National Instruments has introduced the company’s first data acquisition (DAQ) modules with integrated signal conditioning for scalable, high-performance measurements on PXI Express.
The new NI SC Express family delivers increased accuracy, high data throughput and synchronisation for measuring strain gauges, bridge-based transducers, thermocouples and high-voltage analog inputs. PXI Express provides 250 MBps of dedicated bandwidth for each SC Express module in the chassis, which helps engineers increase channel count without compromising sampling rates or data throughput. With a small footprint, simplified cable management and new software features for automatic synchronisation, the new modules make it easy for engineers to set up and program high-channel-count sensor measurement systems.
The NI PXIe-4330 24-bit simultaneous bridge input module offers 0,02% accuracy and 25 KSps per channel sample rate for high-performance strain, load, force and torque measurements. The bridge input module achieves high accuracy with a ratiometric design where the ADC references the excitation voltage. This approach removes the measurement’s dependence on the stability and accuracy of the excitation voltage. In addition, unique delta-sigma ADCs provide both excellent AC performance and DC accuracy, while traditional delta-sigma ADCs only offer AC performance.
The bridge input module can perform quarter, half and full bridge-based measurements with automatic synchronisation features. The included driver software ensures tight synchronisation across multiple modules and chassis with inter-channel skews as low as 5 ppb. The 8-channel bridge input module can scale to a 136-channel system in a single chassis and thousands of channels when synchronising across multiple chassis. The high accuracy, simultaneity and synchronisation features make the module suitable for high-channel-count structural test applications, such as wind tunnels, bridge monitoring and crash tests.
With the PXIe-4353 thermocouple module, engineers can measure temperatures with 0,30°C accuracy on 32 channels. The isothermal terminal block minimises error with a unique design that optimises thermal conductivity, making it possible for the nearby cold-junction compensation (CJC) thermistors to accurately measure at the thermocouple junctions. The 32-channel thermocouple module can scale to a 544-channel system in a single chassis and thousands of channels when synchronising across multiple chassis. The accuracy and scalable platform make the module well suited for precision measurements from a single channel to large systems for applications such as fuel cell testing and monitoring thermal chambers.
The PXIe-4300 high-voltage isolated analog input module is the first analog input module from National Instruments that can measure up to 300 V with simultaneous sampling. With a 16-bit ADC per channel and a 250 KSps per channel sampling rate, the module can stream 4 MBps per module and 68 MBps in a single chassis. This 8-channel analog input module can scale to a 136-channel system in a single chassis and thousands of channels when synchronising across multiple chassis. The ability to measure 300 V with CAT II channel-to-channel isolation makes the NI PXIe-4300 suitable for automotive testing, such as fuel cell and battery tests.
The new SC Express modules include NI-DAQmx driver software and support for multidevice tasks, a new feature of NI-DAQmx that helps engineers easily synchronise multiple modules. The same code that acquires data from one module can synchronise up to 17 modules in a chassis. The modules work with a variety of NI hardware including NI X series, dynamic signal acquisition (DSA) and NI SCXI products, and more than 1500 types of I/O available on the PXI platform. The new modules also integrate with NI software including LabVIEW and the LabVIEW Real-Time Module, NI-Sync and NI DIAdem.
For more information contact National Instruments, 0800 203 199, [email protected], www.ni.com/southafrica
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