Practice Flashcards
Flip to reveal answersWhat is signal conditioning?
Track your progress — Sign up free to save your progress and get smart review reminders based on spaced repetition.
All 4 Flashcards — Processing devices
Sign up free to track progress and get spaced-repetition review schedules.
Question
What is signal conditioning?
Answer
Making a real sensor signal usable with analogue components: amplifying it because it is tiny, filtering it because it is noisy, and comparing it with a reference so a decision comes out.
Question
What is program control?
Answer
Converting the signal to a number and letting software decide. Averaging, delays, dead bands, displays and logging all cost nothing extra in components.
Question
When is analogue processing the better choice?
Answer
When the job is fixed, the response must be immediate, the cost must be pennies, and nothing must depend on software running correctly — a smoke alarm, an amplifier, a protection circuit.
Question
When is digital processing the better choice?
Answer
As soon as the behaviour is complicated, needs changing later, needs memory or a display, or has to communicate with anything else.
Read the notes
Full study notes for Processing devices
Topic 3.4 hub
Electronic systems
More from Topic 3.4
All flashcards in this topic
Design Technology exam skills
Paper structures & tips
Track your progress with spaced repetition
Sign up free — Aimnova tells you exactly which cards to review and when, so you remember everything before your IB exam.
Start Free