Data Acquisition System
A data acquisition system consists of three key elements: a sensor, a signal conditioner and an analog-to-digital converter, also known by its acronym CAD or ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC).
Sensor: A device, also known as a transducer, capable of transforming conditions of reality, such as temperature or motion, into an electrical signal that can be measured and analyzed with a computer.
Signal conditioner: This is a device that filters the analog signal picked up by sensors before converting it into digital information. You can amplify the signal, attenuate it, filter it, calibrate it or isolate it. The information obtained from reality can be too noisy and too dangerous to treat directly without prior filtering.
Analog to digital signal converter: It is the key to any data acquisition process. It is a chip that transforms the signal captured from reality into information that can be interpreted by a processor. This data is transferred to a PC via a bus for further analysis.
Companies can implement a data acquisition system through a DAQ device, which includes signal conditioning and an analog-to-digital converter.