Digital Logic Lab

Objective:

Construct a circuit using 7400 Quad NAND logic gate and connect power and ground to the gate.
How to read a schematic design for a circuit.
How to hook up a led to provide output.
How to hook up a dipswitch to provide input.
Check functions of the gates on a chip and derive the truth table for the component.

Background:

DIP Switches

A Dual Inline Package, or DIP switch can be used to select between 0 and 5 volts at some point in a circuit. Since the dipswitch does not have any power or ground connectors this must be done externally.

When the switch is turned on (in the "closed" position) it means that the connection between the top and bottom is connected and the input signal will pass to the other side (output).
When the switch is turned off (in the "open" position) there is no signal and the output may float from 0 volts to 5 volts, and anything in between.

In our case we want a high (5V) when then switch is turned on, so each input pin we are using must be connected to power. When the switch is off we want a low (0V); but remember when the switch is off it is in a floating state. To reslove our floating pins issue we need to add a resistor to the output pins. Since we are using 8 switches using 8 individual resistors to do this it would be rather tedious, so it is fortunate that we have a device called a resistor array which makes this convenient. The particular resistor array (10x-1-102) which we will use has several resistors in it which all have one end in common. In our circuit we connect the common pin of the resistor array to ground.

Light Emitting Diodes

Light Emitting Diodes, or LED's for short, emit light when an electric current is passed through them. The amount of current must be limited, however, or the diode will be destroyed. Usually a current of 10 mA is sufficient to light a diode, so if a 5 volt supply is being used, a 500 resistor placed in series with the diode will provide the right current. Note that the diode has one long pin, called the anode, and one short pin, called the cathode. The longer pin is connected to the higher (i.e., more positive) voltage, and the short pin goes to ground.

7400 IC

For this lab we will be using the 7400 Quad NAND gate IC. This chip contains four 2-input NAND gates. The pin numbers associated with each input and output of this chip are listed above the input and output of the NAND gates in the diagram above. You can also find the pin and operating specifications on the datasheet.

Task:

In this lab you will create a circuit which will turn an LED (light emitting diode) on or off depending on the selected input. The LEDs will give a visual indication of a 1 (LED lighted) or a 0 (LED dark). We connect the DIP switch to select between 1 (high voltage +5v) and 0 (low voltage).

Parts List

One Breadboard
One Resistor array (10x-1-102)
One NAND gate (7400).
Four 510 Ohm resistors
One 8 switch dipswitch
Four LEDs
Wires