500 microseconds pulse

[frnz]

Hi Everyone,

I need to generate a pulse of 500 microseconds (repeated every 350 mS) and I just wonder if this is possible using the parallel port or PCI6503 card, with C# and measurement studio?

Here is the scenario: Drive a relay with a pulse of 500uS and make a resistance measurement (or any other means, i.e current, voltage, etc) to determine that relay did not switch (stays inactive).  It may be repeated at a rate of 350 mS.  For resistance measurement I will use DAQ 34970A.

Any sample code will be much appreciated.  Thanks,

Frank

[Yardov]

Hello Frank,

I think you got some things to try on this forum.
To answer the question "can it be done with c# and Measurement Studio", the answer is: If the hardware can do it, then any programming language can call the driver to do it.
Your hardware cannot do dynamic digital generation meaning it will have to be software timed and therefore it will be OS dependent. I do not think you can achieve 500 us in software.
If you had different hardware (probably something that has a counter like M Series) you could use this counter to generate the pulse that you need very accurately and deterministic. Then you can correlate this with the Analog Input measurement with the same card. Once you install the DAQmx driver, there are examples for counters, analog inputs and many others in this location:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\National Instruments\NI-DAQ\Examples\DotNET2.0

I am not very familiar with the recommendations of the other forums so feel free to ask here further NI product related questions.

[frnz]

Thanks Gerardo for your recommendation. . .

Could I use the counter function of any of the USB devices i.e NI USB-6008 or 6009 series? As they are less expensive.  Thanks again,

Frank

[Yardov]

Hello Frank,

USB 6008/9 counters are only design to 'count' and they cannot generate pulse train as stated on this knowledge base. You will need something at least like an E-Series, still I recommend the M-series since they are the newer model of multi functional DAQ.

[frnz]

Thanks Gerardo,

And as you mentioned above there is an excellent solution provided by tbd at this link:

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=274067&view=by_date_ascending&page=2

Thanks again,

Frank

[Yardov]

Hello Frank,

Indeed this is a different solution if you do not want to use any hardware meant to do your application. Thank you to TBD and is great this solution is working for you.
Best of luck,