The comparison between the measurement system from old to present

Manish Bisoi, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Raipur

Subject: Electrical Measurement and Instrumentation

Abstract-Practically almost the whole activity of our live is related to measurement as we most of
the time compare various object, evaluate their properties, determine their quantities. Here the
intuitive definition of Measurement is estimation of quantity of certain value (with the known
uncertainty) by comparison with the standard unit. We pay in the market with cash for shopping.
Is it the one type of measurement? In the case of cash payment, we estimate the value of the
amount, there is standard unit such as Rupee, Dollar, etc. similarly if we are absent mind or with
poor eyesight then our counting will have some level of uncertainty. Similarly the good
measurement of a quantity contains three elements those are, better estimation, standard unit
and the greater accuracy of estimation or better uncertainty of estimation. As the time is passing,
we are developing new technique of measurement with greater accuracy. People used to use their
hands , sticks of standard length for measuring the length of any object , as time passed they
start to use new techniques and measuring tape was invented for measuring the length ,
nowadays much better technologies has come, now by clicking the image by a smartphone tells
all the exact length, breadth measurement(LiDAR techniques in Apple phones).In this report we
are going to review old electrical measurement system from present day electrical measurement
system. What has been changes and how the accuracy we are getting better Now we are
measuring the electrical quantity such as current , voltages , etc in the digital measuring
instrument which measures them in very accurate. We will study what things has been improved
in these instruments and electrical measurements compare with old way of electrical
measurement.

Index terms:-

I. Introduction
II. Traditional/classical electrical measurement system
III. Modern /advanced electrical measurement system
IV. Advancement in Measuring system
V. Electromechanical instruments versus digital measuring systems
VI. Conclusion

I. Introduction
Electrical measurements are the methods, devices and the calculations used to measure electrical
quantities. Measurements of electrical quantities can be done by measuring electrical parameters
of a system. The basic electrical quantities such as electric current, electric voltage, resistance etc are
measured by basically by measuring instrument such as ammeter, voltmeter, multimeter. Mainly the
electrical measurements are a comparison between actual measurements value and standard value.
This standard value is known as true value. After comparing there can be some deviation or the
difference between the values known as the error.

The main functions of the measurement system are indicating, recording, detecting, controlling and
testing the electrical units.
II. Traditional /Classical Electrical measurement system
Most of the traditional or classical measuring devices are indicating measuring instruments. We will
discuss some of classical instruments here.

1.) The moving coil meters – It is the most popular indicating measuring instruments which is a
electromechanical device. It is suitable for measurment of DC quantities.

Fig. Moving coil indicating instrument (1- moving coil, 2 – permanent magnet, 3 – axle, 4 – pointer, 5
– bearings, 6 – spring, 7 – correction of zero)

The basic working principle relies on current passing through a coil to move the coil in a magnetic
field.

2). The moving iron meters – The instrument in which the moving iron is used for measuring the
flow of current or voltage is known as the moving iron instrument. It works on the principle that
the iron place near the magnet attracts towards it.

Fig.- The moving iron meter: a) the symbol of such instrument, b,c) the principle of operation.

Advantage of moving iron meter is that such instrument measures the rms value of the signal.
Therefore, it can be used for AC measurements.

3.) The electrodynamic meter-wattmeter

The instrument whose working depends on the reaction between the magnetic field of moving and
fixed coils is known as the Electro dynamo-meter Wattmeter. It uses for measuring the power of
both the AC and DC circuits.

Fig.- The electrodynamic meter: a) the symbol of such instrument, b) the principle of operation

4.) Recording and displaying instruments

Oscilloscope-. An oscilloscope is a laboratory instrument commonly used to display and analyze the
waveform of electronic signals. In old days the CRT oscilloscope were famous and mostly used. The
CRO working principle depends on the electron ray movement because of the electrostatic force.

Fig.- The block diagram of a classical oscilloscope, CRT oscilloscope

5.) Bridge Circuits - The bridge circuits were used as the most accurate devices for the
measurements of resistance (and generally impedance). The bridge circuits are commonly used as
the resistance (impedance) to voltage converters and the bridge principle is utilized in digital RLC
meters.

III. Modern /advanced electrical measurement system

Mainly the modern techniques are used in Industrial /Electronic instrumentation which provide high
accuracy in measurement. Modern day mostly digital meter are preferred in measurement rather
then the old fashioned analogue meters. We will see here about the digital instrument in brief way.

Mostly digital instrumentation is used in the todays measurement in the industrial area and modern
measurement work are based on that all are computer controlled which analyses and record the
data.

Different types of digital instruments used in digital measurement are given hereby

1.) Digital Voltmeter (DC Voltage and AC Voltage Measurement )

Digital Voltmeter abbreviated as DVM is an instrument used to measure the electrical potential
difference between two points in a circuit. The voltage could be an alternating current (AC) or direct
current (DC). It measures the input voltage after converting the analog voltage to digital voltage and
displays it in number format using a convertor. For AC input to Digital Voltmeter (DVM), the AC is
first processed i.e., phase compensated attenuation with rectification and filtering with realization of
r.m.s. DC value of the AC.

2.) Digital Ammeter

Digital ammeters are instruments that measure current flow in

amperes and display current levels on a digital display. These devices
provide information about current draw and current continuity in
order to help users troubleshoot erratic loads and trends. They have
both positive and negative leads and feature extremely low internal
resistance.

3.) Digital Resistance measurements

Digital resistance meters are instruments that measure electrical

resistance. They use solid-state components and display values
digitally. Resistance, which is measured in ohms, is the opposition
to the flow of electric current of a conductor.

Typically, digital resistance meters are powered by an internal

battery that applies a small voltage to the circuit being tested. The
positive lead is connected to the circuits positive side and the
negative lead is connected to the circuits ground.

4.) Digital Multimeter

A digital multimeter is a test tool used to measure two or more electrical

values—principally voltage (volts), current (amps) and resistance (ohms). It is a
standard diagnostic tool for technicians in the electrical/electronic industries.
Digital multimeters long ago replaced needle-based analog meters due to
their ability to measure with greater accuracy, reliability and increased
impedance. Digital multimeters combine the testing capabilities of single-task
meters—the voltmeter (for measuring volts), ammeter (amps) and ohmmeter
(ohms). Often, they include several additional specialized features or
advanced options.

IV. Advancement in Measuring system

Recently measuring techniques significantly changed. Due to development of informatics,
microelectronics and mechatronics. We can see that the measuring techniques evolved. And
generally measuring method are using the more flexible and universal computer measuring systems.

The widespread of computer systems stimulated the development of sensor technology, interface
systems, signal processing techniques, digital signal processors, measuring software (virtual
instruments) and intelligent data analysis methods. However, it is too simplistic to believe that the
modern measurement technique simply replaces analogue measurements with digital ones and
human activity with a computer. The entire philosophy of measurements has changed – many
traditional methods have changed. The characteristics of the investigated object
(such as technology or physical phenomena) were measured using various measuring devices,
sensors, indicating instruments, bridge circuits, etc. placed usually nearby the object being tested.
Such arrangement was due to lack of output interfaces. There was many such instruments
(ammeter, voltmeter, power meter etc ) and many of them were enabled the measurement of
different signals(moving coil devices for DC values, moving -iron devices for AC measurement,
electrodynamic devices for power measurement etc.). Nowadays the single device such as
multimeter are used for different quantity and different signals.

V. Electromechanical instruments versus digital measuring systems

There are many commonly used measuring instruments which are traditional, classical or old
fashioned. The electromechanical indicating instruments, cheap manually balanced bridge
instruments or induction type watt-hour meters are still present everywhere. Similarly nowadays the
digital instrument are preferred by the electrical professional in every area and they are also
becoming cheaper as the traditional methods. We will compare here both measurement system.

Traditional electromechanical measurement Digital measurement system/modern

system
These instruments are simple, reliable and the
most important thing available in low price
Most the instruments works without any
additional power supply.
Most of the instruments are indicating type, it
is said that moving indicator has psycho-
physiological aspects and human is sensitive to
movement.
The operator is required for measurement of
quantity, at least for read and record the data.
These measuring devices mostly use the
mechanical parts which are sensitive to shocks,
aging and wearing out .
It can be stated that most of the
electromechanical analogue
instruments are rather of poor quality. In most
cases these instruments are not able to
measure with uncertainty better than 0.5%.
Accuracy is affected by parallax error while
reading the indicating instrument
electrical measurement system
They used to be costly but nowadays becoming
cheaper due to advancement in industrial
technology
These measuring devices required additional
power to operate the internal sensor and
display. So required external connections or
internal fixed batteries.
Most of the instruments are equipped with the
display so good for observations.
We can automate measurement with help of
the computer and the digital signal processing
and can record the data automatically.
These measuring device contains the
semiconductor devices and the these more
reliable and efficient for long time
The quality of measurement is better because
the accuracy is far much better.
No parallax error as provide the exact value in
display

The reading taking is time consuming process Here the readings can be taken fast
As the instruments do only specific jobs and are The size of the instruments is small and are
large size so can not portable multi purpose, so portability is increased
Electromechanical voltmeters exhibit Digital system provides high input impedance
 insufficiently large resistance, while the ( 2 MQ) to ensure less loading effect on the
resistance of electromechanical ammeters is input circuit
not sufficiently small.

VI. Conclusion
To carry out the measurement today is as easy as never before. Today with the measurement
device we have to just press the one button, we get the readings. All of the industrial and the
electronic measurement is done by the computer and it is recorded and analysed. There is no
doubt that the future is for automatic, computer supported measuring systems. But electro-
mechanical instruments are still present in our lives. Still most of the laboratory include these
instruments. Moreover without understanding of the principles of old analogue measuring methods
it can be difficult to understand usually more complicated digital instruments which often use
traditional principles of operation.

References
1. Principles of Electrical measurements, S Tumanski, Series in sensor
2. Electrical and Electronic Measurements and Instrumentation, A.K. Sawhney
3. Elecrtronic measurements and instrumentation , David A. Bell
4. https://www.electricalengineeringinfo.com/ ,Digital Voltmeters
5. https://www.sciencedirect.com/