I don't even know where to begin, so this looks like a good place

Question

Hi, all
I am an RC airplane hobbiest and I would like to build a test engine stand to test my engines with different props.  I would also like to tune the engines to get the peak performance out of my engines if possible.  Usually to do this, I place one of my motors on a test stand with a prop and start it up and put it through its paces while listening to the sounds.  Now I would like to actually quantify my results with a system that can be connected to my laptop.  Of course I have no idea how to put together a data acquisition system, but why let that stop me.  I thought I would pose a question here to see how much of a hassle it would be.  So below I have listed all my requirements and I hope that someone can direct me to atleast giving me a direction to start picking the components that I would need to achieve my goal.
RC Glow Motor Test Stand Requirements:
1.  Thrust measurement.  The engines can typically produce upto 25 lbs of thrust with a proper prop configuration.
2.  Temperature measurement.  The engines operate at temperatures that are comparable to a typical automobile engine ( -40 F to 400 F)
3.  Tachometer measurement.  The engines can turn as much as 20000 RPMs.  I have a optical tachometer that is suppiled from the hobby shop and works qute well with up to 4 blades on a prop. 
The above are the only 3 measurements that I need to tune the motors to maximize their performance.  In addition, it would be awesome if my data acquisition system wasn't tethered to a plug from a house which would be cause for an extention cord.  Battery powered is the best. 
Of course the final requirement is the data needs to be able to be displayed in a graph on the laptop computer.

Answer 1

OK fair enough.  It just seemed that the labview forum was just about software, and I really didn't know what breakpoint really meant.  I was looking through some of the threads and the technicals in some of them are right down to the nats.  I wasn't looking for anything too technical yet, I was just looking for some direction on my problem so that I can read and learn in a more focused manner for the time being. If it is feedback you would like in this forum, how about this.  With all of the subcatergories for this entire forum, another one labeled Concept Evaluation would probably help with people like myself who just want to jump in and get started with a new system.  It seems like everything here is broken down into several subsets, and I fear that when that occurs, the best solution may not be achieved.
As for your question, I'm by no means even qualified to answer with any technical knowledge, but I believe that the load cell for force measurements and the thermocoupler for the temperature measurements would be a voltage measurement, and the RPM would be a digital pulse measurement. 
Thanks for your reply, and I will now try the same thing in the breakpoint forum.