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electric signals. In both these technologies, the information, such as any audio or
video, is transformed into electric signals. The difference between analog and
digital technologies is that in analog technology, information is translated into
electric pulses of varying amplitude. In digital technology, translation of
information is into binary format (zero or one) where each bit is representative of
two distinct amplitudes.
Comparison chart
Analog versus Digital comparison chart
Analog Digital
Signal Analog signal is a Digital signals are
continuous signal discrete time
which represents signals generated
physical measurements. by digital
modulation.
Waves Denoted by sine waves Denoted by square
waves
Representation Uses continuous range Uses discrete or
of values to discontinuous
represent information values to represent
information
Example Human voice in air, Computers, CDs,
analog electronic DVDs, and other
devices. digital electronic
devices.
Technology Analog technology Samples analog
records waveforms as waveforms into a
they are. limited set of
numbers and
records them.
Data Subjected to Can be noise-
transmissions deterioration by noise immune without
during transmission deterioration
and write/read cycle. during
transmission and
write/read cycle.
Response to More likely to get Less affected since
Noise affected reducing noise response are
accuracy analog in nature
Flexibility Analog hardware is not Digital hardware is
flexible. flexible in
implementation.
Uses Can be used in analog Best suited for
devices only. Best Computing and
Analog versus Digital comparison chart
Analog Digital
suited for audio and digital electronics.
video transmission.
Applications Thermometer PCs, PDAs
Bandwidth Analog signal There is no
processing can be done guarantee that
in real time and digital signal
consumes less processing can be
bandwidth. done in real time
and consumes
more bandwidth to
carry out the same
information.
Memory Stored in the form of Stored in the form
wave signal of binary bit
Power Analog instrument Digital instrument
draws large power drawS only
negligible power
Cost Low cost and portable Cost is high and
not easily portable
Impedance Low High order of 100
megaohm
Errors Analog instruments Digital instruments
usually have a scale are free from
which is cramped at observational
lower end and give errors like parallax
considerable and approximation
observational errors. errors.
Because a signal varies over time, it’s helpful to plot it on a graph where time is
plotted on the horizontal, x-axis, and voltage on the vertical, y-axis. Looking at a
graph of a signal is usually the easiest way to identify if it’s analog or digital; a time-
versus-voltage graph of an analog signal should be smooth and continuous.
While these signals may be limited to a range of maximum and minimum values,
there are still an infinite number of possible values within that range. For example,
the analog voltage coming out of your wall socket might be clamped between -120V
and +120V, but, as you increase the resolution more and more, you discover an
infinite number of values that the signal can actually be (like 64.4V, 64.42V, 64.424V,
and infinite, increasingly precise values).
Example Analog Signals
Video and audio transmissions are often transferred or recorded using analog
signals. The composite video coming out of an old RCA jack, for example, is a coded
analog signal usually ranging between 0 and 1.073V. Tiny changes in the signal
have a huge effect on the color or location of the video.
That’s the big difference between analog and digital waves. Analog waves are
smooth and continuous, digital waves are stepping, square, and discrete.
Example Digital Signals
Not all audio and video signals are analog. Standardized signals like HDMIfor video
(and audio) and MIDI, I2S, or AC'97 for audio are all digitally transmitted.
Most communication between integrated circuits is digital. Interfaces like serial, I2C,
and SPI all transmit data via a coded sequence of square waves.
Serial peripheral interface (SPI) uses many digital signals to transmit data between
devices.
The physical devices, sensor and transducers are might used by some people
interchangeably. These devices are used in numerous electrical and
electronic gadgets and appliances. But, people fail to make a difference between
sensor and transducer. Because, transducers are sometimes found in sensors.The
main difference between sensor and transducer is, the sensor is a physical device,
that senses a physical quantity and then converts it into signals which can be read
by an instrument or the user. The transducer is also a physical device, that converts
one form of energy into an another form. The best example of a transducer is an
antenna. Because, it converts electricity to electromagnetic waves. A sensor also
converts one form of energy to another, means it senses a physical quantity and
converts it into an electrical signal.
What is a Sensor and Transducer?
The sensor is a device, that senses a physical quantity and converts it into an
analogue quantity which can be measured electrically such as voltage, capacitance,
inductance and ohmic resistance. The output needs to be operated, interfaced &
regulated by the system designer.
There are different kinds of sensors are available, that are used in various
applications. The motion sensor is a one type of sensor, that is used in numerous
systems like home security lights, automatic door fixtures normally send out some
kind of energy like ultrasonic waves, microwaves or light beams and sense when the
energy flow is interrupted by something entering its lane.
There are various types of sensors and transducers are available to choose from like
analog, digital, input and output. The type of i/p or o/p transducer being used, really
depends upon the kind of signal sensed or controlled. But, a sensor and transducer
can be defined as they converts one physical quantity to another.
A device which performs an i/p function is called sensor because they sense a
physical change in some characteristic that changes in response to some
excitation.Transducer is also a device, that converts the energy from one form to
another.Examples for the transducer is microphone, loudspeaker etc.
The main purpose to use a senor is to convert an energy into a one form which is
noticeable by the user. To make this happen, a sensor may contain a transducer as
they are capable of converting from one form to another. The simplest example of
the transducer is an LED (Light Emitting Diode) converts light energy into electrical
energy. The best example of a sensor is the sensors used in cars and bikes which
can detect the touch and activates the sirens. There are also cases when both the
physical devices are the same. For instance, a bi-metallic spring is used to measure
the temperature change, and if a pointer is attached to the bi-metallic spring, and
may well be the entire sensor.
Transducer Types, Ideal Characteristics and Its Applications:
What is a Transducer?
A transducer is an electrical device which is used to convert one form of energy into
another form. In general, these devices deal with different types of energies such as
mechanical, electrical energy, light energy, chemical energy, thermal energy, acoustic
energy, electromagnetic energy, and so on.
Transducer
For instance, consider a mic we use in daily life in telephones, mobile phones, that
converts the sound into electrical signals and then amplifies it into the preferred
range. Then, alters the electrical signals into audio signals at the o/p of the
loudspeaker. Nowadays, fluorescent bulbs are used for lighting, changes the
electrical energy into light energy.
The best examples of the transducer are mic, fluorescent bulb and speaker can be
considered as a transducer. Likewise, there are different kinds of transducers used
in electrical and electronic projects.
Transducer Types and Its Applications
Some transducer types like active transducer and passive transducers are based on
whether a power source is required or not.
Active transducer doesn’t require any power source for their operations. These
transducers work on the principle of energy conversion. They generate an electrical
signal that is proportional to the i/p. The best example of this transducer is
thermocouple. Whereas passive transducer requires an external power source for
their operation. They generate an o/p in the form of capacitance, resistance. Than
that has to be converted to an equivalent voltage or current signal. The best example
of passive transducer is a photocell.
Piezoelectric Transducer
Piezoelectric transducer is a special kind of sensor, and the main function of this
transducer is to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. In the same way,
electrical energy can be transformed into mechanical energy.
Piezoelectric Transducer
Pressure transducer is a special kind of sensor that alters the pressure forced into
electrical signals. These transducers are also called as pressure indicators,
manometers, piezometers, transmitters, and pressure sensors.
Pressure Transducer
Application of Pressure Transducer
Pressure transducer is used to measure the pressure of the specific quantity like gas
or liquid by changing the pressure into electrical energy. The different kinds of these
transducers like an amplified voltage transducer, strain-gage base pressure
transducer, millivolt (mv) pressure transducer, 4-20mA pressure transducer and
pressure transducer.
Temperature Transducer
Temperature Transducer
Application of Temperature Transducer
Temperature transducer is used to measure the temperature of the air such that to
control the temperature of several control systems like air-conditioning, heating,
ventilation, and so on.
Let us consider a practical example for temperature transducer that is used to control
the temperature of any device based on necessity for different industrial applications.
An Arduino based automatic fan speed regulator controlling of temperature and
exhibiting measure of temperature on an LCD display.
In the proposed system, IC LM35 is used as a temperature transducer. An Arduino
board is used to control the various functions that include analog to digital
conversion and an LCD display that are connected in the above fig.
Practical Application of
Temperature Transducer by Edgefxkits.com
The temperature can be fixed by using settings like INC and DEC for increasing and
decreasing. Based on the temperature measured a pulse width modulation o/p will
be generated by the program of an Arduino board. The output of this is used
to control the DC fan through motor driver IC.
Ultrasonic Transducer
This transducer can be used to measure the distance of the sound based on
reflection. This measurement is based on a suitable method compared to the straight
methods which use different measuring scales. The areas which are hard to find,
such as pressure areas, very high temperature, using conventional methods the
measurement of the distance is not a simple task. So, this transducer based
measuring system can be used in this kind of zone.
Accuracy
Precision
Resolution
Sensitivity
Drift
Linearity
Conformance
Span
Hysteresis
Distortion
Noise
Position Sensors
In this tutorial we will look at a variety of devices which are classed as Input
Devices and are therefore called “Sensors” and in particular those sensors which
are Positional in nature.
As their name implies, Position Sensors detect the position of something which
means that they are referenced either to or from some fixed point or position. These
types of sensors provide a “positional” feedback.
One method of determining a position, is to use either “distance”, which could be the
distance between two points such as the distance travelled or moved away from
some fixed point, or by “rotation” (angular movement). For example, the rotation of a
robots wheel to determine its distance travelled along the ground. Either
way, Position Sensorscan detect the movement of an object in a straight line
using Linear Sensors or by its angular movement using Rotational Sensors.
Related Products: Angular and Linear Position Sensor
The Potentiometer
The most commonly used of all the “Position Sensors”, is the potentiometer because
it is an inexpensive and easy to use position sensor. It has a wiper contact linked to
a mechanical shaft that can be either angular (rotational) or linear (slider type) in its
movement, and which causes the resistance value between the wiper/slider and the
two end connections to change giving an electrical signal output that has a
proportional relationship between the actual wiper position on the resistive track and
its resistance value. In other words, resistance is proportional to position.
Potentiometers come in a wide range of designs and sizes such as the commonly
available round rotational type or the longer and flat linear slider types. When used
as a position sensor the moveable object is connected directly to the rotational shaft
or slider of the potentiometer.
A DC reference voltage is applied across the two outer fixed connections forming the
resistive element. The output voltage signal is taken from the wiper terminal of the
sliding contact as shown below.
This configuration produces a potential or voltage divider type circuit output which is
proportional to the shaft position. Then for example, if you apply a voltage of say 10v
across the resistive element of the potentiometer the maximum output voltage would
be equal to the supply voltage at 10 volts, with the minimum output voltage equal to
0 volts. Then the potentiometer wiper will vary the output signal from 0 to 10 volts,
with 5 volts indicating that the wiper or slider is at its half-way or centre position.
Potentiometer Construction
The output signal (Vout) from the potentiometer is taken from the centre wiper
connection as it moves along the resistive track, and is proportional to the angular
position of the shaft.
Example of a simple Positional Sensing Circuit
While resistive potentiometer position sensors have many advantages: low cost, low
tech, easy to use etc, as a position sensor they also have many disadvantages: wear
due to moving parts, low accuracy, low repeatability, and limited frequency response.
But there is one main disadvantage of using the potentiometer as a positional
sensor. The range of movement of its wiper or slider (and hence the output signal
obtained) is limited to the physical size of the potentiometer being used.
For example a single turn rotational potentiometer generally only has a fixed
mechanical rotation of between 0o and about 240 to 330o maximum. However, multi-
turn pots of up to 3600o (10 x 360o) of mechanical rotation are also available.
Most types of potentiometers use carbon film for their resistive track, but these types
are electrically noisy (the crackle on a radio volume control), and also have a short
mechanical life.
Wire-wound pots also known as rheostats, in the form of either a straight wire or
wound coil resistive wire can also be used, but wire wound pots suffer from
resolution problems as their wiper jumps from one wire segment to the next
producing a logarithmic (LOG) output resulting in errors in the output signal. These
too suffer from electrical noise.
For high precision low noise applications conductive plastic resistance element type
polymer film or cermet type potentiometers are now available. These pots have a
smooth low friction electrically linear (LIN) resistive track giving them a low noise,
long life and excellent resolution and are available as both multi-turn and single turn
devices. Typical applications for this type of high accuracy position sensor is in
computer game joysticks, steering wheels, industrial and robot applications.
When the armature is moved from one end to the other through the centre position
the output voltages changes from maximum to zero and back to maximum again but
in the process changes its phase angle by 180 deg’s. This enables the LVDT to
produce an output AC signal whose magnitude represents the amount of movement
from the centre position and whose phase angle represents the direction of
movement of the core.
A typical application of a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) sensor would
be as a pressure transducer, were the pressure being measured pushes against a
diaphragm to produce a force. The force is then converted into a readable voltage
signal by the sensor.
Advantages of the linear variable differential transformer, or LVDT compared to a
resistive potentiometer are that its linearity, that is its voltage output to displacement
is excellent, very good accuracy, good resolution, high sensitivity as well as
frictionless operation. They are also sealed for use in hostile environments.
An inductive proximity sensor has four main components; The oscillator which
produces the electromagnetic field, the coil which generates the magnetic field,
the detection circuitwhich detects any change in the field when an object enters it
and the output circuit which produces the output signal, either with normally closed
(NC) or normally open (NO) contacts.
Inductive proximity sensors allow for the detection of metallic objects in front of the
sensor head without any physical contact of the object itself being detected. This
makes them ideal for use in dirty or wet environments. The “sensing” range of
proximity sensors is very small, typically 0.1mm to 12mm.
Proximity Sensor
As well as industrial applications, inductive proximity sensors are also commonly
used to control the flow of traffic by changing of traffic lights at junctions and cross
roads. Rectangular inductive loops of wire are buried into the tarmac road surface.
When a car or other road vehicle passes over this inductive loop, the metallic body of
the vehicle changes the loops inductance and activates the sensor thereby alerting
the traffic lights controller that there is a vehicle waiting.
One main disadvantage of these types of position sensors is that they are “Omni-
directional”, that is they will sense a metallic object either above, below or to the side
of it. Also, they do not detect non-metallic objects although Capacitive Proximity
Sensors and Ultrasonic Proximity Sensors are available. Other commonly
available magnetic positional sensors include: reed switches, Hall Effect
Sensors and variable reluctance sensors.
Rotary Encoders
Rotary Encoders are another type of position sensor which resemble
potentiometers mentioned earlier but are non-contact optical devices used for
converting the angular position of a rotating shaft into an analogue or digital data
code. In other words, they convert mechanical movement into an electrical signal
(preferably digital).
All optical encoders work on the same basic principle. Light from an LED or infra-
red lightsource is passed through a rotating high-resolution encoded disk that
contains the required code patterns, either binary, grey code or BCD. Photo
detectors scan the disk as it rotates and an electronic circuit processes the
information into a digital form as a stream of binary output pulses that are fed to
counters or controllers which determine the actual angular position of the shaft.
There are two basic types of rotary optical encoders, Incremental
Encoders and Absolute Position Encoders.
Incremental Encoder
Encoder Disk
Incremental Encoders, also known as quadrature encoders or relative rotary
encoder, are the simplest of the two position sensors. Their output is a series of
square wave pulses generated by a photocell arrangement as the coded disk, with
evenly spaced transparent and dark lines called segments on its surface, moves or
rotates past the light source. The encoder produces a stream of square wave pulses
which, when counted, indicates the angular position of the rotating shaft.
Incremental encoders have two separate outputs called “quadrature outputs”. These
two outputs are displaced at 90o out of phase from each other with the direction of
rotation of the shaft being determined from the output sequence.
The number of transparent and dark segments or slots on the disk determines the
resolution of the device and increasing the number of lines in the pattern increases
the resolution per degree of rotation. Typical encoded discs have a resolution of up
to 256 pulses or 8-bits per rotation.
The simplest incremental encoder is called a tachometer. It has one single square
wave output and is often used in unidirectional applications where basic position or
speed information only is required. The “Quadrature” or “Sine wave” encoder is the
more common and has two output square waves commonly called channel
A and channel B. This device uses two photo detectors, slightly offset from each
other by 90o thereby producing two separate sine and cosine output signals.
By using the Arc Tangent mathematical function the angle of the shaft in radians can
be calculated. Generally, the optical disk used in rotary position encoders is circular,
then the resolution of the output will be given as: θ = 360/n, where n equals the
number of segments on coded disk.
Then for example, the number of segments required to give an incremental encoder
a resolution of 1o will be: 1o = 360/n, therefore, n = 360 windows, etc. Also the
direction of rotation is determined by noting which channel produces an output first,
either channel A or channel B giving two directions of rotation, A leads B or B leads
A. This arrangement is shown below.
Incremental Encoder Output
One main advantage of an absolute encoder is its non-volatile memory which retains
the exact position of the encoder without the need to return to a “home” position if
the power fails. Most rotary encoders are defined as “single-turn” devices, but
absolute multi-turn devices are available, which obtain feedback over several
revolutions by adding extra code disks.
Typical application of absolute position encoders are in computer hard drives and
CD/DVD drives were the absolute position of the drives read/write heads are
monitored or in printers/plotters to accurately position the printing heads over the
paper.
In this tutorial about Position Sensors, we have looked at several examples of
sensors that can be used to measure the position or presence of objects. In the next
tutorial we will look at sensors that are used to measure temperature such as
thermistors, thermostats and thermocouples, and as such are known commonly
as Temperature Sensors.