Product category:
Sensors and Data Acquisition
News Release from: Audon Electronics | Subject: MFC-4422 analogue and digital Bluetooth I/O card
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 19 March 2007
Wireless interface for data logger
An analogue and digital multifunction I/O bluetooth interface is for professional wireless-control applications in data acquisition, automation and facility management applications.
The MFC-4422 is an analogue and digital multifunction I/O Bluetooth interface for professional wireless control applications in data acquisition, automation and facility-management applications The board has two analogue inputs, two analogue outputs, two relays, two TTL outputs and two opto-isolated and two TTL inputs
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 25 Apr 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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Supplied with free Windows and PDA software chart display and datalogging and programming examples, the MFC-4422 has a rich mix of inputs and outputs;two analogue inputs suitable for measuring real world parameters such as temperature or pressure etc; two digital inputs, two digital/relay outputs and two analogue outputs.
The two opto-isolated digital inputs can be used as counter inputs.
Counter-states or frequency can be read out wirelessly, which makes it most suitable for metering applications like electricity, gas, water meters.
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Digital outputs comprise two relays and two TTL outputs.
Digital outputs can be switched remotely.
A time-off delay may be set to switch off the outputs when connection to the board is lost.
The MFC-4422-provides two analogue outputs.
Each of those outputs are provided as both a voltage signal in the range of 0-5V DC and as a pulse-width modulated TTL (PWM) signal.
The MFC-4422 can be used as a dumb I/O device or it can be operated in stand-alone mode with two independent on/off or PID controllers.
Each control channel comprises one analogue input and one output.
For on/off control, the measured input signal is compared to threshold points to switch on or off a relay output.
With PID control, the measured value is used by a PID algorithm to derive an analogue output signal.
The PID parameters can be adjusted by the user.
Thus the MFC-4422 can be used as a two-channel alarm unit or used to accurately control a process.
The MFC-4422 is addressed by means of a simple ASCII instruction set, which can be employed with any common programming language.
No specific Bluetooth-programming knowledge is required.
Messages between board and PC/PDA are exchanged in plain text.
The Bluetooth-connection is established over a so called virtual com port.
Programming of a virtual com port is identical to programming a standard hardware serial interface.
Visual-basic examples for PC and PDA are delivered on a CD together with the board.
Your PC or PDA has to have a Bluetooth interface in order to be able to connect with the board.
The MFC-4422 is supplied with free Windows and PDA utilities - WCI-software.
With the WCI-software, you are able to manage all board parameters and to read and write to the different inputs and outputs.
Also included is a chart recorder style display for analogue inputs and data logging capabilities.
Data is logged to an Excel-compatible data file.
The MFC-4422 is also supplied with an ActiveX component and Windows and PDA VB programming examples.
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