As we are Electronic engineers, the necessity of Measurement systems becomes in-ignorable. Especially CRO is an essential equipment when analyzing different signal processing systems like communication systems. CRO cost is much higher when compared to DMM. So utilising the digital nature of DMM, why can't we connect it to our PC ( a much powerful digital system that can handle wide range of signals ). The advantages include we can record the measured values since we have huge amount of HDD space, and no need of storage CRO.
Principle:
DMM measures the voltage or current level at an instant. If it is connected to computer, the measured values can be recorded at very high sampling rate. Using an Software or by creating our own Software we can plot the values and manipulate or analyze the system.
I've already planned to create a system with multiple processor ( for specific function ) dedicated to simulation with our own OS. But my experience is not enough. So after completing this PC based CRO. I'll move towards it. Can anybody help me.
CRO - Cathode Ray Oscilloscope.
DMM- Digital Multi-Meter.
HDD - Hard Disk Drive.
OS - Operating System.
PC - Personal Computer.
Well, it seems like the world is moved on to embedded systems. Here, you are using a general purpose computer to analyse signals.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it seem like a step backward????????
Yeah. But my intention to make more or less complete electronics lab in my home controlling from my PC. So I've to interface the accesories with my PC.
ReplyDeletehi
ReplyDeleteif you are planning to use an multimeter to measure the voltage then there is a problem
a normal dmm samples only 3-5 sample per second (aproximate) it means you can never see any wave form
the normal principal to draw a wave form is that you need at least 10 samples in a single period of the signel , if the samples are less then 8-10 then signel will not look a like as it actually is
example if you have a signal of 60hz then you need need at least 600 sample per second
accoriding to this principal you can redraw only 0.3hz of wave properly
and there are other thing to worry about you can ask me if you wan't to know
if you need a pc based oscilloscope i have all ready created it
sampling rate is 100 ksps for two channels
it use a usb interface (by a microchip mcu and firmware)
and use a visual basic 6 application software to display the wave form
right now i m testing the pc software for bugs
i will post this within one week it on my blog
http://microembeded.blogspot.com
Then i'll try to develop yours one, and add extra features to the application, and integrate into some standard engineering platforms like ocatve, scilab ,and thanks for the info about DMM
ReplyDelete