Re: Analog Input Board Recommendations

On Wed, 2 Oct 2002, Tim Holy wrote:

> Hi Calin,
>
> I use a NI PCI-6071E board to do 64 channel acquisition, 10kHz per channel, to
> record spike waveforms from neurons. (It's only 12-bit, so it may not be the
> board for you.) While the board specs say it can do 1.25MS/s, implying that
> we could do almost 20kHz/channel, the errors due to finite settling-time
> increase when we go that fast. NI is very straightforward about this point in
> their specs and (with the tiny bit of checking I've done) seem to be accurate
> in their measurement of the errors as a function of scan rate. I certainly
> wouldn't shy away from paying the extra $500 if it turns out to be the better
> board (I don't know if it is, since I haven't tried any MC boards). Compare
> it to the lost labor [& pigs :-)] for corrupt data.

Well, if you've actually achieved such high rates with 64 channels
simultaneously, I will assume that is the board to get (the 6071E).  I
think that if we are careful with our signal and use an optimal gain
setting, a 12-bit signal should be fine.  By the way where do you get
specs on MUX settling times from NI?  I got their 'spec sheet' for some of
their boards, and it just seems like a glorified advertisement more than a
spec sheet....

>
> Your signals are well-buffered, right? I've occasionally seen weird things
> with the multiplexer putting junk back on the channel when using e.g. just a
> transistor to buffer signals.

What do you mean by well-buffered?  I am a programmer more than a hardware
guy, so to me a buffer is simply a big chunk of memory you use for data.
What do you mean by that word in a hardware/signalling context?

Thanks so much for your very helpful advice,

-Calin

Received on 2002-10-02Z16:03:17