Are ground loops or sinking/ sourcing issues causing signal problems?

Signal Conditioners

Signal integrity starts with quality measurement and good equipment. However, even with the best equipment signals can be degraded if the equipment is not properly installed or is not protected by signal conditioners. Signal integrity can be greatly impacted by poor shielding and wiring practices. The biggest factor is ground loop errors (ground noise). Our signal conditioner products protect your expensive electronic equipment against ground loops with up to 1500 V of isolation.

Isolation is one way to eliminate ground loop errors caused by ground noise and other such problems. Isolation means using one of many electronic methods to interrupt the connections between two grounds while passing the correct signal with little or no loss of accuracy. Without a way for ground currents to flow, these currents can't induce signal errors.

The following signal conditioner products are available:

• FC-11 - 4-20 mA isolated signal conditioner. Loop-powered signal conditioner and isolator for 4-20 mA signal. DIN-rail mountable.
  
  
• FC-33 - DC selectable signal conditioner. Signal conditioner and isolator for voltage/ current signals. 24 VDC input power. Selectable ranges from 0-10 VDC to 0-20 mA. Pushbutton programmable ranges and LED indicators for power and performance. DIN-rail mountable.
  
  
• FC-R1 - Loop-powered signal conditioner and for RTD signal. Selectable inputs include Pt100, Pt1000, and Cu10. DIN-rail mountable.
  
  
• FC-T1 - Signal conditioner and isolator for thermocouple/ mV input signal. 24 VDC input power. Selectable inputs include Type J, K, E, R, S, T, B, N, C. DIN-rail mountable.
  
  

Starting at $89.00 (FC-11)

See sections below for further details.

4-20 mA isolated signal conditioner ( FC-11)

The FC-11 is a DIN rail or side mount, 4-20 mA input/ output signal conditioner with 1500 VDC isolation between input and output. The FC-11 has a user-selectable factory calibration.

The output is also calibrated with OFFSET (zero) and SPAN (full scale) adjustments. The OFFSET and SPAN have an adjustment range of ± 2% of full scale input.

Application
The FC-11 isolated input/ output signal conditioner is useful in eliminating ground loops or sinking/ sourcing issues when interfacing to PLC analog input modules. The FC-11 design feature solves many types of configuration problems. For example, the signal conditioner can solve sinking input transmitter to sinking input analog modules. It also allows signal translation from current input to voltage output. This feature would be useful when you have limited type and number of channels in your system design, i.e. 8 channels of 0 - 10 VDC , 7 which are used and one input transmitter that is 4 - 20 mA.

DC selectable signal conditioner (FC-33)

The FC-33 is a DIN rail mount, selectable input/ output signal conditioner with 1500 VDC isolation between input and output and 1500 VDC isolation from 24 volt power and input/ output. The field configurable input/ output types allow a wide ranging capability for 0 - 5 V, 0 - 10 V, 0 - 20 mA, 4 - 20 mA.

The FC-33 has user selectable factory-calibration, but also has OFFSET (zero) and SPAN (full scale) adjustments of the output signal. The OFFSET (zero) has an adjustment range of 0 to 25% of full scale input, the SPAN (full scale) has an adjustment of -20% to 2%.

• LEVEL LED
  This LED is a powerful tool when setting up the signal conditioner. During normal operation the LED will blink at a proportional rate to the selected input signal level. When performing field calibration the LED is used for indication of the internal calibration process.
  
  
• CAL - Pushbutton
  This pushbutton along with various switch settings, allows you to calibrate the signal conditioner for your application or restore factory default calibration.

Application
The FC-33 field configurable isolated input/ output signal conditioner is useful in eliminating ground loops and interfacing sensors to our PLC analog input modules. The FC-33 has 3 way isolation, this feature solves many types of configuration problems. For example, the signal conditioner can be configured for sinking input and sourcing output. It also allows signal translation from current input to voltage output or voltage input to current output. This feature would be useful when you have limited type and number of channels in your system design, i.e. 8 channels of 4-20 mA, 7 which are used and one transmitter that is 0 - 10 V.

RTD input loop powered signal conditioner (FC-R1)

The FC-R1 is a DIN rail mount, Resistive Temperature Detector, signal conditioner. FC-R1 is non-isolated, 3-wire RTD which converts to linearized 4 - 20 mA current loop.

The FC-R1 has user selectable,CU10 (10 Ohm copper), PT100 (100 Ohm platinum), PT1000 (1000 Ohm platinum) RTD input, but also has OFFSET (zero) and SPAN (full scale) adjustments of the output signal. The OFFSET and SPAN have an adjustment range of ± 2% of full scale input.

Application
The FC-R1 field configurable input signal conditioner is useful for interfacing RTD sensors to our PLC analog current input modules. Use shielded RTD's whenever possible to minimize noise on the input signal. Ground the shield wire at one end only. The suggested 3-lead configuration shown provides one lead to (+) terminal, one lead to the (-) terminal and one lead to the (COM) terminal. Compensation circuitry nulls out the lead length for accurate temperature measurements. Some sensors have 4-leads, when making connections, do not connect the second lead to the (+) terminal, leave that lead unconnected.

Thermocouple/ mV input isolated signal conditioner (FC-T1)

The FC-T1 is a DIN rail or side mount, thermocouple/ mV input signal conditioner with 1500 VAC isolation between input and output. The field configurable input allows a wide ranging capability for J,K,E,R,S,T,B,N,C type thermocouple and -156.25 mV to +156.25 mV.

The FC-T1 has built-in self-calibration, but also has OFFSET (zero) and SPAN (full scale) potentiometers for adjustment of the output signal. The FC-T1 is also equipped with cold junction compensation (CJC) circuitry to provide an internal ice-point reference. The temperature calculation and linearization are based on data provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST).

• ALARM and RUN LED
  This LED is bicolor (red and green). The red LED indicates a fault, with internal calibration or thermocouple burnout condition. However, during power-up initialization the red LED will be on, when process is complete, the LED will turn green. The green LED indicates normal function. Green/ Red flashing indicates out-of-range, over or under temperature/ voltage for the selected range.

Application
The FC-T1 field configurable thermocouple/ mV input signal conditioner is useful in eliminating ground loops and interfacing sensors to our PLC analog input modules. If your requirements are just for one channel of temperature you can add the signal conditioner to your 4-20 mA input modules.

Or, if your requirements are for a single millivolt signal source, you have the freedom of adding this input to your analog module. The FC-T1 uses a combination of sophisticated circuitry to accomplish the conversion tasks, state of the art analog to digital converter and DAC chip. Upscale or downscale thermocouple burnout detection selection is also provided.

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