S4 Design basic digital circuits
This area of the audit has been marked at '1' meaning very little knowledge if not any at all.
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What I have learnt and what I now understand
Today in the session we learnt about the differences between a digital circuit and a analogue circuit. I now understand the following differences:
Digital circuits - Are examples of circuits that are either on or off but sometimes refereed to as high and low, they process digital signals which can take only a limited number of values also known as discrete steps. An example of this would be the power switch on an amplifier, and even rotary switches, infra-red and pressure pads. The principle here is that they are any circuits that do not include variables, according to logic it is either 0.1 (high) or it is at 5 (low) there is no middle ground between the two. In our groups today we looked at computers as examples of digital systems.
Analogue Circuits - These types of circuits include variables for instance the volume and tone buttons on a amplifier. Other types of these circuits can include LRD'S Thermistors, and Microphones and these components measure analogue signals. The components measure analogue signals. They can have many variables for example with a LRD testing or reading the levels of light. However some of these can be set up as digital, no in-between as it can be set to being it’s either dark or it’s light. The principle here with Analogue systems use varying voltage levels throughout its system so these variables could be 0.1 2v, 5v and so forth.
Before I did not even know that there were two different types of circuits but now this has helped me to understand what type of circuit I may use for my own work for the systems and control project.
In addition I now understand that in order to read and interpret these digital variables you use various logic gates, and for every gate you then can construct a truth table which tells you the state of the output.
We learnt that are various Logic gates but these are the components by which these inputs and outputs are converted from the digital language. A and B represent the inputs and the Q is the outputs. They help you to make decision and carry out actions. In the session today I did understand some points of what a truth table and logic gate was but I wanted to go away and find out more about it because I felt that I did not spend enough time on it to fully progress. Mainly I wanted to see the different types of logic gates and their truth tables.
I found a book today in the library called Electronics & Control Systems written by Terry Bream and John Drury and it has really helped me to understand this area even further. A really useful tip that I have taken and will now apply to my teaching in the future is the following...
"It is best not to think in terms of electronics when first designing the system: For example, if A represents 'drinking', B represents 'driving' and Q represents 'allowed by law', draw a truth table to show 'if you drink you must not drive'. The truth table (below) shows that doing neither is allowed, drinking is allowed, driving is allowed but doing both is not allowed.
Today in the session we learnt about the differences between a digital circuit and a analogue circuit. I now understand the following differences:
Digital circuits - Are examples of circuits that are either on or off but sometimes refereed to as high and low, they process digital signals which can take only a limited number of values also known as discrete steps. An example of this would be the power switch on an amplifier, and even rotary switches, infra-red and pressure pads. The principle here is that they are any circuits that do not include variables, according to logic it is either 0.1 (high) or it is at 5 (low) there is no middle ground between the two. In our groups today we looked at computers as examples of digital systems.
Analogue Circuits - These types of circuits include variables for instance the volume and tone buttons on a amplifier. Other types of these circuits can include LRD'S Thermistors, and Microphones and these components measure analogue signals. The components measure analogue signals. They can have many variables for example with a LRD testing or reading the levels of light. However some of these can be set up as digital, no in-between as it can be set to being it’s either dark or it’s light. The principle here with Analogue systems use varying voltage levels throughout its system so these variables could be 0.1 2v, 5v and so forth.
Before I did not even know that there were two different types of circuits but now this has helped me to understand what type of circuit I may use for my own work for the systems and control project.
In addition I now understand that in order to read and interpret these digital variables you use various logic gates, and for every gate you then can construct a truth table which tells you the state of the output.
We learnt that are various Logic gates but these are the components by which these inputs and outputs are converted from the digital language. A and B represent the inputs and the Q is the outputs. They help you to make decision and carry out actions. In the session today I did understand some points of what a truth table and logic gate was but I wanted to go away and find out more about it because I felt that I did not spend enough time on it to fully progress. Mainly I wanted to see the different types of logic gates and their truth tables.
I found a book today in the library called Electronics & Control Systems written by Terry Bream and John Drury and it has really helped me to understand this area even further. A really useful tip that I have taken and will now apply to my teaching in the future is the following...
"It is best not to think in terms of electronics when first designing the system: For example, if A represents 'drinking', B represents 'driving' and Q represents 'allowed by law', draw a truth table to show 'if you drink you must not drive'. The truth table (below) shows that doing neither is allowed, drinking is allowed, driving is allowed but doing both is not allowed.
I feel that I understand much more about the truth table now that I have read this analogy. Further more the book also enabled me to understand more about the different logic gates and their truth tables with them. This is quite a useful image that I looked at which also helps to break down the different gates and tables.
I understand that although these represent the various logic gates not all of them are commonly used in schools. The most common are, OR, AND, and NOT.
A important thing to remember is that the gates have two or more inputs, except a NOT gate which has only one input. All gates have only one output. Usually the letters A, B, C and so on are used to label the various inputs, and Q is used to label the output.
Above is a scanned copy of my notes that I made on Binary. I now can understand the importance of binary and know that it is the basic language of electronic counters and of computers. ___________________________________________________________________
Analysis of new gained knowledge and the next step
Initially, I marked this area of the audit as a '1' meaning little knowledge if not any at all. Although, I found this particular area of the audit quite challenging at times but now that I have been able to explore it more I would certainly say that I am in a better place than I was.
I have noticed that when I am learning I have been most successful once I have gone away and looked at books and other sources that can help me to digest the content further. The sessions help and I am not saying that I do not learn a great deal, but sometimes because people are at different learning paces it is hard to keep up and therefore with this section of the audit I found other sources helped to support my further learning. The Electronics & Control Systems written by Terry Bream and John Drury book that I found from the library was a really good book actually, I have included a section above where the book discusses truth tables and the analogy that they have used really made me think more about the way they work but also helped me to understand it clearer.
I feel that for me analogies or scenarios are always a great way that helps me learn more about what I am faced with, I remember teachers used it quite a lot in Maths eg. If The Farmer sold three pigs and four lambs at the market how many animals did he sell? - I think that from now on I will always look for ways to use these types of teaching methods not to help myself within my development but also to facilitate students that may find the content difficult at times.
I also found my self being successful when I referred back to my notes that I had made during the taught sessions. I know it may seem quite obvious but I feel that it is very easy to go straight to the internet or read a book when faced with something that you do not understand. In this case I did use books but I started looking through my notes before I began to look at other sources because I found that this helped to jog my memory and remember the session. Therefore, I would say that this is something that I will continue to do so because it was a successful part of my development within this area. During the lesson what I also found useful was when we looked at various examples of digital and analogue circuits, being able to hold or look at something really for me as a leaner puts things into perspective and aids my own development. Therefore, this was another successful factor that helped me within my work and as a result I shall try to use this within the other areas of the audit.
This area of the audit has made me realise that with anything you need to take some time and take each step at a time. This is quite a big area for me to learn because I have no past experiences in systems and control, I find myself at times getting easily disheartened at the fact that I may not understand something straight away and as a result it makes me approach the content negatively. This was the most unsuccessful part of my learning in this area of the audit, because I did not understand it straight away I gave up but I think that taking a step back and learning sections at a time is going to help. For example, I firstly started to come to grips with the differences between the two circuits, and then once I had understood this I went on to the next stage. So in some respects this was unsuccessful but the outcome was successful because it made me realise to calm down!
My next step now is to perhaps come back to this at a later date and see if I can include some of this within any further projects that I may have in the next semester. If I do not use this, then perhaps I can just review what I have learnt and see if there is anything else that can be included within the area. Perhaps I could set myself a test and show my results on here.
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Initially, I marked this area of the audit as a '1' meaning little knowledge if not any at all. Although, I found this particular area of the audit quite challenging at times but now that I have been able to explore it more I would certainly say that I am in a better place than I was.
I have noticed that when I am learning I have been most successful once I have gone away and looked at books and other sources that can help me to digest the content further. The sessions help and I am not saying that I do not learn a great deal, but sometimes because people are at different learning paces it is hard to keep up and therefore with this section of the audit I found other sources helped to support my further learning. The Electronics & Control Systems written by Terry Bream and John Drury book that I found from the library was a really good book actually, I have included a section above where the book discusses truth tables and the analogy that they have used really made me think more about the way they work but also helped me to understand it clearer.
I feel that for me analogies or scenarios are always a great way that helps me learn more about what I am faced with, I remember teachers used it quite a lot in Maths eg. If The Farmer sold three pigs and four lambs at the market how many animals did he sell? - I think that from now on I will always look for ways to use these types of teaching methods not to help myself within my development but also to facilitate students that may find the content difficult at times.
I also found my self being successful when I referred back to my notes that I had made during the taught sessions. I know it may seem quite obvious but I feel that it is very easy to go straight to the internet or read a book when faced with something that you do not understand. In this case I did use books but I started looking through my notes before I began to look at other sources because I found that this helped to jog my memory and remember the session. Therefore, I would say that this is something that I will continue to do so because it was a successful part of my development within this area. During the lesson what I also found useful was when we looked at various examples of digital and analogue circuits, being able to hold or look at something really for me as a leaner puts things into perspective and aids my own development. Therefore, this was another successful factor that helped me within my work and as a result I shall try to use this within the other areas of the audit.
This area of the audit has made me realise that with anything you need to take some time and take each step at a time. This is quite a big area for me to learn because I have no past experiences in systems and control, I find myself at times getting easily disheartened at the fact that I may not understand something straight away and as a result it makes me approach the content negatively. This was the most unsuccessful part of my learning in this area of the audit, because I did not understand it straight away I gave up but I think that taking a step back and learning sections at a time is going to help. For example, I firstly started to come to grips with the differences between the two circuits, and then once I had understood this I went on to the next stage. So in some respects this was unsuccessful but the outcome was successful because it made me realise to calm down!
My next step now is to perhaps come back to this at a later date and see if I can include some of this within any further projects that I may have in the next semester. If I do not use this, then perhaps I can just review what I have learnt and see if there is anything else that can be included within the area. Perhaps I could set myself a test and show my results on here.
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