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Step 6Changing the Scales of the Panel Meters
Before you can change the scale of a panel meter, you must have a panel meter. One way to obtain panel meters is to visit swap meets or industrial surplus locations. Ideally you find meters that have a full scale of 50 or 100 uA. The more common full scale is 1 mA. Often you find panel meters with odd scales, for example pH, or scales marked for high currents like 5 A or odd voltages. These may still be usable. If you are lucky, the full scale value (ex. FS=100uA) will be on the meter face in small letters down below where you would normally view. The neat thing about surplus or junkyard meters is they are often very unusual looking. So I suggest you keep a look out for these types of panel meters.
You can always buy new panel meters, the going price is about $9 for a 2 - 2.5 inch meter made in Asia. The nice thing about these meters is you can select sensitivities from 50 uA through 1mA for the same price. One source is BG Micro (http://www.bgmicro.com). The downside is they are a little boring.
When you select a meter, make sure that you can easily remove the front. If the front is glued to the back of the meter, pass on it and move on. When you remove the front of the meter, you typically find that the face is attached with a couple of screws to the meter movement.
I used 2 different methods to change the scales on the panel meters of my chronulator. On the minute meter, I printed out a new scale on plain paper and used a glue stick to stick it over the old scale. On my hour meter, I printed out a new face the same size as the old face on photo paper and flipped the face plate and used a glue stick to attach the new face to the backside of the plate. In this case, I wanted to retain the look of the original face plate by keeping the manufacturer's name and "Direct Current" heading. The best way to do this is to scan the original face plate using a flat bed scanner. The scanned image then becomes the background layer of your new meter face in the graphic program you use.
The ShareBrained Technology site has several meter faces that you can download. They fit the meters used in their Chronulator kits. You might get lucky and be able to use one of them.
There is also a meter scale program that can be used that has a free limited version available from Tonne Software, http://www.tonnesoftware.com . I haven't used it.
One last note, the hour meter scale goes 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. It does not go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. This is because the Chronulator works like an analog clock and sweeps the hour hand as the hour progresses.
You can always buy new panel meters, the going price is about $9 for a 2 - 2.5 inch meter made in Asia. The nice thing about these meters is you can select sensitivities from 50 uA through 1mA for the same price. One source is BG Micro (http://www.bgmicro.com). The downside is they are a little boring.
When you select a meter, make sure that you can easily remove the front. If the front is glued to the back of the meter, pass on it and move on. When you remove the front of the meter, you typically find that the face is attached with a couple of screws to the meter movement.
I used 2 different methods to change the scales on the panel meters of my chronulator. On the minute meter, I printed out a new scale on plain paper and used a glue stick to stick it over the old scale. On my hour meter, I printed out a new face the same size as the old face on photo paper and flipped the face plate and used a glue stick to attach the new face to the backside of the plate. In this case, I wanted to retain the look of the original face plate by keeping the manufacturer's name and "Direct Current" heading. The best way to do this is to scan the original face plate using a flat bed scanner. The scanned image then becomes the background layer of your new meter face in the graphic program you use.
The ShareBrained Technology site has several meter faces that you can download. They fit the meters used in their Chronulator kits. You might get lucky and be able to use one of them.
There is also a meter scale program that can be used that has a free limited version available from Tonne Software, http://www.tonnesoftware.com . I haven't used it.
One last note, the hour meter scale goes 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. It does not go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. This is because the Chronulator works like an analog clock and sweeps the hour hand as the hour progresses.
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