How to trigger a pulsed laser

[Kevin_Price]

As followup to Santhosh's comments, your device does not support the needed hardware timing for DO, nor does it have counters available for pulse outputs.

The closest you could possibly get is to generate two channels of AO that toggle between 0V and 5V at appropriate timing increments.  However, your device is limited to 5 kHz max, so you'll be stuck with timing resolution / quantization where your signals are separated by some integer multiple of 200 usec.

It's conceivable that this can work "well enough".  The timing at least would be very consistent.

-Kevin P

[santo_13]

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@Kevin_Price wrote:

As followup to Santhosh's comments, your device does not support the needed hardware timing for DO, nor does it have counters available for pulse outputs.

The closest you could possibly get is to generate two channels of AO that toggle between 0V and 5V at appropriate timing increments.  However, your device is limited to 5 kHz max, so you'll be stuck with timing resolution / quantization where your signals are separated by some integer multiple of 200 usec.

It's conceivable that this can work "well enough".  The timing at least would be very consistent.

-Kevin P

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@Kevin, would it be possible to use AO to send the first pulse, configure a counter output to start 150us after the AO start trigger?

[Kevin_Price]

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@Kevin, would it be possible to use AO to send the first pulse, configure a counter output to start 150us after the AO start trigger?

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That'd work on many devices, but not the OP's.  The single counter on the OP's USB-6003 device doesn't do output at all.  It can only do software-timed edge counting.

-Kevin P

[JÞB]

In other words. The OP is trying to float a raft on the highway. Rafts are nice, useful cheap vehicles! But, you need something else to get down a road.

[Bob_Schor]

It is possible to find NI-compatible USB Multi-function modules with Digital I/O and Counter-Timer capabilities (the NI-6212 comes to mind).  There may be less-expensive substitutes.

Bob Schor 

[JÞB]

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@Bob_Schor wrote:

It is possible to find NI-compatible USB Multi-function modules with Digital I/O and Counter-Timer capabilities (the NI-6212 comes to mind).  There may be less-expensive substitutes.

Bob Schor 

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My experience here suggests a few things:

• The OP has already missed a requirement gathering objective.
• Very seldom does a YAg laser need to be triggered one time only
• The timing between pulses needs to be deterministic 

We SHOULD go back to requirement gathering from "Desired Outcomes"

What does the OP want to do with the laser output?  

Generally that is not "Make a small, individual, undirected pulse of coherent radiation. "

I cannot tell if the OP needs a Ford or a Ferrari to perform on the highway.   But, a 6000 series DAQ on Windows is not going to work.