LABORATORY MANUAL

FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTER APPLICATIONS I

BCA111

S.Y. 2023 -2024

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Laboratory Policy
Rules of Conduct and Safety in Labs
Troubleshooting Hints
Laboratory # 1: RESISTOR VALUE
Laboratory # 2: OHMS LAW
Laboratory # 3: THEVENINS THEOREM
Laboratory # 4: SUPERPOSITION THEOREM
Laboratory # 5: BASIC RL AND RC CIRCUITS
Laboratory # 6: SINUSOIDAL STEADY-STATE ANALYSIS
 LABORATORY POLICY

 Students must attend the lab section they have registered for.
 Labs start on time. Latecomers will not be allowed in the room once the experiment has
started.
 To get credit for a lab you must complete and turn in a lab report on time. If you attend a
lab session but fail to hand in a report on time you will receive a grade of zero for that
lab.
 Lab reports are to be typed using a word processor and are to be handed in electronically
on the Blackboard page for your section.
 Lab reports will be checked personally by the instructor. Any copied work will be 5-point
deductions in the total score they have.
 After the laboratory session, every piece of equipment and tool that has been used must
be returned to the laboratory technician immediately.
 The laboratory must be kept clean and organized after every session. Lights and
equipment must turned off after using the laboratory.
 Labs can be made up only within your scheduled lab session, and only if there is a valid,
documented reason for missing your lab. Permission for makeup labs must be obtained in
advance from your lab instructor.
 RULES OF CONDUCT & SAFETY IN LABS

 Students are not permitted in the laboratory without an instructor. They shall wait in the
corridors until their instructor lets them in at the right time.
 Students should keep all personal belongings off the table and out of the walkways. This
will benefit the students to have a clear work area, and prevent anyone around them from
tripping/falling.
 Students should report any accidents (breakage, malfunction, spills, etc), any unsafe
conditions (sparks, unusual odors), or any personal injuries (spill, breakage, etc.) to the
instructor without any delay.
 Students should report any damaged equipment they come across (eg. frayed cords,
exposed wires, cracked/dirty optics, etc) to the instructor immediately.
 Any chemicals in the laboratory are to be considered dangerous and students are advised
to handle them carefully and let their instructor guide them on how to dispose of a
chemical being used during an experiment.
 Students should never short the power output terminals (ie. connect the positive &
negative directly using a wire).
 Students should make sure that the current is turned off before any adjustments are made
to the circuit.
 Students should pull after grasping the plug instead of the cord when disconnecting any
electronic devices connected to any outlets.
 Students should handle optics very carefully, and take special care when using an
eyepiece to avoid personal injuries.
 Students should not toss any tools, supplies, or other equipment to anyone. They should
carefully hand said item to the recipient.
 Students should not climb to stand on any lab furniture.
 Students should conduct themselves in a professional & responsible manner at all times
in the laboratory.
 Students should not eat or drink in labs. They can ask their instructor to be excused, and
then step outside if they feel the need to do so.
 Students should clean up their respective work areas before leaving a lab.
 Students will benefit from staying alert at all times during the lab!
 TROUBLESHOOTING HINTS

 Be sure that the power is turned on.

 Be sure the ground connections are common.
 Be sure the circuit you built is identical to that in the diagram. (Do a node-by-node
check)
 Be sure that the supply voltages are correct.
 Be sure you plug in the cable to the right terminal in the multimeter to measure the
voltage/resistance (upper terminal) or the current (lower terminal).
 Be sure that the equipment is set up correctly and that you are measuring the correct
parameter.
 Be sure the BJT’s collector and emitter terminals are in the correct orientation.
 If the first 5 steps are correct, then you probably have used a component with the wrong
value or one that doesn't work. It is also possible that the equipment does not work
(although this is not probable) or the protoboard you are using may have some unwanted
paths between nodes. To find your problem you must trace through the voltages in your
circuit node by node and compare the signal you have to the signal you expect to have.
Then if they are different use your engineering judgment to decide what is causing the
difference or ask your lab assistant.
NAME:
SUBJECT AND SECTION:
LAB. # 1: RESISTOR VALUE

OBJECTIVES
The resistor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance (a
measure of the opposition to current flow in an electrical circuit) as a circuit element. This is measured in
the unit of ꭥ (ohms). Color bands are printed on them to represent the electrical resistance. These color
bands are known as resistor color codes. In this experiment, you use a multimeter and probe to measure
the resistance of a resistor. The objectives of this experiment are as follows:
1. To measure the resistance of the resistors
2. To get the value of the resistor through color code
3. To compare the color code value of the resistor and the measured value of the resistor
APPARATUS

 Resistor
 Multimeter
In this experiment, you will measure the resistance of different resistors that the instructor provided. To
do this, you’ll use an instrument called a multimeter. You will connect the probes of the multimeter at
both ends of the resistor to measure the resistance.
Multimeters can be set for several functions.

 to measure direct (DC) or alternating (AC) current

 to measure voltage (V), current (A) or resistance (Ω)
To use the multimeter to measure the resistance, set the meter to Ω section. For illustration, see the figure
below. Set the value to higher than the resistor color code value. For example, if the color code value of
the resistor is 1k ohms, you will set the value to 2k ohms.
PROCEDURE
1. Get the resistance of the resistor through its color band.
2. Set the multimeter higher to the resistor resistance value. Connect each probe to the end of both
sides of the resistor.
3. Record the value of the resistance in your data table.
4. Turn off the multimeter after the experiment.

DATA

Resistor Color Band Value Tolerance (%) Measured Value

10

CALCULATIONS AND ANALYSIS

1. Calculate the resistance value of the resistors. Get the tolerance range of the resistors.
2. What happened if two resistors were connected?
NAME:
SUBJECT AND SECTION:
LAB. # 2: OHMS LAW

OBJECTIVES
The movement of charge in a conductor referred to as current, is possible because electrons can move
when a voltage is applied. A good conducting material transfers electrons easily and is said to have low
resistance, while a poor conductor transfers electrons less readily and has high resistance. In many
materials, it is found that current is directly proportional to voltage. Georg Ohm discovered this and
formalized this relationship as Ohm's Law. In this experiment, you measure the circuits' voltage, current,
and resistance, and test Ohm’s law by predicting one of these quantities based on the other two. The
objectives of this experiment are as follows:
1. To measure current and voltage in a circuit
2. To calculate resistance using different methods given current and voltage measurements
3. To test Ohm’s law

THEORY
When there is a potential difference V between two points in a circuit, a current flows. Experimentally it
is found that for many materials if the temperature remains constant, the voltage V is proportional to the
current I, as shown in the equation
Ohms Law V=IR
The proportionality constant R is the resistance between the two points considered.
ACCEPTED VALUES
The accepted value for the resistance R is measured directly from the resistor, which you do at the end of
the procedure for this experiment.

APPARATUS

 resistor  wires  DC power supply

 multimeters  fuse

Simple electric circuits consist of conducting wires, resistors, power supplies, and fuses. A circuit diagram
is a model of a circuit that corresponds to the arrangement of the components, denoted by the following
symbols:
A simple example of a circuit diagram is shown in figure. A fuse is always included in the circuits to
protect the equipment. When too high a current flows through a fuse it interrupts the current.

In this experiment, you measure the current and voltage at specific points on the circuit. To do this you'll
use an instrument called a multimeter. You will connect two multimeters to the circuit at the same time,
with one set up to measure current and the other set up to measure voltage.
Multimeters can be set for several functions.

 to measure direct (DC) or alternating (AC) current

 to measure voltage (V), current (A) or resistance (Ω)
They can also be set for the maximum value of the quantity to be measured. For an illustration see figure.
To use the multimeter to measure current (ammeter), set the meter to DC and 200 mA. Then connect the
multimeter in series with the circuit, meaning that you plug the source of the current in the mA socket and
the destination of the current into the COM socket of the multimeter. For example, to measure the current
before a resistor, plug the wire from the power supply into the mA socket and plug a wire connected to the
resistor into the COM socket.
To use the multimeter to measure voltage (voltmeter), set the meter to DC and 20 V. Then connect the
multimeter in parallel with the circuit, meaning that you plug the source of the current into the V socket
and the destination of the current into the COM socket of the multimeter. For example, to measure the
voltage across a resistor, plug a wire from the end of the resistor nearest the power supply into the V
socket and plug a wire connected to the other end of the resistor into the COM socket.
In a circuit diagram, the voltmeter and ammeter are denoted by the following symbols:

Ammeters are always connected in series so that the current to be measured flows through the instrument.
Voltmeters are connected in parallel with the portion of the circuit across which the potential difference is
measured. In the figure below, the circuit diagram for this experiment is shown with the ammeter in series
with the resistor and the voltmeter in parallel with the resistor.

The current in the circuit is supplied by the DC power supply, illustrated in the figure below. The current
is varied by adjusting the DC OFFSET knob, which controls the voltage produced by the power supply.
The zero position for this control is at twelve o’clock. Clockwise rotation increases the voltage (0 to +
6V), while counterclockwise rotation yields the opposite polarity (0 to - 6V). Use only positive voltages
in this experiment.
PROCEDURE
1. Connect the circuit shown in the first figure circuit. To install the ammeter, plug the wire from the
power supply into the mA socket and plug a wire connected to the resistor into the COM socket. To install
the voltmeter, plug a wire from the end of the resistor nearest the power supply into the V socket and plug
a wire connected to the other end of the resistor into the COM socket. Verify your circuit design with the
lab instructor.
2. Set the voltmeter to DC and the 20 V scale as illustrated in the second figure.
3. Set the ammeter to DC and the 200-mA scale. On this scale, you multiply the reading by 10−3 amperes.
For example, a reading of 100.0 means 100.0 × 10−3 = 0.1000 amps or 100 milliamps.
4. Turn the DC offset knob on your power supply to 0 and turn the power supply on.
5. Increase the voltage to approximately 0.1 volts, so that the voltmeter reads approximately 0.10 when
set on its 20 V scale. Record the voltage and the corresponding current in the data table.
6. Increase the voltage in steps so that you have ten voltage and current readings between 0.1 and 6 volts,
and record the voltage and current for each setting in your data table.
7. Turn off the power supply and disconnect the circuit.
8. Connect one end of the resistor to the volt ohms terminal of the multimeter and the other end to COM.
Switch the meter to the 200 ohms scale and record the resistance value indicated on the meter as the
directly measured resistance on your data table. If the meter shows “OL” overload, switch to the next
highest resistance scale.

DATA
Directly Measured Resistance = ______________

Voltage (V) Current (A)

CALCULATIONS AND ANALYSIS
1. Calculate V/I for each pair of voltage current readings. Compute the average of your V/I values.
This is one estimate for the resistance R.
2. Draw a graph showing the relation between voltage (y-axis) and current (x-axis). Draw the best
fit straight line through the points on your graph. Calculate the slope of this line as another
estimate for R.
3. Calculate the % error for the two resistance values you obtained, using the direct measurement
you made in step 8 of the procedure as the accepted value. Explain whether your results support
Ohm’s law.
NAME:
SUBJECT AND SECTION:
LAB. # 3: THEVENINS THEOREM

OBJECTIVE
Thevenin’s theorem states that it is possible to simplify any linear circuit, irrespective of how complex it
is, to an equivalent circuit with a single voltage source and a series resistance. In this experiment, you will
be going to assemble a given circuit and compare the measured result to Thevenin’s theorem. The
objectives of this experiment are as follows:
1. To measure the load current of the circuit
2. To calculate the Thevenin’s voltage and resistance of the circuit
3. To verify the Thevenin’s theorem for the given circuit

THEORY
It states that in any lumped, linear network having a greater number of sources and elements the
equivalent circuit across any branch can be replaced by an equivalent circuit consisting of Theremin’s
equivalent voltage source Vth in series with Theremin’s equivalent resistance Rth. Where Vth is the open
circuit voltage across (branch) the two terminals and Rth is the resistance seen from the same two
terminals by replacing all other sources with internal resistances.
APPARATUS

 Power supply  Jumper wires  Multitester

 Resistors  Breadboard

Simple electric circuits consist of conducting wires, resistors, and power supply. A circuit diagram is a
model of a circuit that corresponds to the arrangement of the components, denoted by the following
symbols:

In this experiment,