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ECSE 2170 Lab #3

LAB OBJECTIVES:
1. To learn how to use a potentiometer.
2. To investigate linear and nonlinear resistance of different devices.

Part I.
1. Put a 5k or 10k ohm potentiometer into the circuit board and keep the three
terminals isolated with each other. Use the ohmmeter to measure the resistance
between the terminals R12, R23, and R13. Verify R13 = R12 + R23.

2. Use a small screw driver to adjust the knob on top of the potentiometer, and
measure R12, R23, and R13 again. Does R13 = R12 + R23 always works? Why?
1 2 3

3. Build the circuit in Fig.1 and measure the voltage between terminal 1 and 2 (V 12), and the
voltage between terminal 2 and 3 (V23). When you adjust the position of the wiper (pin 2) in the
potentiometer, both V12 and V23 change. What is the value of V12 + V23? What determines the
ratio V12/V23? What is the voltage range of V23? Answer these questions and give explanations in
the report.

1
2

Fig.1

Part II.
1. Put together the circuit on the right, using a 1000 Ω resistor connected to the DC power
supply. Measure the current.
1k Ω
a. Measure the resistor using ohmmeter. What
value do you get? What is the current range
do you estimate when building this circuit?

b. Starting at 0.0 volts on the power supply, DC volts

slowly increase the voltage in the increments
listed in the table below.. For each voltage,
record the current flowing through the
resistor.
A
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Voltage (V) Current (mA)
0.0 0.0
0.2
0.4
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0

2. Using the same circuit, replace the 1 kΩ

resistor with a small incandescent indicator light
(with wires soldered to it).

Do you know the resistance of this bulb? Can you

tell whether the current is in the safe range? DC volts

Vary the voltage as indicated in the following

table, and record the current that goes through the
bulb. At the lower voltages, it takes some time
for the current to stabilize because it takes longer A
for the filament to heat up (and it may not be hot
enough to produce light). Here, we assume the voltage of power supply is the same as voltage
across bulb.

Light bulb data

Voltage (volts) Current (mA) Voltage (volts) Current (mA)

0.0 0.0 1.5
0.1 2.0
0.2 2.5
0.3 3.0
0.4 3.5
0.5 4.0
0.7
1.0
(When the voltage/current is too high, the bulb will burn.)
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3. Put together the circuit shown below, using a light emitting diode (LED) and
a 100 Ω resistor. LED is a special type of diode (remember diode property in lab1).
In this case you need to measure the voltage across the LED with the voltmeter.
You adjust the power supply voltage until you get the LED voltage listed in the table below.
You will NOT write down what the power supply voltage is!

Do you know the resistance of this bulb? Can you tell whether the current is in the safe range?

The separate handout shows see how to use

one Fluke 45 DMM to measure both the voltage
across the LED, and the current through it. 100 Ω

negative

Volts DC
V
negative
side

bottom view of LED

LED Voltage (volts) Current (mA) LED Voltage (volts) Current (mA)
0.0 0.0 1.65
0.4 1.7
0.8 1.75
1.4 1.8
1.5 Don’t exceed 20 mA

1.6
Question: why the power supply voltage and LED voltage are different?

4. For each device in part II, make a plot of the voltage vs. the current.
Voltage (volts) is on the y-axis and current (mA) is on the x-axis.

In MS Excel, use a Scatter Plot, with the data points connected by a line.
We want to see each individual data points.

Add a Trendline to see how linear the data is.

Include the Trendline equations on the plot.
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Here’s an example of how to label your plot:

25
STAPLE your plots to the

20
back of this handout, having
them oriented this way
if they’ve been printed in landscape.

y = 0.4164x + 2.5506

Current (mA)
15
10
5
0
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Voltage (volts)

Questions:
a. Based upon your plots, which of the devices exhibit linear behavior between voltage and
current and which exhibit nonlinear behavior?

b. Based upon the Trendline equation you got for the resistor data, how does the
slope of the line correspond to the value of resistor you used? Is the resistance decreasing or
increasing along with the voltage increasing in the nonlinear devices?
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YOUR THREE PLOTS SHOULD LOOK LIKE THESE (but not necessarily in this order)

If you are using FLUKE 45 multimeter

1. Select voltmeter function for primary display

2. Press “2ND” button, then pressure button “A==” to select ammeter function for secondary
display. Although the current will show a negative reading for this connection, we can have both
voltage and current measured at the same time.