American University of Sharjah

Department of Electrical Engineering

Lab #1
ELE225R
Ohms and Kirchoffs Laws Verification

Objectives
Interpretation of color-coded resistors and measuring their real values using the DMM.
Verification of Ohms Law.
Verification of Kirchoffs voltage and current laws.

Equipment & Components

ELVIS Kit
Asorted Resistors

Introduction

Resistor Color Code

The standard resistor color code is shown on the wall inside the lab and also given to you within the
supplementary document about good lab practices. Here is a quick reference: Most resistors have four colored
bands. The first three bands indicate the nominal value of the resistor and the fourth band indicates the tolerance
in value. The first two bands form the mantissa and the third the exponent of 10.

Figure: Resistor Color Code.

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The tolerance band is typically either gold or silver. A gold tolerance band indicates that the measured value
will be within 5% of the nominal value. A silver band indicates 10% tolerance. For example a resistor with
color code brown-black-red-silver indicates a nominal value of 1k. The first two bands (brown-black)
produce the mantissa (10) and the third band (red) is the exponent of ten (10 2 = 100). So the value is 10*100
= 1k. Since the tolerance band is silver, we can expect the measured value of the resistor to be between 900
and 1100.

Kirchoffs Voltage and Current Laws

Kirchhoffs Voltage Law and Current Law (commonly known as KVL and KCL)

KVL is commonly stated several ways:

The algebraic sum of the voltage drops around a closed loop equals zero.
The algebraic sum of the voltage rises around a closed loop equals zero.
The algebraic sum of the voltage rises around a closed loop equals the algebraic sum of the voltage drops
around the loop.

On the other hand, the KCL states that the algebraic sum of all currents entering or leaving a particular node
in a closed circuit equals zero.

Procedure

Part 1: Resistance Measurement

Select one resistor at a time from the set of resistors on your bench and connect it across two different nodes
on the bread board.
Record in Table 1 the nominal (color code) value and tolerance of each resistor.
Measure the resistance of each resistor using the ELVIS Ohmmeter as follows:

Double click the NI ELVISmx Instrument Launcher on the desktop or from the start menu: Start>
Programs>National Instruments> NI ELVISmx for NI ELVIS & NI myDAQ > NI ELVISmx
Instrument Launcher
Double click on Digital Multimeter to open the Digital Multimeter control panel.
Connect the Multimeter leads to the boards DMM inputs (V and COM).
Connect the Multimeter leads across the resistor using crocodile clips. (see below image)
Click on and then click run to display the measured value.

Record the values in table 1.

Compute the percent error (PE) between the actual (measured) value and the nominal value for each resistor.

{Note: PE= (measured-nominal)*100%/nominal}.

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 Figure: Resistance Measurement

Resistor R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
Nominal Value
% Tolerance
Measured Value
Percentage Error (PE)
Table 1

Part 2: Confirmation of Ohms Law

Choose one of the resistors i.e. 1 k and build the circuit in figure 1.
Double click the Variable Power Supplies in the NI ELVISmx Instrument Launcher window.
Select Manual mode for the positive power supply and select Measure Supply Outputs to view the supplied
voltage as shown below.

Figure: Variable Power Supplies GUI

Connect the supply+ terminal (pin # 48) to the positive terminal of the DMM (Ammeter) and the Ground
terminal of the supply (pin#49) to the resistor as shown in Figure 1.
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 Adjust the positive 0-12 V power supply using the rotary knob (upper right side of the board) to vary the
resistor voltage as given in table 2 and measure the current in the circuit for each voltage using the Digital
Multimeter configured as an Ammeter. Your connected setup may look like the below image.

Compute the resistance for each set of voltage and current values using ohms law and record the values in
the third row of table 2, then compute the average value.

R (average) =___________

Pin 48
A

0-12 V R

Pin 49 GND

Figure 1
VR(V) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
IR(mA)
R=VR/IR
Table 2

Figure: Setup for the Circuit in Figure 1

Plot the resistor voltage (VR) versus the resistor current (IR) and determine the resistance from the slope of
the straight line.

R (slope) =__________

Now measure the actual resistance of the resistor using the ohmmeter and compare the nominal, calculated
and measured values of resistance.

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 R (Ohmmeter) = ________

Q1) Is the voltage Vs current relation for resistor linear? What does this confirm?

Part 3: Confirmation of KVL & KCL

Build the circuit shown in figure 2 on the prototyping board using the following resistors:
R1=470 R2=680 R3=1 k R4=2.2 k R5=820 .

Use the fixed 15 V power supply (pin #51 is +15 V and pin #53 is Ground) as the circuit supply.

Use the ELVIS Digital Multimeter to measure each of the voltages and currents listed in table 3. Record
the values with correct polarity (sign) in the table. Make sure to connect the Ammeter such that the measured
current flows into the positive terminal.

+ V1 - + V3 -

I1 I3
R1 R3
I2
+
+
R2 V2 R4
VS V4
-
-

Figure 2

Voltage [V] Vs V1 V2 V3 V4
DMM

Current [mA] I1 I2 I3
DMM
Table 3
Using measured voltages:

Is V1 + V2 = VS?, Is V3 + V4 = V2?,

Q2) Do the above results confirm KVL? ______________

Using measured currents:

Is I1 + I2 = I3?,

Q3) Does the above result confirm KCL? ______________

Q4) Calculate the power in each resistor and compare the total power with the power supplied from the source?

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