Design, Develop, Manufacture : Design, Develop, Manufacture Preview

This section of the ECT in Schools website will take you through the key areas of knowledge, skills and understanding relevant to designing, developing and manufacturing electronic and communication systems.

It is organised into eight sub-sections, which have each been written at three ‘levels’ – Starter, Intermediate and Advanced.

The eight sections are:

1. Systems Design
2. Input and Output devices
3. Software Engineering
4. System Building Blocks and Functions
5. Circuits and Components
6. Manufacturing ECT Systems
7. Electronic Communication Systems
8. ECT and the Internet

A more detailed overview of each section and level is given below:

Systems Design

• Starter
  An introduction to the basic language of electronic and communication systems – input sensors, process, output devices, software, hardware, digital and analogue.
• Intermediate
  More sophisticated techniques including the use of truth tables to analyse design problems.
• Advanced
  More advanced system concepts – processing analogue signals, timing diagrams, feedback, a.c. and d.c. signals.

Input and Output devices

• Starter
  Selecting and using useful input sensors (switch, light, moisture, magnet, rotation, temperature, tilt), generating pulses and using output devices (bulb, buzzer, motor, sound, LED).
• Intermediate
  More elaborate input sensors for light, magnetic field, temperature and sound and output devices (relay, solenoid, heater, electromagnet)
• Advanced
  Detecting ultrasound, infra red, movement, flow and pressure plus more sophisticated output devices.

Software Engineering

• Starter
  Using flowcharts and an interface to control an output device, generate a sequence and test an input sensor. The benefits of subroutines.
• Intermediate
  Using a PIC microcontroller. Using variables to store information and to repeat a sequence a fixed number of times.
• Advanced
  Using analogue input sensors with a PIC microcontroller. Counting and timing. Handling more than one thing at a time.

System Building Blocks and Functions

• Starter
  Making ‘decisions’ with gates. Using a comparator. Delivering power to an output device with a driver.
• Intermediate
  Generating at delay. Using a latch to ‘remember’ what has happened.
• Advanced
  Counting, more sophisticated gates, processing analogue signals, and driving the 7-segment display and stepper motor.

Circuits and Components

• Starter
  Understanding and measuring voltage, current and resistance. Basic components and their use in simple circuits (resistor, diode, transistor, switch)
• Intermediate
  Using batteries. Ohm’s law. The potential divider. Use of computer aided design (CAD) for circuit design.
• Advanced
  Working out power consumption. Using an oscilloscope. Details of transistor circuits. Understanding data sheets.

Manufacturing ECT Systems

• Starter
  Basic skills for making a printed circuit board (producing the board, drilling and soldering). Using instruments to check the system and to find any faults.
• Intermediate
  Use of computer aided design (CAD) for printed circuit design. Systematic techniques for fault finding and repair.
• Advanced
  Planning and organising batch production. Quality procedures in production. Isolating faulty components.

Electronic Communication Systems

• Starter
  Resources and approaches for introducing younger pupils to electronic communications
• Intermediate
  Resources and approaches to enable pupils to incorporate electronic communication subsystems in their projects
• Advanced
  Basic electronic communication concepts and examples of familiar systems: IR remote control systems, PICtalk and PICAXE, telephones, radio, TV, mobile 'phones and fibre optic cables.

• Starter
  An introduction to the Internet; social, business, cultural, ethical and environmental issues; using the Internet in design and technology and designing a simple web site.
• Intermediate
  Supporting home-school links with the Internet; data transfer rates, file sizes and download times; designing a more complex web site.
• Advanced
  Domain name selection and registration; Internet communication; introduction to more advanced topics in web design; useful download sites.

To have access to all of the material in this section, register your details on the site.