Institute of Technology, BHU

Department of Electronics Engineering

Thanks to the initiative of Dr. P. K. Mukherjee, a meeting was held with the Head of the Dept (Prof. Anand Mohan) in April 2003 and a room (approx 20 ft x 20 ft) was allotted in the BHU Alumni Office, Department of Electronics Engineering, to set up the lab. The lab has been cleaned, painted and rewired by the students, and is now functional. The keys to the lab are to remain with the students always.

The purpose of this lab is to,
1. Arouse an interest in Electronics Engg students in the field of electronics.
2. Provide 24 hour facilities exclusively to the students of Electronics Engineering to gain hands-on practical knowledge in their field.
3. Invite projects from the industry or Alumni and hence form a more solid industry-institute interface, which will directly benefit students when they sit for placements.
4. Provide a forum where students of all years can discuss current issues (technical), give talks and listen to guest speakers from different fields.

The facilities that have been provided so far are,
1. Cathode Ray Oscilloscope,
2. Function generator,
3. Variable power supply,
4. Four bread boards,
5. A large collection of TTL ICs (74 series), 555 timers, microcontrollers, EPROMS, relays, A/D and D/A converters etc (donated generously by Milind Gupta, Vinayak Kumar and Mr P K Mukherjee)
6. Soldering apparatus, resistors, capacitors, transistors, diodes and other components (donated by Milind Gupta and Vinayak Kumar)
7. Component rack with lock (purchased by the students of 3rd year),
8. Two tables, a chair and a stool,
9. Tube lights and fan
10. Green board.

Among the facilities we are seeking to add are,
1. Component Development System,
2. Personal Computer (the dept was not ready to provide one),

The responsibility of the laboratory rests totally in the hands of the students. The following students have been chosen by Mr P K Mukherjee to take charge of the keys to the lab:
1. Chandra Bhushan and Gaurav Aggrawal, B.Tech. 4th year Electronics
2. Vivek Misra and Ankur Kishore, B.Tech. 3rd year Electronics

The following is the list of projects/models that have successfully been created in the lab:
1. IC tester using microcontroller (by Vivek Misra and Ankur Kishore, 3rd yr)
2. Smart card power supply system (which has also been installed in the power system of the lab) (by Mayank Pathak, Vishal Mehta and Saurabh Srivastava, 3rd yr)

Outline for the near future:
1. A bank account under the name 'Model Development Centre' is to be created to take care of the finances (collection and spending). The student leaders shall be responsible for maintaining accounts.
2. We are currently planning to organize a few workshops in basic electronics for the current 1st year batch to arouse their interest in electronics. The 2nd year batch has also been invited to work in the laboratory to pursue their hobbies in model making and to improve their skills. The senior students shall see to it that both 1st and 2nd year students receive appropriate guidance. Dr. P K Mukherjee has also obliged to conduct any workshops on interesting and relevant topics for the benefit of students of all years.


Submitted by: Vivek Misra and Ankur Kishore
Students-in-charge from B.Tech. Part 3 (Electronics Engineering)
Dated: August 20, 2003

An update on departmental activities by Mukul Agarwal (ECE-2000)

(1) At least one CVT to ensure a safe power source .
(2) Around 4-5 power supplies of good quality / Digital Mutimeter (atleast 2).
(3) Two extension boards.
(4) Tool kit (very good quality because its the most vunerable part) containing
- screwdrivers (various sizes)
- wire strippers/cutters
- pliers (at least 2)
- hammer
- A small hand drilling machine
- Small Hack-saw
- fixing screws
(5) Two soldering iron/Soledring wire / paste (very good quality
specially the iron for long life) / desoledring wire/gun.
(6) Bread boards (at least 10) / PCBs both dotted/lined
(7) Wires (various gauges both single/multi strand)
(8) various type of switches in small quantity for instant need
(9) Subscription of EFY (and 1 or two other magazines names i can't remember...... plzz suggest) (won't cost much , also depending on library creates delay )
Selected books/manuals containing useful circuits / description of working of computer serial and parallel ports I/O.
(if circuits are available instantly ..... it paves the path for smooth thought process and hence "INNOVATION" , which is the ultimate aim )
(10) ADC cards (at least 2 ) / parallel & serial port cables
(11) Components:
- most common ics (555/741/556/volt regulators/crystal....) (in small quantities)
- LEDs
- LDRs
- capacitors/variable capacitors
- transistors
- diodes
- resistances/potentiometer .......etc. in small quantities. - ear phone sockets
- speakers/buzzers/microphone.
- male/female connectors (containing 5 to 10 parallel lines)
- fuse/crocodile clips
- motors (simple tape recorder + stepper )
- rechargeble batteries/charger/few 9V batteries
- fevi kwick (instant adhesive .... very important) / cello tape
- wooden box/sunmica for placing the final assembly.
(a register might be maintained for issue of components/books)
** i feel in practice a "PAIR" of CRO and signal generator are must.
(11) Components

Please note :
- that budget depends highly on the "QUALITY" of items procured , and if quality is not maintained then slowly-2 the system deteriorates creating irritation.
- No matter should be taken as trivial because non-availability creates blockage in the smooth thought process/ time wastage .
- As such people who come to lab should find ease at work and spread its importance.
"REVERSE ENGINEERING" might be of great help in procuring more items .....


Submitted by: Sharad Kumar, ECE-2002
Dated: August 22, 2003.

A workshop-cum-lab was conducted at the Model Development Center on 6th and 7th September, 2003 on the topic, 'Introduction to Basic Electronics' by the students of B Tech, Part 3 for the students of B Tech, Part 1. Among the topics covered were:

(1.) How to read the values of resistors and capacitors.
(2.) How to use a breadboard.
(3.) How to use a multimeter.
(4.) What is a PCB and how soldering is done.
(5.) Basic concepts of diodes, along with simple diode circuits like clippers, peak detectors, rectifiers etc.
(6.) Construction of a 5V dc power supply using a step down transformer, bridge rectifier and a 7805 voltage regulator (which each of the 1st yearites did individually and debugged it using multimeters).

A small test was also conducted at the end of the workshop to get a feedback on how much the students had absorbed. The response was beyond our expectations. Not only did all the students score more than 60% on the test, we have already being overwhelmed by requests to conduct another workshop next weekend. The students have been so impressed by the Model Development Center that they have been asking us questions like, "Can we also donate money for the lab?" and "Please tell us some good books where we can read more in detail about what you have taught us today!" You will also be surprised to know that the second year students actually came to us and said that we are being 'partial' to the first year students by conducting workshops exclusively for them.

We feel that there is a great potential among the 3rd year and 4th year students to disseminate information to the 1st and 2nd year students. However, we are severely limited by resources. The most important instruments we need are component development systems and a computer. We are very grateful to our alumni for offering a donation in terms of both money and equipment. For the above issue, we have spoken with Dr P K Mukherjee, teacher-in-charge of the Model Development Centre, about how we can go about it. He has suggested that those alumni who wish to contribute to this cause may submit a detailed letter about the exact details of the bank account, who will be granted access, how the monetary transactions will be made and the type of account, and in what bank. We feel that the process of withdrawal from our end should necessarily require a signatureof the current head of department and the expenditures should be posted on the website on a regular basis to ensure transparency. Although PKM sir has expressed certain apprehensions about handling such heavy financial matters, he has consented to work with us if he gets a detailed explanation from our alumni. We request the concerned persons to kindly furnish us with the necessary details.

Submitted by: Vivek Misra, B.Tech. Part 3 (Electronics Engineering)
Dated: September 9, 2003.