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Contents Vol.32, No.4; April 2019 SILICON CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Features & Reviews 14 Big Brother may be IS watching you: Facial Recognition! If you’ve ever had the feeling that you’re being watched, you are! From social media apps to law enforcement, from banks to airports, facial recognition is used to identify YOU and plot wherever you go – by Dr David Maddison 32 Introducing the iCEstick: an easy way to program FPGAs This compact PCB which plugs into your computer’s USB port takes the mystery out of programming field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). In fact, we regard the iCEstick and its software as “beginner friendly” – by Tim Blythman 70 Review: Altium Designer 19 Like it or not, you’re now being watched and identified most of the time. Facial recognition is now said to be able to ID anyone – even in a crowd! – Page 14 The latest version of this world-wide (Aussie!) PCB design software (and the one we use here at SILICON CHIP) is more evolutionary than revolutionary but it has some great new features to make designers’ lives much easier – by Tim Blythman Constructional Projects 22 Flip-dot Message Display You can build a flip-dot display: we make it easy for you with the coils etched on the PCB! – Page 22 You’ve seen them on buses, in airports, etc – those mechanical message boards with huge, clear letters. Now you can make your own with this project – there’s virtually no limit to the length of the message you can make – by Tim Blythman 38 Ultra low noise remote controlled stereo preamp – Part 2 We continue the description – and importantly, construction – of our new ultra low noise and distortion stereo preamplifier. It works with just about any power amp and offers infrared remote control and bass/treble adjustments – by John Clarke 58 iCEstick VGA Terminal Want a project to have that “early PC” look? We take the iCEstick FPGA USB stick and IceStudio software to make a modern monitor look like it’s displaying old-style VGA text – by Tim Blythman iCEstick: the easy way to program FPGAs, even for beginners. – Page 32 And we use the iCEstick to produce VGA graphics in this “retro” project – Page 58 80 Arduino Seismograph revisited – improving sensitivity A reader has suggested adding a “geophone” to further improve the sensitivity of our Arduino-based Seismograph (April 2018). We tried it – and it works! Construction is so simple it can fit on a stripboard – by Tim Blythman Your Favourite Columns 53 Serviceman’s Log A laptop, spilled tea and a crack – by Dave Thompson 76 Circuit Notebook (1) Simple zener diode tester fits inside a DMM (2) Automatic sleep timer for TVs 84 Vintage Radio Healing 404B Aussie compact – by Ian Batty Everything Else! 2 Editorial Viewpoint 4 Mailbag – Your Feedback siliconchip.com.au 88 SILICON CHIP ONLINE SHOP    90 Product Showcase 91 Ask SILICON CHIP 95 Market Centre Australia’s electronics magazine 96 Advertising Index 96 Notes and Errata We conclude our magnificent new ultra low noise remote controlled stereo preamplifier; here’s how to build it! – Page 38 19 A new year brings a new Altium Designer – the world’s most widely used PCB software. Here’s what version 19 offers – Page 70 April 2019  1 www.facebook.com/siliconchipmagazine