Appendix A: Calibration Procedure Options; External Calibration - National Instruments NI 5402 Calibration Procedure

Appendix A: Calibration Procedure Options

External Calibration

© National Instruments Corporation
External calibration involves both verification and adjustment. Verification
is the process of testing the device to ensure that the output accuracy is
within certain specifications. Adjustment is the process of measuring and
compensating for device performance to improve the output accuracy. The
device is guaranteed to meet or exceed its published specifications for the
duration of the calibration interval.
You can use the two sets of test limits provided in this document (the
calibration test limits and the published specifications) to perform a
verification to determine whether an adjustment process needs to be
performed or, if an adjustment has already been performed, to ensure
that it was successful.
If all the output errors determined during verification fall within the
calibration test limits, the device is guaranteed to meet or exceed its
published specifications for a full calibration interval (two years). For this
reason, you must verify against the calibration test limits when performing
verification after adjustment.
Published specification values are less restrictive than the calibration test
limits. If all of the output errors determined during verification fall within
the published specifications, but not within the calibration test limits, the
device currently meets its published specifications. The device will meet
published specifications for the rest of the current calibration interval, but
may not remain within these specifications for another two years. In this
case, you can perform an adjustment if you want to improve the output
accuracy or reset the calibration interval. However, if some output
errors determined during verification do not fall within the published
specifications, you must perform an adjustment to restore the device
operation to its published specifications.
The Complete Calibration section describes the recommended
calibration procedure. The Optional Calibration section describes
alternative procedures that allow you to skip adjustment if the device
already meets its calibration test limits or published specifications.
95 NI 5402/5406 Calibration Procedure