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Coming up in Silicon Chip Altium Designer 2018 review Advertising Index Altronics................................ FLYER We have been using Altium Designer to develop circuits and design PCBs for many years now. In that time, quite a few improvements have been made to the software. We'll describe the new features and also point out some of the pre-existing features that have been improved or are particularly useful. Dave Thompson......................... 103 Digi-Key Electronics....................... 3 Emona........................................ IBC Introduction to programming the Cyprus CY8CKIT Hare & Forbes.......................... OBC This low-cost module incorporates a 32-bit microcontroller and a set of reprogrammable analog circuitry which can be used for a wide range of tasks. Jaycar............................... IFC,49-56 The Latest Agricultural Technology, Pt.2 LD Electronics............................ 103 In this issue we looked at agricultural robots. Next month we take a look at new farm technology developments from two Australian universities. LEACH Co Ltd.............................. 11 LiFePO4-based Uninterruptable Power Supply Master Instruments........................ 7 Part three of the article which will be published in the next issue puts the finishing touches on construction, testing and interfacing with a PC. Note: these features are planned or are in preparation and should appear within the next few issues of Silicon Chip. The July 2018 issue is due on sale in newsagents by Thursday, June 28th. Expect postal delivery of subscription copies in Australia between June 27th and July 13th. Keith Rippon Kit Assembly......... 103 LEDsales.................................... 103 Microchip Technology................... 71 Ocean Controls.............................. 9 Pakronics....................................... 5 Sesame Electronics................... 103 Silicon Chip Back Issues............ 79 Silicon Chip Binders.................... 31 Notes & Errata 6GHz+ Touchscreen Frequency Counter, October-December 2017: CON1 is described as an “SMB” connector in the text and an “SMD” connector in the parts list. It is an SMA right-angle through-hole female connector. Digi-Key Cat 931-1361-ND is suitable. 800W+ Uninterruptible Power Supply, May-June 2018: in Fig.1 on page 32 of the May issue, the wiring shown for RLY3 is wrong. A corrected block diagram has been published in this issue, on page 65. Frequency switch, May 2018: the +11.4V filter capacitor is shown as 10µF on the circuit diagram (Fig.2, page 38) but it should be 100µF, as on the PCB overlay diagram and parts list. USB Port Protector, May 2018: in the circuit diagram on page 58 (Fig.1), the base resistor of Q2 should be 10kW and LED1’s series resistor should be 47kW to be consistent with the PCB. Ask Silicon Chip . . . continued from page 102 duce “plug and play” devices to create “CSV” files stored on an SD or micro SD card which can then be imported into a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel, Apache OpenOffice Calc or similar. My ideal project would not require any soldering but the finished unit would be able to operate sitting on the passenger’s seat in my car during my return trips from Canberra to Sydney, say, with the card then being able to be 104 Silicon Chip read using a device such as the Jaycar Digitech “All-in-1 USB Card Reader” (XC-4926). (P. M., Karabar, NSW) • We suggest you have a look at our Arduino Data Logger with GPS project from the August and September 2017 issues. That will do pretty much exactly what you want. You can leave off the extra components for the analog and digital inputs and just fit the micro SD card module, GPS module and RTC module. That’s all pretty straightforward to wire up. See: siliconchip.com.au/ Series/316 Celebrating 30 Years Silicon Chip Shop............. 42-43,84 Silicon Chip Subscriptions.......... 57 SC Radio, TV & Hobbies DVD.... 100 SC Reactance Wallchart.............. 76 The Loudspeaker Kit.com.............. 8 Tronixlabs................................... 103 Vintage Radio Repairs............... 103 Wagner Electronics...................... 75 USB I/O can be done easily with Arduino I read the “Open-USB-IO” article in the October 2009 issue and it seems that it is just what I need. I wonder if it is still available as a ready-made module or as a kit of parts. A bare PCB would also be helpful if one is available. (K. G., Newcastle, NSW) • That project is now obsolete. However, USB I/O can be easily done with just about any Arduino board. It’s cheaper than building a custom board, and you can add shields for isolated I/O, relay drivers etc. Freely downloadable software already exists to turn an Arduino into a universal I/O device. Here is one example: https://code.google.com/ archive/p/ioduino/ SC siliconchip.com.au