Understanding how to get the result from CASPOC

The goal of this tutorial is to teach users how to get the simulation result from CASPOC. The simulation result includes the schematic and its voltage or current output. Depending on the main goal of the simulation schematic, users probably want to acquire more information from their power electronics, like power, position of the magnet, the angle speed and so on. In the previous introduction tutorial 4, we already talked a little how to use 'sensors' to measure any kind of information you want. Sensors are not only to transform the different types of data to SCOPE but also to clarify the simulation architecture and to be able to re-calculate or compare the acquired data. In this tutorial, we will talk about how to configure the schematics according to all the functions we know, and then print the schematics or the recorded data from your own power electronics.

Change the appearance of the schematic or replay it

In the first part, we will talk about how to change the appearance of your schematic and print it. Here we use the example B2.csi in CASPOC folder: \\CASPOC2009\Samples\rectifiers\GateControl. Launch B2.csi as below. In this example, the circuit is built by four thyristors, two voltage sources, one resistor and one capacitor. In anode of the voltage source V1, there is a green voltage sensor VP1 (step 1) which sends the voltage value to the yellow gate controller with a UP-DOWN controller (step 2). There are two node labels '1' and '2' (see the blue arrow) before and after the rectifier, and then we use a voltage probe to measure the difference between the nodes '1' and '2' (step 3). In order to measure the current values of the four thyristors, we use four scopes and connect them to the first blue input trace of each scope respectively (step 4). Also measure the voltage and current value of the inductor (step 5). Finally, use the UP-DOWN controller to shift the voltage output by adjusting the value of VDC (step 6).

Sometimes we want to measure too many currents and all the wires are in a mess. In CASPOC, we can also replace the wire connection to current probe. Left-click the current probe from Components/Blocks/Source/Current (step 1) and release the mouse button. Move the cursor to the right side of the four scopes and left-click to put the current probe as below (step 2). Right-click the first blue input trace of SCOPE2 (step 3) which acquires the current value of the thyristor DTH1. Remove the value 'DTH1' on the pop-up window and click OK (step 4).

Right-click the current probe (step 1) and type 'DTH1' in Text1 to acquire the current value (step 2).

Repeat the same steps: Left-click three more current probes from Components/Blocks/Source/Current and put them below the first current probe.

Right-click the second current probe (step 1) and enter 'DTH2' in Text1.

Right-click the third current probe (step 2) and enter 'DTH3' in Text1.

Right-click the fourth current probe (step 3) and enter 'DTH4'.

Right-click the first blue input trace of SCOPE3 (step 4) and remove the value 'DTH2' on the pop-up window (step 5). The same as the first blue input trace of SCOPE4 (step 6) and SCOPE5 (step 7).

After setting the four current probe, we put them in the left side of the fours scopes and connect the current probe 'DTH1', 'DTH2', 'DTH3', 'DTH4' to SCOPE2, SCOPE3, SCOP4, SCOPE5 respectively.

Click 'Initializes and starts the simulation' (step 1) or go to Simulation/Start Simulation in the menu bar. Then observe the simulation result (step 2) to see if it's the same as the previous one.

If users want to change the animation settings, we can find the animation setting buttons on the menu bar.

Refer to the function of each button as below:

• Edit the fill color of all selected components
• Select font for the schematic
• Toggle Animation
• Animate nodal voltages
• Animate component currents
• Animate wire currents
• Animate block diagram
• Display output / voltage numerical
• Set animation options
• Show nodes
• Enable/disable showing the grid dots in the schematic
• Display the simulation time in the statusbar
• Background color
• Scope color in Black/White
• Save Ink

Try one of the buttons to see how it affects the animation. For example, left-click one of the components in the circuit (step 1) and click the button (step 2). To choose the color you want, select one color in the pop-up window (step 3) and click OK (step 4).

Then we can see that the color of the component changes from gray to pink as below.

If users want to change the diameter and the color range of the wire, click the button (step 1) and change the 'wire diameter' to 3, 5 or 10 (step 2). Then observe the simulation, you will find the wire of the circuit becomes bigger and the color depends on the minimum and maximum of the current value (step 3). Make sure the button and are turned on if you cannot see the animation of wire.

We can also select the other different buttons (step 1) and click 'Start Simulation' to see how the animation changes.

In CASPOC, besides setting the animation, users can also replay the simulation result by using the button bar.

To know how to use the button bar, please refer to the following list:

• Store simulation results for the reply
• Move the cursor to the begin of simulation results
• Move cursor 100 positions to the left
• Move cursor 10 positions to the left
• Move cursor 1 position to the left
• Move cursor 1 position to the right
• Move cursor 10 positions to the right
• Move cursor 100 positions to the right
• Move cursor to the end of simulation results

Click the button (step 1) to enable the time-axis of animation (step 2). Then click 'Initialize and start the simulation' (step 3) to run the simulation and record it.

After the simulation, the time axis will become blue. Move the time point by the cursor along the time axis, and then the current animation will change according to the time point. All the SCOPEs will also indicate the current time point under the corresponding Scope.

Use the remaining buttons to move cursor 1, 10, 100 positions to right and left (step 1), and then the time point will move according to which button you click.

To disable the time axis, click the button again as below.

To point out where the reference point is, we used a lot the label 'Ground' or '0' in the previous tutorial. Sometimes in order to make the reference point clearer, we can also use the ground components in Components\Library\Electric\Ground\ (step 1) and put it in the reference point (step 2).

Left-click one of the ground components (step 1) and release the mouse button. Move the mouse button to the reference point the connect to it (step 2).

Since we already had a ground component, we don't need the label 'ground' or '0' anymore. Right-click the label '0' (step 1) to remove '0' from the pop-up window (step 2) and click OK (step 3).

Before print out the schematic, users can change the position or the size of the scopes by using the cursor. Left-click the scope and NOT release the mouse button to move the scope to the place you want.

Then we will see the dotted line of current input trace didn't change by the movement, but the other two voltage input trace were disconnected as below.

Reconnect the nodes to the first two input trace in the scope by using the cursor, and then the scope will keep collect the voltage data during simulation.

We can also resize the scope by dragging the right bottom corner of the scope as below.

In the following picture, we will find that the scope can be enlarged simply by using the mouse.

Finally, users can save the schematic by clicking to Tools/Export Bitmap or Tools/Export EMF (step 1). After clicking, we will find out a bmp or emf file in the same folder of the example we're running. Here the example B2.csi we 're using is located in C:\CASPOC2009\Samples\rectifiers\GateControl so that we can find B2.bmp or B2.emf here (step 2).

Launch B2.bmp or B2.bmp, then we'll find that the printed picture are exactly the same size as 'zoom' setting we used in the schematic.

Record the simulation result

After configuring the appearance of the schematic, we will also practice how to print the simulation result. If you want to change the appearance of the scope, please make sure that you already disabled the button of 'Scope color in Black/White' and 'Save Ink' (step 1). To get the simulation result, the most important thing is to right-click the scope (step 2) and then launch its pop-up window (step 3).

In CASPOC, there are two ways to save the simulation result. One is to print the display of the simulation result, the other is to print the collected data in a text file. Go to the menu bar of the scope as below. To configure the traces appearance, go to Trace in the menu bar and select the trace number you want (step 1). To configure the scale of the scope, go to to Scale in the menu bar and select the function you need to change the scale, like select 'Edit Scale Left' to change the color or scale range (step 2). To configure the appearance of the scope, go to Options and select the function you need (step 3), like 'Background Color'. In the following picture, we can find that the colors of background and scale are both changed (step 4) by using the existing functions in CASPOC scope.

After configuring the appearance you want, we can go to File/Export EMF or File/Export EPS to print the scope as below. Users can import the printed pictures to any office automation software, like Microsoft word or OpenOffice and so on.

The other way to save the simulation is to save the data in a text file. Go to File/Save in the menu bar and give a name to the text file as below. Launch the text file to see the data we saved. To know how to read the data, please refer to Introduction/scope.