National Instruments DAQCard-1200 Resources

Appendix D PC Card Questions and Answers

DAQCard-1200 User Manual D-2 © National Instruments Corporation

2. My computer locks up when I use a PC Card. What should I do?

This usually happens because Card Services allocated an unusable

interrupt level to the PC Card. For example, on some computers,

interrupt level 11 is not routed to PC Cards. If Card Services is not

aware of this, it may assign interrupt 11 to a PC Card even though the

interrupt is not usable. When a call uses the interrupt, the interrupt

never occurs, and the computer locks up waiting for a response. For

information about how to locate an interrupt that is free to be used,

refer to question 4 in the Resources section.

3. Is there a way I can conserve power on my PC Card when it is not

in use?

Yes. If you are using NI-DAQ for PC compatibles version 4.8.0 or

later, a DOS utility called DAQPOWER_EXE will switch all National

Instruments PC Cards between normal mode and power-down mode.

Power-up and power-down icons are also installed for Windows users

to access either of these two power-management modes. Refer to

AppendixC, Power-Management Modes, for more information on

these modes.

Resources

1. How do I determine if I have a memory conflict?

If no PC Cards are working at all, it is probably because a memory

window is not usable. Card Services uses a 4 kB memory window for

its own internal use. If the memory cannot be used, then Card Services

cannot read the Card Information Structure (CIS) from the card’s

EPROM, which means it cannot identify cards.

There are two different methods you can use when Card Services has

a problem reading the CIS. First, you can determine which memory

window Card Services is using, and then exclude that window from use

by Card Services and/or the memory manager. Second, you can

attempt to determine all of the memory that Card Services can possibly

use and then exclude all but that memory from use by Card Services.

2. How do I determine all of the memory that Card Services can use?

One way to find out which memory addresses Card Services can use is

to run a utility such as MSD.EXE that scans the system and tells you

how the system memory is being used. For example, if you run such a

memory utility and it tells you that physical addresses C0000 to C9FFF

Contents

Main Page Important Information Warranty Copyright Trademarks WARNING REGARDING USE OF NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS PRODUCTS Contents Chapter 4 Theory of Operation Page Tables About This Manual Organization of This Manual Conventions Used in This Manual National Instruments Documentation Related Documentation Introduction About the DAQCard-1200 What You Need to Get Started Software Programming Choices LabVIEW and LabWindows/CVI Application Software NI-DAQ Driver Software Register-Level Programming Optional Equipment Unpacking Installation and Configuration Installation Configuration Analog Input Configuration Analog Input Polarity Analog Input Mode RSE Input (Eight Channels, Default Setting) NRSE Input (Eight Channels) DIFF Input (Four Channels) Analog Output Configuration Analog Output Polarity Digital I/O Configuration Counter Configuration Signal Connections I/O Connector Figure 3-1. DAQCard-1200 I/O Connector Pin Assignments Signal Connection Descriptions Analog Input Signal Connections + Types of Signal Sources Floating Signal Sources Ground-Referenced Signal Sources Input Configurations Differential Connection Considerations (DIFF Configuration) Differential Connections for Grounded Signal Sources Figure 3-3. Differential Input Connections for Grounded Signal Sources Differential Connections for Floating Signal Sources Figure 3-4. Differential Input Connections for Floating Sources Single-Ended Connection Considerations Single-Ended Connections for Floating Signal Sources (RSE Configuration) Single-Ended Connections for Grounded Signal Sources (NRSE Configuration) Common-Mode Signal Rejection Considerations Analog Output Signal Connections Digital I/O Signal Connections Page Port C Pin Connections Timing Specifications Mode 1 Input Timing Mode 1 Output Timing Mode 2 Bidirectional Timing Page DAQ and General-Purpose Timing Signal Connections DAQ Timing Connections Page Page Page General-Purpose Timing Signal Connections Page Page Figure 3-18. Frequency Measurement Application Chapter 3 Signal Connections DAQCard-1200 User Manual 3-30 National Instruments Corporation Figure 3-19. General-Purpose Timing Signals The GATE and OUT signals in Figure3-19 are referenced to the rising edge of the CLK signal. Power Connections National Instruments Corporation 4-1 DAQCard-1200 User Manual Theory of Operation This chapter explains the operation of each functional unit of the DAQCard-1200. Figure 4-1. DAQCard-1200 Block Diagram Functional Overview The block diagram in Figure 4-1 shows a functional overview of the DAQCard-1200. PC Card I/O Channel Interface Circuitry Timing Chapter 4 Theory of Operation Figure 4-3. Timing Circuitry DAQCard-1200 User Manual 4-4 National Instruments Corporation Analog Input Analog Input Circuitry Page Data Acquisition Timing Data Acquisition Operation Continuous Data Acquisition Interval Data Acquisition Data Acquisition Rates Page Analog Output Analog Output Circuitry Power-On State DAC Timing Digital I/O Calibration Calibration at Higher Gains Calibration Equipment Requirements Using the Calibration Function Page A Specifications Analog Input Input Characteristics Transfer Characteristics Amplifier Characteristics Dynamic Characteristics Stability Analog Output Output Characteristics Transfer Characteristics Page Timing I/O Digital Trigger Bus Interface Power Requirement Physical Page B Differences among the Lab-PC+, the DAQPad-1200, and the DAQCard-1200 Page C Power-Management Modes Page D PC Card Questions and Answers Configuration Operation Resources Page Page E Technical Support Resources NI Web Support Online Problem-Solving and Diagnostic Resources Software-Related Resources Worldwide Support Glossary Numbers/Symbols A B C D E F G Page Page V Index Numbers A B C D E F G I L M N O R S T U V W