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Nuts and Volts - October 2010

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1. E tee SE microEngineering Labs Je Mouser Electronics 21 ING UNM GY a T Seet SE NKC Electronics oenen EH E 37 Parallax Ine oce Back Cover A UE EE 37 PolarisUSA Video Inc 13 Pololu Robotics amp Electronics 43 EE 44 Ramsey Electronics Inc 22 23 SODOM I EE EJ superbrightlleds com 96 Surplus GIZMOS ma 12 Technological Arts Aa Trace Systems Inc 59 VE el cerns 30 October 2010 NUTS VOLTS 81 2 CR CircudeSpecialistSsacom gt 1000 s of ems Online 1 800 528 1417 Fax 480 464 5824 Since 1971 Pree Triple Output Bench Power Supplies The new CSI3303S amp CSI5505S regulated DC power supplies are high reliability variable DC Power Supplies with built in short circuit and ther mal protection These power supplies are suitable for the laboratory electronics communications equipment maintenance production line scientific research and educational institutions Both units are equipped with protection circuits that protect the units from short circuits and over temperature by shutting the unit down for safety Both units allow independent serial and parallel mode operation Technical Specifications Independent mode 2 independent 0 30V outputs Series mode CSI3303S Output from 0 60V amp 0 3A CSI5505S Output from 0 60V amp 0 5A Parallel mode CSI3303S Output from 0 6A
2. 44 SECURITY PolarisUSA Video Inc SE Technological Arts 44 TEST EQUIPMENT Circuit Specialists Inc 82 83 DesignNotes com E 44 Dimension Engineering 35 Electronic Design Specialists 59 HAPRO Electronics aceite puris 29 Jaycar ElectroniGS eoe erue 31 Foe Di NKC Electronics 44 Trace Systems Inc 59 TOOLS NetBurner ccccecceceececeecececeececeeceeeeeees 7 WIRE CABLE AND CONNECTORS DesignNotes com Inc 44 1 uoc A Abacom Technologies ENE All Electronics Corp 45 APC AE Ael BaneBols ttt 35 Basic Micro tt 30 Cana CO EE 65 Circuit Specialists Inc 82 83 Command Productions 9 Cunard Associates EH DesignNotes com Inc E Dimension Engineering 99 Electronic Design Specialists 59 Electronc Surplus enar 2 EE Eu Front Panel Express LLC BA Oe 20 UN GIZMOS Mare coL A4 HAPRO Electronics eese 29 Integrated Ideas amp Tech 30 WANN CO mtr eee ree ES Jaycar Electronics cms 31 E E E Lemos International Co Inc 44 Linx Technologies 19 EV MXIMOUO Ee 128 Matrix Multimedia
3. n d a y T 7999995 AUT b e a f E x EPPA a HE WaveSurfer P WaveJet 200 MHz 1 GHz B N WaveAce 100 MHz 500 MHz 40 MHz 300 MHz Save 15 when you trade in your old scope Contact a distributor today LeCroy Authorized Distributors E STANLEY a t A z ment KEMP Equipment Corporation Supply e Services i Avalon Equipment Corp Trek Equipment Stanley Supply amp Services Tequipment NET Kemp Instruments 888 542 8256 888 873 5374 800 225 5370 877 742 8378 888 619 2266 avalontest com trekequipment com StanleySupplyServices com tequipment net kempinstruments com NIE GLOBAL TEST SUPPLY d EUNIER The Tesi Measurement Supoly Co Meunier Elect Supply Global Test Supply 888 610 7664 800 638 6437 globaltestsupply com meunierusa com LeCroy To learn more about LeCroy s full line of oscilloscopes protocol analyzers mmm a EER and embedded test tools visit www lecroy com or call 1 800 5 LeCroy Nuts amp Volts er Octobe WWW Oper r Projects amp Features 32 Build the Shazam Light up the eyes of trick or treaters this year with lightning bolts and thunder claps which are hidden within a photo frame E By Ron Newton 38 Make Magic Candles with the Propeller Discover a cool way to safely simulate flames for all your holiday displays B By Jon McPhalen 46 Implementing a File UO System for the 16 bit Micro Experimenter Add
4. Kal DOODOODODODOO D MITA lu E FIGURE 1 and linear amplifier class D see Figure 2 You don t say what the load is on the 10 KV output but if you want 10 KV at 10 mA that is 100 watts If your power requirements are less you can reduce the size of the power amp and power transformer am going to assume that you use the coil FLYPVM400 from Information Unlimited because know how many turns are on it If you use some other October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 25 E FIGURE 2 FREQUENCY TRIM O 4 KHZ FREQUENCY X X e R5 16K R1 100K ICLA IC1B i 1 ge 7 R m D QN 100K L FOR 25KH2 R4 R5 6 8K GND 24URC CT 3B08UA 420 ue Pyy l 546 182824 4nF En gt TE STEREQ AMP 120 WATTS MIN TDA8920 EBAY PRI 11 T d CIRCUIT SIMULATION SOFTWARE am trying to find a low cost and easy to use piece of software to simulate circuits Back in 2008 my high school teacher 4000T tecommended a program called Circuit FLYPUM420 Shop and it worked GND out well for a little more than a year then started learning coil you will have to experiment to determine the number of primary turns In this case the amplifier is capable of 100 watts into 8 ohms The voltage output P V 2 R is 28 volts AC In order to get 10 KV out you need a turns ratio of 10 000 28 357 The primary turns are therefore 4000 357 11 The primary current will be in the order of
5. the world of the electronics enthusiast As the field of electronics evolves do you want us to cover the bleeding edge or are you more comfortable working a little behind the curve where components are cheaper and better documented Again l d like to hear from you lIl post the results of this informal survey in an upcoming editorial NV NUTS VOLTS Published Monthly By T amp L Publications Inc 430 Princeland Ct Corona CA 92879 1300 951 371 8497 FAX 951 371 3052 Webstore orders only 1 800 783 4624 www nutsvolts com Subscriptions Toll Free 1 877 525 2539 Outside US 1 818 487 4545 ROMBO 15277 North Hollywood CA 91615 FOUNDER ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Jack Lemieux PUBLISHER Larry Lemieux publisher nutsvolts com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER VP OF SALES MARKETING Robin Lemieux display nutsvolts com EDITOR Bryan Bergeron techedit nutsvolts yahoo com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jeff Eckert Russ Kincaid Joe Pardue Fred Eady Ron Hackett Lou Frenzel Ron Newton Jon McPhalen Abe Smith Thomas Kibalo CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Tracy Kerley subscribe nutsvolts com SHOW COORDINATOR Audrey Lemieux MARKETING COORDINATOR WEBSTORE Brian Kirkpatrick sales nutsvolts com WEB CONTENT Michael Kaudze website nutsvolts com ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Debbie Stauffacher PRODUCTION GRAPHICS Shannon Christensen Copyright 2010 by T amp L Publications Inc All Rights Reserved All advertising is subject to p
6. Project Library ll SCREENSHOT 3 Focus on the Kernel header files in this shot The purpose is to give you an idea of the division of the VOS Kernel Services and the device drivers which are under the control of the Device Manager need to include in the application source code space THE DESIGN CYCLE F rpject Library e zm o ll SCREENSHOT 4 The Runtime header files are the same header files you ll find in most any C program development environment fat context fatContext And that s how we will do it The fat context code that follows is found within the FAT h header file The FAT driver is layered on top of the BOMS driver Thus the context declaration is a bit different from context code you ll be exposed to as we continue context pointer for instance of FAT include USBHOSLi h include USB h include MSI h include BOMS h include UART h include FAT h include GPIO h include string h include DesignCycle App h The MSI h and FAT h files support the BOMS h functionality MSI is short for Mass Storage Interface while FAT is the good old Microsoft acronym that translates to File Allocation Table BOMS Bulk Only Mass Storage is a USB class that describes a device for communicating with mass storage devices In the Vinculum ll world a mass storage device doesn t physically get any bigger than a thumb drive Once a device is o
7. Q Are there any radio services that have not moved to digital A Yes namely the hobby radio services CB radio is still AM and SSB The family radio service FRS is still FM So is most ham radio which relies heavily on SSB and FM Morse coded CW is a form of digital and that modulation is Amplitude Shift Keying ASK a form of AM Hams also use a form of digital called PSK31 These services lack the spectrum and the FCC restricts their modulation methods but the movement is in the digital direction Q What about shortwave radio A Shortwave SW radio is still mostly analog Virtually all worldwide stations broadcast in AM It uses minimum bandwidth in a crowded spectrum but it is susceptible to noise as you know if you listen to SW Q Will shortwave ever go digital A Yes and it is already happening A digital standard called Digital Radio Mondiale DRM was developed and uses voice compression along with CODFM modulation It is used primarily in Europe The result is good quality audio that fits within the assigned narrow 20 kHz or less SW channels It s not wide spread yet but it seems to be catching on A number of radios are available in Europe but there are few on sale in the US Some of the new digital software defined radios have DRM demodulators Q Are there any other digital radios you haven t told me about A Yes there are almost too many to mention For example most short range wireless data
8. ud COMPLIANT www natmedia corn The Microchip name and logo the Microchip logo PIC and MPLAB are registered trademarks and PlCtail is a trademark of Microchip Technology Incorporated in the USA and in other countries All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners 2010 Microchip Technology Incorporated All rights reserved 9 10 Power Your Connected Graphics Solution Connectivity and graphical user interfaces are essential in today s applications You re challenged to deliver intuitive high impact connected solutions while maintaining flexibility to support several different product options Microchip s PIC32 series of 32 bit microcontrollers offer the right performance memory size and peripherals to help achieve your goals With 1 56 DMIPS MHz performance topping any device in its category up to 512 Kbytes of Flash 128 Kbytes of RAM and integrated connectivity peripherals like Ethernet CAN and USB the PIC32 can deliver the mix of performance and flexibility needed to help you meet your design challenges Microchip gets you there with PIC32 Starter Kits Standalone easy to use development boards with integrated debugger programmer Multimedia Expansion Board The most complete user interface development solution in it s class enabling development of highly interactive graphics and audio based interfaces with WiFi connectivity a modular add on to any PIC32 Start
9. 050 2250 DS0 5200 TS200A ics annels ot Impedence J PR oupling RIG Pew CH EN couracy d Vertical adjustable 65 igh performance B connected Uses USB and supports plug n play with 12Mbp communication speed Best performance for your dollar Thease units have many features that ar comparable to the high nput protection E A A XT input Ye rigger Mode Auto Norma H U speeda ingle Stand alone DSOs But costs_a fraction of the price No external power required Bus powered from the host computers USB port Probes amp USB cable included Easy to use Intuitive and easy to understand Various data formats Can save wavrfrom in the following formats txt jpg bmp amp MS excel word 40MHz DSO 2090 Yes RIsIng edge aling Cage Pre Post trigger Buffer size Bandwid D Max Sanple Rate V D N V ampling Selection Vaveform Isplay port line waveform average persistence intensity 60MHz DSO 2150 Man FFT ation subtraction multiplication aston 100HMz DSO 2250 200MHz DSO 5200 200MHz DSO 5200A circuit Specialists lnea Phones 800 528 1417 2 30 41541 24433 Farge 41430 41541 3824 I NEZ We carry a LARGE selection of Power Supplies Soldering Oen esos 1000s of Items Online 1 800 528 1417 Pax 4830 464 5824 Since 1971 14 Equipment Test Equipment Oscilloscopes Digital M
10. Function pointer to jump to the applicaion memory section static void application ptr void 0x0000 Okay pointers like this are kind of weird but don t worry we ll discuss them eventually if we haven t already For now it works so go with it Other Bootloaders There are bunches of AVR bootloaders out there and can t vouch for which is the best Best is just too hard to judge There was a long thread on www avrfreaks net Google smallest bootloader site avrfreaks net On AVRFreaks net there are many bootloader projects around but probably the two most discussed are blips 4 bootloader by Steve Childress and fast tiny amp mega uart bootloader by Peter Danneger Google these using site avrfreaks net There is a quite good avrfreaks thread IFAQI C Bootloader FAQ that discusses the pdf file AVR Bootloader FAQ by Brad Schick and Cliff Lawson I m not providing links because avrfreaks links are very long so you ve got some Googling to do Please note that the bootloader we are designing for this article won t work with the Arduino using the Arduino IDE It works just fine for the Arduino board with avrdude and the script provided here but the Arduino IDE is hardwired to use an avr isp type bootloader If you use this bootloader with an Arduino then want to restore the original bootloader you can get a copy at www ladyada net library arduino bootloader html The AVR109 Bootloader Protocol At
11. GPIO context typedef struct gpio context t unsigned char port identifier gpio context t And here s the code that declares an instance of the gpio context t structure type GPIO configuration context gpio context t gpioCtx The common element of all of the context structures is configuration data that pertains to the device the structure supports Each device context is used to set the configuration of a device before it is opened Now that we ve voiced our intentions to support configure and possibly run five devices let s prime the pump by initializing the VOS Kernel Services For clarity l ve taken the liberty to pull the vos init parameter values from their respective header files and place them with the vos init function call define NUMBER OF DEVICES 5 f f Kk kk kk kk kk ke e e ke Sk ck ke Sk Sk ke ke ke kc kc ko ck kc kc KARA kc kckckck ck kc KKK NOS INITIALIZATION f f Fk kk kk kk kk ke ke e ke Sk ek ke ke Sk ke ck kc k kc RRA RR RAR ck ck KKK NOS initialization and start up void vos_init uint8 quantum uint16 Feck emt uint8 num devices void vos start scheduler void default interval for timer interrupts define VOS TICK INTERVAL 1 default time slice quantum for tasks in RUNNING state define VOS QUANTUM 50 vos_init 10 VOS_TICK_INTERVAL NUMBER_OF_DEVICES The VOS_QUANTUM default value has been overridden with a value of 10 decimal The VOS_xxxx definitions were
12. October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 65 Over 200 Kits amp Modules to choose from Easy Worldwide Online Ordering Fast Delivery amp Same Day Shipping www obddiag net embedded With tutorials project ideas modules adventures kits LED panels and more www embeddedadventures com USB Add USB to your next project CO DLP it s easier than you might think Dosign USB FIFO USB UART USB Microcontroller boards RFID Reader Writer ZigBee Ready Transceivers www dipdesign com Absolutely NO driver software development required paia com Music Tutorials Kits Analog Synthesizers Guitar Effects Tube Electronics Studio Gear Electronic Music Kits and More SEO Gem 16 servos 16 I O 8 A D USB RS 232 TTL serial Ee be 14 bit servo control Ki Built in SC BASIC Sequencer s E ef servo center com Electronic Parts amp Supplies Since 1967 For the ElectroNet online go to Www _nutsvolts com click Electro Net 66 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 f Robotics amp Electronics WWW POLOLU COM Die www ramseykits com AM FM Broadcasters Hobby Kits Learnng Kits Test Equipment AND LOTS OF NEAT STUFF Precision Laser Waterjet Plasme Mac Adis Forming and Welding Capabilities www iitmetalfab com THE ORIGINAL SINCE Low Cost PCB prototypes PCB PnaL Free laser SMT stencil with all Proto orders WWW PCBE FOOL COM Das Blinkenboard O ZS Not just for blinken LED
13. outlet of your computer and connect it to the headers titled MIC Put one DIP switch in the closed position and the other two in the open position When ready short S2 open S2 and short again to record The LED will light indicating that the chip is recording Wait until the light turns off There are many thunder sounds available on the Internet Just perform a search for thunder sounds Use a 1 8 plug with about 6 of wire wrap put the plug into the ear phone jack of your computer and wrap the wire around the Mic pins Push both the play button on your computer and short S2 at the same time to record The chip will record 10 seconds of sound If you goof try again Happy spooking NV THE ORIGINAL SINCE 1994 PCB PNAL Beta LATOUT Servicing your complete PCB protojype needs 1 E 1 LII a di Sg SR A TELF aa sel FIE See SR F EM G Nee u PAIA 9700s Modular Synthesizer SIBEN um TE Lead times from 24 hrs Optional Chemical Tin finisi no Extra Kl Watch ur PCB obow the production al your POB in Le EI ER p CR SESCH wo Fah com LES xh LA im T A Wwwpcb poocrc FatMan Analog MIDI xao Ge Fania E d dean with our freessoitwarely pe Front Panel Designer 1eremax The Ultimate Theremin H Cost effective prototypes production runs e Wide range of materials or customization of provi Automatic price calc
14. GPIO port A bit 6 to pin 31 LED6 ON EVAL BOARD vos iomux define output 31 10MUX OUT GPIO PORT A 6 UART to V2EVAL board pins vos iomux define output 39 10MUX OUT UART TXD UART TX vos iomux define input 40 10MUX IN UART RXD UART Rx vos iomux define output 41 10MUX OUT UART RTS N UART RTS vos iomux define input 42 1OMUX IN UART CTS N UART CTS Gl l m sure you re wondering why I chose these particular I O pins and LED identifiers The cat is let out of the bag in the comments area of the code generated by the VNC2 IOMux Config utility guess it would be a good idea to add some LED definitions to our application header code define LEDO 0x02 define LED1 0x04 define LED2 0x20 define LED3 0x40 LED3 ON EVAL BOARD LED4 ON EVAL BOARD LED5 ON EVAL BOARD LED6 ON EVAL BOARD It is impossible for us to produce a single PCB and purchase all of the necessary electronic components to A AP CIRCUITS PCB Fabrication Since 1984 As low as Two Boards Two Layers 9 95 IONES each One Legend Unmasked boards ship next day www apcircuits com CIPC member y ASSOCIATION CONNECTING BBE Kg ELECTRONICS INDUSTRIES INDUSTRIES VISA Mastertatg Gert nin WIRELESS MADE SIMPLE QUICKLY AND COST EFFECTIVELY MAKE YOUR PRODUCT WIRELESS HRHADA RF MODULES LOW COET LONG RANGE Featured Products LT Seres Transceiver 315 MHz 418 MHz 433 MH
15. Gating external Trigger Rise time lt 8ns in pulse mode 8 500 ns variable edge time Pulse mode Frequency range 100 pHz 12 5 MHz 25 MHz pulse width 10ns 999 s resolution 5ns Modulation modes AM FM PM PWM FSK int and ext 10 MHz Timebase 1ppm TCXO rear O BNC connector Front USB connector save amp recall of set ups and waveforms 3 5 TFT crisp representation of the waveform and all parameters RS 232 000000 00000 SAAN NARKA KE RR 1 2 GHZ 3 GHZ RF SYNTHESIZER HM8134 3 HM 8135 optional IEEE 488 Outstanding Frequency range 1Hz 1 2 GHz 3 GHz Output power 127 13dBm 135 13dBm Frequency resolution 1 Hz accuracy 0 5 ppm Input for external time base 10 MHz Modulation modes AM FM Pulse FSK PSK Rapid pulse modulation typ 200 ns Internal modulator sine square triangle sawtooth 10 Hz 150 kHz 200 kHz High spectral purity Standard TCXO temperature stability 0 5 x 10 5 Optional OCXO temperature stability 1 x 10 Galvanically isolated USB RS 232 Interface optional IEEE 488 10 configuration memories including turn on configuration KR RR ERE REE KR HAMEL Instruments A Rohde amp Schwarz Company Advance Motor Control RoboClaw 2X25Amp amen A Ee Quadrature Encoder Support Big powetjinlol mall E e Regenerative Breaking e High Speed Direction Change gt 5V BEC Built In Battery Level Monitoring Hardware Optical Decoder Ther
16. Here s the main loop that runs my Jack o Lantern pub main ch bright delay lottery qe cnt leds init WICK1 bytefill level 0 8 cognew flicker 3 stack repeat ch from 0 to 2 repeat bright from 0 to 255 pause 4 level ch leds ezlog bright pause 2000 repeat repeat bright from 255 to 64 pause 4 bytefill level leds ezlog bright 3 flickerdelay 255 bright 52 10 weltetart 150 lottery delay lottery 8001 2000 pause delay flickerdelay 0 repeat ch from 0 to 2 level ch 255 pause 750 pause 30000 In the course of the program want to do some random timing so I ve created a variable called lottery to hold a random number This variable is initially seeded with the value of the system counter like to do this because the Propeller boots using an internal RC clock source which will always have a bit of variance We ve already discussed starting the BAM driver so we can move on to getting the flame simulation going An eight byte array called level will be used to control the maximum brightness of each candle output As with the BAM driver the values in level are O off to 255 maximum brightness All of the output levels are set to zero by using bytefill The next step is to start the flame generator which is in fact a method called flicker that is part of the main code listing Yes that s right We can launch a method into its own cog to run parallel
17. This is a joke since anyone who claims their code is self documenting is wrong and should be ignored from that point forward as should their code They are also dangerous as is their code but well save that for another rant Note that the function name is the command except where otherwise commented void AVR109CommandParser uinte t cmd while 1 Loop forever cmd receiveByte switch cmd case P Enter program mode case L Leave program mode sendByte r break case a autolncrementAddress break edubootavr Proel Options d y Part infomation kl LI n ax Aimee Flash Sins 08000 include Directories 62 NUTS2VOLTS October 2010 case A setAddress break Case e chipErase break Case T selectDeviceType break Case s readSignatureBytes break Case t returnSupportedDeviceCodes break Case Di returnSoftwareldentifier break case p returnProgrammerType break case b checkBlockSupport break case B Start Block Flash Load case g Start Block Flash Read srtartBlockAction cemd break Case E exitBootloader break default Lf cmd le 0x1B sendByte break Some of these functions are required by avrdude when running in the AVR109 mode though several don t do much and wouldn t really be needed if you want to write your own PC side
18. acceptable CdS sensors are light dependent resistors and can be identi fied by a serpentine zig zag sensor pattern They have a high resistance in the megohm region in the dark and a much lower resistance less than 10K when illuminated They are avail able in various sizes to provide a selec tion of sensitivity and dynamic range You can prevent your clock from going silent at night by simply bridging a resistor try a value between 1K and 10K across the CdS sensor in your clock You could even put a switch in series with the resistor so that the clock could operate either normally or in a modified nighttime mode Bob Kovacs Barnegat NJ 6105 June 2010 Vacuum Cleaner Soft Start have a Hoover EmPower vacuum cleaner that causes the breakers in my home to trip almost every time first power it on After a few minutes of use can turn the machine off and back on with no problem am thinking that the initial inrush current is too much for the breakers they are GFCI protected Does anyone know of some sort of soft start circuit or any other trick that may help HI The real problem is that the bearings in the vacuum cleaner motor are seizing or that the lubrication is dried out This makes the motor draw more it s stalled when starting cold When the motor heats up it spins more freely and draws less current The motor needs repair This may be as simple as taking it the motor apart cleaning out the old
19. advance the count Switches A B C and D are momentary pushbuttons Switch A will advance the seconds in 15 second increments and switch B increments in one second increments you can set the seconds in less than 19 seconds and the minutes the same way The hours increment one hour per second so that is fast also have not built or simulated this QUESTIONS amp ANSWERS 5U ER 100K kd 128UAC a ICZA c CEPR a A Nun us Ae 4520N al GND ei a DA NEU circuit so will appreciate any feedback or concerns about my logic DIVIDE BY ep COUNTER LIS 4012N 7414N q HIGH VOLTAGE SINE WAVE want to generate a sine signal at 10 kHz and also 10 000 volts for a project that am working on have seen the Royer oscillator at IC7B 8 1 DCLK 08 40 EN Q1 5 PU 02 en RES 03 Ov Ot ONE OF 60 MINUTE HAND LEDs 03 MAX OF 20 ZUP2106A MINUTE CLOCK Q2 d UN2106N3 G LL GND SWE HOUR CLOCK http wiki 4kv org index php royer_ oscillator This system uses a flyback for the output but am not sure that it is a sine wave also need to make a 25 kHz sine signal at 10 000 volts PS Can you recommend a good electronics dictionary don t know if the Royer oscillator will be a good sine wave so am proposing a sine oscillator ONE OF ep SECONDS INDICATORS NADOS a o Too JO ONE OF 12 a4 HOUR HAND LEDs K LEDs A ZUP2106A
20. base idx gt target 1dx else direction togglebit direction idx lf getbit direction idx 0 target idx lotto amp SFF 80 else target idx lotto amp S7F tmp base idx level idx 255 leds set idx tmp 1f flickerdelay gt 0 tmp flickerdelay US 001 gt 400 waitcnt tmp cnt Okay it looks a little scary right Hey this is the Halloween issue But just like your friend behind the mask once you see what s underneath you ll see that it is not as E FIGURE 12 scary as it seems at first blush Jack in action There are two loops the first sets up initial values the second runs the active flicker algorithm Most of the variables used by the flicker method are local but you ll see that it uses the external level array and the leds object to control the wicks without further intervention by us The code also accesses the global flickerdelay variable which affects the speed of wick movement At the top a local random variable otto is initialized and a loop runs which sets the base value of each wick to zero the target in the upper range and then randomizes the ramp control The direction bits are cleared to zero which indicates that each wick is initially ramping up Now for the fun At the start of each loop iteration the value in lotto is re randomized so that it s always changing For each wick we decrement the ramp value and when that hits zero we incre
21. carrier SetClockVars This API sets the timing variables manually that are used to set the file create modify access times This function is used only if we elect not to use the internal Real Time Clock Calendar RTCC peripheral to set time Let s go through a couple of examples There are a total of three demos simple file write WRITEDEMO simple file read READDEMO and a larger example that uses two files READWRITEDEMO the RTCC peripheral UART and LCD as well Configuring the EN Microchip File 1 0 Library for the Experimenter char receavetatier so int maiz ved J inpar APTA Eita SEEE Di Before we proceed let s exam how the library was configured to run on the Experimenter This section let s us look under the hood so to speak Microchip offers lots of free libraries and working through B FIGURE 7 Library reference and hardware configuration in Main A i RPORSbits RP7UE l7 APCRES Ee RPGR FSFILE pointer Hardwareprofile h iiile I U library char s niboffar Eypevimenrer I O is amp azsp i Path Hrita CSCIOUHLIDSTOCH i PEET F715D02 RPT pin 4 of Expansicn 1 0 ii BSCKIOUI RPE pan B of axgansicn Ta Paita write D GC Gedo i SEIZSIATIEiTS ff Description The enable hir fee the SPI mcdsl amp SFISIAiLbins SEIEN E FIGURE 6 Library Hardwareprofile h this example can help you understand what is involved in adopting these libraries for your
22. providing you with Tig To auto correcl to the proageammer used kA lime press the Programmes baion on The toolbar Note that a bool cannot be used lor peogramming as long att is connected mn a debugging tection In thal case select Stop Debugging fist October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 63 fe TE Dap cA Gignabure matches palectad device Programming Mode and Target Settings ISP mode Senge ISP Frequency 115 2kHz STK500 in ISP mode with ATmegab44P Lea ME IET Program Fuses LockBts Advanced HW Settings HW Info Auto amp J Eraga device before flash programming Hash o Input HEX Fle DEE Program E FIGURE 8 Program Tab even further headroom There may be even more ways to save space but we are already down 170 bytes so why bother If you really want to get it smaller check out the assembly language bootloaders mentioned earlier EduBootAVR Source Code The source code for this month s article is located in Workshop27 zip as usual and not so usual it is also located on Google Code Project Hosting https code google com p edubootavr source browse svn trunk This is my first attempt to provide a Collaborative Open Project a concept that we ll dive into next month Using the STK 500 to Program the ATmega644 We will use the STK 500 to program our ATmega644 chip The setup is shown in Figure 1 strongly suggest that you read AVRStudio Help AVR Tools User Guide click on
23. way of performing the same function over and over You simply call the procedure you want at the end of the procedure you place a return and it will go back to the command after the CALL Use either a small 16 ohm speaker or better yet plug your stereo into the jack Set all the DIP switches to open Put in the batteries Place R12 across the PIR pins 1 and 3 short S2 The LEDs should flash downward and then the voice chip will activate The LEDs will flash again If you leave S2 shorted it will flash every 30 seconds You can change the DIP switches to increase the time If you short and release it will flash each time you short after the sound finishes at the time level the DIP switches have been set to R12 prevents false triggering when using Remove R12 and plug the PIR into the female headers on the Shazam board if you are using it When it detects the presence of a person it will flash and wait for 30 seconds before flashing again Delays can be set via the DIP switches so it won t keep flashing Recording Remove the PIR module Connect a microphone or tie the headers into the earphone LED Bulbs LED Products COM E EN Component LEDs Your One Stop LED Shop for all of your Halloween lighting decorations for costumes props and house All Products Available for Immediate Purchase Online Super Bright LEDs Inc 36 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 St Louis Missouri USA superbrightleds com
24. 1 1 1 DH AA Ca Ca VOLTS wc Molume 37 A NOUIS Y 200 19 No 1 12 geg Special OFFERS October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 73 a a i ECO EH 1 I 1 t L El 1 1 L CALLA 800 783 4624 today Or Order onlite www nutsvolts com PROJECTS Prop Dropper Kit Shazam As seen on the October 2010 cover If you re looking for a fun and easy way to Drop a Prop here it is It can easily be modified to drop any prop for any occasion The kit includes everything you need except for a couple items of your choice prop elastic string enclosure amp a battery For more information please see the October 2009 issue Includes an article reprint Reg Price 84 95 Halloween is one of America s favorite holidays This project was designed to be flexible and reusable for other holidays With a few of your own components added to the PCB and the preprogrammed chip you ll be ready to design your own scary holiday prop Includes an article reprint 28 45 30 95 Talking Skull Kit CAR P300 120 Audio ER Kit The optional CAR P300 120 audio board can be added to this kit See Talking Skull Updates in Nuts amp Volts September 2009 issue s 87 37 95 39 75 Get ready for a tech scary Halloween New for 2010 the audio board is now assembled For more information please visit http store nutsvolts com 69 95 73
25. 357 10 mA 4 amps so 14 wire would be good found an amplifier on eBay from China TDA8920 it s 60 watts stereo and you can parallel the two amplifiers for 120 watts output The amplifier requires 20 0 20 VAC or AOVCT Mouser part number 546 182524 should work The oscillator circuit is adapted from National Semiconductor Application Note AN31 Figure 29 Wein bridge oscillator This is the circuit used by HP in their 200CD oscillator The 1869 lamp Mouser part number 606 CM1869 regulates the amplitude because its resistance increases when the signal amplitude increases The frequency is given by F 1 2 PI R C when RA R5 and C1 C2 It may be out of print but find Rudolf F Graf s Modern Dictionary of Electronics published by Howard W Sams to be useful There is also Glossary of Communications by 26 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 Emerson G Smith 1971 OBSCURE BATTERY l am having a problem locating a 12 volt SLA battery for a large toy truck The battery name is DYNACOLT 6 FM 4 0 12 Volt 2 3 Ah it has a three terminal Molex connector can find some similar batteries but none have the three connections No one can tell me what the three wire configuration is am not sure if a 12 volt two terminal SLA could be configured with the three pin Molex connector Charles Huth believe the red and black wires are the positive and negative of the battery The blue wire is probably con
26. 43 scope probes charger PC soft I E 70 Watt Soldering Station Ware USB cable and a conven re E 79 00 Output Voltage Output Current e 200MHz Handheld Digital Scopemeter with integrated Digital Multimeter Support e 200MHz Bandwidth with 2 Channels e 500MSa s Real Time Sampling Rate 50Gsa s Equivalent Time Sampling Rate e 6 000 Count DMM resolution with AC DC at 600V 800V 10A Large 5 7 inch TFT Color LCD Display USB Host Device 2 0 full speed interface connectivity Multi Language Support Battery Power Operation Installed Item DSO1200 www circuitspecialists com DSO 1200 60MHz Hand Held Scopemeter EIER 7 Ab UO e 60MHz Handheld Digital Scopemeter with integrated Digital Multimeter Support e 60MHz Bandwidth with 2 Channels e 150MSa s Real Time Sampling Rate 50Gsa s Equivalent Time Sampling Rate 6 000 Count DMM resolution with AC DC at 600V 800V 10A Large 5 7 inch TFT Color LCD Display USB Host Device 2 0 full speed interface connectivity Multi Language Support Battery Power Operation Installed Item DSO1060 www circuitspecialists com DSO 1200 60MHz Hand Held Scopemeter Item BTI 150 www circuitspecialists com BTI 150 Programmable DC Electronic Loads All the features of the DSO1060 plus a 25 MHz Arbitrary Waveform Generator Waveforms can be saved in the following formats jpg bmp graphic file MS excel word file Can record and save 10
27. 719 520 5323 Fax 719 520 1867 Box 60039 Colorado Springs CO 80960 BASIC Compilers for PlCmicro T Easy To Use BASIC Commands mee Windows 98 Me 2K XP Vista PICBASIC Compiler 99 95 B BASIC Stamp 1 Compatible Supports most 14 bit Core PICs Built In Serial Comm Commands 249 95 Supports most PlCmicro9 MCU Families Direct Access to Internal Registers Supports In Line Assembly Language Interrupts in PICBASIC and Assembly Built In USB 12C RS 232 and More Source Level Debugging See our full range of products including books accessories and components at www melabs com 2 5 D Although the result looks a bit like applying a sharpening filter in Photoshop it goes beyond that because his images are modified so as to create highlights which your brain interprets as depth It s a little more complicated than that so if you want a full explanation you ll need to visit www darbee vision com In any event watch for DVP to start E Before left and after modification by Darbee Vision appearing in TVs video game consoles digital picture frames and so on by the end of the year In addition the company intends to produce smart HDMI cables that allow you to retrofit your current high def TV he ARM architecture accounts for something like 90 percent of all low power embedded 32 bit RISC processors which are predominant in PDAs cell phones music players and so forth If you are involved in designing
28. CD show you how to use ATMELS AVR Butterfly board and the FREE WinAVR C compiler to make a very inexpensive system for using C to develop microcontroller projects Combo Price 99 95 Plus S H LET TT uc i A mat From the Smiley Workshop An Arduino Workshop by Joe Pardue The book An Arduino Workshop and the associated hardware projects kit bring all the pieces of the puzzle together in one place With this you will learn to blink eight LEDs Cylon Eyes read a pushbutton and 8 bit DIP switch sense voltage light and temperature make music on a piezo element sense edges and gray levels optically isolate voltages fade an LED with PWM control motor speed and more An Arduino Workshop Combo Reg Price 124 95 Subscriber s Price 119 95 Plus S H ml sr Cd Chis lab from the good people at GSS Tech re Rearning Lab Ed will show you 40 of the most simple and interesting experiments and lessons you have ever seen on a solderless circuit board As you do each experiment you learn how basic components work in a circuit Along with the purchase of the lab you will receive a special password to access the fantastic online interactive software to help you fully understand all the electronic principles For a complete product description and sample software please visit our webstore Reg Price 79 95 Subscriber s Price 75 95 a J e LZ
29. FIGURE 1 The format has proven to be very popular prinia Standard SD card capacities are up to and exceed 46 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 2 GB These cards ship preformatted with a FAT16 or FAT32 file system This is the exact file format for all of Windows machines we will discuss this more a little later Because of this the SD card can be accessed on virtually any PC with an SD reader Once inserted into a PC reader Windows allows the SD card to assume the identity of another disk drive within the PC At that point Windows operating system can be used seamlessly with the SD card files and file data can be read as long as Windows software recognizes the file extension associated with the file For these demos restricted myself to Secure Digital SD cards using card sizes of 256 MB 512 MB and 2 0 GB They are readily available and my suggestion is to use one for these experiments Background on FAT16 and FAT32 File Systems Just to give some background on this subject in order to store files the PC needs a filing system that defines the names of the files as well as a system to track which sector 512 bytes or smallest traceable data chunk in a file system is stored in which file In addition to reading and writing data the system should be able to create delete and rename files The File Allocation Table or FAT is used as the filing system or personal card catalog that supports these functi
30. Internal programmable voltage and current bias Transformer parameter measurement External capacitor bias up to 40V Kelvin cable and 4 wire SMD Test adapter included in delivery Galvanically isolated USB RS 232 Interface optional IEEE 488 HAPRO Electronics NNNNANANANANRAAN Tel 1 516 794 4080 Fax 1 516 794 1855 sales haproelectronics com WWW hameg com IN TEST 8 MEASUREMENT 1GHz HMS1000 ha HMS1010 44 USB optional optional IEEE 488 TCP IP Te DVI Output inclusive Frequency range 100 kHz 3 GHz Amplitude measurement range 114 20dBm DANL 135dBm with Preamp Option HO3011 Sweep time 20 ms 1000s Resolution bandwidth 100 Hz 1 MHz in 1 3 steps 200 kHz 3 dB additional 200 Hz 9 kHz 120 kHz 1 MHz 6dB Spectral purity lt 100dBc Hz amp 100 kHz Video bandwidth 10 Hz 1 MHz in 1 3 steps Tracking Generator HMS 3010 20dBm 0dBm Integrated AM and FM demodulator int speaker Detectors Auto min max peak sample RMS quasi peak 25 50 MHZ ARBITRARY FUNCTION GENERATOR HMF2525 HMF2550 00000 optional optional IEEE 488 TCP IP Frequency range 10 uHz 25MHz 50 MHz Output voltage 5mV 10V_ into 500 DC Offset 5 mV 5V RS 232 inclusive Arbitrary waveform generator 250 MSa s 14Bit 256 kPts Sine Square Pulse Triangle Ramp Arbitrary waveforms incl standard curves white pink noise etc Total harmonic distortion 0 04 f lt 100 kHz Burst Sweep
31. Jen was having dinner at a nice restaurant and noticed they were using electronic candles and they looked awful understand having experimented with candle algorithms can tell you it s a little tricky to get a natural look though it won t be after you read this There is good news We don t have to do a perfect simulation You see our brains have this incredible ability to take partial information and fill it out with what we know this gives us the ability to recognize friends from bad photos at odd angles So you see we only have to get close our brain will say Okay that s a candle Don t believe me A few years back I had two candles one real one electronic burning side by side so could watch them The air conditioner kicked on and blew out the real candle Without thinking picked up a match and held B FIGURE 11 Wick behavior 128 to 255 O to 127 42 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 it to the electric candle expecting it to light After about a second laughed at myself out loud for being fooled by my own creation This illustrates the power of our subconscious and its ability to deal with partial even false information After lots of experiments l ve developed an algorithm that works like this Each wick requires three variables 1 current brightness 2 target brightness and 3 ramp rate moving from the current brightness to the target When the current level reaches the target leve
32. PICAXE 8M ADE _ 18k 18623 1883 Rtotal 1823 18k BN UO FE ET DIV A Col 1 m 17 2R 16 Hk LI E CXP63 HH 3937 I 113 Tk Le ek L1 Bk i 16 Bk aes CaB 3115 otk 4 i Col e Col 3 Col 4 B FIGURE 4 Specific resistor matrix values FTDI Basic Breakout board DEV 09716 which have reconfigured to work correctly with PICAXE processors as we discussed back in the June Primer really like SparkFun s new board because they have moved the six pin female header underneath which makes this the smallest FTDI based board that have found so far When assembled the AxMate FT in the photo installed its six pin male header on the bottom of the board so that the two boards line up correctly If you re not using an AxMate FT adapter you will need to install all the parts farther to the right on the breadboard to allow enough room for a power supply and programming adapter When you have assembled your breadboard circuit we re ready to discuss our first program keypad 1 bas Download it from the Nuts amp Volts website www nutsvolts com along with keypad2 bas which we ll discuss B FIGURE 6 Schematic for ADC matrix keypad circuit October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 69 T T a et il re gg Sg gg mm SSeS eee oe a eee eee mom m cmm ti s u Bees Seer m B FIGURE 7 Breadboard layout for ADC matrix keypad circuit shortly At this point you may want
33. This lab and course covers it all and you end up with a great Decision Maker kit when done SM200K SMT Soldering Lab Kit 22 95 IC AM FM Radio Lab Learn all about AM FM radio theo ry IC theory and end up with a high quality radio Extensive step by step instructions guide you through theory parts descriptions and the hows and whys of IC design Runs on a standard 9V battery AMFM108K AM FM IC Radio Lab Kit 34 95 d Catalog 96 value packed pages of Sal the neatest goodies around with lots line or give us a call Or download the PDF at www ramsevkits com catalog r iibeu amazoncom A b i 3 cy E3 Practice Guitar Amp amp DI Practice your guitar without driving your fami ly or neighbors nuts Works with any electric acoustic electric or bass guitar Plug your MP3 player into the aux input and practice to your favorite music Drives standard head phones and also works as a great DI PGA1 Personal Practice Guitar Amp Kit 64 95 The subminiature high tech version of the BL1 Utilizes all SMT compo nents to drive a pair of high intensity SMT LED s Runs on 2 P button cells included Great o attention grabber for signs hats or other applications BL2 LED SMT Blinky Kit 17 95 Voice Activated Switch Voice activated VOX provides a K switched output when it hears a j CH sound Great for a hands free PTT switch or to turn on a recorder or light Directly switches relays or low
34. Tram E plsindg t La NA ili E LE Ffilcic n pciztmr ER s Tirai ET Ship Y acc B FIGURE 8 Write demo code there is an undock and lock sequence that surrounds this PPS programming to insure that this critical function is not invoked haphazardly Also take note that only include FSIO h is needed in Main to reference the entire Microchip library DEMOWRITE Open a Text File and Write Data to It Our first example creates a file and writes the B FIGURE 10 Read demo code ff BE rima mabBu amp lly march 5 2010 7 21 15 AM SetclockVarmi 1010 3 5 77 21 1851 while HDD Nediabetecc ff Initialize the library while F3Inirtii ff Create a file pointer FSfopen FILEI TXI r if ipoinrer NULL whileil ff reng into receiveluffer byte objects from file if FEfread receiveBuffer sireof sendBuffer 1 pointer Jf Close the fide if iFS5fsclose pointer vhilei l Jfdisplamy read data on LCD alear display position cursor 0 int ii Zeg 0 i urite character LCDireceivebuffer 11 sizcol send Bulli 144 50 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 gleef ts B FIGURE 9 Write demo LCD following line to it This files I O test using Microchip library The LCD library is used to display the status Download and unzip WRITEDEMO from the website Open the folder and double click on MDDFS_SD_PIC24 mcp In Step 1 we call MDD_MediaDetect This function determines if th
35. User configured address allows up to four AP 16 boards on one serial connection Easily updated as new features become available update loads from an SD card not included Four 0 135 inch 3 4 mm mounting holes An 18 V 3 3 Amp Power Supply sold separately 750 00011 34 99 is recommended for use with this unit PIR Sensor 555 28027 9 99 sold separately
36. amp 0 30V CSI5505S Output from 0 10A amp 0 30V Both units also provide a 5V fixed output 3A Load regulation lt 0 1 3mV rating current lt 3A lt 0 2 3mA lt 1mVrms 5Hz 1MHz lt 3mArms Ripple and noise Voltage accuracy Current accuracy 0 5 rdg 2byte 5 rdg 2byte Display resolution Rated output 0 5 rdg 2byte 5 0V 0 1V 3A Tracking characteristics Series specifications Load regulation less than 50mV Ripple and noise 5Hz 1MHz lt 3mVRMS Parallel characteristics Load regulation less than 50mV Ripple and noise 5Hz 1MHz CV less than 1mV lt 6A CV less than 1 5mV I gt 6A Once again Circuit Specialists brings you a quality product at a great price Item a e 0to3ACSI3303S MAPA www circuitspecialists com CSI3303S 4 155 00 ea Itemz oto 5A CSI5505S SEDAT www circuitspecialists com CS15505S 4 179 00 ea www circuitspecialists com DSO 2090 www circuitspecialists com DSO 2150 www circuitspecialists com DSO 2250 www circuitspecialists com DSO 5200 www circuitspecialists com DSO 5200A l Dual Camera eless Inspection Camera With Color 3 5 LCD Recordable Monitor Your Extended Eyes amp Hands RECORDS See Tt Still Pictures Clearly in narrow spots amp Video even in total darkness or gt underwater Find It Fast No more struggling with a mirror amp flash light Solve It Easily speed up the solution with extended access
37. as impressed with the modern electronic accoutrements but instead expected what they found and more Perhaps this explained my friend s frustration with trying to teach his daughter the old fashioned electronics of resistors transistors and other discrete components With sights set on creating a startup company using mobile computing she couldn t see the relevance learning to flip a few LEDs on and off with a complex circuit or of building a power supply from scratch when a single chip would do the job My automatic response was that learning the fundamentals is well fundamental If you re going to design or build electronics you have to have a handle on the fundamentals We decided that sooner or later she would come around and delve into the basic physics and Backpacks make great things greater You know like when Luke carried Yoda around on Dagobah a td Backpack SOLARBOMES www solarbotics com 8 NUTS2VOLTS October 2010 DEVELOPING PERSPECTIVES 1 866 276 2687 discrete components the way we did when we discovered electronics However began to have second thoughts soon after the meeting Is it really necessary to deal with Capacitors resistors and discrete components to understand and more importantly leverage modern electronics Is it a waste of time for someone planning to create a business based on new devices to play with and learn to use outdated components Is it better to mov
38. before starting the threads The very last thing a Vinculum Ill main function does is start the scheduler which starts the execution of the threads You can get a pretty good idea of the available Vinculum l hardware resources by examining Screenshot 1 As you can see the toolchain has builtin device driver header files for all of the on chip peripheral components There are device driver headers for file management general purpose I O SPI timers UARTs and USB The available toolchain device driver libraries are captured in Screenshot 2 For the most part there are name associated device driver libraries that work hand in hand with the like named device driver header files shown in Screenshot 1 You can add any of these header files to your project and inspect them with the IDE editor However you can t gain view access to the device driver October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 15 r Project Library Reve ll SCREENSHOT 1 Right clicking on the project in the Project Manager window will reveal a drop down menu that points you to Manage Libraries gt Header Files which will get you to this point libraries via the Vinculum Il IDE editor Screenshot 3 reveals the VOS Kernel Services header files while Screenshot 4 scrolls down to the Runtime headers As you have most likely already concluded there are library files that are associated with the header files and they can be seen in Screenshot 5 If a library is included in an applica
39. bootloader and use it with a device that you already know about You wouldn t need to get the identifying info such as the signature byte the programmer type nor would you need to see if it supports blocks Neither would you need to tell it to enter or leave the programming mode since what else would it do In that latter case all we do is return a r that lies to avrdude so that it will continue working Why write our own when avrdude is a great and free program I m not going to try to write another version of it just to save a few bytes of code Remember that this bootloader just barely gets in under the 1 024 byte limit and the next lower limit is 512 bytes so we d have to eliminate half the code to have a chance of getting there and that isn t likely If you really need to go that low check out some of the assembly language bootloaders and PC side programs that communicate with them The critical action takes place in the startBlock Action cmd function void startBlockAction uint8 t cmd uint8 t tempRec uinti16 t tempSize tempSize receiveByte 8 receiveByte dummy read for type we only do flash NOT EEPROM tempRec receiveByte if cmd B blockFlashLoad tempSize else blockFlashRead tempSize Ke This function depending on whether cmd is B or g calls functions to load or read the Flash The load function is pretty much the same as the Flash load fun
40. costeffective to simply purchase the factory produced FTDI VinculumJl Evaluation Board for 79 Photo 2 shows sat AE LA RJ LEID EE ar q LE a a i D EJ EI AL LEE E WK e our board mounted on a Vinculum l Evaluation Board Thus far all of our Vinculum ll application code has targeted the Evaluation Board peripheral layout With that let s move on and continue bringing the Board peripherals to life The USBHost context contains a field that holds the maximum number of interfaces to support if count We ll use the if count value and the rest of the USBHost context to initialize the USBHost interfaces usb ctx ir count e 2 usbhost init VOS DEV USB HOST1 VOS DEV USB HOSTS amp usb_ctx The following sequence of events wraps up the actions initiated inside of the main function The BOMS service is initialized a UART buffer is allocated the UART is initialized the GPIO port is initialized the application thread is created and the scheduler is started which allows the thread code to be executed boms init VOS DEV BOMS uart ctx buffer size VOS BUFFER SIZE 128 BYTES uart init VOS DEV UART amp uart ctx gpioCtx port identifier GPIO PORT A gpio init VOS DV GPIO amp gpioCtx tcbApplication thread vos create thread 29 SIZEOF FIRMWARE TASK MEMORY application thread 0 vos start scheduler main loop goto main loop The scheduler will continually queue the
41. even more capability to your Experimenter by integrating a PC compatible file I O B By Thomas Kibalo 52 Phreak Out with the BASIC Stamp 2 Remember the old days of hacking phreaking with your cell phone Well you can revisit those times or try them out for the first time in a fun legally safe environment E By Abraham Smith nutsvolts com Just sele FUNdamentals For Beginners Just getting started in electronics Try these simple demos to illustrate electronics principles and how components function in actual circuits 76 How an SCR Works 6 NUTS2VOLTS October 2010 Did you know that e webpage It s where you gt corrections or to link to the link for each webpage is ir You can also visit c Magazine drop down menu click th the article name Page 57 Columns 10 TechKnowledgey 2010 Events Advances and News Wastewater that produces electricity custom gaming computer 2 5 D images by Christmas plus other stuff you ll find interesting 14 The Design Cycle Advanced Techniques for Design Engineers Thumbs Up for the Vinculum ll Toolchain 24 Q amp A Reader Questions Answered Here High voltage sine wave obscure battery black body heat source plus more 57 Open Communication The Latest in Networking and Wireless Technologies O amp A about Digital Radio 60 Smiley s Workshop Programming e Hardware e Projects AVR Memory Part 5 Bootloaders 67 PICAXE Primer Sharpeni
42. for this architecture hardware or software you should know about the 2010 ARM Technology Conference scheduled for November 9 11 at the Santa Clara Convention Center November 9 focuses on chip design issues and November 10 and 11 are devoted to software and systems design The conference combines classroom sessions tutorials panels and product demos exhibits For more information visit www eetimes com armconference NV Software Included Check Out Our Clearance Free Shipping on orders over 500 Toll Free Soleil cAM f an Toll Free 800 308 6456 AE 800 308 6456 Prices Subject ein Video Security from the Professionals at PolarisUSA e chance may vary houi Notice 3158 Process Drive Norcross GA 30077 1602 October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 13 DESIGN Lo Mm BY FRED EADY ADVANCED TECHNIQUES FOR DESIGN ENGINEERS THUMBS UP FOR THE VINCULUM II TOOLCHAIN The Vinculum ll embedded dual USB host controller takes all of the hard work out of interfacing and controlling USB devices In this case the Vinculum ll goes one step further to save us both money and time We don t have to design and fabricate a specialized printed circuit board PCB to put the Vinculum ll host controller to work For about 15 plus shipping you and can obtain the embedded dual USB host controller IC and all of its associated resistors capacitors ferrite beads and interface pins mounted on a spiffy fac
43. led me to consider a microcontroller Most microcontrollers share basic features with each manufacturer s products having their own unique instructions or programming objects which make them better suited for certain tasks My experience has demonstrated that the BASIC Stamp 2 from Parallax Inc is uniquely suited for the purpose of audio frequency generation There are less expensive micro platforms than the BS2 but chose this module because it is strongly supported with free tutorials and programming documentation from the Parallax website and numerous online user groups It programs in PBASIC which is easily learned by hobbyists who are not experienced in programming After you re finished experimenting with the project described here you will have the confidence and skills to re use the BS2 in other projects with programs you create The kit for the BASIC Stamp 2 OEM module Parallax part number 27291 is easy to assemble even for the novice builder and includes a PCB printed circuit board with all the components and their locations clearly marked It is easily programmed via the on board serial port in the PBASIC language developed by Parallax One of the unique features of the BS2 is its ability to generate standard touchtones as well as custom MF tones using the PBASIC commands DTMFOUT and FREQOUT which make it possible to generate both standard telephone Touchtones as well as any other single or dual frequency tones an
44. note Spooks goblins and vampires could be seen on the other side of the street The children slowly walked up to door with bags in their small hands As they crept up closer on the wall there was a strange picture of a skull or was It a lady sitting at her mirror As they draw nearer all of a sudden there Is a great flash of light and Shazam A lightning bolt from the picture flashes with a great clap of thunder alloween is one of America s and my favorite holidays It has become progressively more and more popular with parties and probably is in second for outdoor displays next to Christmas This project was designed to be flexible and reusable for other holidays and the basic unit can be put together for less than 15 plus the board No surface soldering is required so this is an easy first time project Depending on what type of display you use the price can increase Plain LEDs are cheap used high output white LEDs which sell for 89 ea If you want 100 lumens per LED the price can jump to 8 ea and you will need to add drivers For those who want lighting for a stage production simply can use photo triacs Sony 211602F and drive up to 16 amps 220 volts for each bulb If you don t want sound leave out the sound chip and save money The board can be triggered using a momentary switch The one described in this article uses a Parallax Passive Infrared detector PIR for detecting the i i 1 Li T i LI E
45. one being red to facilitate reading the time These LEDs will be on all the time The minute hand will rotate with 60 positions the hour hand will have 12 positions You can have up to 20 LEDs in each hand with the ZVP2106A or If you want to use more the NDP6020P will handle up to 2 000 High Voltage Sine Wave J Obscure Battery Y Black Body Heat Source Here is how the circuit works The line frequency is divided by 60 to produce one second clocks to IC5 which is a binary counter This drives IC1 IC2 IC3 and IC4 which represent one of 16 decoders When the count of IC1 gets to 16 feedback through IC14A resets IC5 to zero which decodes to one At the same time IC15 a synchronous shift register is clocked which enables IC2 and disables IC1 This process continues until we get to the 16th count in ICA The output from ICA through IC17F puts IC15 in parallel entry mode and the clock from IC17D does the parallel entry which enables IC1 and the cycle starts over The reason for the two inverters IC17D and IC17E is that the clock has to happen after the parallel entry mode is set so the clock is delayed by two inverter time delays The delay is less than a microsecond so it won t be noticed The minute circuit is identical to the second s circuit and the hour circuit differs only in that it simply has to count to 12 To set the clock the normal operation is disabled and the one second pulses from IC8B are used to
46. own use Keep in mind that all our demos are preconfigured and can be used out of the box as a template for your applications The library options are configured in FSconfig h by selecting which macros you want to enable For the Experimenter the following is enabled Siete FS MAX FILES OFEN 1 sideline MEDIA SECTOR SIZE 512 falefime ALLOW WRITES Sd ALLOW FORMATS idine SUPPORT FATM dile USEREEFFINSEDCIAH E sFaanp For De creazioni amd update zddumeUSEREALTIMEUCLOUE allessuee op PICHIP ETUC Real Te Clock Cbendas p bo aubanadicalle nei Omar app fer fe creadiom azul update sers qnaxipsuma of fibes open 71 serra sector rime compatible with PAT allow s file writing allows far inanting ort cap pert for both FAT I and FATH file formats allows nee af Sef Clock Var te eet mammal te dime The hardware interface for the library is configured in two places The first place is Hardwareprofile h The other place is in Main Here we map SPI2 using PPS described earlier to the appropriate Experimenter I O pins Note that file VO library bene A unlock for PPS make Pin BER SDDS pin 4 of Eupansiss I O SPI2 PPS programming to pins f Leek In MAIN Setting up Library for Use with Experimenter October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 49 FRFILE pointer while HDO_Nedzeleves JOEF I DECIS AO Ps ic 1 miren sabia pointes T D TT a EN de DEEP 4 EIIJOI VFRLiIME ER Lire LLES Step T success
47. pin data direction is set the GPIO device is opened and its handle is returned to hGpio The Vinculum l Evaluation Board LEDs are all connected as common anode with respect to the power source Thus the Vinculum l drives the cathodes from its I O pins These lines of code will illuminate all of the LEDs we ve defined leds 0 vos dev write hGpio amp leds 1 NULL These lines of code will extinguish all of the defined LEDs leds OxFF vos dev write hGpio amp leds 1 NULL Want to turn off LEDO only Here s how we do it leds LEDO vos dev write hGpio amp leds 1 NULL The vos dev write API call uses the GPIO handle hGpio to identify the GPIO pins that are driving the LEDs and writes the value of leds to the I O port Pretty clever huh Fred Eady can be reached at fred edtp com SOURCES FTDI Vinculum ll Embedded Dual USB Host Controller Vinculum ll IDE Vinculum ll Toolchain www ftdichip com punch think have succeeded For about 100 bucks you can go to thumb drive heaven and add the Vinculum Il embedded dual USB host controller to your Design Cycle NV Over 1 4 Avice Parts Online et Scan with your smart phone or mobile device s camera QR Code reader WARNING Designing with Hot New Products May Cause A Time to Market Advantage a tti company mouser com 800 346 6873 Mouser and Mouser Electronics are registered trademarks of Mouser Electronics Inc Ot
48. places sell these in the 40 60 range Try www pcrush com product Floppy Disk Drives 590364 Buslink FDD1 Floppy Drive or at Amazon Market place from wwwf1 shopping com xPO Universal Bus link FDD 1 Barry Cole Camas WA 6102 June 2010 AC Motor Control I m building an alt az antenna rotor controller from scratch but I m having trouble with the circuit for controlling the AC motor in the RadioShack rotator l ve tried using a TRIAC with little success believe they are my answer but don t understand how to use them What need is a circuit that will accept one direction bit and one enable bit that will control a motor s direction of spin The original controller acheived this by feeding one or the other non neutral leads of the motor with 22V AC the third lead is common neutral HI You may be having problems with ground referencing the gate signal or with the TRIAC eating up too much of the supply voltage they do have a small voltage drop when they are ON One option that would fix both problems would be a pair of mechanical relays They would exactly duplicate the pushbuttons in the rotor controller so the rotor will be none the wiser and should work exactly as it always has You would control the relay coils with a micro processor and possibly a driver transistor Don t forget to put diodes across the coils so the inductive kick doesn t hurt the driver or microprocessor output when th
49. s forum in Yahoo Groups http groups yahoo com group LTspice have used Ispice IGspice Pspice Electronic Workbench and am presently using LTspice LTspice is full functioning freeware and have not found any program like it have Tina Tl from Texas Instruments but QUESTIONS amp ANSWERS when tried to use it for a passive circuit got an error message No IC in the circuit did a Google search and found 5spice which looks to be easy to use but costs 199 There is a free demo but it is not useful also found Opus spice which is free but have not evaluated it or figured out how to install it LTspice has made some modifications that minimize time step too small errors in switching circuits so it is good for those types of circuits In any simulator the results are only as good as the model but the more complex the model the more likely that the program will fail Always use the simplest model that will give the results you need and keep in mind that if you use an IC in an atypical way it may not work because of assumptions that the model designer made be much less than that if it is well insulated will use the step down circuit of the datasheet and calculate the parameters using the Design Formulas from the datasheet Purchased heat sources are mega bucks and I d like to do this cheaper Would you please help me Mark Hoffman Since the 78S40 has been doing the job we m
50. sessions have heard estimates of 18 000 different so called Internet radio stations Q How do receive these stations A You can access individual stations on your PC if you have the speakers or headphones and know the URL They also make special Internet radio receivers A good example is the CC Wi Fi radio shown in Figure 1 from C Crane www ccrane com Crane makes high end AM FM and SW receivers This one connects by a Wi Fi wireless link to your home Internet router and provides a way to access all those tens of thousands of stations No antenna required Q I had not thought of buying a separate Internet radio but it may be worth it to get that many stations Is there any other way to receive Internet radio audio not only to the A An unexpected method is to get Internet radio on your cell phone Apple has several apps for streaming Internet radio to their iPhones Weather Underground www wunderground com recently announced their WunderRadio an app for streaming iPhone but also to BlackBerrys Windows Mobile and any phones using Google s Android operating system options NV Q Wow digital radio glut Maybe I won t build that crystal set after hearing about all my digital radio options It may be more fun to explore one of these A Go modern and start checking out all your digital radio The Standard for checking Capacitors in circuit Good enough to be the choice of Panasoni
51. to print out both programs for reference throughout the following discussion Keypad 1 bas has two purposes to make sure that the breadboard circuit is configured correctly and to determine how closely our real world ADC values match the theoretical values that were presented back in Figure 4 The main program loop repetitively carries out the following tasks Wait for keypress Theoretically junk 0 if no key is pressed but lt 5 is safer Pause for 50 mS to de bounce the switch The pause 100 is halved at 8 MHz e Get ADC value using readadc10 e Wait until switch is released Send the digits of the value to the terminal window followed by CR and LF When you have downloaded keypad 1 bas to your 08M pressing any key should produce a value between O and 1023 in the terminal window If it doesn t you ll need to trouble shoot your breadboard setup When your circuit is functioning properly jot down the value you obtain for each keypress We re going to use these results soon when we get to the keypad2 bas program Be sure to press each key a few 70 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 Be eessen masse dee eee AAA HE E FIGURE 8 Matrix keypad after surgery times because you may get slightly variable readings for some of the keys If so just choose the most typical value for each key and make a note of it As mentioned earlier your results will most likely differ somewhat from t
52. to provide a really cool readout on two highly graphical LED bargraphs Utilizing the latest tech nology including Hall Effect sensors you can walk around your house and actually SEE these fields around you You will be amazed at what you see How sensitive is it Well you can see the magnetic field of the earth THAT S sensitive The technical applications are endless Use it to detect radiation from monitors and TV s electrical discharges from appliances RF emissions from unknown or hid den transmitters and RF sources and a whole lot more If you re wondering whether your wireless project or even your cell phone is working you can easily check for RF A 3 position switch in the center allows you to salsa electric mag netic or RF fields A front panel zero adjust allows you to set the sensors an displays to a known clean starting point If the TFM3C looks familiar it s probably because you saw it in use on the CBS show Ghost Whisperer It was used throughout one episode 78 02 27 2009 to detect the presence of ghosts The concept is simple it is believed by the believers that ghosts give off an elec tric field that can be detected with the appropriate equipment In the electric mode the TFM3C s displays will wander away from zero even though there isn t a clear reason for it not scientifically explainable aka paranormal This would mean something has begun to give off an electric field What it was in the Gh
53. with other processes The cool thing about using this technique is that the method we launch can still access global variables and other methods in the program This is how we launch the flicker method into its own cog cognew flicker 3 stack In this particular case we re telling the flicker generator that we have three wicks pins O 1 and 2 by setting the actual number of wicks used we have more flexibility in how fast the routine runs When using cognew to launch another Spin cog we need to provide the name of the method along with parameters if any and the address of a block of longs that will serve as stack space The stack is used to hold local variables as well as working variables and return addresses so that other methods can be called To be honest setting the stack size can be something akin to black magic this is not unique to the Propeller In the past I ve tended to start with 16 and then add up the number of local variables used in the method That strategy didn t work in this case and the program just stopped As soon as bumped up the stack everything worked fine generally believe it s best to be generous with stack space If you get concerned about memory usage you can find tools in the Parallax Object Exchange that will analyze stack usage and let you optimize for the smallest RAM footprint Now that all of the elements are running we can get into the working code start by rampi
54. www gssteched com You can order parts for this experiment from their website as follows Wire Tubes Transistors Power Components Email rfp amp irfparts com Web www rfparts com 800 737 2787 Fax 688 744 1943 Brilldea RGB LED Ribbon LED Lumen RGB LED Pixels 3 0 LCD wi LED Painter compasite video Parallax Propeller WMput 32 bit IEEE 754 SPI or 12C DIP 18 SOIC 18 New full featured Compiler Extensive floating point support GPS input FFT 12 bit A D matrix operations user defined functions 2 16V In 4 8W 150 200VDC Out 0 95 x 0 95 x 0 35 9 95 Shipping included INGLESE Eciam Bee a E H LEDs H Super Brights from 204 RGB Color Mixing 30 Pack 6 99 Assortment 120 Pack 24 99 Shipping from 3 00 Alan Parekh com Store ATmega328P Controller Board vr een com DEC EQUIPMENT WANTED Digital Equipment Corp and compatibles Buy Sell Trade CALL KEYways 937 847 2300 or email buyer keyways com SURPLUS ELECTRONIC PARTS amp ACCESSORIES Cables Hardware Relays Switches Over 11 000 Connectors LEDs Semiconductors Test Equipment Meme in Stock Displays Motors Service Manuals Tools Fars Potentioneiars Speakers VCR Parts Surplus Material Components SMC ELECTRONICS EXCLUSIVE U S DISTRIBUTOR YOUR COMPLETE SOLUTION e PCB Design e PCB Simulation e CAD CAM Menu 121747 Hobby Vers 175 121
55. 00 waveforms DC to 25 MHz Arbitrary Waveform Generator Item DSO 8060 www circuitspecialists com DSO 8060 Programmable DC Power Supplies Up to 10 settings stored in memory Optional RS 232 USB RS 485 adapters May be used in series or parallel modes with additional supplies Low output ripple amp noise LCD display with backlight High resolution at 1mV CSI3644A CSI3645A Thease devices can be used with supplies up to 360VDC and 30A It features a rotary selection switch and a numeric keypad used to input the maximum voltage current and power settings These electronic DC loads are perfect for use in laboratory environments and schools or for testing DC power supplies or high capacity batteries It also features memory and can also be connected to a PC to implement remote control and supervision 360v 150w CSI3710A 349 00 www circuitspecialists com csi3710a with Oscilloscope amp DMM Functions w Oscilloscope DMM Functions 25 MHz Arbitrary Waveform Generator Model Ces DC Voltage 0 18V 0 36V 0 72V BK3000LF Compact Lead Free Station 59 95 BK4000 e Thermostatically controlled fl desoldering station 119 00 A BK4050 E edt tAir System w V ic ee e HotAir System w Vacuum handler amp Mechanical Arm 119 00 BK5000 Hot Air System w Soldering Iron amp Mechanical Arm BK6000 Premium All In One j Repairing Solder System 7 22
56. 2 JP1 0 1 M STRT JMPR 0 1 shunt Mouser 517 6111TG Mouser 517 950 00 Parallax com 32212 Parallax 32812 USB Propeller Proto Board Hook up wire Heat shrink tubing Clear bathroom silicone Water Glycerin Acrylic paint yellow or orange 40 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 amp Volts We don t have to understand how BAM works to use it just what to do with the object The first thing we need to do is include it in the code This is accomplished by adding it to the objects list in the main program obj leds jm bam8 This includes the file jm bam8 spin in the compilation and creates an object called leds Most objects that deal with I O will require some sort of setup usually with a method called start or init the latter is what tend to use in my objects To instantiate leds we ll call its init method with the first pin of an eight pin group in my program there is a constant called WICK1 that is that pin 0 for the hardware we just built leds init WICK1 This line of code launches the BAM processor into Cog 1 and will continue to run until we stop it with the finalize method To change the brightness of any of the LED wick outputs we can use the set method with a value from O off to 255 full brightness Having just discussed the BAM object and knowing that our program needs a flame generator you may be wondering why that object is not in the object list above Let me show you
57. 2 milliwatts Once it finishes it goes to sleep The board files along with several other downloads October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 33 isa Fatz A HAI vg Sa ne WE EE if Ea FN e Vlanityv ry h ata FIIUNE Y All to VallILy DIIOLO are available on the Nuts amp Volts website click Magazine and then Downloads and find Shazam You will need to download the free software from www expresspcb com to view the schematic and the PCB printed circuit board However think you will find it cheaper to order the boards from the Nuts amp Volts store Also available is a pre programmed PIC16F690 if you don t want to program it yourself If you don t have a PIC 2 programmer and still want to program put a 20 pin socket in IC1 and solder Note that the square pin is pin 1 on both ICs Solder IC2 the resistors and capacitors into their proper areas put an extra pad in for C1 so that you can use either 2 5 mm or 3 mm radial capacitors Note the on the 220 uF and 4 7 uF caps Solder in the three male headers at SPK the mic S2 the five male headers in the programming 34 NUTS2VOLTS October 2010 pads and the three position female headers in the PIR area If using a three D three C or three AA battery pack thread the wire through the strain relief hole and solder the red lead to the and the black to the All chips will run on 4 5 volts You can also use a fi
58. 4 95 Windpitch Kit c4 uM ipis The WindPitch Wind Turbine Kit is a miniature real working wind turbine and is one of the great projects from the series of articles by John Gavlik Experimenting with Alternative Energy In Parts 8 and 9 he teaches you how to produce the most power by evaluating the pitch setting angle of the profiled blades For kit details please visit our webstore Subscriber s Price 84 95 Non Subscriber s Price 89 95 October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 75 A kit for these experiments can be purchased FUN D h M E N B S FOR THE from the Nuts amp Volts Webstore at l L BEGINNER www nutsvolts com or call us at 800 783 4624 HOW AN SCR WORKS The function of a Silicon Controlled Rectifier SCR is to conduct electric current only after a positive pulse is put on its gate pin The SCR will continue conducting until power is removed from the cathode and or anode SCRs are typically used in alarm system circuits 1 Build the Circuit Using the schematic along with the pictorial diagram place the components on a solderless breadboard as shown Verify that your wiring is correct 2 Do the Experiment Theory In this simple circuit the electrons will flow from the battery through the SCR through the LED and back to the battery only if the SCR receives a positive pulse on its gate The positive pulse is put there through the 1 000 ohm resistor connected to the positive terminal on the nine volt ba
59. 743 Pro Version 275 www KELVIN com Mo Minimum Order Credit Cards and PAYPAL Accepted www smcelectronics com Flat 4 95 per order USA Shipping CircuitGear CGR 101 is a unique new low cost PC based instrument which provides the features of seven devices in one USB powered compact box 2 ch 10 bit 20M S sec 2MHz oscilloscope 2 ch spectrum analyzer 3MHz 8 bit arbitrary waveform standard function generator with 8 digital I O lines What s more its open source software runs with Windows Linux and Mac OS s Only 199 NWW servomagazine com Circuit board layouts Prototupe assemblies WWW OSPREYELECTRONICS COM Gonvert your sketch or print into a quality pcb for a reasonable price Visit us on the web or call Osprey Electronics at 208 664 1089 USA October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 77 PUT gt gt gt QUESTIONS Reactive Transformerless Power Supply How does one calculate the value for the reactance capacitor in an AC to DC reactive power supply so as not to over work the zener diode have used from 68 uf to 4 7 uf for various voltages out but it has always been trial and error 10101 Michael Stevens Rogersville AL Ping Tester work in large building complexes and need to ping devices several floors away or in the next building typically use a laptop but it s difficult to hold or set down while in riser or mechanical rooms There are cable testers with p
60. 75 Fully assembled kits also available T CETTEETTS elal EE rCube IA Alarm Clock Kit As seen on the May 2009 cover Wood Clock Case Nixie tube clocks fuse the spirit drama Available in blue black red and green All components are pre cut and pre bent for easier assembly and the microcon trollers are pre programmed with the software Kits also include PCB AC adapter and instructions on CD ROM 49 95 54 00 with modern inner works to create uncommon handcrafted timepieces Now with optional case choices Get more info our webstore Kit includes article reprint complete instructions and parts list 146 95 159 95 74 NUTS2VOLTS October 2010 shipping and may be subject to change October 2006 and eerie beauty of cold war technology 16 Bit Micro Experimenter Board LEETETPST ES RI Eg RRE Ready to move on from 8 bit to 6 bit microcontrollers Well you re in luck In the December 2009 Nuts amp Volts issue youre introduced to the 16 Bit Micro Experimenter The kit comes with a CD ROM that contains details on assembly operation as well as an assortment of ready made applications New applications will be added in upcoming months 55 95 59 95 Das Blinkenboard Kit This kit includes a pre programmed ATtiny84 microcontroller that sports eight software PWM channels to control motor speed and light brightness Jumper selectable patterns can be used to
61. 9 00 www circuitspecialists com blackiack 0 30V 0 5A DC Power Supply NEW ITEM Y The CSI530S is a regulated DC power supply which you can adjust the current and the voltage continuously An LED display is used to show the current and voltage values The output ter minals are safe 4mm banana jacks This power supply can be used in electronic circuits such as operational amplifiers digital logic circuits and so on Users include researchers techni cians teachers and electronics enthusiasts A 3 digit LED is used to display the voltage and current values ww circuitspecialists com csi530s DC Gurren 360v 300w CSI3711A 499 00 Item www circuitspecialists com csi37 11a Price 199 00 199 00 199 00 CSI530S rends Specialists ue 220 Sa Country Club Dir Mesa AZ 9921 0 Phone 800 528 1417 280 464 2435 Fara 4k8O 4G4 5824 Now controlling powerful booming sound is as simple as loading up your SD Card The Propeller powered AP 16 31316 129 99 by EFX TEK allows you to play back high quality stereo WAV files for your standard SD card through two booming 20 W amplifiers one per channel Ad vanced features like built in randomization auxiliary inputs and the ability to use dry contact optically isolated 12 to 24 DC or a PIR or compatible sen sor put the AP 16 in a class of its own For stand alone control the AP 16 includes pre and post play delay potentiom
62. 95 Hydrocar Kit The Hydrocar is used in a couple of great projects from the series of articles by John Gavlik Experimenting with Alternative Energy In Parts 10 and l he teaches you the operation of the Polymer Electrolyte Membrane reversible fuel cell For kit details and a demo video please visit our webstore Subscriber s Price 79 95 Non Subscriber s Price 84 95 Run Your Diesel Vehicle on Biofuels A Do It Yourself Manual by Jon Starbuck Gavin D J Harper CONVERT TO BIODIESEL FOR Rum Te A MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY RIDE Run Your Diesel Vehicle on Biofuels has everything you need to make the switch from expensive environment damaging carbon fuel to cheap and in many cases free clean fuel for your vehicle Practical and decidedly apolitical this unique guide focuses on technical details parts and instructions 24 95 Solar Energy Projects for the Evil Genius by Gavin D J Harper Let the sun shine on Late solas ENERGY your evil side and f PROJECTS have a wicked amount EVIL of fun on your way to GENIUS becoming a solar E eno energy master In l Solar Energy Projects for the Evil Genius high tech guru Gavin Harper gives you everything you need to build more than 30 thrilling solar energy projects You ll find complete easy to follow plans with clear diagrams and schematics so you know exactly what s involved before you begin 2
63. A E E z l A WR WWW ana 0 EIN AE HHH HH SCH KK ES Y DON OOOs gt I EEIOCICIOCOCOYT past Design Cycle discussions to writing some Vinculum ll firmware THE VINCULUM II TOOLCHAIN Like any other toolchain support product the Vinculuml toolchain begins life after a successful installation on a PC hard drive The mainstay of our toolchain is the Vinculun I IDE Like most other IDEs Integrated Development Environments the VinculumHl IDE allows the programmer to create projects edit files compile code program devices and debug application code The power behind this toolchain lies in the code that forms the FTDI libraries The FTDI libraries consist of device drivers runtime libraries and the VOS Kernel Services Some of you are familiar with what device drivers and runtime libraries contribute to your code However you may not be privy to what the Vinculum II VOS Kernel Services have to offer The services provide overall application control while supplying the necessary primitives and unique data structures needed to support Vinculum l applications The Vinculum l toolchain uses an API Application Program Interface to access the functionality of the toolchain s device drivers and Kernal services The API is under the control of the Device Manager which is under the command of the Kernel Services The inclusion of a Vinculum ll API takes most of the pain out of application development Bl PHOTO 1 The Vinculu
64. ATINE P2 COIL 9 5 ehn MOUSER PARTS L4 542 2316 H RC R4 71 RS1A 0 33 R2 HEATING COIL R3 274 4 64K RC R4 271 274 RC R5 652 3590 2 102L C1 140 XRL5 U10 RC C2 561 CKO5BX183K 3 04 581 CKB5BX184K Ici LM78S4 CN ND x 102 595 LM4040C2BILPR 103 107107 xx x DIGI KEY PART NO xx JAMECO PART NO E FIGURE 3 Le m J C I R4 102 Xo 274 LM4040 9 e GND 8 23 CUu P3 E L TEMPERATURE SET ehn VOLTMETER GND o9 P Ton Toff 05 mS 50uS max Ton Ton 12 Ton 1 083 50uS Ton 46 uS Ct 4 10 5 46 uS 18 5 nF 18 or 20 nF is close enough lo 10V 9 5 ohms 1A Ipk with no filter cap we don t need to filter the output Ipk 2 lo max is arbitrary Lmin Vi Vsat Vo Ipk Ton 32uH would like the current to be continuous so won t use the minimum inductance Simulation indicates that 200 uH will give continuous current at low power 10 uS Ton Rsc 0 33 ohms 1 2 watt You will be checking the temperature with your RTD but for temperature feedback will use LM35 a Celsius temperature sensor The output is 10 mV per deg C so the output will be 1 5V at 150 deg C want to be able to read the set temperature with a digital voltmeter so can t use the internal reference of 1 25V The LM4040 2 2 048 volt reference will be able to provide 1 5 volts to set the 150 deg C temperature see Figure 3 The LM35 should be clamped to the well because the initial tempera
65. April 10 installment of the Primer the one in which we developed software for our MAX7219 LED Display Driver mentioned a problem had in getting the driver software to function correctly See the Testing the Serialized LED Display section that starts on page 18 of that article initially tried to blank the four LED digits by using the following code snippet for maxreg 1 to 4 outbyte blank gosub shout next maxreg The problem was that this approach didn t work but couldn t figure out why and my publication deadline was rapidly approaching To solve the problem took the easy way out and modified the code so that it did work but did invite readers to figure out what was going on Fortunately received an email from an astute reader Matt Rusnak that clarified the cause of my little problem thanks Matt In effect had ignored my own advice In the previous Primer column February 10 reminded readers that whenever a word variable is declared e g symbol outword w0 it s important to not also declare either of the associated byte variables e g bO or b1 because changing the value of one variable e g b1 will inadvertently also change the value of another variable wO in this case then went on to explain why our MAX7219 project was an exception to this rule see the original article for the explanation and to make the following declarations in the
66. Challenge your friends in an intergalactic battle and bring balance to the force Extremely light and durable made of tough acrylic to take all the knocks of traveling around the galaxy at light speed Sound and light effects Size 710 L x 48 Dia mm NEW KIT OF THE MONTH nas _ MM E Remote Control Digital Timer Kit KC5496 20 00 plus postage packing Remote controlled digital timer with a bright 20mm high 7 segment red LED display It can count up or down from one second to 100 hours in 1 second increments Its timing period can either be set and controlled using the remote control or it van be automatically controlled via external trigger reset inputs An internal relay and buzzer activate when the unit times out The relay contacts can be used to switch devices rated up to 30VDC or 24VAC and the project can be powered from a plugpack or a battery Short form kit only you ll need to add your own universal remote power supply and enclosure 9 12VDC 300MA PCB and components eot BUILD THE SHAZAMIT BY RON NEWTON It was a dark and stormy night Two small children were walking down the www nutsvolts com index php magazine article october2010_Newton 4 A EN d s dimly lit sidewalk The full harvest moon was peeking out every now and then through the small breaks in the clouds A dog was howling on an eerie
67. E D I T P E FIGURE 1 The printed circuit board 32 NUTS2VOLTS October 2010 presence of a person The PIR is also available at RadioShack for 9 99 My project ended up costing about 40 This doesn t have to be a one time project have put in programming pads so if you have a PIC 2 programmer you can program the light output for Christmas Valentine s Day birthdays etc Changing the DIP switch will allow you to code many different programs The voice chip can be reprogrammed by the DIP switch giving you many choices of different tunes If you use the PIR it can be utilized in a lot of other projects as it is a plug in module Display Chip The heart of the board is a Microchip PIC16F690 It also controls the sound module The board will provide 30 milliamps for each of the 16 LEDs using a multiplexing technique The eight outputs are divided into two sections of four outputs 4 16 The LEDs are set up in four groups of four with their anodes tied together The first cathode of each group is daisychained together Same with the second third and fourth LED By applying a positive voltage to group one and grounding LED one it will light grounding LED two it will light and so on The PIC is triggered by shorting the two terminals labeled S2 There is also a jack to plug in the PIR which will detect a person s presence using infrared sensing Both S2 and the PIR provide a positive voltage to trigger the PIC add
68. E FIGURE 9 BeAVR40 E DER CR ECK reno thee Li i cares EE sl icone a ER Ea a su EF li cares 64 NUTSEVOLTS October 2010 Boot Flash si269512 words Boot start address 37E00 E E EMT CKSEI E Pei ee ers bea HEM ER a BR mrm e EXTENDED Fo HIGH DE LO DNF E FIGURE 7 Fuses Tab the STK 500 and read about it You ll see that there are many things that the STK 500 can do but we ll just use it to do ISP programming on an ATmega644 chip in a socket on the board In Workshop 22 we saw how to use the Dragon to program an ATmega644 on a breadboard BeAVRAO design using a hardware setup that would make Medusa look cute If you got that working then you can just follow the directions there and forget about the STK 500 However if you have access to an STK 500 you may have an easier time since you can plug the ATmega644 into a socket and then use a 12 pin cable that comes with the STK 500 to program the chip thus saving Medusa for the Kraken It is much simpler to set up and therefore less problem prone than the other way In AVRStudio click the Connect Dialog as shown in Figure 4 In the Select AVR Programmer window shown in Figure 5 highlight STK 500 and Auto and click Connect If it complains that it can t find the STK 500 make sure that you are using a COM port in the acceptable range E FIGURE 10 Command Prompt B FIGURE 11 avrdude Verifying I IER H IEEH IEERR DER T
69. E PIN 1 BOOT STATE PIN NUMBER else run the bootloader code Jump to the application code Use Software Timeout to Select the Bootloader We want to set some kind of timeout so that when the bootloader starts up on reset it will wait for some short period If nothing is talking to it in a valid protocol over the USART then it will jump to the application section This is what we use in our bootloader We set a count based on the clock frequency divided by 16 this is arbitrary and for the 16 MHz board would give a maximum count of one million Then we check to see if we have any new USART traffic If not we increment the counter until it reaches the maximum A million may seem like a lot but remember that this puppy is making this check about every clock cycle so it does it a million times in a fraction of a second We run this count in the receiveByte function which calls application_ptr to jump to the application if it counts out Otherwise it returns the received byte uint8 t receiveByte void uint32_t count 0 Wait for data to be received while USART CONTROL STATUS REG A 1 lt lt USART RECEIVE COMPLETE i 1 count s gt F_CPU gt gt 4 application peri Get and return received data from buffer return USART DATA REG The application ptr is not actually a function but is a pointer to the first address in Flash 0x0000 and is defined as
70. E to load the PhreakEncoder bs2 firmware also on the NV website onto the device Connect a small eight ohm speaker of your choice via the Audio output jack and turn on the power With the DTMF MF switch in the DTMF position the keypad will produce standard telephone touchtones of 200 milliseconds duration If you do not hear tones in the speaker check all wiring and connections against the diagram and be sure a L a a L a L i L a E W ai 1 Zu 1 M iF vi m aA rT Ma La October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 55 PHOTO 11 The PhreakEncoder in use that the keypad and BS2 pins are correctly joined In the MF position the PhreakEncoder will produce traditional MF blue box tones formerly used on old telephone switching systems on keys 0 9 which are needed by Asterisk s ProjectMF see Table 1 When the Aux button is pressed the keys produce alternate select tones per the chart in Table 2 Of course these tones are for illustration purposes only The magic of the PhreakEncoder is that you can easily change the open source BASIC Stamp program to produce any single or multi frequency tones you want Sequences of touchtones can be programmed turning the device into a quick dialer for phone bank account or other lengthy numbers you Preprogrammed keypad frequencies Sr e elationship between contained in PhreakEncoder bs2 evan endl PS2 aire ME SWITCH POSITION KEYPAD BS2 KEYPAD DUAL T
71. G e Makes standard or special USB HID devices NEW Developers Guide for USB HID Peripherals shows you how to make devices for special requirements Trace SYSTEMS Inc Both PC and Peripheral programs understand your data items even odd sized ones and give you convenient variables to handle them PIC18F Compilers PICBASIC Pro MPASM C18 Hi Tech C PIC16C Compilers PICBASIC Pro MPASM Hi Tech C CCS C PC Compilers Delphi C Builder Visual Basic 6 HIDmaker FS Combo Only 599 95 DOWNLOAD the HlDmaker FS Test Drive today www TraceSystemsIinc com 301 262 0300 October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 59 AVR Memory Part 5 Bootloaders Recap We discussed bootloaders a bit in Smiley s Workshop 22 Busy as a BeAVR and learned about the debt they owe to Baron Munchhausen s bootstraps This month we ll get more practical and build on last month s AVR Memory Part 4 Writing to AVR Flash where we learned how AVR Flash memory is structured and how to write to it We tested that knowledge with the SmileyFlashWriter c program This month we will build on this to create our own bootloader You ll need access to last month s source code in Workshop26 zip NutsVolts com or SmileyMicros com to follow some of the instructions EduBootAVR A Bootloader Written in C A bootloader is a program that is used to download other programs It usually resides in a special part of memory and is invoked when the de
72. G MATRIX KEYPADS The ADC approach to decoding a matrix keypad employs a resistor matrix to produce an analog voltage level that differs for each possible key press The output voltage remains at ground level as long as no key is pressed The analog voltage is connected to an ADC input and the processor simply converts the resulting voltage level back to the corresponding keypress Figure 3 presents one possible arrangement for a resistor matrix that can be used in the ADC approach to keypad decoding As you can see each possible key press connects one two or three resistors in series between the 5V line and ground By carefully choosing the values of the seven resistors in the layout it s possible to produce 16 voltage levels that are spread out far enough to easily differentiate would like to be able to say that used a sophisticated mathematical formula to determine the required resistor values but actually used a more primitive trial and error approach to the problem Before discuss my method and the results obtained need to mention an important factor to keep in mind Standard 1 4 watt resistors have a 5 tolerance rating which means that a 10K resistor can actually measure anywhere between 9 5K and 10 5K This is why it s important to be able to produce a wide range of analog voltages If the ADC readings for two adjacent keys were too close to each other variations in actual resistor value
73. HERS including Alaska Hawaii P R and Canada Must Pay Full Shipping Quantities Limited Prices Subject to change without notice MANUFACTURERS We Purchase EXCESS INVENTORIES Call Write E MAIL or Fax YOUR LIST October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 45 Transflective LCD Yellow green LED backlight Module size 182 x 33 5 x 13 6mm Viewing area 154 4 x 16 5mm Character size 3 2 x 5 55mm CAT LCD 3077 B 50 NIMH AA CELL 2500 MAH High energy high capacity recharge able NiMH battery 1 2V 2500mAH 14 5mm diameter x 50mm long CAT NMH AA 5 8 for 2 75 each ach 60 for 2 40 each 90 a 000 BYTHOMAS KIBALO apt d In a previous Nuts amp Volts article we showed a Graphics Module add on for the 16 bit Micro Experimenter Experimenter for short In this article we will discuss adding more capability to our Experimenter by integrating a PC compatible file I O The SD card technology and Microchip s freely available file I O library along with the Parallax SD carrier board makes this all possible The software and hardware footprint is fairly minimal making the file UO system an easy add on module for your Experimenter applications Gone are the days when you have to labor with custom solutions to move data between your PC and microcontroller Also gone are the days when you are constrained in the amount of data you can transfer With this new
74. IEREA IEESIEER DER AE T EBH EEG EP A EE HIER T lH In the Programmer Main tab read the signature just J Terminal fr MONHISE by Bro 7 i ES to verify that you really are communicating with an p eee vie ATmega644 as shown in Figure 6 T IC SE In the Fuses tab see Figure 7 set the BOOTSZ to Kx ecg EM 7E00 and check the BOOTRST fuse Finally as shown in Figure 8 open the Program tab and make sure you are pointed to the hex file then click Program issu Using EduBootAVR Great Now we have our own bootloader that we can use to upload programs Let s take the ATmega644 that we just used the STK 500 to load the bootloader and put it on a breadboard like the BeAVR shown in Figure 9 discussed in detail in Smiley s Workshop 22 Busy as a BeAVR In earlier Workshops we ve seen how to use bootloaders with various programs This includes AVRProg with the Butterfly the Arduino IDE with the Arduino and avrdude with several things We ll finish off this month by using avrdude in the Command Prompt We ll do this cookbook style since we ve seen the details before Gegen bei A G an Segen ics Eco feo Er a ph Perce EA EA j PEU AES the Nuts amp Volts WEBSTORE section in the magazine or on Make sure that you have the code from Workshop 25 the Internet where you can get my books and project kits located at C pgmtest We will upload this
75. John F Kennedy in several episodes of The History Channel s Unsolved History series and can be seen with Tom Wilkinson and Frances Fisher in the hit comedy The Night of the White Pants PiCmicro controller Dealers Wanted MILAC is an industrial grade PlCmicro controller which retails at 180 Features include direct USB download 8 analog digital inputs 4 relays 4 motor outputs integrated CAN bus and a free copy of Flowcode V3 We are looking for commercial partners for IMILAA CS if you are interested then please call us in the UK on 44 1422 252380 TDI www multimedia com 30A PWM DC Motor Speed Control Control the speed of your electric motors or better than orig the brightness of your Electronics DE light bulbs Bar Code Tools Scanners Miwaukes UI VEYIng Parasonio Printers BED DGawan Laptops Pe l agavos Photography Wisit wate primecell com EO bbject based t TORT MALLA ET E Ma Med El Battery rebuildine service Dead Batteries Don t toss them Send them to us 24 Hr Secure recorder tal Quotes email info primecell cam Cursed Anoe Ine 9343 US AT 220 Bedford PA 15522 Zeroplus LAP C 16032 Logic Analyzer 16 channel 100MHz USB 2 0 SPI i2c UART 7 segment 2 free additional protocols Rigol DS1052E DSO 50MHz up to 1GSa s 1 Meg mem TFT LCD USB Open Source Hardware Advanced triggering Edge Arduino Duemilanove Pulse Video Slope Alt Ardui
76. N3BAH For many years hackers built special electronic devices known as blue boxes for the purpose of transmitting special audio tones over telephone lines The practice known as blue boxing provided challenges to the subcategory of hackers known as phone phreaks They had to be able to both construct the tone oscillator circuits to produce the telephone company s proprietary audio tones and devise how to employ them to explore the telephone switching networks While the practice of blue boxing died out in the 1990 s with the introduction of electronic switching systems which were not susceptible to in band tone manipulation interest in the technical aspects of telephone communications continued Ow a new generation of telephone experimenters are N phreaking out over Asterisk www asterisk org the open source Linux program which can put your own private telephone system inside your computer The proliferation of computers running Asterisk interconnected over the Internet and interfaced to the public switched telephone network PSTN has given rise to a new form of legal phreaking where users configure their Asterisk servers with special features which can only be accessed by users transmitting the old school blue box tones in appropriate combinations This project which has gained worldwide popularity is known as Project MF www projectmf com Briefly stated Project MF recreates the techno environment whi
77. ONES IN Hz a 1 700 900 3 a 2 700 1100 3 900 1100 d S E d 4 700 1300 CAE E zz 5 900 1300 m E a 6 1100 300 n GC 7 700 1500 8 900 1500 A 7 oe Ed 9 1100 1500 7 0 1300 1500 Preprogrammed Auxiliary keypad frequencies contained in PhreakEncoder bs2 AUX BUTTON PRESSED KEYPAD TONE S IN Hz AND COMMON NAME 2400 1300 1700 KP2 Keypulse 2 2600 1300 1500 KP Keypulse 1500 1700 ST Start 2200 1700 pulsed five times alternating with 33 ms of silence 25 cent tone 697 1633 A extra touchtone key 770 1633 B extra touchtone key 852 1633 C extra touchtone key 941 1633 D extra touchtone key 700 1700 Code 11 Start 3 900 1700 Code 12 Start 2 Table 2 OY UI LA Un ch an a Co SO s 56 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 www nutsvolts com index php magazine article october2010 Smith need to send via telephone You now have an inexpensive customizable tone machine which can generate unique tones for circuit testing or over the air radio control such as in amateur radio repeater control or other remote signaling purposes Start Phreaking The best way to use the PhreakEncoder is to hold the external speaker up to the telephone microphone or near the microphone on a speakerphone see Photo 11 Then you would dial into one of the Asterisk Project MF numbers found on the Internet Usually the server will provide a
78. P modes DHCP Static IP support web based or AT command configuration Low Prices SBL26 lte 10 50 Qty 10k Device P N SBL2eCHIP 236IR SBL26 200 eee 19 95 Qty 1000 Device P N SBL2e 200IR Ee OO eee 21 95 Qty 1000 Device P N SBL2e 100IR SBE X 79 00 Qty 1000 Device P N SBL2eX 100IR O ee d 79 00 Qty 1000 Device P N SBL2eXA 100IR Need a custom solution NetBurner Serial to Ethernet Development Kits are available to customize any aspect of operation including web pages data filtering or custom network applications All kits include platform hardware ANSI C C compiler TCP IP stack web server e mail protocols RTOS and NB Eclipse IDE Information and Sales sales netburner com Web www netburner com Telephone 1 800 695 6828 by Bryan B Bergeron Editor Electronics Enthusiast Is It Time To Redefine The Term had lunch with a fellow electronics enthusiast on his return from a trip with his daughter in search of a college of engineering He was blown away by the level of electronic automation in many of the campuses they visited Not only was there ubiquitous Wi Fi but at several colleges smartphone toting students could monitor the status of the washing machines and dryers in each of the dorms Tablet sized LCD panels affixed to classroom doors announced activities in that room for the day and numerous PC kiosks enabled students to check their email or class schedule My friend s daughter wasn t
79. ader is needed in less than a second and then switch to the application Another method to tell the bootloader to stay active is to designate a pin state You could for instance tell it to check PORTC pin 7 and if it s high run the boot code if it s low run the application This solves the time problem since it can be done in microseconds but it adds the cost of designating a pin in hardware that has a switch or jumper to set its state So each method comes with a cost one is time the other is extra hardware Use Hardware to Select the Bootloader You could have a hardware design that has a pushbutton connected to a pin that you intend to use for the application program There is no reason that you can t also use this to tell the bootloader to run Just have the bootloader check that pin when it starts up out of reset If it is pressed then run the bootloader if not then run the application which can then take over the button for its own use since it is no longer needed by the bootloader The following code snippet which we do not use in EduBootAVR would use a pushbutton that sets PORTD pin 7 to ground when pressed or is pulled up to VCC when not pressed Place these definitions in the header define BOOT_STATE_PIN PIND define BOOT STATE PIN NUMBER PIND7 Place this code in the bootloader main function Use bootloader or application code If BOOT STATE PIN NUMBER is low use bootloader if BOOT STAT
80. air parcel delivery Order online www jaycar com Starship Enterprise Door Sound Emulator KC 5423 23 25 plus postage amp packing FOR ALL YOU TREKKIE FANS This easy to build kit emulates the N unique sound of a cabin door W G b1 opening or closing on the Starship F Enterprise The sound can be Mead triggered by switch contacts or jg even fitted to automatic doors ue Comes with PCB with overlay speaker case and all specified PAGA components 9 12VDC regulated Short Circuits II Project Sound Like a Dalek KJ 8228 14 00 plus postage amp packing This project will change your voice into that metallic sounding robot voice so familiar in the space adventure movies PCB and parts supplied Connect it d to the no brainer amp and get really _ sg scary Requires 9V battery PCB 102 x 57mm Instructions NOT included See KJ 8229 1 25 for individual instructions or full color project book BJ 8504 6 50 Short Circuits Il KE Knight Rider Light canner KJ 8236 11 75 plus postage amp packing Now you can make the light scanner that goes on the bonnet of that famous car Looks fantastic in all sorts of places PCB and all parts E supplied Requires 9V battery PCB 102 x 55mm Instructions NOT included See KJ 8237 1 25 for individual instructions or full color project book BJ 8504 6 50 LED Sabre with Light amp Sound Effects GT 3520 10 00 plus postage amp packing
81. anager Mark Tekunoff Water cooling is desirable for its quiet operation and long term reliability We are bringing HyperX H20O to market as a solution for PC enthusiasts who want to build water cooled systems The units will run you 157 205 or 235 A INDUSTRY AND THE PROFESSION 2 5 IMAGES COMING BY CHRISTMAS ack in the 1960s Ray Dolby introduced the concept of enhanced audio based on reducing noise and enhancing the desired part of the spectrum Now Paul Darbee CEO of DarbeeVision Inc has come up with a similar approach to image enhancement dubbed DARBEE Visual Presence DVP The process is based on experiments Darbee made using stereo videos with dual cameras Apparently if you defocus one image and subtract it from the remaining sharp one you end up with a combined image that produces something that approximates a 3 D viewing experience he refers to it as GIZMOS THAT BRING YOUR DREAMS TO LIFE 3 watt LED strip 10 00 Not just bright Stupid Bright T HI Ce E Noritake Vacuum Fluorescent Display Regular 50 now 25 00 each Works with all micros and arduino Lego Flashlights Atmega 8 168 328 Keychain 7 95 Development board Atmel STK500 USB ISP programmer 38 next generation Head Lamp 11 95 35 7 Inch Lamp 19 95 Dynamo Lamp 21 95 Let that light shine in the and 10mm from 40 1 2 watt 95 1 watt Stars 3 60 RGB 1 50 UV IR Surface Mount Fi os e S Sa RGB LED Stri
82. application thread for execution as the main function turns in a very tight loop THINGS ASSOCIATED WITH APPLICATION THREADS Lots of device open and iocb I O Control Block operations are the norm for an application thread For instance here is the sequence of events to set up the GPIO to support the LEDs THIS CODE FOUND IN GPIO h define VOS IOCTL GPIO SET MASK 1 set pins to either input 0 or output 1 lf GPIO control block for use with GPIO TOCTL function typedef struct gpio ioctl cb t unsigned char ioctl code unsigned char value k gpio_ioctl_cb_t THUMB DRIVE HEAVEN Communicating with a thumb drive is just as easy as controlling the bank of LEDs The FTDI Vinculum ll JTHIS CODE FOUND IN application thread site contains detailed code examples of how to put a unsigned char leds gqolo iocLl cb t pio eebe hGpio vos dev open VOS DEV GPIO thumb drive online as well as the Vinculum I toolchain and a treasure trove of application notes You ve all gpio iocb ioctl code VOS IOCTL GPIO been asking me to deliver low cost projects with a csl MASK gpio iocb value Oxff set all as output vos dev ioctl hGpio amp gpio iocb pulled the SET MASK and GPIO control block definitions from the GPIO h file and added them in the code mix for clarity Once the gpio_iocb control block is instantiated it gets used as a tool to set the I O data direction Just before the I O
83. applications are digital Some examples are garage door openers remote keyless entry devices on vehicles and remote temperature sensors GPS receivers for navigation are also digital Q What else A Well the Wi Fi wireless LAN radios in your laptop or cell phone are digital of course These are the radios that let you access the Internet and your email at local hot spots Bluetooth radios in your car or cell phone headset are all digital Some wireless speakers for home stereo systems are all digital Q You mentioned the HD radio in cars What about satellite car radios A Yes satellite radios in cars are all digital Sirius Radio and XM Radio merged recently under Sirius but they maintain separate digital satellite systems Like other digital radios the sound quality is CD level Q What is an Internet radio I ve heard of that recently A Oh yes Internet radio There is such a thing and it is not so well known Basically it is radio received over an Internet connection Most radio stations also put their broadcasts on their website so you can go to that site and stream the audio to your PC or laptop That means you need some kind of broadband Internet connection like a DSL line or cable TV access The interesting thing is that so much of what is on Internet radio is not generated by real radio stations There are many non radio stations that develop programs and content such as special music categories or talk
84. assembly is easy through hole sol dering of all components and LED s Your pumpkin is powered by a standard 9V battery not included which snaps to the back of the pumpkin An on off switch is also included Create a new kind of pumpkin this year and learn about LED s and electronics at the same time MK145 Electronic Halloween Pumpkin Kit 10 95 Portable EL Electroluminescence 3 5 feet long Low power consumption Highly visible brilliant colors Electroluminescence illuminated flexible wire sets can be used for a lot of things but when they re battery powered they re per fect for Halloween and Trick or Treat safety concerns Each thin flexible EL wire set is 3 3 long and runs on two standard AA batteries not included Current con EN is less than 100mA for long ife Mode settings include steady glow and slow or fast flash Make it part of a bril tar lit custom designed costume or M ius it for illuminated safety while Trick or Treating in the dark NWRRI5 EL Illumination Wire Set Red NWRG15 EL Illumination Wire Set Green NWRB15 EL Illumination Wire Set Blue Spark Generating HV Plasma Generator Generate 2 sparks to a handheld screwdriver Light fluorescent tubes without wires Build your own Plasma Balls Generates up to 25kV 20 kHz from a solid state circuit 19 95 19 95 19 95 This popular kit was conceived by one of our engineers who likes to play with things that can generate large loud spa
85. ay as well continue with that don t know how much power is required but with 12 volts and 9 5 ohms it can t be much more than 10 watts expect the power to Vo 10V that s the most we can get with 12V supply Vd 1 5V diode drop at 1 amp Vi 12V battery Vsat 1 3V transistor drop at 1 amp Ton Toff 12 from datasheet formula Set Fmin to 20Khz so you can t hear it BLACK BODY HEAT SOURCE need to calibrate some infrared thermometers hacked an old black body heat source modifying the well to accommodate the IR thermometers and an NIST traceable RTD thermometer My issue is that the source only produces a single 100 deg C temperature My goal is to be able to construct a stable multiple point heat source e g 50 100 150 deg C or a variable source of the same range Here are some particulars about the old black body heat source some of which want to reuse The heat is provided by a coil of resistive wire which measures 9 5 ohms at 75 deg F which is wound around a copper bobbin with a well painted flat black It is powered by a 12V 7 AH SLA battery nice because it makes it quite portable and it uses a temperature sensor which measures 800 ohms at 75 deg F and uses a uA78540PC IC to do the control The only components that want to reuse are the well with the heating coil and the 12V power source exbresspcb com October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 27 200uH L4 HE
86. btained from running the keypad 1 bas program The theoretical value associated with the 1 key is 361 and the value associated with 2 is 376 so the mid point is about 369 Therefore in our select case statement we ll say that any value less than 369 will be decoded as the 1 character If we use the same approach to each of the characters our select case statement becomes select case key case 369 char 49 FOr ASCII code vq case lt 385 char 50 t Tor ASCII code Mos A 1 etc etc Since our select case statement involves 16 distinct cases it will be fairly long To compress it a bit we re going to use a little shortcut Similarly to many dialects of BASIC PICAXE BASIC supports the use of the symbol to separate multiple statements on the same line which means we can write select case key case lt 369 char 49 ASCII code for 1 case lt 385 char 50 ASCII code for 2 case lt 402 char 51 ASCII code for 3 case lt 434 char 65 ASCII code for A etc etc The shortcut is not something I m suggesting you use frequently in your programs it can easily make code much more difficult to read However our long select case statement is perfectly readable in this form and also much shorter One final point don t forget as soon as one of the case conditions evaluates to true the associated code is executed and the remainder
87. c Pioneer NBC ABC Ford JVC NASA and thousands of independent service technicians Inexpensive enough to pay for itself in just one day s repairs At 5229 it s affordable And with a 60 day trial period satisfaction guaranteed or monev back policy the only thing you can lose is all the time you re currently spending on trving to repair all those dogs you ve given up on CapAnalyzer 88A Locate shorted or leaky components or conditions to the exact spot in circuit Still cutting up the peb and unsoldering every part trying to guess at ES dem where the short is pt Zen MEUS 229 Your DVM shows the same shorted reading all along the pcb trace LeakSeeker 82B has the resolution to find the defective component Touch pads along the trace and LeakSeeker beeps highest in pitch at the defect s pad Now you can locate a shorted part only a quarter of an inch away from a good part Short can be from D to 150 ohms LeakSeeker 82B Available at your distributor or call 561 487 6103 Electronic Design Specialists www eds inc com It writes your USB Code NEW HiDmaker FS for Full Speed FLASH PIC18F4550 Creates complete PC and Peripheral programs that talk to each other over USB Ready to compile and run e Large data Reports 64 000 bytes sec per Interface e Easily creates devices with multiple Interfaces even multiple Identities e Automatically does MULTITASKIN
88. capability you essentially have a low cost small form factor multi GB removable hard drive that can work seamlessly with either a PC or the Experimenter It will allow both devices to independently create write to and read from delete and rename data files This article will discuss the Microchip library briefly how it was modified for the Experimenter and the specific hardware and software needed for the Experimenter It will also cover several demo applications In this as well as all other previous articles on the Experimenter software is written in C so some knowledge of its basic syntax will be required to understand the file I O library and its API igure 1 shows the Experimenter connected to a 2 GB SD card through the Experimenter I O expansion port running one of the demo applications DEMOREADWRITE It uses an SD carrier board offered by Parallax com for easy insertion and removal of the SD card within the Experimenter s solderless breadboard environment The SD Card E Let s review the SD card It is difficult these days not to notice Secure Digital SD cards see Figure 2 They appear just about everywhere An SD card is a non volatile Flash memory card format developed for use in portable devices It is widely used in digital cameras digital camcorders and portable laptop computers to name a few Its size and the format factor make it ideal for adaptability of use with microcontrollers like the Experimenter W
89. ch existed back in the day making it possible to experience the challenges of blue boxing from the legal safety of the Asterisk VOIP system Recently began experimenting with Asterisk and Project MF needed a low cost programmable audio tone generator capable of producing standard Dual Tone Multi Frequency DTMF telephone touchtones as well as unique Single and Multi Frequency MF tones wanted to design a circuit using readily available components which was easy to assemble and which could be modified by firmware changes as my needs evolved The solution implemented uses a microcontroller and provides the novice builder with 52 NUTS2VOLTS October 2010 an inexpensive and fun way to learn about the interaction of micro hardware and software while constructing a unique and useful tone generation device Why a Microcontroller While there is no shortage of PC software which could generate the necessary tones what fun is that In order to capture the full effect of the retro tech environment presented by Project MF you need to build a hardware blue box found a number of schematics on the Internet most of which either required obscure tone generator ICs or set the tones with tedious potentiometer tuned circuits wanted a circuit which would use readily available parts and allow tones to be easily programmed and changed via embedded software The desire for a combination of hardware and modifiable software in one package
90. cond Pila wriling to second file This demo creates two files one at a time and pigs BP ae ea ar uses the RTCC to set the date time of file usage In read of data from Pea Ge one lp e CE Ela addition both the UART and LCD libraries are used successful ET Lg tonis fron First file The UART is totally optional but does require an All 16 Library tests successfully completed Acroname adapter covered in NV June 10 issue and setting HyperTerminal to 9600 8N1 see the hook up diagram shown earlier to display the contents on your PC Download and unzip READWRITEDEMO from the website Open the folder and double click on MDDFS SD PIC24 mcp This demo first writes a This is Experimenter String1 to FILET TXT it then copies this to FILE2 TXT and rewrites the last character in EE FILE1 TXT to a 2 The results are shown in Figure Ee 14 All steps are displayed on the Experimenter LCD il enee simultaneously as they re being written to ci HyperTerminal Se MX Deka hie Fie Future Expansion We ve now added a pretty substantial capability to our Experimenter Data logging and data sharing have reached new heights we now have GB storage and retrieval capability in a microcontroller environment and the ability to use Windows based tools seamlessly with the data Think of the applications NW iil FIGURE 14 Disk contents October 2010 NUTS VOLTS 51 PHREAK OUT WITH TH BASIC SUAIP Z By L Abraham Smith
91. cs 31 CCD CAMERAS VIDEO Circuit Specialists Inc 82 83 PolarisUSA Video Inc 12 Ramsey Electronics Inc 22 23 CIRCUIT BOARDS AP Circuits eege gege SE Cunard ASSOGIAlBS susana A4 Dimension Engineering 35 Electronc SurpllS mrcajicirnaain rin SH ExpressPOB sida id 27 Front Panel Express LLC 37 POB POO EE 37 KE e TER 30 COMPONENTS Cana Kit COrp sitiada 65 FDO 20 PON GIZMOS usa 44 Jameco 4 Linx Technologies 19 Mouser Electronics 21 superbrightlleds com 36 KE TT 30 COMPUTER Hardware Electrone Surplus ri H it EK Ciara 20 Matrix Mulgmede nen Microcontrollers UO Boards Abacom Technologies 57 Basic ee E 30 FUN GIZMOS estatica 44 Matrix Multimedia 44 BH SEARCH FOR nd your favorite advertisers here BF ee EE 3 microEngineering Labs 12 Mouser Electronics 21 o PP TEE 2 Parallax INC nocens Back Cover Pololu Robotics amp Electronics 43 Solarbotics HVW ota 8 Technological Arts nsee DA Trace Systems INC g et Software Matrix Multimedia eina A DESIGN ENGINEERING REPAIR SERVICES Ga
92. ction Thus the API calls are self commenting don t think have to say a word about what these API calls do vos dev write vos dev read vos delay msecs vos dev open vos dev close gpio init uart init TYPICAL VINCULUM II APPLICATION COMPONENTS The C programming language and its syntax are used to build Vinculum l applications These applications usually contain a user generated application header file a user generated main function and user generated threads Application header files are not a requirement in Vinculum XTOUT XTIN E BUSTSMECH CC C19 100nF Wa UUUUUUU UU UU lt lt lt F lt Oc zo C 67 d O H exe uu p p n n O p Ho CI CI CI CJ a qo Lu Ho no o pu pofl O ri oo FIFO DATA4 O DATAO FIFO RXF FIFO RD FIFO OEZ XI05 FIFO DATA O DATA O DATA O VE A O WRA XTOZ XIOO GND ND Y1 12MHz C14 C15 20pF 20pF MOUNTED ON EVAL BOARD Il application code However for more complex applications user generated application header files are recommended as they provide a common holding point for the application s global variables and constant values For those of you that can C already you know that all of the initial application action is directed from the main function In the case of the Vinculum l the threads contain the actual application functionality The main function contains code that readies the system
93. ction we discussed last month for the SmileyFlashWriter The blockFlashRead function uses the avrlibc pgm read byte near address function similar to what we saw in Workshop 25 void blockFlashRead uinti16 t size uint8_t data do vread_program_memory address 0x00 data pgm_read_byte_near address send byte sendByte data reduce number of bytes to read by one Size 1 D D while size loop through size Keeping the Bootloader as Small as Possible When we compile EduBootAVR with AVRStudio WinAVR with our usual settings we get a code size of 1 086 bytes Oh darn the boot section boundary is at 1 024 so it is 62 bytes too large Can we get the code smaller Could we rewrite the program hoping to find something that will save us 62 piddly bytes Well we might but there are other ways to save some space with a bootloader Eliminate Some of the Start Code When we use AVRStudio with WinAVR to compile files we get a gift of having necessary startup code added for us This includes the interrupt jump table But what if you aren t using the interrupts Well you can eliminate it Since we aren t using interrupts in the bootloader let s dump the jump table We do this by opening the Project Configuration Options window Custom Options pane as shown in Figure 2 We write nostartfiles in the Add test box then click Add so that nostartfiles appears as shown in
94. ctrical pins are used and are therefore tied high For the Experimenter that leaves us with just eight signals in total that we must support see Figure 4 e CD SD card detect CS Card select e WP Card write protection setting e DO SPI serial data out of card e DI SPI serial data into card e CLK SPI clock for data transfer originates in Experimenter e Power GND 3 3 VDC and ground from the Experimenter SD Card The PIC24F microcontroller on the Experimenter has two internal SPI peripherals SP11 and SPI2 All the demos configure the Experimenter I O expansion bus for SPI2 and digital I O The SPI2 supplies three basic pins for communication Serial Data in SDI Serial Data out SDO and Serial Clock SCK Chip Select CS card detect and write protect are configured as digital I O The final I O expansion bus B FIGURE 3 SD card and connector interfaces October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 47 SD Card B FIGURE 4 Block diagram of the SD card system mec 15D CARD Connector CLK SCLK VEC WES m ewe ee um im m E EM ENS Gerant DAT 2 RVG ES l Carrier Board interface tally is as follows Pin 4 SPI2 Data Out Connects to SD card DI Pin 5 SPI2 Clock Out Connects to SD card CLK Pin 6 SPI2 Data In Connects to SD card DO PIN 2 Digital In Connects to WP Write Protect this is low when write protect is off Pin 3 Digital In Connects
95. cuit You may wonder why you should go through the trouble of building a dedicated circuit just to produce these tones for Project MF If you remember the old school hacking phreaking days then the ability to recreate these activities within a legally safe environment is probably motivation enough For those of you who weren t active in electronics at that time you will be able to enjoy the same technical challenges and excitement experienced by hackers of a previous generation And while not everyone who starts out building a blue box ends up founding a major computer company you just never know NV THE LATEST IN NETWORKING AND WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES i BY LOUIS E FRENZEL W5LEF Q amp A ABOUT DIGITAL RADIO rystal radios are just a simple diode demodulator for amplitude modulation AM signals Typically crystal radios are built to receive local AM broadcast stations And while those stations still exist that might not be the case in the future Why Because almost all radios today have been converted to digital AM broadcast stations are one of the few remaining radio services that still use analog AM What ensued with my friend was a Q amp A discussion of what digital radio is and how broad it is Here is a summary of that discussion Q What do you mean by the term radio A A radio can be a receiver a transmitter or more commonly today a transceiver Radio includes AM and FM broadcast TV any two way radio
96. d sequences This micro module is well supported with free reference materials and IDE Integrated Development Environment and serves as a good intro to microcontrollers and their practical uses which will doubtless spur the user to devise project ideas of their own Finally the BASIC Stamp 2 is available from a number of sources Here you ll learn how to interface the BS2 module with RN2 AL SE e G 6 X1 HOTO 3 Header pins top view PHOTO 2 Header pins bottom view h a keypad a few switches and a handful of discrete components then load free open source firmware to make your own unlimited tone generator box The concept is simple The hardware checks the state of the 12 keys on the keypad in a continuous cycle along with monitoring the state of the toggle and pushbutton switch it then instructs the BS2 to generate the appropriate touchtone or custom tone s output via pin 0 By simply changing the values in the software and loading it onto the BS2 via the integral serial port you can generate any single and multi frequency tone s sequences without changing the hardware Tone frequency duration pauses and sequences can all be modified according to your needs More on the programming later Now let s build the PhreakEncoder Step 1 Assemble the BS2 The BS2 OEM version comes complete with the PCB and all necessary parts and costs about 30 for the kit form See Photo 1 Assemb
97. d style floppy drives that are used in music keyboards To run analysis and adjust ment software have to remove the drive from the keyboard and connect it to a computer But the new computers don t have floppy connectors any All questions AND answers are submitted by Nuts Volts readers and are intended to promote the exchange of ideas and provide assistance for solving technical problems Questions are subject to editing and will be published on a space available basis if deemed suitable by the publisher Answers are submitted by readers and NO GUARANTEES WHATSOEVER are made by the publisher The implementation of any answer printed in this column may require varying degrees of technical experience and should only be attempted by qualified individuals Always use common sense and good judgment gt gt gt YOUR ELECTRONICS QUESTIONS ANSWERED HERE BY N amp V READERS Send all questions and answers by email to forum nutsvolts com Check at www nutsvolts com for tips and info on submitting to the forum more The best device would have a floppy drive 34 pin connector on one end a USB plug on the other and some controller in the middle The current USB external floppy drives are quite different from anything could use for this project HI The best way to approach this and probably the least problem filled is to get an older PC one that will run your adjustment software lots of Pills running XP out there that yo
98. d throughout the world as the first learning kit for students young and old Great solder practice kit Runs on 3 15 VDC BL1 LED Blinky Kit 7 95 2 Build a time delay keep Sme An on tad di for a preset time provide clock pulses a or provide an audio tone all using the versatile 555 timer chip Comes with circuit theory and a lots of application ideas and schematics to help you learn the 555 timer 5 15VDC UT5 Universal Timer Kit 9 95 20 Watt Mini Audio Amp Delivers a super clean 20W output from one SMT package Ultra effi cient class D design produces no heat PCB can be snapped into a small circle for special applications Runs on 18VDC for rated output or down to 10VDC for reduced output UAM2 20W Subminiature Amp Kit 54 95 If you need to simply get atten tion the Mad Blaster is the answer producing a LOUD ear S shattering raucous racket Super for car and home alarms as well Drives any speaker Runs on 9 12VDC MB1 Mad Blaster Warble Alarm Kit Water Sensor Alarm This little 8 kit can really bail you out Simply mount the alarm where you want to detect water level problems sump pump When the water touches the contacts the alarm goes off Sensor can even be remotely located Runs on a standard 9V battery MK108 Water Sensor Alarm Kit 9 95 I Learn all about SMT parts and how to solder them Surface mount parts are tiny and require a special skill to solder
99. dried oil and dirt relubricating it and reassembling You might need to drill out some rivets to take it apart and replace with screws when you put it back together don t think a soft start circuit will solve this problem Len S Los Altos CA 80 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 2 doubt it s the inrush current but a faulty GFCI Older GFCls were prone to tripping with motor loads and or motors with brushes I d suggest replacing the GFCI breaker with a newer one The specs do list 1 440 watts which does translate to 12A so would be attentive to what else is on the circuit A metal oxide resistor combined with a delay on make timer such as those made by www ssac com would work as a current limiter The delay on make relay shorts the resistor out after a specified time delay Unfortunately the circuit would have to be at the vacuum cleaner If the circuit worked I d almost be tempted to use a remote AC switch and place the device at the outlet One example is the remote controls used for woodshop vacuums I ve used the technique before and had to experiment with resistor values and time Ron Dozier Wilmington DE 3 There are at least two problems that can cause your circuit breakers to trip when using the vacuum The first may be a worn out circuit breaker As circuit breakers age their springs weaken which causes them to trip on less than their rated current Frequent tripping can accelerate the aging process If tha
100. driver software symbol outbyte bd data to be transmitted to the MAX7219 symbol maxreg bl MAX7219 register that receives data symbol outword w1 concatenation of maxreg and outbyte So far so good but the problem entered the picture when forgot the fact that the shout subroutine modifies outword wO Therefore it also modifies maxreg as well as outbyte but that s not a problem which causes the above for next loop to misbehave As usual once the cause of the problem is clearly understood the solution is relatively simple All we need to do is declare an additional byte variable to use in the for next loop Of course we can t use index because the shout subroutine uses that variable as well It s a little embarrassing to have been hoist by my own petard as they say but do appreciate the feedback and thought it worthwhile to pass the information on to everyone It certainly emphasizes the need for caution October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 67 eum B FIGURE 1 Schematic of 4 x 4 matrix keypad when declaring overlapping word and byte variables There s another bit of information want to share with everyone I m pleased to announce the recent publication of my first book PICAXE Microcontroller Projects for the Evil Genius By the time you read this it will be available at the NV Webstore http store nutsvolts com In addition to simply b
101. e The input sensitivity of each of the four channels is adjustable from a few millivolts to over 1V so you plug in a range of input signals from a microphone to a line level signal from a CD player etc A headphone amplifier circuit is included for monitoring purposes A three stage EQ makes this is a very versatile mixer that will operate from 12VDC 45mA Kit includes case PCB with overlay and all electronic pr components Short Circuits III Kit Guitar Practice Amp KJ 8092 10 00 plus postage amp packing This low cost amplifier allows you to practice your quitar without annoying the neighbors It has a guitar type input socket small speaker and volume x Kit supplied with PCB speaker A uro socket and electronic eg components Ke Say lee 12VDC power required _ PCB 105 x 60mm m Instructions NOT included See KJ 8093 1 25 for individual instructions or full color project book BJ 8505 7 50 Short Circuits III Kit Guitar Link KJ 8090 8 75 plus postage amp packing Play the guitar without the need of a quitar amplifier and speakers This neat pre amplifier allows you to connect to virtually any amplifier including your home hi fi Kit includes PCB 6 5mm sockets and electronic components e 12VDC power required PCB 105 x 60mm Instructions NOT included See KJ 8091 1 25 for individual instructions or full color project book BJ 8505 7 50 Short Circuits III K
102. e directly to say microcontrollers and programmable field gate arrays FPGAs As an educator can say that knowledge of the fundamentals is important but you have to be selective in the fundamentals you decide to focus on remember in college as an engineering major that knowledge of Quantum Mechanics was deemed critical to understanding how semiconductors work So suffered through the course To this day can t say that I ve applied any of what might have learned to semiconductor design On the other hand if had chosen to work for Intel or some other chip manufacturer perhaps Quantum Mechanics would have served me well You no doubt have your own reasons for reading the articles in Nuts amp Volts You may be new to electronics and every bit of information is new and exciting Perhaps you re retired and like the familiarity of the old fashioned circuitry Maybe you re studying engineering and you re using the articles on microcontrollers as supplemental material in your studies Perhaps you simply like the satisfaction of building circuits with your hands Many of your fellow readers are specialists in other fields and have an idea of automating some aspect of their work and look to this magazine to provide a soft introduction to the world of applied electronics After you read through this issue l d like you to email me with your thoughts on the overall focus of the magazine Does it define in your view
103. e SD card is present After Step 1 we then execute Step 2 FSInit This function initializes the library and the SPI port Step 3 opens a file FILE1 TXT with write or the w attribute In this step the FSfopen will create the file if it doesn t exist if it does exist it will clear it of previous data Step 4 does the actual write of data to the file using FSfwrite This function takes data preloaded in the send buffer array and writes it to the file one byte at a time In Step 5 we finally close the file with FSfclose After executing WRITEDEMO we can remove the SD card from the Experimenter and place it in the PC SD card reader to verify the file contents With the SD card in the PC it will register the card as a hard drive Open up the hard drive and note that FILE1 TXT exists double click on the file Windows Notepad should automatically open it and the proper text should be displayed It should read This a file I O test using Microchip library We can create files with any extension that Windows can recognize However TXT is the simplest This format works well for data written in an ASCII format If you write lots of data records to your file keep in mind that you need to use some kind of delimiter between your data records like a space or comma B FIGURE 11 Read demo LCD TETERA e W ee Se WHK dk kl Ae ke ke kg DEMOREAD Open a Text File and Read Data From lt Okay so w
104. e compact devices will deliver Free configuration and control application with motion sequencer Channels can be used for digital I O or up to 12 analog inputs Individual servo speed and acceleration control for each channel e ch S 1356 1354 1352 1350 Up to 8 KB of internal scripting memory 3000 servo positions Mini Maestro Mini Maestro Mini Maestro Micro Maestro 24 Channel 18 Channel 12 Channel 6 Channel 0 25 us servo pulse resolution with pulse rate up to 333 Hz 49 95 39 95 29 95 19 95 FiPololu Robotics amp Electronics more information at www pololu com maestro October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 43 Another great thing about the Propeller is that you can very quickly test new code by downloading straight to its RAM all programs run from RAM This lets us make and test changes very easily We can do this by pressing the F10 key in the IDE Once everything is the way we like it we can do a permananet download of the final code with F11 Well there you have it a fun Halloween prop and a neat way to safely simulate flames Want a hellish pit of burning coals in your Halloween display No problem Just use red and orange LEDs and set the flicker algorithm to low and slow With a little imagination and a bit of fine tuning of the flicker parameters you can simulate most anything that s burning Happy Halloween NV Jon McPhalen is an actor writer and electronics enthusiast based in Los Angeles CA He portrayed
105. e relay de energizes If the problem is simply isolation or ground referencing consider using opto coupled TRIACs They work just like the mechanical relay You put their terminals across the wires that went to the pushbuttons Their internal LED is the gate drive so ground referencing is not a factor They can also be driven from microprocessor outputs Use a series resistor to limit the current to 20 mA or so Either solution would be cheap buy the parts for both and see what works best David Sarraf Elizabethtown PA 2 Since you didn t supply informa tion about the power requirements of the rotators just winged it The schematic in Figure 2 should be helpful Digi Key sells a high power opto coupler TRIAC for about 1 23 USD 751 1490 5 ND If your rotators use less than 1A this should do it for you Daniel De Jager Edgewood WA 6103 June 2010 Quartz Cookoo Clock My quartz cookoo clock has a photodiode to turn off the clock at night but want it to work at night Can I just remove the photodiode First of all suspect that the light sensor that turns off the cookoo sound at night is actually a CdS cadmium sulfide light sensor rather BK Kit Cigilay 751 1450 5 NDI October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 79 TEcHFORUM than a silicon photodiode as you stat ed CdS sensors are generally used in consumer products since they are cost effective and their relatively slow response time compared to silicon is
106. e were able to write using the Experimenter and read using the PC but let s double check that the Experimenter can read the file it created Download and unzip READDEMO from the website Open the folder and double click on MDDFS_SD_PIC24 mcp Again the LCD library is used to display the status Let s remove the SD card from the PC and put it back in the Experimenter SD carrier board Note the use of the SetClockVars in the beginning of the code Steps 1 and 2 are identical to the earlier write code In Step 3 we open the file for reading using FSfopen using the FILE1 TXT file name and an r or read attribute In Step 4 we do the actual eine with FSfread The entire content from the file is read one byte at a time and loaded into a receiveBuffer We then close the file in Step 5 In Step 6 the LCD W FIGURE 12 Read and write demo with serial port display is used to show the entire contents in ia receiveBuffer You can exam the LCD for a complete string readout for This a file I O test using Microchip library Card FRT16 32 Demo for 16 Bit Experimenter 0 DEMOREADWRITE A 4 9 Microchio File library initialized Larger Example Using Two iE eite to first file Files File Pointers RTCC successful setting of end position in first file LCD and Serial 1 0 successful setting of end position in first file successful writing of 2 at end of string of first file cesi ul peeing OF se
107. ebounce ms pause 1 debounce debounce ina START This method fixes the input parameter so that the valid range for debouncing an input is 10 milliseconds to a full second Spin has a numeric range from negative two billion plus to positive two billion plus this little correction keeps a typo from hanging up the program Here s how the method works A counter called debounce is cleared and then we drop into a loop that waits one millisecond before incrementing debounce and then multiplying it by the state of the START input pin If the pin is active 1 then the count will be maintained if the input is not active 0 then the debounce variable will be cleared This process ensures that the input is active and stays active for the desired period Once that happens we return back to the main program In my props I like to insert a randomized delay between the trigger event and the active prop code To do this we randomize the value in lottery with and then perform a little math to get a value between two and 10 seconds Note that we have to take the absolute value of lottery in the code this is necessary because a negative value which is possible with the randomization will create a problem for the modulus operator After the random delay the flicker rate is set to zero which makes the flames more active and then each is bumped to full brightness with a short delay in between It s easy and very effec
108. ect keyboard and BS2 module Ca 5 6 e Breadboard for temporary project mounting if not installing in a case ates 9 L V DS PC interface cable PARTS LIST 18K ohm 12345 678 9 18 1112 1314 18K ohm 18K ohm wv v WM NW 10K ohm To Vdd To BSe P15 10K ohm 10K ohm 10K ohm 18K ohm WM WY NWM 10K ohm 10K ohm d gt 18K ohm 10K ohm To BS2 PS A To BSe P4 AUX switch PBI 10K ohm JE DTMF MF Switch 10K ohm y SE 3 BASIC STAMP 2 OEM MODULE SCH ohm L uF x Power Switch d m 9 VIC E SCHEMATIC 1 Vi 54 NUTSEVOLTS October 2010 cathode to the Vss ground pin via a 220 ohm resistor Then download and install the LEDTest bs2 program to the BS2 module programs are available for download at www nutsvolts com The LED should flash approximately once per second If it doesn t check all connections on the module as well as the LED test circuit and fix any wiring errors Once the module tests okay remove the LED 220 ohm resistor and power connections and disconnect the Step 2 Add resistors Once you have the BS2 module assembled and tested solder a 10K ohm resistor to each of the pins labeled P1 P2 and P4 through P15 on the underside of the board As shown in Photo 5 be sure to keep the lead from the board side of each resistor as short as possible Solder the loose ends of th
109. ed a three position DIP switch so that you can program nine different modes 3 9 The switch also controls if the voice chip is being used for recording or playing If you re not using the PIR and if S2 is kept shorted using a shorting bar the unit can cycle at 30 seconds one minute two minute and four minute cycles Jumper if not using PIR 18K START SWITCH RB4 ANLG RBS ANLI RB6 SCK SCL RB WSs 1SD1168 RC ANS L3 Ra3 MCLRL 2 RC4 C2QUT 6 RA47AN3 3 RAS TICKI 27 punoan eye Odd A PCB amp programmed chip to go with this article can be purchased online from the Nuts amp Volts Webstore at www nutsvolts com or call our order desk at 800 783 4624 depending on the DIP switch The voice chip is a CMOS device which uses five volts to power it It has 10 seconds of memory for storing the sounds a microphone preamplifier and speaker outputs added a 1 8 jack so that you can plug it into a stereo amplifier for big claps of thunder Instead of using pushbutton switches as shown in the ISD1110P schematic which can be downloaded from the Nuts amp Volts website www nutsvolts com or from Jameco com It is driven by the microprocessor so that the timing coincides with the lightning flash got the thunder sound off of the Internet The PLAYE input was used as this allows the PIC to return to its high state and the voice chip will continue to run The chip is capable of providing 12
110. eing a shameless plug for the book I m also mentioning it here because need to include the following statement Portions of the following project are excerpted from the book with permission from McGraw Hill INTERFACING A 4 X 4 MATRIX KEYPAD Actually the Evil Genius book includes three different projects that involve a matrix keypad We re going to be focusing on a variation of the first project but when we have finished I ll also include some information on what we did next in the book We ll be using the same keypad from the book s projects a 4 x 4 matrix but you certainly can adapt the project for use with a 4 x 3 matrix keypad if you prefer The standard arrangement for a 4 x 4 matrix keypad is shown in Figure 1 Whenever a key is pressed the connections for the corresponding row and column are shorted together for example pressing the 6 key connects 68 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 Pin Connection Row 3 Column 1 Row 4 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Row 1 From left to right B FIGURE 2 Pinout for 4 x 4 matrix keypad er2010_PICAXEPrimer i FIGURE 3 Resistor matrix the pins for row 2 and column 3 You don t need to use the same keypad that did Any matrix keypad you have on hand should work just as well just be sure that it is in fact a matrix layout have seen keypads that look similar to a genuine matrix but actually have each key connected to its own line with a c
111. er Kit Microchip s FREE Graphics and Connectivity libraries and code examples Eases your development effort and speeds your time to market 1 2 D W With the PIC32 Microcontroller Purchase PIC32 Ethernet Starter Kit and Multimedia Expansion Board Download MPLAB IDE Start designing ww microchip com graphics 1 EF O O Wu Multimedia Expansion Board DM320005 MICROCHIP FLASHLIGHT What is the missing component AN MESA A Physics professor planned to illustrate a lecture with demonstrations of how light can be intercepted by certain phosphors or various optoelectronic sensors and transformed into entirely new light He wanted an ultra simple demonstration of how an LED would glow when biased by a forward current provided by a suitable sensor He rummaged through his optoelectronic drawer and found two silicon solar cells several cadmium sulfide photo resistors a couple of AlGaAs red LEDs some silicon phototransistors and half a dozen silicon photodiodes In his parts cabinet he found some transistors miniature chokes and assorted resistors and capacitors How did he combine the smallest number of components to do what the phosphor card did Go to www Jameco com search8 to see if you are correct ia J UM ECO Bo ere Sign up for our e newsletter and get a bonus puzzle ERES TORNES www Jameco com enews 1 800 831 4242 www Jameco com El AN 4 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 worldmags
112. er on Connect the positive terminal of the underside of the PCB See Photos 2 3 and 4 nine volt battery to the Vin pin and the negative terminal to At this point it s a good idea to test out your BS2 the Vss pin Connect the BS2 to your PC via either a DB9 module First download and install the most recent version serial cable or a supported serial to USB adapter Once the of the BASIC Stamp Editor BSE from www parallax com BSE recognizes your module you can test it out with a BASIC Stamp 2 OEM module kit 30 95 Parallax com simple LED flasher circuit part 27291 R Connect the anode of an LED to pin 5 and connect the e Velleman 12 key keypad AllElectronics com part KP 12 or from electronicpartsforless com or willyselectronics com part 12KEY NOTE The keypad must have separate connectors for each of the 12 keys plus a common connector a 3x4 matrix type keypad is NOT acceptable e 14 10K ohm resistors 1 4 watt e 220 ohm resistor 1 4 watt 1 uF electrolytic capacitor e 2 SPST toggle switches Female breakaway headers 16 pin strip Gen SKU PRT 00115 Optional only needed if using a project case and mounting keypad on outside e SPST pushbutton switch N O contacts e 9V battery clip with leads External 8 ohm speaker with a connection cable and 1 8 mono jack and plug for connecting with the encoder s audio output Solid hookup wire and ribbon cable if using to 1 e interconn
113. ern Even if you re fairly new to using Spin you should find my demo program easy to modify after I ve run you through the explanation For those that are using the Propeller for the first time think you ll find its behavior and programming interesting The program is composed of three elements 1 the main code 2 a dimmer module to control LED brightness and 3 a flame effect generator Each of these modules runs in their own cog processor inside the Propeller so we don t have to worry about managing interrupts the Propeller doesn t have them or other time slicing strategies trust me multiple processors on one slab of silicon makes life very pleasant When the Propeller boots up it will load the Spin interpreter into Cog O and run our main program Inside that program we will instantiate the other cogs The first is a dimmer cog that runs Jm bam68 this is used to modulate the eight LED outputs using a process called Bit Angle Modulation for details on how BAM works in the Propeller see The Spin Zone column in the November 09 issue of Nuts PARTS LIST ITEM DESCRIPTION LED1 LED8 Amber 5 mm SOURCE PART A NTE30039 Q1 2N3904 NPN Mouser com 610 2N3904 R1 R8 R19 470 ohm R9 R16 330 ohm R17 2 2K ohm R18 10K ohm Mouser 291 470 RC Mouser 291 330 RC Mouser 291 2 2K RC Mouser 291 10K RC S S1 Socket 18 pin Mouser 571 1 390261 5 TB1 TB7 Term block Mouser 571 2828362 U1 ULN2803A Mouser 511 ULN2803A X1 X
114. ery will cause the SCR to conduct and light up the LED It will remain lit even after you remove the pulse from the gate MaxSonar Ultrasonic Ranging is EZ LV MaxSonar EZ Power up calibration Smallest MaxSonar 1 inch resolution Low power 2 5V 5 5V MaxSonar WR iP67 Industrial packaging Weather resistant Standard Y fitting Quality narrow beam XL MaxSonar EZ Beam pattern choice Tiny size Real time calibration High acoustic power MaxSonar WRC IP67 e Compact packaging E Weather resistant Standard fitting Quality narrow beam www maxbotix com PIC AXE EVIL SENOS E i EU EHE m https sto re nutsvolts com R1 hole 10a RESISTORS 220 ohms Red Red Brown Gold R2 hole 4d ep 1000 ohms Brown Black Red Gold hole 23a hole 23d em anode cathode LIGHT EMITTING DIODE LED era am oa hole 10c anode cathode 220 wow SW e SS e a hole 9c BATTERY red hole Zie black hole 20f WIRES w1 6j and 20j W2 9d and 5i W3 14e and touch to gate of SCR GK01049 220 ohm resistor GK01065 1 000 ohm resistor GK06001 LED GK13001 SCR GK35002 Battery Snap GK45011 Solid Insulated i bate cha re zan va be gu Iia Arcu gt Tah in ATE rd SCH ar Gm on am a These experiments are provided by GSSTechEd
115. ese 14 resistors together via a short length of wire forming a common connection to the BS2 module s grounding pin Vss This is necessary in order for the microcontroller to function properly as any switches connected to its I O pins must be pulled low via resistors so that they are not floating when in the off switch open state Step 3 Connect the keypad and switches Now connect the 12 key keypad to the appropriate BS2 module pin connections see schematic This may be accomplished via ribbon cable or other point to point wiring Use adequate lengths of wire between the PHOTO 7 Cover slot module and keypad based upon how you will be mounting the finished project Note that you must use a keypad with individual connections for each of the 12 keys and one common connection recommend using the Velleman 12 key keypad Since intended to house everything in a project case instead of using ribbon cable soldered a set of 14 male header pins to the underside of the keypad i e the side without the keys Photo 6 shows these header pins will connect to the BS2 module pins 4 through 15 on final assembly Next solder an adequate length of hookup wire to pin 1 of the keypad to allow it to connect to Vdd on the BS2 The power switch is an SPST toggle connected between the nine volt battery s positive terminal and Vin Connect the battery s negative terminal to Vss The DTMF MF switch is an SPST toggle connected b
116. eters as well as a relay that is active while your audio plays Need background audio while your animated exhibit is idle No problem the AP 16 includes an ambient loop control to do just that Order the Propeller powered AP 16 Audio Player online at www parallax com or call toll free 888 512 1024 M F 7am 5pm PDT www parallax com J ParallaxInc on Twitter Facebook and YouTube Vout Friendly microcontrollers legendary resources Prices subject to change without notice Propeller Parallax and the Parallax logo are trademarks of Parallax Inc EFX TEK is a trademark of EFX TEK Sev Hp Ni IMG Hp Na a D Bi v 9 377 00 um om uer jp umm Wc n n Features e 8 core Propeller P8X32A Q44 controller on board Plays stereo WAV files 16 bit PCM up to 44 1 kHz Files stored on your standard SD card FAT or FAT32 format e 2 1 mm center positive connector for DC power 24 stand alone files under manual control Optional auto playing ambient file AMBIENT WAV Manual input via normally open dry contact optically isolated 12 24 VDC input or PIR sensor Eight dry contact auxiliary inputs Relay output active when file plays N O and N C connections provided Pre and post play delay potentiometers manual mode Dual 20 W amplifiers one per channel TTL serial control for connection to host microcon troller unlimited files under serial control User configured baud rate for serial control
117. etween P1 and Vdd The Aux button is an SPST N O pushbutton switch connected between P2 and Vdd The Audio output jack s center conductor is connected to PO via a 220 ohm resistor and the shield ring to ground Connect the 1 uF electrolytic capacitor s positive leg to the center connector of the Audio jack and the negative side to the Audio ground terminal Since wanted to package the encoder inside a small 5 Lx 3 W x 2 H project case connected the keypad and BS2 module by sandwiching them on opposing sides of the case lid and joining them via their respective header pins through a slot dremeled into the lid 1 attached the back of the keypad to the outside of the lid with a plumber s adhesive known as Goop the BS2 module was supported inside the lid with a thin piece of Styrofoam and glued in place Be sure that pin 3 of the keypad is connected to pin 4 of the BS2 module continuing to connect the pins in a row so that pin 14 of the keypad connects with pin 15 of the BS2 leaving pins 1 and 2 of the keypad unconnected see Photos 7 through 9 However you package the hardware make sure the DB9 connector PHOTO 9 Keypad BS2 connection interface shown without case for clarity on the BS2 module will be accessible for programming Assembly of the PhreakEncoder hardware is now complete Photo 10 Now finish the build by loading the software Connect the PhreakEncoder to your PC via the serial cable and use the BS
118. few more components can be added for additional control for example playing audio from an external device Building a Candle Controller My processor of choice is the Parallax Propeller chip Having worked with it almost daily for the past 18 months have a real comfort level and enjoy developing code for MW GP E Om J D d PS Pa 5 Pa gt B FIGURE 1 ULN output 38 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 it It s high level language Spin is fairly easy to use and the interactive nature of the IDE simplifies and expedites experimenting with new code In order to make this an afternoon project hand wired the circuit to a Propeller proto board These boards are an inexpensive way to get started with the Propeller If you re going to do this as a one off and never use the Propeller again you can get a USB version of the proto board If you think the Propeller is in your future then you can go with the cheaper non USB version and use a Prop Clip to program it Let s look at the circuitry first The candle outputs are driven by a ULN2803A this lets us use anything from simple LEDs to some medium current monsters With eight outputs running you should limit the current to about 180 mA through each ULN channel When it comes to LEDs that s a LOT of current Figure 1 shows the ULN connections to the Propeller Advanced users will note that resistors R1 R8 are in fact optional but having seen ULNs melt internally usuall
119. gleaned from the vos h header file We entered the NUMBER_OF_DEVICES value when we coded the application header file DesignCycle App h This would be a good time to set up the Vinculuml clocking As you might imagine the toolchain API has a call for that vos_set_clock_frequency VOS_48MHZ_CLOCK_ FREQUENCY As you can see in Schematic 1 the 48 MHz clock is derived from a 12 MHz crystal and the Vinculum ll s 4x PLL In a previous Design Cycle Vinculum ll discussion we took a detailed look at a helper program called the VNC2 IOMux Config utility which is part of the Vinculum l toolchain package If you had the opportunity to join in on that conversation you ll recall that the VNC2 IOMux Config utility is used to configure the GPIO subsystem An added feature of this utility is that it writes the GPIO configuration code for us Well we need some UART I O code for sure and if we want to add some status LEDs to the mix we should go ahead and lay out some output I O pins to support them as well Here s what the VNC2 IOMaux Config utility produced according to my idea of where things should go GPIO port A bit 1 to pin 12 LED3 ON EVAL BOARD vos iomux define output 12 10MUX OUT GPIO PORT A 1 GPIO port A bit 2 to pin 13 LED4 ON EVAL BOARD vos_iomux_define_output 13 IOMUX_OUT_GPIO_PORT_ A 22 3 GPIO port A bit 5 to pin 29 LED5 ON EVAL BOARD vos iomux define output 29 1IOMUX OUT GPIO PORT A 503
120. gn tricks component selection and packaging choices that enabled the product to reach the market From the Foreword by Forrest M Mims III Amp up your knowledge of electronics by deconstructing common devices and analyzing the revealed components and circuitry Teardowns Learn How Electronics Work by Taking Them Apart contains 4 projects that expose the inner workings of household appliances workbench measuring instruments and musical equipment Discover how resistors capacitors sensors transducers and transistors function in real circuitry Reg Price 24 95 Programming the Propeller with Spin by Harprit Singh Sandhu Programming the Propeller with Spin A Beginner s Guide to Parallel Processing walks you through the essential skills you need to build and control devices using the Propeller chip and its parallel processing environment Find out how to use each of the identical 32 bit processors known as cogs and make the eight cogs effectively interact with each other The book covers Propeller hardware and software setup memory and the Spin language 29 95 PROGRAMMING THE PROPELLER WITH SPIN i BEGINNEN ES DOS TO PARALLEL PROCESSING Holography Projects for the Evil Genius by Gavin D J Harper New in the best selling Evil Genius series this is a step by step guide to the improved art and science of holography complete with explanations of the techniques materials processes and to
121. has enough memory to store several programs at once In fact we also developed a simple operating system MPDOS that makes it easy to switch from program to program as the need arises COMING ATTRACTIONS In addition to the publication of PICAXE Microcontroller Projects for the Evil Genius there s another major event that s about to occur in the PICAXE world Revolution Education has announced its newest processor the PICAXE 18M2 and it s scheduled to be available by the time you re reading this column The 18M2 is a revolutionary product with many impressive hardware and software enhancements don t have space this month to get into the details but take a look at Figure 10 18M2 Program Storage bytes 2048 256 General Purpose Vars bytes Storage Variables bytes EEPROM Storage bytes Max Operating Speed MHz 32 a Min Operating Voltage V B FIGURE 10 Comparison of 18M2 vs 18M selected features PICAXE PRIMER think you ll be impressed The 18M2 also includes several software enhancements l Il just mention two of them to whet your appetite There s a new built in time variable that keeps track of elapsed time in the background while your program is carrying out other tasks This means that a project will be able to include a real time clock feature without necessitating additional hardware or complicated software interrupt routines Also the 18M2 will be able to r
122. he theoretical values back in Figure 4 but they should be close DECODING THE KEYPRESSES Now that you know the ADC value that s produced by each keypress in your breadboard setup we need to modify keypad1 bas so that it actually decodes each keypress and outputs the appropriate character Naturally we ll need another variable in which to store the resulting character let s call it char Also we re going to use a select case statement to accomplish the decoding but we can t use a series of equalities to convert each ADC value to the correct character because as we just discovered some of the values are slightly variable Also additional slight variation can be introduced by changes in temperature and other factors To make sure that we always decode the correct character we ll use a series of less than phrases in the select case statement and work our way up the list Using this approach our select case statement will take the form of the following code fragment select case key Case cher 49 gt P Tor ASCII code K case lt char 50 for etc ASCII code T A y etc The question remains What specific values should we use in place of the question marks The safest i e most error free choice is the mid point between the values for each pair of adjacent keys I ll use our theoretical values to clarify this point but you should substitute the actual values you o
123. her products logos and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 21 RA SEY Sp ooktacu ar lal oween reats Blinky Eyes Animated Displa Animated display of 66 super bright LED s Microcontroller controlled Changes brightness automatically Animated with constant motion The ultimate animated LED kit that will dazzle you and delight your friends Uses a microcon NEEE troller to ancora select from many different anima tions such as a long pause before a wink or a twinkle of the eye to startle passers by Four modes to satisfy any enthusiast s desires 1 Off for long random Pouce then blinks or winks Designed to scare 2 On for long periods before performing an animation perfect for costumes and displays 3 Animates all the time for constant motion perfect display attention getter 4 Random fire When placed in a pump kin will light it up like you wouldn t believe As if this weren t enough the BE66 can also control a small hobby motor to shake bushes at random intervals or signal an external player to make a scary sound Also has a CDS cell to sense light In one mode the display will dim as it gets dark for battery operation and in the other it will turn off when it s too bright so it plays only in the dark BE66 Blinky Eyes Animated Display Kit Laser Light Show Audio input modulates pattern Adjustable pattern amp size Projects neat moto
124. hone plug 10 for 2 75 each 21MM PIEZO ELEMENT 85 100 for 2 55 each CAT HP 211 ch 250 for 2 20 each 50mm wire leads CATA PE 56 122 each 12 VDC 58 RPM MINI MOTOR 12Vdc gearhead motor 58RPM 12Vdc 20mA no load Kn 12mm diameter x 35mm long Solder lug terminals 2mm 795 X 6mm long flatted shaft CAT DCM 318 1 225 each VIBRATING MINI MOTOR Designed to vibrate in cell phones det or pagers this tiny 1 5 4 5Vdc motor has an offset weighted shaft Overall length including terminals and shaft 18mm Body is 4 5mm x 5 5mm x 11mm long Flat surface mount solder tabs 2 5 CAT DCM 382 aay 40 CHARACTER X 2 LINE SE LCD W LED BACKLIGHT LiteOn PA 1090 1 2 5mm coax power plug center Detachable 2 conductor power cord cULus CE CAT PS 12751 40 for 40 for 7 75 each each SOLAR CELL Output approximately 3 Volts 40 mA 60mm square x 2 5mm thick epoxy encapsul ated silicon photovoltaic cell Solid almost unbreakable module with sol derable foil strips on backside Ideal for solar powered battery chargers and other ge CAT SPL 61 100 for 3 25 each NO MINIMUM ORDER All Orders Can Be Charged to Visa Mastercard American Express or Discover Checks and Money Orders Accepted by Mail Orders Delivered in the State of California must include California State Sales Tax NO C O D Shipping and Handling 7 00 for the 48 Continental United States ALL OT
125. imal number A zero will eliminate any ones The ones allow either a one or zero to be read If we just AND port Starting from the top of the zig zag use a wire wrapping tool and 30 gauge wire wrap available from RadioShack Wrap the anodes of the LEDs in sets of four e g LEDs 1 2 3 and 4 to pin one Then do 5 6 7 and 8 to pin 2 9 10 11 and 12 to pin 3 and finally tie 13 14 15 and 16 to pin 4 Daisychain the first LED s cathode of each set together and wire to pin 5 e g LEDs 1 5 9 and 13 to pin 5 LEDs 2 6 10 and 14 to pin 6 LEDs 3 7 11 and 15 to pin 7 and the last LEDs 4 8 12 and 16 to pin 7 It is important to keep the sets in order for the flash to appear going downwards see Figure 7 The PIR sensor is a pyroelectric device that detects motion by measuring change in the infrared heat levels emitted by surrounding objects It uses a crystalline material that generates an electric charge when exposed to infrared radiation If used it takes about 60 seconds before it functions properly The jumper should be placed on L The PIR specifications state the voltage for the chip should be from three to five volts Although it would fire it would not activate the PIC using six volts placed the reading for the trigger at the beginning of the program so that you can change the DIP switch any time After it is triggered it will read the DIP switches Some of you who are new to programm
126. ing functionality but they are costly It would be a neat project to build a ping tester using one of the widely available development boards and microcontrollers There are so many choices don t know where to start Could someone point me in the right direction 10102 Jim via email Adapter Board recently got a Needham PB 10 EPROM programmer It can program 4751H microcontrollers but requires an adapter board to do so can t find any info on this board Does anyone have a schematic or info so could roll my own 10103 Pierre Olivier Quebec Resistance Inverter Converter installed a dash from a Buick into a Winnebago The gas gauge in the new dash requires 242 ohms for a full and 42 for an empty reading The Winnebago sending unit gives a 10 ohms full and 180 ohms empty resist ance reading need help in designing a circuit to do this conversion 10104 Kenneth Lysek Henderson CO 78 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 Racing Game Data Logging want to connect an analog tachometer and speedo or an instrument cluster to a PC via USB for receiving data from the Live For Speed racing game What Arduino and circuit compo nents do need to use on this project and which software is more useful 10105 Ozgur Istanbul gt gt gt ANSWERS 4105 April 2010 Steampunk Keyboard am building a Steampunk keyboard for my own use would like to have a small motor spin some gears each time a key is pressed on the c
127. ing may wonder what the www dimensionengineering com Sabertooth2x50HV htm October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 35 PARTS LIST ITEM DESCRIPTION 220 uF 6 3 V 001 uF uF 4 7 uF 16V 3 position 1 1 ea 2 position 1 3 ea 6 position 1 1 ea 8 position 1 1 ea PIC16F690 1 ea 1 1 QTY SOURCE 1 ea 1 ea 3 ea 1 ea Header female Header male Header male Header male IC1 IC2 Jack LED Microchip com Jameco com ISD1110P ea 1 8 mono ea 3 mm red 1 ea 1K 1 6W 2 ea 5 1K 1 6W 1 ea 10K 1 6W 4 ea 470K 1 6W 1 ea R7 R8 R9 R10 150 1 6W 4 ea S1 Three position DIP 1 ea R12 jumper if not using PIR MISC LEDs 1 16 White 18000 Motion detector PIR Sensor Wire wrap wire 30 gauge Battery holder C or D four battery R3 R4 R11 R12 R5 16 ea 1 ea SuperBrightLeds com Parallax com 2 ea A it will change its outputs which you don t want it to do a switch So you place port A into a TEMP register and AND the TEMP registers instead After START the strobe effect is created by using a series of flags and setting the flags after an LED is turned on The first time it is turned on it jumps back to S1 However once turned on its flag is set and it will continue on to the next LED Note that all the flags are cleared at the beginning of the START sequence Once the strobing is finished it turns on the voice chip and continues with a series of delays and flashes The CALL feature is a great
128. int towards the source Incredible gain and perfect stereo separation MK136 Stereo Ear Amp Kit Retro Nixie Tube Clock Genuine Nixie tubes Popu aT in the 50 s brought back in one of the neatest digital clocks around Wi today Hand made teak maple base 12 24 hour format soft fade out auto dim and a crystal time base at 20ppm Tube kits also available INIATM HV Plasma Generator Kit 329 95 9 95 Not only will you learn soldering and desol dering but you will also learn component identification and color codes Includes 163 solder points and you will learn how to sol der all types of components The comprehen sive manual even includes exams SP3B Soldering Parts Lab Kit 3 in 1 Multifunction Lab The handiest item for your gt bench Includes a RoHS bs gt compliant temp controlled soldering station digital mul timeter and a regulated lab power supply All in one small unit for your bench It can t be beat LAB1U 3 In1 Multifunction Solder Lab 129 95 WWw ramsevkits com ram www ramseykits com 590 Fishers Station Drive Victor NY 14564 800 446 2295 585 924 4560 ISCY 800 446 2295 Where Electronics Is Always Fun Build It Achieve It Learn It Enjoy It Prices availability and specifications are subject to change Not responsible for typos stupids printer s bleed or really weird Halloween tricks Visit www ramseykits com for the latest pricing specials term
129. ionr BD HETI CBip Select TRIS bic ff Descripctiont 5D 5EI Card Decect Inp5r bit Card Dereer TRIS bir ff Deacripticn ED SFPI Write Prozact Check input bit ff Description S0 SPI rice Protect Check IRIS bit f Deeceiption t The BEI eta ou Jimadified for 16 bic Micro EKperimezrzer ff Descripcion SD 5EI Chap Seleec ripoz bir FATE Poa Map CS CD WE controls to WO Expansion port InigStivs InloBlz PORTS re FAS A AE FATE OS pS TRIAS f Registaras fcr tha SFI modile yos wast tO use Branco Map use of SPIZ to Library EPIISTAI d Ed rd de Description The receive buffer foil bit in the SEI 230505 register ECK ET REH fdefing ESPISTAT interface f Description The SPI Buffer s deta SFISOF FSfClose Updates file info and ji closes file e T tdefine SPIIDIbitea e FSfeof Verifies if the end of the ff Desoription The bitwise defice for the BEI entre registesz jie de NN ff Deserincion The bitwise defina for the SEI 3212203 regisces ist file has been reached used in read operation FSfopen Opens existing file or creates new one FSfread Reads opened file e FSfseek Changes the file pointer position in file FSftell Returns current pointer position in file FSfwrite Writes information to file ddefine SFISIAIGits TdeZ ne SPIEHABNLFE here are two other functions we need to consider e MDD MediaDetect Determines if SD card is in
130. ious experience needed e Learn at home in your spare time Move to the front of the employment line in Radio TV Communications Avionics Radar Maritime and more Warren Weagant s FCC License Training A P O Box 3000 Dept 209 Sausalito CA 94966 I Please rush FREE info immediately l NAME Call now for FREE info 800 932 4268 ext 2 ADDRESS Or email us fcc CommandProductions com CITY STATE ZIP MEME J You may fax your request to 415 332 1901 October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 18 C E KNOWLEDGEY AT EVENTS ADVANCES AND NEWS II BY JEFF ECKERT ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY Re Se WASTEWATER PRODUCES ELECTRICITY AND DESALINATION here is of course a scarcity of clean water for drinking washing and other critical uses in many parts of the world so it would be pretty nice if we could accomplish desalination without relying on reverse osmosis or energy hogging electrodialysis It turns out that Bruce Logan an environmental engineering professor at Penn State www psu edu along with a cadre of researchers from China s Tsinnghua University have found a way at least in theory The team accomplished the e feat with a modified microbial fuel cell which uses bacteria to E Three chambered microbial desalination cells in the simultaneously clean the water and generate electricity A typical laboratory Photo courtesy of David Jones Penn State i cell consists
131. it Guitar Distortion Unit KJ 8102 10 00 plus postage amp packing Distortion is popular to many quitarists It can make the music sound quite different Project includes PCB 6 5mm sockets and electrical components 12VDC power required PCB 105 x 60mm Instructions NOT included See KJ 8103 1 25 for individual instructions or full color project book BJ 8505 7 50 POST amp PACKING CHARGES Order Value Cost 25 49 99 7 50 50 99 99 20 100 199 99 40 200 499 99 60 500 75 Note Products are dispatched from Australia so local customs duty amp taxes may apply Prices valid until 31 10 2010 Max weight 12lb 5kg Minimum order 25 b ENTHUS WEB PHONE Heavier parcels POA FAX EMAIL POST A y A LK fi F i j KC 5417 20 50 plus postage amp packing Enables you to drive up to two stereo headphones from any line level 1volt peak to peak input The circuit features a facility to drive headphones with impedances from about 8 600 ohms The Jaycar kit comes with all specified board components and quality fibreglass tinned PCB Power Supply to Suit KC 5418 11 75 D PC board size 134 x 103mm KC 5152 4 75 plus postage packing This tiny module uses the LM386 audio IC and will deliver 0 5W into 8 ohms from a 9 volt supply making it ideal for all those basic audio pr
132. ith a few items from the hardware store we can turn the simple LED circuit into a nice looking flame The first thing we have to do is modify the LED l ve never been able to find bright LEDs that are diffused the bright ones tend to come in a water clear package This makes the output very beam like as the convex end of the LED acts as a lens We can fix that with a file or a bit of sandpaper By grinding off the dome at the end of the LED we will get more light shining from the side of the package Figure 6 shows unmodified and modified LEDs The next step is to solder the resistor to the LED add leads and then protect everything with heat shrink tubing In addition to protecting the connections the heat shrink adds a little stiffness that will be useful in the final step Figure 7 shows a wick in process and one that is completed tend to solder the resistor to the anode side of the LED If you want to create a flameless faux candle you can use the wick as is simply install it in a candle body recessed enough to provide the illumination created by a hidden flame You can actually take real candles pillar type burn them down B FIGURE 2 LED wick 338 B FIGURE 3 Trigger input R1 2 2K a bit and then drill a hole through the center of the body By installing the LED in the wax candle the light will shine through the translucent paraffin and create a beautiful effect To create a flame for the wick use c
133. l a new random target is generated Of late am also keeping track of the directional change to ensure that the next update always passes through the mid point of the brightness range Figure 11 is a simplified illustration of the algorithm s behavior the ramp is actually a bit wobbly because the ramp variable is recreated when it hits zero When the new direction is ramping up the brightness will be selected in the upper region when the new direction is ramping down the brightness is selected in the lower region This seems to give the wicks a bit more life as we would want in a display In the final code I also apply an overall level control so can control the maximum brightness Coding Candles Keeping track of up to eight live wicks really dictates that it happens as a background process this allows us to monitor sensors and other things in the main code without affecting wick behavior unless we want to As discussed earlier the process is coded into a Spin method which launched into its own cog pri flicker wix lotto idx tmp direction base 8 target 8 ramp 8 lotto 5 cnt repeat idx from 0 to 7 target idx lotto amp SFF 80 base idx 0 ramp idx lotto amp 11 1 direction ze 200000000 repeat flicker loop 7lotto repeat idx from 0 to wix 1 if ramp idx 0 ramp idx lottery amp 11 1 if base idx target idx base idx elseif base idx
134. le the module according to the directions from Parallax www parallax com however do not install the bank of 16 angled male header pins on the lower edge of the board This will permit direct wired connections between these BS2 pin connections and the keypad and control switches later There are several approaches you can use to assemble this project You can breadboard the BS2 and related components if you intend on building the project as a temporary setup Or if you d like a more permanent assembly you may want to house everything in a project case like did chose to sandwich the BS2 module and keypad on opposite sides of the project case lid soldered in a divided row of 16 female header pins on the output tabs of the BS2 LEN k EA i PAALA T L 1 L L i D r E E T E D a Se 1 L ii E I L Pg Ze pp Py A 28 e s T ul 212 013 e 014 Di5 PHOTO 4 All header pins side view October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 53 AIST WPHOTOb Close up of resistors on BS2 PHOTO 6 Close up of keypad with ie module For outputs marked Vdd Vss Vin RES POT PO2 tabid 441 Default aspx You will need this in order to and P03 install the female header pins on the top transfer programming code from your computer to the BS2 component side of the PCB All remaining outputs P04 during construction as well as to download your own through P15 had the female header pins installed on the modified code lat
135. lear silicone the type used to seal seams around bathtubs and sinks The problem with silicone is that it takes an annoyingly long time to fully cure This can be fixed by adding two drops of water and two drops of glycerin into two ounces of silicone In order to ensure a complete mix dip the end of a match stick into yellow acrylic paint and then dab that into the silicone A tiny bit of color goes a long way The idea is not to color the silicone so much to change it but to provide a visual indication that the water and glycerin are completely mixed in By adding the water and glycerin the wicks will be ready in a couple hours versus the 24 normally required for the silicone to cure After mixing the silicone in a small cup dip the LED into it swirl it around a bit and then slowly pull it out to create a natural wispy flame shape You must keep the LED in the upside down position until the silicone is completely cured give it two hours if you mixed in the water and glycerin Figure 8 shows a completed wick flame For many projects build faux candles from PVC pipe Simply cut it clean it and apply hot glue drips to the top to finish the body The wick is installed and secured with hot glue at this point have a candle ready for a i FIGURE 6 Modified LED W FIGURE 7 LED and resistor prop or set Figure 9 shows a small candle created with my LED wick and a piece of 1 2 PVC pipe Programming a Jack o Lant
136. lotted plunger with hole Intermittent duty 25 on time 100 seconds max followed by 300 seconds off min Includes hex nut lock washer and mounting bracket 00 CAT SOL 412 MICROMINIATURE 12VDC SPDT RELAY Fujitsu ZFBR21D12 7 5 x 10 x 10mm high 12VDC 534 Ohm coil SPDT contacts rated 1A 24Vdc 0 5A 120VAC Maximum carry current 2A Note PC leads are not stiff Not suitable for auto matic insertion CAT RLY 616 c 10 for 65 each each 100 for 50c each HEADPHONES WITH MIC Hands free headset for 74 cordless home or office phones and many cell phones In line volume control 2 and mute switch An with pocket clip i x 7 PORT USB HUB Provides seven additional USB 2 0 ports to your PC or Mac to connect digital cameras external hard drives flash drives and printers One upstream and seven downstream ports yan Hot swappable and plug and play connections 10 CAT USB 71 22 HIGH POWER COOL WHITE LED EMITTER Luxeon Lumiled TM LXHL PWO1 Cool white Lambertian emitter 3 42Vdc typical 350mA 7 dl P each METAL BOX W HINGED LID Good looking metal storage display box Looks like brushed aluminum but responds to magnetism CAT T 105 30 6 Lumens 8mm diameter x 6mm high Surface mount leads Spec sheet available e 2 5mm sub miniature CATZ LED 145 p
137. m ll carrier board sits on pins that are all fitted at 0 1 inch centers which makes this carrier board perfect for integrating with standard 0 1 inch pitch perfboards JN4 e gt og a o 3 8 A ei SEN 0 0 Bl SCHEMATIC 1 All of the Vinculum l s 64 pins are supported by four 16 pin male headers C16 100nF C17 100nF DEBUG IF NPU NPU IO BUSO IO BUS1 IO BUS2 IO BUS3 IO BUS4 IO BUSS IO BUS6 IO BUS7 IO BUS8 IO BUS9 IO BUS10 IO BUS11 IO BUS12 IO BUS13 IO BUS14 IO BUS15 IO BUS16 IO BUS17 IO BUS18 IO BUS19 IO BUS20 IO BUS21 q VCCIO 3 3V VCCIO 3 3V VCCIO 3 3V 3 3 VREG IN qgaaduaadaua a a al UH CM TA TA Y MA TA TA dr ATA TA DA N N A N gt Loquo du n IH I s O ec ec U s A A gt U U CJ CJ JHA DA T d QU C18 100nF IO BUS43 IO BUS42 IO BUS41 IO BUS40 IO BUS39 IO BUS38 IO BUS37 IO BUS36 IO BUS35 IO BUS34 IO BUS33 IO BUS32 IO BUS31 IO BUS30 IO BUS29 IO BUS28 IO BUS27 IO BUS26 IO BUS25 IO BUS24 IO BUS23 IO BUS22 USB2DM USB2DP USB1DM 1 8V VCC PLL IN USB1DP 1 8V VREG OUT GND CORE C13 100nF as the language behind the calls to the functions that reside within the device drivers is simplified The API structure is also designed to provide the programmer easy access to the VOS Kernel Services in the same way it does for the device drivers In most cases the API function call names describe their actual intended fun
138. machine that isn t exactly melting down when it fetches your daily spam Either way you might want to consider volunteering a bit of that processing power to a good cause A good place to start is the University of California Berkeley s site for volunteer and grid computing boinc berkeley edu In case you haven t heard of it BOINC stands for Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing and it s used for distributed computing in a range of diverse projects including earthquake detection scientific and medical research mapping of the universe and so on One interesting project is Einstein Home einsteinathome org which uses your machine to search for gravitational waves from pulsars using data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory LIGO detector In fact a couple months ago volunteers from lowa and Germany found one about 17 000 light years away The current 500 000 participating BOINC computers grind out almost 2 370 teraFLOPs every 24 hours so you may as well join in the fun All you have to do is log onto the BOINC site choose a worthy project and download the software It s a rare opportunity to help create a better world while doing absolutely nothing A CIRCUITS AND DEVICES DVD PLAYER WITH FLOTV ost of us are eagerly awaiting the day when we can watch TV without paying exorbitant rates for cable or satellite services and Audiovox www audiovox com has taken a step in that direction with its new p
139. mal Protection Serial R C or Analog Control Easy to Use Starting at iaa 59 95 KKK Robot Brains ARC32 Robotics controller Built in 32 servo controller SSC32 compatible firmware SPI I2C 2 UARTS 16 A D Program in C BASIC or ASM Control from a PC USB Extensive code libraries Ww Compact izc alio heatriakiminimumI enteraal partz O 99 95 y Other Audio Amplifier Modules VMP2012 27V 5 5V 3W x 2 Audio Amplifier VMP2013 DW Mono Audio Amplifier VMP2015 15W Mono Audio Amplifier VMP2014 DW x 2 Stereo Audio Amplifier VMP2018 10W x 2 Stereo Audio Amplifier www basicmicro com UAL 800 535 9161 Email Quality Quick Turn Sheet Metal Products amp Precision Machined Parts ITAR Compliant EO HOO F2 MAR an C No Minimum Quantity Restrictions Precision x E e 1 et M Precision Parts Defense Laser Cul E Fabricatio i Manufacturing Srencils Quote in 24 Hours or Less Several Metallic 8 Non Metallic Materials in Stock Communications Maritime Visit www litmetalfab com today for your free no obligation quote l py Electronics SMT Stencils www integratedideas com 30 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 GUITAR KITS Y 4 Channel Versatile Mixer Kit KC 5448 57 50 plus postage amp packing This is an improved version of our popular guitar mixer kit and has a number of enhancements that make it even more versatil
140. mel has promulgated several bootloader protocols as have others and again can t vouch for which is the best but I ve chosen AVR109 www atmel com atmel acrobat doc1644 pdf This application note is accompanied by the source code written for the IAR compiler haven t bothered to port it to gcc since I m only interested in a subset of the commands available This protocol is the AVR side of the equation and the PC side is covered by the application note AVR911 Open Source October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 61 Programmer It is compatible with the AVRProg utility that comes with AVRStudio I use AVRProg for the Butterfly in my C Programming book but for this Workshop we ll use avrdude which also speaks AVR109 This protocol covers reading and writing Flash and lockbits and EEPROM and reading Fuse Bits but we will only look at the Flash AVR109 Commands We Use The heart of our bootloader is the function AVR109CommandParser shown next This function contains a switch statement that calls one of the AVR109 commands depending on the command byte received over the serial port Not all the AVR109 commands are used since only those chosen are needed for a simple bootloader Most of the function names are the same as the command name and are somewhat self explanatory autolncrementAddress is called by the command byte a which tells the bootloader to auto increment the address whoa this code is almost self documenting
141. ment or decrement the base value so that it moves toward the target Once the active wicks and the value in flickerdelay As we saw in the target is reached a new random target is generated main code we can change flickerdelay to alter the Whenever a wick brightess is modified the new level apparent behavior of the wicks You ll see there is just a is set in the leds object Note the use of the global level bit of math before the waitcnt command this is needed array which acts as an overall brightness control value As to prevent waitcnt from hanging delay of about 56 we modify the level array in the main cog it is used by the seconds when we have a small value in flickerdelay flame cog think this is really cool This process could be duplicated in another micro but Overall loop speed is dictated by the number of believe it would be a much bigger coding challenge Introducing Pololu s new line of Maestro USB Servo Controllers Conduct a symphony of servos Pololu s 6 channel Micro Maestro and new 12 18 and 24 channel Mini Maestros take serial servo controllers to the next level by incorporating native USB control for easy connection to a PC and programmability via a Three control methods USB TTL serial and internal scripting simple scripting language for self contained host controller free applications Whether you want the best servo controller available or a versatile general purpose I O control board thes
142. n thread vos tcb t tcbApplication thread Although the thread is not created until the last moment in the main function I ll provide an advanced look at the thread creation function call so you can relate the tcbApplication_ thread pointer we declared to the thread creation process tcbApplication thread vos create thread 29 SIZEOF FIRMWARE TASK MEMORY application thread 0 The first parameter in the vos create thread function October 2010 NUTS VOLTS 17 Project Library ll SCREENSHOT 5 Every header file that is directly associated with a like named library file contains definitions and data structures to support the functions contained within the library file it supports 29 is the thread priority A priority of 31 is highest with a priority of one being lowest Recall that we declared the SIZEOF_FIRMWARE_TASK_MEMORY value in our application header file We also coded a forward reference to the user generated application thread application_thread we are creating The thread application_thread is not coded to accept any arguments which explains the zero at the end of the thread creation function INSIDE THE MAIN FUNCTION It s time to put all of those plans we made in the application header file into action Let s begin by declaring a context for the USB host Before we actually code the host context declarations let s examine the code structure behind a USB host context All we have to do i
143. nd that they are sometimes off by a small amount That s because didn t round anything up truncated all my results because that s what the 08M and all PICAXE processors do Finally need to emphasize that these are theoretical results your specific ADC values will almost certainly be somewhat different We ll confront that issue in the next section when we actually construct and test our breadboard circuit CONSTRUCTING AND TESTING THE BREADBOARD CIRCUIT The schematic for our breadboard circuit is shown in Figure 6 As mentioned earlier the eight connections to the keyboard that I m using are not logically ordered but it really doesn t matter much The important thing is to make sure that the connections for each resistor are the same as the ones presented earlier in Figure 2 If the pinout is different for the keypad you intend to use simply rearrange the connections appropriately The parts list for our breadboard circuit is too simple to warrant a separate sidebar just a matrix keypad with a male header the seven resistors shown in the schematic and a PICAXE 08M processor are needed My breadboard layout is shown in Figure 7 To save some space on the breadboard I m using the AxMate FT programming adapter which is also supplying power to the breadboard The small red printed circuit board PCB attached to the AxMate FT is the 5V version of SparkFun s latest ADC _ base OI max Rtotal
144. ndishly fun projects The only limit is your imagination 24 95 We also have 30 other Evil Genius titles in stock TRON IX Book 1 by Gary Gibson Hands On Electronics Experiments This is the beautiful fully illustrated manual for a hands on lab to help you build 40 of the most interesting experiments you have ever seen on a solderless circuit board and as you do you learn how the basic components work in a circuit You will enjoy hours of fun creating all kinds of sounds and light displays 14 95 imr ijj ee 155 eal cara Encyclopedia of Electronic Circuits Volume 7 by Rudolf E Graf William Sheets Designed for quick reference and on the job use the Encyclopedia of Electronic Circuits Vol 7 puts over 000 state of the art electronic and integrated circuit designs at your fingertips Organized alphabetically by circuit Ei Sea NER C2 type this all new collection includes the latest designs from industry giants such as Advanced Micro Devices Motorola Teledyne General Electric and others 39 95 A TT P Programming for Micrucentrollers From the msn Smiley Workshop La C Programming for Microcontrollers by Joe Pardue e AA AAA i 2006 MT TT rr Nos uL Book 44 95 Kit 66 95 Do you want a low cost way to learn C programming for microcontrollers This 300 page book and software
145. ne define define NUMBER_OF_DEVICES VOS DEV USB HOSTI VOS DEV BOMS VOS DEV USB HOST2 VOS DEV UART VOS DbEV GPIO AUNOU Each device we list must have a unique device identifier which is used later by the Device Manager If you re having problems with the pair of HOST definitions recall that the Vinculum ll IC has a pair of USB portals These portals can be identified in Schematic 1 as USB1 and USB2 The last entry in our application header file is a forward declaration to the user generated application thread which is really no more than a C function A forward declaration is coded for each thread in the application In our case we only have one void application thread void With the application specific header file code completed we can move on into the application s source code file which we will call DesignCycle App c Naturally the application header file we just coded is named DesignCycle App h Our first order of business is standard C fare We will offer sacrifices unto the include gods include vos h include devman h Finclude DMA h include IOMUX h You will recognize the aforecoded include statement arguments as members of the resident Kernel header files see Screenshot 3 The VOS Kernel Services header file vos h is a must have as it supports the Kernel library which is the core power behind our application Our application include list acts as a guide for the device driver files we E
146. nected to a thermistor to measure the temperature of the battery If you charge another battery without the thermistor you can protect it from overheating by connecting a resistor between the charger and battery Measure the charger voltage Vc then compute the resistor value from R Vc 13 8 I where 2 3 amps divided by the charge time Ten hours is the standard charge time but you could use less if you check the temperature The power rating of the resistor is 2 R and designing more complex circuits and the software just couldn t keep up It would return answers on capacitors and inductors that didn t even have to calculate to know they were wrong had a friend just a few months ago recommend LT Spice saying it is what his college uses but warned me that it was less than user friendly After messing around with it for a little over a month now can see what he means have to navigate through two or three different windows just to set up the parameters on a resistor Currently my college uses MultiSim but that is way out of my price range Can you recommend some really good circuit simulation programs that are fairly easy to use reflect what might see when get a job in the industry and won t break the bank Cameron Seidi Any circuit simulator is going to involve a learning curve You need to read the user s manual available at http Itspice linear com software scad3 pdf There is also a user
147. ng Your Tools of Creativity Implementing an ADC Keypad Departments 08 DEVELOPING 72 NV WEBSTORE PERSPECTIVES 76 CLASSIFIEDS 44 SHOWCASE 78 TECH FORUM 66 ELECTRO NET 81 AD INDEX Nuts amp Volts ISSN 1528 9885 CDN Pub Agree 40702530 is published monthly for 26 95 per year by T amp L Publications Inc 430 Princeland Court Corona CA 92879 PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT CORONA CA AND AT ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES POSTMASTER Send address changes to Nuts amp Volts P O Box 15277 North Hollywood CA 91615 or Station A PO Box 54 Windsor ON NIA 6J5 cpcreturns nutsvolts com Ae etBurner Networking in One Day SBL2e Chip 2 port serial to Ethernet server with eight A D converter inputs and optional SPI DC CAN peripheral device support Low cost Industria Serial to Ethernet Sol ons e Instantly network enable any serial device e No programming is required for serial to Ethernet application e Customize to suit any application with a development kit optional I2C peripheral supp and 10 pin header SBL2e X External 2 port serial to Ethernet server with RS 232 support SBL2e XA External server with up to four A D converter inputs up to eight digital I O and up to two UARTS one RS 232 Hardware Features Up to three serial ports 10 100 Mbps Ethernet up to 10 digital I O 12 bit A D converters operating temperature 40 to 85 C 32 bit performance Software Features TCP UDP Telnet HTT
148. ng up the brightness of each candle output just so can see that they re working With 256 steps and a 4 ms delay between each it will take about a second for each candle to light to full brightness This holds for two seconds and then drops into the loop that will run until we power down often joke that my Halloween prop control programs are like a Quentin Tarantino movie in that they start at the end and then loop back You can see this at the start of the loop The brightness of all candles is being dimmed from 255 to 64 and the flicker speed is being modified to go from O fast angry to 1 000 slow calm At the end of this loop we re back at the idle state with calm low brightness wicks You ll remember that the circuit is set up to accept a Parallax PIR or a simple normally open switch usually a mat switch We re going to use this input to bring Jack to life when a ToT approaches It s always a good idea to debounce digital inputs and it is especially important with PIRs as they can be twitchy We can wait for a good input with a call to waitstart waitstart 150 This call waits for the start input to be active and stay active for 150 milliseconds before being considered a valid input This timing will prevent spurious outputs from the PIR from triggering the prop The waitstart method is pretty straightforward pub waitstart ms debounce ms 10 gt ms lt 1 000 debounce 0 repeat until d
149. no MEGA Freeduino Seeeduino TE our rebuilds are Gen ee Radias APEL Cet UIDEN GE 10M KENWOOD MOTOROLA BAL ARD MAX DN AES ALINE for important details fax 814 623 7000 E ier kem K PIE HO ak PF Snecrialiacts FCG TELF ma AAPM Bait chanel Qn mnit th Progrnevmdhic HF Power Z r omg OPT1 if ths VH Morrow Bond WE a Wo Guit cboanngd franemitter RER 1M FHF Horror Band EM Mubicfiannd Radio Recerver Inc IS DesignNotes com Receive a FREE Gift with orders over 5100 00 Hi EM aaah UK a m3 d ATEO 1 800 957 6067 ww DeesignmnNeateeae cor Part 90 eod peur su a EJ fa F Do you know how many watts YOUR MONEY ar going down the drain from THE PHANTOM DRAW The KILL AWAT T f meter is Che pe eet THE UHXT1 ALL UU OT Shan EHE Drangrgiver Sian we 4 SINT a Woi MU E WAP nzaacener Mi y FHF NEFI Low Cas Muti chide Audio Reeerees you determine pe your actual energy draw h Jemaosint con To order call 8007863 1 or online www nutsvolts com QUALITY Parts FAST Shipping DISCOUNT Pricing CALL WRITE FAX or E MAIL for a FREE 96 page catalog C O R A T O N Outside the U S A send 3 00 postage 12VDC SOLENOID Guardian T4X12 INT 12DC A420 066012 00 12Vdc 24 7 Ohm coil 6 1W 486mA 0 5 dia x 1 5 long frame 3 8 32 threaded bushing is 0 3 long 7 leads 0 188 dia s
150. nt to run when your AVR starts up Generally your system should be designed to run the application and only run the bootloader when you actually need it to upload some code You could do this by having a function in your application that allows you to call the bootloader but what if your application gets trashed Then how will you upload your code Atmel designed the AVR so that those with boot sections can have the device start up in that boot section if the BOOTRST fuse is set With that fuse set when the AVR starts after reset it loads the bootloader start address also set by fuses and starts the program from there The standard way to start up a microcontroller that is using a bootloader is to have the bootloader start and let it check for some indicator that it is needed You could have the bootloader wait to see if an external programmer is trying to talk to it via the USART after a brief pause with no attempt at contact the bootloader can decide it isn t needed and execute a jump to the application code at 0x0000 The downside of this technique is that you want the wait to be long enough to realistically allow a bootloader communication to begin but not so long that a user might think something has gone wrong Remember that folks using microcontrollers expect instant response and aren t used to turning them on then getting a cup of coffee while it boots like we expect with PCs Usually we would check to see if the bootlo
151. of the select case statement is skipped For example if key equals 375 char is set equal to 50 and the compiler jumps ahead to the program line that follows the endselect statement Our second program keypad2 bas incorporates all the changes we just discussed Open it in the Programming Editor and change the theoretical mid point values in each of the case conditions to the values you calculated from the results of running keypad 1 bas Also note that the sertxd statement has changed instead of sending the individual digits of the ADC value we re now transmitting the appropriate ASCII value for each character to the terminal window Download the program to your breadboard circuit and test all the keypresses You should see the correct character appear in the terminal window in response to each keypress If not a little trouble shooting is in order WHAT S AN EVIL GENIUS TO DO That s as far as we re going to take our ADC keypad project this month I m sure it s no surprise that the project we tackled in the Evil Genius book was to design a serialized version that simplified the interface with a master processor by freeing the master from the chore of repetitively monitoring an ADC input Next we performed a little surgery on our keypad We disassembled it and rearranged its innards so that the connector was moved to the top of the keypad and its keys were shuffled into a more convenient pattern The res
152. of the package For the PIC24F there are a total of 16 programmable pins on the package Ten of these are available for use on the Experimenter s I O expansion port The details of this PPS programming can be seen in the main code of each of the demo projects Details of how PPS is done in general can be found in the datasheet available from Microchip on the PIC24FGAO004 series as well as in the beginner s experiments lesson plans available at www KibaCorp com GAEREN pin 6 E MPAA pin 7 a RES pinl4 GE REG pin 17 er RBS pin 18 T ANL2 RBLF pin 23 ALI uum Microchip File UO Library Microchip developed a file I O library that is freely available to all users of Microchip products It is configurable and allows users to only compile and accept those library LR ARRAS LED Ac zsusatu Ted eee nm bi elements that they want to use in their application An excellent resource is the Microchip Application Note AN1045 Implementing File I O Functions Using Microchip s Memory that is available on their website at www microchip com We adopted this library for the Experimenter and the applicable API Application Programming Interface calls shown below dumefine JD cT k amp define SD 73 IRIS ideflne ID ZE Desoription 5D 3FI belting D CD TRES fdefine ED WE define SD WE TRIS EF Description The main JPI cehisel ALTO define AFIS e FSInit Initializes card and ff DEsaript
153. of two chambers one holding the wastewater and the other just plain water with an electrode in each one Naturally occurring bacteria in the former consume organic materials and generate a current The Penn version adds a third chamber in between with ion specific membranes i e membranes that allow either positive or negative ions but not both to pass through between the central chamber and the electrodes Salty water is placed in the central chamber As the bacteria consume the water negative ions move from the salty water to the wastewater chamber and positive ions move to the other electrode chamber thereby desalinating water in the central one When we try to use microbial fuel cells to generate electricity the conductivity of the wastewater is very low said Logan If we could add salt it would work better Rather than just add in salt however in places where brackish or salt water is already abundant we could use the process to additionally desalinate salty water clean the wastewater and dump it and the resulting salt back into the ocean Before you get too excited though note that there is a catch It took 200 mL of wastewater in this case acetic acid in water to desalinate 3 mL of saltwater As Logan observed This is not a practical system yet as it is not optimized but it is proof of concept A BYE BYE BLOODHOUNDS t may sound a bit morbid but the National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST ww
154. ojects It features variable gain will happily run from 4 12VDC and is smaller than a 9 volt battery allowing it to fit into the tightest of spaces PCB and all electronic components included KL PCB 46 x 26mm KC 5172 9 50 plus postage packing Voice operated relays are used for hands free radio communications and some PA applications etc quis Instead of pushing a button this WF device is activated by the sound of a voice This tiny kit fits in the tightest spaces and has almost no turn on delay 12VDC 35mA required Kit is supplied with PCB electret mic and all specified components PCB 47 x 44mm KC 5454 25 50 plus postage amp packing This kit has been improved and can now be set up easily to record two four or eight different messages for random access playback or a single message for tape mode playback Also it now provides cleaner and glitch free line level audio output suitable for feeding an amplifier or PA system It can be powered from any source of 9 14V DC Supplied with silk screened and solder masked dA Te PCB and all electronic components N PCB 120 x 58mm HOW TO ORDER www jaycar com 1 800 784 0263 61 2 8832 3118 techstore jaycar com P 0 Box 107 Rydalmere NSW 2116 Australia ALL PRICING IN US DOLLARS MINIMUM ORDER ONLY 25 Australian Eastern Standard Time Monday Friday 09 00 to 17 30 GMT 10 hours Note 10 14 days for
155. ols needed to create impressive holograms The book features more than a dozen distinct projects with more than 100 holo grams posted on an associated website 24 95 HOLOGRAPHY PROJECTS EVIL GENIUS 72 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 PICAXE Microcontroller Projects for the Evil Genius by Ron Hackett WHIP UP SOME FIENDISHLY FUN PICAXE DEVICES This wickedly inventive guide shows you how to program build and debug a variety of PICAXE microcontroller projects PICAXE Microcontroller Projects for the Evil Genius gets you started with programming and I O interfacing right away and then shows you how to develop a master processor circuit 24 95 Build Your Own Electronics Workshop by Thomas Petruzzellis This value packed ege d Pe Rodt pu put together a fully frags a mri Spc functioning home A Eres electronics workshop From finding space to stocking it wit components to putting the shop into action building testing and trou bleshooting systems The best part is this book will save you money Reg Price 29 95 TOM FEITHEJ 7FITIS 30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius by Simon Monk 30 Ways to Have Some Computer Controlled Evil Fun 30 aRDUINO PROJECTS EVIL GENIUS Using easy to find components and equipment this do it yourself book explains how to attach an Arduino board to your computer program it and connect electronics to it to create fie
156. ommon connection to all the keys It would be possible to use this type of keypad but the necessary modifications would be extensive The keypad that am using includes a row of eight holes along its bottom edge into which a male header can be soldered so that the keypad can easily be connected to a breadboard stripboard or ribbon cable assembly For breadboard projects it would actually be more convenient to have the header at the top so that the keypad could be placed in front of the breadboard rather than behind it If you prefer that arrangement you may be interested in the second Evil Genius keypad project in which we perform a little surgery on the keypad more about that later For now we ll stick with the stock configuration There seems to be a fair amount of variation in the specific order of the connecting points on different matrix keypads The simplest arrangement for the user would naturally be to have the row and column connections in order However probably because the keypad layout is simpler and therefore less expensive the connections are frequently not in any logical order Figure 2 shows the pin assignments for the keypad that I circuit used which is available on my website at www jrhackett net If you use a keypad that has a different pin arrangement you will need to modify the breadboard layout The schematic of course will remain the same USING AN ADC APPROACH TO DECODIN
157. omputer keyboard have not been able to locate an encoder output or an activity monitor that will show key presses don t care which keys are being pressed and the gears spinning are just for show would like a hard ware solution over a software solution but a complete exe program would be acceptable Maybe flashing the scroll lock LED when keyboard activity is being transmitted to the keyboard controller Monitoring the data stream for FO Key up occurrences would also work The circuit dia gram in Figure 1 should do the trick just connect IN to the keyboard s data line The PS 2 data line is normally held high but is guaran teed to be pulled low at the beginning of a transfer A simple monostable 555 can detect that low pulse and lengthen it to provide a control for your motor With the indicated values the 555 should run the motor for 0 1s 1 2s depending on the setting of R2 have included two options for connecting your motor Option 1 should work for small motors that draw less than 0 2A and operate at 5V If you have any other configuration recommend Option 2 If you feel that the time isn t long short enough just change the values of R1 R2 and C1 as needed Max time R1 R2 x C1 x 1 1 Min time R1 x C1 x 1 1 Daniel De Jager Edgewood WA 6101 June 2010 Floppy Interface l am looking to buy or get enough tips to design and build a device to do service adjustments on ol
158. ons for both the PC and the SD card The job of FAT is to keep track of all files on a given system FAT16 is the oldest of the Windows file systems and the 16 refers to the fact that this file system allocates 16 bits to store addresses of each sector It therefore has a limitation of supporting SD cards of up to 2 GB FAT32 on the other hand uses 32 bits as a sector address to support up to 2 TERA bytes of data The Microchip library is configured to support both formats This provides a lot of removable data storage capability for microcontrollers like the Experimenter to take advantage of The SD Card Hardware Interface The hardware interfaces are shown in Figure 3 The card interface itself is shown first then the card with the carrier interface second and finally a block diagram of the entire system connected to the HATO Sandisk 73 sandisk 73 so 20m em Ss B FIGURE 2 SD cards Experimenter Note that SD cards operate from 2 0V to 3 6V and this is easily accommodated with the Experimenter 3 3V operations SD cards support nine electrical contacts in addition to two contacts for insertion detection and write protection switch setting The nine electrical contacts can work in two distinct modes of communication the native original SD bus 4 bit parallel interface or an SPI Synchronous Serial Interface mode SPI is the mode we will use for the Experimenter When using SPI not all of the ele
159. operate motors solenoid valves relays Expand your board with the Der Magnetfelder Detektor component pack 35 95 NixieNeon Clock Kn Using Neon and Nixie bulbs this clock displays the precision movement of time and is programmable to display Time Chaos at different intervals The NixieNeon Clock then resets itself to the correct time in an eye catching ballet of luminosity The PCB is 7 25 x 7 25 and consists of over 400 components Reg Price 195 95 WE ACCEPT VISA MC AMEX and DISCOVER Prices do not include TOFT 8 T WR HRS t TERET WER ek b rs ask about your dfspoun on prices iar kei with ain The Complete Idiot s Guide to Solar Power for Your Home by Dan Ramsey David Hughes The perfect source for solar power fully illustrated This book helps readers under stand the basics of solar power and other renewable energy sources explore whether solar power makes sense for them what their options are and what s involved with installing various on and off grid systems 19 95 50 Green Projects for the Evil Genius by Jamil Shariff Using easy to find parts and tools this do it yourself guide offers a wide variety of environmentally focused projects you can accomplish on your own Topics covered include transportation alternative fuels solar wind and hydro power home insulation construction and more The projects in this unique guide range from ea
160. or trumps safety considerations If the vacuum cleaner does not trip the refrigerator outlet it is not the starting surge cur rent you need to plug into something other than an arc fault breaker Dennis Crunkilton via email 6104 June 2010 Driveway Sensor want to set up a home driveway sensor similar to a traffic light actuator by using a single wire loop in the pavement that senses vehicles by changing the frequency of an oscillator need to know how it works and how to build it The unit works very much like a large metal detector although the traffic signal units have more features have access to many of these units if you have an interest The traffic units have the ability to pulse pulse the relay if a vehicle passes over or sits on the loop a builtin relay or they can place a constant signal to the relay if a vehicle is sitting on the loop Some have the ability to delay or extend the detected vehicle Your loop will have to be about 4 6 turns of 14 Ga wire in a 6 x 6 or smaller area The detecter also has frequency and sensitivity and will let you know of an out of range or faulty loop Ray via email OOK FOR AMATEUR RADIO AND TV PolarisUSA Video Inc 13 Ramsey Electronics Inc 22 23 V Module q 30 BATTERIES CHARGERS Cunard Associates s 44 BUYING ELECTRONIC SURPLUS Jaycar Electroni
161. ore new customers With profit limited they because extremely aggressive in creating new digital technologies to fix that problem Digital radios solved the problem initially by using Time Division Multiplexing TDM to put three AAA n m man oT ee o ar October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 57 or in some systems like GSM which is still in use eight signals per spectrum channel This really multiplied their subscriber capacity Also created around this time was Code Division Multiple Access CDMA which further expanded the capacity of the cellular network Today all cell phones are digital and a wide range of different technologies are involved Q Are two way mobile radios also digital A Some of them are but not all Many like those used in fire police and public services still use FM Digital technologies like P25 and Tetra have been around a while but the different services have been slow to convert Military radios are mostly digital today Q What about marine and aircraft radios A Strangely both are still analog Marine radios use FM and aircraft radios use AM I m not sure of all the reasons for that but assume that since the ranges are short and the spectrum is not so crowded why change Besides the technologies are well proven and the equipment is moderately priced and very reliable Q What about broadcast radio A Analog AM and FM stations are still around and still the most widely used However most s
162. ories Record It With the 3 5 LCD recordable monitor you can capture pictures or record video for documentation Full specifications at Le Lr www CircuitSpecialists com Aardvark The Aardvark Wireless Inspection Camera is the only dual camera video borescope on the market today With both a 17mm camera head that includes three atachable accessories and a 9mm camera head for tighter locations Both cameras are mounted on 3ft flexible shafts The flexible shaft makes the Aardvark great for inspecting hard to reach or confined areas like sink drains AC Vents engine compartments or anywhere space is limited The Aardvark II comes with with a 3 5 inch color LCD monitor The monitor is wireless and may be separated from the main unit for ease of operation Still pictures or video can also be recorded and stored on a 2GB MicroSD card included The Aardvark s monitor also has connections for composite video output for a larger monitor recorder and USB interface for computer connection Also included is an AC adapter charger video cable and USB cable Optional 3 ft flexible extensions are available to extend the Aardvark s reach Up to 5 may be added for a total reach of 18 feet eS a 249 00 WT a E ur 3ft Extension AARDVARK EXT 24 95 Dc Cee et Item 575 AARDVARK te anlar i m E ui E S fer wur ar ar bam ma m fa Pal bg BB Be e ef ie SEELI USB Digital Storage Oscilloscopes po Spedficalions DS0 2090 D30 2150
163. ortable DVD player with FLO TV The model DFL 710 offers the usual ability to play DVDs on its seven inch diagonal screen and it includes stereo speakers You can also get live mobile television i e real time E The Audiovox DFL 710 MEMORY FEATURES WATER COOLING ou can spend big bucks for a custom overclocked EE like the ones mentioned previously but if you have the time and inclination it s also possible to build one yourself In that case the new HyperX memory modules may be of interest Kingston Technology www kingston com recently introduced the HyperX H20 water cooled DDR3 memory kits which offer frequencies up to 2 133 MHz and capacities up to 6 GB The new line consists of three products two 4 GB dual channel kits DVD player offers live TV transmission rather than downloading or buffering via Qualcomm s FLO TV service delivered over America s largest dedicated mobile TV network This brings in children s programming Disney Nickelodeon live sports news Fox News Channel CNN Mobile and a range of other shows full listing guide at www flotv com The unit lists at 199 99 and if you grab one quickly enough includes three months of FLO Thereafter you ll need to shell out 14 99 month A E Kingston now offers three models of water cooled DDR3 kits October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 11 2 000 and 2 133 MHz and a 6 GB triple channel kit 2 000 MHz According to Kingston s senior tech m
164. ost Whisperer was a friendly ghost What it will be in your house who knows Makes a GREAT leaning project besides Requires 4 AA batteries TFM3C Tri Field Meter Kit With Case 74 95 Automatic Animated Ghost Automatically greets your visitors Responds to sudden noises Built in microphone Adjustable sensitivity Who says ghosts are make believe Once your friends come upon this one they ll think differently The unique circuit board design includes two ominous blinking eyes that change with various conditions including sudden changes in ambient noise A WE sensitive built in microphone picks up anything from noises to talking and makes the ghost dance with its built in motor make eerie sounds with the built in speaker and randomly blink A white cloth and a hanger are included as shown to make it look like the real thing Runs on 2 AAA batteries Not included MK166 Automatic Animated Ghost Kit Halloween Pumpkin 25 bright LED s Random flash simulates flickering candle Super bright LED illuminates entire pumpkin Simple amp safe 9V battery operation The perfect starter kit with a terrific Halloween theme You Ta E j A wont be scraping the seeds and guts out of this pumpkin Six transistor circuit provides a neat random flash pattern that looks just like a flicker ing candle Then a super bright LED illuminates the entire pumpkin with a spooky glow The pumpkin face is the actual PC board and
165. parency or the glass ended up drilling a 7 8 hole through the bottom of the picture frame and inserted the PIR into this hole from the inside then tacked it with hot glue used a 3 pin male header and plugged it into the PIR female header then wire wrapped the PIR using the wire as an extension There are mounting holes in the board and the 1 2 6 32 screws will self tap When the PIC is triggered a bright flash of lightning comes from the picture The frame was placed above my stereo speakers and the output from the voice chip was fed into the stereo input A clap of thunder comes from the stereo speakers and really makes people jump If you don t want to use this particular picture you can also mount the LEDs on a piece of white how about a ghost hanging from the ceiling or black felt in a dark corner depending on the effect you want Zig zag the LEDs in groups of four There are a hundred and one possibilities ANDWF command does in the STARTING AREA The DIP switches for programming the chip are connected to port A s RAO RA1 and RA2 These pins are configured to have pulled up resistors so all we have to do is to change the DIP switches from open to closed to configure the pins either high or low There are other connections to port A besides the DIP switch To read just the first three pins you use an AND command You can AND B 00000111 B is for binary or you could also use a 7 dec
166. pened Device Manager returns a unique handle for that device The returned handle is of the type VOS_HANDLE Here s how VOS_HANDLE is declared within the Kernel s devman h file define VOS_HANDLE uxuntl6 VOS HANDLE vos dev open uint8 dev num VOS HANDLE is simply an unsigned 16 bit integer that holds the unique handle value returned by the vos dev open function which is one of the Device Manager functions According to the device list coded in the application header we need to reserve five unique VOS HANDLE slots VOS HANDLE hUsb1 hUsb2 hUart hBoms hGpio The FAT driver needs to have a context declared to allow it to communicate with the file system on our mass storage device Here s how the FTDI folks do it file system typedef void fat_context fat context fat open VOS HANDLE hBoms char partition unsigned char status unsigned According to the fat context source code we can gather from the various Vinculum l toolchain header files it seems that the FAT context data is derived from the invocation of the fat open function The fat close function adds fuel to that fire as the returned fat context information is also used by the fat close function void fat close fat context fat ctx The vos create thread function returns a pointer to the newly registered thread So we ll need to accommodate that action by declaring a pointer to our user generated application thread which we will name applicatio
167. ps 12v LED Bars LCD Displays Graphic and Character 17 kits start at 25 Basic robot animal Robot Kits Are Here Completely configurable expandable and modifiable Visual programming Great for kids age 10 and up With student workbook Starting at 95 Ask about school discounts 503 439 1249 5797 NW Cornelius Pass Road To see the best deals join our online www SurplusGizmos com Hillsboro Oregon 97124 mailing list or stop by our retail store 439 Order online at www melabs com USB Programmer for PIC MCUs 89 95 as shown i RoHS Compliant Programs PIC MCUs including low voltage 3 3V devices Includes Software for Windows 98 Me NT XP and Vista With Accessories for 119 95 Includes Programmer Software USB Cable and Programming Adapter for 8 to 40 pin DIP EPIC Parallel Port Programmer starting at 59 95 12 NUTS2VOLTS October 2010 Development Tools for PIC MCUs miroEngincering abs Vna LAB X aged belied Boards Pre Assembled Board Available for 8 14 18 28 and 40 pin PIC MCUs 2 line 20 char LCD Module 9 pin Serial Port Sample Programs Full Schematic Diagram Pricing f from 79 95 to 349 95 PICPROTO Prototyping Boards RR Double Sided with Plate Thru Holes WM Circuitry for Power Supply and Clock Large Prototype Area Boards Available for Most PIC MCUs 3 Documentation and Schematic Pricing from 8 95 to 19 95 PICBASIC PRO Compiler Phone
168. ra EE EXDIBSSP UB Ee Front Panel Express LLC 1 PCB POO cnc Trace Systems IMO ouscssietesisieseeent OO EDUCATION GE Command Productions oit 9 NKC Electronics sisi ii 44 di APR POP a 37 Technological Arts 44 EMBEDDED TOOLS Mouser Electronics n A NetBurner aanananannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnrnnrnrnrnnnns TA ENCLOSURES Front Panel Express LLC ALA Integrated Ideas 8 Tech 30 KITS amp PLANS Cana Kit COND iran DO DesignNotes com Inc 44 MISS UTC Jaycar Electronics 91 NetBurner m T NKC Electronics uii eiii pss 44 OKT S ce 44 Ramsey Electronics Inc 22 23 Solarbotics HVW 8 MISC SURPLUS All Electronics Corp 45 Electronc Sul plis in Zi Front Panel Express LLC 37 ell E 12 MOTORS BAN BOIS 35 PA A PROGRAMIMERS GE E 20 microEngineering Labs 12 RF TRANSMITTERS RECEIVERS Abacom Technologies S Linx Technologies 19 ROBOTICS Bane ROMS sr 35 Silke ae dz eC A Lemos International Co Inc 44 Lynxmotion Inc 28 QA ro 2 Pololu Robotics amp Electronics Ka e Tee UA WY esccerssteauneteiecunsccecemeeetase a SATELLITE Lemos International Co Inc
169. referred to as Digital Audio Broadcast DAB It broadcasts music and other programs in digital on the VHF bands not the usual AM low frequency bands allotted for that Canada has a similar system Q What about TV A As you probably know TV went all digital last year All the analog stations went off the air and switched to digital which gave us high definition TV If you still have an old analog set you have to use one of those converter boxes that translates the digital TV signals to analog so your old set can handle them All new sets sold today are digital only Almost everyone loves digital TV as it has such improved resolution Over 50 of the US population today has an HD set with a big LCD or plasma screen There is also the mobile TV from FLO TV that you may have heard about It was developed to provide digital TV to cell phones and portable mobile TVs like those in cars and SUVs Q Is digital TV unique to the US A No not really Europe went to digital TV a number of years ago with its Digital Video Broadcast DVB standard Japan has their ISDB Integrated Services Digital Broadcast system and South Korea uses their DMB Digital Media Broadcast system Most of these digital TV standards have mobile versions for broadcasts to cell phones The US is working on a mobile version of its Advanced Television Standards Committee ATSC standard for digital TV in the US It should be available in the near future in some cell phones
170. res and other frightening devices And at Halloween there s no better effect than high voltage sparks flying through the air The PG13 Plasma Generator creates a very impressive 25 000 volts at 20 kHz to provide a stunning disp 2 of high voltage It will draw a cool looking 2 spark to hand held screwdriver or light fluores cent tubes without any connection It produces stunning lighting displays drawing big sparks to perform lots of high voltage experiments In the picture we took a regular clear Decora style light bulb and connected it to the PG13 WOW A storm of sparks light tracers and plasma filled the bulb Holding your hand on the bulb doesn t hurt a bit and you can control the discharge It can also be used for powering other experiments let your imagination be your guide Operates on 16VAC VDC for max imum output Can also be run from 5 16VAC VDC to reduce the output voltage PG13 Plasma Generator Kit 64 95 PS21 110VAC Input 16VAC Output Power Supply 19 95 UE The incredible OBDII plug in monitor k that has everyone talking Once carech plugged into your vehicle it monitors up to 300 hours of trip data from speed braking acceleration RPM and a whole lot more Reads and resets your check engine light and more 8226 CarChip Pro OBDII Monitor 99 95 Our 1 Mini Kit for over 35 years Fis Alternately flashes two jumbo red E LED s Great for signs name badges model railroading and more Use
171. rized patterns Uses safe plastic mirrors You ve probably seen a laser show at con certs or on TV They re pretty impressive to say the least Knowing that you can t afford a pro fessional laser display we challenged our engineers to design one that s neat and easy to build yet inexpensive Well the result is the LLS1 Laser Light Show This thing is sweet and perfect for your haunted house or halloween parties It utilizes two small motors and a small standard laser pointer as the basics Then we gave it variable pattern and speed controls to customize the pattern Not enough you say How about a line level audio input to modulate the pattern with your CD s music or spooky sound effects You bet Everything is included even the small laser pointer Runs on 6 12 VDC or our standard AC adapter LLS1 Laser Light Show Kit AC125 110VAC Power Supply Tri Field Meter amp Ghost Detector See electric magnetic and RF fields Watch the magnetic fields of the earth Sense different magnetic poles Detect RF transmitter fields Graphical LED display allows you to see the invisible fields Great learning tool for EMF RF and manetic field theory 49 95 9 95 Call it a Tri Field Meter an Electrical Magnetic and RF Detector a Ghost Detector or a Tricorder but walking around with this on Halloween will seriously impress even the most doubting The TFM3C has three separate field sensors that are user selectable
172. s More Complete kits available isvolts com amp http store servomagazine cem CAXE PRIMERA SHARPENING YOUR TOOLS OF CREATIVITY i BY RON HACKETT IMPLEMENTING AN ADC KEYPAD Way back in March 07 well before the PICAXE Primer appeared on the scene wrote an article for Nuts amp Volts that described how to interface a 12 or 16 key matrix keypad to a PICAXE 18X processor In the article used a standard matrix scanning approach to decoding a keypress For a 4 x 4 matrix keypad this approach requires eight I O lines four inputs and four outputs for the interface That s a large number of I O lines to dedicate to a single function but didn t mind the I O expense because the keypad was being used as part of a stand alone I O terminal and the 18X processor had more than sufficient resources for the task However l m sure you can think of several 08M based projects that would also benefit from user input via a keypad so this month we re going to focus on a different approach to interfacing a matrix keypad with a PICAXE processor This alternate approach only requires a single ADC input to decode a 12 or 16 key matrix keypad so it s suitable for use with any 08M based project Of course the same approach can be used with any PICAXE processor as well OLD BUSINESS Before we get into the details of this month s project have a small piece of old business to discuss Back in the
173. s could result in misidentifying the specific key that has been pressed In order to make my trial and error approach as painless as possible set up a simple Excel spreadsheet to compute the ADC values that would result from a specific combination of resistors and then tried various combinations until found one that worked When used the 256 levels provided by the readadc command some of the ADC values for two adjacent keys were so close differences of 4 or 5 that was concerned that errors could result Switching to the 1024 levels provided by the readadc10 command greatly simplified the task The resistor values that finally chose are shown in Figure 4 Each of the 16 key positions includes two pieces of relevant data the total resistance that is connected in series with the 10K base resistor when the corresponding key is pressed and in parentheses the resulting value produced by the readadc10 command If you would like to experiment with different resistor values the formula you need is the basic voltage divider rule In English The ADC reading is to the maximum ADC value 1023 for readadc10 as the base resistance 10K is to the total resistance Figure 5 presents the same thing algebraically if you prefer it that way If you double check some of my computations ADC max i LEH Rrou E FIGURE 5 The voltage divider formula ADCmax Rhe Rtotal PICAXE PRIMER you ll fi
174. s satellites cell phones hobby radios marine and aircraft radios military radios radars GPS and so on Anything we generally refer to as wireless means radio Q How long has this digitization of radio been going on A For decades actually It probably started with satellites in the 1970 s then moved on to other services over the years Things really picked up in the 1980 s and would guess that 90 of all radio is digital today Q Just why did this move to digital occur A Great question And there is no one single reason Probably the main reason is that digital signals are very robust and less affected by noise because of their binary nature Second we now have small cheap and fast integrated circuits and microcomputers that can process these signals Designers found they could squeeze more signals into a given spectrum band with digital techniques thereby greatly improving spectral efficiency in a limited spectrum Finally some really great digital compression techniques were developed that further improve the ability to cram more signals at higher speeds into a limited bandwidth Q Give me a good example of how some of those benefits were applied A The best example is cellular radio Cell phones started out in the 1980 s as analog FM signals Even with a relatively narrow band 30 kHz modulation the cell phone carriers found that their limited spectrum was quickly used up meaning they could not take on any m
175. s and conditions Thanks Robin for reminding me of this ad deadline and that Halloween is approaching Therefore today s color theme is Pantone 021C Orange Copyright 2010 Ramsey Electronics LLC so there In this column I answer questions about all aspects of electronics including computer hardware software circuits electronic theory troubleshooting and anything else of interest to the hobbyist Feel WHAT S UP Join us as we delve into the basics of electronics as applied to every day problems like free to participate with your questions comments or suggestions Send all questions and comments to O amp SA nutsvolts com LARGE CLOCK have read with real interest your articles on the large clock using the PIC would like to make a clock that can be programmed with the Arduino and use non surface mount chips It is hard to breadboard with SMC But want the complete clock meaning LEDs for all the hours all the minutes and all the seconds The seconds would consist of a circle of 60 bi color LEDs green and red with the green on all of the time and the red coming on each second in rotation The minutes would consist of a circle of 60 yellow LEDs each of which would stay lit for the minute indicated and go off when the next minute comes on Also when the minute LED lights up it needs to trigger a cluster of LEDs that can be formed into the minute hand The hours would con
176. s line of highly customized laptop desktop and 3D machines that you build from the ground up The first job is to choose the case you want which will run you 189 to 10 NUTS2VOLTS October 2010 TECHKNOWLEDGEY 2010 299 depending on your desired levels of cooling noise and upgradeability Next you pick the paint job which can push the price of the empty box up to as much as 924 From there you choose pretty much any desired combination of processors Intel Core i7 or 15 AMD Phenom II memory devices cooling techniques and other items After getting past the shock of the box price things get financially less frightening For example if you ordered a machine with a single 17 980X 3 33 GHz processor an ASUS Rampage III motherboard liquid CPU cooling 6 GB of memory one ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics adapter and a pair of 1 TB drives you d top out at 4 215 not including a display keyboard and mouse That s a pretty significant chunk of change but serious gaming geeks have been known to shell out much more For example check out the Hardcore Reactor X at www hardcorecomputer com it can run you close to 10 000 A DONATE YOUR SPARE CYCLES f you re like most of us you have a lot of computing power that sits idle most of the time Maybe it s in the form of a PC that you ve retired but haven t sold because frankly it isn t worth the cost of a classified ad Or maybe it s that 3 3 GHz multicore processor in your desktop
177. s pull up the USBHost h file in the Vinculum Il IDE Context for USB Host typedef struct usbhost context t number of interfaces both USB ll hosts combined unsigned char if count number of endpoints excluding control endpoints expected unsigned char ep count number of concurrent transaction expected unsigned char xfer count number of concurrent isochronous transactions expected unsigned char iso zer count usbhost context t If you re an avid Design Cycle reader this USB host code Is no stranger to you The typedef struct source code snippet defines a structure of type usbhost context t We can create instances of the structure type usbhost context t like this 18 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 void main void USB Host configuration context usbhost_context_t usb_ctx The newly declared USB host configuration context is called usb_ctx The UART context can be declared in an identical manner Here s what the UART context structure looks like from inside of the UART h file Context for UART typedef struct _uart_context_t unsigned char buffer_size uart context t An instance of the uart context t structure called uart_ctx is created within the confines of the main function in this manner UART configuration context uart context E ert CUX think you can get there from here as far as the GPIO context is concerned Here s the GPIO seed context structure definition
178. sist of 12 LEDs that stay on for the hour indicated and also trigger a cluster that can be formed into the hour hand In addition there needs to be a means of setting the time This would then be a digitally driven analog clock with no motors or moving parts Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated Jay Simmons 24 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 am not going to learn a new programming language and use an unfamiliar chip but could design a circuit and PICBASIC program for a PIC16F57 You can convert the program to C for the Arduino and am sure you can find a version among the 11 now produced that will be compatible Wait a minute Sixty lines for the seconds 60 lines for the minutes 12 lines for the minute hands and 12 lines for the hour hands 144 lines I don t know of a micro with 18 eight bit ports so it looks like a hardware solution is easier Four 74HC154 one of 16 decoders will give the 60 lines for the seconds and another four for the minutes An hour counter will use another 74HC154 to move the hour hand see Figure 1 could still use a PIC16F57 to control the 74HC154s but the cost in time far outweighs the cost of a half dozen 30 cent chips The seconds are displayed by bi color LEDs red and green When the red LED is turned on by Q1 the green goes off because its voltage drop is higher Instead of having the minute LED go off suggest a circle of 60 yellow LEDs with every fifth
179. sitive devices and are priced right VTTWSET2 Non Conductive Tweezers Set 3 95 The hit of the decade Our patented receiver hears the entire aircraft band without any tuning Passive design has no LO therefore can be used on board aircraft Perfect for air shows hears the active traffic as it happens Available kit or factory assembled ABM1 Passive Aircraft Rcvr Kit Electronic Siren Exactly duplicates the upward and downward wail of a police siren Switch closure produces upward wail releasing it makes it return downward Produces a loud 5W output and will drive any speak er Horn speakers sound the best Runs on 6 12VDC SM3 Electronic Siren Kit 7 95 NW Encodes OR decodes any tone 40 Hz To to 5KHz Add a small cap and it will go as low as 10 Hz Tunable with a precision 20 turn pot Great for sub audible CTS tone squelch encoders or decoders Drives any low voltage load up to 100mA Runs on 5 12 VDC TD1 Encoder Decoder Kit Walking Electronic Bug Built around a pair of subminiature cell phone motors this bug wanders around looking for things to bump into Sensors below his LED eyes Le sense proximity and make him turn away Steer him with flashlights too Runs on two N batteries WEB Walking Bug Kit 9 95 29 95 Ultra high gain amp boosts audio 50 s times and it does it in stereo with its e dual directional stereo microphones Just plug in your standard earphone or headset and po
180. sy to more complex and are designed to optimize your time and simplify your life 24 95 B3 Sates Wind Turbine Kit EGO GREENS A EVIL GENIUS re E i CM Zen ES Lei The Whirlybird Three Phase Wind Turbine Kit is one of the great projects from the series of articles by John Gavlik Experimenting with Alternative Energy In Parts 6 and 7 he teaches you how to produce the most electricity utilizing the wind For kit details please visit our webstore Subscriber s Price 75 95 Non Subscriber s Price 79 95 de x Dei EM e D Y D o m e A Do you know how many watts YOURMONEY are going down the drain from THE HANTOM DRAW If you are interested d your ownjpower isage we ali It Nuts amp Volts Mages believe that this W isthe best way to help you determine your electricaltenergy use in ON an lar home appliances To order call 13800 783 4624 or online www nutsvolts com 529 95 plus S amp H Fuel Cell Projects for the Evil Genius by Gavin D J Harper FUEL CELLS FUEL YOUR EVIL ls z URGESWHILEYOU MB EVIL BUILD GREEN ENERGY PROJECTS Go green as you amass power Fuel Cell Projects for the Evil Genius broadens your knowledge of this important rapidly developing technology and shows you how to build practical environmentally conscious projects using the three most popular and widely accessible fuel cells 24
181. t noise fan 6 digit counter Autoset automeasurement formula editor ratiocursor Crisp 6 5 TFT VGA display LED backlight DVI output N K ER RR KR ER RI PROGR 2 3 4 CHANNEL HIGH PERFORMANCE POWER SUPPLY HMP SERIES vr da 0000 RS 232 esse ecce esse zx IEEE 488 TCP IP HMP2020 1x0 32V 0 10A 1x0 5 5V 0 5A max 188W HMP2030 2x0 32V 0 5A 1x0 5 5V 0 5A max 188W HMP4030 3x0 32V 0 10A max 384W HMP4040 4x0 32V 0 10A max 384W 188 384W output power realized by intelligent power management Low residual ripple lt 150 V due to linear post regulators High setting and read back resolution of up to 1mV 0 2mA HMP4030 HMP4040 Keypad for direct parameter entry Galvanically isolated earth free and short circuit protected output channels Advanced parallel and serial operation via V I tracking EasyArb function for free definable V I characteristics FuseLink individual channel combination of electronic fuses Free adjustable overvoltage protection OVP for all outputs All parameters clearly displayed via LCD glowing buttons mS d v v v v v v v v v v v v v v LCR BRIDGE HM8118 RS 232 incl HZ188 Basic Accuracy 0 05 Measurement functions L C R IZI X IYI G B D A D M N Test frequencies 20 Hz 200 kHz Up to 12 measurements per second Parallel and Series Mode Binning Interface HO118 optional for automatic sorting of components
182. t s the case all you need to do is replace them with new break ers Another possibility is a dusty motor If you have GFCls they will trip on leakage current Dust is hygroscop ic which means it will absorb water vapor from the air That slightly moist dust will leak current which can trip your GFCI After the motor has run a bit it warms up and drives off the moisture The leakage current goes down and the GFCI won t trip You didn t state what was tripping the overcurrent part or the GFCI part Either could be the culprit and the fix should be fairly easy do not believe it is from too much current draw The vacuum is rated for 12 amps which means that it should be okay on a standard 15 or 20 amp circuit Motors do draw more on startup but consid er that this is a widely used consumer product and a Google search shows nobody else having a problem with it David Sarraf Elizabethtown PA 4 Ground Fault Interrupt GFI breakers are only installed in kitchen bath and outdoor outlets Assuming that you are plugged into a bedroom or living room outlet the GFI breaker is not the source of your problem Do you have a relatively new house with arc fault breakers The arc fault detecting breaker is known to sometimes trip on brushed motors such as used in vacuum cleaners Try the vacuum cleaner on the outlet serv ing your refrigerator It will not have an arc fault breaker because the reliable operation of the refrigerat
183. tations have added a digital capability called HD radio The station s programs are digitized and broadcast in digital format on exactly the same frequency as the analog signals The digital signals overlay the analog signals Analog radios ignore the digital while an HD radio receiver can pick up the digital signals The digital capability also allows most radio stations to broadcast two or three other programs simultaneously thanks to the multiplexing capability Q Tell me more about digital HD radio A Well it has been around for years but in the past five years Or so most stations have added it am not so sure that most folks actually know about it You can readily buy an HD radio for about 100 at Best Buy RadioShack or any other consumer electronics retailer Many cars come with HD or offer it as an option The big deal about HD is that is gives slightly B FIGURE 1 C Crane s CC Wi Fi digital Internet radio connects wirelessly by Wi Fi to your home router or by a direct Ethernet cable connection 58 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 nmunication better fidelity than the AM and FM stations AM stations sound more like FM and FM stations sound more like CDs Furthermore the HD signals are more immune to noise and do not fade as much when you are driving Q Does the rest of the world have digital radio A Yes pretty much Europe has had digital radio for years with a system called Eureka 147 You will hear it
184. the figure This also removes some startup code that we do need so we have to add it back by putting the following code snippet right before the main function WW ffi Display the Connect Dialog Active Configuration delma 1 Le Cisma Makefile al peii name 2 Clean sebulid suppor requires clean tanget 3 Make e sde must exit inthe same iode Tapp neme must sou Output File Name adobootavr elf Output File Director defsul From Peter Fluery AVRFreaks Aug 10 2005 to remove interrupt Vector table put nostartfiles in LDFlags add the following function saves wasted space oid __jumpMain void __attribute__ naked attribute section init9 e void __jumpMain void asm volatile set stack 0 x i RAMEND asm volatile clr zero reg rl set to 0 asm volatile rjmp main jump to main Now when we compile the code we get 958 bytes which will fit in the desired boot section We could stop here but there is also another way to save some space Use a Different Optimization Level We can keep the code unchanged and instead of using the default optimization of Os we can use O1 You change this as shown in Figure 3 Just select 01 from the Optimizations drop box When you compile using this optimization you get 986 bytes which would also get you inside the limits If you use both you get 854 bytes
185. tion its associated header file must also be included in the application NAVIGATING VINCULUM II APPLICATION SOURCE CODE VOS Kernel Services device drivers and API calls are major parts of the Vinculum l application code big picture However we can t write an application by simply including libraries and headers into our Vinculum Il application source code So let s practice what we preach and begin by coding up an initial Vinculum Il application header file INSIDE THE APPLICATION HEADER The application programmer guide application note states that the first thing we should include in our application header file is the size of the stack memory that the application thread will require define SIZEOF FIRMWARE TASK MEMORY 0x1000 The stack memory size of 0x1000 is overkill by design After successfully compiling loading and running the application we re about to discuss and build with the Ox1000 value was able to get the application to run reliably with a stack size of only 0x0400 Thus the stack memory size value is dependent on the complexity of your application 16 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 F Project Library ll SCREENSHOT 2 You get here the same way you get to the window in Screenshot 1 by choosing Library Files instead of Header Files from the drop down menu The next recommended programming action is to fix a number of devices that the application will use define define define defi
186. tive Here s why Imagine ToTs approaching your home where they see a friendly Jack o Lantern on the porch gently lit and looking peaceful As they draw near the flames are magically brightened and seem a bit angry In the minds of the ToTs you ve just created a What s next scenario They will be happily on edge until they re safely back on the sidewalk with the treats you ve just provided The reason for the random delay after the trigger point is to fool returning ToTs The candles burn brightly for 30 seconds before going back to the top of the loop where we started and are October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 41 R19 478 ii FIGURE 10 Serial I O dimmed back down to the idle level Again this is very simple and with a little extra hardware and code you could even add audio control The circuit in Figure 10 can be used to start audio players that require an open collector start pulse e g Cowlacious set the jumper to select the transistor and pulse the TX pin low high low or to communicate with a serial audio player e g EFX TEK Rogue Robotics when the transistor is bypassed Serial devices will need a serial cog but that s not a problem as the base Jack o Lantern code only uses three of the eight available suspect many will stop right here and head to the workbench to build a candle controller For those hearty types who want to know how generate realistic flames read on Mimicking Nature is Difficult My friend
187. to CD Card Detect this is low when card is present Pin 7 Digital Out Connects to CS Card Select this is low when card is selected A final hook up diagram using the Parallax SD card adapter and the Experimenter is shown in Figure 5 Note that an activity LED is connected to the CS line of the SD Parallax SD Card Adapter Kit 832313 SE ACRO MAME Interface ver 3 que ETE B FIGURE 5 Experimenter hook up for SD card GAD 213 SERTAL INT C0HH i optional Por RERDMRITERERO aly 48 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 RI zRl KIK ESE R6 RT FRA LK react vot ch Lo e bok L0 S i E WE TAL i VIA 16 Bit Experimenter Module 1 0 Expansion Bus 450 RE pin L Hote 3 37 and GHI comes from Experimenter Experimenter card When the LED is on the SD card is actively being accessed from the Experimenter When the LED is on don t remove it from the carrier it is indicating that the Experimenter is actively accessing the card To use the SPI2 within the PIC24F we need to configure the PPS or Programmable Peripheral Select capabilities of the PIC24F PPS exists as a feature for the smaller pin packages of the Microchip PIC24F family It allows users to configure where they want the internal peripherals to appear on the outside pins of the package This is done for the simple reason that the internal peripheral count is too large to be accommodated by the limited pin count
188. to our to help you learn and have some fun doing it NW application section using edubootavr e Make sure that you have compiled pgmtest for the ATmega644 BeAVRAO p Find the Command Prompt ah N P C Ge E program probably under Start All S Ee o ana le p Programs XH a JP www canakit com Accessories Command Prompt E s 4 d s t 95 j SAVE 15 Open Command Prompt and type in cd C pgmtest default if that is where you ve put that code and hit return to take you to the pgmtest default directory where pgmtest hex resides COUPON CODE NV201002 Find the COMx port your ASSEMBLED BeAVR40 is talking to UK1133 Open NotePad and type in 50A Digital PWM Motor Speed Controller avrdude p m644p c avr109 P Optional LCD Module 17 95 COM3 b 57600 v F D U flash w pgmtestBeAVR hex Copy that and paste it to the a Mi ASSEMBLED Command Prompt as shown in f Lad Figure 10 Hit enter and it should upload pgmtest as shown in Figure 11 e Open Bray s Terminal and reset the BeAVR40 which should show CK1301 UK1104 the text in Figure 12 Mini USB PIC Programmer with ZIF Socket 4 Port USB Relay Controller with l Assembled 49 95 6 Channel Analog Digital Interface So now you know all about FM Transmitters Timers Audio Amplifiers Motor Controllers Custom Designs www canakit com 1 888 540 KITS 5487 AVR memory If you thought this was edifying then don t forget to check
189. tory grade PCB A VINCULUM II EXPANSION BOARD Odds are that your Vinculum l project thoughts aren t exactly the same as mine or the reader in the next town or the reader down the street In that the FTDI folks have provided an inexpensive Vinculum ll carrier board for its 32 48 and 64 pin parts taking the time and expense to design and manufacture a generic Vinculum ll embedded dual USB host controller carrier PCB would be nothing more than reinventing the development board wheel just happen to have a 64 pin variant of the Vinculum l expansion board The default logical and physical layout of it is drawn up in Schematic 1 The hardware is under the lens in Photo 1 The expansion board interface pins are arranged to fit perfectly into any 0 1 inch pitch perfboard Thus we can literally plug our expansion board into a relatively inexpensive perfboard based embedded dual USB host controller design No unique PCB is required ENOUGH OF THE VINCULUM II HARDWARE ALREADY Up to this point our Vinculum ll discussion has revolved around the hardware and the theory that stands behind it If you ve ever worked with any computing device you know that understanding the hardware design is just as important as understanding how to talk to the intelligent hardware components via firmware With that thought in mind B let s apply what we ve learned about the Vinculum Il hardware in 14 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 JN d a A E
190. ttery A 1 000 ohm resistor is used to make sure that not too much current flows to the gate HIGH VOLTAGE KITS anlid State Tesla Coils High Voltage Kits and Components de Plasma Speakers Clasa E Teala Colla Plasma speaker Kit Audia Modulation Coils d Lightning Detectors Flyback Drivers C bx DRSSTCs Boobs j 4 o hhh es ie www EasternVoltageResearch com Electronic a Kits Fun and Educational s Discount White and Blue LEDs l WT O amr MS d ke e www bakatranics com Quantity Discounts NEW FOR 2010 VIDEO AGC SYNC PROCESSING KIT Sea eae All Board Mounted Parts e ell Bel JO TU FANS w Instruction Manual CD Omer unicuae Choice of Non programmed or Pre programmed AVR Microcontroller www jlkelectronics com m lm ai Tm M pm H m eieecomonmic WWW Kenneke com ny 76 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 anode cathode gate gate SCR Fi Bn dle m ande hole Sf calhode hole di Procedure Connect a nine volt battery to the battery snap Touch the wire coming hora SCR Schematic R1 220 ohms High Quality Electronic Kits amp Modules UK1133 50 AMP DIGITAL PWM OPTIONAL DISPLAY Custom Designs www canakit com www nutsvolts com SOLAR PRODUCTS KITS from the 1 000 ohm resistor to the gate of the SCR This positive pulse from the batt
191. ture overshoot will be proportional to the thermal resistance between the well and the sensor The TO 46 metal case would be best but did not find any the part is plastic TO 92 recommend connecting C4 directly to the LM35 pins and use 36 wire to connect to the outside of the insulation to minimize conducted thermal energy R5 is a 10 turn pot so you can set the temperature more accurately NW With our popul Ex ar Servo Erector Set you can easily build and control the robot of your dreams Our interchangeable aluminum brackets make the ultimate precision mechanical assemblies Our Visual Sequencer for SSC 32 provides powerful PC Atom or BS2 based control Visit our huge website to see our complete line of aluminum and Lexan based robot kits electronics and mechanical components Images represent a fraction of what can be mada 28 NUTS2VOLTS October 2010 GREAT VALUE optional optional IEEE 488 TCP IP Dee DVI Output inclusive 4GSa s Real time 50 GSa s Random sampling low noise flash A D converter reference class 2MPts memory per channel memory Doom up to 100 000 1 MSO Mixed Signal Opt HO 3508 HO 3516 with 8 16 logic channels Vertical sensitivity 1 mV 5 V div into 1M0 500 Offset control 0 2 20V 12 div x axis display range 20 div y axis display range with VirtualScreen function Trigger modes slope video pulsewidth logic delayed event FFT for spectral analysis M Lowes
192. u can buy for a song Get a long 34 pin floppy cable as well as a long power cable extension open the PC up and connect the floppy cable to the motherboard connect the power cable extension pop one of the front covers off of the PC snake the cables through the opening then seal the PC back up Most PC motherboards still make a provision for a floppy drive connection so that isn t a problem A search on the Internet for the cables try Cyberguys www cyberguys com or Electronix www electronix com shouldn t be difficult Now you have a test PC with the necessary cables hanging out the front of the unit Unfortunately they do not make an external floppy adapter like they do for making external IDE or SATA devices that use USB connectivity What makes this setup nice is that if you can connect to the Internet with the PC not only do you have a nice test jig you also have a PC to surf the Internet for your repair business Ralph J Kurtz Old Forge PA 2 You did not specify 3 5 5 25 or 8 floppy drive Here is something that should work The Buslink FDD1 3 5 USB floppy drive IS a standard 3 5 floppy drive with an easily accessible 34 pin ribbon cable in a case with a USB to floppy controller Will it work with a 5 25 drive don t know yet but it s the first time we have found a 3 5 USB floppy that isn t integrated and that consists of a USB to floppy con troller with a standard 34 pin interface Several
193. ublisher s approval We are not responsible for mistakes misprints or typographical errors Nuts amp Volts Magazine assumes no responsibility for the availability or condition of advertised items or for the honesty of the advertiser The publisher makes no claims for the legality of any item advertised in Nuts amp Volts This is the sole responsibility of the advertiser Advertisers and their agencies agree to indemnify and protect the publisher from any and all claims action or expense arising from advertising placed in Nuts amp Volts Please send all editorial correspondence UPS overnight mail and artwork to 430 Princeland Court Corona CA 92879 Printed in the USA on SFI amp FSC stock e SME sales1 electronicsurplus com oll tree 1 600 642 8 55 Munson Rd Cleveland OH 44060 elec Fonicsurplus com specials cstm Geared Stepper Lever switch Transformer motor 20A N C dual primary ay 10 1 pkg of 4 8V 750mA 3 8 Relay 20A N O 120VAC T 1 Photo transistor visible amp NIR pkg of 4 1 E 1 AR Motor 3 12VDC 8400 RPM 4 95 EARN MORE MONEY Get your dream job Be an FCC Licensed Wireless Technician Make up to 100 000 a year and more with NO college degree Learn Wireless Communications and get your FCC Commercial License with our proven Home Study Course No need to quit your job or go to school e This course is easy fast and low cost e No prev
194. udio directions as to how to initialize its services Hack the Code The PhreakEncoder firmware is written using the PBASIC language When examining the code using the BS2 IDE pay close attention to those lines containing the DTMFOUT and FREQOUT commands In order to alter the tones or produce tone sequences you ll need to modify the arguments to these commands The syntax for the DTMFOUT command is as follows DIMFOUT pin number digit1 optional digit2 optional digit3 where pin number is the desired output pin on the BS2 and digit s are the standard touchtone keys 0 9 and The syntax for the FREQOUT command is as follows FREQOUT pin number duration tonel optional tone2 where pin number is the desired output pin on the BS2 the duration is the tone duration in milliseconds and tone1 and optional tone2 are the desired audio frequencies in Hertz with values between O and 32 767 Hz By reading the excellent Parallax support and reference materials available free on their website you can pick apart the firmware and mod the source code as you desire Take a look at Table 3 for a list correlating the BS2 output pins to keypad buttons You ll need this in modding the code to cross reference the keypad keys to the BS2 pins needed by the program Don t forget that pin 3 on the microcontroller is unused in this project After reading the reference materials who knows what mods you ll devise Why Build this Cir
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196. ults of our little operation are shown in Figure 8 As you can see it looks like four of the keys have been replaced but actually the arrows were printed on a Brother PT 300 label maker and glued onto the four keys used black tape with white letters so that could completely cover the original characters on the keys Also deliberately retained the B key as a Back key in a menu structure and the A key as an Accept Enter key realize the new key layout results in a slightly unusual arrangement for the 10 digit keys but think this compromise is justified by the convenient layout for the four arrow keys and the fact that the Enter key is in the lower right hand corner where it should be Next the modified keypad was used to develop a programmable multi function peripheral device MPD that can be easily connected to any breadboard circuit see Figure 9 Because the MPD is fully programmable it can be used to implement a variety of helpful utility and troubleshooting applications for use with any PICAXE project The following are just a few of the many possibilities e Stand alone I O terminal with sound Digital frequency generator Frequency measurement of project signals Timing of project routines and waveforms Because the MPD is based on a PICAXE 20X2 circuit it can implement any of these functions with a surprising amount of speed and accuracy In addition the 20X2
197. un up to four different program tasks in parallel at the same time by rapidly switching among the various program threads This new capability isn t multitasking in the strict sense because program instructions are still being executed one at a time However the automatic switching among program threads will occur so rapidly that it will create the illusion of multitasking have saved the most impressive specification of the new 18M2 processor until last it s slated to retail for about the same price as the older 18M processor To be able to purchase that amount of processing power for less than 4 is truly amazing I m eager to get my hands on one and as soon as do which will almost certainly be in time for the next Primer column I ll get to work on reporting what I learn about this impressive new chip See you then NV i FIGURE 9 The Evil Genius MPD October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 71 a e TERLI ISI i complete Ben detail V o visit LL webstorel ELECTRONICS TEARDOWNS Learn How Electronics Work by Taking Them Apart by Bryan Bergeron _ The text is written as if Dr Bergeron who is a highly experienced electronics practitioner is speaking directly to the reader with a point by point commentary about each teardown complete with clear explanations of the operation and function of every component By the time the product is completely disassembled the reader understands the desi
198. utal Fabrication in 1 3 or 5 days Visit us at Electronica 2010 along with Schaeffer AG in Hall B5 Booth 519 Check out these HO CINerexciung PIRE projects New Munich Trade Fair Centre la S electronica 2010 09 12 November 2010 NL n Systems applications jT ia com Music Tutorials Kits Guitar Effects aay aay www irontpanelexpress com Tube Electronics EXPRESS 206 768 0602 e Studio Gear October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 37 MAKE MAGIC myself boxed in by A really great way to add atmosphere to a Halloween display is with candles The real ones though can be dangerous go CANDLES WITH THE BRODEPPER If you re like me October is a very busy month mostly trying to finish building props and decorations some from last year for Halloween Last minute ideas abound but most just don t fall into the time constraints usually find out if the wind blows and cannot be controlled with any sort of practical automation There are electronic candles available in retail and specialty stores but most are not terribly bright and like their real counterparts cannot be controlled without some major hacking here is good news With some simple parts you can whip up a custom candle controller that will run eight outputs and can easily be expanded for more In addition to candle outputs there is a trigger input to control behavior and at the end lIl show you how a
199. ve volt battery eliminator Do not use four batteries as the PIR will lock up If programming with a PIC 2 make sure you place the DIP switches in the open position The chip can also be programmed by other programmers if it s removed from the board The assembly files are also on the N amp V website The display built is rather unique made a transparency of the picture drawn by Charles Allan Gilbert called All is Vanity It is a picture of a woman sitting in front of her mirror and vanity However when viewed farther back it becomes a skull The picture is available on the N amp V website if you want to use it The frame used was the cheapest 8 x 11 stand up frame could find The back was removed tacked the transparency on each corner to the glass using super glue A sheet of white tissue paper was tacked to the transparency on each corner giving a semi transparent background but still showing off the picture took the back and added a 3 8 x 1 pine strip to make it look like a shadow box mount and painted the outside with a flat black paint The inside was left unpainted Holes were drilled in a zig zag pattern with a 60 drill for the LEDs The Superbrite LEDs were pushed through the back and held with wire wrap The circuit board was mounted on the inside of the box in the left lower corner using 1 4 standoffs and 6 32 screws However found that the PIR would not detect through either the trans
200. vice comes out of reset It responds to data being sent usually over a serial port from an external device The bootloader and the external device use a communication protocol that allows them to conduct transactions that mostly involve sending pages of binary program code to be written to the device application program section For our demonstration we GO NUTS VOLTS October 2010 ith this w along with this GE Joe s book amp kits y a ailable at www nutsvolts com by Joe Pardue will use avrdude on a PC to communicate with the AVR bootloader via the USART As we will see shortly avrdude is a very versatile tool that can handle many different programming protocols We will be using the AVR109 protocol in avrdude but we will implement only those commands necessary for uploading program memory There are other tasks that could be implemented such as allowing us to read and write EEPROM but since we want to keep this bootloader small and simple we won t add those functions Deciding to Run the Bootloader or the Application A bootloader is used to upload application programs When you ve uploaded an application you then have two programs on your AVR the application that begins at Flash memory location 0x0000 and your bootloader that begins at the NRWW see last month high memory location you ve selected for the particular device such as Ox3EO00 for an ATmega328 Now you have to decide which program you wa
201. voltage loads up to 100mA Runs on 6 12 VDC VS1 Voice Switch Kit 9 95 3 Touch on touch off or momentary Ss touch hold it s your choice with this y gt little kit Uses CMOS technology Actually includes TWO totally separate touch circuits on the board Drives any low voltage load up to 100mA Runs on 6 12 VDC TS1 Touch Switch Kit Xenon Tube Strobe Light Create amazing effects with an authentic Xenon tube strobe light Creates a super bright white a FLASH with a variable speed of 2 4 to 20 flashes second Just connect 110VAC and and you have a complete strobe light K5300 Xenon Tube Strobe Light Kit 19 95 Generates negative ions along with a 3 hefty blast o resh air all without any noise The steady state DC voltage K generates 7 5kV DC negative at 400uA p and that s LOTS of ions Includes 7 wind 9 tubes for max air Runs on 12 15VDC 1G7 lon Generator Kit e GH Soldering Lab H The perfect beginner s project specifically _ designed to teach you the fundamentals of soldering and PC boards You will e not only learn soldering but hoto trou bleshoot soldering problems and how to fix them Final project runs on 9V battery SP1A Soldering Lab Kit 9 95 We ve discussed tweezers and magni fiers while working with SMT compo nents Working with highly sensitive components ESD safe tweezers can be a life saver This set of 4 non conductive tweezers are perfect for any static sen
202. w nist gov recently demonstrated a new technique for locating grave sites In the past cadaver sniffing dogs or ground penetrating radar has been used for such things but neither is all that effective at finding bodies that are hidden by concrete or otherwise disguised As described by NIST the new process uses an alumina coated porous layer open tubular PLOT column with a motorized pipette that pulls in air samples at ambient temperatures The device detects trace amounts of ninhydrin reactive nitrogen NRN that collects in air pockets above and close to grave soil Previously this process involved the tedious and expensive process of solvent extraction of soil samples Now a simple probe slightly thicker than a human hair can be inserted into the ground to detect decaying flesh If you need to locate a stiff under a concrete floor all you have to do is drill a 1 8 inch hole for probe insertion To confirm the tester s efficacy two NIST chemists buried dead rats and took samples over a period of 20 weeks at which time the decomposing rodents were still detectable No word yet as to whether they re going to look for Jimmy Hoffa A COMPUTERS AND NETWORKING 55 25 5c wih optional True CUSTOM GAMING COMPUTER Fire finish ate last year some former executives of Alienware got together and formed bo PC www originpc com with the aim of assembling the best parts and technology the computer gaming industry has to offer The result is the Genesi
203. www hutsvolts com October 2010 BING FOR ELEC TRONICS Su gi the Propeller way Bor phone system hacking S6 50 CANADA S7 50 il 10 gt 71486102421 7 0 Flame simulation Revisit the days EA e m Add ld UT ej x Aa 2AIG and 4x28 Serial D1sF laus T en pem fam ma ei bs L E al wi j LE rea LY py A de due adu oer epee AR RR ER fs y gt A ee HUULTFULS tor wf vm Op AAA i ie pi futi m p E i K x md AT Pota F elete int o S de de L S20 Sal S E Sic L O N Ut A EE Eh uA Za PAP PORT TTT MY PY ET RP PYM FPP fi A Wie hook UPN rT TT TITEI a E lE J Le la dr E T uN E LAO E II San m 1 e RIOS a IT iul A E gt CO A LE r Em a l A fre DH F 5 mo m e e Y Wa GLY Z UT u E pr LE oc e a Kach Ei re AE T Fiat fai mh S bake nn HF G fe A e E i28 FEM IE EN mmm Cx cC D HAH 5 J94 Back 1 ELEM emm 30 xm H TIL user Oubeuts a A ere A E EM NB m E E ka I tre ee E kc TOR Se Mh 4 a Ce Ui rerrsrrs n S 23 m mo T 268 RoHS C LOA 2 ud WI D D in E NW r m Benn EE pes E UK cus C io Lr PT j D d W x All deaplaya ahoan are aths size NetMedia Inc 10940 N Stallard Pl Tucson Arizona Borsa tal F20 244 4567 Tax 5
204. y from an oversized inductive load and do bad things on the processor side these resistors are cheap insurance There s nothing to the wick circuit shown in Figure 2 l m using a 12 volt supply and the resistor shown allows about 20 mA through the LED The LED in fact is the trickiest part of the project Finding one with the right color and brightness can be a chore I found that the NTE30039 has the right color nice warm orange and is very bright 7 000 mcd We could stop there and have a lot of fun but why stop On Halloween the ToTs Trick or Treaters will wander up the sidewalk and it might be fun to have the candles change as they approach The trigger circuit shown in Figure 3 accommodates a Parallax PIR sensor via a three pin header X1 or a RS normally open contact usually a mat switch connected to TB1 The voltage for the PIR and the normally open contact is 5V so a 2 2K series resistor is used to limit the current into the Propeller which operates at 3 3V Construction is point to point and as it can be difficult to see these connections in a photo created the graphic in Figure 4 as a guide Note that the resistors between PO P7 and the ULN2803A are stood up on end Also note that while it looks like the wires go on top they are actually soldered to the bottom Finally the colored dots on the PIR header show cable orientation ground is at the top of the board Figure 5 shows my completed prototype W
205. z Data Hates to LOK bps e Direct Serial interface Low Cost Long Range oe bow Power Consumption Ultra Compact INTEGRATED CIRCUITS DEGIDERE TR Ideal far the bi directional wireless transfer of m 5 E serial data control or command information in Le v SC a el the favorable 260 170MHz band its advanced Cu m m MITES architecture delivers outstanding stability and frequency accuracy Funchon Relay Module Provides Tour latched or momentary relay outputs that are capable of suitehing external AC or OC powered ipadsof wp to 5 amps Ve 5 Maher vata MHz cd 3 wd EE ual Power Inputs 256 Unique Addresse Wide Operatonal Voltage La FCC and industry Canada Pre Tested Ze ch i 800 736 5677 i 158 Ort Lane TECHNOLOGIES Merlin DH 87532 L LI j i A Ais E T EI A Meig pl linxtechnnlaogians com October 2010 NUTS2VOLTS 19 FLEXIBILITY PERFORMANCE A programmable system on chip USB 2 0 Host Slave controller Vinculum ll evaluation modules NW VINCULUM USB MADE EASY www ftdichip com 20 NUTS VOLTS October 2010 FTDI Chip ll PHOTO 2 Every pin of the Vinculum l Expansion Board is terminated at a header point or the prototype area All of this USB horsepower is yours for about 100 bucks support the Vinculum l Expansion Board for less than 80 So rather than invent the development board wheel yet again it is more

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