Final Lab Deliverables

1. Please send me your revised your-own-goals assignment.
2. For each lab, turn in a brief, informal lab write-up (you and your partner, together). It should be no longer than five pages (including figures) and should include:
• Complete schematic, BOM, and budget
• Plot showing the top layer (component side) of your layout
• Picture of your assembled circuit board
• Picture of a representative measurement (scope photo or data plot)
• A paragraph describing your results
• List of references used for the design
3. For each lab, turn in a "grade sheet" (individually), answering the six questions from the "Grading" post.

Your own goals

As you work to revise your own learning goals for the class, please refer back to the original assignment. Let me know if you have any questions or comments about your goals revision.

Design Project Schedule

For the design project, the schedule is:

Architecture design review: November 2
Schematic design review: November 9
Layout design review: November 16
Layout files due: November 19
Boards back by: November 30
Final presentations: December 10

Design Project Ideas

Gathering some ideas for the design projects:

1. Interactive displays for the EE Proto bulletin board.
2. Clock displays: LED/analog? Voltmeters? Metric time? POSIX?
3. Time synchronization: GPS, WWV, or WiFi beacon-frame timestamp?
4. LED-strip-driver audio visualizer (light organ).
5. MIDI control board (such as this Kickstarter project) with interesting interfaces.
6. A digitally controlled analog synthesizer voice.
7. A digital synthesizer voice (like these boxes).
8. A complete drum machine box (with sequencer and voices).
9. Drone synthesizer (for example, Drone Commander or Drone Lab).
10. Lecture demonstrations for Controls (PID box? SSE box?).

Grades

For each of the first six labs, consider the following questions:

1. What worked?
2. What didn't?
3. What are your lessons learned?
4. What could (should) you have done better? 
5. What grade do you give yourself on the lab?
6. What changes (if any) should be made to this lab for future classes?

Please write up your answers to these questions (each answer only needs to be a sentence or two). Meet with the Professor to discuss your grades, and bring your answers with you. Let's wrap this up soon.

Lab B5

Two options for Lab B5:

1. Analog filter design: Design a three-channel audio spectrum analyzer, with fourth-order band-pass filters and corners at 20 Hz, 200 Hz, 2 kHz, and 20 kHz (at least three channels and at least fourth order; more would be better).
2. Analog computer design: Read Section 12.3 in Roberge's Operational Amplifiers. Simulate and build the scaled analog computer for Van der Pol's Equation in Figure 12.16. Then, simulate and build an analog computer for Duffing's Equation (or some other interesting differential equation in consultation with the staff).

Op amps! Op amps! Op amps!

October Events

Three events this month that you need to attend:

1. Sunday, October 18, 9am: Electronics Flea Market at MIT
2. Saturday, October 24, all day: Analog Heaven North East Synthfest at Olin
3. Monday, October 26, 7:30pm, Blade Runner, Olin Auditorium

Really. You should attend these events. Mark your calendars.

Lab A4 Microcontroller

Lab A4 is to layout a simple microcontroller board. One possibility is a copy of the Arduino Micro, and you can find the schematic on their website. Other possibilities can be discussed with the staff.

Lab A3 Teardown

Part 1:

1. Get a toolkit (if you don't already have one).
2. Review the some teardowns at iFixit and send me an email with a link to your favorite one, with a short explanation of why it's your favorite. Be sure to venture beyond the lists of "Recent" and "Popular". For some examples, see
   • Teardown highlights from 2015.
   • Teardown highlights from 2014.
   • Teardown highlights from 2013.
3. Watch the following video (a teardown of an Anritsu spectrum analyzer from Mike's Electric Stuff; see his YouTube channel for more videos).

---

Part 2:

Commercial Electronics Autopsy: Take apart a piece of commercial electronics (provided). Take pictures, study construction techniques, draw a block diagram, write a bill of materials of major parts (top ten), and find some data sheets, but don't draw a schematic. Make a list of the major components; the main integrated circuits are important, of course, but don't overlook interesting examples of passive components, sensors, connectors, switches (and other controls), internal cable assemblies, heat sinks, mechanical elements, etc. Deliverables (as a web page):

• Link to service manual (if found)
• Basic test results showing operation (or non-operation)
• Pictures of the disassembly and the insides
• Block diagram of the system
• Bill of materials of ten major parts, with date codes and datasheets
• Discussion of the mechanical design, including functional and decorative elements
• Short presentation for informal show-and-tell session

If your item has an FCC ID code on it, be sure to check out if any of the FCC filings are public at http://transition.fcc.gov/oet/ea/fccid/.

Extra credit for salvaging and reusing some interesting part from your autopsy (for example: motors, sensors, LEDs, switches, fans, etc.).

Lecture pointers

Here are some pointers for lecture notes on this blog:

• Lecture 1: Example circuit boards
• Lecture 1: Toolkit contents
• Lecture 2: Schematic dos and don'ts
• Lecture 2: Bills of material
• Lecture 4: Resistors and capacitors

Course Schedule

Here is a (preliminary) schedule for the lab projects:

Labs 1 and 2: due by September 14
Lab 3: due September 24
Lab 4: layout files due October 8
Lab 5: due October 19
Lab 6: due October 29

For the design project, the rough schedule is:

Project proposal: October 22
Architecture design review: October 29
Schematic design review: November 5
Layout design review: November 12
Layout files due: November 19
Boards back by: November 30
Final presentations: December 10

For your own learning goals, the schedule is:

Initial statement of goals: September 17
Midterm downselect and revision: October 22
Final deliverables: December 10

Some of these dates may be flexible. Some of these dates are not (when the layout files are due). Completing the labs and the design project will require some multitasking (particularly around Labs 5 and 6).

Chronologically:

September 14: Labs 1 and 2
September 17: Initial statement of goals
September 24: Lab 3
October 8: Lab 4 layout files due (no slip)
October 19: Lab 5
October 22: Goals revision and project proposal
October 29: Lab 6 and architecture design review
November 5: Schematic design review
November 12: Layout design review
November 19: Layout files due (no slip)
November 30: Boards back
December 10: Final deliverables and presentations

Assessment and Grades

Your grade in EE Proto will be based on three key self assessments, of equal weight:

1. Your performance on each of the first six labs (equally weighted).
2. Your success on, effort in, and "lessons learned" from your design project.
3. A start-of-term statement of your own learning goals for the course, a middle-of-term revision of these goals, and an end-of-term assessment thereof.

Your own learning goals, and your assessment thereof, will take the form of an evolving, written assignment that you will develop in collaboration with the teaching staff:

• A first-draft statement of your learning goals (about half a page, due September 17). Create a Google document and share it with the professor (at his Gmail account). Write a list of three to five goals that you would like to achieve during this course. Your goals can take any form as long as they represent your own interests and learning objectives for this course. For each goal, briefly explain in three to four sentences, what you hope to do or learn, how you plan to achieve it, and how you will measure success.
  
  At least one of your goals should be a "service" goal, that is, an effort to make the course better in the future.  Some examples: a how-to guide or instruction manual, a new assignment or lab for the course, content for the blog or course website, a course wiki, a new (electronic) display for the AC hallway bulletin board, etc., etc.

• Goals down-select and revision (one to two pages, due mid term after Lab 6). From your first draft, pick your three "final" goals for the course (including one or more service goals). You may clarify, revise, or change your goals at this point. For each of your final goals, add a detailed description of your final deliverables and assessment plan. 

• Final deliverables, as described in your mid-term plan (due end of term).

Your grades on the labs, design project, and your own goals will be determined and assigned by you, in consultation with the teaching staff. Your final (letter) grade in the class will be determined by the average of these grades, plus an upward-adjustment-factor, based on your class participation and possible extra-credit work (as determined by the professor).

Lab 1: Simulate and Fabricate

The assignment for Lab 1 is to get a jump start on simulating circuits and doing board layout. Here are the individual steps:

1. Complete the first-day questionnaire.
2. Install DipTrace on your laptop. See the Olin instructions here.
3. Install the Windows version of LTSpice on your laptop. Download here.
4. Get the DipTrace Tutorial PDF file.
5. Complete the schematic and layout tutorial, pages 1 through 79.
6. Complete a transient simulation of the "Astable Flip Flop" in LTSpice. Plot the current in the LEDs over a ten-second period.
7. Complete a second layout of the "Astable Flip Flop" using the following surface-mount parts (on a two-layer board):
   • Transistors: ON Semiconductor MMBT3904LT1G (SOT23 package, double check pin assignments!)
   • Capacitors: 33uF TDK Corp C3216X5R1C336M160AB (1206 package)
   • LEDs: Lite-On LTST-C170GKT (0805 package)
   • Resistors R2 and R3: 680 ohms (0805 package)
   • Resistors R1 and R4: 34 kilohms (0805 package)
   • 9V battery connector (use same through-hole connector)
8. Minimize the size of your PCB layout to save space. Less than two square-inches is the goal.
9. Produce Gerber files for your design and submit them to OSH Park for fabrication.

This assignment is the whole class in a nutshell.

Note that the ground connection isn't strictly necessary, since this circuit is battery powered, but its inclusion will improve the convergence of your LTspice simulation.

Lab Assignment Tracks

This offering of EE Proto has three possible tracks of laboratory assignments. You should choose a track to complete based on your interests and background. The three tracks are listed below, along with the necessary course prerequisites.

TRACK A (Classic EE Proto, prereq: PoE)

1. Flasher tutorial lab
2. OSH Park submission
3. Commercial product teardown lab
4. Micro-controller board layout
5. Commercial product reverse engineering
6. Micro-controller board assembly
7. Design project

TRACK B (Op-Amp Circuits, prereq: SigSys)

1. Flasher tutorial lab
2. Nonlinear oscillator lab
3. Sine-wave oscillator lab
4. Layout of oscillators
5. Filters or analog-computer lab
6. Oscillators assembly
7. Sound-generating design project

TRACK C (Advanced Circuits, prereqs: Circuits and Controls)

1. Op-amp analysis problem set
2. Temperature probe design
3. Amplitude stabilized oscillators
4. Layout of probe and oscillator
5. Transistor voltage clamp
6. Capacitive-load lab or PLL lab
7. 50-ohm driver design project

Note that due dates between the tracks will be synchronized (for example, everyone in the class is submitting a circuit layout for fabrication in Lab 4 on the same day), and will be announced in class. The first six labs will be assigned about one per week, and the design project will be completed during the second half of the term.

PS: If you have taken EE Proto previously and completed Track A, you can repeat the course (as a 2 or 4 credit Independent Study or OSS) and complete Track B or Track C. Ask the professor for details.

First-Day Questionnaire

Please answer the following questions in an email to the professor:

1. Name? Major? Year?
2. What other "EE-type" courses have you taken or are taking (beyond PoE)? SigSys? Circuits? MADVLSI? A/D Comms? Controls? Any other hardware-oriented courses or seminars?
3. Have you previously designed and built any printed circuit boards?
4. What course topics are you most interested in?
5. What course topics are you least interested in?
6. Which lab track(s) are you most interested in?
7. Generally, what do you hope to learn in EE Proto?
8. Do you play guitar or keyboards? Are you familiar with effects pedals such as distortion, overdrive, echo, reverb, chorus, phaser, and flanger?
9. You're in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise. It's crawling toward you. You reach down, and you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can't, not without your help. But you're not helping. Why is that?

Fall 2015

Tomorrow is the first day of classes!

• New term (Fall instead of Spring)!
• New course structure!
• New laboratory assignments!
• New grading and assessment system!
• New love for the exclamation mark!

Stay tuned!

Potential Audio Projects (with MIDI)

Hmm... One of these?

Or one of these?

Or both?

BOMs are easy...

Originally seen in this article, via @bunniestudios.

Post-Spring-Break Schedule

Today, March 23: Complete system block diagram.  Include at least ten blocks and a list of at least ten major parts.

Looking forward:

• March 30: Complete schematic and parts list (design reviews Monday and Thursday).
• April 6: Complete board layout (design reviews Monday and Thursday).
• April 13: Final submissions (DipTrace files to Jay on Monday).

 Parts update: Recommended micro USB connector with board locks: TE Connectivity 2040002-1 (and by "recommended", I mean everyone should use this connector; and by "should" I mean "must").

More Design Project Ideas

More design project ideas (an improved list, in no particular order):

1. Audio signal processing and LED visualization for DJ performance.
2. Clock displays: seven-segment displays with TBD synchronization.
3. Clock POV display with TBD synchronization.
4. Hand sensors and interfacing to a USB human interface device (the glove).
5. Interactive buttons (such as shirt buttons) for the EE Proto bulletin board.
6. USB drive with RFID authentication.
7. VGA-output Etch-a-Sketch.
8. VGA-compatible audio visualizer.

Design Project Ideas

Gathering some ideas for the design projects:

1. A complete drum machine box.
2. An analog synthesizer voice.
3. A digital synthesizer voice (like the Meeblip).
4. VGA-compatible audio visualizer.
5. LED-driver audio visualizer (light organ).
6. Lecture demonstrations for Controls.
7. MIDI control board (such as this Kickstarter project).
8. Drone synthesizer (for example, Drone Commander or Drone Lab).
9. Clock displays: LED/analog? Voltmeters? Metric time? POSIX?
10. Clock synchronization: GPS, WWV, or WiFi beacon-frame timestamp?
11. Interactive displays for the EE Proto bulletin board.
12. RF signal-strength meters and an AM-band spectrum analyzer.

Homework for Monday

Here are the items you should be working on for Monday:

1. Feedback on Lab 4 assignment and projects.
2. Idea for Lab 5 project.
3. Design Project Proposal.

Lab 4

In Lab 4 you will complete the layout of several independent circuits. We will get these designs fabricated, and you will assemble and test the circuits in Lab 6. There are three circuits that you will lay out for this lab:

1. The surface-mount LED flasher that you completed as part of DipTrace Tutorial Day. 
2. A simple microcontroller board. One possibility is a copy of the Arduino Micro, and you can find the schematic on their website. Other possibilities can be discussed with the staff.
3. An analog drum voice. Schematics will be provided in class.

To complete this assignment, you must deliver the following documentation:

1. Simulations of the first and third circuits in LTSpice
2. A complete schematic for each circuit
3. A complete bill of materials for all the parts (including source, stock number, and cost)
4. A complete layout in DipTrace (suitable for fabrication)

Lab 4 is due Monday, February 23.

Drum Machine Documentaries

Homework: watch the following videos about the Roland TR-808 drum machine.

First up is a short trailer for an upcoming documentary called "808" (premiering at SXSW).



Second is an excerpt from the  BBC documentary "The Shape of Things that Hum".



If you have the time (82 minutes), the full documentary is on YouTube. It discusses a number of important electronic instruments, including the MiniMoog synthesizer, the vocoder, the Yamaha DX7, the CMI Farilight, the Simmons drum machine, the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer, the Roland TR-808 drum machine, and the Akai Sampler.

DipTrace Tutorial Day

The class assignment for Monday (February 9) is to complete two tutorial projects in DipTrace. Before class on Monday, please complete the following homework:

1. Get DipTrace installed on your laptop. See the Olin instructions here.
2. Get the DipTrace Tutorial PDF file.

In class on Monday, we will complete the following projects:

1. Complete the schematic and layout tutorial, pages 1 through 79.
2. Complete a second layout of the "Astable Flip Flop" using only surface-mount parts.

• Transistors: ON Semiconductor MMBT3904LT1G (SOT23 package)
• Capacitors: 33uF  TDK Corp C3216X5R1C336M160AB (1206 package)
• LEDs: Lite-On LTST-C170GKT (0805 package)
• Resistors R2 and R3: 680 ohms (0805 package)
• Resistors R1 and R4: 34 kilohms (0805 package)
• 9V battery connector (use same through-hole connector)

Minimize the size of your PCB layout to save space. Save your second layout in a safe place when you are finished (we will get these designs fabricated as part of Lab 4).

After class on Monday, you may want to watch some of the (advanced) Video Guided Tour (should take less than 30 minutes). Make note of any jargon or concepts that you don't understand.

One additional project that we might get started, time permitting, is the layout of a simple microcontroller.  This design is based on the Arduino Micro, and you can find the schematic on their website.

Lab 3

Reverse Engineering. Take apart and fully document a piece of commercial electronics (provided). Assemble a complete documentation package describing the circuit, components, and behavior of the object. Deliverables (as a web page):

• Basic test results showing behavior
• Block diagram of system
• Bill of materials of all parts
• Complete schematic of circuit

Document package is due February 12.

Lab 2

Commercial Electronics Autopsy: Take apart a piece of commercial electronics (provided). Take pictures, study construction techniques, draw a block diagram, write a bill of materials of major parts (top ten), and find some data sheets, but don't draw a schematic. Make a list of the major components; the main integrated circuits are important, of course, but don't overlook interesting examples of passive components, sensors, connectors, switches (and other controls), internal cable assemblies, heat sinks, mechanical elements, etc. Deliverables (as a web page):

• Link to service manual (if found)
• Basic test results showing operation (or non-operation)
• Pictures of the disassembly and the insides
• Block diagram of the system
• Bill of materials of ten major parts, with date codes and datasheets
• Discussion of the mechanical design, including functional and decorative elements
• Short presentation for informal show-and-tell session

If your item has an FCC ID code on it, be sure to check out if any of the FCC filings are public at http://transition.fcc.gov/oet/ea/fccid/.

Extra credit for salvaging and reusing some interesting part from your autopsy (for example: motors, sensors, LEDs, switches, fans, etc.).

Schematics Lecture Notes

Here are the lecture notes for today's discussion on schematics and bills of materials.

Lab 1

Build a battery-powered circuit that flashes an LED.

That's the whole lab assignment. It's up to you to design a schematic, find parts, choose a construction technique, and make sure the customer (your professor) is satisfied. Feel free to ask questions, but you must demonstrate a working circuit by the end of class today.

Difficulty setting:

Teardown highlights from iFixit 2015

Part of the homework this weekend is to read some teardowns at iFixit and send me an email with a link to your favorite one, with a short explanation of why it's your favorite. Here are the replies that I've received so far:

• Pebble Smartwatch

I liked the teardown of the Pebble smartwatch. It was cool to see how much they packed into such a small space, especially with a large portion of it being the battery (which was only 130 mAh, but supposedly able to last a whole week). The craziest thing was that the screen had to be pried off and ended up being destroyed in the process. This was because in this version of the watch (the Kickstarter version), everything was held tightly together with adhesives. Newer versions utilize screws and are supposed to be more easily serviceable.

• iPhone 1 and iPhone 6

Comparing and contrasting the original iPhone with the latest version was actually pretty interesting. It was crazy to see how much some of the components stayed the same and how much others had changed. Although the iPhone 6 is jam packed with more features and components to go with these features, it was quite a bit more organized, as all the components were smaller. I think the main reason that this was possible was because the antenna and logic board had shrunk considerably. I wonder if that’s due to new technology or better sourcing of components?

• Tracking Device

I thought the tracking device looked like something that could be interesting to take apart. I mean, that’s what you do when you find FBI super-secret spy gadgets on your car. The tracker looked a lot bigger than I was expecting, and I was hoping for some military-grade stuff (…there is some mil spec velcro-ing going on though). Some cool parts of the teardown are the huge magnets, and the battery that’s supposed to last 10-20 years. I like that the screws were coated in thread lock to keep people from doing teardowns, and that the FBI was hand-soldering the board components. I also appreciated step 10 about the FBI finding you if you find their tracking device.

• Amazon Echo

Echo is all about audio (both input and output), and the components inside reflect that. Amazon advertises the omnidirectional microphone on Echo strongly, and those are found at the top of the device. 6 microphones ring the perimeter of Echo, and one sits in the center. This purportedly allows Alexa to hear you no matter where you are in a room. These microphones may be Amazon-custom, as the part number doesn't appear anywhere else on the internet except in reference to the Echo. Many of the other components are specialized towards audio as well, including an audio codec, an amplifier, a digital media processor and a regulator. (Interestingly, all of the above were TI components.) The remaining components include a wifi/BT chip, flash memory, RAM, and a general processor.

• FitBit Flex

I really enjoyed this teardown because I personally own this device and have thought many times about how to actually open and get into the device. Seeing that the way that iFixit approached this issue was using a saw was quite amusing. I was surprised by seeing that only half of the small device was taken up by a battery while with personal experience, the battery lasts about a week. It is crazy to see that the device was able to pack so much stuff into such little space.

• Dell Latitude D620

I thought it would be cool to see a teardown of a Dell Latitude, because that is the type of laptop we are given as Olin students. Right off the bat, I was kind of surprised by how the author approached the problem. Instead of attacking the screws in the back of the laptop, he pried the nameplate off from the keyboard, and then lifted the keyboard. I also didn't fully understand everything about how the insides of a computer work, so it was cool to learn about how the CMOS battery keeps time even when power isn't supplied. I was also surprised to see how messy some of the thermal paste heat sinking was, because everything else fit together very elegantly. The teardown process was very delicate, to the point that loosening a screw too much can damage the logic board of the computer. For a lot of the teardowns I read, the process has to go perfectly for there to be any chance of reassembling the device again.

• Occulus Rift VF Development Kit

Earlier this semester I was asked questions about the workings of this headset. Seeing the teardown, I was able to actually visualize the connections between the screen, speakers, camera modules, and housings in a way I couldn’t the day of those questions. If I could go back and do it again, I would have looked for something like this as preparation, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20. Another aspect I really appreciated was seeing the ease with which boards could be removed and parts could be identified. It seems to me like this represents a pretty decent way of doing a visual/digital project where you’re more likely to suffer with ribbon cables and wiley wires.

• Blendtec Total Blender

My favorite teardown was the Blendtec Total Blender. Partly due to their hilarious videos but also because it wasn’t another microprocessor wrapper. Most of the tear downs of modern electronics are basically computers (which I have some experience assembling and disassembling) with a few extra components. The most impressive portion of the blender was of course the giant motor, but also the sensors that are required to maintain the motor and keep users safe. I hope by the end of the semester I can comment more on the electronic design.

• FitBit Flex

I chose the Fitbit Flex because I have been interested in wearable devices for a while, and I thought it was quite interesting to see what was going on inside of one. I was surprised by how much of the interior was taken up by the vibrator, considering I had originally assumed that there would be more space required for the various components that take measurements from our body. It was also unfortunate that it was so destroyed in the process.

• Nintendo Wii U

The Wii U is interesting because it has both a main station and a complex controller that have to communicate with one another with minimal lag time. The main console is impressively small and has interesting ways to fit the heat sink in the small space. The controller is even more interesting since the circuit board has to take in several inputs (including analog sticks, buttons, and even a large touch screen) which are ergonomically organized.

• Steam Machine

Most of the components are off-the-shelf making them easy to upgrade. The controller has a microcontroller that can handle the user’s configured functions of the several buttons. Not only does the box contain the standard video card, hard drive, CPU cooler and power supply, but it also is prepped for another hard drive to store games on. It already contains an impressive 1 TB platter drive common in laptops, in addition to an 8 GB SSD. Unsurprisingly, the heatsink fan is huge, 80 mm, but surprisingly quiet. The on button on the console is quite large. It was surprising how much space was taken up by LED’s just to illuminate the circumference of the button but I guess this device is not built to be very compact. This device is built to be highly modular, high speed processing and have a lot of memory.

• Nexus 7

My favorite teardown was of the Nexus 7. I've had to remove the back cover of my Nexus 7 several times to repair the speakers and headphone jack, but left the other components largely untouched. It was interesting to see more of what was under the battery. I found the L shape of the motherboard particularly interesting because I had always assumed that it was rectangular. It's also amazing to me how densely packed some portions of the motherboard appear to be.

• Chromecast

I elected to review the Chromecast because my hall elected to buy one last semester for our communal television. Compared to a lot of teardowns that I read, this one had the most fun banter: the writers commented on how the model number, H2G2 - 42, is a reference to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I also thought it was interesting how they did not provide solutions for fixing the Chromecast (presumably because it is effectively impossible to repair). The teardown revealed a relatively large heat sink, but didn't explain which components would get hot. I hope by the end of EE Proto I can come back and figure it out myself.

• Nintendo 3DS

What I found most surprising is how easy it is to take apart (relatively speaking) Usually Nintendo products, or game consoles in particular, are items that you'd figure are not meant to be easily repaired. But, the 3DS seems to have a ton of just simple screws, and only requires a bit of heat. Compare to some of the other consoles, and you'd be in for something much more involved. I also enjoy seeing how many cameras are employed to take the 3D pictures. As a proud owner of a few 3DS's myself, I get such a simple joy out of taking 3D pictures, and being able to tuck 4 cameras in is pretty great. Plus, it takes some pretty cool pictures.

• Kindle Voyage

I had never before thought about what went into the making of an E-reader since its display is so reminiscent of newspaper ink. Aside from the humor and gadgets (a plastic card) used in this teardown, which I found delightful, I really loved learning about the multitude of sensors and ICs in this package. The PagePress force sensor reacts to an increase in pressure to trigger a page turn which is activated in tandem with a piezo haptic vibrator. IC packages streamline memory, power management, and wireless connection among additional functions. Best of all, e-paper still maintains its display even after batteries are removed!

• PlayStation 3 Slim
• Nest Thermostat
• Canon PowerShot S500
• Google Glass

I selected Google Glass because my friends bought one last month and I'm amazed by its powerful features. Users can take pictures, surf Internet and send message by just blinking their eyes a couple of times. I’m curious about how engineers manage to consolidate camera, smartphone, signal processing techniques and wireless transmissions into such a small volume. I thought it would be cool to see a teardown of the Google Glass and I’m eager to know the latest technologies that being used in this amazing gadget.

Gear Teardowns

Assignment for Monday, January 26:

1. Get a toolkit (if you don't already have one).
2. Read Chapters 1 and 2 in "Troubleshooting Analog Circuits" by Bob Pease.
3. Discuss the autopsy/teardown candidates with your lab partner (see exhibits A through Z in the administrative handout).
4. Review the some teardowns at iFixit and send me an email with a link to your favorite one, with a short explanation of why it's your favorite. Be sure to venture beyond the lists of "Recent" and "Popular". For some examples, see
   • Teardown highlights from 2014.
   • Teardown highlights from 2013.
5. Watch the following video (a teardown of an Anritsu spectrum analyzer from Mike's Electric Stuff; see his YouTube channel for more videos).

Good stuff.

New Term 2015

Today is the first day of EE Proto 3.0. We even have a permanent catalog number (no longer a "special topics" number). Stay tuned for new activities.