Integrating national instruments data acquisition device (NIUSB-6009) hardware platform into iLab framework
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Date
2010
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Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
iLabs are remote online laboratories that allow users to perform experiments through the Internet. As an educational tool the iLab platform enables students and educators, who do not have access to laboratories, to complement their theoretical knowledge by carrying out experiments remotely on equipment located anywhere in the world and at any time of the day. Students perform experiments on actual instruments allowing them to get real data, instead of relying on simulations. The iLab project has been deployed in three African universities (UDSM, MUK and OAU) in collaboration with MIT, using the National Instruments Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrument Suite (NI ELVIS) platform, as a cost effective solution to developing iLabs in developing countries.
In this research, a new hardware platform based on National Instruments Data Acquisition Device, has been integrated into the iLab Shared Architecture (ISA).The device is relatively simple and cheap than ELVIS platform, it allows simple experiments not requiring the complexity of ELVIS to be run in the ISA. Two experiments; diode characteristics and TTL characteristics experiments, have been implemented to demonstrate the application of the new platform. The two mentioned experiments were first performed using conventional lab and then using iLabs. It was found that the iLab results were similar to theoretical results, despite the signal loss problem encountered in the Data Acquisition Device
Description
Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class Mark
(THS EAF TA417.I57T34N65)
Keywords
Engineering laboratories, , Electronics laboratories, National Instruments Data Acquisition Device, Internet laboratories
Citation
Nombo, J. P (2010) Integrating national instruments data acquisition device (NIUSB-6009) hardware platform into iLab framework