Inverters and Generators

When operating the data recorder with power supplied either by a generator or a battery-backed inverter, carefully consider the waveform of the voltage supplied.

It is essential that the voltage provided is a “clean sinusoidal voltage”. Devices that deliver only a sinus-like output signal and particularly such with a square or trapezoidal output waveform are not suitable and can cause damage to the data recorder.

Furthermore, the acoustic noise radiated by the power supply device should be as low as possible.

The required output power can be determined by summing up the power consumption of the individual components (see list).

The camera has to be taken into account only when it is powered by the data recorder. Therefore, USB cameras can be neglected in the calculation. The power consumption of the remote controller RC110 is negligibly low (< 0.5 watts).

Consider an AC Pro System with data recorder, 2x ADC114MLN, 48-channel array with the Baumer camera TXG08c powered by the array. NoiseImage runs on a laptop which is powered by its rechargeable battery. This setup results in the following calculation:

74 W + 2x11 W + 2x3 W + 5 W = 107 W

According to this calculation the inverter must supply a continuous output power of at least 107 W. In order to estimate the battery service life, the level of efficiency of the inverter has to be considered. Let the level of efficiency be 88 %, then a battery with 94 Wh (94 Wh x 0.88 = 83 Wh) can supply 83 Wh and has a battery service life of about 47 min (83 Wh / 107 W = 0.76 h = 47 min). Setting the system to standby mode increases the battery life.

The list on the right side shows the typical power consumption of a mcdRec's components during measurement.