Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

The laboratory portion of this course provides students with the opportunity to develop skills in the operation of basic electronics test instruments (dc power supply, digital multimeter, signal generator, and oscilloscope). Students will work in groups of two or more to perform and complete laboratory exercises. Students must be able to communicate, both in oral and written form, using the English language.
The course may be offered on line also, in a DL format. In that case, the labs will be held in the lab room of the school, once a week, for 3 hours.

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

• Construct, analyze and troubleshoot DC circuits.
• Operate electronic test equipment: multimeter, power supply, function generator, oscilloscope.
• Use electronic circuit simulation software like PSpice
• Communicate technical information in written and oral form
• Practice safe operating procedures.

The course will include a variety of learning activities. The lecture portion of the course, three hours per week, will include instructor delivered lectures and demonstrations stressing key topics in the course. In preparation for the lecture portion of the course, students will be expected to complete all reading and homework assignments.
The laboratory portion of the course, three hours per week, will include laboratory activities. The purpose of the laboratory activities is to develop skills in the operation of basic electronics test instruments, skills in circuit analysis and troubleshooting, skills in teamwork, and skills in oral and written communication.

Assessment of student performance in this course will be conducted in both the lecture and the laboratory portion of the course and will be in the form of written and practice-based questions.

REQUIRED STUDENT COMPETENCIES:
1.0 Electrical Parameters
1.1 Define the terms: voltage, current, resistance, and power.
1.2 Give the units associated with voltage, current, resistance, and power.
1.3 Measure resistance using a digital multimeter.
1.4 Perform continuity tests using a digital multimeter.
1.5 Interpret the color code on commercial 5% carbon resistors.
1.6 Measure voltage between two points using a digital multimeter.
1.7 Given two of the three electrical parameters (voltage, current, and resistance), use Ohm's Law to compute the value of the third electrical parameter.
1.8 Given two of the three electrical parameters (voltage, current, and power), use the power equation to compute the value of the third electrical parameter.
2.0 Series Circuits
2.1 Identify series circuit elements.
2.2 State Kirchhoff's Voltage Law.
2.3 Determine the equivalent voltage for a series connection of two or more dc voltage sources.
2.4 Determine the equivalent resistance for a series connection of two or more resistances.
2.5 Given a series circuit, compute current flowing in the circuit.
2.6 Given a series circuit, compute voltage drop across each resistor.
2.7 Given a series circuit, compute the power dissipated in the circuit.
2.8 Given a voltage divider circuit, determine the voltage across the output terminals.
2.9 Use the voltage divider equation to calculate voltage drops across elements in a series circuit.
2.10 Calculate the value of a series limiting resistor for a light-emitting diode (LED).
2.11 Determine the effect of "open circuits" and "short circuits" in a series circuit.
3.0 Parallel Circuits
3.1 Recognize when two circuit elements or groups of circuit elements are connected in parallel.
3.2 State Kirchhoff's Current Law.
3.3 Apply Kirchhoff's Current Law at a node in a parallel circuit.
3.4 Determine the equivalent resistance of two or more resistances that are connected in parallel.
3.5 Using the current divider equation, the total current, and the resistance of two parallel paths, determine how current will divide between the two parallel paths.
3.6 Given a parallel circuit, calculate the amount of power dissipated in the circuit.
3.7 Determine the effect of "short circuits" and "open circuits" in a parallel circuit.
4.0 Series-Parallel Circuits
4.1 Determine the equivalent resistance of a series-parallel circuit.
4.2 Given a series-parallel circuit consisting of one dc voltage source and three or more resistances, determine the voltage drop across each circuit element and the current flowing through each circuit element.
4.3 Given a series-parallel circuit consisting of one dc voltage source and three or more resistances, from given voltage readings determine the location of an open or short circuit.
4.4 Apply Kirchhoff's Current Law at a node in a series-parallel circuit.
5.0 Time-Varying Waveforms
5.1 Given a graph of a sinusoidal waveform, determine the peak amplitude, period, and frequency and calculate the rms value from the peak amplitude.
5.2 Given a graph of a pulse waveform, determine the peak amplitude, period, frequency, pulsewidth, and duty cycle.
5.3 Configure a waveform/function generator to produce a sinusoidal or pulse waveform of a specified amplitude, frequency, and DC offset.
5.4 Correctly operate an oscilloscope to measure the amplitude and frequency of an unknown signal.
6.0 Superposition and Thevenin's Theorem
6.1 Use the Superposition Theorem to solve for currents and voltages in a resistive circuit driven by two or more dc sources
6.2 Use the Superposition Theorem to solve for currents and voltages in a resistive circuit driven by dc and ac sources.
6.3 Determine the Thevenin equivalent circuit of a resistive circuit containing one or more dc voltage sources.
6.4 Use the Thevenin equivalent circuit to solve for currents and voltages in the remainder of the circuit
7.0 Capacitance and R-C Transients
7.1 State the relationship of capacitance to plate area, plate separation, and the dielectric constant of the insulating layer in a parallel plate capacitor.
7.2 Calculate the equivalent capacitance of capacitors connected in series and in parallel.
7.3 Given an R-C circuit and steady-state inputs, determine the currents through the resistors and the voltages across the capacitors.
7.4 Calculate the R-C time constant for a simple R-C circuit.
7.5 Given a simple R-C circuit (differentiator or integrator) and the input pulse waveform, determine and sketch the output waveform.