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ADS5562EVM: Collecting data from multiple EVM cards at once - LabView/Matlab/HSDC?

Part Number: ADS5562EVM
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: ADS5562

Hello,

I have 4 seperate ADS5562 boards I'd like to use to capture data when a common external trigger is asserted.

I'm unable to open 4 instances of HSDC pro so can't do it that way. Looking through the automation documentation it implies Matlab for sure and possibly LabView only control HSDC and thus could not be used to setup four boards at once. Is that correct or can LabView be used to control multiple sets of hardware simultanously?

Thank you

  • Hi,

    HSDCPro is only made to have one instance of the GUI running on a computer, and while you could have numerous TSW1400 capture cards connected you would only be able to use the HSDCPro with one capture card at a time.  You would disconnect the HSDCPro from one capture card and then connect to another.   I think what you would need to do would be to have four computers to control your four capture cards and four ADC EVMs.    You could then trigger all four HSDCPro/TSW1400 to capture at the same time with an external trigger to all.    The external trigger could be from some external source, or one of the TSW1400 could be the source of the trigger and the other three would receive the trigger.   Keep in mind though that the trigger is asynchronous to the TSW1400 and thus has to be re-latched into the FPGA by the clock domain local to the FPGA, so there may still be a sample or so of indeterminency as to when the capture begins for each capture card.  Also, the normal way for the HSDCPro and TSW1400 pairing to be triggered externally is to click on the capture button just as for a normal capture, but with external triggering enabled this pressing of the button just 'arms' the capture to be ready to begin once the trigger signal is seen at the trigger input to the TSW1400.   If the external trigger doesn't happen by about 10 to 12 seconds after being 'armed' by the capture button then the capture will time out.   So you'd have to press 'capture' on each of the four HSDCPro fairly quickly and then get the trigger to the four setups pretty quickly.

    With automation software such as Matlab control of the HSDCPro it may be possible to use one computer to arm a triggered capture on one TSW1400 and then disconnect and connect to the next TSW1400 and arm a triggered capture on the next one, and so on, but that 10 second timeout window would possibly be a problem if the disconnect/reconnect took too long in software.  Someone else would have to weigh in on that possibility.

    Regards,

    Richard P.

  • Thanks for the response - that's what I was afraid of (the need for four laptops!)

    There is a hint in the LabView code that the trigger timeout is a variable - any idea if I can extend that 10-12sec timeout you mentioned and make it longer say 30-60sec?

    What about the other sodtware tool (SPI) any way to automate through that instead of HSDCPro?
  • Hi,

    the last time I asked about that timeout value it was hardcoded in the FPGA firmware. 

    If you need to use the SPI GUI for the EVMs then that is another issue as well.  You do not need to use the SPI GUI at all if the desired mode of operation for the ADC is a more common one such that you can set with jumpers.  But if you do need to write to the SPI registers in the ADC, then consider that the GUI for that EVM is pretty old and has not been modernized.   On newer EVMs we will enumerate each USB port on the EVMs with a unique serial number such as is done with the TSW1400.  That enumeration is what allows Windows to keep the ports straight so that HSDCPro can connect with a specific capture card if more than one are plugged in.  But if you connect more than one ADS5562 to a PC then Windows will not be able to tell which one is which as they were not enumerated back then.  So you would need to have one SPI GUI on each PC.  Also, that SPI GUI was developed back in the days of Windows XP and to make the GUI install on Windows7 requires some familiarity with getting the GUI to use the right drivers.   There are instructions for this elsewhere on the E2E forums.   The SPI GUI was not developed to support automation back then either.  

    Regards,

    Richard P.

  • Understood - sounds like the only way to control 4 boards is with 4 computers and one "master" program that can send messages to all 4 computers to arm the individual ADC's <10sec before an external trigger...

    BTW - is the time out for no clock detected also hardcoded or is that programable?
  • Hi,

    At present the timeout is hard-coded.  There is to be an update to HSDCPro in the coming weeks that will allow for one of the timeout parameters to be modified - but this parameter is to be the timeout value once capture has begun or once the trigger has occurred.   But there is still a hardcoded timeout value for the time waiting for trigger to occur.    We may be able to make this value programmable in an upcoming release as well.

    Regards,

    Richard P.