Data Acquisition

Curtiss-Wright is the largest rugged data acquisition provider in the world and has been producing systems for decades. Deploying such systems means less risk of losing data, having to repeat a flight or losing weeks or compromising the integrity of a maintenance program and suffering the schedule and finical costs. Further time is saved with faster and more flexible installation and the ability to quickly meet changing requirements.

The Acra KAM-500 standard chassis, such as KAM/CHS/03U to KAM/CHS/013U, are the most popular DAU and ideal for most applications. The alternative DAUs use the same stable, well proven and mature backplane technology as the standard chassis and utilize the same standard modules. A wide range of module-level core logic, combined with a stable backplane design ensures that no challenge is too great where the program merits the customization of COTS technology and the schedule can accommodate the corresponding lead-times. 

The Axon is an ultra-compact data acquisition system that is ideal as a remote node or as a stand alone chassis. It builds on Curtiss-Wright’s heritage as a leading supplier of rugged reliable data acquisition and works seamlessly with the widely used Acra KAM-500 DAU chassis. Axon supports the same data formats as the KAM-500, and both can be configured using the same setup software and data from both can be synchronised easily using a protocol such as the IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP).

The Axon uses hardware-based acquisition engines to minamise data loss, support deterministic operation and ensure rapid recovery in the case of a power brownout. Axon uses a high-speed serial backplane (1 Gbps dedicated link per module) to ensure future high data rates are supported. This design also allows off-the-shelf data acquisition modules to be placed in ultra-miniature "Axonite" housings and located remotely. These can be separated from the chassis by up to 20 meters. Locating data acquisition closer to the sensors can significantly decrease the installation time and cost of the instrumentation while simultaneously reducing wiring weight.

Airborne Switches - Flight Test

8-port Ethernet switch (Xbar, SNMP, IEEE 1588 V1/V2 Grandmaster)

The NET/SWI/101 is a Gigabit Ethernet switch designed for operating in harsh environments. Each port on the NET/SWI/101 is full-duplex only and can be set for 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T link speeds or auto-negotiate.

The NET/SWI/101 has a store-and-forward Xbar switching fabric that uses the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) to specify multiple user-defined static forwarding tables and filtering configurations. Specific configurations are user selectable via the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2c). The Xbar static forwarding table defines how incoming Ethernet frames received on a given port are forwarded to the output of one or more egress ports.

The output of each port has filtering capabilities allowing for selective forwarding of Ethernet frames to the connected end node. The filter comprises a lookup table of up to eight 16-bit fields, including wildcards.

The NET/SWI/101 has an embedded IEEE 1588v1 and 1588v2 PTP Grandmaster. The Grandmaster can use a GPS input, a digital IRIG-B input, an analog IRIG-B input, or the internal free-running clock to provide the time source. Bridging between 1588v1 and 1588v2 domains is supported using a boundary clock.

The KAD/SWI/108 is a 4-port variant and can be mounted in a KAM-500 chassis.

Multiple switch modules can be mounted in a single chassis.