General Lab Equipment Obstacle Course
A general primer in important equipment in a scientific laboratory.
Contents
Multimeters
- Measuring voltage
- Measuring current (check that fuse isn't blown!)
- Measuring resistance and testing for continuity
- Diode check
- AC signals, frequency response
- Capacitance
- 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
