This diagram depicts the passive filter connection with Analog Discovery 2 for Lab 2.

Complementary Labs for Electrical Engineering

by National Instruments

Complementary Labs for Electrical Engineering provides students with seven labs designed to span multiple courses in a typical four-year Electrical Engineering undergraduate program. These labs are designed to show how the Analog Discovery 2 can be used to complement existing lab setups by providing a way for students to experiment and use hardware at home, without the pressure of having to finish a lab within a dedicated lab period. The labs do not cover a full-semester of topics; instead, they provide instructors with a few ideas on how they could integrate the Analog Discovery 2 into their own courses in order to give students a more holistic engineering experience.

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will learn the theory behind various circuits and electronics applications.
Students will complete exercises to simulate, create, and test circuits for specific electronics applications.
Students will gain proficiency in using the Analog Discovery 2, Multisim Live, and LabVIEW to perform circuits and electronics experiments at home.

COURSE ALIGNMENT

Level	University
Topic	Circuits and Electronics
Style	Laboratory
Prerequisite Skills	Introductory Circuits, Basic LabVIEW Experience (recommended, but not required)

Included Course Labs

LAB 1: RC CIRCUITS

This lab covers the basic characteristics of RC Circuits, including both DC and AC analysis, simulation, and experimentation. Students will learn about the equations that govern capacitor charging and discharging, the RC circuit time constant, and be introduced to using RC circuits as low-pass and high-pass filters. Advanced students can build on the lab and challenge themselves to design band-pass and band-stop RC filters.

LAB 2: ACTIVE AND PASSIVE FILTERS

This lab introduces students to the basic terminology and characteristics of filters such as filter slope, passband, stopband, and cut-off frequency. Students will learn about filter transfer functions for passive and active filters as well as higher-order passive filters and apply their knowledge by simulating and building these circuits. Advanced students can challenge themselves by exploring higher-order active filter implementations (such as Chebyshev and Butterworth) and how these implementations maximize different filter characteristics.

LAB 3: AMPLIFIER FREQUENCY RESPONSE

This lab introduces students to the importance of frequency response when designing circuits. Students will investigate the frequency response of two amplifier circuits, one made with transistors and the other using op-amps. By comparing how their frequency responses differ while still providing the same overall function, students will learn about how different input frequency ranges affect design considerations. Advanced students can challenge themselves to research high-speed op-amps and compare their designs and specifications to regular op-amps.

LAB 4: FULL-WAVE RECTIFIERS

This lab guides students in building a full-wave bridge rectifier and in exploring the V-I characteristic of a diode. Students will first simulate and build the rectifier to gain an understanding of the purpose of a rectifier. Then, students will use LabVIEW to explore the individual components of the rectifier in order to visualize and understand how these components limit its operating range. Advanced students can explore ways to overcome the threshold voltage limit when using diodes in a rectifier or learn more about programming practices and user-friendliness.

LAB 5: AMPLITUDE MODULATION AND DEMODULATION

This lab introduces students to communications theory with amplitude modulation and demodulation. Students will explore the mathematical theory behind amplitude modulation and use the Analog Discovery 2 to visualize the effects of amplitude modulation in the time and frequency domains. Then, students will use LabVIEW to program an AM demodulator and use it to explore and visualize the effects of the modulation coefficient on the quality of the demodulated signal and the effects of different parameters (such as windowing and averaging) on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Advanced students can challenge themselves to build a system to send data between two Analog Discovery 2s or to build an analog AM demodulator.

LAB 6: UART SERIAL COMMUNICATION

This lab allows students to explore the basics of serial communication using a microcontroller (such as a Digilent chipkit uC32) as the transmitter and the Analog Discovery 2 as the receiver. Students will explore and visualize the effects of different factors (such as baud rates and endian-ness) on serial communications. Advanced students can challenge themselves to build a multi-device transmitter and receiver system or investigate decoding signals from binary back to decimal values.

LAB 7: SPI COMMUNICATION

This lab allows students to explore communication using the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus. Students will learn about the basic theory behind SPI communication using a microcontroller (such as an Arduino Uno) as the SPI master and the Analog Discovery 2 as the SPI slave. Using LabVIEW, students will be able to visualize the slave select, clock, and MOSI lines of the SPI bus and learn how to extract the message from these lines. Advanced students can challenge themselves by modifying their code to encode and decode ASCII signals or adding a layer of encryption to protect their data from unwanted observers.

Requirements

Analog Discovery 2

Gives students access to a 100 MS/s oscilloscope, a logic analyzer, and six other instruments in a pocket-sized lab device. Learn more

Multisim Live

Multisim Live is an online, touch-optimized component of Multisim, so students can design and simulate their circuits anywhere, anytime, on any device. Learn more

LabVIEW

LabVIEW is systems engineering software for applications that require test, measurement, and control with rapid access to hardware and data insights. Learn more

DETAILED REQUIREMENTS

Please see the individual labs for more details.

Lab 1: RC Circuits
Hardware Requirements Analog Discovery 2 - NI Edition Prototyping breadboard Wires 1 uF electrolytic capacitor 10 kΩ resistor	Software Requirements Multisim Live Premium Account Digilent WaveForms 2015
Lab 2: Active and Passive Filters
Hardware Requirements Analog Discovery 2 - NI Edition 1 kΩ resistor x 2 1 uF electrolytic capacitor 10 kΩ resistor 0.1 uF ceramic capacitor Opamp IC (OP27)	Software Requirements Multisim Live Premium Account Digilent WaveForms 2015
Lab 3: Amplifier Frequency Response
Hardware Requirements Analog Discovery 2 - NI Edition NPN 2N3904 transistor 741 Op-amp 10 kΩ resistor 1 kΩ resistor x 2 5.6 kΩ resistor 2.2 kΩ resistor 680 Ω resistor 0.8 kΩ resistor	Software Requirements Multisim Live Premium Account Digilent WaveForms 2015
Lab 4: Full-Wave Rectifiers
Hardware Requirements Analog Discovery 2 - NI Edition 1N4001 diodes x 4 100 kΩ resistor 100 Ω resistor 4.7 Ω resistor	Software Requirements Multisim Live Premium Account LabVIEW 2015 or later Digilent WaveForms 2015 Digilent WaveForms VIs
Lab 5: Amplitude Modulation and Demodulation
Hardware Requirements Analog Discovery 2 - NI Edition Jumper wires	Software Requirements LabVIEW 2015 or later Digilent WaveForms 2015 Digilent WaveForms VIs
Lab 6: UART Serial Communication
Hardware Requirements Analog Discovery 2 - NI Edition Digilent chipKIT uC32 or other LINX supported microcontroller Full List Available Here Jumper wires	Software Requirements LabVIEW 2015 or later Digilent WaveForms 2015 Digilent WaveForms VIs
Lab 7: SPI Communication
Hardware Requirements Analog Discovery 2 - NI Edition Arduino Uno or other LINX supported microcontroller Full List Available Here Jumper wires	Software Requirements LabVIEW 2015 or later Digilent WaveForms 2015 Digilent WaveForms VIs

Resources

Related Resources

EXPLORE

These labs have related concepts that can expand student experience.

Real Analog: Circuits 1

Electronics 102