Acquisition case studies go online

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 25, 2007

Online application stories offer advice on data acquisition using Data Acquisition Processor boards.

Readers who want to see how other engineers have designed data acquisition systems that may closely model those they may have in mind can find ample information on the Microstar Laboratories website.

The company has published several application stories online that look at a wide range of situations where an engineer has answered the question: "How can a Data Acquisition Processor board help me do what I need to do?".

The applications described include one that performs in-place diagnosis of control valves for the process industry and another that analyses broadband sonar to detect fish sise and species in real time.

There seems to be no one "typical" industry or application for DAP boards and software.

One unusual application now installed all over the world was developed by a company from Calgary, Alberta.

Pure Technologies, based in Calgary, has created a patented infrastructure monitoring system that uses acoustical techniques to detect potential failures in buildings, parking structures, bridges, prestressed concrete pipelines, arenas, and containment vessels.

Called SoundPrint, the system uses an array of sensors to measure the energy released when tensioned steel wires fail.

Recent contracts include the Chesapeake Bay Suspension Bridge in Maryland and the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland.

With the completion of these projects the system will be installed on nine major cable-supported bridges around the world.

Customers like Pure Technologies can take advantage of the hardware and software engineering that Microstar Laboratories has built in to all DAP products to allow their use in Windows applications with timing-sensitive components.

Unless these Windows applications use independent real-time processing as implemented in DAP products, they could be adversely impacted at runtime by system or network delays.

The same section of the Microstar Laboratories website includes a number of items on control technology.

Every DAP board includes an onboard processor with a real-time operating system that Windows applications can control.

This extra resource frees the time-critical parts of your application from system delays and lets you implement control systems that otherwise would be difficult or even impossible to implement under Windows.