SonixDAQ Hardware

Contents of the Box
The SonixDAQ box contains:
 * The SonixDAQ
 * One USB cable,
 * Two BNC cables, and
 * A power adapter.

Connecting the SonixDAQ to the Sonix System
In order to capture the data, the SonixDAQ has to be connected to the Sonix ultrasound system. For this purpose, the SonixDAQ probe connector should be connected to the Sonix system's lowest probe slot. The other probe slot of the Sonix system is reserved for the actual probe that transmits and receives the ultrasound signal in a standard way.



Note that for SonixMDP and Sonix RP systems, the two bumpers underneath the probe connectors on the DAQ need to be removed. This is shown in the figure below: Also on the SonixMDP system the plastic on the bottom needs to be removed. This is shown in the figure below:

Connecting USB Cable
Connecting the USB cable is straight forward. Like other USB devices just connect one side of the USB cable to the DAQ and the other side of the USB cable to on of the USB port on the Sonix system. Note that USB connector is used both for programming the DAQ and transferring the data from DAQ to PC.

Connecting BNC Cable for Sync Signal
The next step is to connect the DAQ BNC Sync cable to the correct Sonix systems's BNC for proper synchronization. In the synchronous data acquisition mode, the DAQ waits for the sync signal before starting to acquire data. Thus, care should be taken to ensure that the DAQ's correct BNC connector (input sync) is connected to the Sonix system's correct BNC connector (output sync). The following figures show the correct connectors for both the DAQ and the Sonix systems.



After this step, the SonixDAQ is ready to be powered up. Once powered up, three green LEDs beside the power button should turn on.

Connecting BNC Cable for Clock Signal
The SonixDAQ has its own internal clock for data acquisition which is running at 40MHz. This clock may not be perfectly synchronized with the Sonix systems internal clock. This may introduce one sample shift in-between sequences of channel data. To resolve this issue, the second BNC can be used to provide external clock to the DAQ. In the external clock data acquisition mode, the DAQ will ignore its internal clock and will rely on the clock which is provided to it through the second BNC cable. For this mode to work properly, the Sonix system should be programmed to output its internal clock (@40MHz) to one of the BNC cable. This signal should then be connected to the DAQ through its second port using the other BNC cable.

Note: this feature is only available on the SonixTOUCH and the SonixMDP system. SonixRP systems are not able to provide the system clock through the BNC cable.

Hardware Block Diagram
Inside the DAQ there are four receive board each capturing 32 channel (128 channel total). There is also one main board that control the data acquisition process. Inside the DAQ is shown in a figure below:

A high-level block diagram of the SonixDAQ is shown below. The orange circles show some of the parameters provided to the user for controlling the data acquisition. The details of these parameters are given in the SonixDAQ software.