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PRECISION 28000
Signal Conditioning
System





 

 

 

 

 

On the New Fronties of Precision
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28104A Quad-Channel Resistive Bridge Conditioner

28104A Quad Bridge Conditioner offers four channels of conditioning to support a wide variety of transducers including those that require constant voltage excitation in a bridge configuration such as strain gages and pressure transducers. The 28104A is easily configured to operate as a precise voltage filter/amplifier on low-level AC or DC voltage inputs.

The 28104A will meet your most demanding 1-, 2-, and 4-arm bridge applications. Up to 64 channels may reside in a single 28016B-M3 chassis.

Bridge Input

The 28104A provides constant voltage excitation and conditioning for 1-, 2-, and 4-arm resistive bridges. The 28104A features automatic calibration of gain and offset for the entire channel, including the amplifier, filter, and excitation supply. The 2- to 10-wire input connection provides 6 wires for the bridge, 2 wires for shunt calibration, 1 wire for the shield, and 1 wire for single-arm bridges.

 

 

 

 

 

The 28104A card with bridge configuration card and 
bridge resistor module.

Precision bridge configuration resistors are contained on a plug-on module located on each 28104A card. The resistors may be programmed to complete the bridge for quarter, half, or full bridge configurations. ID registers are provided to read back bridge configuration and resistance.

Bridge Auto Balance

Automatic balance of the bridge is accomplished by inserting a voltage ratiometric with the excitation supply to the amplifier input stage. This balance method provides outstanding stability without loading the bridge. A wide range of unbalanced conditions may be accommodated.

Shut Calibration

Two methods of shunt calibration are available. A voltage insertion technique provides 4096 steps of bipolar shunt calibration that may be used to simulate a bridge unbalance. The 28104A also supports the use of precision resistors for bipolar single step shunt calibration. For either technique, the 28104A utilizes dedicated shunt cal lines to the bridge that allow the user to perform the shunt cal on non-current carrying leads. Also, since the bridge balance technique is non-invasive, shunt calibration results are unaffected by bridge balance circuitry.

Balanced Voltage Excitation

The 28104A features a programmable constant voltage excitation supply that can source up to 20 volts to the bridge. Balanced constant voltage excitation offers a number of advantages over single-ended excitation. It enables a true balanced instrumentation amplifier input for outstanding rejection of high frequency common-mode signals. Single-ended voltage excitation to balanced bridges produces a relatively large common-mode voltage at half the excitation supply. The instrumentation amplifier must reject this signal. Balanced voltage excitation applied to balanced bridges results in lower common mode input voltages to the amplifier input stage.

The excitation supply has automatic gain and offset correction that may be run on the unit in place at any time. Dedicated remote sense lines allow the excitation supply regulator to deliver an accurate voltage to the bridge.

Input Stage

The 28104A input stage has 120 dB of common-mode rejection, low DC drift and ultra-low noise. The input can be equipped with programmable AC/DC coupling. AC coupling is useful in applications where DC levels that limit dynamic range can be coupled out of the signal.

A programmable switch at the input stage is provided to connect the amplifier to the 28000 system test bus. The test bus is used to inject signals for performance verification. In addition, the excitation supply may be connected to the input stage for direct verification of the excitation supply level.

Amplifier and Filter

Programmable pre- and post-filter amplifiers provide an overall gain of 8192. Gain is distributed both before and after the filter to provide protection from large out-of-band energy or transients that could cause clipping before the filter, distorting the data. The Gain Wizard in the GUI allows the user to set a gain reserve and then apportions the gain between the input and output. This provides input gain for best noise performance yet conforms to the limitations of the user’s worst case estimate of out-band or transient signals. Overload detectors alert the user to over-voltage conditions.

The post-filter gain has resolution of better than 0.05% to enable precise system scaling of 28104A outputs to match the full-scale input of the external recording device, given the transducer sensitivity and fullscale input in measurement units. A fully buffered output having over 20 mA of drive capability may be used to drive long output cable runs.

4 or 8-Pole Low Pass Filters

The 28104A contains a 4- or 8-pole low-pass filter with cutoffs programmable from 1 Hz to 204.6 kHz and programmable "flat" or "pulse" mode.

The "flat" mode provides pass-band characteristics nearly identical to a Butterworth filter while providing a much sharper roll-off. This mode is a good choice for applications such as spectral analysis.

The "pulse" mode has time domain response similar to the Bessel filter yet provides superior amplitude response characteristics. The "pulse" mode is ideal for time domain applications including transient (shock) measurements and time domain waveform analysis.

 

27104 GUI Thumb.JPG (42818 bytes)  

Click to enlarge

Download the 28104A Specifications Sheet 

Precision 28104A Features

  • 4 channels per card, 64 channels 
    per 28016B-M3 chassis
  • Balanced programmable constant 
    voltage source with remote sense
  • Up to 20 V excitation delivered to 
    the bridge
  • ±10 Vcm operation
  • Up to 200 kHz "filter" bandwidth or 
    700 kHz "wide-band" bandwidth
  • 2 to 10 wire plus shield transducer 
    input interface
  • Automatic bridge balance
  • 4096 step bipolar shunt cal or single 
    step bipolar resistive shunt cal; shunt any bridge arm
  • Switch selectable bridge configuration
    (1-arm, 2-arm, or 4-arm) with read back
  • Programmable AC/DC input coupling
  • Programmable amplifier: x1/16 to x8192
    with 0.05% vernier settings
  • 4 or 8-pole low-pass filters with filter bypass (wide-band)
  • 2° phase matching between any channels, DC to Fc
  • Overload detection
  • Precise automatic calibration
  • Auxiliary front panel output connection to support the use of custom output modules

28104A Channel Block Diagram

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Sample Bridge Configuration Diagram

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System Block Diagram

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Applications
Example

Up to 64 channels of quality resistive bridge conditioning in a single 28000 system chassis or mix with other 28000 signal conditioning cards.

Strain gage conditioner

Load cell conditioner

Pressure transducer conditioner

Low level AC or DC amplifier 
(<1 mV to 10 V inputs)

Anti-aliasing filter/amplifier

 

Reference

The following Specifications
are available in  Precision Filters'
On-line Library 
for downloading:

28104A Quad Bridge Conditioner Specifications

28108 Octal Wideband Bridge Conditioner

28144 Quad-Channel Wideband Transducer Conditioner with Voltage and Current Excitation

28208 Octal Thermocouple Conditioner

28302B Dual
Vibration Amplifier

27304 Quad Dual Mode Charge Amplifier

28314 Quad Dynamic Charge/IEPE Conditioner with LDTEDS

28316C Isolated IEPE Accelerometer Conditioner with LDTEDS

28454A Quad Conditioner Specifications

28524 Quad Frequency to Voltage Converter Modules

28608B Octal Programmable Filter Amplifier

28708 Octal 
AC/DC Amplifier

     


Home ] Up One Level ] [ 28104A Quad Bridge Conditioner ] 28108 Octal-Channel Wideband Bridge Conditioner ] 28144 Quad-Channel Wideband Transducer Conditioner with Voltage and Current Excitation ] 28208 Octal Thermocouple Conditioner ] 28302B Dual Vibration Amplifier for Rotating Machinery ] 28314 Quad Dynamic Charge/IEPE Conditioner ] 28316C Isolated IEPE Accelerometer Conditioner with Long Distance TEDS ] 28454A Quad Conditioner with Balanced Current Excitation ] 27304 Quad Dual Mode Charge Amplifier ] 28524 Frequency-to-Voltage Conditioner ] 28608B Octal Programmable Filter Amplifier ] 28708 Octal AC/DC Amplifier ]