Curriculum and Labs for Engineering Education

Introduction

NI myDAQ offers an affordable and accessible way for students to make electrical measurements, control electronics systems, and experience the world through instrumentation. With NI myDAQ sophomore-level engineering students enrolled in a first-semester circuits course experience a completely new way to interact with electrical hardware unfettered by restrictions on location, equipment availability, and scheduling.

Electrical Circuits with NI myDAQ offers a set of learning modules that emphasize short, focused, and motivational experiments based on NI myDAQ and NI ELVISmx computer-based instruments. These video-based learning modules motivate students to experience a circuits concept through measurement, learn underlying principles, and then connect their measurement results to the concept. The learning module formats include mini-labs, homework problems, and tutorials to build student confidence with the NI myDAQ product and associated experiments.

Mini-Labs

• Equivalent resistance of series and parallel resistors:
  • Equivalent Resistance I – Series
  • Equivalent Resistance II – Parallel
  • Equivalent Resistance III – Series-parallel
• Voltage dividers:
  • Voltage Divider I – Basic concept
  • Voltage Divider II – Loading effects
• Voltage-current (V-I) characteristics of linear and nonlinear devices
  • V-I Characteristic I – Linear devices
  • V-I Characteristic II – Nonlinear devices
• Thevenin equivalent circuits and source transformations:
  • Thevenin Equivalent I – Source transformations
• Operational amplifier (op amp) circuits:
  • Op Amp I – Terminal voltages
  • Op Amp II – Terminal currents
  • Op Amp III – Voltage follower
  • Op Amp IV – Inverting and noninverting amplifiers

Homework Problems

• AC Circuits > RMS Value > RMS and average value of an arbitrary periodic waveform
• DC Circuits > Resistive Circuits > Current divider
• DC Circuits > Thevenin Equivalent > Independent and dependent sources
• DC Circuits > Superposition
• Transient Circuits > First-Order > RC Natural Response
• Op Amps > Integrator

Tutorials: NI myDAQ

• Introduction to NI myDAQ
• Brief tour of NI myDAQ specifications -- emphasizes voltage and current ranges and limits
• Lab techniques, recommended parts and accessories, and suppliers
• Equipment checks to confirm correct operation:
  • Digital multimeter (DMM): voltmeter, ammeter, ammeter fuse, ohmmeter, diode tester, and continuity tester
  • Power supplies (5, +15, and -15 volts)
  • Analog output (AO0, AO1) and analog input (AI0, AI1)
  • Audio output and audio input
  • Digital I/O (DIO0 to DIO7)

Tutorials: NI ELVISmx Instruments on NI myDAQ

• Digital Multimeter (DMM): ohmmeter, voltmeter, ammeter
• Function Generator (FGEN)
• Arbitrary Waveform Generator (ARB)
• Oscilloscope (Scope)
• Bode Analyzer (Bode)
• Digital Reader (DigIn)
• Digital Writer (DigOut)

Tutorials: Measurement Techniques

• Measure current with a shunt resistor and DMM voltmeter
• Measure node voltage
• Increase current drive of analog output (AO) channels with op amp voltage follower

LabVIEW Utilities for NI myDAQ

	Set "Analog Output" (AO) voltages -- Interactively set the pair of NI myDAQ analog outputs (AO0, AO1) to desired DC values.
	Show "Analog Input" (AI) voltages -- Display the pair of NI myDAQ analog inputs (AI0, AI1) in real time.
	V-I Curve Tracer -- Interactively explore and plot the voltage-current (V-I) characteristic of a two-terminal device.

NI myDAQ Resources

• NI myDAQ product:
  • Homepage: ni.com/mydaq
  • NI myDAQ Getting Started and Support
  • Using NI myDAQ with NI ELVISmx Software Instruments
  • NI myDAQ User Guide and Specifications
• Communities:
  • NI myDAQ Zone
  • LabVIEW Student Community
• Curriculum resources and learning modules:
  • Curriculum resources and materials
  • Mechanical Engineering Labs with myDAQ
• LabVIEW programming for data acquisition:
  • Learn to use LabVIEW with myDAQ
  • Getting Started with NI-DAQmx
• Data acquisition techniques:
  • Complete Data Acquisition Tutorial
  • Measurement Fundamentals