Instruction/ maintenance manual of the product NI 5401 National Instruments
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Computer-Based Instruments NI 5401 User Manual PXI /PCI Arbitrary Function Generator NI 5401 User Manual ™ March 1999 Edition Part Number 3224 19A-01.
Worldwide Technical Support and Product Info rmation www.natinst.com National Instruments Corporate Headquarters 11500 North Mopac Expressway Austin, Texas 78759-3504 USA Tel: 512 794 0100 Worldwide O.
Important Information Warranty The NI 5401 is warrant ed against defects in mat erials and workmanshi p for a period of one year from th e date of shipment, as evidenced by receipts or other documentati on. National Instruments wi ll, at its option, repair or replace equipment that proves to be defect ive d uring th e warranty p e riod.
Conventions The following con ventions are used in this manual: » The » symbol lead s you through nested menu items and dialog box options to a final action. The sequence File»Page Setup»Options directs you to pull down the File menu, select the Page Setup item, and select Options from the last dialog box.
© National Instruments Corporation v NI 5401 User Manual Contents Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 About Your NI 5401 ............. ........... .............. .............. ............... .............. .............. ....... 1-1 Connecting Signals .
Contents NI 5401 User Manual vi www.natinst.com SYNC Output and Duty Cycle ........................ ........... .............. .............. ......... 2-9 Output Attenuation ................ ... .............. ........... ... .............. .........
Contents © National Instruments Corporation vii NI 5401 User Manual Figure 2-1. NI 5401 Blo ck Diagram ........................................................................ 2-1 Figure 2-2. Waveform Data Path Block Diagram..........................
© National Instruments Corporation 1-1 NI 5401 User Manual 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 The NI 5401 User Manual describes the features, functions, and operation of the NI 5401 arbitrary function generator. This device performs comparably to stan dalone instruments w hile providing the flexibility of computer-based operation.
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 NI 5401 User Manual 1-2 www .natinst.com Connecting Signals Figure 1 -1 sho ws the front panels for the NI 5401 for the PXI and PCI buses. The front panel contains three types of connectors: BNC, SMB, and 50-pin very high-density SCSI (VHDSCSI).
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 © National Instruments Corporation 1-3 NI 5401 User Manual ARB Connector The ARB connector provides the wa veform output. The maximum output lev els on this connector depend on the type of load termination.
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 NI 5401 User Manual 1-4 www .natinst.com sine wave being generated and t w is the pulse width of the SYNC output. The duty cycle is (t w /t p ) × 100%. Figure 1-3. SYNC Output and Duty Cycle For your NI 5401 for PCI, you can route the SYN C output to the R TSI lines ov er the R TSI bus.
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 © National Instruments Corporation 1-5 NI 5401 User Manual Pattern Out Connector (PCI Only) This connector is used on the NI 5401 for PCI to supply the external trigger input to the b oard. Connector Pin Assignments Figure 1 -4 shows the NI 5401 50-pin digital con nector.
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 NI 5401 User Manual 1-6 www .natinst.com Signal Descriptions Table 1-1 shows the pin names and signal descriptions used on the NI 5401 digital output connector. SHC50-68 50-Pin Cable Connector You can use an option al SHC50-68 50-pin to 68-pin cable for external trigger input.
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 © National Instruments Corporation 1-7 NI 5401 User Manual Figure 1-5. SHC50-68 68-Pin Connector Pin Assignments 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16.
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 NI 5401 User Manual 1-8 www .natinst.com Software Options for Y our NI 5401 This section describes the NI-FGEN driver software and development tools that you can use to create application software for your N I 5401.
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 © National Instruments Corporation 1-9 NI 5401 User Manual Wav eform Editor You use the Waveform Editor to create, sketch, and edit complex waveforms that the VirtualBench-FG player can then generate.
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 NI 5401 User Manual 1-10 www .natinst.com as C, includin g looping and case structures, configuration management tools, and compiled performance. Note Use the NI-FGEN instrument driv er to program and control your NI 5401 using LabVIEW .
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 © National Instruments Corporation 1-11 NI 5401 User Manual Using the Soft Front Panels to Generate W aveforms You use the VirtualBench soft front panels to interactively control your NI 5401 as you would a desktop func tio n generator.
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 NI 5401 User Manual 1-12 www .natinst.com T o control ad ditional instrument parameters, select Edit»54xx Settings to bring up the dialog box shown in Figures 1-7 and 1-8. Figure 1-7. VirtualBench-FG General Settings Dialog Box for the NI 5401 Figure 1-8.
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 © National Instruments Corporation 1-13 NI 5401 User Manual Y ou can also load a custom wa v eform pattern with V irtualBench-FG. This wa veform should be a text f ile and should co ntain exactly 16,384 samples.
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 NI 5401 User Manual 1-14 www .natinst.com them using the VirtualBench-FG Frequency List Editor. Follow these steps to create a list of multiple frequen cies: 1. Select Window»Frequency List Editor from the V irtualBench-FG soft front panel to bring up the dialog box sho wn in Figure 1-10 .
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 © National Instruments Corporation 1-15 NI 5401 User Manual W aveform Editor You can use the Waveform Editor shown in Figure 1-11 to create a custom waveform. To launch the Waveform Editor, select Start»Programs» National Instruments FGEN»Waveform Editor .
Chapter 1 Generating Functions with the NI 5401 NI 5401 User Manual 1-16 www .natinst.com Power -Up and Reset Conditions When you power up your computer, the NI 5401 is in the followin g state: • The output is disabled and set to 0 V . • The trigger mode is set to continuous.
© National Instruments Corporation 2-1 NI 5401 User Manual 2 Function Generator Operation This chapter describes how to use your NI 5401. Figure 2 -1 shows the NI 5401 block d iagram.
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation NI 5401 User Manual 2-2 www .natinst.com The NI 54 01 has se veral main components: • A PXI or PCI bu s interface that handles Plug and Play protocols for assi.
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation © National Instruments Corporation 2-3 NI 5401 User Manual Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) Direct digital synthesis (DDS) is a technique for deriving, under digital control, an analog frequency source from a single reference clock frequency.
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation NI 5401 User Manual 2-4 www .natinst.com Each stage is made up of tw o instructions: the frequency , which specifies the frequency of the wav eform to be generated, and the time , which specifies the time for which the frequency is to be generated.
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation © National Instruments Corporation 2-5 NI 5401 User Manual Figure 2-4. Waveform Generation T rigger Sources If you need to automatically trigger the wav eform generation, use software to generate the triggers. A rising TTL edge is required for external triggering.
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation NI 5401 User Manual 2-6 www .natinst.com Figure 2-5. Single T rigger Mode For e xample, assume that one c ycle of a sine wa ve is stored in the DDS lookup memory . For stage 1, f1 specif ies the sine frequency to be generated for time ∆ T1, f2 and ∆ T2 for stage 2, and so on.
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation © National Instruments Corporation 2-7 NI 5401 User Manual Stepped T rigger Mode After a start trigger is received, the waveform defined by the first stage is generated. Then, the device waits for the next trigger signal.
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation NI 5401 User Manual 2-8 www .natinst.com Figure 2 -8 shows the essential block diagram of analog wav eform generation. Figure 2-8. Analog Output and SYNC Out Block Diagram Figure 2 -9 shows the timing relationships of the trigger input and wa veform output.
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation © National Instruments Corporation 2-9 NI 5401 User Manual SYNC Output and Duty Cycle The SYNC output is a TTL version of the sine waveform generated at the output. The signal from the pre-amplifier is sent to a comparator, where it is compared against a level set by the level DAC .
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation NI 5401 User Manual 2-10 www .natinst.com NI-FGEN calculates the v alue of the output attenuation chain, which you can control b y changing the peak-to-peak amplitude paramete r . 0 dB attenuation corresponds to an amplitude of 1 0 V pk-pk .
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation © National Instruments Corporation 2-11 NI 5401 User Manual Pre-Attenuation Offset The NI 5401 hardware supports a DC of fset of up to ±2.5 V befo re the attenuation chain. Unless the 10 dB attenuator is switched in, which occurs when the ampl itude is less then 3.
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation NI 5401 User Manual 2-12 www .natinst.com Figure 2-11. PLL Architecture for th e NI 5401 for PCI Figure 2-12. PLL Architecture for th e NI 5401 for PXI Y ou can frequency lock to an e xternal reference clock source of 1 MHz and from 5–20 MHz in 1 MHz increments.
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation © National Instruments Corporation 2-13 NI 5401 User Manual Analog Filter Correction The N I 5401 can correct for slight deviations in the flatness of the frequency characteristic of the analog lowpass filter in it s passband , as shown in Figur e 2-13.
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation NI 5401 User Manual 2-14 www .natinst.com R TSI/PXI T rigger Lines The NI 5401 for PCI contains seven trigger lines and one RTSI clock line available over the RTSI bus to send and receive NI 5401-specific information to other boards that have RTSI connectors.
Chapter 2 Function Generator Operation © National Instruments Corporation 2-15 NI 5401 User Manual The NI 5401 can receive a hardware trigger from another board as a R TSI trigger signal on any of the R TSI/PXI trigger lines.
© National Instruments Corporation A-1 NI 5401 User Manual A Specifications This appendix lists the specifications for the NI 5401. These specifications are typical at 25 °C unless otherwise stated. The operating temperature range is 0 to 50 ° C . Analog Output Number of channels .
Appendix A Specifications NI 5401 User Manual A-2 www .natinst.com Pre-attenuation offset Range ..................... .............. ........... .±2.5 V into 50 Ω 1 Accuracy .......... ............ .............. ......±5 mV Output coupling ......
Appendix A Specifications © National Instruments Corporation A-3 NI 5401 User Manual W aveform Specifications Memory ............ ............... ........... ............ 16,384 16-bit samples Segment length ................ .............. ......... 16,384 samples, exact Segment linking (instruction FIFO) .
Appendix A Specifications NI 5401 User Manual A-4 www .natinst.com SYNC Out Level .............. ........... .............. .............. .TTL Duty cycle ..................... .............. ........... .20% to 80%, software controllable External Clock Reference Input Frequency .
© National Instruments Corporation B-1 NI 5401 User Manual B Optional Accessories National Instruments offers a v ariety of products to use with your N I 540 1, including probes, cables, and other ac.
© National Instruments Corporation C-1 NI 5401 User Manual C Frequency Resolution and Lookup Memor y For DDS-based wa v eform generation, you must first load one cycle of the desired wa veform into the lookup memory . The size of the DDS lo okup memory is 16,384 samples.
Appendix C Frequency Resolution an d Lookup Mem ory NI 5401 User Manual C-2 www .natinst.com Y ou can also synthesize arbitrary waveforms using DDS. Generating arbitrary wav eforms this way will be very limited; you are restricted to a single buf fer , and this buf fer should be e xactly equal to the size of the lookup memory (16,384 samples).
© National Instruments Corporation D-1 NI 5401 User Manual D T echnical Support Resources This appendix describes the comprehensiv e resources av ailable to you in the T echnical Support section of t.
Appendix D T e chnical Support Resources NI 5401 User Manual D-2 www .natinst.com Software-Related Resources • Instrument Driver Network —A library with hundreds of instrument dri v ers for control of standalone instruments via GPIB, VXI, or serial interfaces.
© National Instruments Corporation G-1 NI 5401 User Manual Glossar y Pref ix Meaning V alue µ- micro- 10 –6 m- milli- 10 –3 k- kilo- 10 3 M- mega- 10 6 Numbers/Symbols % percent + positi ve of, .
Glossary NI 5401 User Manual G-2 www .natinst.com B b bit—one binary digit, either 0 or 1 B byte—eight related bits of data, an eight-bit binary number .
Glossary © National Instruments Corporation G-3 NI 5401 User Manual DC direct current DC coupled allowing the transmission of both A C and DC signals DDS direct digital synthesis—a d igital techniq.
Glossary NI 5401 User Manual G-4 www .natinst.com F FIFO first-in f irst-out memory buf fer—the first data stored is the f irst data sent to the acceptor . FIFOs are often used on D A Q devices to temporarily store incoming or outgoing data until that data can be retrie ved or output.
Glossary © National Instruments Corporation G-5 NI 5401 User Manual I I/O input/output—the transfer of data to/from a computer system in volving communications channels, operator interface de vices.
Glossary NI 5401 User Manual G-6 www .natinst.com M m meters M (1) Mega, the standard metric pref ix for 1 million or 10 6 , when used with units of measure such as volts and hertz; (2) mega, the pref.
Glossary © National Instruments Corporation G-7 NI 5401 User Manual pipeline a high-performance processor structure in which the completion of an instruction is broken into its elements so that se ve.
Glossary NI 5401 User Manual G-8 www .natinst.com SCSI Small Computer System Interface (bus) sequence list See staging list. shift-keying frequen cy shift k eying (FSK) single trigger mode when the ar.
Glossary © National Instruments Corporation G-9 NI 5401 User Manual V Vv o l t s VCXO voltage controlled crystal oscillator VHDSCSI very high-density SCSI W wa veform multiple v oltage readings taken.
© National Instruments Corporation I-1 NI 5401 User Manual Index A analog filter correction, 2-13 analog out put, 2-7 to 2-11 analog out put and SYNC out b lock diagram, 2-8 output attenuation, 2-9 t.
Index NI 5401 User Manual I-2 www .natinst.com phase-locked loops and board synchronization, 2-11 to 2-12 RTSI/PXI trigger lines, 2-14 to 2-15 triggering, 2-4 to 2-7 continuous trigger mode, 2-6 singl.
Index © National Instruments Corporation I-3 NI 5401 User Manual phase-locked loops and board synchronization, 2-11 to 2-12 pin assignments (figure) Pattern Out connector, 1-5 SHC50-68 50-pin cable c.
Index NI 5401 User Manual I-4 www .natinst.com Load Waveform dialog box (figure), 1-13 Signal Settings dialog box (figure), 1-12 voltage output specifications, A-1 to A-2 W Waveform Editor creating custom waveforms, 1-15 description, 1-9 waveform generation.
An important point after buying a device National Instruments NI 5401 (or even before the purchase) is to read its user manual. We should do this for several simple reasons:
If you have not bought National Instruments NI 5401 yet, this is a good time to familiarize yourself with the basic data on the product. First of all view first pages of the manual, you can find above. You should find there the most important technical data National Instruments NI 5401 - thus you can check whether the hardware meets your expectations. When delving into next pages of the user manual, National Instruments NI 5401 you will learn all the available features of the product, as well as information on its operation. The information that you get National Instruments NI 5401 will certainly help you make a decision on the purchase.
If you already are a holder of National Instruments NI 5401, but have not read the manual yet, you should do it for the reasons described above. You will learn then if you properly used the available features, and whether you have not made any mistakes, which can shorten the lifetime National Instruments NI 5401.
However, one of the most important roles played by the user manual is to help in solving problems with National Instruments NI 5401. Almost always you will find there Troubleshooting, which are the most frequently occurring failures and malfunctions of the device National Instruments NI 5401 along with tips on how to solve them. Even if you fail to solve the problem, the manual will show you a further procedure – contact to the customer service center or the nearest service center
