School of Natural Resources Engineering & Management

Department Of Energy Engineering

Electrical Circuits Lab (ENE 213)

Experiment 01
1. Introduction to Lab equipment and LT Spice

1.1 Objectives
• Introduce the color coding of resistors.

• Introduce the use of bread boards for circuit interconnection.

• To get familiarized with the equipment used for DC circuit construction and testing.

• To build simple resistive circuits using the LTSpice simulation package.

• To verify Ohm’s Law.

1.2 Introduction and theory

• Color coding: Each color on the resistor represents a number according to the scheme shown
in table 1.1.
Table 1.1: Resistors color codes

Color Value
Black 0
Brown 1
Red 2
Orange 3
Yellow 4
Green 5
Blue 6
Violet 7
Grey 8
White 9

The first band on a resistor is interpreted as the first digit of the resistor value. For the resistor shown
in figure 1.1, the first band is yellow, so the first digit is 4. The second band gives the second digit.
This is a violet band, making the second digit 7. The third band is called the multiplier and is not
interpreted in quite the same way. The multiplier tells you how many zeros you should write after the
digits you already have. A red band means to add 2 zeros to the first two digits.

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School of Natural Resources Engineering & Management
Department Of Energy Engineering
Electrical Circuits Lab (ENE 213)

The value of this resistor is therefore 4 7 0 0 ohms, that is, 4 700Ω, or 4.7kΩ. Work through this
example again to confirm that you understand how to apply the color code given by the first three
bands.

Figure 1.1: Color code illustration

The remaining band is called the tolerance band. This indicates the percentage accuracy of the resistor
value. Most carbon film resistors have a gold-colored tolerance band, indicating that the actual
resistance value is with ±5% of the nominal value. Table 1.2 shows the color codes of the tolerance
band.
Table 1.2: Tolerance band color codes.

Color Value
Brown ±1%
Red ±2%
Gold ±5%
Silver ±10%

When you want to read off a resistor value, look for the tolerance band, usually gold, and hold the
resistor with the tolerance band at its right hand end. Reading resistor values quickly and accurately
isn't difficult, but it does take practice.

The first and second lines represent the first and the second digit respectively, the third digit represents
the multiplier and the fourth digit represents tolerance. The following equation is used to calculate the
resistors’ value.

𝑅 = [𝐷1 , 𝐷2 ] × 10𝐷3 × (1 ± Tolerance (D4 ))

Example: what does color code [red, brown, red and silver] represent?
𝑅 = 21 × 102 × (1 ± 0.1) = 1890~2310 ohm

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School of Natural Resources Engineering & Management
Department Of Energy Engineering
Electrical Circuits Lab (ENE 213)

• Bread board: a component shown in figure 1.2 used to build temporary circuits without soldering.
Components and wire links can be pushed into any of the holes. Inside the bread board as illustrated
in figure 1.3, metal channels which arranged in rows has springy contacts that make connections
with the components.

Figure 1.2: Bread board

Figure 1.3: Metal connections inside the bread board

Voltage measurements: the Digital MultiMeter (DMM) is used to measure voltage between two nodes
or two terminals. In order to measure voltage, first the DMM’s selector switch is set on the voltage
position, then the wires of the DMM are connected to the two nodes on parallel. Figure 1.4 illustrates
the voltage measurement using a DMM.

Figure 1.4: Voltage measurement using DMM.

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School of Natural Resources Engineering & Management
Department Of Energy Engineering
Electrical Circuits Lab (ENE 213)

• Current measurements: the DMM is also used to measure the current passing through the
circuit. In order to measure the current first the DMM’s selector switch is set on the current
position, the DMM’s wires are connected on series with circuit branch that intended to be
measured. Figure 1.5 illustrates the current measurement using a DMM.

Figure 1.5: Current measurement using DMM.

• Resistance measurement: DMM can be used to measure the resistance of a resistor. The value
of all resistors used in experiments should be measured and recorded before using them.
• DC Power Supply: the DC power supply used in this Lab is GW Instek GPE 2323 regulated
DC power supply which has 2 independent adjustable voltage outputs (2 – Channels), figure
1.6 shows this power supply. Each output channel works in constant voltage (CV) or constant
current (CC) mode. Even at the maximum output current, a fully rated, continuously
adjustable output voltage is provided. For a big load, the power supply can be used as a CV
source; while for a small load, a CC source.

Figure 1.6: GW - Instek DC power Supply

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School of Natural Resources Engineering & Management
Department Of Energy Engineering
Electrical Circuits Lab (ENE 213)

1.3 Procedures
Components: Bread board, resistors, DC power supply and LT spice software package.

Part 1: Introduction to the lab equipment

1- Using a breadboard, connect the simple circuit in figure 1.7. Let R1 = 1.5 kΩ, R2 = 2.2 Ω and
V1 = 7 volts.

Figure 1.7: Circuit for part 1.

2- Use the DMM to measure the Voltage across R2 (use DC voltage measurement).

3- Exchange the two leads of the Voltmeter, what happens to the Voltage reading?

4- Use the DMM to measure the current through the circuit.

Part 2: Circuit Simulation Using LTspice

1- Run the LTspice program. You will get the interface in Figure 1.8 at the beginning.
• Begin a new circuit
▪ From the file menu.
▪ Click on the "New Schematic" icon. Now you will see this:

Figure 1.8: new schematic in LT Spice.

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School of Natural Resources Engineering & Management
Department Of Energy Engineering
Electrical Circuits Lab (ENE 213)

2- To construct a resistive circuit as the one shown in Figure 1.9, click on the resistor element
icon, and drag the element to a position on the Gray sheet. Do this again to end up with what
you see on Figure 5. Right click on each element and change its value according to Figure 1.9.
▪ To rotate parts so that they will fit in your circuit nicely, press "Ctrl+R" before placing the
part. If you want to reflect (or 'Mirror') the part, press "Ctrl+E".
▪ Click where you want them placed (somewhere on the grey page with the dots). Don't worry
about putting it in exactly the right place, it can always be moved later.
▪ Each type of part can be placed multiple times in succession, and they will be automatically
numbered. When you want to stop placing a particular type of part, right-click or press 'Esc'.

Figure 1.9: Adding resistors in LT Spice

3- Now that your parts are arranged well, you'll have to attach them with wires.
▪ Select the "Draw Wire" button or "F3" or go to "Edit" and select "Draw Wire".

4- Connect a battery (voltage source) in series with the two resistors as shown in Figure 1.10.
• This can be done
▪ by clicking on the 'component' button; or
▪ pressing "F2"; or
▪ going to "Edit" and selecting "Component..."

Figure 1.10: Adding voltage source to the circuit

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School of Natural Resources Engineering & Management
Department Of Energy Engineering
Electrical Circuits Lab (ENE 213)

5- Adding a GND: This is very important. You cannot do any simulation on the circuit if you
don't have a ground.
▪ Press the 'g' key, or
▪ Use the ground icon, , or
▪ Get it from the 'Edit' menu.
6- Click the run button to start the simulation.