EE101
Semester Project
As engineers, the majority of what you have to do will involve either
the words "build this to do that" or the words "how are we going to fix
this so it can do that"? In most companies or organizations in which we
work you will be asked to design something, build and test it, and then
submit a report on it. The way the company asks you to do something is
typically called a "request for action", or "task requirement" or something
like that. One might look like this.
Complete the following system design project:
Required Actions
Design, simulate and build a TTL function generator capable of outputting
a square wave with adjustable frequency in the following ranges:
1Hz - 10Hz (should alternately light LEDs)
10Hz - 100Hz100Hz
1000Hz1kHz - 10kHz10kHz
100kHz - 1MHz(Look Familiar?)
From this requirement you should develop in your head an idea of how
you can break up this requirement into smaller tasks that you can do piece
by piece (it also saves a HUGE amount of headache if you write down
these ideas in your notebook as a plan). A plan of action for the above
project might look this:
Part I - Design a function generator around 555 timer chip. First
just try the 1Hz to 10Hz range (if that works we can add the other ranges
later). Draw the schematic in PSpice and simulate it so that you can work
out any major bugs before you invest much time prototyping it.
Part II - Add provision for the other frequency ranges in the design
and build the function generator we designed on a protoboard. Test its
operation from 1Hz up to 1MHz and alter the design and schematic if you
need to.
Part III - Generate the circuit trace artwork for realization on a PCB
(printed circuit board) from the PSpice schematic.
Part IV - Using the circuit traces generated by Pspice, etch the PCB
for the function generator, solder components in place and test functionality.
Part V – Formally document your design.
Luckily you have already completed most of the steps involved. Part I was
lab 5; Part II, lab 6; Part III you completed in lab 7; and part IV in
lab 12. The only thing you have left to do is the report. You must complete
a formal project report for the 555 function generator project. This report
is worth 10% of your final grade. The report must contain the following
parts.
Report
A good project report should include the following parts:
-
Title page including name of project, name of team or division,
names of team members and author, and date. In your case, since you are
not working on teams, include the title, your name, date, and class.
-
Abstract - an abstract is a concise, one paragraph description of
your entire project. This may sound hard to do but it doesn't need to be.
In this case a good strategy would be to include one sentence describing
the needed features of the function generator you had to design and one
sentence for each of the four individual labs/parts of the bigger project.
Later in the report you will say all this again in greater detail - that's
the idea.
-
Design procedure - brief description of the total design
process. Here you want to describe each part of the plan, each lab you
did, with a few sentences in a short paragraph. Talk about
what you did in Pspice - how you simulated the design - in one paragraph.
In the next paragraph note anything you would want to know about building
the system on the protoboard and the process of testing it. You don't need
to include results as there is another section coming for that. You also
don't have to be as rigid as one paragraph for each section, but remember
you don't have to write a book. The goal of this part is to convey enough
of the right information that someone coming to the project cold could
reproduce your progress so far.
-
Theory of operation - here you should describe how and why the function
generator works (including the LEDs) including any equations and formulae
you developed or borrowed (mention where they came from) that can be used
to determine the characteristics of the system (include the equation for
fosc in this part). You should go into enough detail that someone
of your own level of expertise could pick up the report and understand
the basics of how the device works. Include a block diagram of the system
in question (the function generator) in this section.
-
Results and Conclusions - In this section you say whether the design
did what it was supposed to, plain and simple. Don't try to say anything
the right way, just say it. If the design did not meet specs, or if it
was kind'a in the gray area explain exactly what it did and how close it
got. Mention anything that didn't look right and briefly describe your
conclusions about why it did or did not perform as expected and where you
think you should go from here.
-
Appendix - Last but not least you should include the following pertinent
information in an appendix
-
Data sheet for the 555 timer chip
-
All calculations, equations and formulae used in the design
-
The schematic for the finished function generator design
-
A BOM or "bill of materials" on which you must list what parts and materials
will be used in the design (give part numbers and quantity) and their cost.
Ask the lab TA's for help in finding suppliers on the web and elsewhere.
Ethics
Plagiarism is a very serious offense and simply will not be tolerated.
Any report that has any portion copied from a source other than the author’s
own words is considered plagiarism. Any report exhibiting plagiarism will
result in a grade of F in the class for that student.