Development of Ultra Low-Cost Data Acquisition System (DAS) for Developing Countries

Abstract

The Data Acquisition System (DAS) is an important equipment in measurement systems especially in weather monitoring and also very crucial in many areas such as agricultural, communication, transportation, sport and industrial processes. This work proposes a weather monitoring system based on an Arduino Mega 2560 microcontroller board. The microcontroller has the ability to monitor, record and display the information of atmospheric sensor parameters connected to its analogue and digital pins. The outputs of analogue sensors are connected to the microcontroller through separate ADC for sampling. An LCD attached to the microcontroller displays the measured parameters. For analysis, the data is stored in excel format and can be copied directly from microSD card. The DAS was tested and examined through intensive experimental work. The tables and plots obtained from the experiment for standardizing the sensors, it is clear that there is a close conformity between the data collected by the developed system and the existing standard systems. The need for extra cost baud rate and expensive third-party computer software for interfacing to download data from the logger have been eliminated. There is no need of internet for any linking or configuration. It is evident that the DAS is of better choice in terms of cost and maintenance. The system will be helpful in monitoring and recording of atmospheric parameters.
 HIGHLIGHTS
 
 Only a few weather monitoring stations in Nigeria are functioning as a result of the high cost, maintenance and repair services of imported DAS systems. Also, imported DAS devices are often not suitable for the tropical environment
 Other problems include: proprietary software that lacks flexibility, the necessity for third-party software to extract data and difficulties in getting usable parts and unexpected changes in production designs
 Developed DAS device offers a higher resolution compared to existing devices
 Low-cost and flexible meteorological DAS system with ease of installation
 Convenience in deployment for weather data acquisition and research purposes in relevant fields
 
 GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Remote Accessible PC-based Data Acquisition System

“…For data analysis, the data is stored in Excel format and can be copied directly from an additional microSD card. (4) An ac field measurement DAQ system uses a programmable logic device field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and an A/D converter, and realizes serial data communication using PC-developed software based on the Java+MySQL database platform. This system improves DAQ and processing efficiency.…”