Data Acquisition and Resistance Measurements Using a Simple Program

The goal of this paper is to describe a simple method for the automated data acquisition and analysis of data taken by programmable instruments. Device controls and communication method are explained and some typical illustrative examples showing the potential applications of the method in real experiments are presented. This method offers a quick and flexible way to control many instruments by using a multi-device arrangement of a stacking method in a parallel operation. The General-Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB) is used here for remote control of the devices. By using Excel and Visa interactive programs and using GPIB interface, easy communication and data transfer between instruments and a PC is accomplished. A special probe system is devised for the small resistant measuring experiments and the DC resistance measurements are performed by using the four-probe method. The related temperatures are measured by using a silicone diode as a resistance thermometer detector. Using this data acquisition method, short circuit voltage measurement, resistance measurements and the temperature dependence of resistance for a thin platinum wire are reported.