using a 6601 as a clock

[kwijibo28]

Hi all,

I have an application where I'm acquiring data and I want to attach
with each data a timestamp. I have a PCI-6601 board and I want to know
if I can generate my timestamp with this card. To do this a need steady
increasing counter. A possible way would be to generate a 100Khz
perodic signal with a timer then connect it in a counter and read this
counter after each acquisition.

I was wondering if there is a easier way to do this. Could I use the
100Khz internal clock of the 6601 card as the source of one of the
counter. This way I would have less hardware interconnection to do and
this would free a timer for future needs.

Thanks
kwijibo28

[Jesse_O]

Hello kwijibo28,

The internal 100KHz clock is not available to the counters when trying to perform continuous acquistion.  You can find more information on this here.  If you use another counter to generate a pulse train, you could use this pulse train as the sample clock source for your other counters.  If you use a counter to generate the pulse train, you can route this signal internally by select the counter's internal output (i.e. Dev1/Ctr0InternalOutput).  When using a hardware timed sample clock, you know the period between samples.

Regards,

Jesse O.
Applications Engineering
National Instruments

[kwijibo28]

Jesse O wrote:
> Hello kwijibo28,
>
> The internal 100KHz clock is not available to the counters when trying
> to perform continuous acquistion.  You can find more information
> on this <a href="http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/63AE9149A2AEF85A86256F2B005D0E7D?OpenDocument" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;
> If you use another counter to generate a pulse train, you could use
> this pulse train as the sample clock source for your other
> counters.&nbsp; If you use a counter to generate the pulse train, you
> can route this signal internally by select the counter's internal
> output (i.e. Dev1/Ctr0InternalOutput).&nbsp; When using a hardware
> timed sample clock, you know the period between samples.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jesse O.
> Applications Engineering
> National Instruments

Hi Jesse,

Thanks for the reply,
I was asking the question because when I run the test panel inside MAX,
to test my counter, it is possible to set the event source as the
"internal 100kHz clock". I just want to know how can I do the same
thing inside my program. You're telling me it's not possible but yet
you're doing it in MAX. But it is good to know that I can route a timer
signal to a counter internally.

Regards
kwijibo28