Sample Clocked Buffered Frequency Measurement - National Instruments NI cDAQ-9181 User Manual

You can route the signal to measure to the Source input of Counter 0, as shown in Figure 5-14.
Assume this signal to measure has frequency fx. NI-DAQmx automatically configures Counter
0 to generate a single pulse that is the width of N periods of the source input signal.
Figure 5-14. Large Range of Frequencies with Two Counters
Signal of Known
Next, route the Counter 0 Internal Output signal to the Gate input of Counter 1. You can route a
signal of known frequency (fk) to the Counter 1 Source input. Configure Counter 1 to perform
a single pulse-width measurement. Suppose the result is that the pulse width is J periods of the
fk clock.
From Counter 0, the length of the pulse is N/fx. From Counter 1, the length of the same pulse is
J/fk. Therefore, the frequency of fx is given by fx = fk * (N/J).

Sample Clocked Buffered Frequency Measurement

Sample clocked buffered point frequency measurements can either be a single frequency
measurement or an average between sample clocks. Use CI.Freq.EnableAveraging to set the
behavior. For buffered frequency, the default is True.
A sample clocked buffered frequency measurement with CI.Freq.EnableAveraging set to True
uses the embedded counter and a sample clock to perform a frequency measurement. For each
sample clock period, the embedded counter counts the signal to measure (fx) and the primary
counter counts the internal time-base of a known frequency (fk). Suppose T1 is the number of
ticks of the unknown signal counted between sample clocks and T2 is the number of ticks
counted of the known timebase as shown in Figure 5-15. The frequency measured is:
Signal to
Source
Measure (fx)
Frequency (fk)
CTR_0_SOURCE
(Signal to Measure)
CTR_0_OUT
(CTR_1_GATE)
CTR_1_SOURCE
fx = fk * (T1/T2)
NI cDAQ-9181/9184/9188/9191 User Manual
Counter 0
Source
Counter 1
Gate
0 1 2 3 ... N
Interval
to Measure
Out
Out
© National Instruments | 5-13