Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Data Acquisition, Part One — Analog Inputs

This is the first of a three part series designed to introduce the key aspects of computer-based data acquisition and control to new users. It should also serve as a useful review or reference document for existing DAQ customers. The presentation is provided in three parts. Part 1 – Analog Inputs, covers the myriad of topics related to making measurements with a computer. Part 2 – Analog Outputs and Digital I/O, provides a discussion of analog output technology and topics related to digital I/O such as counter/timer. The third installment in the series is titled, Part 3 – Special DAQ functions, and covers such topics as communications interfaces (e.g., CAN-bus or ARINC-429) and special transducer interfaces (e.g., Synchro/ resolvers and quadrature encoders).