Scientia Publishing House – Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania

Villamos, elektronikus és virtuális mérések [Electrical, Electronic, and Virtual Measurements]

The purpose of the book is to aid bachelors and masters students in Computer Science, Automation and Applied informatics, Telecommunication, Mechatronics and Computer-Aided Operation Planning at Sapientia University of Cluj-Napoca. Based on the fact that measuring systems have evolved towards the miniaturization, digitization, and sensor networks formation, the authors give a relatively small space to the basic notions of electrical measurements and classical measurement methods that are absolutely necessary for the understanding of electronic instrumentation, especially digital and virtual measurement systems.

The book is structured into eight chapters. The first four chapters, which represent about 35% of the book’s volume, are dedicated to fundamental electrical measurements: measurement basics, electromechanical measuring devices, bridges, compensators, and methods for electrical quantities measurement. The concepts are gradually introduced, presenting only those tools and methods of measurement that are still used today, eliminating most of the classical electric measurements. The next three chapters, representing about 54% of the volume of the book, treat electronic measuring equipment, starting from the processing circuits of analogue signals present in any analogue or digital electronic measuring device, continuing with analogue-to-digital and digital-to-analogue converters and concluding with an extensive analysis of electronic measuring devices and methods of measurement. Thus, in the analogue signal processing circuits in electronic measuring instruments (Chapter 5), the attenuators, amplifiers, linear converters of variable voltage, phase-sensitive rectifiers, analogue multipliers, linearization circuits, and sample and hold circuits are presented. Special attention is paid to A / D and D / A conversions (Chapter 6), starting with the binary codes used in these converters, continuing with the analysis of the most representative DAC and ADC converters used in digital measuring instruments, emphasizing their features and areas of use from the resolution, speed of conversion, and noise rejection point of view.

Chapter seven is the most extensive one, being dedicated to the presentation, analysis, and use of a very wide area of electronic equipment, describing their latest performance and capabilities. This chapter treats digital multimeters, analogue and digital oscilloscopes, hardware and software spectral analysers, universal counters, impedance measuring devices (impedance meters, Q-meters), distortion meters, and signal generators. A special treatment is given to network analysers (power quality network analysers, medium frequency and radio frequency vector network analysers – S parameters). At the end of the seventh chapter, the measurement of digital signals and systems are treated: logic analysers, digital pattern generators, and bit error rate testers. The last chapter, Chapter 8, is dedicated to virtual measurements, as a natural extension of stand-alone or modular digital metering devices. The presentation starts from the evolution of measurement systems to virtual systems, presenting the virtual instrumentation architecture, standards, the hardware measurement interfaces (RS-232, CAN, USBTMC, GPIB, PXI, VXI, LXI) and software programming interfaces. The presentation is continued with a short but professional introduction to building and programming virtual instrumentation in the LabVIEW environment, with examples in signal generation, processing, analysis, and measurement. Finally, an automated measurement system and also the main aspects of TestStand programming environment are presented, which helps engineers quickly develop automated test and validation systems.

The book is made with remarkable graphic illustrations, with many detailed figures, which make it easier to understand the notions regarding electrical, electronic, and virtual measurements.