Industrial Engineer · phase 2 of 16
Raw Counts
Unscaled numeric value produced by an analog converter before conversion to engineering units.
The Explain card
- Plain English
- Raw counts are the number the analog card produces before anyone tells it what the number means. A 16 bit card might report anything from 0 to 32767 for its full range.
- Example
- A 4 to 20 mA input shows 6553 counts at 4 mA and 32767 at 20 mA. The program has to turn 19660 counts into 50 percent, or 150 degrees, or whatever the sensor measures.
- Why it matters
- Looking at raw counts tells you whether the wiring and the card are working, separate from whether the scaling is right. A stuck count means hardware, and a wrong engineering value with a moving count means math.
- Hook
- The number before the meaning.
Where it sits in the deck
Phase 2: PLC I/O and Field Signals
Where the controller meets the machine: discrete and analog signals, the wiring conventions behind them, and the field devices that send them.
