Is it possible to acquire 16 data channels simultaneously?

[TurboLS]

I am trying to put together a system that will monitor a variety of signals and I am wondering if LabVIEW can handle it and more importantly, if it will be feasible on our LabVIEW computer system (due to limited expansion bays).  I did not see any DAQ cards with more than 3 channels, so I am a bit scared that I will have to come up with something that combines a few computer systems (which I am not looking forward to).  In any case, the signals to be monitored would be Hall effect voltages (measuring high currents) as well as 5V photodetector signals.  Any input is appreciated.  Thanks guys.

[Marni]

Hello TurboLS,

What kinds of different signals are in your application? How do you want to read in these signals? Our counter/timer boards have 8 counters, so you would need 2 of them for your setup. That will fit fine in one computer. How high are the currents that you are talking about? Most of our boards are spec'ed for 20mA maximum. Please let me know if you have any questions. Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Marni S.

[DFGray]

LabVIEW is typically not the problem with high channel count applications.  Depending upon whether or not you want to stream continuously, your data acquisition boards or the computer backplane are typically the areas where problems occur.  That said, on a typical modern PC, data rates of 50MBytes/sec and greater are usually achievable on a single computer.

Don't let the fact that you have to measure current throw you.  A simple small value resistor converts you current measurement to a voltage measurement (you will need to accurately measure its value and pay attentions to changes with temperature).  There are lots of choices for high-channel-count voltage measurement.  You may also want to consider USB devices.  They do not support as fast a streaming rate as you will get with a plug-in, but you can daisy chain quite a few of them.

In short, you can probably do what you want to do.  Post a few more specifics (data rates, number of channels, what each channel measures) and we can help you more.