Strain gauge with NI 9237

[Allen Z]

I am new to instrumentation and labview and plan to set up a simple load measurement using strain gauges.  I am going to put strain gauges on a cantilever beam and then apply vertical point load.  As the beam bends, the measured strain on the beam will give the vertical load.  From the helpful tutorials on the NI website, it seems that a basic CompactDAQ system will work for my application.

 

The components I want to have include a NI cDAQ-9172 chassis, a NI 9237 bridge module, and two strain patches for a half bridge.  We have already had the LabView.  I would like to start with the SignalExpress and then go from there.

1)  Did I miss anything essential for the system setup?

2)  How about signal conditioning?  Has it already been integrated in the chassis or bridge module?

3) Any related reading material available?

 

I appreciate for your response.

 

Allen

[Allen Z]

Anyone?  Easy for most of you, I guess.

Allen

[Jason_D]

Allen Z,

Sounds like you are well on your way! 

1)  You will need cables and/or connection terminals.  I know this may seem obvious, but it is easy to forget.  Don't forget about excitation if that applies.

2)  I am not sure what you are looking for specifically, but it does have some filtering as you can see here page 15-16.

3)  I would recommend taking a look through the 9237 User Guide and Specifications (linked above).  If you search the forums there are multiple people trying to set up 9237s and the problems they have run into.  You also might want to look into some of the example programs both posted on the web here and in the example finder to get a rough idea of how you will code this.  Finally, you will want to talk all of this through with a sales representative and confirm your purchase.  If there is anything I can do to help with that please let me know.

Message Edited by Jason_D on 10-30-2008 06:57 PM

[Allen Z]

Thank you Jason for your response.  Will check out some more examples and go from there.

Allen