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Cable Technology Feature Article

August 17, 2010

Acromag's New Ribbon Cable Makes It Easier to Upgrade Signal Conditioners without Disturbing Data Acquisition System Compatibility

By Madhubanti Rudra, TMCnet Contributor


Acromag has 50 years experience in process monitoring and control experience with a solid background in high-tech computer design. Presently it is recognized as a global leader in designing analog and digital control products for the industrial I/O market. This multinational corporation boasts of an expansive product portfolio, encompassing a wide variety of I/O devices for manufacturing, military, scientific, public utility, and transportation applications.

For process instrumentation, Acromag's signal conditioning line features more than 100 transmitters, isolators, alarms, and computation modules. If networked I/O is required, Acromag offers analog and discrete I/O modules for Ethernet, Modbus, and Profibus. For real-time control systems, Acromag provides a full line of high-performance analog, digital I/O and serial I/O bus boards for VMEbus, PCI, and CompactPCI (News - Alert) computer systems including IndustryPack and PMC mezzanine modules. The company has recently announced the launch of its new 4001-111 ribbon cable, which is designed to upgrade legacy 3B and 5B data acquisition systems to modern 8B signal conditioners.

In is release, Acromag announced that with its new cable, data acquisition systems connected to legacy 3B or 5B analog I/O modules now have a simple way to upgrade to modern 8B signal conditioners.

The company informed that its new 4001-111 ribbon cable has a DB25 female connector at one end for an 8B backpanel and a 26-pin female IDC (News - Alert) connector at the other end for the data acquisition system. This cable allows users to replace a 3B or 5B module rack to take advantage of the 8B module’s smaller size and better performance without crafting a custom adapter for their data acquisition system.

The company further informed that 8B isolated signal conditioning modules are one-fifth the size of competing products, but still provide ±0.05 percent accuracy, ±0.02 percent linearity, 3- to 5-pole filtering, and 1500Vrms isolation. The 5-foot cable, also compatible with 7B racks, is just $89 while the 8B modules start at $109.

“With this new cable, it is easy to upgrade your signal conditioners without disturbing compatibility with the data acquisition system,” Donald Lupo, Acromag’s Marketing and Sales director for Process Products, said.

At around the same time, Acromag has also launched 4001-110 cable, which was designed to brings Ethernet Communication to 3B and 5B analog signal conditioning modules. “Now you can cost-effectively Ethernet-enable legacy analog signal conditioning systems in just a few minutes,” Donald Lupo said in connection with the launch of this new cable.


Madhubanti Rudra is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Juliana Kenny