CPC A61B 5/02154 (2013.01) [A61B 5/02156 (2013.01); A61B 5/02158 (2013.01); A61B 5/024 (2013.01); A61B 5/031 (2013.01); A61B 5/032 (2013.01); A61B 5/6853 (2013.01); A61B 5/7225 (2013.01); A61B 5/742 (2013.01); G01L 9/00 (2013.01); G01L 19/12 (2013.01); G01L 27/007 (2013.01); A61B 5/72 (2013.01)] | 50 Claims |
1. A transducer interface system having a pressure sensor coupled to a connector by a conduit, the transducer interface system further comprising:
a non-volatile memory for storing transducer-specific gauge factors specific to the pressure sensor;
an analog sensor A/D converter in communication with the pressure sensor, wherein the analog sensor A/D converter is configured to sample an analog signal from the pressure sensor and convert the analog signal to a digital sensor value;
a digital computing device in communication with the pressure sensor through the analog sensor A/D converter, wherein the digital computing device is configured to determine if the pressure sensor is exposed to stable ambient pressure in response to the pressure sensor being coupled to the digital computing device;
wherein if the digital computing device determines the pressure sensor is exposed to stable ambient pressure, the digital computing device is further configured to calculate a current atmospheric compensation zero value and write the current atmospheric compensation zero value in the non-volatile memory;
wherein if the digital computing device determines the pressure sensor is not exposed to stable ambient pressure and further determines there is no previous atmospheric compensation zero value from an earlier successful zero value calculation stored in the non-volatile memory, the digital computing device is further configured to activate a pressure unstable alarm and wait a specified period of time before repeating the determination of whether the pressure sensor is exposed to stable ambient pressure;
wherein if the digital computing device determines the pressure sensor is not exposed to stable ambient pressure and further determines there is a previous atmospheric compensation zero value from an earlier successful zero value calculation stored in non-volatile memory, the digital computing device is further configured to retrieve the previous atmospheric compensation zero value from an earlier successful calculation from the non-volatile memory;
wherein the digital computing device is further configured to assign the pressure sensor an individual correction value based on the transducer-specific gauge factors and one of the current atmospheric compensation zero value and the previous atmospheric compensation zero value, and further configured to apply the individual correction value to the digital sensor value to produce a digital compensated sensor value;
a bridge sense D/A converter in communication with the digital computing device, wherein the bridge sense D/A converter is configured to convert the digital compensated sensor value received from the digital computing device to an analog compensated sensor value;
a bridge excitation converter configured to convert a Wheatstone Bridge excitation signal to a bridge excitation value usable to scale the analog compensated sensor value to form a converted analog Wheatstone Bridge sense signal;
a first output in communication with an output of the digital computing device, herein the first output is configured to transmit the digital compensated sensor value as a digital output from the transducer interface system; and
a second output in communication with an output of the bridge sense D/A converter, wherein the second output is configured to transmit the converted analog Wheatstone Bridge sense signal as an analog output of the transducer interface system.
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