T-DAQ-P: a portable tablet-form multi-stream data acquisition and contextual telemetry platform based on COTS modules and a custom integration layer

Abstract

We present T-DAQ-P, a compact and portable data acquisition and telemetry platform designed to support detector deployments in laboratory and field conditions by integrating event streaming, slow-control telemetry, and operator-oriented commissioning tools in a single unit. The system combines a Raspberry Pi 5 host for multi-stream ingestion, visualization, and storage with an Arduino UNO R4 WiFi microcontroller dedicated to sensor acquisition. The electronics integrate commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) modules through an engineered interface layer including protected power distribution, logic-level adaptation, and a DB-37 expansion connector exposing I2C-SPI-ADC lines for external instrumentation. On the telemetry side, the microcontroller firmware performs automatic I2C discovery, conditional sensor handling, and outputs framed NMEA-like messages with XOR checksum and explicit block delimiters, enabling robust parsing and synchronization on the host. A finite-state control (STOP-RUN-SIM-INIT) and watchdog-style recovery actions implement resilience under partial hardware availability and field failures. The host software adopts a multi-process architecture with independent readers for event, telemetry, and actuator streams, message queues for isolation, and coherent time-stamped logging across streams. A simulation mode and integrated command channel allow end-to-end pipeline verification and rapid commissioning without full sensor availability. The paper details architecture, electronics integration, firmware protocol, host software design, and functional/engineering validation procedures, providing a reproducible blueprint for portable instrumentation readout and contextual telemetry acquisition.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: T-DAQ-P system overview (host, integrated local HMI, power entry, thermal management, microcontroller-based slow control, multi-stream serial domains, and expansion interface).
• Figure 2: Custom integration board schematic: protected power distribution and mixed-voltage adaptation, shared I2C/SPI sensor backbone, GPS module control, and DB-37 expansion interface exposing power, I2C/SPI and ADC channels.
• Figure 3: Firmware high-level flow: command reception, state dispatch (STOP/RUN/SIM/INIT), timed acquisition, framed telemetry emission, and resilience hooks.
• Figure 4: Conceptual serial stream virtualization: physical device stream replicated/bridged to virtual ports to support concurrent consumers.
• Figure 5: Environmental monitoring channels: temperature measurements (left axis) and relative humidity (right axis) with rolling-standard-deviation error bars; the lower panel shows the atmospheric pressure time series.