HW-685 4-20mA Current Sensing

Overview

The HW-685 4-20mA Current Sensing Module

With this module you can measure currents from 4-20mA. It ‘translates’ the measured current into voltage. With two jumpers you can define the voltage output range. Also the module has two potentiometers for calibrating the zero and maximum voltage.

Connection

Example connection of the HW-685 module.

For a connection you need a constant voltage power supply. Connect the module like so:

Usage

Before you can measure reliable results, you need to calibrate your module with the two potentiometers. For this you need a constant current. I used a trim-potentiometer with an multimeter in current sensing mode, this is not optimal but I did not have any other method at hand. You can also use a dedicated “Signal Generator”. They are fairly cheap on Aliexpress or Amazon.

Setting the Output Voltage

First you have to set the desired maximum output voltage for your VOUT. Most microcontrollers don’t ‘like’ more than 5V, be sure to check that out. For example if you use an Arduino it is okay to use 5V as your maximum voltage for your ADC.

Calibrating the Module

1. Turn all potentiometers to the left. You’ll hear a little click if the leftmost position is reached. This may take a while.

2. Connect you constant voltage power supply to VCC and a Multimeter to VOUT.

3. Connect your 4mA current source in series to I+ and I-.

4. Now turn the ZERO potentiometer to the right, until you reach a voltage you will later define as the 4mA point.

5. Change the current source to 20mA and turn the SPAN potentiometer to a voltage you will later define as the 20mA point.

For example with an Arduino you have an 10-Bit ADC. This means that the incoming voltage of your ADC input is divided in intervals. If you have an 10-Bit ADC these intervals will be 2^10 = 1024 values between 0 and 1024, therefore you have 1023 intervals.

In your Arduino you read an analog values as follow:

int analogPin = A3;
float read_voltage = 0.0;
float ref_voltage = 3.3;
float adc_intervals = 1023.0;

void setup() {
    Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
    read_voltage = analogRead(analogPin) * (ref_voltage / adc_intervals); 
    Serial.println(read_voltage);          
}

Code

Libraries

No Libraries needed.

Example

#include <Arduino.h>

int analogPin = A0;
float read_curr_ma = 0.0;
float max_curr_ma = 20.0;
float adc_intervals = 1023.0;


void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  read_curr_ma = analogRead(analogPin) * (max_curr_ma / adc_intervals); 
  Serial.println(read_curr_ma);        
}

Example on Github

You can find the GitHub example here.

Blynk Example

#include <Arduino.h>
#define BLYNK_PRINT Serial
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <BlynkSimpleEsp8266.h>

char auth[] = "YourAuthToken";
char ssid[] = "YourNetworkName";
char pass[] = "YourPassword";


int analogPin = A0;
float read_curr_ma = 0.0;
float max_curr_ma = 20.0;
float adc_intervals = 1023.0;

BlynkTimer timer;

void timer_event() {
  read_curr_ma = analogRead(analogPin) * (max_curr_ma / adc_intervals); 
  Serial.println(read_curr_ma);  
  Blynk.virtualWrite(V5, read_curr_ma);
}

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Blynk.begin(auth, ssid, pass);
  //Blynk.begin(auth, ssid, pass, "blynk-cloud.com", 80);
  //Blynk.begin(auth, ssid, pass, IPAddress(192,168,1,100), 8080);
  timer.setInterval(1000L, timer_event);
}

void loop() {
  Blynk.run();
  timer.run();
}

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