optical fibre use in transmission of sensors signals

[sugandh]

i have a serious question
for reducing the cables and cost of a machine i want to use optical fibre(OF) ,if we have approx.50 sensors,limit switches ,potenstiometers and vavles solenoids all together in one part of a machine can i convert the output of these to get a signal form or multiplexing it to get a digital form and then converting this to light signal thru photonic power Module (PPM)to travel to the main panel just 20 meters away and vice versa to get electrical signal again to operate PLC ,and again from PLC using optical fibre to seperate it to different outputs will it be cost effective??which OF type can i use?can OF takes all the signal in its one light beam? Means all 50 sensor signals (if we see the termination point there will be dc+,dc-,ground all over some 100 contacts will be there)can be transmitted thru one optical fibre?
eliminating copper cables for this number of devices,connectors,relay,junction boxes, trays will be reduced which is our target reserach ?is it possible?

and what about cost factor , cost reduction is also important.

please as fast any one can tell me

 

[keith1200rs]

You can certainly do what you ask. Whether is is cost effective would take some time to cost out each approach. My guess is it would not be justified on cost grounds. I have designed a system to transmit data from a number of sensors (including camera images) and accept commands over 5km of fibre but the justification was technical, not cost.

You say you will eliminate junction boxes, copper cable etc but you still have to get all the connections in to the electronics to transmit the data and vice versa. 20m of cable isn't that expensive compared to the cost of developing the electronics.

Keith

 

[biff44]

IF I were you, I would look into the passive optical components available for fiber to the home type applications. I suspect they are pretty low cost by now. How you hook up the components is important...maybe some sort of fiber ring connecting all the sensors in a big loop, and a token ring architecture?