RF Communication of Vibration Signal for Condition Monitoring

Author Name(s): A.P. Rathkanthiwar, S.W.Varade, J.P.Modak, S.G. Mungale
Author Email: anagharathkanthiwar@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper describes a system for communication of vibration signal using radio frequency. In this work, we are using the fact that vibration analysis provides relevant information about abnormal working condition of machine parts. Vibration measurement is essential for vibration analysis which is used for condition monitoring of machinery. The vibration measurement is done using 3axis accelerometer sensor. The implemented prototype system is based on use of NRF24L01 RF module i.e. standard IEEE802.15.4 for wireless communication. The system provides wireless communication of vibration signal between vibration sensor and vibration monitoring unit. Visual studio software is used for the system interface. It works in real time and can be used at remote places.

Keywords RF Module, Accelerometer, RF Transmission

Introduction

Bearings of a shaft of any mechanical systems are generally subjected to sever transient load. This intern induces severe vibrations in the bearing caps. If these vibrations are continuously monitored, then we can predict likely machinery failure to occur in near future. But in certain system this continuous monitoring is not possible because of all the time unavailability of experts near the systems. Hence conventional method of monitoring of vibration signal of bearing is to check it periodically but this kind of monitoring is inadequate in certain situations. This situation leads to unawareness of happening of heavy breakdown of a system. In such situations, there is a need of continuous monitoring of vibrations of bearing. The solution to above problem is to communicate vibration signals continuously to the place where experts are available all the time for monitoring. There is a problem for communicating the signal in urban construction sites or in rural areas. The signal cannot travel at a long distance in remote places, so to overcome this problem this system has been designed. There are different types of wireless communication technologies used for wireless transmission. Like Radio Frequency (RF) Transmission, Infrared Transmission, Light Wave Transmission, Microwave Transmission. But RF Transmission are used commonly because of their property to penetrate through objects. Various protocols are available for RF transmission like ZigBee, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, WLAN, Wi-Max etc. Bluetooth based systems provide range of only upto 10m, while range of Wi-Fi and Zigbee based systems is from 10100meters. So these systems are not suitable for the application under consideration. In our system, we are using wireless RF module due to which data can travel for long distance and in a fast and effective manner [1, 2]. The system is using RF module based transmitter and receiver, Accelerometer for vibration sensing.

 

Conclusion

The system provides continuous communication of vibration signal from machine to monitoring system. This helps in continuous monitoring remotely to detect the fault which reduces the losses. This way, vibration signal can be constantly measured & monitored. The transmission and reception of a signal has been tested successfully using the developed system. Signal is received successfully at a distance of 400 meter without any loss using chosen RF module. Other RF modules such as DRF7020D27 provide communication range of 2.8Km to 3.5 km. and the other one is DRF1278DL2 and its communication distance is 3-4km. The range can be increased to desired value by proper selection of RF module. So we conclude that RF module based system is well suited for the application under consideration.

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