The Time Stamp option is used to record the time when one or more trigger events are detected. The recorded times can be relative to the start of the measurement or to an external GPS clock signal.
The Time Stamp was originally designed to be used with the Multiple Recording/Replay
or Gated Sampling options, as these tend to be used in applications where a large
number of waveforms need to be recorded as quickly as possible and therefore there
are a series of trigger events. However, the Time Stamp option can be used without
these additional options.
In standard mode the Time Stamp counter is set to zero by a reset command from the software. After this the counter counts continuously. The Time Stamps of all of the recorded trigger events are referenced to this common zero time. With this mode the exact time difference between different recordings can be calculated.
In this mode the Time Stamp counter is set to zero each time the UltraFast board is started. The Time Stamps of one recording are referenced to the start of the recording. This mode is useful for Multiple Recording and Gated Sampling.
This mode allows the absolute time of a trigger event to be recorded and can also be used to synchronize data recorded on multiple UltraFast systems that are at different locations.
The Time Stamp counter is controlled by the seconds signal of an external radio clock and is divided into two separate counters, 'High' and 'Low'. The 'High' counter records the time since the counter was last reset. While the 'Low' defines the position of the trigger event in the current second.
The seconds signal of the radio clock must be fed in to the Time Stamp module as a TTL signal. The details of synchronization need to be discussed with Strategic Test.
Please note that the Time Stamp option consists of a factory installed daughterboard
and cannot be used simultaneously with the Star Hub or Extra I/O options - as
these also use the same UltraFast board expansion connector.
See also:
- Multiple
Recording
- Multiple Replay
- Gated Sampling