Introduction to Direct Current (DC) Circuits

Summary

In this lab students will learn how to use the current, voltage and resistance functions of a digital
multimeter (DMM) , how to troubleshoot DMM problems and derive an estimate of the DMM
internal resistance based upon the effect on a circuit with known resistances. It is presumed that
the student has mastered the use of Ohm’s law and series and parallel resistance formulas.
The voltage and current in a circuit composed of a combination of series and parallel resistances
will be measured and compared to the theoretically expected results.
A controlled experiment will be conducted with a simple resistor, a light bulb and a diode in
which current is measured as voltage is continuously increased. The results will be displayed
graphically.

The Circuit Prototype board and the Digital Multimeter

The photo shows a circuit prototype board with resistors.

1) A yellow wire on the left is from a power supply, it feeds current through two resistors in
parallel then the current recombines to flow through a single resistor and back to the power
supply via the blue wire.

2) A red wire on the right side is from a power supply, it feeds current through two resistors in
series and back to a power supply via the black wire. This is the first circuit that we will test.

1
How the prototype board works. There are two thin metal strips that run under each column of 5
holes in the board. When a wire in pushed into the hole it is squeezed between the metal strips.
A wire pushed into any of the remaining 4 holes in the column is connected by the metal strips to
the first wire. Note in the photo that the yellow wire and the two resistors are inserted into holes
in the same column are connected together.

The Digital Multimeter

1) There are two or three different DMM models at your station. Examine each one carefully to
identify the proper plug in sockets to use on each the multimeters. The following sockets will
be used in today’s work -
COM represents “common” connect a black wire to this one, it will be used for all
measurements in this lab

V Ω represents Volts OR Ohms Connect a red wire to this one if you intend to
measure these quantities. Careless students may damage the DMM in the Ohm mode by
attempting to measure a resistor that is connected to other resistors and the power supply.
Warning; always take resistors out of the circuit to measure the Ohm rating!

V Ω mA some DMM’s use the same socket for mA or milliamps as for Ohms and
Volts

mA or A or 10A or 20A These are electrical current sockets, careless students may
damage the DMM by failing to connect it in series with the circuit resistances. Warning:
Always connect the DMM in series to measure current – that means that you must
disconnect two wires in the circuit first and the attach the “COM” wire to one wire
and the mA or A or 10A or 20A wire to the other circuit wire.

2) Examine the rotary dials on each DMM to identify the functions and operating ranges. The
dial labels are often coded with greek micro symbols or letters “k” and “M” to represent kilo-
and Mega- values. The DMM dial may also have selections for inductance, diode testing,
transistor testing, capacitance, frequency, and temperature.

3) Refer to the photo on the following page. Set up the circuit with two 2.2 megaOhm resistors
in series with one of the larger DMM’s that is set to measure current on the finest scale available
– microAmps or as few milliamps as available. Connect the DC power supply and turn the
voltage to 16.0 volts as indicated on the power supply display.
a) Record the current shown on the DMM. Using the current reading and 4.4 megaOhms solve
for the theoretical voltage. Compute the percentage difference between this and 16.0 volts
shown on the power supply.
b) Using the smaller DMM in voltage mode connect it to measure and record the potential drop
across one of the resistors. Record the current shown on the larger DMM while the voltmeter is
measuring the voltage across one of the resistors. Compute the resistance of the voltmeter using
the new current reading, the power supply 16.0 volts and the resistor ratings noting one resistor is
in parallel with the unknown meter resistance. Show your result to your instructor before
proceeding to the next step.

2
4) Measure the potential drop across both resistors. Referring to the picture above, move the
volt red clip to connect to the wire on the right side of the other resistor. Record the voltage
from the smaller DMM and the current on the larger DMM. Compute the resistance of the
voltmeter using the new current reading, the volt meter reading and the resistor ratings noting
both resistors are in parallel with the unknown meter resistance. Show your result to your
instructor before proceeding to the next step.

3
5) Basic meter troubleshooting. Turn off the power supply and the DMM’s.
a) Carefully remove the back plate of the Smaller DMM. Use a screwdriver.
b) Remove the fuse and the battery.
c) Look closely at the fuse to observe the thin wire in the glass tube. This wire melts before
destructive levels of current surge through the DMM components. If the surge is too high and too
fast then the fuse may not melt fast enough and the DMM circuits are destroyed.
d) Read the stamping on the fuse to determine the current rating 1A or 2A or ? The fuse has a
voltage rating too but that is of much less importance.
e) Set up the large meter to measure voltage. Measure and record the battery voltage. Compute
the percentage difference between the battery rated voltage and the measured value.
f) Replace the fuse and battery and the DMM cover.

6) Measure and record the resistance of 8 resistors with ratings between 300 and 10k Ohms.
Use the larger DMM to measure resistance. Place each resistor on a sheet of paper with the
measured Ohm rating written next to it.

7) In the following discussion we will refer to R1 as the highest rated resistor, R2 the second
highest down to R8 the resistor with the lowest rating. Construct the following circuit on the
prototype board.

Power Supply set at 15.0 Volts DC

DMM
mA

R1 R6

R2 R5 R8
A R3 B C R7 D E

R4

8) Record the Current shown in the DMM.

9) Using the other large DMM, record the voltage drop across each adjacent pair of points
VAB = ____________
VBC = ____________

4
 VCD = ____________
VDE = ____________ and the total voltage

VAE = ____________

10) The current response of a resistor, a light bulb and a diode to increasing voltage.
a) Set up a series circuit on the prototype board with a 150 Ohm resistor, a light bulb and a diode
in series. Use the DMM to measure the 150 ohm resistor R = ___________________
b) Turn the DC power supply to zero volts.
c) Connect the DC power supply and the DMM in mA mode in series with the other three
components. Draw the circuit and show it to your instructor before proceeding to the next step.
d) Increase the voltage to about 10 volts. If the bulb doesn’t glow then replaces the diode in the
board with the end positions reversed. The diode is an almost perfect electrical current blocker
for flow in one direction but it allows relatively free flow of current in the other direction for
voltages that are greater than about .6 volts.
e) Once you have observed the bulb glowing, return the power supply voltage to zero.
f) Increase the power supply voltage from 0.0 volts to .7 volts in steps of .1 or .2 volts. At each
step record the current shown on the fixed DMM and using the other DMM measure the voltage
across the resistor, the diode and the bulb. Select voltage and current scales to obtain the best
accuracy.
g) After the 0. 7 volt level is reached, increase the power supply voltage to 1.0 volts and make
recordings of the voltage across each component and the current at that setting. Increase the
power supply voltage in .5 volt steps up to a maximum of 16.0 volts making the same set of
voltage and current measurements at each step.
h) Prepare separate graphs for the bulb, the resistor and the diode. Place current on the vertical
axis and voltage on the horizontal axis. Do not connect the dots. Compute the slope of the
resistor graph using the least squares method. The theoretical value of the slope is (1/R) from
Ohm’s law where R is the value you measured with the DMM in step a). Compute the
percentage difference between the slope and 1/R.

Breadboard example:
R1
R3
R2

5
 To Power Source

A B a b c d e f g h i j A B
1 1

5 R1 5

10 10
R3
R2

15 15

20 20

25 25

30 30
A B A B

6
 DC Circuit Guidelines

___ Include signed raw data sheet

___ One column abstract, two column for everything else

___ Correct units and sigfigs on all numbers

___ Cite any item taken from the lab module

___ Cite any work taken from anywhere else

___ Abstract: Include sentence that discusses results

___ Introduction: Tell why doing experiment

___ Eq and Other: Any Important Formula/ Other

___ Disc of Res: All necessary experimental values, ref values with source, percent errors or differences/ Any
important plots/ Two sources of error

___ References: Proper format as seen in Good lab report/ Example Reports

___ Calculations: All important calculations

----- Plot data: Any numbers used for a plot in two column format with correct units and sigfigs

These are just guidelines. You may need to add more items as these are just
some of the things expected.