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Tuesday, March 14, 2023 · 0 min read

The Next Generation Power Analyzer with SIRIUS XHS

Introduction

Electric and hybrid cars are reaching the mass market with longer ranges and more reasonable pricing. To evaluate the power consumption of such cars real drive tests are needed.

Current measurements in such cases, most often require an opening of the cable shield to avoid measurement faults. Furthermore, the new technologies in the E-Mobility markets require even more bandwidth due to the efficiency increase of the inverters. For power consumption, measurements of voltage and current must be performed safely and with no influence of the impedance of the car. 

The new SIRIUS XHS data acquisition system from Dewesoft is the first DAQ device ever that comes standard with Hybrid ADC technology capable of doing both high bandwidth transient recording and very high dynamic alias-free acquisition. It makes it possible to measure power during real drive tests accurately, and with no influence of the cable shield. 

Hybrid ADC amplifier technology

New converter technologies in the electric vehicle market or wireless charging have very high switching frequencies (>100 kHz) due to the usage of MOSFET semiconductors. High switching frequencies come with advantages such as improved control characteristics as the interval between pulses is shorter, reduced output current ripple and it reduces the size of the total solution by increasing the allowable cut-off frequency of the regulator’s output filter. 

SIRIUS XHS's Hybrid ADC technology explained

The Hybrid ADC converter technology offers everything that an engineer ever wished for in a high-end data acquisition device. The SIRIUS XHS is capable of synchronizing the channels regardless if they are set to high-bandwidth 5 MHz and 15 MS/s sampling rate, alias-free measurements at 1 MS/s, or a combination of them. The filtering design ensures that all the signals are perfectly time-aligned with a zero-phase shift. There is no Sigma-delta filtering group delay when you mix channels from Sigma-Delta and SAR ADC devices (high bandwidth and alias-free).

SIRIUS XHS high voltage (HV) amplifier noise floor (RMS) relative to other Dewesoft amplifiers

An e-mobility power analysis device

The SIRIUS XHS 1xHV,1xHA measurement device is well-suited for in-vehicle analysis. A built-in patented DC-CT current transducer allows for very precise current measurements even in most demanding applications such as very high current peaks as well as leakage current measurements.

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SIRIUS XHS current shunt features

This measurement device is perfect for in-vehicle installation having the power lines running directly through it. This product also has an IP67 degree of protection making it an indispensable device when the measurement application is destined to meet harsh environments, and the user wants the measurement to work without a hitch.

SIRIUS-XHS-1xHV-1xHA - the new E-Mobility Power Analyzer from Dewesoft

For instance, when doing an in-wheel motor drive test with four online power analyses at 5 MS/sec, the measurements are fully synchronized with each other. Data can be evaluated during the real drive test in-vehicle in real time. Then, because all the raw data of the measurement is also stored it is possible to do a much more detailed evaluation in post-processing in the laboratory. 

SIRIUS 1xHV 1xHA high speed DAQ

Power analysis

The DewesoftX software will automatically calculate more than 100 power parameters like P, Q, S, PF, cos φ, and many others. It also offers full raw data recording capabilities, oscilloscope, FFT, and harmonics up to the 3000th order. The Power Analysis and Power Quality software module are also able to measure multi-phase motors (6 – 12 phases). All calculations can be done online or in post-processing.

All the calculated parameters can be visually displayed in the data acquisition software using one of the predefined screens that are available in the power module as well as having the ability to set up a user-defined custom screen that is perfectly attuned to the measurement that is being carried out. Dewesoft DAQ devices support most of the current transducers that are available on the market today.

As doing measurements at such high sampling rates puts a lot of strain on the computer's CPU, the computer GPU is used as a multi-threaded calculation platform. The DewesoftX power module can, therefore, calculate all the power parameters up to 15 MS/sec at full speed in real time.

Power Analysis inside DewesoftX Software

Synchronization and connectivíty

The GLAN and USB 3.0 interfaces allow for the distribution of devices with PTPv2 synchronization as well as the fastest possible data transfer and a quick connection to the computer respectively. In today’s world of open toolchain and intercommunication systems, each device should be compliant with standard protocols to ensure interconnectivity. All the mentioned protocols can be used at the same time.

Data are transferred to any host using the open OPC UA industry-standard protocol; in parallel the data is available over XCP protocol, allowing connection to ECU calibration software packages such as INCA. High channel-to-channel and channel-to-ground isolation prevents damage to the systems from voltage peaks and avoids ground loops. 

As with any Dewesoft DAQ device, data can be synchronized to other data acquisition sources, such as vehicle bus interfaces (CAN, CAN FD, XCP, CCP, FlexRay), GPS/IMU, video, and digital counters among others. Devices can be synchronized between each other using a PTPv2 mechanism, IRIG, or PPS signal. This also provides absolute time synchronization using in-house time servers or GPS.

SIRIUS-XHS-4xHV-4xLV - 8 channel Power Analyzer

Award-winning data acquisition software included

All Dewesoft data acquisition systems are bundled with the award-winning DewesoftX Professional DAQ software - the most advanced and easy-to-use data acquisition and analysis software with lifetime upgrades. 

DewesoftX's flexibility and capability help unleash the DAQ system to its full potential and provide advantages over other DAQ systems. Functionalities like plug-and-play, hardware auto-detection, smart TEDS sensors, advanced storing, and data analysis features take the measurement and analysis experience to a whole new level.

The SIRIUS XHS has been developed to give engineers the freedom of choice when measuring power with the highest precision. This usually requires an array of measurement equipment. In this case, less is more! A high-precision compact measurement device using the state-of-the-art DewesoftX software concurrently replaces the need for extensive amounts of equipment such as an oscilloscope, power analyzer, power quality device, data logger, etc. All the while adhering to the highest safety ratings to ensure the safety of the users.

The making of SIRIUS XHS video