This application note details how you, as an instructor, can use an integrated laboratory to enhance your electronics courses. We begin by outlining a typical method for teaching circuits, and continue with a discussion of the elements of the integrated laboratory and how it can solve many of the challenges that students must face when conducting laboratory experiments, bridging the gap between theory and the real world. Through a detailed case study using an actual experiment used in a recognized university, we see first hand the benefits that an integrated solution provides.

Throughout institutions world-wide, the approach to teaching electronics has generally remained the same for many years. Students learn circuit theory by participating in lectures, and gain a deeper fundamental understanding through complementary experiments. The laboratory experiment presents a design challenge that requires students to apply theory from lectures using hand calculations, conduct simulations, create and measure their designs, and then compare their results with expected values. All of this work culminates in a deliverable report, detailing the student's experience.
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Company and Product News
New Patch for Version 9 Now Available
A new Service Pack including both product improvements and defect fixes for Version 9 of Multicap, Multisim, MultiMCU and Ultiboard is now available through SUU. If you have SUU enabled to check for updates automatically, it will let you know that there is a patch the next time you launch Multisim or Ultiboard. Alternatively you can download the update from the website.

If you do not currently have an active service contract please contact your local sales representative for details.

NI Signal Express Interactive Measurement Software Connects Design and Test
As electronics products become more and more complex, driving additional functionality into smaller and cheaper devices, the design and testing process gets more difficult. In the design space, there is tremendous pressure on the design tool vendors to open their products so users can have a streamlined and connected design tool chain. Electronic design automation (EDA) software can incorporate more and more technology into their basic schematic modeling and simulation tools, and then automate the conversion of these electrical designs into physical chips or boards. In the manufacturing space, more companies are adopting a flexible modular hardware and software approach based on virtual instrumentation so they can easily add measurement components to their modular test architecture to match the growing functionality of their products. Both of these trends, toward more open, modular, and compatible software tools in the design and test areas, represent progress for the design engineer and test engineer respectively. However, these two basic functions – design and test – must work together to get a product from concept to delivery. It is the gap between design and test that remains neglected by the tool vendors.    

This document explains the impact of the widening productivity gap between design and test software and how National Instruments SignalExpress and virtual instrumentation alleviates these challenges by connecting design and test tools.
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Read the Latest Application Notes & Tutorials
Find example code, technical presentations, and tutorial information for completing your development projects - new items added regularly!
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Development Resources
Electronics Workbench Discussion Forum Live on ni.com
You now have access to an excellent support and sharing tool on the NI Developer Zone: Electronics Workbench Discussion Forum. You can ask questions to Electronics Workbench engineers, share comments and questions with peers, and learn more about using your products. The forums are monitored by degreed Applications Engineers, so you can be assured that your question will be answered. Visit the forums today to learn more and contribute your expertise!
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Determining the SMD Pads Count in Your Design - Electronics Workbench Ultiboard
Since the cost of paste layers differs from design to design, you may need to determine how many SMD pads are used in your design to calculate the total cost of production. You can easily find this information in Electronics Workbench Ultiboard.

Under Statistics in the Spreadsheet View of Ultiboard, you can view all the parts in the design but not the specific amount of TH or SMT pads (SMT= surface mount technology, SMD= surface mount device). To find this information:

Export a .csv file from the Spreadsheet/SMT Pad and open it in a spreadsheet view (i.e. Microsoft Excel). Here you will find numbered columns that equal the amount of the SMD pads.
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Academic Resources

New Interactive Tour of NI ELVIS on ni.com
The National Instruments Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite (NI ELVIS) is a design and prototyping platform for engineering and science laboratories to teach concepts in measurements, circuits, controls, microcontroller, and embedded design. Its tight integration with Multisim and USB connectivity offers a complete circuit design experience.
 

• Tight integration with Electronics Workbench Multisim and MultiMCU for a complete circuit design experience from theory to implementation
• A flexible and open platform based on the powerful National Instruments LabVIEW graphical development environment
• NEW USB connectivity for easy setup, maintenance, and portability (PCI & PCMCIA also available)
• 12 integrated instruments including an oscilloscope, digital, multimeter, and more

Visit ni.com/academic  |  View the NI ELVIS interactive tour.