USB-UT350(T) Portable Ultrasonic Pulser/Receiver and Analog to Digital Converter User s Guide 2000-2009 US Ultratek, Inc. Revision 1.77 September 30, 2009
US Ultratek, Inc. 4070 Nelson Ave., Suite B Concord, CA 94520 USA Tel: (925) 687-7688 Fax: (925) 687-7689 E-Mail: tech@usultratek.com Web: http://www.usultratek.com
1 INTRODUCTION... 1-1 1.1 FEATURES... 1-1 1.2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS... 1-1 2 INSTALLATION... 2-1 2.1 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION... 2-1 2.2 HARDWARE CONNECTIONS... 2-2 2.3 TESTING THE USB-UT350... 2-2 3 APPLICATIONS... 3-1 4 PARAMETERS... 4-1 4.1 PULSE POWER... 4-1 4.2 PULSE WIDTH / CYCLES... 4-1 4.3 GAIN... 4-1 4.4 FREQUENCY (TONE BURST PULSER ONLY)... 4-1 4.5 DC OFFSET... 4-2 4.6 BUFFER LENGTH... 4-2 4.7 TRIGGER DELAY... 4-2 4.8 AVERAGE... 4-2 4.9 POLARITY (TONE BURST PULSER ONLY)... 4-2 4.10 SIGNAL TYPE... 4-2 4.11 TRIGGER TYPE... 4-3 4.12 SAMPLING RATE... 4-3 4.13 LPF (LOW PASS FILTER)... 4-3 4.14 HPF (HIGH PASS FILTER)... 4-3 5 TOOLS... 5-1 5.1 FAST FOURIER TRANSFORM (FFT)... 5-1 6 HARDWARE CONFIGURATION... 6-2 6.1 DB-25 CONNECTOR... 6-2 7 TROUBLESHOOTING... 7-1 8 SPECIFICATIONS... 8-1 3
1 Introduction The USB-UT350 is the base model of a portable ultrasonic pulser/receiver and analog to digital converter that can be used for a multitude of applications such as flaw detection, thickness measurement, Doppler measurement, and flow meter. The following list shows the other products of this series: USB-UT350T is the tone burst version of the pulser/receiver. The letter T at the end of the part number stands for tone burst pulser. USB-UT350M16(T), USB-UT350M8(T) and USB-UT350M4(T) are the instruments with 16, 8, and 4 channels respectively. USB-UT350RT is a relay switching instrument with 16 channels. It is the lowest cost device with so many channels. 1.1 Features Adjustable high pulse voltage up to 300V (350V optional) Adjustable pulse width up to 500 ns Low noise receiver Low noise pulser High speed analog to digital conversion up to 50MHz Time or position based acquisition Tone burst pulser version available Battery monitoring option available Oscilloscope software included Software development kit (SDK) for C/C++, Visual BASIC or LabVIEW available 1.2 System Requirements The USB-UT350 is designed to operate on any laptop or desktop system running Windows 2000 (w/sp4) or Windows XP. For standalone operation the device must be configured using such a system and will then operate independently. 1-1
2 Installation The supplied software should be installed prior to connecting the USB-UT350 to the computer. 2.1 Software Installation Simply insert the disc labeled USB-UT Software and Driver Disc and you will be presented with the following: Select next and follow the prompts to complete the installation. It is recommended that the default directory be used. If you have purchased additional software such as an SDK or the UT Instrument Software, you may installation those programs after the USB-UT Software and Drivers installation has completed. Once you have finished installing the software, it will be accessible through the start menu. 2-1
2.2 Hardware Connections 1. Connect the transducer(s) to the USB-UT 350. Select Single or Dual mode using the switch located beneath the BNC connectors for the old model. For the new model the single and dual mode can select using the scope software. 2. Connect the USB 2.0 cable to the USB-UT 350 and your computer. 2.3 Testing the USB-UT350 The USB-UT350 comes with oscilloscope software that enables the user to interact with the device. Launch the oscilloscope software and view the waveform to ensure that the software and drivers have been installed correctly. 2-2
3 Applications The USB-UT350 ultrasonic pulser/receiver and analog to digital converter can be used for a variety of applications. The device emits a negative high voltage pulse (or a series of tone burst pulses if the tone burst pulser is installed) on the TX connector and receives the response signal through either the TX connector or the RX connector depending on whether the device is in pulse/echo or through transmission mode. The receiver clips off the high voltage portion of the signal and performs amplification, filtration, and DC offset adjustment. The clean signal is then digitized and available for analysis. 3-1
4 Parameters 4.1 Pulse Power Pulse power ranges from -40V to -300V peak to peak in 256 steps. The response echoes are stronger when a higher voltage is used, however some transducers become saturated and require lower voltage settings. 4.2 Pulse Width / Cycles For the Standard Pulser: The pulse width can be set to any value between 50ns and 500ns in increments of 20ns. The pulse width has a close relationship with the frequency of the transducer which is represented in the following formula: W = 500/ f t Where W is the pulse width in ns and f t is the transducer frequency in MHz. For example, if you have a 5MHz transducer, the appropriate pulse width would be calculated as follows: For the Tone Burst Pulser: W = 500 / ft = 500/5 = 100ns The number of cycles corresponds to how many oscillations the pulse will emit. This number defines the half-cycles of the period. A value of 4 will result in two complete cycles positive, negative, positive, negative when the polarity is positive or the reverse when the polarity is negative. 4.3 Gain Gain is used to control the amplitude of the signal. It ranges from -20dB to 80 db in increments of 0.01dB. Adjust the gain until the signal fits in the display window without any saturation. 4.4 Frequency (Tone Burst Pulser Only) Sets the frequency of the tone burst pulser. 4-1
4.5 DC Offset Sets the DC offset of the signal. 4.6 Buffer Length The buffer length specifies how many samples the USB-UT350 will analyze during data acquisition. This value can be anywhere between 2 and 8191 samples, or 1 to 32000 with 32K memory option. 4.7 Trigger Delay The trigger delay specifies how many samples the A/D converter should skip before processing the response signal. This value can be anywhere between 0 and 16,383 samples. 4.8 Average Sets the signal averaging. The device will take multiple waveforms and then average them. 4.9 Polarity (Tone Burst Pulser Only) Sets the polarity of the tone burst pulser. Positive polarity starts the oscillation with a positive pulse while negative polarity starts the oscillation with a negative pulse. 4.10 Signal Type There are four types of signal available: Signal Type Application Full Full wave rectification Flaw detection +Half Positive half rectification Thickness measurement -Half Negative half rectification Thickness measurement RF No rectification Thickness measurement 4-2
4.11 Trigger Type There are three types of triggers available: Trigger Type +External External trigger on the rising edge. Software Internal software trigger. -External External trigger on the falling edge. 4.12 Sampling Rate The following sampling rates are supported by the USB-UT350: 50 MHz 25 MHz 12.5 MHz 6.25 MHz The sampling rate should be 5 to 8 times greater than the transducer frequency. 4.13 LPF (Low Pass Filter) The low pass filter enables digital filtering of the signal. Only frequencies below this frequency will be included in the signal. 4.14 HPF (High Pass Filter) The high pass filter enables digital filtering of the signal. Only frequencies above this frequency will be included in the signal. 4-3
5 Tools 5.1 Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) The oscilloscope software features the ability to transfer the waveform automatically to the QuickFFT software in order to display the Fourier transform of the signal. The original and transformed signals can be saved for later viewing or printed from within the QuickFFT software. This feature requires that the QuickFFT software be installed and is accessible by selecting Tools QFFT from the menu. 5-1
6 Hardware Configuration 6.1 DB-25 Connector The DB-25 connector provides the following signals: Pin Signal Input / Output Description 1 ENCA1 I/O Encoder 1 (A) or Digital I/O Bit 8 2 ENCB1 I/O Encoder 1 (B) or Digital I/O Bit 9 3 ENCA3 I/O Encoder 3 (A) or Digital I/O Bit 12 4 ENCB3 I/O Encoder 3 (B) or Digital I/O Bit 13 5 5V 6 GND 7 ENCA2 I/O Encoder 2 (A) or Digital I/O Bit 10 8 ENCB2 I/O Encoder 2 (B) or Digital I/O Bit 11 9 ENCA4 I/O Encoder 4 (A) or Digital I/O Bit 14 10 ENCB4 I/O Encoder 4 (B) or Digital I/O Bit 15 11 12 SYNCOUT O Data Acquisition Synch Output 13 EXTTRG I External Trigger Input 14 15 16 17 18 IO7 I/O Digital I/O Bit 7 19 IO6 I/O Digital I/O Bit 6 20 IO5 I/O Digital I/O Bit 5 21 IO4 I/O Digital I/O Bit 4 22 IO3 I/O Digital I/O Bit 3 23 IO2 I/O Digital I/O Bit 2 24 IO1 I/O Digital I/O Bit 1 25 IO0 I/O Digital I/O Bit 0 6-2
7 Troubleshooting The USB-UT350 utilizes the full amount of current available as outlined in the USB 2.0 specification. The real world implementation of USB 2.0 varies between computers and some will provide more current to the device than others. If you are having difficulties maintaining a steady signal at high pulse voltages, make sure that there are no other devices drawing current from the USB. If this does not resolve the issue it may be necessary to connect the external power adapter to the USB-UT or to use the device with a different computer. 7-1
8 Specifications Pulse Voltage -40V to 300V p-p in 256 steps Pulse Width 50ns to 500ns in increments of 20ns Damping 500Ω Internal Trigger 1 Hz to 1,000 Hz in 1 Hz increments Receiver Gain 0dB to 80dB in 0.1dB increments Filter 0.6 MHz to 18 MHz fixed Waveform Full rectification, +Half rectification, -Half rectification, or RF Sampling Rate 50 MHz, 25 MHz, 12.5 MHz, 6.25MHz Resolution 8 bits (0 to 255) Waveform Length 2 to 8,190 samples, or 1 to 32000 with 32K memory option Trigger Source Internal or Software Transducer Range 1 to 10 MHz for square pulser 20 khz to 10 MHz for tone burst pulser USB Connection USB 2.0 Connectors 2 BNC Connectors: Pulse Out and Receive In Post Trigger Delay 0 to 16,370 samples in 1 sample increments Dimensions 4.2 x5.65 x1.55 (107mm x 144mm x 40mm) Power Supply External power supply: +9V / 1000mA or power from the USB connector. Weight 1 lb Add-on Options Up to 2 encoder counters 16-bit I/O External trigger Sync Out Battery monitoring circuit Tone burst pulser 350V pulse voltage Hardware high pass filter Multi-channel version up to 16 channels Flaw Detector software Thickness Gauge software Windows software development kits for LabVIEW, MS C/C++ or Visual Basic 8-1