Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

1. Use basic electrical DC concepts and theorems to analyze circuits.
2. Build and simulate electrical DC circuits and perform measurements with electronic test equipment.
3. Write technical reports using collected data. 

Lecture and discussion are the instructional methods used. Weekly homework is assigned. Laboratory activity includes building circuits on solder-less breadboards, making circuit measurements using test equipment, analyzing test data, and comparing to predictions using theory.

Lab exercises involve using a PC with spreadsheet, word processor, and circuit simulation software. The student is expected to learn the following in the lab:

Use the DMM (digital multi-meter) to measure resistance, voltage, and current.

Build circuits on a solder-less breadboard.

Use the DC power supply

Use the spreadsheet and word processor to process lab data and to write lab reports.

Use circuit simulation software to simulate circuits built in the lab.

Evaluation is by exams, homework, and lab work.

1. Introduction

            a) Units, significant figures, powers of 10, scientific and engineering notation.

            b) Unit conversion.

            c) Using the scientific calculator.

2. Voltage and Current

            a) Voltage and current sources, ideal and practical.

            b) Batteries and power supplies.

            c) Conductors and insulators.

            d) Ammeters and voltmeters.

3. Resistance

            a) Resistance and resistivity, wire tables.

            b) Temperature effects.

            c) Conductance.

            d) Ohmmeters.

4. Ohm’s Law, Power, Energy

            a) Ohms law, graphical analysis of resistance.

            b) Power, energy, and efficiency.

            c) Circuit breakers, ground fault interrupters, and fuses.

5. Series DC Circuits

            a) Series circuits, resistances, voltage and current sources in series.

            b) Kirchhoff’s voltage law, voltage dividers.

            c) Voltage regulation, internal resistance of voltage sources, loading effects.

6. Parallel Circuits

            a) Parallel circuits, resistances and sources in parallel.

            b) Kirchhoff’s current law, current dividers.

            c) Open and short circuits, Loading effects.

7. Series-Parallel Circuits

            a) Series-parallel networks, ladder networks, bridge circuits.

            b) Potentiometer circuits, loading effects.

8. Analysis Methods

            a) Current sources and source conversion.

            b) Voltage sources and source conversion.

            c) Mesh current analysis, Node voltage analysis.

            d) Bridge networks, delta-wye and wye delta conversion.

9. Network Theorems

            a) Superposition, Thevenin’s, and Norton’s theorems.

            b) Maximum power transfer theorem.

10. Capacitors

            a) Electric field and capacitance.

            b) Capacitors.

            c) Charging and discharging capacitors through a resistance.

            d) RC time constant and the exponential function.

            e) Capacitors in series and parallel.

            e) Energy storage.