The development of an inexpensive, portable, versatile, microprocessor based data acquisition system
Abstract
An inexpensive, portable, versatile, microprocessor based data acquisition
system is presented. The design and development of the system
hardware and software is described. The system is software intensive
consisting of 2 Kbytes of monitor program and 1 Kbyte of application
programs. It is configured to operate on a Z-80 microprocessor running
at 2 MHz. It is programmed using a microcomputer through a serial port
to meet specific requirements of data to be acquired which include
calibrating specific input devices. A maximum of 16 analog signals in
the range ojO-5 Volts can be simultaneously monitored by this system.
Data is logged in the system in two modes. In the normal mode it
acquires data at a maximum rate of 1 reading in 2 microseconds.
Whereas in the interrupt mode with the real.time dock it takes 1 reading
in 10 milliseconds. The main board storage capacity is 5 Kbytes but it
has an additional capacity of 40 Kbytes 8H the RAM expansion card.