Products in Brief

Two 3U CompactPCI serial I/O adapters, the COMM+2.cPCI and COMM+4.cPCI, provide two and four individually selectable RS-232/422/485 ports.

• Adapters handle data rates of up to 921.6 kbps.
• They accommodate up to 32 RS-485 devices on each port for automating data collection.
• Optional DB9 terminal blocks simplify serial connections.

Base price: $459. Sealevel Systems, Liberty, SC. 864-843-4343; www.sealevel.com.

Contained on a PC/104 module, the Model 104-DIO-48S 48-channel parallel digital I/O board features change-of-status detection on selected ports.

• It allows interrupts to be generated port by port.
• I/O lines are buffered and can source 15 mA or sink 24 mA.
• The module requires +5 V at 200 mA, depending on output configuration.

Base price: $145. ACCES I/O Products, San Diego, CA. 858-550-9559; www.accesio.com.

Plugged into any computer's PCI slot, the PCI-DAS6025 and PCI-DAS6023 boards supply 16 channels of 12-bit analog-to-digital conversion.

• PCI-DAS6025 also provides two 12-bit analog outputs and 24 additional digital I/O lines.
• The boards furnish eight discrete digital bidirectional I/O lines.
• They deliver sample rates of up to 200 ksamples/s.

Price: PCI-DAS6025—$495; PCI-DAS6023—$375. Measurement Computing, Middleboro, MA. 508-946-5100; www.mccdaq.com.

A family of low-profile PCI 2.2-compliant serial I/O boards are narrow enough to fit all 2U rack-mount systems without the need for riser cards.

• The boards come with one, two, or four RS-232 or RS-422/485 ports.
• They furnish shared interrupts, 16-byte FIFOs, and data speeds of up to 921.6 kpbs.
• They provide an automatic RS-422/485 transmitter enable/disable function.

Base price: SSCLP (one port)—$109; DSCLP (two ports)—$159; QSCLP (four ports)—$229. Quatech, Akron, OH. 330-434-3154; www.quatech.com.

The Model SM120 source-measure module tests DC/DC converters, op amps, and semiconductor devices in ATE environments.

• The module sources and measures voltage from 50µV to 120 V and current from 30 fA to 100 mA.
• It provides four operating modes, including DC, step, pulse, and sweep.
• It performs 1000 source-measurements/s at 42/3 digits.

Base price: $7695. Interface Technology, Walnut, CA. 909-595-6030; www.interfacetech.com.

The DAQPad-6052E uses an IEEE 1394 (Firewire) connection to deliver high-speed, continuous transfers to and from a computer.

• The device offers 16 single-ended or 8 differential analog input channels.
• It has a 333-ksample/s continuous sampling rate and 16-bit resolution.
• It has two 16-bit analog outputs, two 24-bit counter/timers, and eight digital I/O lines.

Base price: $2895. National Instruments, Austin, TX. 800-258-7022; www.ni.com.

The STX 15 industrial PC offers four mounting options to suit a range of needs.

• The STX 15 has four COM ports, two USB ports, and a 10/100BaseT Ethernet port.
• It uses a 15-in. TFT LCD with optional touch screen and NEMA 4/12 front panel.

CyberResearch, Branford, CT. 203-483-8815; www.cyberresearch.com.

Building on its real-time capabilities, Version 3.0 of the Synergy 2000 LE entry-level statistical process control program adds more than a dozen new features and enhancements.

• The software furnishes a scheduler for performing gage repeatability and reproducibility studies.
• It transmits reports and spreadsheets as Web pages via e-mail.
• A message log chronologically tracks all communications associated with a process.

Price: $999. Zontec, Cincinnati, OH. 513-648-0088; www.zontec-spc.com.

A free upgrade is available for Measurement Studio, a suite of development tools that complements Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.

• The upgrade enables Measurement Studio to seamlessly integrate with Visual Studio .NET.
• Measurement Studio provides data-acquisition, analysis, and visualization tools.
• Measurement Studio helps users of Visual Studio .NET build measurement and control systems that incorporate motion, vision, instrument control, and data acquisition.

Base price for Measurement Studio: $495. National Instruments, Austin, TX. 800-258-7022; www.ni.com.

Version 2.2 of the NWA Quality Monitor adds new database capabilities using Microsoft's Open Database Connectivity Protocol.

• The software permits plant-floor quality data collection and SPC charting.
• It reads data input from text files, as well as RS-232 input.
• It includes built-in date, time, and running calculations.

Northwest Analytical, Portland, OR. 888-692-7638; www.nwasoft.com.

The XControls Instrument Pack (XC-I) and Professional Pack (XC-P) let you create high-impact GUIs for data-acquisition applications.

• XControls contains 27 devices, including rotary and sliding knobs and switches, numeric readouts, LED bars, and a waveform plotter.
• Professional Pack adds 26 tank and valve icons, sliding scale gauges, threaded and unthreaded timers, and more.
• The toolkits are compatible with all Dataq acquisition hardware as well as with Microsoft Excel.

Price: XC-I—$449; XC-P—$895. Dataq Instruments, Akron, OH. 330-668-1444; www.dataq.com.

SoftWIRE for Visual Studio .NET simplifies computer programming by allowing even non-programmers to build functional applications.

• You can create Visual Basic .NET and Visual C# .NET projects without writing code.
• SoftWIRE uses Microsoft .NET components to access e-mail, database, network communications, and Microsoft Office automation.
• SoftWIRE-built run-time applications may be distributed royalty-free.

Price: $495. SoftWIRE Technology, Middleboro, MA. 508-946-8900; www.softwiretechnology.com.

A PC-based system, the Horizon 1500 Lite, enables 128-point low-voltage testing of wire and cable.

• Expansion up to 1024 points is possible.
• The system is equipped with floppy and hard drives and standard PC peripheral ports.
• It comes with test executives and communication software.

CableTest Systems, Markham, ON, Canada. 905-475-2607; www.cabletest.com.

Based on a surface-mount contact design, Gryphics' family of 0.8-mm to 1.27-mm pitch BGA sockets provides up to 13-GHz performance at less than –1 dB.

• Three cover configurations are available: a hinged cover with adjustable device press, a bolt-down heatsink, and a bolt-down with probe.

• A backside board stiffener helps achieve greater than 70% device placement area over standard stiffeners.
• The company completed over six months of rigorous on-site and field evaluations.

Gryphics, Plymouth, MN. 763-509-0070; www.gryphics.com.

The ScanPlusDFT boundary-scan design-for-test tool generates test coverage reports for all nets and pins on the board under test.

• The tool analyzes the testability of boards and systems that include a mix of boundary-scan and non-boundary-scan devices.
• It is used after schematic capture and before PBC CAD layout.
• ScanPlus DFT reduces test coverage analysis time to seconds.

Corelis, Cerritos, CA. 562-926-6727; www.corelis.com.

The In-Sight 4000 series of vision sensors is five times faster than previous models from Cognex and includes a high-resolution (1024x768-pixel) version and a remote-head camera.

• The sensors provide built-in Ethernet communications.
• They come with a library of vision tools for locating, inspecting, measuring, and identifying parts.
• A spreadsheet interface simplifies application setup.

Cognex, Natick, MA. 508-650-3000; www.cognex.com.

This complete turnkey automated inspection machine includes the EZVision machine-vision system with camera optics and lighting, along with the material handling needed for your specific application.

• The system inspects a wide variety of non-fixtured components.
• It integrates vision-guided robots, feeder bowls, part-positioning tracks, and conveyors.
• It includes application engineering for lighting, optics, and methodology inspection setup.

Cincinnati Automation, Covington, KY. 859-341-1141; www.ciavision.com.

The Quadrus EZ camera allows the use of 2-D symbols to track components and PCBs through the manufacturing process.

• Quadrus EZ decodes both linear and 2-D codes at up to 60 codes/s.
• It eases transitioning from bar codes to 2-D codes.

Microscan Systems, Renton, WA. 425-226-5700; www.microscan.com.

When used with the 2700 and 2750 mainframes, the Model 7711 and Model 7712 offer RF switching for applications like 3G telecom, wireless LAN, and Bluetooth module testing.

• Model 7711 performs general-purpose switching to 2 GHz.
• Model 7712 performs switching to 3.5 GHz.
• Both modules use a 50-V, dual 1x4 multiplexer configuration with rear-panel SMA connectors.

Price: Model 7711—$495; Model 7712—$1995. Keithley Instruments, Cleveland, OH. 888-534-8453; www.keithley.com.

Based on Rohde & Schwarz's CMU200 test platform, the TS7160 system facilitates the mass production of Bluetooth devices and components.

• It accommodates up to 31 CompactPCI and PXI test cards.
• Ready-to-run test cases are included.

Rohde & Schwarz, Munich, Germany. +49-89-4129-13779; www.rohde-schwarz.com.

By supplying two satellite channels and the terrestrial repeater channel simultaneously, the CS2010SDARS realistically simulates a complete Satellite Delivered Audio Radio (SDARS) network connection.

• The generator provides an independent signal-to-noise ratio of up to 70 dB.
• It features 30-MHz multicarrier bandwidth and 11.5 s of nonrepetitive signal playback.

Celerity Systems, Cupertino, CA. 408-873-1001; www.celeritydbt.com.

The 86038A optical-dispersion analyzer measures DWDM components, optical fibers, amplifiers, and systems.

• It covers the entire S, C, and L bands (1370 to 1640 nm).
• It uses the modulation phase shift method to achieve sensitive chromatic dispersion and polarization-mode dispersion measurements.

Base price: $190,000. Agilent, Santa Clara, CA. 800-452-4844, ext. 7658; www.agilent.com.

The NT55-8XX series of collimators lets you focus and collimate light exiting a fiber to a desired beam diameter or spot size.

• Units have 488- to 633-nm, 650- to 870-nm, and 1064- to 1550-nm wavelength ranges.
• They employ FC or SMA connectors.

Edmund Industrial Optics, Barrington, NJ. 856-573-6250; www.edmundoptics.com.

Two programmable optical attenuators, the MN9625A and MN9626A, offer wavelength flatness of better than 0.2 dB pk-pk in the C and S bands and better than 0.25 dB pk-pk in the L band.

• The attenuators provide maximum attenuation of 60 dB with±0.1-dB accuracy.
• They offer a maximum input level of 18 dBm with the option to increase to 23 dBm.
• The MN9626A has a built-in optical monitor output for evaluating the transmission quality of fiber-optic communication systems.

Price: MN9625A—$9660; MN9626A—$10,970. Delivery: six to eight weeks. Anritsu, Richardson, TX. 972-644-1777; www.us.anritsu.com.

You can team the IQS-1700 optical power meter with as many as four OHS-1713-UH optical remote test heads.

• Test heads handle up to 40 dBm using an integrating cavity design.
• The meter allows testing of bare and connectorized fibers.
• It provides automatic measurements at a rate of 5000 samples/s for each channel with a stabilization time below 300µs.

EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering, Vanier, QC, Canada. 418-683-0211; www.exfo.com.

An enhanced remote-control interface is now available for the 2500 series of AC, DC, and AC/DC microprocessor-controlled hipot testers.

• The interface allows instruments to be used in automated applications as well as in stand-alone manual applications.
• The units provide test voltages of up to 5000 V and adjustable trip currents of up to 100 mA AC and 3 mA DC.
• They meet UL, CSA, VDE, and IEC requirements.

Base price: $895. Slaughter, Ardmore, OK. 800-421-1921; www.hipot.com.

The SmartGFI electrical safety compliance tester protects the operator from the risk of electrical shock during electrical safety testing.

• It automatically recognizes the configuration of the device under test.
• It shuts down high voltage if leakage in excess of 450µA is detected through the ground circuit.
• It disables high voltage in less than 1 ms.

Associated Research, Lake Forest, IL. 800-858-8378; www.asresearch.com.