Digital System Design (CS 278)

Lab Session #2: IDL-800 Digital Trainer Tutorial

Object
The object of this lab in digital design is to help you gain familiarity with the IDL-800 Digital Trainer and the basics of simple TTL electronic design on a breadboard. In this lab you will work through a pair of simple designs that are fully described below. In a later lab, youll be asked to do most or all of the work for yourself, meaning the designs wont be completely provided for you as they are in this lab.

Lab Procedure
Before you begin this lab, look over the following image that shows the internal connections of a standard breadboard. Remember these connections when you start to connect the devices in your digital designs.

Please note that the two horizontal and parallel lines at the top of the breadboard (and at the top in the figure above) are typically reserved for power (+5 Volts). The two horizontal and parallel lines at the bottom of the figure (and partially cut off) are likewise reserved for ground (0 Volts). This is just a convention, but you should abide by it! For our purposes, it is most efficient to place the power on one of the top rails, and ground on one of the bottom rails. The remaining vertical lines are for you to use to provide connections between components. The ICs themselves are inserted in a way that straddles the channel in the middle of the image above. Youll see how in a moment. Second, be sure to pay attention to proper insertion and extraction of IC chips on the breadboard. While it is customary for red wires to represent positive voltages and black wires to represent negative voltages (or ground), we have multiple colored wires in our lab kits, so you may have to disregard this. (Pick some color code and stick to it, in general) The IDL-800 lab kit comes with enough ICs and wires of various lengths so that you should not need to search very hard for the right pieces. However, extra wire is available in case its needed. Also, be sure to be very careful

when inserting and extracting the ICs the pins can easily be bent or broken. The needle nose pliers make insertion and extraction of wires much easier.

1) The IDL-800
This section describes the parts of the IDL-800 Digital Logic trainer that will be important for our use. The first project we will build is shown below. Notice the red and orange wires on the left side. These pins are where the Vcc power for the breadboard should be connected. All of the chips in the kit run on +5V, and therefore the power line should always be connected to the +5V power supply. Similarly, the ground line should always be connected to GND. Notice that the +5V and GND pins in the lower left corner supply a variable voltage between +5V and GND and should NOT be used for the supply voltage.

Parts of the IDL-800

1. At the top left of the IDL-800 is a function generator. It provides the output of various waves for use in projects. Our primary use of the function generator will be to provide a clock pulse in later labs. 2. At the top right of the IDL-800 is a digital voltmeter. The voltmeter can be useful to test voltages at intermediate points in the circuit. It can also be used for troubleshooting. If you use the voltmeter, please use care with the wires. (We are borrowing them from the physics department.) 3. The IDL-800 comes with 8 data switches (bottom right) for general input. The switches output +5V when switched to 1, or GND when switched to 0. The switches, like most components of the kit, are connected to the power pins internally for convenience.

4. The two push button switches near the bottom left of the IDL-800 are momentary contact switches. Each switch provides both an output and its complement. The outputs to these switches are debounced to eliminate the oscillation that can be introduced by mechanical inputs. 5. The IDL-800 also provides two 7-segment displays. The displays are connected to a binary to 7-segment decoder. The binary numbers 0000-1001 (0-9) may be displayed by providing binary numbers on the input connections labeled A through D. The sequence of inputs is reversed from standard notation with A being the least significant bit and D the most significant (i.e. DCBA). The connection labeled P actives the decimal point. GND must be applied to D1 to activate the right display, and to D2 to activate the left one. Alternating the values of D1 and D2, combined with clever manipulation of A-D, allows a different number to be presented on each display. 6. The IDL-800 comes with 8 LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) for general purpose output. Unlike most LEDS, these LEDS are lit when voltage is applied (active high). One can only assume that the designers of the IDL-800 wanted to make things simple for us, so they provided the inversion of the signal internal to the kit. In contrast, recall that the LEDs on the Altera UP2 board used in Lab #1 are active low.
Reading a 7400 series schematic

This is a pinout for the 74LS00 IC. A schematic such as this is always viewed as if you were looking at the top of the chip, with the notch facing to your left (note the notch in the picture!). You should also remember that Vcc is always the pin at the upper left, and GND is always the pin at the lower right.

2) A Sum or Products (AND/OR) Implementation

A simple Sum of Products implementation of the good-old 3 switch light is shown below. Note that this two level design uses some of each of the three basic gates: AND, OR, NOT. Also recall that the input A serves as the master ON/OFF for the circuit and that when A = 1, the circuit acts as a simple XOR of the other two inputs. Using the TTL ICs for AND (74LS08), OR (74LS32), and NOT (74LS04), build the 3 switch light on the breadboard. Use input switches SW7 for C, SW6 for B, and SW5 for A, and use the LED 7 for the output L.

3) A NAND Gate Implementation

An implementation of the same 3 switch light can be made using only NAND gates. Using the TTL ICs for NAND (74LS00 and 74LS10), build the same 3 switch light controller on the breadboard. Use the same input switches and output light as before. Be sure to include the NAND gate design in your lab notes. The following table serves as a reminder of the types of TTL ICs that are typically available.

Of course, you will also need the pinouts for these devices. Most are available in the resources section on the course website.

Questions
Answer the following questions and include them in the write-up at the end of the lab. 1) How many ICs of each type did you use in part 2 of this lab? If you were not able to implement the schematic exactly as it was given above, what changes did you have to make and why? 2) How many ICs of each type did you use in part 3 of this lab? 3) Which implementation was the "least expensive," assuming all ICs are of the same cost?