Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Bare Essentials
- 2 How a Data Acquisition System Works
- 3 Important Concepts
- 4 Connecting to the Real World with Transducers
- 5 Data Manipulation
- 6 Examples
- Appendix: Suppliers of Data Acquisition/Analysis Hardware and Software and Electronic Components
- Notes
- References
- Index
2 - How a Data Acquisition System Works
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Bare Essentials
- 2 How a Data Acquisition System Works
- 3 Important Concepts
- 4 Connecting to the Real World with Transducers
- 5 Data Manipulation
- 6 Examples
- Appendix: Suppliers of Data Acquisition/Analysis Hardware and Software and Electronic Components
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
A data acquisition system for a personal computer is made up from several parts. Firstly, there will be a circuit board (often called a card) covered with electronic components. This is the heart of the system and it contains several sections of circuitry, each of which performs a specific function (analogue-to-digital conversion, sample and hold, variable gain amplification and multiplexing). There is also some circuitry to allow the computer to talk to the analogue-to-digital converter, and some optional extras such as memory.
The circuit board usually plugs into a socket inside the computer. This socket is wired into the bus, the main ‘information highway’ of the computer. Specific installation instructions come with the board but you will need to turn the computer off and open the case. The sockets are soldered directly to the main circuit board of the computer. Depending on the type of computer, there may be a single socket or a row of them, and some may already have other circuit boards plugged in to them. There may also be more than one type of socket. For example, the standard bus format used in personal computers is the PCI bus, which is the one used by peripherals such as A/D boards and network cards. The computer may also have an advanced graphic socket, which is used for high-performance video cards and has a different shape compared to the PCI sockets. Older PC format computers used the AT bus for peripherals and pre-power PC Macintoshes used the now-obsolete Nubus format. New PC format computers often retain one or two AT style sockets so that they are compatible with older equipment.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Computerized Data Acquisition and Analysis for the Life SciencesA Hands-on Guide, pp. 7 - 45Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001