International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / When a sensor is replaced or added to a legacy data acquisition system, information for that sensor has to be incorporated by the software programmer into the main system software - a costly and timeconsuming process. The new ‘smart’ sensors that are being designed according to the new IEEE P1451.3 and .4 standards will have the necessary information contained in their Transducer Electronics Data Sheet (TEDS). A method has been developed to give the old sensors the intelligence to meet the requirements of these new IEEE standards without changes to the legacy hardware and a minor change to the system software.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Replacing and maintaining sensors in existing legacy systems is costly and time consuming since no information beyond voltage or current is supplied by these sensors. When a sensor is replaced or added, information for that sensor has to be incorporated by the software programmer into the main system software – a costly and time-consuming process. A method has been developed to give these old sensors the intelligence to meet the requirements of the proposed IEEE P1451.3 standard. This is accomplished with no changes to the legacy hardware and a minor, one time change to the legacy main system software.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Current legacy acquisition systems such as the Advanced Airborne Test Instrumentation System (AATIS) are custom-built to each individual application with unique sensors and data modules. Replacing, adding, or subtracting sensors requires the system to be removed from service for days, weeks, or even months. This is a result of having to route special wires to each sensor and reprogramming the system with sensor information, calibration data, etc. AR sensor information must be contained in the main system since these systems do not have intelligence at the sensor level. If sensors were to contain information in their own IEEE 1451-compliant transducer electronic data sheet (TEDS), the main system would no longer have to be reprogrammed with this information. This information could then be obtained directly from the sensors when they are inserted into the system. A plug-n-play capability is being added to the system with the development of a standard interface to the system control unit (SCU). This interface, called a Multi-Network Capable Applications Processor (Multi-NCAP), will interface IEEE 1451-compliant smart transducer interface modules (STIMs) to the SCU in the AATIS as well as other legacy systems. With this development, maintenance and new configuration times for the AATIS and other legacy systems will be significantly reduced.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / The wireless sensor concept has been hindered in the past by the large number of components needed to add the wireless transceiver feature and the additional power consumption needed for that feature. This has been resolved by incorporating all the wireless components into a single, low power modular circuit. Intelligence is being added to legacy sensors to make them Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1451.4 compatible with an element called a Sensor Identification Transducer Electronic Data Sheet (SITEDS), which contains the Transducer Electronics Data Sheet (TEDS) for that sensor. All the sensor interface parameters are automatically configured by a module called the Universal Smart Transducer Interface Module (USTIM) using the TEDS input from the respective sensor’s SITEDS. An IEEE P1451.5 compatible wireless interface can be incorporated into the SITEDS with the transceiver module giving the legacy sensor full wireless capability.