Handheld device offers measurements on the move

Only slightly larger than a standard passport photo, a new portable data acquisition device has been launched that offers engineers and scientists customised, portable measurements at their fingertips. Developed by test and measurement hardware and software specialist National Instruments, the NI CF-6004 handheld measurement tool has the processing and wireless communication capabilities of the latest personal digital assistant (PDA) devices. The device is a 14-bit multifunction unit that plugs directly into a PDA CompactFlash slot to provide up to 200KS/s single channel sampling on four analogue input channels in a handheld form factor. The device also offers four lines of digital I/O for controlling and measuring LVTTL or LVCMOS signals. Engineers can use the NI LabVIEW graphical programming environment for Pocket PC to acquire, analyse and view data on their PDAs. Applications include wearable computing, field monitoring and field diagnostics, as well as laboratory and educational use. Users can also save valuable space by using a single PDA with LabVIEW and the CF-6004 device rather than buying several traditional handheld instruments. And, because engineers can define their own unique instruments in LabVIEW and then easily deploy them to their handheld devices, they can also change and re-deploy these applications on their PDAs for new measurements. As PDAs are typically less expensive than laptops, PDA-based data acquisition is now a cost effective option for handheld, portable instruments. National Instruments' senior VP of research and development Tim Dehne commented: "The concept of virtual instrumentation - where customers define their own instruments through graphical programming and modular hardware components - is moving to smaller and smaller form factors, making data acquisition even more convenient and portable."