Operational Loads Monitoring System (OLM) system for 10-Tanker

Ventura Aerospace has developed an Operational Loads Monitoring (OLM) System for 10-Tanker. This system has numerous inputs to monitor the structural health of the air frame during all modes of flight and includes acceleration, air speed, strain gauge, retardant tank and GPS data. Data is automatically recorded for download and reduction via USB thumb drive or Ethernet. The system automatically detects out of parameter or exceeded values in the data stream. The system includes a National Instruments CompactRIO controller and chassis along with various I/O modules.

Ventura Aerospace custom designed an I/O board that includes syncrho converters, serial I/O and GPS. Programmed in LabVIEW, this OLM unit will provide 10-Tanker and the US Forrest Service the reliable data needed to monitor the health and status of the 10-Tanker aerial firefighter.

Ventura Aerospace specializes in custom aircraft data acquisition systems that are easily re-configurable allowing our customers to adapt quickly and efficiently to design change and certification requirements.  To find out how Ventura Aerospace, Inc can help you with challenging health monitoring systems for aircraft contact us today.

Join us at NI Week 2014

Ventura Aerospace will be at NI Week 2014 in Austin! Once again, our system engineers are packing up to attend NI Week in Austin. They are looking forward to the tremendous opportunity to connect with and to learn from some of the best talent in the industry. NI Week brings exciting insight into new hardware that can be used in our Flight Test Solutions and Embedded Systems.

With applications ranging from structural and production test to life sciences, our system engineers have the experience to develop and deploy rapid solutions for research and development. Our AS9100 (ISO 9001) engineering and production department can convert those solutions into realized and marketable products suitable for the production floor or the research lab.

8 Channel Failsafe SSR with isolated load sensing circuit

Ventura Aerospace was presented with a unique challenge from a customer. Their current Solid State Relay (SSR) solution for opening and closing a valve was experiencing start up failures. The typical failure mode of an SSR is to fail to the closed position. The problem was that if the SSR failed at start up the connected valve would open out of sequence resulting in possible test article damage.

The solution was to design a dual SSR circuit that was triggered from a single digital line that would provide fail safe coverage. To accomplish this, one SSR is used for power while the other is used for ground. Both SSRs are triggered by the same digital input. If one SSR fails to open position on power up the connected valve will not operate as the circuit path is not completed. Individual LEDs are provided for each SSR which allows for a quick visual diagnostic. An optically isolated diagnostic circuit provides a TTL level trigger for each channel that can be monitored in the LabVIEW executable to determine whether a failed SSR is present and provide a closed loop feedback if desired. This diagnostic circuit is triggered from the high-power output of the SSRs which provides the most reliable method for detecting a SSR failure.

This board is tested using a National Instruments cDAQ and a custom bench mounted load circuit that stresses each SSR pair to 100% of load capacity. This automated test reduces the Quality Assurance overhead required to complete the part while providing a better solution to our customer.

For information on this product or any of the other solutions that Ventura Aerospace offers please contact us.

Ventura Aerospace implements PTC Windchill

Ventura Aerospace took the big step in moving to the PLM platform, PTC’s Windchill. This is major step forward for us here at Ventura Aerospace. While we have been using PTC’s Pro/ENGINEER Creo as our 2D/3D Cad solution since 1997 there has been no life cycle management tool being used. This resulted in many challenges with data management and product support over the years. As we continually lay the ground work for growth opportunities it was recognized that a stable foundation of data was one of the most important challenges to be overcome moving forward. Windchill provides us with that foundation on which to build by allowing us to improve the management of our own data along with our customer’s data. Everything from configuration management, bills of material and customer support will leverage Windchill in the coming months. As an engineering service provider we generate data and new intellectual property for ourselves and our customers. Access to that data both today and tomorrow is critical for success. Windchill is expected to provide a better path for success for Ventura Aerospace.