Manufacturer Accuracy Specifications Question....

I'm kind of curious just how accurate (pardon the pun) a manufacturer's specified accuracy is for a given sensor.

I'm sure this varies from sensor to sensor and manufacturer to manufacturer, but say for example we had a temperature sensor that the manufacturer claimed was accurate to + or - 1 degree celcius.

I'd be interested to know, generally speaking, how conservative or loose this number actually is.

Do most manufacturers err on the side of legal caution and say that it's worst case inaccuracy is +-1 degree when 99.9% of production runs will really be much more accurate than that, or do they normally go the other way and hype it up to be more accurate than it really normally is?

.....or when they say it's accurate +-1 degree, can it be taken as gospel that pretty much any device I pick up from any production run will be +-1 degree accurate.

Thanks.

It will depend on the integrity of the manufacturer and their market. The more spec's they give, the more likely the spec is good. I can say my thermometer is accurate to +/-1°C. But, I didn't say over what range. You have to know what variables (range, linearity, response time...) can affect that spec...and did the manufacturer state them.

Ken

You can often order higher spec version of many parts.