Higher performance

National Instruments has released a 24-bit data acquisition and generation module, the NI PCI-4461, marking, what it claims, is the highest-performance dynamic signal acquisition (DSA) board on the PCI bus with a 118 dB dynamic range.

The company has also released the National Instruments LabVIEW Sound and Vibration Toolkit Version 4, with 10 new Express VIs for simplified application development. These new products add to NI's hardware and software tools for sound and vibration applications, including PXI, PCI and USB measurement devices and analysis software.

In addition to 24-bit output channels on PCI, the PCI-4461 DSA board offers two 24-bit input channels, making it suitable for stimulus response applications such as audio and structural tests. Engineers can synchronise multiple PCI-4461 boards to attain four-input and four-output systems or six-input and two-output systems for applications such as simultaneous 5.1 speaker surround sound test or acoustic holography.

The PCI-4461 board also features IEEE 1451.4 transducer electronic data sheet (TEDS) capability, which simplifies the configuration of a microphone or an accelerometer measurement.

The NI LabVIEW Sound and Vibration Toolkit 4 now is easier to use with 10 new Express VIs for interactively developing applications and generating code for fractional octave analysis, frequency response, vibration and sound level and other common analyses. Engineers can customise applications such as integrated vibration level measurements, weighted sound level measurements, swept sine analysis, power spectrum analysis, limit testing and transient analysis.

Engineers can further extend their sound and vibration analysis with the upgraded LabVIEW Order Analysis Toolkit 2.1 that features an  application programming interface and simpler graphing options. With improved resampling and Gabor techniques for online and off-line analysis capability, the toolkit can be used for order tracking, order extraction and tachometer signal processing. Simplified visualisation capabilities include orbit, polar, bode, cascade, waterfall and shaft centerline plots.