In this chapter we will take a brief inventory of the tools and resources we have available.
Each station is equipped with a VirtualBench, which will work as power supply, oscilloscope, and function generator. It will also work as a digitial multimeter (DMM), but a handheld digital multimeter is available for each station, kept in the equipment room.
Each lab group will get a kit containing an assortment of resistors, capacitors, and semiconductors. These should be sufficient to build all the circuits we will study this semester, but if not additional components are available in the equipment room. Larger components, such as microphones, speakers, handsets, etc., are also kept in the equipment room, and must be left there between lab sessions, as we only have enough for each day's lab groups. Do not keep equipment such as microphones in your locker!
Each student will be given a kit containing tools that will be useful in building circuits in the lab. It includes wire cutters, wire strippers, needle nose pliers, a chip puller, and a small screwdriver for adjusting trimpots. It also includes a BNC T connector and banana plug adapter for making interconnections with patch cords. These tools will be useful in several of your other lab courses, so try to hang onto them.
Each lab station has a Dell DX280 PC running Windows XP. It is connected to the network so you may access your OwlSpace directory and your favorite web sites. In addition to the regular complement of features it contains a data acquisition card, allowing it to measure and produce signals in the circuits you will be building. Networked printing is available from the printer (printer name abc) in the equipment room (A143).