General Lab Equipment Obstacle Course

A general primer in important equipment in a scientific laboratory.

Multimeters

• Measuring voltage
• Measuring current (check that fuse isn't blown!)
• Measuring resistance and testing for continuity
• AC signals
• Clamp meter

Power Supplies

• Digital and Analog
• Floating and grounding
• Current/voltage limiting

Function Generators

(Should look at this in tandem with the following oscilloscope discussion)

• Frequency, amplitude, offset, phase
• Frequency sweep/ramp
• Sine, square (incl. TTL), triangle, sawtooth, arbitrary waveforms (possibly a demonstration of Fourier components)

Oscilloscopes

• Voltage/time scale
• Coupling
• Triggering
• Scope probes
• Termination
• Bandwidth, sampling
• Aliasing
• Analyzing data: cursors, averaging, math menu
• Exporting data
• Analog and digital scopes

RF Signals

• Measuring RF power
• Termination and impedance matching
• Attenuation and filtering
• Splitters, mixers, and switches

Lock-in Amplifier

• Basic idea of operation; reason for using
• Use switch to turn on and off a highly attenuated signal and detect it with the lock-in

Frequency Counters

Measure the frequency of an RF source; map frequency vs. voltage curve of a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO)

RF Spectrum Analyzer

Always be careful to ensure signal input to spectrum analyzer is not too large

• What does a spectrum analyzer do?
• Attach wire-loop antenna and find radio stations
• Mix two RF signals and observe the expected spectrum
• Measuring amplitude of signal above background
• Save and export data

Soldering

• Soldering technique
  • Cleaning iron tip
  • Heat pieces to be soldered (hot iron, short time)
  • Avoid cold solder joints
  • Look for shiny and smooth result
• Tools of the trade: heatshrink tubing, desoldering pump, solder wick, wire strippers, soldering gun, heat gun, rosin flux
• Solder end of DB9 cable (using only 4 or 5 conductors) to practice stripping wire, using heatshrink tubing, and creating usable product
• Construct voltage divider on perfboard with BNC input/output connectors