Digital Logic Tutorial and Design

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Digital Logic Lab

(A mini-lab experience)
We are going to build both a combination lock and a flashing railroad crossing signal using digital logic devices To build these circuits we will draw upon knowledge or resources developed by several areas of electrical engineering First, we will need to learn a little about digital logic

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Some Definitions
Definition: Discrete System - a system with a finite number of sizes or measures
Shoes, Dresses, Pants, Bolts, Pencils

Definition: Digital System - a Discrete System with only two values of system variables: 1 and 0
True/False; Yes/No; Male/Female; On/Off

Lets compare digital and continuous (analog) systems

Digital signals are binary; analog signals are real-valued numbers Digital is less susceptible to noise

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Analog Waveform

Voltage (V)

Time 0

Digital Waveform
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1
Voltage (V)

0
0 Electrical Engineering

Time 4

AND Operator
Lets look at the relationship between the semantic and logical operator known as the AND operator Consider: If the car is fueled AND the engine works, then the engine will start AND Operator Truth Table AND means that both conditions A B Output must be true in order for the 0 0 0 conclusion to be true 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1
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Digital AND
We can build an electrical device that performs the logical AND operation on voltage equivalents of logic values An AND gate has the electrical schematic: A
Inputs Output

For digital logic: True = 1 is 5 volts False = 0 is 0 volts

B Practice with the Excel spreadsheet

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OR Operator
Another basic operator is the OR Consider: If I have cash OR a credit card, then I can pay the bill OR works such that the output is true, if either of the two inputs is true

OR Operator Truth Table A B Output 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1

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NOT Operator/Inverter Gate

The NOT gate reverses the input
A B

NOT Operator Truth Table

All digital computers are built using only three gate types: AND, OR, and NOT A B 0 1 1 0

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XOR (Exclusive OR) Operator

Lets look at the relationship between the semantic and logical operator known as the XOR operator Consider a biological example: If gender A XOR gender B, then reproduction is possible XOR works such that output is activated (equal to one) if both inputs are of a different value Try the Excel spreadsheet exercise

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Digital XOR
We can build an electrical device that performs the logical XOR operation on voltage equivalents of logic values An XOR gate has the electrical schematic: A Inputs XOR Operator Truth Table A B Output 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0
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Output

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Digital Combination Lock

Design and Software Simulation

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Multi-Input AND Gate

AND gates can be built with any number of inputs Consider the symbol for the 4-input AND gate A B C D

F is true only when all the inputs are true (1s) Using the Excel workbook EE-WISE-DigitalLab, open the Digital Locks worksheet, and test this circuit
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Digital Combination Lock

Using 3 two-input AND gates, we could build a combination lock that requires a four-digit code, specifically: 1 1 1 1
1 AND 1 1 AND 1 1 1 AND 1

The number of inputs could be increased by using more and more AND gates
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Digital Combination Lock

We could build a combination lock that only uses the AND gate, but that would be of little use since everyone would know our combination, namely 1 1 1 1 To build a more interesting combination lock, we will utilize the NOT (inverter) gate
0 1

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Digital Combination Lock

Lets build a combination lock whose input (key code) combination is 0 1 1 0
0 1 AND 1 1 AND 0 1 1 1 AND 1

Is there any other combination that works?

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Picking a Digital Lock

Use the truth table below to record the lock outputs for the different lock combinations in the Pick the Locks Input worksheet
Combination A B C D 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 Lock #1 Lock Output Lock #2 Lock #3 Lock #4 Lock #5

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Digital Railroad Crossing Signal

Design and Software Simulation

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Digital Railroad Crossing Signal

Now, lets develop a digital circuit whose output changes over time We are all familiar with a railroad crossing signal that alternates flashing red lights In addition to constructing the digital combination lock, we will build the railroad crossing signal in the lab, so lets begin by designing the circuit

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Railroad Crossing Signal Design

Here we will need some type of timing signal that will tell the lights when to turn on and off The problem is that we seemingly need two timing signals since one light is on while the other is off, and vice versa A digital logic implementation can allow us to save cost by using only a single timing signal The design effort is then one of considering which gate(s) need to be used to achieve the alternating signal patterns

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Railroad Crossing Signal

Turn-on voltage puts out a constant +5 volts 1 Square wave is being repeatedly turned on then off 0/1
1 AND 0 outputs 0 1 AND 1 outputs 1

0/1 AND

XOR
1/0
1 XOR 0 outputs 1 1 XOR 1 outputs 0

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Railroad Crossing Signal Simulation

The Railroad Xing Simulation worksheet may be used in Excel to view (over time) the activation of the RR crossing lights Note that this Excel simulation uses some advanced features of Excel such as iteration and conditional formatting to achieve the software simulation

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