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 card installed into a personal computer and is based on an open-source code, which interacts with the audio card, and on a simple test board, which allows the audio card to be calibrated. The kit is the base of the Instrumentation Training Project at the Politecnico di Torino, which is composed of a set of guided experiments based on the capabilities of the training kit.