I need a portable daq that can measure up to 15 thermocouples that is usb

[hectorh83]

Hello, a friend of mine that has no experience with labview is asking me about what daq can he buy in order to have a portable thermocouple measuring system.  It has to be usb so he can take it along with him and his laptop and that he can connect up to 15 thermocouples.  I saw some usb based systems that are specificly for thermocuple measurement but only have 4 inputs.  Is there any usb daq that I could use for this application and do I have to additionaly cancel any unwanted noise via programming???

[RavensFan · Accepted solution]

Take a look at Measurement Computing which is a part of National Instruments.  The USB-TC has 8 channels, so 2 of those would do the job.

[Arturo_M._Gomez]

Hi, Indeed there's only a usb up to 4 channels to manage termocouples, this is the NI USB-9211A. But I can suggest you something else:

1. You can buy a SCXI chassis and the Control Module USB NI-SCXI-1600. And using a module SCXI-1102 you can handle up to 32 thermocouples. These are the links:

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/14235
http://www.ni.com/pdf/products/us/4scxisc278_ETC_196.pdf

2. Another PAC you can use is CompactDAQ along 4 modules NI 9211 (4 thermocouples each one)

http://www.ni.com/dataacquisition/compactdaq/
http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/14165

3. And one more solution, probably the cheapest. You can buy any USB M-Series DAQ card for example, NI USB-6251 with the SCB-68 terminal block. You can connect your 15 thermocouples to the analog inputs and use the cold-junction compensation built in the terminal block.

I hope you'll find useful this information.

Best regards.

[Cory_K]

I actually have one of the USB-TC's that Raven's fan was talking about.
Works great, and it is USB compatable.

It comes with its own data aquisition software, but whats the fun in that? 

[hectorh83]

Thank you very much for the info, I think we will go for the Measurement Computing Option.  It's the cheapest for what were looking for.  Thanks.