Galvanometer

A galvanometer is a type of ammeter: an instrument for detecting and measuring electric current. It is an analog electromechanical transducer that produces a rotary deflection of some type of pointer in response to electric current flowing through its coil in a magnetic field. The term has expanded to include uses of the same mechanism in recording, positioning, and servomechanism equipment.

to &e measured.

History The term "galvanometer" derives from the surname of Luigi alvani. !any early applications of galvanometers for measuring and recording are associated with "illiam Thomson #Lord $elvin%. The earliest galvanometer was reported &y 'ohann #'ohan% (chweigger of )urem&erg at the *niversity of

+alle on ,-th (eptem&er ,./0. Andr12!arie Amp3re also contri&uted to the development of the galvanometer.

Operation The most familiar use is as an analog measuring instrument, often called a meter. It is used to measure the direct current #flow of electric charges% through an electric circuit. (uch devices are constructed with a small pivoting coil of wire in the field of a permanent magnet. The coil is attached to a thin pointer that traverses a cali&rated scale. A tiny spring pulls the coil and pointer to the 4ero position. In some meters, the magnetic field acts on a small piece of iron to perform the same effect as a spring. "hen a direct current #56% flows through the coil, the coil generates a magnetic field. This field acts with or against the permanent magnet. The coil pivots, pushing against the spring, and moving the pointer. The hand points at a scale indicating the electric current. A useful meter generally contains some provision for damping the mechanical resonance of the moving coil and pointer so that the pointer position smoothly trac7s the current without excess vi&ration. The &asic sensitivity of a meter might &e, for instance, ,00 microamperes full scale #with a voltage drop of, say, 80 millivolts at full current%. (uch meters are often cali&rated to read some other quantity that can &e converted to a current of that magnitude. The use of current dividers, often called shunts, allows a meter to &e cali&rated to measure larger currents. A meter can &e cali&rated as a 56 voltmeter if the resistance of the coil is 7nown &y calculating the

voltage required to generate a full scale current. A meter can &e configured to read other voltages &y putting it in a voltage divider circuit. This is generally done &y placing a resistor in series with the meter coil. A meter can &e used to read resistance &y placing it in series with a 7nown voltage #a &attery% and an ad9usta&le resistor. In a preparatory step, the circuit is completed and the resistor ad9usted to produce full scale deflection. "hen an un7nown resistor is placed in series in the circuit the current will &e less than full scale and an appropriately cali&rated scale can display the value of the previously2un7nown resistor. :ecause the pointer of the meter is usually a small distance a&ove the scale of the meter, parallax error can occur when the operator attempts to read the scale line that "lines up" with the pointer. To counter this, some meters include a mirror along the mar7ings of the principal scale. The accuracy of the reading from a mirrored scale is improved &y moving the head while reading the scale so that the pointer and the reflection of the pointer are aligned; at this point, the operator<s eye must &e directly a&ove the pointer and any parallax error has &een minimi4ed. Types =xtremely sensitive measuring equipment once used mirror galvanometers that su&stituted a mirror for the pointer. A &eam of light reflected from the mirror acted as a long, massless pointer. (uch instruments were used as receivers for early trans2 Atlantic telegraph systems, for instance. The moving &eam of light could also &e used to ma7e a record on a moving

photographic film, producing a graph of current versus time, in a device called an oscillograph. alvanometer mechanisms are used to position the pens of analog chart recorders such as used for ma7ing an electrocardiogram. (trip chart recorders with galvanometer driven pens might have a full scale frequency response of ,00 +4 and several centimeters deflection. In some cases #the classical polygraph of movies or the electroencephalograph%, the galvanometer is strong enough to move the pen while it remains in contact with the paper; the writing mechanism may &e a heated tip on the needle writing on heat2sensitive paper or a fluid2fed pen. In other cases #the >ustra7 recorders%, the needle is only intermittently pressed against the writing medium; at that moment, an impression is made and then the pressure is removed, allowing the needle to move to a new position and the cycle repeats. In this case, the galvanometer need not &e especially strong. alvanometers have &een replaced as measuring instruments &y analog to digital converters #A56% for most uses. There are, for instance, self contained digital measuring systems, called digital panel meters #5?!s%, availa&le to replace most traditional analog meter functions.

Tangent galvanometer

Tangent galvanometer made &y '.+.:unnell 6o. around ,.@0. A tangent galvanometer is an early measuring instrument used for the measurement of electric current. It wor7s &y using a compass needle to compare a magnetic field generated &y the un7nown current to the magnetic field of the =arth. It gets its name from its operating principle, the tangent law of magnetism, which states that the tangent of the angle a compass needle ma7es is proportional to the ratio of the strengths of the two perpendicular magnetic fields. It was first descri&ed &y 6laude ?ouillet in ,.AB. A tangent galvanometer consists of a coil of insulated copper wire wound on a circular non2magnetic frame. The frame is mounted vertically on a hori4ontal &ase provided with levelling screws. The coil can &e rotated on a vertical axis passing through its centre. A compass &ox is mounted hori4ontally at the centre of a circular scale. It consists of a tiny, powerful magnetic needle pivoted at the centre of the coil. The magnetic needle is free to rotate in the hori4ontal plane. The circular scale is divided into four quadrants. =ach quadrant is graduated from 0C to @0C. A long thin aluminium pointer is attached to the needle at its centre and at right angle to it. To avoid errors due to parallax a plane mirror is mounted &elow the compass needle.

In operation, the instrument is first rotated until the magnetic field of the =arth, indicated &y the compass needle, is parallel with the plane of the coil. Then the un7nown current is applied to the coil. This creates a second magnetic field on the axis of the coil, perpendicular to the =arth<s magnetic field. The compass needle responds to the vector sum of the two fields, and deflects to an angle equal to the tangent of the ratio of the two fields. Drom the angle read from the compass<s scale, the current could &e found from a ta&le. The current supply wires have to &e wound in a small helix, li7e a pig<s tail, otherwise the field due to the wire will affect the compass needle and an incorrect reading will &e o&tained.

Uses:
Past uses
A ma9or early use for galvanometers was for finding faults in telecommunications ca&les. They were superseded in this application late in the /0th century &y time2domain reflectometers. ?ro&a&ly the largest use of galvanometers was the 5<ArsonvalE"eston type movement used in analog meters in electronic equipment. (ince the ,@.0s, galvanometer2type analog meter movements have &een displaced &y analog to digital converters #A56s% for some uses. A digital panel meter #5?!% contains an analog to digital converter and numeric display. The advantages of a digital instrument are higher precision and accuracy, &ut factors such as power consumption or cost may still favor application of analog meter movements.

alvanometer mechanisms were also used to position the pens in analog strip chart recorders such as used in electrocardiographs, electroencephalographs and polygraphs. (trip chart recorders with galvanometer driven pens may have a full scale frequency response of ,00 +4 and several centimeters deflection. The writing mechanism may &e a heated tip on the needle writing on heat2sensitive paper, or a hollow in72fed pen. In some types the pen is continuously pressed against the paper, so the galvanometer must &e strong enough to move the pen against the friction of the paper. In other types, such as the >ustra7 recorders, the needle is only intermittently pressed against the writing medium; at that moment, an impression is made and then the pressure is removed, allowing the needle to move to a new position and the cycle repeats. In this case, the galvanometer need not &e especially strong. alvanometer mechanisms were also used in exposure mechanisms in film cameras.

Modern uses
!ost modern uses for the galvanometer mechanism are in positioning and control systems. alvanometer mechanisms are divided into moving magnet and moving coil galvanometers; in addition, they are divided into closed-loop and open-loop 2 or resonant 2 types. Mirror galvanometer systems are used as &eam positioning or &eam steering elements in laser scanning systems. Dor example, for material processing with high2power lasers, mirror galvanometer are typically high power galvanometer mechanisms used with closed loop servo control systems. The newest galvanometers designed for &eam steering applications can have frequency responses over ,0 7+4 with appropriate servo technology. =xamples of

manufacturers of such systems are 6am&ridge Technology Inc. #www.camtech.com% 2 now part of eneral (canning #www.gsig.com% 2 and (canla& #www.scanla&.de%. 6losed2loop mirror galvanometers are also used in stereolithography, in laser sintering, in laser engraving, in laser &eam welding, in laser TF, in laser displays, and in imaging applications such as Gptical 6oherence Tomography #G6T% retinal scanning. Almost all of these galvanometers are of the moving magnet type. Gpen loop, or resonant mirror galvanometers, are mainly used in laser2&ased &arcode scanners, in some printing machines, in some imaging applications, in military applications, and in space systems. Their fat2free &earings are especially of interest in all applications that require a vacuum. A galvanometer mechanism is used for the head positioning servos in hard dis7 drives. These are all of the moving coil type, in order to 7eep mass, and thus access times, as low as possi&le. alvanometer mechanisms are also used for the head positioning in 65E5F5 players. =specially in automotive versions, these mechanisms allow a &etter sta&ility against external vi&rations. The e2meter, a device used &y (cientologists during Auditing, is a modified variant of the galvanometer.