Step 5.2: Interfacing to the Simulation

First configure the I/O Interface. Click the I/O Interface button in the HYPERSIM ribbon. 

In the I/O Interface Configuration pop-up, right-click on OPAL-RT Board and select Add. 

Configure the board by selecting the Chassis type (this is printed on the simulator) and the Chassis ID (this can be found by running a Diagnostic from the Target Manager) 

Add the bitstream, this will automatically populate the tree with the available cards in that bitstream. Press Ok to save the configuration.

All channels are enabled by default, but if they are unused, they revert to zero during the simulation.

Analog Output Sensors

Go back to the HYPERSIM® schematics window. Stop the simulation (if it's running).

Right-click on the bus named WES7 and select Open Sensors Form to open a window where available signals are listed for that specific block.

Note that you must right-click directly on the component and not on the block name.

To configure a specific I/O click the Edit button under I/O connection column.

• The I/O factor column is a scaling factor used to adapt to the analog output board’s range, typically ±16 V. It must be used as a divider. Here, the bus voltage is around 400 kV peak-to-peak, so using 100 000 as a divider means that about 4 V should be measured on the simulator analog output. For more information, see Sensor Management

• The I/O connection window lets you choose from all available I/O on the selected simulator. The selection window is shown below. You can also enter the value in each field of the I/O connection by typing in the field. Note that if the I/O Sensor list is empty, it means the 'OPAL-RT Board' in the IO interface was not configured.
• Only one signal is permitted per I/O connection. However HYPERSIM can only detect if multiple signals are assigned to one I/O when initializing the simulation. Such a state will result in an error and stop the simulation from running.

Connecting the hardware

The I/O connection in the software refers to the PCI slot and channel number from which the signal will be sent or received. This is where the simulation interfaces with the real world. As an example, refer to the OP5707XG IO Configuration. It is recommended that you review your specific real-time simulation platform for full I/O channel mapping. 

Say we are running the above simulation on an OP5600 real-time simulator and wish to read the output with an oscilloscope. We define the I/O connections to the signals from Bus WES7 as follows:

• Va = OPAL-RT Board/Slot 1A - Analog out/Channels 0 - 7/0 
• Vb = OPAL-RT Board/Slot 1A - Analog out/Channels 0 - 7/1 
• Vc = OPAL-RT Board/Slot 1A - Analog out/Channels 0 - 7/2 

These three signals are all transmitted via the Group 1 Analog Out A P1 connector. The P1 connector links to Channels 0-7, while P2 links to Channels 8-15. 

To measure the signal with an oscilloscope, you need to be sure to define an appropriate I/O factor so the currents and voltages do not exceed the specifications of the board. You would then connect a loopback cable between Slot 1A/P1 and Slot 1B/P1 as depicted on the left. On the front of the simulator, you would need to connect an RJ45 cable between the interface for Slot 1A Channels 0-3 (the channels are printed on the chassis above or below the RJ45 input) and the BNC splitting interface, as depicted on the left. Then you would connect the mini-BNC to BNC cable between the connectors and the oscilloscope.