Design of a PD measuring instrument based on digital oscilloscope

A partial discharge (PD) measuring instrument based on the following structure is designed: a digital oscilloscope and a Labview^™ program are respectively used to replace the data acquisition hardware and the software of the conventional digital PD measuring instruments. The use of a general purpose oscilloscope enables a broad applicability of the designed instrument. The developed program, which is employed to control the oscilloscope and transfer as well as process the sampled data, makes it possible to vary the measuring approach according to the practical demands. The structure and the performance of the designed system are detailed and compared with a commercial digital partial discharge measuring system.