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COMTRADE file checker

Check a COMTRADE record against IEEE C37.111 before you rely on it: revision, channels, scaling, sample count, time stamps and anything the reader had to assume. Free, in your browser.

Drop a COMTRADE record here.cfg with its .dat, a .cff, or a .zip. Read in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

What a finding means

  • Problem: something the reader could not do as the file asked, such as samples missing from the .dat. Results from this record need care.
  • Check: the reader had to assume something, for example the order of day and month in a date where both are 12 or less. Worth confirming before the record goes into a report.
  • Note: a fact about the file that is not a fault, such as an IEC 60255-24 edition year in the revision field.

The rules come from IEEE C37.111 and from what real recorders write. Every field the checker reads is explained in the COMTRADE .cfg file, line by line, and the format as a whole in the COMTRADE file format explained.

Questions people ask

Why will my COMTRADE file not open?
The usual causes are a .cfg and .dat that do not share the same base name, a .dat that ends before the sample count the .cfg declares, a binary .dat opened with the wrong file type, or a .cfg written by a recorder that bends the standard. The checker reads the file the way the viewer does and lists what it found.
What does the checker look at?
The revision year, station and device names, channel counts, every analog channel’s scaling and transformer ratios, the sampling rates against the samples actually read, the start and trigger time stamps (including dates that could be read as day/month or month/day), and channels that carry no signal.
Does a clean result mean the record is correct?
It means the file is readable and internally consistent. It cannot tell whether the recorder was wired to the right phases or whether the transformer ratios typed into it were right; those need the site drawings.
Is my file uploaded?
No. The check runs in your browser and the file never leaves your computer.

Next step

Convert the record to CSV for Excel or Python, or open it in the SagSwell viewer for waveforms, RMS, sags and swells, harmonics, phasors and the ITIC curve.