Objectives: Electronic instruments used in physical, biological, and computer sciences are “black boxes” to most of their users, but there often comes a time when an instrument needs to be diagnosed, tweaked, augmented, or build from the ground up. The purpose of this course is to enable you to do these things. This will be accomplished through hands-on study of electronic components – from resistors and capacitors to integrated circuits. Along the way, you will hone your general theoretical and experimental skills (which include clearly documenting your work) and become familiar with the tools of the trade, including circuit simulator programs.
Text: The textbook will be Principles of Electronic Instrumentation, 3rd ed. by A.J. Diefenderfer and B.E. Holton.
Errata: By all reports, this is the best aimed text for the class, but it’s got one significant flaw – the primary author died before all the kinks were worked out. Dr. DeWeerd has compiled a list of corrections; it’s up to us to apply them to our copies of the text. Unless you want to be as frustrated as the reviewers you’ll find on Amazon.com, that’s the first thing to do when you open the book.
Program: Given scientists’ three general approaches - theoretical, experimental, and computational, most any result derived by one approach can be checked by one or both of the others. In the field of electronics, circuit simulation programs are invaluable tools for the computational approach, and over the years they’ve become easier and easier to use. The more complex the circuit, the more invaluable these simulators are. For your homework, I invite you to check your results with a simulation; for the labs, I require you to simulate a number of the circuits you’ll construct; for your final project, the simulation will prove an essential trouble-shooting tool. In the labs, I’ll give explicit instructions for using 5Spice; it is loaded on all the department machines and available for free download at www.5spice.com (alas, it is only Windows compatible.) You may also find the online applet at http://www.falstad.com/circuit/ useful for visualizing and characterizing circuits.
Class Meetings: We have two “lecture” days one “lab” day and one ‘overflow’ day a week. The regular cycle is 1st day – introduce, 2nd day – work with, 3rd day – quiz & build, and 4th day – finish any remaining lab work.
Lecture: To get the most out of our class time together, you should deeply read the appropriate sections of the text before class. That includes working through examples and getting started on the homework so you know what you need addressed in class. Thus,…
Discussion Prep (5% of your grade): To encourage pre-class deep reading, by 9a.m. on lecture days, you should turn in three prep items of your choosing. Here are some of the types of prep items you might choose to do: first draft of some of the homework (no final grade will be recorded until homework is due), unassigned homework problems, questions that the reading raised, or something else like filling in the ‘left to the reader’ gaps in the book’s derivations; or putting one of the book’s particularly confusing arguments into your own words.
Lab (30%-notebook): You should read over the laboratory procedure and perform an pre-lab activities beforehand (those will be graded while you take the weekly quiz at the beginning of lab, more about the quiz later) – if you come in prepared, you should be able to leave finished (or close enough that you’ll easily finish the next day.) In lab, you may only write in your lab notebook, not on “scratch” paper which is easily misplaced (this may take some getting used to, but it’s a great habit to get into.) You should be sure to write down enough so that you can recall what you did several weeks later (it may come in handy when you’re working on your final project.) See the checklist inside the front cover of your lab notebook for details on what should be included.
It may be tempting to leave lab once the hands-on work seems done, but it’s best to do as much of the analysis as possible during the lab period so that you can easily ask questions or redo the hands-on work if you discover it’s necessary.
Notebooks will be collected at the conclusion of each week’s lab and returned before the next lab.
Homework (15%): There will be weekly homework assignments which will give you practice with the concepts that will be applied in lab. Homework will be due at the beginning of Lab. Your work (not just the final answers) must be turned in and will be graded; thus the work must be legible and easy to follow (if your original work is not, you may want to copy it over.) Because good problem solving style and communication are crucial to success in physics, you will be graded not just on the quality of your solution, but the quality of you communication. For one thing, this means explaining your reasoning in words as well as doing the math. You must also include units anywhere you use numbers (not just at the end.) Feel free to consult with each other or with me, but the work turned in must be your own. For many of the problems, a simple simulation in 5spice or the online applet will be able to check your final answer. In the interest of keeping all the components of the course reinforcing each other most effectively, late homework will not be accepted.
Projects (15%): The end of the semester will be devoted to a project that applies some of what you have learned. While due dates are included in the class schedule, the details are discussed in a separate document. You should keep notes on your work in your lab notebook. The last day of class, April 14th, will be used for you to demonstrate your work to the class. A report containing a description of the project, a circuit diagram, and evidence that the project operates correctly is also due that day.
Quizzes: (10%): There will be a short quiz over each chapter at the beginning of each week's lab. As with the Homework Problems, you will be judged not only on the correctness of your solution, but also on the quality of your communication (of course, in a nod to time constraints, the standard will not be as high as for homework). The quizzes are intended to encourage you to look over the homework and review anything that you didn’t understand.
Exams (25%): There will be a midterm exam on March 5th and a final exam. Since our class meets during three different official time slots, we have our choice of three Final Exam times (see next page); together we’ll choose one, but once we do, don’t be making conflicting travel plans, change them soon (late-change fees are unpleasant.). All exams will be closed book, closed notes. As with the quizzes, quality of communication, as well as solution, counts. The midterm counts for 10% of your grade; the Final has a section that focuses on the last half of the course (10%) and a cumulative portion (5%)
Cheating: Dishonesty seriously undermines academic pursuit; therefore, it is my philosophy that the punishment for cheating should not simply erase its 'beneficial' effects, but be enough of a deterrent that the 'benefit' of cheating is not worth the risk. For example, if I identify cheating on an exam, the offender is likely to be failed from the course.
Grading: If at anytime you are interested in reviewing your standing in the course feel free to give me a call, send me an e-mail, or drop by my office. Each portion of the course will be weighted as shown below.
Discussion Prep. 5%
Homework 15%
Quizzes 10%
Lab Notebook 30%
Project 15%
Exams 25%
Final Grade Assignments: Final grades will be assigned according to the following:
93 ⅓ ≤ A (4.0) ≤ 100%
90 ≤ A- (3.7) < 93 ⅓
86 ⅔ ≤ B+ (3.3) < 90
83 ⅓ ≤ B (3.0) < 86 ⅔
80 ≤ B- (2.7) < 83 ⅓
76 ⅔ ≤ C+ (2.3) < 80
73 ⅓ ≤ C (2.0) < 76 ⅔
70 ≤ C- (1.7) < 73 ⅓
66 ⅔ ≤ D+ (1.3) < 70
63 ⅓ ≤ D (1.0) < 66 ⅔
60 ≤ D- (0.7) < 63 ⅓
0 ≤ F (0.0) < 60
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