EE2112 Circuit II Lab

Experiment 8: Blackbox Testing

1 Introduction and Objectives

For this lab you will use all of the knowledge you have acquired in your circuits courses to test an
actual black-box with a unknown passive circuit configuration inside. These unknown black-boxes
are going to be either a first or second order system, consisting of combination of one resistor, one
inductor, and/or one capacitor. You will exercise your critical thinking skills to ascertain what the
configuration and values on the unknown black-box circuit.

Note 1: No hand written assignments submission will be accepted. Create a tem-

plate inside a Microsoft word document (or other word processing software) like the
sample template provided for you for Lab 01 and answer questions in this document.

Note 2: Laboratory TA’s have primary responsibility to check your final results. You
must get your laboratory instructor(TA)’s signature for any part of lab’s short form
report during lab/open lab time if it is required. If your lab has “Laboratory Helper”,
do not ask Lab helper to give you laboratory instructor approval.

2 Pre-lab Assignment

Everything for submission in this lab will be done on the canvas page. For the prelab assignment
each person writes and submits an individual and unique short form report including student
name,lab section and TA name. It must be submitted on the canvas course page in the pre lab
assignment BEFORE your appropriate lab section starts. Use appropriate software (word, excel,
. . . ) to create the same template like the prelab template at the end of lab manual 1 and perform
the following inside of created word file document.

Figure 1: Prelab Circuit for Testing

EE2112 Circuit II Lab Experiment 8: Blackbox Testing

Prepare and submit a test proposal document that fully describes a set of tests that will reveal the
exact nature of the circuit within the black box. In your report describe how your testing process
will be applied to the circuit in Fig. 1 using Multisim. Implement your method to the circuit
and discussed (using Figures, Equations, citations, and referencing) how you can obtain the circuit
configuration and the values describe your methods. You specifically need to address the below
points.

1. Discuss how you will used the measurements device in lab oscilloscopes, Digital Multimeters,
etc. (NO LRC METERS SHOULD BE USED) to find the configuration of the circuit.

2. Show the calculations (with numerics) used to derive the parameters based on measured data.

3. Upload your proposal and any simulation file(s) you created showing how you obtain the
values from the measurement devices.

3 Concept and Background

Product design benchmarking is a term that is very common in the engineering field. It involves
obtaining a product and “reverse engineering” how the product was designed by using a series of
tests and probing steps. This can also be refered to as black box testing. Black box testing is a
software testing term used to describe testing a piece of code for functionality with no knowledge
of how the internal code is organized or written. The tester only knows what the code does, not
how it is written. Your company, GEA Circuit Enterprises, has developed a first or second order
system box that they wish for you to test their companies design against another top seller in the
market. Figure 2 demonstrates the black box image and port arrangement.

Figure 2: Two Port Network with Unknown Elements

An RLC circuit is an electrical circuit consisting of capacitor (C), a resistor (R) and an inductor
(L) connected in parallel, series, or series/parallel. You will need to use the concepts taught in
both of the circuits course to develop a test plan, execute that test plan, and find out what is the
circuit configuration, along with its values. For all circuits, the connector labeled 2 and 4 will be

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EE2112 Circuit II Lab Experiment 8: Blackbox Testing

connected together as shown in Fig. 1. No elements will be connected on a diagonal, either from
connector 1 to 4 or connector 2 to 3.

In order to develop your testing method/proposal you will need to you should draw from your
knowledge of Circuits I and II lecture material, as well as your prior Circuits II lab practical know.
These topics and concepts include:

• Resistive measurements.

• Steady-State Inductor/Capacitor behavior.

• First and Second order response: time constant, natural frequency, damping ratio, etc...

• Voltage and/or current measurements using a multimeter and oscilloscope.

4 Procedure

Form groups of 2 or less and complete the tasks for this lab experiment are as follows:

1. Prepare and submit a test proposal that fully describes a set of tests that will reveal the exact
nature of the circuit within the black box.

2. After your test proposal is approved by your TA, conduct your examination and report your
findings in the form of a schematic drawing of the circuit.

3. After you have conducted your test, prepare a presentation on your methods for testing and
how your arrived at the circuit configuration and values.

4. After your have conducted your test, prepare a report on your testing methods, the circuit
configuration and values.

You will work in teams to design a set of tests that will enable you to precisely describe the
circuits contained in the devices. This Test Proposal must be submitted to your TA and approved
BEFORE you conduct your tests. Please include a detailed, step-by-step description of all proposed
test methods including equipment required, connections to be made to the device under test, signal
inputs, and the expected results of the test. Also, include decision trees, drawings and schematics
as necessary to fully illustrate your test proposal. Each team will submit a test proposal to their
TA not later than one-week after the device is received. You will not be allowed to proceed to the
next step in the process until you have received an approved Test Proposal from your TA. This
may take several attempts. Your TA will provide you with feedback to guide your efforts. See the
attached process diagram Fig. 3 for more information.

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EE2112 Circuit II Lab Experiment 8: Blackbox Testing

Receive Develop Test Proposal Approved Conduct Draft Deliver Report

Blackbox Repeat Report
Proposal Review Proposal Test & Presentation

Figure 3: Process Flow Chart

You will need to follow the below safety Notes and Restrictions:

• Only a digtial multi-meter and/or an oscilloscope may be used to test the ports of the box.
(NO LRC METERS SHOULD BE USED)

• DO NOT attempt to open the case on your test device. All examinations of these devices
must be performed without exposing the contents.

• DO NOT apply more than 10 Vdc or 10 Vrms across any terminal of the device.

• DO NOT remove the black box from the EE2112 lab.

After you receive your approved Test Proposal from your TA, conduct the tests according to the
procedures developed in the Test Proposal. Report your conclusions about the exact nature of
the circuit, including circuit topology and component characteristics in standard lab report format
prescribed by department policy. Include drawings, schematics and an assessment of your confidence
in the precision of your findings. Your report will be deliverable before the end of the semester. Be
prepared to present your findings (5-10 minutes) to a panel of distinguished researchers after your
report is delivered. All reports and assignments must be completed by the listed due dates of the
Canvas assignment.

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EE2112 Circuit II Lab Experiment 8: Blackbox Testing

5 Laboratory Post Lab Report

For this report the group will submit report detail how the group researched, derived, developed,
implemented, tested, and arrived at the file conclusions. Everyone in the group is expected to
equally contribute to the writing, reviewing, and accuracy of the data/findings. Using the data
obtained in the lab, prepare a report using the following guidelines. Be sure to use proper format,
as dictated by the lab website.

• Objective : Briefly describe what was this lab about.

• Procedure : The procedure consists of a past-tense paragraph format retelling of what you
did for the lab, and what you used. It should be reasonably detailed, but not overly so. It
should include a detailed, step-by-step description of all proposed tests including equipment
required, connections to be made to the device under test, signal inputs, and the expected
results of the test.

• Discussion : Discuss about the method and procedures you apply to derive the internal
schematic of box. Show all your calculation. Also, include decision trees, drawings and
schematics needed for the discussion.

• Conclusion : Summarize all results (numerically and what they looked like), and tell whether
they compared to theory, and why or why not. And summarize what was learned.

Note that your report’s main structure should be included:

• Includes cover page, table of contents, table of figures, tables of tables, student name,TA
name, section name, objective, procedure, discussion, conclusion, references, appendix.

• Cite any sources(at least three sources) you use for your report.

• Generally use past tense when describing what was done or what was observed. You can use
present tense when talking about theory. Use passive verbs rather than active (i.e. ”The
circuit was constructed” rather than ”I constructed the circuit”). Avoid using ”I,” ”me,”
etc., as this is an academic and industry standard.

• Put figures on the first page on which you reference them. Only put results in the discussion
and conclusion, not in the objective and procedure.

• Put all data / excel files in appendix part and report their plots in discussion part.

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EE2112 Circuit II Lab Experiment 8: Blackbox Testing

6 Post Laboratory Presentation

Each group of students should present their work in lab via a 10-15 minute presentation and
submit their presentation files on canvas as a group. Using the data obtained in the lab, prepare a
presentation in Microsoft power point using the following guidelines. Be sure to use proper format,
as dictated by the lab web site. Structuring the body of a presentation should begin with giving
some critical thought about the goals are for the experiment. The following structure is a good
basic general model for a presentations:

• Begin by introducing yourself(s) and/or team.

• Introduce your presentation and outline what is to come.

• Present your main points in a logical order.

• Summarize the main points succinctly and clearly.

• Make final comments.

• Invite audience to ask questions

For your presentation you need to provide the following details:

• Beginning: Tell about the problem and why your experiment is an important one - provide
context. You should give the key ideas that you covered in the presentation as a way of brief
review of outline for your audience.

• Middle: Explain how you did your experiments and what was found. The main structural
strength of this presentation is your ability to highlight the most important pieces of informa-
tion that the audience should know in order to understand the main goal of your experiment.

• End: Summarize it all, tell what it means, did you meet goals, what are your recommenda-
tions for future work in this area?

Do not forgot time management is one important task in presentation. Organize your presentation
based on allocated time and practice several time before you final presentation.

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