Diagram Guide

The MOSFET input of the CA3140 makes it ideally suited for use in a high impedance DC voltmeter. Switch S1 is the range selector. The input impedance is limited to 10M by the resistors used in the voltage divider, but this is still a very acceptable value. Before switching on for the first time, the mechanical zero adjustment of the 100m A instrument should be set so that the pointer rests just below zero on the scale. The unit is then switched on and with the input shorted, TR1 is adjusted until an exact zero indication is obtained. The TR2 is used for calibrating the meter so that the full scale deflection in the three ranges is 1V, 10V and 100V. The supply voltage can be anything between 8 and 20V. The current consumption is less than 6mA at 12V. The accuracy of this voltmeter depends mainly on the quality of the 100m A instrument and the care with which the unit has been calibrated.