Diamond Systems DS-MPE-DAQ0804 Rugged Analog and Digital I/O PCIe Mini Card

Many rugged SBCs have a spare PCIe MiniCard socket but no room or bus for a PC/104 stack, and a small amount of analogue measurement is still needed. The DS-MPE-DAQ0804 is Diamond Systems’ data acquisition MiniCard for that case: a full-size PCIe MiniCard with analogue inputs, analogue outputs and configurable digital I/O.

Eight 16-bit analogue inputs work as eight single-ended or four true differential channels, with ranges of ±10 V, ±5 V, 0-10 V and 0-5 V and an aggregate sample rate of 100 kHz. An integrated programmable timer paces the A/D, which cuts processor overhead compared with software polling, and a 2,048-sample FIFO with a programmable interrupt threshold reduces the interrupt rate further, so full-speed sampling holds up whatever the host processor.

Four 16-bit analogue outputs cover 0-5 V and 0-2.5 V, referenced to a precision low-drift voltage reference, and a waveform generator with a 2K-sample buffer handles stimulus work such as sonar and laser light control. The 14 buffered digital lines have direction control and protection, with software-selectable pull-up or pull-down, and can be configured as four 24-bit pulse width modulators or eight 32-bit counter/timers on a 50 MHz clock. The DS-MPE-GPIO is the digital-only MiniCard, and the DMM-16R-AT is the PC/104 route to 16 inputs.

The DS-MPE-DAQ0804 takes +3.3 V at 0.462 W from the MiniCard socket and operates from -40 to +85 °C at 5 to 95% non-condensing humidity. Signals leave on two positive-locking miniature connectors for vibration, jumpers can be replaced with 0-ohm resistors, and the card ships with an analogue cable, a digital cable and mounting screws. The Universal Driver supports Windows and Linux.