Simple and Practical Instrumentation Systems for Research Applications

Abstract

This work presents the design and construction of three electronics devices related to the area of instrumentation. These devices are meant to be used with specific sensors and transducers in the areas of agricultural sciences, engineering science and materials, and power electronics. They were designed for the specific research applications requested by professors of these areas, maintaining the complexity of the prototypes low compared with the commercial technologies available for the same purpose. The first design used linear variable displacement transformers (LVDT) to measure variations in the diameter of the bark and the xylem of trees due to changes in the environmental conditions around them. The second project was the design of a prototype capable of measuring the forces experienced by objects when a mechanical load was applied to it, to study its response to them. The last project was the development of a system that allows the estimation of the irradiance and temperature of a solar cell using only the immediate values of cell voltage and current. All developed prototypes performed their corresponding task with low errors and variability. The devices were customized for research applications, are easily replicable and simple so anyone could use and maintain them.