Simple start to PC-based acquisition

In response to a growing demand for PC-based data acquisition to be made even easier to use, Adept Scientific has put together what it reckons is a package which can be used 'out-of-the-box'.

In response to a growing demand for PC-based data acquisition to be made even easier to use, Adept Scientific has put together what it reckons is a package which can be used 'out-of-the-box'.

This consists of a DynaRes series plug-and-play PCI board, 1m of cable, a screw terminal/signal conditioning pod, and DaqView software for Windows.

Users simply fit the board into their PCs, attach their sensors to the terminal unit, and install the software: data acquisition can begin within minutes, even for inexperienced users.

The DynaRes boards handle high-accuracy, high speed, temperature, voltage, frequency and pulse counting measurements, and offer digital I/O and analogue output.

All power is derived from the PC, so there is no need for external power supplies.

All inputs and outputs are accessed via convenient screw terminals located on the signal-conditioning pod.

The cover of this is easily removable to gain access to the screw terminals for signal connections.

DaqView software for Windows lets users easily set up all hardware, acquisition, and display parameters, without programming, via a simple spreadsheet-style screen which even the novice user will find intuitive.

The software lets users verify the system's connections, allows data to be saved to disk at up to 100ksample/s, and offers a graphic display, all in real time.

There are even some useful triggering facilities.

On the hardware side, cold-junction compensation is built-in, providing highly accurate thermocouple measurements, with channel-to-channel variation and noise typically less than 0.2C, and absolute accuracy typically better than 1.0C.

This is accomplished by having a separate low-noise, bandwidth-limited amplifier per thermocouple channel (of which either 7 or 14 are available).

In addition to thermocouple inputs, DynaRes also provides seven differential voltage input channels, with 16bit resolution and programmable full scale input ranges from +/-156mV to +/-10V.

The four frequency input channels can measure frequency or count pulses up to 10MHz.

Two timer output channels are capable of generating square outputs up to 1MHz.

24 digital I/O lines are also included, which can be programmed in 8bit groups as either inputs or outputs.

All inputs, including TC inputs, voltage, frequency and digital, are scanned at 200,000 readings per second, providing accurate time correlation between all inputs.

Optional 16bit/100kHz analogue outputs can be used to generate waveforms, with a virtually infinite waveform output length possible from PC memory.

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