Measurement and data acquisition system including a real-time monitoring circuit for implementing control loop applications

Abstract

A measurement and data acquisition system including a real-time monitoring circuit for implementing control loop applications. The system control loop may include the real-time monitoring circuit, a data acquisition device, a processing unit, and a plurality of subsystems. The subsystems may be comprised in the data acquisition device or may be external to the data acquisition device. The real-time monitoring circuit may receive a plurality of timing signals from the plurality of subsystems and may select a control loop timing signal out of the plurality of timing signals. The real-time monitoring circuit may determine whether the operations of the control loop are performed within a particular period of time by monitoring the control loop timing signal and communicating with the processing unit. In response to an error notification, the processing unit may take appropriate action, such as shutting down the system and/or reporting an error or warning.