Electronics Workshop Laboratory

Experiment No: 2
Familiarization of Electronic Measuring Instruments like Voltmeters, Ammeters,
Miltimetrers, LCR-Q meter, Power Supplies, CRO, DSO, Function Generator and Frequency
Counter.

Aim:
a) Study of Voltmeters & Power Supplies and to find the Voltages using Voltmeter.
b) Study of Ammeter and to find the Currents using Ammeter of different load resistors.
c) Study of Multimeter and to find Voltages, Currents & different parameters.
d) Study of LCR-Q meter and to find Inductance, Capacitance and Resistance using LCR-Q
meter.
e) Study of CRO and DSO and to find the Amplitude & Frequency using CRO & DSO.
f) Study of Function Generator & Frequency Counter and to observe different wave forms
in CRO.

Components and Equipments Required:

S.NO Components / Equipments Range Quantity

1 Regulated Power Supply (0-30V DC) 1
2 Voltmeters (0-20V DC) 1
3 Ammeters (0-100 mAmps) 1
4 Multimeter 1
5 Decade Resistance Box (DRB) 0-100 Mohms 1
6 Capacitors, Inductors and Resistors Different Ranges -
7 LCR – Q meter 1
8 CRO & DSO and Probes (0-30MHz) 1
9 Function Generator & Frequency Meter (0-30MHz) 1
10 Bread Board 1

Theory:
1. Voltmeters
A voltmeter is an instrument used to measure voltage or electrical potential difference between
two points in basic electric circuits. Analog voltmeters move a pointer across a scale in
proportional to the voltage of the circuit. Voltmeters may have an accuracy of a few percent of
full scale, and are used with voltages from a fraction of a volt to several thousand volts.
Two common voltage measurements are direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC).
Although voltage measurements are the simplest of the different types of analog measurements,
they present unique challenges due to noise considerations. Analog voltmeters move a pointer
across a scale in proportion to the voltage of the circuit; digital voltmeters give a numerical
display of voltage by use of a converter. Different types of voltmeters are

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Electronics Workshop Laboratory

Types of Voltmeters:
a. Analog voltmeters
Analog voltmeter includes deflecting type of indicating voltmeters. These are of like
moving iron, moving coil, electrostatic types of voltmeters. Moving coil instruments are of two
types namely permanent magnet and dynamo meter types
Moving-coil instruments with a permanent-magnet field respond only to direct
current. Moving coil instruments consists of permanent magnet to produce magnetic field, and a
coil which is wounded on soft iron piece and rotates about its own vertical axis. When the
current starts flowing through this coil, deflecting torque is produced according to Lorenz force
equation. This torque is directly proportional to the voltage across that particular circuit.
A DC voltmeter is constructed by connecting the resistor in series this instrument and
also a very high resistor in parallel with the circuit where we want to measure the voltage.
Dynamo meter type Moving coil instrument consists of two coils one is fixed and other is
rotating. The interaction of the two fields produced by the pair of fixed coil and moving coil
produce a deflecting torque. These are used in DC measurement circuits only this makes this
instrument to less usage.

b. VTVMs and FET-VMs

Vacuum Tube Volt Meter (VTVM)
These types of instruments handle DC voltage, AC voltage, and resistance measurements. In this
type of voltage measuring device electronic amplifier is used in between the input and the meter.
Due to this arrangement the current drawn from the circuit under test is reduced. The range of
resistances used at the input side in range of 1-20 mega ohms. By these resistances variation we
can select the range to be measured. If this instrument uses the vacuum tube in the amplifier then
it is called as vacuum tube voltmeter. These are used in high power AC measurements. As the
invention of solid state devices used in the amplifiers, these type of voltmeters are called FET-
VM.

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c. Digital Voltmeters
Voltmeter accuracy is affected by many factors, including temperature and supply voltage
variations. DVMs display the measured voltage using LCDs or LEDs to display the result in a
floating point format. Obviously, if voltage measurements are taken and the results are displayed
digitally with LED or LCD displays, the instrument has to contain an A/D converter. Using a
programmed micro controller, ADC and LCD display, the following circuit is ready to provide
accurate digital display of analog values from 0 to 15 volts DC. These are used because of the
properties like accuracy, durability and extra features. These are completely eliminates the
parallax errors. It will convert the signal under test and then amplifies it.

2. Ammeter
Definition: The meter uses for measuring the current is known as the ammeter. The current
is the flow of electrons whose unit is ampere. Hence the instrument which measures the flows of
current in ampere is known as ampere meter or ammeter.
The ammeter is connected in series with the circuit so that the whole electrons of measurand
current pass through the ammeter. The power loss occurs in ammeter because of the measurand
current and their internal resistance.
The resistance of the ammeter is kept low because of the two reasons.
 The whole measurand current passes through the ammeter.
 The low voltage drop occurs across the ammeter.

Types of Ammeter
The classification of the ammeter depends on their design and the type of current flows through
the ammeter. The following are the types of an ammeter regarding construction.

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Electronics Workshop Laboratory

 Permanent moving coil ammeter.

 Moving iron ammeter.
 Electro-dynamometer ammeter.
 Rectifier type ammeter.
By the current, the ammeter categories into two types.
 AC ammeter
 DC ammeter
The instrument which measures the DC is known as the DC ammeter and ammeter which
measures AC is known as the AC ammeter,

3. Multimeter
A Multimeter is an electronic instrument, every electronic technician and engineers widely used
piece of test equipment. Multimeter is mainly used to measure the three basic electrical
characteristics of voltage, current and resistance. It can also be used to test continuity between
two points in a electrical circuit. This post mainly introduces the basic information of multimeter,
applications and types of multimeter are in. Let’s see all of these.
Multimeter has multi functionalities like, it acts like ammeter, voltmeter and ohmmeter. It is a
handheld device with positive and negative indicator needle over a numeric LCD digital display.
Multimeters can be used for testing batteries, household wiring, electric motors and power
supplies.

Digital Multimeter:
We mostly used multimeter is Digital Multimeter (DMM). The DMM performs all functions
from AC to DC other than analog. It has two probes positive and negative indicated with black
and red color is shown in figure. The black probe connected to COM JACK and red probe
connected by user requirement to measure ohm, volt or amperes. The jack marked VΩ and
the COM jack on the right of the picture are used for measuring voltages, resistance and for
testing a diode. The two jacks are utilized when LCD display that shows what is being measured
(volts, ohms, amps, etc.). Overload protection that prevents damage to the meter and the circuit,
and protects the user.

4. LCR-Q meter
The LCR meter also measures D or Q. D stands for the dissipation factor. It is given by dividing
the real part of the impedance by the imaginary part of the impedance (which is the reactance). Q
stands for the quality factor. It is the inverse of D.

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Electronics Workshop Laboratory

An LCR meter is used to measure the inductance, capacitance and resistance of a circuit. Hence,
the name LCR meter.

5. Power Supplies:
A power supply is a hardware component that supplies power to an electrical device. It receives
power from an electrical outlet and converts the current from AC (alternating current) to DC
(direct current), which is what the computer requires. It also regulates the voltage to an adequate
amount, which allows the computer to run smoothly without overheating. The power supply an
integral part of any computer and must function correctly for the rest of the components to work.
A regulated power supply converts unregulated AC (Alternating Current) to a constant DC
(Direct Current). A regulated power supply is used to ensure that the output remains constant
even if the input changes.
A regulated DC power supply is also known as a linear power supply, it is an embedded circuit
and consists of various blocks. The regulated power supply will accept an AC input and give a
constant DC output. The figure below shows the block diagram of a typical regulated DC power
supply.

The basic building blocks of a regulated DC power supply are as follows:

1. A step-down transformer
2. A rectifier
3. A DC filter
4. A regulator

6. CRO and DSO

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Electronics Workshop Laboratory

a. Cathode Ray Oscilloscope (CRO)

Definition: The cathode ray oscilloscope (CRO) is a type of electrical instrument which is used
for showing the measurement and analysis of waveforms and others electronic and electrical
phenomenon. It is a very fast X-Y plotter shows the input signal versus another signal or versus
time. The CROs are used to analyse the waveforms, transient, phenomena, and other time-
varying quantities from a very low-frequency range to the radio frequencies.
The CRO has Stylus (i.e., a luminous spot) which move over the display area in response to an
input voltage. This luminous spot is produced by a beam of electrons striking on a fluorescent
screen. The normal form of the CRO uses a horizontal input voltage which is an internally
generated ramp voltage called “time base”.
The horizontal voltage moves the luminous spot periodically in a horizontal direction from left to
right over the display area or screen. The vertical voltage is the voltage under investigation. The
vertical voltage moves the luminous spot up and down on the screen. When the input voltage
moves very fast on the screen, the display on the screen appears stationary. Thus, CRO provides
a means of the visualizing time-varying voltage.

b. Digital Storage Oscilloscope

Definition: The digital storage oscilloscope is defined as the oscilloscope which stores and
analysis the signal digitally, i.e. in the form of 1 or 0 preferably storing them as analogue signals.
The digital oscilloscope takes an input signal, store them and then display it on the screen. The
digital oscilloscope has advanced features of storage, triggering and measurement. Also,
it displays the signal visually as well as numerically.

7. Function Generators
A function generator is a signal source that has the capability of producing different types of
waveforms as its output signal. The most common output waveforms are sine-waves, triangular
waves, square waves, and sawtooth waves. The frequencies of such waveforms may be adjusted
from a fraction of a hertz to several hundred kHz.
Actually, the function generators are very versatile instruments as they are capable of producing
a wide variety of waveforms and frequencies. In fact, each of the waveforms they generate is
particularly suitable for a different group of applications. The uses of sinusoidal outputs and
square-wave outputs have already been described in the earlier Arts. The triangular-wave and
sawtooth wave outputs of function generators are commonly used for those applications which
need a signal that increases (or reduces) at a specific linear rate. They are also used in driving
sweep oscillators in oscilloscopes and the X-axis of X-Y recorders.

8. Frequency Counter
Frequency counters are test instruments used in many applications associated with radio
frequency engineering to measure the frequency of signals very accurately.
These frequency counters and counter timers are widely used within a variety of areas of
electronics test to measure the frequency of repetitive signals, and also for measuring the time
between edges on digital signals.

Circuit Diagram 1:

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Electronics Workshop Laboratory

Fig1. Measuring of Voltages and Currents

Circuit Diagram 2:

Fig2. Measuring of Time Period

Procedure:
Part 1:
a. Connections are made as per the circuit diagram1.
b. The RPS +ve is connected to the one end of the resistor and RPS –ve is connected to the
other end of the resistor.
c. Switch on the power supply and increases the input voltage (supply voltage) in Steps.
d. Note down the corresponding current flowing through the resistor and voltage across the
resistor for each and every step of the input voltage using Voltmeter and Ammeter.
e. Repeat the same procedure to measure the voltage and current by using Digital
Multimeter(DMM)
f. Repeat the same procedure to measure the voltage and current by using CRO and DSO
g. The reading of voltages and currents are tabulated.

Part 2:
a. Connect the circuit as shown in circuit diagram2
b. Apply the input of 1V peak-to-peak and 1 KHz frequency using Function Generator.
c. Measure the Output Voltage Vo (p-p) and time period for various input frequencies.

Part 3:
a. Measure the different values of Inductors, Capacitors and Resistors using LCQ-meter
b. The reading of values are tabulated

Tabular forms:
Practical Calculations:

RL = Constant

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Electronics Workshop Laboratory

S.No Applied Voltage (Vi) Voltage(V) Current(mAmps)

Voltmeter DMM CRO Voltmeter DMM CRO

Vi = 5V
S.No Load Resistance (RL) Voltage(V) Current(mAmps)
Using DRB
Voltmeter DMM CRO Voltmeter DMM CRO

Part-2: Vin = 1V at Function Generator

S.No Frequency Amplitude(Voltage) Time Period

Part-3:
# Different Inductors Different Capacitors Different Resistors
Original LCR-Q Original LCR-Q Original LCR-Q
Value of Meter Value of Meter Value of Meter
Inductor Value Capacitor Value Resistor Value

Model Graphs:

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Electronics Workshop Laboratory

SINE WAVE:

TRIANGULAR WAVE:

SQUARE WAVE:

Outcomes:

Results:

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