Flight Test Instrumentation Overview
 

Just wondering if anyone has a link to information describing an overview of a typical multiple channel PCM digital instrumentation system.

Specifically, I'm trying to understand, at a fairly basic level, the various processes involved in going from the point where a property is sensed by a transducer(s), output as an electrical signal, digitised, multiplexed, recorded or transmitted (telemetry) and then subsequently converted via a calibration back into some sort of useful output in engineering units.

Thanks in advance

WUT

A quick search on "Ayden Vector" aircraft instrumentation led to this rather old but fairly complete NASA paper: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...1987003285.pdf
It deals with sounding rockets but the same basic principals apply.

If you want more up to date info, try "Aircraft [airborne] data acquisition system" or ADAS. IIRC Airbus did a paper on data acquisition on the A380 at the SFTE annual meeting in Wichita a few years ago so a check on their website may also help.

Hi ICT_SLB
Many thanks for the help.
WUT

You might contact Pi Research in Cambridge, who are branching into the aerospace business (having captured nearly all the Formula 1 market). Glenn Waters is particularly useful and may have some data that is helpful.

Thanks Shawn, I'll take a look.
WUT

Google for
"strain gage skopinski"
and download that report from NASA. Not exactly hwat you are looking for, but it is about flight test instrumentation for flight loads measurement. Comparable topics might be interesting. Skopinski is the keyword.