Measurement Unit Question for AP Portable One

Am I right that when the level measurement unit is set to voltage it gives a peak value as opposed to a peak to peak value?

The AP agrees with its self and my other volt meters using dBu on the AP and converting to RMS voltage.  When displayed on a scope it takes up double the vertical division setting than it should. A 1V signal takes 2 vertical divisions when vertical is set to 1V/div

I was looking at the AP and noticed the voltage is displayed with a “-p” not a “p-p”. I’ve never seen voltage displayed as peak value as opposed to peak to peak.  I couldn’t find anything in the manual.

Greetings,

Paul, I'd have to check on my unit, but I believe this is configurable in one of the "panels" using the soft keys. I'll try it later on and write back.

Best, Jim

I don't know for sure but I think it is very normal for "peak voltage" to NOT mean peak-to-peak voltage. Vpp is actually somewhat unusual by comparison and that sort of makes sense in that 10Vpp does not help an engineer more pratical matters like if the maximum rating of a component was exceeded or when simpy doing math (10Vpp is no where near 10V and not necessarily even 5V). Peak voltage is used to compute power. If you put symmetrical 10Vpp into 8R, you compute peak power as 5V / 8R and not 10V / 8R. Vpp is useful for signal analysis wrt the dynamic range, gain and other such relatively visual things but when an EE starts doing math absolute voltage (Vp) is more useful.

Thanks Squarewave. I’m no EE  so those examples were very helpful. I found a chart in an appendix that shows the measurement units and It is in fact Vp not Vp-p.

Greetings,

Hi Paul, I see you got a great answer already. Just wanted to let you know I checked on my AP and found the Generator can be set for(among other units), VAC RMS or VAC Peak. The analyzer though seems to lack the Peak unit; RMS, or one of the many dB variations.  Good luck!

Best, Jim