Nuts and Volts - November 2011

Review

The Digilent

By Bryan Bergeron

www.nutsvolts.com/index.php?/ magazine/article/november2011_ Bergeron

Electronics Explorer

The Digilent Electronics Explorer Board — which I’ll refer to as the EE Board — is marketed as an all-in-one analog circuit design station. With the addition of a laptop or desktop computer, I found this to be true. To determine if this solderless breadboard and virtual instrument suite is for you, read on.

If you’re into low cost electronics experiments, you’re familiar with breadboarding. Solderless breadboards enable anyone to insert wires and leaded components, test a circuit, and make rapid changes as necessary — all without damaging the components. Breadboards come in a variety of sizes, from a few square cm to page-size boards that can hold dozens of components. Some have built-in power supplies. Others can be powered readily with plug-in supplies, such as the Breadboard Power Supply 5V/3V from SparkFun ($10).

What sets the Digilent’s EE Board apart from the pack is the programmable power supply and data I/O hardware combined with a formidable array of virtual instruments and controls. Figure 1 shows the breadboard and component kit. For about $600 ($400 for teachers and $300 for students), you not only get a 6. 5” x 4” solderless breadboard, but an impressive set of virtual instruments that are as powerful as they are easy to use. There’s a virtual oscilloscope/spectrum analyzer, waveform generator, power supply, voltmeter, logic analyzer, digital pattern generator, and static input/output interface.

Specifications

Highlights of the test and measurement specifications for each virtual instrument/test device are listed below. Refer to the user manual (downloadable from www.digilent inc.com) for more details.

• Oscilloscope/Spectrum Analyzer — Four-channel, 40 MSps (million samples/sec), AC/DC coupling, ± 20V input range. There’s an FFT function and support for data capture and export.