instrumentpass
Oscilloscope sine-wave recovery
Expected: 1000 Hz, 4.00 Vpp, triggered
Observed: 1000.000 Hz, 4.0000 Vpp, triggered
Confirms sampled frequency/amplitude measurement and edge-trigger acquisition against a known periodic source.
Virtual Instrumentation & Measurement Lab
Practice instrument setup, measurement, validation, and engineering interpretation in the browser. Work from individual instruments into RC/RL/RLC experiments and realistic measurement error.
Available experiments
Experiments are listed in the recommended learning order. Open a row for the full objectives, theory, Guided Lab workflow, validation, and exports.
Voltage Divider Measurement
Use a minimal DC measurement exercise to validate the shared Virtual Lab architecture before full virtual instruments are added.
Oscilloscope Fundamentals
Practice two-channel oscilloscope setup, scaling, triggering, cursors, coupling, and automatic waveform measurements using deterministic reference signals.
Function Generator Fundamentals
Configure a reusable virtual function generator and verify its sine, square, triangle, and DC outputs with the two-channel oscilloscope.
Digital Multimeter Fundamentals
Practice correct digital multimeter mode, range, lead placement, and connection topology while measuring DC voltage, AC voltage, DC current, resistance, and continuity on a deterministic calibration fixture.
Bench Power Supply Fundamentals
Practice setting voltage and current limits on a virtual DC bench supply and observe the physical transition between constant-voltage and constant-current regulation as load resistance changes.
RC Time-Constant Measurement
Use the virtual bench supply, DMM, and oscilloscope workflow to measure a first-order RC charging transient and compare the measured 63.2% crossing with τ = RC.
RL Time-Constant Measurement
Measure current build-up in a series RL circuit and compare the sampled 63.2% crossing with the analytic time constant τ = L/R.
Series RLC Resonance
Drive a series RLC network with the virtual function generator, inspect current and phase, and verify resonance against f0 = 1/(2π√LC).
Measurement Error & Non-Idealities
Switch between ideal and realistic measurement modes, then separate component tolerance, calibration offset, random noise, and quantization into an explicit measurement error budget.
Production validation11/11 cross-instrument benchmarks passValidated educational model · Reviewed 2026-08-28
View benchmark details
instrumentpass
Function-generator waveform benchmark
Expected: 3.000 V at T/4
Observed: 3.000000 V
For a 4 Vpp sine wave with +1 V offset, the quarter-cycle sample must equal +3 V.
boundarypass
Function-generator output-limit guard
Expected: Reject > ±20 V requested output
Observed: Rejected
Prevents amplitude/offset combinations that exceed the educational generator output envelope.
analyticpass
DMM current fixture benchmark
Expected: 9.000 mA
Observed: 9.000000 mA
Checks Ohm-law current, autoranging, and current-lead topology.
boundarypass
DMM manual-range overload
Expected: OL on 6 V range with 12 V input
Observed: OL
Confirms that out-of-range measurements are surfaced explicitly rather than silently clipped.
analyticpass
Bench-supply CV/CC transition
Expected: 24 Ω → 12 V/0.5 A CV; 6 Ω → 6 V/1 A CC
Observed: CV: 12.000 V/0.500 A; CC: 6.000 V/1.000 A
Validates the piecewise load-line solution on both sides of the current-limit boundary.
analyticpass
RC time-constant benchmark
Expected: τ = 0.1000 s
Observed: analytic 0.100000 s; sampled 0.100000 s
Compares the sampled 63.2% crossing with τ = RC.
analyticpass
RL time-constant benchmark
Expected: τ = 1.000 ms
Observed: analytic 1.000000 ms; sampled 1.000000 ms
Compares the sampled 63.2% current crossing with τ = L/R.
analyticpass
Series-RLC resonance benchmark
Expected: 1591.549 Hz, 0° phase
Observed: 1591.549 Hz, 0.000000°
Validates resonance against 1/(2π√LC). The measured value is recovered from the swept current response by parabolic peak interpolation, so it can disagree with theory if the sweep is wrong.
reproducibilitypass
Realistic measurement seeded replay
Expected: Identical repeated sequence for the same seed
Observed: Identical
Ensures optional noise is reproducible for experiments, exported results, and classroom comparisons.
boundarypass
Ideal-mode non-ideality bypass
Expected: Exactly 7.500 V with zero error terms
Observed: 7.500 V
Confirms that Realistic Mode settings cannot contaminate analytic exercises when Ideal Mode is selected.
Technical model notes and limitations
The instrument models are designed for transparent engineering education. Oscilloscope statistics use complete detected cycles where possible so RMS, mean, and duty cycle do not change simply because the timebase contains a fractional number of periods. Series-RLC resonance is recovered from the frequency sweep by interpolation rather than inserting the analytic resonance into the sampled data.
Ideal/Realistic measurement modes currently cover component tolerance, calibration offset, seeded Gaussian noise, and quantization. Hardware-specific effects such as probe loading, meter input impedance, current burden voltage, aliasing, bandwidth limits, thermal drift, hysteresis, and ground loops remain future extensions.