CS 241: Computer Hardware Concepts
Spring 2021 - Dr. Lawlor
Course Zoom https://alaska.zoom.us/j/9074747678 (see Zoom in a Lawlor class)
Announcements
- Selected finished semester projects:
- The final writeup is mostly so I get your final code, and you get a chance to clearly describe your project in its finished form.
- This should have a README with about a paragraph of text describing the problem you were trying to solve, another paragraph describing your technical approach.
- I highly recommend putting in some still pictures of the project working, and clear pictures of your hardware and wiring.
- The final exam was Tuesday, April 27, 10:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m. It will work like the midterm, synchronous via Google Forms.
- Project final presentation / demonstrations are this week, April 19-23, sign up for a presentation time here!
- The demonstration will be a quick (< 5 minute) in-class tour of your project. This should include a super short explanation of what you were trying to do, a video (live or prerecorded) of your parts working, and some super short lessons learned.
- Lab 12 instructions
- Your Lab 11 PDF writeup is due on Blackboard (log in first) by Monday, April 12.
- Your Lab 10 PDF writeup is due on Blackboard (log in first) before midnight Monday, April 5.
- Your Lab 09 PDF writeup is due on Blackboard (log in first) before midnight Monday, March 29.
- Your Lab 08 PDF writeup is due on Blackboard (log in first) by Monday, March 22.
- The Lab 07 PDF writeup is due on Blackboard before midnight Monday, March 1.
- Short project and lab comments, and current course grades as of February 22, are in NetRun's grading area. UAOnline confusingly calls these "midterm grades", but the actual midterm isn't until March 3. There's still lots of points to come, so this is a very rough draft!
- The Lab 06 PDF writeup is due on Blackboard before midnight Monday, February 22.
- Project requirements and deadlines now exist!
- Your Lab 04 PDF writeup is due on Blackboard before midnight Monday, February 8.
- Remember to turn in your code for Lab 03 Assignment 2 (the 7-segment multi-digit display) before midnight Friday, January 29.
- If you didn't finish the circuit during the lab, I can accept it during my office hours from 2-3:30pm Thursday or Friday.
- HW0 has you build a simulated ion thruster control unit using a simulated Arduino. It's due Friday, January 22 by midnight.
- Use your @alaska.edu email to set up your NetRun account, then log into NetRun here. If you don't see a CS 241 section as soon as you log into NetRun, email me and I can fix it immediately.
- HINT on problem HW0.2: As soon as you set "pinMode(3,OUTPUT);" the heater will turn on, because pins default to 0 at startup. Either wait on the pinMode until you actually want the heater to run, or else digitalWrite the heater pin to make the voltage on both sides of the heater equal.
- Sign up for a free Tinkercad account, so you can simulate circuits, including a fully programmable virtual Arduino.
- Download the free Arduino IDE so you can write code to real physical Arduinos.
- Lab Kits: this is how we plan to do lab exercises with physical hardware, without having a physical lab.
- This is the lab kit, but you don't need to order one--ideally, you can pick up a lab kit, so you have a physical Arduino. Our admin Angie is coordinating spare parts and kit shipping.
- Shipping delays and other logistics mean this won't be possible for everybody, so we'll do the first few labs with lab partners.
- There are a huge number of parts in the kit, some of which require soldering. Don't worry about this yet, we're going to be slowly working our way through the parts in the kit for several months!
Reference info
- Lab 12 will use virtual parts in TinkerCad (our last lab of the semester!)
- (Arriving late? Contact me and we can find a make-up time…)
- No lab Wednesday night
- 02/24: We'll be using KiCad in tonight's lab, so you should install it before the lab.
- PDF lab writeup is due by midnight Monday, February 15.
- PDF lab writeup is due by midnight Monday, February 8.