RTD Sensor
RTD stands for “Resistance Temperature Detector”. An RTD sensor is essentially a temperature
sensitive resistor that changes resistance when the temperature changes.
RTD sensors have high accuracy, stability, and repeatability. They provide a largely linear output over a
wide temperature range and are normally housed in a protective cable, which makes them very robust.
However, they are more expensive than thermocouples and thermistors, and they have slower response
times.
The most common RTDs are wire wound, platinum RTDs. They consist of a platinum wire that is
wound around a ceramic core. The length of this platinum wire is chosen to achieve a specified
resistance at 0°C. This is called the R0 resistance. For the Pt100 Sensor the R0 resistance is 100 Ω and
for the Pt1000 the resistance is 1000Ω, for instance. And Pt refers to the fact that the sensor is made
from platinum.
Wiring configurations of RTDs
RTDs come in 2-wire, 3-wire, or 4-wire configurations, with the 3-wire configuration being the most
common one.
Two wires are used to connect to the internal temperature sensitive resistor element of the RTD.
However, the wires themselves have resistance as well. To be able to measure their resistance and to
compensate for it, one or two additional wires are connected in the 3- and 4-wire RTDs as shown above.
Two-wire RTDs are typically chosen for applications where accuracy is not critical and the wires are
short. They are easy to use but are less accurate since there is no compensation for the resistance of the
wires possible.
Three-wire RTDs are the most common configuration that compensates for the resistance added by the
wires, allowing for better accuracy and longer wires. With this configuration, the controller makes two
measurements. The first measures the total resistance of the sensor and the connecting wires. The
second the resistance of the compensation loop. By subtracting the compensation loop resistance from
the total resistance, a net resistance can be calculated.
Technical Specification of the Pt100 RTD
The Pt100 is a 3-wire RTD with a nominal resistance of 100Ω at 0°C. The resistive wire is made of
Platinum and the housing of the probe and the cable wrapping are made of stainless steel. Sensor and
cable are water tight. The sensor has a temperature range from -50 to 200℃ with an accuracy of ±0.15
°C.
Breakout board for MAX31865
Typically you don’t use the MAX31865 IC directly but in the shape of a breakout board. There are
different versions but I am going to focus on the one listed in the Required Parts. The picture below
shows the top and bottom of the MAX31865 breakout board.
You can see the inputs for the SPI interface and the RTD sensor marked. The board runs on 5V or 3.3V
and therefore works nicely with Arduino or ESP32 microcontrollers.
You have to watch out when buying a MAX31865 breakout board. It should match your RTD sensor.
The MAX31865 breakout boards differ in the Rref resistor that is pre-soldered on the board. If you have
a Pt100 RTD you want a board with a Rref = 430Ω (labelled as 4300). But for a Pt1000 the Rref should be
4300Ω (labeled as 4301):
Though, you can replace the Rref resistor if you need to, because otherwise the boards are identical.
Connecting the RTD Sensor to the MAX31865
When connecting the RTD Sensor to the MAX31865 it is easy to make mistakes and you will get fault
message from MAX31865 if you do it wrong. Please read the following sections carefully!
We start with the description of the wiring and board setup for the 3-wire RTD, since this is the most
common configuration.
3 Wire RTD
Before you connect the RTD wires to the board you have to prepare the board for the 3-wire
configuration. Specifically, you need to do the following three steps:
1. Solder together the two pads labelled “2/3 Wire“
2. Solder together the two right-most pads of the section labelled “24 3“
3. Cut the thin trace between the two left-most pads of the section labelled “24 3“
The picture below shows the relevant locations on the breakout board (marked yellow)
MAX31865 Board
The MAX31865 is a precision analog front-end IC for platinum RTD temperature sensors. It works by
measuring the resistance of the RTD sensor and converting it into a digital value using a built-in analog-
to-digital converter (ADC). Below is the block diagram of the internals of the MAX31865 IC.
We can see the inputs for the RTD on the left (RTDIN+, RTDIN-, FORCE), the 15-bit ADC in the
center and the SPI interface (SCLK, SDO, SDO, CS) on the right. The RTD sensor itself will be
connected to the RTDIN+, RTDIN- inputs, while the FORCE pins are used to measure the wire
resistance. The following table describes the all the pins and their functions.
The MAX31865 can handle PT100 or PT1000 sensors in 2-wire, 3-wire, or 4-wire configurations. Due
to the 15-bit ADC it is very accurate with a resolution of 0.03125°C and a fast conversion time of 21ms.
Furthermore, it has a built-in fault reporting function for errors such as Open RTD Element, RTD
Shorted, Out-of-Range Voltage, or Short across RTD Element.
