ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with Fundamentals of Data Acquisition and explains components of data acquisition system. The fundamental task of a data acquisition system is the measurement or generation of real-world physical signals. Often only the plug-in data acquisition (DAQ) board is considered as the data acquisition system. The fundamental component of a data acquisition system is the plug-in DAQ board. Multifunction boards are commonly used to measure analog signals. Multiplexing is a common technique for measuring multiple channels with a single analog-to-digital convertor (ADC). The ADC digitizes the analog signal into a digital value, which is ultimately sent to computer memory. Different DAQ boards use different types of ADCs to digitize the signal. The most popular type of ADC on plug-in DAQ boards is the successive approximation ADC, because it offers high speed and high resolution at a modest cost. Two classifications of sample timing techniques are used to control the ADC conversions, real-time sampling and equivalent-time sampling.
