title: Modular data acquisition system updated using LabWindows/CVI Graphical User Interface.
abstract: The Biomechanics Laboratory of the Neuroscience Department of the Medical College of Wisconsin is currently engaged in research involving trauma biomechanics. For some experiments, 24 channels of analog data must be sampled at 10,000 Hertz. The Modular Data Acquisition System (MDAS) is able to acquire up to 60 channels of analog data at sampling intervals as low as 6 microseconds. This excellent hardware system has only menu-driven utility software that is no longer supported and required updating to a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Using National Instruments LabWindows/CVI software a GUI was developed. The GUI consists of 9 Graphical User Interface panels controlled by a 3000 line C program "MDAS3SAM". "MDAS3SAM" controls a driver program "MDAS_SAM" which communicates with the MDAS unit via a National Instruments GPIB interface. The 9 GUI panels allow the user to configure the MDAS system (selecting channels, sampling interval, triggering levels etc.), start sampling the data, writing the data to hard disk, graphing the data and printing the graphs. The new system allows the user to quickly reconfigure the MDAS unit and obtain accurate results.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Milwaukee School of Engineering, WI 53202-3109, USA.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Wheeldon
authors.forename: F A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Pintar
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yoganandan
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003199:Computer Systems; D003626:Data Display; D012984:Software; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology