Electrical Measurements and Instruments

Instructor: Dr Muhammad Yaqoob Javed

COMSATS University

1
 DC Ammeter Circuit

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 Swamping Resistance

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 Multirange Ammeters

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 Multirange Ammeters

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 DC Voltmeter Circuit

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 Multirange Voltmeter

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 PMMC Instrument on AC
• PMMC instrument is polarized, that is, its terminals are identified as
+ and -.
• When an alternating current with a very low frequency (0.1Hz or
lower) is passed through a PMMC, the pointer tends to follow the
instantaneous level of the AC.
• With normal frequency 50Hz or higher, the damping mechanism of
the instrument and inertia of the meter movement prevent the
pointer from following instantaneous level. Instead, the pointer
settles at the average value of current i.e. zero.
 Full-Wave Rectifier Voltmeter
• A rectifier instruments uses diodes to convert AC to DC, which
produces positive deflection when passed through PMMC
instrument.
• As in case of DC voltmeter, the rectifier voltmeter circuit. The meter
deflection is proportional to the average current, which is 0.637 X
peak current. But the actual current to be indicated in AC
measurements is normally the rms quantity, which is 0.707 X peak
current.
Full Wave Rectifier Voltmeter

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Full-Wave Rectifier Voltmeter
Half-Wave Rectifier Voltmeter
• A half wave rectifier is employed in the AC voltmeter circuit as shown
in the fig.
• Rsh shunting the meter is included to cause a relatively large current
flow through D1 when the diode is forward baised.
• Diode D2 conduct during the negative half cycle of the output. D2
cause small voltage drop across D1 and the meter thus preventing the
flow any reverse leakage current through meter via D1.
• In half wave rectifier, Iav=0.5(0.637Im) .
Half-wave Rectifier Voltmeter

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Half-bridge Full-wave Rectifier Voltmeter
• The half bride name is applied because two
diodes and two resistors are employed instead
of four diodes.
• During the positive half cycle diode D is
Forward baise and D2 is reverse biased.
Current flow through D1 and R2. but R1 is in
parallel with R2 which is connected in series.
• Therefore, much of the current in D1 passes
through R1 while only part of it flow through
R2.
Half-bridge Full-wave Rectifier Voltmeter

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Rectifier Ammeter
• Like DC Ammeter an AC ammeter must have a very low resistance
because it is always connected in series with the circuit.
• Low resistance means low voltage drop across the ammeter, typically
not greater than 100mV.
• However the voltage drop across a diode is 0.7 or 0.3.
• When a bridge is connected the total voltage drop is 0.6 or 1.4.
• So, a rectifier is not suitable for direct application as an AC ammeter
Rectifier Ammeter
• The use of current transformer gives the ammeter a low terminal
resistance and low voltage drop.
• The transformer also step up the voltage to provide sufficient voltage
to operate the rectifier, at the same time it step down the current to a
level suitable for measurement from PMMC.

𝐼𝑝 𝑁𝑠
=
𝐼𝑠 𝑁𝑝
 Rectifier Ammeter

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Example
• A PMMC instrument require 100uA for FSD and the current
transformer has Ns=2000 and Np=5. If the rms primary current is
100mA, the secondary rms current is
5
𝐼𝑠 = 𝑋100𝑚𝐴 = 250𝑢𝐴
2000
1
𝐼𝑝 𝑎𝑣 = 𝑋250𝑢𝐴 = 225.2𝑢𝐴
1.11
Errors in Meter
Series Ohmmeter
• An Ohmmeter is normally part of Volt-ohm-milliammeter (VOM) or
multifunction meter.
• A simplest ohmmeter consists of a voltage sourse connected in series
with a pair of terminals, a standard resistance and a low current
PMMC instrument.
𝐸𝑏
𝐼𝑚 =
𝑅𝑠 + 𝑅1 + 𝑅𝑚
With external resistance is zero
𝐸𝑏
𝐼𝑚 =
𝑅1 + 𝑅𝑚
 Series Ohmmeter

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Ohmmeter with Zero Adjust

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Ohmmeter with zeroadjustment
𝐸𝑏
𝐼𝑚 =
𝑅𝑠 + 𝑅1 + 𝑅𝑚||𝑅2

𝑅𝑚||𝑅2 ≪ 𝑅1

𝐸𝑏
𝐼𝑚 =
𝑅𝑠 + 𝑅1

𝑉𝑚 = 𝐼𝑏(𝑅2||𝑅𝑚)

𝑅2||𝑅𝑚
𝑉𝑚 = 𝐼𝑏
𝑅𝑚
 Shunt Ohmmeter Circuit

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Scale & Range Switch for a Typical Multirange
Shunt Ohmmeter

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 Scale & Controls

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 Volt-Ohm Milliammeter

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Chapter 5

Analog Electronic
Instruments
Emitter-follower Voltmeters

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Practical Emitter-follower Voltmeter

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Ground Terminals & Floating Power Supplies

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Ground Terminals & Floating Power Supplies

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 FET-input Voltmeter

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Difference Amplifier Voltmeter

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Op-amp Voltage-follower Voltmeter

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Op-amp Amplifier Voltmeter

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Voltage to Current Converter

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 Series Ohmmeter

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 Shunt Ohmmeter

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 Linear Ohmmeter

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Op-amp Halfwave Rectifier Voltmeter

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Op-amp Halfwave Rectifier Voltmeter

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 Low-level Voltmeter

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Voltage-to-Current Converter

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Voltage-to-Current Converter

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Op-amp Halfbridge Rectifier Voltmeter

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 Voltmeter & Shunt

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Laboratory type Electronic Multimeter

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Frequency Response of AC Instruments

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 Multimeter Probes

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 Multimeter Probes

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 Multimeter Probes

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 Radio-frequency Probes

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