Analog Composite Video Acquisition and Data Synchronization

[jch303]

WinXP, LabVIEW 7.1

New to using LabVIEW and need help choosing the right hardware.

For our experiments, we have an analog composite video source which we need to acquire and at the same time, acquire a number of voltage signals at different sampling rates that needs to be synchronized with the video data.

We would like to keep with using a Laptop computer (high-end) so there is some portability.

To acquire the composite video into the laptop, what hardware is necessary?

To acquire the voltage signals at different sampling rates into the laptop, what hardware is necessary?

Are there examples on how to synchronize voltage data (or signal data in general) with video data?

Future thanks for any assistance.

[Dan_Quinn]

Hi jch303,

Thanks for using our discussion forums! There are a few things you might want to try here.

First of all, if you really want to stick with the laptop, the Data Acquisition should be pretty easy to put together- we have quite a few different models of PCMCIA DAQ devices. I'm not sure how many channels you need or what resolution or sampling speed you need though. Here is a link to our DAQ devices, and if you provide some specs, I'd be glad to recommend one:
http://sine.ni.com/apps/we/nioc.vp?cid=13873〈=US

With regards to the analog image acquisition, this is the tricky part. Unfortunately, we don't offer any analog image acquisition devices for laptops. If you are looking to acquire images on a laptop, you might want to consider using an IEEE 1394 (firewire) camera instead of analog.

Another option that would be quite easy to integrate would be to use a PXI chassis instead of a laptop. In this case, you could simply buy a small 4 slot chassis with a controller, analog IMAQ module and M-Series DAQ module. Synchronization would be very easy and the PXI chassis would be smaller than a full sized PC.

Let us know if there's anything else we can help with.

Regards

Dan
National Instruments