12 - Review of digital conditioning techniques

Abstract

This chapter reviews digital conditioning techniques involving the handling and manipulation of data in digital form. Digital representation has many advantages over analog. The transmission of data to, within, and from a signal conditioning system can be undertaken more reliably using digital pulses rather than continuously varying analog signals. Another advantage of using digital signals is their ready compatibility with the digital computer, which requires digital inputs rather than analog. It is important to remember that the use of digital techniques in process control requires that continuously variable measurement and control information be encoded into current or voltage pulses. Boolean algebra is an important component in digital conditioning of systems; it is a mathematical method of defining the operation of a process the control of which can be achieved by a system of switched two-state devices. Programmable logic controllers are devices, particularly suited to control systems using binary logic techniques. The processor is used to process the signal data it receives and then to send that information to other parts of the system. Two devices that then gain importance in such sending–receiving of binary words functions are buses and tri-state buffer.