I just bought this meter, and have NO idea what it is "S" "VU" "TUNING"
It just looked cool and its from my youth (Neculear Cold War) years.
Would like to instal it in, say a Hallicrafters S-38 or such. Once I find out WHAT
it is.. Please Help... Freddbro

From a cheap radiation/geiger counter? You could measure the resistance with an ohmmeter and if it is close to the other meter you want to change, try it in the circuit.

Mike

A meter is a meter is a meter.....

As suggested above, you simply need to find out it's electrical properties, and then make a dial suitable for the application. If you place a reasonable value on your time, it will only cost ~ 5X to 10X more than just buying the right meter.......

Seriously, to adapt it to your application, you need to know the full-scale current. Then use series or shunt resistors to set it up.

I'm just very grateful to see that it did.... include.... a zero adjustment screw for proper indication.

-Mark-

freddbro,

What you have there is a PIA - Passive Indicating Ammeter. How it works is you hold it up at arms length and if the needle swings into the yellow zone, you should start to make peace with your maker, because either you are within a killer electromagnetic field, too close to a failed nuclear power plant, in an area where a terrorist detonated a dirty bomb, or you've been subjected to a gamma ray burst from a hypernova star. I wish I had one of those neat PIAs like you have there. Actually I did at one time, and I divorced her.

More likely, something found in the back of here:



-Mark-

It looks like the remains of a cheesy cold war era radiation exposure meter out of somebody's basement bomb shelter. Too bad it got separated from the device (which might have also been a radio) that it was used in. Cold war relics like that are considered collectible in some circles nowadays.

Anyway, the movement itself is probably some standard range, like 0-100 uA or 0-1 mA. It would be inadvisable to connect a battery across the terminals, or measure it with an ordinary ohmmeter, as these will likely slam the needle against the pegs and maybe damage it. Best way to test it is to connect it in series with a potentiometer or a handful of fixed resistors, and power it with a 1.5-volt battery. For a 50-uA movement, you'll get approximately full scale deflection with a 30-k ohm resistance and a 1.5 volt battery. A 15-k ohm resistor would give you full scale deflection if it's a 100-uA movement. For a 1-mA movement, the resistance for full scale would be 1.5-k ohms. Start with the highest resistance and work down to the lower ones. Note that most batteries are not exactly 1.5 volts, so the meter may be a little high or low, but you'll get the idea.

Once you know what you've got, you can determine what it will take to adapt it for the purpose you have in mind as the others have already said. If you install it in a Hallicrafters S-38, I think it would be appropriate to leave the scale exactly as it is!

I whole-heartedly agree. Using an ohmmeter or even a DMM on an unknown meter is a recipe for disaster. The test voltage may "pin" or damage the meter before you can get a reading. There are lots of notes on the Internet, or in any old ARRL Handbook that show how to measure the internal resistance of a meter by using a current-limiting resistor. Here is an idea from the Univ. of Texas:


http://www.me.utexas.edu/~dsclab/labs/e ... meter.html

Rich

Yea make an S meter out of it, make S9 level the edge of the yellow band. Or rig it to a resistor, a battery, and a pot. Install in a box with weird probes and attachments. You could call it your defraudulator, and go from door to door doing radiaton surveys. You could charge people to install little boxes of some substance to absorb the rays, for 20$ a box. Need one in each room of the house, of course. Safe not sorry!

L. Ron came up with that one many decades ago... the HUBBARD E-METER!!! This signed edition, available right now on E-Bay for.... hold your breath... $65,000.00!! Don't forget to read fine print on the back; "By itself, this meter does nothing."



-Mark-

If you have a photo editing program like Photoshop or Corel, you can easily scan the present dial face and re-do it to any scale pattern that you want.

Lots of info on the Internet about this, including:

http://www.w3hwj.com/index_files/Dialsa.jpg

Rich

There is a program on the internet, called meterbasic, it will let you print a new meter scale on you printer, it's located at tonnesoftware.com. It's free to use, a better version is also there for a fee.

Thanks Guys for all the INFO.. I will check out the links I therefore assume I can use it as a "S" meter
it looks quite "Nuclear"..
Thinking about it, The Meter was probably used on an expensive AM receiver
for the 2 C.D. stations that were marked on the dials of the radios of the time.
This should make the Hali. S-38 look the period..
Anymore more info is welcome... Thank you all... Freddbro

That E meter looks like a bathroom, weighing scale! Those cheesy LCD displays are the same as found in cheap watches. The circuitry of those are reported to be basically a Wheatstone bridge. That contraption is an absolute joke and a travesty against the duped fools that forked out $2500 for one.
autopsy of an E Meter

WoW! I knew the E-Meter was a conceptual joke, but never realized the build quality was THAT shoddy! Oh well, seeing what it is I guess it doesn't really matter (or no one will even know) if it works per design or not. Oh well, as long as Tom Cruise can afford it

-Mark-

Say this about the device, and most will nod and agree---say it about the organization that sells them and---to quote Dan Akroyd--"there'll be big guys with guns" **



**Sneakers movie--1992

We can't mention the "R" word but their meter device really stinks. One of those "spy gear" kids slumber-party lie detector toys would work better, and for sure they are better built for only $19.99

These bathroom scales probably have more REAL parts in them than that E-meter does!




EQUALS --->



... and to keep this worthless contraption sort of relevant to ARF, here's a tube version!!!




... and the Hello Kitty version!

So many posts from people who calibrate Hickok tube testers to +/- 0.001 of 1% accuracy and build GPS disciplined, cesium-rubidium frequency standards in their basements so they can check up on eight-digit frequency counters that are used to measure old Lafayette signal generators, all so they can align four-tube pink plastic clock radios to absolute perfection ... and you think the "E meter" is silly?