Hello EEV brains,
I need an instrument for accurate power measurements of High(ish) frequency signals, and for standard 230 Vac 50Hz power consumption.
I need accurate Power measurements for 18 kHz to 50 kHz AC signals. The voltage ranges from 100 to 400 Vac, the power is under 10 watts.
There are a few issues that I am having:
1. The signal is a series of 200mSec pulses with 200mSec pauses in between that repeat every 5 seconds. so I need an average of this.
2. Each pulse is a different frequency between 18 kHz to 50 kHz.
3. The "power factor" varies a lot depending on the frequency (the current can be significantly out of phase with the voltage)
4 The Voltage and Current vary wildly during the six second signal.
In the video below I am using a Signal Generator to drive the Transducer (this video is measuring the frequency response of the transducer). You can see the current and voltage traces on the screen. This is the kind of signal I want power measurements for, but the voltage and power will be much higher.
https://youtu.be/u1-cBjFJvXsI want to measure:
1. Average power over a 30 second or more period.
2. Peak power
3. Watt hours
4. Phase angle/ Power Factor
I am having similar issues calculating the Power consumption of the switch mode power supply driving the circuit. When I take a running average of the inline current and multiply that by the voltage I get a massive difference between the DC and AC power. I know the PSU is running inefficiency due too the extreme transient nature of the current draw, but it cant be this bad..... 16 watts on the dc side and 60 watts on the AC! I suspect the numbers are inflated by a very poor Power Factor. And so I want a Power meter that details all the values
Here is a video showing my setup and math... These videos where made for a "different" audience so I am not using technical language.
https://youtu.be/-RUdtZC3PCATo be clear this is a separate type of measurement, here I am trying to measure the PSU efficiency and the overall system efficiency
Is there an instrument that can do all this?
Thanks for your time,
Mike