Mechatronics Lab 1

8/9/2019 Mechatronics Lab 1

1/5

Lab 1:

Basic Lab Equipment and Voltage and Current Measurement

Daisy Henderson


2/5

Introduction:

The purpose of this lab is to become familiar with basic lab equipment that will be used

throughout the course as well as to ta e !oltage and current measurements and what those measurements

represent"

#n the lab a !oltage source$ handheld multi%meter$ bread board$ and resistors are used" The !oltage

source pro!ided the power for the lab$ and the two &' V sources were utili(ed" The !oltage source was

used in e!ery portion of the lab" )longside the !oltage source$ a multi%meter was used to ta e !arious

readings of the created circuits" ) multi%meter can ta e !arious readings such as DC and )C current and

!oltage$ although only DC will be used" The bread board is used to create and test circuits within the lab$

it consists of !ertically connected columns which supply power to the circuit$ and hori(ontally connected

rows which is where the circuit is built in"

*esistors are used in the lab when building circuits" The purpose of a resistor is to limit current

and to split current as seen later in the lab" There are numerous types of resistors with !arying degrees of

resistance$ but they are all measured in +hms$ which is !oltage o!er amperage" Voltage$ which is also

nown as potential difference$ is the measure of an electric field and can be measured by using a

multimeter between two points in a circuit" Current is the flow of electric charge through some medium$

current is measured in amperes which is the flow of electric current by one coulomb per second"

Procedures:

The first portion of the lab was testing !oltage coming from the !oltage source" ,irst the power

supply was turned on$ and the output !oltage was set" The multi%meter was first set to measure electric

current in DC$ then used to measure between the three outputs$ positi!e$ negati!e$ and C+M" The two

probe positions were then switched and the results were recorded" The last tas of this section was to

pro!ide a -'V output using the power supply"

The ne.t portion of the lab focused on using a breadboard to create a simple circuit" Three

resistors were used with !oltages of /00$ --$ and --- ohms$ and four wires were also to connect the

circuit"

=33

A

B

=10

=333


3/5

Figure A. 1imple circuit using - different resistors$ with a power source from B to )"

Figure B. The circuit as seen abo!e when put into a bread board" Each resistor is color coded to represent

their resistance"

The third portion of the lab dealt with using the circuit built in the pre!ious section on the

breadboard" ) !oltage with a total of 2 was applied between point ) and point B in the circuit using the

power source$ to determine the total !oltage the equation V ab 3 V a 4 V b was used and it was determined

that the output from the positi!e component should be set at 2V and the output from the negati!e

component would be set to 0V" Then$ the positi!e$ negati!e$ and C+M output lines were connected firmly

to the breadboard and two wires were connected to the positi!e and negati!e output and the other end was

connect to the corresponding opening in the breadboard" )fter setting up the power source the subsequent

!oltage across each resistor was measured using the multi%meter set to the DC !oltage setting by

connecting one prong of the multi%meter to either side of the resistor" ,or the second piece$ the current

that passes through each element of the circuit was measured" To do this$ the multi%meter had to be set to

measure amperes in DC" Then the current path to an element had to be disconnected and the meter must

be inserted into the path of the current" The current passing through each element and the current of the

!oltage source was all measured and recorded"


4/5

Results:

Voltage difference between outputs

+utputs used 5ositi!e and C+M 6egati!e and C+M 5ositi!e and 6egati!eVoltage Difference '"0&-V &"780V 8"0/0VTable 1: This table demonstrates the difference in !oltage when the 9&'V source is set to 'V and the

%&'V source is set to -V$ and the result was measured with a multi%meter"

Measuring Voltage and Current

*esistor /00: --: ---: Total CircuitVoltage '"-;0V /";&'V /";&'V 2VCurrent "0'') "0'-) "0/;) /"00/)Table 2: This table shows the measured !alue of each resistor and the total circuit in !olts and amps" The

meter had to be changed to measured amps after all the measurements for !oltage were ta en"

Conclusion:

,or the first section of the lab$ the !alues as gi!en by the multi%meter are accurate$ the total of

both the negati!e and positi!e components is 8"0/0V and the power source was set to supply 8V" The

totals of the other two measured components< '"0&- V between positi!e and C+M and &"780 V between

negati!e and C+M are also feasible since the positi!e and negati!e outputs were set to 'V and -V

respecti!ely" The small amount of error can be attributed to the power supply$ because while it is accurate

in its output$ it can=t be perfect" By switching the position of the probes$ the resulting measurement of

!oltage becomes negati!e$ this is because the multi%meter is reading the current in the opposite direction$

which results in the same number$ but flipped sign" To pro!ide -' V using the power supply$ the positi!e

&' output must be turned to &' V and the negati!e &' output must be turned to %/0V to accomplish the

total !oltage"

The ne.t component of the e.periment was wor ing with a breadboard to configure a gi!en

circuit" #t was important to note which resistor was which$ to ma e sure that they would not get mi.ed up

and the results would not be s ewed" >hen the breadboard was connecting to the power source it wasimportant to ma e sure the wires connecting the board to the power source were firmly in place and

connected accurately$ or else the circuit would not be completed and the multi%meter would not be able to

get a measurement"

>hen measuring the !oltage between the resistors when 2V was supplied it was found that the

--: resistor and the ---: resistor=s measured !alues were equal" This is because the two resistors are in


5/5

parallel with each other" Then it is seen that the !oltage of the /00: resistor added to the !oltage of one of

the resistors in parallel is equal to ;"78'V$ which is !ery close to the input of se!en !olts$ this small loss

can be attributed to small fluctuations with the equipment or !oltage lost in the wires" >hen measuring

amperage$ the current between the two resistors in parallel should be equal to the resistor that is not in

parallel" #n this case$ the total of the & parallel resistors is "0;7) and the !alue of the other resistor is "

0'')" This difference can be attributed to the resistance of the wire and the internal resistance of the

power source and meter"

Mechatronics Lab 1

Documents

Transcript of Mechatronics Lab 1