Date: 18/05/2009

Low cost USB 12-bit data loggers for virtual instrumentation applications

Pico Technology, maker of PC oscilloscope and such data acquisition test and measurement equipment has released multi-channel data loggers with USB interface to watch/analyze the captured/measured signal on PCs. These data loggers with 12-bit resolution and with a input signal sampling rate of 1 Million Samples/second are not highly priced making them affordable for low budget entrepreneurial electronic engineering based design startups.

The specifications and features of these data loggers are,

1. Software-configurable digital output lines and with a single PWM control output.
2. Current-limited sensor excitation output.
3. Enclosed in a compact and portable unit
4. Powered through USB power line saving any external power supply to the unit.
5. Can capture and store voltage signals from sensor and transducer.
6. Fitted with external terminal board to facilitate connections and custom front-end circuitry
7. Free data logging software
8. Support 3 sampling modes of type real-time continuous, streaming and block mode.
9. Inputs: PicoLog 1216:16 unipolar analog inputs and 1 PWM control output
PicoLog 1012:12 unipolar analog inputs
10. Windows XP and Vista (32 and 64-bit) compatible
11. Includes API and examples for C/C++/C#, VB, LabVIEW (Virtual Instrumentation software from National Instruments)

Price: PicoLog 1012: Each £95 (approx. US$145)
PicoLog 1216: Each £149 (approx. US$227)

There are many such low cost PC based oscilloscopes and other test and measurement equipments from this company. For details visit http://www.picotech.com/