DAQ system set-up for in Vehicle Testing

[cjsarago]

Hello All,

I'm currently trying to set-up a DAQ system to measure the forces seen by an off road vehicles control arms and am uncertain of what equipment would be the best to use going forward.  I am at a university and have access to a wide variety of NI chassis's and modules, so I'll pose this question assuming I could somehow gain hold of anything I needed.  In the past, students had pursued to gather the information wirelessly using a cDAQ 9191 wireless chassis however noise became a problem while recording the desired signal.  Originally a cRIO chassis was to be used but programming issues prevented that route from being used.  As far ease of use, the stand-alone cDAQ controller seems to be the way to go, unfortunately this is a piece of equipment I am quite certain is not avaiable to our project.  Would an alternate cDAQ system such as the 9191 be able to provide the processing/ logging I desire if programmed correctly to filter out unwanted noise?  Ideally the data would be logged during vehicle testing, however because the vehicle is designed for off road use it's desired that a laptop not have to be secured in the vehicle.  Any help would be greatly appreciated, I can gather more information if needed.

[amezam]

Hello Cjsarago,

If the problem is noise then you can keep working with cDAQ, since it seems that regarding performance, it works fine. Do you feel you need to improve processing time for this application based on the previous tests?

Regards,

Alina M

[cjsarago]

Ideally I'd like to collect data in real-time, which is why I believe the stand alone system is the best option.  However, a  delay in processing would not be an issue, so long as I can decipher later what times my force measurements occurred.  Ultimately I want to determine the forces seen by the arms for a particular road profile as a function of time.  In the past, we had dificulties in consistantly reading the signal of the cDAQ 9191 at relatively short distances (less than 5 ft) and also with programming the FPGA when we attempted to use the cRIO.

[SnowMule]

Might be worth strapping a contour/gopro to your helmet to sync what's happening with the terrain along with the data you capture.  Makes analysis easier when you can see what's happening alongside the waveforms.

Could you do higher-speed data acquisition onboard, but wirelessly send the data at a slower data rate to someone sitting nearby for testing porpoises?

What kind of vehicle?  Pro-800 and KTM 525 in my garage

[cjsarago]

We thought about using a potentiometer to monitor shock position and then correlate that to the force graphs (theoretically the most force should occur near the most shock compression unless we strike a rock or take impact in a different axis).  Gopro footage would be great to as a picture in picture video of what forces we're seeing.  On-board is possible but desirable, but we'd rather not have a pc on board as a secure way to fasten it would take up quite a bit of space in an already small roll cage.  A wireless module is definitely the route we're seeking, providing we can collect accurate measurements.  This project is actually for an SAE Baja vehicle - I've attached some nice shots of our cars in action