Sample Clock problems

[glskinner]

Ever since I put a sample clock, my counter is going haywire...any suggestions?

[nathand]

Could you provide more detail?  Which counter?  Where's the "sample clock"?  What do you mean by "haywire"?

[glskinner]

the cycle "count" in my program is counting sporadically ever since I added a sample clock to my horizontal displacement channel.

[nathand]

I can read code but not minds; could you try a bit harder?  You have a graph labeled "Horizontal Displacement."  When I follow back the wire going to that graph, it comes from an analog input task.  That task does not have a sample clock associated with it, that I see.  The only sample clock I see is on the Horizontal Load channel.  As for the cycle count, do you mean the Cycle indicator?  Can you be more specific than "counting sporadically"?  Do you mean there are conditions under which you expect it to count an additional cycle, but it does not do so?

It looks to me like you're try to count transitions where your input goes from less than to greater than some value.  You're reading multiple data points (don't know how many) on each cycle of the while loop.  However, you only process one point per loop cycle, discarding the rest (but still graphing them), so you could easily miss a transition.

[glskinner]

I'm sorry, I meant horizontal load. The counter indicator counts really fast up to 50, then it starts doing what it is supposed to do..which is count each cycle of my TTL.

[nathand]

I think you need to look carefully at the data you're receiving.  I don't see any obvious problem with the code, but I also don't have the DAQ library you're using (the Measurement Computing Universal Library, if I'm not mistaken), and your wires are running all over the place so it's a bit hard to follow.

Have you run your VI with execution highlighting?  Have you put any probes to see whether the logic is doing what you expect?  Have you tried writing a typical series of inputs to a file, then reading that in instead of acquiring from the DAQ so you can look at it more easily?

[glskinner]

Typical series of inputs?

[nathand]

A typical series of data readings - whatever data it is that you expect to produce a normal cycle count sequence.  For example, run your current code and each time through the loop, write the value that it reads to a file.  Then, rework your code so that instead of reading from the analog input channel, it reads from that file.  Or, it might be enough just to look at the file and see if the transitions are where you expect them to be.

[glskinner]

ok, so, instead of using the sample clock, I'm using a time delay inside my case structure where I'm taking measurements to a file. It seems to give me the right range of points...but it's not exact. You think I should do it this way?

[nathand]

I think you need to spend some time understanding where the problem comes from when you add the sample clock.  Also, clean up the wiring so you don't have overlapping wires and so many conversions between data types.  I'd start by creating a new VI that uses only the analog channel that you're using for the cycle counting (although, if it's TTL and you're just looking for transitions, why use an analog instead of digital input?).  See if you can duplicate the behavior with just that one channel.  Look at whether there's a difference in what data points are read, and which data points are used for the transition analysis.