Evaluation Engineering - 6

DATA ACQUISITION

products to take advantage of this change
to provide our customers with improved
performance and value."

Measurement Computing
Corporation's WebDAQ 316 InternetEnabled Thermocuple Data Logger.

SPECIAL REPORT

DATA DEMANDS
Turnkey use, portability, and real-time analysis
among customers' DAQ must-haves
By Mike Hockett, Editor-in-Chief
Consisting of sensors, data acquisition
measurement hardware, and a computer with programmable software, data
acquisition systems have taken on immense importance over the years amid the
rise of the Industrial Internet of Things and
real-time data analysis. Other factors such
as infrastructure investment, growth of
the renewable energy grid, and demand
from enterprise for strategic decisionmaking have all contributed to the need
for new innovations in data acquisition
systems (DAQs).
We at Evaluation Engineering last provided an in-depth report on trends and new
products in the data acquisition systems in
our June 2018 issue, and vendors have been
busy since. Here, suppliers including B&K
Precision, Digilent, Diversified Technical
Systems, imc DataWorks, Keysight,
Measurement Computing, Spectrum
Instrumentation, Silicon Designs, and
Yokogowa all weigh in on the trends,
challenges, customer demands, and new
solutions driving data acquisition systems
forward. Read on to see what they told us.

6

EVALUATION ENGINEERING JUNE 2019

What's trending?
What market movers have vendors of data
acquisition systems been observing as of
late?
Yusuf Chitalwala, test & measurement
marketing manager at Yokogawa: "This
is still a strong and competitive market.
The trend to note is that more and more
design and development engineers need
faster data capture rates and real-time
analysis. There is a growing need to combine multiple different types of measurements and real-time analysis under one
measurement system. Real-time analysis is the key. With the electrification of
transportation and the increased emphasis on energy conversion, there has been a
shift in the types of measurement needs."
Jamie Pederson, product marketing manager for B&K Precision: "As the price of
DAQs continues to fall, we envision a
point where the design will have a dedicated DAQ per channel. In preparation
for this, B&K Precision is developing new

Peter Anderson, general manager of
Measurement Computing Corporation:
"The driving trend in the last 1-2 years is
the desire to take measurements closer
to the DUT for the following reasons:
lower wiring costs, less susceptibility
to noise, and the ability to control the
system locally. In the IoT lexicon, this
is referred to as "edge computing." MCC
is responding to this request by providing web-based solutions and supporting
low-cost Linux computers and controllers like Arduino and Raspberry Pi and
popular Linux programming environments like Python. Low-cost computers and controllers are an efficient and
lightweight method to create measurement nodes close to the DUT."
Steve Johnson, president of Digilent:
"Wireless data acquisition is trending,
opening up a wide range of new applications in remote and continuous monitoring. When coupled with open, webcompatible software interfaces, these
devices make it simple and inexpensive
to harness IoT software platforms to
bring measurements and useful information to web pages and mobile devices."
Andrew Jesudowich, sales & operations manager at imc DataWorks:
"Digitization, the Internet of Things,
remote monitoring of data, controlling of a vehicle or its buses remotely,
automatic data transfer and ultimately
analysis, and networking of platforms
using standard digital vehicle bus protocols combined with connectivity to
the cloud. IoT and distributed system
topologies are driving the trend toward
more autonomous operation of the measurement and control system."
Oliver Rovini, technical director at
Spectrum Instrumentation: "We've seen
mainly two trends in the last year: a demand for higher dynamic range at high
signal rates like 16-bit resolution; and an
increasing demand for high continuous
data throughput and high computing."
Evaluation Engineering

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Evaluation Engineering
