Thermal Shutdown

NI Digital Waveform Generator/Analyzer

Thermal Shutdown

NI-HSDIO 1.1 and later support thermal shutdown capabilities with NI digital waveform generator/analyzers. These capabilities allow your device to detect when the device temperature has risen above its optimal operating temperature and to then power down, preventing damage to your device or improper performance.

Air circulation paths, fan settings, and space allowances are several factors that can influence device temperature. To prevent thermal shutdown, follow the guidelines in the 5. Installing the Hardware section of the NI Digital Waveform Generator/Analyzer Getting Started Guide, which ships with your device.

In the event that your device powers down, you will be notified with an error message in one of the following ways:

  • NI-HSDIO—NI-HSDIO will return an error when you use any of the functions that program the hardware or check hardware status, for example, the static acquisition and generation functions, commit functions, and self calibration function.
    Note  This particular error code is not returned by niHSDIO_self_test (or the niHSDIO Self Test VI) because it can only return a 0 for pass or a nonzero value for fail.
  • MAX—Measurement & Automation Explorer will return an error message if you run a self-test on your device after it exceeds the thermal shutdown temperature. The thermal shutdown error continues to be reported until the device is successfully reset.

To re-enable your device after thermal shutdown, complete the following steps:

  1. Power down the computer or chassis that contains the module.
  2. Review the guidelines in the Installing the Hardware section of the NI Digital Waveform Generator/Analyzer Getting Started Guide that shipped with your module and make any necessary adjustments to ensure your module can cool itself effectively.
  3. Reset the device by either calling niHSDIO_ResetDevice (or using the niHSDIO Reset Device VI) or performing a device reset in MAX. For more information on performing a device reset in MAX, refer to the Configuring in MAX section of the NI Digital Waveform Generator/Analyzer Getting Started Guide. The thermal shutdown error continues to be reported until the device is successfully reset.