Lab Report
Objective:
One of the main learning experiences of this lab is to learn the importance of calibrating a sensor. In most cases, a sensor will not have an output that is exactly what you need. An example of this is a strain gage. A stain gage gives back a voltage, but with that given voltage a distance can be found.
Introduction:
In this experiment, the QNET-MECHKIT was used. This board has multiple compact sensors that can be used for experiments. For this lab we will be using the strain gage to find the deflection of a bar, a piezo sensor to find to find the natural frequency of the strip with a weight on the end, and lastly a potentiometer to find an angle.
Procedure:
Exercise 1:
The strain gage was the first experiment that was done. Calibrating this device was done using five points. The points were chosen to cover the range that we ill want to measure. We used the tow extreme ends, the center, and a point on either side of the center.
Exercise 2:
Piezo material will create electricity depending on how fast it is vibrating. piezo material creates electricity according to the rate of change, so if the material is moving slowly then no electricity will be detected. Knowing this we can find the natural frequency of this strip with a weight on the end.
Exercise 3:
Potentiometers are user as variable resistors. Knowing that, we can take resistance values at given angles, then use those to find angles in between. A critical step in this exercise is to guess the angle as close to its true value as you can. After you have found your values you can use those values to calibrate the system. After calibration the system will read the incoming voltage and correlate that to an angle measurement.
Exercise 4: Using the infrared sensor we are able to find how far away some thing is. We took readings at measured intervals and correlated those readings to the measured distances.
Results:
Exercise 1:
This was a quick exercise. Take readings
One of the main learning experiences of this lab is to learn the importance of calibrating a sensor. In most cases, a sensor will not have an output that is exactly what you need. An example of this is a strain gage. A stain gage gives back a voltage, but with that given voltage a distance can be found.
Introduction:
In this experiment, the QNET-MECHKIT was used. This board has multiple compact sensors that can be used for experiments. For this lab we will be using the strain gage to find the deflection of a bar, a piezo sensor to find to find the natural frequency of the strip with a weight on the end, and lastly a potentiometer to find an angle.
Procedure:
Exercise 1:
The strain gage was the first experiment that was done. Calibrating this device was done using five points. The points were chosen to cover the range that we ill want to measure. We used the tow extreme ends, the center, and a point on either side of the center.
Exercise 2:
Piezo material will create electricity depending on how fast it is vibrating. piezo material creates electricity according to the rate of change, so if the material is moving slowly then no electricity will be detected. Knowing this we can find the natural frequency of this strip with a weight on the end.
Exercise 3:
Potentiometers are user as variable resistors. Knowing that, we can take resistance values at given angles, then use those to find angles in between. A critical step in this exercise is to guess the angle as close to its true value as you can. After you have found your values you can use those values to calibrate the system. After calibration the system will read the incoming voltage and correlate that to an angle measurement.
Exercise 4: Using the infrared sensor we are able to find how far away some thing is. We took readings at measured intervals and correlated those readings to the measured distances.
Results:
Exercise 1:
This was a quick exercise. Take readings