Spider8 is a multi-channel electronic PC measurement unit for parallel, dynamic measurement data acquisition using a computer. PC-aided measurement is playing an increasingly important role with computers and measurement devices becoming smaller and less expensive.

The Spider8 offers a congenial and economic alternative to systems consisting of a number of components. These are usually accommodated partly in the computer and partly externally and must first be wired and configured to form a measurement system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Spider8 everything needed for measurement is accommodated in a compact housing no bigger than a notebook. There are no switches, potentiometers or jumpers and the configuration of a plug-in card with I/O address, interrupt level or DMA channel is also no longer needed. This is because the Spider8 is simply connected via the printer port between the PC and the printer and is then immediately ready for use.

Each channel in the Spider8 provides excitation for passive transducers, amplifier, filters and its own A/D converter. All A/D converters operate synchronised and supply up to 9,600 measurements/s from each channel with a resolution of 16 bit. In the basic unit four 4.8 kHz (600 Hz with Spider8-30) carrier-frequency measuring amplifiers, stable and immune to interference, enable the universal application of Spider8 for the measurement of force, displacement, pressure and other mechanical quantities using strain-gauge and inductive transducers.

Two channels can alternatively also be used as frequency or pulse counters for incremental or angle resolvers.

Spider8-30, with a 600Hz carrier frequency, is intended specifically for use in experimental stress analysis. For measurement tasks with strain gauge 1/4 bridges, it can offer 3-wire connection techniques, 3 selectable compensating resistors and shunt calibration for each channel. Sixteen digital inputs and outputs, together with an external trigger input, round off the Spider8 features.

Spider8 can be expanded to 8 channels in a single device or to a total of 64 channels with 8 devices. Plug-in modules are available in two versions for expansion in the device: one as an additional CF amplifier channel and one as a DC version, with electrically isolated inputs for temperature measurements with thermocouples or Pt100, or for measuring direct voltages, direct currents and resistances.

Key Features

• Simultaneous measurement acquisition
• High sampling rate at 16-bit
• Optional digital filters
• Calibrated complete measuring chain
• Easy to operate and configure
• Up to 64 channels can be cascaded
• EMC-tested metal housing
• Compensating resistors with shunt calibration (Spider8-30)