COMSATS UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD

Lab: 09
Course: ECA-1
Instructor: Dr. Ahsan Khawaja
Student:
Reg. number:
Name:
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ASSESSMENT
In-Lab Performance: /
Post-Lab: /
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Instructor’s remarks:
Lab9: Natural Response of an RC Circuit
Objectives:
 To experimentally measure time constant of an RC circuit and compare with the
theoretical expression of it.
 To analyze the behavior of a first-order RC circuit.
 To familiarize students with the usage of oscilloscope to make voltage measurements.
Task (1) (Analyzing natural response of RC circuit)
Task 1. Consider the circuit diagram shown in figure 11.3. In this task we will use AC
voltage source instead of DC source. During positive value of voltage, capacitor will
be charged, while capacitor will be discharged during the negative (0V) cycle. Switch
is eliminated in this way. Function generator is used to provide AC voltage, while
charging and discharging behavior of capacitor (in terms of exponential rise or decay
in voltage) can be observed simultaneously on the oscilloscope.

Task 2. Switch ON the function generator and the oscilloscope.

Task 3. The vertical axis on oscilloscope represents voltage and the horizontal axis
represents time. Make sure that the trace of the oscilloscope (yellow line) is correctly
set at 0.00 divisions. The vertical position of the trace is established by adjusting the
associated knob.

Task 4. Attach the BNC adapter cable to the function generator output and CH1 of the
oscilloscope.

Task 5. Adjust the function generator to generate a square wave that is used at the
input to analyze the natural response of an RC circuit. The parameters of this square
wave are adjusted using function generator as:

 Amplitude: 2V peak to peak

 Frequency: 100 Hz
 Duty cycle: 50%
 DC Offset: 1 volt
Task 6. On the oscilloscope, press Auto Scale.

Task 7. Press channel (1) button, make sure from the menu that coupling is DC,
bandwidth limit is off, and probe is set at (1X).

Task 8. Play with the horizontal and vertical position and scale knobs and try to
understand their effect. Finally, auto-scale again.
 Figure 4: Circuit diagram for RC circuit with Oscilloscope
Task 9. Note down the values of Channel 1 Status and Time base Status. Interpret the
graph displayed using these values.
Task 10. Connect on breadboard the circuit arrangement as shown in figure 11.3.

Task 11. Feed the function generator output to CH1 of the oscilloscope whereas the
voltage drop across the capacitor is fed to CH2 of the oscilloscope.

Task 12. Record the values of channel 1 and channel 2 status and time base status in
table.
Measurement Table 1:
CH1 Status Time Base Status (CH1) CH2 Status Time Base Status (CH2)

1V 5ms 1V 5ms
Task (2) (Calculating and Measuring Time Constant of circuit)
Task 1.Adjust the HORIZONTAL POSITION control on the oscilloscope so that the cycle
begins at an initial time of zero. An example
trace is shown in figure 11.4.
Task 2.Notice that the voltage across the
capacitor, in the above figure, decays
through four units along the vertical; each of
the four units can be divided into five
divisions for a total of twenty divisions. The
value at 7.5 divisions (along the vertical)
marks the point where the voltage across the
capacitor is ⅜ of the initial voltage.

Figure 5: An example traces of the voltage

across a capacitor in an RC circuit
⅜ (total no. of divisions on vertical axis) = x divisions (11.5)

Task 3.Measure and record the time constant τ corresponding to the initial voltage at x
divisions. The experimental time constant is determined from the number of divisions
along the horizontal axis where the capacitor voltage drops to 36.8% of its initial value
i.e., at x divisions on the vertical axis.
no of divisions along horizontal exis
τ exp= (time scale value) (11.6)
5

Task 4.Calculate the theoretical value of the time constant using values of resistance and
capacitance.
(11.7)

Task 5.Calculate the percent difference between the experimental and theoretical values for
the time constant.

Task 6.Repeat the task 2 for R = 2.2kΩ.

Measurement Table 2:
R (Ω) C (µF) τ (theoretical) τ (experimental) % Difference

1.004KΩ 0.972μF 1ms 0.97ms 3%

2.167KΩ 0.972μF 1.8ms 2.1ms 14.29%

Critical Analysis:
The experiment talks about the forced and natural response of RLC
Circuits with DC excitation. The objectives of the experiment are as
follows: to demonstrate the charging and discharging response if an
inductor with a capacitor on DC excitation, to verify the natural response
and forced response of a DC excited RL circuit, and to distinguish among
the natural response, forced response, and complete response of a
dynamic RC Circuit.

Post Lab:
Questions?

What is duty cycle?

Duty cycle is the ratio of time a load or circuit is ON compared to the time the load or
circuit is OFF. Duty cycle, sometimes called "duty factor," is expressed as a percentage of
ON time. A 60% duty cycle is a signal that is ON 60% of the time and OFF the other 40%.

What do you mean by calibrating the oscilloscope?

Calibration is the process of configuring an instrument to provide a result for a sample

within an acceptable range. Why Calibrate? Calibrating your oscilloscope will maintain the
integrity of your research. Oscilloscopes need to read data accurately.

Which parameters of square wave can be adjusted using function generator?

Duty cycle: This control on the function generator changes the ratio of high voltage to low
voltage time in a square wave signal, i.e., changing the waveform from a square wave with a
1:1 duty cycle to a pulse waveform, or a triangular waveform with equal rise and fall times to
a sawtooth.