Implement trigger for a NI data acquisition card PCI 5105 in the measurement studio development environment for a high speed demodulator based on fiber Fabry-Pérot tunable filter (FFP-TF)

In this paper we report a scheme of low-cost, small-size differential electrical converter to change analog trigger signals into digital trigger signals. This converter successfully resolves the incompatibility between the digital trigger mode of NI (National Instruments) data acquisition card PCI 5105 in Measurement Studio development environment for a demodulator and the requirement from instability of spectra of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. The instability is caused by intrinsic drifts of FFP-TF inside this high speed demodulator. The obtained results of frequency response about the converter have clearly demonstrated that this method is effective when the frequency of trigger signal is less than 3,000 Hz. This converter can satisfy the current requirements of demodulator based on FFP-TF, since mostly actual working scanning frequency of FFP-TF is less than 1,000 Hz. This method may be recommended to resolve similar problems for other NI customers who have developed their data acquisition system based on Measurement Studio. © 2010 SPIE.