DIGITAL
VOLTMETER
GROUP NO.-2
Group members-:
Md. Anfaas Ayub(C)
Anuj Prasad(VC)
Abhigyan Prakash
Aditya Prakash
Soumya Kulavi
Chandan Yadav
Sohan Dutta
Md. Kalim
Vikas Kr. Singh
Saunak Ghosh
INTRODUCTION TO DVM
Voltmeter is an electrical instrument used to measure potential difference
between two points. The voltage to be measured may be AC or DC. There
are two types of voltmeters -:
Analog
Digital
With time analog voltmeters are replaced by digital voltmeters due to the
same advantages associated with digital systems. Although digital voltmeters
do not fully replace analog voltmeters, still there are many places where
analog voltmeters are preferred over digital voltmeters.
Digital voltmeters display the 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.
ADVANTAGES OF DVM
Read out of DVMs is easy as it eliminates observational errors in measurement committed
by operators.
Errors on account of parallax and approximation is entirely eliminated.
Reading can be taken very fast.
Output can be fed to memory devices for storage & future computations.
Versatile & accurate
Compact & cheap
Low Power requirements.
Increased portability.
WORKING PRINCIPLE OF DVM
Block diagram of a simple Digital Voltmeter
Explanation of various blocks
Input Signal: It is basically the signal i.e. voltage to be measured.
Pulse generator: Actually it is a voltage source. It uses digital, analog or both techniques to
generate a rectangular pulse. The width & frequency of the rectangular pulse is controlled by the
digital circuitry inside the generator while amplitude and rise and fall time is controlled by
analog circuitry.
AND gate: It gives high output only when both the inputs are high. When a train pulse is
fed to it along with rectangular pulse, it provides us an output having train pulses with
duration as same as the rectangular pulse from the pulse generator.
Train pulse
Rectangular pulse
Output of AND gate
NOT gate: It inverts the output of AND gate.
Output of NOT gate
Decimal Display: It counts the numbers of impulses & hence the duration & display the
value of voltage on LED or LCD display after calibrating it.
WORKING OF A DIGITAL VOLTMETER
Unknown Voltage signal is fed to the pulse generator which generates a pulse whose width
is proportional to the input signal.
Output of pulse generator is fed to one leg of the AND gate.
The input signal to the other leg of the AND gate is a train of pulses.
Output Of AND gate is positive triggered train of duration same as the width of the pulse
generated by the pulse generator.
This positive triggered train is fed to the inverter which converts it into a negative triggered
train.
Output of the inverter is fed to a counter which counts the 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.
So, working of digital voltmeter is nothing but an analog to digital converter which converts
an analog signal into a train of pulses, the number of which is proportional to the input
signal. So, a digital voltmeter can be made by using any one of the A/D conversion
methods.
On the basis of A/D conversions used digital voltmeters can be classified as -:
Ramp type dgital voltmeter
Dual Slope Integrating type voltmeter
Integrating type digital voltmeters
Successive approximation type digital voltmeter
RAMP TYPE DVM
In a ramp type DVM, the operation basically depends on the measurement of time.
The time which a ramp voltage takes to change from the level of the input voltage
to that of 0 voltage or vice versa. An electronic time interval counter is used to
measure the time interval and the count is displayed in digits as voltmeter output.
Here, as we can see in the figure below a negative going ramp voltage is shown. This ramp voltage is compared
with the unknown voltage. An input comparator employed in the circuit generates a pulse when ramp voltage
becomes equal to the voltage under measurement.
Now, the ramp voltage falls to reach 0 value. The ground comparator employed in the circuit generates stop
pulse. This stop pulse closes the gate.
The gate opening time duration is proportional to the value of input voltage. The sample rate Multivibrator
employed here is used to find the rate by which the measurement cycle begins.
Dual Slope Integrating type DVM
The figure below shows the block diagram of dual slope integrating type DVM.
For a fixed time interval, the analogue input is applied to the integrator via switch S. The level of the input voltage is
raised in the comparator to some desired positive value as we can see in the figure below.
• At the end of a fixed time interval, the rate of increase in voltage will be proportional to the input voltage.
• At this time the count is set at 0 and the switch gets shifted to reference voltage. Now, the output of integrator
will start decreasing and drops until it reaches below the comparator reference voltage. At this time control
logicwill receive a signal in order to stop the count.
• The count shown by the counter that is proportional to input voltage will be the measured value and hence
displayed at the Digital read-out.
Integrating Type DVM
In this category of Digital Voltmeter, the true value of input voltage is measured over a fixed
measuring time.
Here, an integration technique is employed that uses voltage to frequency conversion. This
voltage to frequency converter act as a feedback control system. This basically governs the
pulse generation rate is proportional to the magnitude of applied input voltage.
In voltage to frequency conversion technique, a train of pulses is generated. The frequency
of these pulses depends on the voltage being measured.
Then these pulses are counted that appears in a definite time interval. After all, the frequency
of pulses is a function of input voltage, the number of pulses is an indication of the input
voltage.
Successive Approximation DVM
In this category of DVM, the ADC employed makes use of successive approximation
converter. Thus it is named as so. These are capable of 1000 readings per second.
In the beginning, a start pulse is applied at the start/stop Multivibrator. Due to this, MSB of the
control register is set to high and all other bits to low. So, for an 8-bit control register, the
reading would be 10000000.
Thus causing the output of DAC to be half of the reference voltage.
Now, the comparator compares the output of the converter from the input voltage and produces
an output that will cause the control register to retain 1 in its MSB.
The ring converter employed in the circuit advances one count next thus shifting a 1 in the
second. This will cause the MSB of the control register and its reading to be 11000000.
Thus DAC increases its reference by one increment and another comparison of input voltage
with that of reference takes place. In this way through successive approximation the
measurement cycle proceeds. On reaching the last count, the measurement cycle stops.
The output in digital format at the control register shows the final approximation of input
voltage.
Thank You
