9201 a second compact module has arrived

I recently bought a used NI 9201 module. That is a 8 channel 12-bit analog-to-digital module that has an aggregated sample rate of 500ksps. I will perform the functional test of the module by Wednesday but it passed the self test so I don’t worry about it. I plan to use the module for data acquisition in my spectrography project. It will sample the voltage generated by the photodiode and perform low speed sampling on other sensors such as temperature sensor (preconditioned).

Now my laboratory has a new item and I really hope I will be able to get one of the cRIO chassis on e-bay 🙂

And speaking of the current project – I have a request for verification the 500-530 nm waves transmission/reflection. This made me to look for some informations on spectrography. The first design is just a concept. I will make a spectrograph using diffraction grating and LED as a source. Using semiconductor parts that emit or detect a narrow band of spectrum can significantly simplify the equipment.

NI USB DAQ

After a long period of inactivity I have finally decided to start adding the news again. Yesterday I got a mail package with a USB-9472 Portable USB-Based High Voltage Digital Output. I bought it on ebay but it looks brand new. Anyway a short test with MAX and a multimeter shown that it is fully functional. This device can source eight lines with voltage ranging from 6V to 30V. It is perfect for my last training set-up – a S7-200 PLC. The S7-200 series has LEDs on the input and on the output lines but still the input has to be given. This is the first use for the 9472. Later on when I will be building some custom devices for the PLC it will allow for an easy testing without writing a STEP7 program by just using LabVIEW. A good idea would be to get a module that sinks so I would get full automatic test capability but due to low funds I have better ways to spend a 250EUR at the moment.

The whole device is consists:

– NI USB-9162 Hi-Speed USB Carrier

– NI 9472 8-Ch 24V Sourcing Digital Output

– NI 9932 Backshell (not shown on the picture above)

Multimeters

I am now planning to do the laboratory exercises from the Art of Electronics to verify the analog part of the book. Since I do not want to use my benchtop equipment I had to buy two new multimeters. One is the Metex M3890D and the second is a Protek 506. Briefly comparing both of them I have to say that Protek is cheaper and the plastic is better, both are capable of communicating with a PC computer but Metex has a USB port which is better suited for today computer equipment. The main difference is that Protek has True RMS measurments while 3890D does not but I accept that and bought Metex because I really got used to it and the electronics inside can survive virtually anyting. While I was studying the lab multimeters were never damaged and that is a proof of durability. And belive me we tried to break them 🙂