If you have projects that require data acquisition Ebay has several options but the gold standard would be Dataq. They offer a variety of data acquisition units, some are analog only, some feature analog and digital inputs.
Their software is amazingly flexible and can allow you to view the data you've recorded in a variety of ways.
Their most basic unit is about $50 but the drivers are for Windoze 10/11. It is possible to force an install under Windoze 7 64 bit professional but you risk breaking the install.
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I use Macrium Reflect disk imaging software so breaking an install takes about 6 minutes to boot the Reflect CD, snag the operational image and restore. There are many free disk imaging software packages out there, while I use Macrium Reflect, I won't pretend it is the best, but it was free and easy to learn to use. Being able to restore to a known good image makes it safe to try questionable software or configuration changes. I've broken ever version of Windows since Windows 3.11 For Work Groups.
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I went with the Dataq DI-1100 "Data Acquisition USB DAQ and Data Logger System, 12-bit, 20,000~40,000 Samples per second per channel.
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I actually have 4 DI-1100 in service. None has crashed.
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As of March 7, 2025 the DI-1100 costs $79 and comes with Dataq software. While the spec sheet says operation under Windows 7 will probably work, performance and unexpected errors are possible.
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I installed the drivers and software on a variety of HP PCs running Windows 7 64 bit professional. Your experience might be very different.
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I have an expensive data logger and analysis program that will only run under Windose, Wine and other Windose emulators for Linux don't work, yet. The software will load under Wine but doesn't properly work. So I'm stuck with Windows 7 64 bit professional for the foreseeable future.
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Dataq offers software for Linux but I have zero familiarly with Linux.
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The DI-1100 has 4 analog inputs with a +/10V range with a resolution of ±4.8 mV.
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[You can take a cheap sound card and bypass the input capacitor and use a resistive network to convert a cheap sound card to make a data acquisition unit. I've done this and it does work, might work pretty well, but is far less then optimal.]
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