NI-5411 Board, NI-FGEN & Frequency Lists for Sweep Fx

[DonRoth]

I am using an NI-5411 Fx Generator Card with the NI-FGEN driver VIs. I want to generate a swept sine wave from 3.25 to 3.4 MHz with delta frequency of 60 Hz, 2520 frequencies, 325 nanosec duration per frequency step, and a total sweep time of 10 msec. I find that when developing the frequency list, if I specify anything more than 300 frequencies at 50 usec duration per frequency, I will get an error. Is this a limitation of the board and what board specifications allow me to calculate the actual limits for such a frequency sweep?

Thanks,

Don

[drkovrlord]

DonRoth,

According to the help file (NI Signal Generators Help, default path Start Menu » Programs » National Instruments » NI-FGEN » Documentation) under Devices » NI 5411 » Waveform Generation » Frequency Hopping and Sweeping, the maximum frequency hope rate is 333 kHz (3 us), and the maximum number of hops is 512. I am not sure why it is not letting you go down to the idealm numbers, though. Unfortunately, after looking through your specs, it appears even if you getting best case performance, it would still not be sufficient for your application. You may be able to achieve these specs with something like the PXI-5422, the PXI-5421 or a third party device (hope that doesn't get me in trouble with NI!). Best of luck to you!

<-*DrkOvrlord*->