Prosig Signal Processing Blog

The size and shape of the Prosig P8000 data acquisition systems greatly facilitates installation in locations that are small or difficult to access. Now Prosig can offer a new level of flexibility. Not only can the P8000 be used in the laboratory and in the automobile, but with the new mobile Prosig Power units they are truly portable. Now with the new Prosig Power units the systems can operate totally independently. The Prosig Power units can be mounted externally or internally and can provide several hours use. As well as improvements to portability the Prosig Power units can be used in situations where power supply from a vehicle is unstable such as during engine cranking.

The P8000 systems are light and easy to carry. They also offer flexible cable connections. The P8000 has a robust design and is capable of operating under extreme temperatures and harsh conditions. The low power consumption and low heat generation of the P8000 gives its advanced cooling system the flexibility to completely shut off the system fans during data captures thus providing absolute silence for acoustic measurements.

By Dr Colin Mercer, Technical Director, Prosig

Any vibration signal may be analyzed into amplitude and phase as a function of frequency. The phase represents fifty percent of the information so it is most important to measure phase for vibration monitoring. Most vibrations on a rotating machine are related to the rotational speed so it is clearly important to have a measure of the speed, either directly or as a once per revolution tacho pulse. A question some time arises as to whether a once per revolution tacho reference signal is needed to measure phase. Is it possible to get phase if we only have a speed signal? This note gives some insight into those questions. Actually the question that should be asked is - “Can we measure a meaningful phase, for use in vibration monitoring, if we only have a speed signal as well as the vibration signals?” read »»»