Scientific data acquisition

[dmlandrum]

As I've mentioned, I'm a physics student with a strong interest in electronics and building things. One of the things I'd like to be able to do is data acquisition, which I guess could be described as the periodic recording of the readings of various sensors via A/D conversion. In my previous physics labs, we had these black boxes whose manufacturer I can't remember that were basically preamps and A/D converter boxes with a signal generator built in for good measure. They were USB, light, and seemed kinda cheaply made to me. The software wasn't all that hot, either. Still, for a college lab, they worked fine.

So I got to thinking about finding something like that for myself, maybe something more robust that can record nice and accurate signals. I came across one interesting DIY solution using a PICaxe:

http://www.mtmscientific.com/atod.html

They're using that for college radio astronomy, so I guess it works well enough for that. The way they set it up, though, you'd have to flash the chip to change the rate of collection. Then, David mentions the USB oscilloscopes in one of his videos, saying that data logging might be the one useful thing they can do, since they don't make very good oscilloscopes until you start paying thousands of dollars. I'm wondering if this might be a way to go before trying to design a custom system. Or perhaps some of you have a better idea.

Thank you very much for indulging a newbie. Have a good one!

[charliex]

I use a labjack U3 (actually the HV) for some automotive long term logging, its not bad. http://labjack.com/u3

[dmlandrum]

Well, that looks like a nice ready-made solution. Thanks for the link.

[Simon]

if your into the software side of things (unlike me) you could use a pic that connects to a pc via RS232 or better one of the usb enabled pics, the acquisition speed of a pic should do you quite well and they are 10 bit so better than the average 8 bit scope

[dexters_lab]

it's not hard to make your own kit... this is a little project i made to record 3 k-type probes, personally i prefer to have a self-contained unit to save recording to a laptop or suchlike but does limit you with record time/sample frequency.

http://www.mr2.net/article_charge_temp_monitor.html

[chemicaloliver]

Not sure if I dare suggest it but an arduino might suit, you can hook up pretty much any sensor you want and send it over serial/usb or log it to an sd card and you can also use it for 101 other things when you're not data logging.

[Simon]

well for anyone pic minded its a simple project with a pic