Physics 310 Spring 2019
CIRCUIT IMPLEMENTATION
In order to actually test the design of this circuit the team had to use a Zener diode with a smaller Zener voltage, as none of the lab equipment can provide the neccesary 50V DC. A diode with a forward voltage of 6V was then selected to test the operation of the circuit. It's also improtant to note that the bread board featured on the picture to the right would likely be unable to handle the 6A delivered to the battery, so a more permanent decisions regarding the placement of these parts must be used to be placed on the bike (soldered lead to lead, perf-board, PCB, etc.)
Test Results
This scope traces on the right confirms both the theory of the operation, and simulation. The traces show the input signal in green and the signal provided to the load in yellow. The green signal is a ramp function from 0 to 7.6V; in stead of simply following the input, the load voltage follows the ramp until it reaches the Zener voltage (minus the Vbe on of the transistor) at 5.85V. This is exactly how the circuit was expected to operate, and illustrates that the circuit can be recreated with a higher input voltage given the proper Zener Diode.