INSTR F311: Electronic Instruments and Instrumentation Technology

INTRODUCTION

BITS Pilani Dr. Sujan Yenuganti (office no: 5699 - O)

[email protected]
Pilani Campus
 Introduction

 The measurement of any quantity plays very important role not only in science but in all branches of
engineering, medicine and in almost all the human day to day activities.

 The measurement of a given parameter or quantity is the act of a quantitative comparison between
predefined standard and an unknown quantity to be measured.

 The unknown quantity or parameter to be measured by an instrument is called measurand.

 If the measurand is an electrical or electronic quantity then it is called electrical or electronic measurement.

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 Introduction

 The major problem with any measuring instrument is the error. Hence, it is necessary to select the
appropriate measuring instrument and measurement procedure which minimizes the error.

 Error is defined as the difference between the actual value and the measured value of the instrument.

 Calibration is the process of making an adjustment or marking a scale so that the readings of an instrument
agree with the accepted certified standard.

 The calibration offers a guarantee to the instrument that it is operating with required accuracy, under the
stipulated environmental conditions.

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 Standards of measurement

 International standard:

It is maintained at the international bureau of weights and measures.

 Primary standard:

Absolute standards of high accuracy, used as reference standards.

 Secondary standards:
Reference standards used in industrial measurement laboratories. Checked locally against
reference standards available in that area.
 Working standards:

Available in measurement laboratory, used for calibration of general laboratory instruments.

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 Electrical/Electronic measurement

Advantages of Electrical/Electronic Measurement:

1. Most of the quantities can be converted into the electrical or electronic signals by transducers.

2. An electrical or electronic signal can be amplified, filtered, multiplexed, sampled and measured.

3. The measurement can easily be obtained in or converted into digital form for automatic analysis and recording.

4. The measured signals can be transmitted over long distances with the help of cables or radio links, without any
loss of information.

5. Many measurements can be carried either simultaneously or in rapid succession.

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 Contd..

Advantages of Electrical/Electronic Measurement:

6. Electronic circuits can detect and amplify very weak signals and can measure the events of very short
duration as well.

7. Electronic measurement makes possible to build analog and digital signals. The digital signals are very much
required in computers. The modern development in science and technology are totally based on computers.

8. Higher sensitivity, low power consumption and a higher degree of reliability are the important features of
electronic instruments and measurements. But, for any measurement, a well defined set of standards and
calibration units is essential.

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 General Block Diagram of a
Measuring Instrument
Data Storage

Measuring Primary Sensing Variable Conversion Variable Data Transmission

Medium Element Element Manipulation Element
Element (signal
processing)

Data Presentation
Element
Observer
 Primary sensing element

 The first element in any measuring system (measuring instrument) is the primary sensing element: this
gives an output that is a function of the measurand (the input applied to it).

 For most but not all instruments, this function is at least approximately linear. Some examples of primary
sensing elements are a liquid-in glass thermometer, a thermocouple, and a strain gauge.

 In the case of a mercury-in-glass thermometer, because the output reading is given in terms of the level of
the mercury, this particular primary sensor is also a complete measurement system in itself.

Mercury thermometer strain gauge

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 Variable conversion element

 Variable conversion elements are needed where the output variable of a primary transducer is in an
inconvenient form and has to be converted to a more convenient form.

 For instance, the force-measuring strain gauge has an output in the form of a varying resistance. Because
the resistance change cannot be measured easily, it is converted to a change in voltage by a bridge circuit,
which is a typical example of a variable conversion element.

Quarter bridge strain gauge

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 Variable manipulation element

 A variable manipulation element (signal processing) exist to improve the quality of the output of a
measurement system in some way.

 A very common type of signal processing element is the electronic amplifier, which amplifies the output of
the primary transducer or variable conversion element, thus improving the sensitivity and resolution of
measurement.

 For example, thermocouples have a

typical output of only a few millivolts.
Other types of signal processing
elements are those that filter out induced
noise and remove mean levels, etc.

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 Data transmission element
 In addition to these three components just mentioned, some measurement systems have one or two other
components, first to transmit the signal to some remote point and second to display or record the signal if it is
not fed automatically into a feedback control system.

 The signal transmission element has traditionally consisted of single or multicore cable, which is often
screened to minimize signal corruption by induced electrical noise. However, fiber-optic cables are being
used in ever-increasing numbers in modern installations, because of their low transmission loss and are not
effected by external electrical and magnetic fields.

Wireless acceleration transmission

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Crash sensors

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 Data presentation element

 The final optional element in a

measurement system is the point
how the measured signal is utilized.
In some cases, this element is
omitted altogether because the
measurement is used as part of an
automatic control scheme, and the
transmitted signal is fed directly into
the control system.

 In other cases, this element in the

measurement system takes the form
either of a signal presentation unit or
of a signal-recording unit.
Temperature recording via LabVIEW
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 Contd..

Computer measuring system

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 Instrument types

 Types of instruments

- Active and passive

- Null type and deflection type

- Analogue and digital

- Indicating instruments and instruments with signal output

- Smart and Non smart

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 Active vs Passive

 Instruments are divided into active or passive ones according to whether instrument output is produced
entirely by the quantity being measured or whether the quantity being measured simply modulates the
magnitude of some external power source.

 The pressure of the fluid is translated

into movement of a pointer against a
scale.

Passive pressure sensor

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 Contd..

 The change in petrol level moves a potentiometer arm, and the output signal consists of a proportion
of the external voltage source applied across the two ends of the potentiometer.

 The energy in the output signal comes from the external power source: the float system is merely
modulating the value of the voltage from this external power source.

Active float type petrol tank level indicator

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 Null vs Deflection

 The pressure gauge just mentioned is a good example of a deflection type of instrument, where the
value of the quantity being measured is displayed in terms of the amount of movement of a pointer.

 weights are put on top of the piston until the downward force balances the fluid pressure. Weights are
added until the piston reaches a datum level, known as the null point. Pressure measurement is made
in terms of the value of the weights needed to reach this null position.

Dead weight pressure gauge

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 Analog vs Digital

 An analogue instrument gives an output that varies continuously as the quantity being measured changes.
The output can have an infinite number of values within the range that the instrument is designed to
measure.

 The pointer can therefore be in an infinite number of positions within its range of movement, the number
of different positions that the eye can discriminate between is strictly limited; this discrimination is
dependent on how large the scale is and how finely it is divided.

Analogue pressure gauge

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 Contd..

 A digital instrument has an output that varies in discrete steps and so can only have a finite number of
values. A cam is attached to the revolving body whose motion is being measured, and on each
revolution the cam opens and closes a switch.

 The switching operations are counted by an electronic counter. This system can only count whole
revolutions and cannot discriminate any motion that is less than a full revolution.

Revolution counter
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 Indicating vs Signal output

 Instruments that have a signal-type output are used commonly as part of automatic control systems. In
other circumstances, they can also be found in measurement systems where the output measurement signal
is recorded in some way for later use.

 Usually, the measurement signal involved is an electrical voltage, but it can take other forms in some
systems, such as an electrical current, an optical signal, or a pneumatic signal.

Bathroom scale
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 Smart sensor

In built Compensation for

Compensation Self calibration random errors

SMART
Instrument/Sensor

Self diagnosis
Energy harvester
Adjustment to non
linearity

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 Contd..

 Passive  Passive
 Null  Deflection
 Analog  Analog
 Non smart  indicating
 Non smart

Weighing balance
Weighing scale
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 Contd..

 Passive  Active
 Indicating and deflection  Instrument with signal output
 Analog  Analog
 Non smart  Non smart
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 Contact vs non contact

Digital thermometer
Infrared thermometer
 Active  Active
 Indicating  Indicating
 Digital  Digital
 Non smart  Smart

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 Static characteristics

 The accuracy of an instrument is a measure of how close the output reading of the instrument is to the
true value.

 Precision is a term that describes an instrument’s degree of freedom from random errors. If a large
number of readings are taken of the same quantity by a high-precision instrument, then the spread of
readings will be very small.

 Tolerance is a term that is closely related to accuracy and defines the maximum error that is to be
expected in some value.

strictly speaking, a static characteristic of measuring instruments, it is mentioned here because the accuracy
of some instruments is sometimes quoted as a tolerance value

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 Contd..

 Repeatability describes the closeness of output readings when the same input is applied repetitively
over a short period of time, with the same measurement conditions, same instrument and observer,
same location, and same conditions of use maintained throughout.

 Reproducibility describes the closeness of output readings for the same input when there are changes in
the method of measurement, observer, measuring instrument, location, conditions of use, and time of
measurement.

 The range or span of an instrument defines the minimum and maximum values of a quantity that the
instrument is designed to measure.

 It is normally desirable that the output reading of an instrument is linearly proportional to the quantity
being measured.(linearity)

 Nonlinearity is then defined as the maximum deviation of any of the output readings from idealized
straight line and usually expressed as a percentage of full-scale reading.
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 Contd..

 Sensitivity is defined as the ratio of magnitude of the output to the magnitude of input quantity being
measured.

 If the input to an instrument is increased gradually from zero, the input will have to reach a certain
minimum level before the change in the instrument output reading is of a large enough magnitude to
be detectable. This minimum level of input is known as the threshold of the instrument.

 The minimum magnitude change in the input measured quantity that produces an observable change
in the instrument output is called resolution.

 Zero drift or bias describes the effect where the zero reading of an instrument is modified by a
change in ambient conditions.

 Sensitivity drift (also known as scale factor drift) defines the amount by which an instrument’s
sensitivity of measurement varies as ambient conditions change.

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Contd..

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 Contd..

 If the input measured quantity to the instrument is increased steadily from a negative value, the output
reading varies in the manner shown in curve A. If the input variable is then decreased steadily, the output
varies in the manner shown in curve B. The non coincidence between these loading and unloading curves
is known as hysteresis.

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 Numerical

Two Voltmeters (A and B) have a full scale accuracy of ± 5%. Voltmeter A has a range of 0-1 V and B has a
range of 0-10 V. Which voltmeter is more suitable to be used if the reading to be measured is 0.9 V?

5
Voltmeter A error   1V  0.05 V
100
0.05
error percentage  100  5.5%
0.9

Voltmeter B 5
error   10 V  0.5 V
100
0.5
error percentage  100  55.5%
0.9
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 Errors
Errors, or uncertainties, are inevitable in measurements.
Note that here “errors” mean random errors. One should always avoid systematic errors.

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 Types of errors
 Types of errors
- Gross errors
- Systematic errors
- Random errors

 Gross errors- It mainly covers human mistakes in reading the instrument, recording and calculating the
measurement results.

 Systematic errors includes

Instrumental errors
Environmental errors
Observational errors

 Main reasons for Instrumental errors

- Inherent shortcomings in the instrument
- Misuse of the instrument
- Loading effect- by the act of measurement
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 Contd..

 Environmental errors- These errors are due to conditions external to the measuring device. There may
be effects of temperature, pressure, humidity, dust, vibrations, external electrical noise, external
magnetic fields, electrostatic field etc.

 Reduction of Systematic errors

- By periodic calibration
- By signal filtering
- By intelligent instruments
- By careful instrument design

 Random errors- These errors are unpredictable errors and occur even when all the systematic are
accounted for, i.e. the instrument is under controlled environment and accurately calibrated before
measurement.

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 Contd..

 Random errors can be found when the readings may slightly vary over a period of time of
observations.

 Random errors cannot be corrected or explained without detailed investigation.

 However random errors can be reduced by taking more no of readings and by statistical methods to get
the best approximation of the true value.

 Due to the unpredictability of random errors, any error bounds placed on measurements can only be
quantified in probabilistic terms.

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Errors: random Vs systematic

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