Error -200281 When Performing Reference Triggering

Updated Jan 28, 2025

Reported In

Hardware

  • Multifunction I/O Device
  • PXI Multifunction I/O Module

Driver

  • NI-DAQmx

Issue Details

I have configured an analog acquisition task with a reference trigger and I receive the error -200281 when running the program. I'm certain that a trigger condition occurs and I have increased the timeout as the warning suggests. How can I resolve this?

Solution

To resolve this issue, either:
  • Decrease the number of pretrigger samples to be acquired.
  • Acquire both your desired signal and the trigger signal in software, and then do post processing to extract the desired data.
  • If the trigger signal is small, decrease the detection range to ensure the trigger falls within the resolution of your device. 

There is a LabVIEW shipping example which shows you how to use software for post processing called Cont Acq&Graph Voltage - Analog SW Trigger.vi. To access this example, open the LabVIEW Example Finder by navigating to Help >> Find Examples... and browse to the following location:

Hardware Input and Output >> DAQmx >> Analog Measurements >> Voltage.

Additional Information

When performing a reference trigger, there are a configured number of pretrigger samples that must be acquired into the pretrigger buffer before the trigger can be registered. Once this trigger is received, the acquisition will continue for the number of posttrigger samples then stop.

If the trigger condition occurs before the pretrigger buffer fills, then the trigger will be ignored. If the trigger is ignored and no other trigger conditions occur, then DAQmx will wait till the timeout value is met and then throw error -200281. This is the reason why the error message suggests increasing the timeout value. 
 

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