ME 4053 MECHANICAL SYSTEMS LABORATORY

Orientation and Equipment Familiarization Session

Orientation
You are encouraged to ask questions of the TAs on the mechanics and logistics of the laboratory. Suitable
topics include laboratory notebook format, collection and grading, talk and extended abstract format and
preparation , lab partner assignment, policies on rescheduling labs, office hours, any questions on the
Matlab video or manual, etc.

Familiarization Exercise
The purpose of this exercise is to help you become more familiar with some of the instrumentation you will
use in various labs. In particular, this exercise will demonstrate how to set up the HP 33220A Function
Generator and the Tektronix TDS 340A Digital Oscilloscope to display several harmonic and burst signals
at specific frequencies and amplitudes and also to perform the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of each of the
signals.

The function generator, oscilloscope, and BNC cables, and needed manuals will be provided at each
workstation. The ME 4053 lab manual will also be useful for this exercise. Several hints will be provided
to assist you in properly setting up the equipment. However, it will be up to you and your group to sort out
the details of the setup. If you feel stuck or confused, please request the assistance of a TA.

Send the function generator signal to Channel 1 on the scope.

Exercise 1: Display a 1 Vpp, 100 Hz. sinusoidal signal on the oscilloscope. Is the waveform stationary or
does it move across the screen?

You may want to refer to the lab manual discussion of the oscilloscope and/or page 3-11 in the scope
manual for information about triggering the signal. This will essentially hold the signal on the scope .
Pages 3-17 through 3-26 have information about frequency and amplitude measurements on the scope

Exercise 2: Display a 1.5 Vpp, 2500 Hz. square wave signal on the oscilloscope.

Exercise 3. Display a 2 Vpp, 500 Hz sinusoidal tone burst on the oscilloscope. The burst should be 2 msec.
in duration with 10 msec between each burst. See the lab manual or page 3-8 in the function generator
manual for information about setting up bursts.

Exercise 4. Repeat exercise 1 at 1000Hz. Display the FFT of the sinusoidal signal and verify the frequency
content. See pages 3-31 through 3-39 in the scope manual about computing the FFT of input signals. What
is the significance of the frequency of peak amplitude in the FFT?

NOTE: Use the horizontal scale knob to adjust the sampling rate to ensure that aliasing does not occur.
However, a fixed number of samples (1000) is used for the FFT, so increasing the sampling rate may result
in too large of a frequency resolution.

Exercise 5: Repeat exercise 2 at 200 Hz. Display the FFT of the square wave signal and observe the
frequency values for the peaks in the FFT. What do you notice about the frequency values? Change the
waveform from a square wave to a ramp. What do you now notice about the frequency values? Can you
explain the difference?

Exercise 6: Produce a noise signal with the function generator and display the signal and its FFT on the
oscilloscope. Measure the rms value of the signal. Set up the oscilloscope to average 4 signal samples.
What happens to the rms value of the signal? Repeat with 16 and 32 averages. How does the rms value
depend on the number of averages?

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