Programming a sequence of events

[Alexa]

Hi 

 

I am sorry, this is probably a basic question but I am struggling to understand

If I wanted to send a square wave of a few seconds, and then record for a few seconds.

I am assuming this is something I should code in with Java?

[artvvb]

Hi Alexa,

Could you describe in more detail what you're trying to do, including what products/devices you're trying to use?

Thanks,

Arthur

[Alexa]

Hi! 

I am using the Analog Discovery 2. Ultimately what we want to do is generating bias pulses (to drive a power amplifier which connects to a device we are measuring) and acquiring the response data (from the device) within the pulse windows. 

So right now it would be a pulse (we are not too sure of the width, but ~a few ms) and then for the remaining part of the period, we record/log data. 

I did try this briefly but it seemed to only send the pulse. 

 

[artvvb]

I've moved this thread to the T&M subforum, where it should get more visibility.

The SDK or scripting would also work for this, but this is doable in the WaveForms application. You can set the scope to cross-trigger from one of the Wavegen channels by setting the trigger source. Wavegen triggers once at the start of each pass through the sample buffer, so you could generate a square wave pulse and set your scope trigger position to wait however long is needed after the pulse starts going out to start the acquisition. In the attached screenshot I'm also using the settings available for W1 when the output channels are independent of each other to only send out a single period - run for 10 microseconds, one period of the 100 kHz wave, and repeat the wave only once. Note the triangle icon at the top of the Scope plot that shows where the trigger occurred, time 0, at the start of the pulse.

Edit to add: I would also use "Single" acquisitions for this - click single in the scope then run the wavegen. This arms the scope before the wavegen sends out the pulse.

Hope this helps,

Arthur

[attila]

Hi @Alexa

I would list the options in difficulty order:
- The easier would be using the WaveForms application, where you can simply adjust parameter and see the result.
- To automate tasks you can use the Script tool of the WF app, the bottommost in the instrument list.
- For simple tasks the dwfcmd command line application can also be used, which can be executed with arguments or task file.
- For custom applications/scripts the WF SDK can be used, which can be optimized for better performance.