Generating An Arbitrary Waveform - National Instruments 5401 Getting Started Manual

Generating an Arbitrary Waveform

To generate an arbitrary waveform using the FGEN SFP, complete the
following steps:
(NI 5401/5402/5404/5406 Devices) These devices do not
Note
support arbitrary waveform generation.
1. Launch the FGEN SFP from Start»All Programs»
National Instruments»NI-FGEN»FGEN Soft Front Panel.
2. Verify that the device you installed appears on the FGEN SFP display,
shown in Figure 4, or select Edit»Device Configuration (Figure 5) to
choose a different signal generator device from the drop-down listbox
arrow.
3. Click the Single Arbitrary Waveform Mode button shown in the
following figure.
4. Click the Download Waveform button shown in the following figure to
download a waveform to the device onboard memory.
Select Load Waveform from disk. The Select File dialog box opens and
displays waveform example files.
You also can download a waveform by selecting File»Load
Note
New Waveform. For the installation location of the example
waveforms, refer to the NI-FGEN Instrument Driver Readme.
5. Select
arbMode-sine.lvm
and Waveform Preview window launch. You can close or minimize
the Waveform Preview window.
6. In the File Load dialog box, select one of the following settings from the
Waveform drop-down listbox:
♦
NI-5411/5412/5431—sine, 16 MHz at 40 MS/s
♦
All other signal generators—sine, 40 MHz at 100 MS/s
7. Click OK.
8. Click the Run button to initiate waveform generation. To optimize the
sine wave shape, select Edit»Device Configuration, and change the
filter settings.
The FGEN SFP default settings instruct the arbitrary waveform generator to
generate a continuous sine wave, with a peak-to-peak amplitude of 1 V into
Ω
a 50 load, and no offset. For more information about the FGEN SFP, select
© National Instruments Corporation
and click OK. The File Load dialog box
17 NI SIgnal Generators Getting Started Guide