Experiment#1:

IntroductiontoLabEquipment:PowerSupply,DMM,Breadboard,andMultisim

ChristianEscotoandTrevorOlson

ECE211031:CircuitTheory
GTA:BrandonBernier

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ChristianEscotoandTrevorOlson

September2,2014
1. Introduction

Thepurposeofthisexperimentwasto:
Becomefamiliarwiththecolorcodefoundonresistors
Measure , voltage, current, and resistance in a circuit using a digital multimeter (DMM) and Agilent
powersupply
Comparemeasuredandcalculatedvaluestodeterminepercenterror
MakeacircuitusingthebreadboardandtakereadingsusingtheDMM
Use the multisim application to set up a circuit and measure its resistance, current, voltage drop
acrossaresistor,andpower
Installmultisimonahomecomputer
This was accomplished in several parts. Part I of the lab was the resistance measurement portion. This
involved using the Keithley 175 DMM to measure resistance. Part II of the lab involved setting up the bread
board with a simple circuit to measure resistance and compare to calculated values of resistance obtained
by using Ohms law. In part IV the same circuit was established using the Multisim program which
simulated the parameters of the circuit. These were then compared to values measured previously on the
breadboard.

2. BackgroundInformation

Ohms law (Equation 2.1) was used to compare parameters measured using laboratory equipment with
parameters calculated from known values. The measured value will typically differ from that calculated from
known values due to the allowed tolerance of the components and the accuracy with which the equipment
can measure parameters. This leads to a percent error (Equation 2.2) that is acceptable. The setup for the
circuit used in the lab can be seen in figure 2.1. It is a simple series circuit consisting of a 1.00 VDC power
supply and a 200 resistor. Other resistances measured were 3.9 k and 4.7 M . The voltage (V) was
maintainedat1.00VDCtoobservechangesincurrent(I)asresistance(R)wasvaried.

V R = I
Equation2.1OhmsLaw,Potentialdifference( ,Current(I),Resistance(R) V)

Equation2.2PercentageError(PE)Equation,NominalValue(NV),MeasuredValue(MV)

Figure2.1CircuitSchematic

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3. MethodsandMaterials

Equipment Components(Quantityand
Type)
AgilentE3631ATripleOutputDCPowerSupply (1)4.7MResistor
KeithleyMultimeterModel175 (1)200Resistor
Breadboard (1)3.9kResistor
BananatoAlligatorLeadSet
Table3.1EquipmentandComponentsList

4. ExperimentalProcedures

4.1Prelab

Refertotheresistorcolorcodeforthisportion.Orienttheresistorsothatthegoldorsilver
bandistotheright,thisisthetoleranceband.Readthefirsttwocolorsandnotethenumbers
associatedwiththosecolors.Thesearethetwodigitdesignatorsfortheresistance.Nextreadthe
thirdband,whichisthemultiplier.Multiplythetwodigitnumberbythemultipliertoobtainthe
resistance.
Becomefamiliarwithcommonscientificandengineeringnotationusedfrequentlyin
engineering.Practicetransposingbetweenscientificandengineeringnotation.

4.2ResistanceMeasurement

SetuptheKeithley175DMMtomeasureresistancebyturningitonandpressingtheOhm
button( ).PresstheAutoRangebuttontoavoidconfusionwhenreadingvalues.Connectthe
endsofthethetestleadstotheDMMandtheotherendstoeithersideoftheresistortomeasure
resistance.RecordthevalueobservedontheDMM.
Todeterminethepercenterrorbetweenthevaluesofresistancemeasuredandthenominal
resistanceoftheresistorbyapplyingequation2.2.Recordthevaluesinthetable.

4.3SolderlessPrototypeBreadboard

UsetheDMMsettomeasureresistancetodetermineifaconnectionexistsbetweentwo
nodesonthebreadboard.IftheDMMreads0 resistance,thenthereisaproperconnection.IftheDMM
readsinfiniteresistancethenthenodesarenotconnected.

4.4ResistanceDeterminationUsingVoltageandCurrent
FirstsettheDCpowersupplyto1.00VDCandensurethatthecurrentlimitissetto
100mA.Turnthepowersupplyon,butturntheoutputofthepowersupplyoff.Connectthecircuitas
showninfigure2.1onthebreadboard.EnsurethattheDMMissettomeasurevoltageandconnect
thetestleadstoeithersideoftheresistor.TurntheoutputonontheDCpowersupply.Recordthe

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voltagemeasuredacrossresistor1(R1)andturnoffthepowersupply.PlacetheDMMinserieswith
R1andsettheDMMtomeasurecurrent.TurnontheDCpowersupplyandrecordthecurrent
displayedontheDMM.Repeatwiththe3.9k and4.7M resistorsandrecordallvaluesinthe
tableprovidedinthelab.Usingthevaluesofcurrent(I)andvoltage(V)measured,calculateresistance
foreachresistanceusingOhmslaw(Equation2.1)andrecordinthetable.ComparethevaluesforR
calculatedwiththevaluesofRmeasuredinstepone,andusingequation2.2,calculatethepercent
error.

4.5MultisimIntroduction
ReviewtheinstructionsforthebasicoperationofMultisimtutorialontheECE2110
website.BuildthecircuitshowninFigure2.1inMultisimandperformaDCOperatingPoint
simulation.Recordthevaluesmeasuredinthetableprovidedinthelab,andrepeatbysubstitutingthe
3.9k and4.7M resistors.

5. MeasurementsandResults

PartI:
SampleCalculation:PercentError

PartIII:
SampleCalculation:CalculatedResistance=VoltageAcross/CurrentThrough

PartIV:
SampleCalculation:CalculatedResistance=Voltage/Current=(Power)^2/Current=(Voltage)^2/Power

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Resistor1:

Resistor2:

Resistor3:

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6. AnalysisandDiscussion

Using Ohms Law, we calculated each circuits resistance by isolating the variable R from the equation
V=IR to obtain the equation R = V/I. For percent error, we subtracted the normal resistance from the
measured resistance then divided that difference by the normal resistance and multiplied the value by
100%. To obtain a good percent error, the obtained percentage should be at or below 5% because all
the resistors allowed a percent tolerance of 5%. For example, if a resistor was 200 and had a
resistance of 5%. The allowed resistance would be between the values of 190 to 210 . This makes
sensebecausenotallresistorsaremadetobeexactlytheresistancetheyreassignedas.

For our Part 1 we measured the resistance that a normal multimeter would read if the resistor was in a
real circuit. For all the resistors we measured resistances that were below their assigned value. This
might mean that the resistors are made to have resistances that are lower than their assigned value to
ensure the overuse of resistance in the circuit. The percent error we received for each resistor is within
rangeofthepercenttolerance,soweareassuredthatalltheresistorsworkefficiently.

In Part 3, we made an actual circuit to measure the voltage and the current of each resistor and then
used those values to calculate the a calculated resistance value for each. We measured the Voltage
and the Current then we used those values to calculate the resistance using the equation R=V/I. The
calculated resistances were then compared to the previous measurements found in Part 1 using the
percent error equation. It is shown in the table preceding that the percentage error for R
2
and R
3
are

below 1 percent, which is acceptable due to the tolerance of 5% for each resistor. So since the
percentage error for R
1
is 0.12% above its tolerance, there must have been an error in the setup of the

circuitforR
1
resistor.

Part 4 was done through Multisim, a computer program simulator that constructs a circuit simulation
and
accurately inputs and records voltage, resistance, current, and power. As shown in the the diagrams
preceding, a series circuit was constructed for each resistor and a table was filled out with the value
readings of each component. Once these values were recorded, we calculated the resistance for each
circuit and found that they accurately matched the intended value for each. This is because Multisim is
designed to be both accurate and precise in all its simulated trials and does not take into account any
realworldfactors.

7. Conclusion

With the exception of the fact that we gained a huge percentage error in the calculation of the
resistance of the R1 in part 3, we can say that there is sufficient evidence that most resistors have a
percent tolerance that is accurate when measuring the exact resistance of each resistor. We also found
that when resistors are exactly measured, the resistance tends to be less than its labeled resistance.
The reason why we might have gotten a high percent error in R
1
in part 3 may be due to the fact that we

placed the alligator clips at a different angle than in the other two trials, which might have caused the
multimetertoreadalowercurrentandthusmadeuscalculateahigherresistanceforR
1
.

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8. References

[1] GWUSEASECEDepartment."Experiment#1:IntroductiontoLabEquipment:PowerSupply,
DMM,Breadboard,andMultisim."TheECE2110CourseWebsite,Fall2014.
http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~ece11/fall14/labs/labs/ECE_2110_Experiment_1.pdf

[2] Thomas,RolandE.,AlbertJ.Rosa,andGregoryJ.Toussaint.TheAnalysisandDesignofLinear
Circuits.7
th
ed.Hoboken,NJ:Wiley,2012.

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