Instrumentation and measurement (TELT 2206) 2012

2. Current Measurement
A few of the most common sensors will be introduced in this section. Any magnetic field sensor can be
used as a current sensor and there are some exotic examples, such as quantum effects in low-
temperature superconductors used to measure currents in neurons within the brain. This discussion is
limited to measurement of currents in wires with commercially practical devices.

By far, the simplest current-to-voltage converter is the resistor. In current measuring service, it is called
a shunt although it is typically placed in series with the load. That is because shunts are sometimes used
to increase the range of another current-measuring device using a connection that bypasses part of the
current around a meter. Frequency response of a shunt is good and includes dc. Shunts produce a
voltage output that can be presented by a variety of secondary meters, including analog meters, digital
meters, and oscilloscopes. Shunts provide no isolation and have a potentially unacceptable effect on the
circuit being measured. Shunts used for dc are as accurate as the resistance and the associated
voltmeter. The common moving-coil meter, the D’Arsonval movement probably with an internal shunt
and/or rectifier, is an easily used device and still available. Its isolation is by means of the human eye
since that is the only way to read out the result. It is useful for power panels where an operator needs
quick data. Accuracy is no better than 2%.

The D’Arsonval Meter

A galvanometer is a type of ammeter: an instrument for detecting and measuring electric current. It is
an analog electromechanical transducer that produces a rotary deflection of some type of pointer in
response to electric current flowing through its coil in a magnetic field.

Galvanometers were the first instruments used to detect and measure electric currents. Sensitive
galvanometers were used to detect signals from long submarine cables, and were used to discover the
electrical activity of the heart and brain. Some galvanometers used a solid pointer on a scale to show
measurements, other very sensitive types used a tiny mirror and a beam of light to provide mechanical
amplification of tiny signals. Initially a laboratory instrument relying on the Earth's own magnetic field to
provide restoring force for the pointer, galvanometers were developed into compact, rugged, sensitive
portable instruments that were essential to the development of electro technology. A type of
galvanometer that permanently recorded measurements was the chart recorder. The term has
expanded to include uses of the same mechanism in recording, positioning, and servomechanism
equipment.

Operation

The most familiar use is as an analog measuring instrument, often called a meter. It is used to measure
the direct current (flow of electric charge) through an electric circuit. The D'Arsonval/Weston form used
today is constructed with a small pivoting coil of wire in the field of a permanent magnet. The coil is
attached to a thin pointer that traverses a calibrated scale. A tiny torsion spring pulls the coil and pointer
to the zero position.

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Figure 1. basic D’Arsonval Meter diagram

When a direct current (DC) flows through the coil, the coil generates a magnetic field. This field acts
against the permanent magnet. The coil twists, pushing against the spring, and moves the pointer. The
hand points at a scale indicating the electric current. Careful design of the pole pieces ensures that the
magnetic field is uniform, so that the angular deflection of the pointer is proportional to the current. A
useful meter generally contains provision for damping the mechanical resonance of the moving coil and
pointer, so that the pointer settles quickly to its position without oscillation.

The basic sensitivity of a meter might be, for instance, 100 microamperes full scale (with a voltage drop
of, say, 50 millivolts at full current). Such meters are often calibrated to read some other quantity that
can be converted to a current of that magnitude. The use of current dividers, often called shunts, allows
a meter to be calibrated to measure larger currents. A meter can be calibrated as a DC voltmeter if the
resistance of the coil is known by calculating the voltage required to generate a full scale current. A
meter can be configured to read other voltages by putting it in a voltage divider circuit. This is generally
done by placing a resistor in series with the meter coil. A meter can be used to read resistance by
placing it in series with a known voltage (a battery) and an adjustable resistor. In a preparatory step, the
circuit is completed and the resistor adjusted to produce full scale deflection. When an unknown
resistor is placed in series in the circuit the current will be less than full scale and an appropriately
calibrated scale can display the value of the previously-unknown resistor.

Because the pointer of the meter is usually a small distance above the scale of the meter, parallax error
can occur when the operator attempts to read the scale line that "lines up" with the pointer. To counter
this, some meters include a mirror along the markings of the principal scale. The accuracy of the reading
from a mirrored scale is improved by positioning one's head while reading the scale so that the pointer
and the reflection of the pointer are aligned; at this point, the operator's eye must be directly above the
pointer and any parallax error has been minimized.

Shunts
Shunts were introduced above. They dissipate power as heat and the resistance changes in response to
the rising temperature. The dissipation is proportional to the voltage across the shunt and a design
compromise must be made because low voltage implies less accuracy in the voltmeter. A standard of 50
mV has evolved. Shunts do not provide galvanic isolation between the measured circuit and the

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measurement device. Measurement of alternating current using shunts is also affected by skin effect
and the inductance of the shunt. Skin effect can be minimized in the design of the shunt by the use of
several parallel sheets of thin metal, Figure 2, a feature that also improves heat dissipation. There is not
much to be done about inductance except to minimize size.

Figure 2. Multiple sheets of conductor are provided in this shunt to reduce skin effect and allow air
cooling.
Ammeter design

In ammeter designs, external resistors added to extend the usable range of the movement are
connected in parallel with the movement rather than in series as is the case for voltmeters. This is
because we want to divide the measured current, not the measured voltage, going to the movement,
and because current divider circuits are always formed by parallel resistances. Taking the same meter
movement as the voltmeter example, we can see that it would make a very limited instrument by itself,
full-scale deflection occurring at only 1 mA:

Using 5 amps as an extended range for our sample movement, let's determine the amount of parallel
resistance necessary to "shunt," or bypass, the majority of current so that only 1 mA will go through the
movement with a total current of 5 A:

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The stapes used to find the shunt resistors is the same as we find the multiplier resistors in voltmeters;
these the shunt resistance is 100.02mΩ.

Of course, we could have calculated the same value of just over 100 milli-ohms (100 mΩ) for the shunt
by calculating total resistance (R=E/I; 0.5 volts/5 amps = 100 mΩ exactly), then working the parallel
resistance formula backwards, but the arithmetic would have been more challenging:

As is the case with multiple-range voltmeters,

ammeters can be given more than one usable range by incorporating several shunt resistors switched
with a multi-pole switch:

Notice that the range resistors are connected through the switch so as to be in parallel with the meter
movement, rather than in series as it were in the voltmeter design. The five-position switch makes
contact with only one resistor at a time, of course. Each resistor is sized accordingly for a different full-
scale range, based on the particular rating of the meter movement (1 mA, 500 Ω). With such a meter
design, each resistor value is determined by the same technique, using a known total current,
movement full-scale deflection rating, and movement resistance. For an ammeter with ranges of 100
mA, 1 A, 10 A, and 100 A, the shunt resistances would be as such:

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Notice that these shunt resistor values are very low! 5.00005 mΩ is 5.00005 milli-ohms, or 0.00500005
ohms! To achieve these low resistances, ammeter shunt resistors often have to be cu stom-made from
relatively large-diameter wire or solid pieces of metal. One thing to be aware of when sizing ammeter
shunt resistors is the factor of power dissipation. Unlike the voltmeter, an ammeter's range resistors
have to carry large amounts of current. If those shunt resistors are not sized accordingly, they may
overheat and suffer damage, or at the very least lose accuracy due to overheating. For the example
meter above, the power dissipations at full-scale indication are (the double-squiggly lines represent
"approximately equal to" in mathematics):

An 1/8 watt resistor would work just fine for R 4, a 1/2 watt resistor would suffice for R 3 and a 5 watt for
R2 (although resistors tend to maintain their long-term accuracy better if not operated near their rated
power dissipation, so you might want to over-rate resistors R2 and R3), but precision 50 watt resistors are
rare and expensive components indeed. A custom resistor made from metal stock or thick wire may
have to be constructed for R1 to meet both the requirements of low resistance and high power rating.

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