A reconfigurable and expandable kit to teach electronic circuits based on Operational Amplifiers

Costa, Ricardo; Portela, Paulo; Alves, Gustavo R.; Felgueiras, Carlos; Viegas, Clara

doi:10.1109/taee.2018.8476096

Cited by 5 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Moreover, the physical conditions to give the lab facilities and the components to setup the experiment to all these students would be impracticable. If students have access to a real lab whenever they want using a simple connection to the internet, they will have time for other activates, improving therefore their life quality, given them also an academic resource that will facilitate their learning as already proved by many studies [23] [26].…”

Section: -Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

A sustainable approach to laboratory experimentation

Felgueiras

Costa

Alves

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality

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Sustainability is currently a general concern in society and in particular in the use of laboratories for educational purposes. Although laboratories are unavoidable facilities for education, they often produce waste resulting from students' experiments. To contribute for sustainable solutions in education, the use of remote laboratories instead of the traditional hands-on laboratories should be considered in every engineering course. It is precisely this aspect that is discussed in the current paper. Some comments about the importance of sustainability in education are made. Later, it is described the use of a remote laboratory named VISIR in a course held at the Polytechnic of Porto-School of Engineering, for the conduction of an electronic experiment named Schmitt Trigger. At the end, some comments about the contribution of this remote lab for sustainability in education, are provided.

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Section: -Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

A sustainable approach to laboratory experimentation

Felgueiras

Costa

Alves

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality

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“…An operational amplifier is a DC-coupled high-gain electronic voltage amplifier that has a differential input and usually a single-ended output and is designed to use components such as capacitors and resistors between its terminals [1]. The operational amplifier is often included in the curriculum of electronics studies because it can be easily and conveniently used to build simple and complex electronic amplifier circuits [2]. It amplifies the voltage difference at the input terminals with or without reference to ground and produces a voltage gain at the output, which is the product of the differential voltage and the gain [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the first two methods can be easily integrated into any subject on operational amplifiers as the main need is the accessibility of the teaching content based on documentation or simulation, the experimental activities may prove increasingly difficult to integrate under certain circumstances. Moreover, the time constraints on conducting a particular experiment and the need for additional financial expenditures for procuring electronic components and resources for building circuits for each repetitive experiment in each semester are only additional burdens for teachers and students in each electronics course [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, both designs were limited in the scope of their application due to circuit design complexity which required students to understand certain logical circuitry fundamentals before they were able to understand how to use the experimental module, and they are considered relatively bulky in size compared to modern commercially available op-amp experimental boards now. With current modern technology, the development of op-amp experimental boards has shifted to the usage of complex reconfigurable hardware platforms and virtual laboratory simulators which are specifically designed to fit op-amp circuitry study such as the application of virtual instrument systems in reality (VISIR) [7,8], the MIT iLab virtual laboratory integration with the National Instruments ELVIS hardware platform [9], software simulators on Android mobile applications [10], and customized educational hardware and software kits [1,2]. Despite the current availability of simulators and extensive experimental boards that can be used in laboratories for teaching with operational amplifiers, most of them have the problem of requiring the purchase of expensive hardware and software licenses as well as annual payments for the use of software licenses with a reported estimated cost of EUR 300 up to EUR 20,000 [2], which can be an additional burden on the budget and not affordable for certain nonprofit universities, colleges, and schools from poorer backgrounds which are not supported by government funding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A TRIZ-Adopted Development of a Compact Experimental Board for the Teaching and Learning of Operational Amplifier with Multiple Circuit Configurations

Chong

Ganesan

et al. 2022

Sustainability

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Operational amplifiers (op-amps) are generally used for actualizing simple and complex electronic circuits in the subject of analogue electronics. In an effort to improve the teaching of op-amps in electronics engineering curricula, op-amp circuits in various configurations are often used for experiments in laboratory sessions so that students can acquire certain psychomotor and cognitive skills by constructing circuit connections and analyzing input–output waveforms. As a result, multiple configurations of operational amplifier circuits are often needed, requiring multiple sets of experimental boards or circuits for each experiment. This is usually not cost effective, requires more consumable electronic components, requires more maintenance and storage space in facilities, and is less user friendly for the students. Therefore, the aim of this research is to design a single, compact, and easy-to-replicate experimental board that can be converted into multiple configurations of the LM741 operational amplifier, comprising an inverting amplifier, a noninverting amplifier, a voltage follower, a summing amplifier, a differential amplifier, a differentiator, and an integrator, with minimal electronic components at a cost lower than EUR 10. The experimental board was tested with a constant input voltage of 1.0 V AC and a switching frequency of 1.0 kHz. It is capable of producing an output voltage corresponding to the individual operational amplifier configurations and can thus be used as a facilitating module for teaching and learning activities in the field of analogue electronics.

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“…This paper is an improved extension of a paper published in the conference TAEE 2018 [12]. It presents a more detailed statistical analysis of answers given by teachers and specialists in electronics about the usefulness of the kit in engineering education, and provides some considerations about its adoption using educational strategies and methodologies known as PBL and Flipped-Classroom.…”

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confidence: 99%

An Alternative Way of Teaching Operational Amplifiers Using a Reconfigurable and Expandable Kit

Costa¹,

Portela

Alves

et al. 2021

IEEE R. Iberoamericana Tecnologias Aprendizaje

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Early on, students must develop competences by implementing simple or complex electronic circuits with Operational Amplifiers (OpAmps). Traditionally, these skills were mainly developed in laboratory classes, but technology allows us to explore other and complementary ways of aiding students in this achievement. This paper presents a contribution to improve the way OpAmps are included in electronic engineering courses' curricula. A reconfigurable and expandable kit to teach electronic circuits based on the OpAmp uA741 was designed and implemented. This kit comprises a software application locally interfaced with a hardware platform capable of running in a PC. This platform includes a circuit with the OpAmp uA741 able to reconfigure according to a set of parameters defined by a software application. Its reconfiguration capability also enables the establishment of automatic connections for measuring and for applying signals to a reconfigured circuit, plus the ability to simulate the same or other OpAmp-based circuits. This paper provides an overview about the OpAmp uA741 and its relevance in engineering education. After presenting the kit and make some considerations for its improvement, at the end a brief discussion about its implementation in education according to specific educational strategies and methodologies are provided.

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A reconfigurable and expandable kit to teach electronic circuits based on Operational Amplifiers

Cited by 5 publications

References 8 publications

A sustainable approach to laboratory experimentation

A sustainable approach to laboratory experimentation

A TRIZ-Adopted Development of a Compact Experimental Board for the Teaching and Learning of Operational Amplifier with Multiple Circuit Configurations

An Alternative Way of Teaching Operational Amplifiers Using a Reconfigurable and Expandable Kit

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