VIETNAM GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOUR

TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY

FALCULTY OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

AUTOMATION ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

CHAPTER 3
DC – AMMETER AND VOLTMETER

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 OBJECTIVES

 Know how to use measuring instruments to

measure the electrical quantities in practice and
in industry.
 Understand the structure of the measuring
equipment and calculate the components of
circuits in measuring instruments.
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 LEARNING OUTCOME(S)

 Define qualities of measurement.

 Describe the structure of indicator devices and summarize the
advantages and disadvantages of indicator devices.
 Apply appropriate devices to perform measurements of
electrical quantities.
 Apply the principles of the electrical circuit to solve the
problems of measuring electrical quantities and determine the
errors caused by these devices.
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 CONTENTS

 DC AMMETER
 EXTENDING OF DC AMMETER RANGES
 DC VOLTMETER
 EXTENDING OF DC VOLTMETER RANGES
 LOADING EFFECT

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 INTRODUCTION

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 3.1. DC AMMETER

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 3.1. DC AMMETER

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 3.1. DC AMMETER

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 3.1. DC AMMETER
 PMMC constitutes the basic movement of a
DC ammeter
 The coil winding of the movement is small
and light, it can carry only very small currents.
 When large currents are to be measured, it is
necessary to bypass a major part of the
current through a resistance called a shunt.

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 3.1. DC AMMETER

I m Rm I m Rm
Rsh  
I sh I  Im
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 3.1. DC AMMETER
 Example 3.1 (a).
 Example 3.1 (b).

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 3.2. EXTENDING OF AMMETER
RANGES
 Multi-range ammeters:

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 3.2. EXTENDING OF AMMETER
RANGES
 Multi-range ammeters:
 Further extended by a number of shunts, selected
by a range switch.
 Shunts are placed in parallel with the movement
 Using multi-range ammeters:
 First use the highest current range, the decrease
the range until good upscale reading.
 The resistances are very high precision value 
the cost increases

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 3.2. EXTENDING OF AMMETER
RANGES
 Example 3.2
 Example 3.3

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 3.2. EXTENDING OF AMMETER
RANGES
 The Ayrton shunt

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 3.2. EXTENDING OF AMMETER
RANGES
 The Ayrton shunt eliminates the possibility of
having the meter in the circuit without a
shunt.
 Example 3.4 (a)
 Example 3.4 (b)

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 DC AMMETER
 Requirements of a shunt
 Minimum thermo dielectric voltage drop
 Solderability
 Precautions:
 Never connect an ammeter across a source of emf.
 Correct polarity
 When using a multi-range meter, first use the
highest current range, then decrease the current
range.

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 RF AMMETER
 Thermocouple instrument.
 Thermocouple consists of a junction of two
dissimilar wires, so chosen that a voltage is
generated by heating the junction.
 The output of a thermocouple is delivered to a
sensitive DC microammeter.

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 RF AMMETER
 Thermocouple instrument.

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 RF AMMETER
 Limitations of thermocouples.
 Heaters can stand only small overload
 A rise in temperature causes a change in the
resistance of the heater
 Presence of harmonics

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 3.3. DC VOLTMETER

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 3.3. DC VOLTMETER

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 3.3. DC VOLTMETER

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 3.3. DC VOLTMETER

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 3.3. DC VOLTMETER
 A DC Ammeter can be converted into a DC Voltmeter
by adding a series resistor know as multiplier.

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 3.3. DC VOLTMETER

 The series resistor can be calculated:

Vrange Vrange
I fsd   RS   Rm
RS  Rm I fsd
 Where
Ifsd : full scale deflection current of the movement.
Rm : internal resistance of movement.
Vrange : full range voltage of the instrument.

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 3.3. DC VOLTMETER
 The DC sensitivity of the movement
1
sDC 
I fsd
 The internal resistance of the instrument
RV  S DC  Vrange

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 3.3. DC VOLTMETER
 Example 4.1
 Example 4.2 (a, b)

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 3.4. EXTENDING OF VOLTMETER
RANGES

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 3.4. EXTENDING OF VOLTMETER
RANGES
 The multipliers can be calculated:
Vi
RSi   Rm
I fsd

 Vi : full range voltage

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 3.4. EXTENDING OF VOLTMETER
RANGES

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 3.4. EXTENDING OF VOLTMETER
RANGES
 Determine the order of V1, V2, V3 and V4
by their values.

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 3.4. EXTENDING OF VOLTMETER
RANGES
 The resistors can be calculated:
V4
RS4   Rm
I fsd

Vrangei  Vrangei1
RSi 
I fsd

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 DC VOLTMETER
 Example 4.3 - 4.10

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 LOADING EFFECT
 An Ammeter acts as a series resistor
when connected to measure an
element’s current.
 A Voltmeter when connected across
two points acts as a shunt resistor of
the circuit.
 These are call the loading effect of an
instrument.
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 LOADING EFFECT
 Example 4.11 – 4.14

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 SUMMARY
 Using shunt resistors to extend
Ammeter’s ranges.
 Using series resistors to extend
Voltmeter’s ranges.
 The Loading effect appears if an
instrument is connected into a circuit
=> error

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 REQUIREMENTS
 Read the slide chapter 4 of this subject
 Read the contents of the next lesson in
the text book [1] : 99-110 in advance
 Read the contents of the next lesson in
the reference book [2] : 38-48 in
advance

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 HOMEWORKS
 Examples: all examples related to dc
ammeter and voltmeter.

 Practice problems:
 Chapter 3 (1 – 7)
 Chapter 4 (1 – 5)

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