National Instruments NI 5911 manual

Computer-Based Instruments NI 5911 User Manual Digital Oscilloscope for PCI NI 5911 User Manual September 2000 Edition Part Number 322150 B-01[...]

Support Worldwide Technical Support and Product Information ni.com National Instruments Corporate Headquarters 11500 North Mopac Expressway Austin, Texas 78759-3504 USA Tel: 512 794 0100 Worldwide Offices Australia 03 9879 5166, Austria 0662 45 79 90 0, Belgium 02 757 00 20, Brazil 011 284 5011, Canada (Calgary) 403 274 9391, Canada (Ontario) 905 7[...]

Important Information Warranty The NI 5911 is warranted against defects in m aterials and workmansh ip for a period of one year from the date of shipment, as evidenced by receipts or other doc umentation. National Instruments will, at its opti on, repair or replace equipment that p roves to be defective during the warranty p eriod. This warranty in[...]

Conventions The follo wing con ventions are used in this manual: » The » symbol leads you through nested menu items and dialog box options to a final action. The sequence File»Page Setup» Options directs you to pull down the File menu, selec t the Pa ge Setup item, and select Options from the last dialog box. This icon denotes a note, which ale[...]

© National Instruments Corporatio n v NI 5911 User Manual Contents Chapter 1 Taking Measurements with the NI 5911 Installing the NI 5911 ........... ......................... .......................... ......................... ............. 1-1 Connecting Signals ......... .......................... ...................... ........................[...]

Contents NI 5911 User Manu al vi ni.com RTSI Bus Trigger and Clock Lines ........... ......................... .......................... ................. 2-14 PFI Lines ............ ......................... ......................... ....................... .................... 2-14 PFI Lines as Inputs .......... ......................... .......[...]

© National Instruments Corporatio n 1-1 NI 5911 User Manual 1 T aking Measurements with the NI 5911 Thank you for buying a National In struments 5911 digital osci lloscope with flexible reso lution. This chapter provides infor mation on installing, connecting signals to, a nd acquiring data from your N I 5911. Installing the NI 5911 There are two [...]

Chapter 1 T aking Measurements w ith the NI 5911 NI 5911 User Manual 1-2 ni.com Figure 1-1. NI 5911 Connectors Figure 1-2. 9-Pin Mini Cir cular DIN Connector 1 +5 Volts (Fused) 2G N D 3 Reserved 4R e s e r v e d 5R e s e r v e d 6P F I 2 7 Reserved 8 Reserved 9 Reserved CH0 PFI1 PFI2 (DIN) 4 3 5 6 7 8 9 1 2[...]

Chapter 1 T ak ing Measuremen ts with the NI 5911 © National Instruments Corporatio n 1-3 NI 5911 User Manual Note The +5 V signal is fused at 1.1 A. Howe ver , National Instrument s recommends limiting the current from t his pin to 30 mA. The fuse is self-r esetting. Acquiring Data with Y our NI 5911 You can acquire data either programmatically ?[...]

Chapter 1 T aking Measurements w ith the NI 5911 NI 5911 User Manual 1-4 ni.com Acquiring Data When you launch VirtualBench-Scope, it operates in continuous run mode. To start acquiring signals with VirtualBench-Scope, complete the following steps: 1. Connect a signal to Channel 0 of y our NI 5911. 2. Configure V irtualBench-Scope. a. From the Edit[...]

Chapter 1 T ak ing Measuremen ts with the NI 5911 © National Instruments Corporatio n 1-5 NI 5911 User Manual Note When you launch V irtualBench-Scope, it automatically uses the setti ngs of your pre vio us V irtualBench-Scope session. 3. Enable the Ch 0 button in the channel selector area. Disable all other channels. Disabled channels ha ve a gra[...]

Chapter 1 T aking Measurements w ith the NI 5911 NI 5911 User Manual 1-6 ni.com The V irt ualBench-Scope soft front panel has the following features: • Channels selector — picks a channel or math functions tha t display wa veforms. • Channel settings g roup: – Channel settings selector selects the channel whose settings wil l be modified. ?[...]

© National Instruments Corporatio n 2-1 NI 5911 User Manual 2 Hardware Overview This chapter includes an overview of t he NI 5911, explains the operatio n of each functional unit making up your NI 5911, and describes the signal connections. Figure 2-1 shows a block diagram of the NI 5911. Figure 2-1. NI 5911 Block D iagram Differential Programmabl[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manual 2-2 ni.com Differential Input When measuring high dynamic range signals, ground n oise is often a problem. The PGIA of the NI 5911 allows you to make no ise-free signal measurements. The NI 5911 PGIA is a differential amplifier. T he PGIA differential amplifier efficiently rejects any noise which may[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view © National Instruments Corporatio n 2-3 NI 5911 User Manual Input Ranges To optimize the ADC resolution, you can select different gains for the PGIA. In this way, you can scale y our input signal to match the full inpu t range of the converter. The NI 5 911 PGIA offers seven different input ranges, fro m ±0.1 V to ±1[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manual 2-4 ni.com Input Bias The inputs of the PGIA typically draw an inpu t bias current of 1 nA at 25 ° C. Attaching a device with a very high source impedance can cause an offset voltage to be added to the signal you measure, according to the formula R s ×1n A ,w h e r e R s is t he external source imp[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view © National Instruments Corporatio n 2-5 NI 5911 User Manual Oscilloscope Mode The ADC converts at a constant rate of 10 0 MS/s, but you can choose to store only a fraction of these samples into m emory at a lower rate. This allows you to store waveforms using fewer data points and decreases the burden of storing, analy[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manual 2-6 ni.com Like an y other type of con verter that uses noise shaping to enhance resolution, the frequency response of the con verter is only flat to its maximum useful bandwidth. The NI 5911 h as a bandwidth of 4 MHz. Beyond this frequenc y , there is a span where the con verter acts resonant and wh[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view © National Instruments Corporatio n 2-7 NI 5911 User Manual Internally Calibrating the NI 5911 Internally calibrate your N I 5911 with a software function or a LabVIEW VI. Read more ab out the function, ni S cope_Cal S elfCali b rate , i n y our N I -SCOPE Function R efe r ence Help file. L abVIEW user s , see t he con[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manual 2-8 ni.com of range and should be recalibrated by performing an internal calibration. During acquisition in flexible resolution m ode, an error will be generated if the input to the ADC goes out of range for the converter. The fact that this condition has occurred may not be obvious by inspecti ng th[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view © National Instruments Corporatio n 2-9 NI 5911 User Manual Figure 2-3. T rigger Sources Analog T rigger Circuit The analog trigger on the NI 5911 operates by c omparing the current analog input t o an onboard threshol d voltage. Th is threshold voltage, the trigger value, can be set within the current input range in 1[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manu al 2-1 0 ni.com Figure 2-4. Below-Level Analog T riggering Mode In below-le vel analog triggering mode, the trigger is generated when t he signal value is less than the trigger value. Figure 2-5. Above-Level Analog T riggering Mode In abov e-lev el analog triggering mode, the trigger is generated when [...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view © National Instruments Corporation 2-11 NI 5 911 User Manual Figure 2-6. High-Hysteresis Analog T riggering Mode In high-hysteresis analog trigg ering mode, the trigger is generated w hen a signal crosses abov e the h ysteresis value and then crosses abo ve the trigger v alue. The signal must cross b ack below the hyst[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manu al 2-1 2 ni.com T rigger Hold-Off The trigger hold-off is a length of time that the NI 5911 waits after a trigg er is accepted before it accepts another trigger. In other words, when a trigger is received during acquisition, the trigger counter is loaded with the desired hold-off time. Hardware then re[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view © National Instruments Corporation 2-13 NI 5 911 User Manual Memor y The NI 5911 stores samples in onboard memo ry before transferring the samples to the host com puter. The minim um size for a buffer in the onboard memory is approximately 4,000 8-bit oscilloscope mode s amples or 1,000 32-bit decimation mode sam ples.[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manu al 2-1 4 ni.com Figure 2-9. Multiple Buffer Acquisition R TSI Bus T rigger and Clock Lines The RTSI bus allows National Instruments b oards to synchronize ti ming and triggering on multiple devices. The RTSI bus has seven bidirectional trigger lines and one bidirecti onal clock signal. Y ou can program[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view © National Instruments Corporation 2-15 NI 5 911 User Manual PFI Lines as Outputs You can select PFI1 or PFI2 to output seve ral digital signals. Reference Clock is a 10 MHz clock that is synchronous to the 100 MH z sample clock on the NI 5911. Y ou can use the reference clock to synchronize to another NI 5911 configur[...]

© National Instruments Corporatio n A- 1 NI 5911 User Manual A Specifications This appendix lists the sp ecifications of the NI 5911. These specifications are typical at 25 ° C unless otherwise specif ied. Acquisition System Bandwidth .............. ......................... ....... 1 00 MHz maximum, at all input ranges Number of channels .. ....[...]

Appendix A Specifications NI 5911 User Manual A-2 ni.com Memory record sizes ............... ...............2,000 samples, to maximum sample depth determined by sample frequency Vertical sensitivity (input ranges) Acquisition Characteristics Accuracy Amplitude accuracy ................................±0.05% signal ±0.0001% fs (5 to 40 ° C) fo r [...]

Appendix A Specifications © National Instruments Corporatio n A- 3 NI 5911 User Manual Max measurable input voltage ........... .... ±10 V (DC + peak AC) Input protection .................... .................. ±42 VDC (DC + peak AC) Input bias current ......... ......................... . ±1 nA, typical at 25 ° C Common-Mode Characteristics I[...]

Appendix A Specifications NI 5911 User Manual A-4 ni.com Dynamic Range Noise (excluding input-referred noise) Distortion Sampling Frequency Band width Noise Density To t a l N o i s e 100 MHz/ n 100 MHz – 120 dBfs/ – 43 dBfs 12.5 MHz 3.75 MHz – 135 dBfs/ – 64 dBfs 5M H z 2M H z – 150 dBfs/ – 83 dBfs 2.5 MHz 1M H z – 155 dBfs/ – 91 d[...]

Appendix A Specifications © National Instruments Corporatio n A- 5 NI 5911 User Manual T imebase System Number of timebases ........ ..................... 2, RTSI clock configured as a 10 MHz clock output (Master), or RTSI clock configured as a 10 MHz reference clock input (Slave). Clock accuracy (as Master) .................... 10 MHz ±50 p pm C[...]

Appendix A Specifications NI 5911 User Manual A-6 ni.com T riggering Systems Modes .......... ......................... ..................Above threshold, below threshold, between th resholds, outside thresholds Source .................. ....................... ............CH0, RTSI<0..6>, PFI 1,2 Slope ............ ......................... [...]

Appendix A Specifications © National Instruments Corporatio n A- 7 NI 5911 User Manual Acquisition Modes RIS ........ .......................... ....................... 1 GS/s down to 200 MS/s effective sample rate, repetitive signals only. Data is interleaved in software. RIS accuracy .......................................... <0.5 ns Single-s[...]

Appendix A Specifications NI 5911 User Manual A-8 ni.com Calibration Internal .................................................... Internal calibrati on is done upon software command. The calibration involves g ain, offset and linearity correction for all input ranges and input modes. Interval ............. .......................... ...... 1 week,[...]

© National Instruments Corporatio n B- 1 NI 5911 User Manual B Digitizer Basics This appendix explains basic information you need to understand abou t making measurements with dig itizers, including importan t terminology . Understanding Digitizers T o understand how digitizers work, you should be familiar with the Nyquist theorem and ho w it affe[...]

Appendix B Digitizer B asics NI 5911 User Manual B-2 ni.com Analog Bandwidth Analog bandwidth describes the frequenc y range (in Hertz) in which a signal can be digitized accurately . This limitation is determined b y the inherent frequency response of the input path which causes loss of amplitude and phase in formation. Analog bandwid th is the fr[...]

Appendix B Digitizer Basics © National Instruments Corporatio n B- 3 NI 5911 User Manual Figure B-3. 1M H zS i n eW a v eS a m p l e V ertical Sensitivity Vertical sensitivity d escribes the smallest input voltage change the digitizer can capture. This limitation is because one distinct digital voltage encompasses a range of analog voltages. There[...]

Appendix B Digitizer B asics NI 5911 User Manual B-4 ni.com Figure B-4. T ransfer Function of a 3-Bit ADC ADC Resolution ADC resolution limits the accuracy of a measurement. The higher the resolution (number of bits), the more accurate the measurement. An 8-bit ADC divides the v ert ical range of the input ampl ifier into 256 discrete le vels. W it[...]

Appendix B Digitizer Basics © National Instruments Corporatio n B- 5 NI 5911 User Manual thresholds, programmable hysteresis values, and trigger hold-off. The NI 5911 also has two digital triggers that give you more fle x ibility in triggering by allo wing you t o connect a TTL/CMOS digital signal to trigger the acquisition. Random Interleaved Sam[...]

Appendix B Digitizer B asics NI 5911 User Manual B-6 ni.com Figure B-5. Waveform Reconstruction w i th RIS The time measurement is made w ith a time-to-digital con verter (TDC). The resolution of the TD C is the number of physical bins to which t he TDC can quantize the trigger arriv al time. This r esolution should be sev er al times higher than t[...]

Appendix B Digitizer Basics © National Instruments Corporatio n B- 7 NI 5911 User Manual For e xample, consider the maximum interpolation factor to be 5. If the TDC could output v alues from 0 to 15, then each logical bin will contain three physical bi ns, as show n in Figure B-6. Figure B-6. Relationship between Interpolation Factor , Logical Bin[...]

Appendix B Digitizer B asics NI 5911 User Manual B-8 ni.com Figure B-7. Dynamic Range of an 8-Bit ADC with Three Different Gain Settings +127 LSB +38.4 LSB – 38.4 LSB 0 LSB – 128 LSB +127 LSB +7 LSB – 8 LSB 0 LSB – 128 LSB +127 LSB +153 LSB – 154 LSB 0 LSB – 128 LSB Acquired Signal a. Gain = 1, Input Range ±5 V, Number of LSBs = 15 b. [...]

Appendix B Digitizer Basics © National Instruments Corporatio n B- 9 NI 5911 User Manual • Source impedance — Mo st digitizers and d igital storage os cilloscopes ( D S O s )h a v ea1M Ω input resistance in the passb and. If the source impedance is large, the signal will be attenuated at the am plifier input and the measurement will be inacc[...]

Appendix B Digitizer B asics NI 5911 User Manu al B-10 ni.com Figure B-8. Difficul t Pulse T rain Signal Ideally , the t rigger ev ent should occu r at condition one, but sometimes the instrument may trigger on co ndition two because the signal crosses the trigger lev el. Y ou can solve this problem without using complicated signal processing techn[...]

© National Instruments Corporatio n C- 1 NI 5911 User Manual C T echnical Support Resources W eb Support National Instruments W eb support is your first stop for help in solving installation, configuration, and application pro blems and questions. O nline problem-solving and di agnostic resources include frequ ently asked questions, knowledge base[...]

Appendix C T echnical Support R esources NI 5911 User Manual C-2 ni.com W orldwide Support National Instruments has of fices located around the world to help address your support needs. Y ou can access our branch off ice W eb sites from the W o rldwide Of fices section of ni.com . Branch off ice W eb sites provide up-to-date contact information, su[...]

© National Instruments Corporatio n G-1 NI 5911 User Manual Glossar y Pref ix Meanings V alue p- pico- 10 – 12 n- nano- 10 – 9 µ- micro- 10 – 6 m- milli- 10 – 3 k- kilo- 10 3 M- mega- 10 6 G- giga- 10 9 Symbols % percent + positiv e of, or pl us – negati ve of, or minus /p e r ° degree ± plus or minus Ω ohm A A amperes A/D analog to[...]

Glossary NI 5911 User Manual G-2 ni.com A C coupled the passing of a signal through a f i lter network that removes the DC component of the si gnal ADC analog-to-digital con verter — an electronic device, often an i ntegrated circuit, that con verts an analog voltage to a digital number ADC resolution the resolution of the ADC , which is measured[...]

Glossary © National Instruments Corporatio n G-3 NI 5911 User Manual clock hardware component that controls timing for reading from or writing to groups CMRR common-mode rejection ratio — a measure of an instrument ’ s ability to reject interference from a common-mode signal, usually e xpressed in decibels (dB) counter/timer a circuit that cou[...]

Glossary NI 5911 User Manual G-4 ni.com F filtering a type of signal cond itioning that allows you to f ilt er unwanted signals from the signal you are trying to measure G gain the factor by which a signal is amplif ied, sometimes expressed in decibels H hardware the physical compon ents of a computer system, such as the c ircuit boards, plug-in bo[...]

Glossary © National Instruments Corporatio n G-5 NI 5911 User Manual interrupt lev el the relativ e priority at wh ich a device can interrupt ISA industry standard architecture K kk i l o — the standard metric prefix for 1,000, or 10 3 , used w ith units of measure such as volts, hertz, and meters kS 1,000 samples L LabVIEW laboratory virtual in[...]

Glossary NI 5911 User Manual G-6 ni.com N noise an undesirable electrical sign al — Noise comes from external sources such as the A C power line, motors, generators, transformers, fluoresc ent lights, soldering irons, CR T displays, computers, electrical storms, welders, radio transmitters, and internal sources such as semi conductors, resistors,[...]

Glossary © National Instruments Corporatio n G-7 NI 5911 User Manual pretriggering the technique used on a de vice to keep a b uffer filled with data, so that when the trigger conditions are met, the sample includes the data leading u p to the trigger con dition PXI PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation. PXI is an open specification that b u ilds of [...]

Glossary NI 5911 User Manual G-8 ni.com sense in four-wire resistance the sense measures the v oltag e across the resistor being excited by the e xcitation cur rent settling time the amount of time required for a voltage to reach its final v alue within specified limits source impedance a parameter of signal sources that reflects curren t-driving a[...]

Glossary © National Instruments Corporatio n G-9 NI 5911 User Manual V V volts V AC volts alternating current VDC volts direct current V error v o ltage error VI virtual instrument — (1) a combination of hardware and/or software elements, typically used with a PC, that has the functionality of a classic stand-alone instrument (2) a LabVIEW soft [...]

© National Instruments Corporatio n I-1 NI 5911 User Manual Index Numbers +5 V signal limitation on current (note), 1-3 self-resetting fuse (note), 1-3 A AC coupling, 2-4 accuracy characteristics, A-2 to A-3 accurate measurements for digitizers. See digitizers. acquisition multiple record, 2-1 3 to 2-14 VirtualBench-Scope soft front panel, 1 - 4t [...]

Index NI 5911 User Manual I-2 ni.com noise-free signal measurement (figure), 2-2 d i g i t i z e r s ,B - 1t oB - 1 0 ADC resolution, B-4 analog bandwidth, B-2 making accurate measurements, B - 7t oB - 1 0 dynamic range of 8-bit ADC (figure), B-8 general signal shape, B-9 to B-10 input coupling, B-10 input frequency, B-9 peak-to-peak value, B-7 to [...]

Index © National Instruments Corporatio n I-3 NI 5911 User Manual I impedance formula for impedance divider, 2-3 input and output impedance, 2 -3 source impedance, B-9 input bias, 2-4 input coupling, B-10 input frequency, B-9 input impedance, 2-3 to 2-4 input protection circuit s, 2-4 input ranges, 2-3 installing NI 5911, 1 -1 M measurement accura[...]

Index NI 5911 User Manual I-4 ni.com power requirement specifications, A-7 programmatically controllin g NI 5911, 1-3 pulse train sign al, difficult (f igure), B-10 R Random Interleaved Sampling (RIS) interpolation factor (figure), B-7 purpose and use, 2-5 specifications, A-7 theory of, B-5 to B-7 waveform reconstru ction (figure), B -6 Real Time s[...]

Index © National Instruments Corporatio n I-5 NI 5911 User Manual V vertical sensitivity d i g i t i z e r s ,B - 3t oB - 4 specifications, A-2 VirtualBench-Scope soft fron t panel, 1-2 to 1-6 Acquire tab (figur e), 1-4 acquiring data, 1-4 to 1-5 features, 1-5 to 1-6 front panel (figure), 1-5 W Web support from National Instruments, C-1 Worldwide [...]