I am evaluating options for an automotive sensor test station.
The sensor will output a waveform corresponding to the proximity of a
surface. It is a speed sensor, so the surface is that of a
specialized gear called a tone wheel. I need to be able to make
rise time / fall time / duty cycle measurements and compare them for
any given tooth on the wheel through mutiple rotations. I also
need to detect missing teeth or extra teeth.
To do all that I am looking at the PXI-5621 and PXI-6602. I am
hoping to route the sample clock of the 5621 to the Source of one
counter on the 6602. I will then configure another counter to
produce a pulse for each tooth on the tone wheel based on a number of
pulses from a rotational encoder on the same shaft as the tone
wheel. The "tooth" pulse would be routed to the Gate of the
counter whose Source is the 5621 sample clock. My goal is to use
buffered counter acquisition to latch the sample number of each tooth
so that I can go into my waveform from the 5621 and mark off each tooth
location.
I must also monitor the RPM of the tone wheel, but I figure I can do
that with a third counter timer or make use of the one that is already
tied to the encoder.
Does that approach sound viable? Will I be able to route the
sample clock or another representative signal from the 5621 to the
6602? I require at least 14-bit precision and 20 MS/sec sample
rate for these measurements. Obviously, cost is a big factor as
well.
Thank you,
Dan Press
PrimeTest Automation