An inexpensive PC-based laboratory configuration for teaching electronic instrumentation

The need for enhanced undergraduate laboratory teaching aids has been identified by the staff of the instrumentation laboratory at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of the West Indies. Although there are currently a number of interesting and powerful educational products on the market, they are typically produced in the developed countries and are sometimes inappropriate for applications in developing countries. They are also often very expensive. This paper describes a laboratory configuration and a set of tools designed and implemented at the University of the West Indies for undergraduate instruction in electronic instrumentation. The laboratory configuration encompasses a number of personal computer (PC) stations and model engineering systems. The model systems mimic realistic engineering processes under interrogation and control from the remote PC stations. A set of inexpensive hardware tools for data acquisition and control of the model systems, as well as for general laboratory test and measurement, are described. Useful software tools are also mentioned