I don't even know where to begin, so this looks like a good place

[Ragewizard]

Hi, all

I am an RC airplane hobbiest and I would like to build a test engine stand to test my engines with different props.  I would also like to tune the engines to get the peak performance out of my engines if possible.  Usually to do this, I place one of my motors on a test stand with a prop and start it up and put it through its paces while listening to the sounds.  Now I would like to actually quantify my results with a system that can be connected to my laptop.  Of course I have no idea how to put together a data acquisition system, but why let that stop me.  I thought I would pose a question here to see how much of a hassle it would be.  So below I have listed all my requirements and I hope that someone can direct me to atleast giving me a direction to start picking the components that I would need to achieve my goal.

RC Glow Motor Test Stand Requirements:

1.  Thrust measurement.  The engines can typically produce upto 25 lbs of thrust with a proper prop configuration.

2.  Temperature measurement.  The engines operate at temperatures that are comparable to a typical automobile engine ( -40 F to 400 F)

3.  Tachometer measurement.  The engines can turn as much as 20000 RPMs.  I have a optical tachometer that is suppiled from the hobby shop and works qute well with up to 4 blades on a prop. 

The above are the only 3 measurements that I need to tune the motors to maximize their performance.  In addition, it would be awesome if my data acquisition system wasn't tethered to a plug from a house which would be cause for an extention cord.  Battery powered is the best. 

Of course the final requirement is the data needs to be able to be displayed in a graph on the laptop computer.

[altenbach]

"... so this looks like a good place."

The feedback forums is probably the only place that is completely not suitable for technical discussions such as this. It is only for issues with the forums (posting, attaching, features, etc.)

Your question involves hardware (for acquisition) and software (for the graphs), so it's a bit mixed. What are the raw signals from your sensors (voltage, pulses, etc.).

Maybe you want to start in the LabVIEW forum.

Since this is a hobby application, maybe our social forum the breakpoint might work too but I am not sure about that.

[Ragewizard]

OK fair enough.  It just seemed that the labview forum was just about software, and I really didn't know what breakpoint really meant.  I was looking through some of the threads and the technicals in some of them are right down to the nats.  I wasn't looking for anything too technical yet, I was just looking for some direction on my problem so that I can read and learn in a more focused manner for the time being. If it is feedback you would like in this forum, how about this.  With all of the subcatergories for this entire forum, another one labeled Concept Evaluation would probably help with people like myself who just want to jump in and get started with a new system.  It seems like everything here is broken down into several subsets, and I fear that when that occurs, the best solution may not be achieved.

As for your question, I'm by no means even qualified to answer with any technical knowledge, but I believe that the load cell for force measurements and the thermocoupler for the temperature measurements would be a voltage measurement, and the RPM would be a digital pulse measurement. 

Thanks for your reply, and I will now try the same thing in the breakpoint forum.

[RavensFan]

No.

You don't want breakpoint either.  That is a social forum for off topics that aren't hardware or software related.  Like if you want to congratulate someone for reaching a milestone number of posts, having a baby, posting a LabVIEW joke.

As Altenbach said, start in the LabVIEW forum.  It is the most popular and seems to catch the most eyes even for subjects that aren't strictly LabVIEW.

[Ragewizard]

I guess Labview is the software that drives all of the goodies around here, so I will try there.  Of course I just read this after I posted in the breakpoint area.  It is easy to tell that I am starting off on the right foot here, I can't even get to the proper place to start.

[smercurio_fc]

Don't worry, nobody is looking down at you. We're just trying to help you post it in a place that will get the most exposure. I was going to reply to the one in the Breakpoint area, but then saw this one, and sinc eyou said you're going to post in the LabVIEW forum, I'll wait until you do that.