ni 5402 sweeping responce time

[steve h]

From TestStand i wish to drive a fast sinewave sweep using the ni5402 F Gen; what is the best way of achieving this?

A typical fast frequency sweep would be 7000Hz to 7500Hz at 3000Hz/sec; would it be best to achive this in a software timed loop or is there another way of doing this using the ni5402?

[ThomasC]

Hi Steve,

Do you have a license for LabVIEW?  If so my suggestion is to write the code for the frequency sweep in LabVIEW then call the code module from TestStand.  If you would like to go down this route I am happy to help you and would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Regards,

Tom Clark

[steve h]

I was hoping to set the sweep & rate using a Ivi Step in TestStand, keeping it simple. Or possible puting the Ivi step within a loop and changing the frequency within TestStand which seems straight forward.

However I do have a license for LabView 7.1 and would welcome any other/better methods.

Another point is that I will also need to monitor the state of a I/O signal whilst the Sig Gen is ramping.

[ThomasC]

Hi Steve,

You may be able to make this work using the IVI drivers but my preffered method would be to call a LabVIEW VI configured to perform the sweep.  LabVIEW 7.1 ships with an appropriate example, you can find it in Hardwear Input and Output >> NI-FGEN(Signal Generators) >> Standard Function Generatior.vi.  This should cut down development time and keep your TestStand sequence simple.

Tom

[steve h]

I looked at the niFGen Function generator & niFGen Sweep generator examples that look good.

However I wish to sweep from one frequency to the next and if a specific I/O device changes state then I need the FGen to stop and hold that frequency and record the frequency. What is the best way of doing this?

[ThomasC]

Hi Steven,

I think you would be best off including a conditional statement that looks out for the I/O device in your code, from there you can use a case structure to carry out subsequent actions.

Regards,

Tom