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.