The aim of this course is to enable the student to gain the basic tools to perform computer interfacing relevant to Physics or Astronomy course work or research. The main emphasis will be on programming using the LabVIEW package, data acquisition, and signal conditioning. Thus the course will principally be assessed with assignments and a class project. The following topics will also be covered (as and when appropriate within the course) –
 

• Transducers
• Signal Conditioning
• Data acquistion hardware
• Digital Signal Processing
• Fourier Transforms

Assessment

 The final grade for the course will depend on:

Ten Electronic Tests                             (1% each)

Three assignments                                (10% each )

Write up of two Laboratory reports     (10% each)

Project                                                    (40%)

Simple electronic tests undertaken via the course webCT site will test student understanding of the course work described the previous week.  All assignments will also be posted on the webCT site.  All assignments, reports and the project work should be produced using LabVIEW and the Microsoft Office package.

PHYS319 project

 The aims of the project are –

• to allow you to use the programming and data acquisition skills learnt on a real experiment or system design
• to allow you to work through the process of setting up a data/image/sound acquisition (and possibly control) system
• to examine some aspect of the course in more detail

 At the end of the project a 10-12 page report should be handed in and each student is expected to give a 5 minute presentation to the rest of the class about the project attempted.

Example Projects

The following are a selection of projects that have been completed in the past two years:

Thiele-Small Driver Parameter Calculations - To use LabVIEW’s data acquisition capabilities to measure the impedance curve of a given bass/mid-bass driver and calculate certain relevant Thiele-Small parameters with minimum interaction needed after initial setup.

Measurement of Two-Dimensional Using Sound - To find the two-dimensional position of a microphone using sound from two speakers using LabVIEW's sound output and acquisition capability.

Blob analysis of an object on an inclined plane using LabVIEW - To use LabVIEW's image acquisition and image processing capability  to locate a moving object using ‘blob analysis’ and use the data to calculate the objects velocity down an inclined plane.

Acoustic Resonance in a Rectangular Cavity Experiment - The purpose of this project is to use LabVIEW's data acqusition and control capabilities to automate a standard  PHYS381 experiment.

Useful links for PHYS319

Contact details

Email:adrian.mcdonald@cantebury.ac.nz

Telephone extension:6281

Room: 822, Rutherford Building

Departmental PHYS319 web page

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