Workstation

Classic electronics instruments (oscilloscope, power supplies, function generators etc) work well for me, especially for repairs and tracing faults in the circuit. However I found that when I am trying do develop something new there are some practical problems. I usually work on more than one original project and I switch between them often. There are multiple reasons for it: waiting for ordered components, finding a problem with my current project which I can’t solve, returning to an old project as I have new idea et cetera. When switching between projects I found that reconnecting the project to all measurement instruments and setting up the instruments’ parameters was time-consuming and prone to mistakes. Another problem is also finding where I store the most up-to-date version of microcontroller code.

The aim of this project was to develop a compact analogue/digital prototyping workstation to address the above problems.

In the past I’ve tried a number of “all in one” instruments: Syscomp CGR-101, Gabotronics Xprotolab, Digilent Electronics Explorer and NI MyDAQ.

First was CGR-101, next I tried xprotoboard – this is a very interesting idea of an all-in one DIL instrument with 0.96” OLED display which can be plugged into a breadboard, unfortunately the parameters are rather poor and I never fully learned interface which is not intuitive. I also tried MyDAQ from Labview but limited bandwith and rather expensive breadboards using a proprietary connector discouraged me from using this device.The Digilent Electronics Explorer addressed many of my requirements but as the breadboard is permanently attached, you need to remove all of the elements from the old project to start a new one. Other options which I didn’t try include the NI ELVIS, NI VirtualBench, BitScope, PicoScope 3000 series, Hantek 8000E series and many others.

My current attempt is based on the Analog Discovery 2 from Digilent:
- 2 x Analogue Inputs (14-bit, differential, 100Msample/sec, oscilloscope, FFT, math etc)
- 2 x Analogue Outputs (14-bit, 100Msample/sec, function generator, AWG, sweeps, AM, FM)
- 16 x Digital I/O (100Msaple/sec, Logic analyser, pattern generator, SPI, I2C, UART, parallel)
- Power supplies (Voltage: 0.5 to -5V and -0.5 to -5, Current: 0.7A
- Network Analyser (1Hz to 10 MHz, Bode, Nichols, Nyquist)
- Spectrum Analyser (FFT, CZT)
- 2 x Voltmeter (+/-25V, 14-bit, DC, AC, True RMS)
- Other (audio stereo amplifier, cross triggering between instruments, drivers for NI LabView)

All instruments/workspaces can be individually configured and the configurations can be saved as a configuration file.

I designed and built a double 2x15 connector. The first section of 2x15 pins is used by a microcontroller (currently Arduino),the second 2x15 section is used for the Analog Discovery 2. The USB hub allows for a single cable connection to a PC. 16GB of flash memory with separate directories for each project allows for storage of all the project files, including microcontroller code and virtual instrument configuration files. The whole project is enclosed in a small aluminium case (at a size of 18x11x6cm, it’s footprint on the desk is less than half that of an A4 sheet of paper).

Each project breadboard has attached a 2x32 female connector with long pins below. The middle 4 pins are removed. This allows the user to easily connect and disconnect projects to/from the workstation.

The mini electronic workstation is controlled by WaveForm software running on Ubuntu (WIN10 and Mac versions are available from Digilent). Alternatively there are Labview drivers for the Analog Discovery 2.

How successful is this project? I don’t know, I’ve just started to use it. Please observe my future prototyping projects. If they will use this compact analogue/digital workstation it will mean that this approach is working for me.

YOUR USE OF THIS SITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK - Please read LEGAL DISCLAIMER