Low-cost Standalone DAQ for Labview?

[Andy_Swain]

As a novice Labview user, I've been tasked with sourcing a low-cost standalone DAQ board, to time pulses on around 12 TTL signal lines. I need to put the board (running a Labview VI) in a box, connected to the signal sources, and able to pass the timing results back to a PC.

Everything I've found, so far, is a single board PC, and is much too expensive.

Suggestions anyone?

[smercurio_fc]

Before suggesting something, you will need to define what frequency you're at and what is considered "too expensive". Also, do you need channel-to-channel isolation?

You may want to consider moving this thread to the Digital I/O board.

Message Edited by smercurio_fc on 10-25-2007 09:11 AM

[PhillipBrooks]

Do you have to have the VI running in the box  itself? If so, there is no easy, inexpensive solution.

Consider using a low cost USB DAQ device connected via USB instead...

http://www.hytekautomation.com/Products/IUSBDAQ.html
http://www.labjack.com/labjack_u3.php?prodId=25
http://www.measurementcomputing.com/
https://www.ni.com/en-us/support/model.usb-6008.html

Message Edited by Phillip Brooks on 10-25-2007 10:16 AM

[Andy_Swain]

Thanks for the comments folks.

The brief I've been given is for a standalone box to test the action of relay contacts; i.e. plug a relay in, trigger a preconfigured test, and offload the activation timings, (around 10-15mS, as accurate as possible), to an unspecified PC. A circuit has already been suggested by the relay manufacturers to give TTL pulses to measure.

Our people have used Labview on other jobs, so it was suggested that I should find "an intelligent timer-counter board", (loaded with a tailored Labview VI),  that I could put in a box, to run standalone.

The hardware budget around £300.

A PLC concept has been suggested, but although the price is good, I'm concerned about performance.

I suspect that I've been given an 'awkward' task...

Andy.

[DanBrowne]

Hi Andy,

Unfortunately, for your budget of £300, there is no possibility of being able to have a one-box, standalone solution for your counter/timer application. What you would need is a Real Time setup or similar, and these are all, considerably out of your budget range.

Regards,

Dan

[LabViewGuruWannabe]

Howdy,

Are you still working on this? I specialize in hardware and software control, and one possible solution would be a stand-alone embedded controller with timer/counters and serial or ethernet output. This embedded controller would actually be programmed in C/C++, but to download and view your data you would use a LabVIEW program running on any machine. The parts required would be in your price range, if you can do the programming. PLCs may also be an alternative, if size is not an issue, as they are very robust and have serial or ethernet output as well.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[Andy_Swain]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

Much appreciated.

It looks like I've a challenge ahead of me.

Regards,