Design, implement and test a full digital instrument

With this I&M project, you will progressively demonstrate the skills acquired through this course. This
four-part assignment is part of your assessments for this course. In week 3 (when the tutorials/labs start)
you will be given a random number that will correspond to the additional set of constraints you will
have for this design project. The four separate submission deadlines are specified in the schedule of
activities and is your responsibility to submit by the due date. 100 Marks will be assigned in total and
these will be transformed into a percentage of your final grade as per Learning Guide.

General design specs (common to everybody)

Design and test a digital (Arduino-based) output light sensor capable to adapt and erase the ambient
light. You will prove its functionality by showing an output value of zero (or close) when the sensor is
exposed to an arbitrary constant light source i.e. ambient light. The design must then show a variable
output when exposed to a generated fast frequency light source, in addition to the ambient light source.
The frequency of the variable output must be proportional to the frequency of the fast frequency light
source in presence of ambient light (i.e. not in a dark room). In other words, you can see this system as
a light source frequency discriminator; it must be able to discriminate between a pulsing light source
and the ambient light, i.e. ambient light, is automatically erased. An abstract/summary view is visually
presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Abstract representation of the two conditions tested in your assignment.

  With this assignment you will demonstrate your engineering skills, the skills acquired during
this course and your capability to work unsupervised.
 You are going to build up the skills to fulfil this project during the lectures and tutorials,
submission of milestones is devised to match the skills acquired.
 It is expected that this project will take approximately 18 hours of work during the semester, 9
hours will be spent in class where members of the teaching team will be able to assist you with
your queries and design issues.
 For this project you will be trained in the use of the instruments/software packages used in this
unit for approximately 9 hours during the semester. It is expected that you dedicate at least as
much of your own time to exercising the skills acquired.
 All the tutorials are functional for the preparation of this assignment and its submission.

General constraints (common to everybody)

1) You must use the LDR sensors supplied by the school. If you want to use your own, you will
need to submit a brief statement explaining the reason why you should be allowed this
advantage; approval is granted by the teaching team and the decision is final.
2) You can use up to two separate light sensors
3) You can only use LM741 and/or TL081/2/4 as an amplifier for this project. Your choice
must be declared and argued.
4) Your signal conditioning for the light sensor(s) must be a fully differential amplifier.
5) Your design must be protected against aliasing, the sample rate that you must use is specified
in the next section.
6) In this project you are competing with your peers, as part of this assignment you will need
to submit a 3 minutes video of you presenting/demoing your project/circuit. The aim of this
presentation is to convince the project managers (teaching team) to select your project/circuit
for manufacturing.
7) Arduino must be used to acquire data, for submissions 2, 3 and 4. You are expected to show
the output of the LDR(s) and the final output of your circuit recorded on the Arduino using the
ADC ports (A0, A1 and A2). Note, your circuit must discriminate the ambient light using your
analogue circuit design, and not via code.
8) Arduino must be used to control a variable light source (LED) and generate a known light
pattern that should be visible in the acquired data.

Additional Constraints

You will be randomly assigned an additional constraint (around Week 2-3).

Constraints SET-A (randomly assigned number 1, 2 or 3)
1) For your circuit you must use two stages of amplification and one stage must be an active
filter.
2) Sample rate is 20 Hz
Constraints SET-B (randomly assigned number 4, 5 or 6)
1) For your circuit you must use the DC-coupled AC pass instrumentation amplifier
configuration (see lecture notes and INA118 technical documentation).
2) Sample rate is 25 Hz
Submission 1 (30 Marks)
For this submission you will answer a brief vUWS quiz composed of 3 questions:
Q1 (10 Marks): In the simulation circuit diagram, for the purpose of the simulation, your ambient light
is to be modelled as a DC source and the variable light as a sine wave of suitable amplitude and
frequency. Tidiness and easiness of reading the schematic (must be collated on a single image if multiple
pages) will be key to getting good marks, please annotate the schematic properly i.e. import in Word,
PowerPoint etc. so that you can add captions!!!
Q2 (10 Marks): The simulation results presented as a single graph image. It must show without doubt
that your simulated circuit can fulfil the assigned specs. Tidiness and easiness of reading the image
(must be collated on a single image if multiple panels) will be key in getting good marks. You should
import the data from the simulation in Matlab/Excel to produce a proper plot and add proper
captions/legends/labels.
Q3 (10 Marks): Principle of functioning. In a few words (100-200) explain how the circuit works i.e.
the purpose of each stage and how the simulation demonstrates the results. You must include
calculations showing how you designed your stages where applicable. Calculations, images, tables and
captions are not included in the word count.

Submission 2 (20 Marks)

For this submission you will answer a brief vUWS quiz composed of 2 questions:
Q1 (10 Marks): Create then upload a Word document that includes the following three sections:
Section 1: The functioning virtual breadboard assembly. Tidiness and easiness of reading the circuit
will be key in getting good marks, please annotate the schematic properly i.e. import in PowerPoint. so
that you can add captions, text boxes, graphics etc... On a separate panel, You must include the output
plot(s) of your virtual breadboard.
Section 2: The shared public link to your virtual breadboard assembly (if you do not recall how to do it
please watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiRCd59iJtw )
Section 3: Principle of functioning. In a few words (100-200) explain any differences between the
simulated circuit and the real circuit and your preliminary results. i.e. what is the error on the real
analogue measurements, and how did you tweak components value(s) to fulfil the specifications? You
must include calculations of your theoretical and actual stage values (e.g. CMRR, gain, cut-off
frequency, offset etc.) where applicable. Calculations, images, tables and captions are not included in
the word count. Calculations, images, tables and captions are not included in the word count.
Q2 (10 Marks): Create then upload a Word document that includes the following two sections:
Section 1: A high-quality photo (your student ID card must be included in the photo) of your real
breadboard. Tidiness and easiness of reading the circuit (must be collated on a single image if multiple
pages) will be key to getting good marks, please annotate the schematic properly i.e. import in Word,
PowerPoint etc. so that you can add captions, text boxes etc.
Section 2: Proof of functioning, you must include the output plot of your physical breadboard. Data
acquired from Arduino/oscilloscope should be formatted in Excel/MATLAB to produce a plot that can
be included in the document.

Submission 3 (20 Marks)

For this submission you will answer a brief vUWS quiz composed of 2 questions:
Q1 (10 Marks): Produce and upload a zipped file comprising:
1) Your annotated Arduino code. Use plenty of comments and submit your code pasted into a PDF file.
2) The compile result (screenshot of a successful compilation message).
3) You must supply your .ino/.cpp file(s).
Q2 (10 Marks): Your PCB files collated into a single image. Please use proper labels and captions.
Include the schematic(s) and the 2D design of your board, not a 3D rendering. If double-sided, include
both sides of the board as a single image with red for the top traces and blue for the bottom traces.

Submission 4 - Presentation (30 Marks):

For this submission, you will upload an up to 3-minute video demonstrating the circuit functioning.
You should use zoom so you can record yourself talking into a webcam, using screen sharing you will
be able to share the screen with your schematic and functioning circuit uploading data via USB as well
as any slides you want to use to explain your design. In this video, you can also detail and explain why
your circuit does not behave as expected/major deviation (>10%) from the specs. In the video, you
should demonstrate the full functioning circuit with variable light frequency (LED) in day/room light
with a variable light frequency of α Hz.
Your variable light frequency is α corresponds to a numeric value (see table below) corresponding to
the first letter of your given name as per student ID. To remove any ambiguity, please refer to the
following table showing the correspondence between letters and numbers:

As an example, if your given name is John, α = 1Hz

Final weighted grades for the project and presentation

Submission # Given marks Final weighted marks
Project submission 1 30 34%

Project submission 2 20 23%

Project submission 3 20 23%

Presentation 30 20%

Random numbers for constraint set A and B (2023 Autumn class)

Obtain your random number from the following table to choose your constraint. The random number is
selected by the first letter of the LAST name as per your student ID.
For example, if my name is John Doe, as my last name starts with D, my number is 5. Therefore, I am
bound to constraint set B.