Fast boat rudder system optimization

Hi everyone,
I’m totally inexpert in electronic matters, and I need some help and/or suggestions. I’m willing to perform a test/experiment, in order to optimize a rudder plan form and cross section for fast power boats.
I would like to analyze several rudder profiles, at several angles of attack, at several depths and all of it at several speeds. For all this, I’m willing to use different sensors that work at voltages between 3 to 12 volts. All the signals generated by these sensors should be monitored and logged into a txt file, or sent to my computer via USB connection, during the test period, let’s say 15 minutes aprox . Questions:
1st) Could Arduino board work as a logger?
2nd) Can I track those signal on my computer under Arduino software?
3rd) How many samples per second for each signal can I track?
4th) what is the maximum voltage input signal Arduino board admit?
5th) What would be the best Arduino board for my experiment?
6th) One of the sensors I’ll use, it’s troubling me due my lack of knowledge in electronics. The speedometer sensor its made to work together with the speedometer marker which I don’t have and neither I’m willing to use, because I want to synchronize its signal with all the other sensors signals, in order to be able to analyze. It seems to work by pulses of 12 volts. The faster the wheel rotates, more pulses emit. I really need help on this, because I don’t know how to transform those variations in the frequency of the 12 volts pulses into a progressive signal. Something like 0 volts for 0 rpm, and 12 volts for lets say 200 rpm.
Thanks,

Jaume

The Arduino analog inputs can accept a voltage in the range 0 .. 5V. Supplying a voltage outside this range will damage the board. If you are trying to measure a higher voltage, you can use a voltage divider (two resistors in series) to reduce the voltage so that it stays within this range.

To measure the speed, the most obvious approach would be to arrange a signal that pulses at a frequency proportional to the speed. This could be as simple as a paddle wheel with a magnet attached that operates a reed switch. You will find plenty of examples of Arduino code to read a sequence of pulses and calculate the frequency.

The normal approach to reading analog inputs enables you to read of the order of a thousand samples a second. This can be increased substantially but will result in more complex code.

There are various serial port utilities that can redirect Arduino output from a serial port to a file. The operating system on the PC will determine which ones are available to you. If you're running Microsoft Windows, you could use Gobetwino to log output from the Arduino to a file. PuTTY is also available on most platforms. It would be very simple to write your own application from scratch, if it came to that.

I suggest you use a Comma Separated Variable (CSV) output format for your results. This is a common way to encode numerical data, and most spreadsheet type applications can read CSV data directly.

Seeedstudio's wiki for their flow sensor provides examples very similar to what you're trying to do with your speed sensor.

Thank´s a lot PeterH and Chagrin for your help. I´ll work on it and I may come up with some more other questions. Thank´s

If your main focus is data acquisition instead of arduino tinkering, then you might consider a low cost data logger like below.

Thank's very much zoomcat, I've checked those loggers, and that would work fantastic, because there are some that also include a pulse counter, but unfortunately I've already bought the arduino uno.
I have been working on what Chagrin suggested me :
http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=G1'1/4_Water_Flow_sensor
, and I must say it works perfect! I'm really happy. Thank´s guys. Here I attach some pics. Don´t judge it, I know it looks trash, but it performs as expected.
Now I'll try to record of my 4 sensors signal in a file using Gobewino, suggested by PeterH.
Some more questions:

  1. how I can make those connections on the arduino pins stronger? Should I weld it, or there is another way, reliable but easy to plug in and plug out?
    2)What is the minimum voltage Arduino uno can read? I do need to connect a Load cell, that seems to work with an internal circuit system called Wheatstone bridge. Those cell, is normally connected to a voltage signal amplifier, because a variation in let's say 1 kg force, gives a variation in the order of micro Volts. Does Arduino Uno have the ability to read down to micro Volts?? That way I won't need to pay for a signal amplifier.... :smiley: $) $)
    If I succeeed in my project, I may post it here just in case someone have some interest on it
    Thank´s

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