The Simcenter Testlab Neo Time Data Acquisition software (Figure 1) is used to acquire noise, vibration, and durability data with Simcenter SCADAS hardware.
Figure 1: Simcenter Testlab Neo Time Data Acquisition
The software covers the entire acquisition process:
Channel setup and transducer calibration
Live data visualization
Recording of time history data to host PC
The purpose of Time Data Acquisition is to acquire time histories for further analysis. Several functions (spectrums, orders, overall level, etc) can be monitored before and during the data acquisition. However, these functions are not permanently stored.
This article has the following sections: 1. Getting Started 2. Instrumentation 2.1 Channels (Views/Table) 2.2 Setup 2.3 Tacho/Ranging/CAN/Virtual Channels 2.4 Video 3. Calibration 4. Measure 4.1. Control Parameters 4.2. Arm/Start 4.3. Online Data Viewing (Time) 4.4. Online Data Viewing (Frequency, Order, Colormap) 4.5. Event Logging and Rating Features 5. Viewing Acquired Data with Desktop 6. Post Processing with Simcenter Testlab Process Desginer
1. Getting Started
To do live data acquisition with Simcenter Testlab Neo Time Data Acquisition, first ensure the Simcenter SCADAS hardware is connected to the PC and turned on as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Connect the SCADAS hardware to the host PC running Simcenter Testlab Neo Time Data Acquisition.
Time Data Acquisition works with the following hardware (direct connection only):
SCADAS XS via a USB connector (USB to mini, must be data capable cable)
With the SCADAS hardware connected and turned on, start the Time Data Acquisition software. This can be done by searching windows or finding the appropriate icon in the “Testlab Neo General Acquisition” folder (Figure 3):
Figure 3: Start Simcenter Testlab Neo Time Data Acquisition from either Windows Search (left) or via icons on the Windows desktop (right).
After double clicking on the “Time Data Acquisition” icon, when prompted select the “Blank Project” template if starting a new project (Figure 4). If opening an existing project, choose “Open” on the left side.
Figure 4: When starting a new project, choose “Blank Project” template.
Turning ON the “Show hardware selection configuration” checkbox is optional. If it is OFF, then the software will try and connect automatically to any Simcenter SCADAS hardware on the PC. Turning the “Show hardware selection configuration” checkbox ON gives additional options – specific hardware can be selected OR the software can be started in an offline mode.
To connect to SCADAS hardware and take data live, choose the “Connect to Frontend” option shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Choose “Connect to Frontend” to take data live.
Next is the splash screen for Simcenter Testlab Neo which contains several icons as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Startup Splash screen of Simcenter Testlab Neo Acquisition.
The splash screen icons correspond to the various tasks that need to be done to perform a measurement.
The icons are grouped in order from left to right in groups of tasks needed to acquire data:
Instrumention: For transducer setup including accelerometers, microphones, strain gauges, tachometers, CAN bus, etc.
Calibration: Use reference calibrator to determine transducer sensitivity if using nominal value is not desired.
Measure: Acquire time history data and monitor spectrums and other functions live.
Desktop: For viewing data after acquisition is finished.
Click on an icon as desired:
The “Channels” icon (red in screen shot above) goes to a channel list to setup transducers
The “Measure” icon goes to the screen to immediately be able to take data. This would be useful if opening an existing project that already has all channels setup.
To not see the splash screen at startup, click off the “Show at startup” checkbox in the lower left corner of the screen. The icons correspond to the tabs at the bottom of the screen when running Time Data Acquisition.
By default, the new project is called “Project1”. It is best to save the project as soon as possible as shown in Figure 7:
Figure 7: Choose “File -> Save As” to save the project with a new name.
Be sure to save the project right away (File -> Save as), otherwise in the Windows temp (C:\Windows\temp) directory. If the software was to stop running unexpectedly before saving to a new name, it would be difficult to find the project file in the Windows temp directory.
The next section explains the “Channels” task where transducer information is entered and set up.
2. Instrumentation
The Instrumentation group has several tabs where different aspects of setting up a measurement can be performed.
2.1 Channels
Clicking on the “Channels” icon opens the “Channels” setup tab in the “Instrumentation” task as shown in Figure 8 below.
Figure 8: The “Channels” tab in the “Instrumentation” task group of Simcenter Testlab Neo Time Data Acquisition.
By highlighting a channel in the grid, all possible channel settings are listed in the property tab on the right side of the screen. In the grid and the properties menu, there are fields that can be filled with information for each channel and its corresponding transducer. Some of the key fields are:
On: Checkbox to turn make channel active for data acquisition.
Point: The name or description for the location of the transducer. For example, a microphone at “DriverEar” or accelerometer located at “TopMount”.
Direction: Possible values include +X, -X, +Y, -Y, +Z, -Z. These are important if using geometry to animate the data.
Measured Quantity: Choose the engineering unit for the measurement channel. Potential choices include Acceleration, Strain, Pressure, etc.
Sensitivity: The calibration value of the transducer. For example, an accelerometer might be 100 mV/g, 10 mV/g, or 1 mV/g.
Data Rate: Individual channels can be assigned to High, Low, Slow groups. All channels in a group will have the same sampling rate.
Sample Rate: Set the sample rate for the High, Low, or Slow groups. Changing the sample rate on one channel in a group will change all to be the same.
Signal: Shows a live level bar in channel grid of data amplitude when system is armed.
Setup: Can view a single channel data live and adjust settings. See next section for more information.
Not all fields are shown in the grid by default. Depending on the type of transducer, additional field can be shown by right clicking on the column headers of the channel list and choosing “Show columns…” as shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9: Additional channel setup fields can be added to the visible grid by right clicking on the column header and choosing “Show columns…”
To add a field to the channel grid, find it on the left side of the “Show columns…” menu, highlight it, and use the “Add->” button to put it on the right side and make it visible.
In the “Home” ribbon, there is a “Views” area (Figure 10) with pre-defined sets of fields for specific transducers.
Figure 10: The “Views” area of the Home ribbon.
For example, if setting up a strain gauge, choose the “Bridge” view. The channel grid fields will update to reflect all relevant fields (supply voltage, completion resistor, gauge factor, etc) for setting up a strain gauge in the channel grid.
2.2 Setup
To setup a transducer with greater detail, click on the “Setup” button for a channel as shown in Figure 11.
Figure 11: Choosing “Setup” for a channel gives highly detailed information including live time and spectral data.
The setup displays highly detailed information for one channel. It shows a live readout of the measured data in both time and frequency to make it easier to verify the transducer is functioning properly.
To leave the single channel setup view and go back to the overview grid of all channels, click on the “Channels” tab in the lower left corner.
2.3 Tacho/Ranging/CAN/Virtual Channels
There are several other tabs in the Channels task group for setting up the measurement (Figure 12).
Figure 12: In the “Tacho Setup”, a detection level is set that crosses through the pulses to calculate an RPM (press the Arm button in the lower left to start).
The other tabs correspond to these tasks:
Ranging: Set the input range on data channel to properly digitize data. Typical range for strain gauges is https://community.sw.siemens.com/s/article/gain-range-and-quantization
Tacho Setup: Used for encoder measurements that utilize pulses to calculate revolutions per minute (rpm) or flow.
CAN Setup: Many products have a Controller Area Network (CAN) digital bus that carries readouts of embedded sensors. These can be read along with the analog channels. https://community.sw.siemens.com/s/article/Simcenter-Testlab-Tips-for-Trouble-free-CAN-Bus-Operation
Virtual Channels: Calculate additional time channels using math, filters, integration and more from acquired channels.
In the lower right corner of any task, click on the “Guide me” button to get a instructions as shown in Figure 13.
Figure 13: Press the “Guide Me” button on the lower right corner for a step-by-step tutorial for any task.
The “Guide Me” provides a step-by-step tutorial for the current task.
There are several calibration modes available in the “Calibration” task sheet shown in Figure 15:
Figure 15: Types of transducer calibration modes available in Simcenter Testlab Neo Time Data Acquisition.
A brief description of the available modes:
AC Calibration: For single frequency calibrators. Examples include pistonphones (1000 Hz, 94 dB RMS) or accelerometers (159.2 Hz, 10 m/s2 RMS).
Two Point Calibration: Linear calibration based on slope and offset calculated from two points. For example, by reading voltage levels from string pot at 0 millimeters and 1000 millimeters.
Lead Wire Calibration: Strain gauge calibration using internal shunt and zero. Also compensates for lead wire.
Multi-Point Calibration: Linear calibration based on slope and offset calculated linear regression of multiple points. For example, at 0 millimeters, 500 millimeters, and 1000 millimeters.
Setpoint Calibration: User enters a target “set point” value (for example: zero) and the offset on the channel is adjusted to achieve the target value. Often used to zero/balance offset on channel.
4. Measure
In the “Measure” task group, online displays can be configured for viewing the data during acquisition, the measurement can be started/stopped, and several other settings can be set.
4.1 Control Parameters
In the lower right corner of the measure screen, several measurement parameters can be entered (Figure 16):
Figure 16: Measurement settings can be entered in the “Control Parameters” menu located in the lower right corner of the “Measure” screen.
Measurement control settings include:
Start trigger type: Select from Manual, Channel, Tacho Pulse.
Manual: Acquisition begins when user presses “Start” button.
Channel: Select a channel and set a level to start measurement. For example, the tachometer channel could be selected and trigger set to 1000 rpm to begin measurement. Or a temperature channel could be selected to start measurement when 50 degrees Celsius is exceeded.
Tacho Pulse: Measurement starts when pulses are detected on tachometer channel.
Prestart time: Specified in seconds, system keeps a buffer for the specified amount of time which is stored when trigger condition is met. For example, if accelerometer exceeds a certain threshold, the system could store 30 seconds of data leading up to exceeding the threshold.
Start trigger overrides pretrigger: System will keep evaluating trigger conditions even if a triggered measurement is already in progress. For example, if system was set to measure 10 seconds on an acceleration of 1 g, if 1 g is exceed 5 seconds into the 10 second measurement, a total of 15 seconds will be stored.
Stop trigger type and post stop time: Similar to Start trigger and prestart time, but at end of measurement.
Measurement settings include:
Number of Runs: System will automatically re-arm at the end of each measurement and acquire the specified number of runs. Using auto-accept makes this happen automatically without user intervention.
Auto-Accept: When measurement is complete, if “Auto-Accept” is ON, no prompts will be presented to user to decide if measurement should be saved or not.
Add Run to Input Basket: Will make last run immediately available for postprocessing.
4.2 Arm/Start
In the state control pane, there is an action button (lower left corner of screen). The button can be used to arm the system and take data (Figure 17):
Figure 17: The action button in the lower left corner of the screen is used to arm the measurement system and take data.
In the state pane on the lower left corner of the screen:
The name for the measurement can be entered (“Run” by default). When taking measurements, already acquired data is never overwritten, even if the same name is used. They system will automatically add a number to the end of the name and increment it every time data is acquired.
Arm: Pressing the “Arm” button readies the system for measurement, but does not acquire data. All displays become active and show live data. Any Prestart buffer gets filled. When ready, the button changes to “Start”.
Start: Pressing the “Start” button takes data immediately when set to manual mode. If a trigger is defined, data acquisition will begin when the trigger conditions are met.
Stop: Once the measurement is active, the button changes to “Stop”. Pressing “Stop” will end the measurement.
Disarm: To be able to leave the “Measure” screen, the “Disarm” button (next to the big blue button) has to be pressed.
4.3 Online Data Viewing (Time)
Time history data can be viewed while the system is armed and while acquiring data (Figure 18):
Figure 18: The “Measure” tab of Simcenter Testlab Neo Time Data Acquisition.
In the navigation tree on the right hand side of the screen, live data can be selected for viewing in the “Active Run” by clicking in the grid.
Online monitoring in Control Parameters menu:
Update rate: How often functions (like spectrums) are calculated.
History Size: How much time data is shown in online displays.
Monitor Complete Measurement: Option to see entire time history.
4.4 Online Data Viewing (Frequency, Order, Colormap)
In addition to time data, frequency spectrums, orders and colormaps can also be viewed before and during the acquisition.
The functions to be viewed are selected using the “Monitoring” menu in the upper right of the Measure screen (Figure 19).
Figure 19: To choose functions to view during measurement, highlight the sample rate group in the “Monitoring” menu in the upper right of the Measure screen.
Highlight the sample rate group in the “Monitoring” menu in the upper right of the Measure screen. Icons become active to select the functions to be viewed while collecting data.
After clicking on a button for the desired function, highlight the function to parameters like RMS, frequency resolution, etc as shown in Figure 20.
Figure 20: Adding a function on the right side of the screen will add it to the active run pivot table for viewing on the left side of the screen.
The online functions that are shown in realtime during the acquisition will not be stored at the end of the run. Only the time history is stored.
There are several options to log events, keyboard strokes, etc during the measurement in Simcenter Testlab Neo Time Data Acquisition.
4.5.1 Event Logging
While the measurement is active, an “Event” button becomes active (Figure 21).
Figure 21: Left – After starting the measurement, pressing the “Event” button allows text to be entered during acquisition. Top and Right – After the acquisition is finished, the times and event names can be listed by right clicking on the throughput file and choosing “Error and event report”.
Pressing the event button allows the user to enter a small descriptive text while the measurement is in progress.
After the measurement is completed, the events and their corresponding time stamps can be listed by right clicking on the “Throughput” file icon in the navigation tree and choosing “Error and event report”.
4.5.3 Ratings Feature
It is also possible to enable keyboard logging while the measurement is in progress. The keyboard values are logged in a data channel along with the time data as shown in Figure 22 below.
Figure 22: Keyboard values (blue trace), for example ratings from 0 to 10, can be recorded along with the measurement data (green).
The keyboard logging can be used to mark events or log ratings while the acquisition is in progress.
There are few steps to setup keyboard logging:
Edit the file "KeystrokeSignalDevice.xml" in C:/Simcenter/UserConfiguration/login/Simcenter Testlab Rev" directory. It can be edited in NotePad to define keystrokes (can be customized).
Define virtual channels that use "KEYSTROKE" function.
Press F9 during the measurement to get into keyboard mode.
The “Desktop” tab can be used to view data after the measurement as shown in Figure 23:
Figure 23: The Desktop tab (bottom of screen) can be used for viewing data after the acquisition is finished.
Simcenter Testlab Neo has a Preview display and pivot table feature to quickly view data. More information about using the Desktop to view data with Simcenter Testlab Neo in the knowledge articles:
6. Post Processing with Simcenter Testlab Neo Process Designer
Data can be processed immediately after that acquisition is finished using a predefined process created in Simcenter Testlab Neo Process Designer (Figure 24).
Figure 24: Simcenter Testlab Neo Time Data Acquisition with Process Designer add-in activated.
The Process Designer is an additional add-in. It is not part of Simcenter Testlab Time Data Acquisition. To turn it on, go to “File -> Add-ins” and turn on “Process Designer” (19 tokens) and any needed processing libraries like “Signature Analysis” (36 tokens). A new tab called “Processing” is created at the bottom of the Simcenter Testlab Neo user interface.
Any existing process can be setup to run immediately after acquisition is finished using the “Processing” section of the “Control Parameters” menu in the “Measure” worksheet (Figure 25):
Figure 25: Anomaly detection process that comes with Simcenter Testlab Neo setup to run automatically after acquisition is finished.
There are several processes already available with Simcenter Testlab Neo. For example, the process “AnomalyDetection” is a useful for finding potential problems like intermittent transducer connections, dead channels, unusual data, etc.
More information about Process Designer and various processing options in the knowledge articles:
