Measurement Computing PC-CARD-DAC08 User manual

PC-CARD-DAC08
Analog Outputs & Digital I/O
User’s Manual
Revision 1
March, 2001
(C) Copyri
g
ht 2001, Measurement Computin
g
Corporation

MEGA-FIFO, the CIO prefix to data acquisition board model numbers, the PCM prefix to data
acquisition board model numbers, PCM-DAS08, PCM-D24C3, PC-CARD-DAC08,
PCM-COM422, PCM-COM485, PCM-DMM, PCM-DAS16D/12, PCM-DAS16S/12,
PCM-DAS16D/16, PCM-DAS16S/16, PCI-DAS6402/16, Universal Library,InstaCal, Harsh
Environment Warranty and Measurement Computing Corporation are registered trademarks of
Measurement Computing Corporation.
IBM, PC, and PC/AT are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp. Windows is a
trademark of Microsoft Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Information furnished by Measurement Computing Corp. is believed to be accurate and
reliable. However, no responsibility is assumed by Measurement Computing Corporation
neither for its use; nor for any infringements of patents or other rights of third parties, which
may result from its use. No license is granted by implication or otherwise under any patent or
copyrights of Measurement Computing Corporation.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, by photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior written permission of Measurement Computing Corporation.
Notice
Measurement Computing Corporation does not authorize any
Measurement Computing Corporation product for use in life support
systems and/or devices without the written approval of the President of
Measurement Computing Corporation Life support devices/systems are
devices or systems which, a) are intended for surgical implantation into
the body, or b) support or sustain life and whose failure to perform can
be reasonably expected to result in injury. Measurement Computing
Corp. products are not designed with the components required, and are
not subject to the testing required to ensure a level of reliability suitable
for the treatment and diagnosis of people.
HM PC-CARD-DAC08.lwp

TABLE OF CONTENTS
9
6 SPECIFICATIONS .................................................6
5 I/O ADDRESS MAP & REGISTER FUNCTIONS ......................54.2 PACKAGED APPLICATIONS PROGRAMS ........................54.1 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES .................................5
4 PROGRAMMING & APPLICATIONS ...............................43.6 DIGITAL INPUTS & OUTPUTS ..................................43.5 EXTERNAL INTERRUPT INPUT .................................43.4 SIGNAL CONNECTION ........................................43.3 OUTPUT VOLTAGE RANGE ....................................43.2 CONNECTING DEVICES TO THE ANALOG OUTPUTS .............33.1 PC-CARD-DAC08 CONNECTOR .................................3
3 INTERFACING ....................................................22.2 INSTALL THE PC-CARD .......................................22.1 SOFTWARE ...................................................2
2 INSTALLATION ..................................................1
1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................

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1 INTRODUCTION
The PC-CARD-DAC08 is an eight-channel, analog output control board for IBM PC
compatible computers having PCMCIA-type slots. The heart of the board is an octal,
13-bit digital-to-analog converter of which only 12 bits are used for each output.
Analog voltage signals are generated by the D/A from registers. Control of I/O
operations is done by the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) on the board
(Figure 1-1). Double-buffering of the output registers permit simultaneous output
changes.
Range of the analog outputs is bipolar, ±5V.
In addition to the analog outputs, there are eight bi-directional digital I/O lines
arranged in two, 4-bit ports. They provide the capability of sensing and controlling
discrete events (via external signal-conditioning hardware). The ports can be
programmed to be either eight inputs, eight outputs, or four inputs and four outputs.
Figure 1-1. PC-CARD-DAC08 Block Diagram
1
PCMCIA BUS CONNECTOR P1
(
68-PIN
)
ADDRESS
BUS
HOST BUS ADAPTER
CONTROLLER
FPGA
P2 CONNECTOR (26 PIN)
PC-CARD-DAC08
DIGITAL
I/O
PORT
4 BITS
DIGITAL
I/O
PORT
4 BITS
ATTRIBUTE
MEMORY
DATA
BUS
OCTAL D/A
CONVERTER
13-BIT D/A OUT 7: 0
DIG I/O 3: 0
DIG I/O 7: 4
EXT INT

2 INSTALLATION
2.1 SOFTWARE
Your PCM card is completely plug and play. There are no switches or jumpers to set
prior to installation in your computer. InstaCal is the installation, calibration and test
software supplied with the board. Refer to the Extended Software Installation Manual
to install InstaCal.
2.2 INSTALL THE PC-CARD
Follow the steps below to install your PC-Card.
1. Insert the card into a free PC Card/PCMCIA type II or III slot. You do not
have to turn the computer off. The system is designed for power-on
installation.
2. If the appropriate driver is already loaded on the PC, the card should be
detected, recognized, and configured by Windows and you should hear an
insertion beep. If the card is not detected by Windows, go to step 3. To
verify the card has been recognized, go to Control Panel\System\Device
Manager and the card should now appear under "DAS Component."
3. If the drivers are not already loaded on the PC, you will be prompted for a
driver. If you are not prompted for a driver after inserting the card, go to Step
4. The appropriate driver is located on disk 1 of the installation disk set.
Insert this disk. Windows should detect the driver file automatically, install it
and then the card should be detected by Windows and you should hear an
insertion beep. To verify the card has been recognized, go to Control
Panel\System\Device Manager and the card should now appear under "DAS
Component." If your card appears in the list you can now proceed to the
"RUN InstaCal" section of this manual.
4. If the card is not detected by Windows and you are not prompted for a driver
after inserting the card, check that your computer's 32-bit PCMCIA drivers
are enabled. If they are not, enable them and then restart your computer and
try the above procedure again.
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3 INTERFACING
The PC-CARD-DAC08 connector has eight, single-ended analog outputs, one
interrupt input, eight, digital inputs/outputs and eight ground pins. A chassis ground is
in the cable shield clips to either side of the 26 pins of the connector.
3.1 PC-CARD-DAC08 CONNECTOR
Figure 3-1 shows a PC-CARD-DAC08 case looking into the male mini-connector.
The connector is mechanically keyed to insure that the cable is inserted correctly.
Figure 3-1. 26-Pin I/O Mini-Connector
Table 3-1. 26-Pin Connector Pinout
D/A OUT 726GND13 D/A OUT 625GND12 D/A OUT 524GND11 D/A OUT 423GND10 D/A OUT 322GND9D/A OUT 221GND8D/A OUT 120GND7D/A OUT 019PC +5V OUT6DIGITAL I/O 718DIGITAL I/O 65DIGITAL I/O 517DIGITAL I/O 44DIGITAL I/O 316DIGITAL I/O 23DIGITAL I/O 115DIGITAL I/O 02EXT. INTERRUPT IN14GND1SIGNAL NAMEPINSIGNAL NAMEPIN
Analog devices to be controlled should be connected with the high side to the
numbered analog output and the low side to an adjacent ground.
Refer to Section 7, Specifications, for information on a mating cable,
PC-CARD-C37F/26. This cable will permit attachment to a variety of screw terminal
and signal conditioning boards. The PC-CARD-DAC08 used in conjunction with the
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PC-CARD-C37F/26 cable is pin compatible with the PCM-DAC08 using the
PCM-C37/33 cable.
3.2 CONNECTING DEVICES TO THE ANALOG OUTPUTS
The analog outputs are single-ended. You must avoid potentials between signal
ground and chassis ground on your computer. If you are using a laptop and are on
battery power, the computer is floating with respect to earth ground, but the laptop is
on the charger unit or on wall power, the laptop may be grounded.
Whenever the computer is grounded, you must connect signals so there is no potential
between PC ground and signal ground. If there is a potential, it will be added to the
signal. For example, if your card is supplying 3.5 volts and there is a potential of
-1.5V between the PC and the sensor ground, your device under control will be
reading 2.0V instead of 3.5V
3.3 OUTPUT VOLTAGE RANGE
There is only one output voltage range, ±5VDC.
3.4 SIGNAL CONNECTION
Loads drawing higher currents than the maximum current specified in the electrical
spec will cause the analog output to drop, meaning that a code of 4095 will not be able
to generate a full scale voltage of 5V, but somewhat less.
3.5 EXTERNAL INTERRUPT INPUT
Pin 14 on the 26 pin I/O mini-connector is an external input which will generate an
interrupt to the computer. The interrupt must be enabled through software. The
interrupt is falling edge triggered using TTL level signals. The procedure initiated by
an interrupt is wholly dependent on programming.
3.6 DIGITAL INPUTS & OUTPUTS
The PC-CARD-DAC08 has eight bi-directional digital I/O lines. The eight digital
lines can be programmed as input or output in groups of: eight inputs, eight outputs or
four inputs and four outputs. A register controls the direction of the digital I/O lines
and must be set via software. At power-on or reset, the digital lines are set as inputs.
4

Please note: Digital lines in an input state present a high impedance to any device
connected to them. The implication of this is that if you are using a digital line to
control the input of a TTL chip, and that digital line changes from an output to an
input, the TTL chip being controlled may detect the turned around line as a “1” or a
“0”. This could cause the TTL input being controlled to switch on or off, possibly
causing bad consequences for the system you are controlling. To prevent random
switching and force all digital lines into a known state on power up or reset, use pull
-up or pull-down resistors to fix the state of the line as either high or low. A properly
selected resistor will not interfere with TTL level output signals.
For more information on programming the digital I/O lines, please refer to the
Universal library programmers manual.
4 PROGRAMMING & APPLICATIONS
4.1 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
Universal Library provides complete access to the PC-CARD-DAC08 functions from
a range of programming languages; both DOS and Windows. If you are planning to
write programs, or would like to run the example programs for Visual Basic or any
other language, please turn now to the Universal library manual.
4.2 PACKAGED APPLICATIONS PROGRAMS
Many packaged application programs, such as SoftWIRETM, have drivers for the
PC-CARD-DAC08. If the package you own does not appear to have drivers you need,
please fax the package name and the revision number from the install disks. We will
research the package for you and advise by return fax how to obtain necessary drivers.
5

5 I/O ADDRESS MAP & REGISTER FUNCTIONS
A base address register controls the beginning, or 'Base Address' of the I/O addresses
occupied by the control registers of the PC-CARD-DAC08. Sixteen addresses are
allocated to the PC-CARD, however, only 5 addresses are actually used. The base
address assigned by CSS is stored in the CB.CBG file by InstaCal.
After CSS is installed and a base address has been established, the PC-CARD-DAC08
is controlled by writing to and reading from the control registers. While it is possible
to write your own control routines, routines have been written and are available in
Universal library for DOS and Windows programming languages. We support the use
of the PC-CARD-DAC08 through high level languages using Universal Library.
All I/O access can be performed as bytes or words. Eight-bit addressing is controlled
by the CSS, which is currently set for 8-bit addressing. The registers are presented in
8-bit format here.
BASE + 0 - DAC0 LSB Data Register
D/A0D/A1D/A2D/A3D/A4D/A5D/A6D/A7 01234567
Any read to this register triggers an D/A conversion. This is a good method of starting
conversions from software or time of day clock control.
WRITE: D/A Data can be written to this address and to Base + 1 to form a 12-bit
D/A data word. All eight DAC’s are updated using this register. The DAC
being updated is set via the Select bits (S3 to S0) in the Base +2 register.
READ: Starts a D/A conversion. Updates the output of the selected DACs in Base
+ 2 Register.
BASE + 1 - DAC Value MSB (4 bits)
D/A8D/A9D/A10D/A11D/A12XXX 01234567
WRITE: Send DAC data.
READ: Clear Interrupt Request bit at Base +4 bit D#3
BASE + 2 - DAC Select Register
S0S1S2S3CLRXXX 01234567
WRITE: Select the DAC to update
READ: Read back Currently Selected DAC
S2: S0: The data entered to registers base +0 and base +1 will be latched to the
DAC register defined by these bits (see table 5-1).
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