Hardware

Output Channels

The The Pulse Streamer 8/2 has 8 digital and two analog output channels (SMA-connectors). The electrical characteristics are tabulated below.

Digital Output

Property	Value
Voltage level	0 to 3 V
Output drive	50 Ω
Sampling rate	1 GHz
Rise/fall time	1.6/1.1 ns
Bandwidth	~300 MHz

Analog Output

Property	Value
Output Voltage Range 1	-1.0 to 1.0 V
Resolution	14 bit
Accuracy 2 (50 Ohm load)	±5 mV
Crosstalk (analog)	< -45 dB
Crosstalk (digital)	< -55 dB
Output drive	50 Ω
Sampling rate	125 MHz
Rise/fall time	8.8/9.6 ns
Bandwidth	~35 MHz

Note

1

Some devices may have the actual full range smaller by up to 30 mV.

2

Pulse Streamer 8/2 shipped with firmware version v1.3.0 or later include calibration data for the analog outputs. Devices with previous firmware version require calibration to achive the specified accuracy. You can do the calibration yourself, please follow the instructions in the Calibrating the analog outputs section.

Warning

During power-up, the analog outputs have an undefined output voltage value in the range of -1V to 1V.

Trigger Input

The Pulse Streamer 8/2 has one external trigger input, which can be enabled by software. By default, the Pulse Streamer is automatically rearmed after a sequence with a finite number of n_runs has finished. That means if another trigger occurs after a sequence has finished, the sequence will be re-triggered again. On the contrary, if a trigger occurs while a sequence is streamed, it will be discarded. We recommend, not to exceed 1 kHz as an external re-trigger frequency. Information about how to configure the trigger functionality of the Pulse Streamer can be found in the Running pulse sequences section.

Electrical characteristics:

Property	Value
Termination	50 Ω
Input voltage range	-0.3 to 3.45 V
Low level range	-0.3 to 0.8V
High level range	2.0 to 3.45 V
Minimum pulse width	< 2ns
TriggerToData (mean)	65 to 67ns
TriggerToData (Rms jitter)	2.3 ns

External Clock Input

The Pulse Streamer 8/2 has one input that can receive an external 125MHz or 10 MHz reference clock. Further information about how to set the clock-source of the Pulse Streamer can be found in the Using an external clock section. Before using the external clock the first time, please contact support@swabianinstruments.com

Electrical characteristics:

Property	Value
Termination	50 Ω
Input voltage range	-0.3 to 3.45 V
Low level range	-0.3 to 0.8V
High level range	2.0 to 3.45 V
Accepted frequencies	10/125 MHz

Status LEDs

The Pulse Streamer 8/2 has two LEDs showing information about the status of the device and the network connection.

Device status LED:

green	Pulse Streamer successfully booted
blinking green-orange	sequence is streaming
orange	waiting for trigger/retrigger
blue	sequence finished - retrigger disabled
blinking red	no valid license
continuous red	error

Network LED:

red	no configuration/connection
blinking green-red	setting DHCP - no connection
green	setting DHCP - connection found
blinking blue-red	setting static IP - no connection
blue	setting static IP - connection found