can I use a DAQ board to replace the slow oscilloscope (while transferring data)

[yangqiang]

Dear Sir/Madam,

I want to inquire about some techniques about NI 6281 DAQ(High-Accuracy M Series Multifunction DAQ)

A photo detector was used n my experiment system to measure laser beam's intensity.

To get the voltage data (0 -10 V, DC) from photo detector using a computer, I used a BNC cable to connect the photo detector  with an oscilloscope which is produced by Tektronix company. In Matlab, I used a function "tekDownload" to capture the data on oscilloscope and transfer it to computer automatically.

But the acquisition speed is too slow. About 1 second is needed now to retrieve the data from oscilloscope .

So, my question is: Is there some kinds of micro processor or DAQ board (such as  NI 6281), which can be used to replace the slow oscilloscope (while transferring data)? I don't need complex functions on oscilloscope . All I want to do is obtaining the voltage information from the photo detector as quick as possible.  The accuracy we needed for voltage data acquisition from the photo detector is less than 1 mV.

Could you give me some suggestion for this purpose? I know the output of the photo detector (PDA36A, from Thorlabs) is from 0-10 V. So I imagine there should be some way to retrieve the voltage data from it faster.

Thanks,

Qiang Yang

[Whit-E_Wall-E]

Hello Qiag, 

There are a lot of specifications that go with the DAQ Devices.  What kind of form factor do you want?  Do you have any other specifications that you would like your DAQ Device to have?  You can search through our DAQ Devices at http://www.ni.com/data-acquisition/.  On the left hand side of the page you will be able to narrow down your search based on specific features that you are looking for, like number of channels, counters, etc.