Rescaling Moving Coil Meters

[VK3TPR]

To all the Test Equipment builders out here I am looking for ideas on how to produce a new scale for a typical moving coil meter.

I have several old meters that can easily be converted to show power or SWR etc. and I would like to produce a professional looking scale to glue/paste of the existing amps or volts scale.

I have read articles that suggest using a suitable PC word or graphics editing package, print the scale on your home PC printer, then paste over the existing, but being a bit lazy I thought I'd ask on this forum if anyone has found a suitable program/package already.

regards
Peter Roberts
VK3TPR

[VK3HZ]

Hi Peter,

Meter is good: http://tonnesoftware.com/meter.html It's not free but you can download a trial that you can run a few times to try it out.

I've also scanned an existing scale and used Paintshop or similar to overwrite the text. This only works if you want to keep the same graduations - no good for converting a linear meter to SWR.

Regards,
Dave.

[VK3ALB]

I know I'm dredging up a really old post but there is in my opinion a really good package for redawing meter scales, making front panels in fact almost any kind of label you can imagine.

http://www.parotys.com/index.php/en/ele ... /106-galva

GALVA is a command interpreter that renders text commands into an image. You'll need to spend some time with it to learn how it works but once you've got the hang of it you'll throw away your letraset and textas forever. It's written by F5BU so the text commands are french words but there's excellent english instructions along with a simple syntax help if you forget how a command is formed. It works under windoze and doesn't break your OS. Takes advantage of any fonts you have installed on your computer and doesn't need a post script printer driver.

Best of all it's free.

The most important feature of GALVA is it's ability to locate marks on a meter scale as a percentage of full scale. This means if you have a 20V DC panel meter and want to put a mark at 13.8V you add a mark at 69% (13.8/20) of full scale. Want to make a log scale or a scale that follow square law? You can do that too! Want to make a slide rule scale for your 600m transceiver? Also possible. Want to replace the flaking scale on your HP432B? That can be done too and with a little care it can be made to look exactly like the original.

Here's two samples to show what can be some. They look a bit blocky because they're a screen grab but the printed images are excellent and look great on photo paper.

First one is a replacement scale I made for an AWA F240 Noise & Distortion meter. The scale lines print out a 0.3mm and are a perfect match for the original scale.

Second is a replacement scale I made for one of my rotator controllers. I worked out the directions on Google earth and added names that made sense to me. I laninated it and swapped out the manufacturers scale. The graticules on the compass ring are 0.8mm thick and the two rings are 0.5mm thick.