Re: Analog Input Board Recommendations

On Wed, 2 Oct 2002, Tim Holy wrote:

> Hi Calin,
>
> > By the way where do you get
> > specs on MUX settling times from NI?  I got their 'spec sheet' for some of
> > their boards, and it just seems like a glorified advertisement more than a
> > spec sheet....
>
> I've seen it elsewhere for this card specifically (can't remember where), but
> http://www.ni.com/pdf/products/us/2mhw236-238e1.pdf has the info you seek
> (see page 16).

Hahhaa.. I actually have this document, but before this spec sheet there
is a whole bunch of stuff about cabling and thusly I thought the rest of
the document was all about cabling.  Ok, cool.  I now see that the 6071E,
with its 2.0us settling time at 0.098% accuracy definitely allows for
10kHz sampling on all 64-channels.  There still is some interference, but
it is so minimal it is pretty much negligible.

>
> > What do you mean by well-buffered?  I am a programmer more than a hardware
> > guy, so to me a buffer is simply a big chunk of memory you use for data.
> > What do you mean by that word in a hardware/signalling context?
>
> To "buffer" in this context means to copy the signal in terms of its value
> (e.g. voltage), but to change other output characteristics (e.g., the
> current-sourcing capability, so you can charge up that sampling capacitor on
> the A/D very quickly). The inputs to the board should come from some
> low-impedence output device, e.g. an amplifier. You can't just connect the
> wire used to measure the EKG straight to the A/D board, or horrible things
> will happen to the signal. Perhaps the signals are being routed through an
> amplifier of some type already. If not...if your signals are around 1mV (just
> a guess), then you might want to amplify them 1000x with a couple of op
> amps/channel (and set your filter properties while you're at it). If for some
> reason you're getting volt-scale signals already, then you will still want a
> 1x gain op-amp to buffer the signal.
>
> Best,
> --Tim
>

-Calin

Received on 2002-10-02Z16:28:14