Novel Low-Cost Approach for Acquiring High Resolution High-Speed Data

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed and tested a novel system architecturefor acquiring high fidelity high-speed data. The approach uses a low-cost consumer grade audio recording devicecoupled with computing technology running open-source software. The main advantage of this approach is per-channel cost; an instrument grade data acquisition system typically costs between $800 to $2,000 per channelcompared to less than $50 per channel for these consumer grade components. Three systems, each featuring fourchannels, have been deployed for acquiring data from geophones and the electrical supply system that supports theHigh Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center (REDC) at ORNL.Each channel samples at 96 kHz at 24-bit resolution. The deployed systems operate continuously 24/7 and produceabout 4 terabytes of data per month per system. This paper provides a technical overview of this approach, itsimplementation, and some preliminary results from qualification testing. This work was conducted in support of theMulti-Informatics for Nuclear Operations Scenarios (MINOS).