Product Update

The BL2100 Smartcat single board computer (SBC) lets you build stand-alone data-acquisition systems. The SBC provides 11 analog inputs, 4 analog outputs, and 40 digital I/O signals. You also get three RS-232/RS-485 serial ports. Options include a 122x32 graphic display ($99) and Ethernet ports. You can develop embedded measurement and control software with an included software development kit. For $199, you can add a hardware toolkit for developing designs. Base price: SBC—$209 ($249 with Ethernet). Z-World, Davis, CA. 530-757-3737; www.zworld.com.

WedgeLink software moves data from any serial-port device into any application. Now you can move data into applications over a network. WedgeLink Network adds TCP/IP capability to let you take data from remote instruments and enter it directly into applications such as Microsoft Excel. WedgeLink emulates a keyboard input to your application, letting you get data from even proprietary data-acquisition software into data-analysis programs. A setup utility lets you set IP addresses and transfer data from a serial port on one computer to another over a network. Price: $89 to $295. MicroRidge Systems, Sunriver, OR. 541-593-1656; www.microridge.com.

The latest version of Origin, a program that plots and analyzes data, now includes a built-in C language you can use to augment the power of the many built-in menus. In addition, the new version provides many of the standard algorithms in the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) library. These algorithms relieve you from having to re-create data-analysis algorithms from scratch. The Origin 7.0 software builds on earlier versions and now offers even more control of information plotting. Labels, axes, data points, and other attributes and formats are easy to update, move, and adjust on the screen. Even if you plot or analyze data only once in a while, this package simplifies the chore, and intuitive menu choices make it easy to come back to.

The package includes wizards that simplify plotting operations and let users step through display options. When setting up a plot, you can choose from an array of built-in and user-defined templates that make it easy to apply the same styles and formats to multiple data sets. The Origin 7.0 software also comes with nonlinear curve-fitting software that simplifies fitting an equation to a collection of data values. The fitting process initializes variables to give you a quick start on analyzing data. The program requires Windows 95 or later.

Price: $699. OriginLab, Northampton, MA. 800-969-7720; www.originlab.com .

Solder wetting—the flow of solder onto a compatible conductor—may be one of the most difficult characteristics to measure when inspecting BGAs and other packages mounted on PCBs. In addition to measuring the usual characteristics during x-ray inspection of such devices, the PCBA Sentry x-ray system also checks circuit opens and solder-wetting characteristics. The system's software determines whether a solder ball is "open," or unconnected, based on how the solder has flowed, or wetted, the connections during the reflow process. An operator can adjust the preselected pass-fail levels that the software chooses automatically.

The PCBA Sentry system comes with an autoloader option that lets users place the x-ray inspection station in a production line. The inspection system also meets the needs of failure analysts working with products used in military, space, and aviation applications.

Price: $280,000. Delivery: 12–16 weeks. Phoenix X-ray, Camarillo, CA. 805-389-0911; www.phoenix-xray.com .

Some machine-vision systems have suffered from poor communication between inspection software and the software that monitors sensors and controls actuators. The Data Translation Information Exchange (DTiX), a COM-based communication link, now lets Data Translation's Vision Foundry and Measure Foundry programs communicate. The new communications link lets users quickly integrate image-processing software with data-acquisition and control tasks.

A single user interface provides the means to link images and image information such as dimensions, parts counts, number of good or bad parts, and so on, with the company's data-acquisition hardware and software. You could use data from an inspection to alter the flow of parts on a production line, adjust a process, or take other action. In addition, the software lets the machine-vision system correlate inspection data with external variables such as motor speed and temperature. Because the DTiX software conforms to the COM standard, Vision Foundry and Measure Foundry programs can also communicate with software written with Visual Basic, Delphi, and Visual C++.

The DTiX software now comes built into Vision Foundry ($3495) and is available for Measure Foundry ($495) at no extra cost. Data Translation, Marlborough, MA. 508-481-3700; www.datatranslation.com .

LTX has introduced the Fusion CX, a low-cost tester developed in conjunction with StepTech (Hopkinton, MA; www.steptechinc.com). This new entry in LTX's Fusion family of ATE systems targets low-pin-count RF and mixed-signal devices, such as those that implement Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 wireless communication links. When the RF and mixed-signal functions embodied in the low-pin-count devices migrate into high-pin-count SOCs, test engineers can port the test intellectual property they developed using LTX's enVision++ programming environment for the Fusion CX to LTX's Fusion HF SOC test systems.

Fusion CX supports up to 128 digital pins at 66 MHz. It provides up to 64 V/I source/measurement channels, up to 16 pulsed-power pins, and up to 16 7.5-GHz RF ports. The system can make broadband and IF measurements as well as DSP-controlled high-precision (at 20-bit or better resolution) audio measurements. Other features include on-the-fly time-set switching and source-synchronous-interface support.

Base price: $250,000. LTX, Westwood, MA. 781-461-1000; www.ltx.com .

Agilent's Infiniium line of scopes were the first to bring you the ease of use you get from Windows, but the scopes' short memory prevented them from use in long acquisition applications. Three new models increase memory length to as much as 8 Msamples/channel, with 2 Msamples/channel standard. Using one channel of the two-channel models or two channels of the four-channel models, you can double the memory width per channel.

One drawback to long memory has been screen update rate, which sometimes requires several seconds for the scope's host processor to decimate the data for display. The Infiniium scopes now eliminate that drawback. A separate processor decimates the data with hardware rather than software, greatly increasing the screen update rate. Because of the fast screen update rate, the Infiniium scopes operate at full-memory length regardless of acquisition speed or horizontal timebase setting, so they maintain resolution when you zoom in on an area of a waveform.

Prices: memory upgrade—$2000 to $7000 (depending on model and memory length); Model 54830B (two channels, 600 MHz)—$12,995; 54831B (four channels, 600 MHz)—$17,995; 54832B (four channels, 1 GHz)—$20,995. Prices are for 2 Msamples/channel. Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA. 800-452-4822, ext. 7589; www.agilent.com/find/infiniium .