NI unveils new rugged DSA

National Instruments (NI) announced a small, rugged dynamic signal analyzer (DSA) built on NI reconfigurable I/O (RIO) hardware. The new cRIO-4408 DSA is a 24bit, eight-channel data acquisition device designed for making high-accuracy sound and vibration measurements from integrated electronic piezoelectric (IEPE) sensors. Because of its small size, ruggedness and Ethernet communication, NI added, this product is ideal for in-vehicle or embedded machinery monitoring applications in harsh environments.

The cRIO-4408 DSA delivers 102dB dynamic range and IEPE signal conditioning for accelerometers and microphones, as well as eight input channels that simultaneously acquire at rates from 2kS/s to 33.3kS/s (up to 50kS/s for four channels). In addition, it offers communication through standard 10/100 Ethernet and built-in analog and digital antialiasing filters that automatically adjust according to the sampling rate.

Since the cRIO-4408 DSA includes an example NI LabVIEW program that details the required TCP/IP communication, engineers simply plug in the device and assign it an IP address to begin acquiring data. Engineers can also use the cRIO-4408 DSA with NI software, including the NI LabVIEW sound and vibration toolkit and LabVIEW order analysis toolkit, to calculate weighted sound level, integrated vibration level, baseband and zoom FFTs, fractional octave analysis, frequency response, order tracking and order spectra.

The NI CompactRIO platform is a low-cost acquisition system designed for applications that require high performance and reliability. The platform combines an open, embedded architecture with small size, extreme ruggedness and DC power. CompactRIO systems weigh less than 3.5lbs with a -40°C to 70°C temperature range and 50g shock rating.