Name: ____________________________________

ECE3710 – Lab 1 – Resistors and Basic Resistive Circuits

Objective: To gain experience with

• data acquisition
• proto-boards
• physical resistors

Table of Contents:

Pre-Lab Assignment 1
Background 2
National Instruments MyDAQ 2
Resistors 3
Lab Procedures 3
Part A) MyDAQ 3
o Learning How to Use the MyDAQ System 3
Part B) Resistors and Resistive Circuits 4
o Measuring Resistance 4
o Determining Current & Voltage Across a Resistor 4

Parts Needed
• 1kΩ resistor (5% tolerance)
• 2kΩ resistor (5% tolerance)

Pre-Lab Assignment

1) Every Student needs to install the NI ELVISmx software on their laptop and bring your laptop to
class, whether you have a myDAQ or not. Failure to do this may result in not being able to
perform the laboratory exercise. It is easiest to use the CD that comes with the myDAQ, but you
may also download it from the National Instruments website at:
http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/2157/lang/en
2) View the National Instruments videos on protoboards, resistors, MyDAQ.
3) Read the Background section of this laboratory exercise.
4) Perform hand calculations on the circuits in part B6 and B8 to determine the expected values for
the empirically determined unknowns.

 ECE3710, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Tech (v2.0) 1

 Name: ____________________________________
Background

National Instruments MyDAQ

Digital Acquisition Boards (DAQs) are used to measure physical electrical signals and convert them
into a form that can be viewed and stored digitally. The National Instruments MyDAQ also has analog
and digital output signals. The MyDAQ comes with several software instrument panels including a
digital multimeter (DMM), an oscilloscope (Scope), and a function generator (FGEN).

DMM: Digital multimeters measure voltage, Symbol Definition

current, and resistance and can be purchased as V-- DC voltage
self-contained units from hardware stores. The V~ AC voltage
symbols typically used on DMMs to represent
different signal types are shown in the table. A- - DC current
A~ AC current
Ω Resistance in ohms

Input/Output Interfaces: VΩ
The DMM interface is on one end of the MyDAQ:

The left two connectors are for measuring voltage and resistance.
HI COM
The right two are used for measuring the current.

The MyDAQ has an interface on one side with +15v, -15v, Analog Output (AO), Analog Input (AI), and
digital input/outputs. The part of the interface that will be used in this experiment is shown below.

AO AI
+15v -15v AGND 0 1 AGND 0+ 0- 1+ 1-

Resistors
The resistance of physical resistors is denoted by four color bands on the resistor. The color code for
bands 1-3 is

Color Value 1st band and 2nd band give the first two significant numbers of the resistance
Black 0 3rd band gives the base 10 multiplier, x10n
Brown 1 4th band gives the tolerance (silver is ±10% and gold is ±5%)
Red 2
Orange 3
Yellow 4
Green 5
Blue 6
Purple 7
Grey 8 A resistor with bands (yellow, red, orange, silver) is a 42,000 Ω resistor with a
White 9 tolerance of ±10%.

 ECE3710, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Tech (v2.0) 2

 Name: ____________________________________
Lab Procedures

The lab procedures familiarize the student with the MyDAQ system, the proto-boards, and resistors.

Part A) MyDAQ

Learning how to use the DMM

1. To set up the DMM for measuring voltage:

• Plug the MyDAQ into a USB port on your computer
• Start the NI ELVISmx Instrument Launcher software.
• Click on the DMM icon to open the DMM screen shown below.
• Match the settings in the screen below (Run Continuously, and Auto mode).
• Click on the symbol V - - on the DMM screen (this is used to measure DC voltage).
• Plug the black DMM lead into the COM plug on side of the MyDAQ (this represents the
“common” reference, usually denoted as a negative sign when representing voltage)
• Plug the red DMM lead into the red terminal to the left of the COM terminal, marked with a
VΩ label.
• Click on “Run”.

2. To use the DMM to measure the voltage difference between the +15 volt terminal and the Analog
Ground (AGND):

• Touch the red DMM lead to the red coated +15v wire and touch the black DMM lead to the
analog ground (AGND). Read the voltage.
 ECE3710, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Tech (v2.0) 3
 Name: ____________________________________

Voltage measured by the DMM: _____________

• Reverse the leads so that the red DMM lead touches the black-coated analog ground wire
and the black lead touches the red-coated +15v wire.

Voltage measured by the DMM: _____________

Not working?

• Make sure you click on the button to measure DC voltages.

• If the voltage measurement is slow to register, you may turn off the “Auto” mode and select
a range of 20V.

• Make sure the button is pressed on the DMM.

You need an instructor to
Part B) Resistors check your circuit and
measurements. Ask for him
Measuring Resistance or her to initial it.

1. Turn the DMM dial to Ohms (Ω) and touch the leads to both sides of a 1k Ω resistor. Measure
the resistance. It does not matter which color lead goes to which end of the resistor. If the
DMM is slow to register, switch the mode to “Specify Range” and select 20kΩ.

a. Measured Resistance = ______________

b. What percent tolerance is this resistor supposed to have (from band 4)? ________

c. Is the measured value within tolerance? ___________

2. Measure the actual resistance of a 2k Ω resistor.

Measured Resistance = ______________

Not working?

Make sure you click on the button to measure resistance.

Make sure the button is pressed on the DMM.

 ECE3710, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Tech (v2.0) 4

 Name: ____________________________________
Determining Current by Measuring Voltage Across a Resistor

Current can be measured directly by placing an ammeter in series in the circuit. Current can
also be determined by using Ohm’s Law on the voltage measured across a known resistor, as
will be done in this part.

3. Build the above circuit on the protoboard using the resistors measured in Parts 3 and 4, where
R1 = 2kΩ and R2 = 1 kΩ resistors.

4. Use the +15v and AGND wires from the MyDAQ for the voltage supply Vs

Measuring voltage, v2

5. Calculate the voltage across R2 using the nominal (ideal) resistance and source voltage.

v2= _______volts

6. Measure the voltage across R2 using the DMM, using the MyDAQ connections as shown
below.

v2= _______volts

7. What is the deviation between the nominal (ideal) voltage calculated in Step 5 and the
measured voltage from Step 6?

Percent deviation from nominal (%) __________

What is the source of the deviation? ______________________________

8. Derive the current from Ohm’s Law: i=v2/R2 where R2 is the measured resistance and v2 is the
voltage measured across R2.

i = _______ amps

 ECE3710, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Tech (v2.0) 5

 Name: ____________________________________

Determining Current by Measuring Current with an Ammeter

Here, you will measure current by using the DMM in the ammeter configuration, which requires you
to put the DMM in series in the branch for which you are measuring current. See the next figure.

Remember to change the red lead

from the voltage plug to the
ammeter plug on the DMM, and
connect the red lead to R1 and the
black lead to R2, this gives the
same reference direction to current
as shown in the figure (from the
common black to red)

Measuring current directly by putting the ammeter in series in the circuit

9. Measure the current passing through R2 using the ammeter. Be sure the probes are plugged
into the correct ports. Remember, in order to measure current the ammeter must be in series.

i = _______ amps

10. Compare the two methods of measuring current: What is the deviation of the measured
current obtained using an ammeter (Step 9) from the derived current obtained by measuring
voltage and using Ohm’s Law (Step 8).

% deviation = _______

“What if” Questions:

If you are going to measure current in a circuit, and that desired current passes through an existing
resistor in the circuit, what method would you choose?

If you are going to measure current in a circuit, and that desired current does not pass through an
existing resistor in the circuit, what method would you choose?

(Note, people sometimes introduce a small resistor into the circuit just to measure current. The size
of the resistance needs to be negligible with respect to the rest of the resistance in the circuit.)

 ECE3710, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Tech (v2.0) 6