COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

DIRECT – CURRENT INSTRUMENT AND MEASUREMENTS

by

Erroll Jenard J. Ocampo

Introduction Synthesis

Understanding the functional design and operation of
electrical measuring instruments is very important, since they are
used in repairing, maintaining, and troubleshooting electrical
circuits. While some meters can be used for both dc and ac circuit
measurement, only those used as dc instruments are discussed in
this laboratory experiment/report. Measuring instruments are
classified according to both the quantity measured by the
instrument and the principle of operation. Electric measuring
instruments and meters are used to indicate directly the value of
current, voltage, power or energy as well as resistance. In this
laboratory experiment, consider the two most commonly
employed types of instrument in D-C circuit testing, and these are
the ammeter and voltmeter though, the use of the multi tester or
VOM in place of the voltmeter is acceptable as performed.
Discussion
The ammeter is required to measure the current in our
circuit and it therefore connected in series with the components
carrying the current., unlike an ammeter, a voltmeter should have
a very high resistance and it is normally connected in parallel with
the circuit where the voltage is to be measured. With the given
value for the volts and with different resistor values, minimal error
was found for the values of the voltage and current based on the
ohm’s law as this was perhaps of the ammeter resistance doing
which has been shown by the given table below:
If the ammeter resistance is not very much smaller than
the load resistance, the load current can be substantially or greatly
altered by the presence of the ammeter in the circuit. And as for
the VOM in place of the voltmeter to measure the voltage, to
minimize voltmeter loading, the voltmeter operating current
should be very small and the accumulated data will depend on the
preciseness of the device and the reader as the probes will have to
be shorted back to zero for reading. If there is an increase in the
resistance, there would be a decrease in the current but also an
increase to its voltage. As this is indicated in the ohm’s law that
the current through a conductor between two points is
directly proportional to the voltage across the two points. Which
showed the data (table.1 ) minimal errors. Moreover, the VOM is
again used for the direct reading of the resistance and if the probes
were not shorted in every reading, the accumulated data will
contain much more error than the usual which happened in the 120
and 150 ohm resistors.

RL IL VL
25 0.6 15.46
30 0.5 15.48
40 0.38 15.56
75 0.2 15.51
120 0.12 15.56
150 0.10 15.5
table.1

After that, the multimeter or a multitester, also known as the

VOM (volt-ohm meter or volt-ohm-milliammeter) is now used for
the direct testing of the resistance and have resulted to minimal
error and this is due because of the shorting of the probes and the
sensitivity of the multiteser which can be seen in the given data
below:

Actual Value Measured Value Percent Error

25 25.3 1.2
30 30.6 2 Grading System:
40 40.5 1.25
75 75.5 0.67 Introduction (3 pts.)

120 115.1 4.08 Discussion (3 pts.)

150 153.3 2.8 Synthesis (4 pts.)

table.2
Total