A digital recorder for lightning current waveforms

Author

Burke, Nicholas J. ; Watson, David B.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Canterbury Univ., Christchurch, New Zealand

Issue

3

fYear

1987

Firstpage

750

Lastpage

754

Abstract

An improved lightning current recorder having an efficient analog-to-digital-conversion method is described. To distinguish between multiple lightning strokes which typically follow each other at about 30 ms intervals, the dead-time (the time required to down-load samples) has been reduced by discarding redundant information. With a maximum sampling rate of 5 megasamples per second and 6-bit linear quantization, the dead-time for a severe 200-kA stroke is 12.43 ms. Logarithmic quantization combined with a faster microprocessor (an 8085 AH-2 running at 10 MHz) and more efficient software should reduce this to 2.6 ms.

Keywords

analogue-digital conversion; computerised instrumentation; digital instrumentation; electric current measurement; lightning; microcomputer applications; recorders; wave analysers; 10 MHz; 12.43 ms; 2.6 ms; 200 kA; 30 ms; 6-bit linear quantization; 8085 AH-2; dead-time; digital recorder; lightning current waveforms; logarithmic quantisation; microprocessor; multiple lightning strokes; Analog-digital conversion; Clocks; Instruments; Lightning; Quantization; Surges; Timing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9456

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TIM.1987.6312783

Filename

6312783