Name: Jester V. Subia CPE – 03 – 302P EE20L DC & AC INSTRUMENTS PROF.

CORLETO BRAVO

The summary of AC and DC Meters. A meter is any device built to accurately detect and display an
electrical quantity in a form readable by a human being, it can display the electrical quantity in digital or
analog way. In the analysis and testing of circuits, there are meters designed to measure the basic
quantities of voltage, current, and resistance. Most modern meters are "digital" in design, meaning
that their readable display is in the form of numerical digits. Older designs of meters are mechanical in
nature, using some kind of pointer device to show quantity of measurement.

The first meter movements built were known as galvanometers, and were usually designed with
maximum sensitivity in mind. A very simple galvanometer may be made from a magnetized needle
Let’s start with analogue meters. Analogue meters are mostly based on moving coil meters. The Stypical
structure consists of a wire wound coil placed between two permanent magnets. When current flows
through the coil in the presence of a magnetic field, a force is exerted on the coil. This force is directly
proportional to current flowing in the coil. If the coil is free to rotate, the force causes a deflection of
the coil that is proportional to the current. By adding an indicator and a display, the level of current
can be measured.

The DC meter movement will have a pair of metal connection terminals on the back for current to
enter and exit. Most meter movements are polarity-sensitive, one direction of current driving the
needle to the right and the other driving it to the left. Some meter movements are polarity-
insensitive, relying on the attraction of an unmagnetized, movable iron vane toward a stationary,
current-carrying wire to deflect the needle. AC electromechanical meter movements come in to five
principal meter movement Electrodynamometer, Iron-Vane, Electrostatic, Thermocouple, D’Arsonval
(PMMC) with rectifier.

The DC style Meter Movement for AC application is kind a tricky, if you want to use DC style meter,
the alternating current must be rectified into DC. To complete the use of device you need diodes, it
serves as a bridge throughout the all portion of the AC cycle. On the other hand, Iron-vane
Electromechanical designed to avoid using the permanent magnets. To move the needle against the
spring tension you need to use non-magnetized iron vane. With very high voltages the electrostatic
meter can handle it without removing resistor or external apparatus. AC Voltmeter with resistive
Divider, if the meter movement is sensitive and needs to re-ranged to function as an AC voltmeter,
the multiplier resistor and resistive voltage dividers may employ to become as in DC meter design. In
AC Voltmeter with Capacitive Divider, resistor is not used but instead capacitors. This kind of move
may result of being non-dissipative or no power consumed nor heat produced.

The D’Arsonval meter is the most frequently used meter movement, even though it cannot directly
measure alternating current or voltage. D’Arsonval Meter Movement with Half-Wave Rectification,
use diode rectifier to alternate the current of rectify it enable to measure the alternating current with
the d’Arsonval meter movement. We have the forward diode the role is to be an ideal diode that will
make the operation of circuit doesn’t affect. D’Arsonval Meter Movement with Full Wave Rectificatio,
it provides with higher sensitivity compare to half wave rectifier and it is commonly used as bridge
type rectifier.
The followings are the Five AC Instruments and their Advantages and Disadvantages.
First is the AC voltmeters and ammeters. The Permanent-magnet meter movements, like permanent-
magnet motors, are devices whose motion depends on the polarity of the applied voltage but
permanent-magnet moving coil (PMMC) meter movements will not work correctly if directly connected
to alternating current, because the direction of needle movement will change with each half-cycle of
the AC.

Second is the DC-style Meter for AC application can be used as a DC-style meter like the D’Arsonal
design. But The alternating Current must be rectified in to DC.

Third is the Iron-Vane Electromechanical Meter are capable of measuring very high voltages without
need for range resistors or other, external apparatus. But This design avoids using the permanent
magnets. That is why The AC meter move without the inherent polarity sensitivity of the DC types.

Fourth is the AC Voltmeter with Resistive Divider can be re-ranged to function as an AC voltmeter,
series- connected "multiplier" resistors and/or resistive voltage dividers may be employed just as in DC
meter design. the disadvantage is that the tolerances and individual values have to be very close, and
signals tend to get mixed up at times and it also has many resistors.

Fifth AC instrument is the AC Voltmeter with Capacitive Divider can use capacitors instead of
resistors, though, to make voltmeter divider circuits. This strategy has the advantage of being non-
dissipative, no true power consumed and no heat produced. The disadvantage is that the cost of center
tap transformer is high, Higher PIV rating in diode, requires more diode, and Difficult to locate the
rectifier center tap on secondary winding

The followings are the Five DC Instruments and their Advantages and Disadvantages.
First is the Permanent Magnet Moving Coil (PMMC) is an instrument that allows you to measure the
current through a coil by observing the coil’s angular deflection in a uniform magnetic field, PMMC
meters can accurately measure DC current. But PMMC instruments are only used for measuring the
Direct Current (DC) current.

Second is the Electrostatic Meter. One great advantage of the electrostatic meter is that, it is used for
measuring very high voltages; many thousands of volts. The disadvantage is the fact that it has
extremely high resistance, whereas electromagnetic movements are much lower in resistance.

Third is the D’Arsonval Meter Movement in DC Meter the disadvantage of this instrument is that the
basic d’Arsonval meter movement has only limited usefulness. But the greatest advantage is that it can
be modified on the circuit and it will increase the range of current that can be measured with the basic
meter movement.

Fourth is the Ammeter. All ammeters contain some internal resistance. By inserting the ammeter in
the circuit means increase the resistance of the circuit and result in reducing current in the circuit, the
disadvantage is that we frequently overlook the error caused by inserting an ammeter in a circuit to
obtain a current reading.

The Fifth DC instrument is the Ohmmeter, the advantage of ohmmeter is the d’Arsonval meter
movement can be used with the battery and resistor to construct a simple ohmmeter, and the
disadvantage is that the ohmmeter is nonlinear due to the high internal resistance of the ohmmeter.