10.3 Scan Sampling

A scan is defined as a quick burst of samples of multiple consecutive channels. For example, you may want to sample channels 0-15 all at once, and repeat the operation each second. This would be a scan at a frequency of 1Hz. Each time the A/D clock occurs (software command, timer, or external trigger), all 16 channels are sampled in high-speed succession. There is a short delay of 4 – 20 microseconds between each sample in the scan. Since each clock pulse causes all channels to be sampled, the effective sampling rate for each channel is the same as the programmed rate, and the total sampling rate is the programmed sampling rate times the number of channels in the scan range.

Scan sampling is independent of FIFO operation. Either or both can be enabled independently.