Overview of our CF+ Sensor and Data Acquisition Technology

Portable data acquisition devices are widely used in industry as well as research and development. Because there are many different kinds of data measurements such as tempeture, humidity, pressure, vibration, acceleration, light (color) and magnetic field, those devices are usually customly designed with sensors to take measurements of a specific kind. As such, they are usually limited in capabilities such as data logging, data analysis and network/communication. Also they are expensive because different measurements need different devices which are all designed and manufactured separately. The following diagram shows some of the devices in the market.

Existing Portable Data Acquisition Devices: Limited in Functionality and Expensive

With the advances of technology, a new type of handheld devices have emerged. Those devices are designed for people to keep track of appointments and notes, hence they are called Personal Digital Assitant (PDA). Many of them have a CompactFlash expansion slot which was originally intended for adding more file storage space. Later the CompactFlash specification evolved to the CompactFlash Plus (CF+) specification to provide digital Input/Output signals, making it possible to use I/O devices other than memory cards in the expansion slot. The CF+ bus is a 16-bit parallel bus providing high I/O throughput.

Our company's main products are CF+ based data acquisition cards. They include analog to digital converter (A/D) with or without amplifier, accelerameter, humidity meter, baro/altimeter, and magnetometer. A new product is added to the lineup every few weeks. Please see our product section for detailed specification and pricing.

Our Innovation: CF+ Cards for PDA U.S. Patent Pending

Our PDA based solution has the following advantages over traditional, customly made portable data acquisition devices:

• Data logging: large data storage capability with PDA build-in memory. Almost unlimited data storage cabability with external memory cards in PDA.
• Data communication: USB or serial (using docking cradle) interface, IrDA (Infra-Red Serial), 802.11b WLAN (WiFi) and Bluetooth, and possibly GPRS). The wireless communication capability (WiFi, Bluetooth and GPRS) is opening up new possibilities for nascent applications.
• Data visulization and analysis in real-time on PDA. We are adding powerful Digital Signal Processing (DSP) capabilities to our Handheld Sampler^TM software that includes digital filtering, frequency domain analysis (FFT), correlation functions, and so on.
• Flxiblity: functions can be enhanced by upgrading software.
• Low cost: PDAs are now commodity from several different companies so they are relatively inexpensive compared to customized hardware with the same capability. The CF+ card is the only part needed to be changed for different measurements.

We at Handheld Design, Inc believe our products are transfering the portable data acquisition landscape and we are very excited to have the opportunity to serve our customers. If you have any questions or comments, please send to support@handhelddesign.com. We love to hear from you!