New Industry Products

Waveform Data Streaming Enhances Yokogawa Precision Power Analyzer

March 17, 2020 by Paul Shepard

Yokogawa has released two new options and implemented a firmware upgrade for its WT5000 Precision Power Analyzer. The enhancements are designed to help companies improve performance when developing or evaluating electronic devices such as EV-related equipment or systems for solar and wind power installations.

The new DS option centers on waveform data streaming, while the focus of new G7 option is IEC harmonic, voltage fluctuation and flicker testing. In addition, a new firmware version is released that offers Modbus/TCP and raw socket communication, a navigation settings menu, webserver functions and the evaluation of multi-phase motor control.

The Yokogawa WT5000 is a Precision Power Analyzer that offers exceptional measurement accuracy of ±0.03% combined with stability, noise immunity and plug-in modular flexibility to meet the measurement needs of those developing energy-efficient systems.

"The WT5000, which is the flagship model of our power analyzer WT series, now offers greatly extended capabilities for companies measuring power consumption and efficiency as part of their development cycle," explains Terry Marrinan, VP Sales & Marketing Yokogawa Europe and South-East Asia. "Utilizing the latest power electronics technology, engineers can capture the variations of electric energy in more detail and use this information to optimize the development and design effort."

In the development or evaluation of EV or renewable energy systems, continuous waveform output or synchronization between numerical data and waveform data is required. As well as benefitting from the highly accurate numerical data collected by the WT5000, users of the new DS option can stream waveform data to a PC at sample speeds of up to 2 MS/s.

Voltage and current waveforms, as well as motor signals, can be streamed, allowing engineers to study transient behavior simultaneously when measuring efficiency or energy consumption. Importantly, the waveform data is streamed without gaps, can be combined, and is synchronized with the numerical data. Any abnormal findings in the numerical data can be directly linked and evaluated in the waveform data.

The new G7 option, in combination with the harmonic, voltage fluctuation and flicker test software, means that data can be saved to a PC for assessment according to IEC61000-3-3. An IEC standard which specifies limits of voltage changes which may be produced by an equipment tested under specified conditions. This action will show a trend of parameters such as DC, dmax and Pinst (instantaneous flicker sensation).

In terms of the newly developed firmware functions, Modbus/TCP and raw socket communication enables easy connection between the WT5000 and Yokogawa recorder/PLC products, while the navigation setting menu and gain/phase correction functions support the use of external current sensors. Easy monitoring and operating of the WT5000 from a PC is facilitated by the company's newly developed webserver functionality.

Users of the latest firmware can also take advantage of multi-phase motor control. The user-defined computations of the WT5000 now have presets to measure field-oriented control parameters which are used by inverters to simplify the control of multi-phase motors. Using these presets allows the evaluation of motor control to take place simultaneously with motor efficiency measurements.

"In line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs], there is an ever-greater need to protect the environment and develop clean energy solutions," states Kelvin Hagebeuk, Marketing Manager at Yokogawa T&M Europe. "The introduction of enhanced functionality and the new options for our WT5000 Precision Power Analyzer meets the need of customers looking to reach higher levels of performance of electronic devices used in EVs and renewable energy systems."