Table 1-1 shows that the devices in the ADS1x4S1x family have very similar characteristics other than the amount of input channels and ADC resolution. For simplicity, the rest of this document uses the ADS124S18EVM as an example of the behavior and operation of all devices. If applicable, each section describes any differences between the ADS124S18EVM and the other devices shown in Table 1-1.

This user guide describes the operation and use of the ADS124S18 evaluation module. The ADS124S18EVM is a fully assembled evaluation platform designed to highlight the ADS124S18 device performance and functionality of operation that make this device designed for measuring different type of analog sensors. The evaluation module (EVM) sits on top of the PAMB, which is used as a USB-to-PC GUI communication bridge. This board combination also serves as an example implementation of connecting a microcontroller (MCU) to communicate with the ADS124S18 device through a SPI. Figure 1-1 shows a functional block diagram of the system setup.

This EVM user guide describes the characteristics and operation of the ADS124S18EVM. The ADS124S18EVM eases the evaluation of the ADC with hardware, software, and computer connectivity through the universal serial bus (USB) interface. This EVM user guide includes complete circuit descriptions, schematic diagrams, and a bill of materials. Throughout this document, the abbreviation EVM and the term evaluation module are synonymous with the ADS124S18EVM.

The PAMB receives commands from the ADS124S18EVM GUI and returns data to the GUI for display and analysis. If the PAMB is not used, the EVM plug-in module allows for an alternative external host to communicate with the ADS124S18 through headers J1 and J2. Refer to Section 2.3 and Section 2.6 for more information.