Evaluation Engineering - 20

DATA ACQUISITION

Sponsored by

B&K Precision DAS1700 high-speed
data-acquisition system.

SPECIAL REPORT

DAQ VENDORS
COMBINE FAST
SAMPLING, WIDE
INPUT RANGES,
EASE OF USE
By Rick Nelson, Contributing Technical Editor

Vendors of data-acquisition systems
are addressing increasingly complex
customer applications by introducing
systems that offer fast acquisition rates
as well as wide input ranges across multiple channels. In addition, they are offering a choice of resolution, data-analysis,
and storage options. Applications extend
from low-voltage IoT and IIoT sensors to
SIGINT and electronic warfare.

EVALUATION ENGINEERING MAY/JUNE 2020

Specific products extend from portable
data recorders and loggers to open-architecture COTS FPGA board-level products.
Many companies are augmenting their DAQ
systems with ease-of-use features such as
touchscreens and intuitive software.

Products/features
"As customer applications become increasingly complex, DAQ systems must

keep up," said Jamie Pederson,
product marketing manager at
B&K Precision. "This means faster
sampling rates to capture transients,
lower voltage ranges for small sensor signals, and higher voltages for
measuring higher power systems."
But the variety of manufacturers in the market, each offering
multiple solutions, can present
challenges. "It can be confusing
for customers when trying to
determine which product meets
their needs," Pederson said.
"B&K has addressed this by clearly
defining each product and providing
tools that help the end user select the best
recorder for their application."
Pederson identified a trend in the
data-acquisition industry toward touch
displays, wider input voltage ranges,
and increased integration of measurements, calculation, and analysis. "All of
our instruments feature an easy-to-use
touch interface for menu navigation and
on-screen data analysis," he said. "We've
also included the ability to write custom
functions with an intuitive script editor
for creating math functions applicable
to multiple channels. Our wide range
of input voltage ranges, combined with
fast sampling rate and deep memory, help
capture events that are often missed by
other recorders."
Pederson said B&K Precision offers a
full line of data-acquisition recorders and
loggers with large touch displays and batteries for portability and power-loss backup. "Our DAS220-BAT and DAS240-BAT
both feature a 1-ms sampling interval, 16bit resolution, 100-V maximum input, and
up to 15 hours of battery life," he said.
"The DAS220-BAT has 10 built-in channels for maximum portability, whereas
the DAS240-BAT is expandable from 20
to 200 channels."
Pederson described the company's
DAS30/50/60 as high-speed multifunction recorders with a sample interval of
1 µs in memory mode, an input rage of ±5
mv to ±500 V, 64 GB of solid-state memory, and 9.5 hours of battery life. "Users can

http://www.bkprecision.com

Evaluation Engineering

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