Lab 01- Introduction to Instruments

SUBJECT: ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT ANALYSIS-II

INSTRUCTOR: SIR SHARJEEL RIAZ
SUBMITTED BY:
MUHAMMAD ZIA (FA19-BEE-159)

RAFEY UR REHMAN (FA19-BEE-176)

MUHAMMAD HILAL DIYAR (FA19-BEE-205)

RIZWAN RASHEED (FA19-BEE-185)

 Lab # 01 Introduction to Instruments
Object: Introduction to Instruments. (Digital Oscilloscope and Digital Function Generator)

Pre-Lab
Introduction:

Oscilloscope
An oscilloscope is a graph displaying device. It is used to visualize time-varying electronic
signals on a screen. The signals are graphed using an analog circuitry or a digital apparatus.

Analog Oscilloscope:

It works on the functionality of Cathode Ray Tube (CRT). A beam of electrons is made to fall on a
screen where it becomes visible as a bright blue dot. The beam is then moved along a horizontal
line using a saw-tooth voltage applied along the horizontal axis. The fast-moving dot gives the
appearance of a blue line. Then the signal to be graphed on the screen is applied vertically so that
the beam of electrons moves in a vertical access accordingly. The result is a plot of the time varying
applied signal on the oscilloscope screen.

Digital Oscilloscope:

It works on the functionality of Analog-to-Digital (A/D) converter. The applied input analog signal
is sampled at a high rate; the received samples are then plotted on the screen.
Digital Oscilloscopes have some obvious benefits over analog counterparts. The advent in digital
circuitry has made the oscilloscopes cheaper. Moreover, the sampled signal in a digital oscilloscope can
be stored in memory, can be easily modified or transferred to a computer for further analysis. In
this lab we shall conduct all experiments using digital oscilloscopes.
However, it is advised that engineering students should get hands-on experience on both types of
oscilloscopes.
In our lab (i.e. Electronics Lab: CIIT Islamabad) we shall work with Agilent 3000 Series
oscilloscopes.
Fig No.1: Agilent 3000 Series Oscilloscope (Panel Controls)

Fig No.2: Oscilloscope Display

Using the Oscilloscope:
Auto –Scale Feature:

The oscilloscope has a very useful auto-scale feature that sets the various display scales
automatically according to the input waveform. It is a handy tool to start with until the students get a
better grasp at the control knobs. The students are advised not to rely on this feature completely
but try to learn to set the scale parameters themselves.

Fig No.3: Auto Scale Button

This feature requires an input frequency at least 50Hz and a duty cycle at least 1%.

Input a Signal:

Use one of the supplied passive probes to input the signal into one of the channels of the
oscilloscope.

Using the Run Control Buttons:

There are two buttons for starting and stopping the oscilloscope’s acquisition system: Run/Stop and
Single.

Fig No.4: Run Control Buttons

 When the Run/Stop button is green, the oscilloscope is acquiring data.

 To stop acquiring data, press Run/Stop. When stopped, the last acquired
waveform is displayed.

 When the Run/Stop button is red, data acquisition is stopped. To start acquiring data,
press Run/Stop.

 To capture and display a single acquisition (whether the oscilloscope is

 running or stopped), press Single. After capturing and displaying a single acquisition, the Run/Stop
button is red.

Horizontal Scale:

The horizontal controls consist of:

 The horizontal scale knob — changes the oscilloscope’s time per division setting using the
center of the screen as a reference.

 The horizontal position knob — changes the position of the trigger point (trigger is
explained in the subsequent section) relative to the center of the screen.

 The Main/Delayed button ( We shall not use this button in this lab: For details of this
feature refer to the user manual of the device)

Fig No.5: Horizontal Controls

 Turn the horizontal scale knob to change the horizontal time per division (time/div)
setting. The time/div setting changes in a 1- 2- 5 step sequence. The time/div setting is also
known as the sweep speed.

 Push the horizontal scale knob to toggle between vernier (fine scale) adjustment and
normal adjustment. With vernier adjustment, the time/div setting changes in small steps
between the normal (coarse scale) settings.

 The time/div setting is displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.
Triggering:

The trigger determines when captured data should be stored and displayed. When a trigger is set up
properly, it can convert unstable displays or blank screens into meaningful waveforms. When the
oscilloscope starts to acquire a waveform, it collects enough data so that it can draw the
waveform to the left of the trigger point. The oscilloscope continues to acquire data while
waiting for the trigger condition to occur. After it detects a trigger, the oscilloscope continues to
acquire enough data so that it can draw the waveform to the right of the trigger point.

The oscilloscope provides these trigger modes:

 Edge — can be used with analog and digital circuits. An edge trigger occurs when the
trigger input passes through a specified voltage level with the specified slope.

 Pulse — is used to find pulses with certain widths.

 Video — is used to trigger on fields or lines for standard video waveforms.

Fig No.6: Trigger Controls

 To adjust the trigger level, turn the trigger Level knob. Two things happen: The trigger level
value is displayed at the lower left- hand corner of the screen and a line is displayed
showing the location of the trigger level with respect to the waveform (except when using
AC coupling or LF reject coupling modes).

 Push 50% to set the level at 50% of the signal’s vertical amplitude.

 To make an acquisition even if no valid trigger has been found: Press Force.

 Forcing a trigger is useful, for example, when you want to display the DC voltage of a
level signal.

Vertical Controls
The vertical controls consist of:

 The channel (1, 2), Math, and Ref buttons — turn waveforms on or off (and display or
 hide their menus).

 The vertical scale knobs — change the amplitude per division setting for a waveform, using
ground as a reference.

 The vertical position knobs — change the vertical position of the waveform on the screen.

Fig No. 7: Vertical Controls

 Pressing the channel (1, 2), Math, or Ref buttons have the following effect: If the waveform
is off, the waveform is turned on and its menu is displayed. If the waveform is on and its
menu is not displayed, its menu will be displayed. If the waveform is on and its menu is
displayed, the waveform is turned off and its menu goes away.

 Turn its vertical scale knob to change the amplitude per division setting. The amplitude/div
setting changes in a 1- 2- 5 step sequence from 2 mV/div to 10 V/div (with “1X” probe
attenuation). Ground is used as a reference.

 Push its vertical scale knob to toggle between Vernier (fine scale) adjustment and normal
adjustment. With Vernier adjustment, the amplitude/div setting changes in small steps
between the normal (coarse scale) settings.

 The amplitude/div setting is displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.

 Adjusting their vertical position lets you compare waveforms by aligning them above one
another or on top of each other. When an input channel waveform is
on: Turn the vertical position knob to change the vertical position of the waveform on
the screen. Notice that the ground reference symbol on the left side of the display moves
with the waveform.
 Notice that, as you adjust the vertical position, a message showing the position of the
ground reference relative to the center of the screen is temporarily displayed in the lower
left- hand corner of the screen.
 To specify channel coupling, if the channel’s menu is not currently displayed, press the
channel button (1, 2). In the Channel menu, press Coupling to select between:

 DC — passes both DC and AC components of the input waveform to the oscilloscope.

  AC — blocks the DC component of the input waveform and passes the AC component.

 GND — the waveform is disconnected from the oscilloscope input.

Function Generator
A function generator is a device to generate arbitrary time varying waveforms. It is used for testing
and designing circuits in a lab environment. The function generator used in this lab is Agilent
3320A.

Using the Function Generator: -

Fig No.8 Snapshot of Agilent 3320A Function Generator

Generating a Signal:-

 Turn the power on and press the output key.

 Press the sine key, if not already active.

 Enter a value of 2 using numeric keypad and then choose units to be kHz. We can also
specify time period instead of frequency if we press the “Freq” soft key and then specify
the time period.

 Similarly press the Amplitude soft key to enter amplitude and offset soft key to enter DC
offset.

 The units can be changed by pressing first the +/- key and then entering new units.

 Similarly by pressing the square, ramp, pulse etc keys we can generate arbitrary waveforms of
different characteristics.

.
 In Lab
OBJECTIVES
 Basic understanding of creating arbitrary waveforms using function generator.

 Basic understanding of viewing a time varying voltage waveform on digital oscilloscope

and understanding various control knobs of digital oscilloscope.

SECTION I – Lab
Task 1:-
 Turn on Oscilloscope and Function generator.
 Note down the values of Channel 1 status and Time base status on the oscilloscope
screen. Write them down in the table.

 Generate a sinusoidal wave of 2 KHZ and 5Vp-p. Connect the signal using probes to the
oscilloscope. Press Auto Scale.

 Press channel (1) button, make sure from the menu that coupling is DC, bandwidth
limit is off and probe is set at (1X).

 Play with the horizontal and vertical position and scale knobs and try to understand
their effect. Finally, auto-scale again.

 Note down the new values of Channel 1 Status and Time base Status. Interpret the graph
displayed using these values.

 Change the offset to -1V then 1.5V then 2V then. Observe the change in waveform.
Change the vertical scale i.e. the whole waveform is again at the centre of screen. Note
down the new values of Channel 1 Status and Time base Status.

 Press “measure” button, press “Volatge” and then press soft keys to determine values of Vpp,
Vrms, Vmin and Vmax. Similarly press “Time” and determine the values of frequency, period
etc. Fill the table.

 Change the coupling to AC. What do you observe?

Task-2:-
 Generate a square wave pulse between 0-5V. Let the frequency be 4KHZ. What is the time
period ?
  Change the duty cycle to 25%.

 What is the value of time base status? For how much time the waveform is
+5Volts (0n time). For how much time the waveform is 0Volts (Off-time). Find the ratio of
On-time and the time period of the square wave.

 To measure the time (off or on) note down the time base status. It represents how much time
one division (box) on the horizontal axis represents. Using this information calculate the
time i.e. divisions for which the wave is +5V and for

which it is 0 volts.

 Another method is to press “measure” button of oscilloscope. Press “Time” (press soft key
again to view next set of measurements) and note down the value of “+width” (on-time)
and “-width” (off-time).

 Change the duty cycle to 70% and repeat the experiment.

Task-3:-
 Generate a Sine wave of 1 KHz (note down its value in radians/sec using w = 2πf), 10Vp-p.

 Press “Ref” and press “save” to save this waveform as reference.

 Now change the horizontal position knob, the reference wave remains static but the live
voltage waveform will change position. On lower left corner of the screen the time delay
will be displayed.

 Delay the wave using horizontal position knob until the live waveform is at 180 degrees out
of phase with the reference (π radians). 180 degrees means the wave becomes exactly the
inverted version of the reference waveform. Note the numerical value of the time delay.

 Change the frequency to 3 KHz and 3.5 KHz and repeat the experiment. Fill the table

Section – 2 (Design Problem)

Set the oscilloscope and function generator to display on the oscilloscope screen the exact voltage
waveform as shown below i.e. the on time is only 50% of the off time and only five complete cycles
are visible on the screen. The voltage should vary from 0 to 1V. (Choose frequency of your own
choice, show the output to the instructor)
Section 3 – Measurement Tables

TASK 1:

CH-1 status Time Base Status

CH-1 status Time Base Status
(after offset) (after offset)
1V 200µs 1V 200µs

Voltage DC Offset Vpp Vrms Vmax Vmin

Measurements volts volts volts volts volts
-1 5 2.03 1.56 -3.59
1.5 5 2.37 4.08 -1.07
2 5 2.73 4.44 -o.52

Time DC Offset Frequency Priod Rise Time Fall Time

Measurements volts KHz µs µs µs

-1 2 500 146 146

1.5 2 500 145 145
2 2 500 150 150
 Task 2:

Time Duty Time Base On-Time Off-Time Ratio

Base Cycle status
5V 25.2% 100us 632.5us 187.5us 0.254

Task 3:

Frequency w W=2 π f
Frequency f (kHz) Time Delay t (µs) w*t
(rad/sec)
1 360000 495 178.2
3 1080000 168 181.4
3.5 1260000 140 176.4

Post Lab
Post Lab Discussion Answer the following
 What is meant by offset?

DC offset is an offsetting of a signal from zero. On the Audacity waveform it would mean that the
waveform in default view appears not to be centered on the 0.0 horizontal line.

 What is meant by duty cycle?

A duty cycle or is the fraction of one period in which a signal or system is active. Duty cycle is commonly
expressed as a percentage or a ratio.




 What is the relationship of phase shift, frequency and time?

The Period (time) goes from one peak to the next (or from any point to the next matching point)

Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time.

Amplitude is the height from the center line to the peak (or to the trough). Or we can measure the height
from highest to lowest points and divide that by 2.

Phase Shift is how far the function is shifted horizontally from the usual position.

Relationship:

S(t) = A sin(ωot − ϕ)

where S(t) is the signal as a function of time, A is the amplitude, ωo is the angular frequency, and ϕ is the
instantaneous phase.

 What is meant by DC and AC coupling?

AC Coupling: AC coupling consists of using a capacitor to filter out the DC signal component from a
signal with both AC and DC components. The capacitor must be in series with the signal. AC coupling is
useful because the DC component of a signal acts as a voltage offset, and removing it from the signal can
increase the resolution of signal measurements. AC coupling is also known as capacitive coupling.

DC Coupling: DC coupling allows both AC and DC signals to pass through a connection. When using DC
coupling, no additional capacitor is added to filter the signal. The DC-coupled configuration is usually
best if the signal source has only small amounts of offset voltage, less than ±100 mV, or if the DC content
of the acquired signal is important.

Critical Analysis / Conclusion

(By Student about Learning from the Lab)

In this lab we studied about electrical instrument such as oscilloscope and then we performed some
operation on oscilloscope by changing its amplitude and its and changed some values and observed the
output on the oscilloscope output screen

And we observed some other properties of oscilloscope such as digital oscilloscope and analogue
oscilloscope.