Cover Memo

The Electrical Circuit Design Project it was required that the student make a circuit with and 18 volt power source that had resistors that make the voltage drop the required amount at each node. The circuit was tested in class and passed with the correct voltage drop at each node. A design package was also written to describe the process of building the circuit board and to show calculations. This lab report serves to describe the entire project in depth of every aspect including testing results.

Electrical Laboratory Report

December 2, 2013

Mark Salmon

ETGR 1201-031

I have neither given nor received any unauthorized help on this assignment, nor witnessed any violation of the UNC Charlotte Code of Academic Integrity.

Mark Salmon 12/2/2013

Summary: The purpose of this project was for students to demonstrate their mastery in completing engineering calculations using Ohms Law, Kirchhoffs Current Law, and Kirchhoffs Voltage Law. Construction of the direct current voltage divider gave the students hands on experience working with circuits and resistors. Writing the design package and final laboratory report gave students the opportunity to talk explain the engineering process that they used. These documents are also used as a place to communicate the solutions, test results, and the lessons you learned while doing the project. This project required three deliverables that were the Electrical Design Package, Electrical Test Data Sheet, and Electrical Laboratory Report. All of which are now complete. To construct the circuit, each student was given a bread board and 25 assorted resistors. They were to be placed in such a way that they would make the voltage in the circuit drop to a specified amount at each of the five nodes that were to be tested. During testing the actually voltage of these nodes were recorded on the Test Data Sheet. There is a five percent allowance on each node because of variances that may have occurred in the manufactured resistor. Since the all the nodes of the circuit tested within the allowable range on the first time testing, then it received a 100% completion grade. When doing some of the early calculations an error was made in calculating the change in voltage. The resistors were put in according to the calculations and the error was not noticed until the morning of the test. While other people were testing, the calculations were redone and resistors for three of the five nodes had to be change. The circuit was tested near the end of class for the first time and it passed. The lessons learned are to leave oneself enough time to check their own work and to ask someone else to check your work for obvious errors in calculations.

Introduction: Each student was given a different circuit to design with an 18 Volt DC power source using the available five 10,000, five 3,300, five 2,200, five 330, and five 220 resistors. Using these resistors and a bread board it is required to make the voltage drop within five percent of 15.451V at node 1, 7.531V at node 2, 2.691V at node 3, 1.118V at node 4, and 0V at node 5. This can only be accomplishes by using the given resistors in series, parallel, or both. The current for the circuit is .0011 Amperes which is used to calculate resistance needed to drop voltage.

Background: Ohms Law Kirchhoffs Voltage Law Kirchhoffs Current Law

Methods and Procedures: Materials used are bread board, 25 assorted resistors, node wires, and the sheet of paper with your network requirements on it. All materials are provided by the ETGR 1201 instructor. First find the change in voltage that has to occur at each node by subtracting the voltage requirement at the node from the voltage at the node before it. After the change in voltage is found then use that and the current which is given to you to calculate the resistance needed using Ohms Law. Once you have found the resistance needed at each node then start guessing and checking calculations with resistor combinations. After you have made the right combination for one node then put those resistors into the bread board in the correct order and place a node wire behind it. Make sure all are connected on the circuit from beginning to end. When complete check all calculations again before testing.

Sample Calculations: Resistors in series: Node 3 Resistors in parallel: Node 5 Ohms Law: Node 1 Kirchhoffs Voltage Law: Kirchhoffs Current Law:

Observations and Results:

Node Resistance V Theoretical V Actual % Difference 1 2317.3 2.549 2.4 5.84 2 7200 7.92 7.9 .25 3 4400 4.84 4.8 .83 4 1430 1.573 1.5 4.64 5 1016 1.118 1.0 10.55 Current=.0011 Amperes Node 1 2 3 4 5 Volts 15.451 7.531 2.691 1.118 0

Discussion: Results were close to as expected and I think showed that the resistor combinations did what they were supposed to do. Two of the percent differences were above the five percent margin but I was still given credit for being within the margin. I think the volt meter had a lot to do with the variations especially since it did not have as many significant figures as the calculations had and the tester realized that. As I mentioned earlier I had a calculation error that I had to fix the morning of testing. Had I seen that earlier I would have had more time to prepare my bread board correctly and may have been able to make a more accurate circuit.

Conclusion and Recommendations: Test Results showed that all actual changes in voltage were close to the theoretical value but two of the differences were greater than 5%. This is due to inaccurate testing instruments. Using so many resistors leaves lots of room for variation. Lab was successful overall. Lessons have been learned in time management and checking work.

References: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=JyLz_aUDTr w-YM&tbnid=nSTfcS5PeQoUEM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scispot.com%2FElectronic%2Faccelerometer.htm&ei=1secUqCbNnNsQSm2ICwAQ&psig=AFQjCNEAWqnAIdiz1GOMJLefLw5jeyXB-Q&ust=1386092480069150

Appendix:

A. Calculations

B. Calculations

C. Problem Sheet