103_unit_5.doc.docVIP

PURPOSE To determine whether a circuit is operating properly, or malfunctioning, it is often necessary to observe the electronic signals in the circuit. A VOM or DMM will give the magnitude of an ac current or voltage, but is unable to display the signal or provide information to allow the user to determine if there is distortion on the signal, or if there is an improper phase shift in the circuit. The oscilloscope allows the technician to view these signals and determine the circuit operating characteristics. The purpose of this exercise, is to use the ac meter and the oscilloscope to make voltage and current measurements in an ac circuit. The student will be able to describe the procedure to measure voltage, period, frequency, and phase relationships for ac waveforms with the oscilloscope. EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS REQUIRED Oscilloscope with 2 probes 2 each DMM’S and VOM’s Powered Protoboard Audio Signal Generator Frequency Counter Resistor, ?W, 5%, 1.5k? Capacitor, 35V, 10%, 0.1?F INTRODUCTION There is a wide variety of test equipment available to the technician, which provides information on circuit operation. All test equipment, used to measure voltage in a circuit, must have a high input impedance to prevent the test equipment from loading the circuit under test and thereby provide inaccurate measurements. The VOM usually has a moderately high input impedance while the DMM and oscilloscope have a high input impedance of 1M? or higher. This high input impedance assures the measurements will be accurate since loading does not occur. The VOM and DMM are used to measure ac currents and voltages in the same way they were used in the ELEC 111 course experiments. Since the polarity of the waveform is constantly changing, there is no polarity to consider when making ac voltage and current measurements. The oscilloscope provides a visual representation of the voltage at any point in the circuit on a CRT. As a result, the technician may view the display and determine t