An Instrumentation Package

In order to make the replication test as simple and straightforward as possible, we must plan on sending it out with instrumentation and power controls in place and operational.  I'm sure many of the investigators will want use their own instruments that they are familiar with to verify the readings, so we also have to make all the sensors on the test cells standard and with standard connectors on them.

We at Hunt Utilities Group have developed our own laboratory instrumentation/data acquisition system over the last year to help us with our own LENR experiments.  This system has grown out of the building monitoring system called HUGnet that we developed for the experimental, high performance buildings on our research campus.  HUGnet has been collecting data every five minutes for almost a decade now.  The new version intended to help us in our lab research is much more accurate and much faster.  We call it HUGnet Lab.  We should be able to package and configure it along with a power supply to do this job very nicely.  

Below are pictures of the instrumentation package we are putting together for our cell.  The boards are individually isolated, talk on rs485, have 24 bit A/D and are each capable of 8 inputs (or 4 differential type inputs).  We have one set up as a dual power meter, and one with the pressure sensor and 7 thermocouples.  The 0 to 48VDC power supply can be controlled by a knob or will be able to be controlled by the power meter board.  (That could come in handy for an automated calibration cycle).  We have set up a laptop that talks to the system via USB. The system logs data into a MySQL database and is accessible on the web (though the user interface is still pretty rough).  We are capable of writing a couple scripts to synchronize the data into a global host with a refined web interface for watching experiments in real time.  

Notice the wires running through the clear plastic channels.  Since the whole purpose is to make the experiment as understandable as possible, we thought that even the routing of the wires should be clear and understandable.

 Below is an end view showing the power supply, the ends of the wiring channels, and the knob and switches that will allow the user to select which wire gets power and how much.

Here we have the first draft of a font decal and we see the switches and knobs mounted.  It's coming together.