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Data acquisition is the sampling of the real world to generate data that can be manipulated by a computer. Sometimes abbreviated DAQ or DAS, data acquisition typically involves acquisition of signals and waveforms and processing the signals to obtain desired information. The components of data acquisition systems include appropriate sensors that convert any measurement parameter to an electrical signal, which is acquired by data acquisition hardware.

Acquired data is displayed, analyzed, and stored on a computer, either using vendor supplied software, or custom displays and control can be developed using various text-based programming languages such as BASIC, C, Fortran, Java, Lisp, Pascal. EPICS is used to build large scale data acquisition systems. LabVIEW offers a graphical programming environment optimized for data acquisition. MATLAB provides a programming language but also built-in graphical tools and libraries for data acquisition and analysis. Measure Foundry is also optimized for data acquisition but uses a drag-and-drop system for creating applications without programming.

Contents 1 How Data is acquired 2 History 3 See also 4 References 5 Books on Data Acquisition 6 Articles on Data Acquisition 6.1 Articles about generic data acquisition systems 6.2 Articles about how to teach a course on data acquisition 6.3 Articles about data acquisition systems for specific applications 7 External links

Data acquisition begins with the physical phenomenon or physical property of an object (under investigation) to be measured. This physical property or phenomenon could be the temperature or temperature change of a room, the intensity or intensity change of a light source, the pressure inside a chamber, the force applied to an object, or many other things. An effective data acquisition system can measure all of these different properties or phenomena.

A transducer is a device that converts a physical property or phenomenon into a corresponding measurable electrical signal, such as voltage or current. The ability of a data acquisition system to measure different phenomena depends on the transducers to convert the physical phenomena into signals measurable by the data acquisition hardware. Transducers are synonymous with sensors in DAQ systems. There are specific transducers for many different applications, such as measuring temperature, pressure, or fluid flow.

Signals may be digital (also called logic signals sometimes) or analog depending on the tranducer used.

Signal conditioning may be necessary if the signal from the transducer is not suitable for the DAQ hardware to be used. The signal may be amplified or deamplified, or may require filtering.

DAQ hardware is what usually interfaces between the signal and a PC. It could be in the form of modules that can be connected to the computer's ports (parallel, serial, USB, etc...) or cards connected to slots (PCI, ISA) in the mother board. DAQ-cards often contain multiple components (multiplexer, ADC, DAC, TTL-IO, high speed timers, RAM). These are accessible via a bus by a micro controller, which can run small programs. The controller is more flexible than a hard wired logic, yet cheaper than a CPU so that it is allright to block it with simple polling loops. For example: Waiting for a trigger, starting the ADC, looking up the time, waiting for the ADC to finish, move value to RAM, switch multiplexer, get TTL input, let DAC proceede with voltage ramp.

Driver Software that usually comes with the DAQ hardware or from other vendors, allows the operating system to recognize the DAQ hardware and programs to access the signals being read by the DAQ hardware.

Scientific Solutions^[1] invented the PC based data acquisition in 1981 with the introduction of the LabMaster, BaseBoard,DADIO,LabTender, IEEE-488 hardware and LabPac software. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}

• Signal processing
• Data Acquisition System
• Data analysis
• Input devices:
  • 3D scanner
  • Analog to digital converter
  • Time to digital converter
• Hardware:
  • NIM
  • CAMAC
  • PXI
  • VMEbus
  • VXI
  • Industrial Ethernet
  • Industrial USB
• Software:
  • Measure Foundry
  • EPICS
  • Generic Data Acquisition
  • LabVIEW
  • MATLAB
  • Comedi

• Charles D. Spencer (1990). Digital Design for Computer Data Acquisition. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37199-6. 
• B.G. Thompson & A. F. Kuckes (1989). IBM-PC in the laboratory. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-32199-9. 
• W. R. Leo: "Techniques for Nuclear and Particle Physics Experiments", Springer, 1994, ISBN 3-540-57280-5

• E. T. Subramaniam, Kusum Rani, B. P. Ajith Kumar, and R. K. Bhowmik (Sept 2006). "Ethernet based list processing controller for high speed data acquisition systems". Review of Scientific Instruments 77: 096102. DOI:10.1063/1.2338300. 

• Robson CCW, Bousselham A, Bohm C (Aug 2006). "An FPGA-based general-purpose data acquisition controller". IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 53 (4): 2092-2096. DOI:10.1109/TNS.2006.878698. 

• Xia YP (July 2004). "Serial port controls 16 independent output lines". Electronics World: 41. 

• Mason G (Nov 2002). "A handheld data acquisition system for use in an undergraduate data acquisition course". IEEE Transactions on Education 45 (4): 388 - 393. DOI:10.1109/TE.2002.804402. 

• Fullem TZ, Spencer CD (Sep 2002). "A Universal Serial Bus interface for electronics projects and instruments". American journal of physics 70 (9): 972-974. DOI:10.1119/1.1477436. 

• Spencer CD (Oct 2000). "A capable voltage logger for the PCI bus". American journal of physics 68 (10): 966-968. DOI:10.1119/1.1286854. 

• Antler M, Salin E, Wilczek-Vera G (Mar 2005). "Teaching data acquisition - An undergraduate experiment in the advanced analytical chemistry laboratory". Journal of Chemical Education 82 (3): 425-427. 

• Moriarty PJ, Gallagher BL, Mellor CJ, Baines RR (Oct 2003). "Graphical computing in the undergraduate laboratory: Teaching and interfacing with LabVIEW". American Journal of Physics 71 (10): 1062-1074. DOI:10.1119/1.1582189. 

• Hubin WN (Jan 2002). "A course in computer-based data acquisition". American Journal of Physics 70 (1): 80-85. DOI:10.1119/1.1410951. 

• J. Maps (Jul 1993). "A computer-based data acquisition laboratory for undergraduates". American Journal of Physics 61 (7): 651-655. DOI:10.1119/1.17175. 

• Carl A. Kocher (Mar 1992). "A laboratory course in computer interfacing and instrumentation". American Journal of Physics 60 (3): 246-251. DOI:10.1119/1.16903. 

• Seligmann P, Spencer CD (April 1985). "Two freshman courses which introduce digital electronics, programming, computers, and interfacing". American Journal of Physics 53 (4): 343-345. DOI:10.1119/1.14163. 

• Fanti, V. Marzeddu, R. Piredda, G. Randaccio, P. (October 2006). "A Portable Acquisition System Based on USB Standard for the Medipix2 X-Ray Detector". IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 53 (5 Part 1): 2578-2583. DOI:10.1109/TNS.2006.877153. 

• DeSerio R (April 2004). "Synchronous analog I/O for acquisition of chaotic data in periodically driven systems". American journal of physics 72 (4): 553-558. DOI:10.1119/1.1648330. 

• Ochoa OR, Kolp NF (Nov 1997). "The computer mouse as a data acquisition interface: Application to harmonic oscillators". American Journal of Physics 65 (11): 1115-1118. DOI:10.1119/1.18732. 

• Spencer CD, Paul SR (Jan 1997). "Hardware and software for a pulse height analyzer linked to a personal computer". Computers in Physics 11 (1): 101-109. DOI:10.1063/1.168598. 

• Free Research Papers Detailing Data Acquisition
• Data Acquisition in industrial and manufacturing applications
• Midas PSI GPLed DAQ software used in particle and nuclear experiments.
• COMEDI Project developing open-source drivers, tools, and libraries for data acquisition
• Data Acquisition Web
• Data acquisition articles and tutorials
• Getting Started in PC-based Data Acquisition