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Contents Vol.32, No.12 December 2019 SILICON CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Features & Reviews 14 The Electrical House of Horrors We’ve found some absolute death traps in electrical equipment imported from, or available, overseas. You can’t be too careful! – by Dr David Maddison 46 Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive: it’s brilliant! An in-depth look at arguably the world’s most successful hybrid motor. It’s often misunderstood but it’s very, very clever! – by Roderick Wall 70 Review: the new Altium Designer 20. We love it! Australia’s world-class Altium Designer has a brand new version for 2020 – we put it through its paces here at SILICON CHIP – by Tim Blythman Australia’s strict electrical laws should keep you safe from dodgy products. But what about the stuff you buy direct from overseas? – Page 14 94 Review: Ausdom ANC7S Noise Cancelling Headphones Just in time for Christmas! These rechargeable Bluetooth headphones feature active noise cancellation technology and great sound quality – by Nicholas Vinen Constructional Projects 24 Have you got a dumb battery charger in your garage? Simple car battery chargers can cook your car battery because they’re d-u-m-b! This simple add-on project will ensure that won’t happen. Suits lead acid, SLAs and even LiFePO4 rechargeables – by John Clarke 38 Altronics’ new MegaBox V2 Arduino Prototyping System With a second set of shield headers, more relays and a whole lot more refinements, the new MegaBox makes prototyping with the Arduino a breeze – by Tim Blythman Don’t throw out your battery charger just ’cos it’s dumb! Make it real smart with our 12V Battery Charger Controller! – Page 24 If you’re into prototyping with Arduino, you should be into the new Altronics MegaBox V2 – Page 38 61 Our new FM Radio Receiver – construction & alignment With FM radio now available just about everywhere, this DIY FM receiver is creating a lot of interest. It’s not difficult to build or align – and this final instalment even has a mini oscillator to build which will help you do just that – by John Clarke 86 High performance linear power supply – part three In this final part of our 45V, 8A linear supply we fit it in its case and mount all the parts – then set it up ready for use – by Tim Blythman Do you understand how Toyota’s very clever Hybrid Synergy Drive works? Very few people do! – Page 46 104 A Christmas Light Display for less than $20.00 Imagine a LED lighting display with infrared control and pattern changing, where all you have to do is solder four wires! Imagine no longer – by Ross Tester Your Favourite Columns 76 Serviceman’s Log Two devices what failed th’idiot test – by Dave Thompson 96 Circuit Notebook (1) (2) (3) (4) Dot-matrix scrolling LED display Hearing loop receiver for Android phones Discrete switching LED driver Low voltage three-phase motor speed controller This month we finish off our new Super-9 FM receiver with the case and alignment – and there’s a simple FM alignment oscillator to make     it really easy! – Page 61 100 Vintage Radio Ferris 106 “portable”/car/home radio – by Associate Professor Graham Parslow Everything Else 2 Editorial Viewpoint 4 Mailbag – Your Feedback     85 Product Showcase 106 Ask SILICON CHIP 109 111   112 112 SILICON CHIP ONLINE SHOP Market Centre Advertising Index Notes and Errata Altium’s new EDA software for 2020. It is even better than AD19, and we loved that! Read our review starting on Page 70 www.facebook.com/siliconchipmagazine