[Amps] meter behavior

David Kirkby david.kirkby at onetel.net
Wed Nov 13 08:39:26 EST 2013


On 13 November 2013 11:51, Steve Flood <kk7uv at bresnan.net> wrote:

> I have noticed over the years  that there are meters whose needles swing
> back and forth wildly while metering grid and plate currents, while others
> seem to have a dampened movement (such as the plastic Ameritron meters)
> where the needle moves more slowly.

You could always damp them with a capacitor. If the meter has a lot of
series resistance (e.g. measuing HT voltage), then just a cap across
the meter will do it. If there is no series resistance, then adding a
cap will not help, so you would need to introduce some.

If you are measuring current, with an external shunt, then put some
resistance between the meter and the shunt.

Of course, adding resistance will rescale meters, but I think for most
applications there will be resistance there anyway, so it is only a
matter of making use of it.


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