National Instruments introduces its smallest, most portable measurement device

Citation

(2005), "National Instruments introduces its smallest, most portable measurement device", Sensor Review, Vol. 25 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2005.08725cad.003

National Instruments introduces its smallest, most portable measurement device

National Instruments introduces its smallest, most portable measurement device

Keywords: Data collection, Measurement

Engineers and scientists can now turn standard PDAs into customised, portable measurement tools with the new National Instruments CompactFlash data acquisition (DAQ) device. The NI CF- 6004 device – which is slightly larger than a standard passport photo – plugs into any PDA with a CompactFlash slot to create a handheld instrument with the processing and wireless communication capabilities of the latest PDA devices (Plate 3).

Plate 3 National Instruments CF-6004 data acquisition device

The NI CF-6004 is a 14-bit multifunction data acquisition device that plugs directly into a PDA CompactFlash slot to provide up to 200KS/s single-channel sampling on four analogue input channels in a handheld form factor. It also offers four lines of digital I/O for controlling and measuring LVTTL or LVCMOS signals. Engineers can use the NI Lab VIEW graphical programming environment for Pocket PC to acquire, analyse and view the data on their PDAs.

“The small size of the CompactFlash DAQ device opens up many new portable data acquisition and monitoring applications”, said Tim Dehne, NI Senior Vice President of Research and Development. “The concept of virtual instrumentation – where customers define their own instruments through graphical programming and modular hardware components – is moving to smaller and smaller form factors, making data acquisition even more convenient and portable”.

The flexibility and mobility of the NI CF-6004 makes it ideal for applications such as wearable computing, field monitoring and field diagnostics, as well as in laboratory and educational settings. Compared to buying several traditional, handheld instruments, engineers can save valuable space by using a single PDA with Lab VIEW and the NI CF- 6004 DAQ device. Because engineers can define their own unique instruments in Lab VIEW and then easily deploy them to their handheld devices, they can also change and redeploy these applications to repurpose their PDAs for new measurements. In addition, because PDAs are typically less expensive than laptops, PDA-based data acquisition is a cost-effective option for handheld, portable instruments.

National Instruments DAQ

By integrating commercial PC-based technologies and investing in innovative research and development, NI continues to lower the cost of measurement and control while improving system performance, accuracy and reliability. NI recently announced the new M Series, the next generation of data acquisition hardware, capable of taking measurements with up to 18-bit accuracy and at speeds of up to 1.25MS/s. Readers can learn more about all of National Instruments DAQ offerings at www.ni.com/dataacquisition