Data acquisition recorders target power, transportation

Kelvin Hagebeuk, Product Marketing Manager, ScopeCorders for Yokogawa’s T&M Centre Europe pointed out that 15 member states of the European Union missed energy efficiency targets in their electricity supply operations and will have to take further measures to stay in line with targets.

Applications areas for the DL850E are electricity generation, transmission and distribution.

The DL850EV (Vehicle Edition) targets the transportation industry. Application areas are automotive, railways and aerospace. Energy efficient transportation and electrification of the power line are the strategies the new instrument will meet.

Hagebeuk sees a growing market where automotive companies are aiming to reduce carbon emissions and the trent towards electric vehicles, a view endorsed by market research outfit Frost and Sullivan who are tracking explosive growth in electric vehicle sales.

The new DL850E instruments have the ability to carry out the real-time measurement and analysis of electrical power. Like existing members of Yokogawa’s ScopeCorder family, it combines features from a high-performance digital oscilloscope and a multi-channel data-acquisition recorder

All members of the ScopeCorder family are equipped with a set of basic arithmetic mathematical functions such as addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, fast Fourier transformation and other computations.

In addition the new DL850E versions also offer the /G5 option for real-time measurement of electrical power as well as the existing /G3 optionforreal-time mathematical computations and digital filtering and the /G2 optionforuser-defined computations.

With the /G5 electrical power option, trend calculations such as active power, power factor, integrated power and harmonics can be carried out at data update rates up to 100 kS/s using a dedicated digital signal processor (DSP) that is able to calculate and display up to 126 types of electrical power related parameters in real time. This enables the user to display raw waveform signals such as voltages and currents along with calculated power parameters as well as the capability to trigger on any or all of them. Trend waveforms of each order of harmonics, bar-graphs and vector displays can be displayed. Both RMS and power analysis modes are available. In addition to the powerful power calculations, the /G5 option also contains all the functionality of the /G3 real-time mathematics option.

The new instrument can capture and analyse both transient events and trends over time periods from milliseconds up to 200 days, storing acquired data in the large acquisition memory, the internal hard disk and/or an external PC hard disk.

Flexible modular inputs enable the DL850E to combine measurements of electrical signals, physical parameters from sensors, and data from CAN/LIN serial buses. A choice of 17 input modules allows the instrument to be configured up to a maximum of 128 channels, giving engineers a thorough insight into any application by synchronising the measurement of different types of electrical and physical signals.Individually isolated and shielded input channels provide high resolution and high sample rates, while Yokogawa’s unique “dual capture” feature allows transient signals to be captured during long-term measurements by recording at two different sampling rates.

The DL850E and DL850EV ScopeCorders are equipped with a large and fast acquisition memory, allowing storage of up to 2 gigapoints of data and providing high sample rates of up to 100 MS/s on multiple channels simultaneously. Yokogawa’s unique history memory function allows users to quickly isolate and examine individual waveform records for detailed analysis.

The ScopeCorder DE850EV Vehicle Edition is designed to meet a common challenge to combine measurements of electrical signals, physical performance parameters acquired by sensors, and CAN- or LIN-bus data transmitted by the powertrain management system.

It addresses this requirement by providing a thorough insight into the dynamic behaviour of the electromechanical system. The result is a considerable saving of time saved compared to other approaches such analysis on a PC or the use of other software.

A DC power option allows the DL850EV to be used in a vehicle, with power being supplied by the vehicle’s DC battery. The DC power option allows AC and DC power supplies to be used together to ensure a highly reliable power source. If the AC power goes down, the DL850V instantly switches to a DC input without interrupting the measurement.

The quality and reliability of the DL850E and DL850EV ScopeCorders are supported by a standard 3-year warranty.