Using M Series DAQ Card to Trigger NI 7350 Motion Card via RTSI

[tiffyao2048]

Greetings NI Community,

SYSTEM: I have a PXI-1044 chassis that houses the NI 6250, 6254, and 6220 M Series DAQ cards and the NI 7350 motion controller card.

OBJECTIVE: I want to trigger and collect data from my NI 7350 controller with any of the M Series DAQ cards named above.

PROBLEM: According to NI white papers and manuals, "motion boards such as the 7350 can use RTSI to share high-speed digital signals with data acquisition or digital I/O boards with no external cabling...The RTSI bus also...allows for programmatically routing signals to and from the bus through software. PXI trigger backplanes are automatically registered when you identify your chassis type in MAX and RTSI functions are used with the built-in PXI Trigger Bus." However, despite being identified in MAX, (see screenshot 1), none of the M Series DAQ cards see the 7350 motion controller, so I cannot send a trigger to it (see screenshot 2).

1) Has anyone had any experience using M Series DAQ cards to trigger or acquire data from NI 7350 motion controller cards?

2) Does anyone know how to route the trigger signal through a PXI trigger backplane? Is there some step in configuration or installation that I am missing?

Please see the attached screenshots and some relevant sources of information.

Many thanks,

Tiffany

[Tepig]

Have you already resistered your RTSI cable in MAX as below?

Real-Time System Integration (RTSI) and Configuration Explained

[Kevin_Price]

I think the first biggest hurdle here is to understand that the motion controller board is not a DAQmx device.  It uses its own distinct driver.   That's why the DAQmx terminal constant doesn't reveal anything about the motion controller board.

You can still use DAQmx to route the counter output signal onto the timing backplane of the chassis.  I don't recall exact syntax but think it's something like "PXI_Trig4".   You would then need to explicitly program the motion controller via its driver to designate that "PXI_Trig4" should be used as a sample clock.

When you stay entirely within DAQmx, there are shortcuts that let you just reference signals by their meaning on other DAQmx boards, i.e., "/Dev3/Ctr2InternalOutput".  Then DAQmx handles the needed routing to push a signal onto a PXI trigger line with one task and then pull it in with the other.   But since you're crossing between DAQmx and a motion controller, you need to do the routing more explicitly.

-Kevin P

[tiffyao2048]

Emboar,

Thank you so much for your response. According to the link you sent me, the article explains how to synchronize multiple PCI cards, not PXI cards, and the sources that I found (see links below) say that a physical RTSI cable is only necessary for PCI, but not PXI. In the attached screenshot from the PXI-7350 motion controller manual, you can see that the RTSI Bus Connector on the PXI 7350 just inserts into the PXI backplane, and only the PCI 7350 has the RTSI Bus Connector for the cable. 

Motion Synchronization of RTSI

Many thanks,

Tiffany

[tiffyao2048]

Hey Kevin P,

Thank you so much for the informative response. I have tried routing the counter output signal onto the backplane using the PXI Trigger lines. In the screenshot "DAQmx_Trigger_PXI_TrigX", you can see that I have selected "PXI_Trig4" to be my sample clock.

On the PXI 7350 motion board side, I am using one of NI's example programs for reading external inputs/triggers. In screenshot "RTSI_PXI7350", you could see that I have chosen RTSI 4 to be my source. However, when I run the "RTSI_PXI7350" to wait for a trigger, and then I run the "DAQmx_Trigger_PXI_TrigX" VI, both VIs execute without error, but the 7350 never receives the trigger.

1) Are the PXI Trigger lines "/PXI1SlotX/PXI_Trig<0-7>" the same as the bus lines "RTSI<0-7>?

2) How do I route my trigger to the motion controller explicitly?

Many thanks,

Tiffany

[Kevin_Price]

1.  To the best of my knowledge, the *terminology* for "...PXI_Trig4" or "RTSI4" are not interchangeable.  Functionally, they can be used in the same kind of way to accomplish the same kind of thing, but I've only ever known to use "RTSI" names for desktop boards (PCIe, PCI, even some ISA) and "PXI_Trig" names on a PXI chassis.

2. The DAQmx side looks correct to me where you export the counter output signal onto PXI_Trig4.  I do not know the motion controller driver to offer detailed help.  I would hope there's an option to designate PXI_Trig4, but I would otherwise have probably tried RTSI4 like you did, hoping the driver would translate.

-Kevin P

[Tepig]

Im sorry, I had a misunderstandingi...

[tiffyao2048]

Kevin P,

There was no option to designate PXI_Trig4 on the 7350 motion card side. I am still trying to find sufficient NI Motion resources on the 7350 that are specific enough to address my issue. Thank you for your feedback nonetheless. I will keep digging.

Tiffany

[tiffyao2048]

Emboar,

It's okay. Thanks for trying to help. I do appreciate it.

Tiffany