Majority Vote Project (MVP)

Project Description: Students were tasked to design an electronic voting machine. The voting machine will allow the four board members to cast their ballots and will display the pass/fail status of each of their decisions. The board of directors has four members; a president (P), a vice-president (V), a secretary (S), and a treasurer (T). Each member has a single yes/no vote. For a decision to pass, a majority of the board members must vote yes. In the event of a tie, the president’s vote is used to break the tie. In this project, students will use only AND, OR & Inverter logic gates (AOI logic), to design, simulate, and build a Majority Vote voting machine.

MVP Truth Table Key:
P- President
V- Vice President
S- Secretary
T- Treasurer
D- Decision

Students used Boolean Algebra to create a Sum Of Products (SOP) simplified logic expression. From their result, they designed the simplified circuit. The image to the right is an initial screenshot of the simplified circuit composed for the majority vote project. It was composed of 5 AND Gates and three OR gates. The simplified SOP is

​D=PT+VST+PV+PS 

The screenshot below demonstrates the final simplified circuit composed for the majority vote project.
​The symbols P, V, S, and T are now represented as 1, 2, 3, and 4 in corresponding order.

Date of Birth Project (DOBP)

Project Description: Students were tasked to design a circuit that will display their date of birth (MM-DD-YY format) on a single, common cathode seven-segment display.  The prompt was to design a combinational logic circuit that has three inputs (X, Y, Z) and seven outputs (A, B, C, D, E, F, g). The simplified logic expression had to be identified using Karnaugh Mapping (K-Map) techniques.

As shown to the right, a truth table was created with three inputs (X, Y, Z) and seven outputs (A, B, C, D, E, F, g). The seven outputs represent the segments on a seven segment display. The output rows were labeled with a 1 or 0 accordingly to resemble birthdates (MM-DD-YY). The birthdate represented: September 19, 2001. 

From the truth tables, students made individual Karnaugh Maps (K-Maps) for each of the seven output columns. Only one K-Map is needed if output columns are identical. The letters in the upper left hand corner of each K-Map identifies the output columns represented in each table.

The screenshot below shows the DOBP circuit design on multisim.

The image blow is a picture of the Circuit design on the bread board.

The screenshot below demonstrates the circuit designed as downloadable to a Programmable Logic Device (PLD).
​ PLDs require very little bread boarding, so they are more time-efficient.

Deli Counter Project

Project Description: Students were tasked to create a “now serving” device that counts from the number 00 to 80 with the press of a button and will also set automatically. Students used a 74LS93 asynchronous counter to represent the ones digit on a seven segment display and four D Flip Flop asynchronous counters to represent the tens digit of seven segment display.

Below is a screenshot of the circuit on multisim that counts up to the number 80 and resets to 00 using a 74LS93 asynchronous counter for the ones display and D Flip flop asynchronous counters for the second display.

Below is the version of the Deli Counter Project that is downloadable to a PLD.

Sixty Second Timer Project

Project Description: Students were tasked to create a timer that counts from the number 00 to 59 with the press of a button and will also reset automatically. The two inputs were the clock and reset. Students used a 74LS163 asynchronous counter to represent the ones digit display(0-9) and 3 or 4 J/K Flip Flop asynchronous counters to represent the tens digit display (0-6) of seven segment display.

Below is a screenshot of the circuit on multisim that counts up to the number 59 and resets to zero using a 74LS163 asynchronous counter for the ones display and four J/K Flip flops for the tens display.

Below is the version of the Sixty Second Timer Project that is downloadable to a PLD.

Phone Number Project

Project Description: Students were tasked to create a circuit to make a seven segment display the last four digits of their phone number with the press of a button. The numbers were also expected to reset once all four had rotated through. Students were told to use 2 D Flip-Flops as counters. The phone number used: 410-919-8896.

Below is a screenshot of the state graph diagram made for the phone number project.

Below is the state transition table created for the phone number project. The encoded outputs show that the PLD will display the numbers 8896.

From the state transition table, students made individual Karnaugh Maps (K-Maps) for each of the output column. Only one K-Map is needed if output columns are identical. The equations at the bottom of each K-Map identifies the output column represented in each table.

The screenshot below displays the circuit design for the PLD to display the last four digits of the phone number (8896).

Arduino

Students spent the last quarter of the year learning how to use and code a multitude of tasks incorporating the use of an Arduino board. The following projects involved an Arduino device.

Coast Guard

Project Description: The Coast Guard needs to place four new channel markers at the entrance to the harbor. Two green lights will be placed on the left side of the channel, and two red lights will be placed on the right side of the channel. The lights should blink alternately; when the red lights are on, the green lights should be off. When the green lights are on, the red light should be off. The blinking markers will be controlled entirely by computer.                                                      

The screenshots to the right illustrate the final code for the Coast Guard Project task. Two red and two green LEDs alternately blinked. Read the image to the left, then the right to read the code chronologically.

Traffic Light

Project Description: A school is looking to program a traffic light to work only during school hours. Create a traffic light for a 4 way intersection. You must have the lights programed so that one light will be red while the other set of lights are going through the progressions of green,yellow, red.  Once both lights are on red there should be a delay for safety and then the second set of lights should run through its progression. Once the school hours are complete both lights should turn yellow and blink. To simulate this, create the traffic lights so it will play through its progression three times and then turn the yellow blinking lights on to loop to run for 5 times.

The screenshots to the right illustrate the final code for the Traffic Light Project. Read the image from left to right. ​

DC Motor

Project Description: Use the Arduino to control the speed and direction of a DC Motor with the rotation of a knob. As the knob is rotated, speed will increase or decrease respectively to the degree of rotation of the knob.

The screenshot to the right illustrates the final code for the DC Motor task. This code causes the DC Motor to revolve at a speed relative to the rotary degree of the knob attached to the system. Read the image from top to bottom.

Night Light

Project Description: A local company wants you to create a new nightlight that allows the user to switch the colors. Your task is to write a program that allows the user to switch between 5 different light colors. The company also wants this to be battery operated, so you also need to program the nightlight to only turn on when it is dark in the room.

The screenshots to the right illustrates the final code for the Nightlight Project task. This code causes a tri-colored LED to display five different colors at relative to the rotary degree of the knob attached to the system. The system was also programmed to run only in the absence of light. Read the image on the left first, then the right.

Living Room

Project Description: Create a program that users can control their dining room lights and fans using two rotary knobs. Each knob control must control the speed and brightness of the fan and light. 

The screenshots to the right illustrate the final code for the Living Room Project task. This code causes the DC Motor to revolve at a speed relative to the rotary degree of the knob attached to the system. It also causes a tri-colored LED to dim or brighten relative to the degree of a second knob attached to the system.