Programmable multi channel monitoring and control Linux based data acquisition system

Linux with programming tools Qt is becoming popular to develop applications in the field of agricultural, medical and sports practice. This paper describes the low cost implementation of multi channel automated I/O controller using industrial PC and high performance data acquisition (DAS) card. The developed system aimed to monitor and control the different process parameters by using Qt tool under Linux along with 12-bit data acquisition system (PCL818-HG). The system monitors different parameters from different types of sensors and the control algorithms generate an ON/OFF command to t h e actuators through a solenoid valve unit according to the set points. There are also provisions to display measured parameters as a trend graphs and history graphs form the stored data in files. Further system communicates to host computer or other embedded system through RS232 or Wireless IEEE1451.3 network. The developed embedded system, being an open platform not only reduces the software cost but also reduces the development time.