Signal Routing

The possible signal routes depend on the digital pattern instrument, the PXI Express chassis, and the occupied PXI Express chassis slot. You can use the PXI Express trigger bus to send and receive events and triggers. You can characterize signal routing operations by source and destination. The following table summarizes the possible sources and destinations for PXIe-6571 signals.

Table 6. Trigger Routing for PXIe-6571
Source Destination
Backplane Destination Internal Destination
PXI_TRIG <0..7> Start Trigger Conditional Jump Trigger <0..3>
Backplane Source PXI_TRIG <0..7> — ✓ ✓
Internal Source Start Trigger ✓ — —
Software Trigger — ✓ ✓
Pattern Opcode Event <0..3> ✓ — —
Conditional Jump Trigger <0..3> ✓ — —

Creating Static Signal Routes

If your PXI Express chassis consists of multiple trigger bus segments, you may need to route signals across them depending on the slot location of your digital pattern instruments. The NI-Digital Pattern Driver API creates a dynamic signal route automatically when you provide the fully qualified name for the source and destination signals.

If you are using a third-party chassis that does not support the PXI Trigger Management specifications or the instrument that you are routing signals to does not support dynamic routing, you may need to create a static route by manually configuring the chassis. Complete the following steps to configure a static route:

Note No additional configuration is required to use dynamic signal routes.
  1. Launch MAX by navigating to Start » All Programs » NI MAX or by double-clicking the NI MAX desktop icon.
  2. Expand Devices and Interfaces and then expand the Chassis tree.
  3. Select your chassis.
    The attributes of your chassis are displayed on the right side of the MAX window.
  4. Click the Triggers tab below the attributes view.
    A table in the Triggers view shows the PXI trigger bus segments of your chassis.
  5. Select the checkbox for the PXI trigger line to be used and the bus segment that the signal source is in.
  6. In the drop-down menu to the right of the PXI trigger line, make the selection to route away from the sourcing bus segment.
    Note Using a PXI trigger line in a static route limits the number of dynamic routes you can create.
  7. Save the changes.
To release a static route and make it available for dynamic routing, complete the following steps:
  1. Launch MAX.
  2. Deselect the checkbox for the reserved PXI trigger line.
  3. In the drop-down menu to the right of the PXI trigger line, select Dynamic.