Generating a Waveform Signal with a PXIe-415x Power Supply

Issue Details

I would like to generate a voltage or current waveform like a sine wave signal or an arbitrary waveform using a PXIe-415x Power Supply.
I can configure the source mode either as Single Point or Sequence, but I cannot set AC, sine, arbitrary or other modes. 
How can I generate a waveform signal with the hardware?

Solution

Although power supplies like the PXIe-415x were not designed to be used as a function or waveform generator, it is possible to program the card to output standard functions by translating the desired frequency and amplitude or a predefined arbitrary waveform to a continuous output sequence.

As the PXIe-415x power supplies don’t support the Sequence Step Delta Time property (see table of supported properties), the desired signal frequency needs to be derived from the source delays (corrected by the intersample delay of the specific hardware).

The example in the attachment demonstrates how to generate a finite sine wave signal (LabVIEW 2025).

Additional Information

• As the PXIe-415x power supplies only can operate in the first quadrant, waveform generation is limited to positive amplitude values (lower generation voltage limit if the PXIe-415x is 10mV)
• The max. achievable waveform frequency is limited by the device's max. update rate of 100 kSa/s and typically is in the low kHz range. 
• With increasing amplitude/frequency it is more likely for the internal Down Programmer to trip, as transients might exceed the thermal dissipation limit.
• Increasing the frequency results in attenuation of the output signal, 3dB bandwidth at ~280 Hz.