Introducing the In-line Strain Gauge Analogue Amplifier (ILA)
A new in-line strain gauge amplifier from Mantracourt Electronics is set to streamline the calibration of a sensor thanks to its digital potentiometers and extremely simple and intuitive toolkit.
Designed to convert strain gauge or load cell inputs into a 4-20 mA output, it provides more filtering than the existing embedded strain gauge amplifier range (ICA), and due to its small design, it can be easily integrated into compact installations. It is compatible with a wide range of inputs including strain gauges, load cells, pressure and torque transducers.
Kelly Voysey, Sales & Marketing Manager at Mantracourt commented: "We are delighted to be bringing our new small format signal conditioner to market. Based on the popular ICA range, it can be customised to suit the user's requirements simply by selecting the relevant sensitivity, trim range & bandwidth (unipolar and bipolar). We've been developing this new piece of kit for quite some time and feel it's the ideal device for anyone working in the machine building, lifting & handling, silo & weighing and automotive industries that require quick and easy calibration of their sensor.
The ILA benefits from several important features including stable, high accuracy measurement with low drift and extensive EMC filtering. Reverse polarity protection, short circuit protection and input and output protection ensure this robust design, and, thanks to its Molex Lite-Trap push in connectors, can be installed effortlessly.
With the Mantracourt ILA, gain and offset calibration is performed by dual 256-step non volatile digital potentiometers allowing fast, semi-automatic calibration via Mantracourt's proprietary Custom Programming Module and ILA Toolkit.
Kelly continued: "The Toolkit, which is free to download is the real game changer here, allowing for quick and painless set up. The intuitive interface of our well designed interface guides you through calibration of the ILA. All our toolkits are designed with user familiarity in mind – so if you've used any of our other toolkit software, this will simply be second nature to use."
The ILA Toolkit software for Windows connects with the ILA via the programming module (ILA-PGMD). The toolkit allows the ILA to be configured and provides both manual calibration (and semi-automatic calibration). Calibration is simple with the semi-automatic calibration and the software does all the thinking for you, calculating gain and offset values based on the output required.
The ILA is available in the following standard sensitivities – 1 mV/V, 2 mV/V, 2.5 mV/V, 3 mV/V and 4.5 mV/V, cased and as an OEM version depending upon your requirements.
Kelly concluded: "In addition to our toolkit software there is also an I2C Driver available so you can run the programmer from your own software for specific product line applications should that be your preferred option."
