Sensors & Transducers

Turning the physical world into signals. How sensors work and how to choose them: sensing principles, transducers, Wheatstone bridges, temperature sensors (RTD, thermocouple, thermistor, IR), and displacement, speed, force and strain measurement.

• Sensors — Sensors respond to a physical quantity with a measurable electrical change. Learn static and dynamic characteristics — range, sensitivity, accuracy, precision, resolution, linearity, hysteresis — and the common temperature, position, pressure and light sensors.
• Transducers — Transducers convert energy from one form to another. Learn active vs passive types, strain gauges, thermocouples, LVDTs, piezoelectric devices, loading effects, and the industrial 4–20 mA current loop.
• Bridges — Bridge circuits measure small changes in impedance with great precision. Learn the Wheatstone bridge balance and output equations, quarter/half/full strain bridges, the Kelvin bridge for low resistance, and AC bridges for L and C.
• Temperature Measurement: RTD, Thermocouple, Thermistor & IR — Temperature is the most measured variable in industry. Learn RTDs (Pt100, Callendar–Van Dusen, 2/3/4-wire), thermocouples (Seebeck effect, types, cold-junction compensation, extension wires), thermistors, semiconductor sensors, infrared pyrometers and emissivity, thermowells and response time — with Python for Pt100 conversion, lead-wire error and CJC.
• Displacement, Speed, Force & Strain Measurement — Measuring motion and force for machines and structures: potentiometers, LVDTs, capacitive and eddy-current proximity probes, optical encoders (incremental/absolute, quadrature), tachogenerators, accelerometers and vibration monitoring, strain gauges and Wheatstone bridges (quarter/half/full), temperature compensation and load cells.