Extreme long settling time (6 ms) of the DAC on STM32F4

dacstm32f4

I encounter a problem with the DAC on both STM32F4/STM32F429 Discovery boards and hope someone can give me a hint.

The DAC (using DMA with output buffer enabled) generates a FSK controlling signal sequence with only two steps, which looks like as follows

enter image description here

As can be seen on the screenshot, the settling time of the voltage step is about 6 ms! Since the signal sequence controls a very sensitive VCO, this long settling time results in a corresponding segment of output freeuency that is unusable for my application.

I am wondering, is this a problem of settling time?
If yes, is there a way to alleviate it?

Updated:

  • The probe connects directly to the DAC pin, which is the only pin used in the measurement.
  • I have calibrated my scope's probe.
  • The STM32F4 discovery board is powered via the USB port.

With this setup, I tried to capture the rising edge of the step from 0 to 4000 using different time scales.
The results are as follows:
enter image description here
Compared to the above screenshot, the overshooting amplitude seems to be proportional to the step-voltage.

Due to my low reputation, I cannot post more than 2 links, but the zoom-in view shows a similar rising edge as @Arsenal's measurement. I think that is the real settling time.

I hope this update could lead to some new suggestions.

Best Answer

Are you sure that is real? Are you using a 10:1 scope probe?

The first thing I would check is the compensation on your scope probe - if that is not adjusted correctly you will see something like that.

Usually there is a test output from the scope to adjust the scope probe. The adjustment is usually done with a screwdriver into a slot in the probe. I don't know about Hantek

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