1. ECE 2054 Applied Electrical Theory - Laboratory
Course Description:
The ECE2054 Lab is a basic introduction to circuit design, analysis, construction, design, and measurement.
Experiments include:
Characterization of breadboard backplane wiring; DC measurements; Ohm's Law; component
tolerances; Kirchhoff’s laws; series and parallel resistors; voltage and current dividers; mesh-current
and node-voltage analysis; Thévenin equivalents; AC measurements; RC and RL circuits; AC
impedance; Frequency response
Teaching Assistants:
see www.opel.ece.vt.edu for a list of the GTAs and the times that they are available
Course Supervisor: Elliott Mitchell-Colgan (Dave Fritz out for surgery)
Office Hours: Monday and Thursday 9-10:00am, and Fridays immediately after lecture. Whittemore 356.
Other times may be scheduled by emailing the instructor at emc2@vt.edu. Include OpEL in the subject line.
Learning Objectives:
Having successfully completed this course, the student will be able to:
 Build circuits described in the catalog description and syllabus on a student-owned analog and
digital trainer kit using tools and components to departmental wiring standards.
 Measure and characterize the circuits built and described above using a digital multimeter and a
student-owned oscilloscope.
 Analyze and model circuit performance using LTspice, and compare simulated results with
measurements.
Additional Aspirations:
The instructor also hopes students will build a comfort working with their hands, as well as a fondness for
answering technical questions by designing and conducting simple experiments with hardware.
Lab notes and assignments:
 All lab materials are distributed through scholar.
 R.B. Lineberry, W.C. Headley and R.W. Hendricks, RSR/VT Analog and Digital “ANDY” User
Manual and Test Procedure, Ver. 2.0 (2005), available from the OpEL web page at
http://www.opel.ece.vt.edu/reference/A&D-User-Manual&Test-Procedure-v2.2.pdf
Required Software:
 LSpice IV - free circuit simulation program available from Linear Technology
o Pspice is acceptable if a student already has Pspice experience
Special Equipment:
Students are required to acquire a laboratory kit (known as Lab-in-a-Box or LiaB) for ECE2054 and
3254. Students must purchase:
1. RSR/VT A and D Trainer - Part no 32VPTADBRD from Electronix Express or another vendor
2. Velleman PCSGU250 Oscilloscope with Function Generator -
Part no 32VPTPCSGU250 from Electronix Express or another vendor
3. Digital multimeter - MY64 Part no 01VPTMY64 from Electronix Express is recommended.
Other meters with similar specs are acceptable.
4. Meter and scope probe kit - Part no 32VPTTPK2 from Electronix Express is recommended
(32VPTTPK2 contains multiples of the cables below). If you source your own leads, you need at
least 1 of each of the following leads:
a. BNC to Test Hook, 3 ft. long (05SPAT1)
b. BNC 1x / 10x scope probe, 3 ft long (05SPAK220)

2. c. Banana-to-IC Hook, , 1 black, 1 red, 3ft. long (05ALS5)
d. Banana-to-Alligators, 1 black, 1 red, 3ft. long (05ALS3)
5. Screwdriver, wire stripper, needle nose pliers - tool kit Part no 32VPTTK1 from Electronix
Express is recommended. Similar tools are acceptable.
The ECE Department will supply each student with an electronic components kit for your experiments. The
department-supplied components as well as the “ANDY” board and oscilloscope will be used in ECE 2054
and ECE 3254.
* Students who own equipment with at least the same capabilities as the Velleman PCSGU250 do not
have to purchase item #2. Note that demonstration of oscilloscope usage during circuit validation will be
required for some experiments. Therefore, students must be prepared to transport their personal
oscilloscopes to the Open Electronics Laboratory as needed.
Although each of the required items is available from many different suppliers, and students may buy
equipment with equal or better specifications from these sources, we have developed a special, low cost
single source of supply through Electronix Express who has developed an exclusive VT purchase site to
their educational store.
Lab Lecture Class: Fridays at 9:05-9:55 AM in TORG 2150
There will usually be a lab lecture unless notice is given during the lecture or via email.
The first lab lecture will be held on Friday, Jan 23, 2015.
Experiments: Students will have one week to carry out the experiment assigned and have their circuits
validated.
Due Dates for Assigned Labs: (make-up work requires written permission from the university)
 Lab assignments must be submitted to scholar by Thursday at 4:00PM for full credit.
 Lab quizzes must be submitted to scholar by Thursday at 4:00PM for full credit.
 Lab validations with a graduate teaching assistant must be completed by Thursday at 8:00PM.
 Lab assignments and quizzes submitted up to 24 hours late receive half credit.
 After 24 hours, lab assignments and quizzes are not accepted and receive no credit.
 There are no late lab validations. If not completed on time, the validation grade is 0.
 All deadlines are in Eastern Standard Time.
Lab Schedule (pay attention for updates)
Lab 00A Pick up a parts kit, take Quiz 00 Due Jan 29
Lab 00B Check and verify your parts kit Due Feb 05
Lab 01 Intro to Meter and ANDY board Due Feb 05
Lab 02 Basic circuit simulation with LTSpice Due Feb 12
Lab 03 AC measurements Due Feb 26
Lab 04 Thevenin sources Due Mar 05
Lab 05 Wheatstone Bridge Due Mar 19
Lab 06 RC and RL transient response Due Mar 26
Lab 07 AC Complex Impedance Due Apr 09
Lab 08 Circuit frequency response Due Apr 16

3. Validation Procedure
Each student must go to the Open Electronics Laboratory (OpEL) in Whittemore Hall, Room 219 or
Room 222, during TA office hours and validate their experiment before the deadline. During the
validation, the TA will ask the student to perform a validation procedure. No late validations will be
accepted without an excused absence from the Dean of Students Office.
Grading:
All lab assignments, validations, and quizzes count equally toward the overall Lab Grade
The Lab Grade is 33% of the overall ECE2054 grade.
The lowest grade (one validation or one assignment or one quiz, whichever is lowest) will be dropped.
Concerns with the grading of an assignment will be raised to the instructor (Elliott Mitchell-Colgan) by
email (emc2@vt.edu) within one week from the time the grade is released. Please remember which GTA
graded the material.
Honor Code
Students are permitted to work together to discuss calculations, circuit wiring, and measurements.
Students are expected to individually make their own calculations, build and simulate their own circuits
in LTspice or PSpice, build their own circuits on the ANDY board, and perform their own
measurements.
 Comparing wiring, a component value, a calculation, or a measurement result is OK.
 Using a common set of calculations, simulations, circuits, or measurements is a violation.
Cheating in ECE 2054 will not be tolerated.
All submitted work (both written work submitted via Scholar and experiments built on the ANDY board
and presented for validation) is presumed to be the original work of the student and the Virginia Tech
Honor code applies. The validating GTA and the grading GTA will make clear notations on the
validation report and/or the laboratory notebook respectively if there is any suspicion of copied reports
and/or “dry-lab” experiments. In such a case, the suspected work will be sent directly to the instructor.
Evidence of cheating, either by submission of a copied (“dry-labbed”) lab report or false submission of a
verification e-mail will be submitted to the Honor Court for appropriate action.
Special Accommodations
Please talk to the instructor within the first week of class about any special accommodations. The
instructor will be happy to work with students and the Virginia Tech SSD (http://www.ssd.vt.edu/) in the
attempt to provide a great learning experience.