Design of a Data Logging System for a Small Scale Hydrokinetic Turbine

Abstract

A suitable data logger is needed for data collection to demonstrate the practicality of Hydrokinetic Turbine (HKT) in a rural application. Currently, commercial data loggers are expensive and consume extensive amounts of energy. The high cost is due to the sophisticated applications or features embedded together with the loggers. However, some of these features are not necessarily needed in Borneo's rural area due to limited power supply and an absence of internet access. Therefore, in this study, a data logger was designed according to Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to feed the specific or critical parameters and applications that suit HKT's data collection. The logger was calibrated and tested in a laboratory. The practicality of the data logger was also verified in a field test. An automatic data-file creation capability was developed, and a Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) memory card was chosen to provide high storage capacity. Besides that, the logger was designed with low energy consumption and lightweight. The results showed that the error of voltage divider, propeller type current meter and rotational speed meter were within 1%, whereas, 5% of error was observed at the current transducer. Therefore, the data logger demonstrated an acceptable behaviour of the logging performance test.