Electronics Lab

This course will serve as an introduction to working with circuits in a lab setting. We will learn about the relatively simple rules necessary for working with analog circuits and how those rules can be used to build objects of growing complexity. We will then move on to understanding how to build circuits that can measure properties of and interact with their surroundings. The topics covered in this course are widely applicable and will likely appeal to students interested in physics, computer science, robotics, electronic music, as well as those simply interested in electronic tinkering. While there will be some limited lecture time, the large majority of the time will be spent in the lab building circuits.

We will meet:
Mondays 1:40pm – 5:30pm in the Physics Lab (Dickinson 238)

Tentative Schedule (likely to change)

DateTopicReadingAssignments
October 27Basic CircuitsElectricity
Ohm’s Law
Circuits
Resistors
Breadboard
Multimeter
Circuit Introduction and Ohm’s Law
November 3LEDs and RC CircuitsLEDs 1.0
LEDs 2.0
RC Circuits
RC Circuits and LEDs
November 10Filters and DiodesUsing an Oscilloscope
High-Pass and Low-Pass Filters
Diodes
Oscilloscope, Filters, and Diodes
November 17Transistors + Environmental SensorsTransistors: 1, 2, 3, 4
Transistor Calculations: 1, 2
Thermistor Info
Photoresistor Info
Transistors and Sensors
November 24Digital Sensors + Raspberry PiRaspberry Pi Quick Intro
Raspberry Pi GPIO
Using an ADC
Raspberry Pi Introduction
December 1Final Projects
December 8Final Projects