User-Programmable Angle and Speed Sensors

Southborough, MA… Novotechnik, U.S. introduces the IO-Link programming tool for its RFC-4800 Series of touchless angle sensors. This device connects a sensor to a mini USB port of  a PC running Windows or newer operating system.

IO-Link enables users to program, test and adjust custom offset values to null point, set direction of rotation as clockwise or counter clockwise, average the output across, 4, 16 or 64 values to smooth the signal for noise filtering and other reasons. It also reads an error signal if the magnet, the touchless RFC-4800 it is connected to, is absent or outside the sensor’s operating range by being too close or far from the sensor. It also reports functional status of the sensor. Once a sensor has been programmed, it can be software-locked through IO-Link. A unique device identifier is also readable over the IO-Link interface.

Besides IO-Link, the RFC-4800 can be purchased as a standard three-wire angle sensor with current or voltage analog output or as a programmable switch version. Other digital outputs are available and include Incremental, CANopen, SPI and SSI. Partial and fully redundant versions are available.

Key RFC-4800 specifications include 12-bit resolution, models with pre-set ranges of 0° to 30° up to 0° to 360°, measurement of speed as well as angle, repeatability ≤ 0.36° and independent linearity ≤ 0.5°.