This document will describe some of the general usage of MATLAB s Data Acquisition Toolbox (DAT). The software in the toolbox allows MATLAB to acquire

data from sensors and to send out electrical signals that can be used to control or

drive external devices. We will be using this toolbox with two different pieces of

hardware. One is the sound card built into your laptop, the microphone and speaker

will serve as the data acquisition (and output) devices. The sound card provides

convenience because it will allow you to test the DAT outside of the lab. We will

also be using Measurement Computing data acquisition cards that will ¯ t into your

laptops PCMCIA slot, these devices will be in the class laboratory. The data acquisition (DAQ) cards allow your computer to acquire data from many different types

of sensors.