Self calibration errors on 5112 high speed digitizer.

[Stu_B]

We have several NI PXI-5112 scope cards and regularly encounter errors when using the self calibration feature of the Soft Front Panel S/W. The error message received is "Error occured at : NI Scope Cal Self Calibrate.vi <Err> Driver Status: (Hex 0xBFFA4001) software failure occured during operation".

In the past we have returned these units to National Instruments for repair but they come back No Fault Found. It has been discovered recently that it seems to depend on the version of Soft Front Panel used to calibrate the unit.

We have several different versions of the s/w and some cards have been purchased at different periods of time. Is there a relationship between the age of the board and the version of Soft Front Panel used to self calibrate? If so please advise on how to determine which version of S/W to use on which cards. 

[Kurt_NISalesEngineer]

Hi,

Thanks for posting your query on the National Instruments forums.

In the past when customers had enocountered this error it would commonly appear because were using the wrong version of NI-DAQ for the revision of the card so: 

Revision D of the PXI version of the NI 5112 only works with NI-DAQ 6.8 (or earlier).
Revision E of the PXI version of the NI 5112 only works with NI-DAQ 6.9.0 (or later).

See: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/E956B50E8E0FC44E86256B030062CA2E?OpenDocument

What are the versions of drivers have you got installed? i.e. NI Scope? NI DAQmx? You can obtain driver version, information by branching out the software directory in Measurement and Automation Explorer.

I hope this helps!

Kind Regards,

Kirtesh Mistry

National Instruments UK & Ireland

[Stu_B]

Hi,

Thanks for the message. The board I am having problems with at the moment is revision 'E'. It is running with NI-SCOPE Version 2.6, NI-DAQ Version 7.1, and is run on Lab Windows/CVI Version 6.0 under Windows 2000.  According to your reply this board should calibrate o.k with these software versions.  

[hannahW]

Hello Stu,

Does this particular board show this problem on all versions of software that you run or is this still part of the batch where you believe the behaviour is different in different versions?

If it does, then I would suggest that you call into your local NI office and speak to someone about this - if it has been returned for repair before, then if you have those details handy it will be helpful.

How many boards are you seeing this problem with?

Regards
Hannah
NIUK & Ireland

[Stu_B]

Hi,

The board we are having problems with at the moment will self-calibrate if put into a machine that has NI-Scope version 2.0 installed with NI-Daq 6.9.2. But not with any later version. However we have another PXI-5112 which has been sent away for repair recently for same problem and have been advised that the relays are faulty. Could this board have the same problem?

Best Regards,

Stuart Brydges 

[hannahW]

Hi Stuart,

What other versions of the NI-DAQ and NI-Scope software have you tried with this card?  Are there any other versions - earlier or later - that will allow you to self calibrate this card.

Looking at the next version up from 6.9.2 - which is 6.9.3 - and this doesn't show any changes in the driver which could cause this with the 5112.

It could be a similar problem to the board you sent off for repair, but if you can calibrate with multiple versions of the software then it does not seem likely

Regards
Hannah
NIUK & Ireland

[Stu_B]

Hi Hannah,

The only other versions we have are, NI-Scope version 2.1.4 with NI-DAQ version 6.9.3. and NI-Scope version 2.6 with NI-DAQ version 7.1. most machines are running NI-Scope version 2.1.4 as they have Lab/Windows CVI 5.5 on them under Win98.

None of these versions will calibrate the card.

[hannahW]

Hello Stuart,

I believe you are currently dealing with one of my colleagues Lee over the telephone about this issue. I would recommend that you continue to work with him on this issue for now, as we will perhaps need to get the cards sent into NI UK for some diagnostics, which will require us to find out serial number information and direct contact details, which are perhaps not best discussed in the forum.

Regards
Hannah
NIUK & Ireland

[Kurt_NISalesEngineer]

hello,

I would advise that you stick to the correct or recomended revisions of the drivers for your particular board as specified in my earlier post [please see the KB link].

From our recent telephone conversation I gathered that you have two PCI-5112 cards that you have found to be behaving incorrectly.

card 1) soft front panels presents you with an error message as you describe in your post. For this card - This error can occur if the gain settings or reset option is being performed at high rate. The relay which controls the gain settings on the digitizer has a maximum number of switches before it will begin to wear out. In these cases the best option is to RMA the board.

card 2) I gather MAX finds the card but no waveform is shown in the soft front panels - flatlines at 0. When you do a self test in MAX you find it hangs.

I understand that you have tried both cards in different machines and they exhibit the same symptoms.

Using the serial numbers provided our records show that both PCI 5112 cards are revision D cards and so I would ask you to double check that you have the correct driver versions installed with respect to this. In the KB it is recomended that

For PCI cards:

NI-Scope 1.6 and NI-DAQ 6.8 should be used with revision D (or earlier) of this board.

I gather from the conversation you have NI DAQ 7.1 and NI Scope 2.6.

Please let me know how you get on either by telephone or on this posting a reply on this forum. I shall action the RMA process for card 1, as per your request.

I hope this helps!

Kind Regards,

Kirtesh Mistry

Applications Engineer

National Instruments UK & Ireland

[Stu_B]

Hi Kurt,

I have read the KB and it says to me that the PCI version of the NI-5112 was released at the same time as revision 'E' of the PXI version of the NI-5112 and will work with NI-DAQ version 6.9.0 or later. I believe card 2 to be faulty also, so I will arrange return of this card also. As for the PXI versions we have it looks like these have faulty relays so will arrange repair of these too. 

Many thanks for your help,

Stuart Brydges