Advice on acquisition triggering using cRIO strain bridge module

[ElectricWraith]

Hello all! I'm quoting a project that involves collecting values from a single channel of an NI-9236 strain bridge module. I have to display and plot a large number of curves over time, and I'm trying to find the best way to trigger the acquisition. This is the first LV RT project I've been involved with, so I'm looking for a bit of general advice as well.

Basically I need to acquire 500 samples at 1kHz, and I need to know if there are any special considerations I'm overlooking. Specifically, am I going to need a DIO module? This is a fairly simple application (to my knowledge, anyways), but I'd prefer something a bit more predictable and controllable than a timed trigger.

Thanks and let me know if I've omitted any important info.

[Verne_D]

There's a few questions that might help clarify the problem.

First, are you seeing a failure or timing inconsistency? If so, are there any error numbers or can you clarify the data inconsistency?

What is the 9236 housed in? (i.e. cRIO, compactDAQ, usb sleeve, etc.)

Are you requiring an input digital line for a trigger signal? (you would probably need an input module, in this case)

If you are using a cRIO, are you programming in FPGA or using Scan Engine?

There's some useful examples in the example finder for or here: http://www.ni.com/gettingstarted/beginapplication.htm

Is there a similar example to what you're trying to accomplish so we might discuss it more specifically?

[ElectricWraith]

This project is still in the quoting phase, so nothing has been implemented yet. The 9236 will live in a cRIO-9074 chassis, and the trigger event is itself the question. From some cursory research on the part of one of my colleauges (one far more savvy with RT/FPGA projects) it would seem that we will be able to trigger on a threshold value seen by the 9236, provided we're polling it constantly. This will be the only task that the system has to accomplish, so I don't imagine that doing so will tax the processor to death. So, it would seem that I won't be needing a DIO module as I thought I might.

I assume that we'll be using Scan Engine.

I don't have any more specific examples, sorry.

[Verne_D · Accepted solution]

No worries, The above statements seem reasonable to me. It'll mostly be a matter of implementing this in the code you write. This should fall well within the capabilities of that system. Good luck!

[ElectricWraith]

Good to hear, thanks!