University of Botswana

Faculty of Engineering and Technology

Department of Electrical Engineering

EEB 241 Laboratory 1: Direct-Current (DC) Measurements

Aims:
- Familiarization with electrical measurements using the Oscilloscope.
- Using the oscilloscope to measure a DC signal.

Equipment:

- One variable voltage DC power supply up to 24 V

- One multimeter
- Oscilloscope

Pre-lab assignment:

- Surf the Internet to find illustrate functional descriptions of the Oscilloscope.

Procedure:

Figure 1

1) Set up the oscilloscope as described in the Appendix.

2) Connect the circuit as shown in figure 1.
3) Set the oscilloscope Input Coupling Switch to ground. Adjust the oscilloscope beam to lie on the lowest
line of the oscilloscope screen grid.
4) Use the multimeter to adjust the output of the DC supply to 1.0 V.
5) Set the oscilloscope Input Coupling Switch to DC and adjust the oscilloscope Input Attenuator to give
a maximum deflection of the beam on the screen, without losing the beam.
6) Enter the observed deflections and the input attenuator settings into Table 1
7) Calculate the oscilloscope input voltage as the product of the latter two values in step 6.
8) Complete the table for the voltages shown. Do not expect complete agreement between the multimeter
reading and the oscilloscope measurements. The oscilloscope is highly versatile but not highly
accurate. If the two readings are within 5 % of each other there is no cause for concern.

Table 1 – Record of DC signal measurements

Power supply output voltage 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

Attenuator setting (V/Div)
Beam deflection (cm
divisions)
Oscilloscope input voltage
 APPENDIX

Setting up Oscilloscope

1. Turn the oscilloscope on.

2. In the TRIGGER section of the front panel, find the switch labeled AUTO, NORM, etc. Set this switch
to AUTO.
3. In the HORIZONTAL section of the front panel, find the MAIN TIME/DIV knob. Set this knob to 0.1
mS.
o If the knob is set at larger times, the green line on the screen will flicker.
4. In the VERTICAL section of the front panel, find the switch labeled CH1, CH2, DUAL, ADD. Set
this switch to DUAL (if you want to measure two voltages).
o This lets you see both traces (channels).
5. In the CH1 (channel 1) area of the front panel, find the switch labeled AC, GND, DC. Set this switch
to DC.
6. Turn the CH1 VOLT/DIV knob to 1 V.
7. Adjust the CH1 POSITION KNOB so that the trace (green line on the screen) is lined up with the
bottom line of the grid. We now say that the zero point for CH1 is the bottom line of the grid.
8. Repeat the above steps for the CH2 section (if you are measuring two voltages) of the front panel,
making the bottom line of the grid it's zero point.