Vuong, Vincent

Section: G4
Lab Partners:
Garrett Powers
Ling Chang
Lab Report #3
MAE 107L Dynamic Systems Laboratory
Winter 2015

Results

Figure 1: Sine Wave Input and Response Output

Describe any discrepancy that catches your eye. Specifically, what do you notice about the
outputs phase and amplitude compared to the inputs? What is the output amplitude and phase?
Use these values (output/inputs phase and amplitude) to compute the magnitude and phase of
the low-pass filter at = 2.
The discrepancy in Figure 1 is very clear. The output has a notably smaller amplitude than the
input (0.5 V vs. 0.37 V) and is also slightly lagging behind the input in phase. The outputs
amplitude is 0.37 Volts. The phase was found by comparing the difference between the input and
outputs adjacent maxes or mins, and found to be 0.2, yielding the equation: y = 0.37sin(2t
0.2)

Figures 2-6: Pulsinator Inputs

Figure 2: First Pulse Train Input

Figure 3: Sine Wave Input Zoomed In

Figure 4: First Pulsinator Input

Figure 5: Second Pulsinator Input

Figure 6: Third Pulsinator Input Zoomed In

Describe the behavior of your three pulsinator inputs in Lab Report Figures 4-6 as they relate to
the vector rout.
The pulsinator essentially takes the sine input segments and repeats it every 0.001 seconds.
Looking at the figures, it can be seen that in a 0.004 second window, the sine pattern repeats
three times. The vector rout values are used by the pulsinator to approximate the sine input by
creating block-like voltage steps, whose size correspond directly to the rout values.

Figure 7: Pulsinator LPF Responses vs. Sine LPF Response: All of the graphs are shown to be
the same function of time and overlap each other. This is because the pulsinator calculates an
average of its input signal (the sine wave), dividing it into multiple segments of very short
impulses put together. The response of these impulse segments is thus the same continuous
curve.
Concluding Analysis:
The objective of this lab was to understand that the input can be constructed as multiple
segments of small impulses compounded together. The figures in this lab show that the resulting
response of these different inputs are all identical, as shown by the final figure in which all three
pulse responses overlap with the sine response in a continuous curve. This shows that noncontinuous input signals can be represented in a piecewise manner, since the DAC hardware uses
a zero-order hold that turns the signal into a constant voltage (depending on the value of the
rout) until the next sample, creating a piecewise constant signal from a series of discrete points.
This property can be extended beyond the number of times it was used in this lab: the output will
always be the same function of time regardless of the number of different pulse train
approximations.