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Data Acquisition Systems 101

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Engineers and testing professionals use data acquisition systems to enable smart decisions. The data retrieved through DAQ systems empower users to identify points of failure, optimize performance, and create efficiencies in products and processes.

When it comes to measuring force, the accuracy and reliability of the sensor is a critical component to receiving quality data. The data acquired from measurement devices, including load cells, torque transducers, and other types of force sensors, is valuable for product development, research, and robust testing to ensure performance and durability of all types of innovations. Ultimately, utilizing precision-based data provides enhanced control and response for all types of applications and use cases. Interface provides a wide range of data acquisition instrumentation that is easily paired with our force measurement products.

By definition, a data acquisition system is a collection of components used to acquire data via analog signals and converting them to digital form for storage, research, and analysis. Data acquisition systems, also called DAQ systems, typically are made up of sensors, signal conditioners, converters, plus computer hardware and software for logging and analysis. Interface experts are available to help pair the transducers with the right instrumentation.

The data acquired through the measurement device is only useful if it is logged for analysis and traceability. This is where instrumentation, in particular DAQ systems come into play, in not only transferring data, but also obtaining the right type of data in a format and data transfer method that works with existing user systems.

Data acquisition that utilizes analog output has long been the standard in the industry. As new requirements for use cases and applications grow, test and measurement professionals and engineers find these systems advantageous because of the lower cost, easy integration, and scalability. They also like the advantage of daisy-chaining multiple sensors together on a single cable run to maximize the amount of data through single tests. More data improves the quality of analysis and monitoring.

Advancements in sensor technologies coincide with growing demands for digitalization and to gather more testing data. This is seen using multi-axis sensors, along with requirements for multi-channel acquisition that can integrate into existing systems already designed with specific digital connections and protocols.

In addition to improving speed of data output, acquisition systems offer an abundance of value-added benefits. This is primarily due to the digital signal, as they are less susceptible to noise and are more secure. The systems also typically have built in error detection. Digital signals are best for transmitting signals across longer distances or when you need to allow for simultaneous multi-directional transmissions. Many people like the ease of integration, both into existing networks as well as with other testing devices.

Data acquisition systems and accessories come in many shapes and sizes, wired and wireless and there are also a handful of different software options in different systems. All these various products such as digital instruments, input and output modules, cables, monitors, and accessories. Interface offers a range of DAQ products, including full systems including the sensors.

Interface Complete Data Acquisition Systems

BlueDAQ Data QA Pack

Force sensors can easily connect via the BlueDAQ Family Data AQ Pack for fast and accurate data acquisition. This solution provides a convenient way to view the test results from transducers including single axis, dual axis, 3-axis, and 6-axis multi-axis sensors. Check out our BX8-HD44 BlueDAQ Series Data Acquisition System for Multi-Axis Sensors with Lab Enclosure.

T-USB-VS Rotary Torque Transducer Data AQ Pack

Connecting dynamic torque transducers to the T-USB Rotary Torque Transducer Data Acquisition Pack will provide you with convenient way to view the test results for your torque transducers that have internal USB functionality.

WTS Wireless Data AQ Pack

Utilizing the popular WTS Wireless Data Acquisition Pack provides convenient wireless communication with speeds up to 200 samples per second. Learn more in our Interface Wireless Telemetry System Review. See the complete line Interface WTS here.

DIG-USB PC Interface Module Data AQ Pack

Interface’s DIG-USB Data Acquisition Pack enables a straightforward way to view the test results our load cells or torque transducers. Check out the popular DIG-USB Output Module and the DIG-USB-F Fast USB Output Module.

9325 Portable Display Data AQ Pack

Interface’s 9325 Data Acquisition Pack makes your system portable. The 9325 allows simple display of strain bridge based measurements such as load cells, torque transducers, and other mV/V output transducers with sensitivity up to +/-1 V/V.

INF-USB-VS3 PC Interface Module Data AQ Pack

Our INF-USB-VS3 Data Acquisition Pack connects Interface mV/V load cells or torque transducers to provide real-time data analysis.  Here is more information about the INF-USB3 Universal Serial Bus Single Channel PC Interface Module.

Interface Data Acquisition Systems are modular. We offer the complete system, including enclosures, along with single components to complete a system. Consult with our application engineers to learn what system would be best for your test and measurement programs.

Data AQ Pack Brochure

 

 

 

Digital Instrumentation 101

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Digital instrumentation used for test and measurement provides faster data input and output, and more robust analytics. Interface offers several types of digital instrumentation devices that transform load cell and strain bridge input into digital data output in numerous protocols and bus formats.

Instrumentation that utilizes analog output has long been the standard in the industry. As new requirements for use cases and applications grow, test and measurement engineers and professionals find digital instrumentation advantageous because of the lower cost, easy integration and scalability. They also like the advantage of daisy-chaining multiple sensors together on a single cable run.

Advancements in sensor technologies coincide with growing demands to gather more testing data. This is seen through the use of multi-axis sensors, along with requirements for multi-channel instrumentation that can integrate into existing systems already designed with specific digital connections and protocols, as highlighted in using Interfaces BX8 with our 6-Axis sensors. Change is also coming with a strong desire to utilize instrumentation that can easily work within cable free environments or in remote locations.

In addition to improving speed of data output, digital instrumentation offers an abundance of benefits. This is primarily due to the digital signal, as they are less susceptible to noise and are more secure. Digital instrumentation typically has built in error detection. Digital signals are best for transmitting signals across longer distances or when you need to allow for simultaneous multi-directional transmissions. Many people like the ease of integration, both into existing networks as well as with other testing devices.

Types of Interface Digital Instrumentation

  • Indicators and Bidirectional Indicators
  • Portable and Programmable Indicators
  • Battery Powered Indicators and Bidirectional Indicators
  • Single and Multi-Channel Transmitters
  • Controllers and Programmable Controllers
  • USB Output Modules
  • PC Interface Modules
  • Sensor to USB Output Converters
  • Data Acquisition Systems
  • Wireless Instrumentation

Connection options available for Interface Digital Instrumentation include, RS232, RS485, RS422, Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth, and Ethernet Protocols. The types of data output protocols available include ASCII, Modbus, CANopen, DeviceNet, Profibus DP Modbus/TCP, Ethernet TCP/IP, Ethernet/IP, EtherCAT and several others. See the complete list of connections and protocols in our Digital Instrumentation Overview.

Top selling digital instrumentation models from Interface, with many available in various protocols:

Do you have questions about the type of instrumentation that will support your application?  You can see more of the solutions by visiting our instrumentation selection guide.  Here are six questions begin evaluating your instrumentation options:

  • Where are you going to connect your sensor technology and how?
  • Do you need to store your data?
  • Do you prefer an analog or digital output device?
  • Are you going to plug-in your instrumentation or use hand-held, wireless or Bluetooth connectivity?
  • How will your data output be displayed?
  • How many channels do you need for your project or program?

For additional help with instrumentation, please contact our application engineers.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Digital Instrumentation for Force Measurement

Ultimate BlueDAQ Software Guide for Interface Instrumentation

Interface Instrumentation Definitions

Instrumentation Selection Guide

Advancements in Instrumentation Webinar

Interface Instructional on Instrumentation Event

Instrumentation

Interface Instrumentation Definitions

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The new Interface Instrumentation Selection Guide is a great way to get started in choosing the right instrumentation for your next project or lab. To serve as additional resources, here are key instrumentation definitions that can also help you make the best decision regarding the type and model of instrumentation that will work best with your sensor.

Instrumentation Selection Guide Definitions

Excitation
A Wheatstone bridge-based sensor, such as a load cell, requires excitation voltage to operate. The excitation voltage is typically 10V; however, many instruments supply lower voltage, an 2.5V, 5V, and others. Since these sensors are ratiometric, Interface instrumentation devices are designed to pair with these types of sensor products.

Signals
The output signal from a load cell is expressed in terms of mV output per V of excitation, at capacity. For example, a 100 lb capacity load cell rated for 2 mV/V output will have 20mV output at 100 lb, when excited with 10V. Because the output signal is directly affected by input voltage, it’s important to maintain a stable excitation voltage, which our instrumentation does.

Signal Conditioners
A signal condition provides stable excitation voltage to the sensor and amplifies the low-level sensor signal to a high-level output such as +/-5V, +/-10V, 0-20mA, 4-20mA, 0-5V, or 0-10V.
Many of our products include filtering, which can help reduce noise in the output signal.

Data Acquisition Systems
A complete data acquisition system consists of DAQ hardware, sensors and actuators, signal conditioning hardware, and a computer running DAQ software. Interface provides DAQ instrumentation that are ideal for completing a sensor-based system. Many data acquisition systems require high-level inputs such as +/-10V and don’t work very well with low level mV signals. Interface instrumentation solutions do work well with DAQ systems. The DAQ doesn’t necessarily supply a stable excitation voltage like the Interface sensors do.

Interface Modules
An interface module converts the low-level mV/V sensor signal to a digital format that can be transmitted to a computer, (PC or laptop). Popular interface modules provide USB, wireless USB, or Bluetooth data transmission. Software is normally provided and allows data display, logging and graphing. The interface modules are commonly used when data needs to be logged to computer and you are not using an existing data acquisition system. The interface module advantages over standard data acquisition is ease of use and they are normally plug-n-play. Considerations when selecting this type of instrumentation include bit resolution, number of channels, sample rate, software features and type of output.

Indicators
Interface indicators provide stable excitation voltage and converts the sensor signal to a digital display. Commonly available features include analog or digital output, selectable digital filtering, peak and valley monitoring and set point outputs. Things to consider when selecting an indicator are internal sample rate and update rate of analog output.

Wireless Telemetry System (WTS)
Wireless is very popular today. Interface’s Wireless Telemetry System is easy-to-use providing wireless data communication between a load sensor and a receiving indicator. The WTS is capable of receiving multiple inputs and is fully compatible will all Interface force sensors. The WTS comes calibrated, tested and ready-to-run. The charge lasts up to three months using AA batteries.  You can see the complete WTS and Bluetooth Telemetry System comparison here.

When selecting the type of instrumentation you need to pair with your measurement device, some additional things to consider are power supply requirements, amount of filtering, fixed or adjustable filtering, input range, scalability and zero adjustment range. Our instrumentation can accommodate these requirements. To get started on picking the instrumentation solution that fits your requirements, go to the Interface Instrumentation Selection Guide.

We’ve provided a quick visual reference of Interface’s instrumentation types and correlating models.

All Interface Instrumentation product details are listed by product model name. You can find product specifications, as well supporting datasheet for each product by going here.

 

Additional Resources

Instrumentation Analog Versus Digital Outputs

Introducing New Interface Instrumentation Selection Guide

Advancements in Instrumentation Webinar Recap

Recap of Inventive Multi-Axis and Instrumentation Webinar

Recap of Instructional on Instrumentation Webinar

Digital Instrumentation Brochure

Instrumentation Brochure

 

Interface Sensors Used for Development and Testing of Surgical Robotics

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Electro-mechanical and software advancements in the medical device and healthcare industry have made all kinds of surgical robotics a reality. Manufacturers and design engineers of these robots come to Interface during the stages of research and development, product engineering and refinement, and testing to perfect surgical use cases. The sensor technologies we provide are preferred in these processes and in final integration due to the fact these devices are highly regulated and require the utmost in accuracy and reliability.

The types of surgeries currently being performed with robotics include what were once considered invasive and a higher risk of failure such as coronary bypass, removing cancer tissue, transplants, laser incisions, and more. With surgical robotics, the medical professionals rely on precision to perform these surgeries with as minimal invasion as possible.

The product development process for surgical robotics is extremely meticulous and requires a wide variety of tests to confirm the accuracy of the product. One of the key components to testing in this field is force measurement. As you can imagine, force plays a massive role in surgical robotics. Every action performed needs to be forced tested to ensure that whatever the surgical task, the robot is doing it with precision.

For surgical robotics, minute forces need to be measured because they are working with highly fragile subjects within a human body. To measure these tiny forces, Interface offers a variety of Interface Mini™ Solutions.  Interface Mini Load Cells are used for light touch, light weight, or for less space. Our miniature load cells provide exceedingly accurate measurements similar to our full-size load cells with proprietary alloy strain gages. They are used in R&D, test and for OEM use in robot components.

All our miniature beam load cells, load cell load buttons, load washer, miniature tension force load cells, S-type load cells, and sealed stainless steel load cells are commonly used based on their capacity and designs.  A variety of our load cells can be used in an off-the-shelf application. Our engineers can also work with you to design custom load cells to fit your exact needs, which is common in robotics.

Interface recently developed an application note to outline how force measurement can be used in testing force feedback using a combination of load cells, torque transducer and data acquisition device on a robotic surgical device.

Robotic Surgery Force Feedback

A biomechanical medical company wanted to test the force, torque, and tactile feedback from their robotic arm for invasive surgery. The surgeon’s movements are mirrored by the robotic arm during surgery, and it was essential all haptic force feedback is measured to ensure safety during invasive surgery. A number of Interface’s force and torque measurement products were suggested for this robotic arm. These includes our load button, S-types, Mini overload protected torque transducers and DAQ instrumentation.  Included below are the roles of each device:

Each one of Interface’s load cells or torque transducers played a part in the ensuring the safety and functionality of robotic arms during invasive surgery. The force feedback that was measured from the robotic arm ensured that the robot used the perfect amount of force when using surgical tools that create incisions during surgeries. It also measured the torque being produced, ensuring the robot arm was moving smoothly and at the right speeds. Read the application note for this surgical robot here.

This is just one example of Interface’s work in robotics, and surgical robotics specifically. There are a growing number of devices used in special, precision surgeries that utilize force to perform its task.

Additional Resources Related to Medical, Healthcare and Robotics

Spotlighting Medical Device and Healthcare Solutions

Medical and Healthcare Brochure

OEM: Medical Bag Weighing

Force Solutions for Medical Tablet Forming Machines

Interface OEM Solutions Process

6-Axis Force Plate Robotic Arm App Note

Force Measurement Solutions for Advanced Manufacturing Robotics

Instrumentation Analog Versus Digital Outputs

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Interface sells a wide variety of instruments designed to help take data measured on a load cell or torque transducer and convert it into a readable form. Within this expanding family of instrumentation offered by Interface, there are two types of output methods available: analog or digital.

By far, analog output for test and measurement instrumentation has been the most popular. Analog output is measurement represented in a continuous stream. Technologies have advanced a growing demand for more advanced data capture. Digital instrumentation uses digits as the output, providing greater measurement accuracy and digital resolution.

Understanding which output is best for your project is important in getting the right communication capabilities to use with the designated sensor components. It’s an important consideration whether you are designing a new testing system or working with an existing program and looking to add new instrumentation.  You can gain further insights by watching our Instructional on Instrumentation webinar here.

Here is a brief explanation on the difference between analog and digital instrumentation, along with advantages of each.

Benefits of Digital

Digital outputs are becoming more and more popular for several reasons. The first is that they often incur lower installation costs than their analog counterpart. Digital also works across existing networks. For instance, if you have ethernet IP you can interface directly into it as opposed to running analog signals.

Digital outputs are also far more scalable than analog because a lot of the time you can replace sensors without causing a disruption. Multiple sensors can also be daisy chained into a single cable run, meaning the user can piggyback into an existing network rather than running cables back to a controller. This is one reasons the installation cost is often lower.

There are also built-in error detections with digital outputs to detect things like open legs and bridges. And if you’re digitizing at the sensor, the system is less susceptible to noise because digital signals are natural noise immune.

Benefits of Analog

With all the benefits of digital, why would someone still choose the older output method of analog? Analog signals are still faster than digital and are much easier to work with. Additionally, analog systems take up far less bandwidth than digital. Therefore, if you’re in an area with low-bandwidth, digital output solutions may slow the network down, while analog will not.

It is important to note that many DAQs and PLCs accept analog signals, so if the user wants to stay with what they already have in house, analog may be the better option.

Choosing Analog or Digital

When deciding between analog and digital instrumentation output capabilities, it’s important to consider the following questions as well:

  • Are you connecting to an existing network? For instance, if its CAN bus, you may want to use CAN bus sensors. But, if it’s pure analog, you’re not going to want to convert everything over to digital unless there are other factors driving this move?
  • Are you connecting to an existing DAQ device? If your system has available analog input channels, you may be fine with analog output. If it doesn’t, you may have to add extra channels. Or say the system has an EtherCAT connection, you can use the same DAQ without adding channels by interfacing with it digitally.
  • What is your budget? If your network already has a lot of analog systems, the cost of staying with analog may be worth it. If you must add channels to your DAQ, but you have digital interfaces available, that may allow for cost savings based on how many channels and sensors you need.
  • How many sensors are you connecting? If you have a lot of sensors, the obvious answer is digital because of the flexibility it provides, and the limited cable runs needed. But if you don’t need many sensors, analog could make more sense.

There are several considerations to make when choosing digital versus analog.  You can learn more about which options suit your project requirements by reviewing the online specs of our range of instrumentation solutions.

There is also considerable detail in the many options available in our Instrumentation Overview here.

Additional Instrumentation InterfaceIQ Posts

Instrumentation Options in Test and Measurement

Instrumentation Application Notes

Force Measurement Instrumentation 101

Digital Instrumentation for Force Measurement