An Isolated Data Acquisition System for High Voltage Applications

This report describes the design and operation of a microcomputer controlled system for acquisition of both analog and binary data within the high voltage stages of a linac modulator. The system is comprised of a microprocessor Controller which communicates with the remote data Acquisition circuits via an optical bus. The bus, which uses a 1 MHz Manchester II format, is configured as a loop, starting at the Controller, daisy-chaining the remote cards and terminating back at the Controller. Upon receiving a linac timing pulse, the Controller sends addressed commands to the individual remote cards and receives data back. It then passes this data to the linac control system through a Multibus connection. Each remote circuit can return 16 binary sense and 7 (12 bit) analog parameters within 270 us. This speed is possible because of a pipelined design where one word is transmitted while another is being converted. A data conversion cycle is initiated when a remote data acquisition card receives the proper command and address from the controller.