Design Like a Physicist
Physics 398DLP, Spring 2019
Loomis 276, Friday afternoons, 1 pm - 5 pm
3 credit hours
Course documents
Course packet and in-class material
- ⚛ Course packet, including a C++/Python refresher
- ⚛ Celia Elliott's fall 2018 "How to Present a Physics Talk"
- ⚛ Celia Elliott's spring 2019 "How to Write a Technical Report"
Student reports on sensors and other instrumentation issues
Spring 2019
- Week 2:
⚛ How an electret microphone works (group 6);
⚛ What's inside an MMA8451 accelerometer, and how the device works (group 4);
⚛ How a BME680 measures atmospheric pressure (group 7).
- Week 3:
⚛ An introduction to the Arduino Mega 2560 (group 5);
⚛ How a successive approximation ADC works (group 3);
⚛ How a BME680 measures temperature (group 2).
- Week 4:
⚛ I2C communication protocol (group 1);
⚛ How a BME680 measures humidity (group 2);
⚛ How the MCP4725 DAC works (group 3).
- Week 5:
⚛ Interrupts (group 4);
⚛ Adafruit's "Ultimate GPS" breakout board
⚛ How a BME680 measures atmospheric volatile organic compound concentrations (group 7).
- Week 6:
⚛ Atmel 2560 microcontroller timer modules (group 1);
⚛ PWM (pulse width modulation) and the PAM8302 amplifier.
⚛ How the PM2.5 particulates monitor works (group 7);
- Week 7:
⚛ L3GD20H Triple-Axis Gyro
⚛ VL53L0X Time of Flight Distance Sensor
⚛ High speed microSD data transfer issues
Fall 2018
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Week 2:
⚛ introduction to the Arduino Mega 2560 (group 2);
⚛ how the BME680 T/P/H/VOC sensor works (group 5);
⚛ how a successive approximation ADC works (group 3).
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Week 3:
⚛ how the ADXL326 accelerometer works (group 4);
⚛ how an electret microphone works (group 1);
⚛ how the MLX90614 IR sensor works (group 7).
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Week 4:
⚛ I2C communication protocol (group 6);
⚛ interrupts (group 5);
⚛ how the MCP4725 DAC works (group 2).
-
Week 5:
⚛ Adafruit GPS breakout board (group 3);
⚛ Atmel 2560 microcontroller timer modules (group 4);
⚛ PWM (pulse width modulation) and the PAM8302 amplifier (group 1).
-
Week 6:
⚛ L3GD20H Triple-Axis Gyro (group 4);
⚛ VL53L0X Time of Flight Distance Sensor (group 7);
⚛ high speed microSD data transfer issues. GG will discuss informally.
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Week 7:
⚛ Status reports, all groups.
Project reports
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⚛ I will post these at the end of the term.