Synchronizing data and acquisition

[Ernest Galbrun]

Hello,

I am new to the forum, and I would like to ask a question about the task I am assigned to manage with Labview. Please forgive me in advance for my bad english and my even worse skill in labview programmation.

I have a motion device (2 axes, driven with a NI 7342 motion control card) and an acquisition device (USB, serie M) from which I intend to measure analog voltages.

The motion device drives the measurement cell, and I dont want to stop the move for every measurement position : I would like to achieve a continuous scan of the area as fast as possible for my motion device, trigerring the acquisition every time I reach the measurement grid points.

I am currently wondering how best I must do to synchronize acquisition with control. I think I could use the breakpoint of the motion control card to trigger the acquisition. But I cant figure how I can tell if this is necessary or not. I imagine the synchronzation can be done effectively with the software, without the need to draw this additional wire, but I dont know precisely how it must be done to be effective (the best I can figure is to read the position as often as I can, and trigger the acquisition when the goal is reached).

So, here are my two main questions :

- What is the best way to synchronize motion with acquisition without using hardware synchronization tools ?

- How do I know wether I must use hardware synchronization or wether software synchronization will give me good enough results ?