DAQ for registering voltages.

[jszarra]

Hi everyone,

I need some help. I want to register some voltage measurements from a sensor into a pc. The voltages are going to be taken from the output of a Deflection Bridge. What can I use to take this analog voltage to a PC? Thanks!

[jszarra]

Hi, I was looking at the NI USB 6008/6009. I saw that it has an ADC. Im thinking that it can be used for converting the voltage from the Deflection Bridge, connecting it as a Differential Input. The doubt that comes to me is, where is the output of the conversion from analog to digital? How can I take that output to a PC ? Thanks!

[GovBob]

 My first suggestion would be to call National Instruments directly and talk with them about your application. This will help ensure you get the right DAQ device for what you want to do.

 Since the NI card you were looking at has and ADC this means the voltages are digitized and would be availble for the PC. The card you refered to uses a driver called daqmx which would make the data availble to your PC. What ADE (application development environment) are you using? LabVIEW, C# etc.. If you don't have one you might consider ni's signal express. What do you want to do with this data once you have it?

Disclaimer: I don't work for NI, I just use their products.

Message Edited by GovBob on 03-22-2010 04:19 PM

[jszarra]

Hi GovBob, thanks for answering.

My application environment would be LabVIEW or Signal Express. I alredy made a vi that works with an Agilent Impedance Meter, that I use for measuring resistance from a sensor, the data is saved in an excel book and displayed on a chart. What I want to do take the signal from the sensor directly to de DAQ, and acquire it and register it in an excel table, for later processing, analisys and pattern recognition, probably with Matlab (neuronal network).At this moment Idont know if this can be achieved with LabVIEW or Signal Express.

[GovBob]

jszarra,

 I'm confident that LabVIEW can perform the tasks that you need to do. What you need to do is find the electrical characteristics of the signal/sensor that you want to measure (voltage range expected? impedence of the sensor? how fast do you need to sample it? etc.) and then pick a DAQ device that suits your needs. a great place to start is here. Once you get an overview of what might work call your local NI office..they'd be happy to help.