7/2/2016 TwoPointCalibration|CalibratingSensors|AdafruitLearningSystem

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CalibratingSensors
Getpeakperformancefromall
yoursensors.

WhyCalibrate?
So,HowDoWeCalibrate?
OnePointCalibration
TwoPointCalibration
MultiPointCurve
Fitting
Maxim31855
Thermocouple
Linearization

SinglePage
DownloadPDF

Contributors

BillEarl

https://learn.adafruit.com/calibratingsensors/twopointcalibration 1/7
7/2/2016 TwoPointCalibration|CalibratingSensors|AdafruitLearningSystem
Feedback?Corrections?
COMPONENTS/TEMPERATURESENSORS/FORCE&FLEXSENSORS/LIGHTSENSORS/WEATHERSENSORS/PROXIMITYTOOLS/INSTRUMENTS
ROBOTICS

TwoPointCalibration
byBillEarl

ATwoPointCalibrationisalittlemorecomplex.Butitcanbeappliedtoeitherraworscaledsensoroutputs.ATwoPointcalibrationessentiallyrescalestheoutputand
iscapableofcorrectingbothslopeandoffseterrors.Twopointcalibrationcanbeusedincaseswherethesensoroutputisknowntobereasonablylinearoverthe
measurementrange.

Howtodoit:
Toperformatwopointcalibration:

1. Taketwomeasurementwithyoursensor:Onenearthelowendofthemeasurementrangeandonenearthehighendofthemeasurementrange.Recordthese
readingsas"RawLow"and"RawHigh"
2. Repeatthesemeasurementswithyourreferenceinstrument.Recordthesereadingsas"ReferenceLow"and"ReferenceHigh"
3. Calculate"RawRange"asRawHighRawLow.
4. Calculate"ReferenceRange"asReferenceHighReferenceLow
5. Inyourcode,calculatethe"CorrectedValue"usingtheformulabelow:

CorrectedValue=(((RawValueRawLow)*ReferenceRange)/RawRange)+ReferenceLow

Example
Acommonexampleofatwopointcalibrationistocalibrateatemperaturesensorusinganicewaterbathandboilingwaterforthetworeferences.Thermocouplesand
othertemperaturesensorsarequitelinearwithinthistemperaturerange,sotwopointcalibrationshouldproducegoodresuts.

Sincethesearephysicalstandards,weknowthatatnormalsealevelatmosphericpressure,waterboilsat100Candthe"triplepoint"is0.01C.Wecanusetheseknown
valuesasourreferencevalues:

ReferenceLow=0.01C

ReferenceHigh=100C

ReferenceRange=99.99

Herewe'llshowatwopointcalibrationofalaboratorythermometer.Butthesameprinciplesapplytoanytemperaturesensor:

https://learn.adafruit.com/calibratingsensors/twopointcalibration 2/7
7/2/2016 TwoPointCalibration|CalibratingSensors|AdafruitLearningSystem

PhasediagrambyMatthieumarechalviaWikimediaCommons

BoilingWater
Asyoucanseethislabthermometerisoffby4degreesatthe
boilingpointofwater.

https://learn.adafruit.com/calibratingsensors/twopointcalibration 3/7
7/2/2016 TwoPointCalibration|CalibratingSensors|AdafruitLearningSystem

"TriplePoint"IceWaterBath
Thesamethermometerregistersalittlelessthanzerodegrees
intheicewaterbath.

Sothe"Raw"readingsare:

RawLow=0.5C

RawHigh=96.0C

RawRange=96.5C

So,ifwegetarawreadingof37Cwiththisthermometer,wecanplugthenumbersintotheequationtogetthecorrectedreading:

(((37+0.5)*99.99)/96.5)+0.01=38.9C

ONEPOINTCALIBRATIONMULTIPOINTCURVEFITTING
Lastupdatedon20150605at07.13.00AMPublishedon20150518at05.01.25PM

10KPrecisionEpoxyThermistor
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https://learn.adafruit.com/calibratingsensors/twopointcalibration 4/7
7/2/2016 TwoPointCalibration|CalibratingSensors|AdafruitLearningSystem

ThermocoupleAmplifierwith1WireBreakoutBoardMAX31850K
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7/2/2016 TwoPointCalibration|CalibratingSensors|AdafruitLearningSystem

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