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EEET2600- Electronics
Tutorial 6 – Low Pass Passive Filter Experiment
Objective
In this tutorial we will practice some basic measurements with a low pass filter. These measurements
will be used for both active and passive filters.

I. Analyzing Frequency Response via Output Voltage

1. Construct the filter as follows on ELVIS II board where R = 10kOhms, C = 0.1 uF

Where the 𝑉𝐼𝑁 is power by the FGEN of the ELVIS board.

2. Connect the input and output to:

a. 𝑉𝐼𝑁 to Analog Input 0 (AI0)
b. 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 to Analog Input 1 (AI1)
3. Turn on the board
4. Open FGEN tool from NI ELVISmx Instrument Launcher and then set the input voltage as:
a. Input – 7.07 V peak to peak (Vpp)
b. 1Hz as the input frequency
c. Press Run
5. Open OSC from NI ELVISmx Instrument Launcher and set the channels to right ones and then
click Run
6. Show the two waveforms on the same window and adjust the time divison and voltage division
to show them best. Recommended rules are:
a. Show at least 2-3 cylces of signals
b. Show clearly the positive and negative peaks of the signals
7. Read the output voltage from the bottom of the OSC. Note since we enter Vin as Vpp so we will
measure Vout from peak to peak. Record this value
8. Turn on the Cursor On and then move the cursors to the peak of input and the peak of the
output voltage. Read the delta-t and record this number

Note – for low frequency, you might not receive a significant delta t

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9. Change the frequency to the next value in the table and repeat the Step 7 and 8
10. Repeat and finish the entire table below

11. Review the formula for calculating Gain and phase shift
𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡
𝐴𝑣 = (𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠)
𝑉𝑖𝑛
𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡
𝐴𝑣 = 20 log ( ) (𝑑𝐵)
𝑉𝑖𝑛
∆𝑡 . 3600
∆𝜑 = = ∆𝑡 . 3600 . 𝑓
𝑇

12. Use the formulas to finish the

Observation
If you pay attention to the Measured Vout from the table, you shall see the voltage (or voltage gain)
drops as the frequency raises, it represents the behavior of a low pass filter.

The above steps shows the typical process you can use ELVIS and its tools to analyse the specific value of
voltage, voltage gain and phase shifts of a filter.

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II. Bode Plotter for Low Pass Filter

1. Keep the circuit setup on ELVIS as you have done in the previous part
2. Turn off both FGEN and OSC tool from the earlier part since we don’t need them
3. Open Bode Analyzer from NI ELVISmx Instrument Launcher
4. Set the tool as follows and then click Run.
a. It takes some time for the plot to show

5. Focus on the upper plot which shows the Gain versus frequency. As you observe you can see the
gain does drop as the frequency increase. This shows the same behavior as seen in the previous
part
6. Turn on the Cursor On:
a. Move to the cursors to near lower end of the frequency axis, read the value, the gain is
close to -0.01 dB
b. Move the cursors to the value of -3dB gain (if you cannot get exact then try to get
closest as possible and read the value of frequency. You shall receive it around 160Hz.
This value is called cut-off frequency of the filter

Bode plots are important tool to help designers to:

• See the overall behavior of a filter

• Measure important parameter such as cut off frequency

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