Digital Electronics

PHYS 432 - Spring 2020
Labs

Updated Thursday May 21, 2020

Introduction

The biggest challenge for running this course remotely is the lab assignments. We are going to try to continue to do labs in this course with a mixture of Video Labs and LabKits. Some of the labs we want to do are impossible to do at home. For these, I will record a video of myself working through the lab, and you will have to follow along at home and answer the lab questions as usual. For most of the labs, however, I can adapt them to the parts available in the LabKits.

To make sure students can get help with doing the labs at home, or TA will be available on Zoom during set times during the week (as a replacement for the weekly lab sessions). Look at the Lab Times page for details.

Instructions

Before starting to use the LabKit at home, please watch the Lab Getting Started video on Canvas!

These instructions may be revised. Depending on the lab, there will be a video to watch, or you will do the lab at home. In either case, you should use the lab handout (linked below) for each lab, follow along with the work being done in each section, and answer any questions posed in the lab writeup in your `log book'. If you have a log book from 431, or any other composition-style notebook you can use, I would encourage you to do so. You will need to turn this in remotely, so you may just end up taking pictures and merging them into a PDF file for submission. If you prefer to write on a tablet or other electronic device and submit that instead, this will work. I would avoid using a document editor like Word, as often you will need to draw circuits or other things.

Lab 1

The first lab is an introduction to binary logic gates and digital techniques. Please watch the Lab Getting Started video on Canvas before you begin. I will also record myself doing this lab as an introduction for new students, but also in case some of the mailed kits don't arrive in time.

Lab 2

This lab you should be able to do on your own. This lab introduces multiplexers (MUX) and demultiplexers/decoders (DeMUX) which are the digital analogies of switches. The challenge for this lab was getting it to fit on our half-size breadboards. This lab isn't quite as good as the in-person version, but it is still useful to see these devices in action. There is a video on Canvas showing how I managed to get everything to fit.

Lab 3

Lab 3 is our first look at flip flops, which can be thought of as a 1-bit digital memory. This is one of the better labs that you can do yourself. We will make a simple flip flop from discrete NOR gates, and extend this to a D-type clocked flip flop. We will also explore D-type and JK-type flip flops in ICs.

Lab 4

Lab 4 will look at counters, both simple counters constructed from flip flops, but also a decimal counter IC the 7490. We will also explore button debouncing, and see the importance of clean signals in sequential logic.

Lab 5

Lab 5 will explore the successive approximation ADC. This is one lab that simply can't be done without a scope and other equipment, so you will need to follow along with my video and answer the lab questions on the basis of the measurements I make for you.

Lab 6

Lab 6 will be less of a formal lab and more of an introduction to the Arduino and preparation for a final project. The lab handout has a few questions that should be answered and turned in to get credit for this lab, but most of the information is contained in the series of tasks contained on the web pages linked below. While it isn't strictly necessary, I would encourage you to work through these tasks in order. In particular, you should start with the Arduino IDE page as soon as possible and make sure you can communicate with your Arduino Nano board.

Final (mini-)Project

See the Projects Page