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Sensor Basics

Sensors are everywhere in our electrical world! Sensors, Transmitters, and Transducers gets you started with a colourful look at these three components, and how they work together as part of a control loop. Transmitter calibration and Live Zero are covered with interactive examples. Sensor Wiring walks through some of the essentials of wiring a passive or active sensor into a circuit. Normalizing gets you started with the basic calculations you'll need to calibrate control loops.

Ready to move on?
You should be able to:

  • Define sensors, transducers, and transmitters.
  • Discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of each.
  • Explain the purpose of using a live zero scale when transmitting sensor information.
  • Walk through a simple transmitter zero and span calibration.
  • Construct a standard instrumentation current loop.
  • Explain the meaning of the terms sourcing and sinking.
  • Differentiate between active and passive sensors.
  • Analyze the wiring method required by various sensors.
  • Explain what normalizing is and why it's done.
  • Complete sample normalizing problems using the normalizing equation.
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