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Instructor's Guide

Waveforms & Signal Generation

Direct current is common in low voltage systems, but as soon as you start working with high voltage, you'll need to know about alternating current. AC comes in a variety of waveforms, with a lot of information encoded into it, which we will show you how to identify, measure, and reason about. One specialized form of AC is Pulse Width Modulation, which is very common in electrical control systems. PWM is such an important topic, we've devoted an entire lesson to it. You'll come out the other side knowing about duty cycle, frequency, amplitude, and the tradeoffs between digital and analog control.

Ready to move on?
You should be able to:

  • Describe the difference between direct current and alternating current, and give examples of where you'll encounter each of them.
  • Talk comfortably about acronyms and units like PWM, RMS, and Hz.
  • Measure the frequency, amplitude, and duty cycle of alternating currents.
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