Spectrum Brands Computer Hardware MC31XX User Manual

Dynamic parameters are measured at 1 V input range (if no other range is stated) and 50 Ohm termination with the samplerate specified in the table. Measured parameters are aver-

aged 20 times to get typical values. Test signal is a pure sine wave of the specified frequency with > 99% amplitude. SNR and RMS noise parameters may differ depending on the quality

of the used PC. SNR = Signal to Noise Ratio, THD = Total Harmonic Distortion, SFDR = Spurious Free Dynamic Range, SINAD = Signal Noise and Distortion, ENOB = Effective Number

of Bits. For a detailed description please see application note 002.

Order information

Order No

MC3110

MC3111

MC3112

MC3120

MC3121

MC3122

MC3130

MC3131

MC3132

Description

Order No

Description

MC.3110 with 8 MSample memory and drivers/SBench 5.x

MC.3111 with 8 MSample memory and drivers/SBench 5.x

MC.3112 with 8 MSample memory and drivers/SBench 5.x

MC.3120 with 8 MSample memory and drivers/SBench 5.x

MC.3121 with 8 MSample memory and drivers/SBench 5.x

MC.3122 with 8 MSample memory and drivers/SBench 5.x

MC.3130 with 8 MSample memory and drivers/SBench 5.x

MC.3131 with 8 MSample memory and drivers/SBench 5.x

MC.3132 with 8 MSample memory and drivers/SBench 5.x

MC3xxx-16M

MC3xxx-32M

MC3xxx-64M

Option: 16 MSample memory instead of 8 MSample standard mem

Option: 32 MSample memory instead of 8 MSample standard mem

Option: 64 MSample memory instead of 8 MSample standard mem

MC3xxx-128M Option: 128 MSample memory instead of 8 MSample standard mem

MC3xxx-256M Option: 256 MSample memory instead of 8 MSample standard mem

MC3xxx-up

Additional handling costs for later memory upgrade

MC3xxx-mr

MC3xxx-gs

MC3xxx-dig

Option Multiple Recording: Memory segmentation

Option Gated Sampling: Gate signal controls acquisition

Additional 4 synchronous digital inputs per channel, incl. cable

MC3xxx-smod

MC3xxx-time

MCxxxx-xmf

Star Hub: Synchronisation of 2 - 16 boards, one option per system

Timestamp option: Extra memory for trigger time

Extra I/O, external connector: 24 DI/O, 4 Analog out, incl. cable

MC31xx-dl

MC31xx-hp

MC31xx-lv

MATLAB

DASYLab driver for MC.31xx series

VEE driver for MC.31xx series

LabVIEW driver for MC.31xx series

MATLAB driver for all MI.xxxx, MC.xxxx and MX.xxxx series.

MC3xxx-cs

Synchronisation of 2 - 4 boards, one option per system

Cab-3f-9m-80

Cab-3f-9m-200

Adapter cable: SMB female to BNC male 80 cm

Adapter cable: SMB female to BNC male 200 cm

Cab-3f-9f-80

Cab-3f-9f-200

Adapter cable: SMB female to BNC female 80 cm

Adapter cable: SMB female to BNC female 200 cm

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System Requirements

Hardware Installation

System Requirements

All Spectrum MC.xxxx instrumentation boards are compliant to the CompactPCI 6U standard and require in general one free slot. Depending

on the installed options additional free slots can be necessary.

Warnings

ESD Precautions

The boards of the MC.xxxx series contain electronic components that can be damaged by electrostatic discharge (ESD).

Before installing the board in your system or even before touching it, it is absolutely necessary to bleed of

any electrostatic electricity.

Cooling Precautions

The boards of the MC.xxxx series operate with components having very high power consumption at high speeds. For this reason it is abso-

lutely required to cool this board sufficiently. It is strongly recommended to install an additional cooling fan producing a stream of air across

the boards surface. In most cases CompactPCI systems are already equipped with sufficient cooling power. In that case please make sure

that the air stream is not blocked.

During longer pauses between the single measurements the power down mode should be called to reduce the heat production.

Sources of noise

The boards of the MC.xxxx series should be placed far away from any noise producing source (like e.g. the power supply). It should espe-

cially be avoided to place the board in the slot directly adjacent to another fast board (like the graphics controller).

Installing the board in the system

Installing a single board without any options

The locks on the top and bottom side of CompactPCI boards need to be unlocked and opened before installing the board into a free slot of

the system. Therefore you need to press the little buttons on the inside of the fasteners and move them outwards (see figure). Now slowly insert

the card into the host system using the key ways until both locks snap in with a „click“.

While inserting the board take care not to tilt it.

After the board’s insertion fasten the two screws carefully, without overdoing.

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Hardware Installation

Installing the board in the system

Installing a board with digital inputs/outputs

The locks on the top and bottom side of both CompactPCI brackets need to be unlocked and opened before installing the board into a free

slot of the system. Therefore you need to press the little buttons on the inside of the fasteners and move them outwards (see figure). Now slowly

insert the card into the host system using the key ways until both locks snap in with a „click“.

While inserting the board take care not to tilt it.

After the board’s insertion fasten the four screws of both brackets carefully, without overdoing. The figure shows an example of a board with

two installed modules.

Installing a board with extra I/O (Option -XMF)

The locks on the top and bottom side of both CompactPCI brackets need to be unlocked and opened before installing the board into a free

slot of the system. Therefore you need to press the little buttons on the inside of the fasteners and move them outwards (see figure). Now slowly

insert the card into the host system using the key ways until both locks snap in with a „click“.

While inserting the board take care not to tilt it.

After the board’s insertion fasten the four screws of both brackets carefully, without overdoing. The figure shows exemplarily a board with

two installed modules.

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Installing the board in the system

Hardware Installation

Installing multiple boards synchronized by starhub

Hooking up the boards

Before mounting several synchronized boards for a multi channel system into the

chassis you have to hook up the boards with their synchronization cables first.

Spectrum ships the boards together with the needed amount of synchronization ca-

bles. All of them are matched to the same length, to achieve a zero clock delay

between the boards.

Only use the included flat ribbon cables.

All of the boards, including the board that carrys the starhub piggy-back module,

must be wired to the starhub as the figure is showing exemplarily for three synchro-

nized boards.

As you can see, all boards have a notch to get the cables to the other boards.

Please only use these notches to lay the cables to avoid damage to the cables when

inserting the boards into the host system.

It does not matter which of the 16 connectors on the starhub module you use for

which board. The software driver will detect the types and order of the synchro-

nized boards automatically. The right figure shows the three cables mounted next

to each other only to achieve a better visibility.

As some of the synchronization cables are not secured against wrong plugging you should take

care to have the pin 1 markers on the multiple connectors and the cable on the same side, as the

figure on the right is showing.

Mounting the wired boards

The locks on the top and bottom side of all CompactPCI brackets need to be unlocked and opened before installing the boards into the slots

of the system. Therefore you need to press the little buttons on the inside of the fasteners and move them outwards (see figure). Now slowly

insert the boards into the host system using the key ways until both locks snap in with a „click“.

While inserting the boards take care not to cant them and make sure that the cables are not squeezed by the

backplane or any other components.

After the board’s insertion fasten the screws of all brackets carefully, without overdoing. The figure shows exemplarily a board with two in-

stalled modules.

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Hardware Installation

Installing the board in the system

Installing multiple synchronized boards

Hooking up the boards

Before mounting several synchronized boards for a multi

channel system into the chassis you have to hook up the

boards with their syncronization cables first. Spectrum

ships the boards together with the needed synchronization

cable.

All of the possible four boards must be wired with deliv-

ered synchronization cable. The figure is showing that ex-

emplarily for three synchronized boards. As you can see,

all boards have a notch to get the cables from one board

to the other. Please take care that the cable lays within

these notches to avoid damages to the cable when insert-

ing the boards into the host system.

The outer boards have a soldered termination for the sync

bus. These boards are marked with an additional sticker.

Only mount the cluster of synchronized boards

in a row with the dedicated boards on the outer

sides.

Mounting the wired boards

The locks on the top and bottom side of all CompactPCI brackets need to be unlocked and opened before installing the boards into the slots

of the system. Therefore you need to press the little buttons on the inside of the fasteners and move them outwards (see figure). Now slowly

insert the boards into the host system using the key ways until both locks snap in with a „click“.

While inserting the boards take care not to cant them and make sure that the cable is not squeezed by the

backplane or any other components.

After the board’s insertion fasten the screws of all brackets carefully, without overdoing. The figure shows exemplarily a board with two in-

stalled modules.

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Interrupt Sharing

Software Driver Installation

Before using the board a driver must be installed that matches the operating system. The installation is done in different ways depending on

the used operating system. The driver that is on CD supports all boards of the MI, MC and MX series. That means that you can use the same

driver for all boards of theses families.

Interrupt Sharing

This board uses a PCI interrupt for DMA data transfer and for controlling the FIFO mode. The used interrupt line is allocated by the PC BIOS

at system start and is normally depending on the selected slot. Because there is only a limited number of interrupt lines available on the PCI

bus it can happen that two or more boards must use the same interrupt line. This so called interrupt sharing must be supported by all drivers

of the participating equipment.

Most available drivers and also the Spectrum driver for your board can manage interrupt sharing. But there are also some drivers on the

market that can only use one interrupt exclusively. If this equipment shares an interrupt with the Spectrum board, the system will hang up if

the second driver is loaded (the time is depending on the operating system).

If this happens it is necessary to reconfigure the system in that way that the critical equipment has an exclusive access to an interrupt.

On most systems the BIOS shows a list of all installed PCI boards with their allocated interrupt lines directly after system start. You have to

check whether an interrupt line is shared between two boards. Some BIOS allow the manual allocation of interrupt lines. Have a look in your

mainboard manual for further information on this topic.

Because normally the interrupt line is fixed for one PCI slot it is simply necessary to use another slot for the critical board to force a new

interrupt allocation. You have to search a configuration where all critical boards have only exclusive access to one interrupt.

Depending on the system, using the Spectrum board with a shared interrupt may degrade performance a little. Each interrupt needs to be

checked by two drivers. For this reason when using time critical FIFO mode even the Spectrum board should have an exclusively access to

one interrupt line.

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Software Driver Installation

Windows 98

Installation

When installing the board in a Win-

dows 98 system the Spectrum board

will be recognized automatically on

the next start-up.

The system offers the direct installa-

tion of a driver for the board.

Let Windows search automatically

for the best driver for your system.

Select the CD that was delivered

with the board as installation source.

The driver files are located on CD in

the directory

\Driver\Win98_2k_XP.

The hardware assistant shows you

the exact board type that has been

found like the MI.3020 in the exam-

ple. Older boards (before june

2004) show „Spectrum Board“ in-

stead.

The drivers can be used directly after installation. It is not necessary to restart the system.

The installed drivers are linked in the device manager. Below you’ll see how to examine

the driver version and how to update the driver with a newer version.

Version control

If you want to check which driver version is installed

in the system this can be easily done in the device

manager. Therefore please start the device manager

from the control panel and show the properties of the

installed driver.

On the property page Windows 98 shows the date

of the driver.

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Windows 98

Software Driver Installation

After clicking the driver info button the detailed version information of the driver is shown. In the case

of a support question this information must be presented together with the board’s serial number to

the support team to help finding a fast solution.

Driver - Update

If a new driver version is to be installed no Spectrum board should be in use. So please stop and exit all software that could access the boards.

New drivers are available at http://www.spectrum-instrumentation.com. After down loading the driver unzip it to a temporary folder.

A new driver version is directly in-

stalled from the device manager.

Therefore please open the properties

page of the driver as shown in the

section before. As next step click on

the update driver button and follow

the steps of the driver installation in

a similar way to the previous board

and driver installation.

Please select the path where the new

driver version was unzipped to. If

you’ve got the new driver version on

CD please select the

\Driver\Win98_2k_XP path on the

CD containing the new driver ver-

sion.

The new driver version can be used directly after installation without restarting the system.

Please keep in mind to update the driver of all installed Spectrum boards.

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Software Driver Installation

Windows 2000

Installation

When installing the board in

a Windows 2000 system the

Spectrum board will be rec-

ognized automatically on the

next start-up.

The system offers the direct in-

stallation of a driver for the

board.

Let Windows search automat-

ically for the best driver for

your system.

Select the CD that was deliv-

ered with the board as instal-

lation source. The driver files

are located on CD in the di-

rectory

\Driver\Win98_2k_XP.

The hardware assistant

shows you the exact board

type that has been found like

the MI.3020 in the example.

Older boards (before june

2004) show „Spectrum

Board“ instead.

The drivers can be used di-

rectly after installation. It is

not necessary to restart the

system. The installed drivers

are linked in the device man-

ager.

Below you’ll see how to ex-

amine the driver version and

how to update the driver with

a newer version.

Version control

If you want to check which driver version

is installed in the system this can be eas-

ily done in the device manager. There-

fore please start the device manager

from the control panel and show the

properties of the installed driver.

On the property page Windows 2000

shows the date and the version of the in-

stalled driver.

After clicking the driver details button the

detailed version information of the driver

is shown. In the case of a support ques-

tion this information must be presented

together with the board’s serial number

to the support team to help finding a fast

solution.

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Windows 2000

Software Driver Installation

Driver - Update

If a new driver version should be installed no Spectrum board is allowed to be in use by any software. So please stop and exit all software

that could access the boards.

A new driver version is direct-

ly installed from the device

manager. Therefore please

open the properties page of

the driver as shown in the sec-

tion before. As next step click

on the update driver button

and follow the steps of the

driver installation in a similar

way to the previous board

and driver installation.

Please select the path where

the new driver version was

unzipped to. If you’ve got the

new driver version on CD

please select the

\Driver\Win98_2k_XP path

on the CD containing the new

driver version.

The new driver version can

be used directly after installa-

tion without restarting the sys-

tem. Please keep in mind to

update the driver of all in-

stalled Spectrum boards.

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Software Driver Installation

Windows XP

Installation

When installing the board in a Windows XP system the Spectrum board will be rec-

ognized automatically on the next start-up.

The system offers the direct installation of a driver for the board.

Do not let Windows automatically search for the best driver, be-

cause sometimes the driver will not be found on the CD. Please take

the option of choosing a manual installation path instead.

Allow Windows XP to search for the most suitable driver in a specific directory. Se-

lect the CD that was delivered with the board as installation source. The driver files

are located on CD in the directory \Driver\Win98_2k_XP.

The hardware assistant shows you the exact board type that has been found like

the MI.3020 in the example. Older boards (before june 2004) show „Spectrum

Board“ instead.

The drivers can be used directly after installation. It is not necessary to restart the

system. The installed drivers are linked in the device manager.

Below you’ll see how to examine the driver version and how to update the driver

with a newer version.

Version control

If you want to check which driver version is installed in the system this

can be easily done in the device manager. Therefore please start the

device manager from the control panel and show the properties of

the installed driver.

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Windows XP

Software Driver Installation

On the property page Windows XP shows the date and the version of the installed driver.

After clicking the driver details button the detailed version information of the driver is shown.

In the case of a support question this information must be presented together with the

board’s serial number to the support team to help finding a fast solution.

Driver - Update

If a new driver version should be installed no Spectrum board is allowed to be in

use by any software. So please stop and exit all software that could access the

boards.

A new driver version is directly installed from the device manager. Therefore please

open the properties page of the driver as shown in the section before. As next step

click on the update driver button and follow the steps of the driver installation in a

similar way to the previous board and driver installation.

Please select the path where the new driver version was unzipped to. If you’ve got

the new driver version on CD please select the \Driver\Win98_2k_XP path on the

CD containing the new driver version.

The new driver version can be used directly after installation without restarting the

system. Please keep in mind to update the driver of all installed Spectrum boards.

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Software Driver Installation

Windows NT

Installation

Under Windows NT the

Spectrum driver must be in-

stalled manually. The driver is

found on CD in the directory

\Install\WinNTDrv. Please

start the „Setup.exe“ pro-

gram. The installation is per-

formed totally automatically,

simply click on the „Next“

button. After installtion the

system must be rebooted

once (see picture on the right

side). The driver is install to

support one PCI/PXI or Com-

pactPCI device. If more boards are installed in the system the configuration of the driver has to be changed. Please see the following chapter

for this topic.

Adding boards to the Windows NT driver

The Windows NT driver

must be configured by the

Driver Configuration utility

to support more than one

board. The Driver Configu-

ration utility is automatical-

ly installed with the driver.

The Utility can be found in

the start menu as „DrvCon-

fig“.

To add a new card please follow these steps:

• Increase the board number on top of the screen by pressing the right button

• Change the board type from „Not Installed“ to „PCI Board“

• Press the „Apply changes“ button

• Press the „OK“ button

• Restart the system

Driver - Update

If a new driver version should be installed no Spectrum board is allowed to be in use by any software. So please stop and exit all software

that could access the boards.

When updating a system please simply execute the setup file of the new driver version. Afterwards the system has to be rebooted. The driver

configuration is not changed.

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Linux

Software Driver Installation

Linux

Overview

The Spectrum boards are delivered with drivers for linux. It is necessary to install them manually following the steps explained afterwards.

The linux drivers can be found on CD in the directory /Driver/linux. As linux is an open source operating system there are several distributions

in use world-wide that are compiled with different kernel settings. As we are not able to install and maintain hundreds of different distributions

and versions we had to focus on some common used linux distributions.

However if your distribution does not work with one of these pre-compiled kernel modules or you have a specialized kernel installed (like a

SMP kernel) you can get the linux driver sources directly from us. With this sources it’s no problem to compile and use the linux driver on your

system. Please contact your local distributor to get the sources. The Spectrum linux drivers are compatible with kernel versions 2.4 and 2.6.

On this CD you’ll find pre-compiled linux kernel modules for the following versions:

SuSE version 8.0

SuSE version 9.0

Redhat version 9.0 Kernel 2.4.20

Kernel 2.4.18

Kernel 2.4.21

directory /Driver/linux/suse80

directory /Driver/linux/suse90

directory /Driver/linux/redhat90

SuSE version 8.2

SuSE version 9.1

Kernel 2.4.20

Kernel 2.6.4

directory /Driver/linux/suse82

directory /Driver/linux/suse91

Installation

It is necessary to have the root rights for installing a driver.

Select the right driver from the CD.

Refer to the list shown above. If your distribution is not listed there please select the module that most closely matches your installed kernel

version. Copy the driver kernel module spc.o from the CD directory to your hard disk. Be sure to use a hard disk directory that is a accessible

by all users who should work with the board.

First time load of the driver

The linux driver is shipped as the loadable module spc.o. The driver includes all Spectrum PCI, PXI and CompactPCI boards. The boards are

recognized automatically after driver loading.Load the driver with the insmod command:

linux:~ # insmod spc.o

The insmod command may generate a warning that the driver module was compiled for another kernel version. In that case you may try to

load the driver module with the force parameter and test the board very carefully.

linux:~ # insmod -f spc.o

If the kernel module could not be loaded in your linux installation it is necessary to compile the driver directly on your system. Please contact-

Spectrum to get the needed source files including the compilation description.

Depending on the used linux distribution the insmod command generates a message telling the driver version and the board types and serial

numbers that have been found. If your distribution does not show this message it is possible to view them with the dmesg command:

linux:~ # dmesg

... some other stuff

spc driver version: 3.07 build 0

sp0: MI.3020 sn 01234

In the example we show you the output generated by a MI.3020. All other board types are similar to this output but showing the correct

board type.

Examine the major number of the driver

For accessing the device driver it is necessary to know the major number of the device. This number is listed in the /proc/devices list. The

device driver is called "spec" in this list. Normally this number is 254 but this depends on the device drivers that have been installed before.

linux:~ # cat /proc/devices

Character devices:

...

171 ieee1394

180 usb

188 ttyUSB

254 spec

Block devices:

1 ramdisk

2 fd

...

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Software Driver Installation

Linux

Installing the device

You connect a device to the driver with the mknod command. The major number is the number of the driver as shown in the last step, the

minor number is the index of the board starting with 0. This step must only be done once for the system where the boards are installed in.

The device will remain in the file structure even if the board is de-installed from the system.

The following command makes a device for the first Spectrum board the driver has found:

linux:~ # mknod /dev/spc0 c 254 0

Make sure that the users who work with the driver have full rights access for the device. Therefore you should give all persons all rights to the

device:

linux:~ # chmod a+w /dev/spc0

Now it is possible to access the board using this device.

Driver info

Information about the installed boards could be found in the /proc/spectrum file. All PCI, PXI and CompactPCI boards show the basic infor-

mation found in the EEProm there. This is an example output generated by a MI.3020:

linux:~ # cat /proc/spectrum

Spectrum driver information

---------------------------

Driver Version: 3.07 build 0

Board#0: MI.3020

serial number:

01234

production month: 05/2004

version:

9.6

samplerate:

100 MHz

installed memory: 16 MBytes

Automatic load of the driver

It is necessary to load the kernel driver module after each start of the system before using the boards. Therefore you may add the „insmod

spc.o“ command in one of the start-up files. Or you may load the kernel driver module manually whenever you need access to the board.

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Software Overview

Software

This chapter gives you an overview about the structure of the drivers and the software, where to find and how to use the examples. It detailed

shows how the drivers are included under different programming languages and where the differences are when calling the driver functions

from different programming languages.

This manual only shows the use of the standard driver API. For further information on programming drivers

for third-party software like LabVIEW, MATLAB, DASYLab or VEE an additional manual is required that is de-

livered with the ordered driver option.

Software Overview

The Spectrum drivers offer you a common and fast API for using all of the board hardware features. This API is nearly the same on all operating

systems. Based on this API one can write your own programs using any programming language that can access the driver API. This manual

detailed describes the driver API allowing you to write your own programs.

The optional drivers for third-party products like LabVIEW or DASYLab are also based on this API. The special functionality of these drivers

is not subject of this manual and is described on separate manuals delivered with the driver option.

First Test with SBench

After installation of the board and the drivers it can be useful to first test the board function with

a ready to run software before starting with programming. A full version of SBench 5.x is de-

livered with the board on CD. The program supports all actual acquisition, generator and dig-

ital I/O boards from Spectrum. Depending on the used board and the software setup, one

could use SBench as a digital storage oscilloscope, a spectrum analyser, a logic analyser or

simply as a data recording front end. Different export and import formats allow the use of

SBench together with a variety of other programs.

On the CD you’ll find an install version of SBench in the directory /Install/SBench. There’s also

a pre-installed program version on CD that can be started directly from CD without installing

to hard disk. This file can be found in the /Programs/SBench5 directory. Also on CD is a pro-

gram description that shows in detail how SBench works and what settings have to be done to

use SBench in one of the different modes. The manual is found in the path /Internet/english/

swmanuals/SBench.

The current version of SBench can be down loaded free of charge directly from the Spectrum

website http://www.spectrum-instrumentation.com. Please go to the download section and get the latest version there.

SBench is designed to run under Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

It does not run under Linux. At the moment there is no graphical ready-to-run software for Linux available.

Please use the driver examples to examine whether the board is correctly installed under Linux.

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Software

C/C++ Driver Interface

C/C++ is the main programming language for which the drivers have been build up. Therefore the interface to C/C++ is the best match. All

the small examples of the manual showing different parts of the hardware programming are done with C.

Header files

The basic task before using the driver is to include the header files that are delivered on CD together with the board. The header files are

found in the directory /Driver/header_c. Please don’t change them in any way because they are updated with each new driver version to

include the new registers and new functionality.

dlltyp.h

regs.h

Includes the platform specific definitions for data types and function declarations. All data types are based on this definitions. The use of this typ definition file

allows the use of examples and programs on different platforms without changes to the program source.

Defines all registers and commands which are used in the Spectrum driver for the different boards. The registers a board uses are described in the board spe-

cific part of the documentation.

spectrum.h

spcerr.h

Defines the functions of the driver. All definitions are taken from the file dlltyp.h. The functions itself are described below.

Lists all and describes all error codes that can be given back by any of the driver functions. The error codes and their meaning are described in detail in the

appendix of this manul.

errors.h

Only there for backward compatibility with older program versions. Please use spcerr.h instead.

Example for including the header files:

// ----- driver includes -----

#include "dlltyp.h"

#include "spectrum.h"

#include "spcerr.h"

#include "regs.h"

Microsoft Visual C++

Include Driver

The driver files can be easily included in Microsoft C++ by simply using the library file that is delivered together with the drivers. The library

file can be found on the CD in the path /Examples/vc/c_header. Please include the library file Spectrum.lib in your Visual C++ project. All

functions described below are now available in your program.

Examples

Examples can be found on CD in the path /Examples/vc. There is one subdirectory for each board family. You’ll find board specific examples

for that family there. The examples are bus type independent. As a result that means that the MI30xx directory contains examples for the

MI.30xx, the MC.30xx and the MX.30xx families. The example directories contain a running project file for Microsoft Visual C++ that can

be directly loaded and compiled.

There are also some more board independent examples in the directory MIxxxx. These examples show different aspects of the boards like

programming options or synchronization and have to be combined with one of the board specific example.

Borland C++ Builder

Include Driver

The driver files can be easily included in Borland C++ Builder by simply using the library file that is delivered together with the drivers. The

library file can be found on the CD in the path /Examples/vc/c_header. Please include the library file spclib_bcc.lib in your Borland C++

Builder project. All functions described below are now available in your program.

Examples

The Borland C++ Builder examples share the sources with the Visual C++ examples. Please see above chapter for a more detailed documen-

tation of the examples. In each example directory are project files for Visual C++ as well as Borland C++ Builder.

Linux Gnu C

Include Driver

The interface of the linux drivers is a little bit different from the windows interface. To make the access easier and to have more similar exam-

ples we added an include file that re maps the standard driver functions to the linux specific functions. This include file is found in the path /

Examples/linux/spcioctl.inc. All examples are based on this file.

Example for including Linux driver:

// ----- driver includes -----

#include "dlltyp.h"

#include "regs.h"

#include "spcerr.h"

// ----- include the easy ioctl commands from the driver -----

#include "../spcioctl.inc"

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C/C++ Driver Interface

Software

Examples

Examples can be found on CD in the path /Examples/linux. There is one subdirectory for each board family. You’ll find board specific ex-

amples for that family there. The examples are bus type independent. As a result that means that the MI30xx directory contains examples for

the MI.30xx, the MC.30xx and the MX.30xx families. The examples are simple one file programs and can be compiled using the Gnu C

compiler gcc. It’s not necessary to use a makefile for them.

Other Windows C/C++ compilers

Include Driver

To access the driver, the driver functions must be loaded from the driver dll. This can be easily done by standard windows functions. There

is one example in the directory /Examples/other that shows the process. After loading the functions from the dll one can proceed with the

examples that are given for Microsoft Visual C++.

Example of function loading:

// definition of external function that has to be loaded from DLL

typedef int16 (SPCINITPCIBOARDS) (int16* pnCount, int16* pnPCIVersion);

typedef int16 (SPCSETPARAM)

typedef int16 (SPCGETPARAM)

...

(int16 nNr, int32 lReg, int32 lValue);

(int16 nNr, int32 lReg, int32* plValue);

SPCINITPCIBOARDS* pfnSpcInitPCIBoards;

SPCSETPARAM*

SPCGETPARAM*

...

pfnSpcSetParam;

pfnSpcGetParam;

// ----- Search for dll -----

hDLL = LoadLibrary ("spectrum.dll");

// ----- Load functions from DLL -----

pfnSpcInitPCIBoards = (SPCINITPCIBOARDS*) GetProcAddress (hDLL, "SpcInitPCIBoards");

pfnSpcSetParam =

pfnSpcGetParam =

(SPCSETPARAM*)

(SPCGETPARAM*)

GetProcAddress (hDLL, "SpcSetParam");

GetProcAddress (hDLL, "SpcGetParam");

National Instruments LabWindows/CVI

Include Drivers

To use the Spectrum driver under LabWindows/CVI it is necessary to first load the functions from the driver dll. This is more or less similar to

the above shown process with the only difference that LabWindows/CVI uses it’s own library handling functions instead of the windows

standard functions.

Example of function loding under LabWindows/CVI:

// ----- load the driver entries from the DLL -----

DriverId = LoadExternalModule ("spectrum.lib");

// ----- Load functions from DLL -----

SpcInitPCIBoards = (SPCINITPCIBOARDS*) GetExternalModuleAddr (DriverId, "SpcInitPCIBoards", &Status);

SpcSetParam =

SpcGetParam =

(SPCSETPARAM*)

(SPCGETPARAM*)

GetExternalModuleAddr (DriverId, "SpcSetParam", &Status);

GetExternalModuleAddr (DriverId, "SpcGetParam", &Status);

Examples

Examples for LabWindows/CVI can be found on CD in the directory /Examples/cvi. Theses examples show mainly how to include the driver

in a LabWindows/CVI environment and don’t use any special functions of the boards. The examples have to be merged with the standard

windows examples described under Visual C++.

Driver functions

The driver contains five functions to access the hardware.

Function SpcInitPCIBoard

This function initializes all installed PCI, PXI and CompactPCI boards. The boards are recognized automatically. All installation parameters

are read out from the hardware and stored in the driver. The number of PCI boards will be given back in the value Count and the version of

the PCI bus itself will be given back in the value PCIVersion.

Function SpcInitPCIBoards:

int16 SpcInitPCIBoards (int16* count, int16* PCIVersion);

Under Linux this function is not available. Instead one must open and close the driver with the standard file

functions open and close. The functionality behind this function is the same as the SpcInitPCIBoards function.

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Software

C/C++ Driver Interface

Using the Driver under Linux:

hDrv = open ("/dev/spc0", O_RDWR);

...

close (hDrv);

Function SpcSetParam

All hardware settings are based on software registers that can be set by the function SpcSetParam. This function sets a register to a defined

value or executes a command. The board must first be initialized. The available software registers for the driver are listed in the board specific

part of the documentation below.

The value „nr“ contains the index of the board that you want to access, the value „reg“ is the register that has to be changed and the value

„value“ is the new value that should be set to this software register. The function will return an error value in case of malfunction.

Function SpcSetParam

int16 SpcSetParam (int16 nr, int32 reg, int32 value);

Under Linux the value „nr“ must contain the handle that was retrieved by the open function for that specific

board. The values is then not of the type „int16“ but of the type „handle“.

Function SpcGetParam

The function SpcGetParam reads out software registers or status information. The board must first be initialized. The available software reg-

isters for the driver are listed in the board specific part of the documentation below.

The value „nr“ contains the index of the board that you want to access, the value „reg“ is the register that has to be read out and the value

„value“ is a pointer to a value that should contain the read parameter after function call. The function will return an error value in case of

malfunction.

Function SpcGetParam

int16 SpcGetParam (int16 nr, int32 reg, int32* value);

Under Linux the value „nr“ must contain the handle that was given back by the open function of that specific

board. The values is then not of the type „int16“ but of the type „handle“.

Function SpcSetData

Writes data to the board for a specific memory channel. The board must first be initialized. The value „nr“ contains the index of the board

that you want to access, the „ch“ parameter contains the memory channel. „start“ and „len“ define the position of data to be written. „data“

is a pointer to the array holding the data. The function will return an error value in case of malfunction.

This function is only available on generator or i/o boards. The function is not available on acquisition boards.

Function SpcSetData (Windows)

int16 SpcSetData (int16 nr, int16 ch, int32 start, int32 len, dataptr data);

Under Linux the additional parameter nBytesPerSample must be used for this function. For all boards with 8 bit resolution the parameter is

„1“, for all boards with 12, 14 or 16 bit resolution this parameter has to be „2“. Under Linux the value „hDrv“ must contain the handle that

was given back by the open function of that specific board. Under Linux the return value is not an error code but the number of bytes that

has been written.

Function SpcSetData (Linux)

int32 SpcSetData (int hDrv, int32 lCh, int32 lStart, int32 lLen, int16 nBytesPerSample, dataptr pvData)

Function SpcGetData

Reads data from the board from a specific memory channel. The board must first be initialized. The value „nr“ contains the index of the board

that you want to access, the „ch“ parameter contains the memory channel. „start“ and „len“ define the position of data to be read. „data“

is a pointer to the array that should hold the data. The function will return an error value in case of malfunction.

This function is only available on acquisition or i/o boards. The function is not available on generator boards.

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Delphi (Pascal) Programming Interface

Software

Function SpcGetData

int16 SpcGetData (int16 nr, int16 ch, int32 start, int32 len, dataptr data);

Under Linux the additional parameter nBytesPerSample must be used for this function. For all boards with 8 bit resolution the parameter is

„1“, for all boards with 12, 14 or 16 bit resolution this parameter has to be „2“, when reading timestamps this parameter has to be „8“.

Under Linux the value „hDrv“ must contain the handle that was given back by the open function of that specific board. Under Linux the return

value is not an error code but is the number of bytes that has been read.

Function SpcGetData (Linux)

int32 SpcGetData (int hDrv, int32 lCh, int32 lStart, int32 lLen, int16 nBytesPerSample, dataptr pvData)

Delphi (Pascal) Programming Interface

Type definition

All Spectrum driver functions are using pre-defined variable types to cover different operating systems and to use the same driver interface

for all programming languages. Under Delphi it is necessary to define these types once. This is also shown in the examples delivered on CD.

Delphi type definition:

type

int8

pint8

int16

= shortint;

= ^shortint;

= smallint;

pint16 = ^smallint;

int32 = longint;

pint32 = ^longint;

data

= array[1..MEMSIZE] of smallint;

dataptr = ^data;

In the example shown above the size of data is defined to „smallint“. This definition is only valid for boards

that have a sample resolution of 12, 14 or 16 bit. On 8 bit boards this has to be a „shortint“ type.

Include Driver

To include the driver functions into delphi it is necessary to first add them to the implementation section of the program file. There the name

of the function and the location in the dll is defined:

Driver implementation:

function SpcSetData (nr,ch:int16; start,len:int32; data:dataptr): int16; cdecl; external 'SPECTRUM.DLL';

function SpcGetData (nr,ch:int16; start,len:int32; data:dataptr): int16; cdecl; external 'SPECTRUM.DLL';

function SpcSetParam (nr:int16; reg,value: int32): int16;

function SpcGetParam (nr:int16; reg:int32; value:pint32): int16;

function SpcInitPCIBoards (count,PCIVersion: pint16): int16;

cdecl; external 'SPECTRUM.DLL';

Examples

Examples for Delphi can be found on CD in the directory /Examples/delphi. There is one subdirectory for each board family. You’ll find

board specific examples for that family there. The examples are bus type independent. As a result that means that the MI30xx directory con-

tains examples for the MI.30xx, the MC.30xx and the MX.30xx families. The example directories contain a running project file for Borland

Delphi that can be directly loaded and compiled.

Driver functions

The driver contains five functions to access the hardware.

Function SpcInitPCIBoard

This function initializes all installed PCI, PXI and CompactPCI boards. The boards are recognized automatically. All installation parameters

are read out from the hardware and stored in the driver. The number of PCI boards will be given back in the value Count and the version of

the PCI bus itself will be given back in the value PCIVersion.

Function SpcSetParam

All hardware settings are based on software registers that can be set by the function SpcSetParam. This function sets a register to a defined

value or executes a command. The board must first be initialized. The available software registers for the driver are listed in the board specific

part of the documentation below.

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Software

Delphi (Pascal) Programming Interface

The value „nr“ contains the index of the board that you want to access, the value „reg“ is the register that has to be changed and the value

„value“ is the new value that should be set to this software register. The function will return an error value in case of malfunction.

Function SpcGetParam

The function SpcGetParam reads out software registers or status information. The board must first be initialized. The available software re-

gisters for the driver are listed in the board specific part of the documentation below.

The value „nr“ contains the index of the board that you want to access, the value „reg“ is the register that has to be read out and the value

„value“ is a pointer to a value that should contain the read parameter after function call. The function will return an error value in case of

malfunction.

Function SpcSetData

Writes data to the board for a specific memory channel. The board must first be initialized. The value „nr“ contains the index of the board

that you want to access, the „ch“ parameter contains the memory channel. „start“ and „len“ define the position of data to be written. „data“

is a pointer to the array holding the data. The function will return an error value in case of malfunction.

This function is only available on generator or i/o boards. The function is not available on acquisition boards.

Function SpcGetData

Reads data from the board from a specific memory channel. The board must first be initialized. The value „nr“ contains the index of the board

that you want to access, the „ch“ parameter contains the memory channel. „start“ and „len“ define the position of data to be read. „data“

is a pointer to the array that should hold the data. The function will return an error value in case of malfunction.

This function is only available on acquisition or i/o boards. The function is not available on generator boards.

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Visual Basic Programming Interface

Software

Visual Basic Programming Interface

The Spectrum boards can be used together with Microsoft Visual Basic as well as with Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications. This allows

per example the direct access of the hardware from within Microsoft Excel. The interface between the programming language and the driver

is the same for both.

Include Driver

To include the driver functions into Basic it is necessary to first add them to the module definition section of the program file. There the name

of the function and the location in the dll is defined:

Module definition:

Public Declare Function SpcInitPCIBoards Lib "SpcStdNT.dll" Alias "_SpcInitPCIBoards@8" (ByRef Count As Integer,

ByRef PCIVersion As Integer) As Integer

Public Declare Function SpcInitBoard Lib "SpcStdNT.dll" Alias "_SpcInitBoard@8" (ByVal Nr As Integer, ByVal Typ

As Integer) As Integer

Public Declare Function SpcGetParam Lib "SpcStdNT.dll" Alias "_SpcGetParam@12" (ByVal BrdNr As Integer, ByVal

RegNr As Long, ByRef Value As Long) As Integer

Public Declare Function SpcSetParam Lib "SpcStdNT.dll" Alias "_SpcSetParam@12" (ByVal BrdNr As Integer, ByVal

RegNr As Long, ByVal Value As Long) As Integer

Public Declare Function SpcGetData8 Lib "SpcStdNT.dll" Alias "_SpcGetData@20" (ByVal BrdNr As Integer, ByVal

Channel As Integer, ByVal Start As Long, ByVal Length As Long, ByRef data As Byte) As Integer

Public Declare Function SpcSetData8 Lib "SpcStdNT.dll" Alias "_SpcSetData@20" (ByVal BrdNr As Integer, ByVal

Channel As Integer, ByVal Start As Long, ByVal Length As Long, ByRef data As Byte) As Integer

Public Declare Function SpcGetData16 Lib "SpcStdNT.dll" Alias "_SpcGetData@20" (ByVal BrdNr As Integer, ByVal

Channel As Integer, ByVal Start As Long, ByVal Length As Long, ByRef data As Integer) As Integer

Public Declare Function SpcSetData16 Lib "SpcStdNT.dll" Alias "_SpcSetData@20" (ByVal BrdNr As Integer, ByVal

Channel As Integer, ByVal Start As Long, ByVal Length As Long, ByRef data As Integer) As Integer

The module definition is already done for the examples and can be found in the Visual Basic examples directory. Please simply use the file

declnt.bas.

Visual Basic Examples

Examples for Visual Basic can be found on CD in the directory /Examples/vb. There is one subdirectory for each board family. You’ll find

board specific examples for that family there. The examples are bus type independent. As a result that means that the MI30xx directory con-

tains examples for the MI.30xx, the MC.30xx and the MX.30xx families. The example directories contain a running project file for Visual

Basic that can be directly loaded.

VBA for Excel Examples

Examples for VBA for Excel can be found on CD in the directory /Examples/excel. The example here simply show the access of the driver

and make a very small demo acquisition. It is necessary to combine these examples with the Visual Basic examples to have full board func-

tionality.

Driver functions

The driver contains five functions to access the hardware.

Function SpcInitPCIBoard

This function initializes all installed PCI, PXI and CompactPCI boards. The boards are recognized automatically. All installation parameters

are read out from the hardware and stored in the driver. The number of PCI boards will be given back in the value Count and the version of

the PCI bus itself will be given back in the value PCIVersion.

Function SpcInitPCIBoard:

Function SpcInitPCIBoards (ByRef Count As Integer, ByRef PCIVersion As Integer) As Integer

Function SpcSetParam

All hardware settings are based on software registers that can be set by the function SpcSetParam. This function sets a register to a defined

value or executes a command. The board must first be initialized. The available software registers for the driver are listed in the board specific

part of the documentation below.

The value „nr“ contains the index of the board that you want to access, the value „reg“ is the register that has to be changed and the value

„value“ is the new value that should be set to this software register. The function will return an error value in case of malfunction.

Function SpcSetParam:

Function SpcSetParam (ByVal BrdNr As Integer, ByVal RegNr As Long, ByVal Value As Long) As Integer

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Software

Visual Basic Programming Interface

Function SpcGetParam

The function SpcGetParam reads out software registers or status information. The board must first be initialized. The available software re-

gisters for the driver are listed in the board specific part of the documentation below.

The value „nr“ contains the index of the board that you want to access, the value „reg“ is the register that has to be read out and the value

„value“ is a pointer to a value that should contain the read parameter after function call. The function will return an error value in case of

malfunction.

Function SpcGetParam:

Function SpcGetParam (ByVal BrdNr As Integer, ByVal RegNr As Long, ByRef Value As Long) As Integer

Function SpcSetData

Writes data to the board for a specific memory channel. The board must first be initialized. The value „nr“ contains the index of the board

that you want to access, the „ch“ parameter contains the memory channel. „start“ and „len“ define the position of data to be written. „data“

is a pointer to the array holding the data. The function will return an error value in case of malfunction.

Function SpcSetData:

Function SpcSetData8 (ByVal BrdNr As Integer, ByVal Channel As Integer, ByVal Start As Long, ByVal Length As

Long, ByRef data As Byte) As Integer

Function SpcSetData16 (ByVal BrdNr As Integer, ByVal Channel As Integer, ByVal Start As Long, ByVal Length As

Long, ByRef data As Integer) As Integer

It is necessary to select the function with the matching data width from the above mentioned data write func-

tions. Use the SpcSetData8 function for boards with 8 bit resolution and use the SpcSetData16 function for

boards with 12, 14 and 16 bit resolution.

This function is only available on generator or i/o boards. The function is not available on acquisition boards.

Function SpcGetData

Reads data from the board from a specific memory channel. The board must first be initialized. The value „nr“ contains the index of the board

that you want to access, the „ch“ parameter contains the memory channel. „start“ and „len“ define the position of data to be read. „data“

is a pointer to the array that should hold the data. The function will return an error value in case of malfunction.

Function SpcGetData:

Function SpcGetData8 (ByVal BrdNr As Integer, ByVal Channel As Integer, ByVal Start As Long, ByVal Length As

Long, ByRef data As Byte) As Integer

Function SpcGetData16 (ByVal BrdNr As Integer, ByVal Channel As Integer, ByVal Start As Long, ByVal Length As

Long, ByRef data As Integer) As Integer

It is necessary to select the function with the matching data width from the above mentioned data read func-

tions. Use the SpcGetData8 function for boards with 8 bit resolution and use the SpcGetData16 function for

boards with 12, 14 and 16 bit resolution.

This function is only available on acquisition or i/o boards. The function is not available on generator boards.

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Overview

Programming the Board

Overview

The following chapters show you in detail how to program the different aspects of the board. For every topic there’s a small example. For

the examples we focussed on Visual C++. However as shown in the last chapter the differences in programming the board under different

programming languages are marginal. This manual describes the programming of the whole hardware family. Some of the topics are similar

for all board versions. But some differ a little bit from type to type. Please check the given tables for these topics and examine carefully which

settings are valid for your special kind of board.

The programming of the boards is totally software register based. All software registers are described in the following form:

The decimal value of the software register.

Also found in the regs.h file. This value must

be used with all programs or compilers that

cannot use the header file directly.

The name of the software regis-

ter as found in the regs.h file.

Could directly be used by C and

C++ compiler

Describes whether

the register can be

read (r) and/or writ-

ten (w).

Short description of the function-

ality of the register. A more de-

tailled description is found

above or below this register.

Value

Direction

Description

Command register of the board.

SPC_COMMAND

SPC_START

r/w

Starts the board with the current register settings.

Stops the board manually.

SPC_STOP

The decimal value of the constant. Also

found in the regs.h file. This value must be

used with all programs or compilers that

cannot use the header file directly.

Any constants that can be used to

program the register directly are

shown inserted beneath the register

table.

Short description of

the use of this con-

stant.

If no constants are given below the register table, the dedicated register is used as a switch. All such registers

are activated if written with a “1“ and deactivated if written with a “0“.

Programming examples

In this manual a lot of programming examples are used to give you an impression on how the actual mentioned registers can be set within

your own program. All of the examples are located in a seperated colored box to indicate the example and to make it easier to differ it from

the describing text.

All of the examples mentioned throughout the manual are basically written using the Visual C++ compiler for Windows. If you use Linux there

are some changes in the funtion’s parameter lists as mentioned in the relating software chapter.

To keep the examples as compatible as possible for users of both operational systems (Windows and Linux) all the functions that

contain either a board number (Windows) or a handle (Linux) use the common parameter name ’hDrv’. Windows users simply have

to set the parameter to the according board number (as the example below is showing), while Linux users can easily use the handle

that is given back for the according board by the initialization function.

// Windows users must set hDrv to the according board number before.

// Assuming that there is only one Spectrum board installed you’ll

// have to set hDrv like this:

hDrv = 0;

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_LASTERRORCODE, &lErrorCode); // Any command just to show the hDrv usage

Error handling

If one action caused an error in the driver this error and the register and value where it occurs will be saved.

The driver is then locked until the error is read out using the SPC_LASTERRORCODE function. All other functions

will lead to the same errorcode unless the error is cleared by reading SPC_LASTERRORCODE.

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Programming the Board

Initialization

This means as a result that it is not necessary to check each driver call for an error but to check for an error before the board is started to see

whether all settings have been valid.

By reading all the error information one can easily examine where the error occured. The following table shows all the error related registers

that can be read out.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_LASTERRORCODE

999999

Error code of the last error that occured. The errorcodes are found in spcerr.h. If this register is read,

the driver will be unlocked.

SPC_LASTERRORREG

SPC_LASTERRORVALUE

999998

999997

Software register that causes the error.

The value that has been written to the faulty software register.

The error codes are described in detail in the appendix. Please refer to this error description and the descrip-

tion of the software register to examine the cause for the error message.

Example for error checking:

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_MEMSIZE, -345);

if (SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_COMMAND, SPC_START) != ERR_OK)

{

// faulty command

// try to start and check for an error

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_LASTERRORCODE, &lErrorCode);

// read out the error information

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_LASTERRORREG,

&lErrorReg);

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_LASTERRORVALUE, &lErrorValue);

printf („Error %d when writing Register %d with Value %d !\n“, lErrorCode, lErrorReg, &lErrorValue);

}

This short program then would generate a printout as:

Error 101 when writing Register 10000 with Value -345 !

Initialization

Starting the automatic initialization routine

Before you can access the boards in your program, you have to initialize them first. Therefore the Spectrum function SpcInitPCIBoards is used.

If it is called, all Spectrum boards in the host system are initialized automatically. If no errors occured during the initialization, the returned

value is 0 (ERR_OK). In any other cases something has gone wrong. Please see appendix for explanations of the different error codes.

If the process of initializing the boards was successful, the function returns the total number of Spectrum boards that have been found in your

system. The third return value is the revision of the PCI Bus, the Spectrum boards are installed in.

The following example shows how to start the initialization of the board and check for errors.

// ----- Initialization of PCI Bus Boards------------------------------------

if (SpcInitPCIBoards (&nCount, &nPCIBusVersion) != ERR_OK)

return;

if (nCount == 0)

{

printf ("No Spectrum board found\n");

return;

}

PCI Register

These registers are set by the driver after the PCI initialization. The information is found in the on-board EEPROM, and can easily be read

out by your own application software. All of the following PCI registers are read only. You get access to all registers by using the Spectrum

function SpcGetParam with one of the following registers.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_PCITYP

2000

Type of board as listed in the table below.

One of the following values is returned, when reading this register.

Boardtype

Value hexa-

dezimal

Value dezimal

Boardtype

Value hexa-

dezimal

Value dezimal

TYP_MC3110

TYP_MC3111

TYP_MC3112

TYP_MC3120

TYP_MC3121

13110h

13111h

13112h

13120h

13121h

78096

78097

78098

78112

78113

TYP_MC3122

TYP_MC3130

TYP_MC3131

TYP_MC3132

13122h

13130h

13131h

13132h

78114

78128

78129

78130

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Initialization

Programming the Board

Hardware version

Since all of the MI, MC and MX boards from Spectrum are modular boards, they consist of one base board and one or two (only PCI and

CompactPCI) piggy-back modules. This register SPC_PCIVERSION gives information about the revision of either the base board and the mod-

ules. Normally you do not need this information but if you have a support question, please provide the revision together with it.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_PCIVERSION

2010

Board revision: bit 15..8 show revision of the base card, bit 7..0 the revision of the modules

If your board has a piggy-back expansion module mounted (MC und MI series boards only) you can get the hardwareversion with the fol-

lowing register.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_PCIEXTVERSION

2011

Board’s expansion module hardware revision as integer value.

Date of production

This register informs you about the production date, which is returned as one 32 bit longword. The upper word is holding the information

about the year, while the lower byte informs about the month. The second byte (counting from below) is not used. If you only need to know

the production year of your board you have to mask the value accordingly. Normally you do not need this information, but if you have a

support question, please provide the revision within.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_PCIDATE

2020

Production date: year in bit 31..16, month in bit 7..0, bit 15..8 are not used

Serial number

This register holds the information about the serial number of the board. This numer is unique and should always be sent together with a

support question. Normally you use this information together with the register SPC_PCITYP to verify that multiple measurements are done with

the exact same board.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_PCISERIALNO

2030

Serial number of the board

Maximum possible sample rate

This register gives you the maximum possible samplerate the board can run however. The information provided here does not consider any

restrictions in the maximum speed caused by special channel settings. For detailed information about the correlation between the maximum

samplerate and the number of activated chanels please refer th the according chapter.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_PCISAMPLERATE

2100

Maximum samplerate in Hz as a 32 bit integer value

Installed memory

This register returns the size of the installed on-board memory in bytes as a 32 bit integer value. If you want to know the ammount of samples

you can store, you must regard the size of one sample of your Spectrum board. All 8 bit boards can store only sample per byte, while all

other boards with 12, 14 and 16 bit use two bytes to store one sample.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_PCIMEMSIZE

2110

Instaleld memory in bytes as a 32 bit integer value

The following example is written for a „two bytes“ per sample board (12, 14 or 16 bit board).

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_PCIMEMSIZE,

&lInstMemsize);

printf ("Memory on board: %ld MBytes (%ld MSamples)\n", lInstMemsize /1024 / 1024, lInstMemsize /1024 / 1024 /2);

Installed features and options

The SPC_PCIFEATURES register informs you about the options, that are installed on the board. If you want to know about one option being

installed or not, you need to read out the 32 bit value and mask the interesting bit.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_PCIFEATURES

2120

PCI feature register. Holds the installed features and options as a bitfield, so the return value must be

masked with one of the masks below to get information about one certain feature.

PCIBIT_MULTI

Is set if the Option Multiple Recording / Multiple Replay is installed.

Is set if the Option Digital Inputs / Digital Outputs is installed.

Is set if the Option Gated Sampling / Gated Replay is installed.

PCIBIT_DIGITAL

PCIBIT_GATE

PCIBIT_SYNC

512

Is set if the Option Synchronization is installed for that certain board, regardless what kind of synchronization you

use. Boards without this option cannot be synchronized with other boards.

PCIBIT_TIMESTAMP

1024

Is set if the Option Timestamp is installed.

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Programming the Board

Initialization

PCIBIT_STARHUB

PCIBIT_XIO

2048

8192

Is set on the board, that carrys the starhub piggy-back module. This flag is set in addition to the PCIBIT_SYNC flag

mentioned above. If on no synchronized board the starhub option is installed, the boards are synchronized with the

cascading option.

Is set if the Option Extra I/O is installed.

The following example demonstrates how to read out the information about one feature.

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_PCIFEATURES,

if (lFeatures & PCIBIT_DIGITAL)

&lFeatures);

printf("Option digital inputs is installed on your board");

Used interrupt line

This register holds the information of the actual used interrupt line for the board. This information is sometimes more easy in geting the interrupt

line of one specific board then using the hardware setups of your operating system.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_PCIINTERRUPT

2300

The used interrupt line of the board.

Used type of driver

This register holds the information about the driver that is actually used to access the board. Although most users will use the boards within

a Windows system and most Windows users will use the WDM driver, it can be sometimes necessary of knowing the type of driver.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_GETDRVTYPE

1220

Gives information about what type of driver is actually used

DRVTYP_DOS

DOS driver is used

DRVTYP_LINUX

DRVTYP_VXD

Linux driver is used

Windows VXD driver is used (only Windows 95)

DRVTYP_NTLEGACY

DRVTYP_WDM

Windows NT Legacy driver is used (only Windows NT)

Windows WDM driver is used (only Windows 98/ME/2000/XP). This is the most common Windows driver.

Driver version

This register informs Windows users about the actual used driver DLL. This information can also be obtained from the device manager. Please

refer to the „Driver Installation“ chapter. Linux users will get the revision of their kernel driver instead, because linux does not use any DLL.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_GETDRVVERSION

1200

Gives information about the driver DLL version

Kernel Driver version

This register informs OS independent about the actual used kernel driver. Windows users can also get this information from the device man-

ager. Plese refer to the „Driver Installation“ chapter. Linux users can get the driver version by simply accessing the following register for the

kernel driver.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_GETKERNELVERSION

1210

Gives information about the kernel driver version.

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Powerdown and reset

Programming the Board

Example program for the board initialization

The following example is only an exerpt to give you an idea on how easy it is to initialize a Spectrum board.

// ----- Initialization of PCI Bus Boards -----------------------------------

if (SpcInitPCIBoards (&nCount, &nPCIBusVersion) != ERR_OK)

return;

if (nCount == 0)

{

printf ("No Spectrum board found\n");

return;

}

// ----- request and print Board type and some information ------------------

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_PCITYP,

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_PCIMEMSIZE,

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_PCISERIALNO,

&lBrdType);

&lInstMemsize);

&lSerialNumber);

// ----- print the board type depending on bus. Board number is always the lower 16 bit of type -----

switch (lBrdType & TYP_SERIESMASK)

{

case TYP_MISERIES:

printf ("Board found:

break;

MI.%x sn: %05d\n", lBrdType & 0xffff, lSerialNumber);

MC.%x sn: %05d\n", lBrdType & 0xffff, lSerialNumber);

MX.%x sn: %05d\n", lBrdType & 0xffff, lSerialNumber);

case TYP_MCSERIES:

printf ("Board found:

break;

case TYP_MXSERIES:

printf ("Board found:

break;

}

printf ("Memory on board: %ld MBytes (%ld MSamples)\n", lInstMemsize /1024/1024, lInstMemsize /1024/1024 /2);

printf ("Serial Number: %05ld\n", lSerialNumber);

Powerdown and reset

Every Spectrum board can be set to powerdown mode by software. In this mode the board is therefore consuming less power than in normal

operation mode. The amount of saved power is board dependant. Please refer to the technical data section for details. The board can be set

to normal mode again either by performing a reset as mentioned below or by starting the board as described in the according chapters later

in this manual.

If the board is set to powerdown mode or a reset is performed the data in the on-board will be no longer

valid and cannot be read out or replayed again.

Performing a board reset or powering down the board can be easily done by the related board commands mentioned in the following table.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board.

SPC_POWERDOWN

Sets the board to powerdown mode. The data in the on-board memory is no longer valid and cannot be read out or

replayed again. The board can be set to normal mode again by the reset command or by starting the boards.

SPC_RESET

A software and hardware reset is done for the board. All settings are set to the default values. The data in the board’s

on-board memory will be no longer valid.

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Analog Inputs

Channel Selection

Analog Inputs

Channel Selection

One key setting that influences all other possible settings is the channel enable register. An unique feature of the Spectrum boards is the

possibility to program the number of channels you want to use. All on-board memory can then be used by these activated channels.

This description shows you the channel enable register for the complete board family. However your specific board may have less channels

depending on the board type you purchased and did not allow you to set the maximum number of channels shown here.

Value

11000

Direction

Description

SPC_CHENABLE

r/w

Sets the channel enable information for the next board run.

CHANNEL0

Activates channel 0

Activates channel 1

Activates channel 2

Activates channel 3

Activates channel 4

Activates channel 5

Activates channel 6

Activates channel 7

CHANNEL1

CHANNEL2

CHANNEL3

CHANNEL4

CHANNEL5

CHANNEL6

CHANNEL7

128

The channel enable register is set as a bitmap. That means one bit of the value corresponds to one channel to be activated. To activate more

than one channel the values have to be combined by a bitwise OR.

Example showing how to activate 4 channels:

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_CHENABLE, CHANNEL0 | CHANNEL1 | CHANNEL2 | CHANNEL3);

The following table shows all allowed settings for the channel enable register.

Channels to activate

Ch0 Ch1 Ch2 Ch3 Ch4 Ch5 Ch6 Ch7 Values to program

Value as hex

Value as decimal

CHANNEL0

CHANNEL0 | CHANNEL1

CHANNEL0 | CHANNEL4

CHANNEL0 | CHANNEL1 | CHANNEL4 | CHANNEL5

CHANNEL0 | CHANNEL1 | CHANNEL2 | CHANNEL3

11h

33h

255

CHANNEL0 | CHANNEL1 | … … … … | CHANNEL6 | CHANNEL7 FFh

Any channel activation mask that is not shown here is not valid. If programming another channel activation

the driver automatically remaps this to the best matching activation mask. You can read out the channel en-

able register to see what channel activation mask the driver has set.

Reading out the channel enable register can be done directely after setting it or later like this:

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_CHENABLE, &lActivatedChannels);

printf ("Activated channels are: %ld \n", lActivatedChannels);

Important note on channels selection

As some of the manuals passages are used in more than one hardware manual most of the registers and

channel settings throughout this handbook are described for the maximum number of possible channels that

are available on one board of the actual series. There can be less channels on your actual type of board or

bus-system. Please refer to the table(s) above to get the actual number of available channels.

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Channel rerouting

Analog Inputs

Channel rerouting

If you only use one or half of the available channels per module enabled, you can route the input connectors to the acquisition channels

differently. Normally connector channel 0 is routed to the acquisition channel 0. If you just need for example one channel it might be usefull

to record just the signal connected for example to connector channel 2. This can be done seperately for every acquisition module with the

reroute registers shown in the tables below.

Rerouting information for module 0:

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_CHROUTE0

11010

r/w

Defines the rerouting information for module 0 (channel 0 up to channel 3).

Channel 0 -> Channel 0

Channel 0 -> Channel 0 and Channel 1 -> Channel 1

Channel 1 -> Channel 0 and Channel 2 -> Channel 1

Channel 2 -> Channel 0 and Channel 3 -> Channel 1

Channel 3 -> Channel 0 and Channel 0 -> Channel 1

Rerouting with twoe channels enebled on module 0.

Channel 1 -> Channel 0

Channel 2 -> Channel 0

Channel 3 -> Channel 0

Rerouting with one channel enebled on module 0.

As the channels are rerouted internally, the normal channel enable settings for channel 0 (and channel 1)

have to to be set accordingly first.

Rerouting information for module 1:

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_CHROUTE1

11020

r/w

Defines the rerouting information for module 1 (channel 4 up to channel 7).

Channel 4 -> Channel 4

Channel 4 -> Channel 4 and Channel 5 -> Channel 5

Channel 5 -> Channel 4 and Channel 6 -> Channel 5

Channel 6 -> Channel 4 and Channel 7 -> Channel 5

Channel 7 -> Channel 4 and Channel 4 -> Channel 5

Rerouting with twoe channels enebled on module 1.

Channel 5 -> Channel 4

Channel 6 -> Channel 4

Channel 7 -> Channel 4

Rerouting with one channel enebled on module 1.

As the channels are rerouted internally, the normal channel enable settings for channel 4 (and channel 5)

have to to be set accordingly first.

It is admitted that this feature looks very complicated at first glance. But once you got the idea it can help you to reduce the work of rewirering

the cables to the input connectors. The following table is showing some examples on how to use the channel rerouting registers.

Channels to activate

Acquisition channel Chx contains data of connector

Ch0 Ch1 Ch2 Ch3 Ch4 Ch5 Ch6 Ch7 Value for SPC_CHROUTE0 Value for SPC_CHROUTE1 Ch0 Ch1 Ch2 Ch3 Ch4 Ch5 Ch6 Ch7

not used

Ch1

Ch2

Ch1 Ch2

Ch2 Ch3

Ch5

Ch7 Ch4

The following programming example sets up the relevant registers for the rerouting settings of the last line in the table above:

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_CHENABLE, CHANNEL0 | CHANNEL1 | CHANNEL4 | CHANNEL5); // All required acquisition

// channels must be enabled

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_CHROUTE0, 2);

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_CHROUTE1, 3);

// Rerouting for module 0

// and module 1 are set.

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Analog Inputs

Setting up the inputs

Input ranges

This analog acquisition board uses separate input amplifiers and converters on each channel. This gives you the possibility to set up the de-

sired and concerning your application best suiting input range also separately for each channel. The input ranges can easily be set by the

corresponding input registers. The table below shows the available input registers and possible standard ranges for your type of board. As

there are also modified version availble with different input ranges it is recommended to read out the currently available input ranges as

shown later in this chapter.

Value

30010

30110

30210

30310

30410

30510

30610

30710

Direction

r/w

Description

SPC_AMP0

SPC_AMP1

SPC_AMP2

SPC_AMP3

SPC_AMP4

SPC_AMP5

SPC_AMP6

SPC_AMP7

Defines the input range of channel0.

Defines the input range of channel1.

Defines the input range of channel2.

Defines the input range of channel3.

Defines the input range of channel4.

Defines the input range of channel5.

Defines the input range of channel6.

Defines the input range of channel7.

r/w

50 mV calibrated input range for the appropriate channel.

100 mV calibrated input range for the appropriate channel.

200 mV calibrated input range for the appropriate channel.

500 mV calibrated input range for the appropriate channel.

1 V calibrated input range for the appropriate channel.

2 V calibrated input range for the appropriate channel.

5 V calibrated input range for the appropriate channel.

10 V calibrated input range for the appropriate channel.

100

200

500

1000

2000

5000

10000

The different input ranges are set with the help of relais. These relais need a settling time if they are changed, so that the relais are fully set

and didn’t influence the signal when the board is started. The following table shows the related register to adjust the wait time. Any changes

of the wait time below the default value should only be done after detailed tests of the boards behaviour. Setting lower values may be possible

or may not be possible depending on the application that is done.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_RELAISWAITTIME

200700

read/write

Wait time in ms for relais settling before the start of the board. Default value is 50 ms.

If you want to know, how many different input ranges are available on the actual board per channel, you can easily read that information

by using the read-only register shown in the table below.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_READIRCOUNT

3000

Informs about the number of the board’s calibrated input ranges.

Additionally cou can read out the minimum and the maximum value of each input range as shown in the table below. The number of input

ranges is read out with the above shown register.

Value

4000

4001

4002

...

Direction

Description

SPC_READRANGEMIN0

SPC_READRANGEMIN1

SPC_READRANGEMIN2

...

Gives back the minimum value of input range 0 in mV.

Gives back the minimum value of input range 1 in mV.

Gives back the minimum value of input range 2 in mV.

...

SPC_READRANGEMAX0

SPC_READRANGEMAX1

SPC_READRANGEMAX2

...

4100

4101

4102

...

Gives back the maximum value of input range 0 in mV.

Gives back the maximum value of input range 1 in mV.

Gives back the maximum value of input range 2 in mV.

...

The following example reads out the number of available input ranges and reads and prints the minimum and maximum value of all input

ranges.

SpcGetParam (hDrv, READIRCOUNT,

&lNumberOfRanges);

for (i = 0; i < lNumberOfRanges; i++)

{

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_READRANGEMIN0 + i, &lMinimumInputRage);

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_READRANGEMAX0 + i, &lMaximumInputRange);

printf („Range %d: %d mV to %d mV\n“, i, lMinimumInputRange, lMaximumInputRange);

}

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Setting up the inputs

Analog Inputs

Input offset

In most cases the external signals will not be symmetrically re-

lated to ground. If you want to acquire such asymmetrical sig-

nals, it is possible to use the smallest input range that matches

the biggest absolute signal amplitude without exceeding the

range.

The figure at the right shows this possibility. But in this exam-

ple you would leave half of the possible resolution unused.

It is much more efficient if you shift the signal on-board to be

as symmetrical as possible and to acquire it within the best

possible range.

This results in a much better use of the converters resolution.

On all acquisition boards from Spectrum you have the possi-

bility to adjust the input offset separately for each channel.

The example in the right figure shows signals with a

range of 1.0 V that have offsets up to 1.0 V. So relat-

ed to the desired input range these signals have offsets

of 100 %.

For compensating such offsets you can use the offset reg-

ister for each channel separately. If you want to compen-

sate the +100 % offset of the outer left signal, you would

have to set the offset to -100 % to compensate it.

As the offset levels are relatively to the related input

range, you have to calculate and set your offset again

when changing the input’s range.

The table below shows the offset registers and the possi-

ble offset ranges for your specific type of board.

Value

30000

30100

30200

30300

30400

30500

30600

30700

Direction

r/w

Description

Offset range

SPC_OFFS0

SPC_OFFS1

SPC_OFFS2

SPC_OFFS3

SPC_OFFS4

SPC_OFFS5

SPC_OFFS6

SPC_OFFS7

Defines the input’s offset and therfore shifts the input of channel0.

Defines the input’s offset and therfore shifts the input of channel1.

Defines the input’s offset and therfore shifts the input of channel2.

Defines the input’s offset and therfore shifts the input of channel3.

Defines the input’s offset and therfore shifts the input of channel4.

Defines the input’s offset and therfore shifts the input of channel5.

Defines the input’s offset and therfore shifts the input of channel6.

Defines the input’s offset and therfore shifts the input of channel7.

100 % in steps of 1 %

r/w

When writing a program that should run with different board families it is useful to just read-out the possible offset than can be programmed.

You can use the following read only register. It will give you the maximum relative offset in percentage as an interger value.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_READMAXOFFSET

3100

read

Reads out the maximum offset that can be used to compensate an signal offset. Value in ±percent.

To give you an example how the registers of the input range and the input offset are to be used, the following example shows a setup to

match all of the four signals in the second input offset figure to match the desired input range. Therefore every one of the four channels is set

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Analog Inputs

Setting up the inputs

to the input range of 1.0 V. After that the four offset settings are set exactely as the offsets to be compensated, but with the the opposite

sign. The result is, that all four channels match perfectely to the choosen input range.

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_AMP0 ,

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_AMP1 ,

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_AMP2 ,

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_AMP3 ,

1000); // Set up channel0 to the range of ± 1.0 V

1000); // Set up channel1 to the range of ± 1.0 V

1000); // Set up channel2 to the range of ± 1.0 V

1000); // Set up channel3 to the range of ± 1.0 V

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_OFFS0,

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_OFFS1,

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_OFFS2,

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_OFFS3,

-100); // Set the input offset to get the signal symmetrically to 0.0 V

-50);

50);

100);

Overrange bit

With the help of this mode you can additionally record the overrange flag, which is generated by the ADCs. The overrange bit will be stored

in bit 15 of the samples. If the signal has been out of range this bit will be set to 1, while a 0 indicates that the sample is within the range.

As the overrange bit is generated from sample to sample by the ADC you have to analyze all the recorded

samples to make sure that the range never has been left.

The sample format corresponding with this mode is explained in the according passage in the chapter relating to the acquisition modes. The

overrange mode can be enabled by the following register.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_OVERRANGEBIT

201000

read/write

Enables the recording of the ADC overrange bit in data bit 15. If the bit is not zero the signal has

been out of range.

Input termination

All inputs of Spectrum’s analog boards can be terminated separately with 50 Ohm by software programming. If you do so, please make sure

that your signal source is able to deliver the higher output currents. If no termination is used, the inputs have an impedance of 1 Megaohm.

The following table shows the corresponding register to set the input termination.

Value

30030

30130

30230

30330

30430

30530

30630

30730

Direction

r/w

Description

SPC_50OHM0

SPC_50OHM1

SPC_50OHM2

SPC_50OHM3

SPC_50OHM4

SPC_50OHM5

SPC_50OHM6

SPC_50OHM7

A „1“ sets the 50 ohm termination for channel0. A „0“ sets the termination to1 MOhm.

A „1“ sets the 50 ohm termination for channel1. A „0“ sets the termination to1 MOhm.

A „1“ sets the 50 ohm termination for channel2. A „0“ sets the termination to1 MOhm.

A „1“ sets the 50 ohm termination for channel3. A „0“ sets the termination to1 MOhm.

A „1“ sets the 50 ohm termination for channel4. A „0“ sets the termination to1 MOhm.

A „1“ sets the 50 ohm termination for channel5. A „0“ sets the termination to1 MOhm.

A „1“ sets the 50 ohm termination for channel6. A „0“ sets the termination to1 MOhm.

A „1“ sets the 50 ohm termination for channel7. A „0“ sets the termination to1 MOhm.

r/w

Automatical adjustment of the offset settings

All of the channels are calibrated in factory before the board is shipped. These settings are stored in the on-board EEProm under the default

settings. If you have asymmetrical signals, you can adjust the offset easily with the corresponding registers of the inputs as shown before.

To start the automatic offset adjustment, simply write the register, mentioned in the following table. Because the adjustment of all the channels

in all different input ranges can take up some time, it can be useful to adjust only the current input range to safe time.

Before you start an automatic offset adjustment make sure, that no signal is connected to any input. Leave

all the input connectors open and then start the adjustment. If you adjust all ranges, this can take up some

time. All the internal settings of the driver are changed, while the automatic offset compensation is in

progress.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_ADJ_AUTOADJ

ADJ_ALL

50020

Performs the automatic offset compensation in the driver either for all input ranges or only the actual.

Automatic offset adjustment for all input ranges.

ADJ_CURRENT

Automatic offset calibration for the current sampling rate setting.

As all settings are temporarily stored in the driver, the automatically adjustment will only affect these values. After exiting your program, all

calibration information will be lost. To give you a possibility to save your own settings, every Spectrum card has at minimum one set of user

settings that can be saved within the on-board EEPROM. The default settings of the offset and gain values are read-only and cannot be written

to the EEProm by the user.

You can easily either save adjustment settings to the EEPROM with SPC_ADJ_SAVE or recall them with SPC_ADJ_LOAD. These two registers

are shown in the table below. The values for these EEPROM access registers are the sets that can be stored within the EEPROM. The amount

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Setting up the inputs

Analog Inputs

of sets available for storing user offset settings depends on the type of board you use. The table below shows all the EEPROM sets, that are

available for your board.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_ADJ_LOAD

50000

Loads the specified set of settings from the EEPROM. The default settings are automatically loaded,

when the driver is started.

Reads out, what kind of settings have been loaded last.

Stores the actual settings to the specified set in the EEPROM. T

Reads out, what kind of settings have been saved last.

SPC_ADJ_SAVE

50010

ADJ_DEFAULT

ADJ_USER0

Default settings can be loaded only. These settings cannot be saved by the user.

User settings 0. This is a valid set for storing user offset settings to.

If you want to make an offset adjustment on all the channels and store the data to the ADJ_USER0 set of the EEPROM you can do this the

way, the following example shows.

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_ADJ_AUTOADJ,

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_ADJ_SAVE,

ADJ_ALL ); // Activate offset adjustment on all channels

ADJ_USER0); // and store values to USER0 set in the EEPROM

To work with these settings instead with the default ones at for example another day, you need to restore your user settings with the help pf

the SPC_ADJ_LOAD register as the following example shows.

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_ADJ_LOAD,

ADJ_USER0); // and load values to USER0 set in the EEPROM

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Standard acquisition modes

General Information

Standard acquisition modes

General Information

The standard mode is the easiest and mostly used mode to acquire analog data with a Spectrum A/D board. In standard recording mode

the board is working totally independant from the host system (in most cases a standard PC), after the board setup is done. The advantage

of the Spectrum boards is that regardless to the system usage the board will sample with equidistant time intervals.

The sampled and converted data is stored in the onboard memory and is held there for being read out after the acquisition. This mode allows

sampling at very high conversion rates without the need to transfer the data into the memory of the host system at high speed.

After the recording is done, the data can be read out by the user and is transfered via the PCI bus into PC memory.

This standard recording mode is the most common mode for all an-

alog acquisition and oscilloscope boards. The data is written to a

programmed amount of the onboard memory (memsize). That part

of memory is used as a ringbuffer, and recording is done continu-

ously until a triggerevent is detected. After the trigger event, a cer-

tain programmable amount of data is recorded (posttrigger) and

then the recording finishes. Due to the continuously ringbuffer re-

cording, there are also samples prior to the triggerevent in the mem-

ory (pretrigger).

When the board is started the pretrigger is filled up with data first. While doing this the board’s trigger de-

tection is not armed. If you use a huge pretrigger size and a slow sample rate it can take up some time after

starting the board before a trigger event will be detected.

Programming

Memory, Pre- and Posttrigger

At first you have to define, how many samples are to be recorded at all and how many of them should be acquired after the triggerevent has

been detected.

Value

10000

10100

Direction

r/w

Description

SPC_MEMSIZE

SPC_POSTTRIGGER

Sets the memory size in samples per channel.

Sets the number of samples to be recorded after the trigger event has been detected.

r/w

You can access these settings by the registers SPC_MEMSIZE, which sets the total amount of data that is recorded, and the register

SPC_POSTTRIGGER, that defines the number of samples to be recorded after the triggerevent has been detected. The size of the pretrigger

results on the simple formula:

pretrigger = memsize - posttrigger

The maximum memsize that can be use for recording is of course limited by the installed amount of memory and by the number of channels

to be recorded. The following table gives you an overview on the maximum memsize in relation to the installed memory.

Maximum memsize

ch0 ch1 ch2 ch3 ch4 ch5 ch6 ch7

1/1

1/2

n.a.

1/1

1/2

n.a.

1/4

n.a.

1/1

1/2

1/4

1/8

1/1

1/2

n.a.

1/1

1/2

n.a.

1/4

n.a.

1/1

1/2

1/4

1/8

1/1

1/2

n.a.

1/1

1/2

n.a.

1/4

n.a.

1/1

1/2

1/4

1/8

1/1

1/2

n.a.

How to read this table: If you have installed the standard amount of 8 MSample on your 3132 board and you want to record all eight chan-

nels, you have a total maximum memory of 8 MSample * 1/8 = 1 MSample per channel for your data.

The maximum settings for the post counter are limited by the hardware, because the post counter has a limited range for counting. The settings

depend on the number of activated channels, as the table below is showing.

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Programming

Standard acquisition modes

Maximum posttrigger in MSamples

ch0 ch1 ch2 ch3 ch4 ch5 ch6 ch7

128

n.a.

128

n.a.

128

n.a.

128

n.a.

128

n.a.

128

n.a.

128

n.a.

The amount of memory that can be either set for the used memsize and postcounter values can only be set by certain steps. These steps are

results of the internal memory organization. For this reason these steps also define the minimum size for the data memory and the postcounter.

The values depend on the number of activated channels and on the type of board being used. The minimum stepsizes for setting up the mem-

size and the postcounter are shown in the table below.

Minimum memsize and posttrigger in samples

ch0 ch1 ch2 ch3 ch4 ch5 ch6 ch7

n.a.

Stepsize of memsize and posttrigger in samples

ch0 ch1 ch2 ch3 ch4 ch5 ch6 ch7

n.a.

Starting without interrupt (classic mode)

Command register

Value

Direction

Description

Command register of the board.

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

SPC_START

SPC_STOP

Starts the board with the current register settings.

Stops the board manually.

In this mode the board is started by writing the SPC_START value to the command register. All settings like for example the size of memory

and postcounter, the number of activated channels and the trigger settings must have been programmed before. If the start command has

been given, the setup data is transferred to the board and the board will start.

If your board has relays to switch between different settings a programmed time will be waited to prevent having the influences of the relays

settling time in the signal. For additional information please first see the chapter about the relay settling time. You can stop the board at any

time with the command SPC_STOP. This command will stop immediately.

Once the board has been started, it is running totally independent from the host system. Your program has full CPU time to do any calculations

or display. The status register shown in the table below shows the current status of the board. The most simple programming loop is simply

waiting for the status SPC_READY. This status shows that the board has stopped automatically.

The read only status register can be read out at any time, but it is mostly used for polling on the board’s status after the board has been

started. However polling the status will need CPU time.

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Standard acquisition modes

Programming

Status register

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_STATUS

SPC_RUN

Status register, of the board.

Indicates that the board has been started and is waiting for a triggerevent.

Indicates that the board is running and a triggerevent has been detected.

Indicates, that the board has stopped.

SPC_TRIGGER

SPC_READY

The following shortened excerpt of a sample program gives you an example of how to start the board in classic mode and how to poll for

the SPC_READY flag. It is assumed that all board setup has been done before.

// ----- start the board -----

nErr = SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_START);

// Here you can check for driver errors as mentioned in the relating chapter

// ----- Wait for Status Ready (polling for SPC_READY in a loop) -----

{

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_STATUS, &lStatus);

}

while (lStatus != SPC_READY);

printf ("Board has stopped\n");

Starting with interrupt driven mode

In contrast to the classic mode, the interrupt mode has no need for polling for the board’s status. Starting your board in the interrupt driven

mode does in the main not differ from the classic mode. But there has to be done some additional programming to prevent the program from

hanging. The SPC_STARTANDWAIT command doesn’t return until the board has stopped. Big advantage of this mode is that it doesn’t waste

any CPU time for polling. The driver is just waiting for an interrupt and the System has full CPU time for other jobs. To benefit from this mode

it is necessary to set up a program with at least two different tasks: One for starting the board and to be blocked waiting for an interrupt. The

other one to make any kind of calculations or display activities.

Command register

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register, of the board.

SPC_STARTANDWAIT

SPC_STOP

Starts the board with the current register settings in the interrupt driven mode.

Stops the board manually.

If the board is started in the interrupt mode the task calling the start function will not return until the board

has finished. If no trigger event is found or the external clock is not present, this function will wait until the

program is terminated from the taskmanager (Windows) or from another console (Linux).

To prevent the program from this deadlock, a second task must be used which can send the SPC_STOP signal to stop the board. Another

possibility, that does not require the need of a second task is to define a timeout value.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_TIMEOUT

295130

r/w

Defines a time in ms after which the function SPC_STARTANDWAIT terminates itself.

This is the easiest and safest way to use the interrupt driven mode. If the board started in the interrupts mode it definitely will not return until

either the recording has finished or the timeout time has expired. In that case the function will return with an error code. See the appendix

for details.

The following excerpt of a sample program gives you an example of how to start the board in the interrupt driven mode. It is assumed that

all board setup has been done before.

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TIMEOUT, 1000);

// Define the timeout to 1000 ms = 1 second

nErr = SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_COMMAND, SPC_STARTANDWAIT); // Starts the board in the interrupt driven mode

if (nErr == ERR_TIMEOUT)

// Checks for the timeout

printf ("No trigger found. Timeout has expired.\n");

An example on how to get a second task that can do some monitoring on the running task and eventually send the SPC_STOP command can

be found on the Spectrum driver CD that has been shipped with your board. The latest examples can also be down loaded via our website

at http://www.spectrum-instrumentation.com.

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Programming

Standard acquisition modes

Data organization

Normal mode

This chapter shows the data organization for all acquisitions that are done with the normal data width of 12 bit. The data organization for

the fast 8 bit mode is described in the next passage.

In standard mode tha data is organized on the board in two memory channels, named memory channel 0 and memory channel 1. The data

in memory is organized depending on the used channels and the type of board. This is a result of the internal hardware structure of the board.

Ch0 Ch1 Ch2 Ch3 Ch4 Ch5 Ch6 Ch7 Sample ordering in standard mode on memory channel 0 Sample ordering in standard mode on memory channel 1

The samples are re-named for better readability. A0 is sample 0 of channel 0, C4 is sample 4 of channel 2, ...

Fast 8 bit mode

The fast 8 bit mode allows you to sample two channels that are located on one interface module, with a reduced 8 bit resolution and write

the data to one combined 16 bit sample. This mode can be used to

• record longer signals in Standard mode as each sample only occupies one Byte instead of 2 Bytes with 12-bit resolution, or

• use more channels and/or increased sample rate in FIFO mode, as the required data transfer rate is reduced by 50 %.

To set up the board for this mode you must enable it with the following register.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_2CH8BITMODE

201100

r/w

Enables the fast 8 bit mode.

You must set up the channels the same way as if you want to activate only one or two (ch0 and ch1) channels

per module. If more channels are enabled, this mode won’t work correctly.

The data organization is not different regarding the sample order from the normal mode with only one (or two) channels per module enabled.

The only difference is, that one 16 bit sample now consists of two 8 bit samples. For details on the sample format please refer to the related

passage in this chapter. The following table shows, how the data is stored.

Activated channels (see important note above)

Ch0 Ch1 Ch2 Ch3 Ch4 Ch5 Ch6 Ch7 Sample ordering in fast 8 bit mode on memory channel 0

Sample ordering in fast 8 bit mode on memory channel 1

B0/A0 B1/A1 B2/A2 B3/A3 B4/A4 B5/A5

B0/A0 D0/C0 B1/A1 D1/C1 B2/A2 D2/C2

B0/A0 B1/A1 B2/A2 B3/A3 B4/A4 B5/A5 F0/E0

B0/A0 D0/C0 B1/A1 D1/C1 B2/A2 D2/C2 F0/E0

F1/E1

H0/G0 F1/E1

F2/E2

F3/E3

H1/G1 F2/E2

F4/E4

F5/E5

H2/G2

Sample format

The 12 bit samples in twos complement are always stored in memory as sign extended 16 bit integer values. This leads to a range of possible

integer values from -2048…0…+2047.

If the overrange mode is enabled the upper bit is used for the overrange bit except for the sign extension.

Therefore it is not possible to use the samples for calculations, without removing the overrange bit.

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Standard acquisition modes

Programming

If the fast 8 bit mode is used the upper byte of the memory word is used to store one channel and the lower byte is used to store another

channel. Data must be read out in the normal way from channel 0 (containing 8 bit data of ch0+ch1), channel 1 (ch2+ch3), channel 4

(ch4+ch5) and channel 5 (ch6+ch7) as described above and split into the two 8 bit channels in software afterwards.

Bit

Standard Mode with

overrange bit disabled

Standard Mode with

overrange bit enabled

Fast 8 bit mode enabled

D15

D14

D13

D12

D11

D10

ADx Bit 11

ADx Bit 11(MSB)

ADx Bit 10

ADx Bit 9

Overrange

ADx Bit 11

ADx Bit 11(MSB)

ADx Bit 10

ADx Bit 9

AD1/AD3/AD5/AD7 Bit 11 (MSB)

AD1/AD3/AD5/AD7 Bit 10

AD1/AD3/AD5/AD7 Bit 9

AD1/AD3/AD5/AD7 Bit 8

AD1/AD3/AD5/AD7 Bit 7

AD1/AD3/AD5/AD7 Bit 6

AD1/AD3/AD5/AD7 Bit 5

AD1/AD3/AD5/AD7 Bit 4 (LSB)

AD0/AD2/AD4/AD6 Bit 11(MSB)

AD0/AD2/AD4/AD6 Bit 10

AD0/AD2/AD4/AD6 Bit 9

AD0/AD2/AD4/AD6 Bit 8

AD0/AD2/AD4/AD6 Bit 7

AD0/AD2/AD4/AD6 Bit 6

AD0/AD2/AD4/AD6 Bit 5

AD0/AD2/AD4/AD6 Bit 4 (LSB)

ADx Bit 8

ADx Bit 7

ADx Bit 6

ADx Bit 5

ADx Bit 4

ADx Bit 3

ADx Bit 2

ADx Bit 1

ADx Bit 0 (LSB)

Reading out the data with SpcGetData

The function SpcGetData enables you to read out the data that is stored in the on-board memory during any of the standard recording modes

easily after the acquisition has finished. Depending on your operating system, the function is called with a different amount of parameters.

Please refer to the relating chapter earlier in this manual. The examples in this section are written in Visual C++ for Windows, so the examples

differ a little bit for the use with linux.

As the data is read out individually for every memory channel, it is important to know where the data has been stored. Please refer to the

data organization section, to get the information you need first.

Assuming that you know the memory channel or channels that contain the acquired data, you now have to decide whether you want to read

out the whole memory or just one part of it. To select the area to be read out two values are needed by the function SpcGetData.

The value ’start’ as a 32 bit integer value

This value defines the start of the memory area to be read out in samples. This result is, that you do not need to care for the number of bytes

a single sample contains. If you want to read out the whole memory this value must be set to 0.

The value ’len’ as a 32 bit integer value

This value defines the number of samples that are read out, beginning with the first sample defined by the ’start’ value mentioned above. If

you want to read out the whole on-board memory you need to program the „len“ parameter to the before programmed memory size. At this

point please keep in mind that depending on the activated channels there may be more than one board channel in one memory channel.

This „len“ value must be a total memsize for all channels that are acquired in that memory channel. As a result that means if acquiring two

channels to memory channel 0 the „len“ value must be set to „2 * memsize“.

Multiplexed data

Depending on the activated channels and the board type several channels could be stored in one memory channel. As a result that means

that „start“ and „len“ parameter have to be multiplied by the number of channels per memory channel (module). If for example two channels

have been acquired into one memory channel a call like:

SpcGetData (hDrv, 0, 2 * 4096, 2 * 2048, Data);

reads out data of both channels from memory channel 0 starting at sample position 4k and a length of 2k. The Data array must be of course

large enough to hold data of both channels (in that case 2 * 2k = 4k of data).

Standard mode

Reading out the data is really easy, if a recording modes is used that stores non multiplexed data in the dedicated memory channels. The

next example shows, how to read out the data after having recorded two channels that have been written without multiplexing to both memory

channels.

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Programming

Standard acquisition modes

Example for SpcGetData, no memory allocation error checking performed:

for (i = 0; i < 2; i++)

// both memory channels have been used

pnData[i] = (ptr16) malloc (lMemsize * lBytesPerSample); // allocate memory for the data pointers

// with the maximum size (lMemsize)

SpcGetData (hDrv, 0, 0, lMemsize, (dataptr) pnData[0]);

SpcGetData (hDrv, 1, 0, lMemsize, (dataptr) pnData[1]);

// no demultiplexing is necessary on channel 0

// neither it is on channel 1

If you use two channels for recording using only one memory channel or four channels, the data in the memory channel(s) is multiplexed and

needs to be unsorted by the user. The following example shows how to unsort the data for the recording of two channels using memory chan-

nel 0.

for (i = 0; i < 2; i++)

// 2 channels to read out from 1 memory channel

pnData[i] = (ptr16) malloc (lMemsize * lBytesPerSample); // allocate memory for the data pointers

// with the maximum size (lMemsize) per channel

pnTmp = (ptr16) malloc (lMemsize * 2 * lBytesPerSample);

SpcGetData (hDrv, 0, 0, 2 * lMemsize, (dataptr) pnTmp);

// allocate temporary buffer for copy

// get both channels together

// from memory channel 0

for (i = 0; i < lMemsize; i++)

// split data in the two channels

// free the temporary buffer

{

pnData[0][i] = pnTmp[(2 * i)];

pnData[1][i] = pnTmp[(2 * i) + 1];

}

free (pnTmp);

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FIFO Mode

Overview

FIFO Mode

Overview

General Information

The FIFO mode allows to record data continuously and trans-

fer it online to the PC (acquisition boards) or allows to write

data continuously from the PC to the board (generation

boards). Therefore the on-board memory of the board is used

as a continuous buffer. On the PC the data can be used for

any calculation or can be written to hard disk while recording

is running (acquisition boards) or the data can be read from

hard disk and calculated online before writing it to the board.

FIFO mode uses interrupts and is supported by the drivers on 32 bit operating systems like Window 9x/ME, Windows NT/2000/XP or Linux.

Start of FIFO mode waits for a trigger event. If you wish to start FIFO mode immediately, you may use the software trigger.FIFO mode can

be used together with the options Multiple Recording/Replay and Gated Sampling/Replay. Details on this can be found in the appropriate

chapters about the options.

Background FIFO Read

On the hardware side the board memory is spilt in two buffers of the same length. These buffers can be up to half of the on-board memory

in size. In addition to the hardware buffers the driver holds up to 256 software buffers of the same length as the hardware buffers are. When-

ever a hardware buffer is full with data the hardware generates an interrupt and the driver transfers this hardware buffer to the next software

buffer that is available. While transfering one buffer to the PC, the other one is filled up with data. The driver is doing this job automatically

in the background.

After the driver has finsihed transferring the data, the application software gets a signal and can process data (e.g stores data to hard disk

or makes some calculations). After processing the data the application software tells the driver that he can again use the software buffer for

acquisition data.

This two stages buffering has big advantages when running FIFO mode at the speed limit. The software buffers extremly expand the acquisi-

tion time that can be buffered and protects the whole system against buffer overruns.

Speed Limitations

The FIFO mode is running continuously all the time. Therefore the data must be read out from the board (data acquisition) or written to the

board (data generation) at least with the same speed that it is recorded/replayed. If data is read out from the board or written to the board

slower, the hardware buffers will overrun at a certain point and FIFO mode is stopped.

One bottleneck with the FIFO mode is the PCI bus. The standard PCI bus is theoretically capable of transferring data with 33 MHz and 32

Bit. As a result a maximum burst transfer rate of 132 MByte per second can be achieved. As several devices can share the PCI bus this

maximum transfer rate is only available to a short transfer burst until a new bus arbitration is necessray. In real life the continuous transfer

rate is limited to approximately 100-110 MBytes per second. The maximum FIFO speed one can achieve heavily depends on the PC system

and the operating system and varies from system to system.

The maximum sample rate one can run in continuous FIFO mode depends on the number of activated channels:

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Programming

FIFO Mode

Theoretical maximum sample rate

PCI Bus Throughput

1 Channel

2 Channels

4 Channels

8 Channels

50 MS/s

25 MS/s

12.5 MS/s

6.25 MS/s

[1 Channel] x [2 Bytes per sample] * 50 MS/s = 100 MB/s

[2 Channels] x [2 Bytes per sample] * 25 MS/s = 100 MB/s

[4 Channels] x [2 Bytes per sample] * 12.5 MS/s = 100 MB/s

[8 Channels] x [2 Bytes per sample] * 6.25 MS/s = 100 MB/s

When using FIFO mode together with one of the options that allow to have gaps in the acquisiton like Multiple Recording or Gated Sampling

one can even run the board with higher sample rates. It just has to be sure that the average sample rate (calculated with acquisition time and

gap) does not exceed the above mentioned sample rate limitations.

The sample rate that can be run in one of these mode is depending on the number of channels that have been activated. Due to the internal

structure of the board this is limited to a internal throughput of 250 MB/s (125 MS/s):

Maximum sample rate that can be programmed

Internal throughput

1 Channel

2 Channels

4 Channels

8 Channels

125 MS/s

[1 Channel] x [2 Bytes per sample] x 125 MS/s = 250 MB/s

[2 Channels] x [2 Bytes per sample] x 62.5 MS/s = 250 MB/s

[4 Channels] x [2 Bytes per sample] x 31.25 MS/s = 250 MB/s

[8 Channels] x [2 Bytes per sample] x 15.625 MS/s = 250 MB/s

62.5 MS/s

31.25 MS/s

15.625 MS/s

Programming

The setup of FIFO mode is done with a few additional software registers described in this chapter. All the other settings can be used as de-

scribed before. In FIFO mode the register SPC_MEMSIZE and SPC_POSTTRIGGER are not used.

Software Buffers

This register defines the number of software buffers that should be used for FIFO mode. The number of hardware buffers is always two and

can not be changed by software.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_FIFO_BUFFERS

60000

r/w

Number of software buffers to be used for FIFO mode. Value has to be between 2 and 256

When this manual was printed there are a total of 256 buffers possible. However if there are changes and enhancements to the driver in the

future it will be informative to read out the number of buffers the new driver version can hold.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_FIFO_BUFADRCNT

60040

Read out the number of available FIFO buffers

The length of each buffer is defined in bytes. This length is used for hardware and software buffers as well. Both have the same length. The

maximum length that can be used is depending on the installed on-board memory.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_FIFO_BUFLEN

60010

r/w

Length of each buffer in bytes. Must be a multiple of 1024 bytes.

Each FIFO buffer can be a maximum of half the memory. Be aware that the buffer length is given in overall bytes not in samples. Therefore

the value has to be calculated depending on the activated channels and the resolution of the board:

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FIFO Mode

Programming

Analog acquisition or generation boards

Buffer length to be programmed in Bytes

8 bit resolution

12 bit resolution

1 x 2 x [Samples in Buffer]

2 x 2 x [Samples in Buffer]

4 x 2 x [Samples in Buffer]

8 x 2 x [Samples in Buffer]

14 bit resolution

16 bit resolution

1 Channel

2 Channels

4 Channels

8 Channels

1 x [Samples in Buffer]

2 x [Samples in Buffer]

4 x [Samples in Buffer]

8 x [Samples in Buffer]

1 x 2 x [Samples in Buffer]

2 x 2 x [Samples in Buffer]

4 x 2 x [Samples in Buffer]

8 x 2 x [Samples in Buffer]

1 x 2 x [Samples in Buffer]

2 x 2 x [Samples in Buffer]

4 x 2 x [Samples in Buffer]

8 x 2 x [Samples in Buffer]

Digital I/O (701x or 702x ) or pattern generator boards (72xx)

Buffer length to be programmed in Bytes

8 bit mode

16 bit mode

32 bit mode

64 bit mode

[Samples in Buffer]

2 x [Samples in Buffer]

4 x [Samples in Buffer]

8 x [Samples in Buffer]

Digital I/O board 7005 only

Buffer length to be programmed in Bytes

1 bit mode

1/8 x [Samples in Buffer]

2 bit mode

1/4 x [Samples in Buffer]

4 bit mode

1/2 x [Samples in Buffer]

8 bit mode

[Samples in Buffer]

16 bit mode

2 x [Samples in Buffer]

1 Channel

We at Spectrum achieved best results when programming the buffer length to a number of samples that can hold approximately 100 ms of

data. However if going to the limit of the PCI bus with the FIFO mode or when having buffer overruns it can be useful to have larger FIFO

buffers to buffer more data in it.

When the goal is a fast update in FIFO mode smaller buffers and a larger number of buffers can be a better setup.

Value

60100

60101

Direction

r/w

Description

SPC_FIFO_BUFADR0

SPC_FIFO_BUFADR1

...

32 bit address of FIFO buffer 0. Must be allocated by application program

32 bit address of FIFO buffer 1. Must be allocated by application program

...

r/w

SPC_FIFO_BUFADR255

60355

r/w

32 bit address of FIFO buffer 255. Must be allocated by application program

The driver handles the programmed number of buffers. To speed up FIFO transfer the driver uses buffers that are allocated and maintained

by the application program. Before starting the FIFO mode the addresses of the allocated buffers must be set to the driver.

Example of FIFO buffer setup. No memory allocation error checking in the example to improve readability:

// ----- setup FIFO buffers -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_FIFO_BUFFERS,

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_FIFO_BUFLEN,

64);

8192);

// 64 FIFO buffers used in the example

// Each FIFO buffer is 8 kBytes long

// ----- allocate memory for data -----

for (i = 0; i < 64; i++)

pnData[i] = (ptr16) malloc (8192);

// memory allocation for 12, 14, 16 bit analog boards

// and digital boards

// pbyData[i] = (ptr8) malloc (8192);

// memory allocation for 8 bit analog boards

// ----- tell the used buffer adresses to the driver -----

for (i = 0; i < 64; i++)

nErr = SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_FIFO_BUFADR0 + i, (int32) pnData[i]); // for 12, 14, 16 bit analog boards

// and digital boards only

// nErr = SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_FIFO_BUFADR0 + i,

(int32) pbyData[i]); // for 8 bit analog boards only

Buffer processing

The driver counts all the software buffers that have been transferred. This number can be read out from the driver to know the exact amount

of data that has been transferred.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_FIFO_BUFCOUNT

60020

Number of transferred buffers until now

If one knows before starting FIFO mode how long this should run it is possible to program the numer of buffers that the driver should process.

After transferring this number of buffer the driver will automatically stop. If FIFO mode should run endless a zero must be programmed to this

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_FIFO_BUFMAXCNT

60030

r/w

Number of buffers to be transferred until automatic stop. Zero runs endless

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Programming

FIFO Mode

FIFO mode

In normal applications the FIFO mode will run in a loop and process one buffer after the other. There are a few special commands and reg-

isters for the FIFO mode:

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

Command register. Allowed values for FIFO mode are listed below

SPC_FIFOSTART

Starts the FIFO mode and waits for the first interrupt

Waits for the next buffer interrupt

Stops the FIFO mode

SPC_FIFOWAIT

SPC_STOP

The start command and the wait command both wait for the signal from the driver that the next buffer has to be processed. This signal is

generated by the driver on receiving an interrupt from the hardware. While waiting none of these commands waiste cpu power (no polling

mode). If for any reason the signal is not coming from the hardware (e.g. trigger is not found) the FIFO mode must be stopped from a second

task with a stop command.

This handshake command tells the driver that the application has finished it’s work with the software buffer. The both commands

SPC_FIFOWAIT (SPC_FIFOSTART) and SPC_FIFO_BUFFERS form a simple but powerful handshake protocol between application software

and board driver.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_FIFO_BUFREADY

60050

FIFO mode handshake. Application has finsihed with that buffer. Value is index of buffer

Backward compatibility: This register replaces the formerly known SPC_FIFO_BUFREADY0 ...

SPC_FIFO_BUFREADY15 commands. It has the same functionality but can handle more FIFO buffers. For back-

ward compatibility the older commands still work but are still limited to 16 buffers.

Example FIFO acquisition mode

This example shows the main loop of a FIFO acquisition. The example is a part of the FIFO examples that are available for each board on

CD. The example simply counts the buffers when it receives a new buffer from the driver and returns control immideately back to the driver.

FIFO acquisition example:

nBufIdx = 0;

lBufCount = 0;

lCommand = SPC_FIFOSTART;

printf ("Start\n");

{

nErr = SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_COMMAND,

lCommand = SPC_FIFOWAIT;

lCommand);

// ----- perform any data calculation or hard disk recording (in example only counting buffers)-----

printf ("FIFO Buffer %ld\n", lBufCount++);

// ----- buffer is ready -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_FIFO_BUFREADY, nBufIdx);

// ----- next Buffer -----

nBufIdx++;

if (nBufIdx == MAX_BUF)

nBufIdx = 0;

}

while (nErr == ERR_OK);

Data organization

When using FIFO mode data in memory is organized in some cases a little bit different then in standard mode. This is a result of the internal

hardware structure of the board. The organization of data is depending on the activated channels:

Ch0 Ch1 Ch2 Ch3 Ch4 Ch5 Ch6 Ch7 Sample ordering in FIFO buffer

A10 A11 A12 A13 A14 A15

The samples are re-named for better readability. A0 is sample 0 of channel 0, C4 is sample 4 of channel 2, ...

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FIFO Mode

Programming

The following example shows how to sort the channel data when using 4 channels in FIFO mode:

for (i = 0; i < (lBufferSizeInSamples / 4); i++)

{

Data[0][i] = FIFOBuffer[i * 4 + 0];

Data[1][i] = FIFOBuffer[i * 4 + 2];

Data[2][i] = FIFOBuffer[i * 4 + 1];

Data[3][i] = FIFOBuffer[i * 4 + 3];

}

Sample format

The sample format in FIFO mode does not differ from the one of the standard (non FIFO) mode. Please refer to the relating passage concerning

the sample format in the standard acquisition chapter.

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Overview

Clock generation

Overview

The Spectrum boards offer a wide variety of different clock modes to match all the customers needs. All the clock modes are described in

detail with programming examples below. This chapter simply gives you an overview which clock mode to select:

Standard internal sample rate

PLL with internal 40 MHz reference. This is the easiest way to generate a sample rate with no need for additional external clock signals. The

sample rate has a fine resolution.

Quartz and divider

Internal quarz clock with divider. For applications that need a lower clock jitter than the PLL produces. The possible sample rates are restricted

to the values of the divider.

External reference clock

PLL with external 1 MHz to 125 MHz reference clock. This provides a very good clock accuracy if a stable external reference clock is used.It

also allows the easy synchronization with an external source.

External clock

Any clock can be fed in that matches the specification of the board. The external clock signal can be used to synchronize the board on a

system clock or to feed in an exact matching sample rate.

External clock with divider

The externally fed in clock can be divided to generate a low-jitter sample rate of a slower speed than the external clock available.

There is a more detailed description of the clock generation part available as an application note. There some

more background information and details of the internal structure are explained.

Internally generated sample rate

Standard internal sample rate

The internal sample rate is generated in default mode by a PLL and dividers out of an internal 40 MHz frequency reference. In most cases

the user does not need to care on how the desired sample rate is generated by multiplying and dividing internally. You simply write the

desired sample rate to the according register shown in the table below. If you want to make sure the sample rate has been set correctly you

can also read out the register and the driver will give you back the sample rate that is matching your desired one best.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_SAMPLERATE

20000

Defines the sample rate in Hz for internal sample rate generation.

Read out the internal sample rate that is nearest matching to the desired one.

If a sample rate is generated internally, you can additionally enable the clock output. The clock will be available on the external clock con-

nector and can be used to synchronize external equipment with the board.

Value

20110

Direction

r/w

Description

SPC_EXTERNOUT

SPC_CLOCKOUT

Enables clock output on external clock connector. Only possible with internal clocking. (old name)

Enables clock output on external clock connector. Only possible with internal clocking. (new name)

r/w

Example on writing and reading internal sample rate

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_SAMPLERATE, 1000000);

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_CLOCKOUT, 1);

// Set internal sample rate to 1 MHz

// enable the clock output of that 1 MHz

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_SAMPLERATE, &lSamplerate);

printf („Samplerate = %d\n“, lSamplerate);

// Read back the sample rate that has been programmed

// print it. Output should be „Samplerate = 1000000“

Minimum internal sample rate

The minimum internal sample rate is limited on all boards to 1 kHz and the maximum sample rate depends on the specific type of board. The

maximum sample rates for your type of board are shown in the tables below.

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Clock generation

Internally generated sample rate

Maximum internal sample rate in MS/s normal mode

Remapped channels

ch0 ch1 ch2 ch3 ch4 ch5 ch6 ch7

n.a.

Using plain quartz without PLL

In some cases it is useful for the application not to have the on-board PLL activated. Although the PLL used on the Spectrum boards is a low-

jitter version it still produces more clock jitter than a plain quartz oscillator. For these cases the Spectrum boards have the opportunity to switch

off the PLL by software and use a simple clock divider.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_PLL_ENABLE

20030

r/w

A „1“ enables the PLL mode (default) or disables it by writing a 0 to this register

The sample rates that could be set are then limited to the quartz speed divided by one of the below mentioned dividers. The quartz used on

the board is similar to the maximum sample rate the board can achieve. As with PLL mode it’s also possible to set a desired sample rate and

read it back. The result will then again be the best matching sample rate.

Available divider values

100

200

400

500

800

1000

2000

External reference clock

If you have an external clock generator with a extremly stable frequency, you can use it as a reference clock. You can connect it to the external

clock connector and the PLL will be fed with this clock instead of the internal reference. Due to the fact that the driver needs to know the

external fed in frequency for an exact calculation of the sample rate you must set the the SPC_REFERENCECLOCK register accordingly as

shown in the table below:

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_REFERENCECLOCK

20140

r/w

Programs the external reference clock in the range from 1 MHz to 125 MHz.

Internal reference is used for internal sampling rate generation

External sample rate in Hz as an integer value

External reference is used. You need to set up this register exactly to the frequency of the external fed in clock.

The driver automatically sets the PLL to achieve the desired sample rate. Therefore it examines the reference clock and the sample rate regis-

ters.

Example of reference clock:

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_EXTERNALCLOCK, 0);

// Set to internal clock

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_REFERENCECLOCK, 10000000); // Reference clock that is fed in is 10 MHz

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_SAMPLERATE,

25000000); // We want to have 25 MHz as sample rate

Termination of the clock input

If the external connector is used as an input, either for feeding in an external reference clock or for external clocking you can enable a 50

Ohm termination on the board. If the termination is disabled, the impedance is high. Please make sure that your source is capable of driving

that current and that it still fulfills the clock input specification as given in the technical data section.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_CLOCK50OHM

20120

read/write

A „1“ enables the 50 Ohm termination at the external clock connector. Only possible, when using

the external connector as an input.

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External clocking

Clock generation

External clocking

Direct external clock

An external clock can be fed in on the external clock connector of the board. This can be any clock, that matches the specification of the

card. The external clock signal can be used to synchronize the card on a system clock or to feed in an exact matching sample rate.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_EXTERNALCLOCK

20100

read/write

Enables the external clock input. If external clock input is disabled, internal clock will be used.

The maximum values for the external clock is board dependant and shown in the table below.

Termination of the clock input

If the external connector is used as an input, either for feeding in an external reference clock or for external clocking you can enable a 50

Ohm termination on the board. If the termination is disabled, the impedance is high. Please make sure that your source is capable of driving

that current and that it still fulfills the clock input specification as given in the technical data section.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_CLOCK50OHM

20120

read/write

A „1“ enables the 50 Ohm termination at the external clock connector. Only possible, when using

the external connector as an input.

Minimum external sample rate

The minimum external sample rate is limited on all boards to 1 kHz and the maximum sample rate depends on the specific type of board.

The maximum sample rates for your type of board are shown in the tables below.

Maximum external samplerate in MS/s

Remapped channels

ch0 ch1 ch2 ch3 ch4 ch5 ch6 ch7

n.a.

An external sample rate above the mentioned maximum can cause damage to the board.

Ranges for external sample rate

Due to the internal structure of the board it is essential to know for the driver in which clock range the external clock is operating. The external

range register must be set according to the clock that is fed in externally.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_EXTERNRANGE

20130

r/w

Defines the range of the actual fed in external clock. Use one of the below mentioned ranges

EXRANGE_SINGLE

External Range Single

External Range Burst S

External Range Burst M

External Range Burst X

External Range Burst XL

EXRANGE_BURST_S

EXRANGE_BURST_M

EXRANGE_BURST_L

EXRANGE_BURST_XL

The range must not be left by more than 5 % when the board is running. Remember that the ranges depend

on the activated channels as well, so a different board setup for external clocking must always include the

related clock ranges.

This table below shows the ranges that are defined by the different range registers mentioned above. The range depends on the activated

channels and the mode the board is used in. Please be sure to select the correct range. Otherwise it is possible that the board will not run

properly.

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Clock generation

External clocking

ch0 ch1 ch2 ch3 ch4 ch5 ch6 ch7 Mode

EXRANGE_SINGLE EXRANGE_BURST_S EXRANGE_BURST_M EXRANGE_BURST_L EXRANGE_BURST_XL

5 MHz - max

Standard/FIFO < 5 MHz

Standard/FIFO < 2.5 MHz

Standard

FIFO

Standard

FIFO

Standard/FIFO < 1.3 MHz

2.5 MHz - 7.5 MHz 7.5 MHz - 17.5 MHz 17.5 MHz - 36 MHz > 36 MHz

5 MHz - max

< 5 MHz

< 2.5 MHz

< 1.3 MHz

2.5 MHz - 7.5 MHz 7.5 MHz - 17.5 MHz 17.5 MHz - 36 MHz > 36 MHz

1.3 MHz - 3.8 MHz 3.8 MHz - 8.8 MHz

0.7 MHz - 1.9 MHz 1.9 MHz - 4.4 MHz

8.8 MHz - 18 MHz

4.4 MHz - 9 MHz

> 18 MHz

> 9 MHz

Standard

FIFO

< 1.3 MHz

< 0.7 MHz

How to read this table? If you have activated all eight channels and are using the board in standard mode (not FIFO) and your external clock

is known to be around 15 MHz you have to set the EXRANGE_BURST_L for the external range.

Example:

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_CHENABLE,

CHANNEL0 | CHANNEL1 | CHANNEL2 | CHANNEL3); // activate 4 channels

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_EXTERNALCLOCK,

1);

// activate external clock

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_EXTERNRANGE, EXRANGE_BURST_M);

// set external range to Burst M

External clock with divider

The extra clock divider can be used to divide an external fed in clock by a fixed value. The external clock must be > 1 MS/s. This divided

clock is used as a sample clock for the board.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_CLOCKDIV

20040

r/w

Extra clock divider for external samplerate. Allowed values are listed below

Available divider values

100

200

400

500

800

1000

2000

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General Description

Trigger modes and appendant registers

General Description

The trigger modes of the Spectrum MI, MC and MX A/D boards are very complex and give you the possibility to detect nearly any trigger

event, you can think of.

You can choose between seven external TTL trigger modes and up to 18 internal trigger modes including software and channel trigger, de-

pending on your type of board. Five of the internal trigger modes can be independently set set for each input channel (on A/D boards only)

resulting in a even bigger variety of modes. This chapter is about to explain all of the different trigger modes and setting up the board’s

registers for the desired mode.

Every analog Spectrum board has one dedicated SMB connector mounted in it’s bracket for feeding in an external trigger signal or outputting

a trigger signal of an internal trigger event. Due to the fact that only one connector is available for external trigger I/O, it is not possible to

forward the fed in external trigger signal to another board. If this is however necessary, you need to split up the external trigger signal before.

Software trigger

The software trigger is the easiest way of triggering any Spectrum

board. The acquisition or replay of data will start immediately af-

ter starting the board. The only delay results from the time the

board needs for its setup.

Value

40000

Direction

Description

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

r/w

Sets the triggermode for the board.

TM_SOFTWARE

Sets the trigger mode to software, so that the recording/replay starts immediately.

In addition to the softwaretrigger (free run) it is also possible to force a triggerevent by software while the board is waiting for an internal or

external trigger event. Therefore you can use the board command shown in the following table.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board.

SPC_FORCETRIGGER

Forces a trigger event if the hardware is still waiting for a trigger event. Needs a base board hardware version > 7.x.

Due to the fact that the software trigger is an internal trigger mode, you can optionally enable the external trigger output to generate a high

active trigger signal, which indicates when the data acquisition or replay begins. This can be useful to synchronize external equipment with

your Spectrum board.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_TRIGGEROUT

40100

r/w

Defines the data direction of the external trigger connector.

The trigger connector is not used and the line driver is disabled.

The trigger connector is used as an output that indicates a detected internal trigger event.

Example for setting up the software trigger:

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE, TM_SOFTWARE); // Internal software trigger mode is used

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGEROUT , 1

); // And the trigger output is enabled

External TTL trigger

Enabling the external trigger input is done, if you choose one of the following external trigger modes. The dedicated register for that operation

is shown below.

Value

40000

20000

20010

20030

20001

20002

20011

20012

Direction

Description

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

TM_TTLPOS

r/w

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect positive edges.

TM_TTLNEG

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect negative edges

TM_TTLBOTH

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect positive and negative edges

TM_TTLHIGH_LP

TM_TTLHIGH_SP

TM_TTLLOW_LP

TM_TTLLOW_SP

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect HIGH pulses that are longer than a programmed pulsewidth.

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect HIGH pulses that are shorter than a programmed pulsewidth.

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect LOW pulses that are longer than a programmed pulsewidth.

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect LOW pulses that are shorter than a programmed pulsewidth.

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Trigger modes and appendant registers

External TTL trigger

If you choose an external trigger mode the SPC_TRIGGEROUT register will be overwritten and the trigger connector will be used as an input

anyways.

Value

40100

Direction

Description

SPC_TRIGGEROUT

r/w

Defines the data direction of the external trigger connector.

If external triggermodes are used, this register will have no effect.

As the trigger connector is used as an input, you can decide whether the input is 50 Ohm terminated or not. If you enable the termination,

please make sure, that your trigger source is capable to deliver the needed current. Please check carefully whether the source is able to fullfill

the trigger input specification given in the technical data section. If termination is disabled, the input is at high impedance.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_TRIGGER50OHM

40110

r/w

A „1“ sets the 50 Ohm termination, if the trigger connector is used as an input for external trigger sig-

nals. A „0“ sets the 1 MOhm termination

The following short example shows how to set up the board for external positive edge TTL trigger. The trigger input is 50 Ohm terminated.

The different modes for external TTL trigger are to be detailed described in the next few passages.

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE , TM_TTLPOS); // External positive TTL edge trigger

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGER50OHM, 1

); // and the 50 Ohm termination of the trigger input are used

Edge triggers

Positive TTL trigger

This mode is for detecting the rising edges of an external TTL sig-

nal. The board will trigger on the first rising edge that is detected

after starting the board. The next triggerevent will then be detect-

ed, if the actual recording/replay has finished and the board is

armed and waiting for a trigger again.

Value

40000

20000

Direction

Description

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

TM_TTLPOS

r/w

Sets the triggermode for the board

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect positive edges

Example on how to set up the board for positive TTL trigger:

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE, TM_TTLPOS); // Setting up external TTL trigger to detect positive edges

Negative TTL trigger

This mode is for detecting the falling edges of an external TTL sig-

nal. The board will trigger on the first falling edge that is detected

after starting the board. The next triggerevent will then be detect-

ed, if the actual recording/replay has finished and the board is

armed and waiting for a trigger again.

Value

40000

20010

Direction

Description

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

TM_TTLNEG

r/w

Sets the triggermode for the board.

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect negative edges.

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External TTL trigger

Trigger modes and appendant registers

Positive and negative TTL trigger

This mode is for detecting the rising and falling edges of an ex-

ternal TTL signal. The board will trigger on the first rising or falling

edge that is detected after starting the board. The next triggere-

vent will then be detected, if the actual recording/replay has fin-

ished and the board is armed and waiting for a trigger again.

Value

40000

20030

Direction

Description

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

TM_TTLBOTH

r/w

Sets the triggermode for the board.

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect positive and negative edges.

Pulsewidth triggers

TTL pulsewidth trigger for long HIGH pulses

This mode is for detecting HIGH pulses of an external TTL signal

that are longer than a programmed pulsewidth. If the pulse is

shorter than the programmed pulsewidth, no trigger will be de-

tected. The board will trigger on the first pulse matching the trig-

ger condition after starting the board. The next triggerevent will

then be detected, if the actual recording/replay has finished and

the board is armed and waiting for a trigger again.

Value

44000

40000

20001

Direction

r/w

Description

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

Sets the pulsewidth in samples. Values from 2 to 255 are allowed.

Sets the triggermode for the board.

r/w

TM_TTLHIGH_LP

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect HIGH pulses that are longer than a programmed pulsewidth.

TTL pulsewidth trigger for short HIGH pulses

This mode is for detecting HIGH pulses of an external TTL signal

that are shorter than a programmed pulsewidth. If the pulse is

longer than the programmed pulsewidth, no trigger will be detect-

ed. The board will trigger on the first pulse matching the trigger

condition after starting the board. The next triggerevent will then

be detected, if the actual recording/replay has finished and the

board is armed and waiting for a trigger again.

Value

44000

40000

20002

Direction

r/w

Description

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

Sets the pulsewidth in samples. Values from 2 to 255 are allowed.

Sets the triggermode for the board.

r/w

TM_TTLHIGH_SP

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect HIGH pulses that are shorter than a programmed pulsewidth.

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Trigger modes and appendant registers

External TTL trigger

TTL pulsewidth trigger for long LOW pulses

This mode is for detecting LOW pulses of an external TTL signal

that are longer than a programmed pulsewidth. If the pulse is

shorter than the programmed pulsewidth, no trigger will be de-

tected. The board will trigger on the first pulse matching the trig-

ger condition after starting the board. The next triggerevent will

then be detected, if the actual recording/replay has finished and

the board is armed and waiting for a trigger again.

Value

44000

40000

20011

Direction

r/w

Description

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

Sets the pulsewidth in samples. Values from 2 to 255 are allowed.

Sets the triggermode for the board.

r/w

TM_TTLLOW_LP

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect LOW pulses that are longer than a programmed pulsewidth.

TTL pulsewidth trigger for short LOW pulses

This mode is for detecting LOW pulses of an external TTL signal

that are shorter than a programmed pulsewidth. If the pulse is

longer than the programmed pulsewidth, no trigger will be detect-

ed. The board will trigger on the first pulse matching the trigger

condition after starting the board. The next triggerevent will then

be detected, if the actual recording/replay has finished and the

board is armed and waiting for a trigger again.

Value

44000

40000

20012

Direction

r/w

Description

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

Sets the pulsewidth in samples. Values from 2 to 255 are allowed.

Sets the triggermode for the board.

r/w

TM_TTLLOW_SP

Sets the trigger mode for external TTL trigger to detect LOW pulses that are shorter than a programmed pulsewidth.

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE, TM_TTLHIGH_LP); // Setting up external TTL trigger to detect high pulses

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_PULSEWIDTH , 50 ); // that are longer than 50 samples.

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Channel Trigger

Trigger modes and appendant registers

Channel Trigger

Overview of the channel trigger registers

The channel trigger modes are the most common modes, compared to external equipment like oscilloscopes. The 17 different channel trigger

modes enable you to observe nearly any part of the analog signal. This chapter is about to explain the different modes in detail. To enable

the channel trigger, you have to set the triggermode register accordingly. Therefore you have to choose, if you either want only one channel

to be the trigger source, or if you want to combine two or more channels to a logical OR trigger. The following table shows the according

registers for the two general channel trigger modes.

Value

40000

20040

35000

Direction

Description

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

r/w

Sets the triggermode for the board.

TM_CHANNEL

TM_CHOR

Enables the channel trigger mode so that only one channel can be a trigger source.

Enables the channel trigger mode so that more than one channel can be a trigger source.

If you have set the general triggermode to channel trigger you must set the all of the channels to their modes according to the following table.

So even if you use TM_CHANNEL and only want to observe one channel, you need to deactivate all other

channels. You can do this by setting the channel specific register to the value TM_CHXOFF.

The tables lists the maximum of the available channel mode registers for your card’s series. So it can be that you have less channels installed

on your specific card and therefore have less valid channel mode registers. If you try to set a channel, that is not installed on your specific

card, a error message will be returned.

Value

40200

40201

40202

40203

40204

40205

40206

40207

10020

10000

10010

10030

10001

10011

10002

10012

10003

10013

10004

10014

10040

10050

10041

10051

10042

10052

Direction

r/w

Description

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_TRIGGERMODE1

SPC_TRIGGERMODE2

SPC_TRIGGERMODE3

SPC_TRIGGERMODE4

SPC_TRIGGERMODE5

SPC_TRIGGERMODE6

SPC_TRIGGERMODE7

TM_CHXOFF

Sets the channel trigger for channel0. Channeltrigger must be activated with SPC_TRIGGERMODE.

Sets the channel trigger for channel1. Channeltrigger must be activated with SPC_TRIGGERMODE.

Sets the channel trigger for channel2. Channeltrigger must be activated with SPC_TRIGGERMODE.

Sets the channel trigger for channel3. Channeltrigger must be activated with SPC_TRIGGERMODE.

Sets the channel trigger for channel4. Channeltrigger must be activated with SPC_TRIGGERMODE.

Sets the channel trigger for channel5. Channeltrigger must be activated with SPC_TRIGGERMODE.

Sets the channel trigger for channel6. Channeltrigger must be activated with SPC_TRIGGERMODE.

Sets the channel trigger for channel7. Channeltrigger must be activated with SPC_TRIGGERMODE.

r/w

Channel is not used for trigger detection.

TM_CHXPOS

Enables the trigger detection for positive edges

TMCHXNEG

Enables the trigger detection for negative edges

TMCHXBOTH

Enables the trigger detection for positive and negative edges

Enables the pulsewidth trigger detection for long positive pulses

Enables the pulsewidth trigger detection for long negative pulses

Enables the pulsewidth trigger detection for short positive pulses

Enables the pulsewidth trigger detection for short negative pulses

Enables the steepness trigger detection for flat positive pulses

Enables the steepness trigger detection for flat negative pulses

Enables the steepness trigger detection for steep positive pulses

Enables the steepness trigger detection for steep negative pulses

Enables the window trigger for entering signals

TM_CHXPOS_LP

TMCHXNEG_LP

TM_CHXPOS_SP

TMCHXNEG_SP

TM_CHXPOS_GS

TMCHXNEG_GS

TM_CHXPOS_SS

TMCHXNEG_SS

TM_CHXWINENTER

TM_CHXWINLEAVE

TM_CHXWINENTER_LP

TM_CHXWINLEAVE_LP

TM_CHXWINENTER_SP

TM_CHXWINLEAVE_SP

Enables the window trigger for leaving signals

Enables the window trigger for long inner signals

Enables the window trigger for long outer signals

Enables the window trigger for short inner signals

Enables the window trigger for short outer signals

So if you want to set up a four channel board to detect only a positive edge on channel0, you would have to setup the board like the following

example. Both of the examples either for the TM_CHANNEL and the TM_CHOR triggermode do not include the necessary settigs for the

triggerlevels. These settings are detailed described in the following paragraphs.

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE , TM_CHANNEL);

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE0, TM_CHXPOS );

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE1, TM_CHXOFF );

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE2, TM_CHXOFF );

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE3, TM_CHXOFF );

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE4, TM_CHXOFF );

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE5, TM_CHXOFF );

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE6, TM_CHXOFF );

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE7, TM_CHXOFF );

// Enable channel trigger mode

// Set triggermode of channel0 to positive edge trigger

// Disable channel1 concerning trigger detection

// Disable channel2 concerning trigger detection

// Disable channel3 concerning trigger detection

// Disable channel4 concerning trigger detection

// Disable channel5 concerning trigger detection

// Disable channel6 concerning trigger detection

// Disable channel7 concerning trigger detection

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Trigger modes and appendant registers

Channel Trigger

If you want to set up a four channel board to detect a triggerevent on either a positive edge on channel1 or a negative edge on channel3

you would have to set up your board as the following example shows.

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE , TM_CHOR );

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE0, TM_CHXOFF);

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE1, TM_CHXPOS);

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE2, TM_CHXOFF);

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE3, TM_CHXNEG);

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE4, TM_CHXOFF );

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE5, TM_CHXOFF );

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE6, TM_CHXOFF );

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE7, TM_CHXOFF );

// Enable channel OR trigger mode

// Disable channel0 concerning trigger detection

// Set triggermode of channel1 to positive edge trigger

// Disable channel2 concerning trigger detection

// Set triggermode of channel3 to positive edge trigger

// Disable channel4 concerning trigger detection

// Disable channel5 concerning trigger detection

// Disable channel6 concerning trigger detection

// Disable channel7 concerning trigger detection

Triggerlevel

All of the channel trigger modes listed above require at least one triggerlevel to be set (except TM_CHXOFF of course). Some like the window

trigger require even two levels (upper and lower level) to be set. Before explaining the different channel trigger modes, it is necessary to

explain the board’s series specific range of triggerlevels.

After the data has been sampled, the upper N data bits are compared with the N bits of the trigger levels. The amount of bits, the trigger

levels are represented with depends on the board’s series. The following table shows the level registers and the possible values they can be

set to for your specific board.

8 bit resolution for the trigger levels:

Value

42000

42001

42002

42003

42004

42005

42006

42007

42100

42101

42102

42103

42104

42105

42106

42107

Direction

r/w

Description

Range

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL1

SPC_HIGHLEVEL2

SPC_HIGHLEVEL3

SPC_HIGHLEVEL4

SPC_HIGHLEVEL5

SPC_HIGHLEVEL6

SPC_HIGHLEVEL7

SPC_LOWLEVEL0

SPC_LOWLEVEL1

SPC_LOWLEVEL2

SPC_LOWLEVEL3

SPC_LOWLEVEL4

SPC_LOWLEVEL5

SPC_LOWLEVEL6

SPC_LOWLEVEL7

Defines the upper level (triggerlevel) for channel 0

Defines the upper level (triggerlevel) for channel 1

Defines the upper level (triggerlevel) for channel 2

Defines the upper level (triggerlevel) for channel 3

Defines the upper level (triggerlevel) for channel 4

Defines the upper level (triggerlevel) for channel 5

Defines the upper level (triggerlevel) for channel 6

Defines the upper level (triggerlevel) for channel 7

Defines the lower level (triggerlevel) for channel 0

Defines the lower level (triggerlevel) for channel 1

Defines the lower level (triggerlevel) for channel 2

Defines the lower level (triggerlevel) for channel 3

Defines the lower level (triggerlevel) for channel 4

Defines the lower level (triggerlevel) for channel 5

Defines the lower level (triggerlevel) for channel 6

Defines the lower level (triggerlevel) for channel 7

-127 to +127

r/w

In the above table the values for the triggerlevels represent the digital values for the corresponding data width N of the triggerlevels. If for

example the triggerlevels are represented by 8 bit, the bipolar range would be -128 … 127. To archieve symmetric triggerlevels the most

negative value is not used and the so resulting range would be -127 … +127.

As the triggerlevels are compared to the digitized data, the triggerlevels depend on the channels input range. For every input range available

to your board there is a corresponding range of triggerlevels. On the different input ranges the possible stepsize for the triggerlevels differs

as well as the maximum and minimum values. The following table, gives you the absolute triggerlevels for your specific board’s series.

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Channel Trigger

Trigger modes and appendant registers

Input ranges

50 mV

Triggerlevel

100 mV

+99.2 mV

+98.4 mV

200 mV

+198.4 mV

+196.9 mV

500 mV

+496.1 mV

+492.2 mV

1 V

2 V

5 V

10 V

127

126

…

+49.6 mV

+49.2 mV

+992.2 mV

+984.4 mV

+1.98 V

+1.97 V

+4.96 V

+4.92 V

+9.92 V

+9.84 V

+25.0 mV

+50.0 mV

+100.0 mV

+250.0 mV

+500.0 mV

+1.00 V

+2.50 V

+5.00 V

…

+0.78 mV

+0.39 mV

0 V

+1.56 mV

+0.78 mV

0 V

+3.1 mV

+1.5 mV

0 V

+7.8 mV

+3.9 mV

0 V

+15.6 mV

+7.8 mV

0 V

+31.3 mV

+15.6 mV

0 V

+78.1 mV

+39.1 mV

0 V

+156.3 mV

+78.1 mV

0 V

-1

-0.39 mV

-0.78 mV

-1.56 mV

-1.5 mV

-3.1 mV

-3.9 mV

-7.8 mV

-15.6 mV

-31.3 mV

-39.1 mV

-78.1 mV

-156.3 mV

-2

…

-64

…

-25.0 mV

-50.0 mV

-100.0 mV

-250.0 mV

-500.0 mV

-1.00 V

-2.50 V

-5.00 V

-126

-127

Stepsize

-49.2 mV

-49.6 mV

0.39 mV

-98.4 mV

-99.2 mV

0.75 mV

-196.9 mV

-198.4 mV

1.5 mV

-492.2 mV

-496.1 mV

3.9 mV

-984.4 mV

-992.2 mV

7.8 mV

-1.97 V

-4.92 V

-9.84 V

-1.98 V

-4.96 V

-9.92 V

15.6 mV

39.1 mV

78.1 mV

The following example shows, how to set up a one channel board to trigger on channel0’s rising edge. It is asumed, that the input range of

channel0 is set to the the 200 mV range. The dezimal value for SPC_HIGHLEVEL0 corresponds then with 62.5 mV, wich is the resulting

triggerlevel.

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE ,

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE0,

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_HIGHLEVEL0 ,

TM_CHANNEL); // Enable channel trigger mode

TM_CHXPOS ); // Enable channel trigger mode

); // Sets triggerlevel to 62.5 mV

Reading out the number of possible trigger levels

The Spectrum driver also contains a register, that holds the value of the maximum possible different trigger levels considering the above men-

tioned exclusion of the most negative possible value. This is useful, as new drivers can also be used with older hardware versions, because

you can check the trigger resolution during runtime. The register is shown in the following table:

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_READTRGLVLCOUNT

2500

Contains the number of different possible trigger levels.

In case of a board that uses 8 bits for trigger detection the returned value would be 255, as either the zero and 127 positive and negative

values are possible.

The resulting trigger step width in mV can easily be calculated from the returned

value. It is assumed that you know the actually selected input range.

Input Range

– Input Range

max

min

Trigger step width = ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of trigger levels + 1

To give you an example on how to use this formular we assume, that the

1.0 V input range is selected and the board uses 8 bits for trigger detection.

+1000 mV – (-1000 mV)

Trigger step width = ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

255 + 1

The result would be 7.81 mV, which is the step width for your type of board withing the actually chosen input range.

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Trigger modes and appendant registers

Channel Trigger

Detailed description of the channel trigger modes

Channel trigger on positive edge

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. If the programmed triggerlevel is crossed by

the channel’s signal from lower values to higher values (ris-

ing edge) then the triggerevent will be detected.

These edge triggered channel trigger modes correspond to

the trigger possibilities of usual ocilloscopes.

Value

40000

40200

42000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

TM_CHANNEL

20040

r/w

TM_CHXPOS

10000

r/w

Set it to the desired triggerlevel relatively to the channel’s input range.

board dependant

Channel trigger on negative edge

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. If the programmed triggerlevel is crossed by

the channel’s signal from higher values to lower values (fall-

ing edge) then the triggerevent will be detected.

These edge triggered channel trigger modes correspond to

the trigger possibilities of usual ocilloscopes.

Value

40000

40200

42000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

TM_CHANNEL

20040

r/w

TM_CHXNEG

10010

r/w

Set it to the desired triggerlevel relatively to the channel’s input range.

board dependant

Channel trigger on positive and negative edge

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. If the programmed triggerlevel is crossed by

the channel’s signal (either rising or falling edge) the trig-

gerevent will be detected.

These edge triggered channel trigger modes correspond to

the trigger possibilities of usual ocilloscopes.

Value

40000

40200

42000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

TM_CHANNEL

20040

r/w

TM_CHXBOTH

10030

r/w

Set it to the desired triggerlevel relatively to the channel’s input range.

board dependant

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Channel Trigger

Trigger modes and appendant registers

Channel pulsewidth trigger for long positive pulses

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. If the programmed triggerlevel is crossed by

the channel’s signal from lower to higher values (rising

edge) the pulsewidth counter is started. If the signal crosses

the triggerlevel again in the opposite direction within the

the programmed pulsewidth time, no trigger will be detect-

ed. If the pulsewidth counter reaches the programmed

amount of samples, without the signal crossing the trigger-

level in the opposite direction, the triggerevent will be de-

tected.

The pulsewidth trigger modes for long pulses can be used

to prevent the board from triggering on wrong (short) edges

in noisy signals.

Value

40000

40200

42000

44000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

20040

10001

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

TM_CHANNEL

TM_CHXPOS_LP

r/w

Set it to the desired triggerlevel relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set to the desired pulsewidth in samples.

board dependant

2 to 255

r/w

Channel pulsewidth trigger for long negative pulses

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. If the programmed triggerlevel is crossed by

the channel’s signal from higher to lower values (falling

edge) the pulsewidth counter is started. If the signal crosses

the triggerlevel again in the opposite direction within the

the programmed pulsewidth time, no trigger will be detect-

ed. If the pulsewidth counter reaches the programmed

amount of samples, without the signal crossing the trigger-

level in the opposite direction, the triggerevent will be de-

tected.

The pulsewidth trigger modes for long pulses can be used

to prevent the board from triggering on wrong (short) edges

in noisy signals.

Value

40000

40200

42000

44000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

TM_CHANNEL

20040

r/w

TM_CHXNEG_LP

10011

r/w

Set it to the desired triggerlevel relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set to the desired pulsewidth in samples.

board dependant

2 to 255

r/w

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Trigger modes and appendant registers

Channel Trigger

Channel pulsewidth trigger for short positive pulses

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. If the programmed triggerlevel is crossed by

the channel’s signal from lower to higher values (rising

edge) the pulsewidth counter is started. If the pulsewidth

counter reaches the programmed amount of samples, no

trigger will be detected.

If the signal does cross the triggerlevel again within the the

programmed pulsewidth time, a triggerevent will be detect-

ed.

Value

40000

40200

42000

44000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

TM_CHANNEL

20040

r/w

TM_CHXPOSG_SP

10002

r/w

Set it to the desired triggerlevel relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set to the desired pulsewidth in samples.

board dependant

2 to 255

r/w

Channel pulsewidth trigger for short negative pulses

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. If the programmed triggerlevel is crossed by

the channel’s signal from higher to lower values (falling

edge) the pulsewidth counter is started. If the pulsewidth

counter reaches the programmed amount of samples, no

trigger will be detected.

If the signal does cross the triggerlevel again within the the

programmed pulsewidth time, a triggerevent will be detect-

ed.

Value

40000

40200

42000

44000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

TM_CHANNEL

20040

r/w

TM_CHXNEG_SP

10012

r/w

Set it to the desired triggerlevel relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set to the desired pulsewidth in samples.

board dependant

2 to 255

r/w

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Channel Trigger

Trigger modes and appendant registers

Channel steepness trigger for flat positive pulses

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. If the programmed lower level is crossed by

the channel’s signal from lower to higher values (rising

edge) the pulsewidth counter is started. If the signal does

cross the upper level within the the programmed pulsewidth

time, no trigger will be detected.

If the pulsewidth counter reaches the programmed amount

of samples a triggerevent will be detected.

Value

40000

40200

42000

42100

44000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

20040

10003

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_LOWLEVEL0

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

TM_CHANNEL

TM_CHXPOS_GS

r/w

Set it to the desired upper level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set it to the desired lower level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set to the desired pulsewidth in samples.

board dependant

2 to 255

r/w

Channel steepness trigger for flat negative pulses

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. If the programmed upper level is crossed by

the channel’s signal from higher to lower values (falling

edge) the pulsewidth counter is started. If the signal does

cross the lower level within the the programmed pulsewidth

time, no trigger will be detected.

If the pulsewidth counter reaches the programmed amount

of samples a triggerevent will be detected.

Value

40000

40200

42000

42100

44000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_LOWLEVEL0

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

TM_CHANNEL

20040

r/w

TM_CHXNEG_GS

10013

r/w

Set it to the desired upper level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set it to the desired lower level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set to the desired pulsewidth in samples.

board dependant

2 to 255

r/w

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Trigger modes and appendant registers

Channel Trigger

Channel steepness trigger for steep positive pulses

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. If the programmed lower level is crossed by

the channel’s signal from lower to higher values (rising

edge) the pulsewidth counter is started. If the pulsewidth

counter reaches the programmed amount of samples with-

out the signal crossing the higher level, no trigger will be

detected.

If the signal does cross the upper level within the the pro-

grammed pulsewidth time, a triggerevent will be detected.

Value

40000

40200

42000

42100

44000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_LOWLEVEL0

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

TM_CHANNEL

20040

r/w

TM_CHXPOS_SS

10004

r/w

Set it to the desired upper level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set it to the desired lower level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set to the desired pulsewidth in samples.

board dependant

2 to 255

r/w

Channel steepness trigger for steep negative pulses

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. If the programmed upper level is crossed by

the channel’s signal from higher to lower values (falling

edge) the pulsewidth counter is started. If the pulsewidth

counter reaches the programmed amount of samples with-

out the signal crossing the lower level, no trigger will be de-

tected.

If the signal does cross the lower level within the the pro-

grammed pulsewidth time, a triggerevent will be detected.

Value

40000

40200

42000

42100

44000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_LOWLEVEL0

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

TM_CHANNEL

20040

r/w

TM_CHXNEG_SS

10014

r/w

Set it to the desired upper level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set it to the desired lower level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set to the desired pulsewidth in samples.

board dependant

2 to 255

r/w

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Channel Trigger

Trigger modes and appendant registers

Channel window trigger for entering signals

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. The upper and the lower level define a win-

dow. Every time the signal enters the the window from the

outside, a triggerevent will be detected.

Value

40000

40200

42000

42100

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

20040

10040

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_LOWLEVEL0

TM_CHANNEL

TM_CHXWINENTER

r/w

Sets the window’s upper level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Sets the window’s lower level relatively to the channel’s input range.

board dependant

r/w

Channel window trigger for leaving signals

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. The upper and the lower level define a win-

dow. Every time the signal leaves the the window from the

inside, a triggerevent will be detected.

Value

40000

40200

42000

42100

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_LOWLEVEL0

TM_CHANNEL

20040

r/w

TM_CHXWINLEAVE

10050

r/w

Sets the window’s upper level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Sets the window’s lower level relatively to the channel’s input range.

board dependant

r/w

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Trigger modes and appendant registers

Channel Trigger

Channel window trigger for long inner signals

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. The upper and the lower levels define a win-

dow. Every time the signal enters the window from the out-

side, the pulsewidth counter is startet. If the signal leaves

the window before the pulsewidth counter has stopped, no

trigger will be detected.

If the pulsewidth counter stops and the signal is still inside

the window, the triggerevent will be detected.

Value

40000

40200

42000

42100

44000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_LOWLEVEL0

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

TM_CHANNEL

20040

r/w

TM_CHXWINENTER_LP

10041

r/w

Sets the window’s upper level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Sets the window’s lower level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set to the desired pulsewidth in samples.

board dependant

2 to 255

r/w

Channel window trigger for long outer signals

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. The upper and the lower levels define a win-

dow. Every time the signal leaves the window from the in-

side, the pulsewidth counter is startet. If the signal enters the

window before the pulsewidth counter has stopped, no trig-

ger will be detected.

If the pulsewidth counter stops and the signal is still outside

the window, the triggerevent will be detected.

Value

40000

40200

42000

42100

44000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_LOWLEVEL0

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

TM_CHANNEL

20040

r/w

TM_CHXWINLEAVE_LP

10051

r/w

Sets the window’s upper level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Sets the window’s lower level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set to the desired pulsewidth in samples.

board dependant

2 to 255

r/w

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Channel Trigger

Trigger modes and appendant registers

Channel window trigger for short inner signals

The analog input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. The upper and the lower levels define a win-

dow. Every time the signal enters the window from the out-

side, the pulsewidth counter is startet. If the pulsewidth

counter stops and the signal is still inside the window, no

trigger will be detected.

If the signal leaves the window before the pulsewidth coun-

ter has stopped, the triggerevent will be detected.

Value

40000

40200

42000

42100

44000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

20040

10042

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_LOWLEVEL0

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

TM_CHANNEL

TM_CHXWINENTER_SP

r/w

Sets the window’s upper level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Sets the window’s lower level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set to the desired pulsewidth in samples.

board dependant

2 to 255

r/w

Channel window trigger for short outer signals

The analogd input is continuously sampled with the selected

sample rate. The upper and the lower levels define a win-

dow. Every time the signal leaves the window from the in-

side, the pulsewidth counter is startet. If the pulsewidth

counter stops and the signal is still outside the window, no

trigger will be detected.

If the signal enters the window before the pulsewidth coun-

ter has stopped, the triggerevent will be detected.

Value

40000

40200

42000

42100

44000

Direction

r/w

set to

Value

SPC_TRIGGERMODE

SPC_TRIGGERMODE0

SPC_HIGHLEVEL0

SPC_LOWLEVEL0

SPC_PULSEWIDTH

TM_CHANNEL

20040

r/w

TM_CHXWINLEAVE_SP

10052

r/w

Sets the window’s upper level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Sets the window’s lower level relatively to the channel’s input range.

Set to the desired pulsewidth in samples.

board dependant

2 to 255

r/w

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Option Multiple Recording

Recording modes

Option Multiple Recording

The option Multiple Recording allows the acquisition of data blocks with multiple trigger events without restarting the hardware. The on-board

memory will be divided into several segments of the same size. Each segment will be filled with data when a trigger event occures. As this

mode is totally done in hardware there is a very small rearm time from end of the acquisition of one segment until the trigger detection is

enabled again. You’ll find that rearm time in the technical data section of this manual.

Recording modes

Standard Mode

With every detected trigger event one data block is filled

with data. The length of one multiple recording segment is

set by the value of the posttrigger register. The total amount

of samples to be recorded is defined by the memsize regis-

ter.

In most cases memsize will be set to a a multiple of the seg-

ment size (postcounter). The table below shows the register

for enabling Multiple Recording. For detailed information

on how to setup and start the standard acquisition mode

please refer to the according chapter eralier in this manual.

When using Multiple Recording pretrigger is not available.

Value

220000

10000

10100

Direction

r/w

Description

SPC_MULTI

Enables Multiple Recording mode.

Defines the total amount of samples to record.

Defines the size of one Multiple Recording segment.

SPC_MEMSIZE

SPC_POSTTRIGGER

r/w

FIFO Mode

The Multiple Recording in FIFO Mode is similar to the Mul-

tiple Recording in Standard Mode. The segment size is also

set by the postcounter register.

In contrast to the Standard mode you cannot programm a

certain total amount of samples to be recorded. The acqui-

sition is running until the user stops it. The data is read FIFO

block by FIFO block by the driver. These blocks are online

available for further data processing by the user program.

This mode sigficantly reduces the average data transfer

rate on the PCI bus. This enables you to use faster sample rates then you would be able to in FIFO mode without Multiple Recording. Usually

the FIFO blocks are multiples of the Multiple Recording segments.

The advantage of Multiple Recording in FIFO mode is that you can stream data online to the hostsystem. You can make realtime data process-

ing or store a huge amount of data to the hard disk. The table below shows the dedicated register for enabling Multiple Recording. For de-

tailed information how to setup and start the board in FIFO mode please refer to the according chapter earlier in this manual.

Value

Direction

r/w

Description

SPC_MULTI

220000

10100

Enables Multiple Recording mode.

Defines the size of one Multiple Recording segment.

SPC_POSTTRIGGER

r/w

Trigger modes

In Multiple Recording modes all of the board’s trigger

modes are available except the software trigger. Depend-

ing on the different trigger modes, the chosen sample rate

the used channels and activated board synchronisation

(see according chapter for details about synchronizing

multiple boards) there are different delay times between

the trigger event and the first sampled data (see figure).

This delay is necessary as the board is equipped with dy-

namic RAM, which needs refresh cycles to keep the data

in memory when the board is not recording.

The delay is fix for a certain board setup. All possible de-

lays in samples between the trigger event and the first re-

corded sample are listed in the table below. A negative

amount of samples indicates that the trigger will be visible.

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Trigger modes

Option Multiple Recording

Resulting start delays

Sample rate

Activated channels

external TTL trigger internal trigger

ext. TTL trigger with

activated

synchronization

internal trigger with

activated

synchronization

< 5 MS/s

-4 samples

+4 samples

-4 samples

+4 samples

-4 samples

+2 samples

-4 samples

+2 samples

-4 samples

-1 samples

-4 samples

-1 samples

+4 samples

+16 samples

+4 samples

+16 samples

+4 samples

+10 samples

+4 samples

+10 samples

+5 samples

+8 samples

+5 samples

+8 samples

-3 samples

+5 samples

-3 samples

+5 samples

-3 samples

+3 samples

-3 samples

+3 samples

-4 samples

-1 samples

-4 samples

-1 samples

+5 samples

+17 samples

+5 samples

+17 samples

+5 samples

+11 samples

+5 samples

+11 samples

+5 samples

+9 samples

+5 samples

+9 samples

> 5 MS/s

< 5 MS/s

> 5 MS/s

< 2.5 MS/s

> 2.5 MS/s

< 2.5 MS/s

> 2.5 MS/s

< 1.25 MS/s

> 1.25 MS/s

< 1.25 MS/s

> 1.25 MS/s

The following example shows how to set up the board for Multiple Recording in standard mode. The setup would be similar in FIFO mode,

but the memsize register would not be used.

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_MULTI,

1);

// Enables Multiple Recording

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_POSTTRIGGER,

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_MEMSIZE,

1024);

4096);

// Set the segment size to 1024 samples

// Set the total memsize for recording to 4096 samples

// so that actually four segments will be recorded

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE,

TM_TTLPOS);// Set the triggermode to external TTL mode (rising edge)

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Option Gated Sampling

Recording modes

Option Gated Sampling

The option Gated Sampling allows the data acquisition controlled by an external gate signal. Data will only be recorded, if the programmed

gate condition is true.

Recording modes

Standard Mode

Data will be recorded as long as the gate signal fulfills the gate

condition that has had to be programmed before. At the end of

the gate interval the recording will be stopped and the board will

pause until another gates signal appears. If the total amount of

data to acquire has been reached the board stops immediately

(see figure). The total amount of samples to be recorded can be

defined by the memsize register.

The table below shows the register for enabling Gated Sam-

pling. For detailed information on how to setup and start the

standard acquisition mode please refer to the according chapter

earlier in this manual.

When using Gated Sampling pretrigger is not available and postcounter has no function.

Value

Direction

r/w

Description

SPC_GATE

SPC_MEMSIZE

220400

10000

Enables Gated Sampling mode.

Defines the total amount of samples to record.

r/w

FIFO Mode

The Gated Sampling in FIFO Mode is similar to the Gated Sam-

pling in Standard Mode. In contrast to the Standard mode you

cannot programm a certain total amount of samples to be record-

ed. The acquisition is running until the user stops it. The data is

read FIFO block by FIFO block by the driver. These blocks are

online available for further data processing by the user program.

The advantage of Gated Sampling in FIFO mode is that you can

stream data online to the hostsystem with a lower average data

rate than in conventional FIFO mode without gated sampling.

You can make realtime data processing or store a huge amount

of data to the hard disk. The table below shows the dedicated

register for enabling Gated Sampling. For detailed information how to setup and start the board in FIFO mode please refer to the according

chapter earlier in this manual.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_GATE

220400

r/w

Enables Gated Sampling mode.

Trigger modes

General information and trigger delay

Not all of the board’s trigger modes can be used in combi-

nation with Gated Sampling. All possible trigger modes are

listed below. Depending on the different trigger modes, the

chosen sample rate, the used channels and activated board

synchronisation (see according chapter for details about

synchronizing multiple boards) there are different delay

times between the trigger event and the first sampled data

(see figure). This start delay is necessary as the board is

equipped with dynamic RAM, which needs refresh cycles to

keep the data in memory when the board is not recording.

It is fix for a certain board setup. All possible delays in sam-

ples between the trigger event and the first recorded sample

are listed in the table below. A negative amount of samples

indicates that the trigger will be visible. Due to this delay a

part of the gate signal will not be used for acquisition and

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Trigger modes

Option Gated Sampling

the number of acquired samples will be less than the gate signal length. See table on the next page for further explanation.

End of gate alignement

Due to the structure of the on-board memory there is an-

other delay at the end of the gate interval.

Internally a gate-end signal can only be recognized at

an eight samples alignment. This alignement is a sum of

all channels that are activated together. Please refer to

the following chapter to see the alignement for each

channel and mode combination.

So depending on what time your external gate signal

will leave the programmed gate condition it might hap-

pen that at maximum seven more samples are recorded,

before the board pauses (see figure).

The figure on the right is showing this end delay exem-

plarily for three possible gate signals. As all samples are

counted from zero. The eight samples alignment in the

upper two cases is reached at the end of sample 39,

which is therefore the 40th sample.

Alignement samples per channel

As described above there’s an alignement at the end of the gate signal. The alignement depends on the used mode (standard or FIFO) and

the selected channels. Please refer to this table to see how many samples per channel of alignement one gets.

Module 0

Module 1

Mode

Alignement

Standard/FIFO 8 samples

Standard

FIFO

Standard/FIFO 4 samples

Standard

FIFO

Standard/FIFO 2 samples

Standard

FIFO

8 samples

4 samples

2 samples

1 sample

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Option Gated Sampling

Trigger modes

Resulting start delays

Sample rate

Activated channels

external TTL trigger internal trigger

ext. TTL trigger with

activated

synchronization

internal trigger with

activated

synchronization

< 5 MS/s

-4 samples

+4 samples

-4 samples

+4 samples

-4 samples

+2 samples

-4 samples

+2 samples

-4 samples

-1 samples

-4 samples

-1 samples

+4 samples

+16 samples

+4 samples

+16 samples

+4 samples

+10 samples

+4 samples

+10 samples

+5 samples

+8 samples

+5 samples

+8 samples

-3 samples

+5 samples

-3 samples

+5 samples

-3 samples

+3 samples

-3 samples

+3 samples

-4 samples

-1 samples

-4 samples

-1 samples

+5 samples

+17 samples

+5 samples

+17 samples

+5 samples

+11 samples

+5 samples

+11 samples

+5 samples

+9 samples

+5 samples

+9 samples

> 5 MS/s

< 5 MS/s

> 5 MS/s

< 2.5 MS/s

> 2.5 MS/s

< 2.5 MS/s

> 2.5 MS/s

< 1.25 MS/s

> 1.25 MS/s

< 1.25 MS/s

> 1.25 MS/s

Number of samples on gate signal

As described above there’s a delay at the start of the gate interval due to the internal memory structure. However this delay can be partly

compensated by internal pipelines resulting in a data delay that even can be negative showing the trigger event (acquisition mode only). This

data delay is listed in an extra table. But beneath this compensation there’s still the start delay that as a result causes the card to use less

samples than the gate signal length. Please refer to the following table to see how many samples less than the length of gate signal are used

Module 0

Module 1

Mode

Sampling clock less samples

Standard/FIFO < 5 MS/s

Standard

FIFO

Standard/FIFO < 2.5 MS/s

Standard

FIFO

Standard/FIFO < 1.25 MS/s

Standard

FIFO

> 5 MS/s

< 5 MS/s

< 2.5 MS/s

> 2.5 MS/s

> 1.25 MS/s

> 1,25 MS/s

> 625 kS/s

< 2.5 MS/s

< 1.25 MS/s

< 625 kS/s

Allowed trigger modes

As mentioned above not all of the possible trigger modes can be used as a gate condition. The following table is showing the allowed trigger

modes that can be used and explains the event that has to be detected for gate-start end for gate-end.

External TTL edge trigger

The following table shows the allowed trigger modes when using the external TTL trigger connector:

Mode

Gate start will be detected on

positive edge on external trigger

negative edge on external trigger

Gate end will be detected on

negative edge on external trigger

positive edge on external trigger

TM_TTLPOS

TM_TTL_NEG

External TTL pulsewidth trigger

The following table shows the allowed pulsewidth trigger modes when using the external TTL trigger connector:

Mode

Gate start will be detected on

Gate end will be detected on

negative edge on external trigger

positive edge on external trigger

TM_TTLHIGH_LP

TM_TTLLOW_LP

high pulse of external trigger longer than programmed pulsewidth

low pulse of external trigger longer than programmed pulsewidth

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Example program

Option Gated Sampling

Channel trigger

Mode

Gate start will be detected on

signal crossing level from low to high

Gate end will be detected on

signal crossing level from high to low

signal crossing level from low to high

signal crossing level from high to low

signal crossing level from low to high

signal leaving window between levels

TM_CHXPOS

TM_CHXNEG

signal crossing level from high to low

TM_CHXPOS_LP

TM_CHXNEG_LP

TM_CHXWINENTER

TM_CHXWINENTER_LP

TM_CHXWINLEAVE

TM_CHXWINLEAVE_LP

signal above level longer than the programmed pulsewidth

signal below level longer than the programmed pulsewidth

signal entering window between levels

signal entering window between slower than the programmed pulsewidth signal leaving window between levels

signal leaving window between levels

signal entering window between levels

signal leaving window between slower than the programmed pulsewidth

Example program

The following example shows how to set up the board for Gated Sampling in standard mode. The setup would be similar in FIFO mode, but

the memsize register would not be used.

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_GATE,

1);

// Enables Gated Sampling

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_MEMSIZE,

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE,

4096);

TM_TTLPOS);

// Set the total memsize for recording to 4096 samples

// Sets the gate condition to external TTL mode, so that

// recording will be done, if the signal is at HIGH level

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Option Timestamp

General information

Option Timestamp

General information

The timestamp function is used to record trigger events relative to the beginning of the measurement, relative to a fixed time-zero point or

synchronized to an external radio clock. This is done by a wide resetable counter that is incremented with every sample rate. With every

detected trigger event the actual counter value is stored in a seperate timestamp memory.

This function is designed as an enhancement to the Multiple Recording and the Gated Sampling mode but can also be used without these

options. If Gated Sampling mode is used, then both the start and end of a recorded segment are timestamped.

The timestamp memory is designed as a FIFO buffer so that it can be read out even while the Spectrum board is recording data continuously

to the PC in the FIFO mode. This extra memory is 64 K Timestamps in size.

Each recorded timestamp consists of the number of samples that has been counted since the last

counter reset has been done. The actual time from the point since the last reset has been done so

can easily be calculated by the formular besides.

Timestamp

t = -------------------------------------------------

Sample rate

If you want to know the time between two timestamps, you can simply calculate this by the for-

mular besides.

Timestamp

– Timestamp

n + 1

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sample rate

∆t =

Limits

The timestamp counter is running with the sampling clock on the base card. Some card types (like 2030 and 3025) use an interlace mode

to double the sampling speed. In this case the timestamp counter is only running with the non-interlaced sampling rate. Therefore the maximum

counting frequency of the timestamp option is limited to 125 MS/s.

Timestamp modes

Standard mode

In standard mode the timestamp counter is set to zero

once by writing the TS_RESET commando to the com-

mand register. After that command the counter counts

continuously.

The timestamps of all recorded trigger events are refer-

enced to this common zero time. With this mode you

can calculate the exact time difference between differ-

ent recordings.

The following table shows the valid values that can be

written to the timestamp command register.

Value

47000

Direction

Description

SPC_TIMESTAMP_CMD

TS_RESET

Writes a command to the timestamp command register.

Reads out the actual timestamp mode.

Resets the counter of the timestamp module to zero.

TS_MODE_DISABLE

Disables the timestamp module. No timestamps are recorded.

TS_MODE_STANDARD

Must be written to enable the Standard timestamp mode. The counter must be manually reset by writing the command

TS_RESET to the command register. The timestamps values will be relative to this reset time.

StartReset mode

In StartReset mode the timestamp counter is set to zero

on every start of the board. After starting the board the

counter counts continuously.

The timestamps of one recording are referenced to the

start of the recording. This mode is very useful for Multi-

ple Recording and Gated Sampling (see according

chapters for detailed information on these two optional

modes).

The following table shows the valid values that can be

written to the timestamp command register.

Value

47000

Direction

Description

SPC_TIMESTAMP_CMD

TS_RESET

Writes a command to the timestamp command register.

Reads out the actual timestamp mode.

Resets the counter of the timestamp module to zero.

TS_MODE_DISABLE

Disables the timestamp module. No timestamps are recorded.

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Timestamp Status

Option Timestamp

TS_MODE_STARTRESET

Must be written to enable the StartReset timestamp mode. The counter is reset on each start of the board. The times-

tamps values are relative to the board start.

RefClock mode (optional)

The counter is split in a HIGH and a LOW part and an additional seconds signal, that affects both parts of the counter (TTL pulse with f = 1

Hz) must be fed in externally.

The HIGH part counts the seconds that have elapsed since the last counter reset with the reset command TS_RESET. The LOW part is reset to

zero on every seconds signal and is clocked with the actual sample rate. The edge of the external secondssignal must be set seperately as

described below.

This mode allows the recording of an absolute time of a trigger event. This even allows the synchronization of data that has been recorded

with different boards.

Value

47000

Direction

Description

SPC_TIMESTAMP_CMD

TS_RESET

Writes a command to the timestamp command register.

Reads out the actual timestamp mode.

Resets the whole counter of the timestamp module to zero. Waits for synchronization to an external seconds signal.

This may last up to 1 second. The lower part of the counter can be reset with the external fed in second signal. The

edge of the reset signal can be programmed with the SPC_TIMESTAMP_RESETMODE register as shown in the table

below.

TS_MODE_DISABLE

TS_MODE_REFCLOCK

Disables the timestamp module. No timestamps are recorded.

Must be written to enable the RefClock timestamp mode. The counter must be manually reset by writing the command

TS_RESET to the command register. The counter is splitted into two parts. The upper part counts the seconds of an

external reference clock. The lower part is reset on each second signal and counts the samples.

The edge of the external TTL seconds signal can be programmed by the following register either to detect the rising or falling edge.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_TIMESTAMP_RESETMODE

47050

r/w

Defines the active edge of the external fed in seconds signal to reset the lower part of the counter. The

values written here do not affect the timestamp command TS_RESET.

TS_RESET_POS

TS_RESET_NEG

The lower part of the counter will be reset on every rising edge of the external reset signal (seconds signal).

The lower part of the counter will be reset on every falling edge of the external reset signal (seconds signal).

To get recordings in relation to each other it is importent to know the absolute start time. This time can be easily read out by the following

register. The time is given back in seconds since midnight (00:00:00), January 1, 1970, which is the standard ’time_t’ in C/C++.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_TIMESTAMP_STARTTIME

47030

Reads out the start time of the RefClock mode. Return value is the number of seconds since midnight

(00:00:00), January 1, 1970, which is the standard ’time_t’ in C/C++.

Timestamp Status

The timestamp module has its own status register for the timestamp FIFO. You can easily read out the FIFO status with the help of the timestamp

status register shown in the table below.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_TIMESTAMP_STATUS

TS_FIFO_EMPTY

47010

Reads the status of the timestamp FIFO.

The timestamp FIFO is still empty.

TS_FIFO_LESSHALF

TS_FIFO_MOREHALF

TS_FIFO_OVERFLOW

There are values in the timestamp FIFO but less than half of the FIFO is filled.

More than half of the FIFO is filled with timestamps.

The timestamp FIFO is full and possibly data has been lost.

Reading out timestamp data

Functions for accessing the data

There are two possibilities to access the timestamps that have been stored in the timestamp FIFO.

Reading out a single timestamp

You can read out one 32 bit value from the timestamp FIFO by using the register shown in the table below.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_TIMESTAMP_FIFO

47040

Get one 32 bit value from the timestamp FIFO. If the FIFO is empty a zero will be returned.

Because accessing the timestamp with this function will be done with single accesses, getting the value(s) this

way is much slower than using the SpcGetData function as described below.

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Option Timestamp

Reading out timestamp data

Using this function will not give you back a whole timestamp, as the timestamp values are wider than 32 bit.

Please also refer to the section on the timestamp data format below.

Reading out all the timestamps with SpcGetData

When using the function SpcGetData the data stored in the timestamp FIFO will be read out in one block by the driver. The usage of the

function SpcGetData is described in the relating section earlier in this manual. The following list does only show the different parameters in

a very short way:

SpcGetData (nr, ch, start, len, data)

• nr: Number of the board (Windows). Linux users please refer to the Driver section for differences using linux.

• ch: Channel to be read out. Must be set to CH_TIMESTAMP (9999) to access timestamp FIFO.

• start: [Windows only:] Differing from the standard use, this parameter gives back the number of actually read timestamps and therefore

needs to be a pointer. Please refer to the example at the end of this chapter. Under linux please use the SPC_TIMESTAMP_COUNT regis-

ter instead and program the „start“ parameter to zero.

• len: Number of timestamps that fit in the data buffer and so defines the number of timestamps to be read out.

• data: Huge buffer for the read out timestamps, that must have at least enough space for 8*len bytes.

It might be that you try to read out more timestamps than there actually are in the timestamp FIFO bacause you don’t know how many trigger

events have been detected. Please make use of the value given back by the parameter start to get to know what parts of your buffer contain

valid timestamps.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_TIMESTAMP_COUNT

47020

Return the number of timestamps that have been read be the prior SpcGetData call. Needs only to be

used under Linux.

Data format

Each timestamp is 56 bit long and internally mapped to 64 bit (8 bytes). The counter value contains the number of clocks that have been

recorded with the currently used sample rate since the last counter-reset has been done. The matching time can easily be calculated as de-

scribed in the general information section at the beginning of this chapter.

The values the counter is counting and that are stored in the timestamp FIFO represent the moments the trigger event occures internally. Com-

pared to the real external trigger event, these values are delayed. The delay is depending on the actual sample rate, the number of activated

channels and the used trigger mode. This delay can be ignored, as it will be identically for all recordings with the same setup.

Timestamp Mode

Recording Mode

4 bytes

Standard/StartReset

Normal / Multiple Recording

Trigger 0

LOW part

Trigger 0

HIGH part

Trigger 1

LOW part

Trigger 1

HIGH part

Trigger 2

LOW part

Trigger 2

HIGH part

Standard/StartReset

RefClock

Gated Sampling

Gate Start 0

LOW part

Gate Start 0

HIGH part

Gate End 0

LOW part

Gate End 0

HIGH part

Gate Start 1

LOW part

Gate Start 1

HIGH part

Normal / Multiple Recording

Gated Sampling

Trigger 0

Counter value

Trigger 0

Seconds

Trigger 1

Counter value

Trigger 1

Seconds

Trigger 2

Counter value

Trigger 2

Seconds

RefClock

Gate Start 0

Counter value

Gate Start 0

Seconds

Gate End 0

Counter value

Gate End 0

Seconds

Gate Start 1

Counter value

Gate Start 1

Seconds

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Example programs

Option Timestamp

Example programs

Standard acquisition mode

// ----- Allocate memory for the timestamp data buffer -----

plTimeStamps = (ptr32) malloc (MAX_TIMESTAMPS * 8);

// ----- Reset the board and flush the FIFO -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_RESET);

// ----- Setup and start timestamp module -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TIMESTAMP_CMD, TS_MODE_STANDARD); // Standard mode set

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TIMESTAMP_CMD, TS_RESET);

// Counter is set to Zero

// ----- Start the board 4 times to generate 4 timestamps -----

for (i=0; i<4; i++)

{

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_START);

// Start recording

{

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_STATUS, &lStatus);

// Wait for Status Ready

}

while (lStatus != SPC_READY);

}

// ----- Read out and display the timestamps -----

SpcGetData (hDrv, CH_TIMESTAMP, (int32) &lCount, MAX_TIMESTAMPS, (dataptr) plTimeStamps);

for (i=0; i<lCount; i++)

printf ("Timestamp: %d\tHIGH: %08lx\tLOW: %08lx\n", i, plTimeStamps[2*i+1], plTimeStamps[2*i]);

// ----- Free the allocated memory for the timestamp data buffer -----

free (plTimeStamps);

}

Acquisition with Multiple Recording

// ----- Reset the board and flush the FIFO -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_RESET);

// ----- Simple setup for recording -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_CHENABLE, 1);

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_SAMPLERATE, 1000000);

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TRIGGERMODE, TM_TTLPOS);

// 1 channel for recording

// Samplerate 1 MHz.

// External positive Edge

// Enable Multiple Recording

// 8k Memsize

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_MULTI,

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_MEMSIZE,

1);

8192);

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_POSTTRIGGER, 1024);

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_MULTI, 1);

// Each segment 1k = 8 segments

// Enable Multiple Recording

// ----- Setup and start timestamp module -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TIMESTAMP_CMD, TS_MODE_STANDARD); // Standard Timestamp mode set

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_TIMESTAMP_CMD, TS_RESET);

// Counter is set to Zero

// ----- Start the board -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_START);

// Start recording

{

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_STATUS, &lStatus);

// Wait for Status Ready

}

while (lStatus != SPC_READY);

// ----- Read out the timestamps -----

SpcGetData (hDrv, CH_TIMESTAMP, (int32) &lCount, 8, (dataptr) plTimeStamps);

// ----- display the timestamps (There should be 8 stamps, 1 for each segment) -----

for (i=0; i<lCount; i++)

printf (“Segment: %d

Counter: %08lx %08lx\n”, i, plTimeStamps[2*i+1], plTimeStamps[2*i]);

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Option Extra I/O

Digital I/Os

Option Extra I/O

Digital I/Os

With this simple-to-use enhancement it is possible to control a wide range of external instruments or other equipment. Therefore you have

several digital I/Os and the 4 analog outputs available. All extra I/O lines are completely independent from the board’s function, data di-

rection or sample rate and directly controlled by software (asynchronous I/Os).

The extra I/O option is useful if an external amplifier should be controlled, any kind of signal source must be programmed, an antenna must

be adjusted, a status information from external machine has to be obtained or different test signals have to be routed to the board.

It is not possible to use this option together with the star hub or timestamp option, because there is just space

for one piggyback module on the on-board expansion slot.

Channel direction

Option -XMF (external connector)

The additional inputs and outputs are mounted on an extra bracket.

The direction of the 24 available digital lines can be programmed for every group of eight lines. The table below shows the direction register

and the possible values. To combine the values so simply have to OR them bitwise.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_XIO_DIRECTION

47100

r/w

Defines bytewise the direction of the digital I/O lines. The values can be combined by a bitwise OR.

XD_CH0_INPUT

Sets the direction of channel 0 (bit D7…D0) to input.

Sets the direction of channel 1 (bit D15…D8) to input.

Sets the direction of channel 2 (bit D23…D16) to input.

Sets the direction of channel 0 (bit D7…D0) to output.

Sets the direction of channel 1 (bit D15…D8) to output.

Sets the direction of channel 2 (bit D23…D16) to output.

XD_CH1_INPUT

XD_CH2_INPUT

XD_CH0_OUTPUT

XD_CH1_OUTPUT

XD_CH2_OUTPUT

Transfer Data

The outputs can be written or read by a single 32 bit register. If the register is read, the actual pin data will be taken. Therefore reading the

data of outputs gives back the generated pattern. The single bits of the digital I/O lines correspond with the bitnumber of the 32 bit register.

Values written to the most significant byte will be ignored.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_XIO_DIGITALIO

47110

Reads the data directly from the pins of all digital I/O lines either if they are declared as inputs or

outputs.

SPC_XIO_DIGITALIO

47110

Writes the data to all digital I/O lines that are declared as outputs. Bytes that are declared as inputs

will ignore the written data.

Analog Outputs

In addition to the digital I/Os there are four analog outputs available. These outputs are directly programmed with the voltage values in mV.

As the analog outputs are driven by a 12 bit DAC, the output voltage can be set in a stepsize of 5 mV. The table below shows the registers,

you must write the desired levels too. If you read these outputs, the actual output level is given back from an internal software register.

Value

47120

47121

47122

47123

Direction

r/w

Description

Offset range

SPC_XIO_ANALOGOUT0

SPC_XIO_ANALOGOUT1

SPC_XIO_ANALOGOUT2

SPC_XIO_ANALOGOUT3

Defines the output value for the analog output A0.

Defines the output value for the analog output A1.

Defines the output value for the analog output A2.

Defines the output value for the analog output A3.

10000 mV in steps of 5 mV

r/w

After programming the levels of all analog outputs by the registers above, you have to update the analog outputs. This is done by the register

shown in the table below. To update all of the outputs all you need to do is write a “1“ to the dedicated register.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_XIO_WRITEDACS

47130

All the analog outputs are simultaniously updated by the programmed levels if a “1“ is written.

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Programming example

Option Extra I/O

Programming example

The following example shows how to use either the digital I/O#s and the analog outputs.

// ----- output 8 bit on D7 to D0 and read 8 bit on D15 to D8 -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_XIO_DIRECTION, XD_CH0_OUTPUT | XD_CH1_INPUT); // set directions of digital I/O transfer

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_XIO_DIGITALIO, 0x00005A);

SpcGetParam (hDrv, SPC_XIO_DIGITALIO, &lData);

// write data to D7-D0

// read data and write values to lData

// ----- write some values to the analog channels. -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_XIO_ANALOGOUT0, -2000);

// -2000 mV = -2.0 V

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_XIO_ANALOGOUT1,

0);

0 mV = 0.0 V

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_XIO_ANALOGOUT2, +3500);

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_XIO_ANALOGOUT3, +10000);

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_XIO_WRITEDACS, 1);

// 3500 mV = 3.5 V

// 10000 mV = 10.0 V

// Write data simultaneously to DAC

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Option Digital inputs

This option allows the user to acquire additional digital channels synchronous and phasestable along with the analog data.

Therefore the analog data is filled up with the digital bits up to 16 Bit data width. This leads to a possibility of acquiring 4 additional digital

bits per channel with 12 bit resolution boards.

Sample format

The following table shows the sample format of the standard mode with the digital inputs disabled and the sample format with activated

digital inputs.

Bit

Standard Mode

ADx Bit 11

Digital Inputs enabled

DIGx Bit 3

D15

D14

D13

D12

D11

D10

ADx Bit 11

ADx Bit 11(MSB)

ADx Bit 10

ADx Bit 9

DIGx Bit 2

DIGx Bit 1

DIGx Bit 0

ADx Bit 11(MSB)

ADx Bit 10

ADx Bit 9

ADx Bit 8

ADx Bit 7

ADx Bit 6

ADx Bit 5

ADx Bit 4

ADx Bit 3

ADx Bit 2

ADx Bit 1

ADx Bit 0 (LSB)

To enable the recording of the digital inputs you simply have to set the according register shown in the table below.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_READDIGITAL

110100

read/write

Enables the recording of the digital inputs. This is only possible if the option “digital inputs“ is

installed on the board.

Due to technical issues there is a board dependant fixed delay between the analog and digital samples. The

delay for your type of board can be found in the technical data section.

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The different synchronization options

Synchronization (Option)

This option allows the connection of multiple boards to generate a multi-channel system. It is possible to synchronize multiple Spectrum boards

of the same type as well as different board types. Therefore the synchronized boards must be linked concerning the board’s system clock and

the trigger signals.

If no synchronization is desired for a certain board you can exclude it by setting the register shown in the following table. This must be done

seperately for every board that should not work synchronized.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board

SPC_NOSYNC

120

Disables the synchronization globally.

The different synchronization options

Synchronization with option cascading

With the option cascading up to four Spectrum boards can be synchronized. All boards are connected with one synchronization cable on

their sync-connectors (for details please refer to the chapter about installing the hardware).

As the synchronization lines are organized as a bus topology, there is a need for termination at both ends of the

bus. This is done in factory for the both end-boards. The maximum possible two middle-boards have no termination

on board.

When synchronizing multiple boards, one is set to be the clock master for all the connected boards. All the other

boards are working as clock slaves. It’s also possible to temporarily disable boards from the synchronization.

The same board or another one of the connected boards can be defined as a trigger master for all boards. All

trigger modes of the trigger master board can be used. It is also possible to synchronize the connected boards only

for the samplerate and not for trigger. This can be useful if one generator board is continuously generating a test-

pattern, while the connected acquisition board is triggering for test results or error conditions of the device under test.

For the fact that the termination is set in factory the order of the syncronized boards cannot be changed by

the user. Please refer to the boards type plate for details on the board’s termination. End boards are marked

with the option „cs-end“ while middle boards are marked with the option „cs-mid“

When the boards are synchronized by the option cascading

there will be a delay of about 500 ps between two adjacent

boards.

The figure on the right shows the clocks of three cascaded

boards with two channels each, where one end-board is de-

fined as a clock master. Slave 1 is therefore a middle-board

and Slave 2 is the other end-board. The resulting delay be-

tween data of the two end-boards is therefore about 1 ns.

Please keep in mind that the delay between the channels of

two boards is depending on which board is actually set up as

the clock master and what boards are directly adjacent to the

master.

Synchronization with option starhub

With the option starhub up to 16 Spectrum boards can be synchronized. All boards are connected with a seperate synchronization cable

from their sync-connectors to the starhub module, which is a piggy-back module on one Spectrum board (for details please refer to the chapter

about installing the hardware).

When synchronizing multiple boards, one is set to be the clock master for all the connected boards. All the other boards are working as clock

slaves. It’s also possible to temporarily disable the synchronization of one board. This board then runs individually while the other boards

still are synchronized.

The same board or another one of the connected boards can be defined as a trigger master for all boards. All trigger modes of the board

defined as the trigger master can be used. It is also possible to synchronize the connected boards only for the samplerate and not for trigger.

This can be useful, if one generator board is continuously generating a testpattern, while the connected acquisition board is triggering for

test results or error conditions of the device under test.

Additionally you can even define more than one board as a trigger master. The trigger events of all boards are combined by a

logical OR, so that the first board that detects a trigger will start the boards. This OR connection is available starting with starhub

hardware version V4.

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Synchronization (Option)

The setup order for the different synchronization options

When the boards are synchronized by the option starhub there

will be no delay between the connected boards. This is

achieved as all boards, including the one the starhub module

is mounted on, are connected to the starhub with cables of the

same length.

The figure on the right shows the clock of three boards with two

channels each that are synchronized by starhub.

The setup order for the different synchronization options

If you setup the boards for the use with synchronization it is important to keep the order within the software

commands as mentioned below to get the boards working correctly.

Depending on if you use the board either in standard or in FIFO mode there are slightly different orders in the setup for the synchronization

option. The following steps are showing the setups either for standard or FIFO mode.

Setup Order for use with standard (non FIFO) mode and equally clocked boards

(1) Set up the board parameters

Set all parameters like for example sample rate, memsize and trigger modes for all the synchronized boards, except the dedicated registers

for the synchronization itself that are shown in the tables below.

All boards must be set to the same settings for the entire clocking registers (see the according chapter for sample rate generation), for the

trigger mode and memory and should be set to the same postcounter size to get the same pretrigger sizes as well.

If you use acquisition boards with different pretrigger sizes, please keep in mind that after starting the board

the pretrigger memory of all boards will be recorded first, before the boards trigger detection is armed. Take

care to prevent boards with a long pretrigger setup time from hangup by adequately checking the board’s

status. Long setup times are needed if either you use a huge pretrigger size and/or a slow sample rate.

If you don’t care it might happen that boards with a small pretrigger are armed first and detect a triggerevent, while one or more boards with

a huge pretrigger are still not armed. This might lead to an endless waiting-state on these boards, which should be avoided.

Example of board setup for three boards

// --------- Set the Handles to fit for Windows driver ---------

hDrv[0] = 0;

hDrv[1] = 1;

hDrv[2] = 2;

// (1) ----- Setup all boards, shortened here !!!-----

for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)

{

SpcSetParam (hDrv[i], SPC_MEMSIZE,

SpcSetParam (hDrv[i], SPC_POSTTRIGGER, 512);

// ...

1024);

// memory in samples per channel

// posttrigger in samples

SpcSetParam (hDrv[i], SPC_SAMPLERATE, 10000000);

SpcSetParam (hDrv[i], SPC_TRIGGERMODE, TM_SOFTWARE);

}

// set sample rate to all boards

// set trigger mode to all boards

(2) Let the master calculate it’s clocking

To obtain proper clock initailization when doing the first start it is necessary to let the clock master do all clock related calculations prior to

setting all the synchronization configuration for the slave boards.

Example of board #0 set as clock master and forced to do the appropriate clock calculation

SpcSetParam (hDrv[0], SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_SYNCCALCMASTER);

// Calculate clock settings on master

(3) Write Data to on-board memory (output boards only)

If one or more of the synchronized boards are used for generating data (arbitrary waveform generator boards or digital I/O boards with

one or more channels set to output direction) you have to transfer the data to the board’s on-board memory before starting the synchronization.

Please refer to the related chapter for the standard mode in this manual. If none of your synchronized boards is used for generation purposes

you can ignore this step.

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The setup order for the different synchronization options

Example for data writing

Synchronization (Option)

SpcSetData (hDrv[0], 0, 0, 1024, pData[0]);

SpcSetData (hDrv[1], 0, 0, 1024, pData[1]);

SpcSetData (hDrv[2], 0, 0, 1024, pData[2]);

(4) Define the board(s) for trigger master

At least one board must be set as the trigger master to get synchronization running. Every one of the synchronized boards can be programmed

for beeing the trigger master device.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board

SPC_SYNCTRIGGERMASTER

101

Defines the according board as the triggermaster.

Example of board #2 set as trigger master

SpcSetParam (hDrv[2], SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_SYNCTRIGGERMASTER);

// Set board 2 to trigger master

(4a) Define synchronization OR trigger

If you use synchronization with the starhub option you can even set up more than one board as the trigger master. The boards will be com-

bined by a logical OR and therefore the boards will be started if any of the trigger masters has detected a trigger event.

The synchronization OR-trigger is not available when using the cascading option. It is also not available with

starhub option prior to hardware version V4. See the initialization section of this manual to find out how to

determint the hardware version of the starhub.

If you set up the boards for the synchronization OR trigger all boards that are set as trigger master must be programmed to the same trigger-

mode. If the boards are using different trigger modes this will result in a time shift between the boards. It is of course possible to set different

edges or different trigger levels on the channels.

It is only possible to use the synchronization OR trigger if the board carrying the starhub piggy-back module

is one of the boards that is programmed as a trigger master.

To find out what board is carrying the starhub piggy-back module you make use of the board’s feature registers as described in the

chapter about initialising the board.

Example of setting up three boards to be trigger master

SpcSetParam (hDrv[0], SPC_COMMAND,

SpcSetParam (hDrv[1], SPC_COMMAND,

SpcSetParam (hDrv[2], SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_SYNCTRIGGERMASTER);

// Set board 0 to trigger master

// Set board 1 to trigger master

// Set board 2 to trigger master

(5) Define the remaining boards as trigger slaves

As you can set more than one board as the trigger master (starhub option only) you have to tell the driver additionally which of the boards

are working as trigger slaves.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board

SPC_SYNCTRIGGERSLAVE

111

Defines the according board as the trigger slave.

Each of the synchronized boards must be set up either as a trigger master or as a trigger slave to get the

synchronization option working correctly. Therefore it does not matter if you use the cascading or starhub

option.

It is assumed that only one of the three boards (board 2 in this case) is set up as trigger master, as described in (3)

SpcSetParam (hDrv[0], SPC_COMMAND,

SpcSetParam (hDrv[1], SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_SYNCTRIGGERSLAVE);

// Setting all the other boards to

// trigger slave is a must !

It sometimes might be necessary to exclude one or more boards from the synchronization trigger. An example for this solution is that one or

more output boards are used for continuously generating test patterns, while one or more acqusition boards are triggering for test results or

error conditions. Therefore it is possible to exclude a board from the triggerbus so that only a synchronization for clock is done and the ac-

cording boards are just using the trigger events they have detected on their own.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_NOTRIGSYNC

200040

r/w

If activated the dedicated board will use its own trigger modes instead of the synchronization trigger.

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Synchronization (Option)

The setup order for the different synchronization options

Even if a board is not using the synchronization trigger, it must have been set as a triggerslave before even

if you exclude the board with the SPC_NOTRIGSYNC register.

After you have excluded one or more of the installed boards from the synchronization trigger it is possible to change the triggermodes

of these boards. So only all the boards that should work synchronously must be set up for the same trigger modes to get the synchro-

nization mode working correctly.

(6) Define the board for clock master

Using the synchronization option requires one board to be set up as the clock master for all the synchronized board. It is not allowed to set

more than one board to clock master.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board

SPC_SYNCMASTER

100

Defines the according board as the clock master for operating in standard (non FIFO) mode only.

Example: board number 0 is clock master

SpcSetParam (hDrv[0], SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_SYNCMASTER);

// Set board 0 to clock master

(7) Define the remaining boards as clock slaves

It is necessary to set all the remaining boards to clock slaves to obtain correct internal driver settings.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board

SPC_SYNCSLAVE

110

Defines the according board as a clock slave for operating in standard (non FIFO) mode only.

Settings the remining boards to clock slaves. Board number 0 is clock master in the example

SpcSetParam (hDrv[1], SPC_COMMAND,

SpcSetParam (hDrv[2], SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_SYNCSLAVE);

// Setting all the other boards to

// clock slave is a must !

(8) Arm the boards for synchronization

Before you can start every single one of the synchronized boards on their own you have to arm all the synchronized boards before for the

use with synchronization. The synchronization has to be started on the clock master board.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board

SPC_SYNCSTART

130

Arms all boards for the use with synchronization.

Example of starting the synchronization. Board number 0 is clock master.

SpcSetParam (hDrv[0], SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_SYNCSTART);

(9) Start all of the trigger slave boards

After having armed the synchronized boards, you must start all of the boards that are defined as trigger slaves first.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board

SPC_START

SPC_STARTANDWAIT

Starts the board with the current register settings.

Starts the board with the current register settings in the interrupt driven mode.

For details on how to start the board in the different modes in standard mode (non FIFO) please refer to the according chapter earlier in this

manual.

If using the interrupt driven mode SPC_STARTANDWAIT it is necessary to start each board in it’s own software

thread. This is necessary because the function does not return until the board has stopped again. If not using

different threads this will result in a program deadlock.

Example of starting trigger slave boards. Board number 2 is trigger master.

SpcSetParam (hDrv[0], SPC_COMMAND,

SpcSetParam (hDrv[1], SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_START);

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Setup synchronization for use with FIFO mode and equally clokked boards

Synchronization (Option)

(10) Start all of the trigger master boards

After having armed the synchronized boards, you must start all of the boards, that are defined as trigger masters.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board

SPC_START

SPC_STARTANDWAIT

Starts the board with the current register settings.

Starts the board with the current register settings in the interrupt driven mode.

For details on how to start the board in the different modes in standard mode (non FIFO) please refer to the according chapter earlier in this

manual.

If you use the synchronization OR with the starhub option it is important to start the board carrying the

starhub piggy-back module as last. Otherwise the trigger masters that are started first might detect trigger

events while other trigger masters haven’t even been started. Be sure that the pretrigger area of all other

trigger masters is filled at the moment when the pretrigger area of the star-hub board has been filled.

To find out what board is carrying the starhub piggy-back module you make use of the board’s feature registers as described in the chapter

about programming the board.

Example of starting the trigger master board

SpcSetParam (hDrv[2], SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_START);

(11) Wait for the end of the measurement

After having started the last board, you will have to wait until the measurement is done. Depending if you use the board in standard (non

FIFO) mode interrupt driven or not, you can poll for the board’s status. Please refer to the relating chapter in this manual. It is necessary to

wait until each board returns the status SPC_READY before proceeding.

Example for polling for three synchronzed boards

for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)

{

// For all synchronized boards

// The status is read out

SpcGetParam (hDrv[i], SPC_STATUS, &lStatus);

// by polling for SPC_READY

}

while (lStatus != SPC_READY);

}

printf (“All boards have stopped“);

(12) Read data from the on-board memory (acquisition boards only)

If one or more of the synchronized boards are used for recording data (transient recorder boards or digital I/O boards with one or more

channels set to input direction) you have to read out the data from the board’s on-board memory now. Please refer to the related chapter for

the standard (non FIFO) mode in this manual. If none of your synchronized boards is used for recording purposes you can ignore this step.

Example for data reading

SpcGetData (hDrv[0], 0, 0, 1024, pData[0]);

SpcGetData (hDrv[1], 0, 0, 1024, pData[1]);

SpcGetData (hDrv[2], 0, 0, 1024, pData[2]);

(13) Restarting the board for another synchronized run

If you want to restart the synchronized boards with the same settings as before it is sufficient to repeat only the steps starting with (8). This

assumes that on generation boards the output data is not changed as well.

If you want to change the output data of generation boards you’ll have to restart the setup procedure starting with step (2).

If you even want to change any of the boards parameters you’ll have to restart the setup procedure from the first step on.

Setup synchronization for use with FIFO mode and equally clokked boards

Most of the steps are similar to the setup routine for standard synchronization mentioned before. In this passage only the differences between

the two modes are shown. Please have a look at the passage before to see the complete setup procedure. The following steps differ from

standard mode to FIFO mode. All steps that are not mentioned here are similar as described before.

(2) Allocate the FIFO software buffers

If you use the board in FIFO mode additional memory in the PC RAM is needed for software FIFO buffers. For details please refer to the

according chapter for the FIFO mode.

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Synchronization (Option)

Setup synchronization for use with FIFO mode and equally clokked boards

Example of FIFO buffer allocation:

for (i = 0; i < FIFO_BUFFERS; i++)

for (b = 0; b < 3; b++)

{

pnData[b][i] = (ptr16) GlobalAlloc (GMEM_FIXED, FIFO_BUFLEN); // allocate memory

SpcSetParam (b, SPC_FIFO_BUFADR0 + i, (int32) pnData[b][i]); // send the adress to the driver

}

(2a) Write first data for output boards

When using the synchronization FIFO mode with output boards this is the right position to fill the first software buffers with data. As you can

read in the FIFO chapter, output boards need some data to be written to the software FIFO buffers before starting he board.

Example of calulcating and writing output data to software FIFO buffers:

// ----- data calculation routine -----

int g_nPos =0;

// some global variables

void vCalcOutputData (ptr16 pnData, int32 lBufsize)

// function to calculate the

// output data. In this case

// a sine function is used.

{

int i;

for (i = 0; i < (lBufsize/2); i++)

pnData[b][i] = (int16) (8191.0 * sin (2 * PI / 500000 * (g_nPos+i)));

g_nPos += lBufsize/2;

}

// ----- main task -----

int main(int argc, char **argv)

{

...

for (i =0; i < MAX_BUF; i++)

for (b = 0; b < 3; b++)

// fill the first buffers with data

// for all installed boards

vCalcOutputData (pnData[b][i], BUFSIZE);

...

}

(6) Define the board for clock master

Using the synchronization option requires one board to be set up as the clock master for all the synchronized board. It is not allowed to set

more than one board to clock master.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board

SPC_SYNCMASTERFIFO

102

Defines the according board as the clock master for operating in FIFO mode only.

Example: board number 0 is clock master

SpcSetParam (hDrv[0], SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_SYNCMASTERFIFO);

// Set board 0 to clock master

(7) Define the remaining boards as clock slaves

It is necessary to set all the remaining boards to clock slaves to obtain correct internal driver settings.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board

SPC_SYNCSLAVEFIFO

102

Defines the according board as a clock slave for operating in FIFO mode only.

Settings the remaining boards to clock slaves. Board number 0 is clock master in the example

SpcSetParam (hDrv[1], SPC_COMMAND,

SpcSetParam (hDrv[2], SPC_COMMAND,

SPC_SYNCSLAVEFIFO);

// Setting all the other boards to

// clock slave is a must !

(9) Start all of the trigger slave boards

After having armed the synchronized boards, you must start all of the boards, that are defined as trigger slaves first. This is done with the

FIFOSTART command.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board

SPC_FIFOSTART

Starts the board with the current register settings in FIFO mode and waits for the first interrupt.

Remember that the FIFO mode is allways interrupt driven. As a result the FIFOSTART function will not return

until the first software buffer is transferred. For that reason it is absolutely necessary to start different threads

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Setup synchronization for use with FIFO mode and equally clokked boards

Synchronization (Option)

for each board that runs synchronuously in FIFO mode. If this is not done a deadlock will occur and the program will

not start properly.

(10) Start all of the trigger master boards

After having armed the synchronized boards, you must start all of the boards, that are defined as trigger masters.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_COMMAND

r/w

Command register of the board

SPC_FIFOSTART

Starts the board with the current register settings in FIFO mode and waits for the first interrupt.

This example shows how to set up three boards for synchronization in FIFO mode. Board 0 is clock master and board 2 is trigger master.

// (3) ----- trigger synchronization of trigger master board(s) -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv[2], SPC_COMMAND, SPC_SYNCTRIGGERMASTER);

// board 2 set as trigger master

// (4) ----- trigger synchronization of trigger slave boards

SpcSetParam (hDrv[0], SPC_COMMAND, SPC_SYNCTRIGGERSLAVE);

SpcSetParam (hDrv[1], SPC_COMMAND, SPC_SYNCTRIGGERSLAVE);

-----

// as trigger slaves

// (5) ----- synchronization information for clock master board -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv[0], SPC_COMMAND, SPC_SYNCMASTERFIFO);

// (6) ----- synchronization information for clock slave boards -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv[1], SPC_COMMAND, SPC_SYNCSLAVEFIFO);

SpcSetParam (hDrv[2], SPC_COMMAND, SPC_SYNCSLAVEFIFO);

// (7) ----- start the synchronization -----

SpcSetParam (hDrv[0], SPC_COMMAND, SPC_SYNCSTART);

// (8) ----- start the FIFO tasks. Trigger slaves are started first -----

CreateThread (NULL, 0, &dwFIFOTask, (void*) hDrv[0], 0, &dwThreadId[b]);

CreateThread (NULL, 0, &dwFIFOTask, (void*) hDRV[1], 0, &dwThreadId[b]);

// (9) ----- start the trigger master FIFO task -----

CreateThread (NULL, 0, &dwFIFOTask, (void*) hDrv[2], 0, &dwThreadId[hDrv[2]]);

It is assumed, that the created threads start in the same order as they are called from within the program. As described before, starting of

the FIFO mode in synchronization has to be done in different threads to avoid a deadlock. A simple example for a FIFO thread can be found

below.

Example of FIFO task. It simply starts the boards and counts the buffers that have been transfered:

unsigned long __stdcall dwFIFOTask (void* phDrv)

{

int16

int32

int16

int32

hDrv = (int16) phDrv;

lCmd = SPC_FIFOSTART;

nBufIdx = 0, nErr;

lTotalBuf;

lTotalBuf = 0;

{

nErr = SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_COMMAND, lCmd);

// wait for buffer

// here you can do

lCmd = SPC_FIFOWAIT;

printf ("Board %d

Buffer %d total buffers: %d\n", nIdx, nBufIdx, lTotalBuf);// e.g. calculations

// just a printf here

SpcSetParam (hDrv, SPC_COMMAND, SPC_FIFO_BUFREADY0 + nBufIdx);

// release buffer

nBufIdx++;

lTotalBuf++;

if (nBufIdx == FIFO_BUFFERS)

nBufIdx = 0;

}

while (nErr == ERR_OK);

return 0;

}

Additions for synchronizing different boards

General information

Spectrum boards with different speed grades, different number of channels or even just different clock settings for the same types of boards

can be synchronized as well. To get the boards working together synchronously some extra setups have to be done, which are described in

the following passages.

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Synchronization (Option)

Setup synchronization for use with FIFO mode and equally clokked boards

All clock rates of all synchronized boards are derived from the clock signal that is distributed via the sync bus. This clock is the sum samplerate

of one module of the clock master board. Based on this speed the clock rates of the slave boards can be set. As these clock rates are divided

from the sync clock, the board with the maximum sum sample rate should be set up as clock master.

Calculating the clock dividers

The sum sample rate can easily be calculated by the formula on the right.

SumSampleRate_N= SampleRate_N⋅ ActChPerModule_N

The value for the sample rate of board N must contain the actual desired

conversion rate for one channel of board N. Please refer to the dedicated

chapter in the board’s manual to get informed about the relation beween

the board model and the number of actually activated channels per mod-

ule for the different channel setups.

As mentioned above the board with the highest sum sample rate must be

set up as the clock master. This maximum sum sample rate is used as the

overall sync speed, which is distributed via the sync bus. If you have cal-

culated the sync speed you can calculate the clock dividers for the differ-

SyncSpeed

ent boards with the formula on the right.

The maximum possible channels per module for all Spectrum boards are

given in the table below.

20xx

30xx

31xx

40xx

45xx

60xx

61xx

70xx

72xx

7005

3010

3011

3012

3013

3014

3015

3016

3110

3111

3112

6110

6111

7010

7011

7210

7211

6011

6012

2020

2021

3020

3021

3022

3023

3024

3025

3026

3027

3120

3121

3122

4020

4021

4022

4520

4521

7020

7021

7220

7221

6021

6022

3130

3131

3132

4030

4031

4032

4530

4531

6030

6031

2031

2033

3031

3033

6033

6034

4540

4541

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Setup synchronization for use with FIFO mode and equally clokked boards

Synchronization (Option)

Setting up the clock divider

The clock divider can easily be set by the following register. Please keep in mind that the divider must be set for every synchronized board

to have synchronization working correctly. For more details on the board’s clocking modes please refer to the according chapter in this man-

ual.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_CLOCKDIV

20040

r/w

Extra clock divider for synchronizing different boards.

Available divider values

100

200

400

500

800

1000

2000

The clock divider is also used by internal clock generation for all clock rates that are below 1 MS/s sum sam-

ple rate per module. If internal clock divider and extra clock divider are used together the resulting clock

divider is one value of the above listed. The driver searches for the best matching divider. Read out the reg-

ister after all sample rate registers are set to receive the resulting extra clock divider. For correct setting of the clock

divider the sample rate and channel enable information must be set before the clock divider is programmed.

Although this setup is looking very complicated at first glance, it is not really difficult to set up different boards to work synchronously with the

same speed. To give you an idea on how to setup the boards the calculations are shown in the following two examples.

Each example contains of a simple setup of two synchronized boards. It is assumed that all of the available channels on the dedicated boards

have been activated.

Example calculation with synchronous speed where slave clock is divided

Board type

3122

3120

Channels available

Desired sample rate

Enabled channels per module

Sum sample rate

8 x 12 bit A/D

10 MS/s

2 x 12 bit A/D

10 MS/s

40 MS/s

20 MS/s

Therefore this board is set up

to be the clockmaster.

Sync speed

Clock divider

40 MS/s

Divided sum clock

Enabled channels per module

Conversion speed

40 MS/s

10 MS/s

20 MS/s

10 MS/s

Example calculation with synchronous speed where master clock is divided

Board type

3025

3131

Channels available

Desired sample rate

Enabled channels per module

Sum sample rate

2 x 12 bit A/D

20 MS/s

4 x 12 bit A/D

20 MS/s

40 MS/s

Therefore this board is set up

to be the clockmaster.

Sync speed

Clock divider

40 MS/s

Divided sum clock

Enabled channels per module

Conversion speed

20 MS/s

40 MS/s

20 MS/s

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Synchronization (Option)

Setup synchronization for use with FIFO mode and equally clokked boards

Additions for equal boards with different sample rates

In addition to the possibility of synchronizing different types of boards to one synchronous sample rate it can be also useful in some cases to

synchronize boards of the same type, with one working at a divided speed.

In this case you simply set up the fastest board as the clock master and set it’s clock divider to one. Now you can easily generate divided

clock rates on the slave boards by setting their dividers to according values of the divider list.

Please keep in mind that only the dedicated divider values mentioned in the list above can be used to derive

the sample rates of the slave boards.

The following example calculation is explaining that case by using to acquisition boards. One of the boards is running with only a hundreth

of the other sample rate.

Example with equal boards but asynchronous speeds

Board type

3121

Channels available

Desired sample rate

Enabled channels per module

Sum sample rate

4 x 12 bit A/D

10 MS/s

4 x 12 bit A/D

40 MS/s

This board is set up to be the

clockmaster now.

Sync speed

Clock divider (is set to)

Divided sum clock

Enabled channels per module

Conversion speed

40 MS/s

100

400 kS/s

10 MS/s

100 kS/s

Resulting delays using different boards or speeds

Delay in standard (non FIFO) modes

There is a fixed delay between the samples of the different boards depending on the type of board, the selected clock divider and the acti-

vated channels. This delay is fixed for data acquisition or generation with the same setup.

If you use generation boards in the single shot mode this delay will be compensated within the software driver automatically.

Delay in FIFO mode

When the FIFO mode is used a delay is occuring between the data of the different boards. This delay is depending on the type of board, the

selected clock divider and the activated channel. You can read out the actual resulting delay from every board with the following register.

Value

Direction

Description

SPC_STARTDELAY

295110

Start delay in samples for FIFO synchronization only.

The resulting delay between the clock master board and the single clock

slave boards can be easily calculated with the formular mentioned on

the right.

ResultingDelay = ClockMasterDelay – ClockSlaveDelay_N

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Error Codes

Appendix

Error Codes

The following error codes could occur when a driver function has been called. Please check carefully the allowed setup for the register and

change the settings to run the program.

error name

ERR_OK

ERR_INIT

value (hex) value (dec.) error description

Execution OK, no error.

The board number is not in the range of 0 to 15. When initialisation is executed: the board number is yet

initialised, the old definition will be used.

ERR_NR

ERR_TYP

The board is not initialised yet. Use the function SpcInitPCIBoards first. If using ISA boards the function SpcIn-

itBoard must be called first.

Initialisation only: The type of board is unknown. This is a critical error. Please check whether the board is

correctly plug in the slot and whether you have the latest driver version.

ERR_FNCNOTSUPPORTED

ERR_BRDREMAP

This function is not supported by the hardware version.

The board index remap table in the registry is wrong. Either delete this table or check it craefully for double

values.

ERR_KERNELVERSION

The version of the kernel driver is not matching the version of the DLL. Please do a complete reinstallation of

the hardware driver. This error normally only occurs if someone copies the dll manually to the system direc-

tory.

ERR_HWDRVVERSION

ERR_LASTERR

The hardware needs a newer driver version to run properly. Please install the driver that was delivered

together with the board.

Old Error waiting to be read. Please read the full error information before proceeding. The driver is locked

until the error information has been read.

10h

ERR_ABORT

ERR_BOARDLOCKED

20h

30h

Abort of wait function. This return value just tells that the function has been aborted from another thread.

Access to the driver already locked by another program. Stop the other program before starting this one.

Only one program can access the driver at the time.

ERR_REG

ERR_VALUE

100h

101h

256

257

The register is not valid for this type of board.

The value for this register is not in a valid range. The allowed values and ranges are listed in the board spe-

cific documentation.

ERR_FEATURE

102h

103h

104h

105h

106h

107h

258

259

260

261

262

263

Feature (option) is not installed on this board. It’s not possible to access this feature if it’s not installed.

Channel sequence is not allowed.

Data read is not allowed after aborting the data acquisition.

Access to this register denied. No access for user allowed.

Not allowed if powerdown mode is activated.

ERR_SEQUENCE

ERR_READABORT

ERR_NOACCESS

ERR_POWERDOWN

ERR_TIMEOUT

A timeout occured while waiting for an interrupt. Why this happens depends on the application. Please

check whether the timeout value is programmed too small.

ERR_CHANNEL

110h

272

The channel number may not be accessed on the board: Either it is not a valid channel number or the chan-

nel is not accessible due to the actual setup (e.g. Only channel 0 is accessible in interlace mode)

ERR_RUNNING

ERR_ADJUST

ERR_NOPCI

ERR_PCIVERSION

ERR_PCINOBOARDS

120h

130h

200h

201h

202h

288

304

512

513

514

The board is still running, this function is not available now or this register is not accessible now.

Automatic adjustion has reported an error. Please check the boards inputs.

No PCI BIOS is found on the system.

The PCI bus has the wrong version. SPECTRUM PCI boards require PCI revision 2.1 or higher.

No SPECTRUM PCI boards found. If you have a PCI board in your system please check whether it is cor-

rectly plug into the slot connector and whether you have the latest driver version.

ERR_PCICHECKSUM

203h

515

The checksum of the board information has failed. This could be a critical hardware failure. Restart the sys-

tem and check the connection of the board in the slot.

ERR_DMALOCKED

ERR_MEMALLOC

ERR_FIFOBUFOVERRUN

204h

205h

300h

516

517

768

DMA buffer not available now.

Internal memory allocation failed. Please restart the system and be sure that there is enough free memory.

Driver buffer overrun in FIFO mode. The hardware and the driver have been fast enough but the application

software didn’t manage to transfer the buffers in time.

ERR_FIFOHWOVERRUN

301h

769

Hardware buffer overrun in FIFO mode. The hardware transfer and the driver has not been fast enough.

Please check the system for bottlenecks and make sure that the driver thread has enough time to transfer

data.

ERR_FIFOFINISHED

ERR_FIFOSETUP

ERR_TIMESTAMP_SYNC

302h

309h

310h

770

777

784

FIFO transfer has been finished, programmed number of buffers has been transferred.

FIFO setup not possible, transfer rate to high (max 250 MB/s).

Synchronisation to external timestamp reference clock failed. At initialisation is checked wether there is a

clock edge present at the input.

ERR_STARHUB

320h

800

The autorouting function of the star-hub initialisation has failed. Please check whether all cables are mounted

correctly.

100

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Pin assignment of the multipin connector

The 40 lead multipin connector is used for different options, like “Extra I/O“ or the additional digital

inputs (on analog acquisition boards only) or additional digital outputs (on analog generation boards

only).

The connectors mentioned here are mounted on an extra bracket.

The pin assignment depends on which of the below mentioned options are installed.

Extra I/O with external connector(Option -XMF)

B10

B11

B12

B13

B14

B15

B16

B17

B18

B19

B20

GND

n.c.

A10

A11

A12

A13

A14

A15

A16

A17

A18

A19

A20

GND

D10

GND

D11

GND

D12

GND

D13

GND

D14

GND

D15

GND

n.c.

B21

B22

B23

B24

B25

B26

B27

B28

B29

B30

B31

B32

B33

B34

B35

B36

B37

B38

B39

B40

D16

GND

D17

GND

D18

GND

D19

GND

D20

GND

D21

GND

D22

GND

D23

GND

n.c.

A21

A22

A23

A24

A25

A26

A27

A28

A29

A30

A31

A32

A33

A34

A35

A36

A37

A38

A39

A40

GND

n.c.

A3…A0 are the pins for the analog outputs, while D23…D0 are the 24 digital I/Os.

Option “Digital inputs“

B10

B11

B12

B13

B14

B15

B16

B17

B18

B19

B20

GND

D10

GND

D11

GND

D12

GND

D13

GND

D14

GND

D15

GND

n.c.

A10

A11

A12

A13

A14

A15

A16

A17

A18

A19

A20

GND

n.c.

B21

B22

B23

B24

B25

B26

B27

B28

B29

B30

B31

B32

B33

B34

B35

B36

B37

B38

B39

B40

D24

GND

D25

GND

D26

GND

D27

GND

D28

GND

D29

GND

D30

GND

D31

GND

n.c.

A21

A22

A23

A24

A25

A26

A27

A28

A29

A30

A31

A32

A33

A34

A35

A36

A37

A38

A39

A40

D16

GND

D17

GND

D18

GND

D19

GND

D20

GND

D21

GND

D22

GND

D23

GND

n.c.

Depending on the type of board the digital inputs are found on the upper four bits of the following analog channels:

Type

Channel 0

D0…D3

Channel 1

D4…D7

Channel 2

n.u.

D8…D11

Channel 3

n.u.

D12…D15

Channel 4

n.u.

Channel 5

n.u.

Channel 6

n.u.

Channel 7

n.u.

MC.31x0

MC.31x1

MC.31x2

D16…D19

D20…D23

D24…D27

D28…D31

101

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Pin assignment of the multipin cable

The 40 lead multipin cable is used for the additional digital inputs

(on analog acquisition boards only) or additional digital outputs (on

analog generation boards only) as well as for the digital I/O or pat-

tern generator boards.

The flat ribbon cable is shipped with the boards that are equipped

with one or more of the above mentioned options. The cable ends

are assembled with a standard IDC socket connector so you can eas-

ily make connections to your type of equipment or DUT (device under

test).

The pin assignment is given in the table in the according chapter of

the appendix.

102

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