Course Overview:
Digital Electronics (DE) course was the third course I took in the Project Lead The Way program. DE introduced topics concerning the digital side of engineering, including binary systems, logic circuits, truth tables, Boolean algebra, K-mapping, MSI circuits, flip-flops, counters, state machines, and synchronous versus asynchronous systems. Lessons were taught using PLTW specific presentations and several projects using the Multisim computer program and bread-boarding were completed to apply the principles from these lessons.
Digital Electronics
Date of Birth Project:
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The ideas of using synchronous or asynchronous systems and up-counters versus down-counters were developed in this project as students utilized tools from lessons on truth tables and K-mapping to shows the digit of their birthdays on a seven-segment display. Students were assigned to create the truth tables (shown right) for displaying the numbers that correspond with their date of birth on a hex display, for and synchronous up-counter. Students used K-mapping to find what logic expressions could be simplified for use in the creation of a circuit which was then created in the Multisim computer program. Students completed the assignment by making the real circuit to display their date of birth with wires and a hex display on a breadboard. This project combined several ideas from the DE curriculum and helped students understand how concepts like truth tables and up-counters come together to create some kind of programable outcome.
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State Machine Tollbooth Project:
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This project studied the concept and development of state machines in their design and circuiting. Students were assigned to create a tollbooth that would allow cars to pass through after it stopped in front of the booth. In order to create these tollbooths, students developed a state graph using concepts learned in class about state machines. Students then created a transition table (shown right top) and simplified the logic expressions using K-mapping so a circuit could be drawn in engineering notebooks and then created on Multisim (shown right bottom). The state machine tollbooth project helped students understand the organization that is required to develop state machines, and how state machines can be used in an every day application.
