one or more micro tri axial units micro tau 108 c a micro tau 108 c measures data from three external accelerometers example sensing units 108 may further include one or more wideband micro tri axial units wideband micro tau 108 d a wideband micro tau 108 d is a high data rate version of the accelerometer sensing unit 108 c it measures data from three external accelerometers up to 10 000 samples sec and stores it internally due to the large amount of data stored internally the wideband micro tau may be provided with a usb connection to reduce the download time such sensors 108 are commercially available such as the micro wireless sensors designed and developed by invocon inc conroe tex usa such prior art data acquisition systems for nasa orbiter operations are configured via rf shortly before a launch if a launch is delayed or scrubbed re programming of the sensors 108 requires line of sight access to the units from the laptop 101 using the laptop 101 to re program the sensors 108 is a time consuming manual task that competes with other orbiter turnaround operations additionally the different sensor types often require different transceivers 105 to communicate with the laptop 101 for configuration and data download a wireless instrumentation system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention provides a method to mitigate safety concerns due to aging of wires provide rapid response to vehicle instrumentation needs provide a low cost solution for after market instrumentation reduce the amount of vehicle wiring and provide building blocks for use in integrated systems health management ishm technologies data acquisition systems in accordance with embodiments of the invention are used to acquire instrumentation.