UEI makes it SIMple: An in-depth look at designing a Temperature Warning System using the UEISIM

Author: Laura Biddiscombe

We promised a new Technical Article... So here it is!

Our very own Alberto Bassett brings us his findings from his first look at designing a Temperature Warning System using the UEISIM from United Electronic Industries (UEI).

A Temperature Warning System is just one example among thousands of applications you can build with United Electronic Industries (UEI) Racks and I/O Layers. This example shows the simplicity you gain when using UEISIM combined with Simulink from MathWorks. The powerful Software Suite that comes with UEI products makes it possible.

Click the image to read the complete article...

Data Acquisition and Temperature Monitoring with United Electronic Industries

United Electronic Industries (UEI) is a leading provider of PC based I/O products, including Ethernet data acquisition and embedded/industrial control interfaces, Data Loggers/Recorders and Linux based Embedded Controllers (PACs).
UEI supply products to many different markets, with a focus on simulation, industrial, aerospace, and laboratory data acquisition and control applications.
If you're not sure whether UEI has the right product to solve your problem you should check out the application stories on their website; you may be surprised how many different uses there are for the UEI hardware... 

High Channel Count Temperature Monitoring

A major appliance manufacturer automated temperature measurement in a CSA oven test stand. Though conceptually a simple application, the system requires monitoring over 1700 thermocouples.The previous solution involved four technicians monitoring a bank of digital panel meters and making manual entries into a test log. 
This inefficient, error-prone method was replaced by 18 PowerDNA DNA-PPC8 Cubes populated with DNA-AI-207 analog input boards.

DNA-AI-207 analog input board

The Cubes are distributed around the test chamber, minimizing the length of thermocouple wire required. The built-in single port Ethernet switch provided in the PowerDNA Cube allows the Ethernet to be daisy chained from one cube to the next. The entire system is implemented using a single Ethernet port on the host computer.

Software for this system was written in C++ using the UEIDAQ Framework. The Framework provides a powerful, yet simple set of drivers that may be called from all popular programming languages and application packages (e.g., LabVIEW, MATLAB) and supports Windows/ Vista. UEI also provides a high level API to support Linux and most popular Real-Time operating systems including QNX, RTX, and VxWorks. The library adds simulated hardware that allows you to test-drive the software, (or start developing your application) without any DAQ hardware. The UEIDAQ library is included with all UEI DAQ hardware at no charge. It is available for download from the UEI website.

The PowerDNA® (Distributed Networked Automation) Cube and PowerDNR RACKtangles are compact, rugged, Ethernet-based data acquisition and control chassis. PowerDNA series chassis act as I/O slaves to a host computer. Programs/applications running on a host PC receive data from input (or I/O) boards within the chassis and write data to output channels. I/O boards may be installed in any combination, allowing the Cube/RACKtangle to be precisely matched to your system requirements. This configuration works well in both data acquisition and control applications. 
Supporting LabVIEW, DASYLab and MATLAB, UEI is a great choice for your data acquisition and control requirements...

Tell us about your application - email laura.jeffs@sarsen.net or call the office on +44 1672 511166

New and Enhanced Data Acquisition and Control Hardware from United Electronic Industries

Who needs the Argos catalogue? Write your application Christmas list using the brand new brochure from UEI!

Continuing to grow, the latest edition of the catalogue is 40 pages long and filled cover-to-cover, with information on the company's ever expanding product line as well as a number of new application stories, and an all new FAQ section. Request a brochure now from Sarsen Technology!

The UEI catalogue includes information on their growing list of I/O boards that are available for use with the company’s RACK and CUBE chassis. 

One of the major announcements in this volume is the new performance available in the UEILogger. The overall sample rate has been increased by an order of magnitude and the maximum SD card size has gone from 4 GB to 32 GB. In addition the UEILogger now provides alarm outputs, and can now log data from the MIL-STD-1553 bus.

UEI have also used Issue 12 to introduce some new boards to their customers. The DNx-AI-218/228 A/D boards offer channel to channel isolation, 24-bit A/Ds simultaneous sampling and input ranges up to ±300 VDC. The new DNx-AI-212 and DNx-AI-222 provide high performance measurements of thermocouples/RTDs respectively. 

In the avionics world, the DNx-AFDX-664 is scheduled to be released in late 2012 and will be UEI’s first product in the AFDX market place. It joins the existing line which currently includes ARINC-429/708/453 and MIL-STD-1553 interfaces. 

There are also Strain Gauge Simulator and Arbitrary Waveform Generator boards, and some great software to run on them! 

UEI now supports EPICS, the standard in the high-energy physics world. They’ve also released the UEI-RSS (Remote Serial Server) which makes the popular DNx-SL-50x boards look like standard serial ports in your PC. 

If you’re not sure that a UEI I/O system is the right fit for you application why not take advantage of the UEI 30 day evaluation plan?

All hardware manufactured by UEI is available for evaluation. In fact any order for standard product with a total value less than $10,000 is automatically covered by the 30-day evaluation policy and may be returned within 30 days of shipment without restocking fees.

Give us a call to discuss your requirements on +44 1672 511166, or email us with the details!