Table of Contents

Introduction
Evidence of Multisim use
Time Management
Module Reflections
EA Review
W.S. Presentation review
Reflections on Sem1 exams
Industrial Lecture
Industrial Visit
Conclusion
Acknowledgements

Introduction

This is the second semester portfolio of Michael Curry, a first year electronics engineer student at the University of Brighton.
All the relevant sections required for this exercise are either included on this page, or linked from here.
Please select an option from the left, to jump to that section.

Evidence of Multisim Use

The picture shown to the right, is a screen grab of my final digital electronics project schematic. This has been generated using the Electronics Workbench simulation software 'Multisim 7'. Although this software can give error trails, which sometimes make little sense, it is a very powerful piece of simulation software. After searching on the internet a little, it is possible to get past the errors that are produced, usually by adjusting the 'time step'

Click the image, to see the full size screen grab.

Time Management

EA Gantt Charts
Digital Project [html | xls]

Module Reflections

Click 'xls' to download the original MS Excel spreadsheet of the reflection diary, or 'pdf' for the Portable Document Format version (pdf reader required, e.g. Adobe Reader)

EO112 - Programming For Engineers ('Introduction to C') [xls | pdf]
EO115 - Electrical Energy and Machines [xls | pdf]
XE101 - Mathematics For Engineers B [xls | pdf]
XE102 - Materials Engineering [xls | pdf]
XE103 - Measurements [xls | pdf]

EA Review

The EA programme this year has been useful, as it gives some real life experience of actual components / instruments etc. The digital project this semester was an interesting experience for me. Luckily I got my PCB design in before the Easter break, and my PCB was completed before the builders managed to flood the PCB lab. This drawback meant many other students need to resort to prototyping methods using breadboards (Veroboard / Wirewrap / Solderless Stripboard). I also managed to get my project soldered up and tested 1 month before the hardware demonstration deadline, so had a bit more spare time than other students to revise etc for more demanding subjects (e.g. XE101, Maths).

With any luck, my Gantt chart should show why the last month of the project has no entries in my logbook as last I was marked down for a lack of entries (we had finished building /.testing the cross-over early and worked on the presentation).

Weather Station Presentation Review

This was a very worth-while experience. Not only was it fun to be in the studios working the cameras, sound and vision mixers, but it was useful to watch back your own presentation, making notes of the good and bad points about it.
The main issue that I noticed with my presentation was the fact that I didn't move around much - e.g. pointing at relevant parts on the diagrams shown on screen.
Although I fumbled a couple of words / phrases in the presentation, I found overall I was quite fluent and easy to understand.

There is a copy of my presentation available to download at: http://www.poddle.net/~mjc/UniContent/WSPPT.MPG.
Although the compression is not that great, its the best dvd conversion I could do with the tools available to me... also, I think I may have deleted the image of the original DVD, so it cannot be re-decoded...

Reflections on Semester One Exams

Results:
 

Overall, I am very pleased with the exam results from last semester. However, I found it annoying that the lowest mark was for CAE, as it seemed like (to me) the easiest assessment.
The only exam which I could have  got a lower mark if the questions were different, would have to be analogue electronics. Fortunately, it was the 'choose 4 questions from 6' style of exam paper, and there were only 2 questions I would have really struggled (more 'active' revision was needed for those areas).
I also surprised myself with how well I did with the XE100 (maths) exam - I really didn't expect it to be my top grade!
The other exam which was sat during that week was for the first half of the XE103 measurements exam. I was pleased to find that I passed this comfortably (getting second highest mark) and was surprised by that so many people were graded under 40% (the pass rate).

Industrial Lecture (SEOS / Eurotherm)

The Eurotherm industrial lecture was arranged by Steve Singh. An introduction was given by Dave Hartley (who also gave a presentation on the industrial visit to Eurotherm), followed by a presentation on life in R&D by Tim Underwood, and a presentation on 'Wireless In The Industrial World' by Kevin Shaw. Here are the main points from the session:

Life in R&D (Tim Underwood)

Differences between University and Industry:

Things his degree didn't teach him:

• Legislation & Standards - e.g. emitted radiation levels
• Part numbers
• Prioritising tasks
• Coping with high-pressure salesmen

People involved in product design:

• Software Engineers
• Mechanical Engineers (where do the fixing holes go?)
• Quality / Reliability (how long until it will go wrong?)
• Safety (what's the worst that could go wrong with it?)
• Component Distributor (which part to use?)
• Hardware validator team (does another company make it?)
• PCB layout engineers
• Hardware test engineers
• Production engineers
• Software Validators
• Technical Writer (writes the manual)

Product Development:

• Sales (why is it good?)
• Marketing (can we have a different colour?)
• Support (what is likely to go wrong?, how to solve arising errors?)

Professional Development:

• What was high-tech 30 years ago?
• Introduced ideas from other fields
• Stay ahead of competitors

Good websites recommended to visit:

• www.electronicsweekly.com
• www.computerweekly.com
• www.cieonline.co.uk

Wireless in the Industrial World (Kevin Shaw)

Why Use Wireless?

• No Cabling & Trunking
• Labour Costs Saved (on the above)
• Commissioning Savings (no need to check cable A-B isn't going A-C etc)

Wireless Uses (Data to send to the device)

• Instrument Configuration Setups
• Process Variables
• Recipes
• Batch / Archive data

Main points to take into consideration:

• Bandwidth
• Range
• Continuous / Burst connectivity
• Power
• Immunity (to interference)
• Security
• Cost

Kevin also went on to talk about how the wireless can be implemented into a system of (Eurotherm) instruments, and how with wireless, jumps across several layers of devices could be made.
E.g. (wired) PC <-> device <-> device <-> instrument <-> sensor / actuator

My reflections on the lecture
I found it very useful to have an insight into how industry works. It was especially useful seeing the presentation by Tim, as the points he made about differences between University and Industry could be very easily overlooked by a student, and would come as a surprise!

Industrial Visit (Eurotherm)

There was a Group Virtual Poster made for this section (tutor group B).
It can be found here.

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

Multisim is a trade name of Interactive Technologies Ltd.
Excel is a trade name of the Microsoft Corporation

Contact me: M.J.Curry#Brighton.ac.uk*