A version of thie article appeared in the February 2012 issue of Test & Measurement World. See the PDF. Many industrial systems use the 4–20-mA loop to transmit measurements from sensors to displays, ...

To complement the 2-wire and 3-wire sensor transmitter blogs that Kevin Duke and I have already published on Precision Hub, my next few blog topics will be on 4-wire sensor transmitters. The blogs ...

Spare a moment’s pity for the process engineer, whose job it is to keep industrial automation running no matter what. These poor souls seem to be forever on call, fielding panicked requests to come to ...

Use of 4-to-20-mA current loops involves more than just a simple series connection between sensor, display, and power supply. The point where a sensor takes a measurement is, at times, many yards away ...

Open-loop current sensors have a definite price advantage over closed-loop counterparts. While you can use them in drive applications where torque accuracy isn't demanding — such as pump and fan ...

Here’s a question for you: when your PCB has a ground plane layer, where do return signals flow? It seems like a trick question, but as [Kristof Mulier] explains, there’s more to return path routing ...