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The Universal Serial Bus (USB) was designed as a plug-and-play standard for connecting peripherals to the PC. The USB 2.0 standard provides power and high data throughput rates, making the standard extremely portable and easy to use. Since its release in 1996, USB has lived up to its “universal” name with more than 2 billion USB ports on computers worldwide. Due to its wide availability on PCs, USB 2.0 connectivity has reached billions of devices including webcams, printers, hard drives, and Bluetooth adapters.
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USB adoption for PC-based test and measurement technologies has also grown to an all-time high, due in part to the preference of many engineers to make measurements based on an external, portable, and easy-to-use bus.
Ease of Use
Figure 1. NI CompactDAQ Plug-and-Play Device Detection
One of the major benefits of USB is its plug-and-play ease of use, which promotes fast setup times. Major OSs including Windows, Mac, and Linux® offer built-in USB support, and virtually all PCs, laptops, and industrial computing platforms provide USB ports. After installation of the appropriate driver software, connecting a USB device to a host computer requires no action or configuration other than physically plugging the connector into the USB port. Because USB is hot-pluggable, you do not have to turn off the computer to add or remove a device, and USB bus power often eliminates the need for external power. These features greatly simplify setup and mobility, making USB a good solution for all types of test and measurement applications.
Discover NI's true USB plug-and-play experience here.
High Performance
Figure 2. USB Data Acquisition Products from National Instruments
Advanced measurements can require high-channel counts, high-acquisition rates, and/or high resolution. USB 2.0 ports offer connectivity for up to 127 devices with transfer rates of up to 480 Mb/s. The USB standard defines a maximum of 5 m between the host computer and the USB device. However, with a select few commercially available USB hubs and extenders, you could extend USB up to 30 or 500 m, respectively. It is important to note that USB extenders and hubs are not guaranteed to work in all use cases.
To maximize USB performance and achieve multiple high-speed data streams, National Instruments created NI signal streaming technology. This technology adds device-side intelligence, custom data management hardware, and streamlined data control to deliver faster data transfers and increased device responsiveness. NI signal streaming – combined with the error correction, noise rejection, power management, and power distribution inherent in the USB protocol – yields a flexible, secure, and reliable USB bus for use in test and measurement applications.
Over the past few years, National Instruments has released a suite of USB products, including instrument control, multifunction data acquisition, NI CompactDAQ, and specialized USB instruments, to help you deliver high-performance measurements with a plug-and-play, portable architecture.
Links
USB Multifunction Data Acquisition
NI CompactDAQ Modular Data Acquisition for USB
USB Instruments: DMM, Digitizer and RF Power Meter
USB Instrument Control
NI Signal Streaming: Sustaining High-Speed Data Streams over USB
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