I am doing research about if there would be a cost effective way to analyze a high frequency strain gage signal. I want to test the dynamics of valvetrain components in an engine. I would be using standard 120 ohm strain gages and a 3-5v excitation signal in a quarter-bridge circuit. A strain gage's resistance changes with strain, so it is typically one of the bridges in a wheatstone bridge circuit.
I found this inexpensive PC based analyzer:
PCS500
I would like to have a data point for every one degree of camshaft rotation. I may be going off into an alien world, please bear with me. So basically at 10,000 crankshaft RPMs the camshaft is turning 5,000 RPMs (a camshaft controls the engine's valvetrain). So there are 83 camshaft rotations per second. 1 camshaft rotation takes 0.012 seconds or 12 ms. I want a data point every 1 degree of camshaft rotation, so that is 0.033 ms per 1 degree camshaft rotations. If I got that right, I think I need to record at a frequency of 33 kHz.
Is the inexpensive analyzer like the PCS500 be able to obtain the measurements I need?
Do I need a boost converter to amplify the strain gage signal to get a readable measurement? (I believe using 120 ohm resistors it will output about 30-50 mV)
Thank you in advance,
Ken