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Operation Examples -

We will now present an example of setting up one Master board to control one Slave board.

» Plug the power supply to both boards, ensuring that the current limits are set twice as high as for one board. The best way to do this is to split the supplies so that each board is getting the same voltage as pictured below:

» Connect the necessary SMA cables to the Master and Slave boards. Note that you must connect the SYNCOUT on the Master Board to SYNCIN in the slave board. The input clock should be split and input to both CKIP inputs on the Master and Slave boards. If there is a trigger signal, connect it to the TRIG connector on the Master board. If you are not using both of the OUTP and OUTN outputs on both boards, terminate the unused ones  with 50 ohm terminal resistors.

» Now connect both boards to the computer using two USB A-to-B cables.

» Power up the AWG board by turning on the power supplies. Remember that you should turn them on in the right order as specified in the Hardware Setup page.

» You will need to open two instances of the AWG application. When you open the first AWG application, a dialog box will pop up allowing you to choose the board number.

Each board is identified by a special number. We have the #2 and #4 boards. We will make the #4 our Master board and #2 our Slave board. We select #4 and click OK.

» The AWG application will now open. If you look at the title bar, you will notice that it has the board number so that you can identify the boards easily.

» Now open up a second AWG program. Again the dialog box will appear.

Choose the second board and then click on OK.

» Once again you will notice that the title bar will have the board's number.

» Go back to the Master board application. Adjust the Clock Frequency so that it matches the input clock frequency. Our clock is at 1.0 GHz, so we will set it to "1000" with the units in "MHz". Repeat the same procedure with the Slave board application.

» Go back to the Master application and click on the "Configuration and Status" tab. Change the configuration so that only Master is checked.

» Now go to the Slave application and click on the "Configuration and Status" tab. Change the configuration so that only Slave is checked.

» In the Master application, click on the "Module Parameters" tab. Make sure that Auto Armed, Internal SYNCI, and SYNCO are all checked. Also, you will notice that Loop Count is set to "A" (decimal 10). For an explanation of these parameters, please see the Internal States section in the Module Parameters page.

» Now go to the Slave application and click on the "Module Parameters". Make sure that Auto Armed and Internal SYNCI options are unavailable. Although SYNCOUT is available, it has no effect on the board even if you change any of the values or enable it. Slave boards never output a SYNCO signal. Also, you will notice that Loop Count is set to "A" (decimal 10). The Slave board does not have to mirror the output of the Master board. The Master board merely synchronizes the Slave board so that they would begin outputting waveforms at the same time. The two boards can output two different waveforms at the same time and even different numbers of waveforms so you can change Loop Count to whatever value you desire as long as it is LESS than or equal to the loop count of the Master board.