EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Products => Test Equipment => Topic started by: vini_i on November 12, 2018, 04:19:48 pm
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I'm trying to automate a process. Currently when the process is performed manually and an AC voltage reading is taken. The signal that is measured is very distorted and has a crest factor greater than 5.
This is both historic and technical but the meter used to measure that signal is an averaging AC meter (NOT True RMS) like a Fluke 88. This is because a True RMS meter does not give a stable reading and an averaging meter has been used for many years.
Are there any benchtop meters left that perform ACV measurements as an average (NOT True RMS) and support comms such as LXI, GPIB or RS232?
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I don't know of any because I haven't looked, but there are some things to take into consideration:
1. What model of meter are you using now?
2. What is the bandwidth, or range of the frequency components of this distorted signal?
3. What is the averaging response time of the original meter? This is related to its bandwidth.
4. What is the integration time of the RMS meter that was tested?
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The Keithley 2001 and 2002 are able to measure average ACV (though not converted to RMS value like most average-responding meters, so you'll have to convert). With the Keithley 2001-M firmware, the Keithley 2001 should also be able to measure RMS ACV based on the average AC voltage.
I also wonder if a good true RMS meter will not be able to reliable make this measurement, though again you will need to experimentally determine the conversion factor from results from an average-responding meter to the true RMS measurements.
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Keysight 34461A can measure with factor up to 10 without additional measurement error. AFAIK it uses fast ADC instead of traditional True RMS-to-DC converter IC.