New system offers more performance to transducer data acquisition in rugged applications

Vishay Precision Group's Pacific Instruments division has announced that it is offering two new data acquisition systems (DAS) that broaden the instruments product line of the Micro-Measurements brand. The PI 7200 and PI 7300 DAS bring new capabilities and levels of performance to transducer data acquisition in rugged applications such as wind tunnels, engine test stands, or wherever the DAS needs to be located on or near the test article. Designed to reduce installation and test setup costs while improving signal quality and reliability, the 16-channel PI 7200 and PI 7300 function as Ethernet-connected appliances that condition, amplify, and digitize outputs from strain gages, bridges, IEPE, or voltage transducers. Multiple units can easily be combined or distributed in larger installations. Features include real-time correction/compensation of gain offset and excitation voltage from -20C to +50C, quality signal conditioning with high gain, and a 24-bit high-speed A/D converter per channel to provide high accuracy, high resolution, and high sample rate across a wide operating range, says the company. "Locating conditioning and acquisition hardware near transducers, even on a test article in the test cell, is the goal of many facilities because this reduces cable costs, increases signal quality, and eliminates complex wiring installations," said Chris Lloyd, Pacific Instruments' sales manager. "By providing this capability, the PI 7200 and PI 7300 enable significant cost savings and reduce installation time for the data acquisition system." The fully self-contained PI 7200 and PI 7300 provide transducer excitation, bridge completion, and balance. The transducer output is amplified and filtered to remove signal components that could produce alias errors, and digitized to 24-bit resolution. The digitized transducer output is digitally processed providing multiple sample rates, an 80 dB/octave FIR filter, and a 32-bit floating point output format in millivolts referred to input, millivolts referred to output, or user-defined engineering units.