Development of an Operational Amplifier Virtual Laboratory based on iLab Architecture and NI ELVIS
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Date
2008
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Publisher
American Society for Engineering Education
Abstract
We have developed and deployed ‘OpAmp Lab’, a pedagogic operational amplifier virtual
laboratory based on the MIT iLab architecture. The architecture is a three-tier architecture that
abstracts the various parts of a remote laboratory system into different functional domains. This
architecture makes the new virtual Lab experiments scalable and reduces the development and
deployment time of new experiments through component reuse.
OpAmp Lab uses the National Instrument ELVIS hardware platform for experimental set-up.
Basic Op-amp circuits are realized through reconfigurable Dozen Impedance Op-amp
configuration mounted on a multimode switch array. The front end or Client is implemented as a
Winform Client, written in C# and uses connectible nodes as a metaphor for back-end hardware
configuration. Strong emphasis is placed on the realism of the user interface, as we argue, the
user interface is the most important determinant of the quality of a user’s educational
experience.
We discuss the various components of OpAmp Lab and the lessons learnt in the development of
the system as well as the development of pedagogical experiments developed for it. OpAmp Lab
has been in use at Obafemi Awolowo University, NIGERIA for the last two years. Faculty and
students response has been strongly positive. We provide data showing that the Lab offers a
viable means of augmenting the laboratory component of electrical engineering curricula in
developing countries.
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Keywords
OpAmp Lab, Virtual Laboratory,, iLab