Usefulness of Thermocouple source/read meter. Studio 5000/Flex IO-IT8

[AutomationTechBrian]

A thermocouple calibration requires thermocouple wire between the calibrator and the thermocouple analog input.

The thermocouple calibrator I use does not have banana jacks for connecting the thermocouple wire, instead it has an integrated female connection jack that mates to a 2 prong mini thermocouple plug. Thermocouple plugs are color coded for the different Type thermocouples.

The thermocouple plugs and thermocouple wire were not supplied by the calibrator vendor. I had to buy a mini thermocouple plug and 10 feet of thermocouple wire for Types J, K and T that I commonly run into.

You should be aware that you have source the accessories yourself. I suspect that such is the case for most calibrator vendors.

I also have a mini 3-wire 100Pt RTD, probably only 0.025" in diameter that I fasten under a thermocouple connection screw terminal to measure the terminal temperature that the cold junction sensor should be reporting. That RTD value is what the CJ value is then calibrated to. I do the CJ calibration with an RTD because thermocouples have too much cumulative error to accurately measure CJ.

So my calibrator is both an RTD and a thermocouple calibrator.

Thanks! I still might get a calibrator somewhere down the line, but I should be able to at least get the basic setup accomplished on these 30+ zones without one. Heating up plastic in an sheet extruder is not a precision process. If I had a simulator, I'd use it to test alarms and such, but of course it's a "want", not a "need".