Bulk and Selected Data for Demanding Applications
Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions has introduced its next-generation miniature network data acquisition encoding product, the MnACQ-2700, the company announced on 20 April.
Enabling an Ethernet-based network data acquisition solution for analogue and bus data capture and system safety monitoring applications, the product embodies two Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) ports that support both 100Base-T and 1000Base-T, providing total data (bulk data) and selected data to an FTI network for demanding applications such as aircraft development and technology refresh programmes. The MnACQ-2700 also provides pulse-code modulation (PCM) outputs up to 40 Mbps for real-time telemetry of mission- and safety-critical data. The product is configurable using IRIG-106 metadata description language (MDL) and by Curtiss-Wright’s TTCWare software utility.
Today, FTI systems are being tasked to generate ever-increasing amounts of data, much of it from faster avionics busses. Higher speed data capture, whether for analogue or avionics data, delivers a more complete understanding of how a test aircraft performs, and can help to lower the number of required test events. The MnACQ-2700 enables FTI engineers to support such requirements, and is designed for simultaneous acquisition of bulk and selected data and multi-cast outputs in multiple industry-standard formats (such as DARv3, TmNS, and CH10 UDP) at GbE speeds, thus capturing all data on a bus and telemeter selected data as desired. The unit also integrates with existing complete system-level FTI solutions from Curtiss-Wright, eliminating the need to replace existing test hardware to meet evolving data acquisition requirements.
With increased acquisition speed to accommodate higher avionics bus speeds, the new MnACQ-2700 further highlights Curtiss-Wright’s commitment to developing new solutions that meet growing customer data acquisition requirements. The company’s fully integrated FTI system solutions are among the most widely used data acquisition systems in the flight test instrumentation community, uniquely providing customers with access to a vast library of COTS modules that enable the flight test community to configure the exact FTI solution required to support high-speed avionics busses today and in the future.
The MnACQ-2700 supports two internal backplanes” the first is compatible with all legacy MnACQ modules, enabling users to multicast selected data in industry standard formats such as DARv3, TmNS, and CH10 UDP at GbE speeds; the secondary backplane supports bulk and selected data capture from a single high-speed analogue or bus module, which can then be multi-cast simultaneously with the selected data from the first backplane.
In lieu of the high data rate acquisition module, the secondary backplane can also be used to incorporate a recorder slice into the data acquisition unit (DAU) module stack. Because the in-stack recorder module can record data from the stack, it eliminates the need for a separate recorder unit, greatly reducing system complexity for stand-alone data acquisition applications, such as UAS. The MnACQ-2700 can also be configured in stand-alone mode to record the entire network’s data. Highly scalable and optimised for size, weight, and power, it supports an extremely wide range of sensors and transducers and is available separately or as an integral component in a fully integrated flight test system solution.
