Continuous Acquisition With NI USB-5132/5133

Issue Details

I need to achieve continuous acquisition with NI USB-5132/5133 oscilloscopes, with throughput of about 5 MS/s.

Is continuous acquisition supported with these devices? Which API or examples should I use?
 

Solution

As of NI-SCOPE 3.6 version, the USB-5132/5133 supports continuous acquisition. 
In order to achieve continuous acquisition, you should use the Fetch Forever example, provided with NI-SCOPE driver. This example can be used also with USB-5132/5133 installing NI-SCOPE 3.6 or later.
In order to locate the example, please refer to the following instructions, based on your development environment:

• if you are programming in LabVIEW, you should:

1. install NI-SCOPE version compatible with you LabVIEW version (refer to NI-SCOPE and LabVIEW Compatibility document)
2. in LabVIEW, select Help » Find Examples... » Hardware Input and Output » Modular Instruments » NI-SCOPE » Continuous Acquisition
3. open example niScope EX Fetch Forever.vi

 

• if you are programming in LabWindows™/CVI, you should:

1. install NI-SCOPE driver
2. in LabWindows™/CVI, select Help » Find Examples... » Hardware Input and Output » Modular Instruments » NI-SCOPE » Continuous Acquisition
3. open example FetchForever.prj

 

• if you are programming in .NET, you should:

1. install NI-SCOPE driver
2. install NI-SCOPE .NET Class Library, which provides NI native .NET API to use when writing an application in C# or VB .NET. You can find additional information and support at NI-SCOPE .NET Resources
3. refer to the example, available for C# and VB, in the following folder: C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments\NI-SCOPE\examples\DotNET xx\FetchForever

Additional Information

Due to limitations of the USB bus, you will not be able to continuously acquire at the full rate of the device.  The rate that you will be able to achieve is going to be system dependent and depend on the memory option that you purchased.  We have benchmarked this to be just under 10MS/s.  If you are interested in multi-record acquisition benchmarks, this is accomplished by stopping and restarting the NI-SCOPE session between triggers.