The lab manual will be available via the class WEBCT page once it is activated. Check your WEBCT home page; the ECE 3724 class link will show up once it is ready.
The manual is in PDF format, and lab manuals for previous semesters are not valid. You are encouraged to save a tree and only print the experiments that have data recording requirements (not all of them do). Put the PDF on your laptop, and bring it to lab with you. Also, if you print out the lab manual on ECE printer resources, you will do significant damage to your print quota.
You must know your ECE login to access the lab manual or to submit lab reports. ALL students, regardless of major, who take an ECE course (even one that is cross listed as a CS course like ECE 3724/CS 3124) receives an ECE login account. You must know this account name in order to electronically submit your lab reports or check your graded lab reports. If this is the FIRST time that you have taken an ECE course, the student worker in the front desk in the ECE main office (Simrall 216) will have an account slip that has the username/password. If the student worker does not have your slip, or you have forgotten your username/password, then you will need to see Mr. Michael Lane (1st floor, office in Computer Lab, Rm 139). It usually takes a week for new accounts to be added after the 1st class day of the semester.
Follow the above link to find the supplementary files referenced in the experiment writeups.
You are expected to follow the ECE Department lab report policy document for lab report formatting.
You must earn at least a 60% average on your lab grade or you will fail the course regardless of your lecture grade. This policy is non-negotiable and is independent of the course instructor teaching your lecture session.
You are expected to attend every lab and stay until you have completed the lab or the time expires. This is to force you to make some progress on the lab during the lab period while you have TA access. If you do not complete the lab during the lab period, then it must be completed before the next lab meeting.
If you are not present at the first 30 minutes of the lab, you forfeit your prelab points. This is to prevent you from staying outside the lab and working on the previous lab.
TBD
You will find these data sheets useful during these semester.
During this lab, you will build up a single board microprocessor system based on the PIC16F873. The first hardware experiment is #6, and you will need to purchase the part kit ($45) from the ECE shop at least one week before then, and preferably two weeks. You will also need the protoboard that you used in Digital Devices (ECE 3714). This protoboard will be needed on a continuing basis starting with Experiment #6, with the circuit remaining on the protoboard between experiments. If you are taking another lab course that requires a protoboard, then you will need to purchase a second protoboard.
You may purchase a used part kit from a previous semester from a student, but it is your responsibility to ensure that it is complete and the parts functioning. However, you may not use a pre-assembled protoboard. If you show up for the first hardware lab with more connections than needed for that lab, you will be asked by the TA to remove those connections. Part of the learning experience of this lab is to bring a microprocessor system to life from scratch, and using a pre-assembled protoboad from a previous semester defeats this purpose.
To convert a .doc file to PDF from within MS Word, print to the 'Acrobat Distiller' printer. Occassionally, you might have MS Word crash during this process - One cause of this is the use of 'Arial Unicode MS' font in the document, which can happen if a cut and paste from a web page was placed into the .doc file. You can use the Find/Replace option in MS Word to find and replace 'fonts' of some type with another. When the find/replace menu comes up, look at the bottom, and chose the 'format' option, then chose the 'font' option. Replace 'Arial Unicode MS' with 'Times New Roman' and you should no longer have the problem.