New Product: New Triggering Options for USB2000+ Spectrometer

Popular miniature spectrometer offers more spectral acquisition flexibility than ever

Ocean Optics has added triggering functions to its popular USB2000+ miniature spectrometer to provide accurate timing and synchronization between the spectrometer and other devices. Four low-jitter trigger modes and normal (free-running spectral acquisition) operating modes are now possible. Applications include pulsing a light source to occur when acquiring a spectra and synchronizing spectral acquisition to coordinate with samples moving through a process stream or sensors reaching a certain temperature level.

Triggering provides precise timing between devices. The USB2000+ can be triggered so that sending the spectrometer a pulse causes it to do something such as a turn off or on a light, activate a pulse in a pulsed light source or start or end spectral acquisition in the spectrometer. For example, in the USB2000+ External Triggering mode, an event outside the sampling system (such as a button push, lever activation or laser) electronically pulses the spectrometer’s trigger pin and starts acquisition of the spectra with microsecond accuracy.

The USB2000+ has an onboard programmable high-speed FPGA controller, 22-pin connector and 8 user-programmable digital I/Os. Available operating modes are Normal (spectrometer continuously acquires spectra) and the four trigger modes:

• External Software Trigger. While the spectrometer is in free-running mode, data collected in the period up to the triggering event is transferred to software.
• External Hardware Level Trigger. The spectrometer waits for a sharp rise in voltage on the trigger input pin, and then acquires spectra until the voltage is removed.
• External Synchronous Trigger. Spectrometer acquires data from an external trigger event (such as a push button) until the next time the trigger is activated, at which time the spectrometer ceases spectral acquisition and begins a new acquisition. Integration time cannot be set, and is the effective period between triggers.
• External Hardware Edge Trigger. The spectrometer waits for a sharp rise in voltage on the trigger input pin, and then acquires one spectrum. One spectrum will be acquired for each trigger unless an acquisition is already in progress.