King Abdulaziz University

Faculty of Engineering
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
EE306 – Electrical Engineering Technologies

5TH LAB SESSION: MULTI-RANGE VOLTMETER USING

GALVANOMETER
Objective
The objective of this experiment is to convert a 1-mA Galvanometer into 10 V, 5 V and 1 V
voltmeters.

Background
Galvanometer primarily measures electric current as we explored in the 3rd lab session.
However, it is possible using circuit methods to put it in such a way that its readings are
linearly proportional to voltage between two terminals to be attached to outside circuits for
measurements. As we explored in the 2nd lab session, it is desirable to make the Thévenin-
equivalent resistance ( RTH ) of the whole voltmeter very large to avoid errors due to loading
effect. Fig.1 shows the circuit used to convert Galvanometer into a voltmeter. For such
circuit, both R and RM are fixed, and RTH  R  RM . If the full-scale deflection (FSD)
current of the Galvanometer is I FSD , and the desired voltage at FSD is VFSD , the required
series resistance R to be added to the Galvanometer can be calculated as:

VFSD
R  RM Eq.1
I FSD

GALVANOMETER

Figure 1 Circuit for converting Galvanometer to voltmeter

Experimental Procedure
(1) Caution, to avoid damaging the Galvanometer, make sure before connecting wires
of the circuit shown in Fig.2 to set V  10V for the DC power supply, and R  1k
for the decade resistor, such that the maximum current drawn doesn’t exceed 1mA.
 VIN

Figure 2 Circuit for converting Galvanometer into voltmeter

(2) Measure RM the same way you did it in the 3rd lab session, or you can simply use
the same value you got.
(3) Using the Eq.1, calculate the required value of R for I FSD  1mA and VFSD  10V .
(4) Set the value of the decade resistor to R .
(5) Vary the voltage level of the DC power supply while measuring VIN using DMM until
the value is set to values as shown in the following table:

Table 1 Experiment readings for 10-V voltmeter

Input DC Galvanometer Reading to be on Relative Error Percentage
Voltage Reading Voltmeter Scale VM  VIN
 100%
VIN (V ) I (mA) VM  I  ( R  RM ) VIN
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

(6) Record the Galvanometer reading for each VIN value, fill the table, calculate the
reading to be on the voltmeter scale as designed, and calculate the relative error
between the DMM reading and your voltmeter scale.
(7) Disconnect the wiring of the circuit, repeat step (3) for VFSD  5V .
(8) Reconnect the circuit after setting the DC power supply to 0.5V and the decade
resistor to the new value of R .
(9) Repeat steps (5) and (6) and fill Table 2.
 Table 2 Experiment readings for 5-V voltmeter
Input DC Galvanometer Reading to be on Relative Error Percentage
Voltage Reading Voltmeter Scale VM  VIN
 100%
VIN (V ) I (mA) VM  I  ( R  RM ) VIN
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0

(10) Disconnect the wiring of the circuit, repeat step (3) for VFSD  1V .
(11) Reconnect the circuit after setting the DC power supply to 0.1V and the decade
resistor to the new value of R .
(12) Repeat steps (5) and (6) and fill Table 3.

Table 3 Experiment readings for 1-V voltmeter

Input DC Galvanometer Reading to be on Relative Error Percentage
Voltage Reading Voltmeter Scale VM  VIN
 100%
VIN (V ) I (mA) VM  I  ( R  RM ) VIN
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0

Note that: relative error is dependent on the accuracy of RM , and it should not exceed 10%.