instructables

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino

by Roboro

The PT100 is a resistance temperature detector(RTD) accurate and have low drift over time. What I'm going
which changes its resistance depending on its to show you in this Instructable wouldn't be up to
surrounding temperature, it's used widely for industrial standard but it'll expose you to an alternate
industrial processes with slow dynamics and way to measure temperature than using the LM35
relatively wide temperature ranges. It's used for slow which a lot of hobbyists would be familiar with and the
dynamic processes because RTDs have slow circuit theory shown can be applied to other sensors.
response times (which I talk more about later) but are

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 1

Step 1: Components

1x PT100(Two Wire) 2x 3.9kohms Resistors

1x Arduino(Any Model) 2x 3.3kohms Resistors

3x 741 Operation Amplifiers (LM741 or UA741) 2x 8.2kohms Resistors

1x 80ohm Resistor 2x 47kohms Resistors

1x 5kohms Potentiometer same as above but if there's a pair of resistors i.e. the
3.9Kohms, if you swapped them for let's say 5k, you'd
1x Two Terminal Power Supply or 8x 1.5V AA need to swap both for 5k as then need to be the
Batteries same. When we get the circuit I'll say the effect of
choosing different values. For the operation amplifiers
I'm using a two wire PT100, three and four wire (op amps) you can use other op amps but these are
PT100s will have different circuits. The resistor the ones I used.
values for most of these don't have to be the exact

Step 2: Wheatstone Bridge

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 2

I first need to talk about the formula for getting the and at 130 degrees(150ohms):
temperature from the resistance for the PT100 before
I talk about the first part of the circuit, the formula for
the resistance is as follows:

This would give a range of 0.1187V and a DC offset

where Rx is the PT100 resistance, R0 is the PT100 of 0.142 because we know our temperature will never
resistance at 0 degrees C, is the temperature get below -51.85 degrees C, this will decrease the
resistance coefficient and T is the temperature. sensitivity in the range we care about (80 to
130ohms) when we amplify this voltage. To get rid of
this DC offset and increase our sensitivity we can use
a Wheatstone bridge which is shown in the second
picture.
R0 is 100ohms as this is a PT100, if it was a PT1000,
The output of the second voltage divider (Vb-) will be
R0 would be 1000ohms. is 0.00385 ohms/degrees
subtracted from the first voltage divider output (Vb+)
C taken from the datasheet. There is also a more
using a differential amplifier later. The formula for the
accurate formula that can be found here but the
output of the bridge is just two voltage dividers:
above formula will do for this project. If we transpose
the formula we can calculate the temperature for a
given resistance:

The voltage out for the PT100 being 80ohms and

using the other values in the picture:

Let's say we want to measure something which would

have a temperature range of -51.85 to 130 degrees C
and we placed the PT100 in the circuit shown in
picture 1. Using the equation above and the equation
and for Pt100 being 150ohms:
for the voltage out of a voltage divider (shown in the
first picture) we can calculate the voltage range.
Bottom of the range T = -51.85(80ohms)

By using the Wheatstone we get rid of the DC offset

and increase the sensitivity after amplification. Now
that we know how the Wheatstone bridge works we
can talk about why we use 80ohms and 3.3kohms.
The 80ohms is kind of explained from the formula
above, choose this value (we'll call this the offset
resistor Roff) to be the bottom range of your
temperature or even better, slightly below the bottom
of your range, if this being used for a control systems
for temperature regulation or something like that,
you'd want to know how low the temperature is

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 3

getting below your temperature range. So if -51.85C
is the bottom of your range, use 74.975 ohms(-65
degrees C) for your Roff.

I chose 3.3k for R1 and R3 for two reasons, to limit

current and increase the linearity of the output. As the
PT100 changes resistance due to temperature,
passing too much current through it will give incorrect
readings due to self-heating so I chose a max current
of 5-10mA. When the PT100 is 80ohms the current is
1.775mA so safely below the max range. You
decrease the resistance to increase the sensitivity but
this could have a negative effect on the linearity, as
we'll be using the equation of a line later(y=mx+c)
having a non-linear output will introduce errors. The
third picture has a graph of the bridge output using
different top resistors, the solid line is the actual
output and the dotted line is the linear approximation.
You can see in the dark blue
graph(R1&R3=200ohms) gives the biggest voltage
range but the output is the least linear. The light
blue(R1&R3=3.3kohms) gives the smallest voltage
range but the dotted line and solid line are overlapped
showing its linearity is very good.

Feel free to change these values to suit your

application, also if you change the voltage, make sure
the current doesn't get too high.

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 4

Step 3: Amplification

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 5

In the last step, we found the output range of the two instrumentation amp which I talk about below. The
voltage dividers subtracted was 0 to 0.1187 but we loading effect is the input resistors into the amp
haven't talked about how to subtract these voltages. affecting the voltage drop across the PT100, we want
To do this we'll need a differential amp which will the voltage across the PT100 to be unchanged and to
subtract one input from the other and amplify this by do this we can choose very large resistors for the
the gain of the amp. The circuit for a differential amp input resistors so that the parallel resistance of the
is shown in the first picture. You feed the Vb+ into the PT100 and input resistor is very close the PT100
inverting input and Vb- in the non-inverting input and resistance but this can cause problems with noise
the output will be the Vb+ - Vb- with a gain of one i.e. and voltage output offset that I'm not going to go into.
no amplification but by adding the resistors shown in Just pick mid range in the Kohms range but as I was
the picture we add a gain of 5.731. The gain is given saying, having small resistors is bad as well so we'll
by: change the circuit a bit.

In the second picture, we have the output of the

bridge connected to an instrumentation amp which
acts a buffer amp to separate the two halves of the
circuits(the bridge and amplification) as well allows
Ra is R5 & R7 and Rb is R6 & R8, the voltage out is use to amplify the input by changing just one
given by: potentiometer (Rgain). The gain of the
instrumentation amp is given by:

There're two problems with just connecting this amp

to the output of the bridge, the loading effect and where Rc is the two 3.9k resistor above and below
changing the gain. Changing the gain of the amp the pot.
requires you to change at least two resistor as the
two pairs of resistors have to be the same, so having By decreasing Rgain, the amplification increases.
two pots which have to have the same value would Then at point Va and Vb(amplified Vb+ and Vb-), it's
be annoying so we'll use something called an just a differential amp as before and the total gain of

the circuit is just the gains multiplied together. Let's say we keep Ra, Rb and Rc as 8.2k, 47k and
3.9k, we just need to find the value for the pot Rgain:

To choose your gain you want to do something like

we did before with the Roff, we should pick a
resistance just above your max temperature in your So to get the full 5 volts out of the temperature range
range just in case it goes over. Because we're using we are using, change the value of Rgain to 1.226k.
the Arduino which has a 5V adc, the max output of The output voltage coming out of the differential amp
the circuit should 5V at the max temperature you is given by:
chose. Let's pick the 150ohms as the max resistance
and the bridge voltage un-amplified was 0.1187V, the
gain we need is 42.185 (5/0.1187)

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 6

Step 4: Powering the Circuit

This is the last step of the circuit, you might have THE GNDs OF THE TWO SUPPLIES ARE
noticed the Vcc+ and the Vcc- on the op amp circuits, SEPARATED OR IT'LL DAMAGE YOUR POWER
this is because they need both positive and negative SUPPLY. All commercial power supplies would have
voltage to function properly, you can get single rail separated GNDs but if you want to check, use the
op-amps but I decided to use these amp as that's continuity tester on your multimeter, if it buzzes, don't
what I had lying around. So we'll supply +6V and -6V, use this setup and use the next one. On my
there're three ways we can do this. The first is shown homemade supply, I blew the fuse doing this.
in the first picture where we have to two power
supplies or two output terminals from a single power In the second picture is the second setup we can
supply, have both at 6V and have one positive output have, it does require one supply to have double the
connected to the negative of the other. The 6V of the voltage of other but won't damage the supply if the
top supply will be our +6V, the positive of the bottom GNDs are connected. We have two supplies, one at
supply is the GND and the negative of the bottom 12V and other at 6V. The 12V will act as our +6V, the
supply is the -6V. ONLY CONNECT IT LIKE THIS IF 6V out of the second supply will act as the GND and

the two actual GNDs out of the supplies will act as - If you want to use batteries, I'd suggest the first setup
6V. but a problem with batteries is that the voltage will
drop as they start to die and the voltage out of the
This last setup is for the power supplies with only one bridge will drop as well, giving wrong temperature
output, it uses a buffer amplifier of gain 1 to create a readings. You could of course read the voltage from
virtual ground by passing half the supply voltage the batteries and include them in the calculations or
through the buffer amp. Then the 12V will act as the use regulators and more batteries. In the end, it's up
+6V and the actual GND terminal will be -6V. to you.

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 7

Step 5: Full Circuit and Code

The full circuit is shown above and it was made in Autodesk's new Circuits.io which lets you created circuits on
breadboard, edit circuit diagram(shown in picture 2) and PCB diagrams and the best part, lets you simulate the
circuit from the breadboard and can even program an Arduino and connect it in the breadboard mode, further down
the page is the simulation and you can play around with two pots. If you want to duplicate the circuit and put in
your own values, you can find the circuit here. The first pot is 70ohms and in series with an 80ohm resistor which
simulates the PT100 with a range of 80-150ohms, the second pot is the gain of the instrumentation amp. Sadly I
used a library I downloaded for my code, so the Arduino isn't included in the circuit below but the there's only two
extra wires you need to connect. If you are more comfortable with LTspice, I included an asc file with the circuit.

Connect A0 pin to the output of the Differential amp

Connect the GND of the Arduino to the GND of the circuit(NOT THE -6V)

And that's the circuit done, now onto the code. Earlier I mentioned that we'll be using the formula y=mx+c, well
now we're going to calculate m(the slope) and c(the offset). In the Arduino, we'll be reading voltage but the
temperature equation needs us to know the resistance of the PT100 so a way we can do this is by replacing the
Serial.println(temp) with Serial.println(V) and record the voltage and resistance at two temperatures. When doing

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 8

this test leave the PT100 alone for a bit, like a minute or two and keep away from any heat sources(sunlight, laptop
fan, your body, etc).

The first point we can take is room temperature, when you have the circuit connected and working, record the
voltage(Vt1) read by the Arduino on the serial monitor and quickly disconnect the PT100 and record its
resistance(Rt1), do not put your hands on the probe when disconnecting as this will change the resistance. For the
second temperature, we could place the probe in ice water or hot water(be careful if using hot water) and repeat
what we did before finding Vt2 and Rt2. Just after you place the probe in the liquid wait a minute or two for the
resistance to settle. If you're interested in the time response of the PT100, record the voltage off of the serial
monitor every 2 seconds or so and we can draw a graph from this and I'll explain it later. Using the two voltages
and resistances, we can calculate the slope as follows:

Rt1 and Rt2 are the resistances at the two temperatures and same it true for the voltages Vt1 and Vt2. From the
slope and one of the two sets of points you recorded we can calculate the offset:

C should be close to your real Roff, From my simulation I calculated these values:

From this resistance we can find our temperature using the formula we had at the start:

And that's it, the code for the Arduino is below, if you have any problems, just leave a comment and I'll try to help.

There are no pictures of the circuit I made as I made it a while ago and don't have the PT100 anymore to remake
and test but you'll just have to believe me that it works. There isn't much about the PT100 on Instructables that I
found so that's why I made this ible.

In the next step I'll be talking about the time response of the PT100 and if you're not interested in the maths, when
you're measuring a temperature change, let the PT100 settle for a minute or so before taking the reading.

If you're interested to see other projects I've made, visit my

Blog: Roboroblog

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 9

YouTube Channel: Roboro

Or look at my other Instructables: here

If the HTML messes with the code below, the code is attached

* This code calculates the temperature using a PT100

* Written by Roboro
* Github: <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-With-Arduino"> <a> <a> <a> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-..
.</a"> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...</a"> <a> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-..."> <a href="https:/
/github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...</a"> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...</a"> https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Tem
p-From-PT100-...>>>>>>>>>>
* Circuit: <a href="https://circuits.io/circuits/2962051-reading-temperature-from-pt100/"> <a> <a> <a> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...<
/a"> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...</a"> <a> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-..."> <a href="https://gi
thub.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...</a"> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...</a"> https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-
From-PT100-...>>>>>>>>>>
* Blog: <a href="https://roboroblog.wordpress.com"> <a> <a> <a> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...</a"> <a href="https://github.com/R
onanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...</a"> <a> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-..."> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-F
rom-PT100-...</a"> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...</a"> https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...>>>>>>>>>>
* Instrustable Post: <a href="https://www.instructables.com/id/Reading-Temperature-From-PT100-Using-Arduino/"> <a> <a> <a> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/R
ead-Temp-From-PT100-...</a"> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...</a"> <a> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT
100-..."> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...</a"> <a href="https://github.com/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...</a"> https://github.c
om/RonanB96/Read-Temp-From-PT100-...>>>>>>>>>>
*
*/

//You'll need to download this timer library from here

//http://www.doctormonk.com/search?q=timer
#include "Timer.h"

// Define Variables
float V;
float temp;
float Rx;

// Variables to convert voltage to resistance

float C = 79.489;
float slope = 14.187;

// Variables to convert resistance to temp

float R0 = 100.0;
float alpha = 0.00385;

int Vin = A0; // Vin is Analog Pin A0

Timer t; // Define Timer object</p><p>void setup() {

Serial.begin(9600); // Set Baudrate at 9600
pinMode(Vin,INPUT); // Make Vin Input
t.every(100,takeReading); // Take Reading Every 100ms
}

void loop() {
t.update(); // Update Timer
}

void takeReading(){
// Bits to Voltage
V = (analogRead(Vin)/1023.0)*5.0; // (bits/2^n-1)*Vmax
// Voltage to resistance
Rx = V*slope+C; //y=mx+c
// Resistance to Temperature
temp= (Rx/R0-1.0)/alpha; // from Rx = R0(1+alpha*X)
// Uncommect to convet celsius to fehrenheit
// temp = temp*1.8+32;
Serial.println(temp);
}

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 10

 Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FAY/TXCJ/IUKENTDI/FAYTXCJIUKENTDI.asc
…

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FDA/UORS/IUKEO4GC/FDAUORSIUKEO4GC.ino
…

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 11

Step 6: Time Response of PT100

So I mentioned that the PT100 has a slow response a step in temperature so we're going to have to
but we can get a formula for the current temperature perform an inverse Laplace transform of a step into
read by the PT100 at any time t. The response of the the system. The transfer function of a first-order
PT100 is a first order response which in can be system with an input of a step is as follows:
written in Laplace terms i.e. transfer function, as:

Where Ks is the step size i.e. the temperature

difference. So let's say the probe is settled at 20
where tau( ) is the time constant, K is the gain of the
degrees C, placed into water at 30 degrees C and the
system and s is the Laplace operator which can be
probe has a time constant of 8s, the transfer function
written as j where is frequency.
and time domain formula is as follows:

The time constant tells you how long it takes a first

order system to settle at its new value and a rule or
thumb is that 5*tau is how long it'll take to settle at the
new steady state. The gain K tells you how much the
input will be amplified. With the PT100, the gain is
how much the resistance changes divided by the
temperature change, from picking two random values
from this datasheet, I got a gain of 0.3856 ohm/C. The (t) just means an impulse i.e. DC offset of 20
degrees C in this case, you can just write 20 in your
Before I said you could record the voltage every 2s equations when calculating this. This is the standard
after you put the probe in the liquid, hot or cold, from equation for the step into a first order system:
this we can calculate the time constant of the system.
First you need to identify where the start point and
end point, the start point being the voltage before you
put the probe in the liquid and the end point being
when it settled. Next subtract them and that's the
voltage change of the step, the test you conducted
was a step change which is a sudden change in input
to a system, the step being temperature. Now on your The above calculates the temperature at time t but
graph go to 63.2% of the voltage change and this this will work for the voltage as they are proportional
time is the time constant. to each other, you just need the starting and ending
value, time constant and step size. A website called
Symbolab is great for checking if your maths is right,
it can do Laplace, integration, differentiation and lots
If you plug that value into the transfer function, you of other things and it gives you all the steps along the
then have the formula to describes the frequency way. The inverse Laplace transform the above can be
response of the systems but that's not what we want found here.
right now, we want the actual temperature at time t for

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 12

Hi Roboro , I need your help
When you make your project and add an LCD to see the temperature, the value of the temperature
changes quickly and never stops.
i measure the temperature from pt100 3 wire
the program :
#include "Timer.h"
// Define Variables
float V;
float temp;
float Rx;
float k;
// Variables to convert voltage to resistance
float C = 79.489;
float slope = 14.187;
// Variables to convert resistance to temp
float R0 = 100.0;
float alpha = 0.00385;
int Vin = A0; // Vin is Analog Pin A0
Timer t; // Define Timer object
#include <LiquidCrystal.h>
LiquidCrystal lcd(12,11,5,4,3,2);
void setup() {
lcd.begin(16,2);
lcd.print("temp =");
Serial.begin(9600); // Set Baudrate at 9600
pinMode(Vin,INPUT); // Make Vin Input
t.every(100,takeReading); // Take Reading Every 100ms
}
void loop() {
t.update(); // Update Timer
lcd.setCursor(6,0);
lcd.print(" ");

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 13

lcd.print(temp);
lcd.print((char)223);
lcd.print("c");
lcd.setCursor(5,1);
k=temp+273;
lcd.print("= ");
lcd.print(k);
lcd.print(" k");
}
void takeReading(){
// Bits to Voltage
V = (analogRead(Vin)/1023.0)*5.0; // (bits/2^n-1)*Vmax
// Voltage to resistance
Rx = V*slope+C; //y=mx+c
// Resistance to Temperature
temp= (Rx/R0-1.0)/alpha; // from Rx = R0(1+alpha*X)
// Uncommect to convet celsius to fehrenheit
// temp = temp*1.8+32;
//Serial.println(temp);
}
is it enaugh to use only this equation ( temp = V*slope+C ) on the code ?
Yes you could reduce it to just that line if you know the offset temperature (C) and the slope
(Temperature/Volt)
If I wanted to make this to read from range -200C to 20C, what would you recommend for resistor
changes?
You would just need to change Roff to around 23Ohms and Rgain to around 1.6kohms from using
my approximate equations above. You can keep everything else the same
If I want to use the third option for the power supply using a buffer amp on a signal 12 VDC supply,
you have that listed as OP07 similar to the other operation amplifiers. Is that a LM741 also?
Yes you can use the LM741

Would you use a PT100 for measuring temperature of a piece of copper being submerged from
0ºC to -196ºC in liquid nitrogen? Would i have a quick response there?
Yes you could use a pt100 but the response will be relatively slow, the pt100 I used would take
around 40s to settle at the new temperature
using LM324 ?
Yes a LM324 will work as well

Very good.

Cesario
Hello. Do have the schematic for pt100 4-wire(two pairs)?

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 14

Hi Roboro, is it possible to get the temperature from three different PT100 using the same arduino?
Hi gabocarvallo1 yes you'd just need to repeat the steps above for the 3 PT100's

Roboro : How about measuring temperature from pt100 3 wire using arduino? could you share the
schematic circuit?
Hi King Le, sorry about the delay, you can keep nearly everything the same, you just need to
connect you wheatstone bridge and PT100 like below. Also refer to the second picture in step 2

Thanks very much, i will try it

perfect documentation

Always wanted to know how to set up a PT100 - thanks!

Cool arduino project.

Thanks

Measuring Temperature From PT100 Using Arduino: Page 15