A Genesis HighSpeed DAQ for testing electric motors
The cooperation with HBM which is already firmly established recently underwent a new development. Since the very beginning, GreenMot has worked on complete systems, taking their environment into consideration. Hybrid cars which combine traditional internal combustion engines with electric motors have led the society to become interested in electric motors which unquestionably have an impact on the behavior and performance of the vehicles.
The tests on these motors present a new challenge when it comes to measurement because the electric power supply comes in the form of a stream of electric pulses of several hundred volts with complex form at a frequency of 1 to 25 kHz. This pulse train comprises several very rapid transients with variable intensity which have to be recorded reliably in order to be able to analyze the performance of the motor, and to understand the influence of the power supplies on the speed and torque delivered by the motor.
This led GreenMot to examine the systems available on the market. The company even tested a high-tech system specially developed for analyzing disturbances on the power grid. But this system did not allow long-term data acquisition while recording all the details of the signal. Once again, HBM appeared to be the best choice.
"We decided in favor of the GEN3i system from the Genesis HighSpeed series which is capable of recording high-voltage signals and of operating at sampling frequencies of up to 100 MS/s – more than enough to allow the details of the signals to be analyzed," explains Stéphane Londos.
It is worth noting in passing that the purchase of GEN3i by GreenMot in addition to that of QuantumX, confirms the pertinence of the decision by Spectris (the parent company of HBM) of having entrusted HBM with the modernization of the range of acquisition systems "salvaged" as a result of the takeover of LDS in 2008.
GEN3i (just like QuantumX) is used as an acquisition front-end. The digitized measurements are transferred via an optical GigabitEthernet link to a workstation where they are visualized, stored and analyzed. The optical link permits perfect insulation between the supply voltage to the motors (up to 700 V) and the workstation. The data processing is assured by the Perceptionsoftware package developed by HBM for high-speed data acquisition which is capable of visualizing 10 GB of data in 10 seconds.