PCI 5152 without 12V

[Gryphon]

Hi All,
 
 I have a somewhat unusual requirement.  I need to capture a signal in the 0-5V range with a scope.  Problem is that there cannot be any voltages in the measurement system above 6.5V.  The PCI-5152 with 512Mb is perfect in every respect except that it requires 12V from the PCI bus. 

 Is it the case that certain measurement ranges will not function without the 12V or is the board not going to work at all without the 12V.  I am hoping that the 12V is used for reference voltages that are used with higher input ranges and that the card may still work in measuring 0-5V without 12V in the system.

 This is going to go into about 10 systems so there is a value in getting a  custom build if that's something NI would do.   Will any of the scope cards work in a system without 12V?

thanks and regards
Peter

[Matt_E.]

Hello Peter,

The 5152 uses +12V and -12V for a few different circuits on the board.  Some of these circuits could be redesigned fairly straightforwardly to run off other rails and others would be more difficult.  Since you stated your system would not have any voltages over 6.5V I am assuming that the system will not provide any sort of negative voltage rail.  At first glance it looks like the only feature that would be difficult to keep while removing all voltages over 6.5V would be our trigger TDC circuit.  This circuit allows us to determine when an analog trigger event occurs in time between two samples.  Without this circuit the board will still function but when a trigger event occurs it will be marked as occurring at the next sample clock edge.  On the 5152 this is not as big of a problem because the sample clock period is very small  (1 ns).

NI can work on custom opportunities like this if the amount of R&D investment makes sense.  If you are interested in looking into this further please let me know and I will put you in touch with the correct people to discuss your application requirements so we can get a better idea of how much work would be required.

You may also want to consider the USB-5132 & 5133.  While these digitizers are not in the PCI form-factor they are already designed to have no internal voltages above 5V.  The PCI 5102 also operates below these limits but since the 5102 is one of our older products I would recommend you discuss your long term needs with us before designing the 5102 into a new product.

Please let me know if I can help you further!

Regards,

-Matt

[Gryphon]

Hi Matt,

 thanks for the prompt and very encouraging reply.  The PCI bus rails of +/-5V and +/-3.3V will still be available but these are not considered a problem.  I will need to get a bit more detail of the complete specs that we would be after in the custom design but I certainly would be keen to explore this further.  There are confidentiality issues which I will need to sort out as well but nothing major, just wouldn't be able to go into a lot of detail on the newsgroup.

 BTW,  there is a parallel development going on with similar if not larger scope for multiple orders where a compact RIO system which could work of 6.5V would be ideal.  If this is not available, we will have to build a system around a PC and an R series card which is nowhere as robust as the compact RIO.   The system uses c series modules but because the compact RIO power board won't work (boot up the system) below 9V we can't use it.   This would definitely (I think) be an even easier mod.  Sorry for getting of track in this newsgroup with the compact RIO stuff but hopefully you'll be able to point me in the right direction.

 Thanks again Matt!

Cheers,

Peter

[Matt_E.]

Hi Peter,

I have forwarded this information to our product marketing engineer for high speed digitizers and he should be contacting you shortly to discuss this in more detail.  He should be able to help you get more information on the cRIO products as well.  Thanks for posting to the forum!

Regards,

-Matt

[Matt_E.]

Hi Peter,

The best way for you to proceed with this process will actually be to contact the local field sales rep for your area.  You can find your sales rep by going to the following web page:
http://www.ni.com/domestic_sales/

He will contact you and first make sure that the 5152 is the best fit for your application and can help you move forward with the custom design if that is the best approach.  Thanks again and sorry for the confusion!

-Matt

[Gryphon]

Hi Matt,

 no worries and thanks for the assistance.  I have been in touch with my local sales guy but he is on the road at present and has not been able to get back to me.  What I was after by posting to the newsgroup was a bit of insight into the technical aspects of the application, particularly whether the card would limp along on 5V.

Thanks again.

Cheers!

Peter