Sound Blaster as Data Aquisition

[dn]

Mark Boxsell wrote:

>             Yes! ,This is exactly what I was wondering maybe we all have a
> digital storage cro in our PC's after all! Has anyone out there seen any
> articles on this, I think the 'line in' accepts 0 - 250mV so you would have
> to put a front end of some kind on the thing.
> Whoever works out a kit for this will make a fortune. I don't have time at
> the moment so someone else will have to do it!

The main problem with a sound blaster card is that it doesn't accept DC 
signals.  The inputs are capacitor coupled so they block DC.  I think
it will go down to about 10Hz minimum frequency.  It is made to digitize 
audio, which probably wouldn't work for most sensor type inputs 'cause 
they're mainly a slow changing DC signal.

I have used a sound blaster with some nifty software which gives you a
spectrum analyzer and sort-of-oscilliscope, but the limitations on
bandwidth, etc make it iffy for other applications.  If your'e doing
Audio work, its' great, because after all that's what the card was designed
for...

regards
dn

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 Darrell A. Norquay              Internet: dn at dlogtech.cuc.ab.ca     
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