ECE 376: Embedded Systems
Lab Kits
|
Instructions for how to build your circuit board
|
Lab Kits: Each student taking ECE 376 is required to build their own evaluation board.
This gives you experience soldering a circuit board – a skill you’ll use in senior design (and elsewhere)
This gives you experience soldering a circuit board – a skill you’ll use in senior design (and elsewhere)
- The resulting boards allow you to test our your hardware and software
- They make the course a lot more fun: students tend to get a kick out of seeing motors move, lights respond, measuring how fast a motor is spinning, in practice rather than just simulation
- They make the course a lot more effective: things like interrupts are hard to understand unless you actually use them
- If you’ve never soldered before, don’t worry: that’s why the instructor and TA’s are here. If your board dies or refuses to work, just bring it to me (Glower). I can usually get the boards to work after a few minutes of debugging. If all else fails, I have some spare boards.
Purchasing Lab Kits: You have three options for purchasing your lab kits:
- $65 Option: The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) also sells them for $65 each with part of the proceeds go to SWE. (SWE buys parts in bulk, which saves you a lot of money.) Bring a check for $65 made out to Society of Women Engineers (or cash) to room 201A in the ECE building to buy a kit.
- $127 Option: You can order parts on your own.
$127 Option: Build your own kit: You are also more than welcome to buy the parts on your own. This tends to be the most expensive option: we buy in bulk, try to find surplus (i.e. inexpensive) alternatives, check out what’s available on ebay, and pass the savings on to you. It’s your choice, however.