In this tutorial, we will give an example on how to create & download a sequence of waveforms to Tabor AWGs using the IVI driver.
If you haven’t been acquainted with controlling Tabor AWGs using LabVIEW, please refer to Tabor’s website for previous tutorials in the series ““How to Control Tabor AWGs with LabVIEW”:
- ‘Getting Started’.
- ‘Using SCPI Commands’.
- ‘Using the IVI Driver’.
For this tutorial, we will use LabVIEW 2015 32bit and a Tabor WX2184C unit using USB interface. For doing so, we will use the WX218xx IVI driver. To ensure you successfully established all the necessary settings for remote control over the Tabor instrument using LAN/USB/GPIB, please make sure you have already installed the latest NI-VISA from the National Instruments website. Also please go over our connectivity tutorials on the Tabor’s website.
- Creating a Sequence using 3 Waveform Files
1. For creating a simple sequence table, our starting point will be using the
“Load_Arb_Wfm_From_File.vi”, which was created in our previous tutorial “How To Load An
Arbitrary Waveform From File”:
2. Delete the “Configure Arbitrary Waveform 1.vi” as can be seen below:
3. Add the “Create Sequence Adv1.vi” as can be seen below:
Using this VI, you will download a sequence table with each row specifying:
1. The segment number assigned to the waveform you would like to play (when using the IVI
driver, segment number = Handle)
2. The number of loops for each waveform
3. The Jump flag bit which specifies whether or not to wait for an external trigger/Event in order
to proceed with the generation of the following waveform in the sequence
4. Right click-Structures, Choose to create a for loop & wire it as can be seen below:
5. Initiate a 3 element array with each element initialized to zero. Wire it as can be seen below:
6. The value of the elements in this array will specify the segment numbers (Handles) we will use to
create our sequence. The “Load CSV File.vi” output a handle each time it is loading a file to the
unit’s memory. we will insert those handles into our array of elements to fit the order of
generating our sequence. To do so, use the “replace Array Subset.vi” to insert the handles to the
array as can be seen below:
7. Right click on the broken wire & select the “Replace with Shift Register”. Wire it as can be seen
below:
8. Right click on the “File Path” control, change to Array:
9. Through the front panel, create two more arrays. One for the number of loops and the other for
the jump flag bits:
10. Through the front panel, add the paths for your desired waveforms according to the order you
would like to play them. Fill the arrays we just created with your desired number of loops for each
segment in the sequence. In this example we will perform a simple sequence of 3 waveforms with
each looping just once. We will also set all jump flags to zero for running continuously:
11. Add the “Configure Arb Offset.vi” & the “Configure Arb Gain.vi” found under “Arbitrary” in the
“WX218x_VI_Tree.vi”. wire them as can be seen below:
12. Change the control input of the “Configure Output Mode.vi” to “Output Sequence”:
13. Add the “Configure Sync Enabled.vi” found under “Sync” in the “WX218x_VI_Tree.vi”. Wire &
create a control for it as can be seen below:
14. Go to the VI’s front panel and fill in the required setting as can be seen below:
a. Choose the correct resource address
b. Choose the paths for the files you wish to download
c. Set the active channel to be ‘Channel1’/ ’Channel2’ / ‘Channel3’ / ‘Channel4’
d. Assign to the amplitude a certain value (within the instrument’s specification). Set the offset
e. Set the Channel’s Output to ‘ON’
f. Set the Sync output to ‘ON’. The Sync will output a pulse for each generation of the complete sequence & will allow you to trigger the scope on a single pulse.
g. Set the sample clock rate to 2GS/s
h. Press the ‘Run’ button
15. Using Tabor Sequence mode we have control over the outputted signal’s periods as follows:
In default run mode (continuous mode), the sequence will repeat itself continuously. We used 3
waveforms each with 1024 points, each looping once. We chose SCLK value of 2GS/s therefore
each waveform has a period of 512ns. As can be seen on scope, channel 1 outputs the sequence
and channel 2 outputs the Sync:
Attached to this tutorial you will find the corresponding VI, saved as LabVIEW 2013 format.
In the next tutorials, we will show 2 more examples:
- Example #3: Synchronize Between Two Tabor AWGs.
- Example #4: Create an arbitrary waveform from binary data.
For More Information
To learn more about how to remote control Tabor instruments using LabVIEW, visit our website Support &
Tutorials zone. If you encounter difficulties with connecting to Tabor units using LabVIEW, please contact us at [email protected] and our support team will gladly help. For more of Tabor’s solutions or to
schedule a demo, please contact your local Tabor representative or email your request to [email protected]. More information can be found at our website at www.taborelec.com