Electrical Technology

Measuring Instruments

Made By:

Muhammad Affan Qamar

 Contents
Measuring Instruments.........................................................................................................................................................2
1. Galvanometer................................................................................................................................................................2
a. Definition:......................................................................................................................................................................2
b. History:.......................................................................................................................................................................... 2
c. Basic Principle:..............................................................................................................................................................2
d. Construction:.................................................................................................................................................................2
e. Working:........................................................................................................................................................................3
f. Operation of moving coil:..............................................................................................................................................3
g. Equation:.......................................................................................................................................................................4
h. Uses:.............................................................................................................................................................................. 4
2. Ammeter....................................................................................................................................................................... 5
a. Definition:......................................................................................................................................................................5
b. History:.......................................................................................................................................................................... 5
c. Principle of Operation:..................................................................................................................................................5
d. Construction:.................................................................................................................................................................6
e. Operation of moving coil:..............................................................................................................................................6
f. Hot-wire Ammeter:.......................................................................................................................................................7
g. Electrodynamometer as Ammeter:...............................................................................................................................7
h. Applications:..................................................................................................................................................................7
3. Voltmeter...................................................................................................................................................................... 8
a. Definition:......................................................................................................................................................................8
b. Basic Principle of Construction:.....................................................................................................................................8
c. Operation of moving coil:..............................................................................................................................................9
d. Construction:.................................................................................................................................................................9
e. Electrodynamometer as Voltmeter:............................................................................................................................10
f. Uses:............................................................................................................................................................................ 10
4. Watt meter.................................................................................................................................................................. 10
a. Definition:.................................................................................................................................................................... 10
b. Operation of moving coil:............................................................................................................................................11
c. Construction and working:..........................................................................................................................................11
d. Electrodynamometer as Wattmeter:...........................................................................................................................12
e. Wattmeter Connection:...............................................................................................................................................12

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 Measuring Instruments

1. Galvanometer

a. Definition:
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. The term has expanded to include
uses of the same mechanism in recording, positioning, and servomechanism equipment.

b. History:
The history of galvanometer can be traced back
to 1820, when Danish physicist - Hans Christian Oersted noted that a
magnetic needle gets deflected as it comes in contact with an electric
current. This observation by Oersted went on to become the basic principle
of the working of a galvanometer. In the same year, German physicist -
Johann Schweigger worked on this principle, and came up with the first
galvanometer. The credit for the invention of the first moving-coil
galvanometer, which is widely used today, goes to French physicist -
Jacques Arsene D'Arsonval. A few years later, Edward Weston made quite a
few changes to this design, and improvised it.

c. Basic Principle:
Galvanometer works on
the principle of conversion of electrical energy into mechanical
energy. When a current flows in a magnetic field it experiences
a magnetic torque. If it is free to rotate under a controlling
torque, it rotates through an angle proportional to the current
flowing through it.

d. Construction:
 The flat rectangular coil of
thin enameled insulated wire of suitable number of turns
wound on a light     nonmetallic or aluminum frame is
suspended between the cylindrically concave poles of magnet
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by a     thin phosphor bronze strip. One end of the wire of the coil is soldered to strip. The other end of the
strip     fixed to the frame of the galvanometer and connected to an external terminal. It serves as one leas
current lead through which the current enters or leaves the coil. The other end of the wire of the coil is
soldered to a loose and soft spiral of wire connected to another external terminal. The soft spiral of a     wire
serves as the other current lead. A soft-iron cylinder, coaxial with the pole pieces, is placed within     the frame
of the coil and is fixed to the body of the galvanometer. In the space between it and the pole     pieces, where
the coil moves freely, the soft iron cylinder makes the magnetic field stronger and radial     such that into
whatever position the coil rotates, the magnetic field is always parallel to its plane.

e. Working:
When a current passes through the galvanometer coil, it experiences a magnetic
deflecting torque,     which tends to rotate it from its rest position. As the coil rotates it produces a twist in the
suspension     strip. The twist in the strip produces an electric restoring torque. The coil rotates until the elastic
restoring torque due to the strip does not equal and cancels the deflecting magnetic torque, then it     attains
equilibrium and stops rotating any furthers.

f. Operation of moving coil:

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 charge) through an electric
circuit. The D'Arsonval/Weston form used today is 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 calibrated scale. A tiny torsion
spring pulls the coil and pointer to the zero position.

When a direct current (DC) flows through the coil, the coil
generates a magnetic field. This field acts against the permanent
magnet. The coil twists, pushing against the spring, and moves
the pointer. The hand points at a scale indicating the electric
current. Careful design of the pole pieces ensures that the
magnetic field is uniform, so that the angular deflection of the
pointer is proportional to the current. A useful meter generally
contains provision for damping the mechanical resonance of the
moving coil and pointer, so that the pointer settles quickly to its
position without oscillation

The basic sensitivity of a meter might be, for instance, 100 microamperes full scale (with a voltage drop of,
say, 50 millivolts at full current). Such meters are often calibrated to read some other quantity that can be
converted to a current of that magnitude. The use of current dividers, often called shunts, allows a meter to
be calibrated to measure larger currents. A meter can be calibrated as a DC voltmeter if the resistance of the
coil is known by calculating the voltage required to generate a full scale current. A meter can be configured to
read other voltages by putting it in a voltage divider circuit. This is generally done by placing a resistor in series
with the meter coil. A meter can be used to read resistanceby placing it in series with a known voltage (a

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battery) and an adjustable resistor. In a preparatory step, the circuit is completed and the resistor adjusted to
produce full scale deflection. When an unknown resistor is placed in series in the circuit the current will be less
than full scale and an appropriately calibrated scale can display the value of the previously-unknown resistor.

Because the pointer of the meter is usually a small distance above 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 markings of the principal scale. The accuracy of the reading from a mirrored
scale is improved by positioning one's 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 be directly above the pointer and
any parallax error has been minimized.

g. Equation:
The galvanometer is oriented so that the plane of the coil is parallel to the local
magnetic meridian, that is the horizontal component BH of the Earth's magnetic field. When a current passes
through the galvanometer coil, a second magnetic field B perpendicular to the coil is created, of strength:

Where “I” is the current in amperes, n is the number of turns of the coil and r is the radius of the coil. These
two perpendicular magnetic fields add vectorially, and the compass needle points along the direction of their
resultant, at an angle of:

From tangent law,  , i.e.

or

Or , where K is called the Reduction Factor of the tangent galvanometer.

One problem with the tangent galvanometer is that its resolution degrades at both high currents and low
currents. The maximum resolution is obtained when the value of θ is 45°. When the value of θ is close to 0° or
90°, a large percentage change in the current will only move the needle a few degrees.

h. Uses:
Most modern uses for the galvanometer mechanism are in positioning and control
systems. A galvanometer mechanism is used for the head positioning servos in hard disk drives. They are also
used in laser marking and projection, and in imaging applications such as Optical Coherence Tomography
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(OCT) retinal scanning. Mirror galvanometer systems are used as beam positioning elements in laser optical
systems. 

Probably the largest use of galvanometers was the D'Arsonval/Weston type movement used in analog meters
in electronic equipment. 

A major early use for galvanometers was for finding faults in telecommunications cables. 

2. Ammeter

a. Definition:
An ammeter is a measuring
instrument used to measure the electric current in a circuit. Electric
currents are measured in amperes (A), hence the name. Instruments
used to measure smaller currents, in the milliampere or microampere
range, are designated as milliammeters or micrometers.

b. History:
The relation between electric current, magnetic fields and physical forces was first
noted by Hans Christian Ørsted who, in 1820, observed a compass needle was deflected from pointing North
when a current flowed in an adjacent wire. The tangent galvanometer was used to measure currents using this
effect, where the restoring force returning the pointer to the zero position was provided by the Earth's
magnetic field. This made these instruments usable only when aligned with the Earth's field. Sensitivity of the
instrument was increased by using additional turns of wire to multiply the effect – the instruments were called
"multipliers".

c. Principle of Operation:
An ammeter consists of a coil
with very low resistance, when electric current flows
through the coil; the coil induces a magnetic field which
turns the needle.

Ammeters vary in their operating principles and

accuracies. The D’Arsonval-movement ammeter
measures direct current with accuracies of from 0.1 to 2.0
percent. The electrodynamics ammeter uses a moving
coil rotating in the field produced by a fixed coil. It

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 measures direct and alternating current with accuracies of from 0.1 to 0.25 percent. In the thermal ammeter,
used primarily to measure.

d. Construction:
Since Galvanometer is a very sensitive
instrument therefore it can’t measure heavy currents. In order to convert a
Galvanometer into an Ammeter, a very low resistance known as "shunt"
resistance is connected in parallel to Galvanometer. Value of shunt is so
adjusted that most of the current passes through the shunt. In this way a
Galvanometer is converted into Ammeter and can measure heavy currents
without fully deflected.

Let resistance of galvanometer = Rg and it gives full-scale deflection when current Ig is passed through     it.
Then,
Vg = IgRg -------(i)
    Let a shunt of resistance (Rs) is connected in parallel to galvanometer. If total current through the     circuit
is I.

    Then current through shunt:

Is = (I-Ig)
    potential difference across the shunt:

Vs= IsRs
or 
              Vs = (I – Ig)Rs -------(ii)
    But

Vs =Vg
(I - Ig)Rs = IgRg 

e. Operation of moving coil:

The D'Arsonval galvanometer is a moving coil ammeter. It

uses magnetic deflection, where current passing through a
coil causes the coil to move in a magnetic field. The modern
form of this instrument was developed by Edward Weston
(NOT the American photographer!), and uses two spiral
springs to provide the restoring force. By maintaining a
uniform air gap between the iron core of the instrument and
the poles of its permanent magnet, the instrument has good
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linearity and accuracy. Basic meter movements can have full-scale deflection for currents from about 25
microamperes to 10 mill amperes and have linear scales.

f. Hot-wire Ammeter:
An ammeter which
measures alternating or direct current by sending it through a
fine wire, causing the wire to heat and to expand or sag,
deflecting a pointer is called hot-wire ammeter . It is also
known as thermal ammeter.

In a hot-wire ammeter, a current passes through a wire which

expands as it heats. Although these instruments have slow
response time and low accuracy, they were sometimes used in
measuring radio-frequency current.

Early hot wire ammeters had a silk thread wound around the
needle pivot and anchored at one end to a tensioner and the other to the hot wire. A small pulley may have
been free to run on the wire element and when the latter heated up from passing current it stretched,
allowing the pulley to move toward the needle pivot. This would relax the tension and allow the needle to
move across the scale.

The adjusting screw, passing through the lower edge would seem to distort the metal frame in a bow-fashion,
causing the hot wire to tighten or slacken, increasing or reducing tension and allowing the pointer to move to
read zero.

g. Electrodynamometer as Ammeter:
When the electrodynamometer is used as an
ammeter, a special type of construction must be used. This is because the large currents that flow through the
meter cannot be carried through the moving coils. In the ammeter in view B of figure 3-17, stationary coils a
and b are wound of heavier wire to carry up to5.0 amperes. An inductive shunt (XL) is wired in parallel with
the moving coils and permits only a small part of the total current to flow through the moving coil. The current
flowing through the moving coil is directly proportional to
the total current flowing through the instrument. The shunt
has the same ratio of reactance to resistance as the moving
coil does. Therefore, the instrument will be reasonably
correct at frequencies at which it is used if ac currents are to
be measured.

h. Applications:
The majority of ammeters
are either connected in series with the circuit carrying the
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current to be measured (for small fractional amperes), or have their shunt resistors connected similarly in
series. In either case, the current passes through the meter or (mostly) through its shunt. They must not be
connected to a source of voltage; they are designed for minimal burden, which refers to the voltage drop
across the ammeter, which is typically a small fraction of a volt. They are almost a short circuit.

Ordinary Weston-type meter movements can measure only mill amperes at most, because the springs and
practical coils can carry only limited currents. To measure larger currents, a resistor called a shunt is placed
in parallel with the meter. The resistances of shunts is in the integer to fractional milliohm range. Nearly all of
the current flows through the shunt, and only a small fraction flows through the meter. This allows the meter
to measure large currents. Traditionally, the meter used with a shunt has a full-scale deflection (FSD) of 50 mV,
so shunts are typically designed to produce a voltage drop of 50 mV when carrying their full rated current.

3. Voltmeter

a. Definition:
A voltmeter is an instrument used for
measuring the electrical potential difference between two points in an
electric circuit. Analog voltmeters move a pointer across a scale in
proportion to the voltage of the circuit; digital voltmeters give a
numerical display of voltage by use of an analog to digital converter.

b. Basic Principle of Construction:

A moving
coil galvanometer can be used as a voltmeter by inserting a resistor in
series with the instrument. It employs a small coil of fine wire suspended in a strong magnetic field. When an
electric current is applied, the galvanometer's indicator rotates and compresses a small spring. The angular
rotation is proportional to the current through the coil. For use as a voltmeter, a series resistance is added so
that the angular rotation becomes proportional to the applied voltage.

Voltmeters operating on the electrostatic principle use the mutual repulsion between two charged plates to
deflect a pointer attached to a spring. Meters of this type draw negligible current but are sensitive to voltages
over about 100 volts and work with either alternating or direct current.

One of the design objectives of the instrument is to disturb the circuit as little as possible and so the
instrument should draw a minimum of current to operate. This is achieved by using a sensitiveammeter or
microammeter in series with a high resistance.

The sensitivity of such a meter can be expressed as "ohms per volt", the number of ohms resistance in the
meter circuit divided by the full scale measured value. For example a meter with a sensitivity of 1000 ohms per
volt would draw 1 milliampere at full scale voltage; if the full scale was 200 volts, the resistance at the
instrument's terminals would be 200,000 ohms and at full scale the meter would draw 1 milliampere from the

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circuit under test. For multi-range instruments, the input resistance varies as the instrument is switched to
different ranges.

c. Operation of moving coil:

A current carrying conductor placed in magnetic field. It

experiences a force, it is given by 
F=BIL 
Where, 
F=force in Newton 
B=flux density in teals 
I=current in ampere 
L=length of conductor in meter.

A coil of thin wire is mounted on an aluminum frame (spindle)

positioned between the poles of a U shaped permanent magnet
which is made up of magnetic alloys like alnico.

The coil is pivoted on the jeweled bearing and thus the coil is free
to rotate. The current is fed to the coil through spiral springs
which are two in numbers. The coil which carries a current, which is to be measured, moves in a strong
magnetic field produced by a permanent magnet and a pointer is attached to the spindle which shows the
measured value.

When PMMC is used as a voltmeter, the coil is connected in series with high resistance. Rest of the function is
same as above. The same moving coil can be used as an ammeter or voltmeter with an interchange of above
arrangement.

d. Construction:
Since Galvanometer is a very sensitive
instrument, therefore it can not measure high potential difference. In order
to convert a Galvanometer into voltmeter, a very high resistance known as
"series resistance" is connected in series with the galvanometer.

Let resistance of galvanometer = Rg and resistance Rx (high) is connected in series to it. Then     combined
resistance = (Rg + Rx).

    If potential between the points to be measured = V and if galvanometer gives full-scale deflection,     when
current "Ig" passes through it. Then,

V = Ig (Rg + Rx) 
V = IgRg + IgRx 
V – IgRg = IgRx 
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 Rx = (V – IgRg)/Ig

    Thus Rx can be found.

e. Electrodynamometer as Voltmeter:

When an electrodynamometer is used as a voltmeter, no

problems in construction are encountered because the
current required is not more than 0.1 ampere. This amount
of current can be handled easily by the spiral springs. When
the electrodynamometer is used as a voltmeter, its internal
connections and construction are as shown in view A of
figure 3-17. Fixed coils a and b are wound of fine wire since
the current flow through them will not exceed 0.1 ampere.
They are connected directly in series with movable
coil c and the series current-limiting resistor.

f. Uses:
 To measure voltages provided to electronics over long cables (voltage drop along long
cables depending on the current).
 Measure voltages on circuit boards to check the operation of these boards.
 Set the thresholds on NIM/CAMAC discriminators, & check the voltage offsets in these
units.

4. Watt meter

a. Definition:
The wattmeter is an instrument for
measuring the electric power (or the supply rate of electrical
energy) in watts of any given circuit.

An instrument which measures electrical energy in watt

hours (electricity meter or energy analyser) is essentially a
wattmeter which accumulates or averages readings; many such
instruments measure and can display many parameters and can
be used where a wattmeter is needed: volts, current in amperes, apparent instantaneous power, actual
power, power factor, energy in [k]Wh over a period of time, and cost of electricity consumed.

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 b. Operation of moving coil:
Probably the most useful instrument in the measurement
of ac power at commercial frequencies is the indicating (deflecting) electrodynamic wattmeter. It is similar in
principle to the double-coil dc ammeter or voltmeter in that it depends on the interaction of the fields of two
sets of coils, one fixed and the other movable. The moving coil is suspended, or pivoted, so that it is free to
rotate through a limited angle about an axis perpendicular to that of the fixed coils. As a single-phase
wattmeter, the moving (potential) coil, usually constructed of fine wire, carries a current proportional to the
voltage applied to the measured circuit, and the fixed (current) coils carry the load current. This arrangement
of coils is due to the practical necessity of designing current coils of relatively heavy conductors to carry large
values of current. The potential coil can be lighter
because the operating current is limited to low
values.

The electrostatic force between two conductors is

proportional to the product of the square of the
potential difference between them and the rate of
change of capacitance with displacement. A
differential electrostatic instrument may therefore be
used to construct a quarter-squares wattmeter. In
spite of the problems of matching the capacitance
changes of the two elements and the small forces
available, electrostatic watt meters were used as
standards for many years.

c. Construction and working:

The traditional analog wattmeter is an electrodynamics’ instrument. The device consists of a pair of
fixed coils, known as current coils, and a movable coil known as the potential coil.

The current coils connected in series with the circuit, while the potential coil is connected in parallel. Also,
on analog wattmeter, the potential coil carries a needle that moves over a scale to indicate the measurement.
A current flowing through the current coil generates an electromagnetic field around the coil. The strength of
this field is proportional to the line current and in phase with it. The potential coil has, as a general rule, a
high-value resistor connected in series with it to reduce the current that flows through it.

The result of this arrangement is that on a dc circuit, the deflection of the needle is proportional to
both the current and the voltage, thus conforming to the equation W=VA or P=VI.

The result of this arrangement is that on a dc circuit, the deflection of the needle is proportional to
both the current and the voltage, thus conforming to the equation W=VA or P=VI.

For AC power, current and voltage may not be in step, owing to the delaying effects of circuit
inductance or capacitance. On an ac circuit the deflection is proportional to the average instantaneous
product of voltage and current, thus measuring true power, P=VI cos φ. Here, cos φ represents the power
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factor which shows that the power transmitted may be less than the apparent power obtained by multiplying
the readings of a voltmeter and ammeter in the same circuit.

d. Electrodynamometer as Wattmeter:
Electrodynamometer type wattmeter is an
electrical instrument which is used to measure power. It consists of two coils-Fixed coils and Moving coil. The
fixed coils or the field coils are connected in series with the load and therefore carry the current flowing
through the circuit. Hence, they are also called as the current coils (C.C) of the wattmeter. Where as the
moving coil is connected across the voltage, and hence carry a current proportional to the voltage. This coil is
also called as the pressure coil (P.C) of the wattmeter.

The control used in these types of instruments is the spring control. And the damping used is the air damping.
Here, eddy current damping is avoided, since it might distort the weak operating magnetic field. These types
of instruments use mirror type scales and knife edge pointers and thus helps removing parallax. And the
deflection is directly proportional to the power being measured. One of the major disadvantage of this
wattmeter is that, the reading of the wattmeter is affected by the change in temperature.

e. Wattmeter Connection:
The
current coil of the wattmeter is connected in series with
the circuit (load), and the voltage coil is connected across
the line. When line current flows through the current coil
of a wattmeter, a field is set up around the coil. The
strength of this field is in phase with and proportional to
the line current. The voltage coil of the wattmeter
generally has a high-resistance resistor connected in
series with it. The purpose for this connection is to make the voltage-coil circuit of the meter as purely
resistive as possible. As a result, current in the voltage circuit is practically in phase with line voltage.
Therefore, when voltage is impressed on the voltage circuit, current is proportional to and in phase with the
line voltage. Figure 3-19 shows the proper way to connect a wattmeter into a circuit.