An audio-card based kit for educational purposes

This paper describes an inexpensive kit which is designed to allow users to get acquainted with modern instrumentation without the necessity to get to a laboratory where the instruments are available. The kit takes advantage of any low-cost audio board installed into a personal computer and is based on an open-source code, which interacts with the audio board, and on a simple test board, which allows the audio board to be calibrated. The kit is the base of an Instrumentation Training Project, which is composed of a set of guided experiments based on the capabilities of the training kit.