ISU Audio and Arduino Clubs

Gary Tuttle

Club meetings are on Mondays at 5:30 p.m. Duration is between one and two hourse, depending on what is happening that week. There will be 10 meetings total during Fall semester. Five will be discussion meetings, which are held in the 3043 Coover conference room. The other five are "build" sessions, which are held in the 2011 Coover lab room.

Editorial Note: In the past, Audio Club and Arduino Club information was split between two separate websites. That was awkward and confusing. Now information for both clubs will be on one site. Below are brief descriptions of the weekly activities for Fall semester. More details regarding classroom discussions, projects, and other club activities will be added in the coming days as the two former web sites are restructured into one.

Schedule of activities for the Fall semester:

• Sep 15 at 5:30 p.m. in 3043 Coover — Greetings.

  We will describe the clubs and how they operate. We will have a very brief overviews of audio technology and embedded systems. Then we will describe the first two projects. People can sign up for either project (or maybe both) and the building will commence on Sep 22.
  

• Sep 22 at 5:30 p.m. in 2011 Coover — Soldering.

  Parts for the Altoids amplifier project and the Arduino-based "EE 201 resist-o-meter" will be available, and everyone that has signed up can try to build a project. If you don't know how to solder, there will some instructions and experienced people there to help. (Don't worry, it's easy.)
  

• Sep 29 at 5:30 p.m. in 3043 Coover — Talk power.

  We will discuss energy and power in electrical systems. We will discuss how to convert AC power to DC power, which is needed for electronic systems. We will describe how regulators provide the stable voltages needed to operate electronic circuits. And we will describe the next two projects — an adjustable DC power supply and a handy battery meter.
  

• Oct 6 at 5:30 p.m. in 2011 Coover — Build (and test) power.

  The Audio project this week will be an adjustable DC supply. It might seem a bit boring, but it is extremely useful since it can be used to power many of the club projects. (OK, so it is not really an audio component, per se, but it is definitely analog. And, again, it is useful.) The Arduino project will use the voltage-measuring capabilities of the Atmega chip to build a simple gizmo that will help you determine if your batteries have crapped out.

• Oct 13 at 5:30 p.m. in 3043 Coover — Amps and prototypes.

  The Altoids was a cute project, but it is a bit wimpy. We will delve a little deeper into the various aspect of audio systems. In particular we will focus on how to generate more power with an amp. We will describe the next projects — a higher-power desktop amp and the "Cyduino", which is our local version of DIY Arduino.

• Oct 20 at 5:30 p.m. in 2011 Coover — Build the GTDT and Cyduino.

  We are getting better at this soldering business, so it is time to try projects that are a bit more involved — the GTDT desktop amp and/or the Cyduino. The amp will become part of the desktop audio system that we are putting together this semester. The Cyduino is a simple Arduino-like prototyping PCB that includes some nice aspects that Arduino does not have. (But one important aspect is missing.)

• Oct 27 at 5:30 p.m. in 3043 Coover — Speakers / time & temperature.

  We are getting ready for the big projet of the fall semester — building the desktop speakers. We will spend most of our time discussing how speakers work and the specifics of the "Overnight Sensation" speakers that we will build. We will also talk about adding sensors and other components to embedded systems and describe the "temp-time" project.

• Nov 3 at 5:30 p.m. in 2011 Coover — Speakers, Phase 1 and Temp-Time.

  Now things are getting serious as we begin the speaker project. Instead of soldering intricate electronic components, we will be involved in the highly advance process of glueing together pieces of wood. Meaning that we will be building the enclosures for our speakers. For those working on the Arduino side, we will build the temp-time project, which, unsurprisingly, is a thermometer and a clock.

• Nov 10 at 5:30 p.m. in 3043 Coover — More speakers.

  Our last discussion meeting of Fall semester. Boo! We will talk more about speakers and describe some of the methods for testing them. We will discuss some of the details of the final assembly for the speakers.

• Nov 17 at 5:30 p.m. in 2011 Coover — the Grand Finale! Speakers, Phase 2 and more Arduino.

  We finish the semester by finishing the speakers. It's back to soldering as assemble the cross-over networks needed for the desktop speakers. And we put everything together to complete the speakers. For those doing Arduino, there is a final (as yet unspecified) Arduino project.