EE303

LAB05
Design of an Ayrton Shunt Ammeter
Objectives:
To convert a 1-mA ammeter to a 5 mA, 10 mA, and 20 mA ammeters and
to design an Ayrton shunt ammeter.
Experiment:

IT
If we want to measure a current
with a value that is more than the
maximum range of a 1 mA ammeter, then the following circuit can be
used:

I FS 1 mA
Where

and we can apply the following:

VR Vammeter
SH

RSH ( I T I FS ) RM I FS
RSH

RM I FS
, if I T k I FS , where k is an integer , then
I T I FS

RSH

RM
k 1

So if we want to convert the 1 mA ammeter to a 5 mA full-scale range,

then

RM 1 mA
R
M
5 mA 1 mA
4

RSH

RSH

RM
4

And if we want to convert the 1 mA ammeter to a 10 mA full-scale range,

then

k 10

RSH

and

RM
10 1

RSH

RM
9

And if we want to convert the 1 mA ammeter to a 20 mA full-scale range,

then

k 20

RSH

and

RM
20 1

RSH

RM
19

Multi-range Ayrton Shunt Ammeter:

We can use the following circuit

Case I (5 mA range): (only use one resistor box)

Here

k 5

RSH
So, In general

RM
4

R1 R2 R3
But in our circuit

RM
4

---------------------------------------(1)

Case II (10 mA range): (use two resistor boxes)

Here

k 10

RSH
So, In general

RM
9

R1 R2
But in our circuit

R3 R M
9

---------------------------------------(2)

Case III (20 mA range): (use two resistor boxes)

Here

k 20

RSH
So, In general

RM
19

R1
But in our circuit

R 2 R3 R M
19

---------------------------------------(3)

Solve (1), (2), and (3) simultaneously to get the unknown resistances.