NAND Lab

Go to the CircuitVerse web site. Create a free account so that you can save your work. (I recommend saving your work online, but you can also choose to save it offline.) 

Each student must build their own circuits. You may collaborate by discussing high-level plans, or by helping a classmate debug an exercise you have already completed. Do not show your work to someone who has not already completed that exercise.

In this lab, you will only use NAND gates. You cannot use AND, OR, NOT, or any other logic gate.

Reference: NAND Gate

A B  OUT

0 0   1

0 1   1

1 0   1

1 1   0

Exercise 0:  NAND

For this first circuit, you will need the following elements:

• 2 Input elements

• 1 NandGate element

• 1 Output element

Connect the 2 Input elements to the 2 inputs for the NAND gate. Connect the Output element to the output of the NAND gate.

Test that you see the correct output for each of the 4 possible input settings.

You do not need to show the result to your teacher or save this circuit.

Exercise 1:  NOT

For this circuit, you will need the following elements:

• 1 Input element

• 1 NandGate element

• 1 Output element

Build a device that behaves as follows:

IN  OUT

0    1

1    0

In other words, you're using a single NAND gate to simulate a single NOT gate.

You do not need to show the result to your teacher or save this circuit.

Exercise 2:  AND

For this circuit, you will need the following elements:

• 2 Input elements

• 2 NandGate elements

• 1 Output element

Build a device that behaves as follows:

A B  OUT

0 0   0

0 1   0

1 0   0

1 1   1

In other words, you're using 2 NAND gates to simulate a single AND gate.

Save this work. You will need to show it to your teacher at the end of the lab.

Exercise 3:  OR

You may choose to build this next circuit in the same project or in a new one.

For this circuit, you will need the following elements:

• 2 Input elements

• 3 NandGate elements

• 1 Output element

Build a device that uses 3 NAND gates to simulate a single OR gate.

Save this work. You will need to show it to your teacher at the end of the lab.

Additional Credit

If you have completed the above exercises correctly and on time, then you have earned 91%. Earn an additional 3% for each of the following exercises.

Using only NAND gates, build some of the following. Be sure to save your work.

• NOR gate (outputs 1 only when both inputs are 0)

• 3-input AND gate (outputs 1 only when all 3 inputs are 1)

• XOR gate (outputs 1 only when its 2 inputs have different values)