Low-Cost, Multi-Functional, Bench-Top Tool for Electronics Instrumentation

Project goal: To design a bench-top tool that consolidates the functions of several different pieces of lab equipment. Testing electronic equipment requires multiple instruments and a lot of bench space, so the team designed a bench-top tool that eliminates the need for so many instruments by consolidating the functions of several different types of common lab equipment into one bench-top enclosure. The bench-top tool consists of a microcontroller and five submodules. The submodules operate as static and variable power supplies, a digital multimeter, a function generator, and a digital logic analyzer. A printed circuit board was designed for the circuitry of the individual submodules and microcontroller so that individual components of the submodules were electrically connected to each other. The bench-top tool connects to a computer, which allows the user to interact with the bench-top tool via a graphical user interface created using LabVIEW.