Gas Detector Monitor and Data Logging
justphere
Posts: 4
Merry Christmas all.....
I've just purchase a Propeller board and I'm ready to jump into a project that I have in mind that relates to my work but honestly I don't know where to start so all replies are greatly appreciated. Here's the rundown of what I want to do.
I would like to monitor the 4-20ma signal from a detector and feed that signal into the Propeller, then transfer data from the Propeller to MS Excel for data logging, trending and graphing purposes. I also purchased a 16x2 LCD display so that can see live data if the Propeller isn't connected to a PC.*
The detector is a Detcon FP-524C. It's a 3 wire analog device that operates at 24VDC. I need to supply 24VDC to the detector and measure the 4-20ma signal that the detector generates directly proportional to amount of gas that detector senses. I'm not sure what is the correct way to interface the 4-20ma signal via a chip then into one of the pins of the Propeller. Any diagrams and source code of any sort would help out tremendously. Also, if anyone knows of the best ways to get data from the Propeller to MS Excel or can at least get me headed in the right direction.*
I've just purchase a Propeller board and I'm ready to jump into a project that I have in mind that relates to my work but honestly I don't know where to start so all replies are greatly appreciated. Here's the rundown of what I want to do.
I would like to monitor the 4-20ma signal from a detector and feed that signal into the Propeller, then transfer data from the Propeller to MS Excel for data logging, trending and graphing purposes. I also purchased a 16x2 LCD display so that can see live data if the Propeller isn't connected to a PC.*
The detector is a Detcon FP-524C. It's a 3 wire analog device that operates at 24VDC. I need to supply 24VDC to the detector and measure the 4-20ma signal that the detector generates directly proportional to amount of gas that detector senses. I'm not sure what is the correct way to interface the 4-20ma signal via a chip then into one of the pins of the Propeller. Any diagrams and source code of any sort would help out tremendously. Also, if anyone knows of the best ways to get data from the Propeller to MS Excel or can at least get me headed in the right direction.*
Comments
A more common approach is to use a 250 ohm 0.1% resistor to produce a 1-5V signal and an external ADC with a 5V reference for conversion.
The data can be sent via serial data to excel directly or saved on the PC as a .CSV file and imported for processing later.