Sunday 17 June 2012

A new start for an old voltmeter

Quite a while ago I acquired a rather old voltmeter in a terrible state, it's history is unknown but I do know it spent a large part of its latter life in an old outdoor shed.
The shed was being demolished to make way for new garden landscaping and the voltmeter was lying in amongst a lot of old detritus of the sort that gathers in a shed over time when one doesn't know what to do with it but don't want to dispose of it just in case..... Just in case what?? ..... In case we may find a use for it, it has some sort of memory, it would make a nice display item in a study, or like me you just like to collect things.


So today I decided to start work on it.......


But first a bit of education... A voltmeter is a device made for the testing voltage, an example would be finding out if there is any power left in a battery - http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltmeter
This particular device only does one function that is the testing of voltage as opposed to the current devices which are called multimeters or VOM's - voltage /Ohm meters - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimeter.


As I said the volt meter is in a terrible state, it is filthy dirty and the wooden box that comprises the body looks at first glance to be a bit rotten and the brass fittings are completely oxidized.



Front panel





Back Panel


So I have started by stripping the unit down.......


The inside is in very good condition although a bit rusted in part and a very small wire that runs the needle is broken, I'm hoping the repair will work and at worst case not affect the operation of the device.



Interesting place to put the warning, inside the box





Inside workings





Inside workings





Inside workings





Inside workings





Front Panel - in very good condition


The preceding photographs detail the innards of the voltmeter, quite a bit different from from the modern units of today.

More to follow as I progress....