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EE3400 Circuits II Lab Report 4

(November 2016)

.01
Abstract— The lab instructions were downloaded from TRACS R= = 100Ω.The square pulse will be high for .025 s and
100
site. A 1st order circuit was given to the student with a source a T = .05 s.
resistance and a 100μF capacitor. After analyzing the circuit and
doing a few calculations, the circuit in the diagram was put
together by the student and measurements were taken using the Element Element Value
NI ELVIS board and the software to gather data. Capacitor 100 μF
Resistor 1 100 Ω
Index Terms— Frequency, Resistance, Resistor, Capacitor,
Inductor, time stamp, element, circuit, amplitude.
C. Step Three
The student then constructed a physical circuit on the
I. INTRODUCTION NI ELVIS board and used a 100 Ω resistor and 100μF
capacitor. Using function generator, the student applied a 5V
T HIS lab report contains the pre-lab of this exercise where
the student analyzed a 1st order RC circuit. The student
later created a physical circuit from the diagram figure. The
peak-to-peak square wave source with a frequency of 20Hz
and a duty cycle of 50% to the circuit. The student used
purpose of this lab is to show if the circuit will have an ample channels 0 for the capacitor read out and channel 1 for the
time to reach steady-state when the voltage is zero, or entire circuit read out. The student then started logging data
nonzero. This lab exercise was a short one. using NI Oscilloscope software. Upon completing logging
data, the student launched Microsoft Excel and graphed the
II. PROCEDURE FOR PAPER SUBMISSION data collected. The graph of the data collected is shown in
Figure 2 below.
Equipment
The student was to use a personal computer, and a
choice of calculating and graphing utility, which the student
chose to use Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet.

A. Step One
The students were given this 1st order series circuit with
one energy storage device, a capacitor. The voltage of the
source is 5 volts. The circuit in subject is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1
Figure 2
B. Step Two
Before building a physical circuit on NI ELVIS board, III. MATH
the student needs to analyze and find a few unknown element The student then had to calculate and find some values
values, i.e. resistor. The formula for resistor R is for the circuit in order to further analyze whether the data
collected match the data calculated. The frequency of the
 2

source square wave was 20 Hz. Therefore the period of the APPENDIX
square wave equals 50 milli-seconds. One can find that the
square wave will be in a high state for 25 milli-seconds. The The Pre-Lab information created by the student is
formula for the time constant is = R*C. The calculated shown below on Figure 3.
value for the time constant was given to the students and 10
milli-seconds. The time constant for the actual working circuit
is 10 milli-seconds. The square wave will be in an active high
state for 5 multiples of the time constant. A 1st order RC
circuit requires 5 time constants in order to reach a steady
state. As a result, the circuit will reach a steady state within
one period even if the voltage of the source is zero or non-
zero.

The professor requested the students to find the

calculated value for the voltage at time = 2* using the
formula above. The result was 4.89 volts. The measured value
from the Excel graph for the same time was found to be 4.93
volts.
A. Percent Difference
The percent difference for the calculated value and the
measured value is 8.15%. The student used the formula
%difference = (difference / average) * 100. The percent
difference is below the 10% line. Although the graph doesn’t
look right because of a defected ELVIS board, it doesn’t seem
to effect the error as much.

IV. UNITS
Measurement Unit
Voltage Volts
Capacitance Farads
Period Seconds
Resistance Ohms Figure 3
Frequency Hertz

V. CONCLUSION
A. Percent Difference
In conclusion, the lab was a success. The student was
able to successfully calculate and pick out the right elements
required for this circuit, obtain the correct data, make the right
calculations, analyze the situation, and execute an accurate lab
exercise. This conclusion can be drawn from the percent
difference, which is 8.15% that the student has calculated
using the data he collected and the calculations without using
the data.