Module 2

Principles of Digital Instruments

(Hrs. 10)
• Advantages of digital meters over analogue
meters.
• Resolution & sensitivity of digital meters.
• Working principles of
– digital Voltmeter,
– Ammeter,
– Frequency meter,
– Phase Meter,
– Energy meter,
– Tachometer and
– Multi-meter.
 Comparison of Analog and Digital
Attribute Analog Instruments Digital Instruments
Instrument which gives
Instrument which gives
output that varies in
output that varies
Definition discrete steps and only
continuously as quantity
has finite number of
to be measured
values
Accuracy less more
Power
more less
consumption
Sensitivity less more
Cost Expensive Cheap
Portability not easily portable extremely portable.
Resolution less. more.
 Advantages of digital instruments over
analogue instruments:
• Very easy to read.
• Very few moving parts in electronic instruments, so more
accurate than analogue instruments.
• Human error involved in reading these instruments is very
less, which adds to the accuracy of digital instruments.
• Electronic items tend to be cheaper than mechanical items.
• Data from instruments can be recorded for future
reference.
• Output of digital devices can be obtained in computer
• Has high resolution: can detect very small changes
• Performs calculations and display reading
• Portable size makes easy to carry anywhere.
 Disadvantages of Digital Instruments
1) Sometimes indicate erratic values due to faulty
electronic circuit or damaged display.
2) In case of high humidity and corrosive atmosphere the
internal parts may get damaged and indicate the faulty
values.
3) Sometimes these instrument show some readings even
though there is no applied measurable parameter.

Advantages overdue the disadvantages which is why

they have become highly popular.

Used in cars, air planes, and also in places like air ports,
railway stations, public places etc.
 Resolution and Sensitivity
• Resolution: Smallest increment or change in
measured value
– No. of digits used in digital meters decides resolution
– Normally use 3and 1/2 digit display
– It has 3 active digits showing 999 as highest value and
4th digit is used to indicate 0 or 1 (placed to left).
– Resolution of digital meters is indicated by 3 active
digits.
– If n= no. of full active digits,
– Resolution is defined as 1/10n
– 4 digit display have resolution of 1/104
 Sensitivity
• Change of output (measured value) per unit of
input (measurand).

If sensitivity of a DMM function is 100 nV.

It detects 100 nV change in input voltage.
 Digital Voltmeter
• Display value of AC or DC voltage being
measured directly as discrete numerical
instead of a pointer deflection on a
continuous scale as in analog instruments.
 Digital Voltmeter
• Same as analog to digital converter

• converts analog signal into a train of pulses,

number of which is proportional to input
signal.
Working Principle of Digital Voltmeter
Working Principle of Digital Voltmeter

• Input signal: voltage to be measured.

• Pulse generator (ADC): generate rectangular
pulse.
• AND gate:
– gives high output only when both inputs are high.
– When train pulse is fed to it along with
rectangular pulse, provides an output having train
pulses with duration same as the rectangular
pulse from pulse generator.
• Decimal Display:
– counts numbers of impulses and hence the
duration and
– Display value of voltage on LCD display after
calibrating.
 Working of a digital voltmeter
• Unknown voltage signal fed to pulse generator which generates a
pulse with width proportional to input signal.

• Output of pulse generator is fed to one leg of AND gate.

• Input to other leg of AND gate: train of pulses.

• Output of AND gate is positive triggered train of pulses for duration

same as width of pulse generated by pulse generator.

• This positive triggered train is fed to inverter which converts it into

a negative triggered train.

• Output of inverter is fed to a counter which counts number of

triggers in the duration which is proportional to the input signal i.e.
voltage under measurement.

• Thus, counter can be calibrated to indicate voltage in volts directly.

 Advantages of Digital Voltmeters
• Read out of DVMs is easy as it eliminates observational errors in
measurement committed by operators.

• Error on account of parallax and approximation is entirely

eliminated.

• Reading can be taken very fast.

• Output can be fed to memory devices for storage and future

computations.

• Versatile and accurate

• Compact and cheap

• Low power requirements
• Portability increased
 Classification
• On the basis of A/D conversion method used

– Ramp type digital voltmeter

– Successive approximation type digital voltmeter
– Dual slope Integrating type voltmeter
 Ramp type Digital Voltmeter
Basic Principle

• Based on measurement of time taken by a

linear ramp to rise from 0V to the level of i/p
voltage
• Time is measured with electronic counter and
count is displayed on digital display.
Ramp type Digital Voltmeter
 Operation
• Ramp generator generates linear ramp either positive going or
negative going.
• Dc input voltage to be measured and ramp signal are i/p to i/p
comparator
• Sample rate multivibrator gives pulse which initiates ramp
voltage and resets counter to zero at the start of measurement
• Input comparator is used to send start pulse.
• Ground comparator is used to send stop pulse
• Negative going ramp is applied to i/p comparator and ground
comparator
• Comparators are designed in such a way that when both the
inputs of comparator are equal then only output is high
• At t2, Vin=ramp voltage – o/p of i/p comparator goes high and
it sends start pulse to open gate
• Also at t2, ramp voltage >0, o/p of ground comparator is low.
Cont…
• Oscillator generates train of pulsed.
• When gate is open, oscillator pulses reaches the counter and it
starts counting the pulses.
• At t3, ramp voltage=0, o/p of ground comparator goes high
and it sends stop pulse to close the gate.
• Thus counter stops counting.
• Counter counts for time t3-t2
• A definite no. of pulses will be counted by counter which is
measure of i/p voltage
• This is displayed by digital readout.
• No of pulses counted by counter is directly proportional to
time interval t3-t2
• t3-t2 counter is directly proportional to Vin.
• So no. of pulses α Vin
 Advantages
• Has better resolution and it can be adjusted
• It is easy to design
• cost is low.
 Successive Approximation type DVM
Principle:
• Example : Determination of weight of an object.
• By using a balance and placing the object on one side and an
approximate weight on other side, weight of object is
determined.
• If the weight placed is more than unknown weight, the weight
is removed and another weight of smaller value is placed and
again the measurement is performed.
• Now if it is found that the weight placed is less than that of
the object, another weight of smaller value is added to the
weight already present, and the measurement is performed.
• If it is found to be greater than the unknown weight the
added weight is removed and another weight of smaller value
is added.
• In this manner by adding and removing the appropriate
weight, the weight of the unknown object is determined.
Successive Approximation type DVM
Circuit Diagram
 Functional Blocks of Successive
Approximation type DVM
1. Input: Vin= analog voltage to be measured
2. Input Attenuator: Reduce voltage level
3. Sample and Hold Circuit: when i/p voltage is ac , i/p
voltage level changes during conversion so it Holds it till
conversion process.
4. start-stop multivibrator: start and stop pulse is applied
through multivibrator
5. Delay: sample and hold circuit requires some time for its
operation so delay is introduced after star stop
multivibrator so that both the i/p reaches the gate at
same time
 Cont…
5. Gate: controls conversion procedure with clock pulse
and counter
6. SAR: successive approximation register: 8 bit register
7. Ring Counter: Changes bit position after every clock
pulse. Select appropriate bit of SAR ie starts from
selecting MSB bit D7–D6-D5-D4-D3-D2-D1-D0 upto LSB
bit after every clock pulse. As it provide o/p as 0000-
0100-0010-0001-0000 after successive clock pulse for 4-
bit counter.
8. DAC: Digital to analog Converter: converts SAR 8-bit
Digital o/p to analog
9. Reference Supply: Provides reference Voltage to DAC
converter for comparison.
 Operation
• When start pulse signal activates
the control circuit, successive
approximation register (SAR) is
cleared.
• output of SAR = 00000000.
• Vout of D/A converter = 0.
• If Vin > Vout comparator o/p is
positive.
• During first clock pulse, control
circuit sets the D7 to 1,
• Digiatal o/p of = 10000000
D7 D6 D5 D4 D3 D2 D1 D0
For SAR o/p as
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
if n = no. of bits = 8
value of active bit 27 128 1
Vout= o/p of D/A converter = n
 VRef  8
 1   1  0.5   VR
2 2 256 2
 Operation
• If Vin< Vout, comparator output is negative
• control circuit resets D7 .
• If Vin > Vout comparator output is positive and
control circuits keep D7 set.
• Similarly the rest of the bits beginning from
D7 to D0 are set and reseted.
• So measurement completed in 8 clock pulses.
 Operation Table: If Vin=1V, Vref=5V
V Vr Clk Oper D D D D D D D D DAC o/p Compare Comp Control
i ef Pulse ation 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Analog Voltage O/P ckt action

Set 27 128 Resets

1st 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8
Vref   5  2.5 Vout>Vin Low
D7 2 256 D7
Set 26 64 Resets
2nd 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Vref   5  1.25 Vout>Vin Low
D6 28 256 D6

Set 25 32 retain
3rd 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Vref   5  0.625 Vout<Vin High
D5 28 256 Sets D5
Set 25  2 4 46 Sets
4th D4 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 V   5  0.9375 Vout<Vin High
1 5 2 8 ref
256 D5,D4
V V Set Resets
5th 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 25  2 4  2 3 56
D3 Vref   5  1.09375 Vout>Vin Low
28
256 D3
Set 25  24  22 52 Resets
6th D3 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 Vref   5  1.015625 Vout>Vin Low
28
256 D2
Set 25  24  21 50
7th D1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 8
Vref   5  0.9766Vout<Vin High Sets D1
2 256

Set 25  24  21  20 51
8th Vref   5  0.9961Vout<Vin
D0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 2 8
256 High Sets D0
• Advantages:
• Conversion speed is high: 8 clk pulse
• Conversion time is constant and independent of
the amplitude of analog input signal VA.
• Accuracy: High
• Resolution: High

• Disadvantages:
1 Circuit is complex.
2 DAC required
3 noise can cause error in comparator o/p
Dual slope Integrating type Digital voltmeter
Principle

• Input voltage ’ei’ is integrated for a fixed time

interval

• Then same integrator is used to integrate a

negative reference voltage er with reverse
slope for the time it takes to make o/p of
integrator zero which is proportional to the
magnitude of the input voltage.
Operation

• At start : pulse resets counter and

• F/F output = logic level ‘0’.
• Si is closed and Sr is open.
• capacitor begins to charge.
• As integrator output exceeds zero, comparator output voltage
changes state,
• It opens gate so that oscillator clock pulses are fed to counter.
(When ramp voltage starts, comparator goes to state 1, the gate
opens and clock pulse drives the counter.)
• When 4-bit counter reaches maximum count 9999 in time t1 (fixed
interval), on next clock pulse counter gets 0000 counter
• It activates F/F to logic level ‘1’. Cont….
Cont…
• This activates switch drive,
• ei is disconnected and
• –er is connected to integrator.
• C start dischrging upto 0
• Integrator output will have a negative slope which is constant,
i.e. integrator output now decreases linearly to 0 volts.
• Comparator output state changes again and locks the gate.
• Discharge time t2 is now proportional to input voltage.
• counter indicates the count during time t2.
• When negative slope of the integrator reaches zero, comparator
switches to state 0 and gate closes, i.e. the capacitor C is now
discharged with a constant slope.
• As soon as the comparator input (zero detector) finds that e0, is
zero, counter is stopped.
• The pulses counted by counter thus have a direct relation with
input voltage
t1: fixed time interval
er: Constant
So, Discharge time t2 is proportional to input voltage ei
• Advantages:
• Accuracy is high asindependent of integrator time
constant or C.
• Has excellent noise rejection because noise and
superimposed ac are averaged out in the process
of integration.

• Disadvantages:
• Low speed of measurement
 Digital Frequency Meter
Principle of Operation
• Unknown frequency signal is converted to
pulses and applied continuously to AND gate,
• Pulse of 1 s is applied to other terminal, and
number of pulses counted during this period
indicates frequency.
Operation
• Unknown Frequency sinusoidal voltage applied to amplifier
• Amplifier: amplifies i/p signal
• Schmitt trigger: converts input signal into a square wave.
• Output from Schmitt trigger is a train of pulses,
– one pulse for each cycle of the signal.
• Output pulses from Schmitt trigger are fed to a START/STOP gate.
• START/STOP gate : acts as a switch
– when gate is open; pulses are allowed to pass.
– When closed, pulses are not allowed to pass
• When gate is enabled, input pulses pass through gate and fed
directly to electronic counter, which counts number of pulses.
• When gate is disabled, counter stops counting incoming pulses.
• Counter displays number of pulses passed through it in the time
interval between start and stop.
• If this interval is known, the unknown frequency can be measured.
Complete Block Diagram of Digital Frequency Meter
 Time Base Circuit
• No of pulses from unknown signal are pssed through gate for
time interval t.
• This time interval t is generated by time base circuit
• Crystal Oscillator: generate sine wave of 1 MHz
• Schmitt Trigger: Converts this signal to square wave
• Wave Shaper Circuit: generates positive spikes by
differentiating and clipping square wave.
– Pulses are 1 μs apart.
– Pulses applied to 6 decade divider circuit
Cont..
• Decade Divider Circuit: has 6 time interval slots
• Selector switch allows to select time interval
from 1 μs to 1s
• Generates two pulses:
– Start pulse: to enable main AND gate
– Stop pulse: to disable main AND gate
Gate Control Circuit
• Initially FF1 in in state 1

Start Stop S R Main

FF1 Y1 Y1 FF2 y2 y2 O/P
gate gate 2 2 gate
No pulses passing
Set 1 0 close open 1 0 set 1 0 Close
from i/p signals
Apply Read
pulse(also pulses passing from
res
applied to 0 1 open close 0 1 0 1 open i/p signal
et
counter to
reset)
Next pulse pass through stop gate to FF2 so closes main gate and counter stips counting
 Digital Phase Meter
• Measures phase difference between two
analog signals and displays digital o/p
• Signals Po and Px: of same frequency.

• Preamplifier and Attenuation circuit: signals

amplified or attenuated

• Zero crossing detector (ZCD) :signals converted to

square waveform without any change in their phase
positions
 Operation
• As Po signal increases in positive half cycle crosses 0,
ZCD output as high level 1.
• J—K F/F-1 o/p = set (1)
• This high output from F/F-1 enables AND gate, and
pulses from clock fed directly to counter.
• Counter starts counting these pulses.
• Also this high output level of F/F-1 is applied to clear
input of F/F-2 which makes output of F/F-2 go zero
• Now signal Px having phase difference with respect
to Po, crosses zero (0) in positive half cycle, ZCD
output goes high.
• J—K F/F-2, output toggles & go high=1
• This high output (Q) of F/F-2 is connected to
clear input of F/F-1 forcing F/F-1 to reset.
• Hence output of F/F-1 goes zero
• AND gate is thus disabled, and counter stops
counting.

• Number of pulses counted while enabling and

disabling AND gate is in direct proportion to
phase difference
• Hence display gives direct readout of phase
difference between two inputs having same
frequency
 Advantages
• High accuracy
• High resolution
• High speed operation
• Applicable to wide range of frequency
• Circuit is simple to design
• Leading and lagging phase difference can be
measured
• High reliability
 Disadvantages
• Both inputs must have same frequency
• Small phase difference is difficult to measure
• False triggering may result in error
 Digital Multimeter
• Capable of measuring
– a.c. voltages,
– d.c. voltages,
– a.c. and d.c. currents and
– resistances over several ranges.
– Basic circuit of a digital multimeter is always a d.c.
voltmeter .
– Measures all parameters in terms of voltage
– Basic building blocks of digital multimeter consist of
AtoD converters, counters and attenuation circuit.
Digital Multimeter: Circuit Diagram
• Current is converted to voltage by passing it
through low shunt resistance.
• a.c. quantities are converted to d.c. by rectifier
and filtering circuits.
• For resistance measurements meter consists of
a precision low current source that is applied
across the unknown resistance while gives d.c.
voltage.
• All quantities are digitized using analog to
digital converter and displayed in the digital
form on display.
• Generally dual slope integration type ADC is
preferred
 Working
• As a Digital voltmeter: basic instrument used
is A to D converter
• As a Digital Ammeter:
– uses shunt resistor to produce calibrated voltage
proportional to current flowing.
– Current to be measured is converted to voltage by
known resistance Rx.
– Voltage developed is calibrated to read i/p current
• Resistance measurement: comprising of
known resistance Rx and unknown resistance
Ru used to develop voltage across unknown
resistance.
• Voltage is given by V = VbRu/Rx+Ru
• Vb= Voltage of built in battery
• After calibrating voltage meter can be
calibrated in terms of ohms.
 Digital Tachometer
• work in conjunction with digital frequency
meters.
• High speed measurements are possible
• Does not require direct physical contact with
the shaft whose speed is to be measured.
• So, no load imposed upon shaft by measuring
device.
• Digital tachometers are of two types:
– Photo electric Type
– Inductive Type
 Photoelectric Tachometer

• Consists of an opaque disc mounted on rotating shaft

whose speed is to be measured
• Disc has number of equidistant holes on its periphery.
• At one side of disc light source is fixed and at other
side and in line with light source, a light sensor such as
photo tube or photo sensitive device is placed.
• When opaque portion of disc is between light source
and light sensor, light is blocked and produces no
• When a hole appears between two, light
falling upon sensor produces an output pulse.
• Frequency of pulses producing are depends
upon the number of holes in the disc and its
speed of rotation.
• As number of holes is fixed; pulse rate is a
function of speed of rotation.
• Pulse rate can be measured by an
electromagnetic counter which can be directly
calibrated in terms of speed in r.p.m.
• Advantages:
• Output is digital, no analog to digital conversion
required
• The pulse amplitudes are constant. This simplifies
the electronic circuitry.
• Disadvantages:
• Light source must be replaced from time to time.
A typical life time for light source is 50,000 hours.
• Digital meters measure frequency by counting
number of input pulses which occur in short
period of [Link] this period is too small serious
errors may be caused.
 Variable Reluctance Tachometer
• Consist of metalic toothed rotor mounted on shaft whose
speed is to be measured
• Magnetic pick up is placed near toothed rotor
• Magnetic pick up : small permanent magnet with coil
wound round it.
• When rotor rotates reluctance of air gap between pick up
and toothed rotor changes giving rise to an induced emf in
picked up coils. this o/p is in the form of pulses
• Frequency of pulses of induced voltage will
depend upon no. of teeth of the rotor and its
speed of rotation. Since the no. of teeth is
known the speed of rotation can be
determined by measuring frequency of pulses
with an electronic counter.
• If T= no. of rotor teeths
• N= speed of rotation
• P= no. of pulses per sec.
• Typical rotor has T=60
• If counter counts pulses in one second,
counter will directly display speed in rom.
 Digital Energy Meter

• Energy meter or watt-hour meter is an

instrument that measures amount of electrical
energy used by the consumers.
 Working
• Voltage and currents of power line are sensed by voltage and
current sensors
• These signals are sampled and converted into digital,
multiplied by one another to get instantaneous power.
• These digital outputs are converted to frequency to drive an
electromechanical counter.
• Frequency rate of output pulse is proportional to
instantaneous power, and (in a given interval) it gives energy
transfers to the load for a particular number of pulses.
• Microcontroller accepts the inputs from energy measurement
ICs and serves as brain of the system by performing necessary
operations like: storing and retrieving data from EEPROM,
operating the meter using buttons to view energy
consumption, calibrating phases and clearing readings; also
drives the display using decoder IC.