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4-20 mA Signal Booster

03/27/2013 5:52 AM

dear member,

i wanna install two separate display in my factory. the input display is 4-20 mA from a same transmitter, problem is the distance beetwen transmitter and display are quite far. can anyone suggest what kind of signal booster and splitter i can use. or you may have other option on how to install it

thank you

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#1

Re: 4-20 mA signal booster

03/27/2013 6:08 AM

Look at the Lee Dickens (usual disclaimer) range, among others. 4-20mA repeaters are in their range. Clearly, each repeater requires a separate power supply.

Consider also raising the loop supply voltage so that a repeater isn't needed. <...quite far...> 1km on 4-20mA in 1.5mm2 cable isn't usually a problem on a 24V supply, though it depends on how much stuff the transmitter is driving. Instrument manufacturers usually give a graph showing the maximum loop resistance for various supply voltages for their transmitters to work correctly. It's all in the manual and a few tests with a multimeter can soon indicate the correct way to go.

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#2

Re: 4-20 mA signal booster

03/27/2013 9:26 AM

The beauty of 4-20mA is that they're more immune to noise and reach far longer distances than voltage signals.

As long as the loop resistance doesn't exced 900 ohms for a 24 V power supply (just an example), it doesn't care what the voltage drop is, because it is not monitoring voltage, it is a controlled current source.

The number of devices you feed this signal into, is not important either, as long as they don't comprise a series resistor of more than the maximum across which, a 24 V power supply would create a minimum of 20 mA current (use Ohm's law).

I know I said that is more immune to noise than voltage signals, but is not absolutely immune, it still can pick up noise, to diminish this use twisted pair wires with a shield or foil shielding, and ground it only at one end.

You can have a closed loop of, say 3000 feet with no repeater at all, just do your homework (investigate more).

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#3

Re: 4-20 mA Signal Booster

03/27/2013 10:56 PM

thanks for the answer, i'll try it (do my homework) and keep you guys informed

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#4

Re: 4-20 mA Signal Booster

03/27/2013 11:09 PM

22 gage wire is about 32 ohms per 1000 feet for the loop. How long is your run? What gage wire are you using? Adding repeaters will not eliminate noise that is induced over the total run. You will still have the same exposure to noise whether there are periodic repeaters or not. You will just be buffering the noise from the prior link. You might see some improvement in bandwidth if you are transmitting high speed data but the only way to eliminate coupled noise is to reduce your exposure.

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#5

Re: 4-20 mA Signal Booster

03/28/2013 9:26 AM

If you can have an Isolated Battery Pack system say 30VDC feeding your "Quite far" repeater instruments in series -- then best way will be to pass your primary 4>20mA signal current through a fixed load resistor (assume ~250 Ohms) and use the THUS DROPPED 1>5V signal as input to Base of a single stage Emitter Follower Transistor with emitter load resistor~250 Ohms . Just make sure you keep the main 4>20mA loop intact at all times .Tricky switching is called for . Also some trimming to take care of finite gain of this Emitter follower stage .

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#6
In reply to #5

Re: 4-20 mA Signal Booster

03/28/2013 11:48 AM

That sounds like the inner workings of a proprietary 4-20mA repeater amplifier.

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#7
In reply to #6

Re: 4-20 mA Signal Booster

03/28/2013 12:28 PM

DEAR PWS :

If you call it proprietary- so be it- I feel elated!

Actually it is Ohm's law +Basic of Transistors Circa 1950's

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