Automotive Engineering - October 2021 - 32

Q&
A
Driving DAQ product development with
the customer's voice
As the automotive industry pivots toward mobility and its focus
on vehicle electrification and autonomy, data acquisition (DAQ)
tools are evolving apace. Slovenia-based DEWESoft is in the
vanguard of DAQ suppliers with a customer-centric approach
to product development. John Miller, VP Engineering at
DEWESoft's U.S. facility in Whitehouse, Ohio, recently spoke
with editor Lindsay Brooke about his company's trajectory.
DEWESoft's website states that your products reflect the
voice of the customer. What are customers asking for in terms
of DAQ equipment and capabilities?
A lot of companies go after 'Faster!
Smaller! More rugged!' Better environmental
specs, etc. Those improvements
are, of course, important and
certainly things we consider in our
development. But reflecting the voice
of the customer requires a deeper
understanding of the customer's projects
and pain points. That's what our
customers are asking us to address
through continuous improvements.
We're updating our software four to
six times per year and you can go
online and download that at no cost.
Once you've heard what customers
are asking for, you need to implement
those requests. This is where a lot of
folks fall short, but we spend the time
listening to the customer and changing
our products accordingly.
Your equipment has a reputation
for being super-robust. What is the
next phase of durability for DAQ?
It becomes a lot more applicationspecific.
'Durability' to one application
may mean something completely different
to another. The electrification
world, for instance, isn't used to having
IP67 instruments because you really
don't measure high voltage under water!
[IP67 is an ingress-protection standard,
indicating the device has been
tested to work for at least 30 minutes
while under 15 cm to 1 m of water,
among other metrics.] The EV guys'
desire for 'more durable' might be
environmental specs. Our power analyzers,
for example, maintain excellent
accuracy while offering instrument
32 October 2021
John Miller,
DEWESoft's
VP Engineering
" Reflecting the voice of
the customer requires a
deeper understanding of
the customer's projects
and pain points. "
operation in a much wider temperature range, for cold- or hotweather
tests, compared with other standard benchtop units.
How is electrification influencing your product development?
DEWESoft has always been a strong player in the power market,
be it the grid or other types of power. Electrification of vehicles
and power tools came naturally to us because we had a
lot of those tools already created. Recently, we have responded
to customer requests for faster sampling and respective necessary
processing capabilities; with electrification, some things
require really fast sample rates. Our
XHS system can sample continuously
up to 15 megasamples [million samples]
to capture faster transients and
measure more advanced power-quality
parameters. As a result of pushing
the envelope on the hardware side of
sampling requirements, we had to do
the same on the software side. So
now we're tapping into high-performance
graphics cards to help with
the processing load requirements to
make those power computations at
these new higher speeds.
What challenges may be facing NVH
test, vibration- and acoustic-analysis
DAQ that don't exist today?
Remove the combustion engine and
the vehicle creates a lot less noise.
With a decreased noise floor, you're
effectively heightening the senses of
the operator. We see this trend as a
new opportunity to improve our
products in this area.
What percentage of DEWESoft DAQ
products are used on the bench in
labs and test centers, versus those
used in mobile applications?
It's a tough question to answer because
all of our units are rugged
and relatively small. They can all run
off of 9 to 36 volts. So, you can use
them on the benchtop or in vehicles.
A lot of our customers will do
both - they may buy it for a labtype
environment, but they'll take
that same instrument and plug it
into vehicle power to use in a more
mobile environment.
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
DEWESoft
Automotive Engineering - October 2021

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