XLIX

Engineering Design Firm

9201 University City Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28223


Date: 28 April 2014
To: Robert Latta
From: Jordan Schnall
RE: Electrical Lab Report
CC: N/A

Mr. Latta,

I was given a specific electrical circuit to design, build, and test. I was also given a small
breadboard, twenty-five common resistors, and jumper wires to construct a voltage divider. Using the
materials supplied to me, I designed, constructed, and tested a simple electrical circuit that could
provide an exact voltage at five different nodes when connected to an eighteen volt power supply.
Along with the design of the circuit, I also completed an Electrical WebWork Assignment to practice the
application of Ohms and Kirchoffs laws and an Electrical Design Package that included a problem
statement, research, Equivalent Resistance Worksheet, detailed calculations and a computer generated
schematic using MS Visio. Also, on the day the circuits were tested, I supplied the 3x8 Network
sheet, my MS Visio schematic of my circuit and a hard copy of the Electrical Test Data Sheet. Finally, I
completed an Electrical Laboratory Report. In this report, I used information provided in the assignment
and the Laboratory Report Guidance Document to help me prepare and format my Electrical Lab Report.
Overall, the design of my circuit was a complete success. The resistor combinations that I chose to use
had an acceptable tolerance before testing. The design itself put the required resistance within on
average fifteen ohms of the exact required resistance I calculated I would need to obtain an acceptable
voltage reading at the five nodes. Finally, on test day, my MS Visio drawing held up against the actual
look of my electrical circuit, and the voltage readings at the five nodes was within the five percent
threshold required for the circuit on the first test. Also, the design package and the electrical circuit
WebWork Assignment were both completed effectively and on time.
-Jordan Schnall
XLIX
Engineering Design Firm
9201 University City Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28223






Electrical Circuit Lab Report
Jordan Schnall
ENGR 1201-003
April 28, 2014











I have neither given nor received any unauthorized help on this assignment, nor witnessed any violation
of the UNC Charlotte Code of Academic Integrity.
Summary
The purpose of this project was to apply the engineering design process to a simple
electrical circuit problem. The project challenged my ability to use the various tools I have learned
throughout the semester. I was given a specific electrical circuit to design, build, and test. I was also
given a small breadboard, twenty-five common resistors, and jumper wires to construct a voltage
divider. Using the materials supplied to me, I designed, constructed, and tested a simple electrical
circuit that could provide an exact voltage at five different nodes when connected to an eighteen volt
power supply. I used calculations such as Ohms law and Kirchoffs laws to assist me in creating my
calculations. The first item that I calculated for the project was the required voltage drop I would have
to have in order to meet within five percent of the required voltage for each of the respective nodes.
This gave me the first piece of the puzzle I needed to be able to put together my breadboard with the
resistors that would make the project a success. Second, I evaluated the equivalent resistance I needed
to be able to cause a voltage drop along the current from one node to another. I also knew that the
current I would be using would be nine ten-thousandths of an amp. Following the initial calculations, I
put together a number of combinations of resistors that could add up to the equivalent resistance I had
previously calculated. I had at my disposal five ten thousand ohm resistors, five three thousand three
hundred ohm resistors, five two thousand two hundred ohm resistors, five three hundred twenty ohm
resistors, and five two hundred twenty ohm resistors. Once I set up a set of resistors that gave me the
equivalent resistance I required, I used software programs such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Visio
to create a design package for my electrical circuit. Prior to test day, I had the opportunity to test my
resistors, which I discovered were well within the specifications I needed to have my project be a
success. On test day, the circuit performed extremely well, on occasions coming within one one-
hundredth of a volt of the required voltage. Afterwards, I came to the conclusion that an equivalent
resistance of about twenty ohms off the calculated equivalent resistance could still get the voltage
within five percent of the required voltage.

Introduction
I was given a specific electrical circuit to design, build, and test. I was also given a small
breadboard, twenty-five common resistors, and jumper wires to construct a voltage divider. Using the
materials supplied to me, I designed, constructed, and tested a simple electrical circuit that could
provide an exact voltage at five different nodes when connected to an eighteen volt power supply. The
voltage readings had to be within five percent of the required voltage reading. This allowed room for
error with the resistors. On test day, the circuit must match the MS Visio drawing I created.






Background Information
In class, we learned of a few formulas that were crucial in calculating the numbers we
need to make our circuit work. A few of these can be seen below:

()
()

() () ()

Alongside these, we also learned of two different laws that were also crucial to figuring out the various
calculations we were required to do. These were Ohms Law and Kirchoffs laws. They are as follows:
Ohms Law: the current through two points connected in parallel is directly proportional to the
resistance across the two points.
Kirchoffs First Law: At any node in an electrical circuit, the currents flowing into that node is
equal to the currents flowing out of that node.
Kirchoffs Second Law: The voltage of a current starting at a power source minus the total
voltage drop over a circuit is always equal to zero.
Using these laws and formulas, I was able to successfully calculate voltage, resistance, and current
through any circuit.

Methods and Procedures
To complete this project, I used a small breadboard, twenty-five common resistors, and jumper
wires. I also used a small pocketknife in order to cut the resistor wires down to a reasonable size and to
also strip the jumper cables. The first part of the project I completed was an online WebWork set
composed of various electrical circuit questions. Secondly, I calculated the required resistance of each
of the five nodes I had to create. Afterwards, I created a design package for the circuit I created. This
included a technical drawing that was created in Microsoft Visio. I used the quick toolbar along the
side to automatically place resistors into the drawing, then connected the end points of the resistors
using the connector tool. After that, I used the text box tool to place values over all the resistors and
each of the five nodes. I used the insert symbol tool to insert the symbol to represent ohms, which is .
After physically constructing the circuit, I tested the circuit. Following the circuit testing, I then created a
lab report detailing the components of the project.



Sample Calculations
The following are some sample calculations of the calculations listed above. Those calcualtions
are:

()
()

Here are a few sample calculations for these equations:
A 12V power supply is connected to a 1000 resistor. If the voltage drop over this resistor is
5V, calculate the current flowing through the resistor.
()()

A 300 resistor is connected in series with a 1200 resistor. Calculate the total resistance.


A 100 resistor is connected in parallel with a 200 resistor. Find the total resistance.

Observations and Resul ts
Given Values
Current= .0009 Amps, Power Supply= 18 Volts
Node 1 Required Actual
Resistance 2506 2500
Voltage 15.774 15.74

Node 2 Required Actual
Resistance 1994 1995
Voltage 13.949 13.86


Node 3 Required Actual
Resistance 7060 7000
Voltage 7.5942 7.6

Node 4 Required Actual
Resistance 7520 7530
Voltage 0.8262 0.83

Node 5 Required Actual
Resistance 918 946
Voltage 0 0

Average % difference of voltage readings: 0.27%

Discussion
The percent difference of the voltage readings makes sense. The voltage readings for many of
the nodes was within 0.01 volts. This is almost a negligible difference for the purposes of the project.
Since these results were achieved after only one test, there was no reason for further testing of the
circuit. The project constraints stated that the voltage must be within five percent of the required
voltage for each of the five nodes. The highest difference of voltages I had for the testing was 0.089
volts, which happened at node two; the percent difference of this node was only 0.63%. This means
that all the other voltage readings were less than one percent off the required voltage for each node,
which is obviously less than five percent. With these readings, it means that the project met the
required constraints, which resulted in a success.

Conclusion
For this project, I designed, constructed, and tested a simple electrical circuit that could provide
an exact voltage at five different nodes when connected to an eighteen volt power supply. I designed
the circuit to be within five percent of each of the required nodes. I noticed that even though the actual
resistance was over sixty ohms off the required resistance, it still was able to give me a change in voltage
that was less than one percent off the required voltage at each of the five nodes. Based on these
results, I would recommend that you do not have to be exact on your resistances, but being within one
hundred ohms or so of your required resistance will give you the results you desire. However, if your
circuit is going to be longer than five or six nodes, you will want the first few equivalent resistances to be
as close as possible to the required resistance. This is because it could put all the voltages following the
first few nodes off by more than five percent.


Refrences

Paul, Peters. Orca DX and Contest Club, "How to Read Resistor Color Codes." Last modified September
10, 2010. Accessed April 15, 2014. http://www.orcadxcc.org/resistor_color_codes.html.
Basic Electronics Tutorials, "Resistors in Series and Parallel." Last modified 2014. Accessed April 15,
2014. http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/resistor/res_5.html.
Doug, Lowe. John Wiley & Sons, "Electronics Components: Resistors." Last modified 2014. Accessed April
15, 2014. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/electronics-components-resistors.html.
Ask.Com, "How Does a Resistor Work?." Last modified 2014. Accessed April 15, 2014.
http://www.ask.com/question/what-does-a-resistor-do
Eric Coates MA BSc., "Resistor Construction." Last modified 2013. Accessed April 15, 2014.
http://www.learnabout-electronics.org/resistors_08.php.
CC Physics, "Ohm's and Kirchoff's Laws." Last modified 2014. Accessed April 27, 2014.
http://ccphysics.us/henriques/p202lab/ohmkirchhoff.htm.

















Appendix
Circuit Design

MS Visio
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio/
Calculations
18 V
2200 ?
3300 ?
330 ?
Node 1- 15.744 V
3300 ?
3300 ?
220 ? 220 ?
Node 2- 13. 949 V
3300 ? 3300 ?
2200 ? 2200 ?
220 ? 220 ?
Node 3- 7.5942 V
2200 ?
330 ?
10000 ?
10000 ?
Node 4- 0.8262 V
330 ? 330 ?
330 ?
2200 ?
Node 5- 0 V
I= 0.0009 A