PCI6602 problem. Cntrs 2-7 don't work when cascaded with cntrs 0-1

[Piero]

Big hardware problem with PCI6602. I can't cascade counters 2-7 and counters 0 or 1. In particular I need two counters (2 and 3 for instance) acting like debouncers for my signals. Then I want the outs to be the counter 0 and 1 gates for a simultaneously-triggered buffered event counting (two timestampers). Well, when I connect all this stuff and run counters 2-3 they work fine. But then when I load the routine for the triggered buffered counting, counters 2-3 don't work any more. They don't even if I use them as target and counter 0-1 as debouncers, even though the latters still work. I suspect hardware problem with BNC2121. Has anyone experienced that? I have a conventional system: PIII, WinNT, the la
test LabView and DAQ. Help please.

[bman]

Piero

Are you doing buffered operations with more than three counters? If so, this may be the cause for it not to work. The PCI-6602 can have three counters on the board doing buffered operations with DMA, after that, the counters must be configured for interrupts. If you do not set them for interrupts, you will get an error.

Another thing to check is to make sure that the routine for counters 2 and 3 is being called and they are getting armed. There may be something with the code for counters 0 and 1 that is blocking 2 and 3 from getting armed.

If you feel comfortable posting your program, I could take a look at it to see if I see anything that may be causing it not to work.

Brian

[Piero]

Hi
Thanks a lot for your concern in my trouble.

There's no problem with DMA in fact I'm using two counters only (0 and 1) with default tranfer mode.
After a more accurate debug I could indeed see that the problem arises with the DIO_0 config or trigger pulse setup. Why does nothing work any more when using the DIO_0? Actually the counters 0 and 1, that have direct dedicated BNC connectors in the BNC2121, still work! No doubt you know the BNC2121 box: to use other counters I have to link the spring connectors to the user defined BNCs. That is the reason I suspect some hardware problems.
I really need an external start pulse supplied as start trigger.

Actually I modified some subs I got from the web. So maybe I make some mistakes in
there I can't see now. The subs with yellow background icon have been modified by me.

Stay cool.
Piero

[SPeters]

Piero,

I don't know if you're still working on this project, but I just recently ran into the same problem, being unable to simultaneously use the Digital I/O and counters.

My problem was using a virtual channel. I looked at your code and it appears that you use a high level vi to configue the digital ports after having configured the counters. The digital port needs to be configured first; then configure the counters.

Also, the high level vi's you used to write to the port reconfigure the port on each call. You would do better to open that vi and use the configuration vi once and for all; then use the actual advanced write to port vi.

Hope this helps.

Steve