National Instruments SC-2040 User manual

© Copyright 1994 National Instruments Corporation.
All Rights Reserved.
SC-2040
User Manual
Eight-Channel Simultaneous Sample-and-Hold Accessory
September 1994 Edition
Part Number 371191A-01

National Instruments Corporate Headquarters
6504 Bridge Point Parkway
Austin, TX 78730-5039
[phone]
Technical support fax: [phone]
[phone]
Branch Offices:
Australia [phone], Austria [phone], Belgium 02/757.00.20, Canada (Ontario) [phone],
Canada (Québec) [phone], Denmark 45 76 26 00, Finland (90) 527 2321, France (1) 48 14 24 24,
Germany 089/741 31 30, Italy 02/48301892, Japan [phone], Netherlands 03480-33466, Norway 32-848400,
Spain (91) 640 0085, Sweden 08-730 49 70, Switzerland 056/20 51 51, U.K. 0635 523545

Limited Warranty
The SC-2040 is warranted against defects in materials and workmanship for a period of one year from the date of
shipment, as evidenced by receipts or other documentation. National Instruments will, at its option, repair or replace
equipment that proves to be defective during the warranty period. This warranty includes parts and labor.
A Return Material Authorization (RMA) number must be obtained from the factory and clearly marked on the
outside of the package before any equipment will be accepted for warranty work. National Instruments will pay the
shipping costs of returning to the owner parts which are covered by warranty.
National Instruments believes that the information in this manual is accurate. The document has been carefully
reviewed for technical accuracy. In the event that technical or typographical errors exist, National Instruments
reserves the right to make changes to subsequent editions of this document without prior notice to holders of this
edition. The reader should consult National Instruments if errors are suspected. In no event shall National
Instruments be liable for any damages arising out of or related to this document or the information contained in it.
EXCEPT AS SPECIFIED HEREIN, NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. CUSTOMER'S RIGHT TO RECOVER DAMAGES CAUSED BY FAULT OR NEGLIGENCE ON THE PART
OF NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT THERETOFORE PAID BY THE CUSTOMER.
NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM LOSS OF DATA, PROFITS,
USE OF PRODUCTS, OR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY
THEREOF. This limitation of the liability of National Instruments will apply regardless of the form of action,
whether in contract or tort, including negligence. Any action against National Instruments must be brought within
one year after the cause of action accrues. National Instruments shall not be liable for any delay in performance due
to causes beyond its reasonable control. The warranty provided herein does not cover damages, defects,
malfunctions, or service failures caused by owner's failure to follow the National Instruments installation, operation,
or maintenance instructions; owner's modification of the product; owner's abuse, misuse, or negligent acts; and
power failure or surges, fire, flood, accident, actions of third parties, or other events outside reasonable control.
Copyright
Under the copyright laws, this publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storing in an information retrieval system, or translating, in whole
or in part, without the prior written consent of National Instruments Corporation.
Trademarks
LabVIEW®, NI-DAQ®, and RTSI®are trademarks of National Instruments Corporation.
Product names and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

Warning Regarding Medical and Clinical Use
of National Instruments Products
National Instruments products are not designed with components and testing intended to ensure a level of reliability
suitable for use in treatment and diagnosis of humans. Applications of National Instruments products involving
medical or clinical treatment can create a potential for accidental injury caused by product failure, or by errors on
the part of the user or application designer. Any use or application of National Instruments products for or involving
medical or clinical treatment must be performed by properly trained and qualified medical personnel, and all
traditional medical safeguards, equipment, and procedures that are appropriate in the particular situation to prevent
serious injury or death should always continue to be used when National Instruments products are being used.
National Instruments products are NOT intended to be a substitute for any form of established process, procedure, or
equipment used to monitor or safeguard human health and safety in medical or clinical treatment.

© National Instruments Corporation v SC-2040 User Manual
Contents
About This Manual................................................................................................................ix
Organization of This Manual............................................................................................ix
Conventions Used in This Manual....................................................................................x
The National Instruments Documentation Set..................................................................x
Related Documentation ....................................................................................................xi
Customer Communication................................................................................................xi
Chapter 1
Introduction..........................................................................................................................1-1
About the SC-2040.........................................................................................................1-1
What You Need to Get Started ......................................................................................1-1
Software Programming Choices....................................................................................1-2
LabVIEW and LabWindows Application Software..........................................1-2
NI-DAQ Driver Software...................................................................................1-2
Register-Level Programming.............................................................................1-4
Optional Equipment.......................................................................................................1-4
Unpacking......................................................................................................................1-4
Chapter 2
Configuration and Installation....................................................................................... 2-1
Board Configuration ......................................................................................................2-1
Supplementary Configuration Information........................................................2-6
Power Supply Selection.........................................................................2-6
Shield Selection......................................................................................2-6
DAQ Board Ground Isolation Selection................................................2-6
Gain Selection....................................................................................................2-6
Input Mode Selection.........................................................................................2-7
Installation......................................................................................................................2-8
Power On Sequence.......................................................................................................2-8
Chapter 3
Signal Connections.............................................................................................................3-1
I/O Connector Pin Description.......................................................................................3-1
Signal Connection Description..........................................................................3-4
Analog Signal Input...........................................................................................3-7
DC-Coupled Inputs................................................................................3-7
AC-Coupled Signals ..............................................................................3-8
Analog Input Ranges..................................................................3-10
Digital Signal Input............................................................................................3-11
Monitoring Signal Outputs.................................................................................3-11
Other Connection Considerations..................................................................................3-11

Contents
SC-2040 User Manual vi © National Instruments Corporation
Chapter 4
Theory of Operation..........................................................................................................4-1
Functional Overview......................................................................................................4-1
Analog Circuitry ............................................................................................................4-3
Input Protection..................................................................................................4-3
Amplification.....................................................................................................4-3
Track-and-Hold (T/H) Circuitry........................................................................4-3
Triggering from the DAQ Board ...........................................................4-4
External Triggering................................................................................4-5
Output Connection.................................................................................4-6
Power Supply.........................................................................................4-6
Chapter 5
Calibration Procedures.....................................................................................................5-1
Software Calibration......................................................................................................5-1
Offset Adjustment..............................................................................................5-1
Gain Adjustment................................................................................................5-2
Linearity Adjustment.........................................................................................5-2
Hardware Calibration.....................................................................................................5-2
Appendix A
Specifications........................................................................................................................ A-1
Appendix B
Customer Communication...............................................................................................B-1
Glossary........................................................................................................................Glossary-1
Index..................................................................................................................................Index-1

Contents
© National Instruments Corporation vii SC-2040 User Manual
Figures
Figure 1-1. The Relationship between the Programming Environment,
NI-DAQ, and Your Hardware.............................................................................1-3
Figure 2-1. SC-2040 Parts Locator Diagram..........................................................................2-2
Figure 3-1. SC-2040 I/O Connectors J11 and J12..................................................................3-2
Figure 3-2. SC-2040 Signal Routing......................................................................................3-6
Figure 3-3. Ground-Referenced Signal Connection...............................................................3-7
Figure 3-4. Floating Signal Connection.................................................................................3-8
Figure 3-5. Ground-Referenced AC-Coupled Signal Connection .........................................3-9
Figure 3-6. Ground-Offset AC-Coupled Signal Connection..................................................3-9
Figure 3-7. Floating AC-Coupled Signal Connection............................................................3-10
Figure 4-1. SC-2040 Block Diagram......................................................................................4-2
Figure 4-2. T/H Amplifier Hold Settling Time and Track Acquisition Time........................4-4
Figure 4-3. MIO-16E Controlled Triggering..........................................................................4-5
Figure 4-4. External Triggering..............................................................................................4-6
Tables
Table 2-1. Power Supply Selection.......................................................................................2-3
Table 2-2. Shield Selection...................................................................................................2-4
Table 2-3. DAQ Board Ground Isolation Selection..............................................................2-4
Table 2-4. Channel Gain Selection.......................................................................................2-5
Table 2-5. Channel Input Mode............................................................................................2-5
Table 2-6. Gain Switches for Each Channel.........................................................................2-6
Table 2-7. Switch Settings for Gain Selection......................................................................2-7
Table 2-8. Input Mode Selection Jumpers............................................................................2-7
Table 3-1. Pin Assignments for Connectors J11 and J12......................................................3-3
Table 3-2. Input Connectors Signal Summary......................................................................3-4
Table 3-3. Output Connectors (J11 and J12) Signal Summary.............................................3-4
Table 5-1. Calibration Component Identification.................................................................5-3

© National Instruments Corporation ix SC-2040 User Manual
About This Manual
This manual describes the electrical and mechanical aspects of the SC-2040 and contains
information concerning its configuration and operation. The SC-2040 is an eight-channel
simultaneously sampling differential amplifier for the National Instruments MIO-16E Series
DAQ boards. The SC-2040 samples all eight channels at the same time, preserving interchannel
phase relationships for the MIO-16E.
Organization of This Manual
The SC-2040 User Manual is organized as follows:
• Chapter 1, Introduction, describes the SC-2040, lists what you need to get started with your
SC-2040, describes the optional software and optional equipment, and explains how to
unpack your SC-2040.
• Chapter 2, Configuration and Installation, describes the configuration and installation of
your SC-2040. The topics discussed are switch and jumper configuration, connection of the
SC-2040 to the MIO-16E, and the power-on sequence for your SC-2040 configuration.
• Chapter 3, Signal Connections, describes the signal connections to the SC-2040 board, and
cable wiring.
• Chapter 4, Theory of Operation, contains a functional overview of the SC-2040 board and
explains the operation of each functional unit making up the SC-2040.
• Chapter 5, Calibration Procedures, discusses the calibration procedures for the SC-2040
board.
• Appendix A, Specifications, lists the specifications for the SC-2040.
• Appendix B, Customer Communication, contains forms you can use to request help from
National Instruments or to comment on our products.
• The Glossary contains an alphabetical list and description of terms used in this manual,
including abbreviations, acronyms, metric prefixes, mnemonics, and symbols.
• The Index contains an alphabetical list of key terms and topics used in this manual, including
the page where you can find each one.

About This Manual
SC-2040 User Manual x © National Instruments Corporation
Conventions Used in This Manual
The following conventions are used in this manual:
bold italic Bold, italic text denotes a note, caution, or warning.
italic Italic text denotes emphasis, a cross reference, or an introduction to a key
concept.
MIO-16E MIO-16E refers to the National Instruments E-Series of MIO-16 DAQ
boards unless otherwise noted.
monospace Lowercase text in this font denotes text or characters that are to be literally
input from the keyboard, sections of code, programming examples, and
syntax examples. This font is also used for the proper names of disk
drives, paths, directories, programs, subprograms, subroutines, device
names, functions, variables, filenames, and extensions, and for statements
and comments taken from program code.
Abbreviations, acronyms, metric prefixes, mnemonics, symbols, and terms are listed in the
Glossary.
The National Instruments Documentation Set
The SC-2040 User Manual is one piece of the documentation set for your system. You could
have any of several types of manuals, depending on the hardware and software in your system.
Use the manuals you have as follows:
• Your DAQ hardware user manuals–These manuals have detailed information about the DAQ
hardware that plugs into or is connected to your computer. Use these manuals for hardware
installation and configuration instructions, specification information about your DAQ
hardware, and application hints.
• Software manuals–Examples of software manuals you might have are the LabVIEW and
LabWindows®manual sets and the NI-DAQ manuals. After you set up your hardware
system, use either the application software (LabVIEW or LabWindows) manuals or the
NI-DAQ manuals to help you write your application. If you have a large and complicated
system, it is worthwhile to look through the software manuals before you configure your
hardware.
• Accessory manuals–If you are using accessory products, read the terminal block and cable
assembly installation guides or accessory board user manuals. They explain how to
physically connect the relevant pieces of the system together. Consult these guides when you
are making your connections.

About This Manual
© National Instruments Corporation xi SC-2040 User Manual
Related Documentation
The following document contains information that you may find helpful as you read this manual:
• Your DAQ hardware user manual
Customer Communication
National Instruments wants to receive your comments on our products and manuals. We are
interested in the applications you develop with our products, and we want to help if you have
problems with them. To make it easy for you to contact us, this manual contains comment and
configuration forms for you to complete. These forms are in Appendix B, Customer
Communication, at the end of this manual.