Computer-controlled, thirty-channel data acquisition system for three-dimensional acceleration measurement

A data acquisition system (DAS) was developed to measure three-dimensional acceleration of agricultural machine components. The system consisted of Silicon Designs, Inc., model 1000 capacitive accelerometers and an interface utilizing AM19513 system timing controller chips, an 8254 chip, and an 8255 chip. Digital signals from the accelerometers were fed directly to the interface board which was installed in a ZEOS®486 computer. A control program for the system was developed using Turbo C++™. The DAS is capable of measuring up to 30 channels simultaneously with fully automatic data acquisition and processing.