triggering ScanImage with ACQ4 - using external reference clock

[Michael Graupner]

Hello, 

I have outsourced the 2p scanning from ACQ4 to ScanImage was we are using a resonant scanner now. As for now, ACQ4 tells ScanImage with a TTL pulse when to start and stop imaging, which works nicely. In particular, this type of interaction is builtin in ScanImage and setting it up is straightforward. 

However, in order to achieve consistent timing between signals recorded in ScanImage and in ACQ4, I think I need to sync the reference clocks of the two NIDAQ cards in use. ScanImage runs on a NI PXI chassis while ACQ4 uses a NI PCIe card. There is a setting in ScanImage to export a 10Mhz Reference Clock. My idea was to syn the reference clock for tasks in ACQ4 with this reference clock. For example through the following code in configureClocks of SuperClass.py 

if refClkSrc :

    for k in self.tasks:

        self.tasks[k].SetRefClkRate(10e6)

        self.tasks[k].SetRefClkSrc(refClkSrc)

refClkSrc would be an option given with a 'NiDaq' device specifying the input terminal of the reference clock signal. 

Any thoughts or suggestions regarding the endeavor of communicating btw. ACQ4 and ScanImage or the clock synchronization would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

Michael 

[Luke Campagnola]

Sounds like you are on the right track, and it should be straightforward to implement. Taking it a few steps further, you can:

- Modify devices/NiDAQ/nidaq.py Task.configure:

          self.st.configureClocks(rate=self.cmd['rate'], nPts=self.cmd['numPts'], refClockSource=self.cmd.get('refClockSource', None))

- Add a ComboBox that lets you select the reference clock source to devices/NiDAQ/taskGui.py, which gets inserted into the command structure in NiDAQTask.generateTask().  

- Add a key to devices.cfg that will be used to populate the clock source combobox, like:

    DAQ:

        driver: 'NiDAQ'

        refClockSources:

            scanimage: '/Dev1/PFI3'

Does that all make sense?

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[Michael Graupner]

Thank you for your prompt feedback, Luke !

I seems to work and the reference clocks look synced on the oscilloscope. So far so good. 

However, I get the following error when running a buffered task from the task manager and a monitor from the ACQ4 manager. The monitor regularly checks the state of pfi ports on the nidaq card. I don't understand the error as the monitor should not engage the refClockSource (and it doesn't which I checked with print-outs SuperTask.py). 

--------------

2019.02.26 18:57:59 Error in task thread, exiting. 

Error starting task:

Error starting device 'DAQ'; aborting task.

NIDAQError: NiDAQ Error while running function 'DAQmxWriteDigitalU32(153138680L, 40000L, False, 10.0, 0, <acq4.pyqtgraph.util.colorama.win32.LP_c_ulong object at 0x000000001EC6AD48>)':

Specified route cannot be satisfied, because it requires resources that are currently in use by another route.

Property: DAQmx_RefClk_Src

Source Device: Dev2

Source Terminal: PFI8

Required Resources in Use by

Task Name: _unnamedTask<13>

Source Device: Dev2

Source Terminal: None

Destination Device: Dev2

Destination Terminal: RefClockInternal

Task Name: _unnamedTask<15>

Status Code: -89137

Error starting task:

  File "acq4\util\Thread.py", line 23, in __run_wrapper

    self.__subclass_run()

  File "acq4\modules\TaskRunner\TaskRunner.py", line 973, in run

    printExc("Error in task thread, exiting.")

  File "acq4\util\debug.py", line 42, in printExc

    acq4.Manager.logExc(msg=msg, msgType=msgType)

------- exception caught ---------->

  File "acq4\modules\TaskRunner\TaskRunner.py", line 963, in run

    self.runOnce()

  File "acq4\modules\TaskRunner\TaskRunner.py", line 1046, in runOnce

    raise HelpfulException("\nError starting task:", exc)

Error starting device 'DAQ'; aborting task.

  File "acq4\modules\TaskRunner\TaskRunner.py", line 1032, in runOnce

    task.execute(block=False)

  File "acq4\Manager.py", line 975, in execute

    raise HelpfulException("Error starting device '%s'; aborting task." % devName)

NIDAQError: NiDAQ Error while running function 'DAQmxWriteDigitalU32(153138680L, 40000L, False, 10.0, 0, <acq4.pyqtgraph.util.colorama.win32.LP_c_ulong object at 0x000000001EC6AD48>)':

Specified route cannot be satisfied, because it requires resources that are currently in use by another route.

Property: DAQmx_RefClk_Src

Source Device: Dev2

Source Terminal: PFI8

Required Resources in Use by

Task Name: _unnamedTask<13>

Source Device: Dev2

Source Terminal: None

Destination Device: Dev2

Destination Terminal: RefClockInternal

Task Name: _unnamedTask<15>

Status Code: -89137

  File "acq4\Manager.py", line 972, in execute

    self.tasks[devName].start()

  File "acq4\devices\NiDAQ\nidaq.py", line 320, in start

    self.st.start()

  File "acq4\drivers\nidaq\SuperTask.py", line 349, in start

    self.writeTaskData()  ## Only writes if needed.

  File "acq4\drivers\nidaq\SuperTask.py", line 194, in writeTaskData

    self.tasks[k].write(d)

  File "acq4\drivers\nidaq\nidaq.py", line 396, in write

    nPts = getattr(self, fName)(data.size / numChans, False, timeout, LIB.Val_GroupByChannel, cbuf)

  File "acq4\drivers\nidaq\nidaq.py", line 286, in <lambda>

    return lambda *args: func(self.handle, *args)

  File "acq4\drivers\nidaq\nidaq.py", line 87, in <lambda>

    return lambda *args: self.call(attr, *args)

  File "acq4\drivers\nidaq\nidaq.py", line 116, in call

    raise NIDAQError(errCode, msg)

-------------------------

Thanks for having a look at this. 

Cheers,
Michael 

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[Luke Campagnola]

I'm not sure about that .. I would start by (1) verifying that your monitor is indeed creating the SuperTask with the expected configuration, and (2) finding out whether the monitor and the TaskRunner task are attempting to run at the same time. If so, then I have some work to do figuring out why these two are not sharing hardware nicely.

Luke

---

From: ac...@googlegroups.com <ac...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Michael Graupner <graupner...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2019 10:04 AM
To: ac...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [acq4] triggering ScanImage with ACQ4 - using external reference clock

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/acq4/CAFVjdWJppbiNbeXojU99WHhs_H1uV0%2B63%3DiTxPETyCv5GhxrAQ%40mail.gmail.com.