Course Syllabus

The purpose of this course is to provide students with a working knowledge of simple electronic circuitry. This course will be different from others you have taken in your major. This may be the first time you apply the theories you've learned to physical situations that you control. You'll need to rely heavily on problem-solving techniques and common-sense, in addition to problem-solving based on physics. 

This course is very time intensive. You should expect to spend many hours a week outside of class on the reading assignments, lab work, and lab reports. This is in addition to the 6 hours spent in the classroom. You might want to check out the hints on being a successful student. 

REQUIRED TEXTS

You are expected to read the material to be covered in each lab prior to coming to class. Time constraints limit the material that may be covered in each week's lecture. The lectures can not be and are not a substitute for the reading assignments. The lab report questions and in-class quizzes will be based on materials covered in lectures as well as those listed in the reading schedule. Material not covered in the lecture may be included on the quizzes and in the labs. 

• Textbook: Basic Electronics for Scientists and Engineers, D. L. Eggleston
• Supplementary Textbook: Practical Electronics for Inventors, P. Sherz & S. Monk
• Lab Manual: PDFs e-mailed from the instructors during the semester.
• Lecture Notes: PDFs e-mailed from the instructors during the semester.

REQUIRED MATERIALS

You are encouraged to print the Lab Manual chapters and Lecture Notes to bring to the lab. You should additionally bring:

• A USB memory stick for saving lab results saved on the computer
• a Computation Notebook

You ahould also read: How to keep a notebook prior to starting the labs. There are a few instructional videos online. It is best if you watch them at home. If you want to watch them in class, bring headphones.

LAB SAFETY

• At least two students must be present when working after regular class hours. Any students found working solo will be given an automatic failure for that week's lab.
• Emergency contacts: Bob DeSerio: NPB 1236, phone: 392-1690
• UF campus police: 392-1111

Materials for this course will include:

• Lab Manual sections (made available by the instructors)
• Lecture notes (made available by the instructors)
• Textbook: "Basic Electronics for Scientists and Engineers" by Eggleston
• Recommended book: "Practical Electronics for Inventors" by Scherz & Monk

The books, lectures, and lecture notes will provide the necessary background information for understanding the Labs to be performed. You are strongly encouraged to read through the relevant Lab Manual section and book reading assignment before the dates established for working on the labs in the schedule below.

Your grades will in large part be based on your lab reports (see schedule for due dates)

• Lab report I should cover selected materials from Chapters 2 and 3.
• Lab report II should cover selected materials from chapters 4 and 5.
• Lab report III should cover selected materials from chapters 6 and 7.
• Lab report IV should cover selected materials from chapters 8.

Lab reports should have a length of 6 to 8 pages.

This schedule is preliminary and subject to change.

Grading

• Lab, Lab Book and Lab Reports: 60%
• Final Project: 25%
• Instructor evaluation of your effort and engagement 15%

Please check with your instructor if you have questions about the grading scale. 

Homework/Quizzes

We will have homework and quizzes on an as-needed base. The quizzes will take between 15 and 30min and will usually (but not necessarily always) be given at the beginning of the class. These quizzes will be on material that you should have internalized by the day of the quiz from the reading assignments and previous lectures. The textbook and the student manual have many practical examples which be might modified for quiz questions. 

Lab and Lab Book

One of the most important aspects of this course is to learn how to work in a lab, how to take notes and maintain a notebook and how to write good reports. We will be with you in the lab and will constantly evaluate your performance and we will also check your notebooks on a regular basis. See How to keep a lab notebook for further instructions.

Lab Reports

Lab reports are to be submitted as a pdf file e-mailed to the instructor before 11:59 pm on the dates listed on the schedule. Late lab reports will incur a severe penalty of up to 15% off per day late. After 4 days late the maximum grade for the assignment (assuming perfect work) will be 50%. You should use 'latex' to write your lab report. We will follow the same format that is used in Phy4803L. See their website for instructions. Similar to 4803L, we also expect you to compile the tex file as your first lab report for chapter 1. More instructions will be provided in class.

Assignment due dates will be strictly followed. 

• Lab Report Requirements

While you will work in teams of two for building the circuits and recording data, the lab reports are to be individual efforts. Discussion with and help from your peers is encouraged, but copying of work is not. Both members in each team should participate in taking data and in the analyses. Exclusively dividing the lab work is strongly discouraged. Lab partners will typically be rotated with each new chapter of the Lab Manual.

Final Project

Rather than a final exam this course has final "skunk works"* projects to be worked on in teams of two in the weeks leading up to the end of the semester (see schedule). Partners are self selected by mutual agreement as the time approaches, so make note of with whom you worked well in doing the labs. Each project will be to build a circuit, having a complexity going well beyond those in the lab manual, meant to perform some stated function. The circuit/function can be devised by the team from scratch, or it can be a circuit identified from the literature or some combination of these. In either case it must be approved by the instructor before detailed work begins (see schedule). The completed circuit will be demonstrated for the class as part of a final PowerPoint-like presentation (during finals week) that details how the elements of the circuit come together to perform its function. Considered in the grading will be circuit’s complexity (with designed circuits ranking higher than found circuits), the quality of the circuit's descriptions in the presentations (appropriately using principles learned throughout the course) and finally execution (did the circuit work, doing what was intended). You are responsible for ordering and purchasing any parts needed for your project that are not already in the lab. Electronic components are fortunately not expensive but overnight shipping can greatly add to the cost. If you plan well in advance you should not need to resort to overnight shipping.  If you want to keep your project you will need to order breadboards and parts that overtax our stock to take with you.

• Final Presentation Requirements

Once all presentations are complete, you must clean up your project and bench area. Anyone not doing so will receive a failing grade in the course until the area is cleaned up by the perpetrator(s).

Laboratory Access

If you have to put in more time, the laboratory (Room 1249) is accessible during off-hours. A combination locked box on the door contains the key to the room. You will be given the combination in class. Be sure that the box with the key and the room are locked when you leave. This access is intended for make-up and for when simply more time is needed. For safety reasons, no student should be working in the lab alone at any time. If you are found working alone in the lab you will be given an automatic failure for that week's lab. In general that person should be your lab partner. However, life happens and sometimes only one of the students is falling behind due to sickness or other events. In that case, you can bring someone else who has to be mature enough to call an emergency number if needed.