Four questions to ask when choosing a DAQ vendor
To find the right data-acquisition vendor, you need to ask a lot of questions.
By Dan Romanchik, Contributing Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 11/20/2008 5:09:00 PM
By my count, there were more than 100 vendors of data-acquisition and signal-analysis products listed in the show guide for this year's Automotive Testing Expo North America (Novi, MI; October 22–24, 2008). As I wandered the aisles, it occurred to me that if I were still a test engineer and my manager assigned me to purchase the perfect data-acquisition system for automotive testing, it would be a daunting task. There are so many different parameters to measure and so many different test environments that finding the perfect system and perfect vendor is nearly impossible.
To tackle this problem, and find the right data-acquisition vendor for you, you need to ask a lot of questions. Here are four to get you started:
1. What's the test environment? Automotive tests take place in many different environments, some of them quite severe. If you need to acquire data while running tests on a Belgian Block course, for example, you'll want to look for a data-acquisition system designed to handle a lot of shock and vibration. System packaging is what is important in this application; look for vendors who claim that their systems have been “ruggedized” or are “shock-proof.”
2. What parameters do you need to measure? Does your application require you to measure many different parameters, or are you particularly interested in a single parameter such as pressure or torque? Theoretically, with the right sensors, you could get just about any data-acquisition system to measure just about any parameter. Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple.
To make accurate measurements, you need to know something about the property being measured and how it's measured. For example, if you need to measure the pressure of coolant fluid, you'll need to know how pressure sensors work so you can choose the appropriate one. If you don't have that knowledge, you may want to choose a system from a company that has experience with the type of measurement you are making.
3. When must the testing start? Do you need to start collecting data quickly, or do you have time to develop software? Some companies offer a wide range of flexible data-acquisition software and hardware that will let you develop a superb system that will certainly meet your needs.
Peter Anderson, marketing manager for IOtech, commented that flexible products are great for engineers who have the time to develop the system and who have the software-development expertise to do it properly. But he said that this is often not the case. Companies misjudge how long it will take to develop the software, and projects are delayed.
Instead, Anderson recommends that you select a vendor who offers data-acquisition systems that are ready to start gathering data immediately without any custom programming or development. You give up some flexibility, but you are running tests a lot quicker than you would with a custom design.
4. How much support will a vendor provide? Look for a vendor who will support you not only while you're getting the system up and running, but also over the life of the system. Modern data-acquisition systems are quite complex, and even if you're a trained instrumentation engineer, you'll need some help diagnosing problems.
Paul Nylander, general manager for imc DataWorks, explained that diagnosing problems in your data-acquisition system may be simply an annoyance during setup, but if those problems arise during testing, they can become quite costly. This is especially true when you are running time-critical tests, such as in-vehicle or production line tests. When problems arise, you need support personnel who can help.
There are certainly many more questions you should ask before choosing a data-acquisition vendor. These four should get you started, though. And, when next year's Automotive Testing Expo rolls around, you'll know what questions to ask of the 100 or so vendors at the show.
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