COMMUNICATIONS LAB.

Experiment 6 : ADC / DAC

OBJECTIVES

Introduction to analog-to-digital conversion and digital-to-analog conversion.

(*You need to have a multimeter ready for this experiment, or use the meter on the test set.)

GENERAL INFORMATION on ADC and DAC

An analog-to-digital converter, or ADC as it is more commonly called, is a device that

converts analog signals into digital signals. A/D converters are electronic circuits that have the following
characteristics;

The input to the A/D converter is a voltage.

The output of the A/D converter is an n-bit binary signal corresponding to the voltage at the input
at a specific instance. Therefore Analog to Digital conversion is a mapping from continuous
ranges to binary numbers.

The conversion involves quantization of the input, so it necessarily introduces a known amount of error,
called quantization error or quantization noise. The resolution of the converter is the number of discrete
values it can produce over the range of analog values. The values are usually stored electronically
in binary form, so the resolution is usually expressed in bits. For example, an ADC with a resolution of 8
bits can encode an analog input to one in 256 different levels. Resolution can also be expressed in volts. In
that case the resolution is

Q= ,

where Q is the resolution of ADC, is the resolution of ADC in bits, is the whole voltage range
at the input. An example of a 3-bit ADC coding scheme with uniform quantization levels is given in the
following figure.

If the input signal is uniformly distributed across the input range (0.0 to 1.0 in the example) then the
average absolute quantization error for this uniform quantizer would be Q/4.

The inverse operation is performed by a digital-to-analog converter, or DAC. It is a device that converts a
digital code to an analog signal. Binary data are easily stored and transmitted in digital form, but a DAC is
needed to convert the data stream to a continuous analog signal. The quantization error introduced at the
ADC can never be recovered via DAC.

E-mail reports to : esogucomlab@gmail.com

COMMUNICATIONS LAB. Experiment 6 : ADC / DAC

EXPERIMENT

1. Analog to Digital Conversion

a) Connect DC SUPPLY to Analog Input of the Analog to Digital Converter module.

b) Select BP(bipolar) switch position.
c) Connect and measure DC supply with the multimeter. Adjust DC supply according to the Table-1
and fill in the Table-1 with digital data obtained .
Ain Digital data Ain Digital Data Ain Digital Data
-5V -1V 3V
-4V 0V 4V
-3V 1V 5V
-2V 2V
Table-1
d) Calculate the resolution (Q) and find approximated step value for this ADC module.
(i.e. step: 0001).
e) Select UP (unipolar) switch position.
f) Then, adjust DC Supply and fill in the Table-2 with digital data obtained .
Ain Digital data Ain Digital Data Ain Digital Data
-5V -1V 3V
-4V 0V 4V
-3V 1V 5V
-2V 2V
Table-2
g) Calculate the resolution (Q) and find approximated step value for this ADC module. Comment
about this values and compare Q and step values with each other. (on your report)
h) Draw the graphs according to the Table-1 and Table-2. Comment about this graphs on your report.

2. Digital to Analog Conversion

i) Firstly, connect DC Supply to Analog to Digital Converter module. Then, connect Analog to Digital
Converter Outputs to Digital to Analog Converter module. (That is, D0 D0, D1 D1,)
j) Select BP(bipolar) switch position.
k) Connect and measure DC supply with the multimeter. Adjust DC supply according to the Table-3
and measure the Aout with multimeter. Fill in the Table-3 with analog value obtained .
Ain Aout Ain Aout Ain Aout
-5V -1V 3V
-4V 0V 4V
-3V 1V 5V
-2V 2V
Table-3
l) Draw the graph according to the Table-3. Comment about this graph on your report.
m) Select UP (unipolar) switch position.
n) Then, adjust DC Supply, measure the Ain and Aout. Fill in the Table-4 with analog value obtained.
Ain Aout Ain Aout Ain Aout
-5V -1V 3V
-4V 0V 4V
-3V 1V 5V
-2V 2V
Table-4
o) Draw the graph according to the Table-4. Comment about this graph on your report.

E-mail reports to : esogucomlab@gmail.com