Using a PIC18F4550 microcontroller to conduct an educational experiment intended for a general physics laboratory course

Author

Ayala Alfonso, Alejandro ; Rodriguez Perez, Silvestre ; Rodriguez Mendoza, Beatriz ; Gonzalez Hernandez, Oswaldo

Author_Institution

Dipt. de Ing. Ind., Univ. de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain

fYear

2014

fDate

11-13 June 2014

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

7

Abstract

This paper presents the design and implementation of a laboratory experiment for first year undergraduates of Bachelor of Science or Engineering degrees. The aim of the experiment is to consolidate concepts related to the subject of Physics. The laboratory experiment involves measuring the period and frequency of oscillation of a simple pendulum by means of an electronic device based on the PIC 18F4550 microcontroller, which handles the data acquisition and processing. The student will discover that for small angles, the period for a simple pendulum does not depend on the mass or on the initial angular displacement, but only on its length and on the value of the gravitational field strength (g), the latter being one of the parameters to be indirectly determined with this experiment.

Keywords

data acquisition; engineering education; further education; microcontrollers; student experiments; Bachelor of Science or Engineering degrees; PIC18F4550 microcontroller; data acquisition; data processing; educational experiment; electronic device; first year undergraduates; frequency measurement; general physics laboratory course; gravitational field strength; initial angular displacement; laboratory experiment; length; mass; period measurement; simple pendulum oscillation; small angles; Electrical resistance measurement; Frequency measurement; Laboratories; Light emitting diodes; Microcontrollers; Voltage-controlled oscillators; Educational resources; edcuational experiments and microcontrollers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Tecnologias Aplicadas a la Ensenanza de la Electronica (Technologies Applied to Electronics Teaching) (TAEE), 2014 XI

Conference_Location

Bilbao

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/TAEE.2014.6900152

Filename

6900152