Properly connecting a three wire 4-20mA to a PR55-5

Hardware
1

Please clarify the connection for the PR55-5 M12 connector:
What leads recieve the external power supply? Is it +Ve and -Ve?

M12 Connection (PR55-5) —
Blue — 4-20mA +Ve
White — External Power Supply +ve
Brown — 4-20mA -Ve
Black — Ground
Gray — 16V Supply ( To power External Sensor)

2

As with the current loop sensor product it would save so much time and add a lot of value to your customers if you just provide a picture for the wiring diagram. It really is not clear at all how you describe the connections. We have connected many 4-20mA sensors in the past, and quite frankly the wiring documenation for the product is poor. We can try to “wing it” by trial and error, but we do not want to make a mistake and damage the sensor or device input.

3

I understand wiring the 4-20mA sensor device can be confusing. The product has to provide a couple of different possible wiring configurations based on the type of sensor.

Can you tell us if the sensor you are wiring provides loop voltage or not(source or passive device)? This can generally be determined by the number of wires it has.

4

Travis, the sensor we have is a Maxbotix ultrasonic sensor wiuth 4-20mA output. It has three wires:

Red - Vcc (to power the sensor with 10-32VDC)
Black - Ground return for the DC power supply
Brown - 4-20mA signal output

How to we hookup this sensor the the PR55-5A?

Thank you

5

@Bhaskar can you please clarify?

6

Please, we need an answer asap! thank you

7

If you are using with 3 wire

M12 Connection (PR55-5) —
Blue — 4-20mA +Ve ----- Sensor Brown
White — External Power Supply +ve
Brown — 4-20mA -Ve ---- Sensor Black
Black — Ground — Sensor Black
Gray — 16V Supply ( To power External Sensor) — Sensor RED

8

Still confused: does the PR55-5A provide power for the sensor or do we need to connect an external power supply to the PR55-5A via the M12 connector? If yes, please send the connection diagram again, clearly showing where and how the external power supply needs to be connected.

And please, update your documentation. This type of question in your forum should not be required at all if your documentation is good. Saves you the cost and hassle of support time everytime a customer reads dopcumentaiton that is unclear, and saves us the cost and grief for getting a solution working as customers.

9

Yes it can provide the power. the 16V is output.
it does not need to be plugged into the external power to provide this 16V.

The pinout description clearly states that the gray wire is 16V which can be used to power external sensors

10

Thank you for clarifying. For other users advantage and clarity that run into this sensor setup questions, here are some tips:

  • PR55-5A has 4 AA batteries, these are used to power the wireless sensor AND ALSO to provide power to external sensors.
  • PR55-5A can provide power to external sensors that use three wires, up to 16VDC via the gray wire in the M12 connector
  • PR55-5A supports connecting an external power supply to power the external sensor (instead of using the internal AA batteries). In this case, the external +VCC power is connected to the White wire of the M12 connector
  • PR55-5A does not provide a current loop power supply. If you have a loop powered sensor (two wires) you should use the PR55-48 NCD.io receiver product.