BamaLab

A system for introducing students to basic circuits and electrical properties

Overview and Philosophy

Electronic devices have become ubiquitous in modern society. No matter how seemingly complex, however, electronic devices rely on the electrical properties of their component materials. This necessarily implies that it is becoming increasingly crucial that students of science and engineering have a detailed and hands-on understanding of the basic principles of electric circuits and the electronic properties of materials.

However, a hands-on approach to teaching these concepts at the introductory undergraduate level is often lacking. To this end, I have been developing a simple and inexpensive hands-on computerized tutorial aimed at introducing beginning undergraduate students to basic circuits and electrical properties of materials. The tutorial consists of less than $200 in hardware per seat, and makes use of freely available (GPL) software. Keeping hardware cost at a minimum and freely distributing software will allow, we hope, rapid uptake of the tutorial by others.

Currently, the prototype hardware and software is complete, and has been classroom tested during three semesters since Spring 2007. See http://ph102.blogspot.com for some example lab procedures, and "overview.pdf" in the downloads section (http://bamalab.googlecode.com/files/overview.pdf) for an overview of the system. An open-content course textbook is in the works that should go along nicely with the system, you can find it at http://faculty.mint.ua.edu/~pleclair/ph102/Notes/ph102_notes.pdf [~30Mb PDF]. You can download a reasonably-current binary with installer here: http://bama.ua.edu/~pleclair/Labjack/

Tutorial motivation

Students within many disciplines are exposed to the basic concepts of electronic devices and electrical properties of materials. Rarely, however, are these concepts presented in a hands-on manner. Not only is this a major gap in their educational experience, it is a serious impediment in many cases to their introduction to laboratory research. For example, many Physics students who have mastered advanced electromagnetic theory have never wired a real circuit. Fewer still have ever learned how to perform basic electrical property measurements. Almost none have performed modern, computer-assisted data acquisition and analysis. Most physics courses currently lack a computerized hands-on approach to electronics and electronic properties. One primary reason for this has been cost – data acquisition modules comparable to what we have developed can costs thousands of dollars per seat.

Project status and details

The current project, in development, can accomplish this at about $200/seat. What this project includes: GPL'd software to run the data acquisition hardware, laboratory procedures, complete hardware schematics and assembly instructions. Everything you need to build the hardware and install the software (less about $200) will be detailed here. Sourcing of current and voltage (including sweeps), measuring of current and voltage, time-dependent behavior of RC circuits, and a simple oscilloscope are currently supported in software. I(V), V(I), and V(time) curves can be measured and saved to simple ascii files for analysis. The hardware is designed to be inexpensive, transparent, and easily assembled. Based on the Labjack U3, http://www.labjack.com