Rotas Noise Analysis System Quick Start and Setup Guide

Transcription

1 Rotas Noise Analysis System Quick Start and Setup Guide Introduction This Quick Start Guide is intended to help you in getting a freshly unpacked Rotas noise analysis system running, to establish a test stand connection and check for signals. In this manual, only the information necessary for the setup task are explained. For a more complete introduction into the Rotas noise analysis system, software and hardware, please refer to the full manual. (This manual is contained in the documentation CD which came with the computer and can also be downloaded from Measurement PC Setup The measurement PC is mainly a standard Windows PC with additional measurement hardware. This additional hardware the TAS Box is built into the PC in place of the DVD drive and connected internally via USB. You will find it behind the front plate lid of your PC: Front panel of TAS Box The key for the front lid is stored in the computer s documentation folder Please install the PC and connect it to monitor, mouse and keyboard as you would with any Windows PC. In addition, you will have to connect the serial interface to the test stand control and the speed and noise sensors as shown in the block diagram (see next page). The speed and noise sensor connectors are located on the back side of the PC (as all other connectors) please refer to the picture on the next page. The following pictures show a simple standard TAS System with only two sensor inputs (noise and speed). They will serve as examples and should give you a general Rotas Basic Setup Page 1 of 9

2 idea of the location of the connectors. Your system may have more connectors. Please refer to the block diagram that comes with your system. Connector for TIS speed input Rotas measurement PC back side Connectors for accelerometer and analog speed sensors This example system block diagram shows all necessary external connections in blue (computer back side is on the left). The block diagram for your measurement PC comes with the documentation folder and can also be found on the PC in the folder D:\Documentation\SystemSpecific. When you have set up and connected the PC, please start it (using the push button on the lower left behind the front plate lid). Rotas Basic Setup Page 2 of 9

3 Installed software When you start the PC, the TasAlyser measurement application will automatically start. The TasAlyser is a normal Windows application which communicates with the TAS Box USB device, so you can use other software in parallel as with any other Windows program. Minimize or close it to see the desktop. On the desktop you will find the following Rotas-specific shortcuts: Shortcut to the TasAlyser measurement application Shortcut to the Parameter Database Shortcut to Presentation, the measurement analysis software Shortcut to Web.Pal, the production data base and analysis The folder Rotas for Experts contains additional useful shortcuts In the Rotas for Experts folder, you will find some additional software: Shortcut to the VcTerm, a simple serial port test application. The TasWavEditor, which can be used to look into the Wave files recorded by TasAlyser Audacity is a free audio editor Shortcut to the project folder System documentation and general documentation shortcuts Tas Project Backup tool Rotas Basic Setup Page 3 of 9

4 Getting started with Test Stand Communication Checking the serial communication In order to check the test stand communication on a basic level, the VcTerm application can be used. You will find it in the Rotas for Experts folder located on the computer s desktop. First, quit the TasAlyser application. Make sure that all cables are connected, then start VcTerm. From the menu CommPort select the command Settings. Choose the proper comm port number (see block diagram on page 2), baud rate and protocol. Then press the green up arrow button in the toolbar to open the selected serial port. Now each character you type in the main window is sent out to the serial port, and each character received is reflected in the main window. Get the test stand control send some commands and try sending replies. Use the barcode scanner and watch it s output. Communication with TasAlyser Now close VcTerm and start TasAlyser. On the lower edge of the main window you will find a tab called Output. When you click on it, a docking window slides out. In this window, the test stand communication is reported. Click on the pin in the upper right corner of this window to have it stay in place (otherwise it would slide back when it loses focus). Send a command from the test stand control. It should be reflected in this window (preceded by (I) for in ). The TasAlyser s replies are also reflected in this window (preceded by (O) for out ). Try sending Reset: from the test stand, followed by a newline. The contents of the Output window should look like this: (I) Reset: (O) 1 Now please refer to the separate manual Tas test stand commands for a complete description of the communication protocol and the commands. On the next page is a complete example test run: Rotas Basic Setup Page 4 of 9

5 Command sent from test stand Reset: 1 Reply from TasAlyser Comment Insert: JLC5M2D 1 starts a new test run for gearbox type JLC5M2D Serial: sets the serial number Mode: 1-D 1 starts measurement of ramp 1 st gear drive perform speed ramp Mode: 1-C 1 starts ramp 1 st gear cost perform speed ramp Mode: 2-C 1 starts ramp 2 nd gear drive perform speed ramp Mode: 2-D 1 starts ramp 2 nd gear cost (and so on) Mode: R-D 1 starts reverse gear drive ramp perform speed ramp Mode: R-C 1 starts reverse gear cost ramp EndOfTest: 1 declares: all tests done Result: 0 / 1 / 2 / 3 test result: 0 = not OK, 1 = OK, 2 =no test performed, 3 = system error Remove: 1 end of test run; results are stored Remarks: 1. Ramps can be tested in any order. The test stand signals which ramp follows next. Also, ramps can be repeated. The last repetition counts for the evaluation result. 2. The serial number can be set and changed at any time before Remove:. That is, the command Serial: can be used at any time before Remove: and can be used more than once (to change the serial number). There is no (reasonable) limit to the length of the serial number, and it may contain any characters other than whitespace. 3. The command Result: can be used any time (also more than once) during the test run. It will always provide the evaluation result valid at that time. It can even be used after Remove:. Rotas Basic Setup Page 5 of 9

6 Speed and Noise Signals Speed and noise signals can be tested independent from the test stand communication. Start the TasAlyser application. On the right, you will find a window named Command Center (see picture). Immediately after program start, the list Test step (Mode) will be empty and the button Inserted will have a grey icon. Press the button Inserted. This will populate the Test step list (as shown in the picture). Select any entry in the list. These steps Insert and selecting a test step are necessary to initiate the data flow from the TAS box A/D converters. Now you need a window to check your signals. On the left hand side of the TasAlyser main window, there are two more tabs for sliding windows: System Configuration and Favorites. Click on Favorites to bring out the Favorites window. This window contains a customizable list of the most used functions and display windows of the TasAlyser application. Look for the element Raw Signals (which should be located near the end of the list). Double click on it to bring up a so-called Scope window which displays the sensor signals of vibration and speed sensor. Use the + and buttons and the scrollbars to zoom into the signal or the o buttons to auto-scale an axis: Now it should be possible to check whether the sensors produce sensible signals. Knock lightly on the vibration sensor to see if the signal reacts. Make the gearbox turn to see if the speed signal delivers pulses. For the following checks, keep the data running. To end the tests, click on Inserted again. This will stop the data flow. Rotas Basic Setup Page 6 of 9

7 Checking Sensor Settings and Gain Keep the data flow running as explained above. Slide out the Favorites pane and look for two objects: Tas Box and Signal Monitor: Double click on Signal Monitor to open a window showing the gain for each sensor channel. You can switch on Audio Monitoring to send the sensor input of selected channels to the PC soundcard. (Connect earphones or a speaker to the PC soundcard output to hear the signals.) This is a good method to check noise sensors, but also a great way to listen to the noise of gearboxes. Double click on Tas Box to open the settings for the input device. (Your screen may look different from the following picture, depending on the Tas modules installed in your system.) Check for the following For vibration sensors and microphones, in the column Coupling you have to select ICP. (If something else is selected here, your sensors will not work.) For speed sensors, you usually want AC Coupling. In some cases (depending on the nature of your speed signal), DC coupling may be the better choice. Please discuss this with Discom, if you have problems with your speed detection. In the column Sensitivity, select a value about 50% to 100% higher than the highest expected input voltage (to provide room for peaks). The Tas A/D converters produce 24 Bit data, so you can safely work with medium gain. Check the Signal Monitor window and adjust Sensitivity accordingly. In the TAS Settings window, press Apply to apply changes immediately. When you are done, press OK. Afterwards, from the File menu of the TasAlyser main window select the command Save Settings. Adjusting the Speed Settings In the upper right corner of the main window you will see the speed indicator. It will probably display 0 rpm at the moment. Double-click on the speed indicator to open it s settings window. Rotas Basic Setup Page 7 of 9

8 If your system is equipped with a TIS speed detection module, you can only adjust the Pulses per Revolution your speed sensor generates. If you use a normal A/D input channel for speed detection, you will find a large button Pulse Detection Settings. Press this button in order to open a second window. In the Pulse Detection Settings window, near the upper left, are two buttons Signal levels? and Set trigger levels. Make sure that the data flow is running (that you get curves in the Raw Signals window) and that you have a real speed signal (the machine is turning). Then press Signal levels?, followed by Set trigger levels and afterwards Apply. This procedure adjusts the speed pulse detection trigger levels, as shown in the settings window. You will get the current speed displayed in the indicator now. If your speed pulse encoder does not deliver equal levels for all speeds, try to find trigger levels working for all speeds. You can adjust the trigger levels manually and press Apply in the Pulse Detection Settings window. You also can try to switch from AC coupling to DC coupling (or vice versa) in the TAS channel settings (see previous page). Normal operation Serial communication established, speed correct and noise sensor working? Then you are ready for normal operation. Start your first test cycle. During normal operation, the window Command Center reflects the gearbox types and test steps sent by the test stand control (see commands Insert: and Mode:). You should see the correct speed in the speed indicator. One of the TasAlyser main window is the Report Window, another the Result Indicator. The Report Window shows the gearbox type, serial number and time stamp as a headline and below the test result together with error messages. In this window, error messages may occur, even messages like Vibration sensor defect, and you may get red lights in the Result Indicator. These messages are due to inappropriate limit settings in the parameter data base and will be corrected during the limit setup phase. If you want to get rid of these messages, please contact Discom. We will tell you how to send the stored results of your first test runs to us and adjust the limits in order to give you OK results. Rotas Basic Setup Page 8 of 9

9 Turning the computer off and on The measurement PC is mainly a normal PC with a special USB device, so it can be handled like a normal PC. Turning off the computer As this is a normal Windows PC, you can turn it off as you would do with any PC. You should close the parameter data base first, if it is open. It is not necessary to quit the measurement program TasAlyser or the other tools, because Windows will stop them normally during shutdown. Turning on the computer After Windows has started, the measurement program TasAlyser is automatically started. When you see the usual windows, the system is ready for measurements. Please note: when the measurement program is started, in the beginning you do not see the grey boxes showing the results of the test steps in the Result Indicator window. They will appear at the beginning of the first test run. Rotas Basic Setup Page 9 of 9