Record voltage, amperage, and RF from test points to a storage device

[Xenioth]

Hello,

I'm researching for a project to see if i can record voltage, amperage, and RF waveforms to a storage device for later review. Is this possible with ADCs? Also what would I need for the RF side of things to be able to view the waveforms on an oscilloscope of some sort? It would also be useful to have time as a factor to know when the recording started and stopped. The parameters of the readings would range from 6 test points of voltages from 0-15kv (high voltage yes but Ill need to look in the schematics because the wires to this meter aren't very big so I think it's stepped down and applied to a meter with multiple scales) the amperage would be 8 test points from 0.1ma-30amps and the parameters for the waveforms would be 11 waveforms with pulse widths of. 2 microseconds to a few milliseconds, amplitudes of 0-22kv.

Where do I begin? Thank you in advance for any help whatsoever.

 

[Beau Schwabe]

Voltage and amperage are not such a big deal to measure over time, but RF can take huge amounts of storage space. It would help to know more about your project. It's also likely that the 15kv or 22kv is measured parasitically rather than a direct connection. Above a certain voltage level, what you thought was an insulator becomes a charged dielectric.

 

[Xenioth]

Voltage and amperage are not such a big deal to measure over time, but RF can take huge amounts of storage space. It would help to know more about your project. It's also likely that the 15kv or 22kv is measured parasitically rather than a direct connection. Above a certain voltage level, what you thought was an insulator becomes a charged dielectric.

I'm sure the high voltage is a parasitic tap off, and for the RF, how big of storage are we talking? Maybe it can be on a separate larger storage and begin to write over itself, it's not for logging every second it's mainly for when a component malfunctions/kicks the circuit out of operation to be able to view its readings at the moments before that caused it since we can't view them all simultaneously

 

[Pommie]

The storage shouldn't be a problem. If each record is 1000 bytes and you record every second then it'll take over 1 year to fill a 32G SD card.
What methods to you have to measure the parameters?

Mike.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

You need to be far more specific - EXACTLY what do you want to store RF wise, using what sensors, and what is the resulting data.

'Storing RF' is completely meaningless.

 

[Xenioth]

You need to be far more specific - EXACTLY what do you want to store RF wise, using what sensors, and what is the resulting data.

'Storing RF' is completely meaningless.

Sorry for the vagueness, essentially I want to be able to simultaneously take different RF wave-forms that i'd normally view on an o-scope by probing test points and store them for viewing later either on an o-scope or through software to enhance troubleshooting of a system I work on, i'm not worried about space as it wont be used for very long, only when there is difficulty keeping the equipment up.

 

[ChrisP58]

Sorry for the vagueness, essentially I want to be able to simultaneously take different RF wave-forms that i'd normally view on an o-scope by probing test points and store them for viewing later either on an o-scope or through software to enhance troubleshooting of a system I work on, i'm not worried about space as it wont be used for very long, only when there is difficulty keeping the equipment up.

What settings do you now use on your o-scope to view the waveforms? Because you need to duplicate that same resolution and sample rate to record the waveform for storage.

So, depending on the frequency of the waveform, and how much detail you want to see, you're probably looking at a very high sample rate ADC.

 

[Xenioth]

What settings do you now use on your o-scope to view the waveforms? Because you need to duplicate that same resolution and sample rate to record the waveform for storage.

So, depending on the frequency of the waveform, and how much detail you want to see, you're probably looking at a very high sample rate ADC.

It varies by waveform, usually looking at pulses with a 10x probe viewing a time division of 1-5us and amplitudes from 1v-10v/division

 

[unclejed613]

It varies by waveform, usually looking at pulses with a 10x probe viewing a time division of 1-5us and amplitudes from 1v-10v/division

so, what you are saying is it's less than 1Mhz, but might contain harmonics up to 7 or 9Mhz. you could use a SDR receiver with a 10Mhz bandwidth and record the I/Q samples to a file. or you could use an ADC sampled at 20Mhz and record the raw data to a file if you are just looking at the waveforms. if you are applying modulation to the signal (AM, FM, SSB, etc...) the SDR is the best solution.