High-speed, real-time data acquisition for vector measuring current meters

An integrated hardware and software approach used to provide real-time data acquisition and display of vector measuring current meter (VMCM) data at high sample rates is described. The hardware component consists of a circuit board in the VMCM that captures the relatively low-speed VMCM data output, stores it, and retransmits it at high speed in response to a request from the data acquisition computer. A four-day data acquisition run shows that the system is capable of sampling, displaying, and storing data from multiple arrays of VMCMs at two-second intervals