Course on Electrical Measurement Systems Specifications of digital measurement instruments- Page 1 of 3

Specifications of digital measurement instruments

This document presents the specifications of digital measurement instruments, related to the concepts about uncertainty and error. Range The range is the interval where the accuracy of a digital measurement instrument is defined. The range format includes the maximum value that can be measured and the resolution. Resolution The resolution is the minimum value that can be measured at a specific range. Therefore, the resolution truncates the number to the less significant figure. There is no rounding. Example: Let's assume that a digital voltmeter has a range of 10.00 V. The maximum value that can be measured in this range is 10 V. The resolution, or the minimum value that can be measured in this range is 0,01 V or 10 mV. Accuracy The accuracy means how the measured value is closer to the actual value. The accuracy format of a digital measurement instrument is shown in (1): (1) Input impedance The input impedance is the impedance of the instrument when it is connected to any electric circuit. measurement

According to the frequency range of the digital measurement instrument, there are the following input impedances for typical instruments (Fig 1):

Author: Alejandro Snchez Salcedo, M.Sc. - Version 1.0, May 2013

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Fig 1. Input impedances for typical instruments Example: Lets assume the measurement of the electric current analyzed at the document of error (Fig 2):

Fig 2. Actual value In order to measure the electric current, an ammeter with the specifications shown in Fig 3 is implemented.

Fig 3. Ammeter specifications

Author: Alejandro Snchez Salcedo, M.Sc. - Version 1.0, May 2013

Course on Electrical Measurement Systems Specifications of digital measurement instruments- Page 3 of 3

The new electric circuit is shown in Fig 4.

Fig 4. Measured value The measured value of electric current, including the uncertainty, is required. First, the reading of ammeter must be taken. Therefore, according to the range defined at Fig3, the reading in the display of ammeter is (Fig 5):

Fig 5.Ammeter reading The ammeter reading must be taken as the central value of the measured value . In order to calculate the experimental uncertainty , is necessary the application of (1) to the ammeter reading. Therefore: (aplying resolution)

Finally, the the measured value is: * * According to resolution of selected range, note that the central value and the uncertainty have the same number of decimal figures.

Author: Alejandro Snchez Salcedo, M.Sc. - Version 1.0, May 2013