US 5,870,699 AGranted

Hand held data collector and analyzer system

AssigneeCSI Technology, Inc.

InventorsRonald G. Canada, Danny Simpson, Zbigniew Czyzewski, Thomas E. Nelson

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Abstract

A hand held data collector and analyzer achieves superior stability, accuracy and reliability through the use of a fixed frequency anti-aliasing filter and two analog to digital converters, one for high frequency signals and one for low frequency signals. Efficient digital filtering and decimation is achieved by providing specialized hardware filters and decimators and implementing software filters and decimators in a data processor. A true zoom method is employed to take advantage of the filtering and decimation capabilities, and independent digital signal processors operate serially on incoming signals to further reduce demands on the central processing unit. In addition, the RAM system memory is formatted as a pseudo-card to facilitate use of a PCMCIA memory card or the RAM system memory.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A data collector and analyzer system comprising:

a vibration transducer for sensing vibration and for producing an analog vibration signal corresponding to the vibration;
a conditioning circuit for receiving and conditioning the analog vibration signal from the vibration transducer to produce a conditioned analog signal, and having;
(a) a filter for producing the conditioned analog signal having a desired frequency range;
(b) an amplifier for producing the conditioned analog signal at a desired amplitude;
(c) an analog to digital converter (ADC) for receiving and sampling the conditioned analog signal to produce a digital signal;
a data processor for processing the digital signal to produce desired digital data, the data processor including:
a transformer for selectively operating on the digital signal, performing a Fast Fourier Transform, and producing frequency spectrum data from the digital signal;
a digital signal processor (DSP) connected to receive and for operating on the digital signal and independently performing Fast Fourier Transforms on the digital signal to produce a frequency spectrum;
and
a central processing unit (CPU) for controlling the operation of the system including the operation of the DSP, the DSP performing the Fast Fourier Transform independently of the CPU;
memory interfaced with the data processor for storing at least some of the digital data;
the DSP for generating a graphical representation of the frequency spectrum, and transferring the graphical representation to the memory;
and
a direct memory access (DMA) for transferring data directly to the memory without interrupting the CPU, the DMA transferring data including the frequency spectrum and the graphical representation from the DSP to the memory.

11 more elements

A data collector and analyzer system comprising:

a vibration transducer for sensing vibration and for producing an analog vibration signal corresponding to the vibration;
a conditioning circuit for receiving and conditioning the analog vibration signal from the vibration transducer to produce a conditioned analog signal, and having:
(a) a filter for producing the conditioned analog signal having a desired frequency range;
(b) an amplifier for producing the conditioned analog signal at a desired amplitude;
(c) an analog to digital converter (ADC) for receiving and sampling the conditioned analog signal to produce a digital signal;
a data processor for processing the digital signal to produce desired digital data, the data processor including:
a transformer for selectively operating on the digital signal, performing a Fast Fourier Transform, and producing frequency spectrum data from the digital signal;
a digital signal processor (DSP) connected to receive and for operating on the digital signal and independently performing Fast Fourier Transforms on the digital signal to produce a frequency spectrum;
and
a central processing unit (CPU) for controlling the operation of the system including the operation of the DSP, the DSP performing the Fast Fourier Transform independently of the CPU;
memory interfaced with the data processor for storing at least some of the digital data;
a memory card for storing data in a card format:
a plug system for connecting and disconnecting the memory card to and from the system;
a random access memory (RAM) interfaced with the data processor for storing data;
and
a RAM formatter for controlling the flow of data to and from the RAM and configuring the RAM as a pseudo-card so that the RAM in conjunction with the RAM formatter functions substantially identically as the memory card, receiving and transmitting data in card format.

13 more elements

A data collector and analyzer system comprising:

a vibration transducer for sensing vibration and for producing an analog vibration signal corresponding to the vibration;
a conditioning circuit for receiving and conditioning the analog vibration signal from the vibration transducer, and having;
a main conditioning circuit for receiving and conditioning the analog signal from the transducer to produce a conditioned main analog signal, and having:
(a) a filter having an upper cutoff frequency for producing the conditioned main analog signal having a desired frequency range;
(b) an amplifier for producing the conditioned main analog signal at a desired amplitude;
(c) a main analog to digital converter (ADC) for receiving and sampling the conditioned main analog signal to produce a main digital signal;
and
(d) a main microprocessor controller for controlling the main conditioning circuit;
and
an optional conditioning circuit for receiving and conditioning the analog signal from the transducer to produce a conditioned optional analog signal, and having:
(a) a filter having an upper cutoff frequency for producing the conditioned optional analog signal having a desired frequency range;
(b) an amplifier for producing the conditioned optional analog signal at a desired amplitude;
and
(c) an optional ADC for receiving and sampling the conditioned optional analog signal to produce an optional digital signal;
a data processor for processing the main and optional digital signals to produce desired digital data, the data processor including:
a main transformer for selectively operating on the main digital signal, performing a Fourier Transform, and producing frequency spectrum data from the main digital signal;
and
an optional transformer for selectively operating on the optional digital signal simultaneously with the main transformer operation, performing a Fourier Transform, and producing frequency spectrum data from the optional digital signal;
and
memory interfaced with the data processor for storing at least some of the digital data.

17 more elements

A hand held data collector and analyzer system comprising:

a main transducer for sensing analog data and for producing a main analog signal corresponding to the analog data;
an optional transducer for sensing analog data and for producing an optional analog signal corresponding to the analog data;
a main conditioning circuit for receiving and conditioning the main analog signal from the main transducer to produce a conditioned main analog signal, and having;
(a) a filter having an upper cutoff frequency for producing the conditioned main analog signal having a desired frequency range;
(b) an amplifier for producing the conditioned main analog signal at a desired amplitude;
(c) a main analog to digital converter (ADC) for receiving and sampling the conditioned main analog signal to produce a main digital signal;
and
(d) a main microprocessor controller for controlling the main conditioning circuit;
an optional conditioning circuit for receiving and conditioning the optional analog signal from the optional transducer to produce a conditioned optional analog signal, and having;
(a) a filter having an upper cutoff frequency for producing the conditioned optional analog signal having a desired frequency range;
(b) an amplifier for producing the conditioned optional analog signal at a desired amplitude;
and
(c) an optional ADC for receiving and sampling the conditioned optional analog signal to produce an optional digital signal;
a main digital signal processor (DSP) for receiving and selectively operating on the main digital signal, performing a Fast Fourier Transform, and producing a main frequency spectrum;
an optional DSP for receiving and selectively operating on the optional digital signal, performing a Fast Fourier Transform, and producing an optional frequency spectrum;
a central processing unit (CPU) for controlling the operation of the system, including issuing commands to the optional DSP and the main microprocessor controller;
a main interface for connecting the CPU to the main DSP and the main microprocessor controller;
an optional interface for connecting the CPU to the optional DSP;
the main microprocessor controller for controlling the main conditioning circuit in response to commands from the CPU;
the optional DSP for controlling the optional conditioning circuit in response to commands from the CPU;
and
memory interfaced with the CPU and the main and optional DSP's for storing information.

19 more elements

A hand held vibration monitoring system for collecting, analyzing, and storing vibration data, comprising:

transducer means for sensing vibration and for producing at least one analog vibration signal corresponding to the vibration;
conditioning circuit means:
(a) for receiving and conditioning the analog vibration signal from the vibration transducer to produce at least one conditioned analog signal;
(b) including at least one amplifier and at least one anti-aliasing filter having an upper cutoff frequency set at a desired frequency for operating on the analog vibration signal and for producing at least one conditioned analog signal having a desired frequency content;
(c) including a first analog to digital converter (ADC) for receiving and sampling at least one conditioned analog signal at a relatively high sample rate to produce a first digital signal;
and
(d) a second ADC for receiving and sampling at least one conditioned analog signal at a relatively low sample rate to produce a second digital signal;
a data processor for receiving and digitally processing the first and second digital signals to produce desired digital data and for storing data based on the desired digital data;
a user input interfaced with said data processor for inputting commands and data to said data processor;
a display interfaced with said data processor for displaying information to the user;
memory interfaced with the data processor for storing information including the data;
and
means for transferring information that is stored in said memory to the computer.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.