New QPID Data Acquisition Card Testing Complete

I made a mention back in June that we were working on a new data acquisition card. Well, we have just finished testing with our PCI prototype based on the NI PCI-7831R and we now have the final feature list:

• 8 16-bit analog inputs with simultaneous sampling
  

• 8 16-bit analog outputs with simultaneous sampling


• 8 24-bit encoder inputs with quadrature decoding, filtering, and simultaneous sampling up to 40 MHz


• Hardware based encoder velocities


• 8 PWM outputs with configuration options suitable for general purpose single channel, H-bridges, hobby servos, and 3-phase motor control


• SPI communications


• 56 general purpose digital I/O


• Hardware watchdog


• External inputs for triggering conversions and interrupts


• Multiple general purpose timers


• Many possible synchronization options

We are particularly excited about the hardware based encoder velocity measurements. This gives you a very clean velocity measurement independent of your sample rate and jitter, and without doing any differentiation or filtering. The velocities are nearly instantaneous with no phase lag. This is particularly beneficial at low speeds or for lower encoder resolutions where you may only get a small number of counts per second.

As we finalize the mechanical case for the terminal board and all the software components we will be moving towards production and our official release!