Experimental Methods to Evaluate Transducers
Zeffrey Jon Aleta, Clarice Bangcoleng, and Maeve Eilinger
Electronics Engineering Department
Technological Institute of the Philippines
Quezon City, Philippines
zeffreyaleta@gmail.com
Abstract – Transducers is an electronic device that
converts energy from one form to another. These
devices can be seen almost everywhere; Speakers,
microphones and many more. This documentation is
the evaluation of five different types of transducers
which are Light Emitting Diode (LED), Light
Dependent Resistor (LDR), Potentiometer, Proximity
Sensor, and Thermocouple (Peltier). Each devices
have different ways to measure certain parameters and
have different experimentations to get the data
necessary to evaluate it.
I. INTRODUCTION
(Maeve or Clang discuss nyo yung transducer
tapos yung mga type na ginamit natin tapos
describe each paki link yung mga reference saka
kung bakit natin ginagawa tong docu)
II. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Transducers are commonly used as a sensor or as
an output display like for thermistor. Thermistor is a
type of resistor and transducer whose resistance is
dependent on temperature. How will an Engineer
know if this is a Negative Temperature Coefficient
(NTC) or Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC);
what is the value of the resistance at certain
temperature. This is important in designing a system
due to the reason of accuracy. This is not the only
type of transducer where it needed an evaluation.
There are a lot of it but this experiment only shows
five types of transducers.
III. OBJECTIVES
The said problem statement will be addressed
by fulfilling the following research objectives:
1.) Creating an experiment for each transducer.
2.) Get data to evaluate from the created
experiments
IV. METHODOLOGY
This section shows the different methods or
experiments done in each devices. Here the procedure
done is explained.
The students are limiting the number of
transducers into five which are Light Emitting Diode
(LED), Light Dependent Resistor (LDR),
Potentiometer, Proximity Sensor, and Thermocouple
(Peltier). These components have been conducted with
different experiments each.
A. Potentiometer
Since potentiometer is a type of resistor and its
resistance varies when the knob was turn, two
parameters was set here. The independent variable
which is the rotation of the knob (Angular
Displacement) and the dependent variable which is the
resistance. The student used 1kΩ and this was chosen
since it has a lower limit of resistance which is more
or less 1kΩ.
The experiment was set with these procedure:
1. Cut out a circle from a sheet of bond paper.
2. Mark the angles on the circle so that the Angular
Displacement can be measured when turning the
knob.
3. Create a hole to the center of the circle in order for
the knob to go through the paper. (See figure 1)
4. Secure the potentiometer by using the bolt and
washer included to it.
5. Create an indicator for the knob and point it to 0°.

FIGURE 3: Schematic Diagram for the LED

Experiment

Covering the circuit together with the lux meter

with a dark material to become accurate. If this is not
done, other sources of light may affect the data.

The data was obtained by turning the knob of

FIGURE 1: MEASURING INSTRUMENT
After doing these procedures, proceed to the
experiment by using ohmmeter (or multi-meter) and
measuring the resistance. (See figure 2). Turn the knob
exactly 10° and measure again the resistance.
Repeating the process until the knob reach the
maximum displacement it can rotate. This gives the
students data (Table 1).
potentiometer to control the current and measuring the
luminous intensity.
C. Light Dependent Resistor (LDR)
The method use here is almost the same with the
LED experiment. Here a flashlight was used as the
light source since the resistance of the device varies
when it sense light. The student created a tube to focus
the light to the LDR and lux meter;

B. Light Emitting Diode (LED) The method was illustrated in figure 5.1.
Current affects the brightness of the light that the
LED emits. The experiment for this device is set using
the schematic in figure 3.

The current through the LED is set as the

independent variable while the brightness of the LED
was set as the dependent variable. Ammeter (Multi-
meter) was used to measure current through the circuit
and a lux meter was used to measure the luminance or
the luminous intensity (measure of the wavelength-
weighted power emitted). Potentiometer was used to
control the current to the circuit and a 50Ω resistor for
current limiter. Power supply was used as a battery. FIGURE 5.1: LDR SET
Super-Bright LED was used as the light source. The
set of experiment can be seen in figure 4. Before pointing the light onto the LDR, the
student measure the luminous intensity using the lux
meter. This is achieve using the same method in figure
5 only the lux meter is under the cover. The brightness
of flashlight to the phone can be adjust using
application installed to it.
D. Proximity Sensor 30 46.6
The parameters in this device are the distance and 40 86.5
the signal voltage being output by it. As the distance
50 138.7
varies, the signal voltage also varies. These was prove
with this experiment. 60 170.4
70 214
Using a ruler, dark and light object acting as a wall 80 250
in order for the infrared light to bounce and be detected
90 284
by the device. The students use two shades of color for
the wall to see if it affects the results. 100 316
110 365
The device is set at 0 centimeter of the ruler and 120 404
the distance was set by placing the “wall” at 1
130 437
centimeter. Increasing the distance with an interval of
1 centimeter and measuring the signal voltage to 140 474
acquire data. 150 511
160 544
The pin-outs of the device is shown in figure 6.1
170 601
and the set for the experiment in figure 6.2
180 640
190 680
200 718
210 764
220 813
230 858
240 908
250 956
260 983
270 1026
FIGURE 6.1: Pin-Out of Proximity Sensor
280 1057
E. Thermocouple 290 1066
300 1077
TABLE 1: Data Acquired in Potentiometer
V. DATA AND RESULTS
This data can be plotted in a graph which can
be seen in figure 7.
In this section, the data acquired was list, graph
and interpret.

A. Potentiometer
Table 1 shows the data obtained in the experiment
of potentiometer. The methods use are already
discussed in methodology.

Angular Displacement Resistance

(°) (Ω)
0 3.9
10 13.9
FIGURE 7.1: Plotted Data of Potentiometer
20 19.9
 Using ‘trendline’ function on Microsoft
excel, Regression Line can be seen. This may be
linear, exponential, logarithmic, polynomial, or
power. This can be determined by computing the value
of R-squared (statistical measure of how close the data
are to the fitted regression line) and the closest the
value of it to 1 the better it is. Microsoft Excel also has
this feature where it automatically compute the value
of R-squared. The students try different types of
regression line until it fits to the plots.
X represent the angular displacement of the knob and
Y as the resistance.
The data shows that the minimum value of
resistance is 3.9 Ω and a maximum value of 1077 Ω.
The knob can rotate up to 300° clockwise and
counterclockwise.
The data shows that as the Angular
Displacement increases the Resistance also increases.
B. Light Emitting Diode (LED)

Current Luminous Intensity

(mA) (Lux)
1.5 14
3.1 27
6.5 61
9.9 85
12 105
FIGURE 7.2: Linear Regression Line 22 175

Figure 7.2 shows the Linear Regression Line 27 215

(red line), the value of R-squared (R2) and the equation 28 222
of the line. As the figure shows, the value of R- 36 245
squared is 0.9966 and an equation of TABLE 2: Data Acquired in LED
𝑦 = 3.9146𝑥 − 57.327
EQUATION 1.1: Equation of Linear Regression Line Table 2 shows the data acquired on the
experiment discussed on the methodology.

FIGURE 7.3: Polynomial Regression Line (3rd Order)

Figure 7.3 shows another type of regression
line which is polynomial. This is better due to the
values of R-squared which is 0.9986. It is closer to one
and make the plots closer to the line.
𝑦 = −(2 × 10−5 )𝑥 3 + 0.0188𝑥 2 + 2.3031𝑥 − 11.209
EQUATION 1.2: Equation of Polynomial Regression Line
FIGURE 8.1: Plotted Data from the LED Experiment
The plot shows that as the current increases
the luminous intensity also increases. To show the
relationship between the two variables, Regression
Line is used.

This is the equations of the regression line

and can be used to estimate values in certain variable.
 FIGURE 8.2: Regression Line of the Data FIGURE 9.1: Plotted Graph of the Experiment

Figure 8.2 shows the regression line of the The data showed that the resistance decreases when
obtained data. The equation has a R-Squared value of light intensity increases. LDR is at max when no light
0.9971 and the equation of the line is is being sense.

𝑦 = −0.0934𝑥 2 + 10.437𝑥 − 4.3771 Again, Regression Line is used to know the

EQUATION 2: Equation of Regression Line relationship between the two.

The equation is not linear but a polynomial.

It was observed that as the current increases the
luminous intensity but not in linear.

Super-Bright LED was used in this

experiment having more light intensity than the usual
LEDs.

C. Light Dependent Resistor (LDR)

Luminous Intensity Resistance FIGURE 9.2: Regression Line of the Plot

(Lux) (Ω)
220 2,970 Power Regression Line was used that fits to
520 2000 the data. The value of R-Squared is equal to 0.9921
almost close to 1 which
600 1800
D. Proximity Sensor
800 1500 E. Thermocouple (Peltier)
1350 1100
TABLE 3: Obtained Data from the Experiment VI. CONCLUSION

Table 3 shows the data gathered while doing

the experiment. VII. SUMMARY

VIII. RECOMMENDATION

IX. REFERENCES