Op Amp ADC signal conditioning

Nov 21, 2010 23 Replies

\ \Just get an accurate input resistor and use a current-to-frequency \converter type of ADC. Then, a long gate time gets you \part-per-million resolution, while a shorter gate time gets you \the appropriate resolution for that 0...5V range. \To do it with a single-chip micro's ADC, you have to go through \a lot of hoopla to keep the input potential in the ADC range \and that means multiple calibrations (for the different ranges \and offsets).

This sounds like a neat idea, I'm using an Arduino for my experimentation and I'm not sure if I could get it to time the gate and count the pulses. I don't know if using an interrupt to count the pulses would mess up the gate timing enough to throw too much error into the readings. I guess I could store the start time, count pulses in the foreground until a set amount of time elapsed, I should be within 1 count if everything works correctly.

RogerN

That might be a better way to go. I'm using an Arduino with 10bit A/D and am trying to see if I can get something to work with that. I'm considering a digital pot to change my A/D ref voltage, sort of like having the resistor network and the analog multiplexer all built in a single chip. I'm hoping to automate a calibration routine where I enter a few different voltages and have it learn the readings per range for a range of voltages.

RogerN

Would I need a negative power supply or just switch in different loads? I don't have much confidence switching in loads and hoping to get accurate readings. I can calibrate at each range but I'm not sure how consistent everything would be at different temperatures.

RogerN

I was thinking I can use a resistor voltage divider to scale the input to

1/10 and the op amp with a gain of 10. My offsets to the op amp would be 0-5V to adjust the window range and my 1/10th feedback voltage would be 0-5V representing 0-50V.

RogerN

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