World University of Bangladesh
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
COURSE NO. : EEE-302 (Electrical Circuit –II Laboratory)
EXPERIMENT NO.: 01
EXPERIMENT NAME: Familiarization with measuring instruments, such as oscilloscope,
function generator and alternating current (ac) waves.
OBJECTIVE:
⮚ To get familiarize with the basic measuring instruments used in ac circuits such as
oscilloscope and function generator.
⮚ To examine various input scaling, coupling, and triggering settings along with a
few specialty features using oscilloscope.
⮚ To learn how to set the frequency and the amplitude of the required ac signal
using function generator.
⮚ To study ac (sinusoidal) wave forms and correlate them with practically measurable
effective values.
⮚ An understanding of a simple ac circuit is also expected to be developed in the
experiment.
THEORY:
Oscilloscope:
The oscilloscope is arguably the single most useful piece of test equipment in an electronics
laboratory. The primary purpose of the oscilloscope is to plot a voltage amplitude versus time
although it can also be used to compare one voltage versus another voltage. Oscilloscopes are
capable of measuring both AC and DC waveforms, and unlike typical DMMs, can measure
AC waveforms of very high frequency (typically 100 MHz or more versus an upper limit of
around 1 kHz for a general purpose DMM). It is also worth noting that a DMM will measure
the RMS value of an AC sinusoidal voltage, not its peak value.
While the modern digital oscilloscope on the surface appears much like its analog ancestors,
the internal circuitry is far more complicated and the instrument affords much greater
flexibility in measurement. Modern digital oscilloscopes typically include measurement aides
such as horizontal and vertical cursors or bars, as well as direct readouts of characteristics
such as waveform amplitude and frequency. At a minimum, modern oscilloscopes offer two
input measurement channels.
Unlike handheld DMMs, most oscilloscopes measure voltages with respect to ground, that is,
the inputs are not floating and thus the black, or ground, lead is always connected to the
circuit ground or common node. This is an extremely important point as failure to remember
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this may lead to the inadvertent short circuiting of components during measurement. The
standard accepted method of measuring a non-ground referenced potential is to use two
probes, one tied to each node of interest, and then setting the oscilloscope to subtract the two
channels rather than display each separately. Note that this technique is not required if the
oscilloscope has floating inputs (for example, in a handheld oscilloscope). Further, while it is
possible to measure non-ground referenced signals by floating the oscilloscope itself through
defeating the ground pin on the power cord, this is a safety violation and should not be done.
Function Generator:
Function generators are signal sources which provide a spec able voltage applied over a spec
able time, such as a sine wave" or triangle wave" signal. Function generators, whether the old
analog type or the newer digital type, have a few common features:
✔ A way to select a waveform type: sine, square, and triangle are most common, but
some will give ramps, pulses, noise, or allow you to program a particular arbitrary
shape.
✔ A way to select the waveform frequency. Typical frequency ranges are from 0.01
Hz to 10 MHz.
✔ A way to select the waveform amplitude.
✔ At least two outputs. The main output, which is where you find the desired
waveform, typically has a maximum voltage of 20 volts peak-to-peak, or ±10
volts range. The most common output impedance of the main output is 50 ohms,
although lower output impedances can sometimes be found. A second output,
sometimes called “sync”, “aux” or “TTL” produces a square wave with standard 0
and 5 volt digital signal levels. It is used for synchronizing another device (such as
an oscilloscope) to the possibly variable main output signal.
A wide variety of other features are available on most modern function generators, such as
frequency sweep, the ability to automatically vary the frequency between a minimum and
maximum value, DC offset knob that adds a specified amount of DC voltage to the
time-varying waveform, and extra inputs or outputs that can be used to control these extra
features by other instruments.
Effective (RMS) Value:
Any periodic variation of current or voltage where the current (or voltage) measured along any
particular direction, goes positive as well as negative, is defined to be an AC quantity. Sinusoidal AC
wave shapes are the ones where the variation (current or voltage) is a sine function of time.
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Figure 1 An ac (sinusoidal) voltage waveform
For the wave form in Figure 1,
Time period = T
Frequency f = 1/T
Effective (rms) values of sinusoidal waveforms are given as:
(For sinusoidal wave)
(For sinusoidal wave)
These values are directly measured in ac voltmeter / ammeters and can be used in power calculation
as:
EQUIPMENT LIST:
Oscilloscope 1 unit
Function generation 1 unit
Resistor (100 Ω) 1 piece
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Capacitor (1 uF) 1 piece
Multimeter 1 unit
Breadboard 1 unit
Chords and wires As required
CIRCUIT DIAGRAM:
PROCEDURE:
1. Connect the output of the function generator directly to channel 1 of the oscilloscope as
shown in Figure 2. Set the amplitude of the wave at 10Vp-p and the frequency at 1 kHz.
Select sinusoidal wave shape.
2. Sketch the wave shape observed on the oscilloscope. Determine the time period of the
wave and calculate the frequency.
3. Measure the voltage with an ac voltmeter.
4. Change the frequency to 500Hz and note what happens to the display of the wave. Repeat
when the frequency is increased to 2 KHz.
5. Construct the circuit as shown in Figure 3. Measure the input voltage with an ac voltmeter
and the input current with an ac ammeter. The ratio between the voltage and the current
gives the magnitude of the impedance, Z.
6. Observe the wave shapes of oscilloscope channels 1 and 2 simultaneously. Find the
frequency of both the waves and amplitude from the display. Determine the phase
difference between the two waves. The phase difference is given by 360ft where, “t” is
the time delay between the two waves. Also observe which of the two waves lead. Note
that the voltage in channel 2 is the voltage across a resistance and hence this is in phase
with the current flowing in the circuit.
REPORT:
1. What is Calibration? Why calibration is requires before working with an
oscilloscope?
2. Draw and Compare the frequency of the wave determined from the oscilloscope with the
mentioned value on the function generator in step 6 of the procedure.
3. Compare the frequency of the wave determined from the oscilloscope with the mentioned
value on the function generator in step 2 of the procedure.
4. Calculate the rms value of the voltage observed in step 2 of the procedure and compare with
that measured in step 3.
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5. How does the time period vary when the frequency of the wave is changed in step 2?
6. Calculate the magnitude of the impedance from the readings taken in step 5.
7. Find the magnitude and the phase angle of the impedance from the readings taken in step 5
and 6.
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