What is signal conditioning?
More generally, signal conditioning is converting a signal from some transducer to whatever your receiving system needs. Frequently it’s a matter of amplifying the microvolt or millivolt signals you get from (for instance) a strain gauge to the 10V span you need to get good resolution for your analog to digital converter. However, many transducers give you strange things that you have to convert. A tougher example is a Linear Variable Differential Transducer, which gives you a varying AC voltage (after you’ve given it a stable AC voltage). The voltage it gives you back varies in level with the position of the core, so you have to first convert that AC voltage to DC, then amplify scale it to fit into your ADC’s span. Some transducers give you a current, which you must convert to a scaled voltage. These are all examples of signal conditioning, and you’ll notice I haven’t yet mentioned “cleaning up.” You frequently want to clean the signal up, too, but that’s usually incidental to the pro
