Benefits of Automatic Gain Ranging

Automatic gain ranging can save considerable setup time and provide the highest signal to noise ratio by insuring that the output level is the highest possible without overscale. Further, it prevents data loss by reducing the gain for channels that go into overscale.

The user has full control to enable or disable autoranging and set the autoranging parameters. Gain ranges down when the high limit is reached in the positive or negative direction and the high-limit persistence time elapses. Both the limit and persistence are programmable. Gain ranges up when the low limit is reached in the positive or negative direction and the low-limit persistence time elapses. Upper and lower limits and their persistences are independently programmable.

Gain for each channel is read and recorded by including phantom channels 8 and 9 in the scan list. A four-bit binary code identifies one of the sixteen possible gain steps that corresponds with the digitized data for each channel PI660 has a text display of gains. When using automatic gain ranging it is important that all gain steps be gain and offset calibrated for highest accuracy. PI660 Software performs this calibration providing NIST traceability.