Special Circuit :: ECE 445 - Senior Design Laboratory

Special Circuit

A student whose Senior Thesis Project (ECE 499) does not involve the design and construction or testing of electronic devices or hardware is required to complete a Special Circuit Project in the ECE 445 lab during the semester they take ECE 499. In addition, students enrolled in ECE 445 who are not undertaking a hardware dominant project are required to complete the special circuit (although this is strongly discouraged and the course staff will work with your team to make sure you have enough hardware in your project to avoid having to complete the special circuit.)

The special circuit is typically posted in the middle of the semester. Once you sign up for the special circuit (see below), you will be assigned a TA, a locker, and a special circuit which generally takes about 12-15 hours to complete. When you have it designed and built, you will give a functional demonstration to your TA, who will then inform the professor who will inform undergraduate advising that your task is complete. You are NOT required to attend any of the classes, reviews, demos, or presentations associate with the ECE 445 class.

Sign up for Spring 2020 is now open

Sign up for the Special Circuit assignment on the Lab Access page. Instructions for completing the special circuit will then be provided in the near future. Please check this page for updates.

Link to all Special Circuit design problems. 

Drum Tutor Lite

Zhen Qin, Yuanheng Yan, Xun Yu

Drum Tutor Lite

Featured Project

Team: Yuanheng Yan, Zhen Qin, Xun Yu

Vision: Rhythm games such as guitar hero are much easier than playing the actual drums. We want to make a drum tutor that makes playing drums as easy as guitar hero. The player is not required to read a sheet music.

Description: We will build a drum add-on that will tutor people how to play the drums. We will make a panel for visual queue of the drum and beats in a form similar to guitar hero game. The panel can be a N*10 (N varying with the drum kit) led bar array. Each horizontal bar will be a beat and each horizontal line above the bottom line will represent the upcoming beats.

There will be sensors on each drum that will fire when the drum heads is hit. The drums will be affixed with ring of light that provides the timing and accuracy of the player according to the sensors.

Of course with a flip of a switch, the drum could be a simple light up drum: when the player hits the drum, that particular drum will light up giving cool effects.

The system will be on a microprocessor. Or for more versatile uses, it could be connected to the computer. And a app will be written for the tutor.

Project Videos