Insulation Tester power supply

With these circuits you can make an insulation tester going upto one tera ohm (2 Tera ohm max). hence currents will be in pico amps, great care required in design. Also 1000 Volts DC is generated which can cause injury. take great care. the above circuit is for the advanced instrumentation hobbyist only, do not try it at home.

The parts list which is not in the circuit is listed below, the circuit is 15 years old. but you may get some idea on high resistance measurement.

IC7, IC9 - NE555 - Timer IC
IC8 - LM723 - Voltage Regulator

The above list is from my memory, hence it may be wrong, i have forgotten this circuit, this circuit was scanned by a hp photosmart and resized and optimized by irfanview. also note the technology may be obsolete, but basic idea is still the same today.

Theory of Operation.

 IC7 555 as an Astable chops the DC with T2 NPN transistor. TR2 was a Russian U Core High-Freq Transformer. The secondary was insulated with mylar, layer to layer and impregnated in Mica-Lacquer or varnish. The 723  Chip along with T1 is The closed loop regulator which changes the DC which is chopped.

The high voltage is attenuated and that is the feedback to 723 chip which by comparing to a reference, controls the output. The diodes and caps are in series to withstand 1000V and above.

Insulation Tester or Teraohm Meter with Polarization Index 

Insulation Tester pico amplifier

With these circuits you can make an insulation tester going upto two tera ohm, hence currents will be in pico amps, great care required in design. The rotary switches for voltages and ganged interlocked range switches must not be phenolic  but  industrial epoxy based molded switches.

 The parts list which is not in the circuit, is listed below, the circuit is 15 years old. but you may get some idea on high resistance measurement. Use 1% MFR for all Resistors and low leakage plastic caps for low values. These instruments i used to calibrate with Victoreen Resitors and a Electrometer from Princeton Research, I faintly remember.

Theory of Operation.

The Device Under Test DUT say a transformer is placed in a Metal tray connected to the Guard SK3 terminal. The metal tray has a 3mm glass sheet on which DUT is kept. For 2 Tera ohm make sure that Humidity and Dust do not affect measurements.

Now 1000V is applied on a DUT terminal from the high voltage supply, ( in reference to Guard SK3 at earth and 0V). Then the point where the leakage is to be measured is connected to SK4 via a BNC short, scope, shielded cable. The current goes thru a shunt selected by S5 and voltage across the shunt is measured by ICL7650 a Chopper stabilized amplifier, with ultra low offset and bias. The amplified output is fed to Vref of ICL7107 which displays the Insulation Resistance. The full range is not valid in this circuit and for low values, change to a range where the reading is more number of counts. The above circuit does not include some upgrades and changes i did later using ICL7135 etc.. If i find it i will add it later.

Read More

• Insulation Tester Theory.  
• Catalog of Insulation Tester.

Analog PID control using OpAmps

The Measured Value and The Setpoint are two inputs to a Control System. The Measured Value is the Amplified input of a Transducer or Sensor for some Parameter that needs to be controlled. It could be Pressure or Temperature...etc.

The Setpoint is the User Defined Input using a Potentiometer, Thumbwheel, EPROM or Flash Value. This is the value at which the process has to be maintained for that parameter.

The difference of these two is the Error, this is the input for this PID Analog Computation Stage. The three Opamps are configured as Proportional, Integrator and Differentiator Amps.  The Addition or Summation of these Values is the PID Control Output.(These days it is Math in the Firmware on a MCU, DSP or Software Application in SCADA)

This Analog PID Control Output can now be translated to a 4-20 mA Control Signal, that means 0-100% of power to the Actuator, which could be a Heater, Pump, Fan, Motor using AC/DC Drives. It could be a Steam Valve, Pneumatic or Hydraulic Motorized/Solenoids. The Actuator Size/Array must be right for the Process, a tiny fan cannot cool a Large Furnace, a small solenoid valve cannot fill a Big Tank. An effective Proportional or PID  control depends on choosing or designing the Sensor, Actuator and System Environment prudently.  

The Auto Reset is needed to ensure the Integrator does not dampen the Process so much that it fails to even raise to the Process value fast enough (Diffrentiator). So in the Proportional Band the Integrator is Active.

If the Setpoint is 1000 deg C, the proportional band is 10%. The Raise of temperature till 950 deg is Undampended. After that Integrator is called in by the Window Comparator made of two opamps, the integrator prevents OverShoot, Undershoot, Ringing and Oscillations.

The PID control output can also be a Time Proportional Output like PWM. With a large cycle time of 20 or More seconds. Like 2 Seconds on and 18 Seconds off for 10% Control.Fast Cycle times may be needed for small systems with less inertia.

Industrial Process Control Circuits