Computers in the laboratory-an automatic data acquisition system

An automatic data acquisition system (ADAS) used by students in analog circuits and systems laboratories at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is described. The system uses an HP 9816 personal computer to control test instrumentation on each of five student laboratory benches plus a central demonstration port. The PC controls these eight pieces of test instrumentation using the IEEE 488 (HP-IB) network bus: a frequency synthesizer (HP 3488A), digital voltmeter (HP 3478A), frequency counter (HP 8116A), power supply and controller (HP 6824A and 59501B), printer (HP 82906A), plotter (HP 7470A), and switch/control unit (HP 3488A). The ADAS approach increases student productivity by accelerating routing data acquisition. Students obtain immediate experimental results in familiar forms similar to textbook presentations. Since data manipulation, reduction, and calculations are programmed, they know immediately if their experimental results are valid and if their design configuration satisfies the performance specifications