Pulse generation using PCI-1428 to CC1

[PatLee]

My lab is using an external signal generator to generate a pulse to trigger a line scan camera and the frame grabber to acquire continuous images. The lab just acquired a new camera and unfortunately I cannot use the external trigger connection on the camera. I understand that PCI-1428 cannot route the external signal to a Camera Control Line. I have tried to generate a pulse from MAX but it won't let me have a pulse with pulse width smaller than 24 us.

So first, I was wondering if there is a way to generate a pulse with pulse width smaller than 24 us from MAX.

And if that is not possible, is there a way to generate a pulse from Labview similar to LL pulse generation.vi but sending it over the CC lines for camera control? Also, How can I program it so that the generated pulse is sent as soon as the frame grabber recieves/detects the start of the external signal?

thanks for your assistance.

[Tejinder_G.]

Hi Pat,

What kind of hardware are you trying to generate a pulse from withing MAX?  The minimum pulse width you can obtain should depend on the hardware you are using, and not MAX.  If your device is incapable of outputting at such an update rate, you may not be able to obtain that pulse width.

Generating a pulse from LabVIEW at that rate is probably not going to work.  You'll want to keep things to hardware to get that amount of speed.

[PatLee]

Hi Tejinder

I thought the frame grabber (PCI-1428) was capable of generating a simple pulse. So I am trying to use that to generate a pulse.

I also checked the camera file and apparaently the minimum pulse width is set as 24 us. Does this mean 24 us is the minimum pulse width the camera is able to take? We are using SUI LDH lnGaAs Digital Line Scan Camera.

Pat 

[Tejinder_G.]

Hi Pat,

It certainly is capable of outputing pulses on its DIO lines.  However, it sounds more and more like the limitation is coming from the camera file.  It is probably requiring a minimum pulse width of 24 us to detect an actual high.  I'm not sure if this is a physical limitation of the camera or if you can reduce this pulse width in the camera file and get the results you are looking for. 

[Brad · Accepted solution]

Not sure who made the camera file, but the 1428 can generate pulses on CC1 with a period of 40ns (a 50MHz internal timebase is used for the high/low pulse timing). You can use NI Camera File Generator to modify existing camera files:

https://www.ni.com/en/support/documentation/supplemental/19/creating-a-camera-file-using-the-ni-came...

It has goood documentation  for how to configure the pulse settings. If you still have problems, you can post the camera file, let me know what mode you're trying to use, and what pulse timing you want, and I could look into it, but I would recommend trying NI Camera File Generator first...make a backup of your camera file so you keep your original around.

Hope that helps,

Brad

[PatLee]

It seems the limitations are imposed within the camera file and I need to make some modifications to suit my needs

Thank you all

Pat