intro Testboards

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intro Testboards#

This intro supports labmanual 1A

In the caddie (located next to each desk), you have a collection of testboards:

  • board 1: contains resistors, capacitors and and inductor.

  • board 2: contains a lightbulb and transistor.

  • board 3: contains more transistors, a voltage regulator and multiplexer

  • board 4: contains opamps, diodes, and resistor decades

  • board 5: contains a complex RLC filter

  • board 7: contains a complex transistor-opamp circuits

  • board 15: contains more transistor-opamp circuits

In NB2214 mainly board 1 and 4 will be used.

movie of how to use Testboard 1#

Watch the following movie clips to get introduced to the test board.

## SCR-caddies&testboards, start the movie at 1:02

from IPython.lib.display import YouTubeVideo
YouTubeVideo('LwQ_9zIQuX0', width = 600, height = 450)

Type & color of connectors#

In order to keep overview:

  • always connect black wires to ground (GND)

  • use colored cables, like red (sometimes blue) for the wires with a signal

Mainly two types of cables and connectors are used:

  • Banana plugs, either 4mm or mini 2mm: These are one directional cables, not shielded. So you need a set of red signal and black ground wire to make an actual circuit. As seen from the figure below, you can often stack banana plugs on top of each other, which is especially usefull when connecting all black wires

  • shielded coax cables with BNC connectors: These are bi-directional cables, with an inner signal wire, and an outer shield connected to ground.

Connections on the board#

The white wires drawn on the testboard are physical connections. In the above image J2 and U12 are connected, which allow connecting a 2 and 4 mm cable (with banana connector) on the board.

connecting a scope probe#

Special care needs to be taken when connecting a scope probe. This probe has a hook for the signal, and a crocodile clip for ground connection. When directly attaching the clamp or hook to a component on the board (a resistor), the component’s connection to the board gets easily damaged (which is unwanted!!).

Therefore, it is far better to connect the hook or clamp to one side of a 2 mm cable, and stick the banana plug at the other side into the testboard.

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