Table of Contents
Summary of Contents for SENSIMA inspection UPEC USB
- Page 1 UPEC I NSPECTION UIDE UPEC USB ‒ UPEC-WR UPEC- ‒ UPEC-MC16 UWEC E D DY C UR REN T T EST ERS June 2020 Sensima Inspection Sàrl 31, av. du Mont-Blanc CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland info@sensima.ch +41 22 364 49 20...
-
Page 2: Table Of Contents
1 Introduction Foreword ..........................4 How to use this guide ......................4 2 Content of the box UPEC USB version ........................5 UPEC WR version ........................6 Other versions ........................6 General notes for all versions ....................7 3 Quick Start Guide Getting started with the UPEC inspection kit ................ - Page 3 Introduction Processing chain settings ....................39 5.7.1 Anatomy of a filter ‒ example of the rotation filter ........... 40 5.7.2 Balancing filter......................41 5.7.3 Differential filter ......................42 5.7.4 Rotation filter ......................43 5.7.5 Super rotation filter ..................... 43 5.7.6 Gain filter ........................45 5.7.7 Data display filter ......................
-
Page 4: Introduction
The whole kit is thought to facilitate the life of the inspector from portability to advanced features, not normally found in this class of instruments, such as report generation. Sensima inspection thanks you for your trust and custom and hopes that you will enjoy using this inspection kit. -
Page 5: Content Of The Box
Figure 1: Partial content of the UPEC inspection kit. The waterproof carrying case, the USB key and the tablet are not shown UPEC USB version The kit is self-contained and allows to perform a standard inspection straight out of the box. It is composed of: •... -
Page 6: Upec Wr Version
Content of the box Figure 2: Content of the UPEC WR inspection kit. UPEC WR version The Wireless Rugged version of the UPEC tester comes with: • A waterproof carrying case (6) containing: o (1) Sensima’s ultraportable wireless rugged EC tester (UPEC-WR) o (5) Bluetooth antenna o (2) EC probe o (3) Probe cable with Fischer 4-pin connectors to connect the probe to the UPEC... -
Page 7: General Notes For All Versions
Content of the box • UPEC MC (multi-channel instrument for EC arrays of up to 32 coils) • UWEC (underwater UPEC EC tester) may come with a different packaging, additional cables and different probes. General notes for all versions 1. The delivered EC probe and tablet may depend on your specific order 2. -
Page 8: Quick Start Guide
Quick Start Guide Quick Start Guide Getting started with the UPEC inspection kit Here are step-by-step instructions on how to perform a simple eddy current inspection including the generation of a report with the UPEC inspection kit. You should not hesitate to experiment several gestures when mentioned to get a better feel of the interface. - Page 9 1. Connect the probe to the UPEC tester using the probe cable in the kit Figure 3: Example of connection for the UPEC USB (note that the tablet shipped in the kit may be different from the one shown here). For the UPEC WR tester, connect it to the battery pack with the provided USB cable and not to the tablet.
- Page 10 Quick Start Guide If you do not select any, the first listed communication port will be used. See also: • Finding out which communication port my UPEC device is using (7.1) • Connecting to a device (5.3) 5. UPECView connects to your instrument and displays the main empty acquisition window Press the “Play”...
- Page 11 Quick Start Guide 9. Rescale the signal to make a better use of the screen space Press the “Autoscale” ( You can also: • Pan the data: touch the plotting area and then touch and drag your finger • Zoom in or out: touch the plotting area and then make a pinch (in or out) gesture with 2 fingers •...
- Page 12 Quick Start Guide This angle is a quick way to access the more general rotation filter. It is important to notice that there is a clear distinction between instrument settings, i.e. the settings affecting the measurement before digitization NOTE and processing chain ones, such as the rotation here, which can be altered and reverted at any time after the measurement.
- Page 13 Quick Start Guide Time range selector: Touch and drag on an empty region of the time range selector to create a new range (blue box). The amount of signal displayed and the persistence are constantly updated as you drag. To modify an existing range, you can touch and drag either near one extremity of the box to enlarge it or near the middle of the box to move it around.
- Page 14 Quick Start Guide The “balloons” can be moved around by right-clicking and dragging. 15. Let’s now save the data (and report). Open the toolbox panel by pressing the “Toolbox” button ( 16. Press the “Save” button ( ) at the top of the panel. A dialog about the content of the report appears in the center of the screen.
- Page 15 Quick Start Guide The inspection report is presented with the most useful fields first. Put an empty component name and fill something into the “comments” field. If you scroll down, you will see that you can add (among others): • A picture to the report •...
- Page 16 Word document before delivering the final report. Note: the company logo (Sensima inspection here) is the one you have selected in the inspection data form. To conclude, let’s load the data we just saved back in UPECView.
- Page 17 Quick Start Guide Select the SIDATA file you want to load (here: calibration.sidata) and click “Open” (or double-click on the file). 21. The data is loaded (this may take a few seconds) and is shown in a new window. Note that the Play button has been replaced by a “Close window” button and that the “Balancing”...
-
Page 18: Using The Controls
Quick Start Guide Using the controls Controls work both as a slider and as a text or numeric input box. Put your finger on the control and start dragging leaving it on the screen (do not release it from the screen). The control changes color while you slide. -
Page 19: The Upec Instrument
The UPEC family of testers are general-purpose eddy current instruments as per ISO 15548-1 2013. For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 12718 apply. UPEC USB, UPEC WR The basic version of the UPEC tester comes with two excitation and acquisition units allowing for dual- frequency measurements (simultaneous injection) on a single eddy current probe. - Page 20 The UPEC instrument Independent generator units: Frequency range 5 kHz ‒ 10 MHz (each generator): down to 1 Hz with reduced data rate Current mode 1-10 mA, up to 9 V p-p (each generator): > 10000 Ω source impedance Voltage mode 9 V p-p, 90 mA maximum (each generator): 50 Ω...
-
Page 21: Upec Io
The UPEC instrument UPEC io The UPEC io tester has special input/output features such as encoder inputs and configurable TTL alarm signal output. It has the same specifications as UPEC USB above with the following additional features and differences. Type of instrument... -
Page 22: Uwec
The UPEC instrument UWEC The underwater version is based on the UPEC USB with the following additional specifications. Type of instrument Underwater general purpose eddy current instrument Underwater Case material (2 versions): Stainless steel Maximum tested depth 100 m (330 ft) -
Page 23: Upecview User Guide
UPECView User Guide UPECView User Guide This chapter provides in-depth description of UPECView’s different features. This guide describes the features in version 1.6.4.x of UPECView. The features and user interface are constantly evolving and, although mostly similar, earlier and future versions may present a slightly different interface. -
Page 24: Raw Data And Data-Centric Approach
UPECView User Guide On the other hand, the processing chain parameters include all the settings which can safely be altered after the inspection data has been recorded or stored in memory such as rotations or software gains. In particular, any change in those settings will affect all the data, even the data having been acquired before the change. -
Page 25: Interacting With Plots
UPECView User Guide Shortcuts Some functions can be Not relevant The equivalent keyboard accessed by a simple key shortcut is shown in the (e.g. toggling between full help tooltip in square screen and windowed brackets (‘[…]’) views with ‘f’). Panels Settings are grouped in Touch the corresponding Click the corresponding... -
Page 26: Connecting To A Device
Note that all the devices using a serial over USB communication protocol will be listed here, even devices not related to Sensima inspection. This is of course only relevant if you are using the UPEC in combination with other devices using the same tablet/PC, but in this case you have to be aware that some care is required in selecting the correct communication port. -
Page 27: Wireless Devices
UPECView User Guide 5.3.2 Wireless devices Select the “Bluetooth / Serial port” tab which is very similar to the precedent one. The list of serial ports shows all the serial (COM) ports on the system. This list includes: • All the COM ports from the precedent tab (note the COM25 port which is the same as in the figure above since the UPEC WR device used for this example was connected to and powered by the tablet). -
Page 28: Ethernet Devices
UPECView User Guide 5.3.3 Ethernet devices Select the “Ethernet communication” tab. Enter the IP address and the port number given to your UPEC device. The default port number for UPEC Ethernet devices is 50123 as shown in the figure (default setting in UPECView). -
Page 29: Upecview Main Window
UPECView User Guide UPECView main window Figure 8: Example of a start screen (no panels displayed) after a dual-frequency acquisition. To demonstrate the potential and ease of use of UPECView’s interface, the plots show a dual-frequency acquisition on a set of calibration notches with the time traces on. This is more complicated than the typical use case (single frequency and only the impedance plane displayed) but some operations such as adjusting the relative responses from different frequencies can only be shown in this configuration. -
Page 30: Main Panel And Buttons
UPECView User Guide Main panel and buttons The main buttons are explained in the figure on the side. They correspond to the most used commands and to be easily accessible without taking too much screen real estate. The first group deals with signal acquisition: start/stop, balan- cing and autoscale. -
Page 31: Instrument Settings
UPECView User Guide Instrument settings Figure 9: Click or tap on the “Instrument settings” button to show the corresponding panel. The example shown here is after having stopped a dual-frequency acquisition (blue and red signals) with time traces on and with a time region selected. - Page 32 UPECView User Guide Figure 10: The full instrument settings panel with explanations (see below for further clarifications)
-
Page 33: Multi-Channel Vs Single-Channel Settings
In fact, a measurement unit is a multi-channel instrument since it can multiplex the signal acquisition between two independent inputs. This is however is not available in UPEC USB and WR instruments (owing to the limitations of the 4-pin probe connector) and cannot be configured by UPECView (below version 1.7). -
Page 34: Quick Start - Single Channel Operation Mode
UPECView User Guide • Auto offsets or hardware balancing. This is shortcut button to perform an auto offset or hardware balancing (see section 5.6.7 below) on all active units instead of having to do it one measurement unit at a time. 5.6.3 Quick start ‒... - Page 35 Each measurement unit has two signal input which can be toggled in multiplexed signal acquisition configurations. You can define which input you want to use for this unit. This is not relevant to UPEC USB and WR version of the tester, but can be used in the io and MC versions. •...
-
Page 36: Presets And Instrument Configuration Management
The first one ‒ the one that should be used in multi-channel instrument such as the UPEC USB or the UPEC WR testers ‒ is the “External 25 MHz” clock source. This is provided by the multi-channel board and guarantees that all the measurement units are in-phase. The other ones are generated by the measurement unit internally with 25 or 170 MHz. -
Page 37: Hardware Balancing (Auto Offsets)
UPECView User Guide Managing presets and configurations Press on the corresponding “Load, save, export…” button in the instrument panel depending on whether you want to manipulate single-unit or multi-channel configurations. UPECView shows the configuration management panel below. This panel is quite self-explanatory (additional help is available in the form of tooltips) and has 3 sections which are highlighted in the figure below: 1. -
Page 38: Acquisition Rate
UPECView User Guide or acquisition configuration file when it was prepared on a reference sample and never touched during the actual inspection, the inspector using only the standard balancing button to compensate for the (small) material variations and environment changes. If you perform a hardware balancing or auto offset after having done a standard (or “software”) balancing from the button in the main panel, it is very likely that the resulting ‘balanced’... -
Page 39: Processing Chain Settings
UPECView User Guide Processing chain settings Figure 12: The processing chain settings panel is displayed through the corresponding button. The processing chain is a stack of filters. The measured signal ‒ the raw data ‒ goes through each filter from top to bottom being transformed and becoming the processed data which is finally displayed on the plots. -
Page 40: Anatomy Of A Filter - Example Of The Rotation Filter
UPECView User Guide 5.7.1 Anatomy of a filter ‒ example of the rotation filter Figure 13: The generic sections of a filter: the header and the parameter sections (from top to bottom); the latter can be further split into global parameters affecting all the channels and per-channel ones for each channel. The top section is generic and the same in all filters. -
Page 41: Balancing Filter
UPECView User Guide the per-channel settings are added to the global ones. The way in which the effects are added depend on the filter and the operation on the signal. For instance, • Rotation filter: the single-channel rotation angle is added to the global rotation one •... -
Page 42: Differential Filter
2 absolute coils in a probe. This configuration is not directly available with the probe connector pin-out of the UPEC USB and UPEC WR testers and the filter is therefore deactivated by default in UPECView and is not further documented here. -
Page 43: Rotation Filter
UPECView User Guide 5.7.4 Rotation filter Figure 15: Rotation filter and its effect. The global rotation angle is equivalent to the “Phase angle” setting. The filter is obvious. It controls the additional rotation applied to the signal. The global setting affecting all the channels is in fact the same as the “Phase angle”... - Page 44 UPECView User Guide Figure 16: Super rotation filter and its effect. This filter is an extension of the rotation filter which can in addition make the signal from a relevant feature (e.g. a notch) as orthogonal as possible from that of another (e.g. a liftoff). Here, single-channel settings override global settings only if they are active (“active?”...
-
Page 45: Gain Filter
UPECView User Guide 5.7.6 Gain filter Figure 17: Gain filter and its effect. The gain filter allows to adjust the horizontal and vertical gains individually or together. These gains come in addition (in a multiplicative sense) to the hardware gains in the instrument settings. The displayed values are the multiplicative factors (i.e. -
Page 46: Data Display Filter
UPECView User Guide 5.7.7 Data display filter Figure 18: Data display filter. This is just an information filter which has no effect on the signal. This filter is an information only filter and has no effect on the signal. The fields are editable so that you can copy their values to paste them in another program. -
Page 47: Alarm Filter
UPECView User Guide 5.7.8 Alarm filter Figure 19: Alarm filter. The alarm filter is deactivated by default. Click on the active button to activate it: an alarm box will appear in the impedance plane, either in green or red depending on whether a part of the signal is within the box or not. -
Page 48: Explode View Filter
UPECView User Guide During the acquisition, if the signal enters the box, the box turns red and a sound is produced (unless disabled by the buttons above). Note that the box remains red for half a second (see the visual alarm latency below) even if the signal exits immediately from the box. - Page 49 UPECView User Guide Figure 20: The additional settings with explanations for a fine control of the view and the measurement or annotation tool. Signal measurement (annotation) To perform a measurement of the signal from a specific feature, first click on the “Show measurement info”...
- Page 50 UPECView User Guide Figure 21: Additional view controls. The situation shown here is that of a signal measurement (“Show measurement info” on) within the gates (“Gates for PP calculation) further restricting the selection range. The measurements are shown in the bubbles in the impedance plane and in the “info”...
- Page 51 UPECView User Guide Figure 22: Using the manual controls for the measurement tool. The “Reset points” button allows to quickly go back to the default value for the measurement. Other settings Figure 23: Result of displaying all the vertical time axes. The other settings, e.g.
-
Page 52: Other Advanced Filters
UPECView User Guide Other advanced filters These advanced filters do not appear in the list of filters by default. To activate them, set the Preferences > Advanced > Additional advanced filter to On. 5.8.1 Data import filter Allows to import data acquired with instrument from some other manufacturers (details on request) 5.8.2 Encoder tick generation filter This special filter is used to generate fake position information along a one axis. -
Page 53: Feature Signal Decomposition (Fsd) Filter
UPECView User Guide 5.8.5 Feature Signal Decomposition (FSD) filter Details on request. Toolbox ‒ Data management and reporting Figure 24: Toolbox panel The last of the main buttons opens the toolbox panel whose different buttons are described from top to bottom in the following subsections. 5.9.1 Saving data and generating inspection reports Clicking on the “Save”... -
Page 54: Loading Data
UPECView User Guide Once finished, click “OK” and then choose a file name in the standard file saving box. The file extension is automatically added. Depending on preferences, the data and report will be saved under the same base file name and the corresponding extension. Reports can be saved in Microsoft Word or HTML formats and the data can be exported in raw or processed form to CSV (.csv), Matlab®... -
Page 55: Preferences And General Options
UPECView User Guide The procedure to create a tile is quite simple: 1. Click the “Tile creation” button which opens the tile creation dialog (Figure 25). 2. Enter the tile name in the corresponding field. 3. Select a picture for the tile. The ideal is to take a picture corresponding to the task with the probe and the inspected part. - Page 56 UPECView User Guide Figure 26: First two tabs of the preferences. General settings tab (Figure 26) In the first section, you can control the look of UPECView. You can decide if it should start in full screen mode or not (normal window), if toggling the full screen mode should maximize the window, i.e. take the whole screen but keep the window’s titlebar or not, or if the interface buttons and panels should be on the left of the screen instead of the right The second section controls which files are saved alongside the standard .sidata files.
- Page 57 UPECView User Guide stop the acquisition or when you start a new one. This can be useful as the recorded data is deleted when you start a new acquisition (press on the “Play” button) and is therefore lost if you hit the button by mistake.
-
Page 58: Other Tools: Full Screen Toggle And Quitting
UPECView User Guide The “Use slider instead of dials” will replace the (blue) controls in some filters by sliders. It is recommended to leave to its “off” default value as sliders take more space and are less precise than controls. The remote control options section allows you to define on which TCP/IP port UPECView listens to in order to receive remote commands. -
Page 59: Upecview Installation Guide
UPECView Installation Guide UPECView Installation Guide This guide describes the installation procedure for the UPECView software bundled with Sensima’s UPEC line of Eddy current instruments. The software comes preinstalled on the display device (tablet, laptop, etc. depending on version). These instructions allow you to install the software on other devices. - Page 60 UPECView Installation Guide starting the installation (e.g. to your Documents folder) 2. Choose the “Start Menu Folder” under which you want the program to be listed (default: Sensima) 3. Choose where the program should be installed. It is recommended to leave the default setting since this allows to easily upgrade UPECView to a newer version without risking conflicts.
- Page 61 UPECView Installation Guide 6. The files are copied to your disk with the progress indicated. At the end of the copying, the installer may display several popup windows indicating the installation of Microsoft software components. 7. The installation of the first set of communication drivers begins: a popup window with the special driver wizard appears.
-
Page 62: Files And Directories - Uninstall Procedure
UPECView Installation Guide 10. Click “Finish” at the end of the FTDI drivers’ installation. 12. A popup window for the installation of the Atmel USB Driver Package appears. Follow the instructions from the driver installation wizard. During the process, you may be asked to trust drivers from Atmel (www.atmel.com). -
Page 63: Uninstall Procedure
UPECView Installation Guide name]\AppData\Roaming\SensimaInspection folder. Data and setup files are normally stored in the C:\ [user name]\Documents\Sensima folder (unless you decided differently). 6.3.1 Uninstall procedure There is no uninstall program, but you can do this from the Windows Control Panel or manually. The first procedure will not remove all the files since some are created at run-time. -
Page 64: Tips And "How-To's
7.1.1 USB Normally, if you connect your UPEC USB device to your tablet or PC (and only this one) and start UPECView, you should have this device with the COM port number displayed in the list. If you want to discover this port number from Windows: 1. -
Page 65: How To Move The Presets And Tiles From One Computer To Another
Tips and “how-to’s” 1. Make sure that your device has been paired with the system. 1.1. If not, power it and go through the pairing process. 2. Open the Windows Control Panel (Figure 28) and search for ‘bluetooth’ 3. Click on the “Change Bluetooth settings. This opens another window (Figure 28) 4. - Page 66 Tips and “how-to’s” which can be represented by the instrument is drastically reduced, leading to signal saturation when this signal moves out of the accessible impedance plane region. We take the example of optimizing the gains for a set of notches in a calibration or reference block. The goal is to maximize the gains so that the deepest notch signal is still completely visible and shows no signs of saturation.
-
Page 67: Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting Troubleshooting Connection problems 8.1.1 USB devices • Make sure that your device is connected to the USB port of the tablet and that the USB cable is not damaged. If unsure, disconnect and reconnect the device: Windows should make a sound in both cases. -
Page 68: Wireless Devices (Bluetooth)
Troubleshooting 8.1.2 Wireless devices (Bluetooth) First, the obvious: • Check that your UPEC WR is powered, i.e. connected to the battery pack and that the USB cable is not damaged (you could try with another USB cable) • Check that the battery is not empty: in general, press on the button situated on the top of the battery pack and make sure that several of the LEDs close to the button light up. -
Page 69: Upecview Does Not Start
Troubleshooting • Restart the UPEC device (by disconnecting the USB cable from the PC/tablet or battery pack) • Start everything again To remedy this problem: • Use a lower acquisition rate • Make sure that the UPEC tester cannot be inadvertently disconnected from the tablet or battery pack. -
Page 70: Upecview Stops With An Error When Attempting To Connect To The Device
Troubleshooting 5. Start UPECView. If it works, you are set: you can delete the subdirectory you just created and its content and you will have to go through the preferences if you had made changes from the default. 6. If none of this has worked, contact support. You may be asked to 6.1. -
Page 71: Signal Display Is Not Fluid
Troubleshooting The logging (black) window sometimes remains open after having closed UPECView. Just close it. Signal display is not fluid This only applies to devices using an FTDI communication chip. The communication port settings described here will not be available for other devices. NOTE Symptom: During acquisition, the refresh rate for the signal seems abnormally slow, i.e. - Page 72 Troubleshooting 5. In the dialogue box, select the “Port Settings” click “Advanced” button 6. In the new dialogue box, set the “Latency Timer” to 5 msec 7. Click OK for all the opened boxes and close the device manager. 8. You may have to reboot your system (follow the instructions from Windows)
Need help?
Do you have a question about the UPEC USB and is the answer not in the manual?
Questions and answers