USB-UT350(T)

Portable Ultrasonic Pulser/Receiver and

Analog to Digital Converter

Users Guide

2000-2009 US Ultratek, Inc.

Revision 1.77 September 30, 2009

US Ultratek, Inc.
4070 Nelson Ave., Suite B
Concord, CA 94520 USA
Tel: (925) 687-7688
Fax: (925) 687-7689
E-Mail: tech@USUltratek.com
Web: http://www.USUltratek.com

INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................ 1-1
1.1
1.2

FEATURES ................................................................................................................................. 1-1

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ........................................................................................................... 1-1

INSTALLATION............................................................................................................................. 2-1
2.1
2.2
2.3

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION ........................................................................................................ 2-1

HARDWARE CONNECTIONS ....................................................................................................... 2-2
TESTING THE USB-UT350 ........................................................................................................ 2-2

APPLICATIONS ............................................................................................................................. 3-1

PARAMETERS ............................................................................................................................... 4-1

4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
4.8
4.9
4.10
4.11
4.12
4.13
4.14

TOOLS.............................................................................................................................................. 5-1
5.1

PULSE POWER ........................................................................................................................... 4-1

PULSE WIDTH / CYCLES ............................................................................................................ 4-1
GAIN ......................................................................................................................................... 4-1
FREQUENCY (TONE BURST PULSER ONLY) ............................................................................... 4-1
DC OFFSET ............................................................................................................................... 4-2
BUFFER LENGTH ....................................................................................................................... 4-2
TRIGGER DELAY ....................................................................................................................... 4-2
AVERAGE .................................................................................................................................. 4-2
POLARITY (TONE BURST PULSER ONLY) .................................................................................. 4-2
SIGNAL TYPE ............................................................................................................................ 4-2
TRIGGER TYPE .......................................................................................................................... 4-3
SAMPLING RATE ....................................................................................................................... 4-3
LPF (LOW PASS FILTER) ........................................................................................................... 4-3
HPF (HIGH PASS FILTER).......................................................................................................... 4-3
FAST FOURIER TRANSFORM (FFT)............................................................................................ 5-1

HARDWARE CONFIGURATION................................................................................................ 6-2

6.1

DB-25 CONNECTOR .................................................................................................................. 6-2

TROUBLESHOOTING .................................................................................................................. 7-1

SPECIFICATIONS.......................................................................................................................... 8-1

USB-UT350 Users Guide

Revision 1.77 09/30/2009

1 Introduction
The USB-UT350 is the base model of a portable ultrasonic pulser/receiver and analog to
digital converter that can be used for a multitude of applications such as flaw detection,
thickness measurement, Doppler measurement, and flow meter. The following list shows
the other products of this series:
USB-UT350T is the tone burst version of the pulser/receiver. The letter T at the end of
the part number stands for tone burst pulser.
USB-UT350M16(T), USB-UT350M8(T) and USB-UT350M4(T) are the instruments
with 16, 8, and 4 channels respectively.
USB-UT350RT is a relay switching instrument with 16 channels. It is the lowest cost
device with so many channels.

1.1

1.2

Features
Adjustable high pulse voltage up to 300V (350V optional)
Adjustable pulse width up to 500 ns
Low noise receiver
Low noise pulser
High speed analog to digital conversion up to 50MHz
Time or position based acquisition
Tone burst pulser version available
Battery monitoring option available
Oscilloscope software included
Software development kit (SDK) for C/C++, Visual BASIC or LabVIEW
available

System Requirements

The USB-UT350 is designed to operate on any laptop or desktop system running

Windows 2000 (w/SP4) or Windows XP. For standalone operation the device must be
configured using such a system and will then operate independently.

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2 Installation
The supplied software should be installed prior to connecting the USB-UT350 to the
computer.

2.1

Software Installation

Simply insert the disc labeled USB-UT Software and Driver Disc and you will be
presented with the following:

Select next and follow the prompts to complete the installation. It is recommended that
the default directory be used.
If you have purchased additional software such as an SDK or the UT Instrument
Software, you may installation those programs after the USB-UT Software and Drivers
installation has completed.
Once you have finished installing the software, it will be accessible through the start
menu.

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2.2

Hardware Connections

1. Connect the transducer(s) to the USB-UT 350. Select Single or Dual mode using
the switch located beneath the BNC connectors for the old model. For the new
model the single and dual mode can select using the scope software.
2. Connect the USB 2.0 cable to the USB-UT 350 and your computer.

2.3

Testing the USB-UT350

The USB-UT350 comes with oscilloscope software that enables the user to interact with
the device. Launch the oscilloscope software and view the waveform to ensure that the
software and drivers have been installed correctly.

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3 Applications
The USB-UT350 ultrasonic pulser/receiver and analog to digital converter can be used
for a variety of applications.
The device emits a negative high voltage pulse (or a series of tone burst pulses if the tone
burst pulser is installed) on the TX connector and receives the response signal through
either the TX connector or the RX connector depending on whether the device is in
pulse/echo or through transmission mode. The receiver clips off the high voltage portion
of the signal and performs amplification, filtration, and DC offset adjustment. The clean
signal is then digitized and available for analysis.

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4 Parameters
4.1

Pulse Power

Pulse power ranges from -40V to -300V peak to peak in 256 steps. The response echoes
are stronger when a higher voltage is used, however some transducers become saturated
and require lower voltage settings.

4.2

Pulse Width / Cycles

For the Standard Pulser:

The pulse width can be set to any value between 50ns and 500ns in increments of 20ns.
The pulse width has a close relationship with the frequency of the transducer which is
represented in the following formula:
W = 500 / f t
Where W is the pulse width in ns and ft is the transducer frequency in MHz.
For example, if you have a 5MHz transducer, the appropriate pulse width would be
calculated as follows:
W = 500 / f t = 500 / 5 = 100ns
For the Tone Burst Pulser:
The number of cycles corresponds to how many oscillations the pulse will emit. This
number defines the half-cycles of the period. A value of 4 will result in two complete
cycles positive, negative, positive, negative when the polarity is positive or the reverse
when the polarity is negative.

4.3

Gain

Gain is used to control the amplitude of the signal. It ranges from -20dB to 80 dB in
increments of 0.01dB. Adjust the gain until the signal fits in the display window without
any saturation.

4.4

Frequency (Tone Burst Pulser Only)

Sets the frequency of the tone burst pulser.

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4.5

DC Offset

Sets the DC offset of the signal.

4.6

Buffer Length

The buffer length specifies how many samples the USB-UT350 will analyze during data
acquisition. This value can be anywhere between 2 and 8191 samples, or 1 to 32000 with
32K memory option.

4.7

Trigger Delay

The trigger delay specifies how many samples the A/D converter should skip before
processing the response signal. This value can be anywhere between 0 and 16,383
samples.

4.8

Average

Sets the signal averaging. The device will take multiple waveforms and then average
them.

4.9

Polarity (Tone Burst Pulser Only)

Sets the polarity of the tone burst pulser. Positive polarity starts the oscillation with a
positive pulse while negative polarity starts the oscillation with a negative pulse.

4.10 Signal Type

There are four types of signal available:
Signal Type
Full
Full wave rectification
+Half
Positive half rectification
-Half
Negative half rectification
RF
No rectification

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Application
Flaw detection
Thickness measurement
Thickness measurement
Thickness measurement

4-2

4.11 Trigger Type

There are three types of triggers available:
Trigger Type
+External External trigger on the rising edge.
Software
Internal software trigger.
-External
External trigger on the falling edge.

4.12 Sampling Rate

The following sampling rates are supported by the USB-UT350:
50 MHz
25 MHz
12.5 MHz
6.25 MHz
The sampling rate should be 5 to 8 times greater than the transducer frequency.

4.13 LPF (Low Pass Filter)

The low pass filter enables digital filtering of the signal. Only frequencies below this
frequency will be included in the signal.

4.14 HPF (High Pass Filter)

The high pass filter enables digital filtering of the signal. Only frequencies above this
frequency will be included in the signal.

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5 Tools
5.1

Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)

The oscilloscope software features the ability to transfer the waveform automatically to
the QuickFFT software in order to display the Fourier transform of the signal. The
original and transformed signals can be saved for later viewing or printed from within the
QuickFFT software. This feature requires that the QuickFFT software be installed and is
accessible by selecting Tools QFFT from the menu.

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6 Hardware Configuration
6.1

DB-25 Connector

The DB-25 connector provides the following signals:

Input /
Output

Description

I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O

Encoder 1 (A) or Digital I/O Bit 8

Encoder 1 (B) or Digital I/O Bit 9
Encoder 3 (A) or Digital I/O Bit 12
Encoder 3 (B) or Digital I/O Bit 13

I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O

Encoder
Encoder
Encoder
Encoder

Pin

Signal

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25

ENCA1
ENCB1
ENCA3
ENCB3
5V
GND
ENCA2
ENCB2
ENCA4
ENCB4
SYNCOUT
EXTTRG

O
I

IO7
IO6
IO5
IO4
IO3
IO2
IO1
IO0

I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O

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2
2
4
4

(A)
(B)
(A)
(B)

or
or
or
or

Digital
Digital
Digital
Digital

I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O

Bit
Bit
Bit
Bit

10
11
14
15

Data Acquisition Synch Output

External Trigger Input

Digital
Digital
Digital
Digital
Digital
Digital
Digital
Digital

I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O

Bit
Bit
Bit
Bit
Bit
Bit
Bit
Bit

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

6-2

7 Troubleshooting
The USB-UT350 utilizes the full amount of current available as outlined in the USB 2.0
specification. The real world implementation of USB 2.0 varies between computers and
some will provide more current to the device than others. If you are having difficulties
maintaining a steady signal at high pulse voltages, make sure that there are no other
devices drawing current from the USB. If this does not resolve the issue it may be
necessary to connect the external power adapter to the USB-UT or to use the device with
a different computer.

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8 Specifications
Pulse Voltage
Pulse Width
Damping
Internal Trigger
Receiver Gain
Filter
Waveform
Sampling Rate
Resolution
Waveform Length
Trigger Source
Transducer Range
USB Connection
Connectors
Post Trigger Delay
Dimensions
Power Supply
Weight
Add-on Options

-40V to 300V p-p in 256 steps

50ns to 500ns in increments of 20ns
500
1 Hz to 1,000 Hz in 1 Hz increments
0dB to 80dB in 0.1dB increments
0.6 MHz to 18 MHz fixed
Full rectification, +Half rectification, -Half rectification, or RF
50 MHz, 25 MHz, 12.5 MHz, 6.25MHz
8 bits (0 to 255)
2 to 8,190 samples, or 1 to 32000 with 32K memory option
Internal or Software
1 to 10 MHz for square pulser
20 kHz to 10 MHz for tone burst pulser
USB 2.0
2 BNC Connectors: Pulse Out and Receive In
0 to 16,370 samples in 1 sample increments
4.2x5.65x1.55 (107mm x 144mm x 40mm)
External power supply: +9V / 1000mA or power from the USB
connector.
1 lb
Up to 2 encoder counters
16-bit I/O
External trigger
Sync Out
Battery monitoring circuit
Tone burst pulser
350V pulse voltage
Hardware high pass filter
Multi-channel version up to 16 channels
Flaw Detector software
Thickness Gauge software
Windows software development kits for
LabVIEW, MS C/C++ or Visual Basic

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