Electronic Instrumentation Course Information

Fall 2009

Last Updated September 2009
The syllabus for last semester offers a guide for what you can expect this term.

Topics | Activities | References | Graded Work | Weekly Schedule

EI Home Page | Calendar | Links by Experiment | Information about Quizzes

ENGR-4300
Electronic Instrumentation

Goals

Provide engineering and science students with practical, hands-on experience in the application of electronic instrumentation methodology (modeling, analysis and design) and tools (sensors, instruments, basic electronic hardware and simulation software). Course pedagogy is primarily discovery-based.

Background

MATH-2400: Differential Equations and PHYS-1200/1260: PHYSICS II are the formal prerequisites for this course.
We also use concepts from most required math courses, physics courses, and basic engineering courses.

Topics

Instrumentation Methodology
Analog Electronics
Sensors
Analog/Digital Transitional Electronics
Digital Electronics

Studio Activities

This is a studio course and, thus, it combines lectures, problem solving, simulation, laboratory experiments, and laboratory projects in the same classroom and timeslots. We meet for a total of 6 hours each week. Each class meeting will be divided up into activities (lecture, lab, etc.) that will last anywhere from 10 minutes to the entire class period. Homework problems, lab experiments, project reports, etc. will still have particular due dates, which will be listed in the calendar below.

Class Materials

Standard Texts
The Essence of Analog Electronics by Colin Lunn of Southbank University (England).
Lunn is a smaller book intended for students studying electronics for the first time. It is available at the RPI bookstore or from several online stores for about $25. It does a relatively good job with basic circuits and op-amps, but has no in formation on digital electronics.
Supplementary Material
1. Electronics class notes by D.M. Gingrich of the University of Alberta Physics Department
The class notes by Gingrich are an excellent source of online supplementary material.
2. Additional Online Supplementary Material
Additional links for each experiment and project are located on the links page.
Software
Mobile Studio Desktop
The Rensselaer IOBoard is used to extensively in the course. The Mobile Studio Desktop software creates an oscilloscope, function generator and voltmeter on the desktop of your laptop computer for analysis.
OrCad Capture/Demo version 10.5 or OrCad Capture/Demo version 16
One of the most important tools we will be using in this class is the circuit analysis software from OrCAD -- Capture for schematic capture and PSpice for analysis. Both programs are available for free download directly from OrCAD or you can order a free copy of the demo CD at the same site.
Electronics Kit and IOBoard
All students are required to purchase an instrumentation IOBoard and kit consisting of electronic components, a protoboard, some tools and a storage box. The IOBoards and kits are available in the studio for a cost of around $150, to be shared by a pair of students (~$75 each). Please check out the parts list to be sure your kit is complete when you receive it. You MUST buy one kit per pair. After the first experiment, all groups that do not have a kit will no longer be given grades for experiments they hand in. Kits from previous semesters may be useful as a source of additional parts, but they aren't an alternative to a new kit.
Suggested reference text
The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill.
This is an outstanding book on the practical use of electronics that we recommend as an additional reference. It is probably the best source available for practical electronics advice and information. It also has some good introductory material on circuit analysis, op-amps and digital electronics. It isn't cheap.
Additional texts
There are several additional books that cover many more subjects than we do, but do have most of the background information needed to do the homework, experiments and projects. They are available from online bookstores and are relatively expensive. If you want to order one, but would like to look them over first, copies are available.
(1) Electrical Concepts and Applications by Boctor, Ryff, Hiscocks, Ghorab and Holmes of Ryerson Polytechnic University (Toronto) is written for non-electrical engineering students.
(2) Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering by Leonard Bobrow of UMass is intended for a first course in electrical engineering.

Check Weekly Schedule For Suggested Reading

Graded Work

4 Quizzes (35%) There will be one quiz on each of the four main topics of the course. All Quizzes will be closed book, but students will be given a 8.5" x 11" crib sheet. Specific topics to be addressed on each quiz will be announced at least one week before the quiz date. Check the syllabus for last semester to see the kind of questions you can expect to see on the quizzes.
8 Homeworks (10%) -- All homework assignments are on WebCT. There are eight homeworks graded out of 15 points each; one for each experiment. They are generally due a few days before the experiment is due. For the exact dates, check WebCT or your class schedule. You have three chances to take the homework. If you miss the due date, you will have two chances to get a maximum score of 12 points in three days time. If you miss this deadline, you will still be able to take the homework for a maximum score of 7.5 points. The answers will be posted on WebCT.

NOTE: inactivity will cause the WebCT connection to dropout and result in unusual behavior, such as inability to view graphics and text. If you start a homework assignment, make sure you finish it in a timely manner, otherwise the system may lock you out and not let you complete the work.
8 Experiments (25%) Experiment grades consists of 80 points for the group write up and 20 points for individual participation for a total of 100 points.

Experiment write up (80 points) Experiment write ups are not supposed to be a formal report. They should include the following:

Include the plots required for each section
Answer the questions for each section
Include a summary of key points
Discuss mistakes and problems
List member responsibilities

Participation (20 points) 20 out of 100 points of your grade will be based on class attendance and participation. You will earn 20 points for each experiment if you are in attendance and doing your share. You can make up class time missed during open shop and give the following form to your instructor: EImakeup.pdf.
Late Penalty -- For full credit, the write-up must be turned in on the due date. This is the date listed below and on the course calendar unless you are informed otherwise in class. The late penalty for experiment write up is as follows: For each school day late (weekends and vacations are not counted): 4 points per day for the first two days and 7 points per day for each additional day. Thus, if the report is handed in 5 days late, the penalty is 29 points. Please note that there are, at most, 5 school days per week.

4 Design Projects (25%) Please check each project write up for specific instructions.

Project Reports (80 points) -- The general issues to be addressed in each report include (but are not necessarily limited to) the following. Please note that the guidelines and exact point breakdown are somewhat different for each project.

Introduction: Introduce and describe the goals of the project. Usually, you will be asked to list at least two issues from the course that have an impact on the project.
Background and Theory: Describe the theoretical background you need to understand the experiment.
Initial Design: Describe the initial project design. This is often given to you. Develop a plan for building and testing the design. Discuss implementation problems. Present initial design results.
Final Design: Describe the changes you made for your final design. Present final design results. Discuss implementation problems.
Conclusions: Compare results for initial and final designs.
Personal Responsibilities: Discuss how you divided up the tasks.
Appendices: Supporting graphs, data, calculations, simulations, etc. and a list of references.
Extra Credit: All projects have some opportunity to gain extra credit.

Participation (20 points): Participation will be awarded in a similar manner to the experiments.
Late Penalty -- The Design Project Reports are due on the dates indicated on the course calendar. If they are handed in late, a penalty will be applied in a similar manner to the experiments.

Overall Class Participation (5%) -- Five percent of your grade will be based on participation. This will include class attendance, your active participation during class, and a fair contribution to writeups. This assessment will be based on the observances of the TA's, the instructors and your fellow students. More information about attendance and participation is available here.

Weekly Schedule

Week One: Experiment 1 -- Signals, Instrumentation, Basic Circuits, and Capture/PSpice

Experiment 1 handout, power point notes, and other links: EILinks.html#Exp1.
Reading Assignment: Read Lunn Chapter 1 (all sections) and Chapter 2 (sections 2.3 and 2.4)
Also practice simple electronic problems in unit 11 at: http://www.physics.cornell.edu/courses/p101-102/demo/
Download Equipment Emulator and install on your laptop. (Optional, only for use with the equipment in JEC-4107.)
Download Capture/PSpice and install on your laptop.

Week Two: Experiment 2 -- Complex Impedance, Filters, and Steady State Analysis

Monday Holiday -- No Class
Experiment 2 handout, power point notes, and other links: EILinks.html#Exp2.
Homework 1 on WebCT due Wednesday
Reading Assignment: AC Steady State Handout
Also read Gingrich Notes on AC Circuits : http://www.phys.ualberta.ca/~gingrich/phys395/notes/node20.html

Week Three: Experiment 3 -- Inductors and Transformers

Experiment 3 handout, power point notes, and other links: EILinks.html#Exp3.
Experiment 1 due Monday/Tuesday
Homework 2 on WebCT due Wednesday
Reading Assignment: Lunn Chapter 2 (section 2.1) and Chapter 7 (section 7.15.1)
Also look at Faraday Inductance Experiment 1 : http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/java/faraday/
and Transformer Circuit Applet : http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/java/transformer/

Week Four: Project 1 -- Instrumented Beakman's Motor

Project 1 handout, power point notes, and other links: EILinks.html#Proj1.
Experiment 2 due Monday/Tuesday
Homework 3 on WebCT due Wednesday

Week Five: QUIZ 1 and Experiment 4 -- Operational Amplifiers

Review for Quiz 1 on Wednesday
Quiz 1 on Thursday evening (10/1)
Experiment 4 handout, power point notes, and other links: EILinks.html#Exp4.
Experiment 3 due Monday
No homework due this week
Reading Assignment: Lunn Chapter 3 (all sections) and Chapter 4 (sections 4.3 to 4.6)

Week Six: Experiment 5 -- Harmonic Oscillators

Experiment 5 handout, power point notes, and other links: EILinks.html#Exp5.
Project 1 due Monday/Tuesday
Homework 4 on WebCT due Wednesday
Reading Assignment: Sections 3.8 and 3.9 in Boyce and DiPrima (differential equations text)
Also review oscillation at: http://pathfinder.esu2.org/java/physics/physengl/pendulum.htm
Read about bridge circuits at: http://civil.colorado.edu/courseware/struct_labs/wheatstone.html

Week Seven: Project 2 -- A Beam Model for Harmonic Oscillation

No Class Monday -- Monday classes on Tuesday this week
Project 2 handout, power point notes, and other links: EILinks.html#Proj2.
Homework 5 on WebCT due Wednesday
Experiment 4 due Thursday/Friday

Week Eight: QUIZ 2

Review for Quiz 2 on Wednesday
Quiz 2 on Thursday evening (10/22)
Experiment 5 due Monday/Tuesday
No homework due this week

Week Nine: Experiment 6 -- Electronic Switches

Experiment 6 handout, power point notes, and other links: EILinks.html#Exp6.
Homework 6 due Wednesday
Reading Assignment: Lunn Chapter 6 (sections 6.1 and 6.5) and Chapter 8 (sections 8.1 to 8.8)
Read 555 Timer data sheet: http://www.national.com/ds/LM/LM555.pdf

Week Ten: Experiment 7 -- Digital Logic and the 555-Timer

Experiment 7 handout, power point notes, and other links: EILinks.html#Exp7.
Project 2 due Monday/Tuesday
No homework due this week
Reading Assignment: Gingrich on Digital Electronics : http://www.phys.ualberta.ca/~gingrich/phys395/notes/node117.html

Week Eleven: Project 3 -- Digital Circuits Project

Project 3 handout, power point notes, and other links: EILinks.html#Proj3.
Experiment 6 due Monday/Tuesday
Homework 7 on WebCT due Wednesday

Week Twelve: QUIZ 3

Review for Quiz 3 on Wednesday
Quiz 3 on Thursday evening (11/19)
Experiment 7 due Monday/Tuesday
No homework due this week

Week Thirteen: Experiment 8 -- Using Diodes to Limit, Rectify and Regulate Signals

Experiment 8 handout, power point notes, and other links: EILinks.html#Exp8.
Reading Assignment: Read Lunn Chapter7 (sections 7.1 to 7.10 and 7.13 to 7.16.6)
Also look at LEDs and Photodiodes
Thanksgiving Break

Week Fourteen: Project 4 -- Optical Communications Link

Project 3 due Monday/Tuesday
Project 4 handout, power point notes, and other links: EILinks.html#Proj4.
Homework 8 on WebCT due Wednesday

Week Fifteen: QUIZ 4

Experiment 8 due Monday/Tuesday
Review for Quiz 4 on Wednesday
Quiz 4 on Thursday evening 12/10)
No homework due this week
There is no final in this course

Week Sixteen:

Project 4 due Monday/Tuesday 12/14-15 (study days of finals week)

Academic Integrity

Academic dishonesty is a very serious matter, and we suggest that you read the remainder of this statement carefully:

Student-teacher relationships are built upon trust. For example, students must trust that teachers have made appropriate decisions about the structure and content of the courses they teach, and teachers must trust that the assignments, which students turn in, are their own. Acts which violate this trust undermine the educational process.

The Rensselaer Handbook defines various forms of Academic Dishonesty and procedures for responding to them. All forms are violations of the trust between students and teachers. Students should familiarize themselves with this portion of the Rensselaer Handbook and should note that the penalties for plagiarism and other forms of cheating can be quite harsh.

Any portion of work handed in that is not your own, should cite the author. Just as you would not write a history paper by copying text from the encyclopedia, you should not take credit for another person's engineering work. Reference should also be made to any personal communications you have had with anyone outside your group that contributed substantially to the successful completion of an assignment. (Please read the IEEE Code of Ethics, especially item number 7. http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/ethics/code_ethics.html The ASME has a similar code. http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Governance/3675.pdf)

Collaboration on assignments is encouraged, in fact essential, between lab partners. However, having one partner always work on hardware aspects and the other on the software or data analysis or report writing will be detrimental to all partners. All partners should understand and participate in all aspects of the lab exercises in order to learn the necessary topics addressed in lab write-ups and covered on the exams. While you may discuss your classwork with anyone, collaboration on assignments is not allowed between lab groups, either within or between lab sections. Turning in similar out-of-class assignments, which suggest that copying (in part or in total) has taken place, will be considered as academic dishonesty.

Cheating on an exam will be considered as academic dishonesty and will result in a failing grade for the course.

At all times, we reserve the right to take formal action against anyone engaging in academic dishonesty. This action may range from failing an assignment to failing the course, or to being reported to the Dean of Students. If you have any questions about these rules or how they apply to any specific assignment or exam, discuss it with one of the instructors or course administrators.

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