OMEGA Engineering, Inc. Expandable Modular Data Acquisition System iNET-400

The iNET-400 system is a low cost card cage that attaches to Windows computers via USB 2.0.
The advantage of a card cage is that you can select which I/O modules to install as needed to build a customized system. The instruNet card cage typically has one A/D measurement module and additional modules provide signal conditioning. The conditioned analog signal is routed to the A/D module via the backplane. This is dramatically different from comparable systems which place A/D measurement electronics on each module.
The advantage of the iNET-400 topology is cost. After the 1st module is installed, additional iNET-400 channels are conditioned at a very low cost per channel. iNET-400 measurement modules have universal inputs that enable one to directly connect each channel to one of: thermocouple, thermistor, strain gage, load cell, counter/timer, RTD, voltage, current, resistance and accelerometer. Absolute accuracy for all of these sensor types is specified. In some cases, the end user adds an external shunt resistor. The advantage of universal inputs is cost.