Buying Amplicon analogue hardware

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Amplicon Liveline Ltd (http://www.amplicon.co.uk (telephone 0800–525–335, technical support 01273–608–331, next-day delivery is usually available). Prices shown here may be out of date. Last checked November 2002.

 

PCI 230 analogue I/O card

 

This card has 16 analogue input lines (which can be paired to give 8 differential inputs); it will take input signals in the range ±10V. It can sample inputs at up to 312 kHz (across all channels, i.e. one channel at 312 kHz, two channels at 156 kHz, etc.) using a FIFO. It has two analogue outputs but these do not have FIFO buffers, so outputs must be driven directly by the software. The output resolution is 12-bit, in the range 0–10V or ±10V; therefore, the best output resolution is 2.4 mV. The outputs are therefore unsuitable for electrochemistry, which needs 1 mV output resolution (O'Neill 1994). The board also has 24 digital I/O lines, and three timers/counters, but the timers/counters are not made available for users by Whisker.

 

•Amplicon PCI 230 board, product 909-893-83. £450.
•50-way breakout board, product 909-651-32, £59.
•50-way cable to connect card to breakout board, product 909-663-59, £56.
•Disposable anti-static wrist band, product 700-145-12, free.

 

PCI 260 analogue I/O card

 

This is similar to the PCI 230, but it does not have the analogue output channels or the digital I/O channels.

 

PCI 224 low-precision high-speed analogue output card

 

This card has 16 analogue output lines, each with 12-bit resolution (giving 4096 levels of output voltage). Its range can be set to ±10V, ±5V, ±2.5V, ±1.25V (bipolar), or 0–10V, 0–5V, 0–2.5V, 0–1.25V (unipolar). Therefore its best resolution (using the 0–1.25V range) is 0.3 mV. This makes it suitable for electrochemistry control. Its worst resolution (using the ±10V range) is 4.9 mV. It has no input channels.

 

•Amplicon PCI-224, product 909-893-93, £699
•37-way cable, product 909-561-09, £46.
•37-way breakout board, product 908-919-50, £35.
•Disposable anti-static wrist band, product 700-145-12, free.

 

PCI 234 high-precision high-speed analogue output card

 

This has four output channels with 16-bit resolution (65535 levels). The available output ranges are ±10V and ±5V (bipolar) only. The best resolution (at ±5V) is 0.15 mV; the worst (at ±10 V) is 0.3 mV. It has no input channels. (It is also rather more jumper-dependent and less software-configurable than the PCI-224.)

 

•PCI-234 is product 909-894-03, £749.

 

You may also need:

 

•DIN rail mounting. Amplicon cards will clip onto DIN rail, which you can attach to something convenient, like a wall. Deep top hat DIN rail (35 mm wide, 15 mm deep), punched, from RS Components (http://rswww.com) is part no. 176-703 and costs £3.24 per metre.
•Oscilloscope with signal generator. Not vital, but helpful for development purposes! For example, GW Instek GOS-620FG 20MHz analogue oscilloscope with 1MHz function (signal) generator; comes with probes, etc.; www.goodwill.com.tw/english and www.maplin.co.uk, £349.99 (Maplin code NZ96E).