I have been thinking of how to make a nice useable electrobalence from an old voltmeter or maybe a VU meter. Although i HATE to wreck a nice meter, i have a small collection and i consider many of them to be works of art. I doubt man will ever again achieve that kind of mechanical craftsmanship. I LOVE old switches and meters, haha. Don't get me on a rant about how garbage pots and switches feel these days. Anyway... I might try to make my own galvanometer, since the less sensitive it is the easier it will be to measure voltage/current. I would love to a 10 gram range, which would surly burn out the coils of most delicate meters. I will have to experiment with this.
In terms of the electronics i figure i need either a precision voltage ref or a precision current ref so provide stability so i don't need to calibrate every time i use the thing. Probably use an ADC, a pic (maybe use inbuilt ADC), and a simple lcd readout. My biggest question is how to get a stable reference, cheap and easy. 5volts 0.1% should do it. I've never done a project requiring this kind of stability before. I watched Dave's precision current source video, that is a bit overkill i think. I will be hand trimming as well, unlike Dave's non-trimmed design. Just wondering what my options are. Any other advise would be appreciated.
tl:dr how would you design a simple digital 0-5V 0.1% accuracy voltmeter with a pic? 0.5% would be acceptable if 0.1% is too hard. Also i think i want at least a 16bit ADC, recommendations?
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