LPTX MISCELLANEOUS FUNCTIONS:

• External Trigger Input
• Trigger Pulse Output
• Remote Control Inputs

EXTERNAL TRIGGER INPUT:

The External Trigger input is ignored unless you select Extern as the Trigger Source. The trigger must be a TTL level transition, and may be either low-to-high or high-to-low to start the sweep, depending on how you set the Trigger Slope. A trigger pulse must be at least as long as one sample period to assure that it is detected, and may be of any longer duration. You can also set Slope to Alt in order to trigger on alternating transitions for special applications.

NOTE:
Daqarta always uses the word "trigger" to mean "start collecting a sweep of N samples". Board manufacturers sometimes use "trigger" to mean "start one ADC sample conversion", but the same manufacturer may alternate between these two meanings in different contexts. Be very wary of references to "external trigger" inputs in a manufacturer's literature: They usually mean "external pacer".

Waveform averaging with the external trigger allows higher resolution. With the DigOut and DAC models, the single-bit digital inputs can be used to record 8-bit analog signals by taking advantage of the dither effect. Since these models can sample at very high rates even on slow systems, they can beat any sound card and many laboratory cards where high speed is required.

TRIGGER PULSE OUTPUT:

If Trigger Slope is Pos, this will be a high pulse that lasts the duration of the sweep unless STIM3 is also in use, in which case it will last as long as the stimulus. You can use this pulse to start an external stimulus, or you can use it as the stimulus itself by appropriate filtering, gain, or attenuation.

You can also set Slope to Neg to produce a low pulse, or Alt for alternating. In Alt mode, the Pulse output does not go off at the end of each sweep, but instead changes state at the start of the next sweep. This produces a slow square wave with a period of two sweeps.

By waveform averaging, system responses to the pulse stimulus can be greatly increased in resolution via the dither effect. The high-speed operation of the simple digital inputs on the DigOut and DAC models can thus be used to record 8-bit data or better.

REMOTE CONTROL INPUTS:

                    Cable center        DB25
            .-------------------------> Pin 1
 DDisk      |
 Remote    \  Switch
            |
            `-------------------------> Gnd
                    Cable Shield       (18-25)


                    Cable center
            .-------------------------> Pin 14
 Averager   |
 Remote    \  Switch
            |
            `-------------------------> Gnd
                    Cable Shield       (18-25)

When a switch is open or the TTL level is high, the DDisk or Averager operation is halted. When the switch is closed or the TTL level is low, the respective operation may proceed normally.

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