- Fri Aug 10, 2012 12:31 pm
#148341
Hello everyone. I'm a first time poster but a long time lurker; I really do enjoy the threads here. The whole sparkfun forum community seems really thorough and helpful and responsive. Anyway, a bit about myself: I'm a mechanical engineer with a startup engineering firm. One of my primary offerings is a "system tune up" for an industry specific machine. Long story short, I need to analyze some fluid mechanics and piston position sensor data with some PC software. The trouble is, the entire piston stroke is only about 0.002 seconds long total.
I'm looking for some kind of plug and play setup that can read a position sensor and a pressure transmitter (both analog, 0-5V) at about 40kSa/s or more, giving about 160 data points per event minimum, and save that data. I am on a tight budget right now for this system. I'd like to keep it under $200, but up to $250 is passable.
I've looked into buying oscilloscopes; correct me if I'm wrong, but they should be able to take that data, even if it's not a constant waveform, right? Ideally, I would like to be able to link the start of the data collection to the start of the cycle (just hit go and it starts collecting for a second or however long), but that's not really necessary. Saving the data as ADC output (0-1024 corresponding to 0-5V like on Arduino) or voltages or something else I can easily scale would be great, and so would saving in csv or excel file format.
I originally liked the DSO Nano V2 for this purpose, but it is only one channel, and people have a lot of complaints about the interface and glitches. The same goes for the DSO Quad 203, though I may be talked into buying that. I would prefer to not have a steep learning curve for the system/scope. The only scopes I've used are the $10-15k ones from University and from the engineering firm I worked at for a few years.
I've heard people suggest getting an older, used scope in this price range that will have higher sampling rates, but I haven't seen any that work with modern data storage protocols (USB, SD cards, etc).
I imagine (as is the case with dozens of electromechanical projects I've done) that there is some kind of system I'm just missing entirely. For example, I have a tendency to use an Arduino UNO to make Up/down counters. I know that there are much better, more cost effective ways of doing this, but the familiar (and prebuilt!) Ardy system saves me tons of time getting up and running.
TLDR:
Need 40+kSa/s on two (plus?) channels (the more the MUCH better, this is bare minimum for limited budget)
Need accurate time correlation
Need to be able to save the data
$250 budget firm, <$200 preferred
Plug and play; please don't ask me to program more microcontrollers - just don't have the time!
Thank you all in advance for your time. You are the first ones I'm reaching out to because I know how knowledgeable and skilled you are at what you do here.
I'm looking for some kind of plug and play setup that can read a position sensor and a pressure transmitter (both analog, 0-5V) at about 40kSa/s or more, giving about 160 data points per event minimum, and save that data. I am on a tight budget right now for this system. I'd like to keep it under $200, but up to $250 is passable.
I've looked into buying oscilloscopes; correct me if I'm wrong, but they should be able to take that data, even if it's not a constant waveform, right? Ideally, I would like to be able to link the start of the data collection to the start of the cycle (just hit go and it starts collecting for a second or however long), but that's not really necessary. Saving the data as ADC output (0-1024 corresponding to 0-5V like on Arduino) or voltages or something else I can easily scale would be great, and so would saving in csv or excel file format.
I originally liked the DSO Nano V2 for this purpose, but it is only one channel, and people have a lot of complaints about the interface and glitches. The same goes for the DSO Quad 203, though I may be talked into buying that. I would prefer to not have a steep learning curve for the system/scope. The only scopes I've used are the $10-15k ones from University and from the engineering firm I worked at for a few years.
I've heard people suggest getting an older, used scope in this price range that will have higher sampling rates, but I haven't seen any that work with modern data storage protocols (USB, SD cards, etc).
I imagine (as is the case with dozens of electromechanical projects I've done) that there is some kind of system I'm just missing entirely. For example, I have a tendency to use an Arduino UNO to make Up/down counters. I know that there are much better, more cost effective ways of doing this, but the familiar (and prebuilt!) Ardy system saves me tons of time getting up and running.
TLDR:
Need 40+kSa/s on two (plus?) channels (the more the MUCH better, this is bare minimum for limited budget)
Need accurate time correlation
Need to be able to save the data
$250 budget firm, <$200 preferred
Plug and play; please don't ask me to program more microcontrollers - just don't have the time!
Thank you all in advance for your time. You are the first ones I'm reaching out to because I know how knowledgeable and skilled you are at what you do here.