EECE205: Laboratory 05 – Wheatstone Bridge

School of Engineering
American University in Dubai

Course: EECE205-Linear Circuits II w/LAB

Name: …………………………………………………………… ID / Major: ………………………………………………

Name: …………………………………………………………… ID / Major: ………………………………………………

Name: …………………………………………………………… ID / Major: ………………………………………………

Directions
- The lab report should be submitted with this cover page on Blackboard.
- One objective of your report is to communicate information, so neatness and organization counts.
- Although this is a team activity, you must have a full understanding of the entire lab.
o Each team member will have to login to the university server and perform the experiment.
o During the lab, you might be randomly asked questions to test your understanding of your
work. Failure to answer these questions will result in deduction of marks.
- Notes and textbook are allowed.
- Your work must be original: no copying from any other term, team, or any other class
- Late submissions will not be accepted.
- Failure to abide with submission guidelines will result in deduction of marks

By signing above you confirm that the submission has been fully prepared by you. Any suspicion of copying or
plagiarism in this work will be reported to the Dean or Chair for appropriate investigation and appropriate disciplinary
actions, which may result in a “0” on the work, an “F” in the course or other penalties as described in the Student
Handbook, which can be found online at: http://www.aud.edu/files/StudentHandbook.pdf

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 EECE205: Laboratory 05 – Wheatstone Bridge
School of Engineering
American University in Dubai

LABORATORY 05
HOW TO USE WHEATSTONE BRIDGE TO MEASURE A RESISTER

OBJECTIVES
1. Learn how to utilize a potentiometer
2. Design a Wheatstone Bridge to measure an unknown resistor

Now that we learned how to utilize function generators and oscilloscopes, we move on to designing simple
circuit and utilizing the various equipment in our measurements. In this lab, you will have to design a
Wheatstone bridge, shown in Fig. 1, which could be used to measure unknown resistors.

Fig1: Wheatstone bridge with a variable resistor

Recall a potentiometer, which is a three-terminal resistor, is used as a voltage divider. However, if only two
terminals are utilized, the potentiometer can be used a variable resistor. Before implementing your
Wheatstone bridge, it is important that you know how to operate a potentiometer.

Note:
This lab is composed of two parts:
 Part I: How to use the potentiometer as voltage divider and as a rheostat
 Part II: Design a Wheatstone bridge that can measure resistors in the range of 1Ω to 100 kΩ.

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 EECE205: Laboratory 05 – Wheatstone Bridge
School of Engineering
American University in Dubai

Part I: The Potentiometer

The Potentiometer as a voltage divider

1. Connect the circuit as shown in Fig 2.
2. Set the function generator to generate a 1 KHz sinusoidal wave, with 6 Vpp.
3. Modify the oscilloscope time scale to display two periods of the signals.
4. Modify the oscilloscope voltage scale to 1 V / Div on both channels.
5. Vary the slider of the potentiometer from 0% to 100%.
(Include in your report multisim screenshots showing the connected circuit, and the oscilloscope screen
for 25% increment of the potentiometer slider. In the screenshots, show the cursors reading the
amplitudes of the signals on channels A and B.) Discuss the effect of varying the slider position on
the visualized waveforms.

Fig2: Potentiometer as a voltage divider.

The Potentiometer as rheostat

1. Connect the circuit as shown in Fig 3.
2. Set the function generator to generate a 1 KHz sinusoidal wave, with 6 Vpp.
3. Modify the oscilloscope time scale to display two periods of the signals.
4. Modify the oscilloscope voltage scale to 1 V / Div on both channels.
5. Vary the slider of the potentiometer from 0% to 100%.
(Include in your report multisim screenshots showing the connected circuit, and the oscilloscope screen
for 25% increment of the potentiometer slider. In the screenshots, show the cursors reading the
amplitudes of the signals on channels A and B.) Discuss the effect of varying the slider position on
the visualized waveforms.

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 EECE205: Laboratory 05 – Wheatstone Bridge
School of Engineering
American University in Dubai

Fig3: Potentiometer as a rheostat.

Part II: The Wheatstone Bridge

Design and implement in Multisim a Wheatstone bridge, which could be used to determine the value of
resistors between 1Ω and 100 kΩ.
 There are many references online on how to design a Wheatstone bridge. A good starting point to
refresh your memory is the textbook “Electric Circuit” by Nilsson and Riedel.
 Test your circuit by creating a combination of resistors and use the bridge to verify their value.

For Your Report

Prepare a report using the following criteria:

 Double spaced
 Time New Romans 12 pt.
 Include a cover page showing the course code, the lab number and title, your class section, as well as
your names and IDs.
 Include a table of content, and a table of figures.

Include the following in your lab report

 Brief introduction about this lab objectives and what was done
 For part I, include 2 sections one for the voltage divider and the other for the rheostat (their content
should be as discussed in Part I above) and conclude with a comparison between the voltage divider
and the rheostat uses of the potentiometer.
 Fort Part II, start with an explanation of the basic principle of the Wheatstone bridge (along with the
corresponding circuit) and the way you thought for doing your design. Simulate on multisim your
circuit for different unknown resistor values. For each case explain the steps you followed to obtain the
value of the unknown resistor (include as well all the needed screenshots from multisim).
 Conclusion

Note: Do not forget to:

 Submit your Multisim designs along with the report (send the multisim files and the lab report as one
zipped folder, refer to the page 1 for the folder naming).
 Cite all references. Use IEEE citation style.

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