MODULE 4

4.0 ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTATION

SYSTEMS
Definition: Electronics instrumentation systems
refine, extend, or supplement human faculties and
abilities to sense, perceive, communicate,
remember, calculate or reason. The electronic
instruments are computing, manipulating and
processing information in much the same way as
the mind. To relate this definition to practical
terms means that any use of instruments
constitutes an instrumentation system, since a
suitable instrument or chain of instruments will
always convert an unknown quantity into a record
or display which human faculties can interpret.
Electronic instruments are either indicating or
recording type instruments just like the electrical
measuring instruments. In addition to indicating
and recording a quantity, some instruments also
control a quantity e.g tacho-generator may be
used for indicating and recording the speed as
well as for controlling the speed in a speed
controlled motor. Although some electronic
instruments are more expensive than simple
electrical instruments, but electronic instruments
have some significant advantage over electrical
measuring instruments. Such advantages are:
 The use of an electronic amplifier results in
an electronic instrument with high sensitivity
capable of measuring very small signals.
 The electronic instruments also have the
ability to monitor remote signals
 These instruments are becoming more and
more popular because of high speed
operation, high sensitivity and versatility.
4.1 DIGITAL INSTRUMENTS
The digital instrument is an electronic device in
which the measured value is shown as a numerical
readout instead of a pointer over a calibrated scale
(analogue).
Digital instruments use logic circuits and
techniques for carrying out measurement of
quantities. Any digital instruments may be
viewed as an arrangement of logic gates that
change states at very high speeds in the process of
carrying out a measurement.
Digital instruments are becoming more and more
popular because of their inherent advantages over
analogue instruments, such as:
 The major advantage of digital instruments is
the readability of the measurement result
because of the digital readout. In analogue
instruments, the user performs the function of
 an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The
user must read the analogue scale properly,
possess some skill in interpolation, be able to
use mirrored scales, and in general, have a
good eye.
 Increased accuracy; digital instruments
indicate the reading directly in decimal
numbers and therefore errors due to parallax
and approximation are eliminated. Thus,
digital instruments are more accurate than
analogue ones.
 Since the output of digital instruments is in
digital form, the output may be directly fed
into memory devices printers, floppy discs and
digital computers for storage and future
computation.
 Power consumption requirements of digital
instruments are considerably smaller.
 Digital instruments have higher measuring
range (100 – 1000V) than analogue instrument
 Many incorporate automatic polarity and
range indication which reduces operator
training, measurement error, and possible
instrument damage through overload.
However, the following are the demerits of
digital instruments:
 Reaction to environment: Digital instruments
are relatively complex which react to change
in temperature and humidity.
 Digital instruments are usually more
expensive than analogue instruments.
 They are also sampling devices, that is, the
displayed quantity is a discrete measurement
made, either at one instant in time, or over an
interval of time, by using digital electronic
techniques.
4.1.1Digital Techniques of Measuring Systems
In many practical situations, the requirement is
for a system that can monitor many measurands
which under normal condition have relatively
constant values, which for record purposes need
only be noted from time to time. Additionally,
should an abnormal condition occur, the results
should be noted and if they approach a hazardous
condition alarm should be activated.
And in this way, with the evolution of
microcomputer it became possible to distribute
low cost processing power to several sensors, thus
enabling data acquisition, collection, storage and
some data reduction to be performed at the
measurement source. A few microcomputers
controlled stations, or process loops are then
linked via a serial communications line to a
central management computer, which oversees
the total system.
In general, digital-computer based
instrumentation systems consist of four main
elements: sensors, signal conditioners, a data
acquisition (DAQ) board, and a general-purpose
computer (PC).

Excitation

Sensor S/H
p Signal
conditioner General
Physical MUX Purpose
ADC
System Computer

Sensor Signal S/H

conditioner

Data-acquisition board

Figure 4.1.1: Data acquisition (DAQ) system under central

computer control

Physical System: This is the material to be

measured. This can be Temperature, Pressure,
displacements, angular speeds and pressure
produce changes in the voltages, currents
resistances, capacitances, or inductances of the
sensors.
Sensors: A sensor is a type of transducer device
that converts a physical property or a
phenomenon into a corresponding electrical
signal (e.g voltage, current) or in many cases, into
corresponding electrical characteristics (e.g
resistance or capacitance) that can easily be
converted to electrical signal.
Sensing and Signal Processing (Signal
Conditioner): This convert sensor signal to a
form that can easily be converted to digital values.
If the sensor output is not already a voltage, signal
conditioner provides an excitation source that
transforms the changes in electrical parameters to
voltages. The input unit function may include
sensing, amplifying, and signal conditioning. In
the process, it regulates the amplitude of the
analogue and signal being measured.
Data acquisition (abbreviated as DAQ) board:
The conditioned signals are input to DAQ board.
This is the process of sampling of real world
physical conditions and the resulting samples into
digital numeric values that can be manipulated by
computer. On the DAQ board, each of the
conditioned signals is sent to a sample-and-hold
circuit (S/H) that periodically samples the signal
and holds the value steady while the multiplexer
(MUX) converts it to the analogue-to-digital
converter (A/D or ADC)

ADC Unit: This is the conversion of the analogue

signal into digital signal. The method involved in
this are: quantization (which is the conversion of
an analogue quantity to a digital number) and
coding- The output of quantized quantity is then
coded in binary, BCD, decade etc.
The words are ready by the computer, which then
processes the data further before storing and
displaying the results.
Counting and Display Unit: This is the output of the
system. This includes digital counters and digital
readout devices, such as the 7-segment display.
The counter in common use includes; Binary
counters and binary to decimal counters etc. often
a decoder is needed so as to effect display.

4.2 Operation Principle of a digital

Instrument

Operation principle of one type of digital voltage

(DVM) can be illustrated as shown in the black
diagram of fig 4.2
 Voltage to be measured

Pulse
Comparator
Oscillation Saw-
tooth Signal closes gate
wave Gate Pulse
Circuit High Freq.
pulse
Oscillation

Signal open Digital Counter

gate
{Volts}

Figure 4.2: Operation Principle of Digital Instrument

The voltage to be measured is fed into a

comparator. The signal from a saw-tooth
D

oscillator having a linear increase of voltage with

time is also fed into the comparator.The signals
from the comparator and from the saw-tooth
oscillator are fed into a gate circuit, which also
receive signal from a high-frequency pulse
oscillator. The instant the saw-tooth oscillator
voltage starts to increase, a signal opens the gate
circuit. This allows the high frequency pulse to
pass to the digital counter which records the
numbers of pulses. The instant the saw-tooth
voltage in the comparator reaches the same value
as the voltage to be measured, a signal from the
comparator closes the gate circuit. This stop the
pulse flowing in the digital counter. So, the
number of pulses registered on the counter is
determined by the time it takes the saw-tooth
voltage to reach the value of the voltage to be
measured. Thus, the readout becomes a massive
of the input voltage. The frequency of the saw-
tooth oscillator and the pulse oscillator are so
chosen that the readout becomes a direct
recording of the voltage being measured. During
this time, the high frequency pulses from the gate
oscillator will be registered in the digital read out.
 4.3 ANALOGUE/DIGITAL (A/D) SIGNAL
PROCESSING
The A/D conversion is the process of converting an
analogue input voltage into an equivalent digital
signal. The analogue-to-digital converter is essential
because most sensors have analogue output while
much data processing is accomplished with digital
computers. Thus, we can say that A/D signal
processing convert conditioned sensor signals to
digital values that can be manipulated by digital
computers. But to convert analogue sensor into a form
that can be converted to digital values, a signal
conditioning circuitry is required. The functions of
signal conditioners are:
 amplification of the sensor signals
 conversion of the currents to voltages
 supply of (ac or dc) excitations to the sensors so
that changes in resistance, inductance, or
capacitance are converted to changes in voltage
  Filtering to eliminate noise or other unwanted
signal components
Once the sensor signal has been conditioned to a form
that can be digitized, next is the sampling of the signal
analogue-to-digital conversion process.
4.3.1 Sampling.
The data is acquired by an analogue-to-digital
converter (ADC) using a process called sampling.
Sampling an analogue signal involves taking a sample
of the signal at discrete times. This rate at which the
signal is sampled is known as sampling frequency.
The process of sampling generates value of signal at
time interval as shown in following figure.

volts volts
Sampling

t1 tn
Time Time
Figure 4.3.1 Sampling Process
The sampling process determines the quality of the
analogue signal that is converted. Higher sampling
frequency achieves better conversion of the analogue
signals. The minimum sampling frequency required
to represent the signal should at least be twice the
maximum frequency of the analogue signal under test
(this is called the Nyquist rate). If the sampling frequency
is equal or less than the twice the frequency of the input
signal, a signal of lower frequency is generated from such
a process.
4.3.2 Analog-to-Digital Conversion (ADC)
Once the signal has been sampled, one needs to covert
the analog samples into a digital code. This process is
called analog-to-digital conversion. This is shown in
Figure below:
volts

ADC

t0 tn
Time
 Time Digital
sample Code
t
0 000
t
1
001
t
2 010
t3 011
t4 100
t5 101
t6 110
t7 111

Fig. 4.3.2 Analogue-to-Digital Conversion for a 3-bit ADC

4.3.3 Resolution
Precision of the analogue input signal converted into
digital format is dependent upon the number of bits
the ADC uses. The resolution of the converted signal
is a function of the number of bits the ADC uses to
represents the digital data. The higher the resolution,
the higher the number of division the voltage range is
broken into, and therefore, the smaller the detectable
voltage change. An 8-bit ADC gives 256 levels
compared to a 12-bit ADC that has 4096 levels.
Hence, 12-bit ADC will be able to detect smaller
increments of the input signals than an 8-bit ADC.

4.4 SAMPLE-AND-HOLD CIRCUIT (S/H)

A sample-hold is simply a voltage-memory device in
which an input voltage is acquired and then stored on
a high-quality capacitor. Each conditioned signal
received by S/H is periodically sampled and holds the
value steady in its memory. Such a device must have
the following characteristics:
 Error free tracking
 Instantaneous signal acquisition and release
 Zero settling time and
 Infinite hold time
Signal
IC1 IC2
Input
+ S +
output
- -
C

Sample hold
Figure 4.4 Basic Sample-and-Hold Circuits
The circuit uses two FET-input OPS-amp voltage
followers (IC1 and IC2), FET electronic switch (S)
and high-quality capacitor C.
Sample mode takes place when the switch S is closed
i.e S is conducting (during this mode the capacitor
charges up exponentially through the low output
impedance of IC1).
Hold mode occur when the switch is open i.e when S
is not conducting (the charged capacitor voltage
represents the value of the input signal at that instant).
 EEE 520 TUTORIAL (MODULE 4)

(a)Explain:
(i) the main processes that take place during the conversion of
analogue signal from the sensor to digital signal required for
data processing with digital computer.
(ii) the term resolution for an analog-to-digital converter
(ADC).
(b) An analog voltage signal of 0-15V at 1 KHz is to be
measured by a digital voltmeter (DVM), with resolution of
0.1%. Determine the
(i) minimum sampling rate to avoid loss of signal.
(ii) minimum number of bits in the digital code.
(iii) number of decision levels.
(iv) range of most significant bit (MSB).
(v) number of bits if the converter divides a full scale of the
voltmeter.
(vi) dynamic range analog-digital converter (ADC) in dB.
(vii) rms value of the quantization error.