Lecture 8

Key Points
• The magnitude of an alternating waveform can be
described by its peak, peak-to-peak, average or r.m.s.
value
• The root-mean-square value of a waveform is the value
that will produce the same power as an equivalent direct
quantity
• Simple analogue ammeter and voltmeters are based
on moving coil meters
• Digital multimeters are easy to use and offer high
accuracy
• Oscilloscopes display the waveform of a signal and
allow quantities such as phase to be measured.
While most analog meters require no power
supply, give a better visual indication of
trends and changes, suffer less from electric
noise and isolation problems, and, are simple
and inexpensive, digital meters offer higher
accuracy and input impedance, unambiguous
readings at greater viewing distances,
smaller size, and a digital electrical output
(for interfacing with external equipment) in
addition to visual readout.
Analog electronic Volt – Ohm-Multimeters
Why using electronic instruments?
The moving coil instruments have some limitations such as
• Difficulty of measuring very low voltages
• Their resistance is too low for measurements in high impedance
circuit
So
electronics instruments are used to overcome those limitations as
• offer high input resistance
• Measure low level voltages.

The electronic measurements may be

Analog (use moving pointer over scale)
Digital (displaying numerical form)
Digital Voltmeter - Ammeter - Ohm Meter
A Digital Voltmeter (DVM) measures and display the value of
ac or dc voltages in decimal number system.

Block Diagram of Digital Voltmeter - Ammeter - Ohm Meter

The above block diagram represents the dual slope technique

type DVM.
It consists of an op-amp as integrator, a level comparator, a basic
clock, a set of decimal counters and a block of logic circuitry.

The unknown voltage is applied at Ux along with a known

reference voltage Uref. The magnitude of voltage is displayed an
digital display.
• Since the DMM is a voltage sensing meter; current is converted
to volts by passing it through a precision low resistance shunt
while ac is converted to dc at the AC converter by employing
rectifiers and filters. Most of the AC converters detect the peak
value of the signal and are calibrated to give the rms value of a
sine wave. However, some measures the mean of the rectified
signal such as the digital multimeter Agilent 34401A. Finally,
this dc level is applied to the A/D converter to obtain the digital
information.
• For resistance measurement, the meter includes a precision
low current source that is applied across the unknown resistor.
Then the dc voltage drop across the resistor, which is
proportional to the value of the unknown resistor, is measured.

• For AC measurements, the digital multimeter is a true rms

instrument that it measures true rms value of any periodic signal.
The main part of most of the digital multimeter (DMMs) is the
analog to digital converter (A/D) which converts an analog input
signal to a digital output. While specifications may vary, virtually
such multimeters are developed around the same block diagram
of Figure
A) VOLTAGE MEASUREMENT
To measure voltage, the instrument should be set to a A.C. or
D.C. range (the buttons of “DC V” and “AC V”). The red probe
should be connected to upper-right socket and black one to
middle-right socket as indicated in Figure.
The digital multimeter is an auto-range device that it is not needed
to arrange the range of voltage.
• Digital Voltmeters (DVMs) are a special case of A/Ds.
DVMs are voltmeters - i.e. they measure voltage - and are
general purpose instruments commonly used to measure
voltages in labs and in the field.
• Obviously, if voltage measurements are taken and the
results are displayed digitally with LED or LCD displays,
the instrument has to contain an A/D converter.
• Digital voltmeters usually have scales that are 0-0.3v, 0-3v,
0-30v, 0-300v, etc.
It is not clear why those ranges were chosen but they are
commonplace.
Now, consider some of the implications of these facts.
 B) CURRENT MEASUREMENT
To measure current, the instrument should be set to a
suitable A.C. or D.C. range.
For this purpose, firstly, blue “Shift” button is depressed then
“DC V” or “AC V” button is depressed.
The red probe should be connected to lower-right socket and
black one to middle-right socket.

C) RESISTANCE MEASUREMENT
To measure resistance, the “ꭥ 2W” button should be
depressed without selecting blue “Shift” button. The red probe
should be connected to upper-right socket and black one to
middle-right socket as in voltage measurement.
Measurement of Power - Watt-meters
Till now we have studied about measurement of current and
voltage (ac or dc) by Ammeter and Voltmeter. Now we will learn
about measurement of Electric Power by Wattmeter.
Wattmeter measures the electric power being consumed in the
circuit/equipment where it is connected. Small wattmeters
measures power in watts where as the wattmeters in electric
substations and power stations measures the power in kilo
watts(Kw) and mega watts (Mw). Wattmeters mainly are
following types
1. Dynamometer Type Instruments
Electro dynamometer type instrument is also a moving coil
instrument and can be used for AC and DC measurements.
With this we can measure Current, Voltage and Power. But
mainly it is used as wattmeter. Its scale is uniform when
this instrument is used as wattmeter.

Principle
The dynamometer type instrument works on the principle of
Electrodynamic effect of electric current (Principle of Motor).
It states that “when a current carrying conductor is placed in a
magnetic field, it experiences a force and moves away from the
magnetic field”.
Construction
The instrument consists of two fixed coils and a movable coil The
fixed coils are made of a few turns of thick copper wire and called
current coil. The movable coil of fine copper wire and made on
thin aluminium frame and called pressure coil. It is placed on the
spindle which was pivoted on two bearings. A hair spring is
attached to spindle to provide controlling torque. Damping is
provided by eddy currents induced in aluminium frame. The other
arrangements are as shown in figure.
Working
When the instrument is connected in a circuit, the current
passes through the both coils. The flux produced by current
coil is proportional to load current and the current through
moving coil is proportional to the voltage across the load.
Because of these two types of fluxes, different magnetic fields
were developed. Hence the moving coil experiences a force
and moves (deflects).
The deflecting torque is proportional to the product of
voltage and current in the two coils.

Applications
The Dynamometer type instrument can be used as Voltmeter,
Ammeter and Wattmeter.
Induction type Instruments
The induction type of instruments has wide applications as
wattmeter and energy meter but can also be used as ammeter
and voltmeter. The deflecting torque is produced by the eddy
currents induced in an light aluminium or copper disc or drum by
revolving flux created by electromagnets. It has a wide scale
spread over 300o.
Induction type instruments are used only for A.C.Measurements.

Principle
• The Principle of induction wattmeters is the same as that of
induction ammeter.
• The operation of all induction type instrument depends upon
the production of torque due to the reaction between the flux (ɸ)
and the eddy current in a metal disc due to other flux.
Construction and working
The wattmeter has two laminated electromagnets, one of which is
excited by the current in the main circuit and called a series
magnet. The other is excited by current which is proportional to the
voltage of the circuit and called shunt magnet.

Induction type watt-meter

A thin aluminum disc is so mounted that its cuts the flux of both
magnets.
Hence two eddy currents are produced in the disc, and torque is
produced in the disc. The deflection torque is produced due to the
interaction of these eddy currents and inducing flux. Two or three
copper rings are fitted on the central limb of the shunt magnet and
can be also adjusted to make the resultant flux in the shunt
magnet lag behind the applied voltage by 90o.
Induction wattmeter shown above is spring-controlled. The spring
being fitted to the spindle of the moving system which also carries
the pointer. The scale is uniformly even and extends over 300o.
Currents up to 100A can be handled by such wattmeter directly.
But for currents greater than this value they are used in conjuction
with current transformer. The pressure coil is purposely made as
much inductive as possible order that the flux through it should lag
behind the voltage by 90o.
Advantages and limitation of Induction Wattmeter

These wattmeters posses the advantages of fairly long

scale extending over 300o.
They are free form the effects of stray fields, and have
good damping.
They are practically free from frequency errors.
However they are subjected to (sometimes) serious
temperature errors, because the main effect of
temperature is on the resistance of the eddy current
paths.
Digital frequency meter
The signal, where frequency is to be measured is converted into
train of pulses, one pulse for each cycle of the signal. The
number of pulses appearing in a definite time period is counted
by an electronic counter. The number of appearing on the counter
is direct value of frequency of the unknown signal.
How Do You Measure Voltage Signals?
Well, you have to remember, that a voltage
signal is a time-varying voltage. It's an across
variable, so you treat any instrument's leads just as
though they are voltmeter leads, which is what they
are.
 Since it is a time varying voltage, the instrument of
choice is often an oscilloscope.
Modern oscilloscopes usually can display a
waveform and compute values for signal parameters,
like amplitude, frequency, peak-to-peak voltage and
RMS voltage.
•What is an oscilloscope used for?
Measuring time-varying signals - by showing details
of the wave shape
•Measuring aspects of time-varying signals
• Frequency of a signal
• Peak value of a signal
The oscilloscope is the most powerful instrument
in our arsenal of electronic instruments. It is widely used
for measurement of time-varying signals. Any time you
have a signal that varies with time - slowly or quickly -
you can use an oscilloscope to measure it - to look at it,
and to find any unexpected features in it.
The features you see in a signal when you use an
oscilloscope to look at a signal are features you cannot
see otherwise.
 Note the following features of the oscilloscope
•There is a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) screen on which
the signals will be presented. That's at the left.
•There are numerous controls to control things like:
• The time scale of the presentation
• A vertical scale
•A cable (IEEE-488) to connect the oscilloscope to a
computer. That lets you:
• Take measurements with the scope
• Put the measurements in a computer file
• Analyse the data with Mathcad, Matlab, Excel,
etc.
•Notice that this oscilloscope has two input
channels. The controls for the two channels are just
to the right of the screen.
•How do you use an oscilloscope?
Plug it in. That's not facetious.
•Turn it on. There is a push button at the lower right edge of the
screen. It says "Line" and indicates a "0" and a "1"
setting. Depress that button.
•Apply a signal to the input terminals.
• Your oscilloscope may have provision for more than one
signal input. Choose Channel 1 if that is the case.
•Make sure that the settings match the signal. For example:
• If you have a signal at 1000 Hz, then the period of the signal
is 1 millisecond (.001 sec) and you would not want the time
scale set so that you only display a microsecond of data, and
you also probably won't see much if you display 10 seconds
worth of data.
• If you have a signal that is 10 millivolts high, you won't see
much if you set the oscilloscope to shown you a signal at 20
volts full-scale. Conversely, you won't see much of a 20 volt
signal if the scope is set for 10 millivolts full-scale.
Sine Waves
Short Answer Type Questions
1. What is indicating instrument?
2. List the main parts of indicating instrument.
3. Write the applications of Integrating instruments and Recording
instruments?
4. What are the effects of current used in the measuring
instruments?
5. Name different types of Moving coil and Moving iron
instruments?
6. Define shunt and multiplier.
7. Define controlling torque. How it is arraged in instruments?
8. What are the advantages of Moving Iron instruments?
9. Name different types of wattmeters and write their applications.
Long Answer Type Questions
1. Draw the construction and explain the working of
PMMC.
2. Show the parts of Moving Iron attraction type
instrument and explain its working with neat sketch.
3. Write the comparison between moving coil and
moving iron instruments
4. Draw a neat sketch of dynamometer type wattmeter
and explain its working.
5. What is induction type instrument? Explain the
construction and working of Induction type wattmeter.