Hard Work and Success
I found out today that the project that I had the priviledge of building a part of received an A+ from the professor in charge of these projects. What started out as a simple idea developed into an elaborate maze of wires and circuit components. I will attempt to describe what we made in an understandable way.
What is it?
Four of us designed and built our own 4-bit Analog to Digital Converter. It takes an analog signal such as a voltage or a current and converts it into a binary number. In our case, a 4-bit binary number, 0000, 0001, 0010, 0011, 0100, 0101, all the way to 1111. So, our converter outputted a number from 0 to 15 depending on the value of voltage we applied ranging from 0 being near ground to 15 being around 12 volts with step sizes of about 0.8 volts in between. A voltage input of 1.2 Volts outputted a 1 and an input of 2 Volts outputted a 2 and so on. I wish I could post a picture of our finished product but we never took one and the professor confiscated it from us.
Why was it done?
About 12% of my grade in Electronics pertained to this project. We were given examples of previously tried projects and given maximum grades for them. None of the prescribed projects netted an A and the closest project to an A was a B+ project. The group I was in wanted a challange and we wanted an A for our efforts so we decided to build up one of the listed projects. Instead of a 3-bit ADC, we build a 4-bit ADC with a voltage regulating mechanism and a output holding mechanism.
What now?
Now I get to write formal documentation for the device that we built. The goal is to try to cram everything into a minimum of 8 pages, not exceeding 10 pages. I wrote the introduction today and will finish the rest tomorrow by midnight.
I believe it is time for me to become more professional and responsible so I can succeed in the engineering industry. This project taught me about teamwork, problem solving, and thinking outside the box.
What is it?
Four of us designed and built our own 4-bit Analog to Digital Converter. It takes an analog signal such as a voltage or a current and converts it into a binary number. In our case, a 4-bit binary number, 0000, 0001, 0010, 0011, 0100, 0101, all the way to 1111. So, our converter outputted a number from 0 to 15 depending on the value of voltage we applied ranging from 0 being near ground to 15 being around 12 volts with step sizes of about 0.8 volts in between. A voltage input of 1.2 Volts outputted a 1 and an input of 2 Volts outputted a 2 and so on. I wish I could post a picture of our finished product but we never took one and the professor confiscated it from us.
Why was it done?
About 12% of my grade in Electronics pertained to this project. We were given examples of previously tried projects and given maximum grades for them. None of the prescribed projects netted an A and the closest project to an A was a B+ project. The group I was in wanted a challange and we wanted an A for our efforts so we decided to build up one of the listed projects. Instead of a 3-bit ADC, we build a 4-bit ADC with a voltage regulating mechanism and a output holding mechanism.
What now?
Now I get to write formal documentation for the device that we built. The goal is to try to cram everything into a minimum of 8 pages, not exceeding 10 pages. I wrote the introduction today and will finish the rest tomorrow by midnight.
I believe it is time for me to become more professional and responsible so I can succeed in the engineering industry. This project taught me about teamwork, problem solving, and thinking outside the box.