Thanks for all the comments.
I need to measure the force of a hydraulic piston via a pressure transducer in the line. My piston is 8" diameter and my pump is 2000 psi. So my max force would be 100,480 lbs. I am using a "Red Lion" PAXS readout on another machine that is set up for 10,000 psi on a 6" piston. The lowest resolution is 10 lbs force. I can live with 10 lbs. But to get that I need to divide the force into 10,048 steps. If I used a 16 bit ADC then the resolution would be 1.5 lbs. So I can have some noise if I only need 10 lbs.
The sensor I am using is a 3000 psi Omega PX315-3KGI which has an accuracy of 0.25% BFSL so at 2000 psi I would have an error of 5 psi or 250 lbs. My ALLOWABLE system error is 1% (of Reading) or 1,000 lbs.
So am I overkill with 16 bits? I still need the 10 lb resolution.
I am using a pic.
Thanks
Steve