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Data Acquisition: Navigation Search

Data acquisition is the process of sampling signals from sensors that measure real-world physical conditions and converting the analog samples into digital numeric values that can be processed by a computer. A data acquisition system consists of sensors to convert physical parameters to electrical signals, signal conditioning circuitry to prepare the signals for digitization, analog-to-digital converters to convert the conditioned signals to digital values, and data acquisition software to control the system and capture the digital data. Data acquisition applications are usually controlled by programming languages and software packages provide tools for acquiring data from different hardware equipment.

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8 views

Data Acquisition: Navigation Search

Data acquisition is the process of sampling signals from sensors that measure real-world physical conditions and converting the analog samples into digital numeric values that can be processed by a computer. A data acquisition system consists of sensors to convert physical parameters to electrical signals, signal conditioning circuitry to prepare the signals for digitization, analog-to-digital converters to convert the conditioned signals to digital values, and data acquisition software to control the system and capture the digital data. Data acquisition applications are usually controlled by programming languages and software packages provide tools for acquiring data from different hardware equipment.

Uploaded by

Swetha C
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Data acquisition

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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Data acquisition is the process of sampling signals that measure real world physical conditions
and converting the resulting samples into digital numeric values that can be manipulated by a
computer. Data acquisition systems, abbreviated by the acronyms DAS or DAQ, typically convert
analog waveforms into digital values for processing. The components of data acquisition systems
include:

 Sensors, to convert physical parameters to electrical signals.


 Signal conditioning circuitry, to convert sensor signals into a form that can be converted
to digital values.
 Analog-to-digital converters, to convert conditioned sensor signals to digital values.

Digital Data Acquisition System Block Diagram

Data acquisition applications are usually controlled by software programs developed using
various general purpose programming languages such as Assembly, BASIC, C, C++, C#,
Fortran, Java, LabVIEW, Lisp, Pascal, etc. Stand-alone data acquisition systems are often called
data loggers.

There are also open-source software packages providing all the necessary tools to acquire data
from different hardware equipment. These tools come from the scientific community where
complex experiment requires fast, flexible and adaptable software. Those packages are usually
custom fit but more general DAQ package like the Maximum Integrated Data Acquisition
System can be easily tailored and is used in several physics experiments worldwide.

Contents
[hide]
 1 History
 2 Methodology
o 2.1 Sources and systems
o 2.2 DAQ hardware
o 2.3 DAQ device drivers
o 2.4 Input devices
o 2.5 Hardware
o 2.6 DAQ software
 3 References
 4 Further reading
 5 See also
 6 External links

History[edit]
In 1963, IBM produced computers which specialized in data acquisition. These include the IBM
7700 Data Acquisition System, and its successor, the IBM 1800 Data Acquisition and Control
System. These expensive specialized systems were surpassed in 1974 by general purpose S-100
computers and data acquisitions cards produced by Tecmar/Scientific Solutions Inc. In 1981
IBM introduced the IBM Personal Computer and Scientific Solutions introduced the first PC
data acquisition products.
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Methodology[edit]
Sources and systems[edit]

Data acquisition begins with the physical phenomenon or physical property to be measured.
Examples of this include temperature, light intensity, gas pressure, fluid flow, and force.
Regardless of the type of physical property to be measured, the physical state that is to be
measured must first be transformed into a unified form that can be sampled by a data acquisition
system. The task of performing such transformations falls on devices called sensors. A data
acquisition system is a collection of software and hardware that lets you measure or control
physical characteristics of something in the real world. A complete data acquisition system
consists of DAQ hardware, sensors and actuators, signal conditioning hardware, and a computer
running DAQ software.

A sensor, which is a type of transducer, is a device that converts a physical property into a
corresponding electrical signal (e.g., strain gauge, thermistor). An acquisition system to measure
different properties depends on the sensors that are suited to detect those properties. Signal
conditioning may be necessary if the signal from the transducer is not suitable for the DAQ
hardware being used. The signal may need to be filtered or amplified in most cases. Various
other examples of signal conditioning might be bridge completion, providing current or voltage
excitation to the sensor, isolation, linearization. For transmission purposes, single ended analog
signals, which are more susceptible to noise can be converted to differential signals. Once
digitized, the signal can be encoded to reduce and correct transmission errors.

DAQ hardware[edit]

DAQ hardware is what usually interfaces between the signal and a PC.[6] It could be in the form
of modules that can be connected to the computer's ports (parallel, serial, USB, etc.) or cards
connected to slots (S-100 bus, AppleBus, ISA, MCA, PCI, PCI-E, etc.) in the motherboard.
Usually the space on the back of a PCI card is too small for all the connections needed, so an
external breakout box is required. The cable between this box and the PC can be expensive due
to the many wires, and the required shielding.

DAQ cards often contain multiple components (multiplexer, ADC, DAC, TTL-IO, high speed
timers, RAM). These are accessible via a bus by a microcontroller, which can run small
programs. A controller is more flexible than a hard wired logic, yet cheaper than a CPU so that it
is permissible to block it with simple polling loops. For example: Waiting for a trigger, starting
the ADC, looking up the time, waiting for the ADC to finish, move value to RAM, switch
multiplexer, get TTL input, let DAC proceed with voltage ramp.

DAQ device drivers[edit]

DAQ device drivers are needed in order for the DAQ hardware to work with a PC. The device
driver performs low-level register writes and reads on the hardware, while exposing API for
developing user applications in a variety of pro

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