A distributed data acquisition system for aeronautics test facilities

The NASA Lewis Research Center is in the process of installing a new data acquisition and display system. This new system will provide small and medium sized aeronautics test facilities with a state-of-the-art real-time data acquisition and display system. The new data system will provide for the acquisition of signals from a variety of instrumentation sources. They include analog measurements of temperatures, pressures, and other steady state voltage inputs; frequency inputs to measure speed and flow; discrete I/O for significant events, and modular instrument systems such as multiplexed pressure modules or electronic instrumentation with a IEEE 488 interface. The data system is designed to acquire data, convert it to engineering units, compute test dependent performance calculations, limit check selected channels or calculations, and display the information in alphanumeric or graphical form with a cycle time of one second for the alphanumeric data. This paper describes the system configuration, its salient features, and the expected impact on testing.