1.4 Lab Kit
An electronics kit containing resistors, capacitors, light-emitting diodes, a small microcontroller board, various integrated circuits (IC’s) and the material and tools needed to assemble and test circuits and a “smart car” using these components is a key part of the course on which this eBook is based. An electronics kit for this course has been developed and used during the years 2013 through 2023 by nearly 3,000 students. Everyone taking ECE-361 needs to purchase a kit; the purchasing instructions and list of components in the kit are given below:
Purchasing your kit from EurekaLeap. Electronics kit supplier EurekaLeap has built a custom electronics kit for our course. For Fall 2024, the cost of the kit is $95.73 and there is a flat-rate shipping fee of $15.97. The kit can be found at this link: EurekaLeap ECE 361 kit product page — 2024 version.
Note: The kit for 2024 includes the hardware, motors, and chassis materials for assembling your semester-long smart-car project. If you happen to have inherited a kit from last year or if you prefer to assemble the needed components on your own, rather than buying this year’s kit, you’ll need a small car chassis. If you do go this route, this car chassis from Adafruit is the closest to what we have in the kits: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3244 (Some students over the years have bought RC cars and modified them for this purpose, often with some difficulty owing to the current requirements of the motors in those cars.)
Lab kit Components. A list of all the components contained in the kit along with URLs for the product page and the data sheet for each part is given below. You will want to refer to the data sheets for the various components as you begin to work with them in the lab exercises assigned later in this book.
<UPDAE FOR 2024>
Power Supply/Voltage Sources:
(8) AA batteries
(2) 4xAA Battery Holder with 6″ Wires
(1) 9V battery
(1) 9V battery snap holder
9V battery snap holder product page
(1) Alligator Clip to USB Cable
Alligator clip to USB cable data
Resistors:
(20) 1/4 Watt 100 Ohm Resistor Carbon Film 5%
(20) 1/4 Watt 1 kOhm Resistor Carbon Film 5%
(20) 1/4 Watt 10 kOhm Resistor Carbon Film 5%
(2) 100kOhm potentiometer
100kOhm potentiometer product page
100kOhm potentiometer data sheet
(1) 1MOhm potentiometer
1MOhm potentiometer product page
1MOhm potentiometer data sheet
Test and assembly:
(1) digital multimeter
Digital Multimeter (DMM) product page
(2) 400-Point Solderless Breadboards 3.3″Lx2.1″W
(1) 65 piece male-to-male jumper wire set
(1) set of 10 M/F Jumper Wires
(1) set of 3 alligator clip test leads 24 AWG.
(1) pocket trim potentiometer adjustment tool
Potentiometer trimmer tool product page
Microcontroller chips (MCUS) and development supplies:
(1) ATmega328 Uno Development Board (Arduino Uno or compatible)
Arduino Uno compatible dev board product page
(1) USB-A Male to USB-B Male cable for Arduino board
Sensors:
(1) HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Distance Sensor
Ultrasound sen