My college team previously had a sponsored data acquisition system from Gantner
Instruments for one of our hot fires, and is now transitioning to an NI system.
Unfortunately I don't have the model/part# on hand but it's the version where
it can handle the more extreme temperatures/environments for our tests at
Mojave and long drives. The system will be integrated with Lab View for the
easy procedure execution as well. They just install one of the I/O (I believe)
modules on the NI hardware to be able to interact with all of the solenoids for
the pneumatic ball valves. I was more on the plumbing side of the house so if
you have more questions I can refer you to the electronics lead.
I have also seen a successfully hot fired system from Dr. Steve Harrington's
class at UCSD who used labview for their LR-101 tests, though I'm not sure what
DAQ they used.
Best of luck
John
On Jan 10, 2017, at 3:02 PM, Edward Wranosky <edwardcw@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
A college team that I mentor went the Labview route. Their setup is top
notch. They have screens that control their valves and servos and fill
operations and display relevant data as needed. To test a motor you just
have to follow the screens and the prompts (and reference the checklist) and
everything goes well.
Very slick.
Edward
On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 3:52 PM, Graham Sortino
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'll preface this by saying this is only tangentially related to rockets so
apologies in advance if this is somewhat off topic.
I’m starting to design the sensor acquisition (pressure transducers, flow
measurement, thermocouples) and control hardware (servo and solenoid valve
actuators) for our 500lbf LOX/Kero test stand. I’m trying to decide how I
want to handle data acquisition as well as control and I was curious about
other approaches people take.
In the past I’ve done this via a simple Arduino microcontroller w/ support
boards for power, servo control, and signal conditioning but I have a bit
more budget this time and I’d like to do something more sophisticated. My
goals are primarily higher frequency signal acquisition, 12 to 16 bit ADC
conversion and some-level of isolation to protect electronics.
From research so far it sounds like there are 2 main approaches to data
acquisition / control (1) purchase a professional DAQ such as NI/Labview or
(2) mainly build your own using a microcontroller. The prior being very
expensive and the latter requiring more time/experience in EE/SW.
I’m starting to lean towards the TI Launched development boards
(http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/tools-software/launchpads/launchpads.page). From
what I’ve been reading they seem a lot more sophisticated/professional then
an Arduino and it seems like TI is serious about supporting them. I also am
getting the feeling that the professional DAQ systems are a tad overpriced
for what you actually get and there is more platform lock-in.
Apologies again if this is slightly off-topic but I hope there a few EE/SW
folks on this list who find these topics interesting.
All the Best,
Graham
