OP5600 off-the-shelf Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulator

Applications

As the hardware element of an eMEGAsim, eDRIVEsim or eFLYsim simulator system, the OP5600 Chassis enables you to conduct a number of real-time simulation applications, including hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing, rapid control prototyping and FPGA development projects. Complex power grids, micro-grids, wind farms, hybrid vehicles, more electrical aircrafts, electrical ships and power electronic systems can be simulated in real-time with time step as low as 10 microseconds or less than 250 nanoseconds for some subsystem to achieve the best simulation accuracy.  Several power electronic manufacturers are now using OPAL-RT real-time digital simulators instead of expensive and less flexible analog test benches.

Description

The OP5600 Chassis consists of an upper section which contains I/O signal modules including converters/conditioning and a bottom section which contains the multi-core processor computer which runs the software found in OPAL-RT's real-time simulator systems including RT-LAB, OPAL-RT's real-time simulation software platform.

The OP5600 Chassis can be used either as a desktop system, or rack-mounted as part of a network of OPAL-RT simulators communicating through high-speed PCI-E links. It also comes with 6 PCI expansion slots to provide more flexibility to add I/Os and communication devices from other brands (CAN, LIN, FlexRay, ARINC, MIL-STD-1553, RS-232, GPIB, Profibus, reflective memory, etc).

The target computer included in the OP5600 Chassis consists of the following COTS components:

•    ATX motherboard, with up to 12 processor cores,
•    6 DRAM connectors,
•    250 GB hard disk,
•    600 W power supply and
•    PCIe boards (up to 8 slots, depending on the configuration)

Monitoring interfaces and monitoring connectors are accessed through the front of the OP5600 Chassis, while access to all I/O connectors, power cables and the main power switch are accessible on the back of the OP5600. The OP5600's design also includes an option to connect up to 16 single-ended signals on Mini-BNC connectors, making it easy to monitor signals using an oscilloscope while the systems is in used and connected to user equipments..

The OP5600 has two user-programmable FPGA options for I/O management, signal processing and fast models:
•    A Xilinx ML605 development board, which is based on the Virtex-6 processor, is used for floating-point models and projects requiring the use of large amounts of on-board memory.
•    OPAL-RT's OP5142 User-configurable FPGA-based I/O Board is based on the Xilinx Spartan-3, and is ideal for fixed-point models using no on-board memory.
•    Standard library of I/O functions (PWM, time stamping, encoder, resolvers …).
•    Optional RT-LAB XSG FPGA development systems including XILINX tools to implement specialized model and signal processing functions.
•    Optional floating-point XSG FPGA development systems including advanced solvers for electrical system simulations.
•    Optional library of motor models such as PMSM, BLDC and finite-element analysis based models.
The FPGA processors are directly connected to 8 I/O converter and signal conditioning modules that can be selected from the following list
•    OP5340 Type B module with 16 16-bit independent analog-to-digital converters, 400 nanoseconds convertion time for all channel converted simultaneously, and equipped with a front end differential amplifier with adjustable resistors to set the input voltage range from +- 1V to +-100V.
•    OP5330 Type B module with 16 16-bit digital to analog converter, 1 microsecond update for all channels simultaneously.
•    OP5353 Type B module with 32 digital input channel, 5V to 30V, galvanic isolation with fast opto coupler (50 nanoseconds to 100 nanoseconds delay maximum), differential inputs.
•    OP5354 Type B module with 32 digital output channel, push-pull type, 5V to 30V, galvanic isolation with fast opto coupler (50 nanoseconds to 100 nanoseconds delay maximum).
Additional signal conditioning modules are also available to cover a wide range of applications.

One OP5600 Chassis can then accommodate up to 256 digital or 128 analog I/O. Up to 8 OP5600 I/O expansion Chassis can be interconnected through a DOLPHIN PCI Express switch to increase the number of channel up to 2048 fast digital signals or 1024 analog signal or a mix or analog  and digital I/O.  The total round-trip transfer time of all 2048 channels from OP5600 system to the target processor memory is less than 25 microseconds.

Signal interface equipment and accessories such as fault insertion unit, breakout and signal mapping boxes and amplifiers are also available to interface actual electronic controllers to perform HIL tests.

The OP5600 Chassis is a high-performance system that can also be interfaced with the specialized OP6000 TESTDRIVE PC and FPGA-based Automated ECU Tester .
 

OP5600 Overview

Back View
	Support Spartan III or Virtex 6 FPGA DB37 I/O Connections
Front View
	Mini BNC monitoring panel to probe all I/O lines Easy connection to an oscilloscope
Rackmounted configuration
	Mapping boxes and break out boxes available System can be fully customized for your application