Crystal Instruments Time Waveform Recording System

Establishing a time record of data is a critical requirement of vibration testing. Whether monitoring ground vibration from railway activity or running a laboratory test on a missile fixture, time recording reveals the times of peak activity, overall vibration levels at various times, damping ratios and other useful information, and acquired data often needs synchronizing with other data types. Crystal Instruments offers platforms from portable to high channel count: Spider-80X V2, Spider-80Xi, Spider-80SGi, Spider-80Ti, Spider-20HE/20i, CoCo-70X, CoCo-80X and CoCo-90X, spanning different form factors, ruggedization levels (IP-67, IP-53, IP-31) and weights, such as 4.41 lbs/2 kg for Spider-80X V2 and 1.23 lbs/0.56 kg for Spider-20E.

Sampling parameters depend on the platform. The CoCo line offers 54 sampling rates and the Spider line supports 58, up to 256000 Hz; multi-module systems can also configure a variable secondary sampling rate in EDM with just a few clicks. A Spider unit can measure 19 different quantities simultaneously (acceleration, force, moment, pressure, strain, displacement, velocity, sound pressure, temperature, humidity, current, voltage, frequency, angle, angular velocity, angular acceleration, time, mass and resistance), while CoCo handles 13. Sensors cover acceleration, force, torque, pressure, angular velocity, displacement, magnetic field, sound pressure and strain in quarter, half or full bridge.

Recording can be initiated in many ways, with trigger modes including Free Run, Continuous after Trigger, Single-Shot, Auto-Arm and Manual-Arm; alarm limits, DIO inputs, socket messages, the API (C++ and C#), CAN bus or a manual button can all start a record. During acquisition users can capture synchronized video, scan barcodes, send messages via DIO, Anybus, CAN bus or Profibus, integrate with LabVIEW or a PLC, or run in Black Box Mode without a live PC. Circular recording keeps only the events of interest to reduce file size. Data can be saved and exported as .emf, .atfx, .csv, .uff/.unv, .mat, .tdms, .wav and more, with customizable reports and offline Post Analyzer processing. Dual ADCs let the hardware cover low and high frequencies without saturation at the low end.