Meter markings

[Terry_VK5TM]

Some info on meter markings (further to the Vintage meter thread in another section).

These are only the most common symbols you're likely to come across, there are plenty more, some of them very obscure (if anybody wants the really obscure ones, I'll see if I can find the book the chart's hiding in).

The pic is in German, translated as follows:

Gleichstrom - Direct current

Gleichstrom und Wechselstrom - Direct current and alternating current

Wechselstrom - Alternating current

Senkrechte Lage des Instruments - Vertical position of the instrument

Horizontale Lage des Instruments - Horizontal position of the instrument

Schrage (60Grad) Lage - Slope (60 degrees) location - the degrees can vary between different meters

Prufspannung 2000 V - Test voltage 2000 V - if the symbol has no number in it, test voltage is 500V

Prozentgenauigkeit bei Vollausschlag - Percentage accuracy at full scale

Drehspulmesswerk - Moving coil measuring mechanism

Dreheisenmesswerk - Moving iron measuring mechanism

[Kentode]

Thanks for these Terry, I've always wondered what they meant.

So, my AVO 8 MK IV pictured:

Direct and alternating current
Test voltage 7000 volts
Moving coil
Vertical use


The diode symbol underneath the moving coil symbol, is that protection against reverse polarity?

PS mine has the optional broken glass.

Are the final two for 1 amp/2amp limits?

Are the final two for 1 amp/2amp limits?

I think they are the form factor correction, triangle (wave) 1 and square 2.

[Terry_VK5TM]

I think Merlin's right, I'll have to see if I can find the book with the rest of the symbols - been a while since I saw it hiding in the workshop.

[Radio Wrangler]

Note that the angle symbol says grads not degrees. There is a grad which I think is 1/100th of a right angle, though I've never come across it used before (My HP calculators can be switched to use degrees, radians or grads)

David

There is a grad which I think is 1/100th of a right angle

Used for artillery, France was/is a user.

[cmjones01]

Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell

Used for artillery, France was/is a user.

Grads do exist out in the wild. A friend of mine has a compass marked in grads. This is severely Not A Good Idea when everyone else's compasses are in degrees.

Chris

[Terry_VK5TM]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

Note that the angle symbol says grads not degrees.
David

That's Google translate for you

[Joe_Lorenz]

Hello,

Grads are still in use in geodesy in many countries. When it comes to mining geodesy, students are taught at any German university in the very first moment: "Always remember: A circle has got 400 Grads and nothing else".

Well, if it comes to EE, any circle has got 2*PI and nothing else ...

So, no problem. Just got to know in which field you are roaming. Just a convention.

Regards, Joe

[Terry_VK5TM]

I'm still trying to find my book with the extra symbols in, but it is doing a very good job of hiding

In the mean time, this and the following post on EEVblog will give you more symbols (again you will need to translate them) https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/exploring-the-symbols...t9nv0rv06h9p0g9dr9nodphab0#msg56278

[Kentode]

Thanks for the link Terry.

"As an addition to the rectifier (mebwerk)" is the diode symbol, but my keyboard doesn't have the German italicized B.

Alt + 0223 is the android shortcut, unavailable to me.

[Herald1360]

The italicised B or sz symbol can be replaced by a double s egg: Messwerk, Strasse.

[neutronic]

Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell

Used for artillery, France was/is a user.

This circular slide rule was/is? used with the the artillery in the Netherlands.
This model is completely confusing with 1600 degrees instead of 90 degrees.
Jard N.

[Lucien Nunes]

Note that the angle symbol says grads not degrees

The German word 'Grad' means degree(s) rather than gradians, so there is no indication of centesimal angle measure here.

[emeritus]

I think grads may have originated from (French) cartography as a way of expressing longitude and latitude coordinates in decimal form: equator to pole is 100 grads. The French equivalent of large scale Ordnance Survey maps have two scales of longitude and latitude. One is in degrees referred to the international (Greenwich) meridian, the other is in grads (grades in french), referred to the meridian of Paris. The vertical lines of latitude marked on my 1:25000 map represent 0.1 grad(e) increments.

So it would seem that Dan Brown didn't do his homework when, in "The Davinci Code" he described the meridian line in that Paris church as being no longer used: it is still used as a reference on official French maps.