Sep 18 2008

A new tool for managing FBG sensor data.

Published by at 10:14 am under General,Instruments

I’ve written about why many applications must use FBG sensors, but how do users deal with the data? Conventional electronic gages deliver an analog signal that’s proportional to the strain or temperature change. Optical gages deliver a digital signal that reports an absolute wavelength value indicative of the strain, temperature, displacement, pressure, etc.

Converting from wavelength to engineering units requires some basic arithmetic. For example, the gage factor for an FBG strain sensor might be 1.2 picometers per microstrain (gage factors are provided by the strain gages manufacturers — just like electrical strain gages). So, for example, if the measured wavelength shift is 120 picometers, the strain sensor is actually measuring a change of 100 microstrain.

Some calibrated FBG temperature gages may use a third-order polynomial fit to fully characterize the gage factor, but still it’s just a matter of doing the arithmetic to make the conversions from wavelength to temperature.

Up to now, most users have been on their own to make these calculations. Micron Optics has always provided a basic LabVIEW example user interface that customers modify to convert, store and display sensor data. But now Micron Optics is providing a new tool called ENLIGHTPro.

ENLIGHTPro provides an all-in-one solution to configuring sensors connected to Micron Optics instruments, converting wavelengths to engineering units for hundreds or thousands of sensors, displaying data in charts, graphs or images, setting alarm limits and sending alerts, and saving data. A free download of ENLIGHTPro Beta release is available at http://micronoptics.com/sensing_software.php

The release of ENLIGHTPro represents yet another milestone for making fiber optic sensing solutions more accessible and easy to use. Along with improved sensor packages, sensor installation kits, and simplified instrumentation choices, this software tool allows the user to quickly move beyond optical setup details to actually using and analyzing the data to get the answers that they need.

12 responses so far

12 Responses to “A new tool for managing FBG sensor data.”

  1. # Marco Coelhoon 24 Sep 2008 at 2:21 pm

    Hello, I’m a IST student from Portugal, and I’ve read ” A new tool for managing FBG sensor data” and I have a question: What expressions should we use to convert wavelength to strain, temperature and thermally induced strain? Cause when we create sensors we have to indicate those expressions and I don’t know it!

    Thank you!

    Marco Coelho

  2. # Tom Graveron 30 Sep 2008 at 9:50 pm

    Marco,

    Basic relationships are ~1.2pm per microstrain and ~10pm per degree C.

    We have an application note that explains the details of the thermally induced strain calculation and temperature compensation of strain measurements.

    Please send your email to my attention at sensesales@micronoptics.com, and I will send the paper to you.

    Regards,

    Tom

  3. # Olechka-persikon 09 Dec 2008 at 10:54 pm

    Thanks for post. Nice to see such good ideas.

  4. # Eduardoon 12 Feb 2009 at 1:50 pm

    I’ve downloaded the ENLIGHT Pro Sensing Analysis Software.

    ¿Is it possible to access to the “source code” of the application?

  5. # Tom Graveron 12 Feb 2009 at 2:46 pm

    Eduardo,
    We do not distribute the source code for this, but the source for the LabVIEW examples is available. What instrument are you using? What ENLIGHT functions are most important to you?
    Tom

  6. # optical prismson 30 Mar 2009 at 10:30 am

    Do you have a demo version / manual to try?

  7. # Tom Graveron 31 Mar 2009 at 6:52 pm

    Better than a demo version, ENLIGHT is free. Just go to http://www.micronoptics.com/enlight_downloads.php to request a copy. Do you have a Micron Optics instrument to use with this?

  8. # Edoardo Cacciavillanion 12 May 2009 at 12:48 pm

    Do you have a complete manual of the software?
    I’m using it coupled with the sm125 interrogator, but I got some problems in recording the datas and save them in a format that could be analyzed with others software (like Matlab).
    Thanks

    Edoardo Cacciavillani
    Istituto Superior Tecnico / Università degli Studi di Padova

  9. # adminon 14 May 2009 at 2:38 pm

    Hello Edoardo,

    I’m glad to hear that you’re exploring ENLIGHT.

    Please find the manual here: http://www.micronoptics.com/support_downloads/Manual.pdf

    Regards,

    Tom

    Tom Graver
    VP, Optical Sensing

  10. # Jóhanon 21 Apr 2010 at 9:28 am

    Hey

    Quick question, you mention that the source code for the LabVIEW example is available.

    Where can I get the source? I’m using SM130 and I’m particularly interested in obtaining the change in strain, I’m using these value for a real-time applications.

    Thanks
    Jóhan

  11. # Tom Graveron 03 May 2010 at 6:19 pm

    Johan,

    You can find examples in two places. The MOI examples are here:

    http://www.micronoptics.com/support_downloads/Instrumentation/x30%20Interrogators/Examples/

    Or, National Instruments released their own driver for the sm130:

    http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.model_page?p_model_id=17022

    All the best.

    Tom

  12. # suryanshuon 02 Jul 2010 at 1:39 am

    hello sir,
    i have been using this enlight software coupled with sm125 interrogator. but the problem is i get data in text format. what i have to do all the tym is copy into..excel file..is dere a way or a thing in enlight software dat i can get data directly in excel format?? plzz help?