Data Acquisition Board Research Articles

Design and implementation of a ground detection system for HERD-TRD front-end electronics

The Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) is a critical component of the High Energy Cosmic Radiation Detection (HERD) experiment, calibrating the electromagnetic calorimeter at the TeV energy range and observing X-rays in the all-sky survey. To support HERD-TRD test, a comprehensive ground detection system featuring a data acquisition (DAQ) board and host computer software was designed and implemented. The DAQ system manages data from six front-end electronics (FEE), totaling 768 detector channels, using an LVDS interface for high-speed scientific data transfer and an RS422 interface for command and telemetry. Gigabit Ethernet and mini USB enable real-time communication with the host computer. Host computer software developed on the QT platform efficiently manages data acquisition, storage, and display. The DAQ board offers a compact circuit design and complete functionality, and the host software provides an intuitive user interface. The DAQ board and host computer software have been tested to meet the design requirements. Performance tests show that the system realizes a stable data transfer rate of 360 Mbps over Gigabit Ethernet and 55 Mbps from the FEE to the DAQ board. The system has minimal noise and runs continuously for a week without data loss. In addition, a joint test with TRD using the 55Fe radioactive source was performed, and the particle signal was correctly acquired.

Real‐time reliability evaluation method for IGBT module in MMC based on junction temperature and bond wire failure online monitoring

AbstractThe lack of an MMC reliability evaluation approach that incorporates data on essential components' health monitoring in the already related research prevents reliability from being further improved. Therefore, this article proposes a real‐time reliability evaluation method of the multi‐state IGBT module in MMC through iterative calculation of the Markov chain model. The degradation process of the IGBT module is divided into multiple states based on the monitored bond wire failure, and the failure rate of the IGBT module is updated in real time using the accumulated monitoring data of junction temperature. The proposed method can more accurately reflect the real state of MMC compared with the binary state evaluation method. Besides, a multi‐channel high‐speed data acquisition board is designed to measuring the gate voltage and collector voltage of the IGBT for the health evaluation of IGBT modules in MMC; the typically measured results validate the effectiveness of the data acquisition board.

Readout electronics of a muon beam monitor for the phase-α of the COMET experiment

A 256-channel readout electronics system has been developed for a SciFi (scintillating fiber)-based muon beam monitor, which is utilized in the COMET (COherent Muon to Electron Transition) experiment. The muon beam monitor allows for the monitoring of muon beams by collecting optical signals generated when muons hit plastic scintillating fibers. The 256-channel readout electronics, including two SiPM carrier boards, two front-end boards (FEB), two data acquisition boards (DAQ) and one clock and trigger unit (CTU), measures the arrival time of each signal from the detector. The developed 256-channel readout electronics, with a timing precision of 3.3 ns and an event rate exceeding 500 kHz, has successfully met the requirements of the muon beam monitor during the phase-α of the COMET experiment.

Design and Evaluation of a Novel Venturi-Based Spirometer for Home Respiratory Monitoring.

The high cost and limited availability of home spirometers pose a significant barrier to effective respiratory disease management and monitoring. To address this challenge, this paper introduces a novel Venturi-based spirometer designed for home use, leveraging the Bernoulli principle. The device features a 3D-printed Venturi tube that narrows to create a pressure differential, which is measured by a differential pressure sensor and converted into airflow rate. The airflow is then integrated over time to calculate parameters such as the Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) and Forced Expiratory Volume in one second (FEV1). The system also includes a bacterial filter for hygienic use and a circuit board for data acquisition and streaming. Evaluation with eight healthy individuals demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability, with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) of 0.955 for FVC and 0.853 for FEV1. Furthermore, when compared to standard Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) equipment, the spirometer exhibited strong correlation, with Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.992 for FVC and 0.968 for FEV1, and high reliability, with ICCs of 0.987 for FVC and 0.907 for FEV1. These findings suggest that the Venturi-based spirometer could significantly enhance access to spirometry at home. However, further large-scale validation and reliability studies are necessary to confirm its efficacy and reliability for widespread use.

Studying the rotational dynamics of a meter stick using the Arduino board and 3D printed parts

We present a low-cost experimental apparatus designed for studying the rotational dynamics of a meter stick. This apparatus uses everyday laboratory supplies, 3D printed parts, and an Arduino board for data acquisition. It consists of a common bearing fixed to a vertical axle, connected to the meter stick through a 3D printed spindle adapter. A thread attached to a hanging weight and winded around the spindle applies a constant external torque to the stick. The moment of inertia of the apparatus may be changed by incorporating weights into the apparatus through 3D printed adapters. An Arduino board records the time interval between consecutive half turns of the stick, allowing the calculation of the angular displacement over time. The data collected from experiments is compared with theoretical models. Among others, the effect of the applied torque, air resistance and moment of inertia of the stick is studied. This experimental apparatus is particularly suitable for undergraduate students enrolled in a classical mechanics course, offering them a practical, hand-on experience while remaining cost-effective.

Hardware and Software Design of Programmable Medium and High-Speed Data Acquisition (DAQ) Board of Fiber Optic Signal for Partial Discharge Acquisition

The anti-electromagnetic interference capability of partial discharge (PD) acoustic signal conversion and collection circuits severely restrict the sensitivity of PD detection. The data acquisition (DAQ) systems available in the current market are costly and have limited functionality, making it difficult to satisfy the acquisition requirements for PD detection. This paper proposes a medium to high-speed fiber optic signal acquisition board with an adjustably controlled sampling rate and filter cutoff frequency. The circuit achieves a higher signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio by distributing the noise in each part of the signal acquisition chain reasonably. The temperature characteristics of the acquisition module are improved by utilizing the programmable T-type structure for transimpedance amplification of photocurrent. The DAQ card performs data acquisition and processing using STM32H743 internal ADC and caches data in bulk with an SRAM and SD card. A data uploading method based on time reference has been proposed, which enables full, effective information signal upload through a low-cost transmission interface. The research ultimately achieves a stable sampling of three channels at 1 MSps, SNR of 63 dB, and programmable gain amplification of the photocurrent with 0–60 dB. Finally, the system is used for PD acoustic signal acquisition in the frequency range of 20 Hz to 100 kHz.

A Versatile Board for Event-Driven Data Acquisition.

Event-driven data acquisition is used to capture information from fast transient phenomena typically requiring a high sampling speed. This is an important requirement in the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility for the development of one of the heating systems of the ITER nuclear fusion experiment. The Red Pitaya board has been chosen for this project because of its versatility and low cost. Versatility is provided by the hosted Zynq System on Chip (SoC), which allows full configuration of the module architecture and the OpenSource architecture of Red Pitaya. Price is an important factor, because the boards are installed in a hostile environment where devices can be damaged by EMI and radiation. A flexible solution for event-driven data acquisition has been developed in the Zynq SoC and interfaced to the Linux-based embedded ARM processor. It has been successfully adopted in a variety of data acquisition applications in the test facility.

An Intelligent Glove System for Real‐Time Multiple Electrical Signal Acquisition and Display

AbstractRealizing multimodal tactile perception for robots is highly desirable for achieving more intelligent human–machine interaction. A real‐time intelligent glove system that can capture and monitor hand tactile information, including pressure, bending, and temperature is proposed. This system processes the collected data and visualizes the tactile information in a 2D image. The intelligent glove system integrates a palm‐shaped sensor unit, a multi‐channel data acquisition board, and a data analysis module. The glove consists of 34 flexible sensors, including 28 pressure sensors, five bending sensors, and one temperature sensor, which convert biological information into electrical signals. By enhancing the performance of the system, the intelligent glove achieves high sensitivity and good fault tolerance, allowing it to analyze the multimodal tactile information of the entire hand with fast responsivity. By analyzing the acquired multi‐channel electrical signals, the system can analyze object shapes and various gripping states. This work paves the way for wearable devices used in multimodal tactile perception and promotes the emergence of new modes of human–machine interaction.

Measurement of the Current-Voltage Curve of Photovoltaic Cells Based on a DAQ and Python

The renewable energy has grown extensively in the last decades. The photovoltaic panels have been playing a significant role in the technologies used to produce this kind of energy. This tendency is expected to continue in the future, because the cost of the solar panels has been gradually reduced. Systems providing information of the performance of the solar cells can be helpful for technicians and researchers. In this paper a system to measure the I-V curves of photovoltaic cells is presented. This is composed by a data acquisition board (DAQ) and a personal computer (PC). The program to control the DAQ is written in Python. With this system a polycrystalline silicon solar cell was tested under low irradiance conditions (less than 100 W/m2) with an artificial light source. The repeatability of the I-V curves obtained has less than 5 % error.

Laboratory Tester for Relay Contacts Lifespan

This study focuses on the implementation of a laboratory relay contact life tester using a data acquisition board and the NI LabVIEW development environment. Tested reed contacts have a lifespan of several million cycles. Therefore the biggest challenge was creating a tester that would be able to verify the ability of the contact to achieve a defined number of cycles at the required current load in a maximum of a few days. This study describes all the interesting discoveries that came up during the implementation of the tester. It also highlights the influence of coil current and switching frequency on contact settling time and lifespan.

Design and Characterization of Piezoresistive Sensors for Non-Planar Surfaces and Pressure Mapping: A Case Study on Kayak Paddle.

This article focuses on the design of a sensor system for a non-planar surface, in particular a cylindrical shape, such as a kayak paddle. The main objective is to develop a piezoresistive sensor system to measure the pressure exerted by the hand on the shaft. The study begins with static characterization of the sensors, including dispersion analysis to assess their sensitivity, linearity and measurement range. A calibration process is carried out using a dedicated test bench, and an inverse viscoelastic model is used to establish an accurate relationship between the measured resistance and the corresponding pressure. The sensor system is connected to a data acquisition board equipped with an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that enables the direct conversion of analog data into digital resistance values. Furthermore, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) wireless communication is employed to facilitate data transfer to a computer, enabling a detailed pressure mapping of the kayak paddle and real-time data collection. The calibrated sensors are then tested and validated on the kayak paddle, facilitating the mapping of pressure zones on the paddle surface. This mapping provides information for locating areas of high pressure exertion during kayaker movements.

A novel testing equipment based on Arduino and LabVIEW for electrochemical performance studies on experimental cells: Evaluation in lithium-sulfur technology

The development of cost-effective and practical analytical tools is crucial for the advancement of electrochemical energy storage systems. This study presents a versatile research apparatus, fabricated with affordable components and equipped with programmable logic functions. It enables measurement of electrochemical performance parameters of experimental cells and facilitates user-designed battery performance testing using LabVIEW instrumentation software. The Arduino hardware serves as the data acquisition board, while the power supply circuitry consists of affordable components. The equipment is evaluated using constant-current and constant-current-constant-voltage charging cycles, including a novel test: the constant-power charging protocol for lithium-sulfur batteries. It accurately determines electrochemical performance parameters, making it invaluable for advancing innovative electrochemical methodologies. The affordability and flexibility of this equipment opens the door to a wide range of research possibilities, offering a cost-effective solution for battery performance analysis.

Multiplex Portable Biosensor for Bacteria Detection.

An advanced, cost-effective, and portable DNA biosensor capable of detecting multiple bacteria simultaneously has been developed. The biosensor comprises a fast and inexpensive potentiostat that controls the applied potential to a screen-printed electrochemical array platform functionalized with MoS2 flakes and bacterial DNA probes. The current response obtained by à la carte thionine functionalized carbon nanodots (Ty-CDs) is monitored as an electrochemical indicator of the hybridization event. The design of the potentiostat prioritizes achieving an optimal signal-to-noise ratio and incorporates a user-friendly interface compatible with various devices, including computers, mobile phones, and tablets. The device is compact, lightweight, and manufactured at a low cost. The key components of the potentiostat include a data acquisition board capable of analyzing multiple samples simultaneously and a controller board. The results of this study confirm the ability of the multiplex portable biosensor to successfully detect specific bacterial DNA sequences, demonstrating its reliability and superior performance compared with a traditional, more complex, and laboratory-oriented potentiostat.

Application of the Residue Method in Steam Superheater Fault Detection

Steam superheaters experience various defects that can affect the system’s operation differently. Maintaining a constant temperature and pressure of the steam at the turbine input is crucial for optimal steam turbine running conditions. This is achieved by regulating the steam temperature in the superheater, which is divided into three parts with devices mounted at each connection point to allow for the injection of condensates to cool the steam. The steam pressure is controlled by adjusting the fuel flow command. However, controlling the output temperature can be challenging because of the transfer time delay between the points where the water is sprayed and the points where the steam temperature is measured. To address this challenge, a temperature control system was developed and tested in three different environments using an electronic simulator, the block-oriented simulation hardware BORIS, data acquisition board dSpace, and a MATLAB R2020a Simulink with a PI controller model. These simulations allowed for the study of the superheater’s function in both normal and fault conditions, with the possibility of controlling the system structure and detecting faults through the proper implementation of weighting matrices.

Design and Printing of a Case for an Arduino System

AbstractThis article will be presented the stages of making a two‐component housing, for the protection and stability of a system that is implemented on an Arduino data acquisition and acquisition board. The housing has the actual body and cover, implicitly four inner pillars, which will present the stability in the housing of the system. The design and printing stages of this element of the mechatronic system will be identified. The design will be done with the help of the Solidworks program, and the printing will be done with the Prusa I3 printer.

A scintillation dosimeter with real-time positional tracking information for in vivo dosimetry error detection in HDR brachytherapy.

To evaluate the performance of an electromagnetic (EM)-tracked scintillation dosimeter in detecting source positional errors of IVD in HDR brachytherapy treatment. Two different scintillator dosimeter prototypes were coupled to 5 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) EM sensors read by an Aurora V3 system. The scintillators used were a 0.3 × 0.4 × 0.4 mm3 ZnSe:O and a BCF-60 plastic scintillator of 0.5 mm diameter and 2.0 mm in length (Saint-Gobain Crystals). The sensors were placed at the dosimeter's tip at 20.0 mm from the scintillator. The EM sampling rate was 40/s while the scintillator signal was sampled at 100 000/s using two photomultiplier tubes from Hamamatsu (series H10722) connected to a data acquisition board. A high-pass filter and a low-pass filter were used to separate the light signal into two different channels. All measurements were performed with an afterloader unit (Flexitron-Elekta AB, Sweden) in full-scattered (TG43) conditions. EM tracking was further used to provide distance/angle-dependent energy correction for the ZnSe:O inorganic scintillator. For the error detection part, lateral shifts of 0.5 to 3 mm were induced by moving the source away from its planned position. Indexer length (longitudinal) errors between 0.5 to 10 mm were also introduced. The measured dose rate difference was converted to a shift distance, with and without using the positional information from the EMsensor. The inorganic scintillator had both a signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and signal-to-background-ratio (SBR) close to 70 times higher than those of the plastic scintillator. The mean absolute difference from the dose measurement to the dose calculated with TG-43U1 was 1.5% ±0.7%. The mean absolute error for BCF-60 detector was 1.7% when compared to TG-43 calculations formalism. With the inorganic scintillator and EM tracking, a maximum area under the curve (AUC) gain of 24.0% was obtained for a 0.5-mm lateral shift when using the EMT data with the ZnSe:O. Lower AUC gains were obtained for a 3-mm lateral shifts with both scintillators. For the plastic scintillator, the highest gain from using EM tracking information occurred for a 0.5-mm lateral shift at 20 mm from the source. The maximal gain (17.4%) for longitudinal errors was found at the smallest shifts (0.5 mm). This work demonstrates that integrating EM tracking to in vivo scintillation dosimeters enables the detection of smaller shifts, by decreasing the dosimeter positioning uncertainty. It also serves to perform position-dependent energy correction for the inorganic scintillator,providing better SNR and SBR, allowing detection of errors at greater distances from thesource.

Linearity test of triangular waveform generators

Abstract This paper presents a novel approach for accurately testing triangular waveform generators by leveraging the Ramp Vernier Test methodology commonly used for Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs). The proposed procedure enables efficient measurement of the nonlinearity of a triangular waveform using a low-cost data acquisition board. The key idea is to utilize the waveform generator under test to produce the stimulus signal for the data acquisition system’s testing. By analyzing the results of this test, the nonlinearity of the acquisition system can be determined and subsequently corrected. This approach effectively eliminates the influence of the acquisition system’s nonlinearity on the estimation of the nonlinearity of the waveform generator, ensuring accurate and reliable measurements.

The influence of a DC-AC inverter used in a stand-alone vending machine equipped with photovoltaic panels

In this paper, we present an experimental model of a vending machine equipped with a stand-alone photovoltaic system and a DC-AC inverter used as the power supply for the refrigerator’s compressor. The harmonics generated by the inverter will be monitored using a power analyser and processed with a dedicated software. The acquired data is compared to the data obtained from data acquisition board specially built for the experimental model of the vending machine.

GloveSense: A Hand Gesture Recognition System Based on Inductive Sensing

Gesture recognition, in particular, hand gesture recognition, has received great attention in the field of human-computer interaction. Although several hand gesture recognition designs have been proposed in the past, they still suffer many limitations in practice. Hence, we present a wearable device, called GloveSense, which is made on a regular glove using conductive threads. The system consists of ten coils, with each pair of coils sewn on both sides of each finger and connected in series. To achieve high sensitivity, a data acquisition system is employed in which a tank circuit made of each sewn coil is measured. Since the utilized commercial data acquisition board has limited channels, a switching mechanism is employed to measure some of the extra coils. The utilized switching mechanism reduces the cross-talk effect between the readings. The GloveSense system is tested for recognition of numbers 1 to 10 in American Sign Language. A dataset of 1400 responses is employed along with a machine learning algorithm for gesture recognition. The proposed system demonstrates a high accuracy of 99% and a short recognition time of less than 1 second.

Design of the readout electronics system with high event rate based on the Micromegas Detector

This paper presents a multi-channel readout electronic system with a high event rate. Its primary purpose is to meet the increasing collision luminosity in large particle physics collision experiments in recent years, thus bringing about the requirement of high event rates for readout electronics systems. This system is designed for Micromegas detectors and consists of front-end readout boards (FEB) and a data acquisition board (DAQ). It realizes that at 128 channels simultaneous readout, each channel can work at the maximum 2.2 Mhits/s event rate. Each event data contains amplitude and time information, which is read out by FEB. The event data will be sent to DAQ by the GTX transceiver at 3.2 Gbps and then transferred to the data acquisition software. In the data acquisition software, each particle hit position and track will be analyzed and reconstructed. The specific characteristics and implementations of this readout electronic system are described in detail.