UNIT - 4

Data Acquisition:

Data acquisition (DAQ) is the process of measuring an electrical or physical phenomenon such
as voltage, current, temperature, pressure, or sound with a computer. A DAQ system consists of
sensors, DAQ measurement hardware, and a computer with programmable software. Compared
to traditional measurement systems, PC-based DAQ systems exploit the processing power,
productivity, display, and connectivity capabilities of industry-standard computers providing a
more powerful, flexible, and cost-effective measurement solution.

1. Transducer:-

A transducer is used to convert the physical parameters corning from the field into electrical
signals or it is used to measure directly the electrical quantities such as resistance, voltage,
frequency, etc.

2. Signal Conditioner:-
Usually the output signals of the transducer will be of very low level (weak) signals which
cannot be used for further processing. In order to make the signals strong enough to drive the
other elements signal conditioners are used such as amplifiers, modifiers, filters etc.

Signal conditioning system enhances the quality of signal coming from a sensor in terms of:

a. Protection

To protect the damage to the next element of mechatronics system such microprocessors from
the high current or voltage signals.

b. Right type of signal

To convert the output signal from a transducer into the desired form i.e. voltage / current.

c. Right level of the signal

To amplify or attenuate the signals to a right and acceptable level for the next element.

d. Noise

To eliminate noise from a signal.

e. Manipulation

To manipulate the signal from its nonlinear form to the linear form.

3. Multiplexer:-
The function of the multiplexer is to accept multiple analog inputs (after signal conditioning) and
provide a single output sequentially according to the requirements.
4. A/D Converter:-

The analog-to-digital (A/D) converter is generally used to convert the analog data into digital
form. The digital data is used for the purpose of easy processing, transmission, digital display
and storage. Processing involves various operations on data such as comparison, mathematical
manipulations, data is collected, converted into useful form and utilized for various purposes like
for control operation and display etc.

The transmission of data in digital form is possible over short distances as well as long distances
of and has advantages over transmission in analog form. The data can be stored permanently or
temporarily and can be displayed on a CRT or digital panel.

5. Recorders and Display Devices:-

In display devices the data is displayed in a suitable form in order to monitor the input signals.
Examples of display devices are oscilloscopes, numerical displays, panel meters, etc.

In order to have either a temporary or permanent record of the useful data recorders are used and
analog data can be recorded either graphically or on a magnetic tape. Optical recorders,
Ultraviolet recorders, styles-and-ink recorders are some of its examples.

The digital data can be recorded through digital recorders. The digital data is first converted into
a suitable form for recording by means of a coupling unit and then recorded on a magnetic tape,
punched cards or a perforated paper tape.
DATA CONVERSION DEVICES:
Data Conversion Devices are very important components of a Machine Control Unit (MCU).
MCUs are controlled by various computers or microcontrollers which are accepting signals only
in Digital Form, while the signals received from signal conditioning module or sensors are
generally in analogue form (continuous). Therefore a system is essentially required to convert
analog signals into digital form and from digital form to analog form. Figure below shows a
typical control system with data conversion devices.

Analog to Digital Converter (ADC)

There are various techniques of converting Analog Signals into Digital signals which are enlisted
as follows. However we will be discussing only Successive Approximation ADC and Sigma-
delta ADC, detail study of other techniques is out of the scope of the present course.

1. Direct Conversion ADC or Flash ADC

2. Successive Approximation ADC

3. A ramp-compare ADC

4. Wilkinson ADC

5. Integrating ADC

6. Delta-encoded ADC or counter-ramp

7. Pipeline ADC (also called sub ranging quantizer)

8. Sigma-delta ADC (also known as a delta-sigma ADC)

9. Time-interleaved ADC

Successive Approximation ADC:

A successive approximation ADC is a type of analog-to-digital converter that converts a
continuous analog waveform into a discrete digital representation via a binary search through all
possible quantization levels before finally converging upon a digital output for each conversion.

Block diagram

The successive approximation Analog to digital converter circuit typically consists of four chief
subcircuits:
1. A sample and hold circuit to acquire the input voltage (Vin).

2. An analog voltage comparator that compares Vin to the output of the internal DAC and
outputs the result of the comparison to the successive approximation register (SAR).

3. A successive approximation register sub-circuit designed to supply an approximate digital

code of Vin to the internal DAC.

4. An internal reference DAC supplies the comparator with an analog voltage equal to the digital
code output of the SARin.

Working:

1. The successive approximation register is initialized so that the most significant bit (MSB) is
equal to a digital 1.

2. This code is fed into the DAC, which then supplies the analog equivalent of this digital code
(Vref/2) into the comparator circuit for comparison with the sampled input voltage.

3. If this analog voltage exceeds Vin the comparator causes the SAR to reset this bit; otherwise,
the bit is left a 1.

4. Then the next bit is set to 1 and the same test is done, continuing this binary search until every
bit in the SAR has been tested.

5. The resulting code is the digital approximation of the sampled input voltage and is finally
output by the SAR at the end of the conversion (EOC).
Sigma Delta ADC:
One of the more advanced ADC technologies is the so-called delta-sigma, or ΔΣ (using the
proper Greek letter notation). In mathematics and physics, the capital Greek letter delta (Δ)
represents difference or change, while the capital letter sigma (Σ) represents summation: the
adding of multiple terms together. Sometimes this converter is referred to by the same Greek
letters in reverse order: sigma-delta, or ΣΔ.

Sigma Delta ADC is widely used in communication system, professional audio system and high
precision measurement system. Sigma Delta ADC has characteristics like, high resolution, low
cost and low conversion speed.

Working Principle:
Whatever is the input is applied on difference amplifier. Another input of the difference
amplifier is coming from DAC. The resultant voltage is given to the integrator. Integrator will
add the value received from the difference amplifier to the previous value it is having. So the
integrator will provide the addition or you can say integrating output.

Next step is a comparator or the 1 bit ADC. Comparator is getting voltage from the integrator
and other terminal is grounded. To get 1 at the output of the comparator the positive terminal of
the comparator will be at high potential as compared to the negative terminal. If the voltage at
the negative terminal is high we will get 0. that means we will get a 1 bit stream of 1 or 0.

If the analog voltage is high then density on 1 will be high and if analog signal is low density of
‘1’ will be low. That means you have given more positive voltage you will get more 1s in digital
output. And if you input is more negative you will get more 0s in digital output.

The output of the comparator id given to one bit DAC. If the input of the DAC is 1 it will give
+1 as the output whereas if the input of the DAC is 0 it will give -1 as the output. So the loop is
continued until we get the final value.
Now X1= X4-X

X1 is the input to the integrator. The integrator will add the X1 with the previous value in the
integrator.

So X2 = X1 + X2(PREVIOUS STAGE let n-1)

If X2>0 then X3=1

And if X3=1 then X4=1

If X2<0 then X3=0

And if X3=0 then X4=-1

This process continues until you get the digital value.

Advantages of Sigma Delta ADC:

1. Sigma Delta ADC is inexpensive since all circuitry within the converter is digital.

2. The output of sigma delta ADC is inherently linear and it has very little differential non
linearity.

3. It do not require sample and hold circuit. It is because due to high sampling rate and low
precision.

Disadvantages:

1. It is limited to high resolution and very low frequency applications.

2. It takes quite long time for producing first digital output because of digital filtering and down
sampling.

3. It is not possible to use Sigma Delta ADC for multiplexed ac input signals.

Types of DAC:
1. DAC using Weighted Resistors method:
The below shown schematic diagram is DAC using weighted resistors. If the input signals are
voltages, the addition of the binary bits can be achieved using the inverting summing amplifier
shown in the below figure.
1. The input resistors of the op-amp have their resistance values weighted in a binary format.

2. When the digital input is binary 1, the switch connects the resistor to the reference voltage.
When the logic circuit receives binary 0, the switch connects the resistor to ground. All the
digital input bits are simultaneously applied to the DAC.

3. The DAC generates analog output voltage corresponding to the given digital data signal.

4. For the DAC the given digital voltage is b3 b2 b1 b0 where each bit is a binary value (0 or 1).
The output voltage produced at output side is

V0=R0/R (b3+b2/2+b1/4+b0/8) Vref

5. As the number of bits is increasing in the digital input voltage, the range of the resistor values
becomes large and accordingly, the accuracy becomes poor.

R-2R Ladder Digital to Analog Converter (DAC):

The R-2R ladder DAC constructed as a binary-weighted DAC that uses a repeating cascaded
structure of resistor values R and 2R. This improves the precision due to the relative ease of
producing equal valued-matched resistors (or current sources).
The above figure shows the 4-bit R-2R ladder DAC. In order to achieve high-level accuracy, we
have chosen the resistor values as R and 2R. Let the binary value B3 B2 B1 B0, if b3=1,
b2=b1=b0=0, then the circuit is shown in the figure below it is a simplified form of the above
DAC circuit. The output voltage is V0=3R (i3/2)= Vref/2

Similarly, If b2=1, and b3=b1=b0=0, then the output voltage is V0=3R(i2/4)=Vref/4 and the
circuit is simplified as below
If b1=1 and b2=b3=b0=0, then the circuit shown in the figure below it is a simplified form of the
above DAC circuit. The output voltage is V0=3R(i1/8)= Vref/8

Finally, the circuit is shown in below corresponding to the case where b0=1 and b2=b3=b1=0.
The output voltage is V0=3R(i0/16) = Vref/16
n this way, we can find that when the input data is b3b2b1b0 (where individual bits are either 0
or 1), then the output voltage is