ABSTRACT

Digital voltmeter has been a boon in this modern day technology; this is as
result in the quest for better, enhanced and the need for precision instrument
in electrical electronic engineering.

Digital

voltmeter

(DVM)

is

measuring device used in displaying AC or DC voltage values. DVM

displays voltages as discrete numerals instead of a pointer deflection on a
continuous scale as in the analogue instruments. It is versatile and accurate
measuring instrument that is employed in many laboratory measurements.
In this article, various techniques employed in bringing to life this
engineering master piece will be presented in a clear and defined approach.

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Electric Meters, instruments for measuring and indicating magnitudes of
electrical values, such as current, charge, potential, and power, and the
electrical characteristics of circuits, such as resistance, capacitance, and
inductance. The information is usually presented in terms of defined,
standard electrical units, which principally are the ohm, volt, ampere,
coulomb, Henry, farad, watt, and joule. Given that all forms of matter
exhibit one or more electrical characteristics, electrical measurements may
be taken from an essentially unlimited number of sources.
By their nature, electrical values cannot be measured by direct observation.
Therefore, some property of electricity must be used to produce a physical
force that can be observed and measured. For example, in a galvanometer,
which was the earliest type of meter devised, the force existing between a
magnetic field and a pivoted, current-carrying coil within the field causes
an observable deflection of the coil. Because the deflection is proportional
to the current, a calibrated scale is employed to measure the electrical
current. Electromagnetic action between currents, force action between
electric charges, and the heating effect caused by conductor resistance are
some other examples of indirect methods used for electric meter analog
readouts.
Measurement helps in the discovering of size, length or amount of
particular quantities. In other words there are different measuring devices
used in laboratory such as thermometer, voltmeter etc

This seminar deals on digital voltmeter. A voltmeter is an electronic devices

used in the measurement of voltages. It can be grouped into two namely:
digital and analogue voltmeter. The digital voltmeter makes use of an
analogue to digital converter or the digital integrating circuit, while the
analogue converter uses direct conversion technique.
Digital meters are usually simpler to read and many will adjust to the proper
range required for the circuit or device they are connected to. These meters
are known as auto-ranging meters. Other digital meters require the operator
to select the proper range. In any case it is important to learn the symbols
used in a digital readout so you can interpret the reading.

CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
The first digital voltmeter was invented and produced by Andrew Kay of
Non-Linear Systems (and later founder of Kaypro) in 1954.
Digital voltmeters (DVMs) are usually designed around a special type of
analog-to-digital converter called an integrating converter. Voltmeter
accuracy is affected by many factors, including temperature and supply
voltage variations. To ensure that a digital voltmeter's reading is within the
manufacturer's specified tolerances, they should be periodically calibrated
against a voltage standard such as the Weston cell.
Digital voltmeters necessarily have input amplifiers, and, like vacuum tube
voltmeters, generally have a constant input resistance of 10 megohms
regardless of set measurement range
Digital volt meter makes use of an analogue to digital converter. This
converts the analogue voltage to binary form. The binary is sent to the
decoder, where it is converted to seven segment display. The dual slope
conversion is well suited to DVM operation because it providers good
accuracy by Paul Horowitz and Winfield hill, the art of electronics second
edition 1989, Cambridge university press, USA.
According to Oxford advanced learners dictionary. Digital instrument is an
instrument used for receiving and sending information as a series of the
number one and zero. In this instrument, the analogue inputs is converted to
a BCD code representation which is then decoded and displayed on a digital

display by McKenzie smith, John Hilly and Keith Brown Electrical and
Electronics technology Hughes. The first digital voltmeter was invented and
produced by Andrew Kay of non-linear system (and later founder of
kaypro) in 1954. This digital meter has an input amplifier, vacuum tube
voltmeters and also a constant input resistance of 10megaohms regardless
of set measurement range.
By wartime john; http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/voltmeter. the dual slope
analog-digital (A-D) converter consists of five basic blocks namely, an opamp used as an integrator, a level comparator, a basic clock (for generating
timing pulses),a set of decimal counters and a block of logic circuitry by
B.L THERAJA and A.K THERAJA A textbook of electrical technology
revised edition in two colours, S. Chand and company. Multimeter was
invented in the early 1920s as radio receivers and other vacuum tube
electronic devices became more common. the invention of the first
multimedia is attributed to a post office engineer Donald Macadie who
came dissatisfied with many separate instrument required for the
maintenance of the telecommunication circuits. Macadie invented a first
instrument which could measure amps, volts and ohms so the
multifunctional meter was than named AVOMETER. The meter comprised
a galvanometer, voltage and resistance references and a switch to select the
appropriate circuit for the input under test. it was sold in 1923 by automatic
coil winder and electrical equipment company (ACWEEC).
Finally, the digital voltmeter is an ADC (analog-to-digital converter) which
converts an analog signal into a train of pulses. The digital voltmeter has
limited number of discrete values. An analogue to digital converter or

integrating converter is preferred over other types as it offers accuracy and

simplicity in design.

CHAPTER THREE
THE BASICS
Voltmeters measure voltage or voltage drops across a circuit.

Voltage

drops are used to locate excessive resistance in the circuit which could
cause poor performance or improper operation.

Lack of voltage at a

given point may indicate an open circuit or ground. On the other hand, low
voltage or high voltage drop, may indicate a high resistance problem like a
poor connection.
Voltmeters must be connected in parallel with the device or circuit that is
undergoing test or examination.
The digital voltmeter is grouped according to the type of conversion i.e.
Ramp type
Successive-approximation
Integrating or Dual Slope

RAMP TYPE: A ramp-compare ADC produces a saw-tooth signal that

ramps up, then quickly falls to zero. When the ramp starts, a timer starts
counting. When the ramp voltage matches the input, a comparator fires, and
the timer's value is recorded. Timed ramp converters require the least
number of transistors. The ramp time is sensitive to temperature because the
circuit generating the ramp is often just some simple oscillator. There are
two solutions: use a clocked counter driving a DAC and then use the
comparator to preserve the counter's value, or calibrate the timed ramp. A

special advantage of the ramp-compare system is that comparing a second

signal just requires another comparator, and another register to store the
voltage value. A very simple (non-linear) ramp-converter can be
implemented with a microcontroller and one resistor and capacitor. Vice
versa a filled capacitor can be taken from an integrator, time-to-amplitude
converter; phase detector, sample and hold circuit, or peak and hold circuit
and discharged. This has the advantage that a slow comparator cannot be
disturbed by fast input changes.

INTEGRATING ADC: An integrating ADC (also dual-slope or multislope ADC) applies the unknown input voltage to the input of an integrator
and allows the voltage to ramp for a fixed time period (the run-up period).
Then a known reference voltage of opposite polarity is applied to the
integrator and is allowed to ramp until the integrator output returns to zero
(the run-down period).

The input voltage is computed as a function of the reference voltage, the

constant run-up time period, and the measured run-down time period. The
run-down time measurement is usually made in units of the converter's
clock, so longer integration times allow for higher resolutions. Likewise,
the speed of the converter can be improved by sacrificing resolution.
Converters of this type (or variations on the concept) are used in most
digital voltmeters for their linearity and flexibility.

SUCCESSIVE-APPROXIMATION: A successive-approximation ADC

uses a comparator to reject ranges of voltages, eventually settling on a final
voltage range. Successive approximation works by constantly comparing
the input voltage to the output of an internal digital to analog converter
(DAC, fed by the current value of the approximation) until the best
approximation is achieved. At each step in this process, a binary value of
the approximation is stored in a successive approximation register (SAR).
The SAR uses a reference voltage (which is the largest signal the ADC is to
convert) for comparisons. For example if the input voltage is 60 V and the
reference voltage is 100 V, in the 1st clock cycle, 60 V is compared to 50 V
(the reference, divided by two.

This is the voltage at the output of the internal DAC when the input is a '1'
followed by zeros), and the voltage from the comparator is positive (or '1')
(because 60 V is greater than 50 V). At this point the first binary digit
(MSB) is set to a '1'. In the 2nd clock cycle the input voltage is compared to
75 V (being halfway between 100 and 50 V: This is the output of the
internal DAC when its input is '11' followed by zeros) because 60 V is less
than 75 V, the comparator output is now negative (or '0'). The second binary
digit is therefore set to a '0'. In the 3rd clock cycle, the input voltage is
compared with 62.5 V (halfway between 50 V and 75 V: This is the output
of the internal DAC when its input is '101' followed by zeros). The output
of the comparator is negative or '0' (because 60 V is less than 62.5 V) so the
third binary digit is set to a 0. The fourth clock cycle similarly results in the
fourth digit being a '1' (60 V is greater than 56.25 V, the DAC output for
'1001' followed by zeros).

The result of this would be in the binary form 1001. This is also called bitweighting conversion, and is similar to a binary search. The analogue value
is rounded to the nearest binary value below, meaning this converter type is
mid-rise (see above). Because the approximations are successive (not
simultaneous), the conversion takes one clock-cycle for each bit of
resolution desired. The clock frequency must be equal to the sampling
frequency multiplied by the number of bits of resolution desired. For
example, to sample audio at 44.1 kHz with 32 bit resolution, a clock
frequency of over 1.4 MHz would be required. ADCs of this type have good
resolutions and quite wide ranges. They are more complex than some other
designs.

DIGITAL RAMP: A ramp-compare ADC produces a saw-tooth signal

that ramps up, then quickly falls to zero. When the ramp starts, a timer
starts counting. When the ramp voltage matches the input, a comparator
fires, and the timer's value is recorded. Timed ramp converters require the
least number of transistors for a given task. The ramp time is sensitive to
temperature because the circuit generating the ramp is often just some
simple oscillator.

There are two solutions: use a clocked counter driving a DAC and then use
the comparator to preserve the counter's value, or calibrate the timed ramp.
A special advantage of the ramp-compare system is that comparing a
second signal just requires another comparator, and another register to store
the voltage value. A very simple (non-linear) ramp-converter can be
implemented with a microcontroller and one resistor and capacitor

[6]

. Vice

versa a filled capacitor can be taken from an integrator, time-to-amplitude

converter; phase detector, sample and hold circuit, or peak and hold circuit
and discharged. This has the advantage that a slow comparator cannot be
disturbed by fast input changes.
To this end, various converter schemes have been explained but this tends
not to be the end of conversion techniques which may vary depending on
the application in the field of engineering. For example the delta-sigma,
single slope, Wilkinson, Delta-Encoded and lots more.

ADVANTAGES OF THE DIGITAL METER

The numerical display of the digital meter eliminates parallel
Errors associated with human reading and interpolation are reduced
Digital instruments have automatic range and polarity selection and
this reduces the need for training its operators on the usage.
Digital instruments provide output in digital form suitable for further
processing, recording or interfacing with computer, printer etc
Finally, accuracy in digital meter is better as readings are often
correct to within +0.1% and -0.1% of the true value, while the
analogue type may have an error as large as +10%

CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
The DVM is an accurate measuring instrument that is employed in many
measurement laboratories. It makes use of analogue to digital converter
(ADC) and drive a series of four seven segment LED display directly. The
digital voltmeter measures AC and DC voltages. Due to its precision, it is a
popular choice.
RECOMMENDATION
The availability of laboratory equipment remains vital and basic in the
study of electrical and electronics engineering courses. This will facilitate
the learning and comprehensive ability of students, since engineering
courses are practical oriented, therefore student should not relent for any
reasons to make use of their available laboratory equipments.
Hence, good understanding on scientific and engineering knowledge will
make practical exercise and involvement interesting. Therefore, student
should involve themselves in practical exercise because it will improve
their assimilation the theoretical aspect of engineering and scientific
knowledge.

REFERENCES
B.1. Theraja,A.K Theraja

A testbook of Electrical Technology (coloured edition/2003, S CHAND and

company, India.

Horowitz Paul, Hill Winfield,

The Art of Electronics (second edition) 1989,
Combridge University press, USA.

Mehta V.K, Mehta Rohit

Principles of Electronics (Multi colour Edition)
2005, S CHAND and company, India.

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/voltmeter

McKenzie Smith, John Hiley and Keith Brown.

Electrical and Electronic Technology Hughes

http//www.free-electronic-circuit.com/circuits/html.