title: A small and lightweight three-channel signal-conditioning unit for strain-gage transducers: a technical note.
abstract: A small and lightweight signal conditioning unit for use with strain-gage transducers is described. The unit provides bridge-balancing, amplification, and filtering for three channels of Wheatstone bridge circuits. The electronics are housed with a 4.5 cm x 3.0 cm x 2.5 cm box that allows connection to a transducer and to a cable that extends to power supplies and a data storage facility. Evaluation tests showed the signal conditioning unit had low noise (0.356 microV, peak-to-peak, referenced to input) with crosstalk between channels of less than 0.02% of the peak-to-peak input signal. The signal conditioning unit has application in biomechanics where a small and lightweight unit is needed; for example, skin/support interface stress measurements in prosthetics and orthotics research.
authors.affiliation: Center for Bioengineering, Regional Primate Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle 98195, USA.
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Sanders
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: F A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Spelman
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D006801:Humans; D012046:Rehabilitation / Q000295:instrumentation; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014159:Transducers