Looking at the heart of experimental science you will find data acquisition. Why? Because even the most perfectly conceived experiment is worth nothing if nobody acquires, analyzes and stores data for further analysis and reproduction of results. Despite its obvious importance, data acquisition does not always receive the necessary attention. In a series of three consecutive blog posts we want to concentrate on this topic and deepen the knowledge base about the capabilities of the LabOne Data Acquisition (DAQ) module.
The integration of the DAQ module - previously named Software trigger module – into the LabOne Software in version 17.12 introduced a very powerful tool for triggered and transient data acquisition in both the time and frequency domains in graph or image mode. Our customers routinely use the DAQ for instance in SPM, ring down measurements on resonators or in microfluids experiments.
Although many different applications already rely on the DAQ, at Zurich Instruments we found that many users don't take full advantage of its capabilities. Therefore, this blog post gives a general introduction to the functional features of the DAQ module and walks the reader through some basic examples. For this to be useful to every customer, I used a MFLI with no additional options for these examples. However, everybody can replicate them on any Zurich Instruments Lock-in Amplifier.
Basics of DAQ and Data Saving
Settings
Let’s start with an easy example. You will learn how to control the trigger level, the data rate and the duration of a measurement with the DAQ, and how to save the data. For this example, connect a BNC cable between the signal output and signal input of the lock-in amplifier (see Figure 1) and use the settings given in Table 1.
