Day 6: Mesh/Nodal Analysis

Lab 6: Nodal Analysis

In this lab, we used nodal analysis techniques to predict circuit behavior, built said design on a bread board, and tested it for reliability with multimeters during live trials.

Prelab:

The entire procedure was basically a textbook nodal analysis problem, with the objective to find two voltages V1 and V2.

From this we found that our values were:

V1 = 2.268V

V2 = 4.268V

We then built the physical test circuit for the design seen above.

Kind of cramped, but it's true to the diagram!

After running it from the Analog Discovery kit and using two wires as probes...

Voltage over resistor 1 (V1)

Voltage over resistor 2 (V2)

After viewing the live values, we took into consideration the factors that could have attributed to them.

We measured the actual resistances of each resistor used in the lab and marked the voltages across each.

We then calculated the percent error from the theoretical value calculated and the live value we tested:

Summary:

This lab has essentially proven the effectiveness of nodal analysis from conception of a design to its testing. The values gotten from the live trial indicate that even with the tolerances set in the mass produced resistor values, one can still rely on the proposed values to appear within 1%.

Lecture:

After the lab, we learned about Mesh Analysis and its benefits.

It is basically using KVL in separate "meshes" or loops. By taking the system of equations that arises from both loops, we can find values for each current.

This is another example of using a mesh analysis technique in a larger circuit.