ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERTER DEFINITION HOW TO

When you read the specification of any Microcontroller or ADC IC, the details of the ADC will be given using the terms channels and Resolution (bits).

ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERTER DEFINITION HOW TO

In order to know how to use an ADC we should first get familiar with some basic terms like, channels resolution, range, reference voltage etc. Once it is converted to voltage we can read it with the help of ADC’s. For example to convert temperature values into voltage we can use a Thermistor similarly to convert brightness to voltage we can use a LDR. So which ever parameter we wish to measure, it should be converted into voltage first, this conversion can be done with the help of sensors. An ADC can only convert analog voltage values into digital values. But wait!! Can an ADC convert temperature and speed directly into digital values like 0’s and 1’s? So what are these analog values? These are the ones that we see in our day to day life like temperature, speed, brightness etc. In this article we will learn everything about ADC and how to use them.Īs said earlier ADC stands for Analog to digital conversion and it is used to convert analog values from real world into digital values like 1’s and 0’s. This something is called the Analog to Digital Converters or ADC for short. So we need something which will convert all these analog values into 0’s and 1’s so that our microcontrollers and microprocessors can understand them. But our electronic devices which run on microcontrollers and microprocessors cannot read/interpret these analog values directly since they run only on 0’s and 1’s. The world has always been analog in nature, for instance everything that we humans feel and experience like speed, temperature, air velocity, sunlight, sound etc are analog in nature.

In today’s digital age we are all surrounded by the advanced digital electronic devices, this might deceive us to think that everything around us is digital in nature, which is not true. Then slowly the landline phones were replaced by modern mobile phones, CRT Televisions and monitors were replaced by LED displays, computers with vacuum tubes evolved to be more powerful with microprocessors and microcontrollers inside them and so on. The Analog world with digital Electronicsįew years back the entire electronics devices that we use today like phones, computers, Televisions etc were analog in nature.

Analog to digital converter definition