ASSIGNMENT OF

MEASUREMENTS AND
INSTRUMENTATION
ASSIGNMENT TOPIC:
1. DISCUSS IN DETAIL ELECTRONIC AC VOLTMETER
2. ADVANTAGES OF ANALOG AND DIGITAL VOLTMETER
 ELECTRONIC AC VOLTMETER

INTRODUCTION:
ELECTRONIC AC VOLTMETERS differ from their dc counterparts only in
that, the AC voltage must be converted to dc before being applied to
the meter movement.

DEFINITION:
A meter circuit built around an active device, such as vacuum tube or
a transistor, and having high input impedance.

AC electromechanical meter movements come in two basic

arrangements:

• Those based on DC movement designs.

• Those engineered specifically for AC use.

CONDITIONING:
Permanent-magnet moving coil (PMMC) meter movements will not
work correctly if directly connected to alternating current, because the
direction of needle movement will change with each half-cycle of the
AC. From diagram, Permanent-magnet meter movements, like
permanent-magnet motors, are devices whose motion depends on the
polarity of the applied voltage (or, as in terms of the direction of the
current). The alternating current must be rectified into DC. This is
most easily accomplished through the use of devices called diodes.
 Diagram of PMMC movement when it is applied AC input

WORKING PRINCIPLE:
In electronic ac voltmeters input signal is firstly rectified and then
supplied to the dc amplifier. Sometimes signal is firstly amplified by ac
amplifier and then rectified before supplying it to dc meter.
A simple electronic voltmeter circuit using an operational amplifires,
If the combination of voltage to current converterand precision diode
rectifire.by putting the diode or diodes inside the feedback loop of the
operational amplifire the effect of diode voltage drop is minimized.
Then if here use half wave rectifire the current waveform through
meter is a half rectifired sinewave even for input voltages less than
0.7v peak and current through meter is Im is given by
 • Im = Vin/R
Since average current through meter is
Im (average) = 0.318Im (Peak)
Im (average) = 0.45Irms
On other hand a full wave bridge rectifire can be used in op- amp’s
feed back loop as shown below .
Two diodes are forward biased on positive half cycle and current flows
from + to –of PMMC meter. During negative half cycle yhe other two
diodes are forward biased and current flowing through the meter as
during the positive half cycle.

instantaneous current through meter is;

o Im = Vin/R2
For a sinewave the average current through the meter is
 Im (average) = 0.637Im (Peak)
Im (average) = 0.9 Irms
In case, the circuit shown in figure making use of rectifying diode,
series resistance R, dc amplifier and PMMC is employed, the average
voltage across R will indicate the peak value of applied voltage. This
alternative is preferred, as explained earlier; the power consumption
can be reduced by making series resistance R high. By making series
resistance R high a less sensitive type of PMMC instrument can also be
used. The high value input resistance also gives more linear
relationship between peak applied voltage and the instrument
indication.

ADVANTAGES OF ANALOG VOLTMETER

AND DIGITAL VOLTMETER:
Advantages of analog voltmeter:

• As costs have fallen, analog meters much cheaper than digital

voltmeter.

• Analog, if you know the meter scale, you will know approximate
readings peripherally or with just a glance to see that the needle
is in the right neighborhood.

• Analog meter resistance should be ten times the circuit

resistance to ensure accurate readings.

• A high sensitivity is necessary to prevent upsetting the test

circuit.

• Analog meters have several different options for displaying data:

commonly a galvanometer registers movement.

Advantages of digital voltmeter:

• The digital readout of a digital meter circumvents all of these

concerns by displaying a precise readout in digital numeric form.

• This feature makes them potentially more portable than their

analog counterparts, which are limited in scale by their need to
 house mechanical components. Increased portability necessitates
increased durability.

A digital meter is calibrated by exposing it to a neutral, or zero-

level, signal and then setting the readout to zero. This is
typically accomplished with the push of a button, which
sends a signal to the meter to reset the readout.

• Electronics-related digital meters have built-in overload

protection that is uncommon in analog meters. The components
of an analog meter will burn out if exposed to too strong an
electrical load. A protected digital meter is protected from the
same load.