Eva Kalšek

Monday, October 2, 2023 · 0 min read

Dewesoftx 2023.3 Released - Electric Motor Efficiency Analysis and More

We are excited to announce the release of DewesoftX 2023.3. Our latest release is packed with powerful new functionalities and long-awaited upgrades. Introducing our electric motor analysis solution, complete with a wide range of math modules for motor efficiency calculation and a completely new Contour plot widget for data presentation. A new Counter math module for calculating counter angle and frequency finally brings analyze mode recalculation of counters to DewesoftX.

The Apply Action functionality has been given a major overhaul and now offers wider and easier batch operations. With the new user experience upgrades such as channel filters and multiple widget selections, you’ll be able to work smarter and faster than ever before. But there’s more! We’re thrilled to offer brand new module options: Chapter 7 decoder inside the PCM module and Historian MQTT Client Plugin 

Don't forget to check out the What's New section to see all of the other exciting upgrades and features we’ve added. We are sure you will find DewesoftX 2023.3 even more powerful and versatile than ever.

Electric motor efficiency analysis 

Electric motor efficiency analysis is used to improve motor performance by optimizing the efficiency of the electric input power vs. the mechanical output power. 

Such performance improvements can involve the use of Clarke and Park transformations which provides a better understanding of the relationship between the input line phase, the induced magnetic field and the mechanical rotation angle.  

Illustration of the abc input lines, the Clarke αβ and the Park dq reference frames.

All relevant settings for such types of analysis are now added together under the new Motor analysis tab of the Power module, as shown below:

Motor analysis setup tab found under the Power module.

Next to the Motor analysis transformations and efficiency calculations, the motor analysis module puts together the usage of multiple new stand-alone math modules. A more detailed description of these used math modules and widgets is listed in the links below:

All related information is also included in the electric Motor analysis manual.

New resolver sensor math module

Since Motor analysis often involves the use of resolver sensors for measuring the mechanical rotation, such types of sensors are now also supported in DewesoftX using the new Resolver Sensor math module

Resolver sensor math module setup.

The Resolver math module setup can also be accessed directly under the Motor Analysis tab. 

New 2D/3D mapping math module

Part of the Motor analysis is done with the use of a power efficiency map plot where the power efficiency is mapped vs. speed and vs. torque. 

With the new 2D/3D mapping math module the speed, torque and efficiency channels can be combined into a matrix or into a channel group which shows the efficiency across various speeds and torques, referred to as an Efficiency map.

2D/3D Mapping math module setup.

The 2D/3D mapping math module setup can also be accessed directly under the Motor analysis tab. 

New contour plot widget

The new Contour plot widget is intended for the illustration of data values mapped across two axis dimensions, and it is used specifically in electric motor efficiency analysis to illustrate the efficiency map. Different from the 3D graph widget, values within a certain interval will belong to the same contour, and having the same colour. The contour borders can be indicated with isolines. The closer the isolines are together the greater the changes in values are in that area of the plot.

A Contour plot widget showing the concept of an efficiency map created with the Motor analysis application, which has speed on the x-axis, torque on the y-axis, and efficiency on the z-axis.

Offline counter math

One of the most often requested features by Dewesoft users is the ability to recalculate counter angle and frequency outputs offline, during datafile analysis - either to fix a faulty counter setting that wasn't caught during the measurement or to tune a setting or two to see if that produces cleaner results. As long as "Raw edge separation" and "Raw count" channels were stored during the measurement, the new Counter math module finally adds this functionality to DewesoftX.

Counter math also comes with a ton of additional often-requested features: frequency smoothing, teeth size adjustment, software filters, and independent angle wrap to name a few. If the results from Counter math turn out to be nicer for your specific data file, you can also use the math as input to other modules that work with counters, such as Order Tracking or Torsional Vibration.

Setup for the new Counter math module with raw count and raw edge separation channels as inputs.

Channel filters inside channel grids

Sorting your content in the DewesoftX channel grid has never been easier. Simply click on the filter icon located at the top of the grid and a settings window will appear. From there, you can specify multiple filter options based on the available columns in the channel grid. Even if a column is hidden, our filters still do the job seamlessly.

Custom channel filter settings

What’s more, you can save your custom channel filters with a personalized name for future use. Access your saved filters easily through the drop-down list, so you can quickly apply your preferred filtering options. 

Saved custom filters with personalized name

Apply action upgrade

The Apply Action mechanism is a versatile tool that simplifies the process of transferring various properties from a reference data file to one or multiple target data files. Using this mechanism, you can quickly apply desired changes to your data files, streamlining your workflow and improving efficiency.

The new version introduces significant changes to applying properties of math operations and generated displays. You can now choose between four different options when applying math properties. 

New settings for the Apply Action functionality
  • Replace all ” - will by default exchange the setups from target files with the setup from the reference file, and this option will affect both offline and online math operations.

  • Add all” - will by default add new modules from the reference file to the target files and exchange the settings for matching modules found in both the target and reference file.

  • Replace offline” - will by default do the same as “Replace all”, but only for modules set to offline.

  • Add offline” - will by default add new offline modules from the reference file to the target files, and hereby do the same action as the previous Apply action mode “Add math” did. 

In addition, three new options are available so the user can decide to: 

  • “Auto recalculate” - data in the target files for it to relate to the new math modules.

  • “Load displays” - to adjust the setup displays after the reference file or not.

  • “Customize apply option” - to manually select what to do with all individual math modules from both the reference file and the target files. 

An additional window will appear, providing detailed information about the operations that will or will not be applied.

This window will appear when the “Customize apply option” is enabled

User experience upgrades

DewesoftX 2023.3 version brings many new upgrades that simplify the user experience for building custom displays, analyzing data, and setting up widgets more easily.

When preparing a display for your measurement setup, you can now select several different widgets at once and create a custom group from the selection. This means you can effortlessly organize and manage several widgets at once. Once you've selected multiple widgets, you can copy, paste or resize the entire widget group as a whole. 

Selecting multiple widgets, resizing them and combine the selected widgets in the group

The Recorder widget’s X-axis is now more flexible than ever before. You can now define the custom delta time window of the presented data on the Recorder. What’s more, you can easily adjust the minimum and maximum values to your preferred custom values in both Analyze mode and Freeze mode. 

Adjusting min and max values on the Recorder widget

Our latest update includes a unification of the left-side properties across all widgets, making it easier than ever to adjust and customize your widgets. With a consistent layout and intuitive design, you can now navigate the widget settings with ease, regardless of which widget you're using. 

IRIG 106 chapter 7 decoder

The PCM module has had a new option added to the Frame Sync setup screen for processing IRIG 106 Chapter 7 PCM data. This enables the PCM frame payload to be accessed via the Chapter 10 module to extract the internal Chapter 10 packets of data. Then the Chapter 10 module can pull apart the different data types to be processed with the DewesoftX Software Suite. This gives the DewesoftX Telemetry solution a complete solution for Processing IRIG 106 Chapter 7 data streams. 

Chapter 7 decoder

To enable the IRIG 106 chapter 7 decoder you will need a PCM license and an additional Chapter 7 decoder license. 

Historian client plugin 

The Historian Client Plugin allows DewesoftX to connect to a Dewesoft Historian server (using the MQTT protocol) both as a publisher and as a subscriber. In publisher mode, the user can select DewesoftX channels to be published to Historian and stored in the database. In subscriber mode, the plugin can subscribe to the channels from other Historian Client plugins connected to the same instance of Dewesoft Historian. It is possible to publish data from one instance of DewesoftX to Historian and subscribe to this data in another instance of DewesoftX. The channels on the subscriber are converted to asynchronous sampling type.

The Historian Client plugin uses the MQTT protocol for data transfer and supports Sparkplug B payload definition. The primary role of the Historian Client is to connect to Dewesoft Historian. While it can also be used to connect to 3rd party MQTT brokers, the compatibility needs to be verified by Dewesoft support project-by-project.

Historian client setup

What else is new? 

You will find additional details on all the below-listed features on Dewesoft’s Customer Support Portal

As always DewesoftX 2023.3 is a free upgrade for all Dewesoft customers and is compatible with all Dewesoft data acquisition systems. You can download it from our download center, where you will also find a changelog listing all the minor improvements and bug fixes.