Skip to content
Main menu
  • Main page
  • Discover
  • Unexpected connections
  • Topics
  • Random article
  • Search
Your library
  • Saved articles
  • Recent discoveries
  • Rabbit-hole trails
Topic areas
  • Computer Science
  • Mathematics
  • Physics
  • Engineering
  • Biology
  • Economics
  • Curiosities
WikiholeDeeper into Wikipedia
EnglishEN
  • Saved
  • History

  • Article text and media come live from Wikipedia via the official MediaWiki API and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may apply. Each article links to its source and revision.
  • WikiHole is an independent project and is not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.
  • How ranking works
  • All topics
  • Reading history
  • Random article
  • MediaWiki API

Current loop

  • Article
  • Rabbit hole
  • Read
  • View history
Tools
Actions
  • Read
  • View history
General
  • Recent changes
  • Related articles
  • Random discovery
This article
Reading time
5 min
Topic
Engineering
Quality
Start-class
Views
462 in 14 days
Last edited
1 Feb 2026
Print/export
  • Printable version
In other projects
  • Wikidata item
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rabbit hole:
  1. Current loop

In electrical signalling an analog current loop is used where a device must be monitored or controlled remotely over a pair of conductors. Only one current level can be present at any time.

This article is about an analog electrical signaling scheme. For digital serial communications, see Digital current loop interface. For the oceanic phenomenon, see Loop Current. For the network analysis variable, see loop current.

A major application of current loops is the industry de facto standard 4–20 mA current loop for process control applications, where they are extensively used to carry signals from process instrumentation to proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controllers, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, and programmable logic controllers (PLCs). They are also used to transmit controller outputs to the modulating field devices such as control valves. These loops have the advantages of simplicity and noise immunity, and have a large international user and equipment supplier base. Some 4–20 mA field devices can be powered by the current loop itself, removing the need for separate power supplies, and the "smart" Highway Addressable Remote Transducer (HART) Protocol uses the loop for communications between field devices and controllers. Various may replace analog current loops, but 4–20 mA is still a principal industrial standard.

automation protocols

Loading the rest of the article…

Recent changes

Rabbit hole

Where Current loop leads. Every connection below has a source: a link in this article, a shared Wikipedia category, or CirrusSearch text similarity. Articles already on your trail are left out.

The rest of this article could not be loaded.

Wikipedia is rate limiting us right now. Try again in a minute.
Try again

Related articles are unavailable right now.

Wikipedia is rate limiting us right now. Try again in a minute.
Last edited
1 Feb 2026

Wikipedia did not return the list of recent edits.

View full revision history

General
  • Recent changes
  • Related articles
  • Random discovery
This article
Reading time
5 min
Topic
Engineering
Quality
Start-class
Views
462 in 14 days
Last edited
1 Feb 2026
Print/export
  • Printable version
In other projects
  • Wikidata item
Last edited
1 Feb 2026