Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. Motor Sports Engineering Div. Technology Development Lab Mr. Noboru Yabe, Supervisor

We develop engines for racing motorcycles. Mainly, I'm in charge of developing measuring systems for engine performance evaluations and reliability tests.

We do a variety of different evaluations on the engine test bench. We perform measurements on a regular basis of quite a number of items including the number of engine revolutions, torque, throttle opening, air-to-fuel ratio (A/F) which indicates the condition of the engine, concentrations of exhaust gases, pressure, and temperatures related to the exhaust and engine. We capture all of these signals and perform analysis using the DL750 ScopeCorder and the modular WE7000 PC-Based Measurement Instrument.

Bulb lift curve during measurement of valve behavior captured using the DL750

Our job requires capturing suddenly-occurring abnormal phenomena as the engine turns and then observing the details while at the same time making long-duration observations of slow signals such as the air-to-fuel ratio (A/F). We use the DL750 ScopeCorder for such monitoring applications and measurement of valve behavior during unit testing.

The DL750 has a color display which makes it easy to view 16 channels of data at once, and the long memory and zoom functions allow us to observe abnormal phenomena in detail.

	YEC Co., Ltd. Product Development Operations, Electronic Controls Development Div. Mr. Katsuhiro Sawada, Supervisor and Ms. Momoko Sugiyama

Up to now we created our own measurement systems by taking a PC and adding A/D cards depending on the item under test. But we encountered limits to the measuring ranges for temperature and pressure as well as the number of slots available on the PC, and this caused trouble for us whenever we needed to change or enlarge the system. The WE7000 is a modular measurement system, making it easy to expand. It supports many measuring ranges so we can change settings freely, and we can add on channels and measurement items with plug-&-play ease, allowing us to build a low-cost system. We currently have the Temperature Measurement and 100 kS/s Digitizer modules installed which gives us 60 channels of measurement, and we're thinking about adding on the interface module for CAN bus signal analysis.

When using the WE7000 for engine evaluation and testing, a typical operation involves using the API to develop a specialized measurement system and then measuring the data from that system, but with single item measurements, the WE7000 standard software lets us manipulate the control panel of the measuring instrument corresponding to the module on a PC, which means that we no longer have to make our own software, and that is extremely helpful.