Universal input and output interface

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10014872-B2
Application number	US-201415532675-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 3, 2014
Priority date	Dec 3, 2014
Publication date	Jul 3, 2018
Grant date	Jul 3, 2018

Abstract

Provided is programmable circuit for interfacing with a field device. The circuit includes only one analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured to receive from the field device one from the group including a current signal and a voltage signal. The received one signal has frequency shift keying tones (FSK) superimposed thereon, the ADC being configured to extract information from the received one signal and the FSK tones simultaneously. Also included is only one digital-to-analog converter configured to drive an output signal to the field device, the output signal (i) including one from the group including a current signal and a voltage signal and (ii) being summed with an FSK-modulated signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A programmable device for interfacing with a field device, the circuit comprising:
a converter module configured to operate as only one of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC);
wherein when the converter module operates as an ADC, the ADC is configured to (i) receive, from the field device, one from the group including a first current signal and a first voltage signal, the received one signal having frequency shift keying tones (FSK) superimposed thereon and (ii) extract information from the received one signal and the FSK tones simultaneously; and
wherein when the converter module operates as a DAC, the DAC is configured to drive an output signal to the field device, the output signal (i) including one from the group including a second current signal and a second voltage signal and (ii) being summed with an FSK-modulated signal.

2. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the FSK tones are representative of a Highway Addressable Remote Transfer (HART) signal.

3. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the FSK-modulated signal is a Highway Addressable Remote Transfer (HART) signal.

4. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the field device is a resistance temperature detector (RTD).

5. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the field device is a thermocouple.

6. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the received one signal is selected from the group including 4-20 mA current signals, 0-5 Volt unipolar signals, 0-10 Volt unipolar signal, +/−5 Volt bipolar, and +/−10 Volt bipolar voltage signals.

7. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the output signal is selected from the group consisting of 4-20 mA current signals, 0-5 Volt unipolar signals, 0-10 Volt unipolar signal, +/−5 Volt bipolar, and +/−10 Volt bipolar voltage signals.

Assignees

• Gen Electric
• Ge Intelligent Platforms Inc

Inventors

• Lovell Alan Carroll
• Henderson Bruce

Classifications

• H03C3/00

  Angle modulation (H03C5/00, H03C7/00 take precedence) · CPC title

• H03M1/004 Primary

  Reconfigurable analogue/digital or digital/analogue converters (H03M1/02 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01K7/16

  using resistive elements · CPC title

• G01K7/021

  Particular circuit arrangements (G01K7/026, G01K7/12, G01K7/14 take precedence) · CPC title

• H04L27/10 Primary

  Frequency-modulated carrier systems, i.e. using frequency-shift keying (H04L27/32 takes precedence) · CPC title