Test and Measurement Forum

I'm building single phase to 3-phase power converters, and would like to display all three sine waves simultaneously, so I can fine tune them under different operating conditions. I want to be able to see any variances in peak-to-peak, waveform, and phase angles. What software and data aquisition hardware would you recommend to accomplish this, preferably with a USB connection to my Windows 2000-based PC?

Hi,

To measure the wave form and voltage peak to peak for three phases accurately, I would recommend the ADC-212/3. To do this you will need two units since it is a two channel scope.

The data aquisition software is Picolog, this software is capable of using muliple convertors. There are two methods available for collecting the data one 'Real time continuous' where you can sample at time intervals of one millisecond or slower, in this method you are restricted to one million samples. The second is Block mode where the unit can sample as fast as possible, but is limited by the buffer size.

The units standard connection is to the Parallel port, but can be connected to a USB port by using the USB to parallel adaptor..

Unfortunately, we are unable to recommend our product to measure phase angles.

Best regards,

Are you talking about displaying each phase on a separate baseline? What I want to do is show all three sine waves on the same line. I guess my biggest problem is how to pick up and combine all three signals. Could this be done through an inductive coupling?

Hi,

I was suggesting that you view the three phases on different lines.

The problem that you face as you are aware is combining the three phases and displaying it as one line. Unfortunately, we do not have any thing that will allow you to do this and also have no suggestions on how to accomplish it.

Best regards,

Thanks for your reply. I suppose I can live with displaying the phases individually if there are no other options. If I do it that way, am I limited to using a dual trace and only displaying two phases at a time? Also, what sort of probe would I need to pick up the signal from my power source?