<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN""http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Acquisition and configuration functions</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE=" Comedi " HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Writing Comedi programs" HREF="x403.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Writing a Comedi driver" HREF="x1394.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECTION" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >Comedi: The <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >Control and Measurement Device Interface</I ></SPAN > handbook </TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x403.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x1394.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H1 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="ACQUISITIONFUNCTIONS" >4. Acquisition and configuration functions</A ></H1 ><P >This Section gives an overview of all <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > functions with which application programmers can implement their data acquisition. (With <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"acquisition"</SPAN > we mean all possible kinds of interfacing with the cards: input, output, configuration, streaming, etc.) <A HREF="x4629.html" >Section 7</A > explains the function calls in full detail.</P ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H2 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="SINGLEACQUISITION" >4.1. Functions for single acquisition</A ></H2 ><P >The simplest form of using <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > is to get one single sample to or from an interface card. This sections explains how to do such simple <A HREF="x621.html#DIO" >digital</A > and <A HREF="x621.html#SINGLEANALOG" >analog</A > acquisitions.</P ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="DIO" >4.1.1. Single digital acquisition</A ></H3 ><P >Many boards supported by <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > have digital input and output channels; i.e., channels that can only produce a <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >0</TT > or a <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >1</TT >. Some boards allow the <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >direction</I ></SPAN > (input or output) of each channel to be specified independently in software.</P ><P ><ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > groups digital channels into a <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >subdevice</I ></SPAN >, which is a group of digital channels that have the same characteristics. For example, digital output lines will be grouped into a digital output subdevice, bidirectional digital lines will be grouped into a digital I/O subdevice. Thus, there can be multiple digital subdevices on a particular board.</P ><P >Individual bits on a digital I/O device can be read and written using the functions <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" > int <A HREF="r5903.html" >comedi_dio_read</A >(device,subdevice,channel,unsigned int *bit); int <A HREF="r5929.html" >comedi_dio_write</A >(device,subdevice,channel,unsigned int bit);</PRE > The <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >device</CODE > parameter is a <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-T" >pointer</A > to a successfully opened <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > device. The <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >subdevice</CODE > and <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >channel</CODE > parameters are positive integers that indicate which subdevice and channel is used in the acquisition. The integer <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >bit</CODE > contains the value of the acquired bit.</P ><P >The direction of bidirectional lines can be configured using the function <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" > <A HREF="r5849.html" >comedi_dio_config</A >(device,subdevice,channel,unsigned int dir);</PRE > The parameter <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >dir</CODE > should be either <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >COMEDI_INPUT</TT > or <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >COMEDI_OUTPUT</TT >. Many digital I/O subdevices group channels into blocks for configuring direction. Changing one channel in a block changes the entire block.</P ><P >Multiple channels can be read and written simultaneously using the function <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" > <A HREF="r5955.html" >comedi_dio_bitfield</A >(device,subdevice,unsigned int write_mask,unsigned int *bits);</PRE > Each channel is assigned to a bit in the <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >write_mask</CODE > and <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >bits</CODE > bitfield. If a bit in <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >write_mask</CODE > is set, the corresponding bit in <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >*bits</CODE > will be written to the corresponding digital output line. Each digital line is then read and placed into <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >*bits</CODE >. The value of bits in <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >*bits</CODE > corresponding to digital output lines is undefined and device-specific. Channel <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >0</TT > is the least significant bit in the bitfield; channel <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >31</TT > is the most significant bit. Channels higher than <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >31</TT > cannot be accessed using this method.</P ><P >The digital acquisition functions seem to be very simple, but, behind the implementation screens of the <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > kernel module, they are executed as special cases of the general <A HREF="x621.html#INSTRUCTIONS" >instruction</A > command.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="SINGLEANALOG" >4.1.2. Single analog acquisition</A ></H3 ><P >Analog <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > channels can produce data values that are <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >samples</I ></SPAN > from continuous analog signals. These samples are integers with a significant content in the range of, typically, <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >8</TT >, <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >10</TT >, <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >12</TT >, or <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >16</TT > bits.</P ><P >The <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" > int <A HREF="r5725.html" >comedi_data_read</A >(<A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-T" >comedi_t</A > * device, unsigned int subdevice, unsigned int channel, unsigned int range, unsigned int aref, <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-LSAMPL-T" >lsampl_t</A > * data);</PRE > function reads one such data value from a <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > channel, and puts it in the user-specified <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >data</CODE > buffer. The <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" > int <A HREF="r5818.html" >comedi_data_write</A >(<A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-T" >comedi_t</A > * device, unsigned int subdevice, unsigned int channel, unsigned int range, unsigned int aref, <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-LSAMPL-T" >lsampl_t</A > data);</PRE > works in the opposite direction. Data values returned by this function are unsigned integers less than, or equal to, the maximum sample value of the channel, which can be determined using the function <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" > <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-LSAMPL-T" >lsampl_t</A > <A HREF="r5331.html" >comedi_get_maxdata</A >(<A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-T" >comedi_t</A > * device, unsigned int subdevice, unsigned int channel);</PRE > Conversion of data values to physical units can be performed by the function <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" > double <A HREF="r5619.html" >comedi_to_phys</A >(<A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-LSAMPL-T" >lsampl_t</A > data, comedi_range * range, <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-LSAMPL-T" >lsampl_t</A > maxdata);</PRE > There are two data structures in these commands that are not fully self-explanatory: <P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P ><A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-T" >comedi_t</A >: this data structure contains all information that a user program has to know about an <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >open</I ></SPAN > <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > device. The programmer doesn't have to fill in this data structure manually: it gets filled in by opening the device.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-LSAMPL-T" >lsampl_t</A >: this <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"data structure"</SPAN > represents one single sample. On most architectures, it's nothing more than a 32 bits value. Internally, <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > does some conversion from raw sample data to <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"correct"</SPAN > integers. This is called <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"data munging"</SPAN >.</P ></LI ></UL ></P ><P >Each single acquisition by, for example, <CODE CLASS="FUNCTION" > <A HREF="r5725.html" >comedi_data_read()</A ></CODE > requires quite some overhead, because all the arguments of the function call are checked. If multiple acquisitions must be done on the same channel, this overhead can be avoided by using a function that can read more than one sample: <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" > int <A HREF="r5903.html" >comedi_data_read_n</A >(<A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-T" >comedi_t</A > *it, unsigned int subdev, unsigned int chan, unsigned int range, unsigned int aref, <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-LSAMPL-T" >lsampl_t</A > *data, unsigned int n)</PRE > The number of samples, <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >n</CODE >, is limited by the <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > implementation (to a maximum of 100 samples), because the call is blocking.</P ><P >The start of the data acquisition can also be delayed by a specified number of nano-seconds: <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >int <A HREF="r5758.html" >comedi_data_read_delayed</A >(<A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-T" >comedi_t</A > *it, unsigned int subdev, unsigned int chan, unsigned int range, unsigned int aref, <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-LSAMPL-T" >lsampl_t</A > *data, unsigned int nano_sec)</PRE > All these read and write acquisition functions are implemented on top of the generic <A HREF="x621.html#INSTRUCTIONS" >instruction</A > command.</P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H2 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="INSTRUCTIONS" >4.2. Instructions for multiple acquisitions</A ></H2 ><P >The <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >instruction</I ></SPAN > is one of the most generic, overloaden and flexible functions in the <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > API. It is used to execute a multiple of identical acquisitions on the same channel, but also to perform a <A HREF="x621.html#INSTRUCTIONSCONFIGURATION" >configuration</A > of a channel. <A NAME="ANCHOR.INSTRUCTION.LIST" ></A > An <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >instruction list</I ></SPAN > is a list of instructions, possibly on different channels. Both instructions and instructions lists are executed <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >synchronously</I ></SPAN >, i.e., while <SPAN CLASS="strong" ><B CLASS="EMPHASIS" >blocking</B ></SPAN > the calling process. This is one of the limitations of instructions; the other one is that they cannot code an acquisition involving timers or external events. These limits are eliminated by the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMANDSSTREAMING" >command</A > acquisition primitive.</P ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="COMEDIINSNSTRUCTURE" >4.2.1. The instruction data structure</A ></H3 ><P >All the information needed to execute an instruction is stored in the <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-INSN" >comedi_insn</A > data structure: <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >struct <A NAME="INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" ></A >comedi_insn_struct{ <A NAME="INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-INSN" ></A >unsigned int insn; // integer encoding the type of acquisition // (or configuration) unsigned int n; // number of elements in data array <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-LSAMPL-T" >lsampl_t</A > <A NAME="INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-DATA" ></A >*data; // pointer to data buffer unsigned int subdev; // subdevice unsigned int <A NAME="INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-CHANSPEC" ></A ><A HREF="x4629.html#REF-MACRO-CR-PACK" >chanspec</A >; // encoded channel specification unsigned int unused[3]; } comedi_insn;</PRE > Because of the large flexibility of the instruction function, many types of instruction do not need to fill in all fields, or attach different meanings to the same field. But the current implementation of <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > requires the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-DATA" >data</A > field to be at least one byte long.</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-INSN" >insn</A > flag of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > determines the type of acquisition executed in the corresponding instruction: <P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P >INSN_READ: the instruction executes a read on an analog channel.</P ></LI ><LI ><P >INSN_WRITE: the instruction executes a write on an analog channel.</P ></LI ><LI ><P >INSN_BITS: indicates that the instruction must read or write values on multiple digital I/O channels.</P ></LI ><LI ><P >INSN_GTOD: the instruction performs a <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"Get Time Of Day"</SPAN > acquisition.</P ></LI ><LI ><P >INSN_WAIT: the instruction blocks for a specified number of nanoseconds.</P ></LI ></UL ></P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="INSTRUCTIONEXECUTION" >4.2.2. Instruction execution</A ></H3 ><P >Once an instruction data structure has been filled in, the corresponding instruction is executed as follows: <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" > int <A HREF="r5553.html" >comedi_do_insn</A >(<A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-T" >comedi_t</A > *it, <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-INSN" >comedi_insn</A > * instruction);</PRE > Many <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > instructions are shortcuts that relieve the programmer from explicitly filling in the data structure and calling the <A HREF="r5553.html" >comedi_do_insn</A > function.</P ><P >The <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" > int <A HREF="r5527.html" >comedi_do_insnlist</A ><A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-T" >comedi_t</A > *it, <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-INSNLIST" >comedi_insnlist</A > * list)</PRE > instruction allows to perform a list of instructions in one function call. The number of instructions in the list is limited in the implementation, because instructions are executed <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >synchronously</I ></SPAN >, i.e., the call blocks until the whole instruction (list) has finished.</P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H2 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="INSTRUCTIONSCONFIGURATION" >4.3. Instructions for configuration</A ></H2 ><P ><A HREF="x621.html#INSTRUCTIONS" >Section 4.2</A > explains how instructions are used to do <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >acquisition</I ></SPAN > on channels. This section explains how they are used to <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >configure</I ></SPAN > a subdevice. There are various sorts of configurations, and the specific information for each different configuration possibility is to be specified via the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-DATA" >data</A > buffer of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A >. (So, the pointer to a <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-LSAMPL-T" >lsampl_t</A > is misused as a pointer to an array with board-specific information.)</P ><P >Using INSN_CONFIG as the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-INSN" >insn</A > flag in an <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > indicates that the instruction will <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >not perform acquisition</I ></SPAN > on a channel, but will <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >configure</I ></SPAN > that channel. The <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-MACRO-CR-PACK" >chanspec</A > field in the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-CHANSPEC" >comedi_insn</A > data structure, contains the channel to be configured. The zeroth element of the data array is always an id that specifies what type of configuration instruction is being performed. The meaning of rest of the elements in the data array depend on the configuration instruction id. Some of the possible ids are summarised in the table below, along with the meanings of the data array elements for each type of configuration instruction.</P ><DIV CLASS="INFORMALTABLE" ><P ></P ><A NAME="AEN800" ></A ><TABLE BORDER="1" CLASS="CALSTABLE" ><COL><COL><COL><COL><THEAD ><TR ><TH >data[0]</TH ><TH >Description</TH ><TH >n (number of elements in data array)</TH ><TH >Meanings of data[1], ..., data[n-1]</TH ></TR ></THEAD ><TBODY ><TR ><TD >INSN_CONFIG_DIO_INPUT</TD ><TD >Configure a dio line as input. It is easier to use comedi_dio_config() than to use this configuration instruction directly.</TD ><TD >1</TD ><TD >n/a</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >INSN_CONFIG_DIO_OUTPUT</TD ><TD >Configure a dio line as output. It is easier to use comedi_dio_config() than to use this configuration instruction directly.</TD ><TD >1</TD ><TD >n/a</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >INSN_CONFIG_ALT_SOURCE</TD ><TD >Select an alternate input source. This instruction is used by comedi_calibrate to configure analog input channels which can be redirected to read internal calibration references. You need to set the CR_ALT_SOURCE flag in the chanspec when reading to actually read from the configured alternate input source. If you are using comedi_data_read(), then the channel parameter can be bitwise or'd with the CR_ALT_SOURCE flag.</TD ><TD >2</TD ><TD ><P ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" ><TBODY ><TR ><TD >data[1]: alternate input source.</TD ></TR ></TBODY ></TABLE ><P ></P ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >INSN_CONFIG_BLOCK_SIZE</TD ><TD >Specify block size for asynchonous command data. When performing streaming input, many boards accumulate samples in internal fifos and transfer them to the host computer in chunks. Some drivers let you suggest a size in bytes for how big a the chunks should be. This lets you tune how often the host computer is interrupted with a new chunk of data.</TD ><TD >2</TD ><TD ><P ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" ><TBODY ><TR ><TD >data[1]: The desired block size in bytes. The actual configured block size is writen back to data[1] after the instruction completes. This instruction acts purely as a query if the block size is set to zero.</TD ></TR ></TBODY ></TABLE ><P ></P ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >INSN_CONFIG_DIO_QUERY</TD ><TD >Queries the configuration of a dio line to see if it is an input or output. It is probably easier to use the comedilib function comedi_dio_get_config() than to use this instruction directly.</TD ><TD >2</TD ><TD ><P ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" ><TBODY ><TR ><TD >data[1]: The instruction sets this element to either COMEDI_INPUT or COMEDI_OUTPUT.</TD ></TR ></TBODY ></TABLE ><P ></P ></TD ></TR ></TBODY ></TABLE ><P ></P ></DIV ><P >See the comedilib demo program demo/choose_clock.c for an example of using a configuration instruction.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H2 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="INTTRIGCONFIGURATION" >4.4. Instruction for internal triggering</A ></H2 ><P >This special instruction has <A NAME="INSN-INTTRIG" ></A >INSN_INTTRIG as the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-INSN" >insn</A > flag in its <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A >. Its execution causes an <A HREF="x621.html#TRIG-INT-START-SRC" >internal triggering event</A >. This event can, for example, cause the device driver to start a conversion, or to stop an ongoing acquisition. The exact meaning of the triggering depends on the card and its particular driver.</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-DATA" >data</A >[0] field of the INSN_INTTRIG instruction is reserved for future use, and should be set to <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"0"</SPAN >.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H2 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="COMMANDSSTREAMING" >4.5. Commands for streaming acquisition</A ></H2 ><P >The most powerful <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > acquisition primitive is the <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >command</I ></SPAN >. It's powerful because, with one single command, the programmer launches: <P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P >a possibly infinite <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >sequence of acquisitions</I ></SPAN >,</P ></LI ><LI ><P >accompanied with various <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >callback</I ></SPAN > functionalities (DMA, interrupts, driver-specific callback functions),</P ></LI ><LI ><P >for <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >any number of channels</I ></SPAN >,</P ></LI ><LI ><P >with an <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >arbitrary order</I ></SPAN > of channels in each scan (possibly even with repeated channels per scan),</P ></LI ><LI ><P >and with various scan <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >triggering sources</I ></SPAN >, external (i.e., hardware pulses) as well as internal (i.e., pulses generated on the DAQ card itself, or generated by a <A HREF="x621.html#INTTRIGCONFIGURATION" >software trigger instruction</A >).</P ></LI ></UL > This command functionality exists in the <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > API, because various data acquisition devices have the capability to perform this kind of complex acquisition, driven by either on-board or off-board timers and triggers.</P ><P >A command specifies a particular data <A HREF="index.html#FIG-ACQ-SEQ" >acquisition sequence</A >, which consists of a number of <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >scans</I ></SPAN >, and each scan is comprised of a number of <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >conversions</I ></SPAN >, which usually corresponds to a single A/D or D/A conversion. So, for example, a scan could consist of sampling channels 1, 2 and 3 of a particular device, and this scan should be repeated 1000 times, at intervals of 1 millisecond apart.</P ><P >The command function is complementary to the <A HREF="x621.html#INSTRUCTIONSCONFIGURATION" >configuration instruction</A > function: each channel in the command's <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CHANLIST" >chanlist</A > should first be configured by an appropriate instruction.</P ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="EXECUTINGCOMMAND" >4.5.1. Executing a command</A ></H3 ><P >A commands is executed by the following <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > function: <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" > int <A HREF="r6164.html" >comedi_command</A >(<A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-T" >comedi_t</A > * device, <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-CMD" >comedi_cmd</A > * command);</PRE > The following sections explain the meaning of the <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-CMD" >comedi_cmd</A > data structure. Filling in this structure can be quite complicated, and requires good knowledge about the exact functionalities of the DAQ card. So, before launching a command, the application programmer is adviced to check whether this complex command data structure can be successfully parsed. So, the typical sequence for executing a command is to first send the command through <A HREF="r6186.html" >comedi_command_test()</A > once or twice. The test will check that the command is valid for the particular device, and often makes some adjustments to the command arguments, which can then be read back by the user to see the actual values used.</P ><P >A <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > program can find out on-line what the command capabilities of a specific device are, by means of the <A HREF="r6092.html" >comedi_get_cmd_src_mask()</A > function.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="COMEDICMDSTRUCTURE" >4.5.2. The command data structure</A ></H3 ><P >The command executes according to the information about the requested acquisition, which is stored in the <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-CMD" >comedi_cmd</A > <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT" ></A >data structure: <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >typedef struct comedi_cmd_struct comedi_cmd; struct comedi_cmd_struct{ unsigned int subdev; // which subdevice to sample unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-FLAGS" ></A >flags; // encode some configuration possibilities // of the command execution; e.g., // whether a callback routine is to be // called at the end of the command unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-START-SRC" ></A >start_src; // event to make the acquisition start unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-START-ARG" ></A >start_arg; // parameters that influence this start unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-BEGIN-SRC" ></A >scan_begin_src; // event to make a particular scan start unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-BEGIN-ARG" ></A >scan_begin_arg; // parameters that influence this start` unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CONVERT-SRC" ></A >convert_src; // event to make a particular conversion start unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CONVERT-ARG" ></A >convert_arg; // parameters that influence this start unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-END-SRC" ></A >scan_end_src; // event to make a particular scan terminate unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-END-ARG" ></A >scan_end_arg; // parameters that influence this termination unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-STOP-SRC" ></A >stop_src; // what make the acquisition terminate unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-STOP-ARG" ></A >stop_arg; // parameters that influence this termination unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CHANLIST" ></A >*chanlist; // pointer to list of channels to be sampled unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CHANLIST-LEN" ></A >chanlist_len; // number of channels to be sampled sampl_t *<A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-DATA" ></A >data; // address of buffer unsigned int <A NAME="COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-DATA-LEN" ></A >data_len; // number of samples to acquire };</PRE > The start and end of the whole command acquisition sequence, and the start and end of each scan and of each conversion, is triggered by a so-called <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >event</I ></SPAN >. More on these in <A HREF="x621.html#COMEDICMDSOURCES" >Section 4.5.3</A >.</P ><P >The <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >subdev</CODE > member of the <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-CMD" >comedi_cmd</A > structure is the index of the subdevice the command is intended for. The <A HREF="r5092.html" >comedi_find_subdevice_by_type()</A > function can be useful in discovering the index of your desired subdevice.</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CHANLIST" >chanlist</A > member of the <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-CMD" >comedi_cmd</A > data structure should point to an array whose number of elements is specificed by <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CHANLIST-LEN" >chanlist_len</A > (this will generally be the same as the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-END-ARG" >scan_end_arg</A >). The <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CHANLIST" >chanlist</A > specifies the sequence of channels and gains (and analog references) that should be stepped through for each scan. The elements of the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CHANLIST" >chanlist</A > array should be initialized by <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"packing"</SPAN > the channel, range and reference information together with the <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" > <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-MACRO-CR-PACK" >CR_PACK()</A ></CODE > macro.</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-DATA" >data</A > and <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-DATA-LEN" >data_len</A > members can be safely ignored when issueing commands from a user-space program. They only have meaning when a command is sent from a <SPAN CLASS="strong" ><B CLASS="EMPHASIS" >kernel</B ></SPAN > module using the <CODE CLASS="FUNCTION" >kcomedilib</CODE > interface, in which case they specify the buffer where the driver should write/read its data to/from.</P ><P >The final member of the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT" >comedi_cmd</A > structure is the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-FLAGS" >flags</A > field, i.e., bits in a word that can be bitwise-or'd together. The meaning of these bits are explained in a <A HREF="x621.html#SOURCE.FLAGS.ANCHOR" >later section</A >.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="COMEDICMDSOURCES" >4.5.3. The command trigger events <A NAME="SOURCE.TRIGGER.ANCHOR" ></A ></A ></H3 ><P >A command is a very versatile acquisition instruction, in the sense that it offers lots of possibilities to let different hardware and software sources determine when acquisitions are started, performed, and stopped. More specifically, the command <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT" >data structure</A > has <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >five</I ></SPAN > types of events: start the <A HREF="index.html#ACQUISITIONTERMINOLOGY" >acquisition</A >, start a <A HREF="index.html#SCAN" >scan</A >, start a <A HREF="index.html#CONVERSION" >conversion</A >, stop a scan, and stop the acquisition. Each event can be given its own <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" ><A HREF="x621.html#SOURCE.TRIGGER.ANCHOR" >source</A ></I ></SPAN > (the <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >*_src</CODE > members in the <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-CMD" >comedi_cmd</A > data structure). And each event source can have a corresponding argument (the <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >*_arg</CODE > members of the <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-CMD" >comedi_cmd</A > data structure) whose meaning depends on the type of source trigger. For example, to specify an external digital line <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"3"</SPAN > as a source (in general, <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >any</I ></SPAN > of the five event sources), you would use <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >src</CODE >=<A HREF="x621.html#TRIG-EXT" >TRIG_EXT</A > and <CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >arg</CODE >=3.</P ><P >The following paragraphs discuss in somewhat more detail the trigger event sources(<CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >*_src</CODE >), and the corresponding arguments (<CODE CLASS="PARAMETER" >*_arg</CODE >).</P ><P >The start of an acquisition is controlled by the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-START-SRC" >start_src</A > events. The available options are: <P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-NOW-START-SRC" ></A > TRIG_NOW: the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-START-SRC" >start_src</A > event occurs <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-START-ARG" >start_arg</A > nanoseconds after the <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-CMD" >comedi_cmd</A > is called. Currently, only <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-START-ARG" >start_arg</A >=0 is supported.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-FOLLOW-START-SRC" ></A > TRIG_FOLLOW: (For an output device.) The <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-START-SRC" >start_src</A > event occurs when data is written to the buffer.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-EXT-START-SRC" ></A > TRIG_EXT: the start event occurs when an external trigger signal occurs; e.g., a rising edge of a digital line. <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-START-ARG" >start_arg</A > chooses the particular digital line.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-INT-START-SRC" ></A > TRIG_INT: the start event occurs on a <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > internal signal, which is typically caused by an <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-INTTRIG" >INSN_INTTRIG instruction</A >.</P ></LI ></UL > The start of the beginning of each <A HREF="index.html#SCAN" >scan</A > is controlled by the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-BEGIN-SRC" >scan_begin</A > events. The available options are: <P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-TIMER-START-SCAN" ></A > TRIG_TIMER: <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-BEGIN-SRC" >scan_begin</A > events occur periodically. The time between <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-BEGIN-SRC" >scan_begin</A > events is <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CONVERT-ARG" >convert_arg</A > nanoseconds.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-FOLLOW-START-SCAN" ></A > TRIG_FOLLOW: The <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-BEGIN-SRC" >scan_begin</A > event occurs immediately after a <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-END-SRC" >scan_end</A > event occurs.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-EXT-START-SCAN" ></A > TRIG_EXT: the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-BEGIN-SRC" >scan_begin</A > event occurs when an external trigger signal occurs; e.g., a rising edge of a digital line. <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-BEGIN-ARG" >scan_begin_arg</A > chooses the particular digital line.</P ></LI ></UL > The <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-BEGIN-ARG" >scan_begin_arg</A > used here may not be supported exactly by the device, but it will be adjusted to the nearest supported value by <A HREF="r6186.html" >comedi_command_test()</A >.</P ><P >The timing between each sample in a <A HREF="index.html#SCAN" >scan</A > is controlled by the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CONVERT-SRC" >convert_*</A > fields: <P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P ><A NAME="CONVERT-TRIG-TIMER" ></A > <A NAME="TRIG-TIMER" ></A > TRIG_TIMER: the conversion events occur periodically. The time between convert events is <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CONVERT-ARG" >convert_arg</A > nanoseconds.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="CONVERT-TRIG-EXT" ></A > <A NAME="TRIG-EXT" ></A > TRIG_EXT: the conversion events occur when an external trigger signal occurs, e.g., a rising edge of a digital line. <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CONVERT-ARG" >convert_arg</A > chooses the particular digital line.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="CONVERT-TRIG-NOW" ></A > <A NAME="TRIG-NOW" ></A > TRIG_NOW: All conversion events in a <A HREF="index.html#SCAN" >scan</A > occur simultaneously.</P ></LI ></UL > The <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >end</I ></SPAN > of each scan is almost always specified using <A HREF="x621.html#TRIG-COUNT" >TRIG_COUNT</A >, with the argument being the same as the number of channels in the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-CHANLIST" >chanlist</A >. You could probably find a device that allows something else, but it would be strange.</P ><P >The end of an <A HREF="index.html#ACQUISITIONTERMINOLOGY" >acquisition</A > is controlled by <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-STOP-SRC" >stop_src</A > and <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-STOP-ARG" >stop_arg</A >: <P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P ><A NAME="ACQUISITION-END-TRIG-COUNT" ></A > <A NAME="TRIG-COUNT" ></A > TRIG_COUNT: stop the acquisition after <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-STOP-ARG" >stop_arg</A > scans.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="ACQUISITION-END-TRIG-NONE" ></A > <A NAME="TRIG-NONE" ></A > TRIG_NONE: perform continuous acquisition, until stopped using <A HREF="r6142.html" >comedi_cancel()</A >.</P ><P >Its argument is reserved and should be set to 0. (<SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"Reserved"</SPAN > means that unspecified things could happen if it is set to something else but 0.)</P ></LI ></UL > There are a couple of less usual or not yet implemented events: <P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-TIME" ></A > TRIG_TIME: cause an event to occur at a particular time.</P ><P >(This event source is reserved for future use.)</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIGOTHER-EVENT" ></A > TRIG_OTHER: driver specific event trigger.</P ><P >This event can be useful as any of the trigger sources. Its exact meaning is driver specific, because it implements a feature that otherwise does not fit into the generic <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > command interface. Configuration of TRIG_OTHER features are done by <A HREF="x621.html#INSTRUCTIONSCONFIGURATION" >INSN_CONFIG</A > instructions.</P ><P >The argument is reserved and should be set to 0.</P ></LI ></UL > Not all event sources are applicable to all events. Supported trigger sources for specific events depend significantly on your particular device, and even more on the current state of its device driver. The <A HREF="r6092.html" >comedi_get_cmd_src_mask()</A > function is useful for determining what trigger sources a subdevice supports.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="COMEDICMDFLAGS" >4.5.4. The command flags <A NAME="SOURCE.FLAGS.ANCHOR" ></A ></A ></H3 ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-FLAGS" >flags</A > field in the <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-CMD" >command data structure</A > is used to specify some <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"behaviour"</SPAN > of the acquisitions in a command. The meaning of the field is as follows: <P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-RT" ></A > TRIG_RT: ask the driver to use a <SPAN CLASS="strong" ><B CLASS="EMPHASIS" >hard real-time</B ></SPAN > interrupt handler. This will reduce latency in handling interrupts from your data aquisition hardware. It can be useful if you are sampling at high frequency, or if your hardware has a small onboard data buffer. You must have a real-time kernel (<A HREF="http://www.rtai.org" TARGET="_top" >RTAI</A > or <A HREF="http://www.rtlinux-gpl.org/" TARGET="_top" >RTLinux/GPL</A >) and must compile <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > with real-time support, or this flag will do nothing.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-WAKE-EOS" ></A > TRIG_WAKE_EOS: where <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"EOS"</SPAN > stands for <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"End of Scan"</SPAN >. Some drivers will change their behaviour when this flag is set, trying to transfer data at the end of every scan (instead of, for example, passing data in chunks whenever the board's hardware data buffer is half full). This flag may degrade a driver's performance at high frequencies, because the end of a scan is, in general, a much more frequent event than the filling up of the data buffer.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-ROUND-NEAREST" ></A > TRIG_ROUND_NEAREST: round to nearest supported timing period, the default. This flag (as well as the following three), indicates how timing arguments should be rounded if the hardware cannot achieve the exact timing requested.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-ROUND-DOWN" ></A > TRIG_ROUND_DOWN: round period down.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-ROUND-UP" ></A > TRIG_ROUND_UP: round period up.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-ROUND-UP-NEXT" ></A > TRIG_ROUND_UP_NEXT: this one doesn't do anything, and I don't know what it was intended to do...?</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-DITHER" ></A > TRIG_DITHER: enable dithering? Dithering is a software technique to smooth the influence of discretization <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"noise"</SPAN >.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-DEGLITCH" ></A > TRIG_DEGLITCH: enable deglitching? Another <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"noise"</SPAN > smoothing technique.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-WRITE" ></A > TRIG_WRITE: write to bidirectional devices. Could be useful, in principle, if someone wrote a driver that supported commands for a digital I/O device that could do either input or output.</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-BOGUS" ></A > TRIG_BOGUS: do the motions?</P ></LI ><LI ><P ><A NAME="TRIG-OTHER" ></A > TRIG_CONFIG: perform configuration, not triggering. This is a legacy of the deprecated <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-CMD" >comedi_trig_struct</A > data structure, and has no function at present.</P ></LI ></UL ></P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="AEN1109" >4.5.5. Anti-aliasing</A ></H3 ><P >If you wish to aquire accurate waveforms, it is vital that you use an anti-alias filter. An anti-alias filter is a low-pass filter used to remove all frequencies higher than the Nyquist frequency (half your sampling rate) from your analog input signal before you convert it to digital. If you fail to filter your input signal, any high frequency components in the original analog signal will create artifacts in your recorded digital waveform that cannot be corrected.</P ><P >For example, suppose you are sampling an analog input channel at a rate of 1000 Hz. If you were to apply a 900 Hz sine wave to the input, you would find that your sampling rate is not high enough to faithfully record the 900 Hz input, since it is above your Nyquist frequency of 500 Hz. Instead, what you will see in your recorded digital waveform is a 100 Hz sine wave! If you don't use an anti-alias filter, it is impossible to tell whether the 100 Hz sine wave you see in your digital signal was really produced by a 100 Hz input signal, or a 900 Hz signal aliased to 100 Hz, or a 1100 Hz signal, etc.</P ><P >In practice, the cutoff frequency for the anti-alias filter is usually set 10% to 20% below the Nyquist frequency due to fact that real filters do not have infinitely sharp cutoffs.</P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H2 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="SLOWLYVARYING" >4.6. Slowly-varying inputs</A ></H2 ><P >Sometimes, your input channels change slowly enough that you are able to average many successive input values to get a more accurate measurement of the actual value. In general, the more samples you average, the better your estimate gets, roughly by a factor of sqrt(number_of_samples). Obviously, there are limitations to this:</P ><P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P >you are ultimately limited by <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"Spurious Free Dynamic Range"</SPAN >. This SFDR is one of the popular measures to quantify how much noise a signal carries. If you take a Fourier transform of your signal, you will see several <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"peaks"</SPAN > in the transform: one or more of the fundamental harmonics of the measured signal, and lots of little <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"peaks"</SPAN > (called <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"spurs"</SPAN >) caused by noise. The SFDR is then the difference between the amplitude of the fundamental harmonic and of the largest spur (at frequencies below half of the Nyquist frequency of the DAQ sampler!).</P ></LI ><LI ><P >you need to have <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >some</I ></SPAN > noise on the input channel, otherwise you will be averaging the same number <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >N</TT > times. (Of course, this only holds if the noise is large enough to cause at least a one-bit discretization.)</P ></LI ><LI ><P >the more noise you have, the greater your SFDR, but it takes many more samples to compensate for the increased noise.</P ></LI ><LI ><P >if you feel the need to average samples for, for example, two seconds, your signal will need to be <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >very</I ></SPAN > slowly-varying, i.e., not varying more than your target uncertainty for the entire two seconds.</P ></LI ></UL ><P >As you might have guessed, the <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > library has functions to help you in your quest to accurately measure slowly varying inputs: <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" > int <A HREF="r6018.html" >comedi_sv_init</A >(<A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-SV-T" >comedi_sv_t</A > * sv, <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-T" >comedi_t</A > * device, unsigned int subdevice, unsigned int channel);</PRE > This function initializes the <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-SV-T" >comedi_sv_t</A > data structure, used to do the averaging acquisition: <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >struct comedi_sv_struct{ <A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-T" >comedi_t</A > *dev; unsigned int subdevice; unsigned int chan; /* range policy */ int range; int aref; /* number of measurements to average (for analog inputs) */ int n; lsampl_t maxdata; };</PRE > The actual acquisition is done with: <PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" > int <A HREF="r6068.html" >comedi_sv_measure</A >(<A HREF="x4629.html#REF-TYPE-COMEDI-SV-T" >comedi_sv_t</A > * sv, double * data);</PRE > The number of samples over which the <CODE CLASS="FUNCTION" >comedi_sv_measure()</CODE > averages is limited by the implementation (currently the limit is 100 samples).</P ><P >One typical use for this function is the measurement of thermocouple voltages. And the <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > self-calibration utility also uses these functions. On some hardware, it is possible to tell it to measure an internal stable voltage reference, which is typically going to be very slowly varying; on the kilosecond time scale or more. So, it is reasonable to measure millions of samples, to get a very accurate measurement of the A/D converter output value that corresponds to the voltage reference. Sometimes, however, this is overkill, since there is no need to perform a part-per-million calibration to a standard that is only accurate to a part-per-thousand.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H2 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="EXPERIMENTALFUNCTIONALITY" >4.7. Experimental functionality</A ></H2 ><P >The following subsections document functionality that has not yet matured. Most of this functionality has even not been implemented yet in any single device driver. This information is included here, in order to stimulate discussion about their API, and to encourage pioneering implementations.</P ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="DIGITALINPUTCOMBINING" >4.7.1. Digital input combining machines</A ></H3 ><P >(<SPAN CLASS="strong" ><B CLASS="EMPHASIS" >Status: experimental (i.e., no driver implements this yet)</B ></SPAN >)</P ><P >When one or several digital inputs are used to modify an output value, either an accumulator or a single digital line or bit, a bitfield structure is typically used in the <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > interface. The digital inputs have two properties, <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"sensitive"</SPAN > inputs and <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"modifier"</SPAN > inputs. Edge transitions on sensitive inputs cause changes in the output signal, whereas modifier inputs change the effect of edge transitions on sensitive inputs. Note that inputs can be both modifier inputs and sensitive inputs.</P ><P >For simplification purposes, it is assumed that multiple digital inputs do not change simultaneously.</P ><P >The combined state of the modifier inputs determine a modifier state. For each combination of modifier state and sensitive input, there is a set of bits that determine the effect on the output value due to positive or negative transitions of the sensitive input. For each transition direction, there are two bits defined as follows: <P ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" ><TBODY ><TR ><TD >00: transition is ignored.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >01: accumulator is incremented, or output is set.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >10: accumulator is decremented, or output is cleared.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >11: reserved.</TD ></TR ></TBODY ></TABLE ><P ></P > For example, a simple digital follower is specified by the bit pattern 01 10, because it sets the output on positive transitions of the input, and clears the output on negative transitions. A digital inverter is similarily 10 01. These systems have only one sensitive input.</P ><P >As another example, a simple up counter, which increments on positive transitions of one input, is specified by 01 00. This system has only one sensitive input.</P ><P >When multiple digital inputs are used, the inputs are divided into two types, inputs which cause changes in the accumulator, and those that only modify the meaning of transitions on other inputs. Modifier inputs do not require bitfields, but there needs to be a bitfield of length 4*(2^(N-1)) for each edge sensitive input, where N is the total number of inputs. Since N is usually 2 or 3, with only one edge sensitive input, the scaling issues are not significant.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="ANALOGCONVERSION" >4.7.2. Analog filtering configuration</A ></H3 ><P ><SPAN CLASS="strong" ><B CLASS="EMPHASIS" >(Status: design (i.e., no driver implements this yet).)</B ></SPAN ></P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-INSN" >insn</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > has not been assigned yet.</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-CHANSPEC" >chanspec</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > is ignored.</P ><P >Some devices have the capability to add white noise (dithering) to analog input measurement. This additional noise can then be averaged out, to get a more accurate measurement of the input signal. It should not be assumed that channels can be separately configured. A simple design can use 1 bit to turn this feature on/off.</P ><P >Some devices have the capability of changing the glitch characteristics of analog output subsytems. The default (off) case should be where the average settling time is lowest. A simple design can use 1 bit to turn this feature on/off.</P ><P >Some devices have a configurable analog filters as part of the analog input stage. A simple design can use 1 bit to enable/disable the filter. Default is disabled, i.e., the filter being bypassed, or if the choice is between two filters, the filter with the largest bandwidth.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="WAVEFORMGENERATION" >4.7.3. Analog Output Waveform Generation</A ></H3 ><P ><SPAN CLASS="strong" ><B CLASS="EMPHASIS" >(Status: design (i.e., no driver implements this yet).)</B ></SPAN ></P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-INSN" >insn</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > has not been assigned yet.</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-CHANSPEC" >chanspec</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > is ignored.</P ><P >Some devices have the ability to cyclicly loop through samples kept in an on-board analog output FIFO. This config should allow the user to enable/disable this mode.</P ><P >This config should allow the user to configure the number of samples to loop through. It may be necessary to configure the channels used.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="EXTENDEDTRIGGERING" >4.7.4. Extended Triggering</A ></H3 ><P ><SPAN CLASS="strong" ><B CLASS="EMPHASIS" >(Status: alpha.)</B ></SPAN ></P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-INSN" >insn</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > has not been assigned yet.</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-CHANSPEC" >chanspec</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > is ignored.</P ><P >This section covers common information for all extended triggering configuration, and doesn't describe a particular type of extended trigger.</P ><P >Extended triggering is used to configure triggering engines that do not fit into commands. In a typical programming sequence, the application will use <A HREF="x621.html#INSTRUCTIONSCONFIGURATION" >configuration instructions</A > to configure an extended trigger, and a <A HREF="x621.html#COMMANDSSTREAMING" >command</A >, specifying <A HREF="x621.html#TRIG-OTHER" >TRIG_OTHER</A > as one of the trigger sources.</P ><P >Extended trigger configuration should be designed in such a way that the user can probe for valid parameters, similar to how command testing works. An extended trigger configuration instruction should not configure the hardware directly, rather, the configuration should be saved until the subsequent command is issued. This allows more flexibility for future interface changes.</P ><P >It has not been decided whether the configuration stage should return a token that is then used as the trigger argument in the command. Using tokens is one method to satisfy the problem that extended trigger configurations may have subtle compatiblity issues with other trigger sources/arguments that can only be determined at command test time. Passing all stages of a command test should only be allowed with a properly configured extended trigger.</P ><P >Extended triggers must use <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-DATA" >data[1]</A > as flags. The upper 16 bits are reserved and used only for flags that are common to all extended triggers. The lower 16 bits may be defined by the particular type of extended trigger.</P ><P >Various types of extended triggers must use <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-DATA" >data[1]</A > to know which event the extended trigger will be assigned to in the command structure. The possible values are an OR'd mask of the following:</P ><P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P >COMEDI_EV_START </P ></LI ><LI ><P >COMEDI_EV_SCAN_BEGIN </P ></LI ><LI ><P >COMEDI_EV_CONVERT </P ></LI ><LI ><P >COMEDI_EV_SCAN_END </P ></LI ><LI ><P >COMEDI_EV_STOP </P ></LI ></UL ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="ANALOGTRIGGERING" >4.7.5. Analog Triggering</A ></H3 ><P ><SPAN CLASS="strong" ><B CLASS="EMPHASIS" >(Status: alpha. The <CODE CLASS="FUNCTION" >ni_mio_common.c</CODE > driver implements this feature.)</B ></SPAN ></P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-INSN" >insn</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > has not been assigned yet.</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-CHANSPEC" >chanspec</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > is ignored.</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-DATA" >data</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > is used as follows: <P ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" ><TBODY ><TR ><TD >data[1]: trigger and combining machine configuration. </TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >data[2]: analog triggering signal chanspec. </TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >data[3]: primary analog level. </TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >data[4]: secondary analog level. </TD ></TR ></TBODY ></TABLE ><P ></P ></P ><P >Analog triggering is described by a digital combining machine that has two sensitive digital inputs. The sensitive digital inputs are generated by configurable analog comparators. The analog comparators generate a digital 1 when the analog triggering signal is greater than the comparator level. The digital inputs are not modifier inputs. Note, however, there is an effective modifier due to the restriction that the primary analog comparator level must be less than the secondary analog comparator level.</P ><P >If only one analog comparator signal is used, the combining machine for the secondary input should be set to ignored, and the secondary analog level should be set to 0.</P ><P >The interpretation of the chanspec and voltage levels is device dependent, but should correspond to similar values of the analog input subdevice, if possible.</P ><P >Notes: Reading range information is not addressed. This makes it difficult to convert comparator voltages to data values.</P ><P >Possible extensions: A parameter that specifies the necessary time that the set condition has to be true before the trigger is generated. A parameter that specifies the necessary time that the reset condition has to be true before the state machine is reset.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="BITFIELDMATCHING" >4.7.6. Bitfield Pattern Matching Extended Trigger</A ></H3 ><P ><SPAN CLASS="strong" ><B CLASS="EMPHASIS" >(Status: design. No driver implements this feature yet.)</B ></SPAN ></P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-INSN" >insn</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > has not been assigned yet.</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-CHANSPEC" >chanspec</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > is ignored.</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-DATA" >data</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > is used as follows:</P ><P ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" ><TBODY ><TR ><TD >data[1]: trigger flags. </TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >data[2]: mask. </TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >data[3]: pattern. </TD ></TR ></TBODY ></TABLE ><P ></P ><P >The pattern matching trigger issues a trigger when all of a specifed set of input lines match a specified pattern. If the device allows, the input lines should correspond to the input lines of a digital input subdevice, however, this will necessarily be device dependent. Each possible digital line that can be matched is assigned a bit in the mask and pattern. A bit set in the mask indicates that the input line must match the corresponding bit in the pattern. A bit cleared in the mask indicates that the input line is ignored.</P ><P >Notes: This only allows 32 bits in the pattern/mask, which may be too few. Devices may support selecting different sets of lines from which to match a pattern.</P ><P >Discovery: The number of bits can be discovered by setting the mask to all 1's. The driver must modify this value and return -EAGAIN.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="COUNTERTIMER" >4.7.7. Counter configuration</A ></H3 ><P ><SPAN CLASS="strong" ><B CLASS="EMPHASIS" >(Status: design. No driver implements this feature yet.)</B ></SPAN ></P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-INSN" >insn</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > has not been assigned yet.</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-CHANSPEC" >chanspec</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > is used to specify which counter to use. (I.e., the counter is a <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > channel.)</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-DATA" >data</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > is used as follows:</P ><P ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" ><TBODY ><TR ><TD >data[1]: trigger configuration. </TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >data[2]: primary input chanspec. </TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >data[3]: primary combining machine configuration. </TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >data[4]: secondary input chanspec. </TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >data[5]: secondary combining machine configuration. </TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >data[6]: latch configuration. </TD ></TR ></TBODY ></TABLE ><P ></P ><P >Note that this configuration is only useful if the counting has to be done in <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >software</I ></SPAN >. Many cards offer configurable counters in hardware; e.g., general purpose timer cards can be configured to act as pulse generators, frequency counters, timers, encoders, etc.</P ><P >Counters can be operated either in synchronous mode (using <A HREF="x621.html#COMEDIINSNSTRUCTURE" >INSN_READ</A >) or asynchronous mode (using <A HREF="x621.html#COMMANDSSTREAMING" >commands</A >), similar to analog input subdevices. The input signal for both modes is the accumulator. Commands on counter subdevices are almost always specified using <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-BEGIN-SRC" >scan_begin_src</A > = <A HREF="x621.html#TRIGOTHER-EVENT" >TRIG_OTHER</A >, with the counter configuration also serving as the extended configuration for the scan begin source.</P ><P >Counters are made up of an accumulator and a combining machine that determines when the accumulator should be incremented or decremented based on the values of the input signals. The combining machine optionally determines when the accumulator should be latched and put into a buffer. This feature is used in asynchronous mode.</P ><P >Note: How to access multiple pieces of data acquired at each event?</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="AUXCOUNTER" >4.7.8. One source plus auxiliary counter configuration</A ></H3 ><P ><SPAN CLASS="strong" ><B CLASS="EMPHASIS" >(Status: design. No driver implements this feature yet.)</B ></SPAN ></P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-INSN" >insn</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > has not been assigned yet.</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-CHANSPEC" >chanspec</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > is used to ...</P ><P >The <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE-DATA" >data</A > field of the <A HREF="x621.html#INSN-DATA-STRUCTURE" >instruction data structure</A > is used as follows:</P ><P ><P ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" ><TBODY ><TR ><TD >data[1]: is flags, including the flags for the command triggering configuration. If a command is not subsequently issued on the subdevice, the command triggering portion of the flags are ignored. </TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >data[2]: determines the mode of operation. The mode of operation is actually a bitfield that encodes what to do for various transitions of the source signals.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >data[3], data[4]: determine the primary source for the counter, similar to the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-BEGIN-SRC" >_src</A > and the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT-SCAN-BEGIN-ARG" >_arg</A > fields used in the <A HREF="x621.html#COMMAND-DATA-STRUCT" >command data structure</A >.</TD ></TR ></TBODY ></TABLE ><P ></P ></P ><P >Notes: How to specify which events cause a latch and push, and what should get latched?</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H3 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="RTSI" >4.7.9. National instruments RTSI trigger bus</A ></H3 ><P >A number of NI boards support the RTSI (Real Time System Integration) bus. It's primary use is to synchronize multiple DAQ cards. On PXI boards, the RTSI lines correspond to the PXI trigger lines 0 to 7. PCI boards use cables to connect to their RTSI ports. The RTSI bus consists of 8 digital signal lines numbered 0 to 7 that are bi-directional. Each of these signal lines can be configured as an input or output, and the signal appearing on the output of each line can be configured to one of several internal board timing signals (although on older boards RTSI line 7 can only be used for the clock signal). The ni_pcimio, ni_atmio, and ni_mio_cs drivers expose the RTSI bus as a digital I/O subdevice (subdevice number 10).</P ><P >The functions comedi_dio_config() and comedi_dio_get_config() can be used on the RTSI subdevice to set/query the direction (input or output) of each of the RTSI lines individually.</P ><P >The subdevice also supports the INSN_CONFIG_SET_CLOCK_SRC and INSN_CONFIG_GET_CLOCK_SRC configuration instructions, which can be used to configure/query what source the board uses to synchronize its master clock to. The various possibilities are defined in the comedi.h header file:</P ><DIV CLASS="INFORMALTABLE" ><P ></P ><A NAME="AEN1326" ></A ><TABLE BORDER="1" CLASS="CALSTABLE" ><COL><COL><THEAD ><TR ><TH >Clock Source</TH ><TH >Description</TH ></TR ></THEAD ><TBODY ><TR ><TD >NI_MIO_INTERNAL_CLOCK</TD ><TD >Use the board's internal oscillator.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >NI_MIO_RTSI_CLOCK</TD ><TD >Use the RTSI line 7 as the master clock. This source is only supported on pre-m-series boards. The newer m-series boards use NI_MIO_PLL_RTSI_CLOCK() instead.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >NI_MIO_PLL_PXI_STAR_TRIGGER_CLOCK</TD ><TD >Only available for newer m-series PXI boards. Synchronizes the board's phased-locked loop (which runs at 80MHz) to the PXI star trigger line.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >NI_MIO_PLL_PXI10_CLOCK</TD ><TD >Only available for newer m-series PXI boards. Synchronizes the board's phased-locked loop (which runs at 80MHz) to the 10 MHz PXI backplane clock.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >unsigned NI_MIO_PLL_RTSI_CLOCK(unsigned n)</PRE ></TD ><TD >Only available for newer m-series boards. The function returns a clock source which will cause the board's phased-locked loop (which runs at 80MHz) to syncronize to the RTSI line specified in the function argument.</TD ></TR ></TBODY ></TABLE ><P ></P ></DIV ><P >For all clock sources except NI_MIO_INTERNAL_CLOCK and NI_MIO_PLL_PXI10_CLOCK, you should pass the period of the clock your are feeding to the board when using INSN_CONFIG_SET_CLOCK_SRC.</P ><P >Finally, the configuration instructions INSN_CONFIG_SET_ROUTING and INSN_CONFIG_GET_ROUTING can be used to select/query which internal signal will appear on a given RTSI output line. The header file comedi.h defines the following signal sources which can be routed to an RTSI line:</P ><DIV CLASS="INFORMALTABLE" ><P ></P ><A NAME="AEN1351" ></A ><TABLE BORDER="1" CLASS="CALSTABLE" ><COL><COL><THEAD ><TR ><TH >Signal Source</TH ><TH >Description</TH ></TR ></THEAD ><TBODY ><TR ><TD >NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_ADR_START1</TD ><TD >ADR_START1, an analog input start signal. See the NI's DAQ-STC Technical Reference Manual for more information.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_ADR_START2</TD ><TD >ADR_START2, an analog input stop signal. See the NI's DAQ-STC Technical Reference Manual for more information.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_SCLKG</TD ><TD >SCLKG, a sample clock signal. See the NI's DAQ-STC Technical Reference Manual for more information.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_DACUPDN</TD ><TD >DACUPDN, a dac update signal. See the NI's DAQ-STC Technical Reference Manual for more information.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_DA_START1</TD ><TD >DA_START1, an analog output start signal. See the NI's DAQ-STC Technical Reference Manual for more information.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_G_SRC0</TD ><TD >G_SRC0, the source signal to general purpose counter 0. See the NI's DAQ-STC Technical Reference Manual for more information.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_G_GATE0</TD ><TD >G_GATE0, the gate signal to general purpose counter 0. See the NI's DAQ-STC Technical Reference Manual for more information.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_RGOUT0</TD ><TD >RGOUT0, the output signal of general purpose counter 0. See the NI's DAQ-STC Technical Reference Manual for more information.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >unsigned NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_RTSI_BRD(unsigned n)</PRE ></TD ><TD >RTSI_BRD0 though RTSI_BRD3 are four internal signals which can have various other signals routed to them in turn. Currently, comedi provides no way to configure the signals routed to the RTSI_BRD lines. See the NI's DAQ-STC Technical Reference Manual for more information.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD >NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_RTSI_OSC</TD ><TD >The RTSI clock signal. On pre-m-series boards, this signal is always routed to RTSI line 7, and cannot be routed to lines 0 through 6. On m-series boards, any RTSI line can be configured to output the clock signal.</TD ></TR ></TBODY ></TABLE ><P ></P ></DIV ><P >The RTSI bus pins may be used as trigger inputs for many of the COMEDI trigger functions. To use the RTSI bus pins, set the source to be TRIG_EXT and the source argument using the return values from the NI_EXT_RTSI() function (or similarly the NI_EXT_PFI() function if you want to trigger from a PFI line). The CR_EDGE and CR_INVERT flags may also be set on the trigger source argument to specify edge and falling edge/low level triggering. </P ><P >An example to set up a device as a master is given below.</P ><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >void comediEnableMaster(comedi_t* dev){ comedi_insn configCmd; lsampl_t configData[2]; int ret; unsigned int d = 0; static const unsigned rtsi_subdev = 10; static const unsigned rtsi_clock_line = 7; /* Route RTSI clock to line 7 (not needed on pre-m-series boards since their clock is always on line 7). */ memset(&configCmd, 0, sizeof(configCmd)); memset(&configData, 0, sizeof(configData)); configCmd.insn = INSN_CONFIG; configCmd.subdev = rtsi_subdev; configCmd.chanspec = rtsi_clock_line; configCmd.n = 2; configCmd.data = configData; configCmd.data[0] = INSN_CONFIG_SET_ROUTING; configCmd.data[1] = NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_RTSI_OSC; ret = comedi_do_insn(dev, &configCmd); if(ret < 0){ comedi_perror("comedi_do_insn: INSN_CONFIG"); exit(1); } // Set clock RTSI line as output ret = comedi_dio_config(dev, rtsi_subdev, rtsi_clock_line, INSN_CONFIG_DIO_OUTPUT); if(ret < 0){ comedi_perror("comedi_dio_config"); exit(1); } /* Set routing of the 3 main AI RTSI signals and their direction to output. We're reusing the already initialized configCmd instruction here since it's mostly the same. */ configCmd.chanspec = 0; configCmd.data[1] = NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_ADR_START1; ret = comedi_do_insn(dev, &configCmd); if(ret < 0){ comedi_perror("comedi_do_insn: INSN_CONFIG"); exit(1); } ret = comedi_dio_config(dev, rtsi_subdev, 0, INSN_CONFIG_DIO_OUTPUT); if(ret < 0){ comedi_perror("comedi_dio_config"); exit(1); } configCmd.chanspec = 1; configCmd.data[1] = NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_ADR_START2; ret = comedi_do_insn(dev, &configCmd); if(ret < 0){ comedi_perror("comedi_do_insn: INSN_CONFIG"); exit(1); } ret = comedi_dio_config(dev, rtsi_subdev, 1, INSN_CONFIG_DIO_OUTPUT); if(ret < 0){ comedi_perror("comedi_dio_config"); exit(1); } configCmd.chanspec = 2; configCmd.data[1] = NI_RTSI_OUTPUT_SCLKG; ret = comedi_do_insn(dev, &configCmd); if(ret < 0){ comedi_perror("comedi_do_insn: INSN_CONFIG"); exit(1); } ret = comedi_dio_config(dev, rtsi_subdev, 2, INSN_CONFIG_DIO_OUTPUT); if(ret < 0){ comedi_perror("comedi_dio_config"); exit(1); } }</PRE ><P >An example to slave a m-series device from this master follows. A pre-m-series device would need to use NI_MIO_RTSI_CLOCK for the clock source instead. In your code, you may also wish to configure the master device to use the external clock source instead of using its internal clock directly (for best syncronization).</P ><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >void comediEnableSlave(comedi_t* dev){ comedi_insn configCmd; lsampl_t configData[3]; int ret; unsigned int d = 0;; static const unsigned rtsi_subdev = 10; static const unsigned rtsi_clock_line = 7; memset(&configCmd, 0, sizeof(configCmd)); memset(&configData, 0, sizeof(configData)); configCmd.insn = INSN_CONFIG; configCmd.subdev = rtsi_subdev; configCmd.chanspec = 0; configCmd.n = 3; configCmd.data = configData; configCmd.data[0] = INSN_CONFIG_SET_CLOCK_SRC; configCmd.data[1] = NI_MIO_PLL_RTSI_CLOCK(rtsi_clock_line); configCmd.data[2] = 100; /* need to give it correct external clock period */ ret = comedi_do_insn(dev, &configCmd); if(ret < 0){ comedi_perror("comedi_do_insn: INSN_CONFIG"); exit(1); } /* configure RTSI clock line as input */ ret = comedi_dio_config(dev, rtsi_subdev, rtsi_clock_line, INSN_CONFIG_DIO_INPUT); if(ret < 0){ comedi_perror("comedi_dio_config"); exit(1); } /* Configure RTSI lines we are using for AI signals as inputs. */ ret = comedi_dio_config(dev, rtsi_subdev, 0, INSN_CONFIG_DIO_INPUT); if(ret < 0){ comedi_perror("comedi_dio_config"); exit(1); } ret = comedi_dio_config(dev, rtsi_subdev, 1, INSN_CONFIG_DIO_INPUT); if(ret < 0){ comedi_perror("comedi_dio_config"); exit(1); } ret = comedi_dio_config(dev, rtsi_subdev, 2, INSN_CONFIG_DIO_INPUT); if(ret < 0){ comedi_perror("comedi_dio_config"); exit(1); } } int comediSlaveStart(comedi_t* dev){ comedi_cmd cmd; unsigned int nChannels = 8; double sampleRate = 50000; unsigned int chanList[8]; int i; // Setup chan list for(i = 0; i < nChannels; i++){ chanList[i] = CR_PACK(i, 0, AREF_GROUND); } // Set up command memset(&cmd, 0, sizeof(cmd)); ret = comedi_get_cmd_generic_timed(dev, subdevice, &cmd, int(1e9/(nChannels * sampleRate))); if(ret<0){ printf("comedi_get_cmd_generic_timed failed\n"); return ret; } cmd.chanlist = chanList; cmd.chanlist_len = nChannels; cmd.scan_end_arg = nChannels; cmd.start_src = TRIG_EXT; cmd.start_arg = CR_EDGE | NI_EXT_RTSI(0); cmd.convert_src = TRIG_EXT; cmd.convert_arg = CR_INVERT | CR_EDGE | NI_EXT_RTSI(2); cmd.stop_src = TRIG_NONE; ret = comedi_command(dev0, &cmd0); if(ret<0){ printf("comedi_command failed\n"); return ret; } return 0; }</PRE ></DIV ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x403.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x1394.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Writing <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > programs</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Writing a <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >Comedi</ACRONYM > driver</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >