The Agilent E1529A Remote Strain Conditioning Unit simplifies structural testing of designs that require many channels of strain measurement. Strain gage cables connect to the unit with standard RJ-45 telecom plugs, making it exceptionally easy to reconfigure or replace strain gages.
Each channel has bridge-completion and shunt-calibration resistors (with provision for special values). Automatic resetting of fuses ensures that a shorted gage does not disturb any other channel. Up to four external sources can be used to generate the excitation voltages for banks of eight gages.
The E1529A provides gain, filtering and 32:1 multiplexing. It connects to a C-size VXI remote-channel DAC module (the E1422A), which provides setup and configuration of up to 16 Agilent E1529A units. The E1422A controls the E1529A multiplexer and includes a 16-bit, 25 kilosample/s scanning digitizer for signal acquisition. The connections and I/O control of E1529A's is provided by Agilent E1529A remote channel SCP's installed on the E1422A.