[OT] DMM via soundcard ?

[Skeleton Man]

Hi,

Can anyone reccomend a decent product or kit for building a DMM that runs
off a PC sound card ?

I have a perfectly good DMM, but I want to measure voltage fluctuations over
a period of time (say 24 hours), and obviously I need a way to record this
data.

I have a simple server (P300, 64MB, FreeBSD) acting as a router between
public and private networks, and I am forever having hard drives crash ! I
have replaced the entire machine several times but always after a few weeks
to a few months it eats the hdd !! I'm suspecting power failures/brownouts
might play a part in this..

I had thought about a fancy meter with a serial interface or simmilar, but
figured I'd be shelling out big $$ and using a sound card and simple
circuitry would be a lot cheaper.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Gerard Bok]

Can anyone reccomend a decent product or kit for building a DMM that runs
off a PC sound card ?

That's something that probably doesn't extists
For a DMM you want DC ranges and that's hardly the strongest
point of a PC Sound card

I have a perfectly good DMM, but I want to measure voltage fluctuations over
a period of time (say 24 hours), and obviously I need a way to record this
data.

Take a look at http://www.picotech.com/ for some nice solutions

I have a simple server (P300, 64MB, FreeBSD) acting as a router between
public and private networks, and I am forever having hard drives crash ! I
have replaced the entire machine several times but always after a few weeks
to a few months it eats the hdd !! I'm suspecting power failures/brownouts
might play a part in this..

If your problems are caused by power failures/brownouts your
logging application is likely to be interrupted as well.

 

[Skeleton Man]

Can anyone reccomend a decent product or kit for building a DMM that runs

That's something that probably doesn't extists
For a DMM you want DC ranges and that's hardly the strongest
point of a PC Sound card

You can get kits like that for using the sound card as a DMM (and various
software to go with it), the quality of which I don't know.

Take a look at http://www.picotech.com/ for some nice solutions

I like their digital o'scopes.. I've always wanted a CRO, but such things
have always been well beyond my budget..


Regards,
Chris