The last part of this course is an independent project, where you will select, design, and build a circuit of your choosing.  Note that this should not be more time intensive than other labs this quarter; you shouldn't need to budget extra time for this outside the last 3 lab periods of time.

As a rough outline, the plan for each day of lab is as follows:

• Day 1: Choosing a project, setting goals, and planning
• Day 2: Building the stages, testing and troubleshooting
• Day 3: Troubleshooting, fine tuning, and stretch goals

Lab Template

The first part of this is to lab is to choose a project.  You may want to expand a previous lab, work on an idea you've already had, learn how to interface analog circuits with an Arduino (if you have one), figure out how to use another one of the chips in your kit, or pick a project from (or inspired by) those listed in this section.

Each project should have a primary goal, one or more sub goals, and one or more stretch goals. 

• Primary goals describe the general purpose of the circuit in a minimally functional form.
  • For the audio project, this would be sending and receiving an audio signal via IR.
• Sub goals describe things you'll need to do to achieve that goal
  • This would be each stage in the audio project (e.g. amplification, modulating, transmission, etc.)
• Stretch goals describe additional functionality that you can build into a circuit
  • For the audio project, this could include volume control, better filtering, or stereo transmission.

• Volume indicator (three LEDs showing if incoming sound is quiet / normal / loud)
• Volume equalizer circuit (lets you selectively boost or suppress bass / mids / treble)
• A pair of traffic lights (green → yellow → red on one, which starts cycle on another)
• RGB mixer/fader circuit (control intensity of 3 different LEDs)
• Binary counter (at least 4 LEDs)
• Power monitor that tracks the current through and voltage across a device, with output proportional to power usage
• LED that flickers like a candle
• Function generator that produces sine, triangle, and square waves
• Pulse detecting/shaping circuit (takes a negative gamma pulse from the function generator as input, discriminates based on max voltage)
• Dual-tone detector (outputs a signal only if the input is a combination of two particular frequencies of sine waves)
• Instrument tuner
• Distress beacon (plays SOS in Morse code continuously)
• Analog synthesizer (Make a circuit that lets you modify the properties of a signal in several ways with other voltages)
• Remote control (Able to send multiple different commands)
• Car alarm (Makes noises and flashes lights if a contact is touched)
• Marquee sign
• Single channel analyzer (detects if a pulse is within a very narrow window and counts pulses)
• Chaotic oscillator
• Power supply (Generates multiple, stable voltages from the battery pack)
• IRL Cookie Clicker (Increments a counter on button pushes, can decrement counter to start generating inputs automatically)

These projects would require you to obtain some additional parts to complete. 

• Charlieplex a 4×4 grid (or 3×3 cube) of LEDs
• Cruise Control (make a circuit that automatically adjusts the speed of a motor to a desired state
• Vetinari clock https://hackaday.com/2011/10/06/vetinari-clock-will-drive-you-insane/
• Light-following robot
• H bridge motor control
• Guitar effects pedal (modulates the signal from an electric guitar based on some parameters)

Choose a circuit idea, and check in with the TAs or instructors to verify that it is viable.

After you've got the go ahead, work on establishing a primary goal and stretch goals.

Define the basic functionality your circuit should have.

Identify several areas that the functionality could be expanded (these are stretch goals).

This could be as simple as making a bank of resistors or capacitors you can easily connect to by moving a wire or pushing a button.

After you have the overall goal in mind, start identifying steps you'll need to take you towards that goal.  For instance, a volume indicator would need to pick up sounds with a mic, do something to detect peaks where the sound is loudest, and then process that information to light up LEDs.

Identify at least 3 sub goals that you'll need to accomplish to be able to achieve your primary goal.  These should be things that you can do with a sub-circuit or two, like the stages in the audio project.

You don't have to identify everything right now, you may find a need for more stages as you work on your project.

For each sub-goal, identify how you'll know if the circuit designed to achieve it is functional or not.

Depending on your task, you may have to go out and research some circuits or components.  This is fine, but if a design isn't your own, please credit where you found it.  Also, if you don't understand how a circuit works well enough to tell if its functional or not, it isn't suitable for use in your project.

Now that you have some more detail of what you'd like to accomplish, its time to fill in the gaps and making a preliminary schematic for your circuit.  Your schematic should include all of the components you think you'll need, but it is okay to leave things like resistor or capacitor values to be decided later.

Create a full schematic of your circuit, either on paper or digitally, which includes labels for locations you're likely to measure to monitor the circuit's functionality.

You may find the Falstad simulator a useful tool for creating diagrams.

Onto the actual circuit construction!  There's not much concrete guidance that can be given here as each project will be different but you should work on completing your sub-goals first, taking notes on any modifications you make or tests that you perform on them.

For each subgoal, make notes on if your tests indicated it was functional at first or if it needed improvement

After combining subcircuits (if applicable), make notes on if their overall behavior is what you'd expect, and if not where there are problems

If you have time, work towards stretch goals or improving the circuit's functionality

Use this link to submit your report