No

Dept of
ECE
 Module 4
ignal conditioning and Real time interfacin
• Introduction.

• Elements of Data Acquisition and control

system.

• Transducers and signal conditioning.

• Devices for data conversion.

• Data conversion process.

 •Introduction
• Real time interfacing is the general term used to describe
the aspects of connecting a computer with real world
process and communicating data.

• Monitors, Keyboards ,printers, disks, modems and CD’s are

examples of real time interfacing.

• A more general approach categorizes interfacing process

into 4 components: sensors actuators computer real world
process.

• Sensors and actuators become components which transfer

information between the electrical computer discipline and
Elements of data acquisition and control system
 Elements of data acquisition and control system
• A data acquisition system is a collection of add-on hardware and
software components that allow your computer to receive real
world information from sensors.

• Once the data resides inside the processor it performs three

operations plotting, processing and writing to a file.

• A DAQ system can be thought of as a monitoring system, it can

receive data from real world process and display the data.

• A DAC system is a super set of DAQ system and requires both

sensors and actuators.

• The purpose of actuator is to convert low power computer signals

into a resulting in motion, heat, pressure etc. common actuators
include stepper motor, solenoids, relays, hydraulic motors,
speakers, and piezoelectric actuators.
 Overview of I/O process
• The I/O process is a means by which a computer communicates
with real world phenomena via the DAQ device

• The performance of the I/O process dependent on the available

computer, selected DAQ device and the bus architecture.

• Todays computer has the capability of transferring data by any of

the following methods.

• Direct Memory Access (DMA)

• Interrupt Request (IRQ)

• Programmed I/O

• Memory Mapping
 Components of DAC system and interconnection
• Figure presents major components and their
interconnections of DAC system.

• The no of I/O s varies depending on the

manufacturer, based on functionality. The screw
terminal is attached to the GPIO card via ribbon
cables.

• The number of cables may vary depending on the

type of the card.

• The application software function is to provide

the engineer with an easy means of reading
sensors, writing to actuators and processing data
(plotting, control algorithm, saving data and data
Components of DAC system and interconnection
 General purpose I/O card(GPIO)

• The necessary ingredients for the general I/O process are

the PC, operating system software, general purpose I/O
card and software driver, and the proper termination panel
and cabling for GPIO card.

• The GPIO card is installed into a free expansion slot in the

PC bus. Its address is specified both on the card and in its
driver software.

• The application software must provide the programmer

with the ability to create open loop as well as closed loop
applications.
 Installation of the I/O card and software
Most GPIO cards operate at 1 to 3 KHZ range, which means that I/O
cards operate at 1000 to 3000 samples per second depending on the
card.

Each GPIO card takes up one slot and provides inputs, outputs or a
combination of both. Most cards come with digital I/O, which can be
configured as input output or a combination of both. Analog I/O is
harder to come by because it requires a D/A or A/D converter.

You must determine the type of precision of the I/O channel needed.
I/O channel may be either input output classified based on type of
data transferred. This leads to three channel types.

•Analog

•Digital
 Transducers and Signal conditioning

• Transducers sense physical phenomena and produce electrical

signal that the DAQ system measures. For ex thermocouples,
RTDs thermistors and IC sensors convert temperature into an
analog signal that an ADC can measure. Other ex include strain
gauges, flow transducers, pressure transducers, which measure
force, rate of flow, the pressure respectively.

• The electrical signals produced are proportional to physical

parameter they monitor. Again it must be optimized for the input
range of the DAQ device

• Signal conditioning accessories amplify low level signal and then

isolate and filter them for more accurate measurements.

• In addition some transducers use voltage or current excitation to

generate voltage output.
 Transducers and Signal conditioning

• Amplification

• Isolation

• Multiplexing

• Filtering

• Excitation

• Linearization

• Number of channels

• Digital I/O
 Devices for Data Conversion

• Let us consider the example of real time mechatronics

system. It is assumed that the output power to be
controlled is analog in nature.

• This information is passed on to ADC and converted to

binary format in order to be compatible with DAQ system.

• If an electro –hydraulic actuator does the final actuation,

an electro-hydraulic servo valve at the interface modulates
the fluid power and produces the desired output.

• In this case integration of electronic, mechanical and fluid

power components are necessary for successful
implementation of a computer controlled system.
Operational and Instrumentation Amplifiers
 Operational and Instrumentation Amplifiers

• An amplifier is an electronic device which increases the size of

voltage or current signal without altering its basic characteristics.

• It perform mainly mathematical operations.

• It is a basic building block and is made of many transistors

fabricated on a processor chip.

• It has a ability to provide accurate and stable results under wide

range of operational conditions.

• It is also characterized by very high gain, high input impedance

and very low output impedance.

• Without feedback , the amplifier is unstable because of high gain.

 Operational and Instrumentation Amplifiers

• Basic characteristics of Operational Amplifier are:

• (-) Inverting input terminal: A voltage applied to this terminal is

amplified with an 180 degree phase shift.

• (+) Non Inverting terminal: A voltage applied to this terminal is

amplified with out phase shift.

• The voltage gain is so great that the voltage difference between

the inputs is zero.

• The input impedance is so great that the inputs draw no

current.

• Zero output impedance.

Basic op amp circuits- Non Inverting Amplifier
Non Inverting Amplifier
Basic op amp circuits- Inverting Amplifier
Basic op amp circuits- Inverting Amplifier
Basic op amp circuits- Multiple Input Inverting Ampl
Basic op amp circuits- Instrumentation Amplifier
 Basic op amp circuits- Instrumentation Amplifier
• The output signals of transducers are not at the required level, the
desired signal is often achieved using an instrumentation amplifier.

• The gain of this amplifier can be precisely set by the addition of

single external transistor and it has very high input resistance.

• It has high input resistance, It has the ability to amplify small

signals in the presence of noise.

• Opamp1 and 2 are the input sections of the amplifier. Opamp3 is a

unity gain amplifier in the output section.

• The instrumentation amplifier has two inputs useful for strain

gauge bridge circuits. The resistor RG is the external gain setting
resistor.

• In addition to providing gain setting, It also allow for zero setting.

 Data conversion process
• Data acquisition systems has become an important need in many
automated manufacturing solutions.

• It is required to monitor several pieces of data at precisely the

same time. Sample and hold devices.

• Some of the sources of noise are noise from the actuator motion,
example being commutator brushes and relay contacts. cross talk.
Noise due to electromagnetic interference of transmission lines.

• Filtering is used to remove certain band of frequencies from a

signal. Low pass filter, High pass filter and band pass filter.

• Computer reads the information from several channels one at a

time using a device called multiplexer.

• It requires the use of A/D converters to input the sensed

 Data conversion process
• Control programs are generated in high level language, assembly
language and visual simulation languages.

• Assembly languages are useful in some instances where execution

time is small and critical.

• Visual simulation procedures are used for simulation where real

time data acquisition and control are done simultaneously using
process model and sensor data.

• Block diagram based models are constructed and used in in an

atmosphere of hardware and software in one loop.
 The Analog to Digital Converter
• It is necessary to use ADC to transform analog voltage into binary
number through quantization.

• Quantization is a process of taking continuous analog signal and

breaking it into number of discrete steps.

• The three functions of sampling, quantization and encoding are

involved in the process.
 The Analog to Digital Converter
• The conversion process involves sampling the continuous signal,
storing this value before the voltage before the next sample if
taken.

• Convert the stored number to the binary number.

• Sampling Rate: This parameter determines how often conversions

can take place. A faster sampling rate acquires more data in a
given time and form a better representation of the original signal.

• Resolution: The number of bits that the ADC uses to represent the
analog signal is the resolution.
Data conversion process
 The Analog to Digital Converter
• Range

• Code width

• Critical considerations of Analog inputs

• Settling time

• Noise

• Triggers
The Successive Approximation Type of A/D converte
A/D conversion (FLASH CONVERTER)
The Weighted resistor D/A converter
The Digital to Analog Converter