How Data Acquisition Works

The key component in data acquisition is the presence of sensors. Sensors are also termed as transducers. They convert the measurable physical phenomenon of data they acquire into electric signals. To give you a clear visual explanation of how transducers works in data acquisition, picture out how microphones and (sound energy) and photocells (light energy) works.

Signals for data acquisition may vary according to the transducer used. They may either be analog or digital. At times, data acquisition hardware may need signal conditioning in order to be effectively used. They may need to be deamplified, amplified or filtered.

Data acquisition hardware is what works in between your personal computer and the signals. DAQ hardware can be connected through your computer using parallel, USB or serial ports. You can also use certain kind of cards to be placed in your PC's motherboard slots, which includes the ISA and PCI. These type of cards are also referred to as DAQ cards.

Some key components of a data acquisition card includes:
· ADC
· DAC
· TTL-IO
· multiplexer
· timers
· RAM



Along with a data acquisition hardware, in order for the DAQ system to work properly, you also need data acquisition software. A DAQ software allows your computer to anlyze the signals that are provided by a data acquisition hardware in order to transform them into usable and comprehensible data.