High-performance PCI board for sound and vibration applications - 21 September 2005

High-performance PCI board for sound and vibration applications
21 September 2005, Test & Measurement

National Instruments has released a 24-bit data acquisition and generation module, the NI PCI-446, which it believes marks the highest-performance dynamic signal acquisition (DSA) board on the PCI bus with a 118 dB dynamic range. The release also includes the National Instruments' LabVIEW Sound and Vibration Toolkit Version 4, with 10 new Express VIs for simplified application development.

These new products add to the comprehensive NI hardware and software tools for sound and vibration applications, including PXI, PCI and USB measurement devices and powerful analysis software.

In addition to 24-bit output channels on PCI, the PCI-4461 DSA board offers two 24-bit input channels, making it ideal for stimulus response applications such as audio and structural tests. The input-only version, the NI PCI-4462, provides four 24-bit input channels and a 118 dB dynamic range. Engineers can synchronise multiple PCI-4461 and PCI-4462 boards to attain four-input and four-output systems or six-input and two-output systems for applications such as simultaneous 5.1 speaker surround sound test or acoustic holography. Both boards also feature IEEE 1451.4 transducer electronic data sheet (TEDS) capability, which simplifies the configuration of a microphone or an accelerometer measurement.

The NI LabVIEW Sound and Vibration Toolkit 4 now has 10 new Express VIs for interactively developing applications and generating code for fractional octave analysis, frequency response, vibration and sound level and other common analyses. Engineers can customise applications such as integrated vibration level measurements, weighted sound level measurements, swept sine analysis, power spectrum analysis, limit testing and transient analysis.

Engineers can further extend their sound and vibration analysis with the upgraded LabVIEW Order Analysis Toolkit 2.1. This features an easier-to-use application programming interface and simpler graphing options, says NI. With improved resampling and Gabor techniques for online and off-line analysis capability, the toolkit is ideal for order tracking, order extraction and tachometer signal processing. Simplified visualisation capabilities include orbit, polar, bode, cascade, waterfall and shaft centre-line plots.

For more information contact NI South Africa, 0800 203 199.