Patent ID: 7756684

Claim:
An apparatus for monitoring a production process performed by a production machine, said apparatus comprising: a main circuit including a plurality of module slots in which a plurality of sensor modules may be installed, the module slots for providing electrical connections between the main circuit and the sensor modules installed in the module slots; a first sensor module installed in one of the plurality of module slots, the first sensor module for receiving a sensor signal related to the production process, the first sensor module including: a switching circuit for passing the sensor signal via an electrical connection in the module slot to the main circuit; and one or more amplifiers for receiving the sensor signal from the switching circuit and adjusting offset and gain of the sensor signal; a second sensor module installed in one of the plurality of module slots, the second sensor module for receiving the sensor signal from the first sensor module via the main circuit, the second sensor module including one or more amplifiers for adjusting offset and gain of the sensor signal independently of the offset and gain provided by the one or more amplifiers in the first sensor module; a processing device in communication with the main circuit for receiving the sensor signal from the first sensor module and the sensor signal from the second sensor module and for processing the sensor signal from the first sensor module independently of the sensor signal from the second sensor module; a display device for generating a visual representation of the sensor signal from the first sensor module and the sensor signal from the second sensor module; and an input device in communication with the processing device, the input device for accepting commands from a user to control the processing device to selectively modify the visual representation of the sensor signal from the first sensor module and the sensor signal from the second sensor module on the display device.