This Article is about how to setup the VR1710 and understand the options available.
The VR170 needs to be plugged into a 120V outlet, then connect the device to a PC with a USB cable. You will need the PowerLog software available here.
The VR1710 has seven features to manage when you use the setup. They are Main Interval, Flicker/THD Interval, Circular Memory, Dip Threshold, Swell Threshold, Transient Sensitivity and Disable Transient Recording. Below is a screen shot of the menu when using the Power Log Classic software.
Main Interval: Voltage Trend recording sample rate is based on 1/2 cycle rate (120 samples a second on a 60 Hz signal).
As an example, if you set the Interval to 1 second the VR1710 will gather 120 samples and only keep the minimum value, maximum value and calculated average for each one second interval. The smaller your interval the more memory you will need to use.
Below are the Main Interval choices in the setup.
1 second Interval sets the length of recording to 1 day 50 minutes.
2 second interval sets the length of recording to 2 days 1 hour 34 minutes.
5 second interval sets the length of recording to 5 days 3 hours 6 minutes.
10 second interval sets the length of recording to 10 days 3 hours 32 minutes.
30 second interval sets the length of recording to 29 days 4 hours 10 minutes.
1 minute interval sets the length of recording to 54 days 21 hours 58 minutes.
5 minute interval sets the length of recording to 186 days 17 hours 5 minutes.
10 minute interval sets the length of recording to 266 days 17 hours 30 minutes.
15 minute interval sets the length of recording to 311 days 4 hours 15 minutes.
20 minute interval sets the length of recording to 339 days 11 hours 20 minutes.
Below is an example of the voltage recording when you download the data to the Power Log Classic software.
Flicker/ THD Interval: is related to both the Flicker and Harmonic data recording. The measurement sample rate is over 12 cycles (5 readings a second). The data is used to present graphs for both THD and Flicker and also a Histogram for the Harmonic results. The Interval choices for Flicker/THD are 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes and 20 minutes. The common choice is 10 minutes. Below is an example of the graph the Power Log Classic software creates for Flicker result Pst and Plt recording results.
Harmonic parameters:
The Harmonic measurements are THD thru the 32nd Harmonic and TDD.
Below are examples of the Histogram and Time Evolution.
Histogram example
Time Evolution showing all the parameters THD, 2nd thru 32nd Harmonics.
Circular Memory: means when the VR1710 memory is full it will overwrite the data from first in first out. This allows for continuous recording, but your recording will be a rolling window of time based on your interval setting referenced above.
Dips and Swells Thresholds: is the voltage level trigger to capture the voltage Dips and Swells. The common level to select is 10% of the line voltage. As an example, if you are measuring 120V, 10 percent of that is 12V. You would set the Dip Threshold to 108V and the Swell Threshold to 132V.
Dips and Swells results showing in Power Log Classic software. The green arrows are Dips, and the red arrows are Swells. The horizonal scales are Time in microseconds and cycles. The vertical scale is the level of voltage.
You can also look at the Dips and Swells in the Spreadsheet section of the Power Log Classic software.
Below is an example showing Dips.
After you click on OK you see the below Spreadsheet information.
Transient Sensitivity: is the voltage envelope surrounding the waveform and when exceeded will be captured.
Transient parameters:
Transient sample rate is 32kHz (31.25 µs).
The amount of data points for a Transient Event is 1280.
The overall amount of time for a Transient Event is 40 ms.
The Transient Sensitivity choices are between 2V up to 20V.
The Sensitivity technique uses the voltage number to draw an envelope around the waveform and if the level exceeds the envelope, it captures the event.
Example below is a Transient Event in the Power Log Classic software with the cursor feature on and it’s placed on the portion of the Transient. The Transient Sensitivity level was set at 2V.
In PowerLog, under the Statistics tab, you can evaluate the different measurements Half Cycle Voltage, Frequency, Plt, Pst, THD and Voltage Harmonics.
Below is an example of Half Cycle Voltage results. The yellow bars indicate how many measurements were at a certain level. On the left-hand side of the screen is the Statistic information. It’s common for technicians to want to know the Maximum and Minimum values and the date and time and the µ symbol is the mean (overall average) and is something technicians are interested in.