first pcomp lab
First lab went well. I was able to finish it within an hour on a Sunday afternoon. Did not bring my camera so this will be an all-text entry....
Reminder - if the multimeter doesn't show 0.000 after being turned on, you should probably replace the battery.
First thing I learned this lab - LED's have polarity, so if it doesn't light up on first try, you should try switching them around. If you have a bunch of LED's in series the same board, its worth testing them one by one first to figure out the polarity - that way you don't have a gazillion LED's all in your circuit and no way of knowing which one(s) is put in wrong.
2nd lesson - when measuring amperage (current), the multimeter must be in series with the circuit you are measuring. If you put it in parallel, all the current actually goes through the multimeter instead of circuit. My first time measuring amperage I tried it like how you would measure voltage and my LED did not light up, but the multimeter still showed current going through.
Besides that, there wasn't much mystery to this lab. Just remember a few simples rules -
V = I x R
Voltage is the same across LED's in series.
Current is the same across LED's in parallel.
That's it for today!