VDAS mkII (FRAME MOUNTED VERSION)

TecQuipment’s modern, cost-effective and accurate Versatile Data Acquisition System (VDAS®) improves laboratory teaching. It works with a growing list of over 90 TecQuipment products, enabling real-time display and capture of experiment data.

For both individual student use or for lecturers demonstrating experiments to a whole class, VDAS® gives real-time calculation, recording and charting with fast data export. This makes efficient, productive and effective use of time for both students and lecturers.

Equipment with VDAS® Onboard has the required hardware integrated into the apparatus. So, for these products it is not necessary to purchase an additional VDAS-B or VDAS-F. Simply download the free software from the TecQuipment website, Fit the supplied USB cable between the apparatus and a suitable computer (not supplied), select the apparatus being used from the VDAS® options menu and the system is ready to go.

For VDAS® compatible products either VDAS-F or VDAS-B is required (see the relevant product datasheet). The hardware offers a choice of either a frame-mounting interface (VDAS-F) or a bench-top interface (VDAS-B). Both interface units work the same but the choice gives more convenience to the user. For example, some TecQuipment VDAS® compliant products have an integral instrumentation frame so the frame-mounting interface unit is the best choice. To reduce costs, order just one VDAS® hardware unit for each classroom and connect it to each product as needed. The VDAS® software is free to download from the TecQuipment website. A computer (not supplied) is also required.

The digital inputs on each interface connect directly to instrumentation on suitable TecQuipment products. These inputs are non-specific, for easy experiment setup and reduced connection errors. The mostly digital communications circuits make the equipment more resistant to electrical noise than purely analogue systems.

The MkII interface units also have two analogue inputs. These are for fast-moving (transient) signals from some TecQuipment products or for transducers and sensors. These may include displacement or pressure measuring sensors and flow meters. VDAS® software can display the analogue signals in real-time as traces on a computer screen. This allows VDAS® to work as a user-friendly alternative to an oscilloscope on selected products.

The output from the interface unit connects via USB to a computer (computer not supplied) running the VDAS® software.

The software has extra features that allow the adding of derivative traces and reference traces, based on each of the two analogue input signals. It is also possible to adjust software filtering and smoothing of each signal trace, and scale the traces to best fit the trace area.

For both VDAS® MkII and VDAS Onboard®, the software is intuitive and easy to use, with clear and convenient data display options. The software looks similar and works in a similar way for each TecQuipment VDAS® compliant product. This saves time as students do not have to learn how to use new software when changing experiments.

VDAS® Version 2 Software features include:

• Works with existing TecQuipment VDAS®-compatible products
• Recording data manually or automatically
• Data capture set by time or intervals
• Display of real-time data, in digital form or as an analogue meter
• Real-time traces of analogue signals
• Logging data for printing and later analysis
• Exporting data for use by other software
• Performing real-time calculations to generate user-defined data
• Creating and printing charts and data tables
• Customisable layouts