Importance

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Abstract

A modular water quality measurement apparatus and method includes a sealed or unsealed housing with a universal sensor interface cap (12) and mechanical and electrical sensor connections (14) for receiving removably attachable sensors (16 or 16'). Each of the mechanical and electrical sensor connections (14) are individually electrically connected to a programmable motherboard (20) within the housing. Sensor daughterboards (22) are removably attached to the motherboard (20) corresponding to individual sensors (16 or 16') connected to the universal sensor interface cap (12). Further, removably attachable input/output daughterboards (24) are electrically connected to the motherboard (20) for accommodating various serial interface types and software is provided for collecting information from the sensors (16 or 16') and transmitting the information through the input/output daughterboards (24) for manipulation by a user. Additionally, a removably attachable plug (26) is provided for sealing mechanical sensor connections (14) which are not sealed by sensors (16 or 16'). The software includes product software for gathering information from the sensors (16 or 16'), learnable sensor driver software for directing the product software and manipulating gathered information, and learnable interface software for transmitting the gathered information for further manipulation by various interface devices. In another preferred embodiment, sensor (16') while including sensing sensor element (28) as does sensor (16), further includes a sensor PCB (32) thereby eliminating the need for sensor daughterboards (22). Sensor (16') is connected to motherboard (20) by means of sensor interface bus connections (38) thereby enabling the product to be more compact and efficient.

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First Claim