State University of New York at Stony Brook

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

ESE 211 Electronics Laboratory A

Lab 2. Measurement of DC voltages and currents

1. Objectives

1. Familiarization with bar-code resistor marking. Measurement of resistance

using the DMM.
2. Measurement of I-V characteristics. Setting up the DC power supply for
operation as a voltage source and for operation as a current source. Selection of
a ground node.
3. Voltage and current measurements in simple DC circuits. Use of Ohm and
Kirchoff’s laws.
4. Data acquisition with RS232 interface and HPVEE

It is advisable to bring a ¼” floppy to the lab to backup collected data

2. Introduction

There is no such thing as a perfect measurement. Each measurement contains a degree

of uncertainty due to the limits of instruments and the people using them. Two
concepts that have to do with measurements are accuracy and precision. The accuracy
of the measurement refers to how close the measure value is to the true value.
Precision refers to how close together a group of measurements actually are to each
other. The measurements can be very precise if you perform multiple measurements
and the results are very reproducible. This way random error in measurement can be
eliminated. At the same time the measurement can be inaccurate if the device produces
systematic error.

In this lab you will compare the results of measurements of resistance R, using an
ohmmeter with data obtained from the linear fit of an I-V characteristic plot. The
precision of the I-V plot will be improved with multiple measurements. The accuracy
of the plot will be better because known functional dependence allows eliminating
possible sources of systematic error such as device offset voltage and input current.

Assuming normally distributed data, the error bars for the results can be calculated
based on standard deviation σR.

∑ (R − R)
2
i
σR = n
(1)
N −1
Here the bar of top of R indicates the mean value. The standard deviation shows the
range of 68 % likelihood that the next measurement falls in the range R-σ to R+σ.
There is 95 % likelihood that the next measurement falls in the range R-2σ to R+2σ.
One can see that precision of measurements improves as square root of number of
measurements N.
The linear fit is usually obtained by least-square regression method that minimizes the
1
sum of squares of deviation from the best fit I * = V + I 0
R

(
Sum = ∑ I i − I * )2
→ min
N
The slope can be found by taking derivative of the expression and setting it to zero

⎛ ⎞⎛ ⎞
N ∑ (I iVi ) − ⎜ ∑ I i ⎟⎜ ∑ Vi ⎟
1
= N ⎝ N ⎠⎝ N ⎠ (2)
2
R ⎛ ⎞
N ∑ Vi − ⎜ ∑ Vi ⎟
2

N ⎝ N ⎠

The standard deviations for current and slope are respectively

σI
∑ (I ) σR =
2
i −I* −1
(3)
2
σI = ⎛ ⎞ 1⎛ ⎞
⎜ ∑ Vi 2 ⎟ − ⎜ ∑ Vi ⎟
N

N −2
⎝ i ⎠ N⎝ i ⎠

⎛1⎞ 1
Because ∆⎜ ⎟ = − 2 ∆R , estimation of the error for R obtained from the slope with 68
⎝ R⎠ R
% confidence can be calculated as ∆R = R 2σ R −1 . Your final result should be presented
in the form R = R ± ∆R .

1. Preliminary lab

1. Resistors in the lab kit have 200 V voltage rating and ¼ W power rating.
Calculate the maximum voltage and current values for resistors with R = 10
Ω, 1 kΩ, 100 kΩ, 10 MΩ. Present data in a table.
2. Consider a resistive circuit in Figure 1. Using Kirchhoff’s current law (nodal
analysis) calculate the voltage at node 1 with respect to the ground for two
voltage functions V1 = 5 V and 15 V. Using Kirchhoff’s voltage law (mesh
analysis) calculate the currents through resistors R1 and R2, then find the
voltage at node 1. Make sure both methods give identical results.
3. Based on the passive sign convention determine if the power is supplied by
the sources or being delivered to them for both voltage functions V1= 5 and
15 V. Calculate the power values and present the data in a table.

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 R1 1k
1
V1 I1
5Vdc R2 10mA
1k

Figure 1.

2. Experiment

1. Read the bar code of the resistors in the lab kit and select two of them with
nominal values of 100 Ω and 1 MΩ. Use DMM in an ohmmeter mode to
measure the actual resistance values, record the data. Express difference of
the measured value from the nominal one in percents and check if it is within
the marked tolerance.
2. Warm up one of the resistors holding it between the finger tips and observe
change of the resistance with temperature. The effect of temperature is
characterized by a thermal resistance coefficient (TRC) in ppm/C. What sign
of the TRC do you observe?
3. Set up the experiment for I-V measurements.

You will need in a power source to bias the resistor. The lab power supply has
two independent sources that can work in voltage mode or current mode
depending on the selected voltage or current compliances and the circuit load. In
this part of the lab you will vary the voltage generated by the power source and
perform measurements of pairs of voltages and currents in the resistor using
DMM. To avoid possible burning out of the resistor, set compliance for the
current calculated from the resistor power rating of ¼ W.

As you well know, measurement of voltage is performed by placing the

voltmeter in parallel to a circuit element, while measurement of current requires
breaking the circuit and incorporation of the ammeter in series with the element.
Because you have only one DMM on the lab bench, changing the circuit and
DMM mode for every voltage would require a lot of time. We will use a
convenient feature in the DMM – the ability to perform two simultaneous
measurements. To set up the DMM into that mode, assemble the testing circuit
according to Figure 2 and select voltage and current measurement to be shown
on the main display and the 2nd display respectively. As the DMM has a
COMMOM (reference) node shared by the voltmeter and the ammeter, it has to
be the circuit ground node. Consequently, the DC voltage source should be left
“floating”, i.e. its middle (ground) terminal should NOT be connected to any
node.

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 f loating DC source
VOLTAGE
V1
R1
i
COMMON

CURRENT

DMM
Figure 2.

Figure 2.

4. Data acquisition from the FLUKE 45 and storage in a .txt file on the PC.

For communication with the PC Fluk 45 uses a RS-232 serial connection.

Programming in HPVEE V. 5.01 allows Direct I/O communication with serial
devices.

Within HPVEE 5.01 begin with the first step in all programs, the start button.
Flow Æ Start. Next create a Direct I/O box for the FLUKE 45 I/O Æ
Instrument Manager. Connect the bottom sequence pin of the Start button to
the top sequence pin of the Fluke 45 I/O box. The transactions (commands)
should be entered in the I/O box as follows:

Figure 3

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 Commands can be entered by right clicking the white area of the I/O box and
selecting Add Trans
WRITE TEXT “OHMS” EOL sends a command to the meter telling it to select
the OHMS measurement on the primary display

WRITE TEXT “MEAS1?” EOL sends a query to the meter asking for the current
value of the primary display
READ TEXT y REAL takes the data from the previous query (in this case of type
REAL) and sends it to the output variable y
WRITE TEXT “VDC2” EOL sends a command to the meter telling it to select
the DC
Voltage measurement on the secondary display
WRITE TEXT “MEAS2?” EOL sends a query to the meter asking for the current
value of the primary display
READ TEXT z REAL takes the data form the previous query (in this case for
type REAL) and sends it to he output variable z
The data now needs to be sent to a .txt file. Data Æ Build Data Æ Record.
Connect y and z to A and B respectively, of the Build Record Box. Next I/O Æ
To Æ File. One may wish to edit the “To File:” settings within the To File box
to store the .txt file in a known location.

Figure 4: The final program

This program will successfully perform the objective, data output from FLUKE
45 to a .txt file

One should be aware that the data in the .txt file does not contain information
regarding what circuit the data came from, or the time and date it was recorded.
It would behoove the user to append the .txt file with such information when
collecting data.

5. Perform current and voltage measurements for R = 100 Ω and R = 1 MΩ for at

least 5 positive and 5 negative voltages nearly equally distributed within the
range of voltage permitted by power rating. Present data in a table.

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 Number of Vi Ii Vi*Ii Vi2
measurement
1
2
..
N
∑

5. Calculate the values of resistance and its error. Keep all the digits in calculations
and round the result.

6. Assemble the circuit in Figure 1. Set up the 6 V source to operate as a positive

source connecting the circuit ground terminal to (-) of the power supply 6V section.
Set the voltage at 5V and the current compliance at the sufficiently high value of
100 mA so that the source will operate in the voltage mode for the given circuit.
Set up the maximum voltage of 25 V in the second source and select the current
compliance at 10 mA level. The source loaded with the circuit will operate as a 10-
mA current source. If you disconnect it from the circuit, the source will switch back
to the voltage mode. The current flows from positive to negative terminals, so that
to have the correct current direction, connect the circuit ground to the positive
terminal of the 25 V source.

Breaking the circuit for current measurements is not convenient. In practice the
current values are being calculated from the results of voltage measurements using
Ohm law, KVL and KCL. Perform measurement of the voltage at node 1 at V1 =
5V compare it with the results of calculations. Calculate the currents in resistors R1
and R2.

6. Report

The report is due at the beginning of lab 3. It should include the work aims, a short
description of what have been done, the original data, the I-V plot, the error analysis
and a conclusion.

7. References

1. Bevington, Philip R.Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical
Sciences. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969.
Now in 2nd edition:
2. Bevington, Philip R. and Robinson, D.K. Data Reduction and Error Analysis in
the Physical Sciences, 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1992.

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8. Appendix

Precision Resistor Color Codes

Band 1 Band 2 Band 3 Band 4 Band 5 Band 6
Color 1st Digit 2nd Digit 3rd Digit Multiplier Tolerance Reliability

Black 0 0 1
Brown 1 1 1 10 1% 1%
Red 2 2 2 100 2% 0.1%
Orange 3 3 3 1,000 3% 0.01%
Yellow 4 4 4 10,000 0.001%
Green 5 5 5 100,000
Blue 6 6 6 1,000,000
Violet 7 7 7 10,000,000
Gray 8 8 8 100,000,000
White 9 9 9 1,000,000,000
Gold x 0.1 5%
Silver x 0.01 10%

The reliability of a resistor indicates the failure rate of a resistor when run at its
rated power dissipation for 1000 hours.