Electronic – Measuring Current by rectifying or voltage-doubling a Current Transformer

adccurrent measurementmicrocontrollerpower-measurement

Originally, my plan was to just get the voltage output of a current transformer (obviously with the burden resistor circuit stuff and DC biasing circuit stuff) before ADC'ing it, averaging it’s output per second to get the average current per second. However, I will be using all 6 analog pins in the uC to get 6 outputs from a 60hz current transformer, and the uC only has one ADC, which will make my readings kind of inaccurate. Or is it really inaccurate? Please enlighten me.

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https://openenergymonitor.org/forum-archive/node/156.html

I was thinking of rectifying the output of the transformer first and using a capacitor to smooth out the output to get a more stable reading, but since I will be dealing with small voltages, I don’t think that's a viable option. Is there some kind of trick in rectifying small signals with as little drop out as possible?

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Source: https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/analogue_circuits/diode-rectifiers/full-wave-bridge-rectifier.php

Also, I was wondering if it is possible to use a voltage doubler circuit to boost the voltage output of this transformer, since the highest voltage that can be attained by this circuit is 2Vp, but is this really 2Vp? Or is there also a voltage drop from the diodes that needs to be taken into consideration?

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https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/blog/voltage-multiplier-circuit.html

Best Answer

A CT can be generally regarded as having a current output that is proportional to the current flowing through the primary. This is converted to a voltage by the burden resistor. So, if you apply a bridge rectifier between CT secondary winding and burden resistor you get a pretty good approximation to a full-wave precision rectifier: -

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A word of warning; don't push it too far - you should be able to get a few volts peak-to-peak but don't aim to get a peak voltage higher than what would be obtainable with the burden placed conventionally because you might suffer a little bit of inaccuracy and, if you take it too far, you might start to overly saturate the CT's core. In other words, don't choose a burden resistor value that is significantly higher than that recommended by the data sheet.

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