Compact, portable data acquisition for the universal serial bus (USB),
which is built into all new PCs, has been made that much easier thanks to
a new black box from Adept Scientific. IOtech's DataShutle/USB allows
users to monitor thermocouples, pressure sensors and most other types of
transducers, a single USB cable providing both communications and power
to the unit.
The device features a high resolution 22-bit integrating A/D converter
for low noise, plus built-in cold junction compensation for direct
thermocouple measurement. Calibration is digital, so no potentiometers or
other form of analogue adjustment is required to get the system up and
running. The system can be expanded with additional snap-on modules
providing up to 80 channels of analogue and digital I/O. Additionally, up
to 100 DataShuttle/USBs can be connected to a single PC via USB hubs, to
provide 8,000 channels. DaqView software, providing spreadsheet style
channel configuration, real time indicators and charts and data logging
to disk, is available free of charge with each unit.