This page will be updated along the semester, please check here for your queries before sending emails to the teaching team.
Discontinuity in breadboard's power rails
Make sure your power rails are properly connect. Supply power to the left hand side does NOT power up the right hand side. Break lines indicates discontinuity.
Take the lab sessions as a chance to get familiar with your breadboard, due to various reasons, they might have internal breaks along rails where suppose to be connected. Test out your breadboard as much as possible, so that you can avoid these break points during project.
Capacitor polarity
Two types of capacitors are provide: polarised and non-polarised.
When connecting non-polarised capacitor, you do not need to worry about the direction.
For polarised capacitor, negative lead usually came in with a shorter leg, while the positive lead with a longer leg. On the packaging, look for negative symbol ( - )on a coloured band, it also indicates this leg is the negative lead. When connecting, the simple rule is: positive to positive, negative to negative (e.g., + to input, - to GND).
OpAmp Pinout
Always check for OpAmp's pinout and look for the right package.
Most of the OpAmp chips contains 2 OpAmps each, but there are chips come with 1 single OpAmp.
Check carefully before connect the OpAmps as well as power supplies. Position 1 usually marked with a dot, while the trench on the chip corresponding to the semi-circle trench on the plot.
Power Up the OpAmps!
Some students forgot to power up the OpAmps, do not be surprised that this is a common mistake!
If you see things like the graph below, it's highly likely the power supply is not properly connected or there might be internal break points in your circuits.
Signal Saturation
When characterizing your filter circuit with AD2 bode plot, think carefully what's the expected gain and adjust the signal amplitude feed into your circuit accordingly.
The power supply to the OpAmps are +5V and -5V, if the amplified signal magnitude is over +5V, the saturated part will be capped off, and you will notice a warning message at the top left corner:
Reduce the amplitude to avoid saturation:
(The GUI might display slightly different on your device, amplitude selection could be on the right panel. )
Regulate DC power supply
Refer to the image below:
