Abstract:

Laboratory exercises are a very important part of the education of every modern study of electrical engineering. During laboratory exercises, electrical engineering students measure electrical signals on real electrical systems. The signals that occur in such systems are often time-varying, so oscilloscopes are usually used to observe and record electrical signals. Standard oscilloscopes allow observations of up to 4 electrical signals and record a relatively small number of samples of the observed signals. In order to gain a better understanding of the behavior of electrical systems, students sometimes need to observe and record more than 4 electrical signals for a long time. In such cases, instead of an oscilloscope, it is more convenient to use Data Acquisition instruments. Data Acquisition instruments allow for observations of a large number of electrical signals, have high resolution analog to digital converters, and record a relatively large number of electrical signal samples in the memory space of a personal computer.

The article demonstrates the use of the DATAQ DI-730 Series Data Acquisition instrument to display and record samples of 8 analog signals from the electrical system. Samples of analog signals are recorded on the personal computer's hard disk. Reading and processing of recorded signals is done using free open source Scilab software, within which a special Scilab function for reading and graphically displaying signals is created. By using the described Data Acquisition instrument and the special function created within the Scilab software, students gain a better understanding of the phenomena within the observed electrical systems.

Keywords:

Laboratory exercises, electrical engineering, education, data acquisition, Scilab function.