Eontents Vol.18, No.1; January 2005 Cee eT FEATURES 8 VAF DC-7 Generation 4 Kit Speakers Theyre smaller and more atfordabe than the DC-X mode but stl oer excdlent sonstiviy and perormance by Phip Vatads & Simon Wide 12. Build Yourself A Windmill Generator, Pt2 ‘washing machine motor makes a cheap and elective alternator but rs you ‘eed to make afew modifications ~by Gon Litetord 40 Review: Tektronix TPS2000 Series LCD Oscilloscopes They're baitery-powered, fulyisolaled and are ideal oc power measurements fanalysls, 22 woll as all he usual tasks ~ by Petr Sith PROJECTS TO BUILD 24 Build A V8 Doorbell fs the sound ofa V8 engine musi to your ears? This project wil give a deep- throated V8 tumble when your ant coorbel is pressed ~by John Clarke 34 IR Remote Control Checker Check your remota controls wih this simple project! will quickly tel you if the remotes dead or Vane or more butons hae stopped working ~ by Jim Rowe 60 4-Minute Shower Timer ‘The sound of running water stars a 4-minute countdown to an annoying alarm. Ins easy to Buld foo, as the PC board comes pre-assembled ~ by Foss Tester A 66 Wanna Go Prawning? You'll Need The Prawnlite You can pay twenty or tir bucks for ako of prawns. uld our Prawnte and sou Gan catch tho Ite beggars yoursoll~by Branko Justc & Ross Testor 76 Simon Says Nostalgia ~ it int what it used tobe! Here's a PC-based update ofa popular {game rom the 19708 by Cive Seagar SPECIAL COLUMNS 44 Serviceman’s Log What’ cooking? ifs just the TV set~ by the TV Serviceman 82 Vintage Radio Outback communications: the Flying Doctor radios - by Rodhey Champness 92 Circuit Notebook (1) Litiu-Polymer Peak Charger (2 ticient Fan Speed Controle, (9) Simple White Noise Generator (4) PICAXE:Based Toy Talc Lights With Battery Saver; () 12V Halogen Lamp Dimmer DEPARTMENTS Po 2 Publisher's Letter 89 Book Review 4 Mailbag 97 Ask Silicon Chip 57 Product Showcase 100 Notes & Errata 59 Silicon Chip Weblink 101 Market Centre 65 Order Form 103 Ad Index siticonchip.com.au Jaxuany 20051Manager Greg Swain, B.Sc,(Hons}) ‘Technical Editor Potor Smith Technical Staff John Clarke, B.E (Elec) Foss Taster ‘dim Rowe, BA., B.Sc, VK2ZLO Reader Services ‘Ann Jenkinson Advertising Enquiries Phil Benodictus, Laurence Smith Benedictus Smith Pry Lid Phone (02) 9211 9782 Fax: (02) 9211 0068 ‘SLUOON Gris published 12 times ‘a year by Slicon Chip Publications Py Lid, ACN 003 206 490. ABN 49 (003 208 480 All material copyright ‘©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the writan ‘consent ofthe publisher. Printing: Hannanprint, Noble Park, Vetarla, Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $83,00 per yar in Australia. For overseas fates, see the subscription page in this issue. Editorial & advertising offices: Unit8, 101 Darley St, Mona Vale, NSW 2103, Postal address: PO Box 150, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2007. Phone (02) 9979 5644, Fax (02) 979 6508, E-mall slchip@sliconchip.com.aus ani commended and maximum pie ony, PUBLISHER’S LETTER Cheap audio equipment is no bargain [At least 28 yoots ago, the American Federal ‘trade Commission (FTC) issued rales tothe Mit Industry which effectively stopped manufactur trsfTom making outrageous elatins about audio power output. For oxample, the FTE seta one four precondition tot a 40% ofthe ampli power rating as ono ofthe exiteia to be met. thor wardasitan amplifier was tobo rated at 100 Wats per channel, it had to bo able to withstand testing at 40 watts per channol for an hour, before the full powor test was performed ‘hero wore screams of protest rom the menufacturer atthe time, b it just s0 happened that the 40% test condition was quis onarous an nel fat off the maximum povter dissipation In an amplifier moant that the amplifiers needed good power supplies and goneroshectsinks oo abo to toe the testing rime. ut It wos good for consumers, avery shor ime, outrageous power output claims disappeared and amplifier designs bocams mich more conservative in thelr nginooring which ultimately sosulted In long ie and vory good performance 'As in so many other aspects of echnology, Australia benefited from these oversea regulations but tow, inca the vant ejorty of consumer lactone equipment comes from Asia te benoits of those rogustons have disp pated. We now havo the ludicrous situation where flea powered home thoatre oquipmontcan come with claims of 8000 watts outpat, even though its tra output is only a fow wats porchonnel. Ifyou want ovdenew of ts, sist one ofthe consuier lectronies sore at you local shopping mall ot have alook at wiat's being offered on Ebay. Tr you look more closely, you might find that such huge power atngs are accompanied by the lottere“PMPO™ sanding for peak muse power output tmnt even goingo ty toexplaino astiy those tious tings they are just nonsense. Infact, a pisco of eo ot home theatre equipstont makes fny refernce to “PMPO" itis far bet that itis junk and it you buy tt will end up onthe council clean-up ina vory short ime ‘The same comments can made about alot of aftermarket car equipment. Some ofthe caine nbout car speakers dety loge, Peoplo are buying cor speakers on tho bass that a 400W spoaor must be beter and louder tran 2000 speaker and of course the rotlrs seldom provide any Uoefl guide. Infact, is entirely possible that» 400W loudspeaker could be loss oft than a competing 100W speakor and thoofor wil not bo as loud fora given power inpat Sadly tsoansas though there is no government consumor advocate whohas tho kil or willingness to make regulations or guidelines for most conrumet slecttonic equipmont ta th absento of guidelines or regulations, consumers tre buying lot of junk end it soon end up inland Unfrtunaicly, even when there aro no autrogeous power claims, a great deal of low-cost slocronic audio equipment sola these days junk anyeray fnd it seldom lasts for more than a yer For examplo, in many’ small aud Syoteins, the CD player packs up ater not alot of ue nd iis aot wort gee, ting it repaited after the warrenty has run oul ‘As an informed reader of St1coN CP, you can helpless informed people by advising thor to stick (othe beter known brands ofequipment which comes wrth a ono or two-year warranty and avotd the st ha sally chap, Leo Simpson 2 SWICON Cup siliconchip.com.auMounts on the back of a standard LCD monitor The best of bath wold - Yu only need one terminal no mater what sjstem you ae using, emulates SCO, DEC, Wyse et terminal as well as being a Windows Based Terminal. 1 supports the ful ange of Windows ROP as wel as Gtx IA protec, And the est part = it measures only 188 x 138 x 40 and has standard ESA (LCD Monitor) mounting. This means that it an aach diet to the back ofan LCD monitor, Foret trie ea toot rf rl ants orybe ‘a oust ype crc hse, wn 2 64 PL ae cie.rst2 7 $1 aes Ser Cat 1239-7 $649 To Fal ser rcs Pe Te Sat Get ff enor ane enol ‘gent sree gest ff are s Ussyourlsp MCA ff ressretari PSC arf tanes cn ant to case? 5268 on de cass came $70 ThisPolcard sina tat ato for soare sens > Cases bot nag ne cb orn nuds ite adhe ew ayo se utp ctl wn sae re rita port sng sf Aon combs se it secs ahs. snes torts Pan rn ‘Ths ty aa USB 20 ro tone ca, at Us arya eves os Fre. cover aut a ff TasaterigA gears f eance aniny &e cama be pane yr ff wrasse Ae inbxtrd 26.01 may fF ba az ha TKP ff yous ya : {i tbs SP pose. cadet, suarccatin ‘wot SP lates LO asa, Us) 620 al cnt. SMM cele Sam CUT Me Ph: (02) 4389 8444 FreoFax: 1800 625 77 Vat Py nga eraram Computers 55009 9:2 18, 1/16 Bon ‘Al pene subject to change witout nota For arent pring Ou products & more on our website...www.mMAILBAG 42V car electrics a labour hazard Your article on 42V car electrics in the November 2004 issue was most enlightening (no pun intended). However, it brings to mind possible problems with regard to the qualifica tions of people. In Queensland, there is a specifi- cation for ELV (Extra Low Voltage). To the best of my knowledge, this is defined as 32V AC. At or below this ELY, no licence is required to install or maintain wiring and equipment, ‘Above this voltage, an electrician’s liconce is required, ‘The ELV specification allowed the installation of 32V electrical systems in remote homesteads, otc. I wonder what the licensing authoritios will make of the 42V DC systems in ear. Will all motor mechanics have to have qualifications as electricians? Brian Claney, Roma, Qld. Comment: no doubt the poor mis guided Queensland authorities will seek to put some further hobbles on industry there, Unwired coverage ‘map not real road Ross Toster's November 2004 report on the “Unwired” wireless broadband modem with consider- able iniorast. A quick check on the “Unwired” website revealed that 1 was ina “pink” area; ie, ono with suf- ficient signal for reliable operation. I purchased a unit Alas, despite diligent efforts, 1 could not detect a signal in my com- puter room, nor any other convenient locations. Murphy's Law prevailed, however, and lobiained a weak, inter: nittont signal in @ most inconvenient location! called the technical hot-line and it became apparent thet my modem transceiver was capturing a towor in Lidcombe in Sydney, approximately 15km from my house, bypassing two hearor towers. No matter what we did, wo could not encourage the unit to capture the noarest tower (in Ryde) and secure a moro reliable signal. On reflection, it became clear tome that the pink - “so you can purchase” region is simply a computer generated “prediction” of the coverage area. It probably has some basis in theory ‘but actual signal strength? Unlikely. A look back at tho relevant website page reveals quite a few disclaimers! Tlove the ideaofhigh-specd Internet access. I just hope that many of your other readers do not waste their time as [have. Gary Johnston, Hunters Hill, NSW. Rural mobile phone ‘overage is poor Re your editorial entitled “Fixed Phone Lines No Longer A Necessity" in tho November 2004 issue. Widen your horizons a little. Out here in the rest of Australia, mobile phone service isat best patchy and for enything like Internet without landlines, you had botter have really deep pockets and very long arms. ‘Wo actually live on Highway A32 (the only one from Adelaide to Sydney ‘through Broken Hill) and in this town mobile phone coverage is essentially non-existent. How about helping the rest of Australia with your editorials instead of painting a silly and very misleading picture of everything be- ing just peachy? Art Clarke, Manoora, SA. Gomment: The editorial is in no way anendorsement of mobile phone cov- erage in the country. For those peo- ple who do have a reasonable mobile Phone service where they live(and the vast majority do), the editorial is cor- rect and is backed up by Telstra's own recent report that fixed line revenue is falling, ‘As you state, country coverage is poor and unwired broadband services in rural areas may never happen. Hidden danger in autotransformer connection The circuit shown in the November Issuo page 86 is very elogant. However, there is one very important warning hich I was given over 30 years ago when [tried the samearrangemont for work, fone ofthe primary leads comes adrift with the secondary still con- nected, then the voltage on the loose wire will be the voltage drop across the secondary winding multiplied by the turns ratio. This could be a very high voltage in the order of a thousand volts with a 20 to 1 turns ratio, Thisis another reason toonclose the transformerin a securebox, My design ‘was refused for safety reasons. Paul Niehoff, Blackburn, PICAXE pin terminology justified Following the recent discussions over port/pin/leg terminology (See SILICON Cal, November 2004, page 92} I would like to provide’ some background to the situation. The frst microcontroller BASIC language was developed by Parallax for their Stamp system around 1992. They used the word pin within input docisions such as “if pind = 1 then” Unfortunately, this has now become tho universal standard used within at least a dozen microcontroller BASIC applications that lam aware of ‘We don't particularly like this termi- nology but unfortunately thas bocome the standard that most users expect, ‘Noto also that the word PORT hasa dit: ferent usago within this original BASIC language and so cannot be used. Within the PIGAXE systom, we have always provided an altornative to the BASIC terminology ‘pin0’ in the form of inputo’. Therefore usars can type ‘ifinputo =1 then’ to achieve the same task as if pind = 7 then’. This is our preferred terminology that wo tend 4 Sutcon Cue sliconchio.com.auAulotransformer connection not ideal Your circuit for an auto- transformer as published fon page 86 of the your November 2004 issue of, SuLicon CuiP does not show the recommended manner of connecting up an autotransformer. You have achieved a voltage reduction by con= nocting the secondary of the transformer in such ‘a way that its voltage op- poses the primary voltage. Although it works, itis not the most effective way of reducing the mains volt- age. It is easier to see the problem if your circuit is redrawn as in Fig.1, 80 that the autotransformer resembles a tapped coil such as is often used in high frequency circuits 28a. (which is effectively what fan autotransformer i), In this case, once the “tapping” is made, the remainder of the “coil” is wound in the reverse di rection (the same way that anon induc tive resistor is wound). The primary of the transformer has to carry the full ‘mains voltage and the secondary has to bear the full load current. Fora 21.60. load, the transformer would need to be rated at 240VA. The more logical (and usual) way to connect an autotransformer is to connect the secondary so that its voltage adds to tho primary voltage. For a voltage reduction, the load is ‘connected to the “tapping”. This is FG shown is Fig 2 Neither winding carries the full ‘mains voltage nor bears the full load current so the voltage and current im each winding of the transformer hhave been reduced by 9.1% and the transformer now needs to be rated at 200.3VA ~ a reduction of 16.5% over your circuit. Ifa full 10% voltage reduction was needed then you would noed a 240V to 26.67V transformer and it would nnoed to be rated at 216VA, Greg Schoenmakers, via email. to use in our educational datasheets ‘when possible. Its of interest to note ‘that most other BASIC languages don't even offer an alternative as we do, ‘Due to the historical confusion over the term pin (which is beyond our contol), we took the decision to not, to rofarto ‘physical external pins’ via the torm ‘pin’ within our educational projects as we felt it could confuse the target audience (13-14 year olds). feel using the term ‘leg’, although nat necessarily “professional”, does cor siiconchip.com.au rectly describe to a 13-year old child ‘what we are talkingabout (without any confusion over the term ‘pin’) I fully appreciate that electronic en- singers may not like the ‘leg’ term but ‘we beliove itis in the best interest of the target audience of the educational worksheots. Within SiLicon Chie T fully understand why you and your readers would prefer not to use the term ‘leg’ and so T would recommend that in tho future authors talk about ‘physical pins’ and use the terminol- Atmel’s AVR, from JED in Australia JED has designed a range of single board computers and modules as a way of using the AVR without SMT board design The AVRS7O module (above) 5 a way of using an ATmegat26 CPU on s user base Bosra without having layout neincate, suface-mountod surrounds oh CPU, ard ‘hen having fo manufacture your Board on [an SMT robo ine. Instead you simply layout 2 square for our 0.1 spaced socket sips ‘and: plug In our pre-ested module. The module has the ctysal,resttor, AVFLISP brogramming header (ahd an optional TAG. ICE pad), as woll as programming signa ‘ching For aise extra, wo nada 081305 FTG, crystal and Li baitery underneath, vweich uses SPI and por. See JED's www site fora datasheot. |AVRS73 Single Board Computer This boara uses the AVAS7O module ang adds 20 An Dg inputs, 12 FET outs, LOD! ba 28232, F485, 1-Wre, power rg, $330 PC-PROM Tis programmer plugs into a FC printer ort and roacs, writes and eis any 28 or 2p PROM. Comes wit plug-pack cable and softwar, Aso avaiblisa muli-PROM UV eraser ‘ith mer and 3282 PLUG converter. 4JED Microprocessors Pty Ltd 178 Boronia Rd, Boronia, Vitoria, 3185 Ph. 03 9762 3588, Fax 03 9762 5499 www. jedmicro.com.au Janvany 2005 8nn CL ee Is there enough spectrum spaco ogy ‘if inputd = 1 then’ in programs. mission directions. [think the bottom available? If we all decided to ditch This avoids any historical ‘pin’ word line is: usa broadband if you want to our fixed line phones, our ADSL and confusion which, unfortunately, is use internet telephony and ask your cable internet and go wireless, would beyond our control service provider about the difference there be enough spectrum capacity to Clive Seager, Technical Director, in upload and download connection cope or would spectrum pollution rise Revolution Education Ltd. speods before signing up. tothe point where the system became Gunter Seidel, unreliable? Electric fence revives battery Alice Springs, NT. I belong to an orgenisation that Thave recently revived a discarded uses wireless microphones on the PA carbattery by connecting ittoan elec- Fixed line phones lower in cost system at our meeting place. A visitor tric fence for a month. Maybe this is Iwould ikotocomment on some of from the USA said that over there peo- old hat, Before the fence treatment the the points raised in your editorial and ple axe abandoning radio mikes and battery wouldnotretain enough charge the article on wireless broadband in” going back to cords because spectrum tostartacarovernight. Afertreatment the November 2004 issue. The sugges- pollution is making wireless inikes too itretains charge for a week. tion that having only @ mobile phone unseliabo. ‘A-month might soom a long time is cheaper than a fixed line phone [realise thet the analog FM system to wait for aresult but hey, itdoesn't certainly isn't true for me and my used on radio mikes is different to the cost anything family, I looked at my most recent sophisticated sproad-spectrum digital Frank Murphy, phone bill and worked out what it systems of today’s wireless communi- email. would have cost if we had made all cation networks but I still think that Comment: that’s interesting. It is our calls (excluding dial-up internet) the more wireless gadgets we embrace, similar in concept to the Battery by mobile the morechuttered and noisy ourspoc- Desulphator circuit published in the "The cost came to more than three tram space will become. February 2003 issue. times what we paid for making the Ray Chapman, calls on our fixed line phone, includ- via email Upload/download discrepancy ing line rental, ete. 1 lookod ita fow causes problems with VoIP different mobiie plans ~ not just the Wanted: a laptop with Thank you for publishing that pre-paid plan we have on our mobile a bright screen informative article on VoIP internet but none came even close to being _On the front cover of the November telephony in the September 2004 comparable to the fixed line cost 2004 issue there is a picture of a man issue. Telstra should be quaking in I find it rather objectionable that _usinga laptop computer in bright sun- their boots! However, those read- someone would choose to have only light with an obviously very visible ers who like me are still waiting for @ mobile phone and then expect mo colour screen. Are you able to tell me broadband to become available might — to pay the high call cost if 1 want to what brand the computer is and the ‘be well advised to check their dial-up cal them from my fixed phona. This type of seroon please? connection speeds in both directions is especially so with businesses. I''m I ask the question because I have a before rushing in. With many service looking for a particular product and back porch whero I would like to goon providers and Telstra/Bigpond in have a choice of companies to call, nice days and be able to do computing particular, there is a largo discrep- those that only give a mobile phone and soak up some of the supposedly ‘ancy between download and upload number don’tget my call, espocielly if _usoful reflected sun's rays! Two previ- connection speeds. Teed to ask lengthy questions about ous laptops did not perform well in When testing the “Skype-Out” — the product, et. the bright light; they were back-Lit internet telephone operation on my I'm not sa sure that Telstra should screens. system, 1 could hear the other side be so worried by the increase of wire- My present desk-top computor is @ (downloaded) clearly tera short time loss communication since their wired powerful machino, as Tuseit forgraph- delay (0.5 soconds or less) but in the network is still needed. After all, fT ics, photographs and text. [know thore other direction there was time delay use my mobile to call another mobile are laptop computers out there which of several seconds — up to 10 seconds on thootherside ofthe city, the “wire- are ustas powerful as this onebut lam in effect and very often it was broken less” part of the signal path is quite principally interested in what appears up or garbled. Itosted this by ringing short ~ from my mobile to the nearest to be an outstanding scroon. up my own mobile phone from the _ base station and from the nearest base internet phone, to the phone I'm calling. The signal Having an alternative service pro- is still mostly carried by the copper Comment: Oops! We've been caught vvider to Bigpond, I tried that as well and/or fibre-optic network, doing something that photographers and [ was having much better results I would imagine that the wireless and graphic artists have been doing for although there was still a noticeably broadband internet system would be many years - artificially embellishing difforenttime delay between thetrans- thesame, Anomployee of Telstra once video screens. 6 Smicon Cup siiconchip.com.auIts done to just about eve tograph you evar s P and magazines, of any type of video monitor; including TV sets. wereason tis doneis that itis very dificult to adequately photograph ‘monitor with its screen on and get a 00d result for both the monitor (in this case a computer) and the screen You have to overexpose significantly toget the screen detail which of course doesn’t mako the rest of the picture look much good. Therefore, two exposures are taken, cone of the scroen and one of the rest, With computer software used to marry the two shots. Or if its a computer monitor, it's likely to bea “scraen cap- turo” that is dropped in, rather than a second photographic exposure In the case ofthe cover you are talk- ing about, the image on the screen in direct sunlight was very subdued, as ‘you would expect. So as far as your enquiry is concerned, that computer ‘won't do what you want. I's on @ par with most other laptops/notebooks as far as brightness is concerned. ‘TVs should have digital tuners Keith Walters has quite correctly described the mess that is digital tel vision (Mailbag, December 2004 is- sue). But there are other aspects of the situation which Ifind quite s bizarre. How isi that, nearly three years alter the introduction of digital TV, very low roceivers are sold with digital tuners? Even if you pay thousands of dollars for a big plasma TV you will still be expected to accommodate another box to house the receiver, AAs it happens, my personal gripe is not with the display as I can't af- ford a big scroen set and Iam happy with my 28-year old 4:3 set. have a digital sot top box which has proved tobean excellent investment to avoid tho intermittont electrical interference which often spoils my reception of the VHF channels, But also liketo record broadcasts fortime-shifting, Although Thave a DVD recorder and a recent- ‘model VCR, neither has adigital tuner ‘and neither can record the output of the set-top box using its timer, So either I use the timer to record broadcast plus interforence or I have to be on hand to press the record but ton when using the digital signal. How stupid is this? ‘The Federal government has done its best to cripplo digital TV and it sooms to me that it has been aided and abotted in this task by the equipment manufacturers. Sometimes life gives us an unex: pected bonus. I bought the set-top box to avoid interforence but I was delighted to find that I could use it to fill the screen with @ 600-line picture instead of the 00 (or less) that the broadcasters expoct me to use. Mostly it doosn’t matter that I lose a bit at the sides of the picture. Similarly, Ireplaced my old VCR be- cause Twas fed with havingto reset the clock every time we had a momentary power cut. Thenew machine holds its settings for three years, But I find it has a couple of other useful features. Inever expected to use the “extended play” setting but during the Olympics twas useful torecord up tonine hours on 3-hour tape and play some of it the next morning with quite reasonable quality. ‘And the indexing feature which locates the beginning of a recording rapidly and accurately is really useful. It may be a mature technology but it still has a lot going for it RFID implants While reading the Publisher's Letter in the December 2004 edition, T was amazed that anyone could seriously entertain the idea of implanting RFID chips into people. Human nature being ‘what itis would mean that this tech~ nology would be oxploited by various groups in society, leading to an ara of {inequality and discrimination not seen in this country before. If the chips were made mandatory, either as an implant or built into a smart version of a driver's license, two things would be guaranteed to happen. Fist, the goveramont would ultimately end up placing RFID readers in every public place to help with “the war on terror”, raising the question of why they would want to know where everybody is all the time, ‘More ofan issue would be the use of RFID readersby business. There would becompanies that would pay shops to place the readers in every storeandal- Towthemto collect dataon what shops you gotoand what and how often you bby. Before anyone talks about legisla Vion only allowing the government to sccess the data, nancial Institutions ‘would cll forthe data to stop credit tard fraud, prove ID, etc and most probably they would go This deta on your spending habits would bo used (o push products that you may be interested in (although not necessrly needing or wanting) Imagine going into a car dealer, only togetan SMS abouta "special limited time only” finance deal. Ifyou think telemarketers ave bad now, then this thay be your word nightmare, With an RFID system, you have no control aver wh teas your number and theassoctated data hat marketing Companigs may havecollecta. Atte ‘moment, you can choose whom you five this data to but with an RFID tag Under your skin you most deBnitely can not Having & form of identifi tion that can be read without your Knowledge or consent would open ¢ vast aay of issues that would make ven George Orll cringe Tay Herbert, via email Comment ike it oF not, marketing companies already have lots of data about you and your socio-economic froup ond they ase it however they wish without any chotce by you Halogon lamps and UV I want to comment on previous discussion about halogen down-lights and their high UV content (see page 109, November 2004 issue). I neaded some UV to harden some plastic. 1 wont to the major hardware retailer ‘and could only find covered dichroic lamps in stock. Single 12V 50W halogen lamps were labelled as zero UV. [purchased a240V 150W halogen lamp but when tested, zero UV was present. Amazed at this, Teventually found an old uncovered dichroic lamp mounted in the ceiling and it proved to have significant UV output. The manufacturers must have changed the glass type to eliminate the UV. The moral ofthis story is that things change, sh Brown, via email. ‘siliconchip.com.au January 2005-7‘The 170mm black composite Kevlar woofers are specially made to VAF's specifications. version of VAF's legendary DC-X loudspeaker pre: sented in the August 2004 issue of SILICON C¥P? Maybe you liked the speakers but their imposing size and price presented some big hurdles. The new DC-7 G4 described here should be considered as a DC-X ona smaller scalo, Still very accurate, with high sensitivity and low dis- tortion, the DC-7 Gat is more compact and room friendly. Inessence, thenew VAF DC-7 Gat consists of two woofer one tweeter and a slim floor -standing cabinet, in a dosign along the same general lines as the DC-X sories. However, there is more to it than that First ofall the woofers and tweeters are far from ordinary, ‘The 170mm diameter Black Composite Kevlar cone woot ers have been specially made to VAF's specifications. They feature T-shaped pole pieces and large, high-temperature voice coils, ‘The spider and voice coll are also vented using the same D: you admire and drool over the new Generation 4 Cumulative Spectral Decay of the DC-7 G4, Note how fast tal decay is. The faster the speaker decays, ‘anew sound it reproduces can be heard. siliconchip.com.au fe ‘Note the unusual vented voice coil & vented spider arrangement significantly reducing thermal compression and secondary resonance issues. method as inthe largor woofers in the DC-X sexies, This provides dramatically improved voice coil cooling which significantly reducos thermally related compression ‘Anadditional benefit is that no ai strapped behind the voice coll. This motor structure offers exceptional dynamie linearity, providing a linaar excursion of 7mm and a total excursion of over 12mm, The composite cone has been moulded using rsins that provide exceptional damping. VAF then St the cones with two proprietary pads to further enbanco propagation of sound through the cone. ‘Tho cono edge is terminated in a very compliant high loss soft rubber surround and specially tieated with a proprietary decoupling ring. In addition, these drivers are ‘magnotically shielded. Finding a single twooter sonsitive enough for the new DG-7 G4 but still being of very high quality proved to be a challenge. All the tweeters that were originally tested wore ‘The step response is almost ideal. The steep vertical rise ‘woofers and tweeter have good time alignment. Janvany 2005 9Note the unusual heatsink fitted to the DC-7 Ga tweeter, either not sensitive enough or not accurate enough. The specified tweetor has a high temperature-resist ant voice coil, rare-earth magnets, a 25mm treated silk diaphragm, a high-loss surround and Forro-Fluid cooling, for the voice coil. An integral shallow horn in front of the dome is carefully shaped to provide a flat overall response and efficient air-coupling, The tweeter is deeply recessed in the cabinet bafile to ensure time alignment. This ensures that signals from the tweeter and woofers rach the listener's ears at precisely the same time. This is shown by thostop response measurement ‘which has an almost perfact vertical lead-in with a smooth rotum to reference level. This is a text-book result. ‘The heavy cabinet also features angled bracing to min\- mise resonancos in the panels and to act as reflectors to minimise the acoustic rellections inside the enclosure. In ‘normal cabinet this reflected energy eventually returns to the woofers and is radiated into the room. This is ean Imgtse Rape — ate ‘The speaker connection terminals show they are capable of bi-emping: removing the straps between the pairs allows you ‘to-use separate amplifiers for bass and troble, for example. mask the direct sound being reproduced by the woofers and can compromise fidelity VAF have targeted Stored Energy in other ways too, As any tweeter radiates its sound forward italso radintes some, ofits sound across the baffle, Ifthis sound reaches a cabinet edge it will be re-radiated and this will muddy the sound. ‘These effects are combatted by the soft pads eround the twoeter; these are highly efficient acoustic absorbers. They have two separate layers which have distinct individual shapes to effectively eliminate cabinet-rlated diffraction from the tweeter, ‘A large quantity of VAF's Hypersoft III Foam also fills the cabinet in critical areas, ensuring that internal reflec tions at higher frequencies are woll attenuated, This is, demonstrated by the very fast Cumulative Spectral Decay rosponse. VAF believe that if acoustic problems are dealt with fundamentally and directly at their source, the resulting THO 5 a oS TT TT ORI aes a ET ‘The Impulse response settles in under 0.amsS, 10 SuIcON CHP 12a 209 Mn: fron Bone Frequency Response of the DC-7 Ga, Note how flat and smooth this response is even around the transition 3KHz to SkEIz crossover area, ‘sifconchip.com.auA close up view of the j tweeter area (centre of photo) showing the two individual layers of diffraction control. CB Fidelity will be superior to the more normal design approach of using complex electrical crossovers to cover them 1p. This attention to detail enables tho use of a far simpler crossover which even so, uses 1% tolerance resin-bound, aip-cored inductors, close-tolerance polypropylene capaci tors and non-inductive close-tolerance resis VAP supply the crossovers fully assembled with the labelled wiring loom already attached so assembly is very straightforward Mit tua® siiconchip.com.au SPECIFICATIONS Frequency response ..43H2~20kH2z (1/2-ocave smoothed) Phase response........ 15° trom 200Hz-20k#2 Harmonic distortion 0.9% from 40He-20KHzat 9308 Nominal impedance... 80 (40 minimum) Sensitivity. S348/1W @ tm Dimensions. 1050 x 193 x 300mm (waxd) Weight. 36kg pair Standard finishes include Book Matched, Crown Cut Oak (as shown here) or Jarcah (as shown, on page 8). Genuine Black Oak is also available, Kit prices & how to buy VAF make these new speakers in three different forms. ‘kits without cabinets: these include all the parts required to build a fall patr of speakers but without the cabinets of cabinet materials. CAD drawings are provided for those who want to make the cabinets themselves, This is the lowest cost option at $709 per par. full kit including precision made, fully assembled and finished cabinets can be bought for just $1399 per pair. Standard finishes include book matched, crown cut oak, jarrah and gonuine black oak ‘TheDC-7 Gét loudspeakers can alsobe purchased bought fully assembled for $1599 pair in the same finishes, $42 fully insured freight applis to each kit option and covers most locations in Australia, Kils can only be purchased directly from VAF Researc Phona 1800 818 882 (free call) or fax 08 8363 9997, They are not available in shops Email orders can be directed to vaf@vaf.com.au VAP make a wide variety of loudspeakers. Se the full range at wnew-vaf.com.au, se 0051Part 2 - the alternator by Glenn Littleford* Have you ever wanted to build a decent-sized wind turbine to help charge those batteries? Are you handy with basic hand tools and a welder? Well, here’s Part 2 of our Windmill project, based on a motor from a washing machine, a few odd car parts, some timber for the blades and a kit “platform” to hold it all together. siiconchip.com.au 32 Suicon GHP‘magnet hub, top right the stator, the retaining plates and nut. We started this i couple of years ago as an experi- ment and it has since developed infonot only a roliable wind generator but a rewarding hobby. Please note that what is described here Is not a complete system but an Ideas platform, to allow you to develop ‘your own windmill, ‘The results depend on your own abilities and the final location of the windmill. But with care in construc- tion, especially the propeller blades and a position with 20km/h or h ‘wind speeds, you can expect toachieve output powers of 300W or better. Construction will be divided into three sections: alternator, platform, and bledes. ‘This month we will concentrate on the alternator. Next month will be for the platform to support the alterna- tor, propeller and tail assembly and after that we will show you how to makea set of high-performance timber blades. But first up a reality check: are you sure you want to build a windmill of this scale? You're going to need at leas an acre of land ~ it's not a good idea erecting a two-metre di- amoter windmill on a six-metro mast ‘“Wwwwithebackshed.com in your suburban back yard, unless you get along VERY well with your neighbors! Some people consider windmills visual pollution and will complain. And you should get approval from the local authorities before putting up the mast. In addition, you will need good average winds and a location ‘with a clear view (from the windmills perspective). This windmill won't generate any useful power unless the Wind speed is over 20km/h. Noise Despite what many think, windmills are not noisy. You will not normally hear any noise from a windmill unless you aro almost standing next to it (or A badly corroded drive shaft. This might be OK for bench testing but ‘wouldn't stick a big propeller on it January 2005 13Exploded view of the motor from a F&P service manual, We need everything with the exception of item 2,a hall effect sensor used to detect ‘the hub (item 5) position. unless the bearings are shot!) In high winds there isa distinctive “whooshing” noise but it's not any Jouder than the wind blowing through the trees. There Is, however, always some vibration produced by the alternator and this can travel down the mast For this reason I recommend you don't mount your windmill on the roof of your house ~ the drone could be unbearable, Sourcing the motor The hart of the windmill is the Fisher & Paykel Smartdrive motor, as used in Fisher & Paykol washing machines manufactured since the late Use a screwdriver to lift up the interconnecting leads to make cutting easier. 14 SuicoN Cru 1990s, Tho Smartdrive is basically a huge stepper motor, wired in a3-phase star contiguration and consists of a fixed statorand a hub containing mag. nets thatrotates around the stator. The stator consists of 42 poles constructed of steel laminations embedded in plastic. Stator diameter {s 250mm. ‘The hub has 36 magnets embedded in plastic, with hidden steel laminations to complete the magnet circuit. For our windmill we use the stator, hub, and also the stainless stoel drive shaft, bearings and stator retainer plates from the washing machine. In this article the Fisher & Paykel motor will be referred to as the “Alterna: tor" each group. ‘The FeP ‘Smartdrive stator before modification, As the Smartdrive has been around for several yoars now, they are start- ing to show up in recycling yards and dumps and can often be picked up for 2 few dollars If you can got hold of a complete washing machine, all the better, as there is a collection of springs and bits that could come in handy for fu ture projects. Removing the motor is a relatively simple task, requiring no special tools, And the motor controller has some fancy electronics, inchudinga pressure sensorand power mosfats which could ‘come in handy. Electrical repair shops are another source for Fisher & Paykel parts: find your local repair agent Lay down the first bus lead and solder the first coil lead from siliconchip.com.auich with 14 poles. 1 will be divided into 7 sections, each with 6 poles, and offer them universal currency (a carton of beer) in xchange for a couple of used Smartdrive motors from their scrap bin, You might get lucky! Or you can buy the motor parts new from Fisher & Paykel agents at a rvasonable cost. What to avoid ‘There aro a couple of things to look out for when sourcing your motor parts Shorted Windings: Water ingress into the windings causes coppar corrosion and shorting between the coils, or to the steel laminations, making the stator worth loss Corroded Shaft: The shaft noeds to support the woight and thrust of the propeller, so make sure there is no seri- ‘ous corrosion or pitting. Another concern is cracking in the plastic hub or stator. If not too severe, a few small cracks can be fixed with epoxy adhesive Once all bus wires are connected, you can use cable ties to secure it all together. slliconchip.com.au First cut and strip 6 lengths of 20A insulated wire as shown. ‘These will form our new bus bars. ‘The windings are cut as shown above and reconnected to the six bus bars as shown below. Use different colour wires for the buses to make life easier! Fit a terminal strip to the finished stator. This makes it easier to change from star to delta configuration. JANUARY 2005 18oA ‘a CONRGURATON 90000000 - STAR CONFIGURATION ‘The difference between delta and star configurations. How you connect them is up to you~ basically, you get more current but lower voltage with a delta, ‘configuration and more voltage but less current with a star configuration, ‘Some windmills are arranged to switch from one to the other on demand. Warning: do not place the stator in. for this project. the bub! The hub has a plastic spline ‘Next, Fisher & Paykel ruloasod a and retaining nut designed to slowly 0.8mm’ wiro version and tho latst feed the hub over the stator whileitis model is wound with 0.6mm wire sfllattached tothe washing machine These are the most common and (orwindmill), There isa strong mag: both versions aro ideal for our wind netic attraction betwen the two and — gondrator its easy to get your fingers jammod. When spun by hand the alternator ‘And if you do end up with a stator can produce over 100VAC. Even at this and hub stuck togethor, its quite dif Tow spood tho voltage is too high for ficult to separate thom, charging a battery bank, not to mon- me tion dangerous. Wo nood to mako a Rewiring the stator fevw changes to get this voltago down In factory form, the statoris wound toa useful level and, at the same timo, 4s a S-phase star winding, each leg increase output current. consisting of 14 poles wired in series This is done by cutting the inter- to give 42 poles total. connecting wires between the stator ‘There are currently threebasictypes poles and reconnecting them into a of Fisher & Paykel stators available. new configuration. By doing this the Tho early’ models were wound with altemator can be wired for charging Imm wire and are not recommended 12V, 24V or 48V battery banks, 18 SiICON Cup ‘We will look at a configuration for charging 12V batteries, this being the most common. Once again, remember this sories of articles is dosigned to Jet you experiment with windmill gonorators, $0 the following isa sug- gestion only. For our 12V setup woneod to rewire tho stator into seven pole groups, each with six poles. Bach group generatos S-phase powar and by connecting the groups in parallel, we cen increase the output current seven times. ‘We also have the option of connect- ing the S-phase groups as either a star ordelta configuration. Putsimply, star produces more voltage, less current and dolta produces less voltago and ‘more current. Its possible toaulomati- cally switch from star to dolta as the ‘windmill spoods up but we will leave this for another day: Starting ftom the factory fitted spade connectors, cut the stator windings as shown. You might find it helpful to ‘use a small screwdriver to lift the in- terconnecting wires for easior access You should ond up with 42 wire ends, cach about 20mm long Strip 5mm of the enamel coating from each wire with a sharp knife, sandpaper, or you can do what do and use a small blow torch to caro- fully burn off the enamel and then sandpaper to finish Next you need six lengths of wire, about 700mm long. Use wire capable of20A (alength of 7-core trailer wireis porfect). Use different coloured wires if possible as it will make identifica- tion af the phasos a lot easier, Each wire needs to be stripped in seven places at 70mm intervals ~ theso will be our bus wires. ‘Now lay down the Brstbus wireand solder the first lead ofeach pole group. Repeat the process for the remaining 5 wires, After you have soldered all the sgroupstothebus wires, usesome cable ties to secure the bus wires together Finally, add a terminal block to the end of the bus wires. Once the stator has boon ro-conlig- tured, you nood to protect it from the weather with acouple of coats of paint. ‘The plastic used in the P&P motors is subject to UV damage ‘That's not much of problem when hhidcion under a washing machine but it's a roal concor on a windmill. So paint the stator and hub with @ UV resistant exterior paint, Make sure tha sliconchip.com.aumC nur 2enpce ects Above: two 35A bridge rectifiers, mounted on suitable heatsinks, can be ‘connected to rectify the 3-phase output of the alternator. Not the diodes in the second bridge are unused butt that two of ‘a cheap way to go! Left: use this configuration ifyou have a rectifier assembly from an old ‘ear alternator ‘or wish to ust individual high- power ect ‘diodes. The diodes need a rating of at least 15-404 or mor poles ends are properly sealed against ‘water ingress, as tho Taminations can easily rust Delta vs Star configurations ‘There are two possible ways to con- nect the six output leads. From the factory, the F&P motor is configured ‘sa star winding, so I would leave it in this configuration and use it as a starting point. Once youhave completed and testod your windmill, you can try changing the connection to a delta to see how it afects performance. Rectifying the output ‘Now that we have our 3-phase AG alternator, we need to convart this to DC for charging batteries, If you have a old car alternator sitting in the junk pile, then pull it ‘part and use the diode pack as your rectifier. These diode packs are built very tough (they need to be to survive nan engine bay) and can handle 50 Another option is to use two heavy duty bridge rectifiers (such as a 3504), ‘or you could just buy six single automotive diodes and wire them together. Bither way, the rectifier needs to bbe able to handle 30A or more. And remember, all diodes will need a hoatsink. ‘Noxt month we will look at the con- struction of the windmill platform and tail. The platform is supplied as laser cut steel components and requires some welding. Onceassembled, it provides strong, mounting frame between the alterna: tor, propeller and mast and includes a self-furling tail to safely turn the windmill out ofthe wind during strong gusts or storms. so NEXT MONTH ‘The windmill platform In amongst scads of really neat alternative energy gear on their website (www.airaus.com) Aimarine Australia have a number of wind turbine alternators ranging from the 300W Ampair Pacific, through the 1.6kW Bergey XL1 (pictured right) and right up to 3, 5, 10 and 20kW Westwind, Wind Turbines. ‘The Bergey model shown has a rotor diameter of 2.5m and is intended for the off.grid home market. Rated power Is 1kW, or 1.6KW peak, with an output of 24V DC. ‘The XL1 combines a number of advanced technical features, including a completely new airol, to provide the highest efficiency yet achieved in a small wind turbine. “The XL1 is an up-wind, horizontal-axis, three-bladed turbine. The blades are pultruded fibreglass, a material that Is over ten times stronger than the injection-molded plastic used on most small wind turbines. In fac, pultrusions have a breaking strength exceeding 100,000 psi, which is twice as strong as normal steel ‘The blades attach directly to a specialy-designed very- low-speed permanent magnet alternator which uses state- of-the-art neodymium super-magnets. Low wind speed per-formance is greatly enhanced by 4 low-end-boost circuit that optimally loads the wind tur- Another commercial wind turbine alternative Airmarine Australia bine down to wind speeds as low as 2.5mis, Combined with the new blade system, this circuitry allows the XL.1 to produce useful power more than 6000 hours year at a typical site. For reference, a typical solar system produces power 3500 hoursa year ata typi cal site The XL. is priced ataround $3500 (vari- ous options are available) and is offered with an easy-to- install tubular ti-up tower kit in heights trom 9m to 32m, offering a complete ‘ready to install" kit, Price of a 10m tower, engineer-certified to withstand howiing gales, is about $1800 Contact Airmarine Australia on (08) 9459 2888, website wwnwalraus.com, or email grd@hotkey.netau. silconchip.com.au Janvany 2005 17BSB) 2 roro bo High Pressure Cleaner CComzever water 5 metre nore, adjurtble nore, | ge mex tstives prin Tasae DIC MITH Parva1.5-3V DC Motor Seed Ne Lod 12,00 PM Cerrent (No Load: 380m Torque 8 Max EF Weag-em Body Sze: 23.8) «285 ran Shaft Ske: 2(d)x 65 Oren [20% OFF THIS MONTH ONLY! £> Light Dependent Resistor (Jpn) eich crak $ Bip gtk at ~ |56% OFF THIS MONTH ONLY! 9 Sen “plea used os AM Seecer, 23040 7.Piece Set Motor Mount Brackets Groreclewte sat mos fopulec sal motor sites Ire, P9090, Uinired srocx NGO » AM Signal Diode 10 x 0.12mm HOOK-UP WIRES 40 30m Germanium. Red Dark blue w 2226 was Per metre wis Promotion from 22/12/04 to 25/01/05 SEF EQ5t= Liquid Crystal Dipley Modules 2eh70 16 Chrno 3 Lines 19 2417216 Chances 2 nes Sit $29.97 649% WiFi Yallow LED. 350med LED. 1500med LED. Pack Of 2 eo Pack of 374m Pack of 3.23002 HiFlux Green fer esting Ulrovilet m LED High ightness Ub thon | THIS MONTH'S SPECIAL Assorted Heatshrink Tube Pad ‘sorted pack of colours, za incades 32mm 48mm, dr, 9. ameter tubing. W406 50/0.12mm Red/Black Figure-8 Medium Duty Power Cable DC cable suited to sunphing power to smaler projects. W 2022 DIC ie Por metre: MITH 1%pecsum Electronic and Black Zippy Boxes =A RYDAY é LOW PRICES on DSE tab, ring, spade, 2851 50 bullet and butt connectors 2882 60 x 113% All 10 packs - $924 All 50 packs -$448 From: $494 9.0mm Grommet AS (3/8) 8 Pk 456 DIC MITH www.dse.com.aKit specialists: 2xcsum 20MHz Dual Trace Basic CRO Taft CRO nv a ie ane of penn yr and Te Yigge th two C20 probe -15V Regulated SA DC Supply 7 Sr ad ufo ha te BD ny 02 = 5299 2) st components hardware, BCE and pre punched, Powder comed (and ecrenedh mata cat. K 7219 4 99°” Q FRPBME nag '04 ‘The lature shown sol for play purposes Fridge Aare Kit ht «present fr longer than the rest paved R7ate $4996 FD sun 04 Promotion from 22/12/04 to 25/01/05 DIC MITHzecsus The electronics UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER SYSTEMS Built to protect computer se sobe saikan Pliers and pica $4 274 Mobile Phone ment mobile phones $4 ges ) Nicholson LntTeD stock. Baa “ STOCK oovaraz’ LIMITED $‘FP 9020 Gear bon @ *9° ‘Témnm Refracting Telesco telide ipod, St wectng ere, ght solo copter 3x Basiw ln Iiderecope and voriou eopioces, Cass Solenoid DC 6v $Q3 FiémA2V 1.8 P9010 Gearbox Multiratio. na, ote ot Fy > 020 Available in-store or through our Direct Sales 1300 366 644 (Loca call charge) (02) 9642 9155 Dick SMITH ELECTRONICS KS0n" Direct Sleepy Pat 800, PO Box 50, jackson’ $4. 44 Regents Par DC NSW 2143 (No.samp required) Yin oraen end and ny poverboo cet treater protecte, etme Promotion from 22/12/04 to 25/01/05 DICKS ‘SM IT ;By JOHN CLARKE Is the sound of a V8 music to your ears? Does the roar and deep rumble of a V8 engine raise your pulse rate? With the SILICON CHIP V8 doorbell you can impress your friends and neighbours. You can have the sound of a V8 without even starting your car. In fact, you don’t even need a car. FAS FOU SEEN the Repco V8__ For now use, the Internal 100mm worbell advertised on TV? Does loudspeaker can be used and this the sound of a powerful VB instead provides a good simulation of the V8 of a boring 2tone doorboll appeal to sound, particularly ifthe loudspeaker you? Then forget the Repco doorbell is tuned using a length of PVC pipe = itsounds puny. The SILICON Cuip V8 —mare on this later, For more volume, doorbell really does sound like a VB_— you can use a larger loudspeaker or if and itis loud as well, with an inbuilt you want to go the whole hog, co1 amplifier, ect a bigger power amplifier and Not only does it sound like proper _loudspeake Vo, italso lights up an 8-LED "V" dis- If the V8 Doorbell does not soun¢ play, each time you press the doorbell quite how you like it, you can eas. pushbutton, In fact, you can have a ily tailor the circuit to make small ‘Vo-LED display at your front doorand changes to the way the Vé sounds, hor on the doorbell cas Altering the software can make even The Ve Doorbell is housed inaplas- greater changes, That way, you may liccaseand is powored bya plugpack. be able to reproduce the Cleveland 24 IN CoP gine, Holden Monaro, Corvette or something else We even allow for simulation of V6 engines. Well, grudgingly, and there are some restrictions on the settings hat can be used, But enough of pony engines; let's got back to V8s, That “luvverly” V8 burble Vashavea characteristic sound tha makes them stand out from sma engines. Bach marque has its owt sound’ thet distinguishos i from the others and much effort is made by the manufacturors to ensure that thelt V8 has the most appealing “signatuc The chara mainly determined by the way the exhaust aystem is configured. In a typical V8, each cylinder of the engine is connected to an exhaust outlet pipe with four pipes menging into one, on ristic Ve sound ach side of the engine Some Vas have completely separate left and right exhaust systems (twin exhausts). The longths of pipe between he engine and muffler affect the the sound is mixed from the two sides of the engine, In a single exhaust sys tem, one exhaust pipe must be longer slliconchip.comauFig: the block diagram of the V8 Doorbell. Most ofthe action takes place inside the microcontroller but there's also some fancy filtering and ing to get the VB “burble” sound we want, than the other, to reach to the one side of the car body. In a twin exhaust, the mixing happons in the air and at our Block diagram ‘Wohavo simulated the sound ofa V8 with thoabove principles in mind, The block diagram of Fig.1 shows how it {is done. When tho doorbell is prossod, the microcontrollerbogins ta produce signals from eight ports to simulate the firing ofthe oight cylinders. They pro- duce tonosin a soquence similar to the firing in areal engine. Typically, there can be an overlap between when one cylinder fires and the next sa in offect there can be two sources of signal at any one time. inthis design, you can soloct several overlap options and the degree of over- Jap between the cylinders will affect thesound ofthe simulated engine. The ‘overlaps that can be solocted are 60° overlap, a 30° overlap, zar0 overlap or 30° gap between cylinder firing. Cylinder outputs 1-4 produce their tones with different phasing to that of cylinder outputs 5-8. This is to simu late mixing of the left and zight side siliconchip.com.au exhausts of the engine. You can alter the phase from its initial 180° setting to any other value in stops of about 20° Cylinder outputs are mixed to: gether in IC2b and then fed through 2 low-pass filter. This filtor acts like 4 muffler in that it attenuates high frequency noise but allows through some low frequency noise, The ac- colerate Alter contzol (Qi) and the snarl filter control (Q2) alter the way the filter works. These make changes to the filter characteristics to allow more high frequoncy signals to pass during acceleration and at high RPM simulation, The microcontroller's RA2 port functions as a gated noise source, generating random noise only during CR CT aud | Jaycar Electronics has sponsored the development of this project. | own the design copyright. ful kit of parts wil be available from Jaycar: _KC-5405. This kit includes a screen-printed and solder-masked PC board; all on-board parts; and a case with pre-punched front and rear panels and screenediettering. Alternatively, youcan purchase a short-form kitwith justine PC board andl on-board parts (does not include ‘witch) ~ Cat. KC-5405. The 12V DC plugpack is available separately. part of each cylinder’s fring cycle, This simulates valve, tappet, drive train and air inlot sounds. This is fod ta bandpass filter C3a and then mixed with the cylinder signal by IC3b. QB provides for an increase in val- ume level at higher RPM, under con- trol ofa pulse width modulated (PWM) signal from port RBS ofthe micro. Aftor filtering, the PWM signal becomes a DC voltage to drive QS. This DC volt age also controls a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) which alters its fre- quency depending on the input volt- age. The VCO's output is fed to port RA4 of IC1 and it therefore determines the olfective ongine RPM, ‘Tho final signal is fed to the volume control pot and amplifier IC5a. This is ws they speaker or pushbution Januany 2005 25THWGHO00 8h as siliconchip.com.au 26 SwicoN CitFig.2 (lof): the complete circuit of the Vi Doorbell, A PICIOF628 ‘microcontroller (IC) produces the simulated V8 ongine signals. These signals are then processed and fed to audio amplifier stage ICB, muted so that there is no signal until the doorbell is pressed. Power ampli fior IC6 drives the loudspeaker Circuit details Fig.2 shows the complete clroult, ICt is @ PICI6P628 microcontroller that produces the simulated V8 engine signals, 1C1 operates at 20MH2, as set by crystal X1 The doorbell input at RAS is nor mally low (OV) when the switch is ‘open since the 1k® resistor pulls it to ground. When the switch is closed, the input is pulled to +5V, A 100nF capacitor across the resistor removes noise picked up by the doorbell wiring while the 2.2k0 resistor acts to restrict current to the RAS input if there is a transient voltage spike, The closed switch is detected by IG1 and so it begins to produce the engine sound sequence, The port outputs at RBO to RB2, RAS ‘and RI84-RB7 are applied via 100k. resistors to op amp IC2b, connected ‘as a mixer with its gain set by trim- pot VR1. These ports also drive LEDs 1.8 Via 5600 resistors to give the V8 display. Op amp IC2a is the low-pass filler stage, In its normal state, this filter acts to sharply roll off the signal ‘above 600Hz when Mosfets Qt and Q2 are both switched on, When Qt is switched off, its as sociated 68nF capacitor is effectively switched out of circuit and this reduces the filter’s effectiveness at rolling off signal level above 600H2, Similarly, when Q2 is switched off, the S6nF capacitor isout of circuit and the filter action is further reduced, ‘The 1Ma resistors tying the capaci- torstoground are included tomaintain the DC voltage across these capacitors so thal there is no DC shift in signal ‘when they are switched in or out. QU and Q2 are controlled by the RA1 and RAO outputs of ICI respectively. The 10kQ resistor and 14F capacitor on the gate of each Mosfet slow down the switch-on and switeh-off rates Of the Mosfets to eliminate switching mn practice, both Mosfets are switch- fod on during idle to provid the full siliconchip.com au 1 main PC board, code 05101051, 4171 x 105mm, 1 display PC board, code 105101052, 56 x 48mm 1 plastic utity box, 197 x 113 x 63mm. 1 12VDC 1A plugpack 1.40 100mm loudspeaker 1130mm length of 100mm dia ‘mater PVC tubingt doorbell switch (S1) 4 20MHz crystal (x1) 1 B-way right-angle pin header 1 Bway pin header 2 B-way pin header sockets 41 2-way PC-mount screw terminal block 4.2.5mm DC socket 1 panel-mount RCA socket 1 knob to suit potentiometer 11 80mm length of 8-way rainbow cable 1150mm length of 3-way rainbow cable 1 80mm length of hookup wire 180mm length of single core shielded cable 1 80mm length of figure-6 light duty wire 1 suitable length of igure-6 door- bell wire 1150mm length of 0.8mm tinned copper wire 4 12mm M3 tapped spacers 13 M3 x 10mm screws 5 MB nuts, PC stakes Semiconductors 1 PICI6F628 microcontrolerpro- grammed with engine hex (101) 3. LM358 dual op amps (IC2, IC3, ics) 1 7555 CMOS timor(Ic4) 1 TDA1905 5W amplifier (IC6) effect of the filter. When the “ongine” ‘speed is increased, Qi is switched olf to produce the noise of accelei tion and as RPM rises further, Q2 is switchod off for the “snarl” effect at high RPM. The low-pass Alter output at pin 1 of IC2a is fed to op amp ICab, another mixer, via a 2.2k0 resistor Gated noise Gated noiso from tho RA2 output of IC is attenuated viaa voltage divider 3.2N7000 Mosfets (Q1-03) 4 BC547 NPN transistor (Q4) 1.7805 SV regulator (REG1) 114004 1A diode (D1) 1.1N4148 switching diode (02) 8 Smm red high intensity LEDs (LEDI-LED8) Capacitors 2 1000uF 16V PC electrolytic. 1 470yF 16V PC electrolytic. 3 100uF 16V PC electrolytic 1 47uF 18V PC electrolytic 10 10uF 16V PC electrolytic 2 2.2uF 16V PC electrolytic 3 IMF 16V PC electrolytic 2.220nF MKT polyaster 3 100nF MKT polyester 1 68nF MKT polyester 1 56nF MKT polyester 2 10nF MKT polyester 4 5.6nF MKT polyester 22.2nF MKT polyester 2 1nF MKT polyester 4 1009F ceramic 3 22pF ceramic Resistors (0.25W 17%) 41MQ "422k 14 100K -1*4.2k2 347K 6k. 133k0 8 5800 122k 1 1000 1010K2 110. 247k Potentiometers 4/1kO mult-turn side adjust sorew trimpot (code 102) (VR) 1 500k0 horizontal trimpot (code 504) (V2) 1 10k82 log 16mm potentiometer (VRS) 41 10k82 horizontal rimpot (code 103) (VR) comprising a 1MQ resistor and a 1kQ resistor in series with a 10uF capacitor. ‘The 10nF capacitorsand 1.2kQresistor form a half-T filter that allows a rela- tively narrow band of froquoncios con- tred on about 6.6kHz to pass through. The 100k0 resistor between pin 2and ppin 1 broadens the bandwidth of the filter to allow a wider range of frequen cles to pass than ifthe resistor was not present. The output af IC3a is fod to mixer [3b via a 1MQ resistor. January 2005 27slab) Value WCapacitoCodes) HF Code IEC Code EIA Code] 220nF 0.22F 2200 204 1OOnF OIF 100n 104 68nF .068uF —68n 83. | SénF .056xF 56n 563, JOnF OF 100103. S.6nF .0056uF n6 563 22nF \0022uF 2n2 222 inf .001NF in 102 100pF “NA 100 100 22pF NA 2p 22 Tho output from IC3b is passed through a 2.2k0 resistor and 10F DC blocking capacitor. Mosfat Q3 shunts this signal to ground when conducting bout has no effect onthe signal through pul when itis switched off Q3 is controlled via the filtered PWM signal from pin 9 of IC1, The 142 resistor and 20KF capacitor filter this 19kFiz signal and the filtered DC voltage is applied via trimpot VR2 to the gato of Q: Op amp ICSa is a non-inverting amplifier with a gain of 11. It ampli- fies the signal taken from the wiper ‘of VR3 so that the lovel is suitable for the following power amplifier. IC5a is, biased at +5V so that when there is no signal, its pin 1 output sits at 5V. This allowsa large voltage swing before the output clips. High frequency roll-off for the amplifieris sot at around 16kHz to prevent high-frequency instability. Its output is coupled to the power amplifier IC6 via a 4.7k82 resistor and 10 DC blocking capacitor. ‘Transistor Qé provides muting of the Bak ssonsendanote Q a Q Q Q Qa Q Q 9 Q Q a Q Qa output signal and itis controlled by ‘comparator IC3b and the filtered PWM signal from pin $of1Ci. IC3b operates inthe following way. When he cicuit is quiescent (Jo, not producing any V8 sounds), the filtered PWM signal is at 5V. This is monitored at pin 5 of ICsb and is compared with the voltage set by trimpot VR¢, fod to pin 6. VR& is sol 90 that pin 6 is at about 4.7V and s0 pin 7 of IC3b will bo high at around 11V-Thishigh signal drives the base of Q4 which therefore shunts any noise signals to ground. ‘When the doorbell is pressed, the microcontroller begins to produce the Ve sounds and the PWM signal im- mediately drops to 4.5V and s0 pin 7 of IC8b goes low and Q4 is switched off. The signal at IC5a's output now passes to the line output socket and {o 1C6, the power amplifier. Power amplifier ICB is a TDA1905 power amplifier rated to produce 5W into 40 with @ 14V supply. It includes thormal shut- down if it overheats and a very low noise output. For the intermittont uso itgets in this circuit, itis ideal. Gain of the amplifier is sot at 11 by the 1002. and 1KQ resistors connected between pin 1 and ground, with the foodback signal AC-coupled to pin viaa 2.2HF capacitor. ‘Tho 100pF capacitor at pin 7 pro- vides supply ripple rejection while the 47nF capacitor between pin 1 and pin 3 provides classic bootstrap- ping botween the emplifier’s output and driver stages. A 1000xF capaci- tor across tho 12V supply provides a reserve for transient power output while a 100nF bypass capacitor pro- brown biack green brown ‘brown black yellow brown yellow violet orange brown range orange orange brown red red orange brown ‘brown black orange brown yellow violet red brown ‘ed red red brown bbrown red red brown brown black red brown {green blue brown brown brown black brown brown brown biack gold gold vides high srequoncy filtering 1C4 iva CMOS 855 tor Sot up os a voltage contollad oscillator (VEO), its output is fod to por RA4 (pin 3) of tho microcontroller to determin the tube engin RPM Pin [hreshold conto) is used to sot the output frequency. When pin 9 of 14 is love, ditd Dt discharges the 220nF capacitor at pine 2 and 8 relatively qutekly via ti serios con: nected 2 2h vesistor When pin3 goes high the 220n capacitor only chargos via the 3940 resistor since Da is now roversed-iased, ‘Theresulting pulse waveform at pin a has arlatively shor low period and 8 longer high-level period: Io a high duty ayele, We hen vary tho voltage at pinto control the output frequency. Whon pin is up around SV ho fre: quency i ow and if pin 81s low tho frequency is higher “Power fr the circuit i provided by 412V DG plugpack Diode D1 provents damageif he supply i connected the vwrong way around while the 470, Capacitor providos extra tering. Tho 12V supply feeds 163 and ICO while REGH, an LM7805 5V regulator sup ples the rest ofthe ciccut Construction The V8 Doorbell is built onto two PC boards: a main board coded 05101051 (171 x 105mm) and a LED display board coded 05101052 (56 x 48mm). The two PC boards and the 100mm loudspeaker are housed insido a plastic utility box measuring 197 x 113 x 63mm. Bofore installing any of the parts, check the two PC boards for any shorts ‘between the coppor tracks or for any 5-Band Code (1%) brown black black yellow brown brown black black orange brown yellow violet black red brown ‘orange orange black red brown ted red black red brown brown black black red brown yellow violet black brown brown red red black brown brown brown red biack brown brown brown black black brown brown ‘green blue biack black brown brown black black black brown brown black black silver brown 28 Siicon Qup slliconchip.com.auFig.2 install the parts on the two PC boards as shown here. Make sure that you install each part in its correct location and take care to ensure that all polarised parts go in the right way around. Note that there are two 8-way pin headers on the main board. This lets you drive two separate display boards ifrequired. Lapa Mon ne a ; tors, note that the p ting positions in ca care with their be installed with the display PC with ICs Notoalso that thro done, begin the links wrIC1. Regulator REG is mow © its motal tab flat against the Mosfets (Q4-Qa) an ‘This involves first bending its leads at The trimpots and go _right-angles so that they pass through sliconchip.com.au January 200529Fig: you can change the sound produced by your V8 Doorbell by ‘making the connections shown hore and then applying power soe text for further details. ‘theirmatching holesin the board. That done, the rogulator tab is socured to the board using an M3 sczow and nut and tho leads soldered, The following parts can now all be Installed: the 2-way terminal block, th DC sockot, the eight PC stakes (at the external wiring points shown) and the 2x8-way pin headers (the right-angle header is installed on the display PC board) You will need to connect the two header socket shells using 8-way rain- bow cable. This is done by stripping the wire ends and crimping them to the pins supplied, These pinsare then slid into the header shells. Display board assembly The display PC board can now be assembled. For the time being, it's just matter of installing the resistors, the zight-angle header plugand aPC stako Don't install the LEDs just yet ~ that step comes later Ifyou buy a complete kit then the case will be supplied pro-drilled, with scroon printed lettering, not, you will 30 SiuicoN Ci have to drill the holes yourself. This involves drilling eight holes in a "“V" pattern for the eight LEDs, plus four mounting holes cach for the display board and the loudspeaker. In addi: tion, you will also have to drill holes in the lid in front of the loudspeaker cone area, to allow sound to escape Another hole is required in the front panel for the volume control pat. And finally, two holes are required in one end of tho base for tho RCA output socket and the DC power plug, plus ‘another hole in the apposite end for the doorbell switch wire entry. The four 12mm tapped Nylon spacers can now be fastened to the lid at the display board mounting points, These aro secured using four Ms x 6mm scrows, That done, slip the bight LEDs into their mounting holes fon the PC board (make sure you get them the right way around), then se- ‘cure the board to its spacers. It's then simply @ matter of pushing the LEDs through their respective holes in the front panel and soldering their leads. Finally, the loudspeaker and pot can be secured to the lid and the wiring completed as shown in Fig.3. Don’t forget to run the wire lead from the PC stake near the 8-way hoader on the main board to the PC stake on the display board, ‘Test & adjustment ‘Now for the smoke test. First, apply power to the circuit and check for 5V between pins 4 and 8 of both 1C2 & 1C3, between pins 1 & 4 of IC4 and bbetiwoon pins§ & 14 of IC1.That dono, check for about 12V be- tween pins 4 & 8 of IGS and ny CT pins 2 & 9 of IC6. If those voltages are correct, switch off and install IC1. However, if there are no voltages, check the polarity of the DG plug on tho plugpack. The centre pin should be positive, (OK, now let's soe fit actually works. To do this, connect the doorbell switch to the terminal block (using figure-8 ‘wire) and adjust the various trimpots as follows: (2), sot VRI fully anticlockwise (2), sot VR2 & VRS fully clockwise; (3). sot VR4 so that its wiper voltage is at +4,7V with rospect to ground. ‘Now press the doorbell and slowly ‘adjust multi-tura trimpot VR1 elock- ‘wise, The engine sound should start to increase in volume. The final setting for VR1 depends on personal prefer ‘once — set it too far clockwise and the sound will becomo very harsh. A lower setting will produce a cleaner engine sound, ‘Trimpot VR2 is setso that you obtain the required idle volume, compared to the “rev up" volume. It's just a matter of slowly adjusting this pot until the idle volume is suitably lower than the “tovved-up” volume. If required (ie, if you want more “ooomph"), a 100mm PVC pipe joiner (or 120mm length of pipe} can be secured to the lid in front of the loudspeaker using silicone sealant This tuned pipo makes the sound more resonant and penetrating. Ifyou like, you can try different lengths of pipeHore’s how it all goes together inside the plastic case. You can use light-duty hook-up wire to make the connections to the volume pot and the loudspeaker. Individual pr sliconchip.com.authe rov range. However, it takes many applications of power to make large ‘changes to the frequency, The frequency can be reset to its default value using Terminal 2. ‘Terminal 7: this selects whother the doorbell includes an idling period befare the two revving sequences. Other changes ‘Theidle RPM can be setby changing tho 33kO resistor at pin 3 of IC4 ~ a larger resistance will ower the RPM or ‘you can use a 50K trimpot to adjust this to your liking, The ambient noige canbe increased in frequency by decreasing the 1.20 resistor in tho "twin-I” Ailtor of 1G3a and vico vorsa. In addition, the 1k resistor at pin 8 of 1G3a sets the do- . grve of mixing with the cylinder fring The PC board {s secured by clipping it into the integra theside ofthe Sound. A lower valuo will reduce the case. Power comes from a 12V DC 1A plugpack. aries Gel os verse, oF you can 10a 1KGLtrimpot to adjust this. andrighthand sides ofthe engino. This _cylindors are firing. ‘You can also make major changes isthe phasingadjustment. Phasingcan _" Notethatonlythe0° and 30°gap et- to the doorbell sound characteristics. be altered in steps of about 20%, from tings should used in 6-cylinder mode. by altering the software. To do this, its original default of 180°. Do not use the 60° and 30° overlap you will need to be able to modify the ‘Terminal 2: the 180° default sotting settings, as this will simulate a 6:cyl- software, reassemble the code and re- of the phase and the exhaust note fre- inder engine with an erratic soventh program IC1, Some PIC programming quency can be reset using this input cylinder. The correct setting will be oxparionce will be necessary. (00 Torminals 5 & 6 below), seen onthe“V" display when onlysix A much fuller sound fs available if ‘Terminal 3: this terminal alters the LEDs light. I'soven LEDs light,change you use a large loudspeaker housed amount of overlap for the sound gen- the overlap setting using Terminal 3. in a suitable box. For more volume, trated by each cylinder firing. It can Terminals 5 & 6: these inputs allow you may want to use a more powerful be altered in sequence from 60° to 30° the exhaust frequency to bo altered amplifier and this can be connected to 0° and Ginally to a 30° gap. slightly. Terminal 5 increasos the fre- using the RCA line output socket. ‘Terminal 4: the 6 or 8-cylinder selec- quency, while Terminal 6 lowers it. If you do this, you can either dis. tion is made using this input. This Ifthe froquency is increased too far connect the internal loudspeaker or alternatively solects either setting, fromthe original valuo, the sound will _ you can leave it connected so that it ‘with the LED display showing which have a “raspy” quality at the top of operates as an extension. sc SINGON Gu els ‘ust: $422.50 (Incl. GST & P&P) Overseas: $A25.00 via airmail © Learn how engine management systems work © Build projects to control nitrous, ful injection and turbo boost systems © Switch devices on and off onthe basis of signal frequency, temperature and voltage © Build test instruments to check ful injector duty cycle, fuel mixture and brake and coolant temperatures Available from selected newsagents Or order by phoning (02) 9979 5644 & quoting your credit card number; or fax. the details to (02) 9979 6503; or mail your order with cheque or credit card details to Silicon Chip Publications, PO Box 139, Collaroy, NSW 2037. 32 ON CHIP siiconchip.com.ausaw tone motors aecectoc [brush 4mognot, tepals. tosh sproceitocutacnan pth aro im Dasioealbearagter ong te Noogtrackatwih a reosed Ins wn r8) 1m DI lone shat) Shah Z?manx ran(aminst 2mm (8) 2a AVC. 1.08 2750 Rout S20 20VDC, BAA 2660 RPM S38 im: feat ‘ jrosuirrrow 17 30mW+ GREENS LASERHEADS, ta ‘complete laser light show kit ‘sing the above laser heads. 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ACN 088 740 087 ABN 18066 740 08Do your remote controls often fail? Is it due to dead batteries, poor contacts under the switch buttons or a more serious fault? How would you know if it was working anyway? Here is the answer — a Remote Control Checker. It lets you very easily check whether an infrared (IR) remote control is sending out a code when each of its buttons is pressed, so you can avoid opening the thing up for cleaning or repair if it “ain’t really broke”. OWADAYS, JUST ABOUT every item of home entertainment gear has its own remote control, so you can control its operation without ever hav- ing to get up from your easy chair —if you don't want to, that is, Most homes have plenty of remotes but in most ceases their reliability isn't wonderful. Probably that's because they have to take quite a lot of physical pounding: easily dropped, squashed, kicked, trodden on, splashed with drink and otherwise abused. When a remote fails completaly, it’s usually just a matter of replacing the battery and away it goes again for another year or two. But what about ‘when replacing the battery doesn’t fix itor one or two of the buttons seem to havo stopped working? Then itcan get abit tricky and you want tobe sure the siiconchip.com.au“Figs the complete Arena HOM Pi) fault is in the remote rather than in the equipmont it's supposed to control Unfortunately most of the remotes made in the last few yoars don't soem. to be made for easy accoss to the insides, without damaging the caso. ‘They're clipped together usinga series of tiny lugs, moulded into the inside ‘edges of the case top and bottom. The Jugs can be hard to find from the out- sideand oven harder to unclip without breaking one or more of them, So you don’t want to open up a remote unless ifs absolutely necessary. ‘The little IR Remote Checker de: scribed hore is designed to help in such cases, letting you quickly find out whether o not any suspect but tons are sending out codes from the remote's IR LED. This will lot you de- cide whether the fault is in the remote or in the equipment itself. You simply point the remote's in- visible output beam at the Checker's sensor window and then press the various buttons. If the sensor picks up any cocies, it givos you immediate confirmation by flashinga visible LED and sounding a small piezo beeper. ‘TheChecker canbe operated froman internal 9V battery or an extemal DC siiconchip.com.au circuit for the IR Remote Checker. Infrared I and eto ate Cha. chat dvs ate eb Tee ‘ih plugpack powor supply. Asa bonus, it also provides an electrical copy of the ‘control code pulses roceived from the remote, so yout can feed them toascope or logi¢ analyser for further analysis, This would also make the Checker a handy tool for anyone developing custom remote controls ‘The Checker uses only a handful of low-cost parts, all mounted on a small PC board which fits into a UB-3 size jiffy box. You should be able toassem- blo it in a couple of hours, especially if you build it from a kit How it works Fig.1 shows the circuit diagram of the IR Remote Checker. The infrared pulse trains from the remote are picked up by sensor/recelver IRR1, which strips thom from their supersonic cartier signal (usually about 38kH2) and provides them as negetive-going electrical pulses from its output p 1. We foed these pulses to pin 1 of gate ICia, used hora as an inverting buffer: The output of [Cia then drives fone input each of two further gates, ICie and ICtb. ICic is also usod as an inverter, to drive transistor Q1. Qi is then used to pean arse caeeeee a ‘pune Leo ay ale tH switch currontto LEDI, soit flashes for the duration of each cade pulse. ICI is used as an oscillator which is gated on by the pulses from ICta. The oscillator’ frequency is depend. enton the 22nF capacitor and the total feedback resistance, so trimpot VR1 allows it to be adjusted over a reason: able range, ‘The output from the oscillator is used to drive transistor Q2, which in um drivos the piozo transducor with a BV poak-to-peak waveform, The 4.7kQ resistor across the transducer is used to providea DC load for the transistor, and also to discharge the piezo trans- ducer's capacitance between pulses. ‘The idea of having trimpot VR1 is so that you can adjust the oscillator's frequency to match the transducer's resonant frequency, for maximum “beep” output, ICI’s fourth gate (IC1d) is used as another inverting buffer, driven direct ly from theoutput of RI. The output of this inverter is then fed to output socket CON1 via a series 4.7k0 resis tor,to provide the IR Remote Checker output pulses so they can bemeasured by an oscilloscope. ‘All of the IR Remote Checker's Janvany 2005 36Fig.2: install the parts on the PC board as shown here, taking care to ensure that all polarised go in the right way for IRR1 and the 470uF electrolytic capacitor. ‘around. Note the mount 1g det circuitry operates from 5V DC and draws very little current even when responding to IR pulses. The 5V sup- ply is provided by regulator REG1, a low-power 78105 device. ‘The raw input for REG is control- led by power switch $1 and comes from the intemal 9V battery or from ‘an external 9V DC plugpack. Diode D1 ensures that the circuitry can’t be damaged if the plugpack polarity is reversed. Construction Apart from the 9V battery, all of the components used in the Checker are ‘mounted ona small PChoard measur ing 112.x 57mm and coded 04101051, The component overlay diagram is shown in Fig. 36 ‘SILICON Cu ‘The board is designed to fit inside ‘standard UB-3 size utility box (130 x67 x 34mm) and mounts on the rear ff the box lid using four 15mm x M3 tapped spacers with eight M3 x 6mm Tong screws (4 x countersink head), The 9V battery is held in the bottom ofthe box usinga length ofgaffer tape. Both external connectors are accessed by holes in the end of the box, when it's assembled. ‘You should be able to see the loca tion and orientation ofall the compo- nants on the PC board from the inter- nal photos and the overlay diagram of Fig.2. Note that the piezo transducer isattached to the top of the board near the centre, using M2 machine screws and nuts. ‘Bogin the board assembly by fitting, the two connectors to the end. Then fit the four PC terminal pins, two of which go on the far end of the board for the battery load connections. The other two go near the centre, for the piezo transducer leads, Next, fit toggle switch $1, which mounts with its connection lugs passing down through the matching slots in the board as far as they'll go, before soldering underneath. After this, ft trimpot VR4, near the battery terminal pins. ‘The resistors como next; all fit hori zontally. Diode D1 fits in the same way just behind CON2, with its banded cathodo end towards switch $1. Now fit the capacitors. These all mount in the usual vertical fashion except for the largest 470pF electro, ‘which is fitted lying on its side, with its leads bent down at 90° about 2mm from the body. Make sure you bend them the right way, so the positive lead ends up clasor to switch St ‘as shown, Watch the polarity of the otherelectrolytics too, a8 they are all polarised. Regulator REC1 and the two transistors are fitted next, with all, three having their leads cranked out. wards to mate with the board holes. ‘That dono, fit the IR sensor device, ‘As shown in the photos and dia- grams, this mounts with all three leads bent carefully downwards by 90°, about 2.5mm from the body. The very ends ofthe loads aro then passed down, through the matching board holes and soldered, so the sensor ends up facing directly upwards and with the top of silconchip.com.au‘The PC board is secured to the lid of the case using 151 M3 screws. Note that a prototype board necessary on the final version). its homispherical lens 15.5mm above the board, Next fit the IC, making sure that it’s mounted the correct way around as shown in Fig.2, Because it's a CMOS dovice, make sure you use an earthed soldering iron and earth yourself when you solder its pins to their pads, to avoid damage due to static Aischarge. Mounting the piezo device Now cut the two leads of the piezo transducer to about 50mm long, as suming you've already mounted the ransducer itself to the board in the ight position using the M2 screws and puts. Then bare about 4mm of wire on QM Value Q 2 10k2 Cees 47K. Q 1 22001 eee. 470 n tapped spacers and ‘shown here (the wire link is not the end of both leads, and carefully solder them to the two PC terminal pins just to the left of the 470uF olec trolytic cap. Note that the red positive lead should connect to the pin nearest to the 4.7k82 resistor. Solder only one lead to its pad with a minimum of solder, so it will bo held in place temporarily until final positioning when the board isattached to the box lid, Tho last step at this stage isto solder the battery snap leads to the terminal pins on the end of the board,ynaking sure that the red positive lead solders, to the upper pin near IRR1 4-Band Codie (1%) brown black orange brown yellow violet red brown red red brown brown yellow violet black brown Parts) ist} 1 PC board, code 04101051, 112 57mm_ 1 plastic utilty box, 190 x 67 x ‘34mm (UB-3) 1 mini toggle switch, SPOT (S1) 1 PC-mount RCA socket (CON1) 4 PC-mount 2.6mm DC socket (CON2) 1.9V battery, 216 type 1 9V battery snap lead 4 piezo transducer, 30mm dia. x ‘5mm high 4PC board terminal pins, mm diameter 4.MS x 15mm tapped spacers ‘4M x mm machine screws, sk head 4M x 6mm machine screws, round head 2M2 x 10mm machine screws, round head. 2.M2 nuts with star lockwashers: 41 10k8¢ mini horizontal timpot (Rt) Semiconductors 1IR receiver, RPM1738 or IS1U60 (IRR1) 1.40938 quad Schmitt NAND gate (IC1) 1 7BLOS low power +5V regula- tor (REG) 2.PN200 PNP transistors (Q1, « Q2) 1.3mm red LED (LED1) 11 1N4004 power diode (01) Capacitors 1 470uF 16V PC electrolytic 1 100uF 10V PC electrolytic 4 47UF 10V PC electrolytic 1 100nF (0.1yF) muttiayer monolithic (code 100n or 104) 1 22nF (.022uF) MKT polyester (code 22n or 228), Resistors (0.25W 1%) 210K 12200 347k 1470. 5-Band Code (1%) brown black black red brown yellow violet black brown brown red red black black brown yellow violet black gold brown lanuany 200537IR REMOTE CHECKER IR SENSOR ® ® ‘BEEP FREQ jo) ig4: check your PC board against this full-size etching patti installing any of the parts, Now prepare the box lid, by cutting countersunk to allow for the heads of the various holes init, asshown in the the bourd mounting spacer screws. drilling diagram of Fig.5.Note thatthe While you're preparing the box lid four outermost mm holes should he you can also cut the two holes in the end of the box as well, for the access holes for CON1 and GON2. Remove any burrs which are left on the inside and outside ofall holes in the box and Tid, to make a tidy job, (Once the lid has boon propared, at- tach the four board mounting spacers to the rear of it using the four coun: torsunk-head MS screws. Tighten these up quite firmly, so the top of ‘each screw head is flush with the top surface ofthe lid itself. This will then allow you to stick on a front panel, mado by photocopying the artwork (Fig.3) we've provided onto an adhe- sive-backed label. With the front panel attached, you ccan coverit with a piece of clear "Con. tact” or similar adhesive film for pro: toction. It's then just a matter of neatly coutting out holes in this double-layer panel escutchoon usinga sharp hobby knife, to match the holes already cut in the lid underneath, Mounting the PC board ‘The PC board assembly is mounted on four 15mm-long tapped M3 spac- ers behind the front panel, with the threaded ferrule of switch $1 pass- ing through a matching 6.5mm hol. Check that IRR1’s Tens just touches the rear of the front panel and that it is in lino with its 6.5mm “viewing” hole. Once everything is in position, fasten the board to the spacers using four round-head M3 screws, Now you can unsolder the tempo- rary joint holding the LED in place on the board. This wil allow you to slide it forward until its body just passes through the 3.5mm hole in the box lid/front panel immediately above, Fig.5: this diagram shows the drilling d 38 SWIcON Gr ils for the case lid and for the end panel ofthe base. slliconchip.com.au‘That done, you can solder both leads to their board pads permanently. Trim off any oxcess leads which may be left Checkout time Your IR Remote Checker should now be complete, apart from fitting it into the box and screwing it all together using the lid attachment screws. Before you do this, connect a 9V battery to the snap lead (or plug the output of a 9V DG plugpack into CON2, if you prefer That done, turn on switch St, and you should no tice a very brief flash of light from LED1 before it goos dark again, Now bring an IR remote control (one that you know is working!) within a couple of metres of tho IR. Remote Checker, pointing it roughly at the IR sonsor ‘window". Then try prossing any of the buttons on the remote and you should be rewarded with a series of flashes from LED1 and simultaneous beeps from the piezo transducer. ‘The pattern of flashes and beeps may change with the various buttons or they may all seem very similar it deponds on the coding used by the remote control concerned. But you should get a series of flashes and. ‘beeps when each button is pressed, if the remote is ‘working correctly. So if this is what you get, all that’s left to do is the. final assembly of the IR Remote Checker. Fit the 9V bat- tery into the bottom of the box using a longth of gaffor tape to hold it down, thon manoeuvre the lid/PC board assombly into position by sliding the RCA connector (CON!) into its matching 11mm hole before swinging the assembly down into position. Fit tho four small solf-tapping screws supplied with the box to hold it all together and finally fit the soft plastic bungs into each screw recess. Your IR Remote Checker will then be complete and ready for use. Finally, you might want to adjust trimpot VR1 us- ing a small screwdriver, with its shank passing down through the "Boop Freq Adjust” hole in the front panel. ‘As explained proviously, this sets the Checker’s oscil~ lator frequency to match the rosonant frequency of the piezo transducer, to give the loudest and clearest beeps. This adjustment can be done at any time and is basically a mattor of tast Troubleshooting Ofcourse, if you are NOT rewarded with any flashes and beeps when you send IR codes tothe Checkor from a known good remote, you must have a fault in the Checker itself, In this case, you'll have to unscrew the PC board assembly from the box lid and start search ing forthe faut "You may have fitted one of the polarised components (Giode D1, electrolytic caps transistors Qu or Q2, LEDA, REGI, IRR1 or C1) the wrong way around, or acciden tally left @ component lead unsoldered, Or perhaps you've lef solder bridge shorting between two pads ar tracks on the board, when you wore soldering one of the component leads. Ws really usta matter of searching for whatever your fault happens to be and then fixing i. se siliconchip.com.au srrewlexoLcom worvalansom wslaxsl.com woyselaceaomy 2nd Generation Low Cost ISB Data 1/0 Module Nowa gel atin rt of USB pot? Her’ wha you oad “924 een programa pup ps gure Fo Spo, @ Sine mole nosed Fat ‘oon «Ups 138 moa can be sec sng PE sibilant bcumarte Of to hostess snd OC conredas. elreyaee pe USS eam #-oar eis sium EPSOM and cast ptyaraabe FSH micoerue ‘ebatnUS6enmetontarmaton Local abe Tearoaneed sat cara red. lee pono bo US oP, ae VO pears thir tron ats) Tapes Os isan ps) i i ISH CONNECTOR §— pro INPUT RELAY OUTPUT. SWITCH/PUS uepsoaro —%fganD. “BoRnD"” BUTTON BOARD Jrovemsim, petatote poise, Pant Srl sacos feed oust owas para nih Bi Sertten AION ete ea” uty Ranosenateo Asn vary ofa, ert sas inden, J [Mit exo pry ted Serge siete Elexol Pty Ltd Ph: (07) 5574 3988 Fax: (07) 5574 3633 (PO Box 5972, Bundall, Qld 4217) 4k SILICON CHIP logo Printed in gold-coloured fatoring on spine & cover “Buy five and get ther postage free! Just fil in the handy order form in this issue; or fax (02) 9979 6503; or ring (02) 9979 5644 & quote your ‘credit card number. Sillega Chip Publications, PO Box 189, Collaroy 2007 January 2005 39Tektronix TPS2000 Series Digital Storage Oscilloscopes ... the first four-channel-isolated, battery- powered oscilloscopes that are equally at home in the lab or in the field. FT sitontx continua to expand ite range of “W-VGA" liquid crystal display DSOs with three new models, targoting the industrial power soctor. ‘Tho TPS2012 and TPS2014 models have bandwidth of 100MHz (1GS/s), whereas the TPS2024 doubles that at 200MHz (2GS/s). Four fully-isolated ‘measurement channels are provided on the latter two models, whoreas the lower-cost TPS2012 has only two channels. Other common specifications in- clude a vertical resolution of eight bits, amaximum sensitivity of 2mV/div and a rocord longth of 2.5K points, ‘As reported in our earlier reviews We used the Tektronix A621 Current Probe for our power measurements, This little beauty can handle up to 10004. 40° Swicon CruP (july 2001 and fuly 2002) of Tektronix DSOs, the company has succeeded in packaging their fully featured scopes into an amazing “shoobox” form fac- tor, moasuring just 336W x 161H x 130D and weighing in at only 3.2kg. This time around, they've even found space for two battory packs but more ‘on that later, ‘These scopes are exceptionally easy to use, Most-used functions such as horizontal and vertical scaling and trace position aro instantly accessible using traditional analog-style knobs. Lese-used functions are accessed with pushbuttons and simple on-screen In fact, most users won’t need aman- ual to drive any of Tek’s DSOs. Nev- ertheless, context-sensitive, on-scroan holp is available at any time simply by prossing the “help” button. Familiar features Not surprisingly, all ofthe features that made the earlier modelsa pleasure to use aro included on those models as well. For example, pressing the “sutoset” button performs an instant setup, automatically dialling in the horizontal, vertical and trigger set- tings for each channel. Eleven commonly used waveform :moasuroments, including period, froq- uuency, rise and fall times, peak-to- peak and cycle RMS are all built in, improving the usefulness of the instrument and easing the strain on the grey matter. ‘A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) maths function is also provided as standard on all three models. Han- ning, Flat Top and Rectangular win- dow types are supported, spanning 2048 sample points Yet another useful feature in these instruments is their ability to capture glitches and edge anomalies that ‘would not normally be detected with. traditional sampling techniques. Tok- ‘tonix call this digital real-time (DRT) sampling technology and it’savailable onall four channels simultaneously. Full isolation Bach measurement channel is isolated from all others as well as the chassis and mains power supply. ‘The buzz word is “IsolatedChannel’ technology and it provides a perfect solution for both grounded and float- ing high-voltage measurements in three-phase power and other circuits with different ground references. Up to 30V RMS floating can be measured when using the standard sliconchip.com.au2220 passive probes. When equipped with the P5120 passive high-voltage probe (optional), the TPS2000 Series ‘measures up to 1000V RMS (CAT I} from the probe tip to earth ground and floating voltages up to 600V RMS (CAT Tl, 300V RMS CAT Ill) on all channels simultaneously. Safe solution ‘Tho channel isolation offered in these models is unique ina combined bench-top and portable instrument. Read: crs familiar with the challengos of measuring circuits that ion TaD eae ere 'ig-: up to the 30th harmonic, alon; individual harmonic levels display, individual harmonic ‘phase to fundamental and RMS values are all calculated for you by the Harmonics function. siliconchip.com.au Tektronix TPS2000 - The New Isolated Channel Battery Operated Scope. ‘Do you face these Power Measurement Challenges? ‘+ Make multi-channel floating measurements + Measure current and voltage distortion and their spectral content + Measure harmonics, instantaneous power, power factor, switching loss to characterise power electronics circuitry ‘+ Measure 3-phase currents & voltages * Validate compliance to regulatory standards ‘+ Work in an environment without AC Power ‘+ Document and Save your measurement results For more information about ‘the TPS2000 famil Talk to NewTek instruments: Ph: 02 9888 0100 ‘email: info@newtekinstruments.com NewTek Indruments Py Lid - Syeney - Melbourne www.newtekinstruments.com Tektronj re tno fy | NewTek Instruments4 the Power Analysis function takes voltage and current measurements from two channels and displays phase angle. ig2: the optional power measurement and analysis software allows you to make accurate power ‘measurements at the touch of a button, eliminating the need for manual calculations. In this example, the Waveform Analysis function displays basic but useful information at a glance. circuit under test, w by the function itself and represents inslantancous power. are not reforenced to mains earth will low voltagoand therefore “safo",a pri- As well as providing sae means of immediately recognise the benefits. mary to secondary broakdown could measurement, individ! channel iso: 'A method sometimes used when expose the user to lifi-threatening — lation allows yout to mousiire multiple ‘measuring such circuits with a bench, signals simullanously with different top scope isto disconnect mains earth mains-powered scopes ground references, all without ground from the instrament, 0 “floating” it exhibit high parasitic inductance and loop interferenco! above ground. ‘This method has two capacitance when floated, which dis- Perhaps bws! of all, this scheme serious side effects. First,itmeans that tortssignal measurements. By contrast, enables the use of low-cost passive the entire chassis ofthe scope isat the each channel in the TPS2000 series is probes, rathor than th expensive dif same potentiales theequipment under specified at just 37pP capacitance to ferential variety. test. Even ifthe equipment is deemed chassis. Battery powered Boing small and lightweight, these scopes are meant to tral. A lithium ‘Tek’s TPS2PEND power bundle includes thelr powe software option. Physically, this consists of a small taser’ guide. The key is simply inserted into a slot i enable the software option, Also ineluced in the bundle are four Two battery compartments ai high-voltage probes (only one probe shown here). The CompactFlash card cessible at one end and accept one shown is not part of the bundle and can obviously be obtained for a variety of or two lithium-ion battery packs for sources. ‘up (o eight hours running time. 2 Si ON CHP icoeect 8 ci cays 72 rer Level io cnet LaonaesY ae pe Fig.4: turn-off, turn-on and conduction times are easily measured in power switching clecuits using the Switching Loss function. Here, channel 1 is being used to measure drain voltage in a MOSFET switching circuit and channel 2 drain current. Other pages allow you to adjust dvidt and, ‘dijat cursors for maximum measurement flexibility. Gen red coer 4 in ca pera Fig.5: by using the Phase Angle function in the power measurement and analysis software, the relationship between multiple phases can be easily determined. Note that these waveforms were not captured from a 3-phase power generation grid but rather from a demonstration board. Measurements include true powe reactive power, phase angle, cre: factor, harmonics and switching loss ion battery pack provides about four hours of continuous use, A second bat- tory compartmont (see photo) allows data can be saved to disk or acquired the use of two batteries for double the directly in Excel for viowing and (including turn-on, turn-off and con runtimeandalsomeansthatwhenone processing, duction losses), among others, pack runs flat it can be swapped out A Contronies type parallel port is To seal the deal for power de- Without switching the machineoff(ie, also provided for those that wish to signers and technicians, the power hot-swapped”) print screens directly. Onco again, measurement and analysis sofware many popular printer formats are (TPS2PWR1) and four new P5120 supported. passive high-voltage probes can be purchased together as a bundle (TPS2PBND), PG serial port. In conjunction with the supplied OpenChoice software PC connectivity Getting your measurements onto a PC for analysis and documentation is straightforward. An up-front slot ac cepts standard CompactFlash cards for storing solups, measurement data and graphics images of the screen. Most popular PC graphics file formats are support In addition, a 9-way socket vided on the tear for conn Cap Dye GiiiP Complete solution For additional cost, Tektronix offer powermeasurementand analysis soft Wwarethatsignificantlyexpandstheca- For more information on the new pahilitiosofthe TPS2000 scopes. This range of TPS2000 scopes, contact upgrade allows you to make power the Australien distributors, NewTek measurementsat the touch ofabutton Instruments on (02) 9888 0100 oF pro- in the appropriate units, oliminating point your browser to thoir wab sito thw nved for manual calculations. at wwwanewtekinstruments.com SC Mére‘information THE PROJECTS: High-Energy Universal Ignition System; High-Energy Multispark CDI System; Programmable Ignition Timing Module; Digital Speed Alarm & Speedometer Digital Tachometer With LED Display; Digital Voltmeter (12V or 24V); Blocked Fiter Alarm: Simple Mixture Display For Fue-injected Cars; Motorbike Alarm; Headlight Fleminder,Engine Immobiliser Mk.2; Engine Rev Limiter; 4-Channel UHF Remote Cortrol; LED Lighting For Cars; The Booze Bustor Breath Tester; ile Dynamite Subwoofer; Neon Tube Modulator. r order by phoning (02) 9979 5644 & quoting your credit card number; or fx the details to (02) ‘9979 6503; or mall your order with cheque or credit card details to Silican Chip Publications, PO Box 139, Collaroy, NSW 2097. sliconchip.com.au Jawuany 2005 43SERVICEMAN'S LOG What’s cooking? — just the TV set! You hear some bizarre stories in this business, from TVs getting cooked to a VCR that spat out its motor control chip. So how does a TV get cooked? Just have your floor-boards sanded! ‘Mr Cleary was having his wooden floorboards sanded, soaled and pol- ishod in his small but exponsive ul tra-modem kitchen and lounge room. Naturally, everything had to be lifted off the ground in order forthe sander/ polisher to do its work. ‘Boing such asmal apartment, space was at a premium. Most things wero put in spare rooms or on shelves, but also on the kitchen benchtops and sink, Ho loft his Panasonic TX68PS72A (X12) flat-screen TV until last but by now, there was no room left to stow it, Bver resourceful, he eventually decided to put it face down on a soft thick blanket on top of his high-tech Induction cooktop ~ but only after making sure the cooktop was turned off, Not wanting to take any chances, ho alsa turnod ff tho circuit broaker to the cooktop — just in case THIS HAS BEEN WHAT. A FIRST-RATE HIGH-TECH ACCIDEN Gn 44° Suicow GHP Now, this TV is pretty heavy and re- quires a lot of effort to lift, manosuvre tind roll over onto its front. This moant that is was impossible determine ‘whether any of the cooktop controls hhad moved under the blanket but if they had, the circuit breaker was still off ‘When he had finished, he checked «and covered everything up before lea ing just as the floor polishers arrived. ‘The men wasted no time and after a couple of hours, the job was nearly done when the old sanding machine decided to stop~it was pretty hot after ‘good workout ‘The operator cleaned out the dust that was clogging the machine but could find nothing otherwise wrong with it, However, it still wasn't work ing so he went over to the fusebox to chock things out. Hore he found that not only one circuit breaker (Ou MMGHT CALL hhad tripod but two. Unaware of Mr Cloary’s failsafe approach to safety and. not knowing which circuit breaker did ‘what, he reset both, ‘Well, his sander was now back in Dusiness so he completed his task ‘unaware of any other problem, Predictably, Murphy's Law kicked in = the cooktop controls had moved whon the TV was placed on top of it and unbeknownst toanyone, was now powered on and cooking, Tn operation, an induction cook plate runs cool and only warms up ‘metallic objects placed on top of it to cook. The problem was, the metal shadowmask of the M68LVQ087X real- at picture tube was only centimetres away and it got hot ‘Altor a while, there was suddenly 1 very large bang, followed by a loud hissing noise. When the TV was lifted up and the screen was visible, there ‘was a large crack roughly in the shape afthecook top, The plastic cabinet was in perfect condition but the picture tube had been completely destroyed! Mm not sure ofthe insurance impli- cations but it doos look as though the high cost of installing a new picture tube will render this set a complete ‘write-off, So despite Mr Cleary’s pre- ‘cautions, this has been what you might call a first-rate high-loch accident! Fussy audiophile David, ourmain man when it comes to audio, had a very fussy audiophile who brought in his Technics SE- ASK-XL amplifier, complaining that the righthand channel was distorting and intermittently cutting out. avid insisted that he also bring in his S4-A6K-XL preamplifier as wel, dospite Tony's essuranco that it was ‘working perfectly and couldn't pos- sibly be the problem. Eventnally, David prevailed and the preamptiier was brought in Despite its 29 years, the SE-ASK- XL amplifier is still an impressive piece of equipment to look a. It also performs pretty well, with 100 watts siiconchip.com.auPST USOT ‘© Panasonic TX68PS72A TV set (x12 chassis) © Technics SE-ASK-XL amplifier and S4-A6K-XL preamplifier ‘© Boston Acoustic POOS4 SAt \VR2000 Subwooter © Sanyo CP2EWF2 widescreen ‘TV set (FAW-128 chassis) © Loawe Concept 770 TV set (Art. No. 53470 Chassis 9003) ‘© Toshiba SODSUXE rear projec: tion TV set (RB9731 chassis) ‘© Panasonic TC48M90A TV set (MXBA chassis) © Philips VR6740/75 VCR true RMS per channel into 89 at just 0.001% THD. It didn't take long for “supertech” to trace the reason why the amplifier ‘was intermittently cutting out ~ the tone defeat switches wore dirty and creating noise, causing the main protection circuit in the amplifier to activate, David 1, Tony 0. The distorted amplifier was a bit more tricky and very intermittent after 5-10 minutes operation, Dave went lor the heat/freeze approach but you have to be very careful with this because sometimes the ensuing siliconchip.com.au Prec for students, & professional performance makes PICAXE the most easy-to-use micro ever: PICAXE “programmer is two resistors and a 4.5V@attery! HWA) TTT cn eae condensation can switch the amplifier into an avalanche that the protection circuits cannot save. What he did was squirt freezer onto cotton bud and then touch individual active components until he found the ‘most sensitive ono. That done, he then reheated the device with the hot air from our Hakko 852 desoldering sta tion, This approach soon narrowed the problem down to driver transistor Qu16, a 2802632, Replacing it com- pletely fixed the problem. After soak testing both units with, various sources, it was ready tobe.col- lected. Tony was still arguing the toss as he departed with his precious gear but at least he was happier now Woof, woof Thad an expensive 1996 Boston Acoustic P0054 SA1 VR2000 Sub- woofer come in, where a transistor insulating pad had punctured under ‘one of the transistors (Q12, 28D1138) find had in turn blown all nine output transistors, along with nine resistors. The repair work was really straightfor ward and I made extensive DC checks of all the components in the circuit. I fitted the output transistors with large mica wafers (cut to size) and smeared all mating surfaces with silicone heat transfer compound for good measure, The only difficult part was soldering the output transistors conto the copper side of the PC board, because the copper tracks were lifting, TAKE YOUR PIC DISTRIBUTOR: MlereZed.com.eu POR eT ai ee ecard Eventually though, I was pretty cor fident that all was OK and switched ton. ‘The subsequent explosion was prob ably heard in Perth ~ it was about 10 on the Richter s Back at square one, 1 measured the hfe of all the new transistors and checked the resistors. Exacily the same components had failed as before. So what was going on? This time I wasn’t going to pussy foot about, Before fitting the outpat ransistors, I checked the =80V, +121 ‘and +23V rails but these sooied to be OK. false fitted additional fusehole and 3A fuses and when it wasall r sembled, I connected a 200W globe in series with tho 240V into the power transformer, Finally, with no preamp or speaker connected, and with mo- tors monitoring the offset voltage and the power rails, I gingerly switcher iton, What an anti-climax! The globe didn’t light — instead it powered up perfectly and all the voltages we: correct. Ladjusted R29 for 7mV across the omiter resistors but anything from 8-13mV gives a quiescent current of 35-49mA which is acceptable, Tthen checked the subwoofer loud- speaker with another amplifier and i worked perfectly. That done, I con: nected It to the subwoofer amplifier and again switched it on. Once again it fireg up flawlessly. The power rails measured +74V but the quiescent cur ont remained the same PHONE (02) 6772 2777 9-5 PAX (02) 6772 8987 24 Hours aN ee Ceo PN ncn ta surplustronics.co.nz January 2005 45Oy PERISCOPE YAP, SIR Finally, connected the proamp and rechecked everything. The 200W lamp ‘was only just beginning to glow very slightly, all the voltages were corzect ‘and there were no bad noises coming from the speaker. The amplifier was ‘warm but not hot after half an hour. And so T decided to tum it off and reassemble it, happy that everything. ‘was now OK. My happiness didn't last long. As T turned it off, hore was an unexpected oud "pop" from the speaker. I didn't like that ~ it spelt rouble! Texamined the components for any visible damage and after a few min- utos, I decided to try it once again. The globe lit up and smoke poured out of resistors R25, R27 and R36. Aggghhbbht! ‘Woll, that was that, Ioouldn’tafford any more time and it was obvious that the solder tracks couldn't handle any more component replacements It was a write-off But what had caused all this? Of all the genuine transistors I fitted, the hfe values for Q11 and Qi3 (28C3281) varied widely and were very low com: pared to thecther transistors. [selected two at hfo = 40 and 55 but some were a lot lower. The rest of the transistors measured over 100. suspect that these transistors from ‘my local wholesaler were substandard. In fact, Q8 was hard to get but even. tually T managed to get originals and they measured OK. The mica washers 46 © Suicon CHP continued were all OK, as were the speakers and preamp, T guess I should have got Dave to fixitt Intermittent Sanyo Mr Vincent's new Sanyo CP28WF2 (FAW-128 chassis) was brought in suffering from intermittent vertical dofloction. Tho slightost knock to this flat widescreen 66cm TV would cause all sorts of crazy lines as the vertical scan broke up. This looked like a straightforward case of dry joints or a fracture in the PChoard, However, aclose inspection on the workbench under a good bright light failed to reveal any problems. wasn't unduly fazed by this—after all, many dry jointsand hairline cracks are invisible to the eye. As a result, started soldering everything in sight round the vertical timebase circuit and then carefully examined both sides of the boards for cracks with 1 microscope but found absolutely nothing By now, I was convinced that the problem was around the vertical out- put IC (IC501, LA7846N). I replaced it in case of an intemal intermittent problem but even this didn’t fix the problem. I then spent an awful lot of time checking, testing and replacing all the components around this IC Unfortunately, measuring the voltages and waveforms didn'treveal much be- causo the fault was so intermittent. In addition, with a feedback amplificr, a faulty part will cause aripplo-on effect around the whole circuit, making the culprit difficult to pinpoint Finally, tried the heatingand freez- ingtochnique. This was doneby prop. ping the boards on edge while the sot ‘was on and then freezing and heating individual parts while watching the results in a mirror, And that finally pinpointed the trouble. The problem was C503, a surface- mounted 0.01pF capacitor betweon pin 6 of 10501 ond ground. It had fractured and I replaced it with an ordinary tagged ceramic capacitor Crook Loewe Thad a Loewe Concopt 770 (Art. No. 53470 Chassis C9003) brought in with ‘ partial vertical collapse. 1 bogan by checking diodes D561, D562 and D563 in the vertical circuit, then replaced all the electrolytic ca: pacitors (C561, C563, C574 and C558). However, the problem persisted so I figured that the vertical output IC ((€361, TDA8175) must be faulty. 1 ordered a now one from International Dynamics but as the TDA8175 is no longer available, received a TDAG172, and a modification kit of 15 compo- nents plusan instruction sheet foreach chassis that took this modification, Ifthe modification isn’t done, it will blow the power supply up. Asaresult, {followed the information religiously, which involved removing some com- ponents, changing others, and adding. Ro02, RO0S and C002 on the copper side of the board. These latter parts bias the reference voltage on pin 7 of ‘the vertical IC to approximately 1.7V from the SV rail. As part of this job, the track to pin 7 is cut and a resistor R001 added to pin 1 instead. Afterwards, the vertical goomotry needs realigning and storing for both PAL and NTSC. However, the notes say that if the height is still too great, then R001 (22k) should be changed to 39k0. Unfortunately, oven after trying all this, T still ended up with a screen that was only three-quarters full, with foldover occupying the bottom quarter of the picture. And even the top had poor vertical lincatity. Clearly, [still had a serious problem Dut after checking all my work twice over, [couldn't find any measurable problem, In the end, | felt that there had to be something wrong with the modifications and so T went back to International Dynamics, ‘They soon got back to me and in- formed me that the factory had made a fow misprints in the instructions R578, which was originally 680, should not be replacod with @ 120k resistor, as noted. Instead, it was R577 that should be changed ~ from 13k. to 120k. Correcting this fixed the problem, much to my relief ‘Alterwards, | examined the multi- lingual 16-page instructions and no- ticed an additional stamp on the front of the German section, which is also ‘multilingual on alternate lines. In the middle itsays“Ateach actual table the appellation of R578 (120k0) must be 577 (120k0)", That's pretty torturous “German-English” for “I meant R577 not R578", of “please change R578 in sieonchip.com.auJUHU a 5, 1 ty 200 the instructions to R577", or “error in parts list: R578 showld rend R577” Isn't English hard? ‘Toshiba rear-projection ne moming, I found this massive 50-inch Toshiba 80D9UXE rear projec tion sot (RB9731 chassis) plonked right in front of my bench. The note stuck on it said it was dead but ever observ ant me noticed that you could actually tur iton. However, it would then click off after few seconds, which indi: cated one or more prot cutting in like last night's hangover, Twas told that most faults on these models are on the 909 convergence output board (P139488). This board is located on the lefthand side of the chassis and is hard to remove (thi three convergence coil plugs are a ‘ory tight ft). Eventually, however silconchip.com.au Hr 38 Bes VOC, CO a re eT ECR SLL) Email: airaus@hotkey.net.au Web Page: www.airaus.com J eventually got it out and checked it for dry joints then connected it back in withou the convergence coil plugs (Red P713, Green P714 and Blue P715). This time the sot came on and stayed on, giving twee separate pictures. It was then a matter of plugging each pairof coils in separately to track the problem down, This indicated that there wasaiproblom only in the green pair of output ampli fiers, which are embedded in two ICs ‘with the ather colours) - Q750 and Q751 (both STK392-110) This meant that it was necessary to eplace them both. Fortunately, that fixed all this haby's problems ~at least after spending a couple of hours rea. igning th Sick Panasonic I don’t soe many small-size TVs any more bocause the price of new sets is now so cheap. Howaver, I did got 1999 48cm Panasonic TC4BMO0A us- ing an MXBA chassis in for repair, This st was dead except for the red Standby LED but it was otherwise pris. tine inside and out, It uses the same type of weird power supply as the MX3, with the main 90V rail being dorived and delivered ta the line out. put stage all on the hot side (primary) of the switchmade power supply. ‘A quick check soon showed that there was no voltage on this line ‘And on the secondary, the 41V rail was down to 14V and the 24V rai measured just 7V There are two optocoupters in the power supply, one age regula. tion using an SEO90 IC and the other controlled by the power on/off fune- tion. briefly dallied with the 90V rail, ny 200547 JAServiceman’s Log — continued IT WAS A PHILIPS VRO740 TS VCR ‘SAME FAULT AS BETORE. ~ HIS ve WITH AN INTERESTING FAULT ccheckingit forshorts and replacing the IC regulator (C801) before moving on to the powor-on circuit. In this circuit, a high from pin 26 of microprocessor IC1101 (MN1871681TFH) drivesQ@51, (850 and the optocoupler Daso, 1 shorted out Q851's collector and emitter (ground) and the sot powored up but no 5V was coming out of the microprocessor no matter what I did. I checked to see that 5V was available on pin 39 but thore was no 5V from the reset pin of IC1108, Noxt, tried shorting out pins 2 and 1 of C1103 which was supplying 4.8V instead of SV to the microprocessor on resot pin 34. This told me (and the cobmmeter confirmed it) that the mi- croprocessor was faulty and drawing too much current on this pin. Fitting a replacement fixed the problem, Spitting chips This final story is evally weird, I's not from my own workbench though ~ instead, it comes from J. A. of Cane berva, Tl let him tell it in his own words 1 swear that the following story ts true but you're going to find it hard to believe 48 Smicow Cea I have been in the electronics in- dustry for about 35 years, specifically in computing. And because “know” about electronic things, it automatical- ly makes mo qualified to fix anything that has a mains cord or batteries! Asanyoneinthisfield knows, when a mate says (over a few beers) “you know about computers and electronic stuff, my [insert name of electronic equipment here] has blown up. Can you fix it”, Being an accommodating Kind of chap, and not wishing to let them down, much loss degrade my reputation, I usually accept. Even more so if it's a “damsel” that’s in distross, ‘As you can imagine, this leads to iy fixing some interesting stuff -and some not so interesting stuf. Inthis caso, it was aPhilips VR6740/ 75 VCR. Ihave had a look at this ma- chino a few times before. Itbelonged to amate and it originally suffered inter- ference from a nearby wireless station, then somo time laterit developed what looked like worn heads. (That was di agnosed by arepairshop. Ittumed out to be simply dirty heads). Anyway, my mate and his wife split tup some time ago and she scored the VCR. She dropped it offrecently, say- ing it had the same fault as before —ie, “doesn’t work" It stayed in the comer of my work- shop fora few weeks, waiting forme to getaround toit, When Idid havea look att, the fault was interosting: it would load a tape OK and fast forward and rewind worked, as did picture soarch in forward and rewind. But if pressed Play, it would eject the tape! Removing the top caver confirmed that the capstan wasn't turning. Ire- moved the bottom cover and checked the bolt ~ it was OK and the motor tumed the capstan when I turned its shaft. I then chocked for voltage on the capstan motor but it was at OV at, all times, Not having a circuit diagram, I traced the motor leads back to an inter connecting board, then through a loom tothe motorcontrol board. This board ismounted upside down —ie, with its solder side uppermost. [could plainly see the PC tracks from the wiring loom ‘connector to the motor control chip (C70) solder pad but there was no chip — just a row of holes! ‘No chip! What the hell was going on? It looked liked someone had had go at this. I quizzed my wife who is good frionds with the VOR's owner: ‘Ate you sure sho hasn't had this looked at by anyone?” A definite “no” ‘was the answer, “she can’t afford it” So where was the chip? Did it fall out? reasoned that ifit had indeed fallen out, then it should be still in the VCR somewhere. I pickod it up and turned. itoverand around. At first, [could just hear a rattle and then a chip fell out! A\ close inspection showed some solder on the pins and someon the PC pads, as you would expect, but there ‘wore no signs of it being removed from the board intentionally, Besides, it was still covored in the same layer of dust that was on everything else in the VCR, ‘Anyway, I cloaned up the solder pads, replaced the chip and the VCR worked perfectly. Lwas very impressed with the quality of the picture. This ‘must have been an expensive unit in ils day, with stereo sound, Dolby noise reduction and so on. ‘As to how the chip came to fall out, can only surmise that it's proxim: ity to the power supply makes it ran fairly hot and overthe years the solder joints became dry to the point where it simply fell out. sc sliconchip.com.au 257PRODUCT SHOWCASE Make your own Xpert DVD movies with Jaycar The vast major- ity of computers these days come withaDVD burner Most also include low-ond DVD cop ying or burning software but not much else, Ifyouhavea di ital source, they're 50 oasy to use! But what hap- pens if you want to, say, transfer some ofyour (analog) VHS or super-6 movies onto a DVD? Perhaps archive other analog material onto a DVD? Enter this new product from Jaycar Electronics, the Xpert DVD maker. It's an analog/digital capture card which lets you capture video from VHS, V8, Hi8 and so on and burn to DVD, VCD or SVCD formats ~ in PAL or even in NTSC if you want to send a video ‘Tho decoder is 10-bit, so you can expect very high quality transfers. The external video input is either composite or S-video format and it features direct burning — there's no need to save to your hard disk Mee ive first. sks Both DVD» and DVD- and VRdisks avo supported The pack con- tains a standard PCI card, a video/ audio converter cableand an instal: lation CD-ROM and mana The software is Powor Producer 2 Gold, which features playlist euthor- ing, DivX movide production, user-cre- ated dynamic Motion Menus, Audio Overlay (in WAV or MP3 format) and simultaneous multiple capture device connection. Xport DVD maker is avail able from all Jaycar Electronics stores for $149.00 (Cat XC4811) [Contacts j] |Jaycar Electronics 5 [PO Box 6424, Silverwater NSW 1811, |Tel: 1800 022 888 Fax: (02) 9741 8500 website: ww jayearcom au Microzed delighted at Picaxe Fair response Microzed’s Bob Nicol was over the ‘moon at tho responsa to the inaugural Picaxe Fait” held in Sydney during December. A steady stream of visitors viewed the various projects and exhibitions during the day, many taking the op- portunity to talk to “Mr Picaxe”, Clive Soager, of Revolution Electronics (UK) ‘who made the trip to Sydney espe: cially for the fair Also visiting Sydney for the fair was a name familiar to SILICON CHIP readers, Stan Swan, af Massey Uni- versity in Wellington, NZ. Now many readers will be able to put a face to the name! ‘The photo above right shows Stan (at rear) examining one very interest ing displays, a Picaxe-controlled pe- destrian crossing light control system completely designed, coded and con- siliconchip.com.2u Re structed by year 11 students from East Hills Girls Technology High School, We plan to have more to say about the girls and their projects in a forth- coming Issue of SiLIGON Ce? (Contact: [Microzed | PO Box 634, Armidale NSW 2350 |Tel: (02) 6772 277 Fax: (02) 6772 8987 Website: www.microzed.com.au DSE Glow-in-the-dark USB mousepad Computers with tricked-up lights are nothing new. Neon tubes, coloured fans (even multicoloured fans), glowing cases you name it it's been done. Even the humble mouse is avalabe in land glowing variants. Now it's the turn ofthe mouse mat. Goneare the days wnen just about any mouse mat will do: you need one of these stimick-looking mats ‘rom Dick Smith Electronics! Itplugs into any USB port (soitsjustas ‘900d for notebooks as itis for desktops) and has a deep biue glow which looks ‘eally neat ina darkened room. A dal sets the brightness level you want The Flexiglow Raider Game Pad (ooh, sorty for calling ita mouse mat) is av able from DSE stores, dealers and web for $39.96 (Cat 78400). [oick Eta cronies (al (al stores) [Reply Paid 500, PO Box 500, [Regents Park DC NSW 2143. |Tel: 1300 368 644 Fax: (02) 9642 9155 Website: wwwdse.comau ‘TOROIDAL POWER RANSFORMERS “Manufactured in Australia Comprehensive data svalable Harbuch Electronics py ua /40 Leighton PI. HORNSBY 2077, Ph (02) 9476-5864 Fx (02) 9476-3231 JANUARY 200587Oatley’s Bargain Bin Battery/Charger Deal Here’s another one of those bargains that Oatley Elect Branko Justic has become for Tl’s a package containing a mi: croprocessor-controlled AC/DC battery charger ~ new in original carton with full instructions (and also including notes to modify for different voltages). It was designed tocorrectly charge & discharge 4.8, 6.0V &7.2V NGA & NI-MH mobile ‘phone batteries froma 12V-24V DG input. ‘Supplied with a12V 1A ACplug- pack and car adaptor lead, it would normally be very good value forthe asking price of $20.00. ‘But wait, there's more: Branko is also throwing in ten Toshiba NiMH battery packs, each one containing four 800mAh NIMH cells, “AA” in length but “AAA” in diameter = fantastic for experimenters and powering projects. (Somo of the Toose packs can be seen at the front of the photo aboo).. So you get the whole lot for just $20.00 — while they Inst! (Cat no ZA0100PK), (Contact: (Oatley Electronics PO Box 89, Gatley NSW 2223 Tel; (02) 9584 3565 Fax; (02) 9584 3561 Website: wivw.oatlayelectronics.com Teeny Serine Terratec Peet Pst enn nena ET A eT WebLINK Seen Sane Pee NK ean Frnt ane ere Rec Le er eee Ren nen nee SOLD Very clever remote controls from Altronics In amongst the large range of infrared r mote controls in the ‘Altronies range is this zs learning model with an LCD touchscrcen.It’s just right for home thee: tresystems orto replac those seads of remote controls you have forthe TV, Video, DVD, Ampli: fier, CD, air conditioner {in fact, up tosixteen different devices tis claimed to be the fastest universal learn: ing remote, with pre-programs to cover many applications plus an intuit Teaming system for the rest. It’s priced at $249 (Cat A0900) Ozitronics| | Fuly assembied jst pogin ic aro eave US8 powered Fetes non stone isto proteat be corals. Use 8 Hema somecior Se: 85 orm MECC Uy Ceres aaa mtn ce Freer eieirae TEN ee eee en Pee CR ter mnt ere Renee eNO cs (Contact: Altronics Te Website: wwwwaltronies.com.au PO Box 8350, Perth Business Centre 6849 "1900 797007 Fax: (08) 9428 2167 Course, Sunday February 20, from 830m. Seren econ OT Tone Air-band receiver When not into the latest satel: lite goar, Avcomm’s Garry Keops his eye open for other in- teresting tidbits. This new Decom AR- 108A VHF communica- such aircraft b (208-137MHz) and ma- rine, commorcial, weath: er, ematour and similar bands (135-180MHz) ae cot TWeDLINK: rng acne TeleLink Communications to) ag oa Fn 7) e080 nk com. a4 from Av-Comm with up to 99memories and advanced scanningoptions, toperates from two ‘AA cells of external 7-20V DC. ‘Small enough to fit into the palm of your hand (or shirt pocket) at 57 x {80 x 25mm it retails for just $139.00, exclusively from Av-Comm. | (Contact lav-Comm PO Box 525, Brookvale NSW 2100 Tet: (02) 9989 4377 Fax: (02) 9999 4376 | Website; www aveomm.com.au Hy-0 International Pty Ltd 092 9222: (3) 6562600 WeDLINK: we y-@.20m 20World’s smallest claim with a grain of salt? Eagan Logger ‘The world’s smallest microcontrol- ler, the PICLOF206 chip created by Microchip Technology, is now avail: able from Farnell InOne. ‘These revolutionary 6-pin flash de vices provide ideal solutions in many markets not previously served by mi: ccrocontrollers, such as easy bug f for ASIC and printed circuit boat designs, roplacing standard logic and timing components, or traditional nors and switches. ‘The Ponguin series of Micro Data Loggers are ground-breaking portable instruments designed for tomperature and humidity meas ‘ments and storage. ‘A unique feature is the built-in Infrared (IR) communication in- terface, leaving behind cables and essories, Through this, the user ly configure the application Microchip's PCmicro MCU fam- and download stored data from the changes and other measures can be im- plemented with ease and littleexpense for ASICs, the board and for anumbes of other devices on the board, lly has long offered solutions for the broadest range of microcontroller ap. plications, ‘The development time for a mi- logger to portable devices, compat- {ble with Palm-OS or Windows. ‘The datalogger has a temperature sensor accuracy of :1°C and the op- crocontrollerbased system is faster [Gontadth tonal humidity sensor is accurate and easier then designing an entirely | FamalliaOne 109%, now ASIC or PCB. By including the | pMB6,Chester Hil NSW 2162, Reading resolution is 12 bits or low-cost PICAOF é:pin devices in a | fy 1800361 005 (NZ080080 80.80) | | 4000 lovels at intervals from 1 sec- CB design from tho start, bugs, lato | Webs: wnfamellnone com ond to 18 hows, ‘The transparent, 45 x 60 x 20mm. polycarbonate case is protected to Pos, ‘The Penguin can be configured using the included Palm O/S soft- ware oran infrared wand connected to the PC's USB port. Multisim 8 released Multisim, the world’s most popular, cost-effoctive and easy-to-use simula tion software is now the most powerful circuit simulation system available, Multisim 8 takes advantage of to day's higher performing computers and modem software architecture. This saves designors thousands of dane etc inca hates teste Instraments from Tektronix. Before conceptualized Multisim 8, engineers waited until a Th Rloctronies Workbench’s bench- design was completely manufactured mark studies, Multisim @ provides _ beforebeginningtotest their prototype | n almost 50% time savings for the board: existing 160,000 Multisim users. For (Contact: enginoesnotsimulatingtheirdesigns | CONC outs Py Ltd [Ocean Controls orfor those using more cumbersome /bmgea esinaments Pa Lt 4 Ferguson Dr, Balnaring Vie 2926 tools, Multisim 8 reduces their cra- QB) a Canperonn TO Teeore |_| (foe aa) 3988 163 ton ime ven more substantial. | Wa wna Webs oeancontros. com au Maltisim 8 includes “real” Virtua This valuable Af) 8) Ry eats Ramesses Ph ovssoncnvnow Ph Singeceoomes;one fl Won TEE? We sig me at eb VOX HS s00peatew tte rragiou MM snphvaeveorrt sso on a ‘costing you a fortune? Soceacimca Me cowie Bl cena iii, Mk , cummin Semetcevcnetensc Jet Ices so ote, cheer corr fatto cossonaess rou gl SUCON CoP WORDLE, ees Bes oat bortemgaivennvirintetes WM yayCaR ELECTRONICS BeNEDUS sa ‘QUESTRONIX eb 100 02888 ss yaya ra aca WebLNi: wow jayear.com au WebLINK: Jdmra.com.auBm eC TC RSIS ey rt a Ler a (ie, save water you lot!) and energy costs steadily increasing (ie, save hot water you lot!) every little bit helps. Here’s a timer that will automatically prompt (shame?) you into taking shorter showers! Words by Ross Testerone are the days when we can afford to luxuriate under a hat shower for hours on end. Well maybe the showers weren't quite jong but most people are used to taking showers in the tens of minutes. t's easy to lose track of time in the shower, And it does feel nice, That's a luxury that's no longer ‘economically nor ecologically sustain ablo. First af all, we're short of water Tn most areas of Australia the powers that-be keop telling us if we don't he good boys and girls and cut our water usage then wi g to run out (Those same powers [read polit ans} that keop blaming us wasteful onsumers don't mention that for the most part water shortages are their fault, because they haven't invested the neces structure while population has stead- ily increased for much of the last half contury. But let'snot get into that ment, At least not right now...) Second, we're short of electric power. The power that goes to heat water is also in very short sup: silconchip.com.au ply. Load shedding (ie, blackouts!) is becoming more and more common as supply auth tempt to cut peak loads, ‘Those same powers-that-be keep telling us that if we don't reduce our consumption of power, it's (Those same powors [read polit clans] that keep blaming us wasteful consumers, etc etc etc...) Putting aside all the scare-monger- that's going on in political circles iny spell checker wanted to change that to circuses, which would be per haps moro apt) it really dogs make sonse for us, a8 consumers, to try to save both water and power ~ if onl because that moans less of our hard: ‘earned dollars will end up in Govern: One way to de both, of course, is to take shorter showers, How short ‘The 4-minute shower Boliove it or not, it is entirely pos. sible to take a shower in four minutes ~ including, if you noed to, washing yourhair. Infact, without shampooing, Sa New VAF speakers not just for : MeL Cer ates store tty te VAF Speakers have a legendary nee ae value. SOE ee esa ae ae oR ast Scope oe Winnett tony einen eet) ies eec eeer yy accuracy at incredible pric eee rks Poets certs Ponsa cower ord expensive amps to drive them They can take high power so if Aone ee eee simply want to pl ie eee OR es es ere Poneto ey Sone tty RAs can ABC, Parliamey Come menrnn Prereiseeresrt te Amey titles in Australia ae sett Sr Serer nee ya ST ee ee Roary Ponte nts emery Rae Reet ou eminene te meet ec Te ora ene ee Peon Came. Ly Por Cnet may‘The PC board is supplied completed a those surface-mount devices can be a pain! The white obj Il, because ‘at the right side is the foam gasket which virtually covers the piezo transducer, ‘asub-throo-minute showar is perfoctly practical. People in the bush who don't ve the luxury ofhot water have boen iting” that gort of shower for years: got in, got wet, got cloan, get out! Lets face it all you really need to dois got wet, soap up and rinse off. Get wet: 30 seconds. Soap up: 60 seconds. Rinse off:60 seconds. That's two and a hhalfminutes. Add another 60 seconds toshampoo yourhair and there's your fourminute shower - with 40 seconds loft over for good measuro. OK, if you agroe that four minutes is enough time, how do you go about convincing everyone in your family? ‘The ST4 Shower Timer ‘This rather ingenious (and patented) design is completely automatic, turn- ing on about 20-30 seconds after it “hears” the first “sssshhh” of the shower — giving you enough time to adjust the water temperature — then beeping each minute up to the magic four minutos, at which time it sounds analam. ‘The alarm stops when you turn the shower off But if you try to fool it by tuming the shower off for a moment and then back on again, the alarm ‘will start back up again. It resets after about a minute of no-showersound, ready for tho noxt parson to take thei shower. Part of the secret to this circuit is tho uso of the piazo buzzer it is not only sounds the beop/alarm, as you would expect but itis also used as @ “micropono” to pick up the splash sound. ‘There's no on-off switch; it simply oporates when it hears the shower tum on (listening for the distinctive splashing sounds of the water). There is an internal 3-position switch and prosat pot which are adjusted to give the desired sensitivity ~ once set, you can forget it ‘There aro also pots to control clock Parts list - Shower timer 1 pre-assembled PC board 4 2-part plastic case 4 self-adhesive foam “donut’ 1 self-adhesive foam rectangle 2 suction caps 1 9V battery (preferably alkaline) frequency and tone of alarm —but these are sot in the factory and should not need touching, It’s operated by a 9V battery (el- kaline preferred) which should last for at least 12 months. Current drain, when ready to oporate but inactive, is ‘comparable to that ofa smoke detector around 10-15,,A. ‘The circuit, including the piezo, is housed on asingle PC board which fits (long with the 9V battery) into a pur ppose-dosigned two-part case. While not absolutely waterproof, when cor- rectly assembled and then mounted on the shower wal it allows shower sound to enter and beeps/alarm to escape without the circuit getting at all damp . "The case, as we sai, is in two parts ‘These snap together to form a nico, tight soal around the PC board, with alignment of the two parts taken care of by pins and holes which mate. Each half ofthe caso is ited with a suction cap which allows the unit to ‘mount o any smooth shower wall (or cover a glass screen). While the ST4 Shower Timer is available fully builtand tested, we are more interested initasakitwhich you assemble yourself. “And here's how it slots together. The piezo transducer (with its gasket) is right down in the bottom of the case, with the PC board slotted into the guides. The top half of the case has two pins which mate with the moulding on the bottom. Note that we have not yet ited the suction cap to the top half of the case so that you can see where it slides into place. 62 SmICON Cup siliconchip.com.ausompsuen ozoyd ayy aatsp 0} oyyidare we 2055 ‘rope snoqsea aqy days oj sion yo eyouo Ayee 1 pe q PFD] yA “uLeYe pur oss MIOq JO ao% fen YIWIL YIMOHS 8 63 Januany 2005 Siticonchip.com.auHere's how to identify the top and bottom of the case. The bottom is facing Even here, most of the hard work = soldering the surface-mount com- ponents and ICs ~ is already done for you. In fact, as supplied, the PC board is built and tested, ready for you to ut together Putting it together ‘Assembly is as simple as removing the backing and the centre from the self-adhesive “donut” foam ring and sticking it, es central as possible, onto the piezo transducer. Then similarly stick the rectangular foam pad onto tho back of the PC board (it keeps the battery snug while preventingit short- ing to or across the board), then push, the PC board into the bottom half of the case. ‘The bottom half can be identified by the slots for tho transducer. Whon the board is pushed fully home, the foam donut “gasket” provides « seal ina housing moulded inside the case, proventingany water entering the case ~ theoretically even if dunked. We say theoretically because it is designed that way but commonsense ‘would suggest you don't try to prove it, Bocause the transducer slots are at the bottom of the case, spray would have to be travelling upwards to enter = possible, of course. ‘The foam donut stops this water going any further. While the trans- ducer itself is not sealed, the internal construction of the transducer means that itis also an effective water bar- 64 Smicoy Cie ‘towards the camera with the slots for the piezo transducer clearly seen. Again, ‘the suction cap has not yet been fitted to the top section. sir, so spray'cannot enter through the transducer, ‘Allthis means that the shower timer is effectively waterproof, especially ‘rom spray. ‘Once the PC board has been pushed home, the battery can be connected and slid down into the caso, along- sido the (now insulated) back of the PG board. It should be a relatively snug fit In tho unlikely event that the suction caps have come off the case halves in ‘transit, simply slide them back into their respective slots on each end—the photos show where they go. Slide the two halves of the case together, ensuring that the channels which hold the suction caps line up exactly — the pins in one half won't mate they don't. The two case halves should “snap” together and that com- pletes construction. Testing ‘ If you don’t want to get wet, you can us0 a small unmuted FM radio, oftstation, to simulate the sound of f shower. (If your FM radio mutes ‘automatically, or the mute cannot be tumed off, this option won't work. You'll need to check it in situ in the shower!) ‘The FMradio will produce prodomi- nantly white noise, which is fairly close to the sound ofa shower stream. striking the bottom of the shower or bath. Tum the radio on and the timer should give a chirping sound after 20-30 seconds (that’s the water tem= perature adjustment period). Then it should beep after each minute from there, with a series of beeps (7.5 sec fonds on, 7.5 seconds off) at the end of four minutes. Tum the radio off and the timer should reset. Mounting in the shower ‘The timeralways mounts vertically, with the piezo transducer towards the bottom. The suction caps should stick very well to any ceramic tile, glass or other smooth surface ~ if necessary, give 'oma lick frst Best position for the timer is about 300-400mm from the floor but it should work reasonably well up to bout waist height. fyou need to mountthe unit higher than this, or if it doesn’t appear to be sonsitive enough, open itupand slide the switch up one notch, Don’t mount any higher than necessary, In some very low volume showors, (eg some gravity feeds), youmightneed toadjust the sensitivity right up but this would normally be unlikely. You should not need to adjust any of the pots they are preset on factory assembly. Once mounted, give it another run, this time with the shower. It should perform in the same way as it did in your "white noise” test ‘The only time you should need to remove the unit from the wall is to replace the battery and this could be up toa couple of years orso! Don't pull on the timer to remove it, slide a knife orsome otherthin, flat object under the suction caps to broak the seal. $¢ RMU Ae ‘The TD4 Shower Timers available from Gum Leaf Energy Saving Sys- | tems Pty Ltd, 26 Park St, Seaford, Vie 8198, TeVFax (08) 9776 €703; | ‘email glesstron@msn.com. ‘The kit price (with pre-assembled | ‘and tested PC board) is $24,50 plus p&p, while a fully built and tested | either kt.You can pay twenty or thirty bue! - ks a kilo at a fish shop. Or you can have fun and go prawning yourself. All you need is a dark night, a suitable lake, lagoon or inlet, a prawn net and a light to attract the little beggars . ring, And gatonom- Praises ede tthen the moon Hs now ~ the ator the night ho btn ifs aio bast don during sumo. Not only are there more likely to be prawns around (always a good start) Extyou don teeze the proverbs off in cold water! How do you prawn? If you're anywhere around coastal lakes, inlots or lagoons during the darker nights of sammer, you're likely tosee people with bright lights and big nets wandering around the shallows. Almost certainly, they're prawning, 66 SILICON Gur ‘The bright lights attract the prawns (and also allow you to soe ‘om, which is not easy!) and you simply scoop them up with your prawn net. When. you've got enough, you take them home, boil them fora few minutesand enjoy your prawn feast ‘Well, that’s the theory anyway. The ‘execution ~ or reality ~ might be a bit different. (a) thare might be no, or very few, prawns running in the water you're as prawning (technically known as 100 high a water:prawn ratio). (b) you might prawn all night and end up with not even enough to fill one hand. (Yeah, speaking from experi- ence here!) {c) the bloke next to you might end up with all your prawns 'cos he has @ Dotter prawn light (or he knows what he's doing!) (@) a myriad of other excuses rea- sons, not unrelated to other forms of fishing (too moonlit/too wet/too ary/too cold/too hot/too windy/not enough wind/wrong tide/etc) ‘To save face, you call in at the lo: cal ish'n'chip shop on the way home, sliconchip.com.au(two tips: buy green prawns. Everyone will know you're cheating if you come home with cooked anes! And for hea en's sake, lose the wrapping paper). Attracting (raw) prawns In timos past, most prawners used a Inursicane lamp or gas-powered light to attract the prawn That's fine, except you can't put them under water. And, surprising it might soem, that's where the What you need ie a bright light which can go under the water surface = not deep, just enough to spot the prawns. Generally you'd prawn in water that's well under a metre deep maybe 300-800mm. ro recently, alot of prawnershhave used waterproof high-power torches. ‘They work but can be back-broaking, Or they use @ commercial prawn ight. There are many available those days, most operating from a battery ly @ rechargeable) which you sn a belt pack There are some high power ones using QI (halogen) bulbs which work very well but tend to flatten the battery too quickly Commercial prawn lights aren't cheap. But with the rather dramatic reduction in the price of ultrabright whito LEDs in rocont months, we ured they would be a proposition As well as bright, they're qfficient, not wasting too much energy as heat. So they will give your battery alot bet ter run for its monoy (or charge). Our Prawnlite ‘The elreuit is pretty simple, A 1kQ resistor (R17) biases three diodes (D1, D2.&eD3) to providea voltage reference of about 1.8V. This is fed to the base of transistor Qq7 which is connected as an emitter follower. Its output becomes a 1.2 driver to the base of the 16 transistors, all of which are connected as constant current dr teach with a load of thro« 48 LEDs), tors each ap emitter resistors, resulting in a LED current of about 18m<. don acireulat ard which itself ts into a wa terproof glass jar, shining thro Presto, one very b ich can go underwater: Such @ light is not just limited to prawning. If you're looking for a gen- tral-purpose 12V bright light (perhaps for camping, etc) then this would be a beauty. You could use it for prawning, then for cooking, then for eating back at cemp! Half or full power? The PC board has been arranged so hat you can build the Prawnlite a either half power or full po ply by choosing the numberit Salsa Dip container. As you can seo, there is plenty of clearance for the PC board in this particular jar. | | = Horo’s a close-up view ofthe Pravelite in | | | strings you install In fact, two kits of LED strings, the constant current should givemore than 20 hoursoflight parts are available which reflect this circuit, romain the same rogardless of before needing a recharge. Flexibility how many LEDs are fitted, You could ran the Prawnlite from Tho first Kit contains the PC board Fromhereon, though, we'll assume smaller than a 7Ah battery ~ and that ‘and half the LEDs, transistors and you are building the completekitcon- would mean significantly less weight resistors, along with the reference volt- taining 48 LEDs. ‘0 carry, particularly when you're components, allowing youto build standing out in the water. Staller itin thal format if you wish. Needless ‘The battery SLAs are also generally cheaper. to say, that’s the economy route. ‘Tho Prawnlitedrawsasound290mA You could even vn this from a bank ‘The socond kitcontains theremain- from ¢ 12V supply so there shouldn't of NiCads or NiMiIcells (perhaps even ing LEDs, transistors and resistors be too much worry about quickly flst- inside the handlo’), bearing in mind ‘hich, when added to the first kit, tening your battery. hat 200mA drain enable the full power version to be It is designed to ran off one of the Most commercial electric prawn Dui. medium-sized 12V SLA batteries suse a battery mounted in a pur Asall LED/transistor/resistorstrings - which, of course, could be charged built belt, Wesuggest a battery in are identical, if you build the half vieasuitablecharger fromacarbattery bum bag would be just as effective power version you can choose which when mobile. = and a lot cheaper! areas of the PC board you popula (Such a charger was deseribed in Just make sure you don't got the as ong as the trios of LEDs and their Si.icoNCiP in July 1996). Orperhaps battery wet — salt wator and batteries associated transistor and resistor ara you could use a solar charger ~again, do nol make good bedmates! kept together (ic, LEDs 1,2.9;25,26.27; Wwe'vedescribed one of thosein March And one more thought: you could tc 2002. even make up a battery using high: The components to the left of the A typical 7Ah SLA, fully charged, capacity AA cells (say 2x 10 in series) 4 pany 48 ultrabright white LEDs shine through the bottom of the lass jar. I'S not just a prawnlite - this also makes a dandy: ‘general-purpose 12V light as welll slliconchip.com.au‘that fitted inside the handle, Now that would be clever! Waterproofing ‘As mentioned before, the Prawnlite is designed to fit in- side a glass jar. The particular glass jar we used originally contained Dorito’s salsa dip ~ @ semi-liquid, so we knew that the jar would be waterproof. Its made that way by & gasket incorporated into the screw lid. ‘The jar measures about 87mm (OD) x 78mm (outside height), Of course, you could use other similersized jars but make sure that (a) the PC board assembly will ft the PC board is 65mm diameter) and (b) that it can actually hold ‘water; that is, a gasket of some sort must be incorporated {nto the lid to seal against the glass jar What complicates the issue a little is that we need to supply power to the PC board, which necessitates drilling ahole in the lid, We also wanted to fit a handle to the jar so it could be used like a wand, This also necessitated drill ing a couple of holes for bolts and nuts to hold the handle in place. We overcametboth these prob- loms through the liberal use ofsilicone sealant, Same-size component PC board. It's the only one which isn’t 330! sticonchip.com.au all around the able hole (inside and out) and the screw holes. Infact, the sealant also acts as an adhesive and takes some of the stress off the bolts and mts. Construction Startby checking the PCboard for any defects. They're very rare these days but a quick check now can save alot of head, scratching when something doosn't work as it should. lar ne: Fhhhhhhee hhh ‘Three diodes and Q17 provide constant voltage drive the bases of 16 transistors, assuring constant current ‘the 16 banks of LEDs. PRAWNLITE se Janvany 2005 69SUS Sa 41,PC board, 85mm diameter, code 112V NiCad or NIMH battery ‘3m length polarised Figure-8 cable aa e 2 lengths Sm red and black hookup wire, twisted nie 1 red crocodile (alligator) battery clip 1 black crocodile (aigator battery clip _| Slicone sealant a | 48 ultrabright white 5mm LEDs (L1-L48: 47 C8050 NPN transistors (Q1-Q17) ‘3 1N4148 slicon diodes (D1-D3) Resistors 0.25W, 5%) 11K 16332 EA / asowe (OR HoT ENSURE SEALIS intact INUD ‘You'll find it easiest to populate and salder the PC board by working from the middle out ~ so start with the four diodes, transistor Q17, the two capacitors and then all the resistors, All components mount as hard down onto the PC board as they will go, By the way, by some quirk the three diodes on the prototype PC board were labelled D6, DS and D7 instead of D1, D2 and D3. We're assured that production PC boards will be labelled correctly. To make it easy for you, we've coloured green the only 1k resistor (labelled R17} on the component overlay, Pat this one in first, then you can't make a mistake with the rest ~ they're all 330! Next, fit all the remaining transistors, All face the same direction around the ring ~ the flat side is clockwise Solder these in place, taking care with bridges between closo pads. Finally, it's time for the LEDs. Unlike the transistors, 70 SiuicoN Cia To 12V Sia BATTERY (BELT PACK) a 217 (Oatiay Electronics) thero is no consistency to LED direction. Take 1 small glass waterproof jar with lid / careful note ofthe overlay and the overlay also (with seating gasket to make printed on the top side of the PC board. If you Waterproof) - around 85mm diameter get any LED wrong, the other two in its string _x75mm high will aso not work. & | Give your finished board the once-over and if you're happy with the component placement and soldering, temporarily connect the two power leads. These solder underneath the board —take care with the polarity! Connect the red and black to your 12V battery or power source, obviously red to +ve and black to -ve, Assuming it works ~ ie, all LEDs light up ~ you can disconnect and unsolder them. Incidentally, don't look directly into the LEDs because they are so bright, they will dazzle you. Making the “container” This is probably the most difficult section because you hhave to be 100% sure that the final thing is waterproof. ‘The handle is made from a short length of 20mm PVC lectrical conduit (25mm would also be fine). The end of the conduit is cut on a shallow angle to allow it to mount, flush with the lid (see diagram at left) ‘Two holesare drilled through the conduit, with matching holes in the lid, for the stainless steel nuts and bolts which hold the conduit to the lid. A separate hole is drilled in the lid for the power leads. These then progess up the conduit, handle, to emenge at the top end, thence to the battery via 2 pair of crocodile clips. Finally, liberal amounts of silicone soalant are used to cover the conduil-o-lid join and over the tops of the stain- less stool bolts. The same soalant is used at the top of the handle, not only making the conduit top waterproof (it will, at some time, receive a dunking no matter how careful you are!) but also making the power leads captive. It’s probably best to work on the lid assombly first as this must be right! Cut the conduit to suitable length (ours was a tad over ‘The completed assembly immediately before it goes into its slass jar “case”. The “HOT” salsa is entirely optional ‘we wonder how it would taste with prawns? siliconchip.com.au‘1m which is about right for an average-height adult, For a child it would want to bo somewhere about 650-750mm) ‘and then cut one end at a suitable angle (the drawing at loft should give you a good idea of this). Drill two 3mm holes through the conduit at about 12mm and 72mm from the end, with matching holes in the top of the lid, The stainless steel screws we used had counter- sunk heads — if yours do, carefully countersink the holes in the conduit. Drill an additional hole in the lid right in the centre ~ this one should be larger, say about 5-6mm, to suit the power leads you use. The power leads should bbe able to pass through easily ass your power lead through the conduit from the square (1op) end, leaving about 100mm protruding from the angle- cut end. That means the bulk of the powor loads emerge from the top end. Solder a pair of crocodile clips (red and black) to the far ends of the red and black power leads. ‘Now pass the power lead through the hole you drilled in the lid and fasten the anglo-cut end of the conduit to the lid with the two screws. Tighten the nuts and then apply generous dollops of silicone sealant or hot molt glue onto the lid, right around the edges of the conduit. Make sure all parts of the join are well sealed. Also apply some silicone to tho underside of the lid, over the tops of the two nuts and bolts and, if you wish, fo tho point where the power leads come through. Also fill in the top end of the conduit with silicone seal ant or hot melt and leave to dry Mounting the PC board While that's happening, let’s look at mounting the PC board. Naturally, it needs to sit so that the LEDs shine out through the bottom of the jar. This means you'll noed a support cylinder of foam rubber, styrene foam, etc, just a Dit smaller than the inside diameter ofthe jar. The depth needs to be just a bit less than the internal hoight ofthe jar less the height of the PC board assembly. Assuming you've soldered all LEDs hard down on the board, that's around 12mm or so~ call it 20mm to be sale. The cylinder will need aholo up the middle for the powor leads to not only pass through but squash back up into somewhat, when the PC board is brought down onto it siliconchip.com.au A further two shots ofthe top of the Prawnlite showing hhow the conduit is shaped, then screwod and glued to the top ofthe lid. Make sure its thoroughly waterproofed with silicone sealant or hot melt glue... or both! It can be secured to the jar lid using silicone sealant (as a glue) or you could use contact adhesive. ‘When the handle/lid assembly is dry, cut the power leads tosay 50mm (oreven less if you have a fine soldering iron). Strip off 5mm of insulation and solder the leads, again watching out for polarity, to their appropriate positions ‘on the underside of the PC board ‘As the PC board is brought down on the foam/styrone cylinder, the power lead has to squash back into the middle (hal that's the reason for the hole!) The PC board itself can ‘be glued or taped to the cylinder so that it sits square on it (Wousod ordinary clear sticky tape). The final result should, look something like the photo on the opposite page. Before scrowing the glass jar onto the assombly, check to make gure the gasket (normally glued to the inside of the lid) is intact - you don’t want any path for water to get in, because if it can, it will! Also, check again that the LEDs still light when you con- nect power: If so, serew the jar onto the lid, ensuring that, the LEDs miss the bottom of the jar by a few millimetres or 0. That's it: your Prawnlite is now completed. Connect it toa 12V battory and test that it works as intended, Good luck with your prawning — can't you just taste those scrumptious little crustaceans already? ‘And if you discovera really good prawning spot ~ please, Tet us know? Promise we won't tll anyone else... $C. Where from, how much? The Prawnlite comes from Oatley Electronics, who hold the copyright on both the design and the PC board. Catley have available two kts of parts: K217 sells for $22.00 and contains 24 white LEDs plus 9 ransistors, 9 resistors, 3 diodes, 2 capacitors and the PC board. This makes the “half power’ version. 2176, when added tothe fist, makes the full power ver- sion. it contains another 24 white leds, 8 transistors and 8 resistors and retails for $15.00 ‘You need to supply the glass jar, the length of conduit, [screws & nuts, silicone sealant/not mett glue, etc. ‘Contact Oatley Electronics on (02) 9584 3561 or via their website, wavwoatleye.com. 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Phone 1300 787 007 Fax 1300 700 77 Pomsammesi a SASimon Says... Abhhh! - nostalgia, it ain’t what it used to be. We take a look at how electronic games have changed over the last 25 years and describe a new “Simon Says” game for you to build. By CLIVE SEAGER ‘This isthe original MB “Simon” game from 1098" MEMBER THE 70s? The BBC in tho UK recently produced a sories of television programs called “I Love 197x", You cortainly start to realise your age whon you discover that 1978 was over 25 178 pro- gram mada relorence to the cult toy Of the yoar, “Simon”, made by MB Games, which was loved by children this page from the G Instruments 1977 catalog lists the PIC1650 as a “Programmable Intelligent Computer" 76 SuicoN Clu and loathod by parents! This was one of the very first mass-produced elec: tronic games and I remember playing it with friends and relatives, Simon For those too young to remember 1978, the dea behind the Simon game was quite simple. It was based on the ‘old school playground game “Simon Says”. The gamo was made up of a big round plastic case with four coloured panels. Zach panel concealed aswitch and a light bulb, Atthe start ofa game, theelectronics inside would light up one of the four panels briefly and sound a tone. The player then had to pross that panel, after which Simon would repeat, light ing the samo panel briefly and adding another. Again, itwas the player's tur. He or she then had to pross the two panels in the cozreet sequence, Each round, the number of panels increased by ‘one until the player could no longer remomber the corre sequence. Simon would then isi harsh buzz and end the game, ‘As I watched the TV program, it struck mo that this vintage toy from 1978 could. probably be reproduced with a PIGAXE microcontroller at very low cost So I sot myself the task of building my own PICAXE version of the “Simon Says” game, particularly as | thought It would provide a perfect example of how to remember sequences in a PIGAXE BASIC program, something. that many users find quite difficult Internet trivia A quick Google search on the Inte. rot soon revealed lots of trivia about the original “Simon” game ‘The frst single-player game was re leasod in 1978. Subsequently, MB re- leased "Super Simon” in 1979, which had two sets of panels for two play: ers. In 1980, a smaller version called “Pocket Simon” appeared, There was also a special edition Simon with a cloar casing so that the internal work- ings could be seen, Apparently, "Super Simon” even makosan appearancin the film “ET”, where it can be seen on the shelf be- hind T's head when he first speaks! However, I was more interested in how the original game worked. 1 discovered it needed both a 9V PP3 and two large D cells to make it work, presumably to power the light bulbs and speaker, but could not discover much more online, Then using my “you can buy any. thing on eBay” philosophy, 1 did a quick search and sure enough, dis siliconchip.com.au‘covered that I could buy a real Super ‘Simon, complete with box and instruc tions, for just £5, So five days later I wwasthe proud owner ofa vin which I then, as you probably by now, completely disassemb ‘The original game Removing the cover expose sparsely populated PC board. It con sisted only ofa motal switch contact sight bulbs buffed by a couple of standard logic gates, and a ‘Toxas Instrument "nicrocomputor” chip, These microcomputer. chips. wore st “single-chip” con some of thi rollers widely used in mass-produced consumer products, and can be found ina wide range of early 80s equipment such as vending machines. They were the predecessors of the modem PIC microcontrollers, Many people think micracontrollors fare a relatively new ides, when in actual fact this gamo was using vary similar single-chip technology 25 What does “PIC” stand for? Ono of the most comm we are asked is “what do PIC and PICAXE actually stand for Back in 1975, General Instrumonts Microelectronics Division developed a small &-bit controller (PIC1650) based on the Harvard architecture, which itsolf had been created as part of an earlier intor-university Defence De arlmont competition, Many sources quote the PIC1650 controller as being created primarily as a support input output device for the mare powerful CP 1600 16-bit processor and so quote PIC as standing for “Peripheral Inter face Controller Howover, arare scanned copy oft General Instruments “Micro-elec: tronics” catalog tolls a different story Fig.1 shows the PIG1650 page from this catalog, which lists the dovice as Programmable Intelligent Computer ‘The datasheet clearly shows that this device was the “first in brood” ofall the later PICmicto devices, even though is was only available in masked ROM version using NMOS technology. In the early 80s, a venture capi tal group purchased 85% of the GI Microelectronics Division, inchiding the Arizona manufacturing plant, and formed the Microchip company as it is known today. This new company combined the original PIC1650 tech: siliconchip.com au ‘Super Simon” came a year after the original player support A disassembled "Super Simon”, pin chip) and not much more. ling the TI microcontroller (the larger 20- nology with EPROM memory tocreate ory to eroate the PIC16C84, then the the one-time-programmable PICmicro _16P84, and subsequently all of the “F ‘C” series parts known today. Later (FLASH) sories parts they added erasable ZEPROM mem- —Thereforo, PIC can stand for either Januarypig a $8 SIMON SAYS Fig2: the circuit diagram for “Simon Says” is a PICAXE incarnation of the game, As with the original, a single:chip micro handles all the smarts but (1), Wait forthe playerto pressaswitel, LLEDs and a piezo sounder replace the incandescent bulbs and speaker, to start the game. (2). Generate a sequence of random “Peripheral Interface Controlles” or ingthebaltery clip leads, thread them numbers, ranging from 0-3 for the “Programmable Intelligent Computer” through the adjacent hole to provide four LEDs. In this caso, Twill use 100, ~ take your pic(k)! PICAXE is easier strain relief. steps; many more than the seven or to explain; itis simply a brand name Power your completed project only _ eight Ican normally repeat ina game! based on a play of words! froma3xAA alkaline coll (4.5V)bat- These numbers are stored using the A tery pack or regulated SV DC supply. write command in the PICAXE-164's The new Simon game Take particular care that you have the separate data memory, which actually The crcult diagram forthe PICAXE powerleads round therightway,oth- has space for up to 250 steps version ofthe game is shown in Fig.2. orwise you'll destroy the PICAXE! (3). Get the microcontroller ta play [As you can see, its very straightfor ae . back the numbers. To do this, the ‘ward indeed, consisting of just the Programming introduction micro mast know how many steps to Inicro, four LEDs, a piezo sounder, The programming task for the Si- play back in each round of the game. five pushbutton svvitches and a few mon game is fairly complicated but variable called topstep will bo usod resistors. isa good example of how to “remem- to remember the number of stops. If PC board assembly is also quite data topstep = 1, one step will be played straightforward. Use the overlay dia- memory (available in all the “A” and back, if topstep = 2, two steps will bo ‘gram in Fig.3 as guide to component “X" series PICAXE micros) played back, and s0 on, placement. Takecare with theorionta- When approaching a complicated (4). When the player presses a switch, tion oftho four LEDs, which musthave problem like this, it is essential to the microcontroller must light the their lat (cathode) sides positioned as break the overall ask down intosmall, correct LED for that switch and then shown. Also, make sure the notched manageable chunks and then put the compare the switch press to see if it (pin 1) end of the PICAXE micro faces whole program together attheend. The isin sequence. The micro must there- the serial link socket, Before solder- following tasks were identified: fore count the number of switches the 4-Band Code (1%) 5-Band Code (1%) brown black orange brown ‘brown black black red brown red rad orange brown ted red black red brown yollow violet red brown yollow violet black brown brown orange orange brown brown orange orange black black brown 78 Swicon CHIP siliconchip.com.au‘diagram when assembling the board, Take particular care ‘with the orientation ofall the LEDs, the PICAXE micro and the power input leads, player has pressed. Thoso are accumu lated in the playerstep variable. (5). When the player teaches the end of the sequence, the microcontroller must acknowledge the success, add one to the value of topstep and then ropeat the process from (3) above. If the player gets the sequence wrong, a buzzer will sound and the game will eset. Program The full program listing is shown siiconchip.com.au SV battery pack consisting of three AA alkaline cells, in the accompanying panol. Although the program is quite complex, wo've included it here as an example of what can be achioved with PICAXE. microcontrollers. Full comments are given in the program but a brief explanation is, also included below. Note: to save typing the program in manually, you ccan download it from the Sicon Ce ‘web site at wwwasiliconchip.com.au. Section 1 in the program is a loop that lights all four LEDs, generates a 1 Simon PC board 4 8.5mm stereo socket 1 miniature pushbutton switch (S15) 4 pushbutton switches (SW1 -sw4) 1 battery clip 13x AA battery holder 1 18>pin IC socket 1 miniature piezo transducer Semiconductors 1 PICAXE-18A microcontroller 1.5mm green LED 1.5mm red LED 15mm yellow LED 1.5mm blue LED Capacitors 4 4100nF (0.1uF) MKT (code 100n or 104) Resistors (0.25W 5%) 210KQ 1:4. 7kQ. 122k 43300 1 10k82trimpot (V1) ‘Also required (not in kt) PICAXE Programming Editor software (v4.1.0 oF later) PICAXE download cable (part ‘AXE026) AA alkaline cells Obtaining kits and software ‘The designcopyrightforthisproject is owned by Revolution Education Ld. Complete kits (part AXE 108K) for this project are available trom authorised PICAXE distributors = see www.microzed.com.au or phone Microzed on (02) 6772 277. ‘The PICAXE Programming editor software can be downloaded tre ‘ofcharge from www.picaxe.co.uk ‘or ordered on CD (part BASBO5). random number and then waits for a switch to be prossad to start the game. By including the random command within the loop, itis constantly vary- ing and s0 no two games will be the Section 2 uses a for to store 100 random nu rmicro’s memory. As the PICAXE ran- dom command enly works on word variables, it is called using the vari- able randword. However, as we only Januany 200570“Define the variables used *** symbol randword = w) ‘random number (word) symbol randbyle = 60 ‘random number (oyt, part of wo) symbol value “swith value 0-1-2-3, symbol playerstep = b8 "postion of player in game symbol req = ba ‘sound variable symboltopstep = D5 “number of steps in sequence symbol counter =b6 "general purpose counter symbol speed = b7 ‘playback speed See are ee Wait for any switch to be pushed “ight all LEDS random randword randomise ifinpuid= then preload ‘check switches ifinputt = 1 then preload ‘finpuié = 1 then preload ‘tinput? = then preload goto init aed eee esate orn ‘Load EEPROM data memory with 100 numbers preloa: let pin LEDs off for counter “Yor.next loop let val random randword itrandbyte > 180 then set0 ifrandbyte > 120 then sett i andbyte > 60 then set2 ‘get random number ate 23 sst=2 4 0 "save in data memory next lop vite countervalue next counter ee aes This Seton plays back a sequence letpins = 00000000 ‘LEDs off let topste ‘reset step number to 1 playback: readade 2speed “read speed value from preset ‘ov counter = 1 to topstep read counter value gosub beep pause 300, ext counter "Now the user responds playerstep = 1 Tf payerstep is greater than topstep then all done 80 Smicon Cun gameloop: i playerstep > topstep then success read playerstepvalue “recall correct value then pushegO walt for switch press then pushed then pushed? if input6 = 1 then pushed {goto loop Now check corect value depending on which switch was pressed pushedo: if value <> 0 then fall le layerstep = plaerstep + 1 ‘gosub beep ‘oto gametoop pushed it alue <> 1 then fail let payerstep = playerstep +1 sgosub beep Goto gameloop pushed2: if value <> 2 then fall let playerstop = plaerstep + 1 gosub beep ‘goto gameoop pushed if value <> 8 then fil let payerste = layerstep + 1 gosub bee {oto gameloop fale somata noise and jmp back tart let pins = 80000000 “all LEDs off sound 7,(80,100), ‘make a noise sound 7,(50:100) ‘goto init “back o start * Succeeded so add another step to sequence and loop ‘pause 100 let pins = %0001111 sound 7 (120,50), let pins = 400000000 pause 100 lettopstep = topstap +1 ‘goto playback short delay all LEDs on ‘success beep ‘al LEDs off ‘short delay ‘add another step "oop again Se eae "Sub-procedure to light correct LED and make beep beep: high value frog = vale + 1 * 25, sound 7,feq speed) ‘play sound low value ‘switch of LED return ‘return ‘stch on LED ‘generate sound freq siiconchip.com.auroquire a byte value, we later use the variable randbyte (one half of rand- word). We only require the numbers 0-3 (for the four LEDs) but randbyte ‘can contain the value 0-255 and so we carry out a simple comparison test to got the four desired values, ection 3 switches all four LEDs off and then uses a for..next loop to play back the sequence (up to the variable topstep). Tho “boop” sub-procedure in soction 5 is used to light the appropri- ate LED and make a sound for each step. Note that the sound is different for cach LED to aid memory during the game. ‘The length of tho beep is determined by the setting of trimpot VR1, which ean therefore be used to Ineroase or decrease the speed of the game. Soction 4 first resets the player's position to 1. A test is then carried out to see ifthe playar has completed all the required stops. Ifal steps have been done, the “success” soction of the code flashes all four LEDs, adds one morestep tothe fopstep valuieand then loops back to section 3. If thore are still steps to do, the correct target value is retrieved from ‘memory for comparison, The program iQ- The OPLLGW series The OPLLBL SE ‘White powder coated. Black powder crated hisseris isa celingThisseries sa stand- gimbal iting alone type for we iad require a STmm Indoors or outdoors, ameter cutout are fly weatherproat (Mt seo, Sind able tobe tally Submerged fr pond Visit us at: PRIME [ELECTRONICS sliconchip.com.au www.prime ronics.com.at BRISBANE SHOWROOM 22 Campbell Street Bowen Hills QLD 4006 “Tlophone: (07) 3252 3762 Facsimile: (07) $252 578 then enters loop, waiting fora switch to be prossed, ‘When a switch is pressed itis com- pared to the target value retrieved from memory. If the valuos aro the same, everything is correct and so the LED is lit via the “boep” sub-procedure, the players position is increased by fone and the program loops back for another switch pross, If the value is incorrect, the “fail section of the code makes a noise and thon resets the game. Summary Single-chip controllers arenot new, as this game was using them 25 years ago! However, electronies has changed dramatically since then and modem microcontrollers are much cheaper ‘and easier to use than the original Modern microcontrollers such as tho PICAXE reduce large complex circuits down to simple, clean designs and dramatically reduce the cost of these products. LED technology has improved and no game would over be manufactured now with bulbs due to cost, safoty and power consumption, Microconirollers are here to stay! SC Superbright Lumileds - Indoor & Outdoor LED light fitting range + HIGH BRIGHTNESS * LONG LIFE + FULLY DIMMABLE * ENERGY EFFICIENT The range of LUMILED downlight fittings shown here have been designed for domestic, display, marine, mobile home and caravan applications. 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Bs teromttm Like the Luxeons, but much ower Red, amber, green, blue i) and white: Just 8 each! eS Lumileds Supertiux These aro 7.6mm square and can be ven at up to 50mA continuously “Red and amber: $2 each “Blue, green an cyan: $9 oa Luxeon 1, 3 and 5 watt All colours available, with Or without attached optics, as low as Asian Supertiux Same as above, but much lower cost + Red and amber: Just 50 cents each! + Blug, green, aqua and white: $1 each. Go to vww.ata.org.au oF call tus on (03)9419 2440. ‘The OPLLGG series, Brashed Gold This series fa elng {ype simballed ting and require 87mm fiancee catat (MRT sie. The OPLLGC sees Brushed Stainese Stel nish The series is cling type ‘ible iting und Fequrea Stam (MIRIE Si, 485 Parramatta Road Homebush NSW 2140 ‘Telephone: (02) 9704 9000 Facsimile: (02) 9746 1197 a January 2005Outback communications: the Flying Doctor radios Radio communications played a vital role in bringing the Flying Doctor service to the outback. Here’s how the outback radios were developed. ' Back in 1912, the Reverend! John —ie, good roads, rapid transport, good Flynn became acutely aware of the medical services, communications noeds of people living in outback Aus- (including telephones), entertain- tralia. The community facilities that ment and supermarkets, ote — simply ‘we now take for granted in our cities did not exist in the outback back then ith the first pedal radio in November 1928. This ive regenerative receiver using space charge tetrode valves Ive triode (B205) crystal-controlled Morse code (CW) transmitter. The transmitter operated with an output of 1-1.5W on a frequency of 2230kHz. 82 SiICON CH (and often still don't today). ‘Admittedly, many ofthese facilities ‘were rudimentary ~and in some cases non-existent ~ in city areas in 1912. However, the people of the outback had none of these conveniences, How would we like to live in a world like that? In reality, the infrastructure in outback Australia is quite poor and, given the sparse population, will ro ‘main that way. Flynn, through the Australian In land Mission (AIM), an arm of the Presbyterian Church in Australia, bbogan looking at ways to address the plight of people in isolated outback areas. In particular, he saw that poople needed medical facilities (hospitals, doctors and nurses), the means to ob- tain speedy access to these facilities, and a means of ealling promptly for this assistance. The few medical centres that did exist at that time were thinly sproad throughout remote areas. A single nurse (or pethaps two) and ~ if they were lucky ~ a doctor within a fow hundred miles were about the best that people in the outback could ex. pect nearly a century ago. ‘Transport to and from these centres vwas also a vory real problem in those days, as the best roads wore often little Dotter than two wheel ruts through the scrub. Flynn was convinced by 1917 that aizeraft could ultimately provide the needed transport in emergency medical cases. The cost of landing strips was much lower than provid- ing roads and aircraft ware speedier than land-based vehicles. Bush radio Another problem was that a means of quickly summoning aid was not sliconchip.com.auJohn Flynn (nearest to camera) and ‘Australia, org ‘on their 1925 trip to test radio communications equip! Towns setting off from Adelaide ‘outback central thoy were able to contact Kauper and othor experimenters. The experiments were successful in that some ideas were definitely worth incorporating available, There were no telephones back then, as tho cost of providing a tolephone’ service to outback cattle stations was prohibitive, In addition, cattle drovers wore never in one place for long, so telophone service would have been useless for many people anyway. By 1919, Flynn hit on the idea of using radio communications to sum= mon aid in an emergency. However, he could see that radio was still in its infancy and not really suitable at that stage for the jab The world was just recovering from the ravages of World War I and many things werestill in astato of confusion, Spark wireloss transunitting and erys- tal receiving equipment was totally unsuitable for use between outback cattle stations and the nearest town where medical facilities were avail- able, such as Cloncurry or Oodnad- alla. The government had also placed some restrictions on the use of valves by radio experimenters, although this was gradually being rolaxed. In fact, by 1919, valves were be- ing used in an increasing number of transmitters and receivers and valve- equipment was showing promise as a possible solution to his problems. But ‘ven the most advanced cutting-edge radio technology of 1919 was stil totally unsuitable for the work that Flynn envisaged. ‘Asa resull, Flynn encouray cd both, siliconchip.com.au individuals and groups involved in reless communications — such as the Wiroloss Instituto of Australia —to develop an easy-to-operate, portable or semi-fixed radio transmitter and receiver for uso in the outback, This equipment was to be used on remote cattle or sheep stations to communi- cate with a contral base station. ‘Many tried and failed and even the military, despite all the facilities they hhad at their disposal, had nothing like the equipment Flynn required. Was he asking the impossible? Early experiments Despite those early setbacks, Flynn continued to encourage experiment ers to dovelop suitable radio com- munications equipment. In 1925, he obtained help from Harry Kauper to develop equipment to test various Ideas on outback communications Kaupor was the chief engineer of radio station SCI and arguably the most competent radio experimenter in Adelaide at that time Under his guidance, Flynn and George Towns (an ex-WWI digger with experience in wireless) built the equipment. The amount of equipment involved can be seen in the accompa nying photograph of Flynn and Towns leaving Adelaide in the overloaded Dodge buckboard, Thisoquipment was tested by Flynn and Towns throughout the outback and into a portable transmitter/receiver, ‘while others required further devel- opment. And of course, some ideas proved to be failures. However, the overall development VALVES ‘h uo0o He fuureueeanie | Se Guitaraurs ay mBUeTaAL TAGE RADIO We can supply your valve needs, including high voltage capacitors, Hammond transformers, chassis, sockets and valve books. WE BUY, SELL and TRADE ‘SSAE DL size for CATALOGUE ELECTRONIC VALVE & TUBE COMPANY PO Box 487 Drysdale, Vie 3222 76 Bluff Rd, St Leonards, 3223 Tol: (03) 5257 2297; Fax: (03) 5257 1773 Email: evatco@pacific.n ‘www.evatco.com.au Jawuary 2005 88sceicctengsenee E The 1930 pedal radio was built into a heavy metal eabinet and used two transmitters - one on 2020kt1z and the other on 8630kHz, This set was the Augustus Downs pedal radio and is now at John Flynn Place, Cloncurry. {An under chassis view of the 1920 pedal radio, The transmitters used A615 alves (or A413s) and had an RE output power of just 1.5. direction was slowly evolving. Forex- ample, it quickly became painfully ob- vious that voice communications were out of the question with the portable equipment envisaged, However, Mor code transmission from portable sta- tions would be practical within a few years, once a range of problems hi boon overcome In 1926, Kaupor built throe trans mittor/receiver sets for use in ex periments hetween Arltunga, Her mannsburg and the AWA-supplied base station at Stuart (Alice Springs) These were tested by Flynn and Al- fred Traeger (the pedal radio man) and proved successful, the unit operating, for several months before breaking down, inside view ofthe frst pedal radio, “The birth of pedal radio complete with all the batteries, Note The birth of pedal radio that the transmitting valve (B208) is _ With the design catera sorted out ituthe fom necodket atthe ketom Flynn gave Traogor tho job of davolop Toft ofthe photograph, inga suitable tansiniter/receiveru 84 Swicow Cu dor the watchful eye of Harry Kauper (Tracger's mentor), who contributed his considerable skills to the design. ier many experiments, Traoger built the first pedal radio and unveiled it to Flynn in November 1928. This was a magnificent achievement, as it was the first portable high-frequency (HF) transmittor/receiverin the world that could be used by non-technical people ‘According to its operating licence, the transmitter was crystal-locked on a0kH2. It used a B205 valve which was operated in class “C” mode as a Morse code (CW) transmitter. Now the efficiency of small battery valves was quite low in class “C", so an input of about 4W gave just 1.5W of output power ~ je, it was only 40% efficient Tho low-tension “A" battory supply came from two No.6 cells in series, while the high-tonsion “B" supply was nominally 180V but depended on how quickly the operator pedalled the gen- erator (hence 1 | radia) which supplied this power ‘The transmitter was coupled to @ quarter-wave wire aerial and a tuned ‘counterpoise system, This proved tobe anextremely effective antenna system, which itneeded to be, considering the low transmitter power and the long distances over which the equipment ‘was required to operate. In fact, this ype of system was used up until rela tively recent times. ‘The receiver was a simple 2-valve unit, It consisted of a regenerative dotector and a transformer-coupled audio output stage which fed a pair of headphones. It tuned the broadcast band and one shartwave band, which included 2230kHz, he valves used were two A141 space charge tetrodes which required 15V (“A”) for the filaments and 9V (*B") ~ from two 4.5V bias batteries ~ for the high tension, The very low voltage on the “B" supply was suf ficient for the A141 valves, which were designed to operate effectively (on voltages from 2-20V. Kauper selected the A141 valves because thoy drow very little cur rent at low voltages. High voltage dry tteries of the ora deteriorated very quickly in sub-tropical environments ‘where these sets wore to operate, such ‘as Cloncurry in Queensland, Six such sots wero installed during 1929 within a radius of 600km ofCloncurry base. They quickly proved their worth when if came to saving lives, by summoning aircraft to carry patients to the hospital at Cloncurry Base transmitter ‘The Cloncurry base transmitter was much more powerful than the pedal radios, having an output power of 50W on (AM) voice. OF course, fixed ‘hase transmitters of reasonable power drow considerably more electrical power than a pedal radio transmitter: ‘However, this wasn'ta problem in this case, as a 32V lighting plant had been installed at Cloncurry to power the base station (despite the expense), ‘The base station receivers were also ‘more elaborate than the pedal radio receivers, mainly because they had to be more sensitive, Teething problems Despite quickly proving their worth, practical experience with the new ra- dios during the first few months also revealed some shortcomings, In par ticular, the sets werenotalwaysableto achieve reliable communteations. To achieve that goa, it was evident that a frequency near 10MHz was needed It was @ case of going back to the drawing board and making the neces. sary improvements so that the pedal radios would be effective. Although the pedal generator had proved quite satisfactory, the receiver lacked gain and stability, and it soems that the transmitter valve may not have been rugged enough to stand the physical abuse of being bumped around in the cutback. ‘As a result, these frst six sets were scrapped over a period of time and their parts usod in laterimproved sets, which is why there areno examples of the original sets in exist there are two photographs which do show what they looked like. The 1930 pedal radio Harry Kauper decided to move to Melbourne in 1930, which meant that he was nove able to provide only limited assistance to Alfred Traoger. Left largely to his own devices, Traeger used the best design aspects of the original sets and worked on methods of overcoming the weaknesses. The replacement sets were built into a heavy metal case (to thwart termites) and the original single sticonchip.comau <| a = ! Drown by Rodney Champness| © #4 17/11/98 stages based on A615 valves (one for 2020kHz and the a regenerative detector and two transformer-coupled audio stages. The receiver tuned the Fig.1: this is the circuit for the 1990-model pedal radio. Note the two almost identical transmitter other for 8630KH2). The receiver used three A109 triode valves broadcast band and up to around 10MHz, using plug-in coils. JaNuany 2005 85“Adelaide Houso” in Alice Springs. transmitter became two transmitters ‘oneona frequency of 2020kHz (night, frequency) and the other on 8630kHz. (day frequency). Exactly when these froquencies were issued is uncertain but it was definitely by 1931. ‘Traeger reasoned that by having two transmitters, communications with Cloncurry could be achieved either on the night froquoncy or the day fr quency, even if one broke down. The transmitter design remained essential ly the sameas before, except the valves used wore now AG15s (oreven A415s), which required four or five No. cells in series to power the filaments. The 86 SILICON Cu ‘A model 36 pedal radio with pedal generator mounted below it, on display at radio frequency (RF) output power romained at about 1.5W. The antenna design also remained much the same as for the original set bout it was now expected to operate on the two frequencies, As a result, two separate counterpoises wore used in these units, Initially, they were tuned in the same way as the original pedal radios, by laboriously adjusting the length of each counterpoise, Later on, they were modified so that the electrical length (and hence the tuning) of each coun- terpoise could be adjusted within the sot itself. Developed in 1931, | ‘Traeger's Morse typewriter sent perfect Morse code, regardless ofthe skills of the operator. | No meters were used in the transinit: tors to indicate the correct tuning. In stoad, tuning was carried out by watch: inga small poa lamp and adjusting the transmitter and counterpoise controls for maximum lamp brightness. Twas said that if you gota glimmer ‘out ofthe pea lamp, youhad succeeded. in tuning the transmitter! ‘The receiver, although also basically the same as the original, now boasted. three conventional A109 triode valves. There was a regenerative detector and two transformer-coupled audio stages, with the output stage feeding a pair of headphones or, if tho signals were really strong, a loudspeaker. The receiver was able to tune the broadeast band and up to around 10MHz using plug-in coils. Tt was @ uch better performer than the origi- nal but now roquired a 45V HT battory in liou of tho OV HT battery used in the original receiver. To the best of my knowledgo, theres only one example of this model in ex- istence and itis housed at John Flynn Place in Cloncurry. Another set that ‘appears to be the same is at the RFDS base in Alice Springs. However, this is ‘a model 34, which was made around three years later and uses different valves ~ three 30s in the receiver and ‘wo 33s in the transmitters. Gaining access to these sets is dif ficult but Twas able to see them some years ago thanks to the late Reverend Fred Mekay. Unfortunately, Iwas un. able to test them but I did build replica transmitters similar to the sets at Jobn Flynn Place and in Alice Springs, in order to astess their performance (the receivers were conventional for their cera, so I didn’t build any replicas of these) ‘The accompanying photographs show the construction of the set at Cloncurry. The “chassis” is ebonite and components are mounted on it tas shown, The wiring is in dark red spaghetti-covered single conductor The transmit/receive switch is the very large and relatively complex unit in the contre back of the set. Its operation can be traced in the circuit diagram. I's also worth noting that ‘Traoger made any special switches himself. The meter on the front panel was used when adjusting thefilamont volt ‘ages on the transmitter and the receiver valves, In practice, the receiver valvesaq -aeM Serer cenearor ison sation SI: eMADPHONES;2= SPEAKER 52:1 =RECEVE:2= TRANS S31 CW MORSE;2=AM(VOICE_Sé:1 «OFF (ANTENNA SHORTED TO EA:22 08 Fig.2: the model 36 was the first AM/CW pedal radio to be produced ismitter assemblies (one for each frequency) and also used plug were adjusted for a voltage of 1-1.9V and the transmitter valves for BV. ‘The Morse typewriter ‘The next improvement in outback communications came with the devel- ‘opment of the ingenious Morse type- ‘writer by Traeger in 1931. As might be expected, the Morse code skills Of the operators at the cattle stations ‘were generally quite poor and it was often quite difficult for the base sta- tion operator to understand what was boing sent. By contrast, the typewriter sent perfect Morse code and even had a ‘mechanical interlock which prevented more than one key from being pressed siliconchip.com.au ata time. The exact sonding speed was adjusted by an oil-filled dashpot and this was usually sotto give a transmis- sion speed of 10 words per minute, ‘The first voice pedal radios Voice communication was still the goal as far as Flynn was concerned, however. By 1934, the type 19 valve was available in reasonable quantities in ‘Australia. This valve was originally dosigned for use as a class “B” push- pull audio output stage and was capa- ble of around 2.2W with 135V of plate voltage. With this valve, battery receiv- ers were capable of audio outputs that rivalled many mains-operated sets. ‘any quantity. It was supplied with three plug- ‘oils in the receiver. ‘Traoger could see that this valve could also perform as a push-pull class ““B" modulator for the plate and screen PO Box 8, Greensborough Phone(05) 4321658, Fax(U) 8444 7750 Enal:sdmingrprees som 28 JANUARY 200587of the transmitter output valve (33). ‘This was tried and proved suocessful even with 180V on the 19 valve— well above its design ratings. Its standing current was 20mA instead of 10mA in this situation, with zero bias. This mistreatment seams to have boen tolerated by the valve because of the intermittont nature of transmitting The base station operators also used todo routine visits to the various out- stations and replaced any weak valves in the transmitters on a regular basis, to keep failure rates down Perhaps one point needs to be made quite clear ~ the pedal generators did 88 SmIcON CHP not produce more than 220V (when pedalling hard) and supplied between 160V and 200V (depending on the ver sion of the pedal generator used) at normal pedalling rates. If they had produced the 350V some toxts sug- gost, transmitting valves such as the 19 (with a maximum design rating of 135V) and the 33 (rated at 180V] would havo failed spectacularly within sec- nds. ‘The model 36 ‘The model 36 was the first AM CW pedal radio to be produced in any quantity — perhaps 10-20 sots in total. However, from my research, it would appear that a model a5 was the first ofthe AM/CW sets and there may have only been one or two of thes produced. It had a 3-valve receiver similar to the early CW-only receiv- fers and a transmitter similar to the Tater 36 set ‘The 36 set, which was produced in late 1935 or early 1936, had a totally aw receiver. Some of the new low filament current totrode RF valves found favour with Traeger and the ew receiver had a 32 as an untuned RF amplifier followed by a 32 as a re generative detector. A 30 triode was used as an audio stage and this was transformer-coupled to a triode-con- nected 49 audio output stage. This set had an advantage over the earlier regenerative receivers in that the regeneration was not affected by the style of antenna connected to it. As a result, the regeneration control was much smoother, ‘A design similar to this receiver was published in the April 1929 is. sue of “QST”, the official magazine of the American Radio Relay League. However, it used valves with higher filament current drains, which were unsuitable for the pedal radio designs of 1029. Plug-in coils ‘The 36 also included an innovation that had started to appoar in the last of the CW trensceivers — ie, plug-in transmitter assemblies for each ire- quency (this in addition to plug-in coils for the receiver). Changing the transmitter frequency was simply a matter of changing the pre-tuned plug-in assombly. Three plug-in assemblies were supplied with each transmitter, as only three frequencies werv allocated to each network. The wiring of each plug-in was such that the correct coun- lerpoise was automatically connected forthe frequency in use. As forthe fre quencies used, in 1935 the base station at Wyndham was allocated 1600kHz, 5300kHz and 8830kHz (the broadcast band only extended to 1500kHz at that time). The receiver's tuning range re mained nominally the same as pre- vious models, with enough plug-in coils to cover rom S50kH2z to around 10MHz. The higher frequency coils wore wired in such a way that band: spreading was achieved for easier siiconchip.com.autuning, as can be seen in the model 36 circuit diagram, For those unfamiliar with band- spreading, it is a mechanical or clec tronic means of spreading the tuning out across a band, which makes for easier tuning. A typical dual-wave receiver tunes from 6-18MHz in one sweep, which makes it hard to tune accurately. By contrast, a set with band-spreading splits that range up into multiple bands and is therefore easier to tuno accurately — og, an AWA, jand set has seven bands which tune from 550kHz to 22.3MEz, ‘Once again, Ibuilt zoplica transmit- ters to check their performance. They performed pretty much aa predicted. In the model 36 set, the 19 valve is overloaded and some standing bias would have been a good idea. I did not build a replica 36 receiver, as Graham Pitts, VK6GF — the Base'Di- roctor at Alice Springs from 1944 to 1953 ~assured me that these receivers performed satisfactorily. Summary ‘The early development of the Fly- ing Doctor pedal radios is fascinat ing. Im this article, I've given you but glimpse of what happened over tho years from 1912 to 1936. It pro gressed from nothing to Morse coda transmissions from the out-stations (homesteads) and voice transmission from the baso station at Cloncurry in 1929, and then to voice transmissions from tho out-stations and the base sta- tions in 1935/6 Due to the low power of the out station pedal radios, the reception at the base stations was, more often than not, very poor. By contrast, baso station transmissions were clearly heard most of the timo as the transmitter powor ‘was much greater than the 1.SW output of the early pedal radios. In late 1945 (aftor the end of WW 1), out-station transceivers of up to 20W became available which im. proved communications performance markedly. Depending on the circum: stances, the base transmitter powers varied betwoon 20W and 400W output ‘hon AM transmissions were at their peak use For those who wish to know a lot ‘more about the development of com: ‘munications in the outback, my book “Outback Radio ~ fom Flynn to Sat- ellites” will be helpful ~ sbe adjecent panel. sc siliconchip.com.au BOOK REVIEW History of Outback Radio Outback Radio, from Flynn to Satellites, by Rodney Champness. Published 2004, Soft covers, 210 200mm, 186 pages, ISBN 0 645, 43674 0, $99.98. Justby coincidence, this month's vintage Radto coluran happens to cover some f the subjectmateralin this book, involving the pedal radio developed by Alf Traoger Rodney CChampness has puta great deal of rovoarch into this book, going es far ts to reproduce somo the early re dos to check thets performanco. Th total, there aro 17 chapters and eight appendices and th sory oes night beck. io the beginnings Gf Buropean sotloment. The fit chapter is lagcly devoted to the Overland Telograph which bepan to bo installed around Australian the 4850, Inthe days before the 19206, the Telegraph and tho various eate rallwaye represented ths only ways to get mossages quickly over vast distances and those mathods Tet wast areas of Australia totally iso- Iated. Few people had talopionas and so there was a vast challenge which was taken up by Jolin Flynn John Flynn and Alt Taeger are the Grates otis nate Rodney Champnoes procoods to describe the development of early radio communications in minuto tnd exhaustive detal, covering not only the various transmitters ttrd roca vor but also the tmnovar tive pedal generators, designed by Alf taoger and Honty Kaupor. An incidental detail is thet the pedal generators designed by ‘Treegor nly supplied tho tranemittr’s high voltage while the romalning filament and other supplies were provided by battris. Whilo the main thrust of the book is tis piourering reo work to complement the Royal Flying Doctor Service, « good portion te devotod to more tecant develop- By Leo Simpson ments since the 19506, sight up to ‘house of satellite communications, EPIRBs and GPS. The eight appendices are of particular interest. Appendix one is a synopsis of the 17 chapters of the book while appendix two is a collection of early transmitters and transcoivers and reviews of th performance. This will probably hoe the most closely read section of the entire book. Appendix three is detailed discussion of aerial and counterpotse systems ~ critical to early radio communications Appendices four and five are col- lections of miscellaneous informa: tion, significant dates, valve data and’radio frequencies. Appendix six contains brief profiles of outback radio pioneers and appndix seven is a comprehensive glossary. Ap- pendix eight is the bibliography. In summary, ths isa theroughly researched history of outbackradio which will beof valueto anyone in- terested in early Australian radio, "The book is available from the author, Rodney Champnoss, 6 Mun- doona Court, Mooroopna, Vie 3629. ‘Tho price is $39.95 plus 8 postage. Payment may be madeby cheque or money order. (L. D. 8.) January 2005 89Regd (04 SS eno eed ESR sancbok or grotessionals nd stents rom neo BARI Coreen pac gieto geting up andruning wt te nt ‘triple EF output stages and conve cooling. 427 if leges, 270 pages in soft cover. compact se echnlogy ll surement, udspesker jes and nose reduction systems. 475 pages In sof oer and digtal aud, tes an crossover sje, power Su Microcontale rely Through graded projets the author introduces te funda ments at microelectronic, the 05% tai, progam ‘ming in an the use oF C compl, The A ; an scoroical chip wth re-write memny. Provides an i ene Essel eating for ernie designers and student's alk I wil answer rapping auestions abou oo rag theory nd desi pines as wel as oflxing praca sgh ideas, With conese desig implementations, with may Hekmans 8 cuits taken fon magsone aril 208 pages nso weal aarp rae ee ae Me sings of fat agnosis and rep Chater on TV over suppl, ne imebases, vdeo dack mahies, tg, ine ‘An esto, step-tystep dsin tame work tr Avie vate of power supplies, Any-on wih base mitt ats, repair tchiques and workshop practe. Rois: knowledge of eetorcs can ete a very comphested ‘tonal eturesacormpltly new chapter onthe test power supp design. Magnets, eedack oop, EMURAL igital eqament~ OVD, stop bows, ital satelite TV and consol and coripensstion design ae a described in Aig sas, ca ‘Anyone intersted in ports, ransducrintrtcig, analog to dial conversion, conven, fiers or iptlog conver sion wl bene om eaing this book. Te rnin’ peed the appleatons to provide genuine understanding and ‘encourage further deveiopment. 302 pages in paperback, B For non-specialist users explores most ofthe widey-usad Zradetnypas of mot and dv, including conventional a hls OC, induction, stepping, syctrongus ané ag - urtance motos. 938 pages, n paperback, A puie to RF design or engines, eetnilans, nts aude to DVD tecnnology ant a0 fenusiasts Covers alo the key topes in FF analog deg focus on design ssa an pall mnenance an repaie inp, tarsnisson ines, couple's, transformers, agli, osiatrs, mod gel for engineers. chicas, students of conser receivers, propagation & antennas, BB) sectors and sales and installation sat. As reviewed in 9 panes in paperback : Silicon Chip February 2004 319 pages in paperback, =r Sen jerernes Compid by Texas Instruments, hiss ne closes thing a “ile" on op amps. This san engnears ss so theory, plenty of mats and ight minut wth modern doce. Not esp but wor every cat 48 pages, oR coves, youre Linx youve aot to have tis omnibus reference covering ed Het Enterprise [Un and Fra rat or itt sve man gue, reals, enrypon,auhantica move neues OVD. 832 pages, sat coverPdi] LLL LOWER THAN RECOMMENDED cig 10% E OFF! ‘=: Provides fu up-to-date coverage ofthe whole ange of current hme video equipment, nag ani digit. norman for rear and troubleshooting, with explanations of he eehtelogy of deo enupmen. 318 paps in sot cove othe Arercan lephae system, this bok covers conv ne fundamentals, ng analog ard tal communi tecriqus, Provides basic intarmation on the uncon of each component, how da tones are gnaated and how ial ransision niques work. 402 pages, sft cove er wondered hw thy stramble ideo on cable an satlite TV? This book tals you! Enosing/decocing systems (analog and dial ystems), eneryton, ven schemas ana deals of several enoder and decoder ici for expe ‘mentation. For both the hobyist andthe protessioral. 290 pages in paperback ui t t TERFA Covers alte ancog electronics raed in a wide range of higher auction programs: st degrees in lcroric engineerin, experimental slence course [MSc electri ad olcrnics uns fr HNDS. Tes suppoted by numer ous worked examples and experimental eerses. $12 pages a peperdeck NEW J ( ‘AMATEUR SCIENTIST CO ‘$49.00 ANALOG GIRGUIT TECHOUES WWDIGITAL NT... $89.00 ‘ANALOG ELECTRONICS, $88. ‘uDio ELECTRONIC. $02. APL $89. -E REFERENCE RED HAT $89.00 VD PLAYERS AND DRIVES. $79.00 ELECTRIC MOTORS aND ORES. 983.00 NERS. $103.00 NOLOGY $83.00 M CONTROLLER PROJECTS 1G FOR 8051 (OP AMPS FOR EVERYONE PIG IN PRACTICE Id - YOUR PERSONAL INTRODUCTORY COURSE. POWER SUPPLY COOKBOOK PRACTICAL RF HANDBOOK PRACT. VARIABLE SPEED DRiVES/POWER VICING FE & VIDEO EQUIPWENT, FR teerione nsraarin vanosooe UNDERSTANDING TELEPHONE ELECTRONICS. VIDEO & CALICOROER SER woLOGy Boro scravauneioesoeansun. Wey regarded as the standard text on EMC provides a the ky iforation needed to meat the requemens ofthe EMC Dirt. Mast impact, shows how st EMC principe into the produ! desig roess, viding cost and perormance penalties, meeting the neds ot specie stn ads and csultg ina beter oval product 360 pages in paperback Based mainly on ish practice and fist pubshas in 1907, tis book has ‘much tat reewant to Austral systems aa guide to home an small business istalatons. A paca gud fo istaltion of tlephone win, ranging tom snl exansion sacks to PABK, wit the ncessary tos, equipment and materiale need by ntl, 178 pape in sot Eugene Tune has writen or many yea in Teaision imagine an hs test bok is ight up to date on TV and vise technology, Incos oth theory an practise infrmatonan eed for both students and tcnicians. 38 pages, in paperback. Based an popular stot coursts on te FI, for proessionals, studs and teaches, Can be used at varity of eves. An idea! inetuction tothe word of microcontalars for hots, stuns and Drofessorl. 255 pages in paperback. (re 1000 projects, soured trom Scent matin over 70 yeas, Se review Otoer 04 isu TAX INVOICE access Postnde Daytime Phone n mal Payment cts: i crecueoney Order encloses OR Charge cad card ~[) Banaras vis Gord CI Maste Signa ant epry one [ PLUS PaP (tape TosaInteresting cireuit ideas which we have checked but not built and tested. Contributions from readers are welcome and will be paid for al siandard raves, Lithium-polymer peak charger "hia circult was dovaloped to charge the Litium-Polymer cells ee eee tithione Polymer collsareincred- iblylightweightcom pared toNiced Dalley packs ofthe sume velags eee ee re Seat? aap cet arr eae aA ig args cts heat te face eee tet eee ea eT ie (a) They should bo charged using ee tenia eased pat ee ae once the current has dropped to shout the Oru For example fr tn 0OmAh pack, charging should Soterminated once thoeurent all toapproximutely 80mA (2) Thoyshouldeverbecdischarged olow 3V por call otherwise Mey wil be permanently damaged {5}. They should notbe cheged or Sachanped above thelr eted coment otherwibe an oxplosionand ecan result [Un che nomen tary “Start” button (swite pressed, closing the relay contacts and connecting the baitery pack to the output of REGI. The circuit will then charge two 800mAh cells in series at a constant current of 600mAh until they roach @ peak terminal voltage of 4.2V per cell (nominal terminal voltage for these cells is 3.7V), REGI and transistor Q2 form a current-limited voltage regulator ‘When the charge current exceeds about 600mA, the voltage devel- oped across R7 turns on Q2, which in turn pulls the adjust terminal of REGI towards ground. This shunts the voltage adjustment re- sistance chain formed by VR2 and 3, thereby limiting the output to s00mA. ‘When the battery voltage reaches about 8.4V, the regulator limits any further voltage increase, as sot by VR2, The charge current will then slowly decrease as the cells reach full capacity. Asa result, the voltage across R7 also falls, until the bias voltage on the base of Q1 is too small to keep it in conduction. Whon Qu tums off, the relay also tums off, isolating the fully charged battery. ‘Tho charger is set up as follows: (2). Connect it to 12V DC and place ‘adigital voltmeter between the out- put of REG1 and thenogative output for tho battery pack. Adjust VR2 far ‘roading of &.4V, (2). Adjust VR1 so that the voltage on the base of Q1 is at maximum. (3). Place an ammetor in series with the battery to be charged and press the “Start” button, The output cur- rent will shoot up toaround 600mA, then slowly decrease over the next one to two hours. Once it falls to around B0mA (or whatever the C/10 rate is for your cells), slowly tum VR1 until the relay switches off and indicator LED goes out. The circuit should now charge your battery packs to within 97% Of thoir rated capacity. Finally, note that in most cases, REGI will need to be fitted with a hoatsink. Wayne Robjent, Tuart Hill, WA. ($50) 92 SiuicoN Cp siiconchip.com.auEfficient fan speed controller tale sal ofguie eng iy car ates a of fat elise Gang Lore cee ae ere aes ace [ae lela heat generating. near regulators eceatietn tection eae Ha ae nab tule ieee Peat eee year ee eT ea epee ae ire flat ead OL oles airy eet at feedback. ‘and fantypos.Notethat component | from Oatley Electronics, Cat. No. ‘Most in-car chargers are based | lead length should be minimised | 200074, They'so currently listed at on the well-known MC34063 DC- | to avoid introducing noiso into the | $5 for two, which is less than tho DC switchmode IC. When used | feedback circuitry. price of the MC34063 ICs alone! for charging mobile phones, the | Gotting the correct fan starting | Dataon the MC34063 can be down- open-circuit output voltage is | voltage is a matter of trial and er | loaded from www.onsemi.com and typically set to between 7V and | ror.Thevaluosshownonthocircuit | a useful development aid is to be SV. This is achieved with a simple | giveastarting voltage ofabout 6.8V | found at www.nomad.ee/micros/ ‘voltage divider across the output, | at room temperature but trimpot | me340eaa the centre point of which connects | VR1 can be used to raiso this volt- | Finally, note that not all charg- to the feedback input (pin 5) of the | age as necessary. The output can | ers have an output filter capacitor Mca3ao6s. then riseto about 10V ifthe interior | installed. Typically, this is a 220yF To make the output voltage var- | temperature rises sufficiently. 10V or 16¥ electrolytic type, To iable with air temperature, Brst | The 4.7kO resistor could be re- | save a few conts, the manufactur replace the upper resistor of the | duced to 3.9k9 and VR1 adjusted | ers sometimesleave this component divider with @ 4.7kQ resistor in | togivealoworstarting voltage ifthe | out, relying on the mobiles battery series with a 4.7kQ trimpot. The | fan spood is still too high at 7V. | to porform the filtering task. If this lower half of the divider is thon re- | Afterrunning for one hourorso, | component is missing from your Placed witha470Qresistorinseries | thefan voltageas sot by the interior | charger’s PC board, it should be in- with a500QNTGthermistor. These | caso temperature thermistor on my | stalled before the supply is used. valuos are only a guide and can be | PC settled at 7.4V. Brad Sheargold, varied to suit diffrent Suitable chargers are available | Collaroy, NSW. ($35) Simple white noise generator This two-transistor white noise generator has a sur prising feature ~ about 30dB mote noise than the more traditional designs. Qt and Q2 can be any small-signal transistors with a Dota of up to-400, The reverse-biased emittarbase junction of Q1 provides the noise source, which is fed into the base of Q2. Q2 forms a simple amplifier with a gain of 45dB, ‘The improved output level is due mainly tothe inclusion ofC1, which provides @ low-impedanes AC source tothe noise source while not disturbing the DC bias of Qt. ‘The low amount of feedback also makes this circuit vory resistant to oscillations and tolerant to circuit layout Unfortunately, the truism of “no such thing as free lunch” also applios: C1 makos the clrcult very sonsitive to power supply ripple. David Eather Camp Hill, Qld. ($25) silconchip.com.au January 2005 98PICAXE-based toy traffic lights with battery saver ‘With hlp rom a PIGAXE.08 cro this eel ccut i al thats needed te build nity sot of LED Toye lights The cat enden. Stee obtains atechniaue to echovelongbatry ite in create that must pelo eal eeu Pabutton suite functions pe ere er ie Input Whon theunt sa teanbe iuined on by pressing and holding StunttaltheLeDecome on (hig tanya roo) Wl, tafe pound peo button bri ren th “fa ul eaautsiforietne oa holding i for 9 stondo tarts he Unt off Taleo srthes el ff aulomatclly W's not prowed "Those fucions are implement et peoeanLo When the atts ff th po: gramaltemates between palit ed SLEEPIng oe seconds When thant a" hw progr pols St continually te eateming the gmnoustoftime tio prossed or nt rested. Ifthe prec imo limit Tesi for ee Sunacn the Unitgoos into the of” stata Of particular interest fe the rathol usd to terminatthe 1K Full-dowe sensor for bie switch clot ta let Ogee that prssing the srt changes thouormally dow input on pled llega} oahighsHowoverwihone Wades poets Shrealt would drew spout Oma tre tip pressod. Ite sth Coca oe Lovaas gut aippedhetithe eal totod in ty box, te batay would eventually rat Ty alminato curont dats, he roster 1b eomnocted to pin 4 (leg 3) of the PICAXE instead of ee SR eee San output en et ow while St isbstng polled: Atothor tno, tho eli ceases Pare Til flow rogealeos of whether 31 is pressed not 94 Smcon Camp PIGAXE-08 Toy Tac igs with battery saver Periods are: ‘ed: 30 seconds without bution press, or 3 seconds ater button pres (upto 30 second maximum} green: & seconds amber: 3 seconds features automatic power-off the button Isn't pressed for { minutes. Turns on if button is held down for upto 2 seconds, ‘Tuins off ifthe button i held down for 3 seconds continuously. “Hardware: “pin leg 7) GREEN (utpu) bin eg 8) AMBER (ouput) + bin feb 5} § RED output + Bn eg 4) button St (nput) : 5 pull-down out) symbol red signal 000100 symbol amber_signal = %00000010 symbol green Signal = %00000001 symbolred.time = §400 27 seconds symbol red-min time = 800, ‘minimum fed ume of 3 seconds; enforced ‘even I button pressed duting red period symbol green_time = 2200 ‘seconds, symbol amber.time = 800, ‘3 Seoonds, symbol off timeout = 800 symbol idle_imeout = 69000 3 seconds: tine button must be pressed to ‘such unit off ‘S minutes: time button must not be pressed for “unit to auto switch of symbol delay ewe “time parametervarable for delay loops symbol pressed = 3 1 f button pressed at ast poll, Of button ‘not pressed at last poll ‘symbol count =u ‘numberof consecutive polls before unit ‘goes into the of state mai Tet dirs = 00010111 pin Qs GREEN, pin 1 is AMBER, pin 2is RED, pin 3 fs button 8, pin 4s pul-dawn The OFF state "Wait unt the button not being pressed. Tis ensues the "user has let goof the button afer pressing ito turn the unit if tals ensures tha he unit does not power itself up if the buttons ned down continuous (eg It's placed inthe toy box in away that keeps the button pressed), walt-no_press: high 4 ‘disable pul-down power_down: Tet pins = 00000000 if pln =1 then wait_no_press enable pull-down Waitin iow power mode unt the butlon pressed for a ast 2 seconds. Bo this by sampling the button every 2 seconds with low-power sees in between unt te Burton foun Tobe presse wal. press high 4 ‘sable pull-down Sleep 2 let pins = 00000000 ifpin3 Othe wal_press ‘enable pull-down siliconchip.com.aulet pins = %00010111 ‘turn all LEDs on to indicate power-ug ‘This tochnique can also be used sleep 2 ‘he user ta tose et 206 ad lease to reduce the standing current shebtton consumption whon analog input doves such as LDRs must be pe- riodically sampled “The unit draws about uA inthe off state, oven if Si is pressod, so letcount=0 not enough code space to have the battries should last for their Counted times buts prety cose. thelr letpressed=0 preconatcn fr ol subruive Ee Kuranda, Qld, ‘The ON tate ‘show RED signal ‘Walt for red_time or until button is pressed, whichever comes fist let delay = red_time wall_unti_ pressed ‘gosub pal if delay > 0 AND pressed = O then waitunti_ pressed let delay = red_min time ‘enforce minimum RED time (osu wait-perlod let pins = green_signal'show GREEN signal Tet delay = oreen time sgosub walt period let pins = amber_signal ‘show AMBER signal let delay = amber_time ‘sub Watt-period goto red ‘show RED signal and repeat \walt_period waits for period determined by value of delay. Powers unit down i necessary, Preconaition: delay > 0. Posteondition: delay = wait_period: gosub pol if delay > O then wait_peiod return check the state of th button and power the unit down i the button has not bean presen le tne consacaie ols, ori the Btn as ben Dressed for off timeout consecutive polls. Also decrements dea. poll Tet dlay = delay -1 pause H pressed = pin then same Button has changed status since the last poll Dressed = 1 - pressed ‘St count too timeout button is naw pressed, Oriole, timeoutif bution is now not pressed punt = off timeout Hf pressed = 1 then ent count = idle_ timeout endl oun = count -1 it count = 0 then power_down return stliconchip.com.au Januany 2005 95These binders will protect your copies of SILICON CHIP. They feature heavy-board covers & are made from a distinctive 2-tone {green vinyl. They hold up to 14 Issues & will look great on your bookshelf, + 80mm internal width % SILICON CHIP logo printed in old-coloured lettering on spine & cover 1 Buy five and get them postage free! Price: 412.95 plus $A7 p&p per ‘order. Avallabie ony in Aust. Silicon Chip Publications PO Box 139 Collaroy Beach 2097 ‘Or fax (02) 9979 6503; or ring (02) 199795644 & quote your creditcard umber. Use this handy form Enclosed my chaqueimaney order for I PS or please debit my 1 [DF Bankcard O view O wastorcand i Card No: fT I I I I Card Exoty Date__/__ J Soreture 1 [Nome rT T Adsross__ t t Pood I 96 SicoN Cine 12V halogen dimmer Tuse @ 12V 20W halogen lamp (MR16) and a 4.2Ah SLA battery for my bike light system. The bat tery has only limited life at this power rating, so I designed this cheap light dimmer to rocuce the battery drain and allow for longer rides at night. Based on a simple 555 timer cir- cult and Mostet switch Qt, it works by pulse-width modulating the 12V supply to the lamp. The 595 (IC1) is wired as a free-running oscilla- tor, with two different mark/space As you can see, we pay good money for each of the “Circuit Notebook” contributions pub- lished in S1L1coN Culp. But now there's an even better reason to send in your circuit idea: each month, the best contribution published will win a superb Peak Atlas LCR Meter valued at $195.00. So don't keep that brilliant cireuit secret any more: sketch ratios selectable viaa2-pole, -posi- tion rotary switch (81). The third switch position by passes the olectronic circuitry and connects the lamp directly fo battery negative. This gives three power levels of about 7W, 13W and 20W. ‘A logic-level IRLS30N Mosfet with a drain-source“on" resistance ofonly 0.1ensures low losses and liminatos the need for a heatsink An STPSONEOSL Mosfet (Jaycar Cat. 27-2271) would also be suit- able Mike Dennis, Canberra, AGT. ($30) it out, write a brief description and send it to SILICON CzIP and you could be a winner! siiconchip.com.auTV channel audio receiver Isthore. dedicated chip that would produce the audio from TV channels. wish to construct a Walkman-type unit torecoivo the TV channels if possible (B.A., via email) © ‘Themostdirect approach would be toadapt the tunor, I? and sound stages from a VCR. We don’t know of any chipset that would do the job, 4-channel lighting desk/dimmer tn the Channel Lighting Desk! Dimmer article (June/July, 1991). you specify 4 x Tovcor C040}? 40A 00V insulated tab Trace ftom NSD, Do you know where I can got these br an equivalent dovies? (AW. via mai) @'"The Trincs aro 404 600V insu- Tated tab typos in the 70-218 pack ago. The BEA#I-600D is a sultable replacement and is available from Farnell Electronic: Components at wwwfarellinone.comau ~ phone Thave purchased a PIG/EEPROM Programmer kit from the September 2003 issue. I have had a little pro- ‘gramming exporionce with PICs a fow years ago but have found it dif- ficult to got started using theIC-Prog programming software suggosted i the magazine, Can T use the MPLAB IDE free from microchip.com to program with this hardware? This would solve my problems, since 1 am familiar with it. ‘The help menu that comes with IC-Prog doesn'treally show the nuts and bolts of how to got your source code into the PIC. Does it need tobe compiled, etc? And wherecan [find a list of programming commands? ‘Any help from you would be ap- ‘Help) Needed) With) PIC) Programmer, ASK SILICON CHIP Got a technical problem? Can't understand a piece of jargon or some technical principle? Drop us ‘and we'll answer your question. Write to: Ask Silicon Chip, PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097; or ‘send an email to silchip@siliconchip.com.au 1900 361 008. The part number is 505-778 and the cost is $20.99 each plus 10% GST plus de Fan cooling does not work I built the thermostatic switch for car radiator fans some years ago from the March 1992 edition of SmLicoN Cun, It works a8 advertised. Can you advise what the approximate current draw should be forthe control circuit? ‘The roason that I wish to know is that Thave the unit wired direct from the battery 50 as to provide cooling when the engine is turned off. (F.W., Airport West, Vie). © Tho circuit will draw around 100mA on standby so it is not suit able for permanent connection to the battery. Perhaps a thermostat switch (eg, Jaycar ST-3836) that closes at 100°C and reopens at around 85°C. could be used to switch a relay and rive the fan for the purpose of run- ning when the ignition is off. In this way the current would be zero when the thermostat is off prociated. (C. A., Nelson, NZ). ‘© IC-Prog doesn’t include any project tools, such as an editor, as- semblor or compiler. It is designed to load the files generated by those tools (in HEX format) and write the results into the PIC’s memory, ready for use in the application cireuit. ‘This is quite separate from the work you need to do writing the application program. if you prefer to program in assembly language, the tools provided free with MPLAB. are ideal for the job. MPLAB can bbe set up to generate a “HEX” file whenever you assemble a program that you've written using the built- in editor. So i's a 3-step process: (1) write your PIC program in MPLAB's ed line Note that running the radiator fan when the engine is off does not help cool the engine since the coolant isnot flowing. If you want to do that (and ‘we cannot see why it’s worth doing), you would noed an auxiliary electric- powered water pump to circulate the {uid while the fans aro running Courtesy light delay modifications Trecanty purchased and construct ea tho Car Gourtry Light Delay kitas published inthoune 2004 dion. Rretoapplythiskttoanotherappicn ion, peareing to 20W ight globes Will the kit require any modifications to permit tis oud to bo eared? In dadtion, 1 would like to slow down thospeed of the dimming effect What components wil Inowd © change? J., via email). Tho Mose will require heatinking ‘vith 9 small ploco ef luminiumn of Deommerctal 1o-Ciwatt typo. The {rout and A7HE capacitors ned to Betncreusedproportonalyin sas or anger daly. Uso 1000uF and 1003 tor: (2) assemble your program using MPLAB's assombler; and (3) load the -HEX file (from MPLAB) into IC-Prog and write it to the PIC’s code (FLASH) memory. If you profer to program in “BA: SIC" or “C” rather than assembler, then you'll need asuitable compiler A variety of offerings are available ‘on the net. As good place to start looking is www.dontronics.com! piclinks.html. Compilers can also bbe sot up to gonerate “HEX” fle output, which once again is loaded {nto IC-Prog and programmed into the PIG. ‘The complete instruction set for the particular PICs you're using are listed in the data shoots, available from www.microchip.com sliconchip.com.au January 2005 97