{"id":2388,"date":"2019-05-09T16:32:31","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T23:32:31","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-01-12T09:47:02","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T17:47:02","slug":"2388","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/2388","title":{"rendered":"Why are my voltage readings inaccurate when I measure half cells or batteries?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To get the most accurate readings from the Voltage Probe, when measuring the half cell potential in a chemistry experiment (such as Lab 28 from CwV) or from a standard dry cell battery, you should zero the probe. There is a specific process for zeroing a voltage probe; please follow these steps:<\/p>\n<p><b>Logger <i>Pro<\/i> 3<\/b><\/p>\n<p>1) Connect the Voltage Probe through an interface such as: LabPro, Go! Link, LabQuest Mini, or LabQuest and start the data-collection program.<br \/>\nNOTE: On the default screen of Logger <i>Pro<\/i> 3, you may see a meter reading of ~3 V. This reading is not valid and should be considered to be only confirmation that the probe is operating properly.<br \/>\n2) Clip the red and black leads of the Voltage Probe together. The meter reading will drop to a value below ~0.1 V, which is normal behavior.<br \/>\n3) Open the Experiment menu and choose Zero. After the sensor has been zeroed, the meter reading will be 0.00 V (or very, very close to 0.00 V). You are now ready to measure potential.<\/p>\n<p><b>LabQuest App<\/b><\/p>\n<p>1) Connect the Voltage Probe to LabQuest and start the data-collection program.<br \/>\n2) Clip the red and black leads of the Voltage Probe together. The meter reading will drop to a value below ~0.1 V, which is expected behavior.<br \/>\n3) Choose Zero from the Sensors menu. After the probe is zeroed, the meter reading will be approximately 0.00 V. You are now ready to measure potential.<\/p>\n<p><b>Graphical Analysis and Graphical Analysis Pro<\/b><br \/>\n1) Connect the Voltage Probe according to the Getting Started section of the product&#8217;s user manual (See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/support\/manuals\/)\">https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/support\/manuals\/)<\/a><br \/>\n2) Clip the red and black leads of the Voltage Probe together. The meter reading will drop to a value below ~0.1 V, which is expected behavior.<br \/>\n3) Click the live readouts meter and choose Zero. After the probe is zeroed, the meter reading will be approximately 0.00 V. You are now ready to measure potential.<\/p>\n<p>TWO IMPORTANT POINTS<br \/>\nA) If you exit and restart the program, you will need to zero the Voltage Probe again<br \/>\nB) Zero the probe only when the red and black leads are connected together.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To get the most accurate readings from the Voltage Probe, when measuring the half cell potential in a chemistry experiment (such as Lab 28 from&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11044,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3949,1014,3948,940,210,850],"class_list":["post-2388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-electrochemistry","tag-gdx-volt","tag-half-cells","tag-voltage","tag-vp-bta","tag-zeroing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11044"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}