91.548 Assignment 1

due January 30

Updated Tuesday, 28-Jan-2003 01:10:21 EST

1. Go through the lab kits from the 91.305 class and test the functionality of the dev board (using the checklist).

2. Read Chapter 1 of The Art of Electronics Student Manual, including the in-class notes, the lab, and the worked examples.

3. Investigate V= IR with the limited test equipment you have available (i.e., shared oscilloscopes). Measure the voltages on the batteries. Build voltage divider circuits and measure the voltages across the different legs.

4. Refer to Experiment 1–3 on page 27. Rather than plotting the VI curve of a diode, plot the curve for the light bulb in your lab kit. Measure at least four voltage/current points, including one with full brightness (approx 60 ma), one with the lamp dim, and one with no light at all. Characterize the graph.

5. Understand basic NPN transistors used as a switch. Figure out how to get a 7400 series chip to drive an NPN transistor and thereby turn a lamp on and off.

6. Experiment with various DC motors in the lab. Figure out how much current they draw under no load and full load (that is, stalled).

7. Under controlled conditions, blow up at least one of: LED, transistor, or electrolytic capacitor. Do NOT blow up a tantalum capacitor unless you want to pay me $2 to replace it.

8. Do something else cool with the parts in the lab kits and around the lab.

For each of these exercises, write up a narrative and/or circuit diagram (as appropriate) explaining what you did and how you came to believe your interpretation of what was going on was correct.