Compact data acquisition tool connects to PC via USB port and monitors two universal analogue inputs, accepting thermocouples, Pt100, voltages and 4-20mA current loops along with one digital input
Available from Audon Electronics is the myPCLab USB data acquisition unit which accepts thermocouples, PT100 temperature probes, volts and 4-20mA loops, all for under £60.
myPCLab is a very compact data acquisition tool which connects to a PC via a USB port and monitors two universal analogue inputs, accepting thermocouples, Pt100, voltages and 4-20mA current loops along with one digital input.
Sampling rate can be up to 128 samples per second and ADC resolution is user adjustable from 11 to 15 bits.
There is built-in thermocouple and PT100 linearisation and automatic thermocouple cold-junction compensation.
The myPCLab comes with an intuitive and easy-to-use Windows data logger software package which plots data, shows gauges, bargraphs and digital readouts and logs data to disk.
Logged data can be exported in multiple file formats (XLS, PDF, RTF, XML, HTML, DBF, TXT, CSV) for easy importation to analysis and spreadsheet packages.
The myPCLab software can simultaneously communicate with multiple modules, making it easy to expand the number of inputs of a measurement system.
Although the myPClab is USB based, it actually uses a virtual RS232 com port, so any software package that can talk to a com port can communicate with the myPClab.
There are two communications modes, Ascii text and Modbus.
With Ascii text auto-send, data is transmitted from the myPClab in a simple comma separated Ascii text format at a pre-set time interval.
Data can be read using any package capable of accepting Ascii strings including most daq packages such as Labview, Vee, Daqfactory, TestPoint etc, programming languages VB, Delphi, C++.net, and terminal programs such as HyperTerminal.
In Modbus RTU slave mode, myPCLab acts as a Modbus RTU slave that can answer to 'read holding register' requests, Modbus command number 3.
The module doesn't have a specific Modbus address, since it's the only device in its serial port.
It will answer to read request to any valid slave address.
It can therefore be used with every Scada software package that support Modbus RTU.
