The rest of the dial
A board with no power on it and one meter: diode, ohms, capacitance and continuity, the four positions that only mean anything with the supply off. There is no microcontroller in it: the simulator solves the 5 parts as a circuit, so it runs the moment you press Run, and nothing needs compiling.
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How it works
There is no microcontroller in this one, so nothing is compiled: the simulator solves the circuit itself. The file in the editor is the notes that come with it.
// The rest of the dial.
//
// There is no supply in this circuit, on purpose. Ohms, diode, continuity and
// capacitance all work by pushing the meter's own small current through
// whatever is between the leads, so they only mean anything when nothing else
// is driving it. On a live circuit the meter lights IN CIRCUIT and says so.
//
// Four things to measure, and where the leads go:
//
// D diode. Red lead on the LED's anode (column 8), black on its cathode.
// 1.42 V. That is the drop at the 1 mA the meter pushes, worked out from
// the same Shockley equation the LED itself runs on, not a table. Turn
// the leads around and it reads OL, because a diode blocks one way, which
// is how you find which end is which on a part with no markings.
//
// Worth knowing: a real meter on a real red LED reads nearer 1.6 V. The
// LED card here is fitted to 1.8 V at 20 mA with an emission coefficient
// of 2, and that makes its curve too soft a decade down. It is written up
// in docs/accuracy-audit.md rather than quietly rounded.
//
// O ohms. Across the 4.7 k resistor: 4.70 k. Across the resistor and the
// 10 k in parallel with it: 3.20 k, which is the right answer for what is
// between the leads and the wrong answer for either resistor. The meter
// cannot see a parallel path and neither can a real one; lift a leg.
//
// -|- capacitance. Across the 1 uF: 1.00 uF. The meter charges it with a
// known current and solves the first-order response, so the number does
// not depend on the ramp being straight. From about a nanofarad to a
// millifarad.
//
// .))) continuity. Across the wire link at columns 20 to 24 it beeps and
// reads under an ohm; across the 4.7 k it does not, because 4.7 k is a
// connection and continuity is not. The threshold is 30 ohms. The beeper
// mark beside the digits mutes it.
//
// And the two buttons that are not a range: HOLD freezes the display so you
// can get the probes out of somewhere awkward before you read it, and MIN/MAX
// records the lowest and highest reading since you pressed it. RANGE steps
// off auto onto a fixed full scale, and the display reads OL above it, which
// is the point of a manual range, and something auto will never show you.
Parts list
6 parts, plus the jumper wires. Every one is in the editor's parts bin.
- 1 × Full-size breadboard
- 1 × LED, red
- 1 × Capacitor, 1 µF
- 1 × Resistor, 4.7k Ω
- 1 × Resistor, 10k Ω
- 1 × Multimeter
How it is wired
4 connections, pin by pin, read from the circuit itself. Each line is one set of pins joined together, by a jumper wire or a breadboard strip.
- LED, red pin A; Capacitor, 1 µF pin 1; Multimeter pin V
- LED, red pin C; Capacitor, 1 µF pin 2; Multimeter pin COM
- Resistor, 4.7k Ω pin 1; Resistor, 10k Ω pin 1
- Resistor, 4.7k Ω pin 2; Resistor, 10k Ω pin 2
Change it and keep it
Open it in the editor, change the circuit or the code, and keep your version in a free account.