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Practical Electronics Editorial offices Practical Electronics Electron Publishing Limited 1 Buckingham Road Brighton East Sussex BN1 3RA Tel 01273 777619 Mob 07973 518682 Fax 01202 843233 Email pe<at>electronpublishing.com Web www.electronpublishing.com Advertisement offices Practical Electronics Adverts Tel 01273 777619 1 Buckingham Road Mob 07973 518682 Brighton Email pe<at>electronpublishing.com East Sussex BN1 3RA Editor Matt Pulzer General Manager Louisa Pulzer Digital subscriptions Stewart Kearn Tel 01202 880299 Online Editor Alan Winstanley Web Systems Kris Thain Publisher Matt Pulzer Print subscriptions Practical Electronics Subscriptions PO Box 6337 Bournemouth BH1 9EH Tel 01202 087631 United Kingdom Email pesubs<at>selectps.com Technical enquiries We regret technical enquiries cannot be answered over the telephone. We are unable to offer any advice on the use, purchase, re air or odification o co ercial e ui ent or the incor oration or odification o designs u lished in the aga ine. e cannot provide data or answer queries on articles or projects that are ore than five years old. Questions about articles or projects should be sent to the editor by email: pe<at>electronpublishing.com Projects and circuits All reasonable precautions are taken to ensure that the advice and data given to readers is reliable. We cannot, however, guarantee it and we cannot accept legal responsibility for it. A number of projects and circuits published in Practical Electronics employ voltages that can be lethal. You should not build, test, modify or renovate any item of mains-powered equipment unless you fully understand the safety aspects involved and you use an RCD (GFCI) adaptor. Component supplies We do not supply electronic components or kits for building the projects featured, these can be supplied by advertisers. We advise readers to check that all parts are still available before commencing any project in a back-dated issue. Advertisements Although the proprietors and staff of Practical Electronics take reasonable precautions to protect the interests of readers by ensuring as ar as ractica le that advertise ents are ona fide the magazine and its publishers cannot give any undertakings in respect of statements or claims made by advertisers, whether these advertisements are printed as part of the magazine, or in inserts. The Publishers regret that under no circumstances will the magazine accept liability for non-receipt of goods ordered, or for late delivery, or for faults in manufacture. Transmitters/bugs/telephone equipment We advise readers that certain items of radio transmitting and telephone equipment which may be advertised in our pages cannot be legally used in the UK. Readers should check the law e ore uying any trans itting or tele hone e ui ent as a fine confiscation o e ui ent and or i rison ent can result ro illegal use or ownership. The laws vary from country to country; readers should check local laws. Practical Electronics | February | 2022 Volume 51. No. 2 February 2022 ISSN 2632 573X Editorial Happy New Year! Welcome to 2022 and another year of learning, practising and simply enjoying electronics. We’re kicking off the year with some fascinating projects – I particularly enjoyed Tim Blythman’s Arduino-based Adjustable Power Supply. For many applications it’s all you need for a smart, compact PSU. On the article side, Mike Tooley’s introduction to the I2C bus will get you up and running with this easy-to-use, flexible communication protocol. It lets your microcontroller device or board talk to a wide range of useful modules and sensors using a minimum of connections. Speaking of microcontrollers, Part 2 of Martin Whitlock’s Flowcode series demonstrates just how easy it is to program a PIC or RedBoard (a low-cost Arduino clone). The basic version of Flowcode is free, so why not give it a try. I think you’ll be impressed with the speed with which you can get an application operating smoothly in hardware without resorting to complicated C or assembler programming. Blast from the past It’s always a pleasure to hear from long-time readers and subscribers. Ian Williams was kind enough to send me an email, saying that he’s been receiving, ‘EE/Practical Electronics [mostly] on and off for the last 40+ years. I still treasure the PCB/Pin-out ruler I received back then as a junior constructor. I have attached a photo of it with a modern-day equivalent. I wonder how many other 1970s freebies are still around? Love your magazine!’ Thank you, Ian, it’s always nice to be appreciated – the team that publish PE all work very hard to deliver the best magazine we can… but back to Ian’s question. The ruler in question was actually an Everyday Electronics giveaway (but we count it as one of ours since EE eventually joined forces with PE to become EPE – see Alan Winstanley’s fascinating two-part article on our long history: www.epe-magazine.co.uk/resources.html) – does anyone out there still have one of the other giveaways that used to accompany the magazine? Do you still use it? We’d love to hear. Oh dear… Last, but not least, I’m sorry to report a price rise for PE. We are a small business and we’ve had to face lower revenue during the pandemic, coupled with rising print, paper and distribution costs. We’ve kept prices the same for over two years, but we will be raising subscription costs at the end of January. If you subscribe/resubscribe now, then the existing price you pay is locked in for up to two years depending on the period you choose. Even if you are only halfway through your current subscription you can renew at the current price and we will simply extend your subscription without interruption, duplication or loss of issues. So, do grab a post-Christmas bargain before the new prices kick in! Keep well Matt Pulzer Publisher 7