Data Acquisition System

Data Acquisition Systems (DAS) are

used to measure and record analog
signals.
The analog signals can be AC or DC
voltage, frequency, resistance etc.
Two types of DAS
Analog Systems Deals with
information in analog form
Digital Systems Deals with
information in digital form
Block diagram of a digital DAS is as
shown on the next slide.

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 Signal
Transducer Signal
Conditioning Multiplexer
Convertor
Equipment
.

Auxiliary
Equipment
&
System
Programmer
(Microcontroller)

Digital A/D
Recorder Convertor
Fig. Block diagram of a digital DAS
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 Transducer
It converts physical quantity into
an electrical signal which is
acceptable by the DAS.
The physical quantities are
Temperature
Pressure
Displacement
Acceleration
Velocity
Electrical quantities are
Voltage
current
Resistance
frequency

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 Signal Conditioning equipment
It is used for modifying the transduced
signal into a usable format to drive the
signal presentation stage
They may be required to do linear
process like
Amplification
Attenuation
Integration
Differentiation
Addition
Subtraction
They are also required to do nonlinear
process like
Modulation
Demodulation
Sampling
Filtering
Clipping
Squaring
Linearizing
Multiplication

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 Multiplexer
Multiplexing is the process of
sharing a single channel with more
than one input
Multiplexer accepts multiple
analog inputs and connects them
sequentially to one measuring
instrument
It is also called scanner

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 Signal Convertor
Signal convertor translate analog
signal into the form acceptable by
Analog to Digital Convertor(ADC).
Example : Amplifier

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 Analog to Digital Converter
ADC converts analog voltage to its
equivalent digital form.
The output of ADC may be fed to
digital display devices for visual
display or may be fed to digital
recorders for recording.
It may be fed to a digital computer
for data reduction and further
processing.

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 Auxiliary equipment
It contains devices for system
programming function and digital
data processing.
Some of the typical functions are
linearization and limit comparison
of signals.
These functions may be
performed by a microprocessor,
microcontroller or even a digital
computer.

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 Digital recorder
They are used for recording the
output of the system.
Different types are
punched cards
magnetic tapes
CDs
Hard Disks etc.

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