Universal Sensor Interface for Machinery Monitoring System

摘要

A universal sensor interface for a machine data acquisition system includes a sensor power control circuit that: (1) provides a fast and accurate limiting response to a short-circuit fault, (2) survives and automatically recovers from multiple concurrent continuous short-circuit faults with no interruption to the electrical and thermal integrity of the acquisition system, (3) reduces power consumption/dissipation when in a faulted condition, (4) isolates adverse effects of a faulted channel from uninvolved channels, (5) isolates adverse effects of loose wiring termination “chatter” from uninvolved channels, (6) protects against adverse effects resulting from “hot wiring” of sensors, (7) protects the acquisition system against reasonably anticipated installation wiring errors, and (8) minimizes the availability of spark-inducing energy to the data acquisition system.

主权项

1. A sensor power and signal conditioning circuit of a machinery health monitoring module, the sensor power and signal conditioning circuit comprising:
a sensor interface connector that is operable to connect to multiple types of sensors that may be attached to a machine to monitor various characteristics of the machine, the sensor interface connector for receiving an analog sensor signal generated by a connected sensor; signal conditioning circuitry for conditioning the analog sensor signal, the signal conditioning circuitry comprising:
a plurality of sensor signal conditioning circuits, each sensor signal conditioning circuit for accommodating a sensor signal input range that is different from one or more sensor signal input ranges accommodated by other of the sensor signal conditioning circuits; anda first software controllable switch for selecting one of the plurality of sensor signal conditioning circuits to receive the analog sensor signal generated by the connected sensor, the first software controllable switch controlled by an input range selection signal; sensor power supply circuitry for supplying power to the connected sensor, the sensor power control circuitry comprising:
a plurality of individually selectable sensor power circuits, each sensor power circuit for providing power over a voltage range that is different from one or more voltage ranges provided by other of the sensor power circuits; anda second software controllable switch for selecting one of the plurality of sensor power circuits to provide power to the connected sensor, the second software controllable switch controlled by a power range selection signal; a configuration circuit for generating one or more of the input range selection signal and the power range selection signal based at least in part on a user selection of a sensor type of the connected sensor; and analog-to-digital conversion circuitry for converting the analog vibration signal into a digital vibration signal.