What is the difference between analogue and digital inputs?
We all tend to hear about digital equipment being the latest good thing, analogue electronics being the old fashioned, less advanced, technology. But what does it mean and why is it important for a data logger? Basically, a digital signal is represented by a 0 or 1, so it s either there or it isn t. For a data logger, this would be something like the brake lights. Either on or off, no half way. An analogue signal on the other hand is a continuous value. Whereas the digital is 1 or 0. Analogue can be any number between 0 and 1. On our car, this might be the brake pressure. But what would be more useful, knowing if the brake light was on, or knowing the brake pressure? Obviously you get more information from the analogue signal. All data in the loggers is stored in digital format. Analogue signals must be represented by a series of 0 s and 1 s. The number of bits (binary digits) used determines the resolution of the signal. If we use 1 bit, we can represent 0 or 1. With two bits we can h
