Evaluation Engineering - 29

VPG Micro-Measurements strain gage patterns and StrainSmart System 9000 screens.
VPG Pacific Instruments 1,000 Channel Series 6000 signal conditioning and data acquisition system.

response needed for typical measurements, while LabVIEW can provide lower-level control over an application when
custom functionality is necessary. Our
NI-DAQmx driver also provides support
for third-party languages such as C#.NET,
Python, and MathWorks MATLAB software, with its Data Acquisition Toolbox."
Iversen, Burrows, and Bassett also identified trends that align with connected
devices and the IIoT. "There is a need for
Ethernet devices that can be distributed
and synchronized with minimal efforts,
like our time sensitive networking (TSN)
CompactDAQ chassis and FieldDAQs,"
they said. "Users are also looking for easeof-use so they can connect their hardware, test their sensor input, configure
their measurements, and log and analyze
data. FlexLogger application software delivers on that experience and provides the
ability to perform engineering analysis
with just a few clicks."
Ross Smith at RADX elaborated on
his company's product offering. "RADX
LibertyGT DAQ Solutions uniquely employ COTS hardware and RADX MSFS,
with a focus on advanced, wideband,
multichannel, synchronized DAQ applications for customers that desire to use
their instrumentation as opposed to develop applications for it," he said. "RADX
LibertyGT DAQ solutions are uniquely

scalable, high-performance, and low-cost
and support precision synchronization
that is essential for advanced sensorbased systems."
Trevor Smith at Pico Technology said
the company's dataloggers are widely
used in laboratories and in field applications. "They address diverse engineering,
scientific, and industrial applications," he
said. "Up to 20 loggers of any type can be
configured and controlled with PicoLog 6
to collect up to 160 channels of data. One
or more loggers can be reconfigured in
just a few minutes to address the specific
measurements that are needed at each
stage of a project, or to build ad hoc configurations as the need arises."
IoT devices are presenting designers
with challenges related to conserving
power and prolonging battery life, Smith
said. "Engineers need more insight about
the power consumption behavior of their
devices over time and operational life
cycles," he explained. "The Pico ADC-20
/ ADC-24 precision voltage loggers provide 20- and 24-bit resolution respectively.
Matched with a user-configurable terminal board and precision shunt resistors, the loggers can make differential or
single-ended measurements at the µV or
µA level with better than 0.1% accuracy."
In addition, he said, engineers working
on embedded systems have to pay special

attention to power consumption and thermal performance of their designs to maintain semiconductors and other devices
within their specified temperature ranges.
"Thermocouple based loggers, such as the
Pico TC-08, provide precise multipoint
measurements of package temperatures
as well as monitoring heat sink, inlet
and outlet temperatures, etc. Prototype
devices can be equipped with multiple
thermocouples to measure all the critical
points of a design. Thermocouple loggers
are particularly well suited for making
multichannel measurements in an environmental chamber during burn-in or
accelerated life cycle testing."
Smith said scientists and engineers
need to make diverse measurements in
applications ranging from life sciences
through industrial processes. "No one data-acquisition equipment manufacturer
can address all of those needs with 'out
of the box' solutions," he said.
REFERENCE

1. Nelson, Rick, "Effective test and measurement
drives wide-bandgap device applications," EEEvaluation Engineering, March 2020, p. 16.

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