6. Electronics Design

Group assignment:

Use the test equipment in your lab to observe the operation of a microcontroller circuit board
(as a minimum, you should demonstrate the use of a multimeter and oscilloscope)

Document your work on the group work page and reflect what you learned on your individual page

Individual assignment:

Use an EDA tool to design a development board that uses parts from the inventory to interact
and communicate with an embedded microcontroller

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For this week's assignment I was to create a pcb in an EDA Tool that
can communicate or interact with a microcontroller board.

I used Kicad 9 to design this board

Designing board pic 1

Designing board pic 2

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Pics

Fresh off the press

Holding the board after soldering

PCB on workbench

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Part 2 (Multimeter & oscilliscope)

For this assignment, I wanted to better understand how a microcontroller board could generate and transmit live signal
data that could then be visualized on a computer. Since I did not currently have oscilloscope probes available, I decided to use
the Arduino IDE Serial Plotter as a software-based alternative for observing signal behavior.
I used a XIAO RP2040 microcontroller board connected through USB to my computer. The board was programmed in Arduino IDE to generate
continuously changing numerical values using a mathematical sine function. These values were transmitted over serial communication
and displayed visually inside the Serial Plotter window as a moving waveform.
In addition to signal visualization, I also used a multimeter to verify voltage output on the board. This helped
confirm that the board was operating correctly and receiving proper power. This project helped me better understand how serial
communication can be used to monitor live data from a microcontroller, and how waveform visualization tools can assist with
debugging and analyzing electronic systems even without a traditional oscilloscope setup.

Breaking down the code

The code and the wavepattern

Explaining the code

Here is the code file for Arduino ide

I uploaded the code file

Code

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Voltage Test