IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO ELECTRICALLY ISOLATED TRANSDUCER CIRCUITS

Abstract: An electrically isolated transducer circuit comprises a transducer (1) to detect a physical variable (e.g. temperature) and a processor (3) connected to the transducer (1) to process signals and produce an output (7) for a process control system indicative of the measured value of the variable. The circuit is powered by an isolated power supply (8) and an electrical isolator (5) is provided between the processor (3) and a setting device (4). The setting device (4) allows various parameters to be set relating to the transducer (e.g. range to be measured, type of measurements to be taken). The setting device (4) is connected on the opposite side of the electrical isolator (5) to the transducer (1) so that the device (4) is isolated by isolator (5) without the need for further isolation.

Description: IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO ELECTRICALLY ISOLATED TRANSDUCER CIRCUITS This invention relates to improvements in or relating to electrically isolated transducer circuits. Process control systems conventionally use transducers to collect information relating to physical variables, the transducer providing an electrical signal indicative of the detected physical variable. Examples of transducers commonly used are load cells for measuring weight, potentiometers for measuring mechanical movement, cells for measuring pressure changes and resistance thermometers or thermocouples for measuring temperature. Generally speaking, the relationship between the physical variables and the electrical signal produced by the transducer is not always direct by which is meant that the same incremental change in the physical variable does not always cause the same incremental change in the electrical signal. For example, if a platinum resistance thermometer is used which has a resistance of 100Ω at 0°C, a change in temperature from 0 ° C to 1 ° C causes a resistance change of 0.39Ω but the same incremental change from 200°C to 201 °C causes a resistance change of 0.37Ω. The relationship between the physical variable and the electrical output of a transducer can often be described by way of a complex polynomial relationship, however this is inconvenient and complicated and the process control system operates more conveniently and simply if the relationship between the physical variable and transducer output is substantially linear. Accordingly it has hitherto been the practice to convert the output from the transducer into a form which has a direct linear relationship to the physical variable in specially designed amplifier circuits before the signals are relayed to the process control system. Examples of prior art arrangements which operate in this way are shown in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings and will be described more fully hereafter. However, these prior art arrangements suffer from a number of problems. One important application of process control systems using transducers of this kind is in an environment where explosive or combustible substances are present. In such circumstances a common solution is to provide intrinsic safety between the transducer and/or amplifier circuit and the process control system whereby the transducer in the explosive environment is electrically isolated from the amplifier circuit and the process control system. In some applications it is desirable to be able to selectively set the type of physical variable to be measured or the range in which a selected physical variable is to be measured. In these circumstances a setting device is connected to the circuit to allow such parameters to be set. However, where a setting device is connected to the circuit, the problem arises that, any external connection to the circuit potentially compromises the isolation provided by the isolator and therefore in order to ensure that this does not occur, the prior art has proposed two solutions, either the provision of a further isolator between the setting device and the circuit or to provide isolation with the process control system itself. The provision of an additional isolator of course increases the cost of manufacture of the circuit and can lead to problems with the size of the circuit. Also, to make the process control system itself intrinsically safe is very expensive and complicated. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electrically isolated transducer circuit which solves the problems associated with the prior art arrangements mentioned above. According to the present invention therefore there is provided an electrically isolated transducer circuit comprising a transducer for measuring a physical variable and to produce a signal indicative of the magnitude thereof, processing means for processing signals received from the transducer, an output to receive signals from the processing means and provide such signals to a process control system, an output electrical isolation means between said processing means and said output to electrically isolate said transducer and said processing means from said output and an isolated power supply to power said circuit, wherein a setting means is provided and is connected to said processing means to allow transducer parameters to be selectively input thereto, said setting means being isolated from said transducer by way of said output isolation means. With this arrangement it is possible for an electrically isolated transducer circuit to be constructed which is not complex or bulky in construction and which allows control signals to pass between the transducer and processing circuitry for controlling operation of the control circuit without compromising the electrical isolation therebetween. The invention will now be described further by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings of which: Figs. 1 and 2 show schematic diagrams of two forms of prior art circuits; and Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of one embodiment of circuit in accordance with the present invention. Referring now to Figs. 1 and 2, Fig. 1 shows transducer circuit in which the setting device 4 is a remote device which is in communication with the processor 3. The processor also includes a memory 9 of a suitable form in which information received from the setting device 4 can be stored. In this arrangement, it will be appreciated that the electrical isolation of the transducer from the output circuit 7 is compromised each time the setting device 4 is connected to the circuit. Thus, in instances where intrinsic safety is necessary, the connection to the setting device 4 would have to be broken prior to the circuit being used for measurement purposes or the setting device 4 made itself intrinsically safe. The circuit is powered by an isolated power supply 8 of conventional type. Fig. 2 shows a transducer circuit which attempted to overcome the problems associated with the circuit of Fig. 1 . In this circuit it will be seen that a further isolation device 10 has been added to the circuit between the setting device 4 and the processor 3. The provision of this additional isolator 10 allows the setting device 4 to be continuously connected to the circuit without compromising the isolation of the transducer 1 from the output circuit 7, thereby allowing the circuit to be used when intrinsic safety is required. However the problem with this arrangement is that the addition of the additional isolation device 10 increases significantly the cost of the circuit and can also be prohibitive when size considerations are taken into account. Fig. 3 shows one circuit in accordance with the present invention, which circuit has been designed to overcome the problems mentioned above in relation to the prior art circuits of Figs. 1 and 2. This circuit is of a similar type to those shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and the same reference numerals will be used to denote the same elements. As can be seen, in this circuit, a setting device 4 is connected between the output of the isolation device 5 and, via a binary to frequency convertor 1 1 , the isolated circuit power supply 8. With the setting device 4 connected in this way, it can be seen that the setting device 4 is connected on the opposite side of the isolator device 5 to the transducer 1 . This then being the case, it can be seen that the setting device 4 is not required to satisfy the criteria for intrinsic safety since it is effectively isolated by the isolator 5 and the isolated power supply 8 from the transducer 1 . The circuit operates as follows: The power supply for the circuit comprises an isolated supply 8 of known form which operates to take the d.c. power supplied by the supply and to change it into an a.c. signal which is fed to an isolating transformer (not shown). On the secondary side of the transformer, the a.c. signal is rectified and converted in a conventional manner to a d.c. signal. The frequency of oscillation of the signal is usually arranged to be relatively high to allow the use of relatively small transformers. The isolated power supply 8 provides power for all elements of the circuit and is also linked to the processor 3 to provide a signal path between the setting device 4 and the processor 3. The setting device 4 communicates with the processor 3 by passing signals to a conversion device 1 1 in the form of binary digits and the conversion device 1 1 converts these binary signals into two different high frequencies (for example in one embodiment a binary "O" is converted to 47 Hz and a binary " 1 " to 24KHz) . These signals are fed to the processor 3 via isolated supply 8 which detects the high frequencies and converts them back to a series of binary digits. In this way it will be appreciated that the setting device 4 can communicate with the processor 3 without compromising the intrinsic safety of the circuit. This type of communication is usually referred to as frequency shift keying. The processor 3 communicates with the output 7 by sending a processed signal from the transducer 1 to the isolator 5 in the form of a pulse width modulated signal in which the ratio of the time in the high state to the total cycle time indicates the level of the measured physical variable. The signal is then passed to a signal format convertor 6 which converts the pulse width modulated signal to a measurement signal which the output circuit 7 receives. The output circuit 7 can then send a signal directly proportional to the physical variable to be measured to a process control system. Whilst the convertor 6 and output circuit 7 are shown as separate in the figures, these can be combined in a single circuit if desired. The processor 3 is also able to communicate with the setting device 4and such communication can be simultaneous with its communication with the output circuit 7. When communicating with the setting device 4, the processor 3 produces two different frequency signals to represent a series of binary digits (in one embodiment a frequency of 600Hz represents a binary "O" and a frequency of 300HZ represents a binary " 1 "). A signal modulated to these two different frequencies is passed to the setting device 4 which interprets the two different frequencies as a series of binary digits. It will be appreciated that a signal passing from the processor 3 can be pulse width modulated and frequency shift keyed in order that simultaneous communication can be established with the output circuit 7 and the setting device 4. This possibility arises due to the fact that pulse width modulation is essentially non-frequency dependent. Thus it can be seen that the arrangement of the present invention allows the provision of a circuit in which a setting device 4 can be permanently connected to a processor without compromising the isolation of the circuit and in such a manner that the processor can communicate simultaneously with an output and the setting device. Furthermore, since the isolation of the circuit is not compromised, no additional isolators or modification to the setting device to be isolated are required in the manner of the prior art circuits. It is of course to be understood that the invention is not intended to be restricted to the details of the above embodiment which are described by way of example only.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. An electrically isolated transducer circuit comprising a transducer for measuring a physical variable and to produce a signal indicative of the magnitude thereof, processing means for processing signals received from the transducer, an output to receive signals from the processing means and provide such signals to a process control system, an output electrical isolation means between said processing means and said output to electrically isolate said transducer and said processing means from said output and an isolated power supply to power said circuit, wherein a setting means is provided and is connected to said processing means to allow transducer parameters to be selectively input thereto, said setting means being isolated from said transducer by way of said output isolation means. 2. A transducer circuit according to claim 1 wherein said processor can communicate with said setting means by providing a frequency shift keyed signal which is passed to said setting device, said setting device interprets said signal as a series of binary digits, said digits being defined by the different frequencies in the signal. 3. A transducer circuit according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein said circuit further includes a binary to frequency conversion means connected between the setting means and the processing means whereby said setting means can communicate with said processing means by producing a frequency shift keyed signal which is passed to the processing means, said processing means interprets said signal as a series of binary digits, said digits being defined by the different frequencies in the signal. 4. A transducer circuit according to any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein a signal format conversion means is provided between said processing device and said output, said processing device being adapted to produce a pulse width modulated signal whose ratio of peak/cycle time is indicative of a measured value of a physical variable and said signal format processing device is operable to convert said pulse width modulated signal into a measurement signal which is passed to the output. 5. A transducer circuit according to claim 3 or claim 4 wherein signals passing from said setting means to said processing means are converted by said binary to frequency conversion means into a frequency of substantially 47KHz, corresponding to binary digit "0", and a frequency of substantially 24 Hz corresponding to binary digit " 1 " . 6. A transducer circuit according to any one of claims 2 to 5 wherein signals passing from the processing means to the setting device are converted into a frequency of substantially 600Hz, corresponding to binary digit "0 " , and a frequency of substantially 300Hz corresponding to a binary digit " 1 " . 7. A transducer circuit according to any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein said processing device is operable to communicate with said output and said setting device simultaneously utilising a signal which is both pulse width modulated and frequency shift keyed. 8. A transducer circuit substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Fig. 4 of the drawings.

Inventors: MIRAMS HUGH CHRISTOPHER, MIRAMS, HUGH, CHRISTOPHER
Applicants: MIRAMS HUGH CHRISTOPHER, PEPPERL & FUCHS MANUFACTURING, MIRAMS, HUGH, CHRISTOPHER, PEPPERL + FUCHS MANUFACTURING (GB) LIMITED
Application year: 1995
Main classification: G05B9
IPC codes: G01D18, G05B9