In the continuous effort to streamline laboratory operations and reduce manual intervention in experimental workflows, automating long-term setups is a practical necessity. To address this bottleneck, a custom physical reactor paired with a dedicated software application was developed for data collection processes.
Designing the Physical Architecture and Instrumentation
To monitor the internal environment, the system utilized an industrial dew point sensor. This sensor was biased using a 24V power supply (PS). The physical architecture for data acquisition was realized and tested through two distinct setups:
Setup 1 (Industrial Grade): The sensor's analog current output was routed through a current module in a CompactDAQ (cDAQ) system, which then logged
the data to a PC. This robust configuration proved highly reliable, operating continuously for days to weeks without any interruption. Setup 2 (Lab Scale): The sensor's generated current signal (up
to 20 mA) was continuously measured using a high-precision Keithley DAQ6510 multimeter equipped with a 7700 multiplexer module before logging to a PC. While effective for shorter runs, this lab-scale setup experienced random interruptions after 1 to 2 days of continuous measurement.
DewPt 2.5: The LabVIEW-Driven Core
To bridge the hardware control and data logging, a custom Windows application, DewPt 2.5, was programmed in LabVIEW. This software was designed to interface with the data acquisition hardware to facilitate continuous data collection and monitoring.
The application handles several critical operational tasks:
Continuous Automated Logging: Executes automated cycling processes, capturing moisture values consistently over extended timeframes.
Real-Time Signal Processing: Captures the incoming current measurements (mA) from the acquisition hardware on the fly and converts them into the desired moisture measurement units.
Dynamic Visualization: Computes and graphs these derived values in real-time within the UI, allowing the user to visually estimate the precise cut-off points for the experiments.
Automated Archiving: Saves all raw current data and computed moisture values directly to local files for downstream analysis.
