The STM32 microcontroller based pulse intensity registration system for the neutron monitor

Abstract

We present the outlines of a new microcontroller based data acquisition system which is aimed for reliable operation in a typical cosmic ray particle registration experiment. The system supports connection of up to 16 input signals and ensures the following operation functionality: (1) stable monitoring of the intensity of a digital pulse signal, or digitization of a continuous potential level with a low time resolution (typically, about 1 s–100 s); (2) registration of uninterruptable high-resolution (up to 5–10 μs) time series of the input signal intensity; (3) synchronization of registered time series with both external (physical) or local (program-based) trigger signal; (4) possibility of an on-the-fly change of the whole configuration of informational system (both the combination and type of input signals, time resolution and sum duration of the time series measurements, trigger logic, etc.) immediately in operation time through convenient communication by plain text messages in dialog mode. In particular, the considered system is applied now for a long-term, high precision measurement of the counting rate of neutron signals at the NM64 type neutron supermonitor of the Tien Shan mountain cosmic ray station, with a real-time representation of the whole collected dataset in a WWW database.