Patent ID: 7157917

Claim:
A sensor cable to be used joined one after another for electrically connecting a sensor head portion and a signal processing portion of a separated type sensor, having: a first connector half holding a conductor terminal arrangement; a second connector half holding a conductor terminal arrangement; and an electric cord of a prescribed length for electrically connecting the conductor terminal arrangement of the first connector half to the conductor terminal arrangement of the second connector half; wherein the electric cord includes at least one of a first twisted pair of strand used for transmission from the signal processing portion to the sensor head portion and a second twisted pair of strand used for transmission from the sensor head portion to the signal processing portion; the first connector half, the second connector half or an attachment added in the middle of the electric cord includes an electric circuit having a waveform shaping function; the electric circuit contains a serial/parallel converter converting a serial signal coming in the form of a differential signal through specific two conductor terminals of the conductor terminal arrangement to a parallel signal, and a parallel/serial converter converting the parallel signal obtained from the serial/parallel converter to a serial signal, and outputting the serial signal in the form of a differential signal to specific two twisted pair of strands of the electric cord; the serial/parallel converter externally outputs a binary self synchronization confirmation signal, said self synchronization confirmation signal being adapted to assume “ 1 ” when synchronization is not established and “ 0 ” when synchronization is established, while the parallel/serial converter is adapted to start a parallel/serial converting operation upon arrival of a parallel signal to an input side; the electric circuit additionally includes an OR circuit providing a signal corresponding to an OR of a synchronization confirmation signal of each preceding unit arriving through a specific one conductor terminal of the conductor terminal arrangement and the self synchronization confirmation signal output from the serial/parallel converter as a new synchronization confirmation signal of each preceding unit to a specific one signal strand of the electric cord; whereby if synchronization is lost in any of the plurality of cables joined and coupled to each other, the signal processing portion or the sensor head portion as a transmitting side apparatus is notified of the loss, through one signal strand.