Data Acquisition

Reference Book
Jovitha Jerome, “Virtual Instrumentation
and LABVIEW”, PHI Learning
 Data Acquisition
• Data acquisition involves gathering signals from measurement sources and
digitizing the signals for storage, analysis, and presentation on a PC.
• Data acquisition systems come in many different PC technology forms to offer
flexibility when choosing your system.
• You can choose from PCI( Peripheral Component Interconnect) , PXI(PCI
eXtension) , PCI Express, PXI Express, USB, wireless, and Ethernet data acquisition
for test, measurement, and automation applications.
• Following are the main components when building a basic data acquisition
system
• Transducers and sensors
• Signals
• Signal conditioning
• DAQ hardware
• Driver and application software
•
Data acquisition begins with the physical phenomenon to
be measured.
• This physical phenomenon could be the temperature of a
room, the intensity of a light source, the pressure inside a
chamber, the force applied to an object, or many other
things.
• An effective data acquisition system can measure all of
these different phenomena.
• Some transducers may require excitation in the form of
voltage or current.
• A transducer is a device that converts a physical phenomenon
into a measurable electrical signal, such as voltage or current.
• The ability of a data acquisition system to measure different
phenomena depends on the transducers to convert the
physical phenomena into signals measurable by the data
acquisition hardware.
• Transducers are synonymous with sensors in data acquisition
systems.
• There are specific transducers for many different
applications, such as measuring temperature, pressure, or
fluid flow.
Phenomenon Transducer

Temperature Thermocouple, RTD, Thermistor

Light Photo Sensor

Sound Microphone

Force and Pressure Strain Gage

Piezoelectric Transducer

Position and Displacement Potentiometer, LVDT, Optical Encoder

Acceleration Accelerometer

pH pH Electrode
• The appropriate transducers convert physical phenomena
into measurable signals. However, different signals need
to be measured in different ways. For this reason, it is
important to understand the different types of signals
and their corresponding attributes. Signals can be
categorized into two groups:
·
• Analog
• Digital
• Analog Signals

An analog signal can exist at any value with

respect to time. A few examples of analog
signals include voltage, temperature, pressure,
sound, and load. The three primary
characteristics of an analog signal are level,
shape, and frequency.
• Level
• The level gives vital information about the measured analog signal.
• The intensity of a light source, the temperature in a room, and the pressure inside a
chamber are all examples that demonstrate the importance of the level of a signal. When
you measure the level of a signal, the signal generally does not change quickly with respect
to time. The accuracy of the measurement, however, is very important.
• Choose a data acquisition system that yields maximum accuracy to help with analog level
measurements.

Shape
• Some signals are named after their specific shapes - sine, square, sawtooth, and triangle.
• The shape of an analog signal can be as important as the level because by measuring the shape of an analog
signal, you can further analyze the signal, including peak values, DC values, and slope.
• Signals where shape is of interest generally change rapidly with respect to time, but system accuracy is still
important.
• The analysis of heartbeats, video signals, sounds, vibrations, and circuit responses are some applications
involving shape measurements.

Frequency
All analog signals can be categorized by their frequencies. Unlike the level or shape of the signal, you cannot
directly measure frequency. You must analyze the signal using software to determine the frequency
information. This analysis is usually done using an algorithm known as the Fourier transform.
•
Digital Signals

A digital signal cannot take on any value with respect to time.

Instead, a digital signal has two possible levels: high and low. Digital
signals generally conform to certain specifications that define the
characteristics of the signal. They are commonly referred to as
transistor-to-transistor logic (TTL). TTL specifications indicate a
digital signal to be low when the level falls within 0 to 0.8 V, and the
signal is high between 2 and 5 V. The useful information that you
can measure from a digital signal includes the state and the rate .
• State
Digital signals cannot take on any value with respect to
time. The state of a digital signal is essentially the level of
the signal - on or off, high or low.
Rate
The rate of a digital signal defines how the digital signal
changes state with respect to time. An example of
measuring the rate of a digital signal includes
determining how fast a motor shaft spins. Unlike
frequency, the rate of a digital signal measures how often
a portion of a signal occurs.
 Signal Conditioning

• sometimes transducers generate signals too difficult

or too dangerous to measure directly with a data
acquisition device.
• For instance, when dealing with high voltages, noisy
environments, extreme high and low signals, or
simultaneous signal measurement, signal
conditioning is essential for an effective data
acquisition system.
• It maximizes the accuracy of a system, allows
sensors to operate properly, and guarantees safety.
• It is important to select the right hardware for signal conditioning.
• Can be of both modular and integrated type.
• · Amplification
· Attenuation
· Isolation
· Bridge completion
· Simultaneous sampling
· Sensor excitation
· Multiplexing
• Linearization
• ADC
Transducers/Signals Signal Conditioning Required
Thermocouple Amplification, Linearization and
Cold Junction Compensation
RTDs Current Excitation and
Linearization
Strain Gauge Voltage Excitation, Bridge
Configuration and Linearization
Common Mode or High Isolation Amplifiers
Voltages
Loads requiring High Electo-mechanical Relays or
Current flow Solid state relays
Signals with High Noise Low pass filters
 Amplification
• Improves the accuracy in the digitized signal and reduces the
effects of the noise.
• Signals should be amplified close to the source results into
high SNR.
• For highest accuracy amplify the voltage level to maximum
input range of ADC.
• SCXI Signal Conditioning Extension for Instrumentation
modules are available.
• By varying gain amplifier can be converted into attenuator .
• If Op-amp based systems are used inverting mode is to be used for it.
 Multiplexing
• Technique for measuring several signals with a single device.
• The ADC samples one channel, switches to next channel
samples it, switches to next channel and so on.
• Because same ADC samples many channels instead of one,
the effective sampling rate of the individual channel is
inversely to number of channels sampled.
• E.g. in PCI –MIO -16E-1
Sampling rate is 1MS/s
For 10 channels –Sampling rate will be 1MS/s/10=100kS/s per
channel.
 Filtering
• is to remove unwanted signals from the signal of interest i.e.
the signal which is to be measured.
• Noise reduces the measurement accuracy.
• For DC signals (Temperature) Many SCXI-
Signal Conditioning Extension for Instrumentation modules
uses 4Hz and 10kHz low pass filters to eliminate the noise
before the signals are digitized by DAQ device.
• AC –class signals (Vibration ) often require ---antialiasing
filters(LP) but it requires very steep cut-off rate so that it
completely removes all signal frequencies that are higher
than the input bandwidth of the devices.
SCXI-1141 module has built in antialiasing filter.
 Transducer Excitation
• Signal conditioning systems can generate excitation,
which some transducers require for their operation. e.g.
Strain Gauge(Voltage Excitation) , RTDs(Current
Excitation) .
Strain Gauges are very low resistance devices, typically used
in Wheat stone bridge configuration with voltage excitation
source.
RTD measurements are usually made with current source
that converts variation in resistance to a measurable
voltage.
• These transducers require external voltage or current to
excite their circuitry into measuring physical
phenomenon.
For example. SCXI-1121 , SCXI-1122 onboard sources
 Isolation
• Isolating the transducer signals from the computer for
safety purpose.
• The system being monitored may have high voltage
transients that could damage the computer without
signal conditioning module.
• When the DAQ device input and the signal being
acquired are referenced to “ground” , problem occurs
if there is a potential difference in two grounds. This
leads to ground loop .
• Using isolated signal conditioning modules eliminate
ground loops and ensure that the signals are
accurately acquired.
If the potential difference between the two grounds is
very large damage can occur to the measuring system.
 Linearization
• Most of the transducers have non-linear
response. Thermocouples
• LabVIEW can linearize the voltage levels from
transducers so that you can scale the voltages
to the measured phenomenon.
• Software based.
 ADC
• Sampling theorem should be satisfied for
recovery of the signal.
Data Acquisition Hardware
 Terminal Block and Cable
• Terminal block provides a place to connect signals.
• It consists of screw or spring terminals for connecting
signals and connector for attaching a cable to
connect the terminals block to a DAQ device.
• Selection of Terminal blocks depends on the device
and the number of signals.
• Terminal blocks have 100,68 or 50 terminals .
• Higher the terminals higher are the number of
grounds.
 DAQ Signal Accessory
It is a customized block designed for learning. It has
3 Connectors
Quadrature Encoder
Relay
Digital Trigger
4 LEDs (reverse logic)
Counter I/O
Function Generator(with switch to select the
frequency range of signal )
Frequency Control
Temperature Sensor
Temperature sensor Noise Control
Analog Input
Analog Output
 Components of DAQ device
• Components of a DAQ Device
• Analog I/O
• Digital I/O
• MUX
• ADC
• DAC
• Counter
• RTSI (Real Time System Integration) Bus
• The DAQ device is an external and connects to the
computer through an exiting port such as serial port or
Ethernet port .
• The computer receives the raw data through DAQ
Device.
• The application which is written in the software
presents and manipulates the raw data so that it can be
understood.
• Software also controls the DAQ system by commanding
the DAQ device and manages when and from which
channel to acquire the data.
Typically DAQ software includes
• Drivers : are unique to a type of device and
includes a set of instructions that are accepted by
device.
• Application Software: such as LabVIEW sends the
driver commands such as acquire and generate
the signals etc. It also presents and analyses the
acquired data. NI DAQ driver software , includes
a collection of Vis which are used to acquire data
from and send data to the measurement device.
• Most DAQ devices have
– Analog input: measuring an analog signal
– Analog output: output analog signals
– Digital I/O can input or output digital signals and is not
suitable for measuring rate. Applications include switch
sensing, LED control
– Counters : can input or output digital signals . It is suitable for
measuring the rate and has built in timing signals :
Applications include stepper motor control
There are various bus structures available to transfer the
measured signal with the DAQ device to computer. E.g USB ,PCI
bus of computer, PCMCIA socket .
DAQ device can also be simulated in Measurement and
Automation Explorer
• Multiplexer:
Analog input circuitry has a mux. This switch has
multiple input channels but allows only one channel to
the IA(Instrumentation Amplifier)
• ADC Analog to digital Converter
• DAC Digital to analog converter converts a digital
number to analog signal
• RTSI (Real Time System Integration) Bus: is used to
synchronize multiple DAQ devices and allows sharing
of trigger timings and trigger signals between
devices.
 Analog Inputs
• Process of measuring an analog signal and transferring the
measurement to a computer for analysis display or storage.
Analog –to-Digital Converter:
• Acquiring an analog signal with a computer requires a
process known as Analog –to-digital conversion which takes
the electrical signals and translates them into digital data
so that computer can process it.
• Converts Voltage Levels into series of ones and zeros.
• Sample clock controls the rate at which samples of the
input are taken.
 Task Timings for Analog Input

DAQ Assistant (Measurement I/O) ----- Acquisition Mode

When performing analog input , the task can be timed to
– Acquire Single sample
– Acquire n samples
– Acquire Continuously
Acquire single sample : is an on demand operation
Driver acquires one value from an input channel and
immediately returns the value. This operation does not require
any buffering or hardware timing.
Acquire n samples: acquire single samples in the repetitive
manner. Programmatically sample rate and sample number are
to be provided .
Acquire Continuously: when a process is required to be
monitored continuously . Sampling rate is to be specified
 Analog Outputs
• Process of generating electrical signals from the
computer.
• It is generated by performing D-A conversion
• Available analog output types are voltage or current.
Task Timing:
While performing analog output ,the task can be
timed to:
• Generate 1 sample
• Generate N samples
• Generate Continuously
 Counters
• Counter is a digital timing device.
• Counters are used for event counting ,frequency
measurement ,position measurement ,period measurement
and pulse generation.
• All these are implemented using three counter /timer signals
-----Gate ,source and output
• Count register –it stores the current count of the counter.
• Source --- it is an input signal that can change the current
count stored in the count register.
• Gate----- It is an input signal that determines if an active
edge on the count changes the count.
• Output– It is an output signal that generates pulses.
Task configuring counter Input
Task Configuring Counter Output
Task Configuring Digital Input
Task Configuring Digital Output