Agilent 33250A pulse width in LabVIEW

[Mike F]

I've downloaded the LabVIEW drivers ag3xxx for the Agilent 33250A. I'm unsure how to change the pulse width on a given frequency waveform. I've set the Waveform Shape to "Pulse" in ag3xxx - Config Waveform.vi, but I see no VI to actually adjust the pulse width. Is it in the VI "ag3xxx - Config pulse.vi"? It's not obvious if it is.

Thanks,

Mike

[JasonSmith]

I believe that the approach you will want to take is to use the Square waveform type, then use  "Config Duty Cycle.vi" to set the actual pulse width.  Look at the Wfm Config Example for an example of how to do this.

Jason S.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[Mike F]

The 33250 has a mode that the 33120 does not have, and that is "pulse" mode. I can control the instrument in pulse mode, and vary the pulse width, from the front panel. It does not have the 20% to 80% limitation that the "Duty Cycle" control has. It's frustrating because you'd think the driver suite would be able to utilize most of the major features of the instrument, and this seems like a major feature to me.

Mike

[JasonSmith]

I just looked back at the instrument driver and I do see a "Config Pulse.vi" that indicates it is only valid for the 33220a and 33250a.  It looks like it may give you the option you are looking for of holding the pulse for a defined length in seconds.  If you do not see this VI, you may be using an old version of the instrument driver.  I am using the LabVIEW Plug and Play driver for LabVIEW 8.0, which I downloaded earlier today.

Jason S.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[Rajan_77]

Hi

I am using agilent 33250A. I downloaded the dreivers from http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.download_page?p_id_guid=E3B19B3E9066659CE034080020E748...

But i could not find any driver to set the time for the points to generate arbitrary waveform. HELP !!!!

[Dennis_Knutson]

I don't have the manual but in the shipping example, it looks like it uses the frequency setting to determine the rate at which the output waveform is generated. What have you tried and what does your manual say?

[BrianInTheForest]

If you are creating just a single pulse use the config pulse vis

For the 33220A, if you are creating an ARB waveform you can only set the time for each point on the front  panel.  There is no way to set the time for individual points via programming. 

The way I get around it is to create numerous points to get my desired signal.   For example, I have a pulse train of 1 usec low then 3 usec high then 2 usec low.  I would create a point = 1 usec then use that to build my signal.  I would have used a total of 6 points to create my waveform.

To set point rate you will need to set the freq of the arb.

I think this is the formula or a variation of it

Frequency = (1/point rate in usecs)/total #of points in waveform

I use this method to create waveforms to validate my companies comm protocols.