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A current loop describes two different electrical signalling schemes.
Digital
For digital serial communications a current loop is a communication interface that uses current instead of voltage for signaling. Current loops can be used over moderately long distances (tens of kilometres), and can be interfaced with optically isolated links.
Long before the RS-232 standard, current loops were used to send digital data in serial form for teleprinters. More than two teletypes could be connected on a single circuit allowing a simple form of networking. Older teletypes used a 60 mA current loop. Later machines, such as the ASR33 teleprinter, operated on a lower 20 mA current level and most early minicomputers featured a 20 mA current loop interface instead of an RS-232 port. The original IBM PC Serial port card had provisions for a 20 mA current loop. A digital current loop uses the absence of current for high (mark), and the presence of current in the loop for low(space).
The maximum resistance for a current loop is limited by the available voltage. Current loop interfaces usually use voltages much higher than those found on an RS 232 interface, and cannot be interconnected with voltage-type inputs without some form of level translator circuit.
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a digital current loop interface.
Analog
For industrial process control instruments, analog 4-20 mA and 10-50 mA current loops are commonly used for analog signaling, with 4 mA representing the lowest end of the range and 20 mA the highest. The key advantages of the current loop are that the accuracy of the signal is not affected by voltage drop in the interconnecting wiring, and that the loop can supply operating power to the device. Even if there is significant electrical resistance in the line, the current loop transmitter will maintain the proper current, up to its maximum voltage capability. The live-zero represented by 4 mA allows the receiving instrument to detect some failures of the loop, and also allows transmitter devices to be powered by the same current loop (called two-wire transmitters). Such instruments are used to measure pressure, temperature, flow, pH or other process variables. A current loop can also be used to control a valve positioner or other output actuator. An analog current loop can be converted to a voltage input with a precision resistor. Since input terminals of instruments may have one side of the current loop input tied to the chassis ground (earth), analog isolators may be required when connecting several devices in series.
Taking the point of view of the source of current for the loop, devices may be classified as active (supplying power) or passive (relying on loop power). For example, a chart recorder may provide loop power to a transmitter instrument such as a pressure transmitter. The pressure transmitter modulates the current on the loop to send the signal to the strip chart recorder, but does not in itself supply power to the loop and so is passive. Another loop may contain two passive chart recorders, a passive pressure transmitter, and a 24 V battery. (The battery is the active device). Panel mount displays and chart recorders are commonly termed 'indicator devices' or 'process monitors'. Several passive indicator devices may be connected in series, but a loop must have only one transmitter device and only one power source (active device).
External links
"Current loop"