topic Re: trigger line conflicts in Signal Generators

trigger line conflicts

tonys10 — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 00:48:17 GMT

I have 10 5421 AWG's installed in a chassis (6 in PCX bus #2, 4 in PCX bus #3) operating as pairs through software control. Triggering works fine between the first 3 pairs but fails with the second two pairs with an error indicating that the trigger line was already allocated yet I cannot determine why the system thinks that. I have included a NiSpy capture. (note, remove the .txt extension to import into NiSpy)

Re: trigger line conflicts

JerryAL — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 00:58:33 GMT

Hi Tony

Do you have the PXI controller and PXI chassis configured in MAX?

Jerry

Re: trigger line conflicts

tonys10 — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 00:59:42 GMT

yes

Re: trigger line conflicts

JerryAL — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 01:03:31 GMT

Are you using NI TClk? And only TClking the modules together that are on the same PCI bus segment? Is this in one large application, or three applications running concurantly?

Re: trigger line conflicts

tonys10 — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 01:06:40 GMT

One application, we have 5 clocks in slots 2-6, and then 10 AWGs after that. Are we having some sort of clock signal line conflicts?

Re: trigger line conflicts

kirsch — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 14:43:06 GMT

Hello Tony

It's hard to tell what your problem is from the information above. Please describe with more detail:

What chassis are you using?
What version of NI-FGEN are you using?
What are you trying to output with the NI 5421s?
Are you trying to start the signal generators with a HW trigger? All at once? In groups? One by one?
Where is this HW trigger coming from (if it's a HW trigger)?
Are you using NI-TClk to synchronize the NI 5421s?
How are you clocking the signal generators?

The NI-SPY log appears to be corrupted so that's not being very helpful.

Thanks

Marcos Kirsch
Staff Software Engineer - Signal Generators
National Instruments

Re: trigger line conflicts

JerryAL — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 16:46:39 GMT

Hi Tony

Can you attach a MAX System Information report?

In MAX, go to the Help pull down menu and select “System Information”. A window should pop up containing the software information. At the bottom, a button labeled “Report…”. Click on the Report button.

IN a new window, select “Simple Report” and select a directory to save it to. Then click on the Finish button. It will create an html file containing system information. It is typically labeled: nireport.html.

Before sending it, please look at the file and verify that it contains a “Max Summary”, which should also list the modules you have and the slots they are in.

Also, we were able to open the spy file after Marcos's post.

Jerry

Re: trigger line conflicts

tonys10 — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 19:02:03 GMT

here you go

Re: trigger line conflicts

JerryAL — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 19:12:14 GMT

Hi Tony

Can you answer the questions Marcos posted?

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary in the nireport file.

Thanks

Re: trigger line conflicts

tonys10 — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 20:35:13 GMT

I actually found a problem with viMapTriggers which may be helpful here. I have included an NI Spy dump of my application initialization. Are there some tricks involving mapping and unmapping of triggers that we are not catching? I also noticed that upon a clean reboot of the PC and external chassis the test case actually functions properly (at least the last set of AWG's that were previously reporting an error)

Re: trigger line conflicts

JerryAL — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 23:03:06 GMT

Hi Tony

Are you mapping triggers manuallly? Then you also need to reserve the lines in MAX. Otherwise, TClk will grab the same lines and they will get double driven.

Re: trigger line conflicts

tonys10 — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 23:42:38 GMT

I reserved the lines that we use (1-5), the MapTrigger calls no longer return errors but the unmapTrigger calls still return the same error.

Message Edited by tonys10 on 02-02-2006 05:43 PM

Re: trigger line conflicts

tonys10 — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 02:10:59 GMT

I have been playing with reserving trigger lines in max and it is still a bit inconsistent. The routing is "Dynamic" for all channels and Triggers 1-3 will only be used on Bus 2 and Triggers 4 & 5 will only be used on Bus 3. In addition I am using Trigger 6 for the start trigger on both Bus 2 and Bus 3. What "should" the settings be for this?

Re: trigger line conflicts

DanielKurejwowski — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 18:44:23 GMT

From you Capture.spy file I see that you're calling viUnmapTrigger before the viSetAttribute functions. Try calling viSetAttribute before the viUnmapTrigger calls, since that way the segments in the chassis will be configured. I believe the viUnmapTrigger is failing because the chassis is not yet fully configured (i.e. trigger 6, but from which segment, etc.).

Re: trigger line conflicts

tonys10 — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 21:57:24 GMT

I moved the UnmapTrigger after the SetAttribute and still get an error, I guess I need to address this problem first.

Re: trigger line conflicts

tonys10 — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 18:46:25 GMT

any ideas on this?

Re: trigger line conflicts

JerryAL — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:44:21 GMT

From your Spy log, it seems that you have resources or devices in use when VISA is trying to access them to map the triggers. We need more information, such as your setup or what else is running at the time when making calls to viMapTrigger. This information would be helpful so that we know what has control over the device(s).

At this point, I think you should call into NI support to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible. An application Engineer will be able to work with you on what information we need to determine the issue.

Jerry

Re: trigger line conflicts

tonys10 — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 19:25:47 GMT

I was given a support ID # 710864 on 2/24 but have not heard back from anyone on this. This is the most important issue I have right now so I need to get going on resolving it. Anyone have any ideas?

Re: trigger line conflicts

JerryAL — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 20:00:58 GMT

Hi Tony

I just checked that number and it doesn't come up as a valid number. How did you get it? Did you talk to an Applications Engineer? I think this requires someone who can coordinate different experts to bring the different issues together to solve.

Jerry

Re: trigger line conflicts

tonys10 — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 20:12:59 GMT

sorry, it's 7105864