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Old 09-24-2011, 10:57 AM
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Stretch Stretch is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Somewhere in the Netherlands
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lutzTD View Post
we use Agilent 34970A data collection systems with 20 channel Agilent 34901A multiplexer cards at work, I will have to check the available cards as the ones we use are for thermocouples, they only have two fused voltage channels. I assume it could use different cards for only voltage. It uses 20 channel plug in cards with 3 card slots. I imagine you could get one of these on feebay but I wouldnt know how to go about trusting it was still working. The software we have is for XP but I also assume that could be updated, maybe not. Anyway, they seem reliable as we have done countless DOEs on the two we have with no issues over the 7 years Ive been there.
Thanks for the tip.

That's pretty expensive stuff as it comes with calibration certificates etc - truly professional stuff. I'm wondering if there are some good cheaper brand new options out there (blowing the budget on second hand stuff - particularly electronics - goes against the grain!)...

Google often comes up with results that show these fantastic cards / chips that cost from say about $100 upwards but they seem to be bits of the system - rather than the complete system I want.

I don't really want to build my own - but may be I'll have to.

If I go down that route do you know of any good (low frequency stable) analogue low pass filter kits? Something that would decay at about 20dB / decade would be good - fixed cut off at about 10kHz would be fine - loads of these chips sample at 30kHz and higher all overkill for what I want to measure... (sorry this ramble means I'm not really looking for some super duper drops off the edge of the world decay rate in order to get as wide a frequency band width as possible)

Then I'd need a good "auto ranging" amplifier set up so I can minimise quantization errors...


Here's a better question:-

Does anyone know of a good electronics forum where I can ask these data acquisition questions?
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