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NATIONAL METROLOGY INSTITUTE- BASIC ELECTRONICS

Training Course
Addis Ababa

Laboratory exercise 2

DC circuits – Measurement Analysis

Of VOLTAGE and CURRENT

Participant: Data:

Instructor: Grade:
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EXPERIMENT NO. 2
Dc circuits – measurement of voltage, current and analysis

OBJECTIVE:-
At the end of this experiment, the Trainer will be able to:-
-Become familiar with DMM functions and characteristics and understand the
concepts of measurement accuracy and precision.
-Assemble simple DC circuits containing resistors and voltage sources.
-Use a digital multimeter to measure voltage and current flow in the circuit.
-Proficiency creating electrical circuits using resistors, wires, and power supplies.
-Verify theoretically calculated results using basic network laws.

INTRODUCTION:-
The purpose of this experiment is to become more familiar with a Digital
multimeter (DMM) and to use it to make or measure voltage and current
measurements. A final aspect of this lab is to understand how a piece of test
equipment affects the circuit it is connected to. In today's high technology world,
the electrical engineer is faced with the design and Analysis of an increasingly
wide variety of circuits and systems. However, underlying all of these systems at a
fundamental level is the operation of DC circuits. Indeed, the ability to analyze
and simplify such circuits is central to the understanding and design of more
complicated circuits. Furthermore, the measurement of DC circuit quantities, i.e.,
voltage, current and resistance are the most basic and fundamental
measurements for an electrical engineer can make. In this experiment, the
student will become acquainted with the use and limitations of a modern digital
multimeter and this instrument is the most frequently used instrument to
measure current, voltage, and resistance.
The two most important commonly used quantities are the current and the
voltage. The current is a serial quantity and measured by using ampere meter.
The voltage is defined between two nodes and measured by connecting a
voltmeter across those two nodes.
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APPARATUS AND COMPONENT

1-Digital Multimeter, Bread board and DC Power Supply
2-Soldering Iron, Resistors and Connecting wire
Task: - 1
Testing the DC voltage supply

Connect the resistor RP (load) and the voltage (V) and current (I)
measurement instruments at the output of the laboratory power supply, as
shown in the figure 1.1. Adjust the voltage at the output of DC voltage supply to
be 5 V with no load. Measure the voltage VP and the load current IP for various
values of the load resistance: 10 ,33 ,47 , 68 , 100 ,220  and 10 k
Write the measurement results in the table 1 and present them graphically in
Figure 1.2
A

+ Ip
DC Power
V
Supply Vp Rp
-

Figure 1.1 Connection schematics for testing DC voltage supply

Measurement results

Table .1 Testing voltage stability of the power supply

RP () Vp (V) Ip(mA)

10 
33 
47 
68 
100 
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220 
10 k

V
__

5V __

__

__

__

__

0 | | | | | | | | | | | | |

A (ma)
Figure 1.2 Current-voltage characteristic of the power supply

Task: - 2
Measurement and calculation of Current and voltage in a voltage Divider Circuit

Theory
The digital multimeter (DMM) is a versatile instrument that can be used to
make a variety of electrical measurements. As the name would suggest, these
meters have a digital (liquid crystal) display. In this experiment, you will use the
DMMs to measure DC voltage, DC current, and resistance. In future experiments,
you will learn how to use the DMM to measure AC voltage, AC current, testing
Diode and Transistors.

A
R1
V1
Ip
DC Power
1 R2 V2
Supply

V3
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R3

Fig 2.1 a voltage divider dc Circuit

Table -2

VP Calculated value (Pre-lab) Measured result

IP V1 V2 V3 VT IP V1 V2 V3 VT
0 volt
2 volt
4 volt
6 volt
8 volt
10 volt
12 volt

Experiment Procedure
Voltage and Current Measurements
Pre-lab:- Calculate theoretical voltages and result for each component of the
circuit described in Figure2. 1 and Enter these calculated currents on the Table -2.

1. Connect the power supply to display the voltage on the output adjust the
voltage from 0-12 Measure the exact voltage using the multimeter.
2. Assemble the circuit shown in Fig. 2.1 the figure shows the physical setup of the
experiment. You will use the nominal resistor value 68, 100  and 220 
respectively to R1, R2 and R3 as you measured previously.
3. Set the multimeter to measure dc current and voltage make sure that the leads
are in the correct jacks in the front panel of the multimeter.
4. Measure the current flowing through the resistor and voltage across each
resister R1, R2 and R3. The multimeter measures the current flow from the red
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probe to the black probe within the meter. Does this value agree with Ohm’s
Law? Your answer is yes record it on table-2

Task: - 3

Measurement of Current and voltage in a current Divider Circuit

R1 IT
DC Power
Supply V1 V2 R2 R3 R4
2
I1 I2 I3

Fig 2.2 a current divider dc Circuit

Experiment Procedure

1- Connect the circuit given in Figure 2.2. Set R1=10kΩ, R2=10Ω R3=100Ω and
R4=220Ω. Measure the exact value of the voltage source, using the digital
voltmeter and record the result on table -3
2- Calculate the voltage drop, current flow through the circuit and each junction is
there good agreement between your measured and calculated current and
voltage values? If you agree keep it on the table given below
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Table -3

Vs Calculated value (Pre-lab) Measured result

V1 V2 VT I1 I2 I3 I4 IT V1 V2 VT I1 I2 I3 I4 IT

Conclusions:-
1. Examine the pre-lab theoretical and measured values for voltage and current of
the circuit in Figure 2. 2 Comment if there is the differences.
2. Calculate theoretical voltages and currents using the measured resistance
values for the circuit of Figure 2.2 Tabulate your results. Comment on the
correlation of measured and theoretical values? Explain possible sources of
error.
4. Do the theoretical results agree with what you measured?