The multimeter, oscilloscope and function generator

1.0 Objective:

After performing this experiment, students will able to:

1. Use function generator, DC supply and digital multimeter.

2. Explain the four major function of controls on the oscilloscope.
3. Use an oscilloscope to measure ac and dc voltages

2.0 Theory:
UNIVERSITY KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIA
FRANCE INSTITUTE
There are four major function of control on the oscilloscope (Display control, vertical control,
triggering control and horizontal control). The display control includes INTENSITY,
FOCUS, and BEAM FINDER. The vertical controls include input COUPLING, VOLT/DIV,
Vertical POSITION and channel selection (CH1, CH2, DUAL, ALT, and CHOP). The
NMB34103
triggering Measurement
controls include and
MODE, SOURCE, Instrumentation
trigger System
COUPLING, trigger LEVEL and
others. The horizontal controls include the SEC/DIV, MAGNIFIER and horizontal
POSITION controls.

3.0 Procedure:
Lab Report 1
1. Review the front panel controls in each of the major groups. Then turn on the
Multimeter,
oscilloscope, select CH1,Oscilloscope
set the SEC/DIV toand Function
0.1 ms/div, Generator
select AUTO triggering, and
obtain a line across the(DC
face ofand AC
the CRT. Measurement)
2. Turn on power supply and use the DMM to set the output for 1.0V. Use multimeter to
measure this dc voltage from the power supply. Follow the following step:
a. Place the vertical COUPLING (AC-GND-DC) in the GND position. Disconnect
the input to the oscilloscope. Use the vertical POSITION control to set the ground
reference level on a convenient graticule line near the bottom of the screen.
b. Set the CH1 for VOLT/DIV control to 0.2V/div.
c. Place the oscilloscope on the positive side of the power supply. Place the
Name : Shahrin
oscilloscope ground Binsupply
on the power Kamaruzaman
common. Move the vertical coupling to
ID the DC position.:The
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line should jump up on the screen by 5 divisions. Note that 5
Group
division times :0.2V
N149 per division is equal to 1.0V the (supply voltage).
Multiplication of the number of divisions of deflection time volts per division is
equal to the voltage measurement.
 3. Set the power supply to each voltage listed in table 1. Measure each voltage using the
above steps as a guide. The first line of table has been completed as an example. To
obtain accurate readings with the oscilloscope, it is necessary to select the VOLT/DIV
that gives several divisions of change between the ground reference and the voltage to
be measured. The reading on the oscilloscope and meter should agree with each other
within approximately 3%.

4. Before viewing ac signals, it is a good idea to check the probe compensation for your
oscilloscope. tlo check compensation, set the VOLT/DIV control to 0.1V/DIV, the
AC-GND-DC coupling control to DC, and the SEC/DIV control 2ms/div. Touch the
probe tip to the PROBE COMP connecter. You should observe a square wave with a
square wave with a flat top and square corners. If necessary, adjust the compensation
to achieve a good square wave.

5. Set the function generator for an AC waveform with a frequency of 1.0kHz. adjust the
amplitude of the function generator for 1.0Vrms as a read on your DMM. Set the
SEC/DIV control to 0.2ms/div and the VOLTS/DIV to 0.5V/div. Connect the scope
probe and its ground to the function generator. Adjust the vertical POSITION control
and trigger LEVEL control for a stable display near the center of the screen. You
should observe approximately two cycles of an AC waveform with peak-to-peak
amplitude of 2.8V. this represents 1.0Vrms as shown in figure 1.1.

6. Use the DMM to set the function generator amplitude to each value listed in table 1.2.
Repeat the ac voltage measurement as outlined in step 4. The first line of the table has
been completed as an example.

4.0 Data and Results:

Power Supply VOLT/DIV Number of Oscilloscope DMM
Setting setting divisions of (measured (Measured
deflection(div) voltage) voltage)
1.0V 0.2 volt/div 5.0 div 1.0 V 1.0 V
2.5V 0.5 volt/div 4.8 div 2.4 V 2.48 V
4.5V 2.0 volt/div 2.2 div 4.4 V 4.58 V
8.3V 2.0 volt/div 4.0 div 8.0 V 8.33 V

Table 1.1

Power VOLT/DIV Number of Oscilloscope Oscilloscope

generator setting divisions of measured measured
amplitude deflection(div) (peak-to-peak) (rms)
1.0V 0.5 volt/div 5.6 div 2.8Vpp 1.0Vrms
2.5V 1.0 volt/div 7.0 div 7.0Vpp 2.47Vrms
4.5V 2.0 volt/div 6.2 div 12.4Vpp 4.38Vrms
6.0V 2.0 volt/div 8.0 div 16.0Vpp 5.7Vrms

Table 1.2

5.0 Data Interpretation:

Graph Measured DC Voltage (V) over Power Supply (V) for DMM and Oscilloscope
 9

Measured DC Voltage (V)
5 DMM
4 Linear (DMM)
Oscilloscope
3
Linear (Oscilloscope)
2 power supply

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Power Supply (V)

Graph Measured AC Voltage (V) over Power Supply (V) for Oscilloscope

4
Oscilloscope (RMS)
Measured AC Voltage (V)
3 Linear (Oscilloscope
(RMS))
2 Power supply

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Power Supply (V)

From the results obtained, it showed that the DC voltage measured by digital
multimeter is very closely to the actual values of power supply. Meanwhile, the voltage
measured by oscilloscope is slightly different to the actual values of the power supply. This
data proves that the digital multimeter has better accuracy compared to the oscilloscope. The
first graph showed the readings of oscilloscope lower than power supply. Although,
oscilloscope is lack compared to digital multimeter because of DMM are more practical ways
to measure close to the input voltage.

The second graph showed AC voltage measured by oscilloscope has difference

compared to the actual voltage. The line graph shows that the higher the values of power
supply the higher the error measured by the oscilloscope. These observations prove that the
oscilloscope has some lack in accuracy in measuring AC voltage. This is could be due static
error such improper way taking reading or shortcomings of oscilloscope.

6.0 Conclusion:

By completing this experiment, the students now know how to use basic instrument which
power supply, function generator and oscilloscope. From the analysed data, using digital
multimeter for this experiment has more suitable with very good accuracy in measuring the
DC voltage. Meanwhile, the used oscilloscope in this experiment has a lack of accuracy in
both measuring DC and AC voltage. Its measurement accuracy of AC voltage is much lack
compared to its measurement accuracy of DC voltage.

Evaluation and Review Questions:

 1. (a) Compute the percentage different between the DMM measurement and
the oscilloscope measurement for each dc voltage measurement summarized in
table 1.1.

Calculation:

Power Oscilloscope DMM Accuracy (%) Percentage

Supply (measured (Measured Different
Setting voltage) voltage) Oscilloscope DMM (%)

1.0V 1.0 V 1.0 V 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%

2.5V 2.4 V 2.48 V 96.00% 99.20% 3.20%
4.5V 4.4 V 4.58 V 97.78% 101.77% 3.99%
8.3V 8.0 V 8.33 V 96.39% 100.36% 3.97%

Table 1.3

(b) Which you think is most accurate? Explain why.

From the calculation in Table 1.3, the percentage shows that Digital Multimeter
(DMM) measurement are more accurate than Oscilloscope which compared by the
calculated accuracy (%). The difference between an oscilloscope and a digital
multimeter (DMM) value is simply stated as pictures vs. numbers. The DMM is
a device that gives a single scalar reading which means used for high-precision
checks of voltage, current, resistance and other electrical parameters. The display
will be a 3 or four digit number. Oh, yes, it refreshes several times a second. The
Oscilloscope is a voltage vs. time instrument and can make both quantitative and
qualitative measurements which capable of recording voltage waveforms, and at
very quick speeds.

2. Briefly describe the four mains functional group of controls on oscilloscope and the
purpose of each group.
Display control

An intensity control to adjust the brightness of the

waveform. As you increase the sweep speed of an analog
oscilloscope, you need to increase the intensity level.

A focus control to adjust the sharpness of the waveform.

Digital oscilloscopes may not have a focus control.

A trace rotation control to align the waveform trace with

the screen's horizontal axis. The position of your
oscilloscope in the earth's magnetic field affects
waveform alignment. Digital oscilloscopes may not have
a trace rotation control.

Other display controls may let you adjust the intensity of

the graticule lights and turn on or off any on-screen
information (such as menus).
Vertical control
Used to vertically scale and position the waveform, the
vertical controls can also be used to set the input
coupling, as well as to adjust other signal conditioning
The vertical position control also enables the user to
move the waveform up and down the screen.
The volts-per-division setting (written as volts/div) of
the oscilloscope is a scaling factor that changes the size
of the waveform displayed. If the volts/div setting is five
volts and the graticule has eight main divisions, then the
user can expect the whole screen to display 40 volts
from top to bottom since each division of the graticule
represents five volts.

Triggering
control The trigger section is devoted to stabilizing and
focusing the oscilloscope.
The trigger tells the scope what parts of the signal to
trigger on and start measuring. If the waveform
is periodic, the trigger can be manipulated to keep the
display static and unflinching
The trigger section of a scope is usually comprised of a
level knob and a set of buttons to select the source and
type of the trigger. The level knob can be twisted to set a
trigger to a specific voltage point.
This adjustment provides a mechanism for ignoring
small signals or low voltages that are well below the
level of the signal you are interested in.
Besides, the rising or falling-edge switch selects whether
the oscilloscope will trigger on the positive or negative
edge of the signal. Positive is for rising and negative is
for falling.
Then, the trigger-mode switch will normally be set to
AUTO but it can be changed to NORM.
The hold-off knob affects the delay associated with
triggering.
The trigger-source switches allow us to select which
signal the oscilloscope will attempt to lock onto.

Horizontal
control The horizontal section of the scope controls the time
scale on the screen. Like the vertical system, the
horizontal control gives you two knobs: position and
seconds/div. The coarse and fine-position-knobs allow
the horizontal movement of the traces for both rough
manner and precise manner.

The seconds per division (s/div) knob rotates to

increase or decrease the horizontal scale. If you rotate
the s/div knob clockwise, the number of seconds each
division represents will decrease youll be zooming
 in on the time scale. Rotate counter-clockwise to
increase the time scale, and show a longer amount of
time on the screen. The horizontal-magnification switch
allows the horizontally magnified trace.
The position knob can move your waveform to the right
or left of the display, adjusting the horizontal offset. The
seconds-per-division knob sets the time base for the
horizontal scale. It is marked in seconds, milliseconds,
and microseconds.

3. If you having difficulty obtaining a stable display, which group of controls should
you adjust?

Trigger control. This control sets an internal voltage which is compared to the
voltage of the input signal.

4. (a) If an AC waveform has 3.4 divisions from peak-to-peak and the VOLT/DIV
control is set to 5.0V/Div, what is the peak-to-peak voltage?

3.4 div x 5.0V/div = 17Vpp

b) What is the rms voltage?

The term RMS stands for Root-Mean-Squared. Most books define this as the
amount of AC power that produces the same heating effect as an equivalent DC
power, or something similar along these lines, but an RMS value is more than just
that. The RMS value is the square root of the mean (average) value of the squared
function of the instantaneous values.

In other words, the effective value is an equivalent DC value which tells you how
many volts or amps of DC that a time-varying sinusoidal waveform is equal to in
terms of its ability to produce the same power. For example, the domestic mains
supply in the United Kingdom is 240Vac. This value is assumed to indicate an
effective value of 240 Volts rms. This means then that the sinusoidal rms voltage
from the wall sockets of a UK home is capable of producing the same average
positive power as 240 volts of steady DC voltage
5. If you want to view the amplitude of an AC waveform that is 20.0Vrms, what
setting of the volt/div is best?

20.0 Vrms = 56.6Vpp, Therefore the best setting of the volt/div is 10 with the
number of deflection is 6 because the larger the portion of display, the more
accurate the measurement.

6. The most accurate way to measure a waveform on an oscilloscope is to use a large

portion of the display area. Why?

By using the large area of display, we can set the VOLT/DIV to the smallest ones
which is 0.5volt/div. For high voltage measurement, each division will represent the
smallest changes of voltage in waveform.