Is it possible to change the range in fieldpoint explorer of a FP-TC-120 other than the default? ie reduce the range to where we are operating?

[Mark10017]

Is there a way to manually change the range to say 0 to 150 degrees Celsius? Or is the range change done in the software programming?
Thanks Mark

[Aaron_G]

Using a FP-TC-120, you have the option of setting the ranges to +/-25 mV, +/-50 mV, +/- 100 mV, -20 to 80 mV or you can choose three temperature ranges. When you choose a temperature range (F, C or K) and a thermocouple type (channel attribute), the FP-TC-120 automatically uses the appropriate range for the thermocouple type. You can not choose to take a subset of the range chosen.

Regards,
Aaron

[Mark10017]

Something that doesn't look right to me, correct me if I'm wrong, the selected temp. range for K TC is -270C to 1770C, the Omega handbook lists the operating range to be between -270 to 1370C, so why the difference?
regards Mark

[Aaron_G]

The difference is due to the design of the FP-TC-120. The FP-TC-120 supports four ranges on the ADC (listed in my previous post). Configuring a temperature mode, tells the module to use the built-in linearization algorithms based upon the thermocouple type chosen. For each thermocouple type, one of the four voltage ranges is used depending upon the characteristics of the thermocouple. If a thermocouple, does not take the full scale range, the module can not simply subset the range. In the case of the K type thermocouple, I believe that the upper limit of K thermocouples is 60 mV, so the 60-80 mV portion of the range (roughly corresponding to the 1370 to 1770 C range of the module is unused). The module accuracy specs do take this into account.


Regards,
Aaron