In my Strength of Materials lab, we computerised our UTM (our vendor) and CTM. The essential instrumentation was a pressure sensor for the load applied and a rotary encoder for measuring the displacement. The signal from these sensors is fed into a DAQ system provided by the vendor who did the upgradation.
The DAQ system displays the results and transfers it to a PC, where the provided software can be used to view the results.
As a tinkering scientist, I plan to use a few more sensors like thermocouple, strain gage, LVDT etc with these machines. These are not supported by the current DAQ system.
I have a datalogger, which can be used to transfer the data from these new sensors to the PC, but I want this data syncronously with the data from the DAQ which is obtained in the software.
While I dont need all the data in the vendor's software and I can write my own code in MATLAB etc. I am unable to view the already installed sensor's signal outside of the provided software. Can it be said that the signal from the DAQ has been locked so it can be viewed only in the proprietory software ?
IS their a way around this ?
