LAB 1, 2, 3

The Breadboards (Background)

The solderless breadboards included in your project kit and shown below allows
components and wires to be easily inserted and removed in order to quickly modify a
circuit. In the center section of the board are around 60 sets of five holes on each side
of the center of the board. In the picture below the center of the board is running
horizontally so the sets of five holes are actually above and below the center. All five of
the holes in each of these sets are connected together electrically as shown in the
connection diagram on the right below. When you need to connect components and
wires together, plug all of them into one set of the five holes and they will be connected.
If you need more than five things connected together, use wire to connect other sets of
five holes to the first set to expand the number of connection points.

Along the sides of the breadboard (top and bottom in breadboard above) are columns of
holes running in rows alongside blue and red lines. These are different in that all the
holes in one column of holes are connected together. Thus we have four electrical
nodes. Normally these are used for power and ground connections and are often
referred to as "bus" connections. As a matter of convention, the holes next to the red
lines should be used for power, and the ones next to the blue lines should be used for
ground.

DC Power Supply (Background + Lab Tasks)

Electrical power comes in two types: alternating current (AC) in which the voltages
varies with time, and direct current (DC) where the voltage is a constant value.
To set up the power supply for this experiment please read the short manual on Power
Supply.

1. Plug the red and black plugs into the Channel 1 output banana jacks (red to red,
black to black.)
2. Plug the pins on the other ends of the test leads into one of the the red and blue
bus strips on the breadboard as shown below on the right.

Digital Multimeter (Background + Lab Tasks)

The digital multimeter (DMM) is a combination of several instruments and can be used
to make a variety of measurements on electrical signals.
  Voltmeter for measuring AC and DC voltages. The voltage level is indicated in
volts (V), millivolts (mV) or microvolts (μV).
 Ammeter for measuring AC and DC current. Current is measured in units of
amperes or amps (A), milliamps (mA) or microamps (μA).
 Ohmmeter for measuring electrical resistance. Electrical resistance is measured
in units of ohms (Ω), kilohms (kΩ), or megohms (mΩ).
 Frequency meter. The frequency of a time varying signal is measured in cycles
per second or Hertz (Hz)

To set up the DMM for this lab experiment, read the GDM-396 user manual
Question 1:
What voltage was the power supply set for, and what voltage did the DMM
measure?
Once you have recorded the voltage on the answer sheet, turn off the power supply
outputs. 

Resistor Color Code (Background + Lab Tasks)

From the lab assistant get one of each of the three resistors that will be used in the
following experiments. In this experiment, we will determine the resistance marked on
each resistor and then use the DMM to measure the actual resistance.
The resistors have a cylindrical body with wire leads coming out of each end. The body
of the resistor is marked with a series of four color bands (see below) that are used to
identify the resistance value. To determine the resistor value, first figure out which way
to read the color bands. One of the bands at the end of the resistor body will be either a
silver or gold color indicating the precision of the resistance value (silver = 10%, gold =
5%). The three bands at the other end indicate the value. The first and second bands
are the first and second digits of the resistance value as given by the color codes shown
below. The third band is the number of zeros that follow the first two digits. For example,
a resistor with yellow, violet and red bands is a 4700Ω or 4.7kΩ resistor.
Make sure you have three resistors with different values (color bands are different) and
then do the following:

1. From the color bands determine the resistance of each of the three
resistors. Note: You should have resistors of at least 100Ω and less then
1.5kΩ. If the values are outside that range get other ones from the lab assistant.

Important: We will be using these resistors in later parts of this lab. The one with
the lowest resistance will be referred to as resistor "R1", the middle resistance as
"R2", and the one with the highest resistance as "R3". Record your results on the
answer page.

2. Remove the test leads with the pins from the multimeter and replace them with
the pair that have the test clips on one end and banana plugs on the other as
shown below on the left.
3. On the front of the multimeter, set it for making resistance measurements by
pressing the "Ω" button.

For each of the three resistors, do the following two steps and record your results on the
answer sheet.

4. Connect each of the two test clips to one of the two leads coming from the
resistors as shown below on the right. Hold the body of the test clip with a couple
of fingers and then with your thumb press the back of the test clip to cause the
metal hook to extend from the other end of the clip.
5. Once both clips are connected to the resistor leads, the meter should display the
resistance in either Ohms, KOhms, or MOhms. The values of the three resistors
 that you measured should be within about 5% of the component values you
determined above by reading the color bands.

Question 2:
What are the values of the resistors R1, R2 and R3 from the color bands?
What are the values of the resistors R1, R2 and R3 by measuring with the DMM
(round to the nearest integer)?

Schematic Diagrams (Background)

Electronic circuits are drawn using a schematic diagram. These show what types of
components are in the circuit and their values, and also shows the interconnections
between all the components. With a schematic of a circuit, an engineer has all the
information needed to wire up the circuit in the way intended by the person who
designed it. However it's important to remember that a schematic is not a diagram of
how the components are physically arranged. The components can be laid out
physically in numerous ways.
When assembling a circuit on a breadboard, examine the schematic and look for the
connection points where multiple components must be tied together. For example, the
schematic diagram below on the left shows four components of some type that are
connected together at a common connection point. The output of component A is
connected to inputs of three other components (B, C and D). Therefore on the
breadboard you would need to have a point where the four wires coming from the
components are electrically connected together. By plugging the four wires from these
devices into one of the sets of five holes that are connected together as shown on the
right the connection is established. Throughout a circuit each connection point of two
more signals will need to use a separate strip of the five breadboard holes to connect
them together. As mentioned above, if a point in the circuit requires that more that five
signals be connected together, simply use a piece of wire to connect two multiple 5-hole
strips together effectively building a larger connection point.

Resistors in Series (Background + Lab Tasks)

Using the resistor with the smallest resistance as R1, and the one with the middle
resistance as R2, build the circuit shown below on the left with the two resistors in
series. Resistors are not polarized meaning that they can be connected in a circuit in
either orientation. The figure on the left shows how the resistors are placed on the
breadboard.

When resistors are connected in series their resistances add together. The total
resistance in the circuit is then R = R1 + R2 and by Ohm's Law the current flowing in the
circuit is given by
Since the same amount of current is flowing through both of the resistors, the voltage
across each resistor is then

For this calculation assume that Vs has been set to 5V. Using the values
of R1 and R2 that you measured with the DMM, calculate using pencil/paper what the
voltage should be across each of the two resistors.
Question 3:
With VS = 5V, what are the calculated voltages V1 and V2 across
resistors R1 and R2?
To test the above results we have to provide the Vs power supply to the circuit.

1. Make sure the power supply outputs are off (green button not lit up)
2. Adjust the voltage on channel 1 of the power supply to be 5.0V.
3. Plug the red and black banana plugs of the test leads with the pins on the end
into channel 1 of the power supply.
4. Plug the pins on the other ends of the test leads into the breadboard at the points
where the positive and negative Vs voltages are to be connected to your circuit
as shown above on the right.
5. Turn on the power supply outputs.
6. Plug the test leads with banana plugs on one end and test clips on the other into
the DMM if they aren't there already.
7. Set the multimeter to measure DC volts and measure the voltage drop across
each resistor. You're measuring the V1 and V2 voltages as shown above on the
left.

Question 4:
With VS = 5V, what are the measured voltages V1 and V2 across
resistors R1 and R2?

Switches for Inputs (Background + Lab Tasks)

A common input device for our embedded circuits is a simple pushbutton switch. The
button consists of two electrical contacts, and when the button is pressed it connects
them together. When the button is not pressed, the two contacts can have different
voltages on them. When the button is pressed, whatever voltage is present on one
contact is now on the other contact. We will use the switches as inputs to the Arduino in
a way that allows the Arduino's program to sense whether the button has been pressed
or not, and take different actions accordingly.

1. From the lab assistant get one of the small plastic buttons (any color) shown
below on the left. On the bottom of the button are four pins that can be inserted
into your breadboard.
2. Install the button on the breadboard as shown in below on the right. To make the
circuit work, the button must be oriented properly when installed on the
 breadboard. Note that two of the sides of the button each have two metal pins.
The button must be installed on the breadboard so these two sides straddle the
center channel. Two of pins should be in holes on one side of the channel, the
other two should be in holes on the other side.

Make sure to press the button firmly into the holes of the breadboard. The
black plastic body of the button should be touching the top surface of the
breadboard.

3. Get a small piece of wire from the lab assistant and strip the insulation off both
ends using your wire cutters.
4. Insert one end of the wire in one of the ground bus holes (blue bus) and the other
into one of the holes below the button as shown in above. Make sure the wire is
inserted into the same group of holes that the pin from the button is inserted into
so they will make an electrical connection.
5. Connect the power supply to the breadboards with the black lead going to the
ground bus on the breadboard and the red lead to the power bus as shown.
6. Connect the multimeter to the breadboard in a similar fashion. The black lead
from the DMM goes to the same ground bus that the power supply is attached to.
The red lead goes to the other switch contact. Note that there should be one
column of unused holes between the button's ground connection and the red
DMM lead as shown in the figure.
 7. Set the DMM to measure DC Volts by pressing the "DC V" button.
8. Set the power supply output for 5.0 Volts and turn the output on with the green
button.
9. Note: What we have wired is an INCORRECT way of wiring a button. We
want to show you that while you CAN produce a clean '0' (low) voltage,
you CANNOT produce a clean '1' (high) voltage.
10. The meter is now measuring the voltage on one of the switch contacts. Try
pressing the button and see how much the voltage changes. When the button is
not pressed the voltage reading will NOT be stable. It will slowly increase.
Spend a few seconds watching the voltage value "float" around. Read below to
understand why.

When the switch is pressed, the output side of the switch that is connected to the DMM
should show the voltage is pretty close to zero volts since the switch is connecting it to
ground. However when the switch isn't pressed, the voltage can be just about anything
since the switch output isn't connected to anything. It will probably be close to zero volts
but may be something a bit higher (perhaps somewhere between 0 and 1.0 volts), and
the value may drift up or down as you watch it. Try touching the metal part of the red
lead near the switch with your finger and this may cause the measured voltage to
change. This circuit isn't really doing anything useful and the reason is because when
the switch is open (not pressed) the output isn't connected to anything that would cause
a known non-zero voltage to appear there. In electronic circuit terminology, we would
say the output is floating.
Question 5:
What are the voltages (or range of voltages after watching for a few seconds) on
the switch output when it is not pressed and when it is pressed?
To make the switch circuit into something useful we need to change the circuit so the
output isn't floating when the button is not pressed. Turn the power supply output off
with green button and then make the changes shown below.

1. Remove the DMM red lead from the hole below the button and move it
to some unused five hole connection block.
 2. Using resistor "R2", the one with the middle resistance value from the three you
worked with above, install it with one end in the +5V bus and the other end in
connection blocks where the DMM's red lead is.
3. Take a piece of wire and make a connection between the hole below the switch
and the connection block where the DMM and resistor are wired.

Turn the power supply output back on and repeat the observations you did before.
Question 6:
With resistor R2 added to the circuit, what are the voltages on the switch output
when it is not pressed and when it is pressed?
If you wired the circuit properly, the output should be very close to +5V when the button
is not pressed and be very close to zero volts when it is pressed. By adding the resistor
between the button output and the +5V, we've eliminated the floating problem and the
output of the button now covers a much wider range of voltage between the pressed
and not pressed state. The output is also now solidly fixed at the value you are reading.
It won't wander up and down like it did when it was floating.
For now don't worry about why this works. We'll cover the details of why the resistor is
needed in a later lecture.

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) (Background + Lab Tasks)

LEDs are hooked up in circuits in a similar fashion as resistors in that they both have
two leads and current goes in one and out the other. However unlike a resistor the two
leads are different. One is the "anode" and the other is the "cathode". Current can flow
through the LED from the anode to the cathode but not the other way. When a voltage
is applied across the LED causing current to flow from the anode to the cathode the
LED lights up.
LEDs come in several package shapes and sizes. For this lab we are using LEDs in a
5mm round case. These have two leads on the bottom and the anode lead is slightly
longer than the cathode. In addition there is a flat spot on one side of the plastic case to
indicate the cathode. Get an LED from the lab Assistant and examine it. Make sure you
can identify which lead is the anode (longer lead, round side of case) and which is the
cathode (shorter lead, flat side of case).
LEDs also respond to a voltage across it differently from a resistor. Unlike a resistor
where the voltage across it goes up linearly with the amount of current passing through
it, an LED has the property that the voltage across the LED is always about the same
(around 2.0 volts) for the typical amount of current needed to light up the LED.
However, if the LED is just connected to a voltage source by itself, the LED will allow as
much current to pass through it as the voltage source can supply. This can result in way
too much current going through the LED and may cause it to burn out. To prevent this
we always use a resistor in series with the LED to limit the amount of current passing
through the LED to a reasonable value.

By selecting the appropriate value for the resistor the amount of current through the
LED can be limited to whatever is needed. Referring to schematic above, Kirchoff's
Voltage Law says that
Vs = V + VLED = IR + VLED
where VLED is the voltage drop across the LED. Solving for I gives
I = (Vs - VLED)/R
We'll use the equation in the next section to determine how much current is flowing
through the LED for different values of the current limiting resistor.

Logic Circuits (Background + Lab Tasks)

Now that we have an input device that can signal two different states, and an output
device to use as an indicator, let's use some digital logic to hook them together and
make them do something.
We want to make the switch turn the LED on when the switch is pressed and off when
it's not pressed. In the experiment above when the switch was pressed a it produced a
low voltage (logical zero), however the LED lit up when a high voltage (logical one) was
present to cause current to flow through it. To make the circuit operate as desired, we
need a digital circuit that causes an input of a one to produce a output of zero, and vice
versa. As we will see in later classes, the action of changing a signal from high to low or
low to high is known as a logical inversion.
For the inverter operation we'll use a 74LS04 integrated circuit which you can get from
the lab assistant. The 74LS04 contains six logical inverters that each change an input of
zero to a one, and a one to a zero. The IC has 14 pins on it, numbered from 1 to 14.
Use the diagram below to locate on the IC the mark or notch that identifies the location
of pin 1. Once you have identified pin 1, install the 74LS04 on your breadboard as
shown so that the chip straddles the slot down the center of he board and is oriented so
pin 1 is on the side of the slot closest to the blue line. Make sure the 74LS04 is seated
firmly into the holes of the breadboard otherwise its pins will not make solid
contact with the breadboard connections.

Remove the connections to the DMM and follow the schematic diagram and picture
above to make the following wiring connections.

1. Connect pin 14 of the 74LS04 to the red power bus.

2. Connect pin 7 of the 74LS04 to the blue ground bus.
 3. Connect the input of the inverter (pin 1) to the connection block with
the R2 resistor and the switch. This is the green wire in the picture above.
4. Insert one lead of resistor R1 (the lowest resistance value) into a hole in an
unused connection block, and the other end of the resistor R1 goes into a hole in
the blue bus (Ground). This will be the LED's current limiting resistor.
5. Install the LED so the cathode (shorter lead, flat side of case) is in the connection
block with resistor R1, and the anode (longer lead, round side of case) is in
another available connection block. Don't worry if you get it backwards. The LED
is not going to burn up, it just won't light up like it should. If that happens, pull it
out and try it the other way.
6. Connect the output of the inverter (pin 2) to the anode of the LED (round side).
This is the yellow wire in the picture above.

Turn on the power supply outputs and try pressing the button. If it's wired properly,
pressing the button puts a logical zero on the inverter input, which produces a logical
one on the output and that lights up the LED.
As discussed above, the value of the resistor determines how much current will flow
through the LED, and therefore how bright it will be.

7. Replace the the R1 resistor with R3, the resistor with the highest resistance of the
three, and see if the brightness of the LED changes. Since the R3 resistor is
about 4 times higher than R1, it allows much less current to flow through the LED
and it should be noticeably dimmer.

Question 7:
In the circuit we've just built with an LED as an output indicator, the output
voltage on pin 2 of the 74LS04 is probably around 4.0V. Using equation above
and assuming Vs = 4.0V and a VLED of 2.0V, calculate the current the R1 resistor
and the R3 resistor is allowing to flow through the LED. Use the values that you
measured for R1 and R3.

Logic Thresholds (Background + Lab Tasks)

Logic circuits have to interpret voltage levels and determine if the voltage represents a
logical zero or one. This usually down by setting a threshold voltage in logic circuit. If
the input voltage is below the threshold, it's interpreted as a logical zero, and if it's
above the threshold it's considered to be a one. In this experiment you will try to
determine what the threshold voltage is for the 74LS04 inverter that you used above.
In this experiment channel 1 will provide power to the IC and channel 2 will serve as the
input signal. Note on the diagram below that all four black wires from the 74LS04, both
power supplies and DMM plug into ground bus. This connects them all together and
establishes a common ground for both power supplies, the DMM and the 74LS04.
 1. Turn off the outputs of the power supply.
2. If you haven't done so already, remove the LED, the switch and the two resistors
from the board. All you need on the breadboard for this experiment is the 74LS04
and its power and ground wires.
3. Set channel 1 of the power supply to output +5V. Connect the black lead from
channel 1 to the ground bus on the breadboard and connect the red lead to the
red power bus.
4. Set the DMM to display DC volts and connect the read lead to inverter output (pin
2) of the IC. The black lead from the DMM should be connected to the ground
bus on the breadboard.
5. As you did for channel 1 at the start of this lab, now set the current limit for
channel 2 of the power supply to something like 0.3A.
6. Set the output voltage of channel 2 of the power supply to 0V. Connect the black
lead from channel 2 to the ground bus and connect the red lead to inverter input
(pin 1) of the 74LS04.
7. Turn on the outputs of the power supply

Note: Once you apply power to the 74LS04, the indicated voltage for channel 2 on the
power supply may not be at 0V any longer. Even though you set it for 0V in step 5
above, the 74LS04's input may drag the voltage up a bit when it is turned on. You can
ignore this in the steps below. Just record the value you set the power supply to even
though it may show a different value on the display.
The DMM should show a voltage of between 4 and 5 volts. Since you are putting a
logical 0 on the input of the inverter, the output is in the logical one state which for this
type of IC is a voltage above 4 volts.
Select channel 2 on the power supply and move the underline cursor until it is under the
tenths of a volt digit. Rotate the knob to increase the input voltage by 0.1 volts with each
click of knob and observe the inverter output voltage displayed on the DMM. Note that
as you increase the input voltage the output changes very little until the input reaches
the logic threshold, and then the output drops rapidly towards zero volts.
Question 8:
Show the measured output voltages for the input voltages listed in the table on
the question sheet.

Results
The answers to the above questions should be edited into the "Lab1_Answers.txt" file
and the file uploaded to the LMS web site by the due date. See the Assignments page
of the class web site for a link for uploading.
The three resistors can be returned to the lab assistant.

Reference
[1] USC, California, USA