The terms accuracy and resolution of oilfield sensors are sometimes used interchangeably, however they are very different. The accuracy of the sensor refers to the maximum error in the measured value anywhere within its full scale span. The resolution of a sensor refers to the number of discrete values it can attain within its full scale span.
So an analog pressure may claim a very high resolution (say 16 bits OR 65536 discrete steps OR 0.1 psi), but may have a very poor accuracy (say 50 psi). On the other hand, another sensor may only have a 12 bits of resolution, but may have a very good accuracy. This is because, in order to evaluate the sensor performance, the entire system, including the sensor and its associated data acquisition instrumentation, needs to be considered. The Rapidlogger data acquisition is specifically designed to help the operator achieve the best possible accuracy and resolution from their oilfield service sensors.
