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JCM inVentures Inc. (403) 284-2876 |
" I ORbot!"
Let's wire up an OR gate right away so we can see how it behaves. A
typical OR gate integrated circuit is the 74LS32 ( 74ALS32, 74HCT32, 74F32
are all OR gates too! Ignore the letters and concentrate on the numbers 7432. ) Enough talk, Igor! Wire up this circuit...
Now experiment with turning each, and then both of the input switches ON. You will notice that the output ( connected to the logic probe ) behaves
in the following manner. (Remember, logic probe RED is ON and GREEN is OFF) Here's what you should see:
Concept Alert:
An OR-gates output will be ON if at least one of it's inputs is ON! It's output will be OFF if all it's inputs are OFF!
Here's how the four OR-gates in a 74LS32 integrated circuit are
connected. ( The Vcc is +5V and the GND is connected to ground. ) Notice the curved shape for the OR-gate symbol. Disconnect the first OR-gate ( 1A, 1B, 1Y ) and hook up the other three
gates in the pack and make sure that they too function properly! We wouldn't want any bad
OR-gates getting into our robots head, now would we! OR-gate Truth-Table Here's how our OR-gates response looks on our Truth Table: Reading the table left-to right, ( 0 is OFF and 1 is ON ) we see that
only the first line ( both inputs OFF ) give us an output which is OFF. All other inputs
produce an ON output! NOR-bot The next logic gate which bears analysis is the NOR gate ( Which is
short for NOT-OR ). The NOR gate is exactly like a mirror image of the OR gate: that is to
say, whatever way the OR gate would respond to it's inputs, the NOR gate would respond
opposite! Let's hook one up and see how it works! Here's the expected behavior...
NOR gate Truth Table Does your NOR gate respond this way? If so, then test out the other NOR
gates in this integrated circuit... Notice that the gates are connected slightly
differently from the AND/NAND gates; Note the symbol for the NOR gate. It's exactly like the OR gate, except
for the small "bubble" on it's end. That bubble says that the output is the
opposite of what you would expect from a normal OR gate. What good are OR/NOR gates? These gates are useful anywhere where an output is desired if any one
of a series of inputs is ON. Such as.. Home Alarm system: Each input connected to a window or door
sensor. If any is opened, then the OR/NOR gate would sound an alarm. Home Robot Saftety Device: Each input is connected one of many
bump sensors surrounding the robot. If the robot should touch something with any of theses
sensors, the robot will shut-down to prevent injury. Now we have all the basic bits we need to create an effective robot
brain! Now we must study ways of combining these mechanisms to increase it's intelligence! Design of the incredible OR-BOT: Now, let's create an OR-BOT brain which will avoid obstacles and keep
from falling off the table! Firstly we must fabricate two feelers for each side of the orbot: One
feeler will reach forward and try to touch walls. The second feeler will reach down and
feel the table surface. Now, if the forward feeler OR the table feeler gets
bumped we want the opposite motor to go backwards! We can build this feeler circuit using stiff wire on our breadboards as
shown: A two-feeler OR-BOT circuit |
Welcome
back to the laboratory, my apprentice creator! I am glad to see that you have survived the
perils on the AND-roid ( and it's nemesis, the NAND-roid ). In this session, we will be
studying another important part of our robot-brain: The OR gate and NOR gate.
