Microstar Laboratories has announced its simultaneous sampling product that protects applications from ground loops and allows sampling at high speeds.
The product, a four-channel signal-interface (SI) module, part number MSXB 082, has four onboard analogue-to-digital converters and channel-to-channel isolation.
The converters are synchronised to within a few nanoseconds of each other, and each one can convert an analogue signal to a 16-bit data stream at up to 1.25 million samples/second.
Each analogue channel is isolated and can be set to one, two, five, or 10 in software, and have different gains.
The MSXB 082 design allows each of four channels to sample at 1.25 million samples per second.
Initially the per-channel maximum is reached if only one channel is in use.
With two channels in use, the maximum is one million samples per second; with three, 667,000 samples per second; and with four, 500,000 samples per second.
Planned upgrades to other system components will allow the product to sample at full speed - 1.25 million samples per second per channel - on all channels simultaneously.
All SI modules include a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) programmed to communicate with, be configured by, and respond to commands from a DAP.
Each DAP includes an onboard processor running a real-time operating system that communicates with, is configured by, and responds to commands from a PC application.
The application can use Dapstudio - a Microstar Laboratories product - or a third-party product, like Labview, and can be run on a Dapserver or on any PC on a network.
The DAP does not have to be local to the PC that controls it.
Signal Interfacing SI modules like MSXB 082 fit into a backplane in a standard industrial enclosure, as do other products that conform to the hardware specifications of the Microstar Laboratories channel architecture.
Signals connect to a DB37 male connector or to Wago connectors.
A backplane connector on each board connects it to a digital backplane factory-fitted into the industrial enclosure.
An interface board that also plugs into the backplane sends digitised waveforms to a DAP board controlled from a PC or DAPserver.
Each DAPserver comes in its own industrial enclosure and includes one or more DAPs, and a 10-slot Eurocard cage with a pre-installed digital backplane for SI modules like MSXB 082.
Separate industrial enclosures are required only when this 10-slot limit is exceeded by the number of SI modules controlled by the DAPs in the DAPserver.
SI modules connected to DAPs not in a DAPserver do require their own industrial enclosure.
A range of SI modules can be used for analogue input; analogue output; analogue input and output; and digital input and output.
The SI designation is reserved for MSXB that a DAP can communicate with and configure.
All new MSXB products are SI modules.
MSXB 082 SI modules can be installed in an industrial enclosure and connected to DAP boards to be controlled from a PC, or can be installed directly into a DAPserver that contains one or more DAPs.
