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A number of projects and circuits published in Practical Electronics
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Practical Electronics | February | 2023
Volume 52. No. 2
February 2023
ISSN 2632 573X
Editorial
What is it about Tesla?
To be clear, I am not talking about Elon Musk’s electric car
company, but the creative and inventive Serbian, Nikola Tesla.
You have to be pretty special to have a major SI unit named after
you – in his case magnetic flux density – so what did he do?
Well, he is not only the father of modern alternating current (AC)
and electricity supply systems, but also found time to work in
areas as diverse as radio control, wireless energy transmission,
bladeless turbines and a whole lot more. He was fascinated with
high-voltage systems and also a bit of a showman. One of his
most-famous inventions is the appropriately named ‘Tesla Coil’,
a resonant transformer system that produces impressive electrical
sparks. Making these can be a quite a challenge, but this month
we have a superb project that is well within the reach of PE
readers. It’s great fun – why not give it a shot? (Once small caveat
– this is not a project for beginners. Tesla Coils will ‘bite’ you if
you’re not careful. Do read the warnings in the project’s write up,
and remember, Tesla Coils are not for the inexperienced.)
Free downloads
We know many of you like to download the assorted free files
that are associated with projects (PIC program code, for example)
and to support PE’s regular columns (Circuit Surgery, Cool Beans,
Make it with Micromite and so on). These are all located and
easily accessed via our website (https://bit.ly/pe-downloads).
What some of you may not realise is that instead of tediously
downloading each issue’s files one at a time, the last five years
can be accessed in 12-month groups. A useful timesaver if you
want to build up your file collection for back issues.
Apologies
The two most popular projects of the year, as measured by PCB
sales, were the USB Cable Tester (November-December 2022)
and the SMD Trainer (December 2022). The orders flooded
in! But, as luck would have it, they were the two projects that
were hit hardest by this year’s favourite non-delivery excuse
– ‘supply chain issues’. The USB Cable Tester’s display bezels
and the SMD Trainer components were ordered from the same
place, dispatched promptly and arrived at Heathrow in the UK
within the expected timeframe… and then, absolutely nothing
happened. They just sat in customs for over two weeks, then
got delayed with the postal strike, by which time we were well
into the Christmas period, when delivery inevitable slows down
further. All orders for both the above projects have gone out, and
should have arrived by now. I’m very sorry for the delays and
thank you for your patience.
From all of us at Practical Electronics, we hope 2023 has
started off well for you and that it’s a successful, peaceful and
semiconductor-rich year.
Matt Pulzer
Publisher
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