Hi everyone,

I've obtained this CO sensor for an experiment that I am doing at home. However, I have no clue whatsoever how it suppose to operate. Anyone with experience care to enlighten me as to how this is suppose to work? I do not understand by "working" and "counter" pin. The one and only data sheet available is attached to this thread.

Much thanks

 

Well, the output is given as around 45 microamps/% CO, and it's an electrochemical cell. That should mean that it reacts CO with the interior chemistry to produce the rated current.

The two terminals will have differing polarities. The working and counter designators are a head-scratcher.

Here is a link to the Wikipedia article on such cells - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrochemical_cell.

 

Yeah, I don't have any experience with this sort of thing. I guess I could always connect the sensor with two wires connected to it and measure the output at varying CO conditions and see what voltage output I get..if any.

 

The signal is going to be pretty weenie. The spec sheet recommends 5 ohms to load the signal with. You might want to use an op amp as an inverting amp with a large value feedback resistor to get the signal up to more useful level.

 

The manufacturer's website also has this: http://www.citytech.com/content/appnote20.pdf

Looks like "working" = "sensing" = "positive"