Introduction

In the study of electrical technology, various electrical quantities such as volts, amps, ohms and
farads among others, are quite common. It is just as important that these quantities be measured
as accurately as possible. This assignment serves to highlight the different types of electronic and
electrical measuring instruments, as well as their construction and working principles.
Permanent Magnet Moving Coil: Principle of Working
When a current carrying conductor is placed in a magnetic field, it experiences a force
and tends to move in the direction as per Fleming’s left hand rule.
Construction
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 jewelled 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.

Working
When a current flow through the coil, it generates a magnetic field which is proportional
to the current in case of an ammeter. The deflecting torque is produced by the
electromagnetic action of the current in the coil and the magnetic field.

When the torques are balanced the moving coil will stopped and its angular deflection
represent the amount of electrical current to be measured against a fixed reference,
called a scale. If the permanent magnet field is uniform and the spring linear, then the
pointer deflection is also linear.

The controlling torque is provided by two phosphorous bronze flat coiled helical springs.
These springs serve as a flexible connection to the coil conductors.

Damping is caused by the eddy current set up in the aluminum coil which prevents the
oscillation of the coil.

Construction of Moving Iron Instrument

 The basic construction of
attraction type moving iron instrument is illustrated bellow
A thin disc of soft iron is eccentrically pivoted in front of a coil. This
iron tends to move inward that is from weaker magnetic field to
stronger magnetic field when current flowing through the coil. In
attraction moving instrument gravity control was used previously
but now gravity control method is replaced by spring control in
relatively modern instrument. By adjusting balance weight null
deflection of the pointer is achieved. The required damping force is
provided in this instrument by air friction. The figure shows a typical
type of damping system provided in the instrument, where damping
is achieved by a moving piston in an air syringe.

Whenever two pieces of iron are kept side by side and a magnet is
brought nearer to them the iron pieces will repulse each other. This
repulsion force is due to same magnetic poles induced in same sides
the iron pieces due external magnetic field.
This repulsion force increases if field strength of the magnet is
increased. Like case if the magnet is electromagnet, then magnetic
field strength can easily be controlled by controlling input current to
the magnet. Hence if the current increases the repulsion force
between the pieces of iron is increased and it the current decreases
the repulsion force between them is decreased. Depending upon
this phenomenon repulsion type moving iron instrument was
constructed.

Dynamometer type instruments:

These instruments are the modified form of permanent magnet
moving coils type. Here operating field is produced by a
permanent but by another fixed coil. The moving system and
the control system are similar to those of permanent magnet
type. Such instruments can be used for both a.c and d.c circuits.
They can be used as ammeters and voltmeters but are
generally used as wattmeters.

Principle of Dynamometer type instruments:

These instruments are based on that principle the mechanical
force exists between the current carrying conductors.

Construction of Dynamometer type instruments:

A dynamometer type instrument as shown in fig essentially
consists of a fixed coil and a moving coil. The fixed coil is split
into two equal parts which are placed close together and
parallel to each other. The moving coil is pivoted in between
the two fixed coils. The fixed and moving coils may be excited
separately or they may be connected in series depending upon
the use to which the measurement is put. The moving coil is
attached to the moving system so that under the action of
deflecting torque, the pointer moves over the scale.

Dynamometer type instrument

The controlling torque is provided by two springs which also

serve the additional purpose of leading the current into and out
of the moving coil. Air friction damping is provided in such
instruments.

Working of Dynamometer type instruments:

When instrument is connected in the circuit, operating currents
flow through the coils. Due to this, mechanical force exists
between the coils. The result is that the moving coil moves the
pointer over the scale. The pointer comes to rest at a position
where deflecting torque is equal to the controlling torque.
by reversing the current, the field due to fixed coils is reversed
as well as the current in the moving coil, so that the direction of
deflecting torque remains unchanged. Therefore, such
instruments can be used for both d.c and a.c measurements.
nduction type instruments:
These instruments are based on the principle of induction
motor.

Principle of Induction type instruments:

When a drum or disc of a non - magnetic conducting
material is placed in a rotating magnetic field,
eddycurrents are induced in it. The reaction between the
rotating flux and the eddy current produced by it creates a
torque which rotates the disc or drum. The rotating flux is
produced by the current or voltage to be measured. The
eddy current again is proportional to the flux.
The single phase supply is converted into two phases in
the instrument, that is done by split phase or shaded pole
arrangement. Accordingly induction instruments are
classified as
1. Split phase type
2. Shaded pole type
1. Split phase type induction instrument:
Construction of Split phase type induction instrument:
This is also called ferraris type instrument and is shown in
the fig. It consists of a laminated magnet with the pairs of
poles at right angles to each other. Coils are wound on
the poles, the opposite poles being connected in series.
The coils on the two pairs of poles are connected in
parallel. One set of coil is connected through an
inductance and another with a high resistance to create a
phase difference of 90 degrees. The input to both the coils
is the current to be measured. In the center of the yoke
and coil is an aluminium drum. Inside the drum there is
cylindrical laminated iron core to strengthen the magnetic
field.
 Split phase induction instrument

Working of Split phase type induction instrument:

When the instrument is connected in the circuit diagram
flows through the coils. A rotating magnetic field is
produced. This field induces eddy currents in the drum
and a torque is produced by the reaction of magnetic field
and current. This torque deflects the pointer attached to
the drum. Controlling torque is produced by spring.

2. Shaded pole type induction instrument:

Construction of Shaded pole type induction
instrument:
Shaded pole type instrument is as shown in the fig. A
band of copper is placed in pole faces, this makes the two
fluxes of shaded and unshaded portions differ in phase by
90 degrees. A metallic disc rotates between the pole
faces. The damping is provided by another magnet as
shown in the fig.

Shaded pole type induction instrument

Working of Shaded pole type induction instrument:

The current flowing through the exciting coil sets up flux.
Eddy currents are induced in the copper band. Flux of the
eddy current opposes the flux in the magnetic core and a
two phase flux same as ferraris type instrument.
Working Principle of Ammeter
The main principle of ammeter is that it must have a very
low resistance and also inductive reactance. Now, why do we need
this? Can't we connect an ammeter in parallel? The answer to this
question is it has very low impedance because it must have very
low amount of voltage drop across it and must be connected in
series connection because current is same in the series circuit. Also
due to very low impedence the power loss will be low and if it is
connected in parallel it becomes almost a short circuited path and
all the current will flow through ammeter as a result of high current
the instrument may burn. So due to this reason it must be
connected in series. For an ideal ammeter, it must have zero
impedance so that it has zero voltage drop across it so the power
loss in the instrument is zero. But the ideal is not achievable
practically.

Working principle of Ammeters:

Ammeter

Ammeters are connected in the series with the circuit whose current is to be measured.
The power loss in an ammeter is (I^2.Ra) where I is the current to be measured Ra is
the resistance of the ammeter therefore ammeter should have low electrical resistance
so that they cause a small voltage drop and consequently absorb small power.
Working principle Voltmeters:

Voltmeter

Voltmeters are connected in parallel with the circuit whose voltage is to be measured
.the power loss in voltmeter is (V^2/Rv), where V is the voltage to be measured and Rv
is the resistance of the voltmeter. Therefore voltmeters should have a high electrical
resistance, in order that the current drawn by them is small and consequently the power
consumed is small.

Pontentiomeric recorders
One of the most useful instruments for the accurate measurement of p.d.,
current and resistance is the potentiometer, the principle of action being that
an unknown e.m.f. or p.d. is measured by balancing it, wholly or in part,
against a known difference of potential.
In its simplest form, the potentiometer consists of a wire MN (Fig. 47.20)
of uniform cross-section, stretched alongside a scale and connected across a
secondary cell B of ample capacity. A standard cell SC of known e.m.f. E1,
for example a cadmium cell having an e.m.f. of 1.018 59 V at 20 °C, is connected
between M and terminal a of a two-way switch S, care being taken
that the corresponding terminals of B and SC are connected to M.
Slider L is then pressed momentarily against wire MN and its position
adjusted until the galvanometer deflection is zero when L is making contact
with MN. Let l1 be the corresponding distance between M and L. The fall
of potential over length l1 of the wire is then the same as the e.m.f. E1 of the
standard cell.
Switch S is then moved over to terminal b, thereby replacing the standard
cell by another cell, such as a Leclanché cell, the e.m.f. E2 of which is to be
measured. Slider L is again adjusted to give zero deflection on G. If l2 is the
new distance between M and L, then
E2 E1 l2/l1
Most oscilloscopes are general-purpose instruments and the basic form of
their operation is illustrated in Fig. 46.10. For simplicity, we shall restrict
our interest to displaying one signal, although most oscilloscopes are capable
of displaying two.
The input signal is amplified by the Y-amplifier, so called because it
causes the beam to be driven up and down the screen of the cathode-ray tube
in the direction described as the Y-direction by mathematicians.
The time base serves to move the beam across the screen of the tube.
When the beam moves across the screen, it is said to move in the Xdirection.
It would not be appropriate if the movements in the X- and Ydirections
were not coordinated; hence the time base may be controlled by
the output of the Y-amplifier.

Oscilloscope

An oscilloscope is a test instrument that is used to measure the amplitude, period and frequency of a repetitive
waveform such as a sine wave or square wave.

WORKING PRINCIPLE
An electronic beam light up a dot on the screen. Where the dot is
depends on the two deflection systems, horizontal and vertical. The
vertical axis is driven by the input signal while the horizontal one by
the internal time base. Without input signal the dot moves from left
to right tracing a flatten horizontal line.

Now suppose to apply at the vertical input a 10Vpp (peak to peak)

triangular wave signal with 25Hz of repetition frequency. That
means 25 cycles per second so a period is:
1/25 = 0,04 seconds = 40ms.
Setting the gain to 5V/Div and the time base

to 10ms/Div what is traced at every scan on the time axis

appears as depicts this picture:

There is shown a 2 divisions height signal repeated every 4

divisions on X axis.

Now if I switch the gain, consequently changes the vertically

filled divisions (Y axis). Switching instead the time base,
changes of course the occupied horizontal divisions (X axis).
So we realize that every signal with any frequency, voltage
and shape can be shown graphically by the oscilloscope just
setting it up properly. Within of course max and min limits
reported on selectors.

OSCILLOSCOPE: BASE GUIDE

INTRODUCTION
Learning the oscilloscope (also scopemeter or scope)
This short and simple reading allows the understanding of basic working concepts
and the possible uses of a scopemeter. It is not depending on performances and
cost of the instrument. Indeed the oscilloscope is used to observe slow speed
signals, like pulses generated from cardiac heartbeat, or fast and irregular signals
of electronic equipments like radio and microprocessor circuits.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
For reader, beginner or not, who has a basic knowledge about electric unit
measurement and wants to know and learn to use this great instrument not so
complex in spite of the high number of keys, knobs and selectors impressive at first
glance. Just in case nobody did teach you at school. Here you will find explanation
of basic principles and working modes and use of analogue oscilloscope. All
described concepts are useful to understand and to use digital oscilloscope which is
created to replicate the analogue one adding all possible enhancements.

WHAT THE OSCILLOSCOPE IS USED FOR ?

The scopemeter is an instrument that shows graphically the behaviour of an
electrical signal in the time scale (T). It performs qualitative measurement type
rather than quantitative. I mean that the oscilloscope draws the behavior of a
voltage (V) but the absolute measurment has lower precision than a digital
voltmeter (or multimeter). The latter allows for example to easily appreciate an
exact 4.53V battery voltage whereas the oscilloscope read out is just around
4.5 Volt. The same concept applies to time scale, when I need an accurate
frequency measurement I must use a
frequency meter.

HOW IT APPEARS
The screen has a reference grid with
usually 8 vertical and 10 horizontal
divisions. Each resulting square has 5
further subdivisions per axis useful to
better readings.

Y AXIS - Vertical - Voltage V

There is at least one input channel for the Voltage signal V to be shown, about the
two channels (or dual trace) we will speak later. This signal passes through an
adjustable gain amplifier and the selection knob sets the amplitude value for each Y
division. So setting 2 V/Div means that the maximum watching amplitude of the
input signal is 16V (2V multiplied by 8 vertical divisions) or referring to center
(zero) is 8V positive and 8V negative.

X AXIS - Horizontal - TIME BASE

This axis too has a selection knob to set the temporal base or how long is a
division. For example setting 10ms/Div means that to trace the whole X axis it
spends 0.1 seconds (10 ms multiplied by 10 divisions = 100 ms). We will call scan
everyone of this sweeps.

Analog Multimeter Working Principle and

Construction

An analog multimeter is basically a permanent magnet moving coil

galvanometer. There is an iron cored coil pivoted on two jeweled
bearings. The coil is wound on an aluminum former or bobbin which is
free to rotate in the field of a permanent magnet. An aluminum pointer
is attached to the coil and bobbin assembly and moves on a
graduated scale.
There are two spiral springs attached to the coil assembly at
the top and bottom which provide a path for the flow of current
and controlling torque.
An analog multimeter can measure voltage, current and
resistance for which its galvanometer is converted to a voltmeter,
ammeter and ohmmeter with the help of suitable circuits incorporated
in it. The galvanometer used in an analog multimeter has always its
pointer resting at zero position on the extreme left end various
measurements are made on an analog multimeter
Frequency Counter Circuit Operating Principle:
This circuit is based on the simple definition of frequency, which is the number of cycles
per second. An astable multivibrator is used to generate oscillating pulses which are fed
as clock pulses to a counter. Another monostable multivibrator is used to generate a
timing signal for 1 second used to control the counter. The counter thus counts the
number of pulses for 1 second and the resultant value displayed on the 7-segment
display is the value of frequency in hertz.

f you are provided with two inductors having same inductance , which
one will you choose ?

Answer - You should choose the one with high quality factor or Q-
factor because it will have lesser losses due to its smaller resistance.

But , do you know how to measure Q-factor of a coil ?

The best way is - by using a Q-meter.

Q-meter working principle

A q-meter works on the principle of series resonance i.e at resonant

condition of a series ac circuit, the voltage across the capacitor is
equal to the Q-factor times supply voltage.

Vc = QV
If the supply voltage V is kept canstant , then Q ∝ Vc and the
voltmeter connected across the capacitor can be calibrated to read Q-
factor directly.

Q-meter circuit connections are done as shown in diagram.

The circuit uses a wide range radio frequency oscillator having

frequency range from 50kHz to 50MHz as the voltage supply source.
The oscillator terminals are shorted by a resistor of the order of 0.02Ω
. This resistor introduces almost no resistance to the series RLC circuit
and makes the voltage source internal resistance almost negligible.
This is done to ensure supply voltage maintained constant.

Now, the series RLC circuit is brought to resonance condition by

varying oscillator frequency.
when resonance is achieved , supply voltage V and capacitor voltage
Vc are measured by thermo-couple and electronic voltmeters
respectively.

From thermo-couple and electronic voltmeter readings Quality-factor

can be easily calculated as

he structure of spectrum analyzer seems like the oscilloscope which is used for the time domain.

There are many function control buttons on the board of the spectrum analyzer. As the adjustment

and control of the system control, there are real time spectrum analyzer and scan tune spectrum

analyzer. The function of the real time spectrum analyzer is to show the signal amplitude of the

frequency domain at the same time. Its working time is as to different frequency signal there are

different filters, then send the signal to the CRT screen through the multitask scanning machine. The

advantages is that it can show the moment reaction, while the disadvantages is the high cost and the

performance is limited by the frequency wide range.

Contact tachometry A light beam from a diode is reflected by a rotating miror located inside the probe
head. A light sensitive cell detects the frequency of the signal of the beam which is proportional to the
rotation speed.

OPTICAL TACHOMETER light beam emitted from the diode the probe is reflected by a reflective tape
placed on the rotating disk. A lightsensitive cell detects the frequency of the signal of the beam which is
proportional to the rotation speed.