sdmay19-30 • EE 448 Tachometer

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Senior Design Team sdmay19-30 • EE 448 Tachometer

EE 448 is a course on AC circuits and motors. In the labs of this course there are mounted motors that the students will do tests with and on, as seen in Figure 1.2.1. In one of the labs, the students will use a stroboscope to measure the RPM of the mounted motor using a stroboscope. A stroboscope measures the rotational speed of an object by flashing a light on an object. The object has a single small image in one place on the circle; when the object spins, if the light flashes at exactly the speed it takes the object to make one rotation, then the image will appear stationary. Using this information, the stroboscope is able to calculate the rotational speed of the object.

In addition, these stroboscopes are too delicate for the students using it, the repairs due to its delicacy are an unnecessary expense for the department. The stroboscope being used is also overcomplicated for the needs of the lab. It has a range from 30-300,000 RPM with an accuracy of 0.005%. In comparison, the lab only makes use of measurements from 100-3000 RPM and other pieces of lab equipment have errors which are much greater than this. It also has other features which are not used, such as allowing an external input instead of the flashing of the stroboscope itself to calculate the speed. These are features which are being paid for but are not being used.