Weightage: 12 Marks

Sound Measurement:
Electro Dynamic Microphone:
Working principle: it works on the principle of “Electromagnetic Induction”.

Construction of Electro Dynamic Microphone:

The dynamic microphone consists of a magnet, and a diaphragm to which a coil is attached. The assembly is held in
place by an outer casing and the coil can move freely over the magnet.

Working:
As sound waves hit the diaphragm, this causes the coil
to move backwards and forwards within the magnetic
field and as a result an electric current is induced in line
with the incoming sound vibrations.

Advantages:
1. It is very sturdy and can tolerate comparatively rough
handling.
2. Dynamic microphones are also able to handle high
sound levels without distorting – this makes them useful for certain musical instruments.
3. They do not require an internal preamplifier like some types including the condenser microphone.
4. The overall frequency response of these microphones is good.
5. Do not required any external power supply.

Applications: The dynamic microphone or moving coil microphone is widely used for stage, musical applications.

Carbon Microphone:
It is also called as button microphone or a carbon transmitter.

Construction of Electro Dynamic Microphone:

The carbon microphone comprises carbon granules that are contained within a small contained that is covered with a
thin metal diaphragm. A battery is also required to cause a current to flow through the microphone.
Working:
1. When sound waves strike the carbon
microphone diaphragm it vibrates, exerting a varying
pressure onto the carbon. These varying pressure
levels are translated into varying levels of resistance,
which in turn vary the current passing through the
microphone.
2. The varying current can be passed through a
transformer or a capacitor to enable it to be used
within a telephone, or by some form of amplifier.

Advantages
1. High output
2. Simple principle & construction
3. Cheap and simple to manufacture

Disadvantages
1. Very noisy - high background noise and on occasions it would crackle.
2. Poor frequency response.
3. Requires battery or other supply for operation.

Applications: Carbon microphones were widely used in vintage telephone.

 Weightage: 12 Marks
Humidity Measurement:
Hair hygrometer:
Working Principle:
It works on change of humidity due to change in temperature.

Construction and Working:

1) Certain materials such as human hair, animal membranes, wood and paper undergo changes in linear dimensions
when they absorb moisture from the atmosphere.
2) Human hair becomes longer as the humidity of the surrounding air increases, and shortens when the air becomes
drier.
3) This property of hair can be used to operate a pointer or recording pen through a system of mechanical linkage.
4) The indicator scale can be calibrated to give a direct indication of the humidity.
5) The transducer element consists of strands of hair to give it increased mechanical strength. The hair strands are
generally arranged parallel to each other with sufficient space between them for giving free access to the air sample
under test. Further, for proper functioning, the element is maintained under light tension by a spring.

Advantages
1. Inexpensive
2. Convenient pocket size shape
3. Continuous reading

Disadvantages
1. Less accurate
2. Limitation of temp (5-35 C)
& humidity (40-95 %)
3. Calibration has to be checked
periodically

Application
1. Industries where high
precision is not required

Sling Psychrometer:
Working Principle:
It works on change of humidity due to change in temperature.
Construction and Working:
1) It consist of two types of thermometers, dry bulb temperature and wet bulb temperature thermometer, and wet
clothes.
2) Rotation of handle over swivel joint up to certain wind velocity will lead to read dry air and moist air
temperature.
3) A Sling Psychrometer in which the wet- and dry-bulb thermometers are mounted upon a frame connected to a
handle at one end by means of a bearing or a length of chain; the Psychrometer may be whirled in the air for the
simultaneous measurement of wet- and dry-bulb temperatures.
4) By psychrometric chart for DBT and WBT relative and specific humidity can be determined.

Advantages
2. Simplest & cheapest device to measure humidity
3. Excellent accuracy

Disadvantages
1. Psychrometric chart is required to know the humidity
2. No continuous reading
 Weightage: 12 Marks
Application
1. Routine instrument for meteorological department
2. For calibration of other humidity measuring devices
3. In refrigeration industry for study of processes

Speed measurement:
Tachometer
Electrical
Mechanical
Non-Contact Type Contact Type
Drag Cup or Eddy current
Revolution Counter & Timer Inductive Pick Up Tachometer
Slipping Clutch Tachometer Capacitive Pick Up Tachogenerator
Photoelectric Tachometer
Stroboscope
Mechanical tachometers:
These tachometers employ only mechanical parts and mechanical movements for the measurement of speed.

Revolution counter and timer:

Working Principle:
It works on principle of mechanical meshing of Worm and spur.
Construction:
The revolution counter, sometimes called a
speed counter, consists of a worm gear which
is also the shaft attachment and is driven by
the speed source.
Working:
1. When stylus brought in contact with
rotating object, worm rotates along with
shaft.
2) The worm drives the spur gear
3) This motion in turn actuates the pointer on
a calibrated dial.
4) The pointer indicates the number of
revolutions turned by the input shaft in a
certain length of time.
 Weightage: 12 Marks
5) The unit requires a separate timer to measure the time interval.
6) The revolution counter, thus, gives an average rotational speed rather than an instantaneous rotational speed.
7) Such speed counters are limited to low speed engines which permit reading the counter at definite time
intervals.
8) A properly designed and manufactured revolution counter would give a satisfactory speed measure up to
2000-3000 rpm.

Advantages
Simple construction, operation, Low cost

Disadvantages
Limited to low speed
No instantaneous speed (average speed)

Slipping clutch tachometer

Working Principle: It works on principle of mechanical friction clutch.

Construction and Working:

1) It consist of friction clutch, input shaft, indicating shaft, spring, scale and pointer.
2) The rotating shaft drives an indicating shaft through at slipping clutch.
3) A pointer attached to the indicator shaft moves over a calibrated scale against the torque of a spring.
4) The pointer position gives a measure of the shaft speed.

Advantages:-
i) Simple to operate,
ii) Simple in construction,
iii) Used to measure shaft speed.

Disadvantages:
i) It is limited to low speed,
ii) More chances of error occurrence;
iii) It gives average speed, instead of instantaneous speed.
 Weightage: 12 Marks
Electrical tachometers:
An electrical tachometer depends for its indications upon an electrical signal generated in proportion to the
rotational speed of the shaft.

Eddy current or Drag Cup type tachometer

Working Principle:
It works on principle of electromagnetic induction.
Construction and working:

1) In an eddy current or drag type tachometer, the test shaft rotates a permanent magnet and this induces eddy
currents in a drag cup or disc held close to the magnet.
2) The eddy currents produce a torque which rotates the cup against the torque of a spiral spring.
3) The disc tums in the direction of the rotating magnetic field until the torque developed equals that of the spring.
4) A pointer attached to the cup indicates the rotational speed on a calibrated scale.
5) The automobile speedometers operate on this principle and measure the angular speed of the wheels.
6) The rotational measurement is subsequently converted into linear measurement by assuming some average
diameter of the wheel, and the scale is directly calibrated in linear speed units.
7) Eddy current tachometers are used for measuring rotational speeds upto 12,000 rpm with an accuracy of ±3%.

Advantages
1. Rugged in construction, inexpensive
2. Almost maintenance free
3. Linear characteristic between o/p voltage & speed of shaft

Disadvantages
1. At very high speed linear characteristic changes
2. Calibration is time consuming

Application:-
1. Automobile speedometer works base on this principle.
2. Locomotive speed is measured by this tachometer after some modifications.

Inductive pick-up tachometer:

Working Principle:
It works on principle of electromagnetic induction.
Construction and Working:
1) The unit consists of a small permanent magnet with a coil round it.
 Weightage: 12 Marks

2) This magnetic pick up is placed near a metallic toothed rotor whose speed is to be measured.
3) As the shaft rotates, the teeth pass in front of the pick-up and produce a change in the reluctance of the
magnetic circuit.
4) The field expands or collapses and a voltage is induced in the coil.
5) The frequency of the pulses depends upon the number of teeth on the wheel and its speed of rotation.
6) Since the number of teeth is known, the speed of rotation can be determined by measuring the pulse
frequency.
7) To accomplish this task, pulse is amplified and squared, and fed into a counter of frequency measuring unit.
8) If the rotor has 60 teeth, and if the counter counts the pulses in one second, then me counter will directly
display the speed in revolutions per minute.
Advantages:-
1. Simple construction
2. Output in digital form
3. Less maintenance
4. Easy to calibrate
5. No loading effect
6. High accuracy

Disadvantages:-
1. High Cost

Capacitive type pick-up tachometer

Working Principle:
It works on principle of parallel plate capacitance.
Construction and Working:
1) The device consists of a vane attached to one end of the rotating machine shaft.
2) When the shaft rotates between the fixed capacitive plates, there occurs a change in the capacitance.
 Weightage: 12 Marks
3) The capacitor forms a part of an oscillator tank so that number of frequency changes per unit of time is a
measure of the shaft speed.
4) The pulses thus produced are amplified, and squared, and may then be fed to frequency measuring unit or
to a digital counter so as to provide a digital analog of the shaft rotation.

Advantages
1. High sensitivity
2. High accuracy
3. Small loading effect

Disadvantages
1. Electronics circuit is complex

Stroboscope
Working Principle:
It works on principle flashing frequency of light so that moving object appears to be standstill.
The stroboscope utilises the phenomenon of vision when an object is viewed intermittently.
Construction and working:
1) The stroboscope is simple manually operated portable device which is used for measurement of speed, it
has variable frequency flashing light.
2) An oscillator is provided to control
flashing frequency.
3) The speed is measured by adjusting
frequency so that the moving object is
visible at specific intervals.
4) The flashing light is directed on
rotating member, which usually has
some spoke, gear teeth or some other
feature.
5) If rotating member do not have any
of such features, a paper having black
and white stripes is attached to it or
some marking is done as a target.
6) The frequency of lamp flashing is adjusted until the target appears stationary. Under this condition speed
is equal to flashing frequency.
7) The scale of stroboscope can be calibrated to read the speed directly.
 Weightage: 12 Marks
Advantages
1. This method imposes no load on the shaft.
2. It is a contactless method.
3. This method is very useful when actual physical contact is not possible.
4. It does not require any special attachment with shaft.

Disadvantages
1. Variable frequency of strobotron cannot be stabilized to give a fixed frequency.
2. If surrounding light is above some level, this instrument cannot be used.

Photoelectric Tachometer
Working Principle:
It works on photo electric light over opaque disc.

Construction:-
The tachometer consists the opaque disc which is mounted on the shaft whose speed needs to be measured.
The disc consists the equivalent holes around the periphery. The light source is placed on one side of the disc
and the light sensor on the other side. They are in line with each other.

Working:-
When the disc rotates their holes, and the opaque portion comes alternatively between the light source and
light sensor. When the holes come in the line of the light source and the light sensor, then the light passes
through the holes and collapse to the sensor. Hence the pulse is generated. These pulses are measured through
the electric counter.

When the opaque portion comes in the line of light source and sensor, then the disc blocked the light source,
and the output becomes zero. The production of pulses depends on the following factor.

1. The number of holes on the disc.

2. The speed of rotation of the disc.

The holes are fixed, and hence the pulse generation depends on the speed of the rotation of the disc. The
electronic counter is used for measuring the pulse rate.

Advantages of Photoelectric Tachometer

1. The digital output voltage is obtained, and hence there is no need of analogue to digital conversion.
2. The pulses of constant amplitude are obtained which simplify the electronic circuitry.
 Weightage: 12 Marks

Disadvantages of Photoelectric Tachometer

1. The life of the light source is approximately 50,000 hours. Hence the light source needs to be
replaced timely.
2. The accuracy of this method depends on the error which is represented by the unit pulse. These
errors can be minimized by using the gating period. The gating period means the meter measures the
frequency by counting the input pulses.

Tachogenerator:-
It works on the principle of relative motion between the magnetic field and shaft of the coupled device. The
relative motion induces the EMF in the coil which is placed between the constant magnetic field of the
permanent magnet. The develops EMF is directly proportional to the speed of the shaft.

Depends on the natures of the induced voltage the electrical tachometer is categorized into two types.
 AC Tachometer Generator
 DC Tachometer Generator

DC Tachogenerator
Construction
Permanent magnet, armature, commutator, brushes, variable resistor, and the moving coil voltmeter are the
main parts of the DC tachometer generator.

Working
1. The armature of the DC generator revolves between the constant field of the permanent magnet. The
rotation induces the emf in the coil. The magnitude of the induced emf is proportional to the shaft
speed.
2. The commutator converts the alternating current of the armature coil to the direct current with the help
of the brushes.
3. The moving coil voltmeter measures the induced emf. The polarity of the induces voltage determines
the direction of motion of the shaft.
4. The resistance is connected in series with the voltmeter for controlling the heavy current of the
armature.
 Weightage: 12 Marks
Where, E – generated voltage
Φ – flux per poles in Weber
P- number of poles
N – speed in revolution per minutes
Z – the number of the conductor in armature windings.
a – number of the parallel path in the armature windings.

Advantages of the DC Generator

1. The polarity of the induces voltages indicates the direction of rotation of the shaft.
2. The conventional DC type voltmeter is used for measuring the induces voltage.

Disadvantages of DC Generator
1. The commutator and brushes require the periodic maintenance.
2. The output resistance of the DC tachometer is kept high as compared to the input resistance. If the
large current is induced in the armature conductor, the constant field of the permanent magnet will be
distorted.

AC Tachometer Generator
The AC tachometer has stationary armature and rotating magnetic field. The rotating magnetic field induces
the EMF in the stationary coil of the stator. The amplitude and frequency of the induced emf are equivalent to
the speed of the shaft. Thus, either amplitude or frequency is used for measuring the angular velocity.

The induces voltages are rectified and then passes to the capacitor filter for smoothening the ripples of rectified
voltages.