How to Matlab to send TTL signal via BNC ports? - matlab

I’m trying to use Matlab to control 8-channel perfusion device. The manual said that on the back of the device there are 8 BNC type connection ports for transmitting TTL signal to control the on/off of the 8 channels, respectively. How to use Matlab to control these 8 BNC ports to send TTL input? What accessories should I purchase?
There is also another single input port--analog input. The manual said it is an BNC connector to apply an analog signal to switch individual channels using Analog Discriminator. By varing the ampitude of signal, different channels will be triggered. Can Matlab control this analog input?
Thanks

Related

STM32F4 Timer Triggered DMA SPI – NSS Problem

I have a STM32F417IG microcontroller an external 16bit-DAC (TI DAC81404) that is supposed to generate a Signal with a sampling rate of 32kHz. The communication via SPI should not involve any CPU resources. That is why I want to use a timer triggered DMA to shift the data with a rate of 32kHz to the SPI data register in order to send the data to the DAC.
Information about the DAC
Whenever the DAC receives a channel address and the new corresponding 16bit value the DAC will renew its output voltage to the new received value. This is achieved by:
Pulling the CS/NSS/SYNC – pin to low
Sending the 24bit/3 byte long message and
Pulling the CS back to a high state
The first 8bit of the message are containing among other information the information where the output voltage should be applied. The next and concurrently the last 16bit are containing the new value.
Information about STM32
Unfortunately the microcontroller of ST are having a hardware problem with the NSS-pin. Starting the communication via SPI the NSS-pin is pulled low. Now the pin is low as long as SPI is enabled (. (reference manual page 877). That is sadly not the right way for communicate with device that are in need of a rise of the NSS after each message. A “solution” would be to toggle the NSS-pin manually as suggested in the manual (When a master is communicating with SPI slaves which need to be de-selected between transmissions, the NSS pin must be configured as GPIO or another GPIO must be used and toggled by software.)
Problem
If DMA is used the ordinary way the CPU is only used when starting the process. By toggling the NSS twice every 1/32000 s this leads to corresponding CPU interactions.
My question is whether I missed something in order to achieve a communication without CPU.
If not my goal is now to reduce the CPU processing time to a minimum. My pIan is to trigger DMA with a timer. So every 1/32k seconds the data register of SPI is filled with the 24bit data for the DAC.
The NSS could be toggled by a timer interrupt.
I have problems achieving it because I do not know how to link the timer with the DMA of the SPI using HAL-functions. Can anyone help me?
This is a tricky one. It might be difficult to avoid having one interrupt per sample with this combination of DAC and microcontroller.
However, one approach I would look at is to have the CS signal created as a timer output-compare (like PWM). You can use multiple channels of the same timer or link multiple timers to create a delay between the CS output and the DMA trigger. You should allow some room for jitter, because depending on what else is happening the DMA might not respond instantly. This won't hurt your DAC output signal though, because it only outputs the value on the rising edge of chip select (called SYNC in the DAC datasheet) which will still be from your first timer.

Simulink and arduino serial communication

I am running a code on arduino which works fine in arduinoide, I want to get those values in simulink for real time using serial connection.
I am burnig a program in arduino and want to access both send and receive function of serial monitor, on simulink. I want these to plot graphs in real time and run PID algorithm using simulink.
But for some odd reason, simulink values are either not updating(in external mode) or fluctuating some odd values(in normal mode). Any help.
If you are doing a communication between the Arduino and Simulink there might be some problems in your connection. I'm assuming you are using the Serial Send and Serial Receive block to do the communication.
I did a complete tutorial how to connect both platforms in my Github page.
By your description I can think of this problems:
Simulink is not updating?
If your Simulink is not updating probably because it is waiting Arduino to send some serial data, but is not receiving anything. Some possible causes of this problem might be:
Wrong Serial baud rate
Wrong data type (i.e. If you are sending Arduino float you have to receive a single in Simulink.)
Wrong data size
Different step time (Remember to use the same step time in Simulink and Arduino)
Simulink receiving odd values?
If Simulink is updating but showing odd values, the communication between both might be damaged.
Desynchronization of the communication - Try to use a Header and a Terminator in the Serial Send and Serial Receive block and remember to set this in your Arduino code.
Different step time - Make sure both application are sending and receiving at same rate.
Verify what you are sending - You can check what exactly you are sending to the serial with a scope, remember that in the Serial Send block the input signal must be a byte. If you are using a single or double remember to cast it to byte with a Byte Pack block.

How to Control first port of USRP N210 to use it when i need using matlab coding?

I’m working on a radar project using USRP N210 with UBX-40 daughterboard using matlab. I need a code to control the first port of the usrp, because the first port can be used as tx/rx. Such as in tx part, I can turn ON transmitting and OFF Receiving & vice versa. So I can transmit and receive from same antenna. Any Help!!
I haven't used matlab to interface with the USRP but I assume it uses the C API.
Here you can see all the parameters to configure the USRP. https://kb.ettus.com/Getting_Started_with_UHD_and_C%2B%2B
When you pass "TX/RX" to the antenna parameter it will automatically select the port TX/RX port for you. It is not recommended to use the same antenna, rather use the RX antenna to receive and TX/RX antenna to transmit. If you are not required to receive the signal you transmit, then you can switch between TX and RX on the same antenna with some sort of control but I still wouldn't recommend doing that :)

Reading PWM signals in STM32F407

I am doing a quadcopter using a STM32F407 discovery. I was finally able to stabilize it. Now i am trying to use the RC receiver so i can control my quadcopter movements. Is there a way to read the signal of PWM of my RC receiver channels ??
Also my RC receiver supports PPM and according to what i understand it receives a packet of duty cycles strong textbut still don't know how to receive this.
You can use the SPI interface to encode the PPM (or the PWM) signal of your RC receiver.
General approach:
Connect the PPM signal to the MISO pin and a second one of the controller (simultaneously). MOSI, CLK, and CS pins are not needed.
Initialize the SPI interface with a appropriate clock. With this frequency the signal will be shifted in the controller. Try to use 4kHz.
Depending on the idle state of the signal enable either rising or falling edge interrupt trigger on the second pin. This will used to trigger incoming frames.
If the interrupt occurs disable the trigger temporary and start spi transmission to get several bytes (outgoing ingored and not connected). Depending on the Frame length 8 or 10 Bytes should do it. This will catch frames up to 20ms.
After you get the all bytes enable the trigger again and repeat for the next frame.
The received data should contain the pattern of the pwm/ppm signal.
You should also match the sampling rate and the amount of bytes to receive with your RC receiver.

DAQ Matlab toolbox: how to count trigger events without an edge counter channel and how to output different value at each successive trigger

I need your help with the session based interface for the Matlab DAQ toolbox. I have not been able to find much help in the MathWorks tutorials or examples. I am currently using a USB-6003 DAQ from NI.
So basically in my system I have 2 analog output channels (ch1 and ch2) and 1 analog input channel (ch3), and what I am trying to do is to drive the output voltage in ch1 from 0V to 10V in steps of 1V, with ch2 constant and then repeat the loop in ch1 for a different voltage in ch2. As for the analog input ch3, I am triggering it some time after triggering the ch1. My triggers are being externally generated by a function generator.
What I have been struggling with is:
1) How to at each successive trigger event output a different value in the ch1.
2) And how after 11 triggers, can I change ch2 output's.
3) How to save the input in a different location between trigger events, so it does not get overwritten by the next event.
My main constraints are:
1) I cannot use an edge-counter channel to count the triggers because I only have two PFI channels and I need both, one to trigger ch1 and the other ch3 (I cannot use only one).
2) I cannot use wait or any other software time function, because I need a high speed acquisition system (it is for a laser microscope)
3) I need two have at least 2 sessions running in parallel because my DAQ does not allow simultaneous tasks in the same session.
I have attached a channel's time diagram of what I am trying to do.
Channels diagram
Caution
"I need a high speed acquisition system"
USB might not be the right option. Using USB as the control/data transport mechanism is slow compared to other computer I/O, like PCIe or EtherCAT. If, after you get this working, you determine that you need lower latency and jitter, my recommendation is to try CompactRIO and LabVIEW Real-Time.
Compounding the performance is the on-demand nature of the USB-6003. While both analong input and analog output are controlled by electrical signals (the start trigger and sample clock) and have their data automatically transferred by the driver, the digital input and counter are only software-timed, which means that reading data isn't automatic and must be prompted by you, the user, with a read command.
Since the only way you can get digital data from a USB-6003 is on-demand, your only option is to wait for it; there is no way to be notified that a new edge has arrived. Other devices (like the PCIe-63xx X Series or cDAQ-940x devices) support digital input change detection, which causes a software event to be sent to the program. If you had one of these devices, then you wouldn't have to wait.
Suggestion
However, if you change your triggering and data strategies a little, I still think you can achieve the kind of I/O you want. You'll then be able to evaluate its speed and reliability to decide if you need to upgrade DAQ hardware.
New triggering and data strategy
The core idea is: instead of keeping the channels on their own "time base", unify them to a single time base and use that to coordinate the voltage updates. By doubling the frequency of your external trigger, all three channels can share the same timing. In other words, both the analog input task and the analog output task use the same external signal as their sample clock.
Double the frequency of the FGEN's trigger signal.
Repeat an analog output sample if the level doesn't need to change.
Throw an analog input sample away if it coincides with an output level change.
The analog output samples would be:
ch1 ch2
0.0 0.0
0.0 0.0
1.0 0.0
1.0 0.0
2.0 0.0
2.0 0.0
0.0 1.0
0.0 1.0
New program strategy
Now that both the analog input and analog output are using the FGEN as their sample clock, the MATLAB routine only needs to prepare the operation and then monitor/feed it. The hardware will be able to generate and acquire without any intervention from the PC, but the PC will need to periodically read analog input data and write more analog output data to keep the driver satisfied.
I don't know how much of the DAQmx API MATLAB exposes, but you can ask the driver how many samples are left in the device's buffer
Analog input is DAQmxGetReadAvailSampPerChan (doc)
Analog output is DAQmxGetWriteSpaceAvail (doc)
Reference
NI USB-6003 Specifications
http://digital.ni.com/manuals.nsf/websearch/666A752FCC177B0186257CD8006C24C8