Data acquisition

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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]

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

3D scanner
Analog-to-digital converter
Time-to-digital converter
Hardware

Computer Automated Measurement and Control (CAMAC)

Industrial Ethernet
Industrial USB
LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation
NIM
PowerLab
PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation
VMEbus
VXI
DAQ software
Specialized DAQ software may be delivered with the DAQ hardware. Software tools used for
building large-scale data acquisition systems include EPICS. Other programming environments that
are used to build DAQ applications include ladder logic, Visual C++, Visual Basic, LabVIEW,
and MATLAB. See also:

LabChart
MIDAS