DAQ/DIO/Adapter-PCI + PCMCIA + PXI + CompactPCI + MOXA + MAGMA


	Nearly all of today's PCs and notebooks are equipped with an additional or on-board sound card. Now it can be turned into a 2 channel measurement system. FreeVIEW-Sound-PRO is free of charge for Schools and Universities ! Please contact us to get a copy ! The 32 bit sound card driver and the accompanying FreeVIEW® plus application software turns a PC or Notebook into a long-time data logger, a chart recorder, a storage oscilloscope, a spectrum analyzer and much more. The sound card driver supports popular programming languages and applications. _________________________________________________________________ User feedback - Using FreeView-Sound-Pro and Agilent VEE 7, I have now got simultaneous, two channel, 24 bit DAC and ADC at 200kS/s, which is much better than what I could achieve with any of the software applications that I have been using to date. _________________________________________________________________ FreeVIEW®-SOUND-PRO The full version called FreeVIEW®-SOUND-PRO has A/D and D/A capability (recording and playing), also simultaneously. The Microsoft® Windows 95, 98, ME, NT®, Windows® 2000 and Windows XP® are supported. The sample rate is unlimited only dependent on the technical level of the sound card or the sound system. For example sound cards with up to 192kHz sample rate per channel and 2, 4, 6 or 8 input channels and 2 output channels both with up to 24 bit resolution and up to 192kHz can be used. *FreeVIEW-Sound-PRO is free of charge for Schools and Universities !* Please contact us to get a copy ! Basic features For writing applications, the driver can be used directly with • Borland Delphi 5 and higher • Agilent VEE / HP VEE / DT VEE • Microsoft® Visual Basic® • Microsoft® Visual C++® Example programs are included in the software package. FreeVIEW plus data logger / scope recorder software, in a special version for sound cards only, is included! Highlights • 32 bit driver on top of Microsoft® Windows® multimedia API. • The driver uses an additional FIFO buffer for intermediate storage. Sampled data can be retrieved in arbitrary length. The synchronous data capture is decoupled from block-like data processing. No data gets lost! This is a significant enhancement over the double buffer principle enforced by the original multimedia interface. • Scaled data is returned in volts unit. • Simple programming interface using only a few functions open(), close(), read(), write() and ioctl(). • Full error handling. • Shares the features, the interfaces, the style and the experience of ELAN data acquisition PCMCIA Card drivers. FreeVIEW-PLUS data acquisition software, version for sound cards, is included in the FreeVIEW-SOUND-PRO package. No programming required. Immediate data capture and data analyzing capability including Fourier transformation and more of 500 other mathematic and signal analysis functions. For writing applications, the sound card driver can be used directly with Borland Delphi 5 and higher, Agilent VEE / HP VEE / DT VEE, Microsoft® Visual Basic® and Microsoft® Visual C++®. _________________________________________________________________ Sound card properties Not every measurement that can be performed using a full-featured data acquisition card can be also done by a sound card or a profi sound system. There are major differences that one should know: Sound cards limitations DC voltage measurements are not possible. Sound cards use capacitors in the signal path, so any DC level is removed. This means also that there is a lower frequency limit because of the highpass characteristic of the capacitor in line. The lower cutoff frequency is card dependent. The input impedance is low. Measurements are done using the line input. Real data acquisition cards have impedances of 1 to 10MOhm. In general sound cards have a much lower impedance, ranging from 600 Ohm to 47kOhm. One could use the microphone input for better sensitivity, but the noise floor is higher, and many cards output a voltage for microphone supply. If that input is used, a capacitor for blocking this voltage is necessary! Data acquisition cards can measure voltages with high accuracy (+/-1% or better). Furthermore they provide different measurement ranges. In contrast the sound cards recording level is set by a slider. There's no initial calibration; it must be performed by the user. The input voltage range used for sensor input is +/-10V in general. Sound cards with line input provide an input range of about +/- 400mV. The microphone input is much more sensitive. Only sensors with low voltage AC output and low output impedance are suitable! No trigger facilities. Data acquisition cards usually can wait for a so-called trigger event that starts the data capture. Common trigger events include "input voltage above or below level" or "rising edge" or "falling edge at level" detected. To some degree this limitation can be overcome by software. The calibration problem remains, so the trigger level will not be very accurate. Only two single-ended channels are available. Most data acquisition cards provide 8 or 16 channels that can be switched to single ended "unsymmetric" or differential "symmetric" inputs if signals differ in ground level. Professional audio equipment provide different inputs, for example, symmetric XLR inputs. Sound cards advantagesA clear advantage of sound cards in comparison to most data acquisition cards is that two channels are captured at the same time using two A/D converters or at least two sample and hold devices. Data acquisition cards usually use one A/D converter and a multiplexer. For that reason multiple channels are scanned one after another and not in parallel. Phase shifts can be caused, such cards are not suitable for vibration analysis or phase measurements. The ELAN AD142 PCMCIA Card are an exception because they are equipped with 2 x 14bit A/D converters that run up to 300kHz. A stereo (dual) D/A converter is present. It shares the same limitations as the inputs, nevertheless it can be used for waveform generation, closed loop applications in conjunction with the A/D converter and many other applications. *Sound cards advantages* A clear advantage of sound cards in comparison to most data acquisition cards is that two channels are captured at the same time using two A/D converters or at least two sample and hold devices. Data acquisition cards usually use one A/D converter and a multiplexer. For that reason multiple channels are scanned one after another and not in parallel. Phase shifts can be caused, such cards are not suitable for vibration analysis or phase measurements. The ELAN AD142 Card are an exception because they are equipped with 2 x 14bit A/D converters that run up to 300kHz. A stereo (dual) D/A converter is present. It shares the same limitations as the inputs, nevertheless it can be used for waveform generation, closed loop applications in conjunction with the A/D converter and many other applications. FreeVIEW®, DAQ Driver 2.7b (formerly DAQ Driver 2.7b from INES GmbH) and DAQ Driver V.3.0 are properties of HACKER-Datentechnik, Germany. FreeVIEW® is a registered trademark of HACKER-Datentechnik/Friedel Hacker, Germany.