Research On Online Monitoring For Welding Process Based On Ethernet

In order to realize online monitoring of welding process, especially inmulti-process of different position. A data acquisition device called terminal based onSTM32was designed and the software of server was also developed to monitor eachof them. The system achieved online monitoring of the welding process by collectingwelding electric signals including current and arc voltage. During the process ofonline monitoring, the terminal must be linked to the Ethernet using switch. Eachterminal was designed to collect welding data for welding process of one weldingmachine in real time and sent them to the server.STM32was selected as the center controller for data acquisition terminal, andseveral peripheral circuits were also designed. A control software system wasdeveloped based on STM32using C language on Keil μVision4platform, achievingthe following functions: converting analog signals collected by sensor to digital signal,displaying the values in real time based on TFT screen, sending results and gettingcommands from the server by Ethernet.The server software developed using Visual C++can receive and store theelectrical data from lots of terminals. If necessary, the signals from each terminalcould be shown in waveform and values. There would likely be network congestionwhen data from lots of terminals were sent to server at the same time. In order tosolve the problem of congestion, a control policy has been designed to dispatchterminals. Firstly, all of terminals are arranged into different groups and the time ofeach would consist of working time and free time. Secondly, those groups weredivided into fixed and turn type in term of the order of getting the collecting time ofeach terminal. Lastly, the control groups were assigned to different priorities based onthe length of collecting time of terminal.Microsoft Access was used as background database software to store informationincluding basic information of the terminal, schedule information of control group,setting information of data file and so on.