needs to be at least 2.  This is a subtle hint at the same thing -- if you don't want to take at least 2 measurements then you also shouldn't be calling DAQmx Timing to configure a buffer and sample clock.

3. As you also found, when you *do* set up a finite task for 2 measurements, you're  still allowed to read only the 1st one.  Not typical, but it is allowed.

Go ahead and give it a try.  Take out the call to DAQmx Timing entirely and you should see that it works just fine that way too.

-Kevin P

[VicL]

Kevin P,

Thanks for your reply.  I had started my code without the DAQmx Timing VI and was getting the timeout error.  I tried implementing delays before and after starting the task.  I setup my hardware to send two pulses.  The two pulses would complete and then the timeout duration would finish running and I would get the error.  Nothing would get rid of the timeout error.  I even updated the DAQmx drivers with no change in results.  Then in my "Google" search I found this post, but still no resolution.  Only when I added the DAQmx Timing VI requesting 2 samples per channel did the timeout error disappear and the measurement worked as expected.  

Thanks again,

VicL

[Kevin_Price]

To keep things clear for others who may come across this thread:

- what DAQ device were you using that gave you timeout errors whenever you didn't include the 2-sample DAQmx Timing call?    The shipping example "Counter - Read Pulse Width and Frequency (On Demand).vi" works fine for me with an X-series 6321 board.

- Can you post the code that produced timeout errors?  It'll be helpful to back-save to, say, LabVIEW 2016

- How did you manage the timing between when you requested the on-demand measurement vs. when the pulse(s) were actually generated?

-Kevin P