Simple and achievable educational projects by interconnecting different integrated circuits

This paper aims to illustrate the relevance and interest in using and teaching microcontrollers to the automation field students in a Mechanical Engineering Master Degree. It also describes examples of hands-on activity based in real world and carried out in the classroom in connection with the digital control of electronic systems, devices and processes. The microcontrollers are programmable integrated circuits incorporating a processor, memories and input/output peripherals. Through their use it is possible to design professional and educational systems with a small number of components, as in the case of the provided examples in the present work.