High frequency and resolution with 6036E

[jmarotta]

I am trying to drive a triangular wave signal with about 250Hz, with the greatest resolution possible. However, due to buffer restrictions and sampling restrictions, I can't seem to be able to produce more than about 10 Hz. Is there a really good way to produce such a higher-frequency signal, with no loss to resolution?

[mikeporter]

It looks like you need a faster output card. The best that the 6036E can do is about a 10kHz update rate. Do the math and that means cranking as hard as it will go, the card will only put about 40 updates in each cycle of the output waveform.

From what you said, a 10 Hz signal is ok. So if you extrapolate out to 250Hz you need to be looking for a card with an update rate of about 250kHz--all things otherwise being equal.

Mike...

[gazoo]

I agree with Mike here, if you are looking for high accuracy signal generation then you should probably look for a signal generator or arbitrary waveform generator, they are the best for that specially if you are concerned about accuracy. What you can try for high frequency accuracy is use a counter to generate a pulse train and the use an external hardware to integrate that signal and make it triangular, may not be the best, but it is another option.Gazoo!

[jmarotta]

After talking with my advisor, I have gotten the same answer. This does, indeed, appear to be a hardware limitation. Since this is for a biology project, 10Hz is actually plenty... Thanks for the advice!!

Joe