Lab 8 Report

Coy Coburn & Kevin Bradshaw

ECEN 214, Section 506
TA: Amir Tofighi Zavareh
Due date: April 8, 2014

Procedure
Task 1 Strobe Light Circuit

Using concepts learned from class about operational amplifiers and RC circuits, the
circuit in Figure 1 was built onto a breadboard. The design for the circuit varied by
changing the resistor in R1 in order to increase or decrease the quality factor. Doing this
would change the outcome of the energy loss in the system. Here are the values used for
the resistors in the circuit:

470
4.7 k

Quality Factor
(Q)
0.3
3

15 k

10

1.1 k

0.707

R1 Values

Name
R2
R3
R4
R5

Value
2 k
1 k
1.2 k
1 k

Impulse Response
Over-Damped
Under-Damped
Highly UnderDamped
Critically Damped

Name
R6
C1
C2

Value
1 k
0.1 uF
0.1 uF

Figure 1

The HP Function Generator was used to generate a 100 Hz square input at Vin in Figure
1. The input of the circuit and output of the circuit were displayed on Channel 1 and 2,
respectively, onto an oscilloscope. These waveforms are displayed in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Q = 10

Figure 3: Q = 3

Figure 4: Q = 0.3

The previous step was repeated with the different values of R1 in order to change the
quality factor to 3 (Figure 3) and to 0.3 (Figure 4).
Subsequently, the R1 resistor was replaced with a 10 k resistor. The resistance of this
potentiometer was adjusted until a critically damped waveform was seen on the
oscilloscope. The resistance value of the potentiometer to make this waveform was then
measured and recorded in Table 1. Comments on these waveforms are in 'Part C' of the
comments section. The critically damped waveform is shown in Figure 5.
After this, the circuit was changed back to the circuit in Figure 1 with the damping factor
equal to three (using the 4.7 k resistor for R1). Then, a capacitor with the same value of
C1 (0.1 uF) was connected in parallel with C1. This waveform is displayed in Figure 6.
Lastly, the second capacitor connected in parallel with C1 was removed and placed in
series with the it. This waveform is displayed in Figure 7. Comments on the effects of
these waveforms are in 'Part D' of the comments section.

The last modification made to the original circuit from Figure 1 (quality factor of 3) was
doubling the value of R6. This waveform is displayed in Figure 8 and comments on the
effect of this modification are in 'Part E' of the comments section.
With the original circuit from Figure 1 again, the channels of the oscilloscope were
moved to measure the output of the second op-amp. This was done to observe a bandpass characteristic. These waveforms are displayed in Figure 9 and comments on the
differences between signals of the second and third op-amps are in 'Part F' of the
comments section.
Figure 5: Potentiometer Value = 657
Figure 6: Extra C1 in Parallel

Figure 7: Extra C1 in Series

Figure 8: R6 Doubled

Figure 9: Second Op-Amp Output

Data Tables
Table 1: Part C - Potentiometer Ratio Measurements
Calculated from Q =
Parameter
Measured
0.707
RPOT for Critical
657
1,125.27
Damp

Percent Error
42%

Comments:
Part C:
In the pre-lab, we calculated the resistance value to be roughly 1.1 k and in the actual lab, we
measured the potentiometer value to be 657 . This was a major difference in resistance values
but since the waveform could vary between how critically damped it could be, the error is
acceptable.
Part D:
The output of the C1 capacitors in parallel was much larger than the output of the C1 capacitors
in series.
Part E:
The extra resistor in series with R6 made the waveform extremely critically damped compared to
before.
Part F:
The second op-amp waveform output was much larger and continuous compared to the other
waveforms observed.
Calculations
The values for R1 were calculated by the formula for the quality factor:

The percent error in Table 1 was calculated by:

(Calculated RPOT - Measured RPOT)/ (Calculated RPOT)

Discussion
In Part A, the system was made for Q to equal 10, which was highly under-damped. The graph
shows that channel 1 had almost no visible fluctuation and looked like a normal sine wave.
Channel 2 also experienced effects from the under damp, seen in the thick sections of the square
save. Part B was a repetition but with Qs of 3 and .3. The former revealed a period of fluctuation
which then rippled to a slope of 0, then repeated. The latter seemed to resemble an inverse of the
square wave. In Part C, a potentiometer was manipulated until the wanted critical damped graph
could be seen, which revealed how resistance manipulation can influence the resultant voltage
level. Part D, the capacitance was doubled which resulted in higher amplitude of the voltage,
while the capacitance halved led to the opposite effect. Part E led to the idea that the increased
resistance led to an extreme critical damp compared to before. Part F resembled the first graph of
part A, but with increased amplitude but the continuity remained.
Conclusion
The goals for this lab included observing and characterizing the transient responses of a 2nd
order active bi-quadratic filter. Several parameters for the active filter were calculated. Overall,
the implementation of a bi-quadratic filter was experienced and understood. This lab proved to
be beneficial to realizing how capacitance and resistance influence the resulting voltage levels.