Spectrum M2p.59 Series, Hardware Manual, Page: 133 / 190

Mode Multiple Recording Trigger Modes
(c) Spectrum Instrumentation GmbH 133
The given memory and memory / divider figures depend on the installed on-board memory as listed below:
Please keep in mind that this table shows all values at once. Only the absolute maximum and minimum values are shown. There might be
additional limitations. Which of these values are programmed depends on the used mode. Please read the detailed documentation of the
mode.
Multiple Recording and Timestamps
Multiple Recording is well matching with the timestamp option. If timestamp
recording is activated each trigger event and therefore each Multiple Re -
cording segment will get timestamped as shown in the drawing on the right.
Please keep in mind that the trigger events are timestamped, not the begin -
ning of the acquisition. The first sample that is available is at the time position
of [Timestamp - Pretrigger].
The programming details of the timestamp option is explained in an extra
chapter.
Trigger Modes
When using Multiple Recording all of the card’s trigger modes can be used including the software trigger. For detailed information on the
available trigger modes, please take a look at the relating chapter earlier in this manual.
Trigger Counter
The number of acquired trigger events in Multiple Recording mode is counted in hardware and can be read out while the acquisition is running
or after the acquisition has finished. The trigger events are counted both in standard mode as well as in FIFO mode.
The trigger counter feature needs at least driver version V2.17 and firmware version V20 (M2i series), V10
(M3i series), V6 (M4i/M4x series) or V1 (M2p series). Please update the driver and the card firmware to these
versions to use this feature. Trying to use this feature without the proper firmware version will issue a driver
error.
Using the trigger counter information one can determine how many Multiple Recording segments have been acquired and can perform a
memory flush by issuing Force trigger commands to read out all data. This is helpful if the number of trigger events is not known at the start
of the acquisition. In that case one will do the following steps:
• Program the maximum number of segments that one expects or use the FIFO mode with unlimited segments
• Set a timeout to be sure that there are no more trigger events acquired. Alternatively one can manually proceed as soon as it is clear from
the application that all trigger events have been acquired
• Read out the number of acquired trigger segments
• Issue a number of Force Trigger commands to fill the complete memory (standard mode) or to transfer the last FIFO block that contains
valid data segments
• Use the trigger counter value to split the acquired data into valid data with a real trigger event and invalid data with a force trigger event.
Installed Memory
512 MSample
Mem 512 MSample
Mem/2 256 MSample
Mem/4 128 MSample
Mem/8 64 MSample
Register Value Direction Description
SPC_TRIGGERCOUNTER 200905 read Returns the number of trigger events that has been acquired since the acquisition start. The internal
trigger counter has 48 bits. It is therefore necessary to read out the trigger counter value with 64 bit
access or 2 x 32 bit access if the number of trigger events exceed the 32 bit range.
Image 66: drawing of Multiple Recording Acquisition with Timestamps