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CE163 – Foundations of Electronics I
Assignment 1 Brief - Autumn 2023
GOALS: The purpose of this assignment is to assess your knowledge and understanding of topics covered in the
labs in weeks 4 to 8 and in the lectures in weeks 2 to 6.
Key information: Please read carefully
 Assignment weight: this unit of assessment is worth 15% of the module marks.
 Submission: on FASER, before 11:59:59 on 8 December 2023, with evidence of the work done
previously in your CE163 Onedrive folder (see below).
 The assignment has two parts:
o Part A: Lab logbook (Lab Scripts 1, 2 and 3) – Worth 50% of the assignment.
o Part B: Questions set (see pages 2 to 6 below) – Worth 50% of the assignment.
What to submit:
 To FASER:
o The final version of the file XXXXXXX-CE163 -Logbook1.docx from your CE163 Onedrive
(where XXXXXXX is your 7-digit, numbers-only registration number)
o The final version of the document XXXXXXX-CE163-ASG1B-Answers.docx (also from your
CE163 Onedrive). Answers for Part B must be entered directly into the ‘Answers’ file on
Onedrive. Any images of scanned hand-written answers must be clear, tidy, and easy to read.
 On Onedrive: IMPORTANT: Your personal CE163 Onedrive folder must have clear evidence of
work done from week 4 for the lab activities, and from week 8 for Part B. Simply submitting a
logbook and/or Part B without this evidence will lead to a zero being given for that part of the
assignment. The evidence will be, e.g., saved edits (Onedrive puts a time stamp on all file
operations), pictures of the lab experiments, draft calculations, pictures of Part B answers, etc.
The work you submit must be your own and only your own. You must not discuss
the assignment and/or the work therein with anyone (including sites, media, or
people/companies/services in the internet) except the module supervisor. Failure
to comply with this rule will carry severe consequences ranging up to possible
expulsion from the university.
Copying work from others without fully acknowledging it, paying someone to do the
work (fully or partially), using ideas and/or information from others (or AI) without
fully referencing the source, and other infractions, all constitute academic offenses
which: 1) undermine the hard work put in by most of your classmates, 2) diminish
the value of the degree towards which you are working, and c) are a declaration
that you find yourself not competent enough to do the work as required.
Remember this if the thought of breaking academic rules ever crosses your mind.
This assignment brief is copyrighted by the University of Essex. It or portions thereof cannot be copied
to anyone or anywhere outside the 2023 students in CE163 without explicit authorisation from CSEE.
To discourage late starts on the assignment: please send any questions to f.sepulveda by 5pm on 6 Dec.
2023. Questions sent after this time/date may not receive a reply before the 8 December deadline.
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CE163 - Assignment 1 – Autumn 2023
PART A
(worth 50% of Assignment 1)

For Part A you must submit the final version of your digital Lab logbook 1 (from Onedrive)
covering Lab Scripts 1, 2 and 3. Be sure to check the logbook guidelines and examples on
Moodle: https://moodle.essex.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3643§ion=6

Also, use the following list to check that you have what is required in the logbook:
 For each experiment within a lab script, you must have:
o At least one page of background material (with adequate rephrasing in your own
words), making you sure you add a reference for each source, even if the sources
are CE163 lectures and/or lab scripts.
o A description of the experimental procedure in your own words. The description
should be sufficient for someone to reproduce your work without needing to
look at the lab scripts.
o Tables, calculations, pictures, and drawings related to the experiment.
o A discussion of the results in the context of the topics covered in CE163 and what
results were expected. If there are large deviations from the theory, include
your idea about what may have caused such deviations.
 Every page must have a date and a page number.
 Large vertical gaps (more than 2-3 lines) in the document must be either removed,
crossed over (with Xs), or have a comment such as: [this space has been deliberately
left empty].
 A list of references for all the sources you used, including lecture notes, lab scripts, the
main book used in CE163, or any other source.

PART B
(worth 50% of Assignment 1)

NOTE: the variable Reg in the questions below is the last four numbers in your 7-number
registration number.

Part B MARKING SCHEME
Part B of the assignment has 16 questions. The maximum marks (i.e., the percentage of the full assignment marks)
for each question is not the same and is shown in brackets next to the question number. Marks will be allocated for
each question based on the following criteria:
a) how correct the answers are,
b) how complete the answers are, and
c) the level and clarity of the explanations and discussions, where applicable.

You must show all the work required to reach the calculation results. If only the final numerical answers are given
for a particular question, zero marks will be given for that question even if the final answer is correct.

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Remember to use an appropriate number of significant figures (n.s.f.) for the final answers. For Q1 to Q4 you must
give the exact correct n.s.f. For the other questions just remember that results cannot possibly have more significant
figures than the input data.


UNIT 1 (WEEK 2) – [4%]

Question 1 [1.0%] – Perform the following operations and give the results in engineering notation

(a) (7.73 x 10-6) x (5.3 x 108) (b) (6.8 x 102) / (1.357 x 10-1) (c) 3.4 x 10-3 + 5.2 x 10-2 / 3.57 x 103



Question 2 [1.0%] – Perform the operations in Question 1 again, but give the results in scientific notation.



Question 3 [1.0%] – Perform the following operations and give the results with a metric magnitude prefix:

(a) 3.7 Mx Reg  / (3.2 k – 1.0 k) (b) Reg V/ 1000 + 7.0 mV / 3.5


Question 4 [1.0%] – Show your results for Question 3 in standard decimal form, i.e., without scientific or engineering
notation.



UNIT 2 (WEEK 3) - [7%]

Question 5 [1.5%] – How much energy does a 12.6 V battery in your car use to move 1.8 C through the electrical
circuit?


Question 6 [1.5%] – 120J are used to move 7.5C of charge through a resistor R. What is the voltage across R?


Question 7 [1.5%] – Assume that a solar battery charger delivers 1.6 J of energy with 5.0V during 4.0s. What is the
current it produces?


Question 8 [2.5%] – A 50VDC source is to be connected to resistive load R1 by two lengths of wire, as shown in Fig. 8.
The voltage source is to be located 50 ft from the load. For R1 = Reg/10.0 Ohm, Using the table on page 53 (Floyd &
Buchla, 2014) determine the gauge number of the smallest wire that can be used if the total resistance of the two
lengths of wires together does not exceed 5% of R1.


Fig. 8
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UNIT 3 (WEEK 4) - [10%]

Question 9 [5%] – For R3 = 1.5 Reg , calculate the following values for the circuit in Fig. 9:
(a) The voltages, with respect to ground, at points A, B, and C.
(b) The power dissipation at each resistor.
(c) The total resistance and total power.

Fig. 9



Question 10 [5%] – For R2 = Reg /20, R3 = 1.5 R4, and IR3 = 15mA, find the following unknown quantities in the circuit
in Fig. 10: R1, R3, R4, R5, R6, V1, V2, V3, V4, V6, and total power consumption.


Fig. 10





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UNIT 4 (WEEK 5) - [7%]

Question 11 [4%] – For the circuit in Fig. 11, find the branch currents and power, as well as the total power when
R1 = 1.5 Reg , R2 = 2.5 Reg , and R3 = 2 Reg .


Fig. 11



Question 12 [3%] – How much current will ammeters A2 and A3 (Fig. 12) measure? R1 =1.5 Reg .


Fig. 12





UNIT 5 (WEEK 6) – [22%]

Question 13 [4%] – With R2 = 200 + Reg/100 and Vs = 10VDC, what will be the voltage Vout (between points A
and B) in the Wheatstone bridge (Fig. 13) if RV = 1.1 Rbal, where Rbal is the resistance value that would balance the
bridge?

Fig. 13
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Question 14 [4%] – For the circuit in Fig. 14, find the total resistance, the total current, and total power.
RL = 2 x Reg . R3 = Reg 



Fig. 14




Question 15 [5%] – For the circuit in Fig. 14 (above), find the voltage and current across each branch, including the
load resistor RL.




Question 16 [9%] – Find and draw the Thevenin equivalent of the circuit feeding the load RL in Fig. 14 (previous page)
and calculate the maximum current and maximum voltage that will be delivered to RL. For this question, ignore the
value of RL used in Questions 14 and 15.





END OF CE163 ASSIGNMENT 1 – Part B

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