Signal Conditioning

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paralleling multiple 3-wire sensors

Is it bad practice or perfectly reasonable to connect multiple 3-wire sensors to a common power supply (no isolation between each sensor)?

 

I see a fair amount of advice on the web about the use of signal isolators when using 4-20mA transmitters (so as to prevent potential ground loop issues) and also around the signal isolation built-in within NI’s measurement cards but I haven’t seen anything specific that deals with multiple voltage output sensors such as shown below. 

 

I have 12 x 3-wire pressure transducers all connected in parallel to a common 24VDC switched mode power supply. The pressure transducer output signals are floating with respect to ‘building earth’  and I am connecting to a NI9205 in referenced single ended mode.

 

ignoring the use of shielded twisted pair and cable routing for now, could this topology of paralleling 3-wire sensors introduce problems? Would you incorporate additional signal isolators for each pressure transducer supply or deem that a waste of time and money?

 

JohnHickster12_0-1696403440746.png

 

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I see only the problem of potentials in the COM/V-  wires due to the shared power and signal path. So I would keep the V- cables to your 12 devices short to one common point (and feed the  - power and the COM of the 9502) and use tubes to feed the pressure if possible.

 

Ground is a ....  

 

Greetings from Germany
Henrik

LV since v3.1

“ground” is a convenient fantasy

'˙˙˙˙uıɐƃɐ lɐıp puɐ °06 ǝuoɥd ɹnoʎ uɹnʇ ǝsɐǝld 'ʎɹɐuıƃɐɯı sı pǝlɐıp ǝʌɐɥ noʎ ɹǝqɯnu ǝɥʇ'


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