A novel approach to computer based I/O in an ME instructional lab

The authors describe the philosophy and implementation of computer-based data acquisition and I/O used in the renovation of a required mechanical engineering (ME) instrumentation laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In the first part of the course, an inexpensive single-board computer is used to familiarize the student with the basic components of a computer, such as binary logic, analog and digital I/O, interrupt structures, RAM, and EEPROM A control-oriented resident BASIC interpreter is used to program hardware interactions. Sixteen single-board computers are networked to an IBM PC host computer which is used for downloading, data storage, and printing. Later in the course, PCs with menu-driven data acquisition systems are used. The authors describe the hardware and software used in the first part of the course