National Instruments CompactDAQ modular data acquisition system

The ethernet-based NI CompactDAQ modular data acquisition system is designed to combine the ease of use and low cost of a data logger with the performance and flexibility of modular instrumentation. The NI cDAQ-9188 chassis is designed to hold eight I/O modules for measuring up to 256 channels of electrical, physical, mechanical or acoustic signals in a small (25 x 9 x 9 cm), rugged form factor. With more than 50 different hot-swappable I/O modules to choose from, engineers and scientists can build high-speed measurement systems using standard gigabit ethernet infrastructure. In addition, NI CompactDAQ offers simplified initial set-up with zero configuration networking technology and a built-in, web-based configuration and monitoring utility.

NI CompactDAQ uses NI Signal Streaming technology to deliver high-bandwidth data over ethernet to a host computer by providing the ability to maintain bidirectional analog and digital waveforms continuously over a TCP/IP connection. With NI-STC3 timing and synchronisation technology, each chassis can also manage up to seven separate hardware-timed I/O tasks at different sample rates, including analog I/O, digital I/O and counter/timer operations. The chassis operate in a temperature range of -20 to 55°C and can withstand up to 30 g shock and 3 g vibration.

The included NI-DAQmx driver software allows engineers and scientists to log data for simple experiments or develop a test system in NI LabVIEW, NI LabWindows/CVI, ANSI C/C++ or Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. A consistent API means that an application developed for an NI CompactDAQ USB chassis will work with an NI CompactDAQ Ethernet chassis without any changes to software.