Simultaneous analog and digital output, PCI 6711

[sshoham]

Hello all,

I never used the Counter/timer and DIO functionality and was wondering if anyone can help me out. In my application I currently use a PCI 6711, and find myself requiring 2 digital outputs in addition to the 4 analog outputs I already use. The analog outputs run at ~100kHz or faster, and I require that the two digital outputs will generate one pulse each with a temporal accuracy of several microseconds (therefore requiring hardware timing). Is there a way of using the digital outputs or the counter/timers to do this (or are the timers already busy timing the AO)? Is there a way of adding only one fast digital output (will provide partial relief)?

thanks in advance, Shy Shoham

[Filipe A.]

Shy;

You can definitely use both general purpose counters to do that. In case you need two synchronized pulses with the Analog Output channels, you can route the AO Update signal to be the gate of both counters, and to configure those counters to execute a retriggerable pulse generation. That will make both counters to generate a pulse at every event of a AO Update, that is the signal that updates the analog output channels.

Hope this helps.
Filipe A.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[sshoham]

Dear Filipe,

I probably didn't explain my question well. I need a single pulse on each digital channel. The pulse should have a variable delay and a variable length - however they should both be longer than the AO update rate (which I will probably run at 500kHz - I buffer the output waveform for all channels ). Seems to me that you are suggesting a pulse on each update, which is not what I need. Can this also be done using the timers? Aren't they busy timing the AO?

many thanks, Shy