INNOVATIVE PC DATA ACQUISITION
(with application examples)
Is it any surprise that the personal computer has become the
most popular platform for data acquisition? PCs are so abundant
in the workplace now that it's hard to find a business that
doesn't use them. And since the ISA (Industry Standard
Architecture) bus allows the user to add lots of expansion cards,
thousands have added inexpensive plug-in data acquisition cards
to their desktop PCs.
Cost Effective Using a PC for your data acquisition
needs just makes sense. PCs have been declining in cost for
years, all the while becoming faster and more powerful. Now,
there simply is not a more cost effective platform. What's more,
many people in the workplace have considerable experience working
with PCs, so in most cases there is a very short learning curve.
Open Architecture The PC's open architecture allows the
user the flexibility to configure almost any system imaginable.
Its immense popularity has created widespread support by vendors
of every kind, so finding the peripherals and software to do
exactly what you need is easy. As more and more standards are
being developed, compatibility between different vendors' cards
and peripherals is becoming less and less of an issue.
Powerful As PCs have become more powerful and robust,
it has become easy to overcome the limitations that used to keep
people from considering the PC for a data acquisition platform.
Intelligent Instrumentation offers several products to allow
extremely high channel counts, up to 240 digital I/O channels on
one board. We also offer high-speed boards that can capture
transient signals and waveforms at speeds up to 100MHz. And our
DSP (digital signal processing) boards feature on-board
processors that can handle intensive signal processing and
high-speed control applications
Versatile And PC-based systems aren't limited to
plug-in boards anymore. With the advent of portable and notebook
PCs, a variety of portable data acquisition systems have emerged.
You can perform any and all of the analog and digital I/O
conventionally done on the ISA bus through your PC's parallel
port or PCMCIA slot. Intelligent Instrumentation offers
competitively priced full-featured systems for both of these
interfaces.
SOFTWARE What's more, there is no better platform than
the PC to take advantage of the powerful software available
today. With a good data acquisition software package such as
Intelligent Instrumentation's Visual Designer, you can make full
use of the powerful Microsoft Windows user interface to
completely customize your system to your own requirements. You
can perform powerful data processing and analysis, create
extremely realistic, professional displays to present your data,
and export your data to other software packages such as
spreadsheets or databases, all without any knowledge of
programming whatsoever.
APPLICATIONS The following is just a small sampling of
applications that our customers have implemented using our
PC-based data acquisition solutions:
- Agricultural
- Green House Monitor and Control System A PC is
used to monitor and control the temperature, watering and
humidity. This tight monitoring and control allows
precise experiments to be conducted to determine optimum
conditions for growth.
- Fish Farm Water Monitor and Control System A PC is
used to control the conditions of the water. The system
monitors temperature, pH and oxygen content of the lake.
This information is then used to control compressors,
heaters, acid/base mixers and the input and output water
flow to maintain the desired conditions.
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- Automotive
- Road Testing Portable PC systems are used to
capture and analyze data pertaining to performance
factors such as noise, engine performance, suspension,
acceleration and braking.
- Automotive Sub-Assembly Testing PC-based data
acquisition solutions are used to test electric and
electronic sub-assemblies such as dash boards. A dash
board is placed in the test fixture and the PC then
controls actuators to move switches and controls and
measures the results. One system tests five dash boards
at one time. Over 150 types of assemblies are tested.
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- Environmental
- Solar Water Heater Monitor A PC with a
multifunction board is used to measure the efficiency and
temperature distribution of a solar water heater. The
water heater is used to supply hot water to residents of
an apartment complex.
- Pollution Control Systems A multifunction board is
used to monitor a series of sensors that measure the
level of air pollutants that pass through the system.
Based on the measurements the system uses a burner to
eliminate the presence of the pollutants before releasing
the air to the outside. The system is used in small to
medium-sized semiconductor manufacturing plants.
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- Industrial
- Wash Water Quality Monitoring System Multiple PCs
with data acquisition boards are used to monitor the
quality of waste water at an automotive manufacturing
plant. The system measures the quality of water in bath
tanks used to wash car bodies prior to painting. The
close on-line monitoring of the tanks has reduced the
amount of expensive, environmentally sensitive chemicals
used in the process.
- High Pressure Water Cutting Equipment A PC-based
system is used to monitor flow, pressure and temperature
in a system that uses abrasive water and high pressure
for high-precision cutting of material such as aluminum,
wood, steel, etc. The data acquisition equipment is used
in conjunction with a multifunction board and an analog
channel expander module are used for monitoring vital
signals from patients. The system consists of a remote
data acquisition and control box attached to a patient.
The system registers vital signs such as pulse rate,
blood pressure and respiration rate. The signals are sent
to a central monitoring station that contains the data
acquisition hardware. The cards digitize the signals
which are then displayed by a custom-developed program on
a touch-sensitive screen.
- Radiation Equipment Simulators A large
manufacturer of X-ray equipment uses a combination of
boards and expansion modules to build simulators of
radiation equipment used in cancer therapy. The
simulators are used for software development and R&D
experiments.
- Power Utility
- Monitoring of Portable Generator Systems A
multifunction board and Visual Designer were used to
implement a system to test portable power generators. The
system monitors inputs, outputs and operating conditions
such as power output, temperature, fuel consumption, air
flow and efficiency.
- Monitoring of Nuclear Power Plants A multifunction
board is used to monitor the temperature distribution in
the steam piping system of a nuclear power plant. After
the temperature data is collected, it is graphically
displayed using software.
- Research & Development
- Toaster Temperature Distribution Analyzer An
analog input board in conjunction with 5B signal
conditioning modules is used to measure the temperature
distribution across a slice of bread. The data collected
is used to refine the toaster design. A second system is
used to evaluate the design of coffee machines.
- High-Power Motor Analyzer A multi-function board
with additional counter channels is used to evaluate the
performance of small, high-power electric motors used in
vacuum cleaners.ges and currents.
