Yokogawa launches next generation portable multi-channel data-acquisition recorders
Yokogawa IS8000 Integrated Measurement software platform
Yokogawa Test & Measurement has added another new instrument to its ScopeCorder family of portable multi-channel data-acquisition recorders, extending and improving their speed, channel count and data acquisition features.
As companies develop more energy efficient technologies for transportation, home & industrial appliances as well as new renewable energy sources, the DL950 is designed to offer manufacturers a highly detailed view of an application’s electrical and mechanical behaviour.
The DL950 will find use in many markets, including transportation for applications such as testing electric vehicles and SiC/GaN inverters. Uses in the power and energy sector include capturing data on renewable energy systems, while manufacturers of industrial equipment will find the DL950 invaluable in testing high efficiency motors, robots and sensors.
Providing a unique combination of the high-speed sampling and signal fidelity of an oscilloscope and the long-term data recording capabilities of a recorder, the DL950 measures signals at a high bit resolution while securing data in the harshest of environments. Building on the capabilities of the well-established DL850E, the new DL950 ScopeCorder can handle larger amounts of data at a faster sample rate and with a longer recording time. It has a large acquisition memory up to 8 Gpoint, and a 200 MS/s sample rate at 14-bit, compared to the DL850E’s 100 MS/s at 12-bit. This is twice the sample rate but with much more detail. The DL950 can run up to 32 isolated analog channels with 10 MS/s at 16-bit or up to 128 digital channels.
This provides a complete solution for developers in the high-precision mechatronics and electric power markets and contributes to the further advancement and development of technology.
The DL950 ScopeCorder provides developers with a high degree of insight into the behaviour of these systems by capturing and analyzing a wide variety of electrical signals, mechanical performance parameters indicated by sensors and decoded vehicle serial bus signals.
The dual capture feature offers both data acquisition recorder functionality and the sample speed and trigger features of an oscilloscope. This allows developers to analyze the finest waveform details while observing multi-channel measurements over longer periods. The DL950 offers five options for acquiring data, allowing users to choose the best method for their application. They can opt for normal acquisition into the fast internal acquisition memory, recording to flash memory (coming soon), recording to the internal hard disk (SSD) or directly to the PC via normal Ethernet or opt for 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
Data can be captured to a PC streaming over a very long time at up to 160 MB/s, with data volumes limited only by the PC’s storage size. Using 10 Gigabit Ethernet, data can be transferred from the DL950 to a PC at 50 times the speed of its predecessor. A fiber optic cord and the Yokogawa’s IS8000 PC software are used for transmission.
The DL950 will also feature Flash Acquisition (coming soon), used to store data when a PC cannot be used, for example when capturing data from within a vehicle, power plant or other similar applications. In these applications the unit would usually need to be switched off before moving it to an office to save data on a PC. Using Flash Acquisition, data can be captured over a long time with a high-speed sample rate of 20 MS/s (8CH) and 10 MS/s (16CH).
The 512GB internal SSD can record up to 50 days. Depending on the sample rate it can record for five hours on one channel at up to 2 MS/s, or record at 200 kS/s for 20 hours with 16 channels. Waveforms from dual capture can also be recorded, useful for in-vehicle endurance testing and capturing rare spontaneous events.
The DL950 provides ultimate versatility, as it can be connected to 21 types of input modules. These include 12-, 14- and 16-bit isolation modules, universal voltage/temperature modules, acceleration/voltage modules, strain modules and frequency modules.
Up to five DL950s can also be synchronized to allow the use of up to 160 voltage channels. Alternatively, up to 640 temperature channels can be used, employing 16 channels with eight slots for each of five DL950 units. The subunits can be synchronized to start and stop their measurements via signals from the main unit.
The DL950 is also easy to use via a large 12.1 inch touch screen, providing convenient access to its wealth of features. Yokogawa’s power analyzers and a selection of other instruments can be time synchronized through the device’s integrated IEEE1588 PTP master function and the IS8000 Integrated Software Platform. The units can also be controlled remotely, allowing home workers to continue conducting tests while working away from the test laboratory.
Dedicated application menus simplify the setup. Touching an application icon brings up the graphical setup screen for the application, while users can also register frequently used applications as favourites.
“With the DL950, the already excellent ScopeCorder family attains new levels of data acquisition speed and greatly improved usability”, says Terry Marrinan, Yokogawa Test & Measurement’s Vice President for Europe & South East Asia. “Offering the versatility to discover more from a large number of input types, the insight available from a high bit resolution and a high level usability from easy set-up, the DL950 gives developers the tools they need to gain detailed information on the behaviour of energy efficient and new renewable energy technologies and devices.”
The Yokogawa IS8000 Integrated Measurement software platform solves the challenge of developing sophisticated products such as motor inverters, which often need several instruments to capture all the test data.
Oscilloscopes offer high sample speed and in-depth views of waveforms, Yokogawa’s ScopeCorder can display many types of signals in high resolution, while power analyzers offer unrivalled accuracy in power measurements. However, operating these multiple instruments can be difficult due to the different user interfaces and the need to correlate the timing of the various input signals.
The IS8000 software platform meets this challenge by tightly integrating the timing, control, and data collection from several instruments using an IEEE1588 PTP protocol, USB or Ethernet, creating a comprehensive measurement suite.
Allowing instruments to work together as a whole ensures coherent measurements during product development, making it easier to debug and analyze data by viewing all measurements on a single display. It also allows data to be shared easily throughout an organization.
Using the IS8000 leads to greater efficiency, as it ensures less time is spent developing test methods and more time devoted to gathering actual test data.
The software provides scalability, offering optional software packages to achieve more in-depth data analysis as users’ needs evolve.
Example uses for the IS8000 include the testing of motors and inverters for products such as vehicles, elevators, air conditioners and power generating equipment.
To capture rapidly changing waveforms, IS8000 can work with Yokogawa’s DL950 ScopeCorder to store up to eight channels of data in real time on a PC at a sampling rate of up to 10 MS/s, through the 10 Gigabit Ethernet. This means that longer recording times are now possible for high-speed, multi-channel inputs such as gate signals and switching waveforms of multi-phase inverters.
IS8000 can be used to remotely operate Yokogawa’s high-precision power analyzer, high-speed recorder and oscilloscope, which can all be monitored and configured from the software. Additionally, third-party high-speed cameras can also be controlled, making it easier to operate and manage various instruments for measuring power, physical phenomena, video, and control signals.
The software allows users to run up to 16 independent FFT processes for calculation of frequency and integrated value and filter processing.
Customized reports are easy to generate simply by dragging and dropping measurement data and waveforms onto the report sheet.
An IS8011/IS8012 software package is available, allowing harmonic and flicker tests to be performed in accordance with IEC61000-3-2, 3-3, 3-11 and 3-12 standards using the WT5000 precision power analyzer. Users can easily set the conditions and output the test report without any specialized knowledge.
Although a power analyzer can analyze the power efficiency, it is optimized for accuracy of power reading rather than capturing the detail of waveforms. The ScopeCorder can capture the switching waveform with high-speed sampling and high resolution, but this requires correlating the data between the ScopeCorder and the power analyzer. The IS8000 simultaneously provides both the precise power analysis and the accurate waveform.
Another application is motion analysis using video and sensor signals of processes and events such as combustion, cutting and vibration. Some mechanical motions are controlled by or closely related to electrical signals and both video images and signal waveforms may be needed to adjust all machine parameters.
High speed camera and DAQ systems share the trigger signal only, meaning that video image and waveform data are captured individually. The IS8000 synchronizes with each instrument at any point in time, allowing physical events to be matched exactly to waveform timings.
IS8000 is available through an annual license, which gives users the latest version of the software for the duration of their subscription. Alternatively, users can opt for a perpetual license. This is a one-time purchase that can be used indefinitely, allowing users to upgrade for up to five years for major software revisions free of charge following purchase.
“Using IS8000, developers will find it much easier to bring together a host of measurements from different instruments”, says Terry Marrinan, Yokogawa Test & Measurement’s Vice President for Europe & South East Asia. “Corelating the timing of waveform displays from a number of sources gives a far more accurate picture of the behaviour of complex systems and will make development of new products much quicker and easier.”
