Robotics Workshop Practice #1

J. Baquero - D. Mateus - S. Díaz - S. Pinzón

Department of Mathematics, Physics And Statistics; Faculty of Engineering​, ​Universidad de la Sabana
​Chía, Colombia
August 8, 2019
​juanbaqmo@unisabana.edu.co
​davidmahe@unisabana.edu.co
​santiagodibe@unisabana.edu.co
​santiagopibo@unisabana.edu.co

Abstract:
The following document compiles the experimental records of the workshop # 1. The objective of the workshop aimed to develop
in students a basic notion and knowledge in the operation and use of each of the electronic measurement instruments presented
in the laboratory. However, an even more practical objective was to illustrate the compliance with Ohm's law in different types of
circuits (series, parallel, hybrid) and also, to interpret the data and the characteristics of an electrical signal according to its
frequency, amplitude and its shape (in this case, only squared form waves were studied). Finally measured data and results are
discussed according to physical postulates.

I. Theoretical Framework
For the comprehension of the following data, is vital the
apprehension of some principles and the basic notion of use of
measurement devices. The following concepts are shown, and
explained in brief.
Multimeter:
Is a multi-functioning measurement tool that can measure
voltage, current, resistance, continuity and many other
physical magnitudes. For the purpose of the experiment, only
the three fundamental physical magnitudes were measured.

Ohm’s Law: Electrical Signal Generator:

Is the principle that relies on the three basic electronics
fenomena (Current, Voltage and Resistance) and how these
share a linear behavior for Ohmic materials. The use of this
law is indispensable for the analysis of each component of any
conventional electrical circuit.
Is important to mention the fact of linear behavior is kind of
ideal, because only Ohmic materials follow completely the
linear behavior, and Non-Ohmic materials are not accurately
related to the linear behavior, but Ohm’s law is still useful.
In general, Ohm’s Law is enunciated as follows.
R = VI
When R is the resistance, V the voltage and I the electrical
current.
Voltage DC Supply:
Is a device that supplies DC electrical current with a certain
value specified of current or voltage to an electrical circuit.
Is a device that supplies certain variation quantity of voltage to
a circuit in an specified frequency. The variation behaves as a
wave, it means, it have a frequency, an amplitude and a
wavelength. This device allows to control the conduct (the
wave according to the desired shape and characteristics) of an
electrical circuit depending on the way is desired.
Oscilloscope:
Is a device that illustrates the behavior of the shape of an
electrical signal wave in an cartesian graph and its frequency.
For the purpose of the experiment, is essential for visualizing
the electrical signal desired played along the signal generator.
Resistors:
Are electrical components meant to counteract the flux of an
undesired electrical current that could harm other electrical
components. For this experiment, electrical resistors are used,
and to determine its theoretical and real value, colors code
legend and a multimeter is used.
To understand the colors code legend for electrical resistors, is
needed to visualialize a conventional bean-shaped resistor. It
may have 4 bar line colors. To read its resistance value, the
metallic colors bar may be understood as the fourth bar. The
first two bars are the numbers of the resistance value and the
third line is the factor that multiplies that number. The last bar
(the one with metallic colors) tells the percentage of error
value according to the value of the resistance.
​Figure 1. Colors code legend for a resistor. [​ 3
​ ​]
To solve an electrical circuit, usually, the conventional way to
do it, is creating an equivalent system simplified with less
components. Depending on how electrical components are
connected by each other. In general, according with the type
of electrical components, to create an equivalent electrical
piece, and according to some physical postulates, some
algebraic operations may vary.
For the interests of this experiment, only electrical resistors
were implemented. The way circuits were treated, are as
follows:
To understand the symbols, R is the value of the resistor
resistance, n the number of resistor and Req the equivalent
resistor.
- In case of electric resistors connected in series, and
equivalent resistor is obtained adding its magnitudes
as the following equation enunciates.
n
Req = ∑ Ri = R1 + R2 + ... + Rn ​(1)
i=1
- In case of electric resistors connected in parallel, and
equivalent resistor is obtained adding the reciproque
of the resistor resistances magnitudes and finally,
calculating the reciproque of the sum as the following
equation enunciates.
n
1 =∑ 1 = 1 + 1 + ... + 1 ​(2)
Req Ri R1 R2 Rn
i=1
- In case of electric resistor connected nor parallel or in
series (hybrid), the system may be reduced in parts
or using Kirchhoff rules for solving electrical circuits.
In addition, is of vital importance highlight the characterístics of
in series and parallel resistor circuits, for solving them. For
series circuits, the magnitude of electrical current will always
be constant. But voltage magnitudes may vary for every
electrical resistor but in the end, the sum of all its voltages
must be equal to the voltage source magnitude.
For parallel circuits, what remains constant is the voltage
value. In this kind of circuit, wires act like branches, and the
amount of current sumministrated is distributed to each
resistor (not necessarily in equal magnitude) but in the end,
the sum of the current magnitude of each resistor may be
equal to the current supplied to the equivalent resistor.
Taking into account these characteristics, circuits may be
solved now backwards, it means, that having the three
elemental physical magnitudes for circuits for the equivalent
system resistor, all the system can be solved. For series
circuits, having the resistance and electric current values may
allow to determine the voltage value of each resistor, and for
parallel circuits, electric current value can be found.
For the third electrical circuit found in this report, the circuit is
hybrid, so to solve it, some resistor may be firstly simplified as
series circuits, and then as a parallel one. Finally, applying the
mentioned instructions, will allow the circuit to be solved.
II. Experimental Setup
Before carrying out the practice, it was necessary to review
what elements were going to be used for this laboratory, the
elements used were:
- DC Voltage Source
- Signal Generator
- Oscilloscope
- Multimeter
- 3 Protoboard
- Resistors between 1 KΩ and 100 KΩ
- Protoboard Cables
- Clamp Cables (Alligator Cables)
- LEDs
In general, 4 procedures were performed:
Firstly were taken the measures of the values both theoretical
and real of the ten resistors; through out the color code legend
it was identified the theoretical value and measuring with the
multimeter it was identified its real value.
Secondly, with the protoboards, the cables and the resistors,
three circuits (series, parallel and a hybrid) were assembled,
 each circuit carried 4 resistors with different values.
0,9 1 0,1

7,37 7,5 0,13

99,4 100 0,6

9,75 10 0,25

9,98 10 0,02

98,4 100 1,6

Figure 2. A) serie, B) parallel, C) hybrid ​[​image taken in practice​]
Then each circuit was supplied with electrical current. using
the voltage source the circuits were closed and with values of
(3V, 6V y 9V) some measurements were carried out to identify
the currents and voltages both in the circuits as in the
resistors.
Figure 3. Circuit + signal generator and LED [​ ​image taken in practice]​
Thirdly a circuit as shown in figure 3 was assembled, a resistor
of 330 Ω and a LED were implemented. This time, instead of
connecting the circuit to the voltage source, the circuit was
connected to the signal generator and the oscilloscope cables
were connected around the LED’s limbs.
The signal generator was configured to set and amplitude of
5V and the frequency was changed multiple times.
III. Results Analysis
Table 1: Table of Difference Between Theoretical and Experimental
Value of Resistances.
From the data obtained in the chart, can be highlighted the
difference between the experimental and theoretical values
although it is the same resistor. To response why it happens?,
it is necessary to know that there are multiple factors that can
affect the exact value, as it is the resistor itself, It is referred
that it will is always going to have an uncertainty, a percentage
of tolerance due to the material as it was created, because of
that to find its value through the color code the last color line
that is shown is the value of percentage of tolerance or
accuracy (as it was mentioned in the theoretical framework),
that points out that the real value is between this range For
example, if the resistor has a value of 200 Ω and also has the
gold color stripe, that will indicate an 5% of tolerance (as is
shown in figure 1), means that the real value is between ± 5%
of the resistance value (200 ohms) located in the color code
legend.
For the second part of the laboratory, there were made three
types of circuits proposed in the laboratory guide. For each
one of these circuits resistances were used with the next
values (full tables, and data can be found below in the
annexed data section):
Table of Resistances: Series Circuit
Experimental (kΩ) Theoretical (kΩ)
9,04 9,1
2,35 2,4
9,92 10

For the first part of the laboratory, it was made the following 98,6 100
chart of the resistors values: Table 2: Resistances of series circuit
Experimental (kΩ) Theoretical (kΩ) △Ω

9,04 9,1 0,06

2,35 2,4 0,05

9,92 10 0,08

98,6 100 1,4

 Moreover, the value of the equivalent resistances were
calculated by using the equations (1) and (2) for the circuits in
series and parallel, respectively. In the case of the hybrid
circuit, it was necessary to use both equations because in that
circuit it is found series and parallel connections in one circuit.
The obtained data are the following (Note the case of the
hybrid circuit):

Equivalent Resistance: Series

Figure 4: Series Circuit Diagram

Experimental (kΩ) Theoretical(kΩ)

119,91 121,5
Table of Resistances: Parallel Circuit
Table 4: ER Series
Experimental (kΩ) Theoretical(kΩ)

9,98 10

9,94 100

0,9 1

7,37 7,5
Table 3: Resistances of parallel circuit Figure 7: Series Circuit Equivalent System Diagram

Equivalent Resistance: Parallel

Experimental (kΩ) Theoretical(kΩ)

0,6907984 0,80428954
Table 5: ER Parallel

Figure 5: Parallel Circuit Diagram

Table of Resistances: Hybrid Circuit

Experimental (kΩ) theoretical(kΩ)

7,37 7,5

9,7 10 Figure 8: Parallel Circuit Equivalent System Diagram

9,75 10 Equivalent Resistance: Mix

98,4 100 Experimental (kΩ) Theoretical(kΩ)

Table 4: Resistances of Mix circuit Serie1: 17,07 17,5

Serie 2: 108,15 110

14,7430163 15,0980392
Table 6: ER Hybrid

Figure 6: Hybrid Circuit Diagram

Figure 9: Hybrid Circuit Equivalent Parallel System Diagram
Figure 10: Hybrid Circuit Equivalent System Diagram
Now with the obtained data, it was found the current that
flowed through each one the circuits with the three values of
the voltage that were used. To find the current theoretical
value it is going to be needed the data of the theoretical
resistances and using the formula (1) Solving for I , the
equation is I = VR . For the experimental electrical current data,
it is used the multimeter connecting the red cable to the
positive part of the source and the black cable right to the
resistance where it is desired that the current goes through, (In
this case, the multimeter was not used because those that
were available were broken and the values were calculated by
hand for the recommendation of the profesor) Being this way,
the obtained data are the following:
Following the procedures in the theoretical framework section
these data was calculated
Value current: Serie Circuit
Voltage (V) Experimental (A) Theoretical (A)
3 2, 502 * 10−5 2, 4691 * 10−5
6 5, 0037 * 10−5 4, 9383 * 10−5
9 7, 5056 * 10−5 7, 4074 * 10−5
Table 7: Current of serie circuit
The last circuit, as its name mention, will blend both behaviors
(series and parallel).To see the complete data see the
annexed data section.
For the third and last part, it is necessary to mention that the
data measured by the oscilloscope were not the same as the
signal generator, because of the resistor placed in between;
the signal generator was configured for a maximum value of
5v (the amplitude) and a square type wave, as shown in the
following image.
Figure 11. Signal Generator [​ ​image taken in practice]​
And its graphic representation on the oscilloscope as shown
in the following image:
Figure 12. oscilloscope [image taken in practice]
The LED in the circuit, due to the square signal showed a
cycle of alternation between turn on and off, in a certain period
denoted by the frequency chosen of 25 Hz. If the frequency of
the signal is changed, it would show a change in the
intermittency of the light. this behavior let us notice that if we
connected the multimeter direct on the outputs of the signal
generator, it would show an alternating value of the current
and/or voltage with the same frequency as the signal
generator, so the multimeter display would show an alternating
value between 5v and 0v for the voltage and its corresponding
current (A curious fact is that if it is selected a sine wave form,
the multimeter would start showing and oscillating increasing
and decreasing value between 5v and 0v). In addition, is
important to mention the duty cycle that basically is the
percentage of the time is on a circuit during a period of
oscillation. So creating an analogy, for example, for an
electrical motor, it would be turned on and off at a specified
frequency and it would also work at a certain potency per
period (determined by the duty cycle), and actually this is used
nowadays in many manufacturing factories. To illustrate the
idea, in a cake, or candies factory, many mechanisms are
programed to operate at a certain rate, and by doing that, no
human beings are needed, and also it would increase
amazingly the productivity.
 IV. Conclusions can prove it by using the camera of our phone and with that,
In conclusion it is said that the main objective of this practice we can see the frequency that comes and goes.
was successfully accomplished, It was find out how to
measure, and how to identify the characterístrics of a given
electrical signal. Also how to measure the magnitudes of
circuit and how to apply the Ohm’s law depending on the
case. On the other hand we find out that Ohm's law is met
for every case, taking into account the theoric value of the
resistance as the real value of it, we understood the
behavior of the non Ohmic element called LED, the relation
between the frequency and the intensity of the light is
directly proportional, as well as how to use the different
instruments and tools for the sake of a better
comprehension of the relation between the magnitudes.
Also we can say that thanks to this experiments we could
know the basic idea of how the most electronic mechanism
work, for example the light that comes to our houses has the
same behavior of the LED in the last experiment, and we

V. References

[1]​Alonso, Marcelo; J. Finn, Edward (2000). ​Física.​ II

Campos y ondas. México: Addison Wesley Longman. Vol 2.
454-995

[2]SEARS, ZEMANSKY, YOUNG, FREEDMAN: " ​Fisica

Universitaria​", Vol. I y II, Pearson, 1999

[3]Resistor Color Code, Tutorial, Fórmulas, Georg Simon

Ohm history, What is «Rho». (s. f.).

VI. Annexed Data

Data of the voltage and the electrical currents of each one

the circuits given in the second part.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZpDrrX1dp9MDGKKM11
Q8lol_F_py586b