Work in progress — Updates to a mobile circuits-and-signals learning kit that incorporates a USB data acquisition unit

Portable data acquisition (DAQ) toolkits can address issues faced by secondary Electronics curricula that employ benchtop laboratories. These issues include cost, overcrowding, lecture versus laboratory topic alignment, higher-level learning, and student/resource cultural mismatches. This paper presents updates to a Rapid Analysis and Signal Conditioning Laboratory (RASCL) toolkit which employs breadboarding resources, portable DAQ technology, and LabVIEW virtual instruments (VIs) that in aggregate allow a student to acquire circuit parameters and signals off campus. For the cost of two textbooks, this toolkit offers potential as a hands-on learning supplement for lecture material spanning multiple semesters, a hardware platform for distance-learning laboratories, and an alternative for traditional benchtop learning experiences. Hands-on exercises that incorporate these tools are being created and assessed in four courses at Kansas State University (KSU) (Electrical & Computer Engineering programs) and East Carolina University (ECU) (General Engineering program).