Modular Test & Measurement Systems News

Before delving into how you go about building a modular test strategy, you have to ask one fundamental question. Why go modular at all? This comprehensive article lays the groundwork, presenting the arguments in considerable detail. It explores the advantages and disadvantages, including the need to keep pace with the state of the art and to accommodate different product lines, as well as issues such as cost, compatibility, and calibration. It discusses the different standards, how they evolved, their similarities and differences, and how you can fit all the tools together to meet your specific needs.

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Interpower Corporation offers a variety of customized labeling options. We can design a variety of labels including box, wrap, flat, flag, warning and hot stamped labels. Customize your cords with part numbers, special instructions, or even a logo or image of your choice. Interpower Corporation offers a 1-week manufacturing lead time on custom cords. From 1 to 1,000 pieces or more we have no minimum order requirements. Contact our Customer Service Department to discuss your specific needs.

MDT's TMR (Tunneling Magnetoresistance) linear magnetic field sensors provide a high-sensitivity differential output proportional to magnetic fields applied parallel to the surface of the sensor. Key features include a large dynamic field range up to ±70 Oe, high field sensitivity up to 12 mV/V/Oe, and low power consumption from 5-12.5 μW.

Global Industrial carries thousands of test and measurement tools. Choose from calipers, micrometers, temperature and environmental devices, gas detection, and more. Dozens of top brands; Mitutoyo, Fowler, General, Starrett, and more. Shop now and start saving at globalindustrial.com.

For decades, makers of modular instruments have been developing new standard architectures that allow fast, reliable measurements and effective communication with a central host. This piece explores one of the most recent — PXI — comparing its speed, modularity, I/O, software and hardware, and other performance features with its predecessors and more contemporary alternatives, including GPIB, VXI, and PCI.

For a limited time, National Instruments is reducing the price of LabVIEW system design software and the NI 9174 CompactDAQ 4-slot USB chassis. This combination of powerful software and reconfigurable hardware will be offered for $1,499 USD. Take advantage of this offer.

Eagle Eye Power Solution's battery data logging kits are designed to measure cell voltage, string voltage, and string current. Innovative design allows the BDL to be used with DC Load Banks or as a standalone tester. The BDL-Series comes with comprehensive monitoring software to view the health of each battery.

The Model 695CE converter makes possible the installation of equipment designed to operate from 24 Volt power sources, into vehicles with 12 Volt electrical systems. The Model 695CE design affords the user 1200 Watts of output power in a rugged and compact module weighing seventeen pounds. From SEC America.

The release of new versions of Microsoft Windows generally means either enduring the pain of the upgrade and becoming comfortable with the new environment, or enduring an obsolete operating system and the inevitable declining vendor support. This vendor's new instrument-control software anticipates the latest transition, embracing Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, and enhanced USB connectivity.

Some modular measurement applications require even more features than PXI can offer. In response, the industry created an extended version called PXIe. But there is no such thing as a "free lunch". How can you justify the higher cost of PXIe when you need its capability for only some test tasks? Here, Evaluation Engineering looks at several companies' compromise solutions.

Modular test evolved because of its almost unlimited flexibility. Units under test are constantly evolving, and often in unpredictable ways. This white paper explores one company's test solutions for advanced wireless communications testing, one application where test equipment is always in a "Red Queen's Race" — running as fast as possible just to avoid falling behind.

A new test situation won't likely fund a complete overhaul of your existing equipment infrastructure. What do you do if your instruments conform to a range of architecture standards? Or if some of your test equipment isn't modular at all? This piece suggests some strategies and tools that may help you address this somewhat awkward situation.

Field service instruments must allow engineers to gather and analyze data, communicate it to a depot or other central facility, and — perhaps most important — endure harsh conditions and other abuse. This article examines these and other unique demands of field service, including keeping the instruments sufficiently portable. The author also describes a standard defining the performance that the instrument must meet to qualify for military applications.

Some circumstances permit attaching an instrument to a less specialized modular architecture. This oscilloscope, which also provides the essential features of a multimeter, waveform recorder, signal generator, and spectrum analyzer, takes advantage of Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard 2.0 to interface seamlessly with a conventional desktop or portable PC without requiring an external power source.

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