Reverse engineering as a method of teaching electronics

Hi Habr! Earlier, I published a post about developing a photopolymer 3D printer from RAR Print CD drives . Now I am engaged in the development of the creative co-working center in Tomsk. One of the tasks of the center is to teach people of different ages electronics. I am preparing a technical and theoretical base.

From the ready-made devices and constructors available on the market, it is necessary to make a difficult choice: price, quality and functionality. Under the functionality, here we should understand the level of knowledge of the student person (whose age can vary from 8 years to 40) and the technical performance (complexity) of the device or designer. One of the unusual teaching methods is the so-called reverse engineering. The purpose of which is to identify gaps in knowledge and fill them in practice. In addition, to arouse interest, develop basic skills for successful learning and to replenish the vocabulary of the English language.
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On the toaster, I came across a proposal for testing electronic devices. By a lucky coincidence, it was decided to test this technique and the choice fell on developing electronic designer “Hwathod” from the company Dadzhet.



The designer is delivered in a small box, unassembled with detailed instructions in Russian. Assembled personally. The constructor is designed for children over 8 years old, but it took me about 2.5 hours (an engineer and a radio installer with more than 4 years of experience).

Assembly process:



Experience shows that from the age of 8 children cope with the help of their father, and from 10 years - and (almost) themselves. During assembly, they can be taught the rules of handling tools and safety. Check and develop attention.

The assembled constructor is a moving robotic arm with a remote control unit via an infrared channel. The transmission and reception functions are performed by the EM78P156 8-bit microcontroller, which is analogous to the PIC microcontrollers.

Below are the schematic diagrams from the instructions for the constructor:





Four DC motors are controlled by two MD123 drivers.

What can be taught on the basis of reverse engineering of this constructor?

Reading schematics
Device and principle of operation of a DC motor
DC motor control (assemble driver analogue on radio elements)
Signal transmission via infrared channel (assemble a simple circuit with an infrared diode and a photodetector)
Deal with what a microcontroller is (theory)
Fundamentals of Boolean Algebra (Theory)
Write a simple program

Thus, one can gradually learn to create a control system that is used in this constructor.
This technique allows using a ready-made device to train children with different levels of knowledge and skills.

The appearance of a fully assembled designer "grabber"