National Instruments NI 5911 manual

Computer-Based Instruments NI 5911 User Manual Digital Oscilloscope for PCI NI 5911 User Manual October 1998 Edition Part Number 3221 50A-01 CBIHWum.book Page 1 Thursday, October 29, 1998 1:56 PM[...]

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Important Information Warranty The NI 5911 is warranted against defect s in materials an d workmanship f or a period of one year fr om the date of shipment, as evidenced by receipts or other documentati on. National Instruments will, at its option, repair or replace equipment that pro ves to be d efective duri ng th e warrant y pe riod. This warran[...]

Conventions The follo wing con v entions 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 Set up»Options»S ubst i tu te Fonts directs you to pull down the File menu, select the Page Setup item, select Options , and finally select the Substitute Fonts op[...]

© National Instruments Corporation v NI 5911 User Manual Contents Chapter 1 Taking Measurements with the NI 5911 Connecting Signals ....... .............. ........... ........... ........... ............... ........... ........... ............. 1-1 I ntroduction to the VirtualBench-Scope Soft Front Panel ........................ .............. ...[...]

Contents NI 5911 User Manual vi © National Instruments Corporation Appendix A Specifications Appendix B Digitizer Basics Appendix C Customer Communication Glossary Index Figures Figure 1-1. NI 5911 Connectors .............................................................................. 1-2 Figure 1-2. VirtualBench-Scope Soft Front Panel .........[...]

© National Instruments Corporation 1-1 NI 5911 User Manual 1 T aking Measurements with the NI 5911 Thank you for buying a National Instruments 5911 digital oscillosco pe with flexible resolution. The NI 5911 offers unsurpassed flexibility for performing measurements from DC to 100 MHz. Using the NI 5911 flexible resolution feature, you can choose [...]

Chapter 1 T aking Measurements with the NI 5911 NI 5911 User Manual 1-2 © National Instruments Corporation Figure 1-1. NI 5911 Connectors Introduction to the VirtualBench-Scope Soft Front Panel The VirtualBench-Scope soft front panel allows you to in teractively control your NI 5911 as you would a desktop oscilloscope. The following sections expla[...]

Chapter 1 T aking Me asurements with the NI 5911 © National Instruments Corporation 1-3 NI 5911 User Manual Figure 1-2. VirtualBen ch-Scope Soft Front Panel Soft Front Panel Features The VirtualBench-Scope soft front panel has the following features: • Channel Display Selector — selects a waveform for display on the graphics di splay. • Chan[...]

Chapter 1 T aking Measurements with the NI 5911 NI 5911 User Manual 1-4 © National Instruments Corporation • Vertical Slider —adjusts the voltage offset for each channel. Use this slider when you want to adjust multiple waveforms in the graphics display. • Trigger Settings Group — controls the conditions required fo r signal acquisition; f[...]

Chapter 1 T aking Me asurements with the NI 5911 © National Instruments Corporation 1-5 NI 5911 User Manual Using the VirtualBench-SCOPE Soft Front Panel The following sections describe ho w to perform simple analog input measurements using the V irtualBench-SCOPE soft front panel. Acquiring Data When you launch VirtualBench -Scope, it operates in[...]

Chapter 1 T aking Measurements with the NI 5911 NI 5911 User Manual 1-6 © National Instruments Corporation Figure 1-3. Acquire Tab of VirtualBench-Scope Settings Dialog Box Note: When you launch VirtualBench-Scope, it automatically uses the settings of your previous VirtualBench-Scope session. 3. Enable the Ch 0 button in the Channel Select or gro[...]

© National Instruments Corporation 2-1 NI 5911 User Manual 2 Hardware Overview This chapter includes an overview of the NI 5911, explains the operation 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 Diagram Protect/ Calibration Mux Cal[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manual 2-2 © National Instruments Corporation Measurement Fundamentals The NI 5911 has a differential programmabl e gain input amplifier (PGIA) at the analog input. The purpose of the PGIA is to accurately interface to and scale the signal presented at the connector to the analog-to-digital converter (ADC)[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Overview © National Instruments Corporation 2-3 NI 5911 User Manual the cable impedances you use. As a result, most of the noise v oltage occurs at the negati v e input of the PGIA where it is rejected, rather than in the positi v e input, where it would be amplified. Input Ranges To optimize the ADC resolution, you can select d[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manual 2-4 © National Instruments Corporation Input Bias The inputs of the PGIA typically draw an input bias current of 1 n A 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 × 1 nA, where R s i[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Overview © National Instruments Corporation 2-5 NI 5911 User Manual Oscilloscope Mode In the oscilloscope mode, the NI 5911 works as a conventional desktop oscilloscope. This mode is useful for displaying waveforms and for deriving waveform parameters such as slew rate, rise time, and settling time. The sample resolution in osci[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manual 2-6 © National Instruments Corporation Like any other type of con v erter 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 has a bandwidth of 4 MHz. Beyond this frequenc y , there is a span where the con[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Overview © National Instruments Corporation 2-7 NI 5911 User Manual sampling rates, resolutio ns, and bandwidth for fl exible resolution mo de are shown in Table 2-2. During the acquisition, samples are stored in a circular b uf fer that is continually rewritten until a trigger is recei ved. After the trigger is recei ved, the N[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manual 2-8 © National Instruments Corporation 3. The linearity of the ADC is calibrated using an internal sine w av e generator as reference. 4. The time-to-digital con verter used for RIS measurements is calibrated. Note Do not apply high-amplitude or high-frequency signals to the NI 5911 during internal [...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Overview © National Instruments Corporation 2-9 NI 5911 User Manual Figure 2-3. T rigger Sources Analog T rigger Circuit The analog trigger on the NI 5911 operates b y comparing the current analog input to an onboard threshold v oltage. This threshold v oltage, triggerValue , can be set within the current input range in 170 step[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manual 2-10 © National Instruments Corporation Figure 2-4. Below-Level Analog T riggering Mode In below-le v el analog triggering mode, the trigger is generated when the signal value is less than triggerValue. hysteresisValue is unused. Figure 2-5. Above-Level Analog T riggering Mode In abov e-le vel analo[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Overview © National Instruments Corporation 2-11 NI 5911 User Manual Figure 2-6. High-Hysteresis An alog T riggering Mode In high-hysteresis analog triggering mode, the trigger is generated when the signal value is greate r than triggerValue , with the hysteresis specif ied by hysteresisValue . The signal must cross back belo w [...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manual 2-12 © National Instruments Corporation When a trigger is recei ved during acquisition, the trigger counter is loaded with the desired hold-off time. Hardware then rejects all triggers until the counter has expired or the current acquisition compl etes, whichev er is longer . The time the acquisitio[...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Overview © National Instruments Corporation 2-13 NI 5911 User Manual Multiple Record After the trigger has been received and the posttrigger samples have been stored, the NI 5911 can be configured to begin another acquisition that is stored in another memory record on the board. This is a multiple record acquisition. To perform [...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Over view NI 5911 User Manual 2-14 © National Instruments Corporation fact that this condition has occurred may not be obvious by inspecting the acquired data due to the digital filtering that takes place on the acquired data. Therefore an error will occur to let you know that the data includes some samples that were out of the [...]

Chapter 2 Hardware Overview © National Instruments Corporation 2-15 NI 5911 User Manual Synchronization The NI 5911 uses a digital phase lock loop to synchronize the 100 MHz sample clock to a 10 MHz reference. This reference frequency can be supplied by a crystal oscillator on the board or through an external frequency input through the RTSI bus c[...]

© National Instruments Corporation A-1 NI 5911 User Manual A Specifications This appendix lists the specifications of the NI-5911. These specif ications are typical at 25 ° C unless otherwise specif ied. NI 5911 Acquisition System Bandwidth ........... .............. ............ ......... 100 MHz maximum, at all input ranges Number of channels .[...]

Appendix A Specifications NI 5911 User Manual A-2 © National Instruments Corporation Memory record sizes ........................ ......2,000 samples, to maximum sample depth determined by sample frequency Vertical sensitivity (input ranges) 200 kHz Flexible Resolution 1 MS 4 MS 100 kHz Flexible Resolution 1 MS 4 MS 50 kHz Fle xible Resolution 1 M[...]

Appendix A Specifications © National Instruments Corporation A-3 NI 5911 User Manual Acquisition Characteristics Accuracy Amplitude accuracy ............................... ± 0.05% signal ± 0.0001% fs (5 to 40° C) for all input ranges at 1 kHz (excluding ripple from digital filters) DC offset ................ ........... ............ ......... [...]

Appendix A Specifications NI 5911 User Manual A-4 © National Instruments Corporation Filtering Sampling Frequency Filter Mode Bandwidth Ripple Alias Attenuation 100 MHz/ n Oscilloscope 100 MHz ±3 dB N/A 12.5 MHz Flexible Resolution 3.75 MHz ±0.2 dB –60 dB 5 MHz Flexible Resolution 2 MHz ±0.1 dB –7 0 dB 2.5 MHz Flexible Resolution 1 MHz ±0.[...]

Appendix A Specifications © National Instruments Corporation A-5 NI 5911 User Manual Dynamic Range Noise (excluding input-referred noise) Distortion Sampling Frequency Band width Noise Density T otal Noise 100 MHz/ n 100 MHz –120 dBfs/sqrt(Hz) –43 dBfs 12.5 MHz 3.75 MHz –135 dBfs/sqrt(Hz) –64 dBfs 5 MHz 2 MHz –150 dBfs/sqrt(Hz) –83 dBf[...]

Appendix A Specifications NI 5911 User Manual A-6 © National Instruments Corporation 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 ppm Clo[...]

Appendix A Specifications © National Instruments Corporation A-7 NI 5911 User Manual Hysteresis .................. .............. .............. . Full-scale voltage/ n , where n is between 1 and 170; full-scale voltage on TRIG is fixed to ±5 V (without external attenuation) Coupling ........... ............ .............. ........... . AC/DC on [...]

Appendix A Specifications NI 5911 User Manual A-8 © National Instruments Corporation Physical Dimensions ...................... .............. .........33.8 x 9.9 cm (13.3 x 3.9 in) I/O connectors Analog input CH0................ ............BNC female Digital triggers ............................. ....SMB female, 9-pin DIN Operating Environment A[...]

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

Appendix B Digitizer Basics NI 5911 User Manual B-2 © National Instruments Corporation Analog Bandwidth Analog bandwidth describes the frequency range (in Hertz) in which a signal can be digitized accurately . This limitation is determined by the inherent frequency response of the input path which causes loss of amplitude and phase information. An[...]

Appendix B Digitizer Basics © National Instruments Corporation B-3 NI 5911 User Manual Figure B-3. 1 MHz Sine Wave Sample V ertical Sensitivity V ertical sensitivity describes the smallest input voltage change the digitizer can capture. This limitation is because one distinct digital v oltage encompasses a range of analog v oltages. Therefore, it [...]

Appendix B Digitizer Basics NI 5911 User Manual B-4 © National Instruments Corporation ADC Resolution ADC r esolution 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 ertical range of the input amplif ier into 256 discrete lev els. W ith a vertical range[...]

Appendix B Digitizer Basics © National Instruments Corporation B-5 NI 5911 User Manual to Appendix A, Specifications , for the maximum input voltage for your NI 5911 device. Figure B-5 shows that a gain of 5 is the best setting to digitize a 300 mV , 1 MHz sine wave without clipping the signal. Figure B-5. Dynamic Range of an 8-Bit ADC with Three [...]

Appendix B Digitizer Basics NI 5911 User Manual B-6 © National Instruments Corporation • Source impedance—Most digitizers and digital storage oscillo scopes (DSOs) h av e a 1 M Ω input resistance in the passband. If the source impedance is large, the signal will be attenuated at the amplifier input and the measurement will be inaccurate. If [...]

Appendix B Digitizer Basics © National Instruments Corporation B-7 NI 5911 User Manual Ideally , the trigger event should occur at condition one, but sometimes the instrument may trigger on condition two because the signal crosses the trigger lev el. Y ou can solve this problem withou t using complicated sign al processing techniques by using trig[...]

© National Instruments Corporation C-1 NI 5911 User Manual C Customer Communication For your con venience, this appendix contains forms to help you gather the information necessary to help us solv e your technical problems and a form you can use to comment on the product documentation. When you contact us, we need the information on the T echnical[...]

NI 5911 User Manual C-2 © National Instruments Corporation Fax-on-Demand Support Fax-on-Demand is a 24-hour information retrie val system containing a library of documents on a wide range of technical information. Y ou can access Fax-on-Demand from a touch-tone telephone at 512 418 1111. E-Mail Support (Currently USA Only) Y ou can submit technica[...]

T echnical Support Form Photocopy this form and update it each time you mak e changes to your software or hardware, and use the completed copy of this form as a reference for your current conf iguration. Completing this form accurately before contacting National Instruments for technical support helps our applications engineers answer your question[...]

NI 5911 Hardware and Software Configuration Form Record the settings and re visions of your hardware and softw are on the line to the right of each item. Complete a ne w cop y of this form each time you re vise your software or hardware conf iguration, and use this form as a reference for your current conf iguration. Completing this form accurately[...]

Documentation Comment Form National Instruments encourages you to comment on the documentation supplied with our pro ducts. This information helps us provide quality products to meet your needs. Ti tl e : NI 5911 User Manual Edition Date: October 1998 Part Number: 322150A-01 Please comment on the completeness, clarity , and or ganization of the man[...]

© National Instruments Corporation G-1 NI 5911 User Manual Glossar y Pref ix Meanings V alue p- pico 10 –1 2 n- nano- 10 –9 µ- micro- 10 –6 m- milli- 10 –3 k- kilo- 10 3 M- mega- 1 0 6 G- giga- 10 9 Numbers/Symbols % percent + positi ve of, or p lus – negati v e of, or minus /p e r °d e g r e e ± plus or minus Ω ohm A A amperes A C [...]

Glossary NI 5911 User Manual G-2 © National Instruments Corporation A/D analog-to-digital ADC analog-to-digital con verter—an electronic de vice, often an integrated circuit, that con verts an analog voltage to a digital number ADC resolution the resolution of the ADC , which is measured in bits. An ADC with16 bits has a higher resolution, and t[...]

Glossary © National Instruments Corporation G-3 NI 5911 User Manual DC direct current default setting a default parameter v alue recorded in the driv er . In many cases, the default input of a control is a certain v alue (often 0) that means use the curr ent default setting . differential input an analog input consisting of two terminals, both of [...]

Glossary NI 5911 User Manual G-4 © National Instruments Corporation I in. inches inductance the relationship of induced v oltage to current input bias current the current that flo ws into the inputs of a circuit input impedance the measured resistance and capacitance between the input terminals of a circuit instrument driv er a set of high-lev el [...]

Glossary © National Instruments Corporation G-5 NI 5911 User Manual O Ohm’ s Law (R=V /I)— the relationship of voltage to current in a resistance ov errange a segment of the input range of an instrument outside of the normal measuring range. Measurements can still be made, usually with a degradation in specif ications. P PCI Peripheral Compone[...]

Glossary NI 5911 User Manual G-6 © National Instruments Corporation S s seconds S samples sense in four-wire resistance the sense measures the v oltage across the resistor being excited by the e xcitation current settling time the amount of time required for a vo ltage to reach its f inal value within specified limits S/s samples per second—used[...]

Glossary © National Instruments Corporation G-7 NI 5911 User Manual V Vv o l t s V A C volts alternating current VDC v olts direct current V error voltage 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 softw[...]

© National Instruments Corporation I-1 NI 5911 User Manual Index A A C couplin g , 2- 4 accuracy characteristics, A-3 acquisition, multiple record, 2-13 to 2-14 acquisition characteristics specifications, A-3 to A-5 accuracy , A-3 common-mode characteristics, A-3 distortion, A-5 dynamic range, A-5 filtering, A-4 acquisition modes specifications, A[...]

Index NI 5911 User Manual I-2 © National Instruments Corporation SMB connector , 1-1 con v entions used in manual, v customer communication, C-1 to C-2 D dead time, in multiple record acquisition, 2-13 differential input, 2-2 to 2-4 grounding considerations, 2-2 to 2-3 input bias, 2-4 input impedance, 2-3 to 2-4 input protection, 2-4 input ranges,[...]

Index © National Instruments Corporation I-3 NI 5911 User Manual measurement fundamentals, 2-2 to 2-4 measurement modes, 2-4 to 2-6 flexible resolution mode, 2-5 to 2-6 oscilloscope mode, 2-5 hysteresis v alue. See analog trigger circuit. I impedance formula for impedance divider , 2-3 input and output impedance, 2-3 to 2-4 source impedance, B-6 i[...]

Index NI 5911 User Manual I-4 © National Instruments Corporation power requirement specif ications, A-7 pulse train signal, diff icult (figure), B-6 R Real T ime sampling, 2-6 record length, B-4 Repetiti ve (RIS) sampling, 2-6 R TSI bus trigger and clock lines purpose and use, 2-14 to 2-1 5 synchronization, 2-16 S sample rate digitizers, B-2 to B-[...]