programming multiple PXI-5412 in C

[Ronayn]

Hello,

I am looking for example C code (using NI-FGEN function calls) that shows how to work with multiple PXI-5412 contained in one chassis.  I've been going through the NI-FGEN examples, but haven't found an one that covers this topic.

I have a PXI-1036 chassis, a PXI-8360 MXI express card, and 4 PXI-5412 cards (each has a single channel).  What I am looking to do is create a single application that set these cards, loads in waveform data from file to each, and then generates output from all the cards simultaneously.

I am familiar with the NI-FGEN ArbitraryWaveform example, and have used that as a starting point for my application.

[kirsch]

What you are trying to do, in escence, is program all four signal generators independently, and then start them at once.

• To do this in software, you'd call Initiate on all four, one by one, in a loop. But that will result in some amount lag and software jitter as the devices start one slightly after another.
• You can use hardware triggers. Program all four device to start on a specific trigger and then send that trigger. This will give you pretty good (usually within one sample clock) synchronization across channels.
• For the best possible synchronization, look into NI-TClk API. It gets installed with NI-FGEN and there are examples included. NI-TClk will synchronize and start the devices in a very, very tight manner. You still configure the devices using independent NI-FGEN sessions, but then synchronize and start using NI-TClk.