Patent ID: 8463559

Claim:
A method for operating a measuring point for determining a value of a physical or chemical, measured variable of a medium, wherein the measuring point includes a base unit and a sensor unit, comprising the steps of: providing a releasable connection of the sensor unit with the base unit via a pluggable connector coupling; providing the base unit for energy supply of the sensor unit, for data exchange with the sensor unit and for communicating a signal representative of a value of the measured variable to a process monitoring installation; and at least one software module is transmitted from the base unit to the sensor unit and is stored in the program memory of the sensor unit, wherein the software module unit enables for the sensor supplemental functions for monitoring the primary sensor; wherein the software module is measuring point specific and, includes a function for analysis of the aging behavior of the primary sensor under the conditions of the measuring point; wherein, the base unit includes: a first element of the pluggable connector coupling; a first microprocessor for conditioning data, which has been received from the sensor unit, for communication with the process monitoring installation; a first data memory for saving measuring-point-specific data; the sensor unit has a primary sensor and a sensor head, wherein the sensor head is firmly connected to the primary sensor; and the medium acts on the primary sensor, which includes a transducer with a signal output, which outputs an electrical signal that is dependent on the value of the measured variable, wherein the transducer has a variable transfer function; further wherein, the sensor head includes: a circuit for conditioning the transducer signals, wherein the circuit has an A/D converter and a second microprocessor for processing the digitized signals; a second data memory in which sensor-specific data are stored; a program memory, which contains low-level software with base functionalities for operation of the sensor unit; and an interface, via which energy supply of the sensor unit by the base unit and the data exchange with the base unit occur, wherein the interface includes a second element of the pluggable connector coupling.