ION9000 - Pre-triggered and Post-triggered Waveform Recording

[jonathanzamban]

I am trying to change the waveform recording period pre and post power quality events on the ION9000 meter. However, I have come across the following limits: 30 seconds pre-event and 10 seconds post-event.

I am looking to set the limits as 5 seconds pre-event and 55 seconds post-event.

Does anyone know if that is possible on the ION9000?

Thanks in advance.

[Charles_Murison]

Hello @jonathanzamban 

Have you looked at the ION Reference (7EN02-0290-11) page 501 "Pre-trigger Records and Post-trigger Records: detailed operation" One item to consider is the waveform capture format (samples per cycle x # cycles) 32x54 requires less waveforms together to reach 61 seconds than  64x14.

You may need to program the meter using advance configuration to use the Pre-trigger and Post trigger settings.

Charles

[jonathanzamban]

Hi @Charles_Murison

Thanks for the explanation.

I understand that by reducing the samples per cycle, I will be able to record more cycles within one waveform record. However, what is still not clear to me is what would be the maximum record length (in seconds) that I can have for one event. On ION Setup I have the option to set:

Pre-trigger recording: Up to 30 seconds

Post-trigger recording: Up to 10 seconds

As far as I have understood, this is the limit for a single event. Am I correct?

Then, my question would be how does these limits (pre/post-trigger) are related with the waveform capture format that I would choose. For example, if I would change from 32x54 to 16x96 (54 cycles * 0.02 sec = 1.08 sec, whereas 96 cycles * 0.02 sec = 1.92 sec), would that affect my waveform recording length (sec)?

I am not sure if I have clarified more my question or made it even more confusing, but I would really appreciate if you could please help me with it.

Thank you,

Jonathan.

[Charles_Murison · Accepted solution]

Hello @jonathanzamban ,

The 30 second maximum is the limit within the ION Setup wizard this is not the same as the device limit, if you set the meter into advanced configuration you can change the pre and post values to be higher. You are limited more by the shared buffer memory (different than long term memory of 10BM for each data recorder/waveform recorder)

For the ION9000, assume that each waveform is ~10kb (a bit lower than this but 10 makes math easier) if you are using 32x54 and have 50Hz system and want to record 61 seconds, 5 seconds before(5 waveforms), the event (1 waveform), and 55 seconds after (51 waveforms). So you will be using ~600 kb (again rounding up) of buffer memory per waveform recorder (default is 6). You could use more if your buffer depth is larger.

Please note that in your screenshot, this is configuring the "Burst data" (data recorder) which is different from the waveform recording (waveform recorder). When you set the meter to advanced configuration you can see the following setup registers. This is where you can change the pre post trigger values. Be sure to apply this to all waveform recorders with the same trigger (sag/swell vs transient)

[jonathanzamban]

Hi @Charles_Murison,

Thanks for your reply, it was very useful.

I changed the Pre/Post-triggered settings via meter advanced configurations and was able to see the waveforms recorded using the Power Monitoring Expert (PME 2020) as expected.

However, when I retrieved the COMTRADE files from the ION9000 FTP server, they did not contain more than two/three seconds of waveforms altogether.

Also, I could not set the Buffer Depth to a value larger than 60 sec, because the wizard did not allow me to set different values for the different modules (V1/2/3 Sag/Swell/Transient & I1/2/3 Sag/Swell/Transient).

Would you know in which parameter is the limitation that does not put all the waveforms recorded into the COMTRADE files?

Thank you very much for your help so far,

Jonathan.

[Charles_Murison · Accepted solution]

Hello @jonathanzamban ,

COMTRADE modules are a separate set of modules that have their own setup registers including how many waveforms to save before overwriting. In the advanced mode you can access these modules and update the setup registers. 1 module is for sag/swell waveform captures, the other is for transient waveform captures. I can't remember off the top of my head which one is which.

For the buffer depth the wizard may have some limits, however if you can access the the modules with advanced configuration you are likely to change this value. Please note that buffer memory is not an endless resource on the meter and shared with a number of other modules. ION reference does have some information on what the values in buffer setup register can be.

Charles

[Robert_Lee]

The Buffer Depth is taking memory from a pool of 10 Mb Total (spread out over all DRE/DSR/WFR/WHR modules).  This is fast memory to allow fast caching and then those records are transferred periodically to slower (larger) memory.

The ION Setup wizard was designed to allow for most common uses where most users want pre-data (as this was historically harder to obtain as this is prior to the triggering event).  The wizard is designed to compute the # of records for Pre/Post and show that in a user-friendly manner expressed as seconds (instead of having to figure things out based on nominal frequency and sampling size).

In some instances the memory restriction based on what you want to do will require that you will need to heavily restrict all other meter functions (and waiting for 60 seconds of waveforms being triggered and then being uploaded is very time intensive).

As for the COMTRADE restriction, this will also be problematic as this means that in order for the firmware to generate 60 seconds of individual files (1 file = 1 record) so this will likely be hundreds of files (and likely there is an upper limit for the COMTRADE module).

[Robert_Lee]

Also the 30 seconds/10 seconds is Data Burst logging which is NOT waveforms but essentially data logging of parameters (think 1/2 cycle RMS which is logging approx every 8 ms).

Waveforms can operate in the same manner but there is no wizard to allow the adjustment of the Pre/Post buffer settings (the wizard will however not adjust those settings if they are configured in Advanced mode).  We felt that very few users will be wanting that type of functionality and those that did would be very advanced ION users who would be comfortable in doing adjustments in Advanced programming (and not depend on a wizard to account for every situation).

[Charles_Murison]

One item to note, I believe when using the pre-trigger and post trigger settings, the Commtrade modules will only save 1 waveform, and not all of the back to back waveforms.