Resources for Learning Interfacing Electronics?

[Zeejet]

Hi all,

I hope this is not the inappropriate board for this, but I was hoping to get some advice on how to begin learning and understanding interfacing electronic devices (such as mass flow controllers in my case) to computers for control and DAQ.

I am a graduate student n chemistry with zero experience in electrical engineering and wish to be more self-sufficient with tasks such as setting up and writing programs for instruments and other devices that do not come with pre-packaged software.

Unless I absolutely MUST take some electrical engineering courses to learn this, I would like some tutorials or readings that can help me understand the basics. I have found tutorials for learning LabVIEW software, but nothing regarding hardware and connectivity (more specifically, what analog/digital I/O can do, and how they are controlled).

Thanks!

[johnsold]

Zeejet,

Breakpoint might be a better place, but I do not see the question as being completely inappropriate for this board.

You will probably not find exactly what you are looking for in any one book/resource.

I recommend that you look at some of the documentation the NI produces for their DAQ devices. Many of those show input circuit configurations (although probably not the exact circuit) and have some discussion of the implications of those circuits.

Two books that I have on my shelves are: Instrumentation & Measurement, Pocket Book by W. Bolton, Newnes, Oxford and Boston, copyright 1996, ISBN 0 7506 2885 5. Circuit Design for Electronic Instrumentation, by Darold Wobschall, McGraw-Hill, New York, copyright 1979, ISBN 0-07-071230-1.  The first is more of a small handbook. The second is an electrical engineering book, but could be useful to someone like you. It starts with an overview of the basic electronics, then covers transducers and interfacing.

Lynn