Now look what you've got me into... :-)
https://store.digilentinc.com/analog-discovery-studio-a-portable-circuits-laboratory-for-every-student/
It's a little rich for my blood considering that I already have a bench full of equipment plus the AD2 and the Digital Discovery. If my grandson were doing EE instead of ME, he
would have one.
I have attached a couple of plots from the Waveform software. Both are based on an identical circuit with a 10k Ohm resistor in series with a 0.1 ufd capacitor. Same exact circuit, two different views...
The first, "ForcedRCresponse.png" is called a forced response because the circuit is getting hit with a signal. We are looking at the capacitor voltage as a function of time so we're viewing it in what is called the 'time domain'. We can see the characteristic exponential rise and decay in the capacitor You will run across the equation:
Vout = Vin * (1-e
(-t/Tau)) -- the charging equation
where Tau, the time constant is R in Ohms times C in farads or, in this case. 10
4 Ohms * 0.1 * 10
-6 Farads or 0.001 seconds (1 millisecond). Note that the capacitor is over 99.7% charged in 6 time constants, that is, t/Tau = 6. This is a very important plot when you get to AC circuits.
The second plot is the very same circuit viewed as a function of frequency - we're looking at a plot (Bode' Plot) of the output attenuation and phase shift versus frequency so we're viewing the circuit in the 'frequency domain'. There's a cursor at approximately the -3dB point and about 45 degrees of phase shift. This will come up when you get to low pass filters. That -3dB point is often called the breakpoint and will seem terribly important when you get to AC circuits.
I threw in a bonus plot: We're looking at the impedance of the RC circuit as a function of frequency. There is a cursor where the capacitive reactance is equal to the series resistance. Oddly, this is the same frequency as the -3dB breakpoint. Again, you will be all over this stuff when you get to AC circuits and impedance vectors become important.
I can spend an entire day messing around with just two components. I guess I'm easily amused by shiny objects! The point is, the AD2 is an amazing piece of equipment, especially in a learning environment. Oddly, my grandson has a "Circuits" course as part of his ME program. I have no idea why it is included but the lab work is done using, you guessed it, AD2s.
I would seriously consider the Analog Discovery Studio if I didn't already have the AD2. Heck, I might buy it anyway. Experiments with transistor circuits would be my next topic. I don't do a lot with small signal amplifiers but if I wanted to experiment, the Studio might be just about perfect.
Check out w2aew's videos on small signal amplifiers. This one is very good: