GRADING RUBRIC

Not everything is graded for the sake of efficiency and

effectiveness.

 Any missing answers, -5 each

 Any missing photos/images, -10 each
 Table A1: Values should be very close to the ones
shown, otherwise -5 each.
 A2: If work is not shown, -15
 B3: Rth should be approximately 66 , otherwise -5
 Table B7: Should match Table A1, otherwise -5
 C5: Missing plot is -15. Plot should show a peak
around 70  for maximum power transfer, if not, -10
 C6: If it doesn’t say RL = Rth in some way, -5
ECE 1004

Lab 2: Thévenin & Norton Equivalents

NAME: Solution

NOTE: Your name is required!

By putting your name on this worksheet, you certify that you have neither given nor
received unauthorized aid and what is presented is entirely your own work.

Include the units for all your measurements. READ THE PARAGRAPH
BELOW!

The purpose of this lab is to prove to you that a Thévenin equivalent circuit is a valid
approximation of a complex circuit. You will also see a demonstration of the Maximum
Power Transfer Theorem. This lab will require the use of nodal or mesh analysis for
finding the Thévenin equivalent, and voltage dividers for finding load voltages.

Table of Contents:
A. Analyzing the circuit
B. Finding the equivalent circuits
C. Building and Testing the Thévenin Equivalent

Required Materials:

● Your breadboard
● Your AD2 (or ADALM2000) oscilloscope
● Your digital multimeter (DMM) and your integrated circuit (IC) test hooks
● Resistors: as necessary
Tips to help you succeed:

a. There are no expected “exact” answers.

i. In the real world, precision is hard to obtain. Remember that
components have tolerances and that nothing is ideal. Try to
estimate using your knowledge about circuit theory what the
answer should be (this is done in the analysis section). Your
measurement should be close to calculation, but it’s very unlikely to
exactly match.
b. Record the most stable reading you see on your digital multimeter (DMM):
c. FOLLOW ALL CIRCUIT SCHEMATICS.
d. If you need help, post a question on Piazza, or see a TA, ULA, or your
professor at office hours.
e. Remember how to connect your power supply to a circuit and how to
measure current through a resistor. Observe the following diagram to
remind yourself how to connect your power supply to a circuit and how to
measure current through a resistor (you need to BREAK the circuit in
order to measure current):

Here are the resistor color codes to ensure you choose the correct resistor
values:
 A. Analyzing the circuit

For this part of the lab, you will analyze the circuit shown below:

Figure 1: Lab 2 circuit

1. Add a 100 Ohm load resistor to the terminals of the circuit (this means in parallel
with R6, at points Vout+ and Vout-). Calculate the voltage across the load
resistor, and calculate its power. You can whatever circuit analysis tools you
wish.

Repeat the procedure for a 220 Ohm load.

Record the values in the table below:

Resistance (Ohms) Voltage (Volts) Power (milliwatts)

100 Approximately 1.625

0.4031

220 Approximately 1.2023

0.5143

2. Paste your written work, or an image of it, below:

Using nodal or mesh or Req analysis, solving for the current/voltage through the 100
ohm and 220 ohm, then calculating power with these values.
 B. Finding the equivalent circuits

1. Now, use the circuit analysis techniques you learned in class to calculate the
open-circuit voltage at the terminals in Figure 1. Remember that when finding
Thévenin/Norton equivalent of a source circuit, you remove the load resistance!
Paste a photo of your work, or type it below:

The Thevenin voltage should be approximately 0.6678 volts.

2. Short the terminals (Vout+ and Vout-) in Figure 1. Calculate the short-circuit
current for the circuit. Paste a photo of your work, or type it below:

The Norton current should be about 10.166 mA. The student can find this by taking
Vth/Rth or by analyzing the circuit using other techniques.

3. Calculate the Thévenin resistance using the open-circuit voltage and short-circuit
current you calculated in parts B1 and B2.

Rth ≅ 65.7 ohms

4. Calculate the Thévenin resistance using the zeroing method as seen from the
terminals Vout+ and Vout-.

Rth ≅ 65.7 ohms

5. Do your results in B3 and B4 agree? YES

6. Using these values, draw the Thévenin and Norton equivalent circuits of the
schematic shown in Figure 1. If your laptop doesn’t have pen capability, draw the
circuits on paper and paste pictures of your drawings into the table below,
making sure they are clear and legible:
 Thévenin Equivalent Norton Equivalent

7. Add a 100 Ohm load resistor to the “terminals” of the Thévenin circuit. Calculate
the voltage across the load resistor, and calculate its power. Choose the best
tool for the job.

Repeat the procedure for a 220 Ohm load.

Record them in the table below:

Resistance (Ohms) Voltage (Volts) Power (milliwatts)

100 Approximately 0.403 1.6241

220 Approximately 0.514 1.2009

8. Do the quick answers you obtained here in part B7 agree with what you
painstakingly calculated in part A1?

yes

9. Let’s hypothetically say you had to calculate the output values for 20 different
load resistors… Would you prefer solving for the Thévenin circuit first, and then
using it instead of solving the original circuit 20 times?

yes
C. Building and Testing the Thévenin Equivalent

1. Adjust your AD2 (or ADALM2000) supply voltage to match the Thévenin
voltage, and choose the closest standard resistor you have for the
Thévenin resistance you calculated in part B (this is normal design
practice since you learned in Lab 1 that high precision is not possible, or
useful, in these types of circuits.)

Which resistor value did you pick? 68 ohms

2. Build the Thévenin equivalent circuit on your breadboard. Leave the

“terminals” open for now. Paste a picture of your equivalent circuit on your
breadboard below:

68 ohm resistor from power to a node, not connected to ground

3. For each resistor value in the table below, connect the appropriate resistor
to the Thévenin circuit terminals, turn on your power supply, and measure
the voltage across them. Record the voltages in the table below.

4. Using these voltages, calculate the power dissipated by each resistor. Use
Microsoft Excel formulas to perform these power calculations. If you
have not really used Excel before, read this tutorial first:
https://www.excel-easy.com/introduction/formulas-functions.html

Resistance Voltage (Volts) Power (milliwatts)

(Ohms)

10 0.08562 0.73308

22 0.16324 1.21124

56 0.30159 1.62422

82 0.36506 1.62523

100 0.39750 1.58006

220 0.51012 1.18283

470 0.58339 0.72414

5. Again, using Microsoft Excel, create a plot using calculated power as the
y-axis and resistance as the x-axis. Include a title and axes labels!
If unsure how, read this: https://www.got-it.ai/solutions/excel-chat/excel-
tutorial/plot-x-vs-y/how-to-plot-x-vs-y-data-points-in-excel
Paste your Excel plot below:

The plot should generally look like the plot in the book for Maximum Power
Transfer:

Below is the plot obtained plotting LTSpice measurements. Empirical

measurements may cause the peak to be at the 82 Ω resistor or 56 Ω
resistor, which allows us to achieve maximum power transfer.

Resistance vs Power at load

1.81.62422 1.62523
1.6
1.4
Power at load (mW)

1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
Resistance (Ohms)
 6. What do you notice about the power dissipated by the load as you vary
the resistance?

The student should note that the power dissipated peaks when RL = Rth.

7. When is the power at its maximum value? Between 56 and 82 Ohms.

8. What conclusion can you draw from these observations?

Power transfer is dependent upon the ratio between the load and Thevenin
resistance. Connects to the tradeoff between max power transfer and efficiency
in relation to resistances.

9. For the 100 and 220 Ohm load resistors, did you get similar results as you
calculated with the original circuit in part A1?

The circuits are “equivalent” at the terminals, so the student should see about the
same results as part A5, or explain why the values are different. Possible sources of
error include that they might not have an exact resistor that matches the Thevenin
resistance.

10. Is the equivalent circuit an effective equivalent of the original circuit?

yes