7. Electronics design¶
Browse through the NuEval Handbook to review the evaluation criteria.¶
Group Assignment¶
Use the test equipment in your lab to observe the operation of a microcontroller circuit board
Multimeter¶
Oscilloscope¶
Logic Analyzer¶
Anna¶
Albert¶
I used testing equipment to examine a microprocessor.
The multimeter certainly earns its name, as it is capable of measure many different properties associated with electronics. The meter can be used with both A/C and D/C current. In our electronics settting, we are relying upon D/C current. The multimeter can measure voltage, resitance, current, and more. Additionally, the multimeter in the lab can produce small amounts of current to test components, for example testing an LED. As LEDs have a polarity, a multimeter might help test that the LED is in the correct orientation.
With my RP2040 board connected to USB (consequently, power), I used the multimeter to test several of the pins on the microprocessor. In the photo, I am connecting the 3.3V pin with the ground pin. The multimeter gives a reading of 3.3V, as expected. On the multimeter, the black wire is connected as ground, while using the red to probe.
It was a little awkward with the small chip to hold two probes and touch a pin. It would be better to use a clamp to hold the chip while doing this.
Reading voltage from connected microprocessor
I also tried examining electrical signals with an oscilloscope. An oscilloscope is a test instrument that displays varying voltages of signals as a function of time. I tried hooking up the power microprocessor, which was running code, to the oscilloscope. While I can see signal it was not well tuned to fully interpret the output. Further work (and instruction) is needed to fully harness the power of an oscilloscope. This is wth ith a running program (blinking an LED, as seen in my embedded programming group work).
Periodic signal seen on oscilloscope
With the small microprocessor, it was tricky to probe the microprocessor. There was a small hook on the probe which could be attached to a pin hole on the chip.
Probe from oscilloscope and microprocessor
So far I have only slightly tapped the power of instruments to assist electronics work, and further work is needed to fully appreciate their benefit. I have already seen some benefit, and now know that these are power tools available to utilize in electronics work.