Measuring instrument having two pairs of lines connected to two indentical pairs of terminals, via which signal current flows through one pair and supply current flows through the other pair

• US 6,684,340 B1
• Filed: 10/02/2000
• Issued: 01/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Endress+Hauser GmbH+Co (ENDRESS)
• Original Assignee: Endress+Hauser GmbH+Co (ENDRESS)
• Inventors: Capt, Jean-Gyl, Lubcke, Wolfgang, Gerst, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): DU, THUAN N
• Application Number:
  US09/677,725
• Time in Patent Office: 1,212 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 713/310, 713/320, 713/340, 702/33, 702/45, 702/47, 702/57, 702/60, 702/64, 702/65, 702/127, 702/130, 365/79
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 19/02 in which the signal transmitted is magnitude of current or voltage G08C19/36, G08C19/38 take precedence

Abstract

A description is given of a measuring instrument to be connected to a higher-order unit (57, 75) having at least a first and an identical second pair of terminals, which can be connected electrically, very simply and without errors, to the higher-order unit, the measuring instrument (61) comprising:

a first pair of lines (1), to be connected to the first pair of terminals, via which a signal current flows during operation, the signal current being a measure of an instantaneous measured value, and a second pair of lines (3), to be connected to the second pair of terminals, via which a supply current flows during operation, whose value is greater than or equal to a minimum signal current and less than or equal to a maximum signal current.

Claims

1. Measuring instrument to be connected to a higher-order unit having at least a first and an identical second pair of terminals, comprising:

a first first pair of lines, to be connected to the first pair of terminals,

via which a signal current flows during operation,

the signal current being a measure of an instantaneous measured value, and

a second second pair of lines, to be connected to the second pair of terminals,

via which a supply current flows during operation,

whose value is greater than or equal to a minimum signal current and less than or equal to a maximum signal current.

2. Measuring instrument according to claim 1, for which the supply current and at least a proportion of the signal current are available to supply the measuring instrument.

3. Measuring arrangement having at least one measuring instrument according to claim 2, in which the higher-order unit comprises a control and/or regulating unit, in particular a programmable logic controller, a distributed control system or a personal computer.

4. Measuring instrument according to claim 1, for which the minimum signal current is 4 mA and the maximum signal current is 20 mA.

5. Measuring arrangement having at least one measuring instrument according to claim 4, in which the higher-order unit comprises a control and/or regulating unit, in particular a programmable logic controller, a distributed control system or a personal computer.

6. Measuring instrument according to claim 1, comprising a current/voltage limiter connected to the input side of each pair of lines.

7. Measuring arrangement having at least one measuring instrument according to claim 6, in which the higher-order unit comprises a control and/or regulating unit, in particular a programmable logic controller, a distributed control system or a personal computer.

8. Measuring instrument according to claim 1, having the first pair of lines connected to a first circuit and the second pair of lines connected to a second circuit, and the first and the second circuits are galvanically isolated from each other.

9. Measuring arrangement having at least one measuring instrument according to claim 8, in which the higher-order unit comprises a control and/or regulating unit, in particular a programmable logic controller, a distributed control system or a personal computer.

10. Measuring arrangement having at least one measuring instrument according to claim 1, in which the higher-order unit comprises a control and/or regulating unit, in particular a programmable logic controller a distributed control system or a personal computer.

11. Measuring arrangement according to claim 10, wherein the higher-order unit has one or more batteries of transmitter feed units, at least one battery having at least two transmitter feed units and each transmitter feed unit having a pair of terminals.

12. Measuring arrangement according to claim 11, wherein each battery of transmitter feed units is connected to the control and/or regulating unit via a bus access circuit and a bus line in order to transmit the measured values from the measuring instruments connected thereto.