Design and implementation of a LXI bus based multi-functional, portable and universal DAQ instrument

Abstract

A new data acquisition (DAQ) instrument based on LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation (LXI) bus and synthetic instruments has been proposed to deal with tricky testing problems in complex electrical system. This instrument is equipped with multi-core ARM processor and large capacity FPGA to achieve best DAQ and data processing performance. One important feature is multi-functional measuring, it can acquire amounts of data coming from different kinds of signals simultaneously. In addition, the instrument is portable for mobile testing on account of its compact mechanical components and low weight. The software system refers to the concepts of IVI, SCPI and ATML, using a hierarchical and modular design method. Furthermore, the whole system has a strong ability of data processing and is able to realize parallel DAQ on many channels at the same time. And the online reconfiguration make it more possible to meet the requirements coming from different targets, so the equipment is universal and can be applied to a variety of tasks. Practices prove that this instrument works well with easy operation and meets the requirements of design.