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OSCILLOSCOPE AND RC-CIRCUITS Physics 230, Lab 5

Partner

Objective The first part of this set of activities will acquaint you with the kinds of measurements you can make with an oscilloscope and give you a chance to become comfortable with the buttons and knobs on the scope. You will then use the scope to measure the voltages in a simple alternating current RC-circuit. Apparatus The items used in this experiment include an oscilloscope, probes, a frequency generator, a capacitor, a resistor, and a multimeter. Theory In essence, the oscilloscope you will use in this lab is a voltmeter with two enhancements: i) there are two meters in one instrument, and ii) there is a horizontal axis that represents time (so we can plot V(t)). To obtain the voltage versus time signal, the scope must sample the voltage on the input connector very rapidly. These scopes are capable of sampling the voltage one billion times per second (1GS/s = 1 gigasamples per second) on each channel. Note that this sampling rate limits our ability to detect very fast electrical signals. In other words, these scopes cannot accurately record voltage changes that occur on timescales shorter than one nanosecond. (Other effects limit this even further.) You will be using a digital oscilloscope. The voltage samples collected over time are digitized, stored in memory, and then displayed on the screen. This handout will guide you through the most important aspects of the oscilloscope, but will only scratch the surface of this tools usefulness and features. I encourage you to experiment with different buttons and settings not described in the handout. This is your opportunity to familiarize yourself with perhaps the most significant tool in electronicslearn by doing! Now, lets explore the various regions of the oscilloscope front panel. On the left is the screen, the main portion of which is overlaid by a grid used to measure the voltage versus time signal. On the right are various controls, broken into four main columns. These are discussed in more detail below. Along the bottom are the input connectors. VERTICAL Controls Notice that there are three identical input connectors (called BNC connectors) protruding from the bottom of the scope. The first two are input channels: CH 1 (yellow) and CH 2 (blue). The third input is for the trigger and will be discussed later. For each channel, you will find buttons/knobs labeled: CH 1 MENU Pressing this toggles the display of CH 1 on the screen. It will also open a submenu located on the right side of the screen. This menu can be controlled with the soft keys immediately to the right of the screen.

Make sure the COUPLING is set to DC and the PROBE setting matches the physical switch on your probe. Both should be set to 1X. POSITION VOLTS/DIV Allows you to adjust the vertical position of the displayed signal. Note that this also moves the zero position of the grid. Adjusts the vertical scale. Turning the knob to the right zooms in on the signal, turning to the left zooms out. The range is from 5.00 V/div down to the 5.00 mV/div.

HORIZONTAL Controls The knobs in this column control the time axis: POSITION SEC/DIV Allows you to adjust the horizontal position of the displayed signal. Adjusts the horizontal scale (or timescale). Turning the knob to the right zooms in on the signal, turning to the left zooms out. The range is from 50.0 s/div down to the 5.00 ns/div. (Since there are 10 divisions on the screen in the horizontal direction, if you set the timescale to 50 s/div, it will take 500 seconds (over 8 minutes) to collect a single scan!)

TRIGGER Controls So, voltage versus time is displayed on the screen. But how does the oscilloscope know when to start displaying the voltage signal? The signal will appear different on the screen depending on what point on the signal is first displayed. The TRIGGER determines when the scope should start plotting the voltage versus time. The scan will start when a voltage signal crosses a certain threshold. This voltage signal can be the one youre measuring on CH 1 or CH 2, or it can be some completely different voltage signal supplied to the external trigger (EXT TRIG) BNC input near the bottom right. LEVEL The scope will begin displaying the voltage signal when the voltage crosses a threshold set by this knob. To view the level on the screen, hold down the TRIG VIEW button while adjusting the trigger level. This button will open a submenu on the right side of the screen. The TYPE should be set to Edge. The SOURCE determines what voltage signal the oscilloscope will compare to your selected trigger level. For example, if CH1 is selected, the scope will begin a scan when the voltage on Channel 1 crosses the trigger level. If the SLOPE selection is Rising, then the scan will start when the voltage signal rises above the trigger level. If Falling, the voltage signal must fall below the trigger level. Make sure the COUPLING selection is DC.

TRIG MENU

Other Useful Controls RUN/STOP Starts a series of acquisitions (or sweeps) or stops them. Stopping the acquisitions is useful if you want to make measurements on the displayed signal. Pressing this will run a single sweep and then stop. This button will open a submenu on the right side of the screen. For TYPE, select voltage or time depending on whether you want to make a voltage or time measurement. Select CH1 or CH2 for the SOURCE setting.

SINGLE SEQ CURSOR

Procedure This section describes a variety of exercises that will help you become familiar with the oscilloscope. You are expected to write properly and legibly for each answer. 1. With the sweep speed (SEC/DIV) fast enough to give you a horizontal line on the screen, accurately measure the voltage of the provided battery. After you are convinced that you have done this correctly, repeat the measurement using different voltage scales. Tap one end of the battery with the probe. Can you produce a square wave on the screen? Describe your observations.

2. Connect the function generator to the oscilloscope. Turn the function generator on, and set the frequency to 100 Hz. Note the changes on the oscilloscope as you vary the amplitude, DC offset, frequency, and wave type on the function generator. Adjust the oscilloscope settings to view a 0.5 Hz square wave, and then a 200 kHz sine wave. What oscilloscope settings are necessary to view these waveforms? What does the DC offset knob on the function generator do? (Be certain that the COUPLING is set to DC as described in CH 1 MENU above.)

3. In class, you found that when a power supply, a resistor, a capacitor and a switch are connected in series and the switch is closed, the voltage across the capacitor is given by t & # " RC ( Vc ( t ) = V0 % %1 " e (, $ ' where R is the resistance and C is the capacitance in the series circuit. At one time constant after the switch is closed (i.e., when t = RC ) the voltage is Vc ( RC ) = 0.632 V0 . In this part we will investigate these results. ! a) On the function generator, select a 50 Hz square wave. Use the oscilloscope to adjust the ! ! variable frequency to exactly 50 Hz. (Remember, the period of a 50 Hz signal is 1/(50 Hz) = 0.02 s = 20.0 ms. For instance, on a 2.50 ms/div scale, the period of the square wave spans 8 " ms % divisions on the oscilloscope screen: $2.50 ' (8 div) = 20 ms ). Adjust the amplitude of the # div & signal (from the generator) to 8 V. Draw the signal you see on the screen:
!

SEC/DIV = _________ VOLTS/DIV = __________

b) Use the multimeter to measure the resistance of your resistor (~10 k!). Use the capacitance meter to measure the capacitance of your capacitor (about 0.1 F). Assemble the circuit by connecting the resistor, the capacitor, and the square wave (50 Hz) signal in series. Check to see that the square wave signal is still present using Channel 2. Next, connect the oscilloscope probe from Channel 1 across the capacitor (as shown below) and examine this new signal. On the graph provided on the next page, draw what you see.

SEC/DIV = _________ VOLTS/DIV = __________

c) By adjusting the oscilloscope scales and positions, and using the oscilloscope cursors, accurately measure the RC time constant of this circuit. Carefully describe the process by which you measure the RC constant. Compare this measured value of RC with the one obtained by multiplying the measured resistance and capacitance of the individual components. Can you think of some sources of the difference between these two values? Describe them. How important do you think each is?