Electrical Circuits with NI myDAQ

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Introduction

NI myDAQ offers an affordable and accessible way for students to make electrical measurements, control electronics systems, and experience the world through instrumentation. With NI myDAQ sophomore-level engineering students enrolled in a first-semester circuits course experience a completely new way to interact with electrical hardware unfettered by restrictions on location, equipment availability, and scheduling.

Electrical Circuits with NI myDAQ offers a set of learning modules that emphasize short, focused, and motivational experiments based on NI myDAQ and NI ELVISmx computer-based instruments. These video-based learning modules motivate students to experience a circuits concept through measurement, learn underlying principles, and then connect their measurement results to the concept. The learning module formats include mini-labs, homework problems, and tutorials to build student confidence with the NI myDAQ product and associated experiments.

Mini-Labs

• Equivalent resistance of series and parallel resistors:
  • Equivalent Resistance I – Series
  • Equivalent Resistance II – Parallel
  • Equivalent Resistance III – Series-parallel
• Voltage dividers:
  • Voltage Divider I – Basic concept
  • Voltage Divider II – Loading effects
• Voltage-current (V-I) characteristics of linear and nonlinear devices
  • V-I Characteristic I – Linear devices
  • V-I Characteristic II – Nonlinear devices
• Thevenin equivalent circuits and source transformations:
  • Thevenin Equivalent I – Source transformations
• Operational amplifier (op amp) circuits:
  • Op Amp I – Terminal voltages
  • Op Amp II – Terminal currents
  • Op Amp III – Voltage follower
  • Op Amp IV – Inverting and noninverting amplifiers

Homework Problems

• AC Circuits > RMS Value > RMS and average value of an arbitrary periodic waveform
• DC Circuits > Resistive Circuits > Current divider
• DC Circuits > Thevenin Equivalent > Independent and dependent sources
• DC Circuits > Superposition
• Transient Circuits > First-Order > RC Natural Response
• Op Amps > Integrator

Tutorials: NI myDAQ

• Introduction to NI myDAQ
• Brief tour of NI myDAQ specifications -- emphasizes voltage and current ranges and limits
• Lab techniques, recommended parts and accessories, and suppliers
• Equipment checks to confirm correct operation:
  • Digital multimeter (DMM): voltmeter, ammeter, ammeter fuse, ohmmeter, diode tester, and continuity tester
  • Power supplies (5, +15, and -15 volts)
  • Analog output (AO0, AO1) and analog input (AI0, AI1)
  • Audio output and audio input
  • Digital I/O (DIO0 to DIO7)

Tutorials: NI ELVISmx Instruments on NI myDAQ

• Digital Multimeter (DMM): ohmmeter, voltmeter, ammeter
• Function Generator (FGEN)
• Arbitrary Waveform Generator (ARB)
• Oscilloscope (Scope)
• Bode Analyzer (Bode)
• Digital Reader (DigIn)
• Digital Writer (DigOut)

Tutorials: Measurement Techniques

• Measure current with a shunt resistor and DMM voltmeter
• Measure node voltage
• Increase current drive of analog output (AO) channels with op amp voltage follower

LabVIEW Utilities for NI myDAQ

	Set "Analog Output" (AO) voltages -- Interactively set the pair of NI myDAQ analog outputs (AO0, AO1) to desired DC values.
	Show "Analog Input" (AI) voltages -- Display the pair of NI myDAQ analog inputs (AI0, AI1) in real time.
	V-I Curve Tracer -- Interactively explore and plot the voltage-current (V-I) characteristic of a two-terminal device.

NI myDAQ Resources

• NI myDAQ product:
  • Homepage: ni.com/mydaq
• Communities:
  • NI myDAQ Zone
  • LabVIEW Student Community
• Curriculum resources and learning modules:
  
  • Mechanical Engineering Labs with myDAQ
• LabVIEW programming for data acquisition:
  • Learn to use LabVIEW with myDAQ
  • Getting Started with NI-DAQmx
• Data acquisition techniques:
  
  • Measurement Fundamentals