Lab 9: Capacitors - Equipment guide

Equipment Guide

Object Description, Tips, Cautions

Power Supply Since the DC motor and capacitor will be damaged if

the power supply voltage is too high you need to be
careful. Here’s how: With the power supply off, rotate
the voltage knobs fully counter-clockwise, then rotate
the current knobs fully clockwise. Now turn the power
supply on. Slowly rotate the coarse and fine voltage
knobs clockwise until the desired power supply
voltage is displayed.

DC Motor The DC motor has an operating voltage of 0 V – 12 V.

When powering the motor the power supply voltage
MUST NOT be higher than 12 V or you will
permanently damage the motor. Make a note of any
other specifications of the motor. Note that you can
use the thumb screw on the shaft to secure the string
in place. If the screw keeps getting loose, swapping
where the two wires are connected will cause the
motor shaft to rotate the opposite way.
Capacitor This is a high capacitance capacitor (despite its small
size). It will take at least 30 seconds to charge to near
maximum. The left end is the positive terminal and
the right end (with the two black lines) is the negative
terminal. The positive terminal of the capacitor
connects to the positive terminal of the power supply,
the negative terminal of the capacitor connects to the
negative terminal of the power supply. When
charging the capacitor the power supply voltage
MUST NOT be higher than 5 V or you will permanently
damage the capacitor.

Wire The wire is composed of two ends. End 1 is the

“alligator clip” end and connects to the capacitor. End
2 is the “banana plug” end and connects to the power
supply or multimeter.

Multimeter You will use the multimeter to measure the potential

difference (or voltage, they mean the same thing)
across the capacitor. To do this, first disconnect the
capacitor from the power supply. Then, turn the knob
on the multimeter set to the setting labeled 1 on the
diagram. Then connect port 2 to the negative
terminal of the capacitor and port 3 to the positive
terminal of the capacitor.