Electronics > Open Source Hardware

Logic Gate Learning Kit - designed with code!

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Timot:
Hey Everyone,

I've been working on a learning kit so the younger generation can learn about logic gates. But there is a catch..! Instead of using schematics, the project is written with the atopile compiler, which lets you describe electronics with code. That means it's super easy to version control your project using git! The repository for the project is here: https://github.com/Timot05/logic-card/

You can find the code at elec/src/logic-card.ato

I've also made a video about the update I'm planning to make here:


The first version of the project is working decently well, but it's slightly hard to assemble the cards on the device, which is especially an issue with kids. So instead of using pin headers and datums, the next revision will use pogo pins and a sliding mechanism to keep the cards in place.

I'll continue updating this thread as I make progress on it.

Let me know what you think!

Tim

Zero999:
Do you really need an electrical connection between the MCU board and the card?

There are several other ways to do this.

RFID
Capacitive sensors
Magnets
Optically

I'm not interested in the compiler. One of the reasons why I chose electronics was because I did programming as part of computing A-level and found it boring. I still accept I occasionally need to do it now, but fortunately not very often.

Timot:
Yeah, I did think of using capacitive sensing. Some stm32 micros seem to support it: https://wiki.st.com/stm32mcu/wiki/Introduction_to_touch_sensing_with_STM32

I might switch to optical sensing but it was also convenient to have the pogo pins push the card upwards and lock it in place. Though I could have the spring to keep the card in place in the enclosure itself.

For the compiler, it's definitely a big switch from schematics. But fundamentally, it still works roughly the same (making connections between functional blocks) except that it gives you more options if you want to reuse or add parameters to your design.

Zero999:
If you're going to use connectors, then all you need are two DPDT momentary switches, the LED and a resistor. The switches can be configured as NOT, AND, NAND, OR NOR, EXOR etc. just by changing the links to the connector on the plug-in board. No MCU or programming to worry about.

Timot:
How would I get XOR?

The benefits I could see with the MCU:
- If someone is interested, they can change the firmware and learn about it while they do
- Reduce the number of pogo pin (or optical sensors) to a minimum. For example with 3pin + vcc I could get 2^3 possibilities, so 8 potential cards

Very curious about your implementation though. I think I could see how it works if I add one pogo pin per card and some ICs for each logic that we would want to achieve.

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