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Frequency hopping and sweeping, Triggering, Trigger sources – National Instruments PXI NI 5401 User Manual

Page 27: Frequency hopping and sweeping -4, Triggering -4, Trigger sources -4

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Chapter 2

Function Generator Operation

NI 5401 User Manual

2-4

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Each stage is made up of two instructions: the frequency, which specifies
the frequency of the waveform to be generated, and the time, which
specifies the time for which the frequency is to be generated.

Note

You cannot specify the number of iterations for a waveform to be generated.

Frequency Hopping and Sweeping

You can define a staging list for performing frequency hops and sweeps.
The entire staging list uses the same buffer loaded into the lookup memory.
All stages differ in the frequency to be generated.

Note

The minimum time that a frequency should be generated is 2 µs. Therefore, the

maximum hop rate from frequency to frequency is 500 kHz.

The maximum number of stages that can be stored in the instruction FIFO
for DDS mode is 512. For more information on the waveform generation
process, refer to your software documentation.

Triggering

You use triggering to start and step through a waveform generation. The
trigger sources and modes of operation are explained in the following
sections.

Trigger Sources

Trigger sources are software selectable. By default, the software produces
the trigger sources. You can also use an external trigger from a pin on the
digital I/O connector, the RTSI trigger lines on the RTSI bus, or the TTL
trigger lines on the PXI trigger bus on the backplane. Figure 2-4 shows the
trigger sources for the NI 5401.