Generating hardware trigger (TTL) by looking at analog input values

[diehardOE]

Is it possible to generate a trigger signal when my analog voltage level instantaneously switches from 0.2 to 0.6? My application requires me to send a trigger to a camera as soon as I see the rising edge of the analog pulse I generate. I can generate a soft trigger in the code, but that would be too slow for me. Normally I would design an opamp circuit that would sense the voltage change, but this case I want to see if this is possible with a simple DAQ card, such as 6009. 

[_kb]

diehardOE

It is certainly possible.  What software would you be using to configure the card?

[John_P1]

The 6009 doesn't have an analog trigger circuit--the best you could do is the software-issued trigger that you mentioned would be too slow for your application.

Other DAQ cards which have analog triggering capabilities (e.g. 635x, 636x, 9205) would be able to issue a hardware trigger signal by exporting the analog comparison event (see X Series User Manual).

 

 

Best Regards,

[diehardOE]

We will use Labview. We called in NI support and they recommended X Series NI USB-6341 for this purpose. 

[diehardOE]

would NI USB-6341 work as well?

[John_P1]

The USB-6341 actually doesn't have analog triggering either (see specs).

Any 635x or 636x X Series would have analog triggering (e.g. USB-6351).  The 632x and 634x do not.

Another option would be to use the USB-9171 sleeve with a USB-9205, but the X Series would be much more flexible if you needed it to do other things.

Best Regards,