17
Chapter 3
Calibrating the PCI-DAC6702 and PCI-DAC6703
You should calibrate the board using the
Insta
Cal utility software after the board has fully warmed up. The
recommended warm-up time is 15 minutes. For best results, calibrate the board immediately before use. The
high resolution analog components on the board are temperature-sensitive, so calibrating the board before use
ensures that your board is operating with the optimum calibration values. All calibration values are saved in
nvRAM.
Calibration theory
Insta
Cal calibrates the board's analog outputs for offset and gain (see Figure 4). A trim DAC is used to adjust
the gain of the DAC. A separate DAC is used to adjust offset on the final output amplifier.
Trim DAC
Ref
D/A
Gain
Adjust
Analog Out
Trim DAC
Offset
Adjust
Figure 4. Analog output calibration
Calibration schedule
You should calibrate your PCI-DAC6702 and PCI-DAC6703 board once per year using
Insta
Cal's calibration
procedures.
