Acquisition Modes

The NI-568x instrument driver supports three acquisition modes for RF power sensors: continuous, scope, and time slot. All modes are not supported by all devices. The following table summarizes the supported acquisition modes for each device.

Acquisition Mode Description Main Use Case Supported Devices
Continuous (default) The RF power sensor starts measuring power immediately after the operation is initiated and continues until you stop the operation. You do not use triggers in continuous mode. You want to collect data at all times while the device is enabled. USB-5680/5681/5683/5684
Scope You can use gate and fence to accurately measure the power at any specific time. An internal or external trigger initiates the power sensor measurement with respect to time. You want to measure waveforms that contain very short duty cycle timing information that otherwise skews average power measurement. USB-5681/5683/5684
Time Slot The RF power sensor divides the power measurement into "time slots" that you define for the measurement, and it calculates the average power reading for each individual time slot. You want to perform measurements on time-division multiple access (TDMA) waveforms such as GSM/EDGE. USB-5681/5683/5684