VIBRATION DATA ACQUISITION: MAKE MEASUREMENTS COMPARABLE
Yenra | Updated September 11, 2026
Article: https://yenra.com/making/vibration.html

Purpose: preserve enough acquisition context to reproduce a vibration measurement.
Use with the actual sensor, conditioner and DAQ manuals. Machinery access follows approved site procedures. This record supplies no machine fault thresholds.

QUESTION AND MACHINE STATE
Asset / measurement question / speed rpm or other units / load / process state:
Required frequency range Hz / amplitude range and convention / responsible analyst:
Sensor model, serial, calibration date / sensitivity with units / range / axis:
Mount location photograph / attachment / surface / torque reference / cable restraint:
Conditioner/DAQ model and firmware / excitation current and compliance voltage:
Sensor bias / coupling / gain / input range / expected settling behavior:
Specified passband / anti-alias filter and transition / applicable manual section:
Actual sample rate PER CHANNEL samples/s / channel synchronization / trigger:
Sample count / observation duration s / clock or tachometer reference:

FICTIONAL MATHEMATICAL CHECKS
10,240 samples/s; 20,480 actual samples => 2 s and unpadded bin spacing 0.5 Hz.
Same rate; 40,960 samples => 4 s and unpadded spacing 0.25 Hz.
Duration = N / sample rate; bin spacing = sample rate / N.
Zero-padding adds displayed points, not additional observation time.
Sensitivity 100 mV/g and 250 mV peak => 2.5 g peak.
For a pure sine ONLY, 2.5 / sqrt(2) = about 1.77 g RMS.
These examples assume valid linear unclipped acquisition; they do not select a machine bandwidth or diagnostic limit.

VALIDATION RUN
Channel identity and calibrated scaling checks:
Bias/health readings / clipping / gaps / settling / range observations:
Repeat at comparable machine state / differences and investigation:
Original samples file / checksum or controlled record ID / settings file / photo:

DERIVED ANALYSIS
Software/version / window / averaging / frequency band / amplitude convention:
Peak, peak-to-peak, RMS, spectrum or PSD (label exactly):
Integration to velocity/displacement, if used: filters, limits and units:
Result / uncertainty / analyst / date / interpretation scope:
Recheck after sensor, mount, conditioning, sample plan or machine-state changes.

PRIMARY REFERENCES
NI's accelerometer measurement guide
https://www.ni.com/en/shop/data-acquisition/sensor-fundamentals/measuring-vibration-with-accelerometers.html
PCB Piezotronics' mounting guidance
https://www.pcb.com/resources/technical-information/mounting
anti-aliasing explanation
https://www.ni.com/en/shop/data-acquisition/measurement-fundamentals/analog-fundamentals/anti-aliasing-filters-and-their-usage-explained.html
LabVIEW Analysis Concepts manual
https://download.ni.com/support/manuals/370192c.pdf
IEPE acquisition startup saturation
https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA03q000000YRUaCAO