Electronics & Instrumentation (20.422)

• (1 December) This week we finish up the last design project. Please note that you might have to change your design somewhat if we do not have the exact parts you specified in your pre-project proposals. The project report, and a demonstrated working project, are due next Monday (8 December) at 5 pm. The final exam is a demonstration of practical capabilities. Each student is required to perform several experimental tasks. The schedule is posted on the course bulletin board outside the studio. There are three parts to this final.
  1. Passive RLC circuit Simulate a simple RLC circuit driven by an AC voltage source. Produce a plot of your simulation. Build the circuit and check against your simulation at a small number of frequencies.
  2. Op-Amp You will be given one of 10 possible simple op-amp circuits (randomly selected) to build and test with a square wave input.
  3. Logic Circuits You will be given one of 10 possible gates (randomly selected) already mounted on a small protoboard. By applying a sequence of pulses to the inputs, you are to find the truth table and identify the gate.
• (10 November)
  Another Busy Week
  1. Quiz on Wednesday covering op-amps and digital electronics
  2. Experiments 8 D and E
  3. EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES There are two opportunities to earn 10 extra points that can be applied to a quiz grade. (1) Attend the Vollmer Fries Lecture today at 4 pm in Sage 3303. Prof. Hermann Haus of MIT will speak on Fiber Optics for Global Communications. Details on the lecture can be found at The Vollmer Fries Lecture Website. (2) Union College has an excellent exhibit in honor of Joseph Henry's 200th birthday in their newly restored Nott Memorial. The building alone is worth the trip. It is spectacular. Since one of the uses of this building is as a quiet place to study, it is open very long hours. You can email your request for this extra credit any day up to the 12th of December.
  4. The last project. Project 3. For the last project, there will be three choices. (1) An electronic wheel of fortune game, (2) An electronic holiday decoration utilizing logic circuits, (3) A functional circuit of any kind that involves logical devices. For the last choice, students should try out ideas with course staff well before the project pre-proposal is due.
• (10 November) Homework assingment due next Monday (17 November): 12.20, 12.28, 13.4, 13.28. Please note that 13.4 might be changed, so it should be done last.
• (5 November) Homework assignment due next Monday (10 November): 11.2 a,c,f; 11.3 a,c,f; ll.20; ll.24; 11.27. Readings for this work: Chapter 11 and 12.1. There will be a quiz on 11-19 covering Op-amps and Digital Electronics.
• (22,24,25,29 October)
  Several Items This Week
  1. Solutions are now posted on the bulletin board outside the studio classroom.
  2. There is no quiz next week.
  3. Project 2 pre-proposal is due on 31 October. There is an Open Shop period from 2-3 in the Studio Classroom. The pre-project report is due in the Studio by the end of this period (i.e. at 3 pm). The final report is due on 12 November. This project is on op-amps not transistors. Project 2 information is available here and will be discussed in class.
  4. Homework due on 27 October: 4.22, 10.68, and 10.69 from the text. (Note that I had typed the last two problems in wrong when I posted them on Wednesday -- KC) The last two problems are on Schmitt Triggers. You also need to draw the circuit diagrams for 10 typical op-amp circuits and write down the formulas that correspond to the diagram. Your list of 10 should include inverting amp, noninverting amp, summing amp, differentiator, integrator, and 5 more.
• (6 October) Solutions for Quiz 1 and the third homework assignment are now posted on a covered bulletin board next to room 6009 in the JEC. This is next to the board where we tried to post things before. However, since the board was not covered, someone took the materials. We are attempting to obtain a bulletin board that we can mount on the wall just outside the studio room. Check the 6th floor board for now.
• (6 October) There are some significant schedule changes for this week.
  • Quiz: Wednesday October 8 (AC Circuits, Diodes)
  • Homework: Chapter 6 assignment, due 10/8 in class... yes, this is the day of the quiz.
  • Project Report: Due 10/10 by noon, leave in box outside of JEC 6002
  Some information on the quiz --- Since the workload for this week is high, we are trying very hard to make the quiz as easy as possible. Please check Quiz Format Information for details on what to expect.
• (22 September) The following information is mostly provided as an update of the course syllabus. (1) There will be four quizzes rather than 6 quizzes this semester. The next quiz, scheduled for 29 September is cancelled. (2) The pre-project report for the first project is due next Tuesday (30 September) in the box outside Prof. Connor's office (JEC 6002). That report should include the work you have done for labs 1-4. Since it has not been possible to plot your results easily using the computers in the studio room, we will accept reasonable hand drawn plots in this case only. We expect the full computer capabilities of the studio room will be available by next week, so it should be relatively simple to provide high quality plots from now on. (3) The homeword assignment scheduled to be handed in this Wednesday (24 September) will be due on Friday (26 September). (4) Studio students will not have a free choice of projects for project 1. There are only 5 beams to work with, so only half the class can do the seismometer. Please let Prof. Connor know what your choice is for this project as soon as you can, preferably before Wednesday's class.
• (15 September) Open Shop hours are now available. The first quiz will be on Wednesday during lecture for section 1 and during the second hour of studio for section 2. There will be a review session tonight at 9 pm in the studio room. Please check your email for info on the quiz.
• (10 September) Today's studio class (12-2) will meet in JEC 4107. Finally! Don't get your hopes up about the room being finished. It is merely inhabitable. Mechatronics met there yesterday, so things are at least functional.
• (8 September) Today's studio class (12-2) will meet in JEC 6309. This should be the last day, but I know you will believe it when you see it. Me too!!
• (4 September) We have reserved CII 6208 for Friday's classes. We will post messages on all classroom locations, so everyone will know what is up. Repeating, both the 9-12 lab and the 12-2 studio classes will meet in CII 6208 on Friday, rather than in either 6309 or 4107 JEC.
• (4 September) Friday (5 Sept) classes will NOT meet in our new studio (4107). Both the lab for the lecture section from 9-12 and the studio section from 12-2 will meet in 6309 if we can get some computers ready in there. However, as a backup, we have also asked for a pc classroom for both time periods. Please check the announcements later today for an update.
• (2 September) Evening labs for the lecture section will meet in JEC 4104 this week. The studio class will meet in JEC 6309 on Wednesday the 3rd and maybe in our own classroom (4107) on Friday. The Friday morning lab section (we hope) will meet in 4107
• (25 August) The studio room is still under construction. Please check the facilities section on a regular basis for status information.
• (25 August) First Week of Class: No labs in Section 1 and Section 2 meets in JEC 6309.

• Electronics and Instrumentation Links
  
• Equipment Tutorials
  
• Memory Devices for Sequential Systems from the University of Queensland.
  
• Engineer's Mini Notebook Series by Forest M. Mims, available from Radioshack.
  

• The Frog That Learned to Fly
  
• Laser Tag Technical Info
  
• Michael Burke and Jeff Wovkulich -- Home Built Laser Tag