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?).

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.

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.

Gear teardowns

Assignment for Monday:

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 assigned 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. For example explanations, see last year's favorites.
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.