SECTION 13. CR10 MEASUREMENTS

FIGURE 13.4-2. Diagram of Junction Box

Radiation shielding must be provided when a junction box is installed in the field. Care must also be taken that a thermal gradient is not induced by conduction through the incoming wires. The CR10 can be used to measure the temperature gradients within the junction box.

13.5BRIDGE RESISTANCE MEASUREMENTS

There are 6 bridge measurement instructions included in the standard CR10 software. Figure 13.5-1 shows the circuits that would typically be measured with these instructions. In the diagrams, the resistors labeled Rs would normally be the sensors and those labeled Rf would normally be fixed resistors. Circuits other than those diagrammed could be measured, provided the excitation and type of measurements were appropriate.

With the exception of Instructions 4 and 8, which apply an excitation voltage then wait a specified time before making a measurement, all of the bridge measurements make one set of measurements with the excitation as programmed and another set of measurements with the excitation polarity reversed. The error in the two measurements due to thermal emfs can then be accounted for in the processing of the measurement instruction. The excitation is switched on 450 µs before the integration portion of the measurement starts and is grounded as soon as the integration is completed. Figure 13.5-2 shows the excitation

and measurement sequence for Instruction 6, a 4 wire full bridge. Excitation is applied separately for each phase of a bridge measurement. For example, in Instruction 6, as shown in Figure 13.5-2, excitation is switched on for the 4 integration periods and switched off between integrations.

Instruction 8 measurement sequence consists of applying a single excitation voltage, delaying a specified time, and making a differential voltage measurement. If a delay of 0 is specified, the inputs for the differential measurement are not switched for a second integration as is normally the case (Section 13.2). The result stored is the voltage measured. Instruction 8 does not have as good resolution or common mode rejection as the ratiometric bridge measurement instructions. It does provide a very rapid means of making bridge measurements as well as supplying excitation to circuitry requiring differential measurements. This instruction does not reverse excitation. A 1 before the excitation channel number (1X) causes the channel to be incremented with each repetition.

The output of Instruction 8 is simply the voltage measurement. When 8 is used to measure a full bridge (same connections as Instruction 6 in Figure 13.5-1), the result is V1 which equals Vx (R3/(R3+R4) - R2/(R1+R2)). (In other words, to make the output the same as Instruction 6, use a factor of 1000/Vx in the multiplier.)

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