Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Physics - Sensor Project

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Jayan Solanki

Physics Coursework

Sensor Project

Introduction

I shall be undertaking a individual instrumentation project, in my project I shall be building and testing a sensor - exploring the characteristics of a sensor and it to design and assembling a system to allow a sensor to make a measurement.

For my task of building and testing a sensor I shall be adapting the problem of not knowing the level of water in your Cold Water Tank or in Toilets in housing and offices. When building my sensor I shall be following a specification that I shall construct to allow me to stick to my idea and not to begin design things that do not apply to my idea.

When testing my sensor I shall have be limited to using school appliance and equipment therefore I shall simply fill sink or a bucket up with water, clamp my sensor with my construction of the ability to measure the water level, then slowly I shall reduce the amount of water to test the sensor for its sensitivity.

For my sensor I shall also have to use mechanical objects to allow my sensor to work in its environment, such as gearing ratios to allow the ball on the water level to go up and down.

...read more.

Middle

image10.pngimage05.pngimage12.pngimage11.pngimage06.pngimage00.pngimage03.pngimage10.pngimage04.pngimage12.pngimage00.pngimage01.pngimage13.png

Potentiometer diagram...

image19.png

http://sub.allaboutcircuits.com/images/05112.png

Materials

  1. 4x AA 1.5V Batteries + Battery Holder
  1. 1x Coloured 5V LED 1.5mm.
  1. 1x 1K Resistor.
  1. 1x 1K Rotary Potentiometer.
  1. 2x Voltmeter.

Method

To begin my practical side of my project I firstly need to measure the resistance of the resistors in my circuit by using a Ammeter and connecting it in parallel with the fixed resistor first and set the meter to 2k Ohms, it should read 0.96 or higher, it shall be lower than the provided data with the resistor due to the resistance of the wire in the resistor. Following this I shall be following the same stages that you need for measuring the resistance of the fixed resistor for the variable one (rotary potentiometer) by connecting the meter in parallel with the resistor connecting the middle and the left or right connector to the suitable ports to measure resistance.

For my circuit to work in classroom conditions I shall calibrate my sensor by connecting a LED as a indicator to view if the circuit is operating and if it is it should dim as the resistance increases on the variable resistor. Although to measure the resistance as it changes I shall connect the voltmeter in parallel to the variable resistor.

...read more.

Conclusion

Also wires tend to be fray with excessive use, before using the cables I checked each cable of any danger of fray wires which could result in a cut or scratch on me.

Evaluation

My instrumentation project went according to the plan and method I had written. Also my predication that I wrote about my experiment was correct as the intensity of the light decreased as the resistance of the rotary potentiometer increased when turning it 10o c clockwise.

I feel I could have improved my project by attempting to reduce the internal resistance of the wires and semi conductors in the circuit, to resolve this the only option I would have is to change the wires to a better conductor such as Gold or Platinum, although due to being limited to the school equipment I had no choice in using standard copper wire. Also I could have increased the surface area of the components for connecting in the circuit to once again   reduce any short or loose connection to enable the P.D to travel through the ions more freely.

Also in my experiment I could have made it more of a fair test by carrying out my practical experiment by repeating the experiment 3 or 5 times then finding the average from the results that I collected from calibrating of the sensor.

...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level Modern Physics section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related AS and A Level Modern Physics essays

  1. Marked by a teacher

    Sensing project

    5 star(s)

    A circuit containing a LDR (light dependant resistor) could also be constructed and applied to the outside or inside of the greenhouse. In this instance the light dependant resistor would have to be very high resolution, as the light intensity would not vary great amounts over the hours of sunlight.

  2. Characteristics of Ohmic and non-Ohmic Conductors.

    The allowed energy levels in a single atom are discrete and spaced widely apart. In the solid state, a large number of atoms are packed closely together, and the electrons are influenced strongly by the assembly of the nuclei. .

  1. Characteristics of Ohmic and Non Ohmic Conductors.

    The LDR reacts differently. The light sensitive part of the LDR is a wavy track of cadmium sulphide. Light energy triggers the release of extra electrons to carry the current when the level of illumination changes accordingly. The line A marks the LDR in the shade while the line B marks the LDR in sunlight.

  2. Sensors cwk. The aim of this coursework is to construct a potential divider circuit ...

    in bright light, and 200k? in the shade. When the LDR is in the light, Vout will be: One of the important factors which we should consider when constructing a potential divider is the resistance of the components. Let's take the following example: As we can see the Voutput hasn't changed by much.

  1. silicon project

    Metals tend to be good conductors of electricity because they usually have "free electrons" that can move easily between atoms, and electricity involves the flow of electrons. While silicon crystals look metallic, they are not, in fact, metals. All of the outer electrons in a silicon crystal are involved in perfect covalent bonds, so they can't move around.

  2. AC instrumentation transducers

    Zero volts means that the core is centered. The further away the core is from center position, the greater percentage of input ("excitation") voltage will be seen at the output. The phase of the output voltage relative to the excitation voltage indicates which direction from center the core is offset.

  1. An Investigation into the Resistance of a Thermistor, its Application as a Sensor and ...

    One was to keep the thermistor as close to the thermometer's bulb as possible. This was so that their readings were being affected by the same part of the water because (due to convection currents and uneven heating) the temperature of the water was not equal throughout the beaker.

  2. Making, Calibrating and Testing a Sensor

    In my experiment for selecting a resistor with the maximum range of sensitivity, many different resistors will be used, in conjunction with an LDR. I will then connect the LDR to a multimeter which will measure the voltage across it.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work