RPICT Fundamentals

We will cover some of the basic fundamentals used by the RPICT series below.

Signal Flow

Each signal whether if it's a current or voltage line is first conditioned to obtain the desired range. We perform this either by simply adjusting the burden resistor or by fitting voltage divider or amplifier. This is an important step to condition the sensor range to the ADC range. Sensors may output anything but the ADC requires an input between 0 and Vref.

The ADC converts a physical analogue signal into something a computer can process. This is where the conversion from real world to digital word happens.

The microcontroller collect raw data from the ADC and computes values such as RMS RealPower PowerFactor etc. It also send the final computation to the Raspberrypi using serial Uart.

Signal Conditioning

Current

Most RPICT series CT range are adjusted using the burden resistor. It is connected directly to the ADC and Vref/2.