Portable Data Acquisition System Based On Compactflash

A kind of portable data acquisition (DAQ) system based on CompactFlash (CF) interface is introduced, Programmable Logic Device (PLD) is used as CF interface controller and DAQ controller: CF interface controller transfers data between client and host, DAQ controller selects input range and controls A/D conversion. Host accesses client's data across CF interface, sends instructions to client such as range select word and DAQ parameter, data are sent to host in interrupt mode and then processed. Data processor software on the host can be modified easily to suit different condition, which is the biggest advantage of this kind of system.Most CF-Based designs use special chip as interface controller currently, logic function is implemented by FPGA/DSP etc. This Multi-Chip scheme is easy to build, but is of higher system cost and power consumption. By reading CompactFlash specification, a CF card side interface based on PLD with memory mode and I/O mode is designed, on which DAQ system is designed. Compared to traditional designs based on special interface chips, this design has more flexibility, lower system cost and power consumption. Furthermore, PLD-based CF card side interface introduced in this designed is universal, many other kinds of CF-based portable I/O device can benefit from this design.PLD used as logic controller in DAQ system finished in the project was implemented on both FPGA and CPLD. After the complement of hardware and software, tests are taken to DAQ system. Results of experiment show the successful implementation of data acquisition, processing, display and control, and DAQ system based on CPLD consumes much less power than that of FPGA in this project.