ENSYS · Test & measurement

From laboratory setup to portable instrument

I designed the electronics to reproduce an existing laboratory measurement setup in a compact, battery-powered instrument, with multichannel acquisition and autonomous data logging.

Precision analog acquisitionBattery-poweredPCB design
ENSYS instrument block diagram showing measurement acquisition, power, processing, logging and communication
FIG. 01 // PORTABLE PRECISION MEASUREMENT ARCHITECTURE

The problem

Measurement away from the laboratory.

The instrument had to acquire low-level differential signals across multiple channels within a mechanical load. An existing laboratory setup provided the measurement function; the new electronics had to reproduce it in a compact standalone device.

Battery operation and recording over time added requirements for power management, charging, local storage and timestamping. Wireless communication and the commercial enclosure also had to be accounted for in the design.

My role

  • Defined the electronic system and precision measurement architecture.
  • Designed the ADC and analog-interface circuitry.
  • Developed the schematic and PCB layout, and selected components.
  • Integrated battery operation and charging.
  • Integrated BLE, RTC and microSD hardware interfaces.
  • Prepared production documentation and selected a commercial enclosure.

Engineering challenge

Acquisition, power and board layout.

Multichannel acquisition in a portable instrument

Constraint

The analog acquisition had to work within the power and enclosure constraints of a compact, battery-operated instrument.

Engineering work

I considered the measurement topology, reference, input conditioning, high-resolution ADC and PCB implementation together. Power, charging, logging and wireless interfaces were included in the same architecture, with board dimensions and connections matched to the enclosure.

Result

An electronic architecture combining precision multichannel acquisition, battery power, timestamped local data logging and Bluetooth connectivity.

Outcome

Electronic architecture and PCB design.

I delivered the electronic architecture and production-ready PCB design for the portable instrument. The design combines low-level signal acquisition with battery power, charging, local logging and wireless connectivity.

Technical summary

  • Precision multichannel acquisition
  • Low-level differential inputs
  • High-resolution ADC
  • Battery operation & charging
  • BLE · RTC · microSD
  • Custom PCB & commercial enclosure