Experiments and Projects

All hardware experiments and projects in this class may be completed with either a Digilent Analog Discovery (AD) or Analog Devices ADALM2000 (M2K). Select the correct experiment document that matches your device.

Before starting an experiment or project, students should watch the corresponding class lecture video(s) as listed in the Calendar. Further, each experiment or project has several additional video(s) that students may find useful. These are linked

See Report Submission Template Instructions for information on experiment reports.

All Experiment/Project Documents

Any links below labeled as “GDoc” is a link to a Google Document within Google Docs. Comments are allowed on these documents; if you see an error or typo, or you have a suggestion on how to better describe something, please leave a comment!

Warning

Project 2 and Experiment 7 will receive a significant re-work this summer. The asterisk in the table will be removed when the documents for these are ready.

M2K Document

AD Document

Submission Templates

Checkoff

Exp 1

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Exp 2

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Exp 3

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Exp 4

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Exp 5

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Exp 6

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Exp 7*

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Exp 8

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Proj 1

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Not Applicable

Proj 2*

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Proj 3

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Not Applicable

Proj 4 ⹋

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Not Applicable

⹋ Project 4 is optional for extra credit.

Experiment 1: Signals, Instrumentation, Basic Circuits, and Simulation

This first experiment is primarily to gain experience with and understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the tools that will be used in the course, and to begin with basic circuit analysis techniques.

Experiment Documents:
Experiment Videos:
Additional Resources:

Experiment 2: Complex Impedance, Steady State Analysis, and Filters

In this experiment, frequency dependent circuit behavior and characterization is more thoroughly examined, specifically under “steady-state” conditions (constant frequency and amplitude excitation). Circuits that have different responses at different frequencies are of specific interest.

Experiment Documents:
Experiment Videos:

  • Full Playlist

  • Part 1: What is a transfer function? Voltage divider example. Phasor notation. Complex impedance.

  • Part 2: Using complex transfer functions. RC circuit example. Filters. Corner frequency.

  • Part 3: Resonant frequency. Very low & very high frequencies.

  • Part 4: Equivalent impedance. Transfer functions for more complex circuits.

  • Video Slides as PDF

Additional Resources:

Experiment 3: Inductors and Transformers

Experiment Documents:
Experiment Videos:

  • Full Playlist

  • Part 1: General overview and how to calculate inductance.

  • Part 2: More on calculating inductance and resistance of inductor.

  • Part 3: Using online calculators, measuring inductance, what transformers look like, transformers in Spice.

  • Part 4: Ideal operation of transformer, using Spice to find the range of frequencies for which the transformer works as it should, step-up and step-down transformers.

  • Part 5: Building a step-down transformer, examples and demos.

  • Video Slides as PDF

Additional Resources:

Experiment 4: Operational Amplifiers (Op-amps) and Circuit Math

In this experiment, operational amplifiers are introduced and their applications towards performing mathematical operations on electrical signals are explored.

Experiment Documents:
Experiment Videos:

  • Full Playlist

  • Part 1: Introduction to Op-amps; op-amp chips.

  • Part 2: More introduction; packaging and connections; power for the chip; intrinsic gain (also known as open-loop gain); saturation.

  • Part 3: Positive and negative feedback; overview of what op-amps can do.

  • Part 4: Spice set-up and analysis; inverting and non-inverting amplifiers.

  • Part 5: Op-amp analysis; the Golden Rules of op-amps.

  • Part 6: An alternate, simple analysis of the inverting op-amp that covers essentially all of the steps in the more detailed analysis shown in the slides.

  • Part 7: Summarizing the analysis of the inverting, non-inverting amplifier, and voltage follower (buffer).

  • Part 8: More on the voltage follower; introduction to differentiator and integrator op-amp circuits.

  • Part 9: Integrators and differentiators.

  • Part 10: General discussion of integrators and differentiators using phasor notation.

  • Part 11: More on frequency response of integrators and differentiators (Bode Plots)

  • Part 12: Difference (differential) amplifiers, instrumentation amps, practical characteristics of op-amps.

  • Video Slides as PDF

Additional Resources:

Experiment 5: Bridges, Potentiometers, and Harmonic Oscillation

Experiment Documents:
Experiment Videos:

  • Full Playlist

  • Part 1: How do we use strain gauges? Wheatstone Bridge.

  • Part 2: Bridge circuit. SPICE Parameter Sweep. Thevenin Voltage Source.

  • Part 3: Modeling damped oscillations; harmonic oscillators; spring-mass model; Young’s Modulus.

  • Part 4: Determining the parameters of the harmonic oscillator model for the cantilever beam through measurements of frequency, etc.

  • Part 5: Harmonic oscillator model of a resonant LC circuit; compare with spring-mass system; examples of cantilever beams.

  • Part 6: Thevenin voltage source representation of a Wheatstone Bridge.

  • Part 7: Method for determining Thevenin voltage source; continuation of finding Thevenin voltage source for Wheatstone Bridge.

  • Part 8: Using the Wheatstone Bridge circuit to measure strain.

  • Strain Gauge Bridge: A simple explanation of why the ressitance we measure for one of the strain gauges is significantly smaller than 350 Ω.

  • Video Slides as PDF

Additional Resources:

Experiment 6: Electronic Switching

Experiment Documents:
Experiment Videos:

  • Full Playlist

  • Part 1: Analog versus digital circuits; transistors as switches; conceptual description of a bi-polar transistor (BJT).

  • Part 2: Transistors as switches; field effect transistor (FET); pnp and npn transistors; characteristics of transistors.

  • Part 3: Transistor operating regimes; switch model and diode model of the BJT; using a transistor as a switch; building logic gates with transistors.

  • Part 4: Comparators; comparator response to noisy inputs.

  • Part 5: Schmitt triggers; hysteresis; switching levels; noise immunity; digital chip package.

  • Part 6: Schmitt triggers versus inverters; relays (a switch that makes some noise); building a relay-switching circuit.

  • Video Slides as PDF

Additional Resources:

Experiment 7: Digital Logic Devices and the 555 Timer

Experiment Documents:
Experiment Videos:
Additional Resources:

Experiment 8: Diodes, LEDs, Rectifiers, and Limiters

Experiment Documents:
Experiment Videos:

  • Full Playlist

  • Part 1: Introduction to diodes; diode package and symbol; half-wave rectifier; i-v characteristics of resistors and diodes.

  • Part 2: i-v characteristic of ideal and real diodes; reverse breakdown voltage; finite turn-on voltage; the Shockley diode equation; Mobile Studio set-up for i-v characteristic.

  • Part 3: Use of diodes in rectifiers (half-wave and full-wave); rectifiers with smoothing; using diodes to limit voltages.More on Voltage Limitation, LEDs, Photodiodes, Phototransistors, Zener Diodes

  • Part 4: More on Voltage Limitation, LEDs, Photodiodes, Phototransistors, Zener Diodes.

Additional Resources:

Project 1: Instrumented Beakman’s Motor

Project Documents:

  • Lab Document: pdf

  • Project Report has no template.

  • Teams create own checkoff sheets.

Project Videos:
Additional Resources:

Project 2: Instrumented Cantilever Beam

Project Documents:

  • Lab Document: pdf

  • Project Report has no template.

  • Teams create own checkoff sheets.

Project Videos:
Additional Resources:

Project 3: Hardware Switch Debouncing and Counting

Project Documents:

  • Lab Document: pdf

  • Project Report has no template.

  • Teams create own checkoff sheets.

Project Videos:
Additional Resources:

Report Submission Template Instructions

As experiments are completed, the relevant data, question answers, and discussions should be added to the experiment report submission template. Tasks required by the checkoff sheet should also be witnessed and signed off by an instructor or TA. The completed checkoff sheet must be added to the submission template.

In addition to the experiment work and checkoff sheet required for the submission template, two other items are required in the template:

  1. Group Member Responsibilities: a delineation of the work performed by each group member is needed. This should be as truthful as possible.

  2. Summary/Overview: This section must be used to discuss the impact of the material covered in the experiment with respect to two different topics (below). The experiment grade will be reduced if the responses are not satisfactory.

    1. Application: Identify at least one application of the content addressed in an experiment. That is, find an engineered system, device, or process that is based, at least in part, on what you learned in the experiment. You must identify the fundamental system and then describe at least one practical application.

    2. Engineering Design Process: Describe the fundamental math and science (ideal) picture of the system, device, or process you addressed in Application and the key information you obtained from the experiments and simulations. Compare and contrast the results between math and science approach, experimental, and simulation and then generate one or two conclusions for the practical application. That is, how does the practical system model differ from the original ideal?