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Draft: Real Analog Lab Module 8-Bit DAC Built From An R-2R Resistor Ladder

This document describes how to build an 8-bit DAC circuit using a resistor ladder and connect it to a digital discovery board to generate analog voltages. It provides step-by-step instructions to construct the circuit, set up the digital patterns tool to generate codes, and use an oscilloscope to observe the analog output ramping between 0 and 3.3 volts.

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demos2011
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© © All Rights Reserved
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64 views

Draft: Real Analog Lab Module 8-Bit DAC Built From An R-2R Resistor Ladder

This document describes how to build an 8-bit DAC circuit using a resistor ladder and connect it to a digital discovery board to generate analog voltages. It provides step-by-step instructions to construct the circuit, set up the digital patterns tool to generate codes, and use an oscilloscope to observe the analog output ramping between 0 and 3.3 volts.

Uploaded by

demos2011
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Real Analog Lab Module

8-bit DAC built from an R-2R Resistor Ladder



2012 Analog Devices Inc., and Digilent, Inc.

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Note: When closing, the WaveForms software stores the last
configuration (if set to do so). This tutorial assumes the factory
default settings are used. To make sure that you have the factory
default settings (even if somebody previously saved a different
WaveForms configuration on your machine), click Options in
the WaveForms main window, then Erase configuration in
the Options window. Close the Options window.

1) Build the 8 bit resister ladder circuit shown in figure 1, preferably on your solderless breadboard. It is best
to use 1% resistors for this project if you can, but 5% resistors will work as well.
Figure 1 Resistor Ladder circuit
2) Connect the 8 digital outputs and the scope channel to the resistor ladder circuit as shown.
3) Start the Waveforms software.








4) Start the Digital Patterns tool. Add a bus signal, select DIO 0 - 7 and click on the right green arrow to add
signals to the bus. Click on the show analog representation check box. Select the binary format, the
endianness to be LSB (the MSB should be DIO 7 and the LSB should be DIO 0), and click OK. Open the
parameters box for bus 0, set the output to PP (for push-pull), the frequency to 256KHz, and click close.
1+
GND
1-
10K 10K 10K 10K 10K 10K 10K
20K 20K 20K 20K 20K 20K 20K 20K 20K
D0 D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7

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Real Analog Lab Module
8-bit DAC built from an R-2R Resistor Ladder




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You should see something that looks like the screen below. Lastly, hit the Run button.

5) Start the Scope tool, turn channel 1 on, set the range to 1V/ div, and set the time base for 200us/div. Hit
the green Run button to start the scope. You may want to adjust the vertical range to see the waveform
better. Observe the voltage ramp up from 0 volts to 3.3 volts over a period of 1mSec.

6) Congratulations you have generated your first digital pattern with the Analog Discovery!
7) Change the digital pattern. Try the Random pattern and open the FFT window on the scope. You can also
load custom patterns by making a plain text csv file with a column of numbers ranging from 0 to 255 (for
the 8 bit wide bus). Load your custom pattern and see what happens!

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