M2i.4652 | Spectrum

General Information

The M2i.46xx series allows recording of one, two, four or eight channels with sampling rates of 200 kS/s up to 3 MS/s. These cards offer outstanding A/D features both in resolution and speed for PCI/PCI-X and PCI Express. The powerful A/D amplifier section offers 8 different input ranges, programmable offset and a software switching from single-ended to differential inputs without decreasing the number of channels. The enhanced FIFO engine is capable of streaming even 8 channels at a sustained 3 MS/s to memory or hard disk.

The PCI bus in the form that is used today was first introduced in 1995. The last years it has been the most common platform for PC based instrumentation boards. Nowadays PCI based systems are more and more superseded by PCI Express based systems. Its world-wide range of installations, especially in the consumer market, still makes it a platform with good value. Based on the PCI bus the PCI-X bus was specified for applications needing a higher data throughput. On the PCI-X bus there are bus frequencies up to 133 MHz and data bus widths up to 64 bit available. The M2i and M3i cards use the PCI-X bus with 66 MHz to gain a high data throughput. All PCI and PCI-X cards from Spectrum are compatible to PCI as well as to PCI-X with 33 MHz up to 133 MHz bus frequency.

BaseXIO (Optional)

The BaseXIO option offers 8 asynchronous digital I/O lines on the base card. The direction can be selected by software in groups of four. Two of these lines can also be used as additional external trigger sources. This allows the building of complex trigger conjunctions with external gated triggers as well as AND/OR conjunction of multiple external trigger sources like, for example, the picture and row synchronisation of video signals. In addition one of the I/O lines can be used as reference clock for the Timestamp counter.

The FIFO mode is designed for continuous data transfer between measurement board and PC memory (up to 245 MB/s on a PCI-X slot, up to 125 MB/s on a PCI slot and up to 160 MB/s on a PCIe slot) or hard disk. The control of the data stream is done automatically by the driver on interrupt request. The complete installed on-board memory is used for buffer data, making the continuous streaming extremely reliable.

Using the System Star-Hub for M2i series cards it is possible to synchronize several systems with each other having the same advantages that the standard Star-Hub gives. The system star-hub allows to extend the number of synchronous channels or set up multiple synchronous data streaming systems either for data storage or online calculations.

Ring buffer mode

The ring buffer mode is the standard mode of all acquisition boards. Data is written in a ring memory of the board until a trigger event is detected. After the event the posttrigger values are recorded. Because of this continuously recording into a ring buffer there are also samples prior to the trigger event visible: Pretrigger = Memsize - Posttrigger.

The star-hub is an additional module allowing the phase stable synchronization of up to 16 boards in one system. Independent of the number of boards there is no phase delay between all channels. The star-hub distributes trigger and clock information between all boards. As a result all connected boards are running with the same clock and the same trigger. All trigger sources can be combined with OR/AND allowing all channels of all cards to be trigger source at the same time. The star-hub is available as 5 card and 16 card version. The 5 card version doesn't need an extra slot.

The data acquisition boards offer a wide variety of trigger modes. Besides the standard signal checking for level and edge as known from oscilloscopes it's also possible to define a window trigger. Trigger conditions can be combined with logical conjunctions like OR to adopt to different application scenarios.

All boards can be triggered using an external TTL signal. It's possible to use positive or negative edge also in combination with a programmable pulse width. An internally recognized trigger event can - when activated by software - be routed to the trigger connector to start external instruments.

Gated Sampling

The Gated Sampling option allows data recording controlled by an external gate signal. Data is only recorded if the gate signal has a programmed level. In addition a pre-area before start of the gate signal as well as a post area after end of the gate signal can be acquired. The number of gate segments is only limited by the used memory and is unlimited when using FIFO mode.

Multiple Recording

The Multiple Recording option allows the recording of several trigger events with an extremely short re-arming time. The hardware doesn't need to be restarted in between. The on-board memory is divided in several segments of the same size. Each of them is filled with data if a trigger event occurs. Pre- and posttrigger of the segments can be programmed. The number of acquired segments is only limited by the used memory and is unlimited when using FIFO mode.

Pulsewidth Trigger

Defines the minimum or maximum width that a trigger pulse must have to generate a trigger event. Pulse width can be combined with channel trigger, pattern trigger and external trigger. This makes it possible to trigger on signal errors like too long or too short pulses.

The trigger event is a slope inside the signal that is larger (or even smaller) than a programmed slope. Internally the difference of two adjacent samples is calculated and then compared to the programmed trigger level. This trigger mode allows the detection of signal distortions as needed for power line monitoring.

The timestamp option writes the time positions of the trigger events in an extra memory. The timestamps are relative to the start of recording, a defined zero time, externally synchronized to a radio clock, or a GPS receiver. With this option acquisitions of systems on different locations can be set in a precise time relation.

Using a dedicated connector a sampling clock can be fed in from an external system. It's also possible to output the internally used sampling clock to synchronize external equipment to this clock.

The internal sampling clock of the card is generated using a high precision PLL. This powerful device allows to select the sampling rate with a fine step size making it possible to perfectly adopt to different measurement tasks. Most other cards on the market only allow the setup of fixed sampling rates like 100 MS/s, 50 MS/s, 25 MS/s, 10 MS/s, ... without any possibility to set the sampling rate to any value in between.

The option to use a precise external reference clock (normally 10 MHz) is necessary to synchronize the board for high-quality measurements with external equipment (like a signal source). It's also possible to enhance the quality of the sampling clock in this way. The driver automatically generates the requested sampling clock from the fed in reference clock.

The on-board calibration can be run on user request and calibrates the amplifier against a dedicated internal high precision calibration source. After this calibration data is stored permanently in an on-board EEPROM and is automatically used for further acquisitions.

With a simple software command the inputs can individually be switched from single-ended (in relation to ground) to differential, without loosing any inputs. When the inputs are used in differential mode the A/D converter measures the difference between two lines with relation to system ground.

The analog inputs can be adapted to real world signals using individual settings for each channel. A large number of different input ranges and a programmable input offset allow to adopt perfectly to the real world signals.

Most of the Spectrum A/D cards offer a user programmable signal offset opening the Spectrum boards to a wide variety of setups. The signal offset at least covers a range of +/-100 % of the currently selected input range making unipolar measurements with the card possible. Besides this the input range offset can be programmed individually allowing a perfect match of the A/D card section to the real world signal.

Synchronous Sampling

All acquisition cards from Spectrum are built with a completely synchronous design. Every channel has its own independent input amplifier as well as an independent ADC allowing to program all input channel related settings individually for each channel.

3rd Party Drivers

A lot of third-party products are supported by the Spectrum driver. Choose between LabVIEW, MATLAB, LabWindows/CVI and IVI. All drivers come with examples and detailed documentation.

Programming Examples

Programming examples for C++, Delphi, Visual Basic, C#, J#, VB.Net, Java, Python and LabWindows/CVI are delivered with the driver. Due to the simple interface of the driver, the integration in other programming languages or special measurement software is an easy task.

Linux

All cards are delivered with full Linux support. Pre compiled kernel modules are included for the most common distributions like RedHat, Fedora, Suse, Ubuntu or Debian. The Linux support includes SMP systems, 32 bit and 64 bit systems, versatile programming examples for Gnu C++ as well as the possibility to get the driver sources for own compilation.

Remote Server (Optional)

Using the Spectrum Remote Server it is possible to access the M2p/M2i/M3i/M4i/M4x card(s) installed in one PC (server) from another PC (client) via local area network (LAN), similar to using a digitizerNETBOX. To operate it the remote server option has to be activated by a software license for any of the Spectrum cards in the remote system.

SBench6

SBench 6 is a powerful and intuitive interactive measurement software. Besides the possibility to commence the measuring task immediately, without programming, SBench 6 combines the setup of hardware, data display, oscilloscope, transient recorder, waveform generator, analyzing functions, import and export functions under one easy-to-use interface.

Windows

This standard driver is included in the card delivery and it is possible to get the newest driver version free of charge from our homepage at any time. There are no additional SDK fees for the classical text-based programming. All boards are delivered with drivers for Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10, all 32 bit and 64 bit.