$695 board offers 16 isolated differential-analog inputs, two isolated analog outputs
By Dan Strassberg, Contributing Technical Editor -- EDN, January 15, 2009
Microstar Laboratories, maker of DAP (Data-Acquisition Processor) boards and network-ready DAPservers, recently announced the MSXB 085 isolated analog expansion and termination board. Each board provides 16 isolated analog inputs and two isolated analog outputs. All inputs are differential, with onboard 16-bit data conversion to minimize exposure to noise elsewhere in the system. The board can sample signal inputs at 333k samples/sec and can update both analog signal outputs at 500k updates/sec. A DAP board can support as many as eight MSXB 085 boards.
MSXB 085 boards fit into a backplane in a standard industrial enclosure, as do other signal-conditioning products that conform to the external hardware specifications of the Microstar channel architecture: Signal connectors are on 3U, 100-mm-high, 220-mm-deep Eurocard B boards, which often preprocess signals. Signals connect to a DB37 male connector or to Wago connectors. A backplane connector on each board connects it to a digital backplane that is factory-fitted into the industrial enclosure. An interface board, which also plugs into the backplane, sends digitized waveforms to a DAP board that you control from a PC or a DAPserver. MSXB 085 boards also fit directly into DAPservers to form networked, isolated instruments. If your application requires isolated digital inputs and outputs in addition to the MSXB 085 boards’ isolated analog inputs and outputs, you can add MSXB 078 boards. If your application requires additional isolated analog outputs, you can add MSXB 076 boards.
DAP boards make a robust platform for high-performance data-acquisition and -control systems. PCs and rack-mountable DAPserver-system packages each can contain and control more than one DAP board. Every DAP board includes an onboard processor running a real-time operating system. Windows applications that support DLL (dynamic-link-library) calls can control DAP boards by communicating with this onboard operating system. You can control a DAP board from DAPstudio—a Windows application from Microstar, as well as from third-party or your own software. You can perform this function from any PC that communicates with the DAP board over a network. In smaller systems, you can connect a DAPserver to any PC that provides an Ethernet connection, or you can attach a keyboard and screen to the DAPserver and control it directly using factory-preloaded software.
The MSXB 085 targets applications that involve several analog inputs and a smaller number of analog outputs in which the signals require isolation to protect them from noise and individual signal grounds to protect against ground currents. You can install the boards either in an industrial enclosure that you connect to a PC-controlled DAP board or directly in a DAPserver that contains one or more DAP boards, thereby forming a single-package, network-ready isolated instrument. To control the DAP boards, you can use DAPstudio or other Windows software on any networked PC. You can download an unrestricted evaluation version of DAPstudio. To try all of the software package’s features, you need a DAP board, which Microstar provides free for evaluation purposes. MSXB 085 board pricing starts at US $695.
