Ideas for new labs

Considerations for new labs:

  1. Interest/relevance
    -- Does the project make sense to the student?
    -- This is a moving target.
    -- A DTMF dialer was a good project 10 years ago, but no longer means anything to most students.
    -- On the other hand the students really like a control project based on a simplified quadcopter.
  2. Teachability
    -- Can you explain the necessary information in about 2 weeks?
    -- How fast can you kickstart the first lab exercise?
  3. Level of abstraction
    -- Does the project expose/hide the correct concepts?
    -- This is the central decision for a lab, or any other exercise in a course.
  4. Theory/Practice integration
    -- The project should use some math/theoretical concepts linked to some practical circuits/peripherials.
    -- A lab which cross-links material from different courses helps connect siloed inofrmation.
  5. Cost
    -- Cost scales with class size and lab size, but should include spare parts.
    -- Can you afford to build 30-50 copies of the hardware (for a class of 90 students, lab size 28)?
    -- Can you afford to store 30-50 copies of the hardware during the off-semester?
    -- Is the development toolchain free or open-source?
  6. Maintainability
    -- Can you or (preferably) the student fix the system cheaply/easily when it breaks.
    -- This suggests cheap parts and/or modular design.

Example from 4760 microcontrollers:
Keypad-driven audio Synthesizer -- Music is understandable and interesting to most students
Exposes interrupts, critical sections, bus connected peripherials.
Hides actual peripherial registers with PLIB
Theory: Direct Digital Synthesis, FM modulation, finite capacitance of keypad, state machine
Practical: SPI DAC, SPI port expander, keypad scanner
Cost is few dollars/setup, mostly reuseable.

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For 2019:
No homework -- checkpoint every week in lab!
Three labs of 3 weeks each
Lab 1 -- RLC impedance analyzer -- DDS+keypad+SPI
-- OR sound synth with keypad, song memory, wave shaping
Lab 2 -- Video game -- ADC+fixed point+DMA
-- OR sound spectrogram with DMA ADC to memory and DAC
Lab 3 -- motor lab -- motor control+angle sensor+ TFT display of RPM and command+DAC to scope+UART cntl

Need radio docs for
LoRa and/or BLE with SPI and/or UART

For 2017 Four labs, each two weeks long. PIC32
(1) Build board, set up TFT screen, ProtoThread, cap meter using CTMU
(2) DDS+keypad+SPI --additive synth -- play a tune -- ProtoThread, spi DAC, TFT display
(3) ADC+fixed point+DMA -- video game TFT
(4) ProtoThread concurrent pgming + motor control+IR sensor + serial command + TFT display of RPM and command

For 2015 Four labs, each two weeks long. CHANGE to PIC32
(1) Build board, set up TFT screen, ProtoThread, cap meter
(2) DDS+keypad+SPI -- DTMF dialer-- ProtoThread, AD7303BNZ-ND spi DAC, TFT display
(3) ADC+fixed point+DMA -- video game to TV
(4) ProtoThread concurrent pgming + motor control+IR sensor + serial command + TFT display of RPM and command

For 2014: Four labs, each two weeks long.
(1) Reaction time tester -- LCD for time. eeprom score. LED and speaker (driven with sq wave).
(2) DDS+keypad+SPI -- cricket -- AD7303BNZ-ND spi DAC
(3) ADC+i2c+FFT -- LED spectrum analyser -- MCP23017-E/SP-ND i2c port expander used as low-res DAC
(4) concurrent pgming using TRT+motor control+IR sensor + serial command

For 2013: Four labs, each two weeks long.
(1) Reaction time tester -- LCD for time. eeprom score. LED and speaker (driven with sq wave).
(2) DDS+keypad -- DTMF dialer
(3) video game
(4) concurrent pgming using TRT + IR comm

For 2012: Four labs, each two weeks long.
Need incentive for students to start using target boards earlier in the semester. Maybe extra points on labs?
(1) Reaction time tester -- LCD for time. eeprom score. LED and speaker (driven with sq wave).
(2) DVM-- voltage, resistance, capacitance -- LCD and keypad (set measurement type and alarm threshold for R and V) -- constant I source -- auto range?
(3) DDS+analog input -- trimpot (or keypad) to control timber of FM synthsizer (with LCD output?) and markov sequencer.
(4) concurrent pgming using TRT+motor control+IR sensor + serial command

For 2010: Four labs, each two weeks long.
(1) cap meter or other timing related exercise
(2) DDS+keypad -- DTMF, cricket, karplus-strong
(3) video+analog input -- game, DSO, spectrum analyser -- use VGA instead of TV?
(4) concurrent pgming using TRT+motor control+IR sensor -- possibly ping-pong ball levator

Lab instruments

Motors

Audio

Games

Consumer

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32-bit systems

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/21/review-mbed-nxp-lpc1768-microcontroller/

http://hackaday.com/2010/10/12/arm-prototyping-on-the-cheap-with-stm32-discovery/
http://www.st.com/internet/mcu/class/1734.jsp

http://store.stackfoundry.com/dev-tools/copper-avr32-stick.html
http://www.wvshare.com/column/AVR32_DevelopmentBoard.htm
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=4175

http://wiki.netsynth.org/index.php?title=32-bit_Microcontrollers_Comparison

http://www.parallax.com/propeller/

http://www.microchip.com/en_US/family/pic32/
http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=2615&dDocName=en532453
http://mysite.verizon.net/reswwg6r/id9.html
http://www.eflightworks.net/PIC32_DIP.htm
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8971

Piccolo Microcontrollers
http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tms320f28027.pdf
http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tms320f28027.html
http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/tmdx28027usb.html

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/homepage.jsp?code=CFPLUS

16-bit systems

MSP430 USB stick $20
http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/ez430-f2013.html
MSP430F2013

MSP430 Wireless Development Tool $49
MSP430F2274

MSP430F241x, MSP430F261x MIXED SIGNAL MICROCONTROLLER
http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/msp430f2617.pdf
8kb ram, ADC/DAC