Signal Conditioning

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3 axis load cell configuration

I have a 3-axis load cell with connections: supply, 3 outputs, ground, operate & range. Is it possible to wire it into an SCXI module? If so, which one? How would I then separate out the x,y & z outputs in Labview?
 
 
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Could you provide some more information on this load cell (maybe a link to its datasheet) so that we can help determine what signal conditioning hardware would be necessary? The information that will be important is 1) What are the outputs (voltage, current, and min/max range) 2) Required excitation (Voltage and Current) 3) What are operate and range all about? Once we have all this information, then it should be easy to determine what sort of signal conditioning you will need.
 
Regards,
Logan
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It looks like all of the outputs are scaled to output up to +-5V, but the sensitivity is only 1mV / Newton or 5mV / Newton (depending on the range you choose). So, if you plan on using the entire range (meaning that you will have up to +-1000N of force) then you can just use a simple DAQ board and you won't need any signal conditioning. Although, if you are only going to use a fraction of the range, then applying gain to your signal to bring it up to the full +-10V range of our DAQ boards would be recommended so that you can increase your accuracy.
 
If you are only going to use a DAQ board (i.e. PCI-6254 M-series board) then you will connect up each of the three outputs of the sensor to a different input of the DAQ board. You will also need to connect two digital lines to the operate and range lines of the sensor. Finally, you will need to power the sensor, which means that you will need a voltage supply that is somewhere between 11V and 30V. The DAQ boards can't supply this much voltage, so I would recommend picking up a simple 12V or 24V supply from your local electronics store and use that to power the sensor.
 
If you need to apply gain, then I would recommend a simple SC-2345 box connected to the DAQ board with SCC-AI0x modules that can provide gain for your three signals. With a SC-2345 box, you can access the 15V power supply which you could use to power your sensors by using a SCC-FT01 feedthrough module.
 
Once you have everything connected, then acquiring the data in LabVIEW is as simple as reading all three lines of the DAQ board simultaneously and applying your own custom scale to account for the range that you have chosen for the sensor. I would recommend starting by looking at the DAQ getting started guide: https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/373737h/resource/373737h.pdf
 
Good Luck,
Logan
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