Fundamentals of Electronics

Back to the Table of CS 1 ---Modules  

Purpose Of This Module

To assure that you understand enough about electronics to deal with computers and their problems.
  • LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

    • To understand the fundamentals of basic computer electronics and digital principles
     
  •   BACKGROUND & DISCUSSION

    • Basic principles of electricity and electronics are important if you are to maintain computers.
     
  •   INSTRUCTIONS:

    • Exercise Description -------- Procedures for completing this exercise

    This will primarily be an in-class discussion of basic electronics principles. The instructor will direct you to additional information in texts.

     The class discussion will cover the following important terminology.  You should become familiar enough with the terms and concepts to speak intelligently about them.
     
    Voltage Current 
    Resistance Impedance 
    Inductance Capacitance 
    Power (Watts) Frequency 
    Voltage dividers Power requirements 
    Grounding strategies Power distribution 
    Safety Isolation 
    Thevenin equivalent resistance Impedance matching 


    You should be able to answer the questions below.  Record the answers and hand them in for discussion at the beginning of the week.  Explain each answer thoroughly:
     
    1. How much power is required for two Gateway 2000 Pentium computers, monitors, and one HP 4 laser printer? That is, how many amps for service? Should there be any special provisions for the circuits?
    2. You suspect the power supply in a PC computer. You check the spare disk drive connector on the power supply cable. You find 7 volts between the yellow and the red leads. Is this good, bad, or indifferent?
    3. You have 50 ohm coax daisy chained from computer to computer for a thin-net ethernet. Your co-worker has connected 25 ohm terminators to each end. The network isn't as reliable as it should be. Explain why the terminators are incorrect.
    4. How much power and how many circuits will you need for twenty computers with their monitors and four HP IV laser printers? What provisions must you provide for surge protection?
    5. You have been asked to build a power converter to make a lap-top computer work from the cigarette lighter plug in one of the company trucks. The lap-top documentation says it requires 12 VDC at 25 Watts. You measure the truck's power and find that it varies from 11.8 volts at rest to 13.8 volts when cruising. What kind of circuit will you design and what size fuse will you install in the cable?
    6. You have to test out a computer controlled data acquisition system. You have a certified constant voltage source that supplies 25 Volts DC at up to 100 mA. You have to provide standard voltages of 2V, 4V, 5V, 10V, 15V, 20V, and 25V. The ADC on the Data acquisition system draws less than a microamp. What kind of circuit will you build?
    7. Your instructor will give you a cable with connectors on both ends. You are to determine the interconnections so you can build an identical cable.

      8. You have plugged the twisted wires from the front panel of a mini-tower to the turbo and reset switches and to the HDD, turbo, and power LED's. What happens in each case if the connectors are plugged in backwards? 
     

    Evaluation Criteria

    Can you justify your choices?
Back to Table of Modules