FYS3240

PC-based instrumentation and microcontrollers

Instrumentation and data acquisition

Spring 2013 – Lecture #6

Bekkeng, 11.3.2013
Overview
• Overview of Data acquisition
• DAQ signals
• Signal conditioning
• Sampling concepts
• DAQ hardware
– PXI
• Device drivers
• Software development for PC-based DAQ (using LabVIEW)
• Hardware timing
• A few other examples (including VISION)
Data acquisition (DAQ)
• Data acquisition involves measuring signals (from a real-world
physical system) from different sensors, and digitizing the
signals for storage, analysis and presentation.

• Analog input channels can vary in number from one to several

hundred or even thousands

Computer-based DAQ system:

NI SC DAQ
Overview of Data acquisition (DAQ)

A DAQ system consists of:

• Sensors (transducers)
• Signal Conditioning
• Cables
• DAQ hardware
• Drivers
• Software

DAQ fundamentals turtorial from NI:

www.ni.com http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3216
 Types of Data Acquisition Systems
• DAQ types and some of their characteristics:
1. Laboratory DAQ
• Permanent location
• Can be a large and heavy installation
• Often rack mounted (19-inch racks)
• PC-based
2. Portable DAQ
• Small and light
• PC-based (connected to a PC), or
• Stand-alone units, like data loggers, that do not need a PC
connection (e.g. a flight data recorder)
3. Both 1. and 2. can be required to be ruggedized
for use in the field
• Shock and vibration tolerant
• Water and dust protected
Categories of DAQ signals
• Analog input
• Analog output
• Digital I/O
• Counter
– Quadrature encoder input for rotational measurements
– Digital edge counting
– Frequency measurements
• Other signals: bus-based and serial
Digital Signal Information

Two types of information:

• State
• Rate
Analog Signal Information

Three types of information:

• Level
• Shape
• Frequency
Considerations for analog signals

• Signal source - grounded or floating

• Source impedance
– The DAQ device must have a much higher input impedance
than the signal source
– This is usually not a problem as the DAQ devices are
designed to have a very high input impedance (GΩ range)
• Single-ended & differential signals

Vin

I=V/Z
Signal Source Categories

Grounded Floating

+ +
Vs Vs
_ _
Grounded Signal Source

– Signal is referenced to
Grounded a system ground
• earth ground
• building ground
+
– Examples:
Vs
_ • Power supplies
• Signal Generators
• Anything that plugs into
an outlet ground
Floating Signal Source

• Signal is NOT referenced to

a system ground Floating
– earth ground
– building ground
• Examples: +
– Batteries
Vs
– Thermocouples _
– Transformers
– Isolation Amplifiers
DAQ-card input signal configuration

– DAQ input channels can be configured in two ways:

• Differential
• Single-ended
– Referenced Single-Ended (RSE)
– Non-Referenced Single-Ended (NRSE)
– The optimal connection depends on how your signal is
grounded
 Single-ended (SE) signals
• One signal wire for each input signal
• Can be used for the following conditions:
– High-level input signals (greater than 1 V)
– Short cables
– Properly-shielded cables or cables traveling through a noise-free
environment
– All input signals can share a common reference point (ground)
• To types of connections:
– Referenced Single-Ended (RSE)
– Non-Referenced Single-Ended (NRSE)
RSE vs. NRSE configuration
• The RSE configuration is used for floating signal sources. In this case,
the DAQ hardware device itself provides the reference ground for the
input signal.
• The NRSE input configuration is used for grounded signal sources. In this
case, the input signal provides its own reference ground and the
hardware device should not supply one.
– Measurement made with respect to a common reference (AISENSE), not
system ground (AIGND)
– AISENSE is floating

RSE NRSE
 Ground loop illustration
The blue connection to ground must not be added, since it creates a ground loop

RSE

Ig
ΔVg
Rg
Ground loop!
 Differential signals
• Two signal wires for each input signal (input and return signals)
• The measurement is the voltage difference between the two wires
• Recommended for the following conditions:
– Low-level signals (less than 1 V)
– Long cables
– The input signal requires a separate ground-reference point or return signal
– The signal leads go through a noisy environment
• DAQ devices with instrumentation amplifiers can be configured as differential
measurement systems
• Any voltage present at the instrumentation amplifier inputs with respect to the
amplifier ground is called a common-mode voltage
• The instrumentation amplifier rejects common-mode voltage and common-mode
noise
Input signal

Return signal
Options for Grounded Signal Sources
Options for Floating Signal Sources
Signal conditioning
• Signal conversion
– E.g. current-voltage converter
• Amplification
• Attenuation
– Voltage divider
• Filtering
– Anti-aliasing
• Isolation
 Current-to-voltage converter

• Transimpedance amplifier (Feedback

Ammeter)
• Recommended connection for small
currents
• Sensitivity determined by Rf
• Add a capacitor Cf in parallel with Rf to
Noise equivalent circuit:
avoid oscillations
• Rf usually large to achieve a large gain
• enb dominate for large Rf

enb = input current noise * Rf

env = input voltage noise
enj = thermal noise (voltage)
 Amplification
– Used on low-level signals (less than around 100 mV )
– Maximizes use of Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) range and
increases accuracy
– Increases Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)
E.g. -5 V to +5 V
Noise
Instrumentation
Amplifier
1 mV

10 mV
+ 10V
_ 1000 ADC
Lead Wires

Low-Level Signal External

Amplifier DAQ Device

SNR = Vsignal/Vnoise = (10 mV * 1000) /1 mV = 10 000

Operational amplifier
(Op-amp)
– Inverting op-amp amplifier
• Vo = -R2/R1 * Vi

– Non-inverting op-amp amplifier

– Vo = (1+R2/R1) * Vi

– Non-inverting op-amp amplifier useful when a

high impedance input is needed
– Inverting op-amp amplifier useful when a low
impedance input is needed
– Non-inverting op-amp amplifier gives less
noise (due to G = 1+R2/R1 instead of
G = -R2/R1
Attenuation

• Voltage divider
• A circuit that produces an
output voltage (Vout) that is a
fraction of its input voltage
(Vin)
• Can be needed to get a
high-level signal down to the
acceptable DAQ-card range
Input Coupling

• Use AC coupling when the signal contains a large DC

component. If you enable AC coupling, you remove the large
DC offset for the input amplifier and amplify only the AC
component. This configuration makes effective use of the ADC
dynamic range

C
 Isolation amplifiers
• Isolation electrically separates two parts of a measurement device
• Protects from high voltages
• Prevents ground loops
– when two connected points are at a different ground potential, creating a current flow in the
interconnection, which produces an offset error
• Separate ground planes of data acquisition device and sensor
• Isolation techniques: Optical, Capacitive, Inductive Coupling

8.5 V

7V
• Before we look at hardware filtering, lets
have a look at sampling concepts ….
Sampling Considerations
– An analog signal is continuous

– A sampled signal is a series of

discrete samples acquired at a
specified sampling rate
Actual Signal
– The faster we sample the more
our sampled signal will look like
our actual signal

– If not sampled fast enough a

problem known as aliasing will
occur
Sampled Signal
 Aliasing

Adequately
Sampled
Signal
Signal

Aliased
Signal
Sampling & Nyquist’s Theorem
• Nyquist’s Theorem
– You must sample at greater than 2 times the
maximum frequency component of your signal to
accurately represent the frequency of your signal

• NOTE: You must sample between 5 - 10 times

greater than the maximum frequency component of
your signal to accurately represent the shape of your
signal
Sampling Example

Aliased Signal

100Hz Sine Wave Sampled at 100Hz

Adequately Sampled
for Frequency Only
(Same # of cycles)

100Hz Sine Wave Sampled at 200Hz

Adequately Sampled
for Frequency and
Shape
100Hz Sine Wave Sampled at 1kHz
Hardware Filtering
• Filtering
– To remove unwanted signals from the signal that you are trying to
measure

• Anti-aliasing low-pass filtering (before the A/D converter)

– To remove all signal frequencies that are higher than the input
bandwidth of the device. If the signals were not removed, they
would erroneously appear as signals within the input bandwidth of
the device (known as aliasing)

Frequency Domain:
 Analog filters
• Filter types: LP, HP, BP, BS, Notch

• Passive filters:
– RC, LCR
– (often inductors L are avoided, but they
are needed for high Q-factor)
• Active filters
– opamp + R and C
– (can avoid L)

• Some common filter characteristics Bessel

– Butterworth
– Chebyshev
– Bessel (constant group delay in pass band)
– Elliptic
 Sallen-Key - Active analog filter

• Free program: FilterPro from Texas instruments

– http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/filterpro.html

LP HP
 Switched-Capacitor Filter
• Can be suitable as an ADC anti-aliasing filter if you build your
own electronics
• Be aware of possible clock noise (add RC-filters before and after)
• The corner frequency (cut-off) fc is “programmable” using an
external clock
• Example:
– MAX7400 8th-order,lowpass, elliptic filter
– MAX7400 has a transition ratio (fs/fc) of 1.5 and a typical stop band
rejection of 82dB
Importance of LP-filter selection for
DAQ bandwidth
• fc = cut-off frequency
• fs = sampling frequency
• BW = bandwidth
M (dB)

BW

0
-3

Mstop
f (Hz)
fc’ fc
fstop
fs = 2*fc fs = 2*fstop

fs = 5*fc (in this example)

ADC architectures

• Multiplexed
• Simultaneous
sampling
 ADC resolution
• The number of bits used to represent an analog signal determines the
resolution of the ADC
• Larger resolution = more precise representation of your signal
• The resolution determine the smallest detectable change in the input
signal, referred to as code width or LSB (least significant bit)

16-Bit Versus 3-Bit Resolution

(5kHz Sine Wave)
10.00
111
8.75
110 16-bit resolution
7.50
101
6.25
Amplitude 100 3-bit resolution
5.00
Example: (volts) 011
3.75
010
2.50
001
1.25
000
0| | | | |
0 50 100 150 200
Time (ms)
 Digital signals: Bits, dynamic range,
and SNR
• SNR = signal to noise ratio
• The number of bits used
determines the maximum
possible signal-to-noise ratio
• Using the entire ADC range
(using an amplifier) increases
the SNR
• The minimum possible noise
level is the error caused by
the quantization of the signal,
referred to as quantization
noise.
 ADC oversampling Δf

• The SNR of an ideal N-bit ADC (due to quantization effects) is:

SNR(dB) = 6.02*N + 1.76
• If the sampling rate is increased, we get the following SNR:
• SNR(dB) = 6.02*N + 1.76 + 10* log10(OSR)
• OSR = fs/fnyquist Δf
0
• Nyquist sampling theorem: fs ≥ 2 *Δfsignal f
• Oversampling makes it possible to use a simple RC anti-aliasing
filter before the ADC
• After A/D conversion, perform digital low-pass filtering and then
down sampling to fnyquist
• Effective resolution with oversampling = N + 1/2 *log2 (fs/fnyquist),
where N is the resolution of an ideal N-bit ADC at the Nyquist rate
– If OSR = fs/fnyquist = 1024, an 8-bit ADC gets and effective resolution
equal to that of a 13-bit ACD at the Nyquist rate (which is 2 *Δfsignal )
ADC range

• Range refers to the minimum and maximum analog signal

levels that the ADC can digitize (+/-5 or +/-10 typical for many
DAQ-cards)
• Pick a range that your signal fits in
• Smaller range gives a more precise representation of your signal, given
that the signal is not clipped (saturated)
• If your signal is clipped you can in general not determine the absolute
signal levels
• Bipolar signals are signals that range from a negative to a
positive value (e.g. -5 to +5 V)
• Unipolar signals are signals that range from 0 value to a
positive value (e.g. 0 – 5 V)
 Gain
– Gain setting amplifies the signal for best fit in
ADC range
– Gain settings are 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, or 100
for most DAQ cards.
– You don’t choose the gain directly in LabVIEW
• Choose the input limits of your signal

• Maximum gain possible is selected

• Maximum gain possible depends on the limits of your
signal and the range of your ADC
– Proper gain = more precise representation of
your signal
• Allows you to use all of your available resolution
Gain Example
• Input limits of the signal: 0 to 5 Volts
• Range setting for the ADC: 0 to 10 Volts
• Gain setting applied by instrumentation amplifier: 2

Different Gains for 16-bit Resolution

(5kHz Sine Wave)
10.00
8.75
Gain = 2
7.50
6.25
Amplitude Your Signal
5.00
(volts) Gain = 1
3.75
2.50
1.25
0 | | | | |
0 50 100 150 200
Time (ms)
Other noise reduction techniques in
DAQ systems
• Position noise sources (e.g. motors and power lines) away from data
acquisition device, cable, and sensor if possible
• Place data acquisition device as close to sensor as possible to prevent
noise from entering the system
• Twisted pairs, coax cable, shielding
• Software Filtering (e.g. averaging)
Software filtering

• Easy, flexible, predictable, inexpensive

• Unable to distinguish aliased signals from true ones
– Need a hardware anti-aliasing filter before the A/D
conversion!
• Modern PCs have plenty of CPU speed for software filtering
 Data Acquisition Hardware
Plug-in card (PCI/PCIe)

Your Signal

DAQ Device
Computer
Cable

Terminal Block

• DAQ Hardware turns your PC into a

measurement and automation
system
DAQ Device
– Most DAQ devices have:
• Analog Input
• Analog Output
• Digital I/O
DAQ Device
• Counters Computer
– Frequency measurements
– Angular measurements from angular encoders

– Connects to the bus of your computer

– Compatible with a variety of bus protocols
• PCI, PXI, CompactPCI, PCIe, PXIe, PCMCIA, USB
PXI
• PXI = PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation.
• PXI is a high-performance PC-based platform for
measurement and automation systems.
• PXI was developed in 1997 and launched in 1998.
• Today, PXI is governed by the PXI Systems Alliance (PXISA), a
group of more than 70 companies chartered to promote the PXI
standard, ensure interoperability, and maintain the PXI
specification.
PXI

• PXI systems are composed of three basic components:

– Chassis

– Controller

– Peripheral modules
PXI chassis

• The PXI chassis contains the backplane for the plug-in DAQ
cards
• The chassis provides power, cooling, and communication
buses for the PXI controller and modules.
• Chassis are available both with PCI and PCI Express
• 4 – 18 slots chassis are common
PXI controllers
• PXI Embedded Controller

• Laptop Control of PXI

– Using e.g. ExpressCard serial bus

• Desktop PC Control of PXI

 PXI-based DAQ systems

• The benefits of PXI-based data acquisition systems include

rugged packaging that can withstand the harsh conditions that
often exist in industrial applications.

• PXI systems also offer a modular architecture, which means

that you can fit several devices in the same space as a single
stand-alone instrument, and you have the ability to expand your
system far beyond the capacity of a desktop computer with a
PCI bus.
 PXI triggering and timing
• One of the key advantages of a PXI system is the integrated timing and
synchronization.
• The PXI chassis includes reference clocks, triggering buses and slot-to-
slot local bus.
– Any module in the system can set a trigger that can be seen from any
other module.
– The local bus provides a means to establish dedicated
communication between adjacent modules.
Device Drivers
• In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer
program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact
with a hardware device.

• A driver typically communicates with the device through the

computer bus or communications subsystem to which the
hardware connects. When a calling program invokes a routine
in the driver, the driver issues commands to the device. Once
the device sends data back to the driver, the driver may invoke
routines in the original calling program. Drivers are hardware-
dependent and operating-system-specific.
NI Instrument Drivers - IDNET
• All NI hardware is shipped with
LabVIEW driver software
• Driver upgrade to the latest ni.com/idnet
version available at www.ni.com
• Many third-party vendors also ship
LabVIEW drivers with their
instruments
 Connect to any instrument using
LabVIEW instrument drivers
• Every programmable test and
measurement instrument has a set of
commands that it understands. Typically, a
programmer’s manual that comes with the
instrument documents these commands,
and it is up to you to find the commands
you need
• Instrument drivers simplify this process by
abstracting the low-level commands for
each instrument and providing a familiar
API for all instruments. By using an
instrument driver, you can focus on the
application you are developing
Using device drivers in LabVIEW
• The flow of an application typically starts with opening a connection
to the hardware, configuring hardware settings, reading and writing
measured data to and from the hardware, and finally closing the
connection to the hardware.
• Since most drivers follow this framework, learning a new driver is
relatively easy
• To “modes” to choose:
– High-level, easy-to-understand
operations (Plug and Play)

– Lower-level operations required to

use more advanced features
“In Port” and “Out Port” in LabVIEW
• Use these VIs only for 16-bit I/O addresses
• These VIs are not available in Windows Vista or Windows
7, because it allows read/write access to any I/O port on
the system, which is discouraged for security reasons.
• Solution: Use VISA …
VISA

• VISA = Virtual Instrument Software Architecture.

• NI-VISA is the NI implementation of the VISA standard.

• LabVIEW instrument drivers are based on the VISA standard,

which makes them bus- and platform-independent.

• Supports communication with instruments via:

– GPIB
– Serial
– Ethernet
– USB
– PXI
 NI-DAQmx

– NI-DAQmx (multithreaded driver) software provides ease of

use, flexibility, and performance in multiple programming
environments
– Driver level software
• DLL that makes direct calls to your DAQ device
– Supports the following software:
• NI LabVIEW
• NI LabWindows CVI
• C/C++
• C#
• Visual Basic .NET.
NI Measurement & Automation
Explorer (MAX) Icon on your
Desktop
• All NI-DAQmx devices include MAX, a configuration and test utility
• You can use MAX to
– Configure and test NI-DAQmx hardware with interactive test panels
– Perform self-test sequences
– Create simulated devices
– Reference wiring diagrams and documentation
– Save, import, and export configuration files
– Create NI-DAQmx virtual channels that can be referenced in any
programming language
MAX Example
LabVIEW Express: DAQ assistant
LabVIEW - Sequential DAQ design
• Configure
• Acquire data
• Analyze data
• Visualize data
• Store data
LabVIEW: Low-speed DAQ
• DAQ assistant Express VI used in the block diagram
• Data written to file using the Write to Measurement File
Express VI
Using the NI-DAQmx API
• Create virtual channels programmatically
• Use graphical functions and structures to specify timing, triggering, and
synchronization parameters
DAQ Assistant -> standard VIs
 LabVIEW: Medium-speed DAQ

• Example: Cont Acq&Graph Voltage -To File (Binary).vi

• Standard VIs used, and data written to a binary file

Create file Create

header
Write Close file

Create Set Start Stop

Read data acquisition
analog sample acquisition
input rate
channel
Transferring Data from DAQ-card to
System Memory
• The transfer of acquired data from the hardware to system
memory follows these steps:
– Acquired data is stored in the hardware's first-in first-out (FIFO)
buffer.
– Data is transferred from the FIFO buffer to system memory using
interrupts or DMA.
– The samples are transferred to system memory via the system bus
(PCI/PCIe).
Interrupts
• The slowest method to move acquired data to system memory
is for the DAQ-card to generate an interrupt request (IRQ).
signal. This signal can be generated when one sample is
acquired or when multiple samples are acquired. The process
of transferring data to system memory via interrupts is given
below:
– When data is ready for transfer, the CPU stops whatever it is doing
and runs a special interrupt handler routine that saves the current
machine registers, and then sets them to access the board.
– The data is extracted from the board and placed into system
memory.
– The saved machine registers are restored, and the CPU returns to
the original interrupted process.
• The actual data move is fairly quick, but there is a lot of
overhead time spent saving, setting up, and restoring the
register information.
DMA introduction

• Direct memory access (DMA) is a system whereby

samples are automatically stored in system memory
while the processor (CPU) does something else.

• A computer usually supports several different DMA

channels.
 DMA (direct memory access) I
• DMA permits peripherals, such as a DAQ-card, to transfer data
directly to or from memory without having each byte handled by
the processor (CPU). Thus DMA enables more efficient use of
interrupts, and increases data throughput.
• The process of transferring data via DMA is given below:
– When data is ready for transfer, the DAQ-card notifies the
DMA controller.
– The DMA controller then asserts a DMA request signal to
the CPU, asking its permission to use the bus (data bus,
address bus, control bus).
– The CPU completes its current bus activity, stops driving the
bus, and returns a DMA acknowledge signal to the DMA
controller.
– The DMA controller then reads and writes one or more
memory bytes, driving the address, data, and control signals
as if it were itself the CPU.
DMA intro
DMA (direct memory access) II
– When the transfer is complete, the DMA controller stops
driving the bus and deasserts the DMA request signal. The
CPU can then remove its DMA acknowledge signal and
resume control of the bus.
– In single-cycle mode, the DMA controller gives up the bus
after each transfer. This minimizes the amount of time that
the DMA controller keeps the processor off of the memory
bus, but it requires that the bus request/acknowledge
sequence be performed for every transfer. This overhead
can result in a drop in overall system throughput if a lot of
data needs to be transferred.
– In burst mode, the DMA controller keeps control of the bus
until all the data buffered by the requesting device has been
transferred to memory (or when the output device buffer is
full, if writing to a peripheral).
 LabVIEW DAQ - hardware setup
• When the sample clock (DAQmx Timing.vi) is
configured, DAQmx configures the board for
hardwared-timed I/O
– DAQ card sample clock or external sample clock
• By enabling continuous sampling DAQmx
automatically sets up a circular buffer
• DMA is the default method of data transfer for
DAQ devices that support DMA Circular
buffer

DMA transfer
Data acquisition card RAM (in the PC)

FIFO PC Application
Data ADC Data
buffer buffer memory
From sensor sclk To PC buffer
 DAQ data overwrite and overflow
• An overwrite error indicates that information is lost and occurs
when the software program does not read data from the PC
buffer quickly enough. Samples that are written to the circular
PC buffer are overwritten before they are read into the
application memory.
– Solution: use Producer-Consumer architecture.
• An overflow error indicate that information has been lost
earlier in the data acquisition process. Overflow errors indicate
that the First In First Out (FIFO) memory buffer onboard the
data acquisition card has reached its maximum capacity for
storing acquired samples and can no longer accept new
samples. An overflow error is symptomatic of a bus transfer
rate that falls short of the requested data input rate.
– Solution: use a Direct Memory Access (DMA) transfer mechanism.
 How Is Buffer Size Determined in
LabVIEW DAQmx ?
• If the acquisition is continuous (sample mode in DAQmx Timing.vi
set to Continuous Samples), NI-DAQmx allocates a PC buffer equal
in size to the value of the samples per channel (gives the number
of samples to acquire) property, unless that value is less than the
value listed in the following table. If the value of the samples per
channel property is less than the value in the table below, NI-
DAQmx uses the value in the table.
Sample Rate PC Buffer Size
No rate specified 10 kS
0–100 S/s 1 kS
101–10,000 S/s 10 kS
10,001–1,000,000 S/s 100 kS
>1,000,000 S/s 1 MS
• You can override the default buffer size using the function DAQmx
Configure Input Buffer.vi
 Solve the DAQ related
High-speed DAQ problems listed on the
next slide!

• Based on the producer-consumer architecture

• See the high-speed streaming lecture for more information!

Hardware timing, since no Wait

function is used in the producer
Producer loop loop. The producer loop rate is
given by the DAQ-card setup

𝑓 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 (𝐻𝑧)

𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑟 =
𝐷𝐴𝑄 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑏𝑢𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒

Consumer loop
 Timed Loop II

• 1 kHz internal clock (Windows)

• 1 MHz internal clock (for RT-targets)
• External timing source capability (using DAQmx Create Timing Source.vi)

• A Timed Loop gives you:

– precise timing
– feedback on loop execution
– timing characteristics that can change dynamically
– possibility to start the loop at a precise time each day (using a time stamp)
– phase (offset) control
– possibility to specifies the processor you want to handle execution
– execution priority
– precise determinism in a real-time operating system
• When Timed Loops as used on Windows (no RTOS) the OS can preempt
your structure at any time to let a low-priority task run (based on
“fairness”
 Execution priority
• While loops run at normal priority, and timed structures run between
time-critical priority and above high priority.

• Therefore if you would like to have control of the priority of each

aspect of your application, simply use timed structures, and set the
priority between them using the priority input

File - VI Properties»Execution:
Software Timing

• Attempts to resolve milliseconds on a PC within the limitations of the

operating system (such as Windows)
• If you need better resolution or accuracy (determinism) you have to use
a hardware solution (“software in the loop” degrades precision)
Hardware Timing
• Necessary for high-resolution and high-accuracy timing
– e.g. for data correlation
• Hardware timing can give ns to µs accuracy (recall that
software timing gives accuracy in the ms range)
• Using GPS you can get a time uncertainty in the range of
10 – 100 ns
• Ordinary DAQ-cards includes a stable crystal oscillator (for the
ADC) that gives a resolution of µs or better, and this can be
used for timing
 Triggering
• A trigger is a signal that causes a device to perform an action,
such as starting an acquisition. You can program your DAQ
device to generate triggers on any of the following:
– a software command
– a condition on an external digital signal
– a condition on an external analog signal
• E.g. level triggering
Time stamping of data
• Often need to timestamp an image in a video stream or a block
of data from a DAQ-card to GPS (UTC) time; e.g. for use in
data fusion in post-analysis.
• If the data samples has a deterministic (regular) interval, such
as samples from a DAQ-card, it is sufficient to time stamp the
first sample/sample batch.
– The time of the remaining samples are found from

𝑡 = 𝑡0 + ∆𝑡
1
∆𝑡 =
𝑓𝑠
• If the data samples are not deterministic (regular), e.g. video
frames from a camera, each data point/video frame must
include a timestamp
 Signal based vs. time-based
synchronization
• Signal-based synchronization involves sharing signals such
as clocks and triggers directly (wires) between nodes that need
to be synchronized.
• Time-based synchronization involves nodes independently
synchronizing their individual clocks based on some time
source, or time reference.
• There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods of
device synchronization.

Synchronization Basics
Signal-based synchronization
• In systems where the devices are near each other, sharing a
common timing signal is generally the easiest and most
accurate method of synchronization.

• For example, modular instruments in a PXI chassis all share a

common 10 MHz clock signal from the PXI backplane, enabling
synchronization to less than 1 ns.

• To accurately use a common timing signal, a device must be

calibrated to account for the signal propagation delay from the
timing source to the device
 Time-based synchronization
• Necessary for long distances
• Because of the inherent instabilities in (crystal oscillator) clocks,
distributed clocks must be synchronized continually to a time
refererence to match each other in frequency and phase.
• Time references:
– GPS
– IEEE 1588 masters
– IRIG-B sources

• By connecting a GPS with NTP-

GPS with NTP-server and IRIG-B output
server to a LAN the computers
can synchronize their clocks
within ms using standard
Ethernet connections What is NTP?
Timing and Synchronization
Systems IRIG = Inter Range Instrumentation Group
NTP = Network Time Protocol
IEEE 1588 Protocol
• Gives sub-microsecond synchronization in distributed systems
• IEEE 1588 provides a standard protocol for synchronizing
clocks connected via a multicast capable network, such as
Ethernet.
– uses a protocol known as the precision time protocol (PTP).
• All participating clocks in the network are synchronized to the
highest quality clock in the network.
• The highest ranking clock is called the grandmaster clock, and
synchronizes all other slave clocks.
• The level of precision achievable using the PTP protocol
depends heavily on the jitter (the variation in latency) present in
the underlying network topology.
– Point-to-point connections provide the highest precision.
GPS & IEEE 1588 used for time
synchronization of multiple PCs
Time-based synchronization in LabVIEW
• Install the NI-Sync drivers
• Example: Time Reference (e.g. IEEE 1588, GPS or IRIG-B)
Example – DAQ reference design for
LabVIEW

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/
cda/tut/p/id/11805
Postrun analysis / Quicklook tool
• Usually not sufficient to only look at the data in “real-time” (live)

• Usually very important to look at the data (perform a playback)

as soon as possible after a data acquisition
– E.g. to check the quality of the data

• It is very useful to have the Quicklook (playback) and analysis

functions integrated in the data acquisition program!

• It should also be possible to read the measurement data by

other common post-analysis tools (like Matlab)
 Tracking

Example: VISION
• Example: Configuration of a GigE Airbag deployment test
Vision camera
• Use MAX and the camera manual
to find the commands to configure
the camera
 Vision time stamping example
Question: How to accurately time
GE680C – Visual camera (205 fps) stamp each image from a camera to
GPS time, without any delay added
from the software loop?

Possible configurations of sync out:

sync out
Loop time stamp is
not equal to image
sample time!
Image ref.
Can timestamp the rising edge of
the signal using e.g. the NI PXI 6682
card (GPS, IEEE 1588 and IRIG-B)