Signal Interface Modules


New Products: 2008-2009

Bellevue, WA, January 13, 2009 - In the last year, Microstar Laboratories, Inc. has introduced a new family of products described by the company as signal interface (SI) modules. Plans for 2009 include significant extensions to this product family, involving both new hardware and additional software for hardware now in production.

Onboard Intelligence

Microstar Laboratories is already well known for the Data Acquisition Processor (DAP) boards and network-ready DAPservers that it manufactures for PC-based data acquisition and control systems. Every DAP includes onboard intelligence implemented as a real-time operating system running on an embedded processor. This onboard intelligence communicates with and is controlled by a PC application. Your PC application can configure a DAP for specific runtime behavior.

Distributed Intelligence

Each new signal interface module includes onboard intelligence implemented in FPGA code. This onboard intelligence communicates with and is controlled by a DAP connected to the signal interface module. On startup, a DAP polls all SI modules connected to it and configures them as required by the application. Your PC application can communicate with and control - through a DAP - every SI module in your system.

Signal Isolation

SI modules all include signal isolation to prevent ground loops. Using these boards saves you from having to take other steps against this common nuisance. If spurious currents are corrupting your signals, your application is not doing the job you want it to do.

Module Types

For applications that require voltage inputs or outputs, you can choose from SI modules for analog input, analog output, analog input and output, and digital input and output. A module for 4-20 mA current inputs is already in production, and one for current outputs will be available early in 2009.

Rack-Mountable Enclosure

SI modules fit into a backplane in a standard industrial enclosure as do other products that conform to the hardware specifications of the Microstar Laboratories channel architecture: signal connectors on a 3U (100mm high) Eurocard B (220mm deep) platform. A backplane connector on each module connects it to a digital backplane factory-fitted into the industrial enclosure. An interface that also plugs into the backplane sends digitized waveforms to a DAP controlled from a PC or DAPserver.

Every DAPserver includes a 10-slot Eurocard cage with a preinstalled digital backplane for SI modules. Separate industrial enclosures are required only when this 10-slot limit is exceeded.

Networked Systems

Any PC or DAPserver can control more than one DAP. And a DAPserver can contain a number of DAPs. You can control a DAP from DAPstudio - a Windows application from Microstar Laboratories - as well as from third-party (or your own) software, and you can do this from any PC on a network.

For smaller systems, you can hook up a single DAPserver to any PC with an Ethernet connection. You also can work directly on the DAPserver: add a screen, and connect a keyboard and mouse to the front-panel USB ports.

Looking Ahead: 2009

You can expect SI modules with an ADC on every channel for simultaneous sampling as well as channel-to-channel isolation on new products planned for early in 2009. New hardware for 4-20 mA current outputs will complement the SI module for current inputs mentioned above. And just as onboard intelligence on a DAP allows new uses for existing hardware by adding new software, so onboard intelligence on SI modules allows new features to be added to existing hardware designs by adding new FPGA code. Current plans for 2009 include these additions: a counter/timer option, a quadrature-decoder feature, various filters, and other signal conditioning.

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