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Non-contact voltage testing, 230-1000VAC Fully insulated body Low cost soldering station Safety hand guard TESTER VOLT STICK Light weight soldering pencil Distinguishes between active and neutral TEMPERATURE CONTROL SOLDERING STATION Tip glows bright red when voltage is sensed Fast tip temperature recovery soldering solutions FOR QUALITY TOOLS WTCPTD Pocket sized TESTER VOLT STICK Butane gas powered soldering iron and hot air tool VS Temp. controlled from 15 to 60Watts AUTO IGNITION SOLDERING IRON / PYROPEN Diamond patterned nose grip 1000V insulated heavy plastic grips Handle contains approx.1 hour of butane Butane gas refill nozzle WSTA6 Extra long cutter blades Radiused chain grip Crimping die Nut turning hexagonal PLIERS HEAVY DUTY LINESMAN'S MA880 Safety insulated AC1000V conforming with DIN EN 60900, IEC standards Individually tested in water to 10000V Cold impact testing at -40ºC Single material polypropolene handle 620757 ROLA CASE BOX INCLUDING DIVIDERS RC001 This tone and probe kit is used by technicians to identify single conductors in multi pair cables at a cross-connect point or at remote ends The set comprises two main items, hand held volume adjustable probe and high power tone generator WIRE IDENTIFICATION SET FSET w h e r e quali t y c ou n t s Available with either solid or clear polycarbonate lids and with fixed or adjustable compartments Wattmaster SCREWDRIVER SET AND TEST DRIVER 12 PIECE COMBINATION SPANNER SET WITH HOLDER PRECISION DRILL GRINDER FBS230 Buy online at www.polykom.com, email us at info<at>polykom.com or call us on 1300 365 551 in Australia or 0508-POLYKOM (0508 765-9566) in New Zealand for more details. You may also fax your enquiries on 1300 365 559 in Australia or 0508-FAXPOLY (0508 329 7659) in New Zealand. Sizes: 6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-1517 and 19 mm. Each spanner fits into its own space in the holder, which is provided with a hole for wall mounting. The clear size indications ease finding the right spanner. PROX-23820 The quiet power house with keyless chuck 0.5 - 3.2 mm. The maximum speed of 20.000 rpm is continuously variable down to 5.000. The spindle runs in a precision ball bearing and is fitted with a lock button. The 20 mm collar fits MICROMOT drill stands and vices. Fitted with a quiet, high quality, specially balanced permanent magnet motor.. Technical Data 5.000 - 20.000 rpm. Maximum power consumption 100 W, 230 V. Length 185 mm. Weight 450 g. Insulated according to class 2 require-ments. Supplied complete with 40 bits and cutters in a durable plastic case. PROX-28472 GERMAN QUALITY MINIATURE HAND TOOLS Environmentally friendly cardboard box with plastic tray for storage Contents Vol.14, No.12; December 2001 www.siliconchip.com.au FEATURES 6 Is There A Hybrid Car In Your Future? Toyota’s Prius and Honda’s Insight hybrid petrol/electric cars are here now. We drove the Prius and came away impressed – by Ross Tester 14 Windows XP: What’s In It For You? Say goodbye to Win98/Me system crashes. Microsoft has released a unified operating system that’s based on the Windows NT/2000 core and includes full multimedia support – by Greg Swain Is There A Hybrid Car In Your Future? – Page 6. PROJECTS TO BUILD 26 Build A PC Infrared Transceiver Add infrared capability to your PC for peanuts – by Peter Smith 36 Telephone Call Logger It logs all outgoing calls and can download the data via your PC’s serial port to an Excel spreadsheet – by Frank Crivelli & Peter Crowcroft 54 100W RMS/Channel Stereo Amplifier, Pt.2 Building the preamplifier, RCA input and power amplifier modules, plus all the performance details – by Greg Swain & Leo Simpson Build A PC Infrared Transceiver – Page 26. 66 Pardy Lights: An Intriguing Colour Display OK, so they’re really “party” lights. They’re easy to build and produce random colour patterns to the bass beat from your music – by Ross Tester 78 PIC Fun And Games Want to get into microcontrollers? Here’s an easy, low-cost way – by Ross Tester SPECIAL COLUMNS 32 Serviceman’s Log A Panasonic kind of month – by the TV Serviceman Building The 100W/Ch Stereo Amplifier – Page 54. 83 Vintage Radio Test instruments for vintage radio restoration, Pt.2 – by Rodney Champness DEPARTMENTS 2 3 30 53 74 Publisher’s Letter Mailbag Circuit Notebook Subscriptions Form Products Showcase www.siliconchip.com.au 90 93 94 96 Ask Silicon Chip Notes & Errata Market Centre Advertising Index PIC Fun And Games: Learning About Microcontrollers – Page 78. December 2001  1 PUBLISHER’S LETTER www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Production Manager Greg Swain, B.Sc.(Hons.) Technical Staff John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Peter Smith Ross Tester Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc, VK2ZLO Rick Walters Reader Services Ann Jenkinson Advertising Enquiries David Polkinghorne Phone (02) 9979 5644 Fax (02) 9979 6503 Regular Contributors Brendan Akhurst Rodney Champness, VK3UG Julian Edgar, Dip.T.(Sec.), B.Ed Mike Sheriff, B.Sc, VK2YFK Philip Watson, MIREE, VK2ZPW Bob Young SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 003 205 490. ABN 49 003 205 490 All material copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Printing: Hannanprint, Dubbo, NSW. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $69.50 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see the subscription page in this issue. Editorial & advertising offices: Unit 8, 101 Darley St, Mona Vale, NSW 2103. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9979 5644. Fax (02) 9979 6503. E-mail: silchip<at>siliconchip.com.au ISSN 1030-2662 * Recommended and maximum price only. 2  Silicon Chip Copyright is the lifeblood of a magazine Copyright for software, films and music is often in the news but not so often as far as magazines are concerned. People often think that large corporations protecting their copyright are being greedy but the truth is that copyright is a “right”. Copyright is owned by the company or person who originally pro­duced or paid for the material and they have every right to be paid for it. Which brings us to SILICON CHIP. Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd, the publisher of this magazine, is not a large corpora­tion but a small Australian family-owned company. Yet it is subject to exactly the same attacks on its copyright every day. Countless thousands of people regularly photocopy articles or scan the magazine rather than buy their own copy from the newsa­gent. Photocopying is rife in municipal libraries, schools, TAFE colleges, universities and businesses, and virtually every copy made means a lost sale of the magazine. Yes, we do get an annual payment from the Copyright Agency Limited for photocopying in schools and TAFEs but it is really small – absolutely ludicrous. Why am I writing this? Because I am constantly confronted by people who think that we should provide all sorts of informa­tion for free, especially via the Internet. Some people even think that the magazine should be much cheaper and would be if we printed on recycled paper. How little they know. The fact is that producing a magazine like SILICON CHIP is very labour intensive. “Labour intensive” means that there are lots of wages and con­tributors’ fees to be paid, on top of printers’ bills, distribu­tion costs and so on. And nor is recycled paper cheaper; it is dearer. We also frequently see requests on Internet newsgroups for scans of SILICON CHIP articles. It is nice to know that the articles are popular but how do these people think the magazine is supposed to survive in the long run if everything is being done for free? If you get a request from someone for a copy of an article in your SILICON CHIP, please politely refuse. We need their support, as well as yours. Thanks. While I am constantly aware of all of this, it has been highlighted recently by the closure of “Electronics Australia” after over 70 years of publication. When we started SILICON CHIP, in 1987, there were three other electronics magazines: EA, ETI (Electronics Today International) and AEM (Australian Electronics Monthly) and heaps of imported magazines. Now there is just one Australian electronics magazine and that is SILICON CHIP. There are probably many reasons why the other three maga­zines ceased publication but first and foremost must be a gradual loss in their circulation over the years. And a signifi­cant part of the loss of circulation is inevitably due to photocopying. It is “death by a thousand cuts”. Fortunately, SILICON CHIP is viable and is here for the long term. Since we are produced by a family company and not by a large corporation, we are not subject to the often arbitrary pruning that occurs in large organisations when times are tough­er. But we still need your support to grow and flourish and this means more people buying (yes, paying for) the magazine at the newsagent or via a subscription. So if you are one of those people who often photocopies articles in other peoples’ magazines or from library copies, please think about your actions. Don’t leave it to other people to pay for the magazine, buy it yourself. In the overall scheme of things, magazines are cheap; $6.60, the cost of this magazine, does not buy much else, not even a family pizza. Leo Simpson www.siliconchip.com.au MAILBAG Pearce Simpson CB manual wanted Let me first congratulate you and your staff on your excel­lent magazine of which I have never missed a copy. I have a problem that you or your readers may be able to help me with. I recently purchased an Hatadi Pearce Simpson UHF CB transceiver Model Leopard Mk2: SN301848 and requested from the supplier, Hatadi Electronics, a technical manual and circuit dia­gram. I received a reply from Brightpoint Aust. Pty Ltd telling me that they had taken over Hatadi and no longer had anything to do with CB radios and therefore were unable to help me. Could anyone help me with these or an address of a Pearce Simpson agent (NZ or Australia) to whom I could write? Or perhaps someone could supply the manual and circuit diagram direct. A. Plimley, 100 Parawai Road, Thames, New Zealand. “Mantel” vs “Mantle” Thank you so much (once again) for providing us with a “real” Australian electronics magazine. It’s good to see that Jim Rowe and others have joined your team of authors. Sorry to be a bit nit-picky but would you please tell Rodney Champness (in the nicest possible way, after a large thank-you for his articles on Vintage Radio) that the sort of radio he is referring to is spelled “mantel”, not “mantle”. Like mantel clocks, they sit on a mantelpiece. David Pulford, Forestville, NSW. Marconi signal generator on offer I have an old Marconi AM Signal Generator, Type TF 801A/1, which covers from 10-310MHz at 75Ω, with a 100dB switched atten­ uator, plus handbook. Before I scrap this, I thought it might be of interest to a collector, avid shortwave listener or a vintage radio enthusiast. If it is, I will be happy for them to collect it from the address below. M. Benyon, 61/27 Rangers Road, Cremorne, NSW 2001. Phone (02) 9953 5216. In defence of DVD I would like to come to the defence of DVD which has come in for a bagging in recent letters. In the letter by Brad Shear­ gold (October 2001), he stated that his friend’s new Fujitsu monitor was 1.5m wide and running at 1,000,000 * 1,000,000 pixels in XVGA mode. In the first case, the largest plasma display that Fujitsu make is the PDS4221/PDS4222 which is 1035mm wide with a screen width of 920mm and a pixel resolution of 1024 * 1024. I find it interesting that it was running in XVGA mode. Does this mean it was connected to a computer running with a DVD player? In that case, did the computer have a hardware or software decoder for the DVD signal, as software decompression does not produce any­ where near the quality of a hardware decoder. As for requiring a $US8000 to $US10,000 player to get a decent picture, I have a $329 Omni player that produces excellent picture quality on a standard 68cm TV – far in excess of that from VHS. Indeed the picture quality is that much better that my wife, who usually shakes her head at my ‘toys’, commented on the difference and allowed me to buy a new 5.1 sound system to complement the picture. In the email by Simon Kareh (September 2001), he states that when he watched a movie in widescreen mode that the heads were cropped. I have a number of doubled-sided DVDs with one side in widescreen and the other in normal (or 4:3). Since his email, I have reviewed all these and in all cases the 4:3 picture re­moved the side part of the picture (ie, a narrower view) while in widescreen there was no such cropping. The widescreen ratio is that which continued next page K&W HEATSINK EXTRUSION. SEE OUR WEBSITE FOR THE COMPLETE OFF THE SHELF RANGE. www.siliconchip.com.au December 2001  3 is seen at a movie thea­tre and I hear no complaint about heads being cropped. Addition­ally, PAL/SECAM DVD movies are encoded at 720 * 576 while NTSC are encoded at 720 * 480. So based on his 56% lines available, this would be 322 lines which is a significant improvement over VHS with 250. John Richardson (October 2001) has missed an important point when he says that 44% of the bandwidth is taken up with the black bars. MPEG compression works by only recording those sec­tions of a picture that have changed from one frame to the next. So even if the black bars are transmitted they do not take up bandwith as there as been no change. I have numerous friends with DVD players and all have agreed with my comment regarding quality. As far as owning DVD discs is concerned, at present I own approximately 180 compared to about seven VHS tapes. This clearly states my opinion on DVD. Doug Palfreyman, Quorrobolong, NSW. DVD far superior to VHS After reading the letters about DVD in the September and October issues, I felt compelled to provide my experiences in that direction. I have had a DVD player almost since they became available here. Having had three different units in that time, I can tell you that the quality of the picture does vary between the players. It is mostly in the set-up alternatives available but also in the design. For example, the Toshiba allows selection of the 16:9 format for all DVDs that we have played whereas the new cheapie did not (that player has now been sold). To be sure, if the DVD is coded only in widescreen format, then there are scan lines at the top and bottom that are black - even in 16:9 mode. But there are about half as many as when (normal) 4:3 letterbox mode is selected. Note that some DVDs do have dual coding which allows full vertical use of the screen but there seem to be less of these lately. The industry seems to want to put more “bonus material” on the DVD rather than provide alternative playback modes. In all cases where we have com- 4  Silicon Chip pared the VHS and DVD ver­sions of a movie, the DVD, even in letterbox mode, was far supe­rior to two VHS machines. Our TV picture is two metres wide, from a video projector, using component video from the DVD and S-video from the VHS. Absolutely every defect in the TV picture is appar­ ent in a picture that large. Our major source of complaint though is the wide variability of quality of picture from the free-to-air TV stations. In particular, all stations have produced terrible outside broadcast pictures. The conversion used from digital to analog is also poor, with flicker and jerkiness in the rapidly changing parts of the picture. This same defect has also been noticed in normal definition digital mode from Digital TV. We are now on our second projector, with each giving a slightly different picture, mostly due to the different type of projection. And while each had defects, such as a very slight shimmer in some parts of the picture on one, they both have given excellent results, with no line structure evident in either (due to line doubling). On the sound side, there is no comparison between DVD and Hifi VHS. The 6 (or 5.1) channel digital bitstream from the DVD provides absolutely awesome sound, with the sub-woofer capable of shaking you in your seat and the multi-channels enveloping you in the action. The 2-channel Dolby encoded Hifi VHS does not come close. I have a Sony sound system than can fully decode all systems. There is far more “atmosphere” with the digital sound. My conclusion is that not all players or TVs are equal and that you need to have the right equipment, properly set up, to get the best out of DVDs. The same would apply to digital TV since there are many stories coming out on the Internet about problems there. The providers of DVDs also need to supply them with selectable alternative coding for full screen . Bruce Withey, via email. DVD misconceptions On reading the October, 2001 Mailbag I was struck by let­ters from two readers who seem to have gotten “less-than-optimal” results from their DVD viewing, so I thought that I would throw in my two cents worth. In regard to Brad Sheargold’s letter, first off, his friend has misquoted the resolution of his display to you. The most expensive Fujitsu model has approximately 1000 by 1000 pixels for a total area of one million pixels, not 1,000,000 by 1,000,000. Secondly, you must realise that a plasma display has a lower contrast ratio and a smaller colour range than a normal TV which means that the picture will look washed-out and seem to miss detail in dark areas unless it is viewed under proper light­ing conditions. Low indirect lighting is the definite go and the poor colour range and bad lighting would explain the “256 colours” impression you were getting. All TVs need to be properly adjusted to get a really good image, plasma sets even more so. Do not rely on the factory default settings to be optimal, especially sharpness which should be turned right down for viewing DVDs, and brightness which needs to be adjusted carefully to ensure a good picture. As for the image “continually digitally raining”; I own over 200 disks and have never encountered this effect playing a DVD but it could be a video connection problem. Lastly, I have a 7-year old 68cm Sony TV that cost $1500 and a 2-year old $1000 Toshiba DVD player that together deliver wonderful picture quality, so I have to say that spending $US8000 - $US10,000 is definitely not required. Until I saw my first proper HDTV transmission just over two weeks ago, the quality of the picture that I have been watching has been unsurpassed. I would urge Mr Sheargold to go into a hifi store and look at DVD running on a properly set up CRT-based TV before becoming too disillusioned. In regard then to Mr John Richard­ son’s letter, where do I start? When a DVD is encoded for a fullframe 4:3 ratio image, the resolution of the image is approximately 720 by 540 pixels (approximately 500 TV lines). When a DVD is encoded for an ana­morphic widescreen 16:9 ratio image, the resolution is 720 by 540 www.siliconchip.com.au I have been an electronic hobbyist since my teens and a professional electronics engineer since my mid-twenties. Now, I am getting beyond doing much “hobbying” and we are moving out of our house to a smaller unit. I have a quantity of electronic components and test equipment (some commercial, some home-made). If anyone is interested in these items, I would be glad to send them a list, by email or mail, though email is better. I would only ask for a contribution to transport for many or large items, or where the recipient is far from Adelaide. Ewart Jones, 15 Hurds Hill Drive, Coromandel Valley, SA 5051. pejcoro<at>chariot.net.au NOW $1999 MultiSim2001 Personal The most powerful general purpose circuit design tool in the world. With 10 virtual instruments, 6,000 components, 8 circuit analyses functions. Used in Was $699 most Australian TAFEs and Unis and by over 150,000 NOW $549 engineers worldwide. Electronic Projects A series of 10 projects for students to build with all support information. Each project on the CD is supplied with Was $118 schematic diagrams, circuit and PCB layout files, component lists and NOW $99 comprehensive explanatory text. Digital Works An invaluable tool for learning digital logic circuits and analysing their behaviour through simulation. You can even convert Was $118 circuits into logic elements and create a hierarchy of digital objects. Also an ideal NOW $99 tool for computer science students. PICTutor Personal A CD Rom and PIC16F84 development board teaches you how to write assembly language programs for PICs. The CD contains 39 tutorial sections and 80 Was $207 exercises. Progresses from NOW $169 beginner to advanced programming. Analog Electronics A complete learning resource for this difficult branch of electronics. Sections include Analog Fundamentals, Transistors, Op-amps, Filters & Oscillators. Was $143 Incorporates SPICE simulator with 50 NOW $109 editable circuits and test quizzes. Digital Electronics A complete learning resource covering the principles and practice of digital electronics. From binary and hexadecimal up to an introduction to Was $115 microprocessor based systems. NOW $99 Includes worksheets and quizzes. Electronics Circuits & Components A sound introduction to the principles and application of the most common electronic components and how they form complete circuits. Includes colour photographs, Was $89 full audio commentary, animations, NOW $69 virtual laboratories and quizzes. Emona Instruments Pty Ltd Tel 1 800 632 953 email: testinst<at>emona.com.au Christmas Software Specials Was $2489 Christmas Software Specials Christmas Software Specials Christmas Software Specials By far the best value circuit simulation and PCB layout solution for small companies. Includes MultiSim2001, the world’s most popular circuit simulation package, the new UltiBoard2001 PCB layout package and UltiRoute advanced autorouting package. Christmas Software Specials Test equipment and parts on offer Christmas Software Specials pixels. “How can they both be 720 x 540 when one is widescreen and the other not?” The answer is that DVD encodes the widescreen picture information in a full frame without any black bars, making the vertical resolution a full 500 lines, not 281 lines as Mr Richardson claims. When the image is displayed on the 4:3 format TV, the image is either “compressed” into the centre of the screen as my TV does, or re-interpolated by the DVD player to fit the screen and the black bars added. On a widescreen TV, the image is displayed in its full 500line glory; a tad better than VHS’ 220 lines. As for FTA stations going to the trouble of encoding their transmissions between towers, it would seem to be very unlikely, especially since the black bars are left out of the encoding process. If they did however, you certainly would not be able to notice as analog TV is much lower resolution than MPEG2. Besides, if it’s a conspiracy to save bandwidth, who are they saving it for? It’s not like it hasn’t already been allocated to them, and nobody is receiving a secret channel! By the way, it is important to understand the quantitative as well as qualitative differences between MPEG encoding and MPEG2 encoding. MPEG compression, as can be seen in computer video and low-quality VCD movie disks that are popular in Asia, is about one quarter the resolution and a tenth of the bandwidth of a MPEG2 compressed movie on DVD. Mr Richardson said that DVD has not delivered on its prom­ises. I know of many disks that use multi-angle. Whether this is used for multiple camera angles or for some other purpose such as showing how a film is made is up to the director of the film. You can go out right now and find many disks with auto pan-and-scan encoding; I suggest “Galaxy Quest” or “Chicken Run” as exam­ples. I’ll admit that while many disks will prevent you from jumping thought the copyright notices but you can easily skip around the disk once you’re in. However, if you think that VHS-quality sound is just as good as DTS or Dolby Digital, I would say that you just haven’t heard it yet or you need your ears checked. When I first saw a DVD on a badly set up TV in a now-defunct electronics chain store, the quality was appalling. I almost gave up on the format then and there but since then I have seen and heard quality that far surpasses any other format. Phil Harvey, Punchbowl, NSW. Personal Design Solution 2001 Prices include GST. Valid until 31-Jan-02 www.siliconchip.com.au December 2001  5 Is there a HYBRID in your future? By Ross Tester 6  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au With petrol prices approaching a dollar per litre in many areas of Australia, motorists are starting to think “alternative”. Immediately “electric” springs to mind but electric vehicles, especially cars, have yet to prove commercially viable. Now though, there is another alternative: the hybrid – a passenger car driven by both internal combustion (petrol) AND electric engines. Hybrids made quite a splash at October’s Sydney International Motor Show. T here were two (or was it three?) hybrid vehicles on display at the Sydney Exhibition Centre. We went there specifically to look at the hybrids. Toyota’s Prius was launched with much fanfare. Honda had their Insight there – but being a year old, it wasn’t given star treatment (in fact, it was almost undersold – I had to ask if it was actually there!). And since the show, I’ve discovered that there was a Toyota Tarago hybrid also on display – at least according to the Toyota PR people. OK, so what exactly is a hybrid vehicle? To be more accurate with the answer, we should say there are two different types of hybrids – series and parallel. Both are based on the same theme: motive power is provided by both hydrocarbon fuel (usually petrol) and electric engines. In a series hybrid, the whole of the fuel engine output is devoted to driving a generator, which in turn supplies the electric motor which turns the wheels. It’s a similar arrangement to a diesel-electric locomotive. The main difference is that in most series hybrid vehicles, there is also some form of battery storage which can power the vehicle independently of the fuel engine – to some degree, anyway. In a parallel hybrid, the fuel engine AND the electric motor can both drive the wheels. They share the load (pun intended!) according to the way the vehicle is being driven, ranging from 100% fuel engine and zero electric through to 100% electric and zero fuel. For a lot of the time, the proportions vary all over the place, under the management of one or several computers. Why not all-electric? As we mentioned before, while immense development has taken place around the world on 100% electric vehicles (ie, no fuel engine at all), there have been very few vehicles actually make it into production – and even fewer which have been commercial triumphs. In fact, the score to date hovers marginally above the zero mark! Why is this? Quite simply, it is very difficult – if not impossible – to cram enough battery capacity into a vehicle to come even close to the energy Above is the Honda Insight, while opposite is the Toyota Prius. Both are now available in Australia; both use a combination of petrol engine and electric motor. www.siliconchip.com.au December 2001  7 available from an equivalent volume, and especially weight, of hydrocarbon fuels – petrol, diesel, gas, etc. Then there is the matter of energy replenishment. Electric vehicles need their discharged batteries recharged (or swapped over) at even shorter intervals than you would normally fill your petrol tank. Usually, this means charging overnight. It also means you cannot wander too far away from a charger or source of power. While a jerry-can and funnel can get your petrol vehicle out of trouble out in the sticks within a few minutes, you’d need several hours and one mighty long extension cord for an electric vehicle! Range is also a problem: 250-300km is often quoted as the best that the very best electric vehicles can achieve (and then only under ideal conditions); most petrol/diesel cars can achieve double or even triple this. While huge advances have been made in batteries (and more recently fuel cells) they still simply cannot replace the easily-filled tank of fuel feeding an internal combustion engine. That’s not to say it won’t happen – somewhere down the track it (or another development) most certainly will. In fact, major manufacturers (including Toyota) are currently working on electric and fuel cell electric hybrid vehicles. The Honda’s engine looks much like other modern engines – until you get inside it! It’s actually two engines in one. But don’t hold your breath for something this year or even next. Toyota are talking “sometime in the next ten years . . .” Back to the hybrids . . . Honda and Toyota have taken quite different approaches to achieve quite similar results. We’ll look at the Honda Insight first, mainly because it has been around for the best part of a year. The Insight is based on the Honda Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) system. This combines a highly efficient one litre 3-cylinder lean-burn VTEC ULEV (ultra low emission vehicle) engine and ultrathin electric motor to produce 56kW of power. When we say “combines” we really mean it: an ultra-thin (60mm thick!) permanent-magnet electric motor is built into the engine, residing between the flywheel and the gearbox. Electricity for the motor is stored in a 144V, 6.5Ah nickel-metal hydride battery pack controlled by an advanced electronic Power Control Unit (PCU). You read that correctly: At left is a cutaway of the Honda hybrid engine – the blue parts are the petrol driven while the red are the electric. Above is a drawing of the 60mm wide 10kW electric motor. 8  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au It’s a very “conventional” looking dash and control layout, belieing the technology elsewhere in the car. The Honda has a 5-speed manual transmission. the battery pack is rated at only 6.5Ah and is in fact made up of 120 “D” cells! Power for the system is primarily sourced from regenerative braking, eliminating the need for an external power source for recharging. The battery pack, PCU and electronics package are hidden under a panel under the rear cargo area. The PCU ensures the battery can be neither overcharged nor overdischarged, resulting in much longer life than you’d normally expect from a NiMH unit. Design features combustion, low-emission engines, variable valve timing, high-efficiency electric motors, regenerative braking, nickel-metal hydride battery technology and microproccessor control help-ed engineers develop an efficient, lightweight and compact hybrid drive system. The Insight’s primary power source is a 1-litre, 12-valve, 3-cylinder VTEC-E petrol engine. Although the engine alone provides sufficient driving performance – even in sustained uphill driving – a permanent-magnet electric motor mounted between the engine and transmission provides additional power assistance under certain conditions, such as initial acceleration from a stop. The electric motor’s role as power assistance allows it to be made smaller and lighter compared with the fullsized traction motors in other hybrid systems. As the IMA petrol engine enters its mid-to-high-rpm operating range, the electric motor assist ceases and power is supplied solely by the engine, which is operating in its high-rpm 4-valve mode. Power for the electric motor comes mainly by recapturing energy from the forward momentum and braking of the vehicle, rather than from the petrol engine. When the Insight is coasting or the brakes are applied while the vehicle is in gear, its electric-assist motor becomes a generator, converting forward momentum into electrical energy. When a normal vehicle brakes, this energy is wasted as heat. But in the Insight, on light “braking” the brakes are not actually applied. Instead, regeneration slows the vehicle. Only on harder pressure do the brake pads actually contact the discs in the conventional way. IMA electric motor assist The ultra-thin 10kW DC brushless motor is highly efficient, light and compact. The IMA electric motor is capable of There are many innovations in the Insight design, not the least of which is its aluminium body, weighing 40% less than a comparable steel car but having 13% greater rigidity. The vehicle also has a very low coefficient of drag – 0.25 – which means it cuts through the air with minimal friction. Even the side mirrors and the skirts around the rear wheels have been designed for minimal drag and wind turbulence. The Insight features specially designed 165/65 R14 low-rolling resistance tyres, mounted on 14 X 5.5 JJ aluminium-alloy wheels, improving fuel efficiency by 6%. The tyres have 40% less rolling resistance and a 5% reduction in weight, compared with conventional tyres. The power plant Technologies such as lean-burn www.siliconchip.com.au The battery pack – consisting of 120 “D” cells – and the control unit hide under a panel roughly below the golf clubs. (The clubs are not standard equipment!). December 2001  9 providing high torque at low speeds, and assists the one-litre engine during low-rpm acceleration for increased efficiency during normal driving. The IMA’s central rotor is manufactured using the “lost wax” casting method to give a precise shape and high strength for a 20 per cent weight reduction. For the rotor magnet, Honda enhanced the neodymium magnet originally used in the Honda EV Plus for an improvement in magnetic flux density or torque ratio by 8%. This also improved heat resistance, eradicating any need for a cooling system. To create a thin motor, Honda used a simple structure including a split stator with compact salient-pole field winding and centralised bus ring, allowing a width of 60mm – 40% thinner than if conventional technologies were used. The motor also doubles as a generator for the IMA system and a high-rpm starter, quickly spinning the engine to its ideal speed. If the IMA system battery charge is low or in the case of extreme temperatures, a separate (conventional) 12V battery and starter motor will start the engine. The Honda Insight is not a cheap vehicle. At $52995 plus on-road costs it would take a lot of savings in petrol to make up the difference. And the recommended fuel for the Insight is the more expensive 95RON premium Toyota wanted to get in on the golf-bag act, too. . . but it does show just how roomy (and how “normal”) the Prius is. The little vents you can see behind the rear doors are battery/controller excess heat vents. unleaded. Fuel economy, by the way, is 3.6l/100km city cycle and 2.8l/100km highway cycle – very good in anyone’s language. Toyota Prius Again and again, the staff at the Motor Show kept emphasising just how “normal” the Prius was. Normal to look at, normal to get into and out of, normal to drive, normal in “just about” every way. And that’s how Toyota have marketed their new five-seat “baby”. Admittedly, they believe a significant proportion of their sales will be to new technology junkies and more than half will be sold to government and fleet buyers wanting to reduce running costs. But the rest, they believe, will buy the Prius because it is so normal. Like the Honda Insight, it has a very low drag coefficient (0.29) to help it slip through the air. Standard equipment includes dual SRS airbags, ABS brakes, front seatbelt pretensioners with force-limiters, power windows Under the lid of the Toyota things do look a little different to a conventional car engine bay. The petrol power plant is on the left while one of the Prius’ two electric motors can be seen on the right. Notice the heavy (red) power cables in the rear of the pic – they go off to the batteries and controller in the rear of the car. 10  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au and power mirrors, electric power steering and climate control air conditioning with an economy mode. There is only one “option” available for the Prius: an integral satellite navigation system, based on DVDs. Everything else (and the list is extensive) is built in. Oh, one other option – it comes in various colours! If it is so normal, what is different? Well, for a start, the Prius has not two engines but three. Petrol engine Main power is provided by an advanced 1.5-litre Atkinson Cycle, VVTi-equipped petrol engine which delivers 53kW of power at 4500rpm and 115Nm of torque at 4200rpm. An Atkinson Cycle engine, by the way, has smaller combustion chambers and a higher compression ratio than a conventional (or “Otto cycle”) engine. Compression ratio on the Prius powerplant is a whopping (for a petrol engine!) 13.5 – approaching that of diesel engines. The Atkinson cycle was proposed in the 1880s by English engineer James Atkinson, to enable the compression stroke and expansion stroke to be mechanically set independently of each other. The Atkinson cycle design makes better use of combustion energy by keeping the exhaust valves closed until the end of the expansion stroke. The expansion stroke is extended until the expansion pressure has virtually dissipated, converting more of the combustion energy into torque on the crankshaft. Toyota has combined the Atkinson cycle with a long-stroke engine design, offset crankshaft, direct ignition and variable valve timing with intelligence (VVTi), to further improve efficiency. The Hybrid System in Prius seam-lessly combines the power of this engine and a 33kW electric motor. In addition, the motor is part of the regenerative braking system. It converts the kinetic energy of the decelerating vehicle into electricity, for storage in the battery. Permanent-magnet generator The Toyota Hybrid System (THS) also has a high-efficiency AC permanent magnet synchronous generator, to run the electric motor and charge the battery. The generator also serves www.siliconchip.com.au Toyota have chosen a slightly different dash layout for the Prius. Of partic-ular interest is the centre console, shown enlarged at right, which contains the engine management touch screen showing the status and operation of the fuel and electric sections. This doubles as the screen for the only Prius option: a DVD-based satellite navigation system. Below this is a totally integrated entertainment system (including CD stacker). as a starter motor for the petrol engine. In addition, the THS system uses the generator to control the ratio of power distribution from the power-split device. Inverter/Converter Energy that is not required to propel the car is stored in a sealed 274V battery, for use when required. The inverter turns direct current from the battery into alternating current for the drive motor, and the converter takes alternating current from the generator and motor (in regenerative braking mode) into direct current for storage in the battery. Environmentally friendly The Prius uses up to 50% less petrol than an equivalent-sized conventional car and emits about half the carbon dioxide on a typical city drive cycle. The petrol engine automatically switches off when the car is stationary and going downhill. When moving off, initial power is provided by the electric motor but the petrol engine also starts automatically with a virtually seamless transition. Emissions of carbon monoxide, NOx and hydrocarbons are only one thirteenth of legislated maximum permissible levels and one fifth those of an equivalent sized conventional car. Actual consumption figures for the Prius are 4.6 l/100km city cycle and 4.2l/100km highway cycle – obviously not as good as the Honda Insight but the car is a lot cheaper! Continuously variable transmission Prius’ Toyota Hybrid System acts as an electronically controlled CVT, which can freely vary the engine speed. It achieves this by controlling the generator’s revolutions. Therefore, the vehicle does not need a conventional transmission. The power-split device operates December 2001  11 via a planetary gear system, in which the engine output shaft drives the planetary gear carrier and uses a set of pinion gears to simultaneously transmit power to the outer ring gear and the inner sun gear. The shaft of the outer ring gear connects directly to the electric motor and (through the drive shaft) to the reduction gears and hence the front wheels. The shaft of the sun gear drives the generator. The use of one set of planetary gears to achieve two roles provides a significant saving in weight and space under the bonnet, compared with either a traditional automatic transmission or a belt and pulley type CVT. There is no torque converter and hence no loss of energy through slippage in the driveline. The Toyota Prius is significantly cheaper than the Honda Insight at $39,990 plus on-road costs. It is fully imported and numbers available for Australia are quite limited: we were told each dealer can have a maximum of one Prius per month. Toyota Prius Vs Honda Insight Quick Comparison TOYOTA PRIUS HONDA INSIGHT Main Engine In-line 4 cylinder DOHC 4V In-line 3cyl SOHC VTEC Capacity 1497cc 995cc Maximum Power 53kW<at>4500rpm 56kw<at>5700rpm Maximum Torque 115nm<at>4200rpm 113nm<at>1500rpm Compression ratio 13.0:1 10.8:1 91 RON (unleaded) 95RON (PULP) 4.6l/100km 3.6l/100km Fuel Consumption - City cycle 2.8l/100km Permanent Magnet 33kW 10kW 274V 6.5Ah NiMH 144V 6.5Ah NiMH Electronic Continuously Variable 5 speed manual Electric Power Assisted Electric Power Steering 9.4m 10.2m 4315 x 1695 x 1485mm 3955 x 1695 x 1355mm 1250kg 827kg Steel Aluminium Output power Battery Transmission Steering Turning Circle Vehicle Size Weight Body Yes Yes ULEV standard ULEV standard Regenerative Braking Emissions Going for a drive . . . Auto engine shutoff on idle We didn’t get the opportunity to drive the Honda but we did drive the Toyota Prius, thanks to Bill Buckle Toyota who, as luck would have it, are just around the corner from the SILICON CHIP office. It takes a few minutes to get used to the Prius because it behaves differently to other cars. That’s not to say it behaves badly – far from it. It’s just “different”. One of the main differences is due to the continuously variable transmission. There is no change from one gear to the next. Similarly, there is no push-in-theseat acceleration, either. You plant your foot and you think it’s taking off rather sedately – until you glance at the speedo and you’re doing 80 in a 50 zone. Woops! Sorry, officer. But the major difference is in noise or, to be more correct, lack of it. Sitting at a set of lights you think “it’s stalled” which in truth it has – but deliberately so. Accelerate a little and you still hear virtually nothing. You are still hardpressed to hear anything even when the petrol engine starts. You certainly don’t feel anything except, perhaps, you are aware that you have more power available. The main reason you know that the engine has cut in is that the LCD touch- Price 12  Silicon Chip 4.2l/100km 2x high efficiency AC Consumption - Highway cycle Electric Motor(s) Warranty Yes Yes $39990 + ORC $52990 + ORC 3 years/100,000km 3 years/100,000km screen on the dashboard tells you so. We’ll look at little more closely at that LCD in a moment. Another thing that the LCD tells you is that power is being taken from, or supplied to, the batteries. Driving along, you are completely unaware what is powering what unless you look at that screen. Regenerative braking, where the electric motor becomes a generator and starts recharging the battery, occurs whenever you lift your foot off the accelerator or when you apply the brakes. Braking is quite normal, except for one thing. Most of the time the brake pads make no contact with the discs! All of the braking effort (and you can feel it) is courtesy of regenerative braking. Only in an emergency stop, or when you apply very hard pressure to the brake pedal, will the mechanical brakes actually come into play. If you’re travelling down a long hill, you can move the gear lever to “B” and the engine forcibly brakes the vehicle all the way down, supplying electricity (and cutting off the fuel engine) as it does, without you touching the brake pedal. Toyota maintain that brake pad wear will be a tiny fraction of a normal vehicle and tyre wear should also be way down. It is virtually impossible to “chuck a wheelie.” We mentioned before the touchscreen LCD panel. As well as giving a huge range of information about the vehicle and being the input device for a lot of user settings (eg, radio, air con, etc), it also doubles as the display for the optional $3800 satellite navigation system. I have to confess, techno junkie that I am, this was the thing that tickled my fancy most of all (forget the impressive range of technology I was driving . . .). It tells you exactly where you are, where you are going, how to get there, even how to un-stuff a stuff-up (like when it tells you to turn left and you turn right instead!). It could even direct me right to my door (and those who know where my home is hidden will be mightily surprised at that!). Just in case you couldn’t tell, I’m impressed with the Prius. SC www.siliconchip.com.au SAVE UP TO Printed Circuit Boards Printed Circuit Boards made to order in both single and double sided. Silkscreening available. Huge Range of IC’s Great Value Prices on all ic’s. 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Only $ 00 158 Crystals Large range available from 32.768kHz to 30MHz www.futurlec.com Note: Prices shown on website are in US Dollars. Prices shown here are in Australian Dollars based on an exchange rate of 0.50 IT'S TRUE. I T ' S H E R E . the one you've always needed. IT'S FAST the most efficient and affordable personal analyser charger from the charger specialist IQ PAC www.siliconchip.com.au  Charges and analyses with capacity display at the same time.  NO overheating.  NO overcharging. IT'S VERSATILE  Three charging rates.  Three discharge rates.  Constant current or pulse charging. IT'S FLEXIBLE  Charge adaptor plate for different battery types. IT'S EASY TO USE  Charges automatically.  Press one button to analyse PREMIER BATTERIES PTY LTD ABN 12 003 149 013 Syd  (02) 9755 1845 Fax: (02) 9755 1354 Mel  (03) 9886 3432 Email: info<at>premierbatteries.com.au Internet: www.premierbatteries.com.au December 2001  13 Windows XP What’s in it for you? By Greg Swain M ICROSOFT’S new Windows XP operating system finally puts an end to the 16-bit DOS underpinnings of the Windows 95/98/Me product line. In its place is a stable new 32-bit operating system that’s evolved from the Windows NT/Windows 2000 core but you’ll need a fair bit of firepower to run it. UNTIL NOW, you’ve really had two choices when it comes to a Microsoft operating system (OS) – Windows 98/ Me or Windows NT/2000. Home users have traditionally opted for Windows 98/Me due to its strong multimedia and games support, plus its support for a wide range of hardware and for features such as plug and play (P’nP), USB and Firewire. At least, that was the upside. The down­side was that it was hardly the most stable OS around. Anyone who has used Windows 98/Me has, at one stage or another, encoun­tered system lockups and the dreaded “blue screen of death”. It’s no exaggeration to say that Windows 98/Me system crashes have 14  Silicon Chip caused PC users a lot of frustration. That’s why many businesses (and not a few home-users) have instead opted for the rock-solid stability of Windows NT or Windows 2000. These provided true multi-tasking ability without the frustrating lockups encountered in Windows 98/Me and are a must if you frequently multi-task or run heavy-duty appli­cations such as desktop publishing or large accounting programs. But Windows NT had its own drawbacks. It doesn’t support USB or plug and play, has limited multimedia capabilities and has nowhere near the driver database of Windows 98/Me. It also cost considerably more than Windows 98/Me, was much more demanding in terms or hardware and was harder to setup – especially when it came to networking. These problems were addressed to a large extent in Windows 2000 which added support for plug and play and USB. However, its hardware support, multimedia capabilities and games support were still inferior to Windows 98/Me. HOW XP FITS IN Windows XP supersedes both Windows 98/Me and Windows NT/2000, effectively unifying the two into one. This new “unified” OS boasts extensive multimedia capabilities, supports a wide range of hardware and is built on the rock-solid Windows NT/2000 operating core so it’s a full 32-bit operating system. In a nutshell, Windows XP combines Windows 98/Me’s multimedia and hardware support with Windows 2000’s more stable and manageable kernel. On top of that, Microsoft has done a lot of work on the interface. It’s more intuitive to use than ever before, is far easier to set up than its predecessors and sports a stunning new look that you can tweak to your liking. Naturally, it has full support for plug and play, USB and Firewire and retains useful features such as Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) and the Net­work Setup www.siliconchip.com.au Wizard. There are also lots of new features and we’ll look at some of those shortly. You still have a choice when it comes to this new OS, though. That’s because there are two versions – “Windows XP Home Edition” and “Windows XP Professional”. Basically, the two are identical except that the Professional version includes extra networking and administration tools. It also includes multi-processor support, with support for up to two CPUs. The version that you choose will depend on the OS that you’re currently using and your personal requirements. You can upgrade Windows 98/Me to either XP Home or to XP Professional but note that you cannot upgrade from Windows 95. If you’re currently running Windows 98/Me and you don’t have any special administrative requirements or require multi-processor support, then Windows XP Home Edition should do every­thing that you want. Alternatively, if you’re a Windows NT/2000 user, you will need to go to XP Professional. There is no upgrade path from Windows NT/2000 to the XP Home Edition. You can think of Home Edition as the logical upgrade for Windows 98/ Me, while XP Professional is basically an upgrade for Windows 2000. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS You’ll need some pretty decent hardware to run Windows XP, so don’t expect to be able to whack it on anything that’s more than a few years old – not if you want acceptable performance that is. At the very minimum Fig.1: Windows XP features a radically altered Taskbar and a “Start” menu that lists your most recently used applications. The default desktop (shown here) is called “Bliss” and a fresh install places just one icon on the desktop – the Recycle Bin. You can easily add the familiar icons shown at right by clicking the “Customize Desktop” button in the Display Properties dialog box. Microsoft recommends a 233MHz Penti­ um II machine with 64Mb of RAM, a CD ROM drive and 1.5Gb of free hard disk space. Now while Windows XP will run on this minimal system (“crawl” might be a better word), you’ll really want something better – particularly when it comes to RAM. Windows XP likes lots of RAM and a 400MHz Pentium II with 128Mb of RAM will be a much better proposition. In fact, with RAM prices at an all-time low, there’s no excuse for not going to 256Mb of RAM or more. The performance gains with Windows XP will be well worthwhile, particularly if you intend running lots of applications at once or switching between users. You can now pick up 256Mb of PC133 SDRAM for just $70, so there’s no reason to hold back. For multimedia enthusiasts, a 1GHz Pentium III or Athlon-equivalent PC with 256Mb of RAM, a DVD-ROM drive, a CD-RW drive, a sound card and a video card with 32MB of RAM will be necessary to extract the full benefits of Windows XP. Fortunately, PC hardware has moved a long way in the last few years, so perfor­mance with Windows XP will not be an issue if you are buying a new machine. INSTALLING WINDOWS XP Fig.2: you can customise the Taskbar and Start Menu with just a few mouse clicks. www.siliconchip.com.au Fig.3: XP comes with a snazzy new look and there are several new colour schemes to choose from. Barring any hardware incompatibility issues, installing Windows XP is a straightforward procedure. You can check whether your existing hardware is compatible by going to Microsoft’s hardware compatibility list located at www.microsoft.com/hcl/default.asp before actually buying Windows XP. If you already have Windows XP, December 2001  15 Fig.4: the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard lets you easily transfer your Internet, email & dial-up settings and/or data files between computers or individual disk drives. it’s a good idea to run the compatibility checking program that’s on the installation disk. This will also reveal any software incompatibility problems if you are upgrading an existing system. Anti-virus programs, CD-ROM burning programs and system utilities are the most likely to cause problems here and these should be uninstalled if problems are found. If you have an Internet connection, the compatibility program will also offer to download any updated setup files and drivers before installation starts. There are several approaches you can take when installing Windows XP: • Upgrade “over the top” of your existing OS. This will keep your existing files and system settings (eg, for network and Internet connections); • Install a new copy of Windows XP into the same disk partition as the Fig.5: you can launch the Files and Settings Transfer Wiz­-ard from the Windows XP setup CD or access it via the Start button after Windows XP is installed. existing OS. This will delete all programs and system files from a previous installation); • Install a new copy of Windows XP onto a different partition or disk drive to the existing OS. This results in a dual-boot system that lets you choose between your previous OS and Windows XP each time you boot the computer (ie, a boot menu appears); or • Back up all your data and system file settings, repartition and reformat the disk drive, and do a “clean” install of Windows XP. If you choose any of the last three options, the XP in­staller brings up a partition screen. This lets you create new partitions in any unpartitioned disk space, delete existing partitions and select the target partition. You cannot resize or merge partitions using the Windows XP partitioning utility, though. If you want to do that, you will have to use a third-party partitioning utility such as Partition Magic before in­stalling Windows XP. Assuming that you’re simply upgrading an existing system, you can start the upgrade procedure simply by booting the PC and inserting the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive. Provided “Autorun” is enabled, the CD-ROM drive will automatically start and bring up the installation menu. After that, it really is just a matter of following the bouncing ball – not that you need to do much. One thing that Windows 98/Me users will need to consider is whether to convert the disk to NTFS (NT File System) format or stick with the FAT32 (File Allocation Table) format. In most cases, you’ll want to go with NTFS – it’s faster, more reliable and offers Fig.6: our copy of Windows XP installed on a 1GHz Athlon system without a hitch. Fig.7: setting up local area network (LAN) and Internet connect­ions has never been easier. 16  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au Fig.8: Windows XP is strong on multimedia. The new Windows Media Player 8 plays audio and DVD files, tunes to radio stations and makes it easy to copy files to a CD. better security than FAT32. Stick with FAT32 if you are installing a dual-boot system though, as Win98/Me cannot recognise NTFS partitions. If you do go ahead and install to a FAT32 partition, you can always convert it to NTFS format (without losing data) after Windows XP has been installed. It’s a one-way street though – once you’ve converted to NTFS, there’s no going back to FAT32 without repartitioning the disk. CLEAN INSTALL Personally, I always use a new OS as an excuse to reparti­tion and re­format the hard disk. That way, you start with a completely fresh installation without any of the unwanted debris from a previous setup. It also gets rid of any stuff that’s just clogging up the hard disk. In this case, you boot the machine directly from the setup CD (note: you may have to alter the boot order in your system BIOS to do this). This initially takes you to a text-based setup menu which allows you to partition and format the hard disk as required. Setup then copies some system files to the hard disk, after which the machine automatically reboots and begins install­ing Windows XP. During installation, the upgrade version searches for evidence of the previous OS, to confirm that you qualify for the upgrade. However, if you’re starting with a “blank” hard disk, all traces of the previous operating system will be gone. The trick is to “show” the system the setup disk from your previous version of Windows when www.siliconchip.com.au Fig.9: Windows Movie Maker is still fairly limited and allows only basic video editing tasks to be performed. Most users will find it adequate. asked to do so (even an upgrade disk for the previous OS will do). By the way, both the upgrade and the full retail versions of Windows XP install exactly the same files onto the hard disk drive. The only difference between them is that the full version doesn’t do compliance checking. You can also boot directly from the CD if you intend installing Windows XP to a new partition, as part of a dual-boot system. However, it’s not possible to upgrade over the top of an existing system if booting direct from the CD. HOW GOOD IS THE INSTALLER? In a word, it’s slick. The installation takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes on a reasonably fast machine and most of it happens automatically. And provided you have all the settings at your fingertips, you can step through the Network and Internet Connec­tion Sharing Wizards (if required) during setup. Alternatively, you can use these wizards to set up your network and Internet connections at any time after XP has been installed. With Windows XP, you no longer have to be a guru to set up a network. In our case, we installed Windows XP on a 1GHz Athlon machine and it all went without a hiccup. To our delight, the installer correctly identified all the machine’s hardware and installed the correct drivers – including drivers for the DVD-ROM & ZIP drives, the GeForce2 MX video card, the network card, the Creative SB Live! sound card and even the Promise Technology Ultra-IDE controller (Fig.6). We didn’t have to do a thing in that department – you really can’t do better than that. What’s more, we found that we had immediate connectivity to our network and to the Internet. THE NEW INTERFACE Fig.10: Remote Desktop is found only in XP Professional. It allows you to control the XP desktop from another PC so that you can access data and applications from a remote location. The Windows XP interface has a less cluttered look than ever before, with only the Recycle Bin appearing on the default desktop. The Start button and Taskbar look different too, the familiar grey look replaced by a colourful green and blue colour scheme. Fig.1 shows the appearance of the default desktop. In case your wondering, the rolling green hills and blue sky combination is called “Bliss”. Yeeeeeeeshh! Fortunately, there are lots of other desktop themes to choose December 2001  17 Fig.11: the Control Panel has been given a make-over, with the opening dialog listing nine categories in place of the familiar icons. The icons are just a click away, though. from or better still, you can get rid of the desktop theme altogether. There are also some new colour schemes to choose from – “Silver” looks good in our opin­ion. The windows also have an elegant new look, with rounded top corners and colourful new icons and buttons. In short, we really liked the new XP “style” but you can easily revert to the Windows “classic” style if that’s what you prefer (just right-click the desktop, click Properties and click the Appearance tab). Click the “Start” button and you’ll soon discover that Microsoft has put some thought into this as well. The new “fly-up” menu now has two vertical columns, the lefthand side listing your most recently used programs and the righthand side giving you fast access to the main documents folders, Control Panel, Search and so on - see Fig.1. By default, the Taskbar is locked into place (you can unlock it if you like) and you can hide “inactive” icons in the System Tray (or notification area). Clicking a little button arrow “slides” them out for access and they then automatically slide back in again when you’re done (Fig.3). Again you can take the Taskbar back to the Windows classic look. If you do, some additional icons “magically” appear on the desktop – My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places & Internet Explorer. These are not normally shown on the desktop if you use the XP “look”, since you have fast access to them via the Start button, but you can easily add them if you wish. PUMPING UP EXPLORER At long last, Microsoft has done something about the rather anaemic Windows Explorer that’s despised by just about everyone. Now, when you open up certain folders, so-called “Task Panes” appear on the left, as shown in Fig.14. These Task Panes Fig.14: Windows Explorer now features task panes which make it easy to carry out a variety of operations. The task pane options change depending on the folder contents. 18  Silicon Chip Fig.12: the “Search” utility is much improved in Windows XP, with lots of options to choose from in the task pane on the left. Fig.13: Windows XP automatically opens an “actions” dialog box each time you insert removable media or connect a digital media device. The options vary according to the media type (eg, audio or pictures). relate to the contents of the folder (ie, the file types) and make it easy to carry out a variety of operations or to jump to other loca­tions. Fig.15: clicking the Folder button on the toolbar closes the task panes and restores the familiar “tree-like” view of folders and disk drives. www.siliconchip.com.au For example, if you open a folder of picture files, the Task Panes let you quickly print a selected picture, view a series of selected pictures as a slide show, email the selected files or carry out a range of other tasks. If you want to see the familiar folders “tree” instead, you just click the “Folders” icon on the Toolbar. Clicking this icon again takes you back to the Task Panes view. The Search utility is much improved as well and the Control Panel also gets a worthwhile make-over, with the initial display of icons now replaced by nine categories – see Fig.11. Clicking “Switch to Classic View” gives you back the familiar icons if you prefer the old layout. MULTIMEDIA SUPPORT This is where Windows XP really shines, with much of the improvement due to the new Windows Media Player 8.0 (WMP). This versatile tool creates audio CDs, plays streaming audio and video files, tunes into Internet radio stations and can even play DVDs – provided you install either a hardware or software DVD decoder, that is. Copying CD tracks (in WMA format) to the hard disk is a cinch and WMP 8 includes a basic CD burner so that you can make your own music CDs. It’s not quite as comprehensive as dedicated CD burner software but it’s all most users will ever need. You can burn audio CDs in both WMA and MP3 format, as well as data CDs, but note that WMP 8 cannot rip Fig.16: Windows XP includes Internet Connection Firewall (ICF). This blocks ports that can be accessed via the Internet but you can unblock selected ports to provide access to various services (eg, to an FTP server or an HTTP server). audio files to MP3 format unless you purchase a third-party plug-in. You don’t really have to lay out extra cash though – there are plenty of “freebie” MP3 encoders available on-line, such as MusicMatch Jukebox and CDex. Provided they’re on-line and you’re connected to the Inter­net, WMP automatically downloads track titles if you insert an audio CD (see Fig.8). Alternatively, you can add artist and track titles manually using standard ID3 tags before creating playlists. In case you’re wondering, you cannot use WMP 8 with earlier versions of Windows. It’s tightly tied to the new XP interface, so you’re stuck with WMP 7 if you stay with Windows 98/ Me or Windows 2000. Also on the multimedia front, Windows XP includes Movie Maker. It works OK but still allows only basic editing tasks to be performed. LET’S CHANGE USERS Windows XP makes it easy to set up separate User Accounts and allows you to “fast switch” between them without shutting down applications. This is a great feature if you have more than one person using the computer. Among other things, User Accounts also allow you to: • customise the way Windows and the desktop look for each user; • have your own lists of web Favourites and recently visited sites; Fig.17: Windows XP makes it easy to set up user accounts and allows fast switching between them without closing applications or logging off. It’s also easy to change account settings and to provide password protection. www.siliconchip.com.au December 2001  19 Windows Product Activation: Don’t Sweat It To combat software piracy, Microsoft has introduced what is arguably Windows XP’s most contentious feature – Windows Product Activation (WPA). When you install Windows XP, you must activate it – either via the Internet or manually via the phone – within 30 days, otherwise the OS will stop working until you do. Activation involves obtaining a key which is derived from up to 10 hardware components in your PC. When you install Windows XP, it checks the amount of memory and also derives unique serial numbers from devices such as your network card, video card, hard disk and CD-ROM drives, the motherboard and the processor. This information is then used to derive a unique 25-character key which is combined with the 25-character “Product Key” supplied with the Windows XP installation CD to produce the “Installation ID”. In effect, WPA locks each copy of Windows XP to the hard­ware of a particular PC. This ensures that you can use your copy of Windows XP on one computer only and prevents you from sharing it with friends or colleagues in the workplace, or from borrowing someone else’s copy. It also prevents illegal hard disk cloning, whereby an • have your own My Documents folder and use a password to keep files private and protected; and • protect important personal computer settings. There are two different types of User Accounts: “Computer Administrator” and “Limited”. A user with a Limited account has restricted file access and cannot install programs, make system changes or alter other accounts. You can either set up your User Accounts when you install XP or add them later via the Control Panel. The Control Panel also allows you to change User Account names, set up and change pass­ words, and add or delete User Accounts. If you set up User Accounts, a welcome screen appears each time you load Windows and you can then log onto your person­al account. Individual User Accounts can be password 20  Silicon Chip entire image is copied from the hard disk of one PC onto the hard disk of another. Now unless anyone thinks that this is an impost and a horror to LOLs (little old ladies), it’s really no big deal. For starters, Windows Product Activation is fast, no files are scanned and no personal information or serial numbers are sent to Microsoft, so there are no worries on that score. You also have plenty of leeway when it comes to upgrading. For example, if your PC has a network adapter, you can change up to five other hardware items in one go (or eight in a laptop computer) without having to reactivate. Alternatively, you can change the network adapter plus three other components (seven on a laptop) without problems. Adding additional components, such as a second hard disk drive or CDRW drive, has no effect on WPA. And changing the same item several times only counts as a single change, so if you want to compare 20 different video cards, you can do so to your heart’s content without triggering WPA. Of course, if you reformat your hard disk and reinstall Windows XP, you will have to “re-activate”. That’s because the WPA information is stored on the hard disk drive and is destroyed if the protected to keep other users out but if there is no password, it’s just a matter of clicking the account icon. The Fast User Switching feature allows you to leave appli­ c ations running while you switch to another account; eg, if another family member wishes to print something out. When you then switch back to your account, your applications will still be running just as you left them. KEEPING OUT THE BAD GUYS Keeping Internet nasties away is important these days and Microsoft has finally included some basic firewall protection into Windows XP. It’s called Internet Connection Firewall and it’s basically a port blocking firewall that can easily be con­figured to allow certain services; eg, FTP, HTTP & ICMP (echo) requests, etc (see Fig.6). drive is reformatted. However, provided the hardware isn’t changed substantially, you can do this as many times as you like. As a final refinement, WPA automatically resets itself every three months so that you can start the upgrade procedure over again. In addition, Microsoft state that WPA will automati­cally allow reactivation over the Internet up to four times in one year on substantially different hardware. This is so that “power users” can keep up with the very latest technology and regular­ly make substantial hardware upgrades to their systems. Users who buy a new PC with Windows XP preloaded will probably never have to deal with WPA – unless the hard disk is reformatted. What’s more, PC makers can lock OEM copies of Wind­ows XP to the PC’s BIOS, so that users can later swap everything, including the hard disk (but not the motherboard) without re-activating. Finally, businesses that need to install Windows XP on multiple computers don’t have to go through the WPA. Instead, they can obtain a special “volume licence product key” which allows a single hard disk to be cloned across multiple machines, without the need for activation. Blocking incoming ports greatly reduces the chances of being hacked, so ICF should be enabled on any computer that’s directly connected to the Internet. Similarly, if your network uses Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) to provide Internet access for multiple computers, ICF should be enabled on the shared Internet connection. For home users, ICF is probably good enough but a dedicated third-party firewall designed to work with Windows XP should be installed if security is important. You can easily disable ICF is you decide to use a dedicated firewall package. KEEPING XP HEALTHY Ever installed a hardware driver that caused system in­stability? With Windows XP, you can easily revert to the pre­viously installed driver using the new “Device Driver Rollback” www.siliconchip.com.au feature that’s found in Device Manager (see Fig.19). In addition, Windows XP includes “System Restore” which enables you to roll your system back to an earlier “restore point” and undo any harmful changes. As expected, Windows Update has been included which allows Windows XP to look for new updates on the Internet. And like Windows 2000, XP includes Windows File Protection. This prevents the replacement of protected system files such as .sys, .dll, .ocx, .ttf, .fon, and .exe files unless the cor­rect digital signature is found. It runs in the background and protects all files installed by the Windows Setup program. Another useful feature is the Program Compatibility Wizard. This allows you to emulate older Windows OS’es in order to get incompatible programs to work. Once the program is working, you can then save the settings so that it runs properly each time it is used. Of course, it’s better to store an update for the pro­gram if it’s available, so that you don’t have to use the compa­tibility wizard. Fig.18: “Computer Management” console (Start, Programs, Administrative Tools) gives you fast access to a range of administrative utilities. or create a “Files & Settings Transfer Wizard” utility disk (eg, on a floppy disk or ZIP disk drive). The Remote Assistance feature is a useful troubleshooting aid if you get into difficulties. It allows a friend (presumably someone who is computer savvy) or a computer dealer who is also running Windows XP to connect to your computer via the Internet, chat with you online, view your desktop and to work on your computer. OTHER GOODIES By now, you should be getting the idea that Windows XP has a very extensive list of features – far too numerous to cover in detail, in fact. There are lots of features that we haven’t even mentioned, including MSN Messenger (an instant messaging program that works over the Internet), improved support for wireless networking, a “File and Settings Transfer Wizard” and Remote Assistance. Briefly, the “File and Settings Transfer Wizard” makes it easy to transfer your system settings (eg, Internet, email & dial-up THE BOTTOM LINE Fig.19: Driver Rollback allows you to restore the previously installed driver if a new driver causes problems. settings) and/or data files between computers or disk drives when you install Windows XP. You can access it via the Start button, via the menus on the Windows XP installation disk Fig.20: you can monitor the performance of various system parameters and examine performance logs and alerts. www.siliconchip.com.au We have to admit that we liked Windows XP. Admittedly, there’s not an awful lot of incentive to upgrade if you’re currently using Windows 2000 (unless there’s a feature you must have) but Windows 98/Me/NT users should take a closer look. If it’s stability that you’re after and you’re currently using Windows 98/ Me, Windows XP is a very attractive upgrade – just be sure that you have SC the firepower to run it. Fig.21: want to defragment your hard disk drive? Like Windows 2000, Windows XP includes its own disk defragger. December 2001  21 SILICON CHIP If you are seeing a blank page here, it is more than likely that it contained advertising which is now out of date and the advertiser has requested that the page be removed to prevent misunderstandings. Please feel free to visit the advertiser’s website: dicksmith.com.au SILICON CHIP If you are seeing a blank page here, it is more than likely that it contained advertising which is now out of date and the advertiser has requested that the page be removed to prevent misunderstandings. Please feel free to visit the advertiser’s website: dicksmith.com.au SILICON CHIP If you are seeing a blank page here, it is more than likely that it contained advertising which is now out of date and the advertiser has requested that the page be removed to prevent misunderstandings. Please feel free to visit the advertiser’s website: dicksmith.com.au SILICON CHIP If you are seeing a blank page here, it is more than likely that it contained advertising which is now out of date and the advertiser has requested that the page be removed to prevent misunderstandings. Please feel free to visit the advertiser’s website: dicksmith.com.au PC Infrared Transceiver . . . build it for peanuts Did you know that most PCs these days include infrared (IR) support out of the box? Build this super-simple transceiver and add IR capability to your PC for peanuts. by Peter Smith J UST ABOUT EVERY Pentium-class PC motherboard supports infrared communications. Even so, you won’t find a little red window anywhere on your desktop machine. For reasons unknown, this “luxury” has generally only been included on laptops, PDAs and the like. With just one IC and a couple of resistors and capacitors, this tiny project remedies the situation and enables your desktop PC to communicate with these and a multitude of other infrared-capable devices (see below). No wires, no hassles Infrared communications between devices has one big benefit – it doesn’t require a physical connection. This means no problems with connector compatibility or lost cables, and there’s no need to crawl around behind your desk looking for the right socket! Data is exchanged between devices using infrared light pulses rather than Fig.1: the circuit diagram of the infrared transceiver. All the transmitter and receiver circuitry is contained within a single IC package. Also shown are typical pinouts for the IR header provided on most PC motherboards. 26  Silicon Chip electrical pulses. Of course, devices need to communicate at the same speed, using the same protocol. Just how is this achieved? IrDA infrared In 1993, a large group of industry leaders got together and formed the Infrared Data Association (IrDA). The IrDA group came up with a set of standards that are now employed on over 300 million electronic devices. These include desktop, notebook and palm PCs, printers, digital cameras, public phones/kiosks, cellular phones, pagers, PDAs, electronic books, electronic wallets, toys, watches and other mobile devices. In simple terms, the IrDA group defined a system of point-to-point data transfer operating over a 30° cone at a distance of up to one metre (typically two metres). So how fast is it? Well, the endless quest for faster data transfer has seen dramatic increases over the preceding eight years, with four “milestone” rates now defined. These are SIR (serial IR, 115.2kbps), MIR (medium speed IR, 1.152Mbps), FIR (fast speed IR, 4Mbps) and VFIR (very fast speed IR, 16Mbps). While we’re aware of some (recent) motherboards that support FIR, we’ve stuck with SIR for this project as it www.siliconchip.com.au is supported on all Pentium-class motherboards that we’ve seen. Infrared on desktops If you’ve ever poked around in your motherboard BIOS settings, you might have noticed that the second serial port can be set up as either a “standard” port or an “IR” port. In “IR” mode, data transmitted from the serial port hardware is directed to pulse shaping circuitry rather than to the usual 9-pin external serial connector. This circuitry reduces the pulse widths to 3/16th of their original length in order to reduce power dissipation in the IR LED and associated components. On the input side, the opposite occurs. Pulses from the IR receiver are stretched back to their original widths and steered to the serial port receive circuitry. The transmit and receive signals from the pulse shaping circuitry are usually terminated on a 5-pin header on PC motherboards (see Fig.1). To complete the IR subsystem, all that’s needed is an IR detector and amplifier (the receiver), along with an IR LED and driver (the transmitter). No doubt you’ve guessed that this is where our little project fits in! Fig.2: basic functional blocks of the TFDS4500 transceiver module. Unlike some infrared control systems, data is not transmitted on a carrier. Instead, it is pulse-width modulated and then applied to the TXD pin for direct transmission. the higher sensitivity mode, simply wire the pad to the positive side of one of the capacitors. Construction Circuit description The circuit diagram in Fig.1 reveals what is possibly our simplest construction project yet! The IR driver and receiver elements are both contained within a single package – a TFDS4500 Serial Infrared Transceiver Module from Vishay Telefunken. Fig.2 shows the basics of what’s hidden inside this little beauty. A 47Ω resistor and two capacitors form a simple supply line filter, ensuring that noise from the LED driver doesn’t interfere with the sensitive receiver circuitry. The only other component, a 13Ω resistor, sets the current through the IR emitter. According to the data sheets, this results in about 210mA of LED current for an intensity of about 180mW/sr. Receiver sensitivity can be increased by connecting the SC (sensitivity control) pin to a logic high (+5V). If left disconnected (as in our circuit), it automatically assumes a logic low (near 0V). This is the default and most reliable mode. On the PC board pattern, you’ll notice that we’ve connected a spare (unused) pad to this pin. If you’d like to experiment with www.siliconchip.com.au The IR transceiver cable plugs into a matching header on the motherboard. Using the overlay diagrams in Fig.3 as a guide, begin by installing the transceiver module (IC1) on the bottom (copper) side of the board. This is a surface mount device, so you’ll need a fine-tipped soldering iron and light gauge solder for the job. The leads of this device must all sit perfectly “flat” on the board surface and in line with the copper pads. We had to carefully adjust ours with fine-tipped pliers (you could also use tweezers) to get the alignment right. It’s a good idea to inspect your work with a magnifying Fig.3: the component overlay diagrams for the IR Transceiver. Note how components are mounted on both sides of the PC board. Fig.4: a short length of rainbow cable and two header sockets are all that’s needed for the hook-up cable. December 2001  27 Figs.5-9: follow this series of screen shots to manually add your new infrared device in Windows Me. If it’s not auto-detected in Windows 98, you can follow the same steps. glass, as fine solder bridges are hard to spot with the naked eye. Still on the bottom (copper) side, install the two capacitors, noting that the 4.7µF tantalum capacitor is polarised and must be oriented as shown. Now flip the board over and cut off the protruding capacitor leads flush with the surface of the PC board. The two resistors and CON1 mount on the top side of the board. Install the resistors first, spacing them just slightly above the board surface to be sure that the sharp ends of the capacitor leads do not pierce the resistors’ insulation. A piece of thin cardboard makes a good temporary spacer. Finally, install CON1, making sure that it is seated squarely before soldering. Right, on to the cable. We used a one-metre length of rainbow cable for the job, stripping a 4-way section from a wider (10-way) piece. Fit a 4-way header socket on the transceiver end of the cable and a five-way header on the motherboard end, using Fig.4 as a guide. If you can’t get a 5-way header socket, then you can make one by cutting down a longer section with a sharp utility knife. You should refer to your motherboard manual when wiring the 5-way header, as although the wiring we have shown is common to most mother­boards, we know of some that use different header pinouts. There are even a few that use something other than 5-way in-line header pins to terminate the IR signals, so you’ll need to improvise if you have one of these. Transceiver housing We’ve left the housing arrangements of the transceiver up to you. If you don’t want to build it into anything, then some insulation tape or heatshrink tubing around the conductive parts is essential. Why? Well, the metal casing of your PC is at logic ground (0V), so accidental contact with the transceiver circuitry might damage your motherboard. Hooking it up Again, refer to your motherboard manual to locate the IR header and make a note of which end of the row of pins is marked as pin 1. Plug in your cable with pin 1 on the socket aligned with pin 1 on the header and route it out of the case via any convenient location at the rear. Don’t plug in the transceiver just yet, though. Power up your PC and using a multimeter, measure between pins 3 (GND) and 4 (+5V) on the transceiver socket. Fig.10: to check that the IR device has been installed, double-click on the System icon in Control Panel to view System Properties. This is what the settings on the Device Manager tab look like for a Windows 95 system. 28  Silicon Chip Fig.11: Device Manager settings for a Windows Me system. Windows 98 looks similar, although the IR device will probably be listed as an “Infrared PnP Serial Port” rather than the “Generic” one shown here. Fig.12: Windows 95 & 98 display an icon in the system tray when infrared commun­ic­ations are enabled. Later versions of Windows only display the icon when another active infrared device comes within range. www.siliconchip.com.au Parts List 1 PC board, code 07112011, 30.2mm x 14.2mm 1 90° PC-mount 4-pin header (CON1) 1 4-pin header socket to suit above 1 5-pin header socket for motherboard connection (see text) 1m 4-way rainbow cable Fig.13: Wireless Link is an easy way to transfer files between computers, but it’s only available on Windows Me and later. Fig.14: Windows 95 and 98 users can use the Send To menu in Explorer to transfer files to a nearby computer. Capacitors 1 4.7µF 16VW tantalum 1 0.1µF 50V monolithic ceramic This shows the completed unit with its cable attached. Fig.15: the full-size etching pattern for the PC board. Your meter should read +5V ± 0.25V. If all is well, power down and plug in the transceiver. Software setup The first step is to enable IR support in your system BIOS. Refer to your motherboard manual for details on how to do this. Generally, the relevant settings reside under the “Integrated Peripherals” section, and involve changing the second serial port from “serial” to “IR” or “SIR” mode. Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000 and XP (but not NT) all provide IrDA support. Unfortunately, the installation steps and levels of support vary considerably between versions, so we’re only able to cover the highlights here. If you have Windows 95, you’ll first need to download the IrDA 2.0 Infrared Driver from: www.microsoft.com/ windows95/downloads You’ll need to save the downloaded file (W95IR.EXE) in a temporary directory and double-click on it to extract the contents. Installation instructions and troubleshooting tips are contained in the RELNOTES.DOC file. For Windows 98, the infrared device (called an “Infrared PnP Serial Port”) should be automatically detected at startup after you enable IR support in the BIOS. If not, then add a “Generic Infrared Serial Port or dongle” using www.siliconchip.com.au Semiconductors 1 TFDS4500 Serial Infrared Transceiver Module (Vishay Telefunken) the Add New Hardware wizard, accessible via Control Panel. The steps to do this are almost identical to those for Windows Me, as shown in Figs.5-9. For Windows Me, you need to run a file on your Windows Me installation CD before manually installing the infrared device. The file to look for is named IRDASIR.REG and can be found in the \TOOLS\PSSUTIL fold­ er. Simply double-click on the file in Windows Explorer to run it. Next, double-click on the Add New Hardware icon in Control Panel. Now follow the screen shots in Figs.5-9 to complete the installation. As far as we’re aware, Windows 2000 and XP both automatically detect the infrared device and install the appropriate drivers. Hopefully, you now have a functional infrared transceiver. Now what do you do with it? Uses If you have a mobile phone with infrared support, then you can manage your phone numbers and messages as well as a bunch of other useful things. You do need additional software, though. The March 2001 issue featured an article titled “Mobile Magic” which covered this topic in detail. Resistors (0.25W, 1%) 1 47Ω 1 13Ω If you have a portable computer (or a second desktop PC with an IR transceiver), you can use the support built into Windows to easily transfer files between systems – without wires! For Windows Me, 2000 and XP, you’ll find a Wireless Link icon in Control Panel that provides simple file transfer capabilities (see Fig.13). Windows CE has similar capabilities, too. Windows 95 & 98 don’t have the Wireless Link icon, but if you check out Explorer’s Send To context (rightclick) menu, you’ll notice that it contains a new entry called “IR Recipient” (see Fig.14). You can also use Direct Cable Connect to network two machines together via their infrared ports. Note that Direct Cable Connect is an optional Windows component that may not be installed on your system. You can add it via the Windows Setup tab (look under the “Communications” heading) in Add/Remove Programs. Before launching Direct Cable Connect, make sure that both the NetBEUI and IPX protocols are installed, and that both computers have the same workgroup name. You’ll also need File and Printer Sharing installed and one or more folders or drives shared on the “host” computer. There are many more uses for your new IR port. The ‘net’s a great place to start looking for ideas! You can start SC at www.irda.org December 2001  29 CIRCUIT NOTEBOOK Interesting circuit ideas which we have checked but not built and tested. Contributions from readers are welcome and will be paid for at standard rates. Fig.1: the analog modulator uses IC1 & Q1 as a unity-gain amplifier, with VR1 setting the DC output level. Fig.2: the digital modulator. Q1 provides a constant voltage to the laser module, while Q2 & diodes D1-D3 allow TTL or CMOS drive signals. Fig.3: the photodetector circuit. Fig.4: this graph shows the response of the analog modulator/detector assembly. Analog & digital modulation for laser pointers There are a number of ready-made 1mW red (630-650nm) laser pointer modules available on the market (DSE, Jaycar, Oatley Electronics, etc) but the documentation is sparse and provides no stated way to modulate the light output. However, it is possible to get usefully modulated laser light beyond 80kHz using these modules and a handful of external components. A typical laser module has a minimum supply voltage (1.9V in the units tested) at which light begins to be emitted. The maximum supply voltage and light output occurs at 4.7V. Supplying the module with a varying DC voltage between these values produces a varying light output. 30  Silicon Chip On the reception side, detectors for laser light fall into two groups. Photo­ transistors have a rise/fall time of around 3µs to 10µs. Photodiodes have a higher ft but in general are designed for infrared wavelengths and so have a poor response at 650nm. Fig.1 shows the analog modulator. IC1 and Q1 act as unity-gain inverting amplifier (ie, a buffer), with trimpot VR1 acting as a level shifter to provide a permanent DC component. VR1 is set to pro­vide 4.0V quiescent at the laser module’s positive terminal. A 1V peakpeak sinewave of varying frequency was applied to the input capacitor and the light output measured using a BP103 photo­tran­sistor (Fig.3). Light falling on the phototransistor acts as base current, turning the transistor on. The Tony Ba value of the series month rry is this ’s winner collector resistor R s of the Wavetek changes the sensitiv- Meterman 85XT ity of the device. In- true RMS digital multimeter. creasing Rs makes the unit more sensitive to low light conditions, decreases the speed of operation, and increases the possibility of the transistor saturating (which further decreases the speed of operation). The power rating of the BP103 is stated at 150mW, which limits the value of Rs at a supply voltage of 5V to a minimum of 42Ω. The overall frequency response of the combined modulator/detector assembly is shown in the graph (Fig.4). The light output was sufficient to saturate the photo­ transistor despite the low value of series resistance, so an optical atten­uator (consisting of several layers of translucent plastic) was placed in the light path to provide a quiescent output from the photo-transistor’s collector +2.5V. Note that the response time of the detector may be the limiting factor in the assembly’s response. Lacking a fast photo­transistor, I suspect that the module does top out at around 100kHz. when a 3:1 mark:space ratio pulse train is applied to the module and the frequency increased, the beam becomes appreciably brighter after 150kHz, suggesting that the module is not turning off to the same extent as at lower frequencies. Digital circuits do not require a linear response, just an obvious difference between on and off (the more obvious, the better). The digital modulator (Fig.2) looks a bit like a 2-transistor differential amplifier but it is not. The 500Ω trimpot VR1 and Q1, a BC547 NPN transistor, provide a constant voltage to the laser module which sets the minimum brightness. Q2 and the asso­ciated diodes allow TTL or CMOS circuitry to drive the www.siliconchip.com.au Measuring the current drain of devices with DC-DC converters laser modules. A PNP transistor is used here because TTL can sink quite a bit of current but cannot source nearly as much. Adjust trimpot VR1 with the TTL input disconnected (or high) to give about 2.4V on the module. The exact value depends on the module being used. Diodes D2 & D3 can be omitted when using CMOS or microcontrollers which switch to the supply rails. The laser module came from Jaycar (ST-3115, $13.95), and the BP103 came from Oatley Electronics (part of the $10 Opto-Pack). Jaycar has a similar device to the BP103 (ZD-1950, $1.00). The author would like to thank Doug Baly of Ultimo TAFE for his assistance with this project. Tony Barry South Brisbane, Qld. It is often not possible to measure the current drain of modern consumer portable electronic devices by simply connecting an ammeter in series with the battery. Such devices, including digital cameras, digital notetakers, portable MP3, minidisc and CD players, often use only one or two AA or AAA cells and employ a DC-DC converter to step up the available voltage. The waveform of the current they draw from the battery is a high frequency square wave with the peak current that’s several times the average current. With such a high peak current demand, connecting even a relatively low resistance ammeter in series with the battery will often reduce the peak available current by so much that the device will refuse to operate. The situation is complicated by the presence of sophisti­cated battery condition monitoring circuitry in many of these devices. This circuit avoids these problems. A dummy battery replac­es all of the cells in the device under test and a variable voltage power supply provides the power for the device. A 6800µF and a 0.1µF capacitor are wired directly across the terminals of the dummy battery to ensure a low supply impedance at both high and low frequencies. The ammeter and voltmeter (which can be multimeters set to the appropriate ranges) monitor the current drain and actual supply voltage under load. By slowly reducing the voltage from the power supply, the device’s behaviour can be observed as the “battery” runs down. Some devices will shut off when the supply voltage is low (but not zero) and not respond even if the supply voltage is increased to normal – after all, batteries do not usually sponta­neously recover their charge! This is why the switch is included in the circuit. Setting the switch to the ‘off’ position simulates the removal of flat batteries. Then the power supply voltage can be set to that expected from a good battery and the switch set to ‘on’ to simulate the insertion of fresh batteries. Andrew Partridge, Kuranda, Qld. ($30) UM66 SERIES TO-92 SOUND GENERATOR. THESE LOW COST IC’S ARE USED IN MANY TOYS, DOORBELLS AND NOVELTY APPLICATIONS 1-9 $1.10 10-24 $0.99 25+ $0.88 EACH INC GST www.siliconchip.com.au December 2001  31 SERVICEMAN'S LOG A Panasonic kind of month Some TV chassis share a common fault which can lead to over-confidence when it comes to servicing them. I was recently well and truly caught out but Lady Luck came to the rescue. I have had a run of Panasonic C150 chassis TVs recently which have been good for me. These days, it is rare to get common faults and each one is its own proverbial pain in the backside when it comes to tracing it. So often, the time taken is too long to charge it all out to one job and one can only hope that simi­lar faults in other sets will offset the cost of finding the original cause. The C150 has a common problem due to the design of its vertical output stage around IC451 (LA7838). The solder pads for this 13-pin in-line 32  Silicon Chip IC are too small and are prone to dry joints and/or fractures in the solder, resulting in a variety of inter­mittent vertical scanning faults. In Australia, there were only seven models employing the C150/C150A chassis released since its introduction in 1996. And more often than not, this is the first fault that the customer has had in five years. What I like is that most people want it fixed in the home and I can go and do this in about half an hour – a win-win situation for everyone. The only fly in the ointment is the intermittent part, because invariably the fault won’t show when I’m there. I can only go on the client’s description of the problem and there are so many people who are not articulate or that accurate in their observations. The worst scenario is when IC451 fails and results in the set being dead because of the load on the 12V rail (pin 1). Repeated failures of IC451 can be attributed to C455 (100µF 35VW). Caught out Unfortunately, I was really caught out last month when Mr Peters brought his set, a TC-25R70AB, in with the fault descrip­tion: “intermittent loss of picture and a horizontal white line”. I immediately took this to mean intermittent loss of verti­cal deflection and stupidly quoted on this basis. Naturally, I switched the set on and the picture was fine even when I belted it – my standard shock test for dry joints. Still, I was extremely confident it was just dry joints on IC451 and so after waiting 10 minutes, I decided to resolder them. When I had finished, I replaced the back and put it aside for soak testing. My confidence didn’t last long. About 30 minutes later, I was walking past the set and was mortified to see that the dis­play on the picture tube was now a pulsating bright raster with a white horizontal line in the centre. I immediately returned the set to the operating theatre and removed the back. However, when I switched it on, it was back to working properly again – much to my frustration. I persevered and noticed that after about 15-20 minutes, the picture would go through a series of very slight changes but mostly getting increasingly brighter until the screen was an uncontrollable white raster. It would then start to pulsate, with the picture geometry breaking up and an even brighter white horizontal line appearing in the centre. www.siliconchip.com.au Because it took so long to happen, I attributed this to heat causing a component to fail. But where? The other clue I thought I might have was the rust on the metal screen covers – no doubt due to the owner living close to the beach. I started with a hairdryer and this did tend to support my theory that heat was causing a part to fail. Unfortunately, after emptying one and a half cans of extremely expensive freezer, I couldn’t get the fault to reverse itself. Next, I examined the rust/salt corrosion problem. This was mostly confined to the metal screening cans and was not visible on any component. Nevertheless, I sprayed the entire set with a fine mist of CRC 2-26 and then used the air compressor to make sure every part of the chassis was covered in a fine coating of oil. But still the problem persisted. All the voltage rails checked out OK but I did notice some variations in the voltages applied to the CRT. These, however, could be restored by unplug­ ging E/Y32 – the drive to the output transistors. I spent some time examining Q350 and its associated components, especially the diodes, and I replaced C350 and C360. But to no avail. By now, I also noticed that in the process of getting brighter, the hue would change too – somewhat randomly. I checked the screen voltages and the screen control on the flyback trans­ former, because by now I had worked out that as it got progres­sively brighter, the set was unable to cope with the beam cur­rent. As a result, the flyback secondary voltages were dropping with the demand for power by the tube. I must confess I did have some doubts about the flyback transformer but for now I was more interested in the jungle IC – IC601 (TA8844N). In the end, I decided to take the plunge and replace this 64-pin high-density device. You can imagine my frustration when this made absolutely no difference. What was missing? So what was I missing? Well, as Mr Sherlock Homes would have noted to Dr Watson, I hadn’t been concentrating on the details. As the picture began to go into its runaway failure, www.siliconchip.com.au one of the first things it did was ever so slightly change its co­lours and produce Hanover blinds. Now, this was happening only very intermittently and very subtly but it turned out to be the main symptom when it came to determining the cause of the whole problem. This symptom made it appear as though the set was being switched to NTSC and this is usually caused by problems with the line pulses. Line pulses are often used for clamping DC levels for the output stages, so it was well worth following this line (‘scuse the pun) of investigation. The horizontal (line) pulses are generated from the line output transistor via C509/ C510 and fed around to pin 35 of IC601 via horizontal centring control R509. I put a CRO on the line and watched it. As the fault occurred, so the line pulses began to start changing shape and cause “ringing” immediately after the pulses. And when I saw it going through the “H. Center” control, I suddenly remembered reading a service bulletin about it. I dug up the bulletin which was about “intermittent colour phasing/ missing at top half of picture”. Well, this was not really the problem we were faced with, though there were some similarities. I read on and it said these sets may have a problem with the colour content of the picture. It can either be a symp­tom where intermittently the top half of the picture may have missing colour, or the top half of the picture may have a colour phasing problem (green colour at top). It went on but I was beginning to lose interest as these weren’t the main symptoms I was getting. However, out of curiosi­ty, I decided to vary the horizontal centring control (R509) and see what happened. To my surprise, varying this control Items Covered This Month • • • • Panasonic C150 chassis TC25R70AB. Panasonic M19 chassis TC68GS90. Panasonic MX8 chassis TC68PS10. Panasonic M16M TX-33V2X. had a real effect on the symptoms. Fully anticlockwise, it was very bad but turn it fully clockwise and the symptoms would slowly vanish – and stay that way. The Technical Information Sheet advised that R508 should be changed from 15kΩ to 27kΩ and C507 from 150pF to 330pF. I made these changes, reset the pot to centre the picture and that, as they say, was that. The fault was fixed completely! Panasonic month It’s been mainly a Panasonic sort of month, with all sorts of models jumping out of the woodwork. One 68cm 1997 TC68GS90 TV employing an M19 chassis once again found its way to the middle of my bench while my back was turned. I keep telling myself Mrs Serviceman that she mustn’t allow these sets onto my bench while I’m doing important things – like making coffee – but it doesn’t do any good. This set was dead and apparently dead urgent too. Someone in the Ladies Bowing Club (which owned the set) has influence. It didn’t take massive amounts of brain power to discover that line output transistor Q552 (2SD2539LB306) was short cir­cuit, as was D720 (RH3F). The only problem was why? I switched the set on and sound and picture appeared in that order. December 2001  33 Serviceman’s Log – continued after checking everything else, fitted a new transistor and diode and gingerly switched it on again. Now I wasn’t really expecting much. I had been surprised that R765 was open, which made me think about Q702 and Q703 again – but I really couldn’t see this as being responsible for blowing up the set. But as usual, I was wrong. The set was now working perfect­ly and the offending parts were no longer getting hot. I soak tested the set for as long as I dared before inform­ing the boss that it was ready. A bizarre fault But just as I had managed to tune in a station, the set died again. The same two culprits also got extremely hot before dying. I had had a chance to see the picture before the set died and it was too small (about 20cm wide). What’s more, there was a large east-west pincushion effect. With only the above information to go on, I had to make an intelligent guess as to what the problem might be. As a result, I decided to order a new flyback transformer (T501), along with the other components that had failed again. The boss wasn’t impressed with the delays – the heat must have been on and I speculated that perhaps she was up to being elected to the committee. I was quickly reminded that it wasn’t for me to speculate on anything other than the job at hand. I bet brain surgeons don’t get treated like that. Anyway, when the parts arrived and were fitted, I decided to cover myself and measure the B+ rail and a few other rails as well. I also connected the oscilloscope to the collector of Q552 to check the line pulse. I switched it on and, of course, with a new flyback trans­former, you have to reset the screen and focus controls before you can see the picture. Oops! – too late. The two parts 34  Silicon Chip had failed again and were red hot. However, I did manage to check the voltage rails in time and was able to see that no change had occurred in the picture. Unfortunately, I missed the oscilloscope readout as it was on the wrong range and the set died before I was able to adjust the controls. Well, my feeling was that I had at least covered myself with the flyback transformer and the two components were dying from delivering too much power into the east-west correction circuits. So that was where I had to investigate next. The cathode of D720 is connected to the collector of Q552, while its anode goes to its partner D721 and to the X Board via D9, pins 7 and 8 and then to the line linearity coil and correc­tion transistor Q703 via L722 and R765. I took out the X Board and examined it very closely. I checked it for dry joints (there were none) before using a multi­meter to check the main components. Q702 and Q703 were fine, as were all the coils, diodes and capacitors. Everything was looking fine but as a last resort, I decided to check the resistors too. (I really didn’t have much more in the way of clues in the old kitbag). It was just as well because I found R765 (10Ω) to be open circuit. I put a new one in The next story involves a bizarre fault. It too was a Pana­sonic, a 1999 model TC68PS10 with an MX8 chassis. In this case, the top 10cm of the picture was full of flickering big dots (not snow, though), stripes and lines and data – somewhat like data corruption. It was really weird and even happened when the video was muted out to a blue screen. Well, where do you start with such a phenomenon? I could only think data, computers, micros – so I went for the microprocessor first (IC1101, MN1873284TF1), then the EEPROM (IC1102, 24LC­08­B1PA22) and finally the jungle IC (IC601, TB1237AN). To my frustration, changing them had no effect at all. Surprisingly, it turned out in the end to be the tuner/IF module (TNR1, ENG39602G) that was the culprit. But having re­placed all the other ICs, there really wasn’t much left to change – except the cabinet! Mr Edwards’ 92 telly Mr Edwards is a nice enough guy. He is semi-retired and lives with his wife in a modest house, with a private income from a block of luxury units. To look at him, you wouldn’t think him to be a wealthy man – until you saw the TV. It was a 1992 Panaso­nic TX-33V2X using an M16M chassis. So what, you say? Well, this was a pretty expensive telly back in 1992, even by today’s standards. Back then, it cost about $5000 for this set which came with an 84cm picture tube and all the bells and whistles. Despite its complexity, the M16 is a pretty reliable chas­sis. It was something of a watershed in Panasonic design and used plug-in modules, rather like the early M4 chassis of the www.siliconchip.com.au seven­ties. That is probably where the similarity ends but you get the drift – it’s big, heavy (60kg) and complex. So why was I doing a housecall on it? I can only put it down to the set being big and heavy and me being both optimistic and stupid. In mitigation, from Mr Edward’s fault description, it could easily have been something simple – after all, he said it intermittently wouldn’t start with the remote control. Anyway, I thought it worth a look, so off I trundled to the Edwards’ house. I started by looking at the remote control and found that it is actually two remotes in one. One side has a simple, basic remote control, while the other side has a much more com­plex layout. It was obvious that this wasn’t going to be easy to drive – especially as there were also a couple of tiny slide switches just inside the battery cover. And the 100-page(!) instruction booklet was like a small tele­ phone directory. I started by removing the batteries from the remote, thus disabling it, and tried switching on the set. The master on/off switch brought it onto standby, with the red power indicator coming on in the middle of the control door. One can never tell whether or not this is a fault condition, because most sets have an arrangement that when the power is switched off by the master switch, the set defaults to its last status – ie, if it was on stand­-by, it will come on in standby and if it was on, it will come straight on. The next trick was to find the standby/on switch on the front control panel. On this model, it is the program up/down buttons. When I tried it, the set wouldn’t come on. I then put the batteries back in the remote and the set still wouldn’t come on. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure how the set was meant to be switched on from standby, so I tried the volume 1 controls plus lots of other things as well but got no result. Howev­er, after many repeated attempts, the set suddenly came on. I tried the remote control and that now worked too – it even switched the set on and off very positively. This was the worst scenario I could imagine. There was probably an intermittent fault within the monster and the only place to tackle that was my workshop bench – definitely not here. However, muggins me decided to www.siliconchip.com.au poke about inside and pro­ceeded to remove the back. Inside, the only accessible modules are the S-Board (AC Filter), N-Board (Power In) and X-Board (Deflection Correction). The all-important D-Board Power/ Deflection is one of the mother boards and is almost totally inaccessible. I resoldered some potential dry joints on the S, N and X-Boards and reassem­ bled it. Despite bashing the set, I couldn’t make it go off so I then spent some time checking the tuning and set up. There were two other problems. First, the sound was only coming out of the lefthand speaker. Locating the menu for adjusting the balance control wasn’t easy but I eventually found it under the “Auto/Func­tion” menu on the set and the “Sound Menu” on the remote control. Readjusting it brought sound in the righthand speak­er up correctly but I couldn’t find a menu that would switch the annoying “MONO” indi­cator to “STEREO” every time I changed channel. This set has two separate stereo decoders – “A2 (German)” Zweiton and Nicam Digital – which it can automatically select. The only control is choosing between “Stereo” and “Bilingual”. Everything, I tried left it in the MONO mode so there was ob­viously a second fault here. I discussed this with Mr and Mrs Edwards who agreed to try it as it was – they weren’t too fussed about not getting stereo. Unfortunately, four days later, this all unravelled when Mr Edwards phoned to tell me the set wouldn’t start again. I still thought that this might be due to a dry joint on the D-Board and so I called in and picked up the chassis so that I could rework it at the workshop. However, apart from a few dodgy connections, I couldn’t find anything wrong. It was then that I had an amazing bit of good luck. I was reading a technical magazine on repairing this very set and there, in black and white, were the two faults I had observed and the solution for both of them. It all concerned the 5V rail from IC803 and, in particular, C885 and C889 (both 330µF 16VW). When these two electros dry out, the 5V rail drops to 4V, affecting the digital circuits. I re­placed both parts on spec and took the reworked chassis back to the Edwards. I am happy to report that we SC had a good result. WHAT’S THAT SEMI? Don’t know what it is? Number rubbed off? Can’t identify leads? Need to match gain? The PEAK ATLAS ANALYSER will tell you -Automatically and in just a few seconds! FO? MORE INit vis c.co.uk peakele DIODES JFETS TRANSISTORS TRIACS SCRS LEDS MOSFETS      Auto identifies semis Auto identifies leads Auto identifies faults Checks transistor gain Matches semis Indispensable aid for technicians - designers engineers - laboratories - hobbyists - everyone! Available now from: PAVIKA MANAGEMENT 15 Gilda Ave, Penrith Sth NSW 2750 Ph (02) 4732 4813 Fax (02) 4732 4836 email: pavika<at>bigpond.com December 2001  35 TELEPHONE C Have you ever opened your phone bill and thought “Woh! No Way! I can’t have made so many calls”? This call logger will prove the point – who you called and for how long! Design by Frank Crivelli – Article by Peter Crowcroft* M ost phone bills itemise long distance calls and give details of the number dialled. But local calls are just totalled up – you have no way of knowing who those calls were made to, or when they were made, or for how long. What about small businesses that operate from home? They can usually claim a percentage of phone calls as a deduction for income tax purposes. With the call logger, ALL outgoing call details are recorded and it is simply a matter of sorting them to determine how many were business calls. You don’t have to do a thing: all the data is recorded automatically. And all phones that use DTMF tone dialing are supported. The logger records the start and stop time of outgoing calls along with the number dialled (plus any other digits pressed during the call – for example, BPay and credit card number entry). It operates “stand alone” – there is no need for any connection to a PC until you want to use the data. When you want to analyse the data, it can be easily imported into Microsoft Excel. Various Excel functions can then be used to analyse and sort the data and produce formatted printouts. Data is stored in non-volatile EEPROM memory, so there is no loss of data in the event of a power failure. The kit is supplied with 16K of memory and is expandable in 16K blocks up to 64K total. The circuit “auto detects” the amount of available memory – just plug it in and go. The number of calls that can be 36  Silicon Chip recorded depends on the amount of memory installed and the number dialled. Each call requires the following minimum number of bytes: - 6 bytes • Start date & time - 6 bytes • Stop data & time - 1 byte • Record terminator Each digit dialled requires one byte. So, each call occupies 13 bytes of memory PLUS one byte for each digit dialled. Allowing for 11 bytes of sys- PLEASE NOTe: This is NOT an Austel-approved device. Anyone building this kit should make appropriate enquiries to ensure they are not contravening telecommunications legislation. Also, the use of telephone number and duration recording devices may contravene privacy legislation in some areas. tem overhead (password storage), this leaves 711 x 10-digit phone numbers that can be stored in the basic design with 16K of memory installed [(1638411)/23] bytes.) If your phone bill records more local calls than this (aah, so you have teenage daughters too?), simply install extra memory. With the full 64K memory installed this is 2848x10-digit phone numbers. Ten digits is just taken as an example. If you are in a country where only 7 or 8 digits are used per call then you will get more calls stored. If you pay your bills by credit card then about 50 to 55 bytes will be used per call. Access to all logger functions, including downloading of call data, is password protected. Three LEDs are provided on the front panel to indicate power on, offhook (call in progress) and memory status. The memory status LED flashes when the memory is 75% full and is permanently on when 100% full. As a bonus, call data is also output in “real time” to the serial port as well as being recorded in memory. This is useful when immediate call analysis and/or external data logging are required. This “real time” output is unaffected by the memory status – even if the memory is full the call data is still output. You can attach this serial output to the parallel port of a printer by going through a serial to parallel converter. These interface boards are readily available commercially. Phone line connection Two RJ12 (USA-type) telephone sockets are available on the rear panel, marked “LINE” and “PHONE”. The telephone line connects to the “LINE” connector and an optional telephone can be connected to the “PHONE” connector. This allows a telephone to be connected and used even when the logger is put in its place. Telephone line cords are not supplied with the logger kit but are very commonly available. The project is constructed on a www.siliconchip.com.au CALL LOGGER The logger is housed in a small plastic case and is fully self-contained. It does not need to be connected to a PC until you want to download the data which is stored in EEPROMs. double-sided, plated-through hole PC board and fits in a plastic case measuring 130(W) x 100(D) x 30(H)mm. Screen-printed front and rear panels are supplied. The kit requires a 9-to-12V DC power supply. A 12VDC plug-pack rated at 300mA is suitable. Circuit description The kit is controlled by a preprogrammed 89C2051 microcontroller from Atmel (U3). This was chosen because it has the required number of I/O pins and an inbuilt serial port. It has 2K bytes of flash memory which is pre-programmed with the control firmware. U2, a Maxim MAX666, provides two functions: 1: 5V regulator (via pin 2) to power the rest of the circuitry. The diode bridge B1 provides polarity protection. The MAX666 maximum input voltage is 16.5 volts. Some 12V (nominal) plugpacks actually deliver a lot higher voltage at low output currents, up to 17V in some cases. Diodes D1 & 2, along with B1, allow voltages up to 19V to be used to power the kit. 2: Low Battery Detect, intended for use with battery powered equipment. In this application it is used to detect when the telephone line is ‘looped’ (in use). The DC voltage of a telephone line is nominally 48V. This drops to around 12V or less when looped. The chip detects this voltage drop and pulls pin 7 low. Diode bridge B2 provides polarity protection on the tele-phone line. U1 (MT8870CE) is a DTMF decoder. It connects to the telephone line via resistors R1 and R2 and capacitors C1 and C2. When a DTMF tone is The rear of the case has four sockets. The telephone line connects to the “line” socket and you can plug a phone into the other RJ12 socket. www.siliconchip.com.au December 2001  37 38  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au detected, pin 15 goes high and the 4-bit digit data is presented on pins 11-14. The metal oxide varistor (MOV) protects the kit from damage by any short duration high-voltage spikes on the telephone line. All clock/calendar functions are provided by U8 (DS1307), a Serial Real Time Clock from Dallas Semiconductor. Using a 2-wire I2C serial interface to communicate with the microcontroller, it features real time clock counts for seconds, minutes, hours, date of the month, month, day of the week and year with leap year compensation valid until 2100. It has a square wave output (pin 7), programmed to give a 1-second signal. This is used by the microcontroller firmware to flash the memory status LED. The chip also features automatic power-fail detect and switch circuitry. The 3V lithium battery provides backup power during a power failure. Non-volatile memory storage is provided by up to four AT24C128 EEPROMs. These also use a 2-wire I2C serial interface like the clock chip. The EEPROMs are 128K bit types organised as 16K x 8. At least one EEPROM must be present. The rest are optional and can be inserted in sequence by the user as required. Two switches are provided. S1 is a pushbutton type and is used for ‘password bypass’. S2 is a slide switch and is used to set the type of calls recorded. More on these later. The serial interface is a bit unusual. It is not the regular type offering RS232 type signal levels. Instead we have used two high-speed optoisolators, U9 and U10. These were necessary to provide complete electrical isolation between any PC connected to the serial port and the telephone line. An RS232 interface uses a common ‘ground’ signal between each end of the interface. At the PC end this ‘ground’ signal is connected to mains earth. This mains earth would then be connected to the telephone line via on-board circuitry in the data logger. Since both sides of a telephone line are normally ‘floating’ above earth, earthing one side of the line would cause a fault condition at the telephone exchange and the line would stop working properly. The solution is to use an opto-isolated serial port for connection to a PC. Otherwise the kit would have www.siliconchip.com.au The PC board for the Telephone Call Logger is double-sided – make sure you mount the components from the top (this view looks down on the top side) to be disconnected from the phone line before connecting a PC to it. It would also mean that a PC could not be permanently connected to capture the ‘real time’ output from the logger. The receive side of the serial interface (U9) is simple. The RS232 voltage levels from the PC drive the LED in U9 via R24. Diode D3 protects the LED from reverse currents when the RS232 level goes negative. The transmit side of the serial interface (U10) requires a positive voltage to bias the output transistor. To maintain electrical isolation, this voltage is provided by the PC side of the interface via the DTR line. The ‘active’ state of DTR is +12V (nominal). R23 is the collector load resistor for U10’s open-collector output, while R25 provides bias for the Darlington output stage, reducing the turn-off time of the output. What about the power supply you say? Yes, it also must be isolated from mains earth. This is not really a problem when using a plugpack. Plug- packs normally use a 2-pin connection to mains (no earth pin). They also use a transformer to convert the mains voltage, which provides further electrical isolation from earth. Construction The PC board has the component overlay printed on it. This is the same as the diagram above. Use the component overlay and the photographs to help with the assembly. Note that the LEDs are left until last. The following is a suggested order of assembly: 1. Resistors and diodes. Put in the four 1% metal film resistors (R3-6) around the DTMF decoder first. 2. IC sockets 3. Crystals and capacitors. Use a resistor lead offcut to hold down crystal Y3 against the PCB. 4. Transistors and the two switches 5. Battery holder and diode bridges 6. DC jack and D9 connector 7. Both telephone connectors 8. Metal Oxide Varistor (MOV). Push this as far down onto the PC board as possible. It is tall and will need to be pushed right in so the lid will fit. Do not insert any ICs yet. The plastic box is in two halves. Take the bottom half and fit the rear panel into the slot provided. Now drop in the PC board and slide it back so that the telephone and D9 connectors protrude through the panel. Fix the PC board into place using the four December 2001  39 self-tapping screws provided. Now comes assembly of the front panel. Start by inserting the three LED clips into the holes, pushing them in from the front. Insert the LEDS into the clips from the rear. The LEDs should “click” into place. Turn the LEDs in the clips so that the long lead is to the left when viewed from the front. This means that the flat edge of the LED (short lead, cathode) will be to the right when viewed from the front and will correspond to the flat marked on the overlay. This is very important so make sure it is right. Now bend the leads down at right angles, about 3mm from the LED body, as shown in the diagram. Use a pair of long-nose pliers to hold the leads while bending. Cut the leads off to a length of about 9mm from the bend. Position the front panel on to the case and drop it into place, making sure that the LED leads are inserted into their matching holes on the PC board. Once the panel is in place solder the LED leads from the top of the PC board. Insert the 5V regulator IC, U2 (MAX666), into its socket. Connect a power supply to the DC jack. The power LED on the front panel should light. Measure the DC voltage output of the regulator. The easiest place to do this is to measure across pins 10 (GND) and 20 (+5) of the U3 IC socket. It should read very close to 5V. If OK, disconnect the power and insert the rest of the ICs. Take care that the ICs are the correct way around and none of the leads are bent under the body of the IC or miss their places in the IC sockets. The EEPROM (24C128) must be inserted in position ‘MEM 1’ (U4). Any extra EEPROMs must be inserted in order from left to right starting at ‘MEM 2’ (U5). The DS1307 clock/calendar chip, U8, is located to the left of all the EEPROMs. The lithium battery is inserted in the battery holder with the positive side up. Note we have a lithium battery because fresh CR2032 batteries are readily available everywhere. You would not want a kit with a flat battery! Do not fit the plastic case lid just yet. Proceed to the section “Installation and setup”. Serial port parameters to ‘talk’ to the logger must configure its serial port to: 9600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity bit No ‘handshaking’ or ‘flow control’ is used. The logger does require that the DTR line is ‘active’, ie +12V. This is the default for most comms programs anyway. Installation and setup The logger needs to be ‘set up’ before use. You will need a PC running a communications program. Any comms program will do. Windows users can use HyperTerminal, which comes with Windows itself. We use our own term.exe. which you may download from: http://kitsrus.com/zip/term.zip The zip file includes a detailed explanation of how to set up and use term.exe under Windows 98. • Connect a PC to the logger via one of the serial ports. Use a 9-way, maleto-female ‘straight though’ cable. • Start the comms program and set the serial port parameters as described Parts List - Telephone Call Logger 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 8 1 1 3 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 Plastic case, 130(W) x 100(D) x 30(H)mm PC board, 102 x 86mm, coded K164 Set of front & rear panels Battery holder RJ12 (6-way 4 pin) phone connectors 2.5mm DC Jack female D9 connector, PCB mounting 8-pin IC sockets 18-pin IC socket 20-pin IC socket LED clips, 5mm black Pushbutton switch SPDT Slide switch Lithium battery, 3V CR2032 or equivalent (not supplied in kit) Self tapping screws for fixing PC board to case 3.579MHz crystal 20.2752MHz crystal 32.768kHz crystal, tuning fork type metal oxide varistor (MOV) Semiconductors 2 1N4004 power diodes 1 1N4148 signal diode 2 WO2 bridge rectifier 2 BC547 NPN transistors (Q1, Q2) 3 LEDs, 5mm red 1 MT8870CE DTMF receiver (U1) 1 MAX666 5V regulator (U2) 1 AT89C2051-24PC (Pre-programmed with K164 firmware) (U3) 1-4 AT24C128 Serial EEPROM (1 supplied with kit – see text) (U4-U7) 1 DS1307 Serial Time Clock (U8) 2 6N138 or 139 optocoupler (U9, U10) Resistors (0.25W carbon film unless specified) 1 3.3MΩ 1 270kΩ∗ 1 220kΩ∗ 2 220kΩ 1 180kΩ 1 56kΩ∗ 9 10kΩ 1 8.2kΩ 2 4.7kΩ 4 1kΩ *1% metal film 1 68kΩ∗ 1 470Ω Capacitors 1 100µF 25V electrolytic 2 10µF 16V electrolytic 5 0.1µF MKT polyester (104 or 100n) 2 .01µF MKT polyester (103 or 10n) 2 27pF ceramic (27 or 27p) Any communications program used 40  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au Here’s how to bend the LED leads so they are a neat fit in the front panel and the PC board. Use a pair of needle-nose pliers to grip the lead and bend against. 3mm 9mm above. Make sure the correct serial port is selected. • Power up the logger. A banner is printed showing the firmware version number and the amount of EEPROM memory installed. • Hold the “PWD BYPASS” switch (S1) down and press the ‘Enter’ or ‘Return’ key on the PC keyboard. • A menu will be displayed, as follows: 1. Download data 2. Clear data 3. Set date 4. Set time 5. Change password 0. Exit • Set the date – option 3. The current date will be displayed and you will be prompted to enter the new data. The date is entered as “mm/dd/yy” (including the ‘/’). Note: The logger does not check for valid dates. For example, if you enter “15/66/01” it will accept it. • Set the time – option 4. The current time will be displayed and you will be prompted to enter the new time. The time is entered in 24-hour format as “hh:mm:ss” (including the ‘:’). Note: As with the date, the logger does not check for valid times. For example, if you enter “29:77:99” it will accept it. • Set the password – option 5. You Compare the PC board photograph with the component overlay. The component overlay is also screened onto the top side of the PC board. can use any letter, number or punctuation mark but it must be at least four characters long, up to a maximum of eight characters. Note: Lower and upper case letters are treated as different characters; eg, the lower case letter ‘a’ is not the same as capital ‘A’. • The last thing is option 2 - Clear data. This MUST be done so that the memory is initialised correctly. • Now exit the menu using option 0. A “READY” prompt is displayed. Table 1: RESISTOR COLOUR CODES    No.  1  1  3  1  1  1  9  1  2  4  1 Value 3.3MΩ 270kΩ 220kΩ 180kΩ 68kΩ 56kΩ 10kΩ 8.2kΩ 4.7kΩ 1kΩ 470Ω 4-Band Code (1%) orange orange green brown red purple yellow brown red red yellow brown brown grey yellow brown blue grey orange brown green blue orange brown brown black orange brown grey red red brown yellow purple red brown brown black red brown yellow purple brown brown www.siliconchip.com.au 5-Band Code (1%) orange orange black yellow brown red purple black orange brown red red black orange brown brown grey black orange brown blue grey black red brown green blue black red brown brown black black red brown grey red black brown brown yellow purple black brown brown brown black black brown brown yellow purple black black brown Select the type of calls to log, as described next. Types of calls The logger has an on-board switch (S2) that is used to select the type of calls to record. A call is defined as any time the phone line is looped (that is, the handset is picked up & the offhook led is on.) Types of calls are defined as: 1. Outgoing Calls Only These are calls where the handset is picked up and at least one digit is dialled. If no digits are dialled, no data is recorded. 2. All Calls Data is recorded any time the line is looped, regardless of whether any digits are dialled or not. If no digits are dialled then it was probably an incoming call. The logger does not have ‘caller ID’ circuitry and is not able to record the phone number of incoming calls. Testing Use a telephone line cord to connect the logger to the telephone line via the ‘LINE’ connector on the back of the logger and connect a suitable power December 2001  41 64K of memory. Only one EEPROM (16K) is supplied as standard with the kit. The memory is user upgradeable by simply ‘plugging in’ more EEPROMs. Disconnect the power and telephone line and remove the lid. Insert the EEPROM(s) according to the following table. Memory  Position 16K   MEM 1 (mandatory) 32K   MEM 1, 2 48K   MEM 1, 2, 3 64K   MEM 1, 2, 3, 4 Here’s the view inside the case from the front (above) and back (right). Everything mounts on the PC board. supply (12VDC plugpack). Once connected to the phone line we can test that it is actually recording calls. Connect a PC to the logger and run the comms program. This will enable us to see the ‘real time’ output. Now pick up the phone. The ‘offhook’ indicator should light and the current date and time printed on the PC screen. Dial a few digits – they should be displayed as they are pressed. Now hang up. The ‘offhook’ indicator should go off and the date and time printed on the screen. Now we will check if the data was recorded into memory. Press the ‘Enter’ or ‘Return’ key on the PC keyboard. You will be prompted for a password. Enter your password. You only have five seconds to start and between each character. If the password is correct a menu is displayed. Choose option 1 – Download data. The call you just made should be displayed there. Notice that the recorded format is slightly different to the ‘real time’ output. In the ‘real time’ output, everything is printed as it happens; ie, the START date/time, followed by the digits dialled, followed by the END date/time. The recorded format has the START date/time followed by the END date/time followed by the digits dialled. This makes the data easier to read if simply making a printed copy. Operation and use The logger does not need a PC connected to log calls. A PC is only re42  Silicon Chip quired to set or check the onboard clock and download any recorded call data. If the data memory becomes full the logger will not log any more calls. In this case connect a PC and download the data (see “Saving call data to a disk file”). Once saved, the memory MUST be cleared for the logger to continue logging further calls. NOTE: the logger will not log any calls while the menu is displayed. You must exit the menu (enter ‘0’) to resume normal operation. What if I forget my password? In this case you will need to remove the lid from the logger and hold down the ‘PWD BYPASS’ switch before you press ‘Enter’ or ‘Return’. Adding more memory The logger uses up to 4 x AT24C128 EEPROMs for data storage. Each EEPROM is 16K bytes giving a total of What do the lights mean? POWER indicates that power is connected to the logger. OFFHOOK indicates that the phone line is looped (in use). It will only indicate if the line was looped AFTER the logger was connected. If the line is already in use when the logger is connected then the indicator will be remain off until the NEXT time the line is used. STATUS indicator has a number of meanings. It is used to indicate the amount of memory left for logging calls. When the memory capacity reaches 75% full the STATUS light starts flashing. When the memory is completely full the light is permanently ON and no more calls will be logged. If the STATUS light is permanently ON it could indicate battery failure on the clock. If the battery has failed then the clock data may be corrupted www.siliconchip.com.au or incorrect. In this case you will need to use the logger’s menu to check the date and time. Test the battery and replace if necessary. If both the STATUS and OFFHOOK lights are ON when the logger is powered up it means that the logger could not detect any EEPROM memory at all. If you connect a PC to the logger and run a comms program you will see the words “MEMORY ERROR” continuously printed. Check that there is an EEPROM in posistion ‘MEM 1’ or re-seat the chip if one is present. Download data format The recorded call data is printed out in the following format: |—Start date and time—| |——End date and time——| |-digits dialled—| (dd-mon-year hours:mins:secs, ddmon-year hours:mins:secs, all numbers pressed) The date is of the form “12-May-01” and the time is in 24-hour format as in “13:30:00” (1.30pm). Each data record (call) is terminated by a “carriage return/line feed” combination. Saving call data to a disk file Now all the call logged data is sitting in MEM1 (and MEM2, 3 and 4 if present.) We want to get this data from these IC(s) into our PC. How do we do this? Answer: we download the data using a ‘comms’, or communications, program running on a PC that ‘captures’ the data to a disk file as it is displayed on the screen. All comms programs have a ‘data capture’ or ‘logging’ function where everything displayed on the screen is also saved to a disk file. The file is a simple ASCII text file. Windows 9x has its own comms program, HyperTerminal, built in and you can use this. But we use term.exe, our own program which can be downloaded from our website http://kitsrus.com/zip/term.zip The file includes a detailed explanation of how to set up and use term. exe under Windows 98. The following description assumes you are running term.exe. (Similar event sequences apply to all comms programs.) Connect your PC to the logger and start term running by clicking on the term.exe icon. After the screen has appeared press ‘Enter’. You will be prompted for a password. Enter the password and a menu will be diswww.siliconchip.com.au played. (The phone must not be in use – offhook LED lit – when you do this.) If you do not enter your password within 5s the software will return to ready mode and will log data. Hit Enter to get the password prompt back. After successful password entry you will get the Menu. Now turn on ‘data capture’ by pressing alt-L. You should be prompted for a file name to save to (term.log is the default). Hit Enter. LOG will appear on the bottom line of the display to show logging is on. Then choose option 1 – Download data. Hit Enter. All recorded data will be printed out (in the format described previously). When finished, turn off ‘data capture’ by pressing alt-L again. Note that LOG disappears from the bottom line. All the data has now been saved to the disk file ‘term.log’. Finally, press ‘0’, press Enter – the logger will exit the menu and return to normal operation. To exit term.exe hit alt-Q. Note logging must be turned off to allow you to exit from term.exe. Note that you cannot stop the scrolling of the data after you press ‘1’. The whole data in the EEPROMs is dumped to term.log in one go. You have to go to term.log with a text editor to look at the individual data lines or load it into Excel as described next. Importing data into Excel The data in term.log is in a format that can be easily imported into Microsoft Excel. First, edit term.log to remove unwanted data from the start and end of the file. Once done the data can now be imported into Excel. The following step-by-step guide will show you how to import the file into Microsoft Excel. It has been tested using Excel 97 and 2000. 1. Click on “File, Open” 2. In the ‘Files of type’ box select ‘All Files (*.*)’ 3. Browse to the saved data file, select it and click ‘Open’ 4. A ‘Text Import Wizard’ dialog box will appear. Under ‘Original data type’ select ‘Delimited’. Click ‘Next’ 5. A second dialog box will appear. Here you can choose which delimiters to use to break up the file into columns. If you want the data and time to be one column then select ‘Comma’ only. If you want the date and time to be separate columns (recommended) then select both ‘Comma’ and ‘Space’ as delimiters. A preview will show you The Tiger comes to Australia The BASIC, Tiny and Economy Tigers are sold in Australia by JED, with W98/NT software and local single board systems. Tigers are modules running true compiled multitasking BASIC in a 16/32 bit core, with typically 512K bytes of FLASH (program and data) memory and 32/128/512 K bytes of RAM. The Tiny Tiger has four, 10 bit analog ins, lots of 2 digital I/O, two UARTs, SPI, I C, 1-wire, RTC and has low cost W98/NT compile, debug and download software. JED makes four Australian boards with up to 64 screw-terminal I/O, more UARTs & LCD/keyboard support. See JED's www site for data. TIG505 Single Board Computer The TIG505 is an Australian SBC using the TCN1/4 or TCN4/4 Tiger processor with 512K FLASH and 128/512K RAM. It has 50 I/O lines, 2 RS232/485 ports, SPI, RTC, LCD, 4 ADC, 4 (opt.) DAC, and DataFLASH memory expansion. Various Xilinx FPGAs can add 3x 32bit quad shaft encoder, X10 or counter/timer functions. See www site for data. $330 PC-PROM Programmer This programmer plugs into a PC printer port and reads, writes and edits any 28 or 32-pin PROM. Comes with plug-pack, cable and software. Also available is a multi-PROM UV eraser with timer, and a 32/32 PLCC converter. JED Microprocessors Pty Ltd 173 Boronia Rd, Boronia, Victoria, 3155 Ph. 03 9762 3588, Fax 03 9762 5499 www.jedmicro.com.au December 2001  43 how choosing each delimiter affects the file. Click ‘Next’. 6. A third and last dialog box appears. Here you can choose how Excel interprets each column of data. Select each column in turn and set the ‘Column data format’ to ‘Text’. Click ‘Finish’ when done. Calculating call duration Once you have imported the data we can use Excel’s date and time functions to calculate the length of each call. We can then sort the file into order starting with the longest duration call first. The data should have been imported in five columns labelled as follows: Column Data A Start date B Start time C End date D End time E Digits dialled The data should start in row 1. We will now create a column of data that is the duration of each call. 1. Click on cell ‘F1’ 2. Type in the following formula: =DATEVALUE(C1) +TIMEVALUE(D1) -DATEVALUE(A1) -TIMEVALUE(B1) This tells Excel to subtract the start date (A1) and time (B1) from the end date (C1) and time (D1). 3. Click on cell ‘F1’ again 4. From the menu select “Format Cells” 5. The “Format Cells” dialog box will appear. In the ‘Number’ tab under ‘Category’ list select ‘Time’. Under ‘Type’ select ’37:30:55’. The call duration is now shown in “hours:minutes:seconds” and can span multiple days. We now want to copy this formula and formatting to the rest of the cells in this column down to the last data entry. 6. Click on cell F1 again. This cell contains the formula and formatting information we need. 7. Drag the fill handle over the cells to be filled. The fill handle is the small black square in the corner of the selected cell (F1). When you point to the fill handle, the mouse pointer changes to a black cross. The cells should now contain the duration of each call. Note: some calls may span across midnight from one day to the next. In this case the end time will be earlier than the start time. Using the Excel DATEVALUE and TIMEVALUE functions allows the correct time duration to be calculated. Sorting the data The data can be sorted in any order using any column as required. The following example sorts the data according to call duration (as calculated previously). 1. Click on any data cell 2. From the menu select “Data Sort” 3. The ‘Sort’ dialog box will appear. In the ‘Sort by’ box select Column F (the call duration column) and ‘Descending’ 4. Click ‘OK’ The call data is now sorted by call duration with the longest call first. Of course you can sort the data in any order you like. Using the ‘digits dialled’ column will sort the data by phone numbers dialled, with all similar numbers grouped together. Sorting by “start time” will group all numbers dialled at a certain time of day. Wheredyageddit? The copyright in this design, including PC board, is retained by the authors. Kits are available from Ozitronics (www.ozitronics.com) for $116.00 plus GST *You can email the authors – peter<at>kitsrus.com if you have any problems or requests. For any technical problems or questions, contact the kit developer, frank<at>ozitronics.com Information on other kits in the range is available from our Web page at http://kitsrus.com If it does not work . . . Poor soldering (“dry joints”) is the most common reason for the circuit not working. Check all soldered joints carefully under a good light. Re-solder any that look suspicious. And then check: • Are all the components in their correct position on the PC board? • Are the electrolytic capacitors the right way round? What about the diodes and diode bridges? • Are the ICs the right way around? • Are any IC leads bent up under the IC body (ie, not in the sockets)? • Is the regulator output = 5V? • Is it connected to the telephone line? • Is it connected to the right serial port on your PC? • Are you using a straight through serial cable? • Is the correct serial port selected in your comms program? • Is the serial port configured correctly? Is DTR active (+12V)? • Is an EEPROM inserted in position “MEM 1” (U4)? SC K&W HEATSINK EXTRUSION. SEE OUR WEBSITE FOR THE COMPLETE OFF THE SHELF RANGE. 44  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au SILICON CHIP If you are seeing a blank page here, it is more than likely that it contained advertising which is now out of date and the advertiser has requested that the page be removed to prevent misunderstandings. 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Folded: $A5.95 inc p&p within Australia; elsewhere $A10 inc p&p. *BOOKSHOP TITLES: Please refer to current issue of SILICON CHIP for currently available titles and prices as these may vary from month to month. SUBSCRIBERS QUALIFY FOR 10% DISCOUNT ON ALL SILICON CHIP PRODUCTS AND SERVICES* *except subscriptions/renewals and Internet access Item Price Qty Item Description P&P if extra Total Price Total $A TO PLACE YOUR ORDER Phone (02) 9979 5644 9am-5pm Mon-Fri Please have your credit card details ready OR Fax this form to (02) 9979 6503 with your credit card details 24 hours 7 days a week OR Mail this form, with your cheque/money order, to: Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd, PO Box 139, Collaroy, NSW, Australia 2097 * Special offer applies while stocks last. 03-01 11-01 Last month, we introduced our new high-performance stereo amplifier and described the circuit details. This month, we begin the construction by showing you how to build the preamp, RCA input & power amplifier modules. The full performance details are also provided. Building the Ultra-LD 2 x 100W Stereo Amplifier A LTHOUGH THERE’S A LOT of work in building this new ampli­fier, it’s really all quite straightforward. Most of the work involves assembling the six PC board modules but there’s also a fair bit of wiring do be done. Make no mistake – this project will gobble up quite a few man-hours and is no job for the fainthearted. To make the job as easy as possible, Altronics in Perth will be offering complete kits for this new high-performance amplifier and these are expected to be available by the end of December. The Altronics kit will come with a professional rack-mount­ing case that’s been custom-made for the job. The case is powder-coated, all the holes are pre-drilled and the front and rear panels are supplied with screened lettering. In short, there’s absolutely no metalworking to do. Note that although our prototype shows rack-mounting flang­es and handles, the Altronics metalwork will give you the option of leaving these items off, if that is what you prefer. These parts will still be supplied with the metalwork – it’s up to you to decide whether or not to use them. The detachable front panel really looks the part. The top and bottom edges are curved to improve the appearance and the design is “relieved” by the vertical slots at either end and the slots running horizontally along the bottom. And in case you’re wonder­ing how the front panel is secured on the prototype, it’s mounted on spacers on the front of the chassis and is fastened at either end by screws that pass through the front of the chas- sis and into the handles at either end. This means that no screw heads are visible on the front panel. Alternatively, if you choose not to use the handles, the front panel can be secured using the attractive Allen Key screws supplied with the kit. Inside, the large fan-cooled heatsink is supplied drilled and tapped, and has the necessary channels milled into its base to allow the wiring to run between the front and rear sections of the case. The power supply heatsink is also supplied cut to size and predrilled. Other highlights of the Altronics kit include fibreglass PC boards with solder-masked tracks, gold-plated heavy-duty loud­ speaker terminals, gold-plated RCA input connectors and a custom-made power-transformer with all leads made the correct length Part 2: By GREG SWAIN & LEO SIMPSON 54  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au The completed power amplifier modules are bolted to the large fan-cooled heatsink, with the thermal switch between them. The fan only cuts in if the heatsink temperature reaches 60°C – hardly ever (if at all) for normal domestic use. to reach their destinations and fitted with quick connects. Preparing the quick connects All the male quick connects supplied in the kit are double ended but most locations require a single-ended connector. There­fore, the first job is to convert 48 of the male quick connects to single-ended connectors by cutting off one of the lugs. This can be done using a sharp pair of tinsnips – the quick connects are made of brass and are quite easy to cut. Clean the sharp edges up using a light file after cutting off each lug. Semiconductor numbers Before starting the board assemblies, it’s important to note that some of the transistor, LED, diode and regulator numbers shown on the circuits (and overlays) are duplicated across the various modules. That’s because most of the circuitry is based on previously www.siliconchip.com.au published designs and we’ve retained the original numbering schemes. For this reason, always be sure to check the relevant circuit or section of the parts list for that module when looking up the type numbers for the semiconductors. Building The Preamplifier & LED Display Module Fig.6 shows how to build the Preamplifier & LED Display Module. You can start the assembly by installing the wire links, resistors and diodes, taking care to ensure that the latter are correctly oriented. Table 1 shows the resistor colour codes but it’s always a good idea to check each value using a digital multimeter, as some of the colours can be difficult to decipher. Note that the two 150Ω resistors near rotary switch S1 have RF suppression beads slipped over one of their leads before they are installed on the board. Once these parts are in, you can fit the five ICs and the two 3-terminal regulators (REG1 & REG2). ICs can be static sensi­tive, so always touch a grounded object before handling them and try not to touch any of the pins. This particularly applies to the NE­5534A devices (IC1 & IC3). Note that IC1 & IC3 can be labelled either NE5534AN or NE5534AP. The “A” in the suffix designates a very low noise device. Don’t use devices without an “A” in the type number (eg, NE5534N), as these have inferior noise performance. Regulators REG1 & REG2 are mount­ ed flat against the PC board and are secured using 10mm x M3 screws, nuts and star washers. This means December 2001  55 Fig.6: install the parts on the Preamplifier & LED Display board as shown here. Note that potentiometer VR1 and the LEDs must be stood off the board – see text and photos. 56  Silicon Chip Fig.7: this diagram shows how the male quick connects are installed on the back of the preamplifier PC board. Left: bend the leads of the 10µF electrolytic capacitors using needle-nose pliers, before installing them on the PC board (Note: some brands are supplied with the leads preformed). that you have to bend their leads down by 90° before installing them on the board. This is best done by slipping an M3 screw through the device tab, positioning it on the board and then gripping one of the leads with a pair of needle-nose pliers just before it reach­ es its mounting hole. The device is then lifted clear of the board and the lead bent at right angles, after which the proce­dure is repeated for the next lead. The four quick connect terminals can be installed next. Unlike the quick connects on other boards, these are installed on the copper side of the Preamplifier PC board and are each secured using an M4 x 10mm machine screw, a star washer and a nut. Fig.7 shows the details. Do up the nuts tightly so that the star washers bite into the quick connects. This should be done using a Phillips-head screwdriver on one side and a 4mm socket or nutdriver on the other. It’s also necessary to get things nice and tight so that the quick connects cannot twist on the board. The capacitors can be now be installed. You can install the four 10µF non-polarised (NP or BP) capacitors either way around but make sure that the polarised electrolytics are correctly oriented. The two 100µF capacitors near REG1 & REG2 should be mounted about 5mm proud of the PC board, so that their bodies clear the regulator leads. Don’t push the 10µF electrolytic capacitors too far down onto the board – applying undue stress to the capacitor leads can damage the internal connections. Instead, the bodies of these www.siliconchip.com.au Fig.8: the mounting details for the Preamplifier & LED Display module. This module must be installed so that the LEDs and volume pot (VR1) can be pushed into position before soldering their leads – see text. Above: take care to ensure that switch S1 is correctly oriented when installing it on the Preamplifier board. Pins 2 & 3 must be towards the bottom – see Fig.6. capacitors should sit 2-3mm above the board. A better scheme is to preform the capacitor leads before fitting them, so that they drop straight in the holes (note: some capacitor brands are supplied like this). You can do this using a pair of needle-nose pliers – see photo. The next step is to fit the two terminal blocks, followed by the 26-way pin header (ie, 2 x 13 pins). This item will prob­ably be supplied as a 2 x 40pin header but it’s easily cut to size using a sharp hobby knife. You will need to cut two sections – one for the preamplifier board and one for the RCA input board. A fine-tipped soldering iron and a good light are necessary when installing the pin headers, as the pins are quite close together and some have tracks running between them. If you have a magnifying lamp, then so much the better. Take care to ensure that there are no shorts between the This photo shows the male quick connects mounted on the prototype Preamplifier & LED Display board pictured last month. We fed the mounting screws through from the other side in the final version. www.siliconchip.com.au pins and any adjacent tracks. By the way, you will notice that many of the tracks around the pin header and rotary switch S1 are not connected at one end. These are earth “guard” tracks and are included to improve the channel separation and to reduce interference from unused signal sources. Don’t join any of these earth tracks together. You could get an earth loop if you do. Now for the rotary switch. Cut its shaft length to 23mm using a small hacksaw, then install it on the PC board with pin 1 positioned exactly as shown on Fig.6 (ie, pins 2 & 3 mount closest to the pin header). Make sure that the switch has been pushed all the way down and is correctly seated against the PC board before soldering any of its pins. It’s a good idea to solder two diametrically opposite pins first, then check that the switch is properly seated before soldering the remaining pins. Once the switch is in, rotate the shaft fully anti-clock­ wise, remove its locking nut and star washer, and move the indexing collar one position anti-clockwise (see photo). Finally, replace the star washer and mounting nut to lock the collar down. The switch should now operate over five positions (instead of six), with the flat section of the shaft facing down for position 3. Installing VR1 & the LEDs The LEDs must all be stood off the Fig.9: the mounting details for the volume control pot (VR1). Note particularly how the wire leads are attached to the pot terminals. PC board so that they later protrude through their matching holes in the front panel when the PC board is mounted in the chassis. This might seem awkward to arrange but it’s really a snack. All you have to do is insert the LEDs into the PC board, then mount the board as shown in Fig.8, push the LEDs through their front panel holes and solder one lead for each LED. After that, it’s just a matter of removing the board and soldering the re­maining leads. Make sure that the LEDs are all correctly oriented (the anode lead is the longer of the two) when installing them on the PC board. Remove the front panel if necessary (by removing the han­dles) so that you can attach the nuts and spacers to the chassis. These should all be tight before mounting the Preamplifier PC board and soldering the LED leads. Once the LEDs are in, you can install VR1 in similar fash­ion. This pot needs to have short lengths of tinned copper December 2001  57 Right: the source switch is changed from a 6-position type to a 5-position type by undoing the locking nut and moving its indexing collar. The volume pot (VR1) is mounted by first soldering tinned copper wire leads to its terminals. It is then loose-fitted to the PC board, the board mounted in the chassis and the pot fastened to the front of the chassis before soldering its leads. INDEXING COLLAR wire soldered to its terminals so that it can be stood off the PC board – see photo. The pot itself is secured by mounting it on the front panel (the tinned copper leads simply make the connec­tions back to the PC board). Begin by straightening a 300mm length of tinned copper wire. This is done by clamping one end of the wire in a vyce and then stretching it slightly by pulling on the other end with a pair of pliers. Cut this wire into six 40mm lengths and bend three at right angles 10mm from one end and the other three at right angles 3mm from one end. These six wires can now be soldered to the pot terminals as shown in Fig.9. Note that the wires with the 10mm sections solder to the top of their pot terminals, while those with the 3mm sec­tions solder to the bottom of their terminals. Also, in the latter case, the right angle bend sits closest to the pot body. You will need to devise some method of securing the pot while you attach the wires – eg, by lightly clamping it in a small vyce or by mounting it on some scrap aluminium. The pot can now be installed by inserting the leads into the PC board, then mounting the board in the chassis and pushing the pot through its mounting hole. Check that the pot’s anti-rotation spigot is correctly located in its hole before doing up the nut and soldering the leads at the back of the board. The Preamplifier board can now be removed from the chassis and placed to one side while you build the other modules. RCA Input Module Assembly Fig.10: the RCA Input Module carries the three RCA 2 x 2 stereo socket pairs and a 26-way pin header. Snip the plastic locking “tangs” off the socket pairs before installing them on the PC board. This one’s a snack, since the board carries just three RCA 2 x 2 stereo socket pairs and a 26-way pin header – see Fig.10. The first step is remove the plastic locking tangs on the RCA socket pairs using a pair of sidecutters. This done, fit the RCA sockets to the board and check that their plastic bodies are flush with the edge of the PC board. If the board protrudes slightly, remove the sockets and file the board down until it is “spot on”. The RCA sockets pairs can now be soldered in place, taking care to ensure that they are all seated correctly. Finally, complete this board assembly by soldering in the 26-way pin header. Power Amplifier Module Assembly You will need to fit a fine tip to your soldering iron before installing the 26way pin header, as the pins are quite close together. Check your work under a magnifying glass when finished, to make sure that are no solder bridges between adjacent pads or tracks. 58  Silicon Chip Now let’s build the Power Amplifier modules. Fig.11 shows the assembly details. Begin each board assembly by installing the wire links, resistors and capacitors but don’t install the two 1000µF elec­trolytic capacitors at this stage. You can then install the 3.3V zener diode (ZD1), the fuse clips and the four PC stakes which terminate the 220Ω 5W test resistor leads (note: www.siliconchip.com.au these resistors are only installed temporarily when adjusting the quiescent current). Make sure that the electrolytic capacitors and the 3.3V zener diode are installed with the correct polarity. Note that the 1W resistors should all be mounted about 1mm proud of the board, to allow the air to circulate beneath them for cooling. The easiest way to do this is to use a strip of cardboard (about 14mm wide and 1mm thick) as a spacer. You just push the resistor body all the way down onto the cardboard, then slide the cardboard back out after soldering the leads – see photo. The same technique can be used for mounting the 2.7kΩ 5W resistor, which should sit about 2mm above the board surface. If the amplifier is intended for continuous high-power delivery at frequencies above 10kHz, then the 6.8Ω resistor in the output filter should be a wirewound type with a rating of at least 5W, otherwise it may burn out. The 1W resistor specified will be perfectly adequate for normal domestic situations. When installing the fuse clips, note that they each have little lugs on one end which stop the fuse from moving. If you install the clips the wrong way, you will not be able to fit the fuses. Next, mount the small-signal transistors; ie, BC546, BC556, BF469 and BF470 (Q1-Q9). These should be push­ed down onto the PC board as far as they will comfortably go before soldering their leads. Transistor pairs Q1 & Q2 and Q5 & Q6 are mounted with their flat faces touching each other, to ensure thermal tracking. Install one transistor of each pair first, then smear their faces with thermal grease before installing the other two transistors. The mounting holes have been carefully positioned on the PC board so that the flat faces of the transistor pairs touch each other when they are installed normally. Transistors Q8 & Q9 must be fitted with U-shaped heatsinks before soldering them to the PC board – see Fig.11. The best way to go about this is to first fit each transistor in position and smear its mating surface with thermal grease, then loosely attach the heatsink using an M3 x 10mm screw, nut and star washer. This done, the assembly can then be pushed down www.siliconchip.com.au Fig.11: the parts layout for the Power Amplifier boards. Note that brass screws, nuts and star washers should be used to mount the quick connect terminals for the two loudspeaker outputs. until the heatsink contacts the PC board, the transistor leads soldered and the mounting screw tightened. Note that insulating washers aren’t required here, since the heatsink doesn’t touch any other components. Choke L1 is wound with 23.5 turns of 1mm enamelled copper wire on a 13mm plastic former. You can straight­ en the wire before winding on the turns by clamping one end in a vyce and then stretching it slightly by pulling on the other end with a pair of pliers. December 2001  59 Fig.12(a): mounting details for the MJL3281A & MJL1302A output transistors. Fig.12(b): mounting details for the MJE15030 & MJL15031 driver transistors. Fig.12(c): mounting details for the MJE340 Vbe multiplier transistor. Fig.13: this diagram shows how the male quick connects are installed on the Power Amplifier, Power Supply and Loudspeaker Protection modules. Be sure to use brass screws, nuts and star washers where indicated on the parts layout diagrams. Bend one end of the wire at right angles (about 10mm from the end) and feed it through one of the end slots in the plastic former, then wind the turns on as neatly and evenly as possible. Finally, bend the free end of the wire through 90°, feed it out through the opposite slot and finish off with a few layers of insulation tape to hold everything in place. The individual coil leads can then be cleaned (by scraping away the enamel) and tinned before soldering the component in place. You can now install trimpot VR1, the 2-way terminal block and the nine male quick connects. Fig.13 shows the mounting de­ tails for the quick connects – each is secured using an M4 x 10mm screw, two star washers and a nut. Note that brass screws, nuts and star washers are used to secure the quick connects for the loudspeaker output terminals. The reason for this is explained in the section where we detail the performance. Do up the nuts tightly so that the star washers bite into the quick connects and the copper pads – and so that the quick connects cannot twist on the board. Note that a double-ended quick connect is used in the 0V position. These three photos show how the leads off the output and driver transistors are bent using pliers and a cardboard spacer, prior to installing them on the PC board. Make sure that the cardboard strip is cut exactly to 4mm before bending the leads at right angles – see also Fig.12 above. 60  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au This photo shows one of the completed Power Amplifier modules, prior to attaching it to the heatsink. Make sure that the mounting screws for the quick connect terminals are tight (use a screwdriver to stop the terminals from twisting while you do up the nuts with a socket). The other eight quick connects are all single-ended. Heatsink transistors OK, now for transistors Q10-Q16. These transistors are at­ tached to a channel which runs across the centre of the heatsink. This makes it necessary to bend their leads as shown in Fig.12, before mounting them on the PC board. Start by bending the leads for transistors Q11-Q16. As shown, the leads of each device must be bent at right angles away from the metal face, some 4mm from the plastic body. This done, the leads are then bent downwards by 90° a further 4mm away. There’s any easy way to do this and that’s to use a strip of cardboard as a spacer. First, cut a strip of thin cardboard exactly 4mm wide, fold it in half and wrap it around the transis­tor leads so that it butts up against the plastic body. This done, you can then grip the leads right at the edge of the card­board using needle-nose pliers and bend the leads up at right angles. Finally, reposition the cardboard so that it butts against the bend before bending the leads down at right angles. The accompanying photographs show how it’s all done. Transistor Q10 (MJE340) has its www.siliconchip.com.au leads bent as shown in Fig.12(c). By the way, don’t bend any of the transistor leads right at the point where they narrow after emerging from the plastic body – it’s all too easy to break the lead if you do. Once all the leads have been bent, mount transistors Q13-Q16 in position by pushing them all the way down onto the PC board with their metal surfaces facing outwards. Solder one lead of each transistor initially, then test fit it on the heatsink before soldering the other leads. If you haven’t already done so, you will have to remove the heatsink to do this – it’s held in the case by two self-tapping screws at either end and by a self-tapper underneath. A strip of cardboard makes a handy spacer when installing the 1W resist­ ors on the PC boards. Just push the resistors down onto the spacer and withdraw it after soldering the leads. Once it’s out, position the output transistors on the heat­sink and install M3 x 10mm mounting screws to hold the board in position (don’t worry about the silicone washers at this stage). Now inspect the underside of the board – the soldered joints and tracks should all clear of the heatsink channel by several milli­metres. If the board fouls the heatsink, then the transistor leads have been bent incorrectly. Assuming that everything is OK, the remaining leads can all be soldered and trimmed. Transistors Q10, Q11 & Q12 can then be installed on the board in similar fashion. Once all the transistors have been installed, undo their mounting screws and fit each transistor with a thermal washer to isolate it from the heatsink. Transistors Q11 & Q12 also require insulating bushes to ensure isolation – see Fig.12(b). Be sure to use a flat washer under each screw head and don’t overtighten the mounting screws. Now switch your multimeter to a high ohms range and check that there are no shorts between the heatsink screws and any of the transistor leads or metal tabs. If you do find a short, undo each transistor mounting screw until the short disappears. It is then a matter of locating the cause of the short and remounting the offending transistor. Once everything is together, you can continued on page 64 December 2001  61 Ultra-LD 2 x 100W Stereo Amplifier – Performance AUDIO PRECISION AMPRESP 2-CHAN(dBr) & LEVEL(dBr) vs FREQ(Hz) 02 NOV 2001 03:13:43 5.0000 4.0000 3.0000 2.0000 1.0000 0.0 -1.000 -2.000 -3.000 -4.000 -5.000 20 100 1k 10k 100k Fig.14: frequency response in both channels at 1W into 8Ω. It is about 0.3dB down at 20Hz and about 0.5dB down at 20kHz. AUDIO PRECISION AMP-THD THD+N(%) & THD+N(%) vs FREQ(Hz) 5 02 NOV 2001 15:38:23 1 0.1 0.010 0.001 20 100 1k 10k 20k Fig.15: total harmonic distortion (THD) vs. frequency – both channels driven into 8Ω loads at 90W. T HE MAIN SPECIFICATIONS for the Ultra-LD 100W amplifier are shown in an accompanying panel but the graphs of Figs.14-17 give a more detailed picture. Fig.14 shows the frequency response 62  Silicon Chip in both channels at 1W into 8Ω. It is about 0.3dB down at 20Hz and about 0.5dB down at 20kHz. Note that there are slight differences between the two channels. As in the previous amplifier, we have deliberately cur­tailed the high frequency response beyond 20kHz. This is most important for low EMI (electromagnetic interference) susceptibil­ity which means that signals from computers and video monitors are less likely to be a problem. Nor will the amplifier respond to extraneous signals such as 38kHz multiplex from stereo FM tuners or over-sampling artefacts from CD players or other digi­tal program sources. By the way, all of these performance graphs are for signals passing through both the preamplifier and amplifier stages. Therefore readers who have access to the previous series of articles on the Ultra-LD 100W amplifier in the March, May and August 2000 issues will notice that there are some differences in performance. Specifically, because the audio signals now pass through more stages of amplification and because of the new amplifier’s much more compact wiring layout, the distortion performance is not quite as good as the earlier, simpler design. Nevertheless, the performance is still pretty good and far better than the vast majority of commercial hifi amplifiers, many of which cost much more. Fig.15 shows the total harmonic distortion in both channels at a power level of 90W into 8-ohm loads and with an input signal of 1.8V RMS for the frequency range from 20Hz to 20kHz. These curves are taken with a measurement bandwidth of 10Hz to 80kHz. Fig.16 shows the total harmonic distortion on both channels at 1kHz over a range of powers from 500mW to well beyond clip­ ping, with both channels driven simultaneously into 8-ohm loads. As can be seen, one channel clips (ie, overloads) at about 90W while the other clips at around 98W. Naturally, somewhat more power is delivered from both channels under normal program condi­tions. Measurement bandwidth is 10Hz to 22kHz. As can be seen, for most powers at 1kHz, the total harmonic distortion is between .002% and .003%. The rise in the curve at lower powers is due to residual noise and is not due to an actual increase in distortion. As mentioned in previous articles on this amplifier design, we do not recommend it for use with 4-ohm loudspeakers, as the distortion is quite a bit higher. Signal-to-noise ratio is -103dB www.siliconchip.com.au un-weighted (20Hz to 20kHz) or -109dB A-weighted. This is taken at maximum sensitivity (ie, volume control fully clockwise) and is even better at normal settings. It is really very quiet. Fig.17 shows the separation between channels and as you can see, it is just on -60dB over the whole frequency range from 20Hz to 20kHz, in both directions; ie, from left to right and from right to left and this applies for any source, at any normal program level or power output. Finally, the damping factor is just over 100 for all fre­quencies below 1kHz, dropping to a bit over 60 at 10kHz. Again, these are very good figures. AUDIO PRECISION SCTHD-W THD+N(%) vs measured LEVEL(W) 10 02 NOV 2001 17:19:43 1 0.1 0.010 Brass screws and nuts In measuring the performance of the prototype amplifier we found that the initial distortion measurements were somewhat disappointing. While they were respectable, they were not quite as good as we were hoping for. In order to track down the problem, we then decided to measure the harmonic distortion through the power amplifi­ers only. So we connected the Audio Precision input signals directly to the inputs of the amplifier modules and measured at the speaker output terminals at the rear of the case. Guess what? The distortion was still high; about twice what we have come to expect from these modules. Eventually, we decided to measure the distortion right at the output of the amplifier modules themselves. What a revelation! Here the distortion was of the same magnitude as published in the original design last year. So what was happening? To cut a long story short, the distortion arose from the various bolted “quick connect” spade lug connections from the amplifier and loudspeaker protection PC boards. We were using bright nickel-plated screws and bolts with plated brass “quick connect” spade lugs and each of these dissimilar metal joints were obviously non-linear; ie, the resistance across each joint varied with the current and this caused a small but significant increase in distortion. Replacing all screws and nuts for the quick connects in the output signal path with brass equivalents eliminated those increases in distortion, giving a very worthwhile improvement in performance. These brass screw connections are shown in different colours on both the Power Amplifier modules and the Loudspeaker Protection board. www.siliconchip.com.au 0.001 .0005 0.5 1 10 100 200 Fig.16: total harmonic distortion (THD) vs. power at 1kHz – both channels driven simultaneously into 8Ω loads. AUDIO PRECISION SCCRSTK XTALK(dBr) & XTALK(dBr) vs FREQ(Hz) 0.0 02 NOV 2001 17:28:53 -20.00 -40.00 -60.00 -80.00 -100.0 -120.0 20 100 1k 10k 20k Fig.17: channel separation across the frequency range from 20Hz to 20kHz. Specifications Of Prototype Output power.................. 100 watts per channel into 8-ohm loads Frequency response....... -0.3dB down at 20Hz; -0.5dB at 20kHz (see Fig.14) Input sensitivity............... 0.5V RMS (for full power into 8Ω) Harmonic distortion......... see Fig.15 & Fig.16 Signal-to-noise ratio........ -103dB unweighted (20Hz to 20kHz); -109dB A-weighted .........................................(with respect to 100W) Damping factor............... >100 at 100Hz and 1kHz; >60 at 10kHz Stability........................... unconditional December 2001  63 Table 1: Resistor Colour Codes Preamplifier & LED Display Module   No.    2    2    2    2    2    2    2    2    2    3    4    2    2    1 Value 680kΩ 330kΩ 220kΩ 150kΩ 100kΩ 6.8kΩ 4.7kΩ 2.2kΩ 1.8kΩ 1.2kΩ 150Ω 100Ω 33Ω 10Ω 4-Band Code (1%) blue grey yellow brown orange orange yellow brown red red yellow brown brown green yellow brown brown black yellow brown blue grey red brown yellow violet red brown red red red brown brown grey red brown brown red red brown brown green brown brown brown black brown brown orange orange black brown brown black black brown 5-Band Code (1%) blue grey black orange brown orange orange black orange brown red red black orange brown brown green black orange brown brown black black orange brown blue grey black brown brown yellow violet black brown brown red red black brown brown brown grey black brown brown brown red black brown brown brown green black black brown brown black black black brown orange orange black gold brown brown black black gold brown Power Amplifier Modules   No.    4    2    2    2    2    2    4    4    6    8    4    2    2  16 Value 18kΩ 12kΩ 3.3kΩ 1.2kΩ 1kΩ 390Ω 330Ω 150Ω 120Ω 100Ω 47Ω 10Ω 6.8Ω 1.5Ω install the two 1000µF 63VW electrolytic capacitors on the power amplifier module. There are two reasons why these aren’t installed earlier on: (1) they’re easily bumped and damaged; and (2) they make it awkward (but not impossible) to do up the mounting screws for Q11 & Q12. The other power amplifier module can now be built and mounted on the heatsink in exactly the same fashion. Finally, complete the power amplifier assembly by attaching a 25mm tapped brass spacer to each of the front mounting hole positions. Thermal cutout There’s just one more part to attach to the heatsink and that’s the 60°C thermal switch for the heatsink fan. This 64  Silicon Chip 4-Band Code (1%) brown grey orange brown brown red orange brown orange orange red brown brown red red brown brown black red brown orange white brown brown orange orange brown brown brown green brown brown brown red brown brown brown black brown brown yellow violet black brown brown black black brown blue grey gold brown brown green gold brown Table 2: Capacitor Codes Preamp & LED Display Module       Value IEC Code EIA Code 0.22µF   220n   224 .01µF   10n  103 390pF 390pF   390 33pF  33pF   33 10pF  10pF   10 Power Amplifier Modules      Value IEC Code EIA Code 0.15µF   150n   154 0.1µF   100n   104 .0012µF   12n  121 100pF   100pF   100 5-Band Code (1%) brown grey black red brown brown red black red brown orange orange black brown brown brown red black brown brown brown black black brown brown orange white black black brown orange orange black black brown brown green black black brown brown red black black brown brown black black black brown yellow violet black gold brown brown black black gold brown blue grey black silver brown brown green black silver brown is bolted to the centre of the heatsink, between the two power amplifier modules using two M3 x 10mm machine screws (see photo). As supplied, the quick connect terminals on the thermal switch run parallel to its metal mating surface. These terminals should be bent back about 70° (to make them easier to access later on) using needle-nose pliers before bolting it to the heatsink. Next month That’s all we have space for this month. Next month, we'll describe the assembly of the Power Supply and Loudspeaker Protector modules and give the wiring details. We’ll also publish a complete parts list for those determined to start from scratch. SC www.siliconchip.com.au A M A Z I N G C O M P U T E R / H O M E T H E AT E R B A R G A I N ! ! ! B R A N D N E W W O R L D A C C L A I M E D B O S T O N A C O U S T I C S B A 7 5 0 0 G D O L B Y D I G I TA L S U R R O U N D SOUND SPEAKER SYSTEM WITH SUB-WOOFER. COMES COMPLETE IN ORIGINAL PACKING WITH 2 SLIM-LINE SPEAKERS & STANDS, SUBWOOFER, AUDIO CONTROL PANEL, POWER SUPPLY AND CABLES. REQUIRES A DIGITAL 9 4 $1 INPUT FROM A DIGITAL SOUND CARD OR DVD ETC. SPECIFICATIONS Frequency Response 50 – 20,000-Hertz (Hz) ± 3-decibels (dB) Maximum sound pressure level 107-dB. Sub-woofer 6.5-inches (165-mm). Satellites SST™ Panels Crossover frequency 180-Hz. Sub-woofer Dimensions 299 x 178 x 372-mm. Satellite Dimensions 284 x 103 x 133-mm. Sub-woofer Weight (5-kg.). Satellite Weight 1-lb. (450-g.). Packed weight 7Kg. MagnaGuard magnetic shielding to prevent television picture interference or accidental disk erasure. More at http://www.bostonacoustics.com/Gateway.asp MAGNETS: Very strong NEODYMIUM IRON BORON RARE EARTH MAGNETS. Zinc coated. (NEW) HYUNDAI FLASH We have been able to significantly reduce the MEMORY IC: Organized as prices of some of these magnets. 512K x 8 bits. The 32pin CYLINDRICAL 7 mm diameter x 3 mm thick: surface mount HY29F040 (G37) $1.80 CYLINDRICAL 10mm diameter x IC has been assembled on 3 mm thick: (G38) $2.60 ROD 10mm long, a larger PCB that has 0.1" pin 4mm diameter: (G54) $1.80 CYLINDRICAL spacing (32 pins in total): 3mm diameter x 1.5mm thick: (G58) 50c each (GMEM1) $6 each A special purchase of some generously rated torroidal 300VA RELAY AND TRANSFORMER PANEL 240V transformers with two 9V Ideal for automation and control projects secondaries but WITHOUT THE Includes 5 high quality 24V relays with MOUNTING HARDWARE enables contacts rated at 30A relays (will operate us to offer two very popular well at 9V and drop-out at 4V) & a 240V 24V transformer all mounted on a metal kits at very SPECIAL prices: INFLATABLE COW plate. $15 K149 20A POWER SUPPLY KIT PATTERN CHAIR Includes PCB & all on-board comTOUGH PVC ADULT ponents, four power transistors, SIZED 92 x92cm bridge rectifier 2 large electro's & the transformer. Note that no heat-sink or extra hardware are supplied: $70 NORMALLY COSTING HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS MORE $5 This system is almost identical to the BA7500. The BA7500G was made for GATEWAY hence the "G".t The cross-over, processing electronics and amplifier are housed in the sub-woofer. The subwoofer looks for a digital bit stream. Optional rear surround sound speakers, can be purchased separately (not available from Oatley Electronics) to enhance the listening experience. The 7500g is also fully compatible with 4-channel sound cards for immersive 4-channel PC gaming. Read some of the reviews for your self at www.epinions.com/content_40212795012 www.reviewboard.com There is also more information on our web-site at www.oatleyelectronics.com Valve amplifier A genuine 4 valve amplifier that can drive a pair of headphones. Uses subminiature pentode valves that wire directly to the PCB. Includes Bass, Treble and Volume controls and has transformer and line output connections. The HT volltage is derived by a voltage multiplier and Filament voltage is derived from a voltage regulator. The whole kit is powered from a single +40V/10V plug-pack. This plugpack can power two of these kits: Two are needed for Stereo sound. WARM This kit is available now.. RICH SOUND Soon to be published in RADIOMAG magazine Kit + plug pack (mono) $50 Extra kits $35 MORE! MORE! MORE! SOOPER SNOOPER / PARRABOLIC MICROPHONE/ STETHOSCOPE Listen to things from a distance, like bird calls & wildlife etc. Or by attaching the microphone to a screwdriver handle you can listen to white Ants chewing! Also ideal for detecting engine & bearing knocks etc. Kit inc. PCB, all onboard com-ponents, stethoscope pickup, electret Microphone. KIT (K175) $22...300mm Aluminium Parabolic Dish: (K175D) $25 ...Suitable small plastic Case: (HB1) $2.50 ...Power switch: $2.50... Long Screwdriver with Solid plastic Handle: $1 SOLAR FURNACE / PARABOLIC REFLECTOR This dish is used in our Sooper Snooper. It is mill finished & is reflective enough to ignite paper almost instantly, Some car cutting compound / polish would make it highly reflective:$25 CK O ST !!! W W NE N NO I 20 x 2 LCD BACKLIT CHARACTER DISPLAY: Made by Optrex model #DMC2059, (data is available for similar 20 x 2 displays). 6mm x 8mm characters, 122mm wide x 30mm high. PCB dimensions 151mm wide x 56mm high. Uses standard Hitachi chipset (HD44780) with LED backlight (DL8) $11 each or 3 for $27 GEARED STEPPER MOTORS... These Small geared stepper motors would be ideal for telescope tracking etc And include a 1350:1 Reduction. BARGAIN BUSINESS SPEAKERPHONE: BACK AGAIN! We have managed to get a small quantity of these phones again. PANASONIC model KX-TS85ALW telephones were used during the 2000 Olympics. Lots of features inc. speed dialler, Hands Free Volume Control, Call Waiting, Ringer Indicator, Call Forward immediate, Dial lock, Redial, Recall. You will find these as a newly introduced product in a Major Australian Electronics dealers' catalogue for $161. Manual is not supplied but can be downloaded from our web-site(KXTS85) $16 limited stock 5 FREE BONUS WITH EVERY ORDER TAKEN IN DECEMBER IF YOUR ASK FOR YOUR FREE COW GEARED AC MOTORS Brand new small mains operated geared motors, very strong, made for rotating microwave turntables, 240V/ 50Hz/3W/5RPM., $4Ea. or or 4 for $12. $5 We have more used test equipment. we need to clear some to make way for the next lot. But you may have already missed it. The only way to make sure you don’t is to subscribe to our bargain corner and receive advanced notice Just send us a blank E-Mail to.... bargaincorner-subscribe <at>oatleyelectronics.com K173 12-240V INVERTER KIT Includes PCB and all on-board components, 4 powerMOSFETS, a large electro and the transformer. Note that no heat-sink or extra hardware are supplied: $60 DANGEROUS VOLTAGES: FOR EXPERIENCED CONSTRUCTORS ONLY. www.oatleyelectronics.com Orders: Ph ( 02 ) 9584 3563, Fax 9584 3561, sales<at>oatleyelectronics.com, PO Box 89 Oatley NSW 2223 major cards with ph. & fax orders, Post & Pack typically $7 Prices subject to change without notice ACN 068 740 081 ABN18068 740 081 SC_DEC_01 Pardy Lites By Ross Tester Having a party this festive season? Here’s a light display which will really add to the occasion. It’s easy to build, safe and adaptable to a wide range of hardware. It’s not a chaser and it’s not a colour organ. So what is it? Intriguing, that’s what! I f you’re looking for something to brighten up a Christmas or New Years party – literally brighten – this project could be right up your alley. It consists of four coloured 12V, 50W halogen globes which are driven in somewhat random patterns by the bass beat from your music. And if there’s no music, it automatically switches over to its own random display. You don’t need to make any connection to your amplifier or speakers: an inbuilt microphone picks up the beat from any source of music, whether it be a stereo, karaoke, live band (but not 66  Silicon Chip a dead band), etc. Speaking of bands, if you’re in one, this display will make your perfomance sparkle! How do you mount the lights? That’s really up to your ingenuity and your application. In our example, 12V halogen “downlights” are fitted pointing up (but at varying angles) into a squat wooden box about a metre long. The idea is to project the lights upwards against a white or pastel wall so that they throw patterns onto the wall. In a semi-darkened room, á lá a typical party, the effect is rather spectacular . . . psychedelic seventies, even. But if you don’t like that display, there’s nothing to stop you using the same basic circuitry to come up with whatever you wish. Want to make a “light box” – flashing lights inside an acrylic or Perspex-fronted box? No problem (in fact, you could get away with much lower wattage bulbs and therefore a cheaper transformer). Maybe you want to light up something specific – again, no problem. Because the lights operate from a safe 12V, you don’t have to be an electrician to install them. Gee, we just had a thought: most garden lights these days are 12V – now that would make an interesting garden! www.siliconchip.com.au Want more light? There’s nothing to stop you adding MOSFETs and lamps in parallel, as long as your transformer and bridge rectifier are rated for it. But more on this anon. Circuit operation With the exception of the input microphone, sensitivity control, the lamps themselves and the power supply (transformer and bridge rectifier), all of the circuitry is assembled on one small PC board. The circuit comprises four sections: the input audio signal processing, the sequence generator, the lamp drivers and the power supply. The input signal processing section has a low frequency filter and an amplifier section based on IC1a and IC1b. Audio signal is picked up by an electret microphone and is applied via a 1µF coupling capacitor to IC1b, an inverting preamp with a gain of 16. The low-pass filter components (at the input to IC1b) set the cut-off frequency to around 200Hz so only low frequency components (bass) pass to the next stage, an inverting amplifer based on IC1a. The gain of this amplifier depends on the setting of VR1, so this in effect becomes a sensitivity adjustment. The quiescent (no signal) DC output from IC1a is approximately 4V. Under this condition, the inputs of the Schmitt NAND gate IC2a will be a logic 1 and the output of this gate will be a logic 0. When an audio signal is applied, the output will vary up and down from the 4V quiescent voltage, going either more positive (to a maximum of 5V) or as low as zero for negative swings. www.siliconchip.com.au If the input voltage is sufficiently low, the input to the NAND gate will be a logic 0, giving a logic 1 at its output. In summary, no signal produces a logic 0 at the output of the NAND gate and negative signal swings at its input produce a logic 1. When IC2a has a logic 1 at its output, the 0.1µF capacitor at pin 5 of IC2b quickly charges via the 1N4148 diode and 4.7kΩ resistor. This produces a logic 1 at this point, enabling the oscillator, formed by IC2b, the 220kΩ resistor and .01µF capacitor to run. Its frequency is approximately 1kHz. The output from this oscillator is connected via a 1N4148 diode to the The display uses 12V, 50W halogen “downlights” such as these coloured ones from Jaycar or ordinary (white) ones you colour yourself. input of 7-stage ripple counter IC3, causing it to quickly count up, changing the states at its outputs as it does. The first four outputs of IC3 are used to drive a display comprising individual 12V halogen globes, via switching MOSFETS Q2-Q5. Under these conditions, each bass beat will produce a burst of 1kHz signal to clock the counter (IC3). The count at which it actually stops after each beat is random, thus producing a totally random display, updated by each bass beat. The oscillator is only enabled during the short time the audio signal is negative, causing bursts of oscillation on each bass beat, giving a new light display on each beat. Another oscillator is formed around IC2c, similar in configuration to that based on IC2b. The main difference is that the frequency of this oscillator is adjustable via VR2. This is used to clock the counter in the absence of an audio input signal. When an audio signal is present, the output of IC2b will be low often enough to allow the 1µF capacitor between +5V and pin 13 of IC2c to charge (via another 1N4148 diode and 10kΩ resistor). As a result pin 13 of IC2c will be low, thus disabling this oscillator. However when the music stops, the capacitor will discharge the 4.7MΩ resistor, allowing pin 13 to go to a logic 1 and therefore allow IC2d to oscillate. It takes approximately 5 seconds for the 1µF capacitor to discharge sufficiently to allow the input to this gate to reach a logic 1. Therefore, if the music stops for approximately 5 seconds, IC2c starts to oscillate and the counter automatically generates its own effectively random display sequence at a frequency set by VR2. The four least significant outputs of IC3 are connected to the gates of the power MOSFETS that are used to drive the lamps. These devices have no problems in driving a 50W halogen lamp without a December 2001  67 68  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au The circuit consists of four main parts – the input audio signal processing, the sequence generator, the lamp drivers and the power supply. The PC board component overlay above and a matching photograph to help you put it all together. Provision is made for VR1 (sensitivity) to be a preset mounted on the PC board but would more logically be an externally controllable pot, as shown here. It is shown as a linear type but if you have a log pot, use it! VR2 could also be external if you wish to have external speed control of the oscillator. www.siliconchip.com.au 1 220k 4.7k 4.7k 0.1F 4.7M VR1 1M LIN METAL PLATE 10k 1N 4148 1N 4148 D7 Q1 C C8050 MONO JACK SOCKET transformer/rectifier ratings. A 7805 regulator provides the low voltage supply to run the control circuitry. No heatsink is needed on the regulator but a reasonable heatsink is needed for the bridge rectifier, especially if four 50W bulbs are used. Construction As usual, we’ll start with assembling the electronics. After checking the PC board for any defects, solder in the lowest-profile components first – resistors, diodes, transistor, capacitors and the IC sockets (if used). If you have any doubt about the colour code on the resistors, check them before soldering them in with a multimeter (preferably a digital one). Also refer to the table showing the colour codes for both 4-band and 1F VR2 1M 10k LAMP1 _ B LAMP2 D _ G E 100 S B D3 + A D S Q3 1N 4148 IC2 4093 100F D2 10k S Q2 100 47k D4 + 4x IRFZ44 G 1k 10k 10k 10k IC3 4024 .0047F 4.7k D6 .01F Power supply A 300VA toroidal transformer supplies the power to drive the circuitry. It has two 12V <at> 12.5A secondaries which are connected in parallel, feeding a nominal 12V AC <at> 25A to a 35A bridge rectifier. The output from the rectifier is connected directly to the 12V halogen downlights. Because there is no filtering of the DC supply to the lamps, there is a lot of flicker in them. However, this doesn’t detract from the effect; in many ways, it enhances it. Output from the ripple counter is such that no more than three lights can be on at one time, with a combined current of about 12A (3 x 50W/12V). Therefore the transformer is operating well within its ratings. However, if you add extra MOSFETs and lamps as suggested above, consideration will need to be given to the D1 4.7M 100k 4.7k 10k .047F + 10F 10k 22k 4.7k 820 1 IC1 LF353 10F K D8 1N4004 0.1F 1N 4148 _ 1 1N4004 100k + A 100F 100F 1N 4148 + 1F 100k REG1 78L05 + + .0047F 1N 4148 heatsink; any more than this, though, and we would be tempted to fit each one with a small U-shaped heatsink. There is one minor complication concerning the ripple counter. It is possible for one of the counts to be 0000, a situation which would cause the display to turn off completely. This problem is solved by the addition of transistor Q1 and three 10kΩ resistors connected to the first three outputs of the ripple counter. If those three outputs are at logic 0, transistor Q1 is turned off and its collector voltage goes high, therefore a high is applied via diode D6 to the gate of MOSFET Q5, turning it on and lighting its lamp, irrespective of the state on the fourth output. Q5 is turned on (and its collector low) when any of the first three ripple counter outputs are at logic 1. + BR1 BR1 + _ Note that the photo and PC board layout both show an error involving the 10kΩ resistor immediately above the IC in the centre of the board. A correction for this is given at the end of the article (P72) but future production runs of PC boards may have this error corrected. Check the kit for any note to this effect. D5 Q4 1F LAMP3 _ G 100 S + C D Q5 D D LAMP4 _ G 100 5-band resistors. All semiconductors and the electrolytic capacitors are polarised, so make sure they go in the right way around. The same comment applies to the IC sockets. Finally, solder in the four MOSFETs and the regulator and place the ICs in their appropriate sockets. Check over your soldering and component placement. Power supply wiring Follow the wiring diagram for the power supply exactly, especially the mains side of the transformer. It is essential to get the colour coding correct on the windings – not just for your own safety but also ’cos it won’t work if you get it wrong! If you don’t use the transformer specified, check and double check the colour coding on the one you use. It is common that the mains side of the transformer has two wires the same colour while the secondaries are usually thicker wire. If you connect the secondaries in parallel but get no voltage out (and the December 2001  69 Here’s the “works” mounted in the custom-built case with the lid removed and the four lamp bases (which come with the gimbal fittings) disconnected. The main shot shows the business end while the inset shows the whole thing. transformer is OK!) you have connected the windings out of phase. Reverse one set of windings (not both!) and you should get your 12V AC output. While on the subject of transformers, Oatley Electronics have available some very cheap 9V+9V 250W toroidals which could be used as is (the halogen bulbs won’t be as bright and probably won’t last as long) or you could be really clever and add a few turns to each of the secondaries to bring them up to 12V out. As mentioned before, the bridge rectifier needs to be mounted on an adequate heatsink. We used a scrap of steel (actually an old mounting plate from a transformer). Of course you can also buy a wide range of heatsinks. To ensure maximum heat transfer between the rectifier and heatsink, some heat transfer compound should be smeared on the metal surface of the rectifier before it is bolted firmly to the heatsink. Hardware Our display used four 12V, 50W halogen “downlights” (mounted as “uplights”!) in a 1000mm (l) x 155mm 70  Silicon Chip (w) x 80mm (h) case made from 16mm chipboard or MDF. Standard gimbal halogen downlight fittings were used as these give a two-direction adustment, allowing you to aim the beams of light where they will be most effective. These are commonly available for about $10-12. In fact, Woolies sell them complete with transformer for about $20 but unfortunately the transformer will only handle one 50W globe. (But you would get a very nice 12V transformer which you could use for other projects!). Don’t be tempted to use an “electronic” halogen transformer. The gimbal fittings, which have an outside (front) diameter of about 100mm, require a mounting hole of about 90mm or so. They have two springs which hold them in place on the box. When you cut the holes in the box top, make sure you allow enough room for the springs to clear the box ends. Of course, all this assumes you are making a display the same as ours. If not, let your creative juices flow and do your own thing! The globes Coloured (red, green, blue and yellow) 12V 50W halogen globes are available from Jaycar Electronics These three pics show the gimbal fittings and how they are mounted in the case. Left, the fitting on its own. Above, one fitting mounted and below, all four fittings mounted in the box. www.siliconchip.com.au Follow this diagram and photo when wiring the transformer and bridge rectifier. All low voltage wiring must be capable of handling the currents involved. We have shown the wires going to the four halogen bulbs as “LAMP1+” etc. Of course, these bulbs are not polarised but it might be easier to think that one side of the bulb goes to +ve and the other, via the switching MOSFET on the PC board, to -ve. Parts List – Pardy Lites 1 PC board coded K170, 87mm x 62mm 1 16mm particle board case, approx 1000 x 140 x 80mm (see text) 4 halogen downlight gimbal fittings with wired ceramic lamp bases (sockets). 4 12V 50W coloured halogen downlight bulbs 1 toroidal transformer, 2 x 12V 12.5A secondaries 1 metal heatsink (see text) 1 2-metre 3-core mains power lead with 3-pin plug 1 mains cord clamp 1 3-way terminal block 1 electret microphone with cable and 3.5mm plug 1 3.5mm mono socket 1 mounting plate for microphone socket and sensitivity pot (see text) Suitable lengths 10A hookup wire (for wiring lights to PC board) Spaghetti insulation or heatshrink tubing Woodscrews (for assembling case and for mounting PC board and heatsink to case) 1 M3 screw, nut, star washer & solder lug Semiconductors 1 LF353 dual JFET op amp (IC1) 1 4093 quad 2-input Schmitt NAND gate (IC2) 1 4024 7-stage ripple counter (IC3) 2 1N4004 silicon power diodes (D1, D8) 6 1N4148 silicon signal diodes (D2- D7) 1 C8050 general-purpose NPN transistor (Q1) 4 IRFZ44 power MOSFETs (Q2-Q5) 1 78L05 5V low power positive regulator Capacitors 3 100µF 25VW PC mounting electrolytic 2 10µF 25VW PC mounting electrolytic 3 1µF 25VW PC mounting electrolytic 2 0.1µF MKT polyester 1 .01µF MKT polyester 1 .047µF MKT polyester 2 .0047µF MKT polyester Resistors (0.25W, 1%) 1 4.7MΩ 1 220kΩ 3 100kΩ 1 47kΩ 8 10kΩ 6 4.7kΩ 1 1kΩ 1 820Ω 4 100Ω 1 1MΩ potentiometer, taper unimportant (VR1) 1 1MΩ trimpot (VR2) www.siliconchip.com.au December 2001  71 We made our case from a piece of 1-metre long 16mm chipboard, with the dimensions as shown here. However, there is nothing to stop you from changing any or all of the dimensions –just so long as everything fits in without fouling other bits! Table 1: CAPACITOR CODES Value IEC Code EIA Code 0.1µF   100n   104 .047µF  47n  473 .01µF  10n  103 .0047µF  4n7  472 stores for about $7.00 each. That’s not bad value, considering ordinary white globes sell for only a dollar or so less. You can buy cheaper globes from a supermarket – about $4 each or so – but our experience with the life of these is not particularly good. Why are we mentioning white globes? Simple – they can be coloured. You can buy glass paint in many Table 2: RESISTOR COLOUR CODES    No.  1  1  3  1  8  6  1  1  1 Value 4.7MΩ 220kΩ 100kΩ 47kΩ 10kΩ 4.7kΩ 1kΩ 820Ω 100Ω 72  Silicon Chip 4-Band Code (1%) yellow purple greenbrown red red yellow brown brown black yellow brown yellow purple orange brown brown black orange brown yellow purple red brown brown black red brown grey blue brown brown brown black brown brown 5-Band Code (1%) yellow purple black yellow brown red red black orange brown brown black black orange brown yellow purple black red brown brown black black red brown yellow purple black brown brown brown black black brown brown grey blue black black brown brown black black black brown colours from craft stores which handles the heat of the globes without problems (we’ve used it many times on halogen bulbs in theatrical work). Or you can buy pieces of coloured glass from a glass supplier (or a leadlight supplier) and mount them over the front of the globes. The advantage of both these methods is that the range of colours is very much greater than the four “primary” colours above. Error on PC board As we went to press, we discovered an error on the PC board. It won’t stop the project working but doesn’t let it work as well as it should. The 10kΩ resistor immediately above IC2 connects to the cathode of D4 where it should connect to the anode. The easiest way to fix this is to solder the resistor under the PC board as shown below. This view is shown from the component side of the board (ie, looking through it with X-ray vision). SC Wheredyageddit? This kit was designed by Oatley Electronics who hold the copyright on the design and the PC board. Oatley Electronics have available the following kits/components: Short Form Kit: (PC board, all onboard components, bridge rectifier and metal heatsink): K170 $35.00 Contact Oatley Electronics on (02) 9584 3561, fax (02) 9484 3564 or via www.oatleyelectronics.com C o l o u r e d G l o b e s : Jay c a r, SL2741/2/3/4, $6.25 each Specified Transformer (12V/12V 300VA): Jaycar MT2130 <at> $83.95, Altronics M5512 <at> $72.50 Oatley 9V+9V 250VA Toroidal Transformer (see text) $30.00 www.siliconchip.com.au SILICON CHIP WebLINK How many times have you wanted to access a company’s website but cannot remember their site name? Here's an exciting new concept from SILICON CHIP: you can access any of these organisations instantly by going to the SILICON CHIP website (www.siliconchip.com.au), clicking on WebLINK and then on the website graphic of the company you’re looking for. It’s that simple. No longer do you have to wade through search engines or look through pages of indexes – just point’n’click and the site you want will open! Your company or business can be a part of SILICON CHIP’s WebLINK. For one low rate you receive a printed entry each month on the SILICON CHIP WebLINK page with your home page graphic, company name, phone, fax and site details plus up to 50 words of description– and this is repeated on the WebLINK page on the SILICON CHIP website with the link of your choice active. Get those extra hits on your site from the right people in the electronics industry – the people who make decisions to buy your products. Call David Polkinghorne today on (02) 9979 5644 VAF Research offers Speakers for the Audiophile Purist or Home Theatre Extremist. Home Entertainment Equipment and Accessories. They have ready-to-assemble loudspeaker kits along with quality drivers from the world's leading suppliers. VAF Research Pty Ltd Tel: 1800 818 882 Fax: (08) 8363 9997 WebLINK: www.vaf.com.au JED designs and manufactures a range of single board computers (based on Wilke Tiger and Atmel AVR), as well as LCD displays and analog and digital I/O for PCs and controllers. JED also makes a PC PROM programmer and RS232/RS485 converters. Jed Microprocessors Pty Ltd Tel: (03) 9762 3588 Fax: (03) 9762 5499 Looking for GENUINE Stamp products from Parallax . . . or Scott Edwards Electronics, microEngineering Labs & others? Easy to learn, easy to use, sophisticated CPU based controllers & peripherals. See our website for new range of ATOM products! Hy-Q International Pty Ltd MicroZed Computers Fax: (03) 9562 9009 WebLINK: www.hy-q.com.au Tel : (02) 9411 3088 Fax : (02) 9412 1855 WebLINK: www.alltac.com.au International satellite TV reception in your home is now affordable. Send for your free info pack containing equipment catalog, satellite lists, etc or call for appointment to view. We can display all satellites from 76.5° to 180°. Av-COMM Pty Ltd Tel: (02) 6772 2777 Fax: (02) 6772 8987 WebLINK: www.microzed.com.au Tel:(02) 9939 4377 Fax: (02) 9939 4376 WebLINK: www.avcomm.com.au NEW! HC-5 hi-res Vid eo Distribution Amplifier DVS5 Video & Audio Distribution Amplifier Five identical Video and Stereo outputs plus h/phone & monitor out. S-Video & Composite versions available. Professional quality. ALLTAC INTERNATIONAL P/L WebLINK: www.jedmicro.com.au A 100% Australian owned company supplying frequency control products to the highest international standards: filters, DIL’s, voltage, temperature compensated and oven controlled oscillators, monolithic and discrete filters and ceramic filters and resonators. Tel:(03) 9562-8222 We stock varieties of hard to find selectors, cables and adaptors, and as well home theatre all at competitive prices. We believe lines between computer, networking, home theatre and video editing are becoming blurred these days. Please call us if you need any help in this aspect. For broadcast, audiovisual and film industries. Wide bandwidth, high output and unconditional stability with hum-cancelling circuitry, front-panel video gain and cable eq adjustments. 240V AC, 120V AC or 24V DC When it comes to purchasing quality products over the Web, you can count on the Wiltronics team to provide you with the best value for money. For over 25 years, Wiltronics has supplied the needs of the Electronics Industry, and look forward to continuing this service. Wiltronics Pty Ltd Tel: (03) 9762 3588 Fax: (03) 9762 5499 WebLINK: www.wiltronics.com.au For everything in radio control for aircraft, model boats and planes, etc. We also carry an extensive range of model flight control modules including GPS, altitude and speed, interfaces, autopilot and groundstation controllers. More info on our website! Silvertone Electronics Tel:(07) 4639 1100 Fax: (07)4639 1275 WebLINK: www.silvertone.com.au VGS2 Graphics Splitter High resolution 1in/2out VGA splitter. Comes with 1.5m HQ cable and 12V supply. Custom-length HQ VGA cables also available. Check our NEW website for latest prices and MONTHLY SPECIALS www.questronix.com.au Email: questav<at>questronix.com.au Video Processors, Colour Correctors, Stabilisers, TBC’s, Converters, etc. QUESTRONIX www.siliconchip.com.au www.siliconchip.com.au All mail: PO Box 348, Woy Woy NSW 2256 Ph (02) 4343 1970 Fax (02) 4341 2795 Visitors by appointment only December Decmber2001  73 2001  73 PRODUCT SHOWCASE Ricoh’s new combined DVD and CD Rewriter Ricoh Australia claims their new MP5120A “Super Combo Drive” is a world first, combining DVD+RW and CD+RW in one unit. It is the first rewritable DVD drive solely complying with the DVD+RW standard while also working as a CD-RW. Ricoh also released DVD+RW disks to coincide with the launch. The MP5120A offers two-way compatibility meaning that DVD+RW media can be played in the majority of existing DVD-Video players and DVD ROM drives. The MP5120A is capable of 2.4x write speed which is equivalent to 22x write speed on a CD drive. In addition, the direct-to- DVD function enables direct recording of video from VCR and digital video camcorders and the bundled software will support a variety of applications. The Ricoh DVD+RW disks will hold 4.7GB, the same as a DVD-ROM. The drive is available from Ricoh specialists Australia-wide. Contact: Ricoh Australia 1800 646 679 or www.ricoh.com.au Mighty ATOM from Microzed!!!! MicroZed Computers have added Basic Micro products to their range of products. Included is a “Stamp2” look-alike, BASIC compilers, chip programmers and development boards. The Stamp2 look-alike “ATOM” is pin-compatible with the Basic Stamp 2 and can be used in any Basic Stamp development board. Based on the PIC16F876/20, the ATOM and OEM ATOM modules have an execution speed of 33,000 instructions per second, 8K of program space, analog-to-digital conversion, interrupt capability, floating point maths, hardware PWM and many other desirable features. The ATOM can even play an 8-note musical chord! ATOM firmware is field upgrade-able and as well as the usual commands its command set includes such nice features as LCDWRITE and LCDREAD (did you know LCD panels with the Hitachi chipset have an area of RAM?). The ATOM can drive stepper motors and servo motors with single commands. There is no need to write a routine. Basic Micro manufacture a programmer and ZIF adapter that will 74  Silicon Chip Tiny LCD monitor handle PIC, ATMEL and SX chips, but at this stage they only have PIC Basic Compilers, in two versions, plain and PRO. The ATOM development board has two sockets, one 24-pin 0.6inch DIP and the other a 14-pin SIP for OEM ATOM. Other development boards are for 18, 28 and 40 pin chips. Most development boards are solderless “breadboard” style but some solder pad versions are availble too. Of special interest is the LCD development kit, which allows the end user to make their own LCD driver chip to their own specs. Bob Nicol of MicroZed Computers says that the new range of Basic Micro products is intended for professional use but Basic Micro have not forgotten the beginner in BASIC. More information is available on Microzed’s website. This compact CCTV TFT LCD colour monitor from Mastatek offers PAL/ NTSC video input and comes complete with monitor speaker and stand. A 12V DC mains adaptor is available as an option. Specifications and facilities for this very portable monitor include a screen size of 5.7 inch (diagonal) and a display resolution of 960(H) x 234(V) dots. Dimensions are 168(W) x 133(V) x 40(d) mm and the total weight is 610g. Power consumption is DC 12V/600mA 8W (max). Additional functions include screen side right-left switchable and up-down auto switch. More detailed brochures and pricing information is available on request. Contact: Mastatek Pty Ltd Ph (03) 9753 4300, Fax (03) 9753 4322 www.mastatek.com.au Contact: MicroZed Computers PO Box 634 Armidale NSW 2350 Phone: (02) 6772 2777 Fax (02) 6772 8987 Website: www.microzed.com.au www.siliconchip.com.au Keep it safe safe . . . If you have something you want to keep safe, a visit to a Dick Smith Electronics PowerHouse should be on your agenda. They have just added a compact (340 x 200 x 240mm) electronic combination lock safe to their range of security products. It has a 3mm thick body and 6mm thick door and weighs in at 18 kilograms. The safe can be programmed with any three to eight-digit code by way of a front panel keypad and it also has a manual key which overrides the electronics. There is a built-in safeguard to prevent intruders continually punching numbers – if the wrong code is entered three times the safe will not accept more tries for twenty seconds. Another three wrong codes and it locks up for an hour. Three LED displays on the front panel indicate the security and power status of the safe. The four “D” size batteries required to power the safe are included in the $147 price. The safe is only available from DSE PowerHouse stores (or through Direct Link, 1300 366 644, or the DSE website). Contact: Dick Smith Electronics (PowerHouse) Phone: (02) 9642 9100 Fax (02) 9642 9153 Website: www.dse.com.au Home phone can travel with you Looking for something a bit different for Christmas? A new cordless phone from Uniden offers much more versatility than traditional cordless models. The 900MHz digital spread-spectrum phone can communicate with up to seven handsets, allow handset to handset transfers and even allows 2-way communication between handsets when away from the base unit. This means that the $249 Uniden T3 system, which includes caller ID, can double as an intercom or even, for example, be taken on holidays, to the beach or anywhere else and allow two-way communication www.siliconchip.com.au between family members. Uniden have also announced their “Call Ezi” plan for homes and small businesses which offers a free digital cordless phone and competitive call rates (including free calls each month) on a 24-month plan. Contact: Uniden Australia Phone: (02) 9599 3355 Website: www.uniden.com.au STEPDOWN TRANSFORMERS 60VA to 3KVA encased toroids Harbuch Electronics Pty Ltd 9/40 Leighton Pl. HORNSBY 2077 Ph (02) 9476-5854 Fx (02) 9476-3231 Electus wholesale goodies catalog Electus Distribution have released a 306-page catalog featuring electronic components, hardware, service gear, tools, test equipment, surveillance gear and more. Everything in the catalog is priced, making lookup and pricing much easier than many supplier’s catalogs. The information is also available on CD-ROM. The catalog is for professional, commerce, industry and education users. Contact: Electus Distribution Phone: 1300 738 555 [(02) 9741 8552] Website: www.electusdistribution.com.au December 2001  75 SILICON CHIP If you are seeing a blank page here, it is more than likely that it contained advertising which is now out of date and the advertiser has requested that the page be removed to prevent misunderstandings. Please feel free to visit the advertiser’s website: www.altronics.com.au SILICON CHIP If you are seeing a blank page here, it is more than likely that it contained advertising which is now out of date and the advertiser has requested that the page be removed to prevent misunderstandings. Please feel free to visit the advertiser’s website: www.altronics.com.au PIC FUN AND Way back in time, last century even, we presented a neat little PIC-based project called LED FUN. Here’s its big brother, another PIC project called PICFun2. And while it can flash LEDs, it is capable of doing a whole lot more! A ctually, the project we referred today that an understanding of them is programmed (or “written to”) only to above wasn’t all that long almost essential for anyone interested once. Their program cannot be erased ago – February 1999 to be pre- in furthering their electronics knowl- – to change the program, you have cise (it just seems long ago!). LED FUN edge, whether that be at a hobby, stu- to change the chip. These are much was based on a PIC12C508 which was dent, technician or professional level. cheaper to produce than the re-programmable type and are used when programmed to flash LEDs in a variety When we say common, we mean all of the code has been tested or “deof patterns. it. Unless you’ve just woken up, The board was designed and prothe chances are that already today bugged”, ready for a production run. duced in Australia by Labtronics. Now you’ve used not just one, but several If you want to know more about reincarnated as eLabtronics, the new devices containing PICs or other mi- PICs and microcontrollers, there is a project, PICFun2, is based on a more crocon-trollers. In fact, if you woke up lot more in the PICFun manual on the powerful PIC, the 16F84. to an electronic alarm clock or clock CD-ROM – a lot more! PICFun2 has more than one What you get aim. In its “bare bones” form, it’s basically just a PIC on a PC board In the PICFun2 kit, there is with a sprinkling of components a small PC board, the PIC chip to enable you to connect it to the (16F84) with an 18-pin IC socket, outside world (or, more correctly, a buzzer, a 9-pin male D socket, the inside world – the inside of a couple of PC board mounting your personal computer!). terminal blocks, a battery holder It’s designed as an educational (no batteries!), a slide switch and aid, something for (especially) a pushbutton switch, some reschool students (or anyone else) sistors, capacitors, diodes, LEDs to “cut their teeth” on in the world and a transistor, along with some of microcontrollers. Indeed, the hookup wire. man-ual supplied (on an accomOn an accompanying CD, there panying CD-ROM) goes into a great is a range of software, manuals – deal of explanation into just what even a technical manual on the a microcontroller is and what it PIC16F8X range – and various does, long before you get to touch a other information. This CD-ROM soldering iron! There’s even a trial When they say PICFun is child’s play, they is PC (ie, IBM) compatible. version of some software to help mean it! Here is 8-year-old Emilio who built a Putting it together you program – but more on this PICFun2 kit – and it worked first time! (This version actually has a bit more on it than the shortly. The first thing to do is completeBut it’s much more than this. basic PICFUN2 described here.) ly ignore the PC board component The project software provided on layout in the instruction manual. the CD-ROM shows just a couple It will confuse the heck out of you radio, it probably contained one! of things you can do with PICs. Once for two reasons: (a) it’s an earlier PC There are many different types of board (new ones are different!) and you’ve learned how to drive them, you’re ready to start writing your own PICs (and other microcontrollers). (b) it shows a different project to what Some, such as the type we are us- you’re building here. Use the PC board code to do, well, whatever you want ing here, can be programmed and component layout we’ve shown here to. erased hundreds, often thousands of and the accompanying photo. Why would you want to learn about times. Others, such as the ones used microcontrollers, and PICs in particuStep-by-step instructions are givin commercial equipment, can be lar? Well, they’re in such common use en in the manual but assembly is 78  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au GAMES basically the same as any other kit: start with the lowest profile components first – the resistors, followed by the diodes, capacitors, transistors and LEDs. The hardware (IC socket, switches, D9 socket, terminal blocks and buzzer) is the last to be soldered in place. Soldering the D9 socket in place is probably the most tricky bit. The easiest way to do it is to undo the nuts on each end which hold the plug shell in place (remember which way up it goes!), soldering the pins to the PC board and then replacing the shell and the nuts. Also the on-board terminals need a bit of explaining: you slide these By Ross Tester In its most basic form, there isn’t much to PICFun2 – apart from the PIC chip itself there is just an input from your PC (the D9 connector), power supply and some output LEDs. But this is only the starting point. PICFun2 can be expanded to do a lot more than flash LEDs! Use this overlay to populate the PC board, not the one in the manual. The circuit diagram is overleaf. www.siliconchip.com.au December 2001  79 In its simplest form, PICFun2 contains only the PIC chip itself, some power supply components, the interface to your PC and some output LEDs. The manual has a number of programming suggestions. together to form a four-way terminal block before soldering them in place. The “open” side of the plug (ie, the bit where you poke in the wires!) has to face to the outside edge of the PC board. And lastly, the LEDs: the manual makes some comment about aligning all the LEDs so that their longer leg (the so-called “negative lead” – we’d call it the cathode!) goes “via the thick track to the negative rail”. What they should simply say (we think!) is that all the LEDs should be soldered in so that their flat sides are facing the top of the board as you read the labels. Now that’s a tad simpler, isn’t it? And yes, there are a couple of LED positions not used. What you should end up with is a PC board similar to that photographed on page79. As you can see, there is not a lot of the PC board “populated”; that is for later expansion when you start doing really clever stuff with the PIC. Testing the board Having assembled the hardware for the controller the next step is to test it. 80  Silicon Chip First of all, you need to supply power. The manual talks about 3 x “AA” cells but a 4 x“AA” cell holder is supplied. Use four cells, otherwise you will have an open-circuit power supply! The 5.1V zener diode included in the circuit will regulate the voltage to within the PIC’s specs. Install the software provided with the PICFun2 kit. Start the program Picplc. This program is used to send code in binary format to the 16F84 for programming. Code for this is obtained from the appropriate *.hex file. When started you will be asked for the location of the hex file you wish to download. Load the file and the number of the serial port being used for programming (ie; c:/PICFUN/mode1. hex 2 where 2 is the com port and the file is located in the c:/PICFUN directory). Leave a space between the x and the number. It is suggested that you use the mode1.hex file for the test. This is found amongst others on the disk provided. Follow the steps below. They will lead you through the processes re- quired to program the chip as well as providing a test for its successful construction. Step 1 Connect a 9-pin serial cable (not supplied with the single version of the educational kit) from the D9 port connector on the microcontroller to an available serial COM port on your computer. You will need to know if it is COM 1 or 2 that you have selected. Check the gender of the connectors on your cable. A gender changer may be required. (The cable is a 1-1 wired serial cable female to female, 9 pin to 9-pin or 9-pin to 25-pin). Step 2 Run START on the supplied CD. Install all the software ( PICFun and MPLAB ) and drivers to drive C:/ PICFUN of your computer. You will need approximately 5Mb of hard disk space. Step 3 With the computer off, connect the PICFun2 to the serial connection on your computer, then start the computer. Keep the serial lead and programmer connected during start up and the www.siliconchip.com.au Parts List – PICFun2 1 PC board, 80 x 48 mm, coded PICFun2 2 PC board mounting terminal blocks 1 18-pin IC socket 1 piezo buzzer 1 miniature pushbutton switch, NO contacts 1 SPST miniature slide switch, PC board mounting 1 4xAA battery holder 4 AA batteries (not included in kit) 1 9-pin “D” serial interface connector, right-angle PC mounting 1 “straight through” serial cable, 9-pin female to 9-pin female Hookup wire Semiconductors 1 PIC 16F84 microcontroller IC (IC1) 1 BC547 NPN transistor (TR1) 4 1N914 silicon signal diodes (D2-D5) 1 5.1V 400mW zener diode (D1) 6 red LEDs (DOL1-6) Capacitors 1 100µF 25VW PC electrolytic 1 0.1µF ceramic (code 104 or 0.1) 1 22pF ceramic (code 22p or 22) Resistors (0.25W, 5%) 7 10kΩ 1 4.7kΩ 8 390Ω 1 10Ω slide switch on the PICFun PC board towards the middle of the unit. Step 4 The slide switch is vital to the programming and running modes. It tells the PIC whether it is in a write (programming) or read mode. Make sure it is connected (towards middle) during programming. When running programs it must be disconnected (towards outside). Power is not applied to the PICFun2 during the programming process. The required voltage is derived from the serial interface. Power is only applied during the running process. Step 5 Go to the Start/Programs list and run the Picplc programmer software. (NB: In the PICFun2 software setup and supplied files the term ‘PIC PLC’ is used to describe the device as it was www.siliconchip.com.au originally known by that name.) Step 6 Under Windows you open the the program in the normal manner. You’ll need to tell PICFun2 which COM port you are using. The software will then transfer the sample program “model. hex” to your PICFun board. Step 7 Test your PICFun2 programmer and micro controller. Disconnect the serial lead and jumper. Insert batteries into the holder (4 x 1.5V cells). Once power is applied the program will start to run. When the switch is pressed for a second and then released, the LEDs should light up randomly and a sound sequence be produced by the piezo buzzer. Kits without compromise What if it doesn’t work? OK, we’ll be honest. Ours didn’t work first time! Here are just a couple of the traps you could fall in to. (1) Check your soldering and component placement. 99% of all faults with kits are found in this area. Are all the diodes and other polarised components around the right way? Have you managed to solder a bridge between adjacent pads? Have you forgotten to solder a component in (or, have you made a “dry joint”)? Having exhausted all those possibilities through careful inspection and checking, let’s move on to the other 1% (our problems were in the 1% category!). (2) Is your power supply/plugpack connected the right way around? The series diode will prevent anything catastrophic happening if you connect the power back-to-front . . . but it won’t work, of course! (3) Is your 9-pin D to 9-pin D cable a true serial cable? Many of the cables have pins swapped in them (so-called “null modem” cables) and these will not work. If in doubt, check for continuity between pins with your multimeter and some short lengths of wire poked into the socket holes. Pin 1 must connect to pin 1, 2 to 2 and so on right through to pin 9. (Not all pins are used but the cable should be wired through). Similarly, you must use a female-to-female cable. If you have a female- to-male cable with a gender changer on one end, there may be a crossover in that gender changer or cable. (4) Have you followed the software loading/downloading steps carefully and have you properly initialized the software? “Sound quality to die for” Rolling Stone Magazine “..A new benchmark in every criteria” Best Buys Home Theatre Speaker Kits without compromise from $312 pr to $8,863 pr FreeCall 1800 818882 www.vaf.com.au vaf<at>vaf.com.au December 2001  81 RESISTOR COLOUR CODES    No.  7  1  8  1 Value 10kΩ 4.7kΩ 390Ω 10Ω 4-Band Code (1%) brown black orange brown yellow purple red brown orange white brown brown brown black black brown (5) Is the path to the hex file correct? (6) Have you connected the correct COM port? (7) Have you set the programming switch/jumper on the board before running the program (ie; applying power). Where to from here? Space does not permit detailing all the applications possible with the simple PICFun2 board – you’ll find a lot more on this in the manual and on the CD-ROM. One of the sample programs on the CD-ROM is a demonstration temperature controller, which uses the PIC to sense the temperature of a thermistor. The thermistor, in turn, is under the influence of both a small light globe (heater) and a fan (cooler), each of which are also controlled by the PIC. This does require a few more components than what we’ve shown here, by the way. A setup screen is provided on the PC through which you can enter maximum and minimum temperatures. When you download and run the program, you’ll find the light comes on to heat the thermistor up to your maximum temperature, at which point the light goes off and the fan goes on to cool it back down to the minimum. Such a demonstration board is shown separately. Sure, it’s only a gimmick – but it’s a great little demonstration of what a microcontroller can do and makes an interesting school project. Just imagine if that light, thermistor and fan were replaced by a large heating, sensing and cooling system for a city skyscraper. Impossible? Nothing is impossible for a microcontroller! Creating a program As we said at the outset, the PICFun2 is just a starting point. Writing your own software (also known as code or a program) is not easy for a beginner – but start out simple and 82  Silicon Chip 5-Band Code (1%) brown black black red brown yellow purple black brown brown orange white black black brown brown black black gold brown keep practicing – and pretty soon you could be an expert! Microchip Technologies, the makers of PICs, have provided a number of shareware software tools for the support of their products. “MPLAB”, which is downloadable from their web site (www.microchip.com) offers a text editor, an assembler and software simulator for the writing, assembling and testing of programs. The text editor is used to compile the source code. This is made up of device instructions, data, directives and comments. The program is written in mnemonic form and is based on an instruction set peculiar to the PIC device. Programs consist of a series of instructions that detail consecutively the processes the programmer requires the microcontroller to execute. Programs are set out in a special format so that labels, instructions, directives and comments are recognised by the assembler. The assembler takes the compiled source code and processes this to produce an assembled (*.asm) file and an output (*.hex) file. The compiled source code is saved as an *.asm file while the *.hex file contains the data ready for downloading to the microcontroller. The hex file must be loaded into a program such as Picplc to convert it into binary form first. Debugging It’s a pretty rare programmer who manages to write code without errors, or bugs. Getting rid of these is not called squashing or swatting, it’s called debugging. MPLAB contains a software simulator which enables programs to be checked and debugged. The simulator enables programs to be observed step by step and shows what is happening in the various register and memory locations. Simulators can be invaluable tools for program development but have their limitations since they are not the real device. For the simulator to work, a hex file must be loaded into it. In this section we have set out some of the basics for preparing a program. We have included examples of how all three tools are used in the process. Your first step will be to install the MPLAB software if this has not already been done. About 8Mb of hard disk space will be needed. The zipped files can be saved to individual disks and installed after downloading. And if you want more information, the web contains thousands – no, probably millions – of pages of data, programs and help on PICs as well as other microcontrollers. If you don’t believe us, go to www.siliconchip.com .au and type PIC into the Google search engine. See you in a couple of years! BitSet program Included in the kit is a trial version of eLabtronics' “BitSet” software, an icon-based programming tool designed to replicate all the instructions available in the 16F84 instruction set. It utilises windows and drop down menus in which all the information contained in a text instruction can be entered and implemented on variables and literals. This provides a convenient method of entering instructions and data. The names assigned to the icons are representative of the group of functions SC hidden behind each button. Where from? The PICFun2 is designed by eLabtronics, 12-20 Gilles St, Adelaide, SA 5000. Tel (08) 8231 5966 Fax (08) 8231 5266 website: www.labtron.com.au Price of the basic PICFun2 is $78.00 +GST. It is also available through Altronics stores and mail order (1800 999 007). www.siliconchip.com.au VINTAGE RADIO By RODNEY CHAMPNESS, VK3UG Choosing your test instruments; Pt.2 Last month in Pt.1, we looked at the most used and most common test instrument of all, the digital or analog multimeter. Most faults can be found with a multimeter but the performance of your restored radio can be considerably enhanced by the use of other test instruments. The importance of test instruments to do the job can to a certain extent be dictated by your preferences and experience with various instruments. Generally, it is good to keep your test instruments as simple as possible and to the minimum number necessary to achieve a good result. When I was younger and less experienced, my aim was to surround myself with as many instruments as I could afford to do the job. It gave me a feeling of importance and I also conned myself into believing that with a large selection of equipment I could find anything. However, things don’t work out that way. Not only is it desirable to have appropriate equipment, it is also necessary to know what you are looking for. In those earlier times, with only limited experience, I couldn’t interpret the equipment readings or the effects of the instruments on the receiver under test. So at that time, the use of complex equip­ment would have been a waste of money. RF signal generator The two instruments that I use most today are a multimeter and an RF signal generator. I was asked by a vintage radio buff what he would use a signal generator for. He hadn’t used one so naturally he was unsure of what it did and how it performed its functions. A signal generator is very much like a miniature radio broadcast station. It is usually capable of being tuned to any frequency used by ordinary AM radio stations. It supplies a tone signal instead of voice or music, as this is easier to produce and makes it easier This home-made audio transformer tester enables transformers to be tested for short circuited windings and turns ratio. www.siliconchip.com.au to gauge the performance of the radio it is attached to. It has adjustable signal level output so that it can take the place of a strong signal from a nearby station or even a weak, faraway station. It also has the advantage that it can be set to the intermediate frequency (IF) of almost any superhet radio a vintage buff is likely to see. Having noted what a signal generator does, perhaps a few criteria for selecting a suitable signal generator can be listed: • It may be powered from mains or batteries. • Its radio frequency (RF) tuning range should extend from around 150kHz (the lowest IF that you are likely to see is 175kHz) to at least 30MHz when dual-wave or multi-band radios are being tested. If only broadcast band receivers are going to be tested, an upper frequency of 2MHz is all that is needed. • It needs to have audio modulation either by a tone of 400Hz or 1000Hz, or both. If possible, the level of this tone should be adjustable and it needs to be able to be switched off. • The audio tone should be available at the front panel and its level adjustable for testing the receiver’s audio section. • The radio frequency (RF) output level needs to be adjustable so that strong and weak signals can be simulated. This is an area that is often poorly achieved in cheap generators which are really just modulated oscillators. High-priced units have cal­ ibrated output levels so that the user can accurately determine the exact performance of their receiver. You may have seen in some of my articles where I have quoted particular sensitivities like 10µV (microvolt), etc. This can only be done with instruments like the Hewlett Packard 606B December 2001  83 This high voltage insulation tester was built from an Altronics kit and is used mainly for checking the insulation of transform­ers. shown in one of the photographs. This facility is not available on cheap instruments as it is costly to provide. Don’t despair as it isn’t essential, just nice to have when a particularly tricky fault is being traced. • The tuning dial should be accurate enough for you to be confident that the calibrations are within a few kilohertz at the lower frequencies and perhaps within 100kHz on a range up around 30MHz. This isn’t precision, because vintage receivers generally have rather vague dial markings up around those high frequencies anyway. • The signal should not drift in frequency to any extent after an initial warm-up period. For example, if you were to tune to 3RN on 621kHz on your receiver and adjust the signal generator to exactly the same frequency, there would be no beat or whistle coming out of the receiver. If, after 10 minutes, this has changed so that there is a whistle of no more than around 1000Hz, the generator is drifting a little but is OK for most purposes. If you have to retune the generator because there is a very high tone or it is almost out of audibility, the unit really has a little too much drift and it could be a nuisance when aligning the tuned circuits in a receiver. However, this is rarely a problem. Having set down the criteria for a signal generator, the next question is “Where do you get them?” Until recently, Dick Smith Electronics had a good general-purpose RF signal generator which was quite suitable for the job. I cannot find any generators advertised in the general electronics magazines, so where and how can a vintage radio enthusiast get such a device? Fortunately, there are quite a few signal generators for sale at amateur radio conventions/communications days and the like, and a quite reasonable Leader LSG10 or LSG11 (such as shown in one of the photographs) can be obtained at a reasonable cost. Amateur radio equipment has become so sophisticated that genera­tors of this standard have become of little use to amateurs. There are of course other brands available such as Advance and Taylor in the general-purpose range and both manufacturers produced good equipment. Units like the Hewlett Packard 606B are excellent and Fig.1: this transistor multivibrator is powered from a single 1.5V cell. It produces a 1kHz square signal which can be used as an audio signal while its higher harmonics can be used well up into the broadcast AM band. 84  Silicon Chip sometimes appear on the disposals market. They are magnificent pieces of equipment but be aware some of the parts may be a hard to source if they become faulty. Is there any other way of obtaining a signal generator? Yes, some of the old modulated oscillators that are collected by vintage radio buffs can be restored and used for their original purpose. Additionally, it is possible to build your own. Admit­tedly there are few designs around but back several years ago, ETI and EA did have some designs. I’m personally looking at building a relatively simple generator but it will be some time before it becomes a reality. High voltage tester Testing the insulation quality of power transformers, capaci­ tors, RF transformers and other devices that rely on the integri­ty of insulation is important in getting the best out of a re­stored vintage radio. I have often laboured the point of testing the insulation of power transformers, between windings and windings to earth. It is very much a safety issue. I make no apology for this. The unit shown in the photograph is a device built from a kit put out by Altronics. I believe that it is no longer available but a replacement kit also sold by Altronics (K2557) has been available for as low as $45. It is a SILICON CHIP design featured in May 1996 and is more versatile than the model I have. Signal injector This is a very simple little device that is suitable for testing valve and transistor radio equipment. It is a signal generator that puts out a basic audio frequency of 1kHz or there­ abouts and harmonics of 1kHz well up into the tuning ranges of domestic radios. It consists of a pair of transistors in a multivibrator oscillator circuit. It generates square waves at the basic fre­ quency of 1kHz (nominally) and these are applied through a probe to RF, IF and audio circuits throughout a receiver, often pinpointing the stage with the problems. In a set that is performing properly, applying the probe to the aerial terminal will produce a loud tone at the receiver output. By the time the probe is applied to the plate of the IF valve, the output level will be noticewww.siliconchip.com.au ably lower than when it was applied to the aerial, as there is no radio frequency gain after the plate of the IF valve. Placed on the detector, a loud tone should again be heard which is controlled by the volume control, and the level will reduce as the probe is attached to audio stages nearer to the speaker. While it is a very useful little instrument, misleading results can occur due to signals getting into stages that they were not intended to get into. However, Fig.1 shows a typical circuit for readers who wish to make one. They have to be tiny. An old marker pen can be used to house it and an AAA cell, or you could use a torch shell suited for AA cells. It’s tiny so a small circuit board or matrix board is needed to build it on. Some clues on construction can be obtained from the arti­cles in the December 2000 and May 2001 issues of SILICON CHIP, on LED torches. One precaution necessary with the signal injector is to make sure that the transistors do not receive pulses from the circuit being tested that exceed their breakdown voltage. For example, when the earth lead is connected to the chas­sis and the probe is touched on the HT line, a pulse will be sent through the probe’s injection capacitor (as it charges) to the collector of transistor Q1. This will exceed the breakdown vol­tage of the transistor and destroy it. To overcome this prob- Photo Gallery: Peter Pan FJJ Manufactured by Eclipse Radio, Melbourne, in 1949, the Peter Pan FJJ is a 4-valve superhet receiver employing virtually identical circuitry to a number of companion “Astor” models of the day. Housed in a substantial Bakelite cabinet and fitted with a 6-inch speaker, the Peter Pan FFJ was capable of good RF and audio performance. lem, a neon (NE2) and two strings of diodes are used to clamp this pulse to a level that will not harm the transistor. In some circumstances, the earth lead is not needed and hand capacity is sufficient to act as an earth. Experimentation and experience will soon show you the best way to use the injec­tor. Try it out on a few good sets first. Signal tracers Just as we can inject signals into a radio and assess the results, it is quite practical to do the reverse. We can listen to the signal as it progresses through a radio with a device called Above: if you are going to do alignment work on vintage radios, you do need a good RF signal generator, such as this Hewlett Packard model 606B which has the advantage of a calibrated output atten­uator and output metering. Left: while many vintage radio enthusiasts would probably like to have a valve tester, this AVO MkIII Valve Characteristic Meter (Mutual Conduct­ance Valve Tester) is really only likely to be used by someone is who designing valve circuits. www.siliconchip.com.au December 2001  85 “Radio & Hobbies” magazine described the Senior Signal Tracer in May and June 1954. It is essentially a tuneable superhet radio. Left: somewhat cheaper than the HP unit and with a good deal fewer facilities, the Leader LSG11 Signal Generator is a good instrument for vintage radio enthusiasts. a signal tracer. For example, a signal tracer can have its probe attached to the aerial terminal of a set and signals lis­tened to at that point. Depending on the type of tracer, one or many signals (usually weak) may be heard as they don’t usually have the performance of the receiver. At the grid of the first valve, hopefully only one signal is heard, being the one the set is tuned to. In the grid or plate circuit of the IF stage, the signal will be much louder in the tracer’s output. At the detector there is a choice of listening for RF or AF signals. Following the detector, the audio signal will get louder as each stage is probed with the tracer. There are two types of signal tracer. There was an untuned type described in SILICON CHIP for June 1997 (errata on this appeared in the August issue). These units are cheap and work quite satisfactorily in tracing run of the mill faults. They are switchable from RF to AF tracing and have gain controls. To use them, it is only a matter of putting the probe onto various signal points throughout the receiver and it will soon be obvious at which stage the signal disappears or becomes weaker instead of stronger. It is then a matter of testing that section of the set in depth to locate the fault. A tuned signal tracer is more versatile and more expensive. In effect, a tuned signal tracer is a special super86  Silicon Chip het or TRF receiver, with attenuators to cut the gain of various stages so that it is not overloaded. It also usually has a meter to show the strength of signals as they are traced through the receiver. As the name suggests, it can tune to any of the frequencies that the set tunes to as well as the intermediate frequency (IF). In addition, it can detect the oscillation from the local oscillator, usually without even touching any part of the oscil­lator circuit – just as long as the probe is near the circuit. It will also assist in determining if the oscillator is tuned to the correct frequency. I haven’t seen any of these available ready made or in kit format for many a long year. Occasionally a vintage signal tracer shows up in a collector’s display. The one featured in a photo­graph is a Radio & Hobbies design from the mid 1950s. It works extremely well, being more versatile than the untuned version. A solid state version would be a much better device for today I’m sure. Regrettably the market for such an instrument is so small that it would be up to individual collectors with time on their hands to design and build such a unit. Transformer tester I purchased a quantity of unmarked audio output transform­ ers. I really wasn’t looking forward to laboriously testing each one with a haywire sys- tem. It would take me ages to test them all, so I did some lateral thinking and came up with a simple device which will do all the testing I needed. It will determine the turns ratio and by looking up a table, the likely impedance ratio. The inductance of the high-impedance winding and the approximate efficiency of the transformer can also be obtained on other ranges. It uses just one quad operational amplifier IC and cost around $20 for bits. I can now test all the parameters listed above in around a minute per transformer. It is a bench instru­ment with an accuracy of around 10%; quite adequate for the job it is intended to do. Oscilloscope This is the device to use to find that really elusive fault. It can be used to measure voltages, particularly AC vol­tages, and is useful for looking at signal waveforms at various points through­out the circuit to determine if there is anything unusual that a multimeter cannot detect. Such things as supersonic oscillations in audio stages come to mind here. Some of these nasties occur only on audio peaks, for instance. If you can afford it, a CRO is often well worth the money. They are excellent instruments but one that the average vintage radio restorer may turn on only once a year – just to see if it www.siliconchip.com.au works or to look at the pretty patterns! Valve testers Photo Gallery: Mastertone 5-Valve Superhet These instruments were all the go years ago, particularly the emission testers. In reality, I found it was just as easy and usually more accurate to try a replacement valve rather than test the one from the set. They have their place but the average restorer will find little use for one. However, if a restorer is into design work as well, the purchase of a mutual conductance valve tester will be money well spent. From the variety of readings that such an instrument can give, a very high performance piece of equipment can be designed. They are cumbersome and slow to use, and like their simpler cousins, not something most restorers would consider important to have. Made by Burnell of Perth, the Mastertone 5-valve superhet receiv­er used the following valve types: EK2-G frequency changer; 6D6 IF amplifier, 75 1st audio/detector/AVC rectifier; 6F6-G output and 5Y3-G rectifier. Test methods Often a fault is more readily diagnosed when replacement parts are tried in a receiver. The most obvious and easiest to try is a replacement valve – as long as you have one of the same type, known to be good, or you can obtain one at a good price or on a loan basis. Only do this after you have determined with the multimeter that all is well as far as supply voltages are concerned. Valves at times can appear OK as far as static measurements with a multimeter are concerned but may still not work, so a replacement often cures a tricky problem. TV servicemen in the black and white days often carried a stock of known good valves to try in place of suspect valves. It saved a lot of mucking around (although it did lead to some of them being called “valve jockeys”). Strange crackles and distortion in the audio can often be cured by trying another speaker transformer and speaker on a trial basis. In the 40s and 50s, it was possible to buy a univer­sal speaker test set. It had a multi-impedance speaker transform­er which matched impedances from around 2.5kΩ ohms up to around 15kΩ, with several low impedance taps so that the various speaker impedances could be matched. It also had a choke and resistor arrangement that could match most speaker field coils. This was a handy device in its day but is hardly necessary to deal with the occasional restoration. www.siliconchip.com.au A spare receiver can also be used to test the local oscil­lator in a receiver. To conduct this test, tune another receiver to a weak station near 1000-1600kHz, with its aerial lead close to the set under test. Then slowly tune the set being tested from the 530kHz end up to around 1200kHz. As you tune the set under test, at some point a high-pitched whistle will be heard which drops to a low pitch as you continue to slowly tune the set. It should then disappear as tuning is continued, then increase to a high pitch and finally disappear from the test receiver. If the whistle is heard, the oscillator is operating. Going further than this by trying various replacement parts is neither quick nor effective and is not to be recommended. Get help from someone who has more experience than you have – it will save a lot of time. Summary So there you are, a run-down on test instruments from the essential down to the “nice to have, but don’t think I’ll bother” types. My order of importance, but not necessarily yours, is: (1). Digital Multimeter (and an Analog Multimeter); (2). RF Signal Generator; (3). High Voltage Insulation Tester; (4). Signal Tracer – preferably a tuned type; (5). Signal Injector; (6). Oscilloscope; (7). Valve Tester – Mutual Conductance type. Finally, while I did list the transformer tester in this article, it may not be a device that many would need, SC although I find it handy. If you can afford an oscilloscope for your vintage radio work, this 2-channel 20MHz Hung Chang model from Jaycar is more than adequate for the job. (Photo from Jaycar). December 2001  87 REFERENCE GREAT BOOKS FOR DIGITAL ELECTRONICS – A PRACTICAL APPROACH AUDIO POWER AMP DESIGN HANDBOOK By Douglas Self. 2nd Edition Published 2000 By Richard Monk. Published 1998. From one of the world’s most respected audio authorities. The new 2nd edition is even more comprehensive, includes sections on load-invariant power amps, distortion residuals and diagnosis of amplifier problems.368 pages in paperback. 85 $$ $$ 65 With this book you can learn the principles and practice of digital electronics without leaving your desk, through the popular simulation applications, EASY-PC Pro XM and Pulsar. Alternatively, if you want to discover the applications through a thoroughly practical exploration of digital electronics, this is the book for you. A free floppy disk is included, featuring limited function versions of EASY-PC Professional XM and Pulsar. 249 pages, in paperback. VIDEO SCRAMBLING AND DESCRAMBLING for Satellite & Cable AUDIO ELECTRONICS If you've ever wondered how they scramble video on cable and satellite TV, this book tells you! Encoding/decoding systems (analog and digital systems), encryption, even schematics and details of several encoder and decoder circuits for experimentation. Intended for both the hobbyist and the professional. 290 pages in paperback. This book is for anyone involved in designing, adapting and using analog and digital audio equipment. It covers tape recording, tuners and radio receivers, preamplifiers, voltage amplifiers, audio power amplifiers, compact disc technology and digital audio, test and measurement, loudspeaker crossover systems, power supplies and noise reduction systems. 375 pages in soft cover. By John Linsley Hood. First published 1995. Second edition 1999. TV by Graf & Sheets 75 $ NEW 2nd Edition 1998 NEW 4th EDITION 3rd W 3rd NE NEW ON:: ITION ED EDITI ME SA SAME ICE!! PR PRICE UNDERSTANDING TELEPHONE ELECTRONICS 2001 By Stephen J. Bigelow. Fourth edition published 2001 In keeping With the distinguished tradition of its .. predecessors, Understanding Telephone Electronics, FOURTH EDITION, covers conventional telephone fundamentals, including both analog and modern digital communication techniques. It provides basic information on the functions of each telephone system component, how electronic circuits general dial tones, and how the latest digital transmission techniques work. 65 $$ GUIDE TO TV & VIDEO TECHNOLOGY By Eugene Trundle. First pub­­lished 1988. Second edition 1996. Eugene Trundle has written for many years in Television magazine and his latest book is right up to date on TV and video technology. The book includes both theory and practical servicing information and is ideal for both students and technicians. 382 pages, in paperback. 59 $$ 88  Silicon Chip 99 $ 85 $ EMC FOR PRODUCT DESIGNERS By Tim Williams. First pub­­lished 1992. 3rd edition 2000. Widely regarded as the standard text on EMC, this book provides all the information necessary to meet the requirements of the EMC Directive. It includes chapters on standards, measurement techniques and design principles, including layout and grounding, digital and analog circuit design, filtering and shielding and interference sources. The four appendices give a design checklist and include useful tables, data and formulae. 299 pages, in soft cover. ELECTRIC MOTORS AND DRIVES By Austin Hughes. Second edition published 1993 (reprinted 1997). For non-specialist users – explores most of the widely-used modern types of motor and drive, including conventional and brushless DC, induction, stepping, synchronous and reluctance motors. 339 pages, in paperback. 65 $ www.siliconchip.com.au BOOKSHOP WANT TO SAVE 10%? SILICON CHIP SUBSCRIBERS AUTOMATICALLY QUALIFY FOR A 10% DISCOUNT ON ALL BOOK PURCHASES! ENQUIRING MINDS! (To subscribe, see page 38) ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST PIC Your Personal Introductory Course ANALOG ELECTRONICS NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW by John Morton – 2nd edition 2001 By Ian Hickman. 2nd edition1999. Essential reading for electronics designers and students alike. It will answer nagging questions about core analog theory and design principles as well as offering practical design ideas. With concise design implementations, with many of the circuits taken from Ian Hickman’s magazine articles. 294 pages in soft cover. 85 $ $ TELEPHONE INSTALLATION HANDBOOK by Steve Roberts $ 67 The definitive guide to home and small business installation - extensions, modems and telephone systems. Provides a practical guide to installation of telephone wiring. Ranges from the single extension socket to the Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX), with the necessary tools, test equipment and materials needed by installers. 178 pages in soft cover. NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW 43 Concise and practical guide to getting up and running with the PIC Microcontroller. Assumes no NEW prior knowledge of microcon-trollers, introduces the PIC’s cpabilities through NEW simple projects. Ideal introduction for NEW students, teachers, technicians and electronics enthusiasts – perfect for NEW use in schools and colleges. NEW 270 pages in soft cover. NEW VIDEO & CAMCORDER SERVICING AND TECHNOLOGY by Steve Beeching (First published 2001) Provides fully up-to-date coverage of the whole range of current home video equipment, analog and digital. Information for repair and troubleshooting, with explanations of the technology of video equipment. 318 pages in soft cover. SILICON CHIP'S COMPUTER OMNIBUS First published 1999 SILICON CHIP'S ELECTRONICS TEST BENCH First published 2000 Hints, tips, Upgrades and Fixes for your computer from articles published in SILICON CHIP in recent years. Covers DOS, Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and NT. A must for the computer user. $12.50 (Aust); $A15.95 NZ (prices include P&P) O R D E R H E R E P&P A collection of the “most asked for” Test Equipment projects and features from the pages of Australia’s “most asked for” electronics magazine. Exceptional value at $13.20 (Aust); $A15.95 NZ (prices include p&p).  ANALOG ELECTRONICS..................................................$85.00  AUDIO POWER AMPLIFIER DESIGN...............................$85.00  AUDIO ELECTRONICS.....................................................$85.00  DIGITAL ELECTRONICS ..................................................$65.00  ELECTRIC MOTORS AND DRIVES (2ND EDIT)................$65.00  EMC FOR PRODUCT DESIGNERS...................................$99.00  GUIDE TO TV & VIDEO TECHNOLOGY............................$59.00  PIC - YOUR PERSONAL INTRODUCTORY COURSE........$43.00  TELEPHONE INSTALLATION HANDBOOK........................$67.00  UNDERSTANDING TELEPHONE ELECTRONICS.................$65.00  VIDEO & CAMCORDER SERVICING/TECHNOLOGY........$67.00  VIDEO SCRAMBLING/DESCRAMBLING..........................$75.00  SILICON CHIP TEST BENCH.................................... (see above)  SILICON CHIP COMPUTER OMNIBUS.................... (see above)               ORDER TOTAL: $...................... Orders over $100 P&P free in Australia. AUST: Add $A5.50 per book NZ: Add $A10 per book, $A15 elsewhere www.siliconchip.com.au 67 $$ TAX INVOICE Your Name__________________________________________________________ PLEASE PRINT Address ____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________ Postcode_______________ Daytime Phone No. (______) __________________________________ STD Email___________________<at>_________________________________  Cheque/Money Order enclosed OR  Charge my credit card –  Bankcard  Visa Card  MasterCard No: Signature______________________Card expiry date PLUS P&P (if applic): $........................... TOTAL$ AU.............................. POST TO: SILICON CHIP Publications, PO Box 139, Collaroy NSW, Australia 2097. OR CALL (02) 9979 5644 & quote your credit card details; or FAX TO (02) 9979 6503 December 2001  89 ALL TITLES SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY. PRICES VALID FOR MONTH OF MAGAZINE ISSUE ONLY. ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST ASK SILICON CHIP Got a technical problem? Can’t understand a piece of jargon or some technical principle? Drop us a line and we’ll answer your question. Write to: Ask Silicon Chip, PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097; or send an email to silchip<at>siliconchip.com.au Turbo timer false triggers I recently bought and put together one of the Turbo Timer kits described in the November 1998 issue and it works well except for one thing. Instead of activating the relays only when the ignition is turned off, they are activated as soon as the ignition is turned on and then it switches itself off after the set time. This means that to activate the timer after going for a long drive, you have to turn the car off, then turn it back on (timer activates straight away) then take the keys out. I’ve checked and double-checked the layout. Help. (J. M., via email). • Some vehicles do not drop the ignition voltage fast enough to trigger the Turbo Timer circuit. You can improve this by increasing the 2.2µF capacitor connecting to pin 2 of IC1 to a much larger value, say 22µF. Coil ballast not required I have just purchased one of the High Energy Ignition (June 1998) kits Modifying a DC-DC converter In July 1996, you published a design for a switchmode step-up converter for use in charging SLA batteries. This used the Motorola MC34063A controller chip. I have been endeavouring to modify the design to derive 18V at about 1.5A and with reasonable success, but some aspects still are unclear. I have only been able to download one AppNote pertaining to this chip and it did not provide the info I was seeking. Similarly, a Motorola linear handbook did not show any series inductor/shunt external switch configurations as you used. 90  Silicon Chip to install into a Mini Clubman. This car is not fitted with a ballast resistor in the coil circuit. Do I just ignore any reference to it on the circuit diagram? I eventually will install a Hall Effect device into the distributor. Can I install all of the components for each of the trigger devices and use only the currently relevant input/ output connec­tions or do I have to select and install one type only and make changes when I wish to change to a different method of trigger­ing? Any advice you can give me on these questions will be appre­ciated. (K. P., via email). • Ignore the reference to the ballast. You should only install those components you need for the relevant input. If all compon­ents are installed, point A on the circuit will never be able to be pulled low by the relevant input. Foot switches for the guitar preamp I am building the 2-Channel Guitar Preamplifier and Digital Reverb from the November 2000 to January 2001 issues and I have a few questions. I’ll be adding a few effects boards I appreciate that you cannot undertake design modifications for individual readers and that is not what I am chasing. What I would like, however, is a lead on any documentation you used in the preparation of this design. (P. M., via email). • The configuration of the DC-DC converter used in the SLA battery charger is our own circuit adaptation of the MC34063. You won’t find it in the Motorola application notes. To obtain 18V you will need to adjust the divider at pin 5 so that this pin “sees” 1.25V when the output is 18V. Using a 30kΩ resistor in place of the 22kΩ resistor will give the correct divider ratio. The inductor value used should be about right to obtain 1.5A. such as distortion, twang and sustain (from Jaycar’s “Short Circuits III”), the SILICON CHIP Mic/Audio Compressor and the recent Tremolo Unit. I plan to build these effects boards into the same case as the preamp and bring the in/out switches to the front panel as well as to sockets on the back for remote foot switches. Rather than bring the circuit wiring to the foot switch sockets and to the foot switches and risk picking up hum and other noise in the leads, I intend to use mini or DIL relays to do the switching inside the preamp case and have the foot switch­ es switch only the relays. My question is, after the rather lengthy explanation, is there any possibility of noise or other interference coming from the relays? Are there any precautions I should take? Also, with all these extra boards (and consequential possible sources of noise), will there be much of an advantage in using the Ultra-LD amplifier module or would its predecessor, the 125W Plastic Power module (April 1996) be OK? (J. W., via email). • We would not recommend the Ultra-LD amplifier for use with the guitar preamp. It amounts to overkill. Instead, use the plastic power amplifier which can drive 4-ohm loads. You can use relays for the foot switch functions. Use a separate power supply for the relays so that when the relays are switched they do not induce noise into the audio. The separate power supply will need a separate transformer. Modifying the 8-channel mixer I was thinking of building your 8-channel mixer, as pub­lished in the November 1996 issue but have a few questions. Can I substitute the OP27 with the LM627, available from Dick Smith Electronics? Also the SSM2017 preamplifier chip is really diffi­ cult to source and as I don’t require eight microphones, mostly line inputs, can www.siliconchip.com.au I simply connect a line signal source directly to the main VR1 pot prior to IC2 in the schematic, as the LM833 can handle direct line levels? Or can you suggest a workaround? I was hoping to add a gain control feature. Is this possi­ ble? (E. Z., via email). • The LM627 can be used in place of the OP27 as it is an equivalent device. The SSM2017 is available from Altronics, Cat Z-2800. You can apply line levels to the input Main level control via a coupling capacitor. This is not recommended though because of the uncertain drive impedance of the input source. Adding a gain control is best achieved with the SSM2017 control at pins 8 and 1. Connect a 10kΩ pot in series with a 330Ω resistor between pins 8 and 1 for a nominal 25dB gain control range. Alternatively, a gain control can be added with a poten­tiometer used for the gain resistors between pins 1 and 2 of IC2a. Connect one end of the pot to pin 1 and the other to ground; the wiper connects to pin 2. Some form of upper gain limit would be necessary by adding a series resistor between the end of the variable resistance and ground. When using a 10kΩ pot, the existing 2.2kΩ fixed resistor to ground would be suitable. Dust causes TV interference My TV is connected to an outdoor antenna and has poor reception only on ABC on “normal” days. When it is raining, the picture is as clear as a bell. On an indoor antenna, the picture is signifi­cantly better than the outdoor antenna on one of those normal days. Fuel mixture display shows lean I bought the SILICON CHIP Fuel Mixture display kit (from Jaycar) and hooked it to my 1994 Holden Barina GSi but the only LEDs that come on are the red ones. When I start the engine the last LED comes on but as I turn the trimpot fully to the left, only the second last LED lights. As the car warms up, the last LED comes on and it stays that way. Is the Barina designed differently and do I need to replace the resistors with different values? There are no solder bridges and all the LEDs are correctly posiHeavy overcast conditions also improve reception. I don’t know why this is so. Perhaps you have an answer? (S. N., via email). • It is possible that the interference is caused by dust and dirt on the insulators on adjacent high-voltage power lines. This dirt would be washed off in rainy weather, eliminating any dis­ charge across the insulators and restoring clean reception. If you can get the ABC on a UHF transmission, it would be well worth the investment to obtain a UHF antenna to solve this problem once and for all. Or you can build one of the SILICON CHIP UHF antenna designs (eg, see the July 1994 issue for a 4-bay bowtie array). Supply problem in guitar preamp I recently built the guitar preamp described in the November 2000 issue tioned. What can I do? (G. E., via email). • We are not sure what you mean by “only the red LEDs come” on as all the LEDs are red. We assume you mean that the display always shows a lean mixture, with the lower two LEDs lighting. Possibly the problem is with the adjustments of both VR2 and VR3. You need to set them as described in the adjustment section of the article. Also check that the connection to the EGO has a good ground. Differences between the ground connection for the power supply on the fuel mixture display unit and the sensor ground can cause the display to show lean. and I have a small dilemma. The power supply I have already has outputs of ±15V (really 14.38V) and when I put the power to the board it drops down to +12.1V and -11.2V and I honestly don’t know why. (D. F., via email). • We are not sure whether you are using an existing ±15V supply or the one recommended for the guitar pre­ amplifier. If you are using an existing supply it does not seem to be able to cope with the extra current required from it when con­nected to the Guitar Preamplifier circuit. You may need to use the recommended power supply. If you are using the recommended power supply, then there does seem to be a problem with its output voltage at no load. The voltage should be closer to 15V than the 14.38V you are obtain­ing. We would envisage the power supply to deliver at least ±14.8V under no load. Perhaps the regulators are faulty? PARALLAX BS2-IC BASIC STAMP $112.00 INC GST WE STOCK THE COMPLETE DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM www.siliconchip.com.au December 2001  91 Train detector for outdoor work I need a model train detector that works outdoors. I tried ultrasonics – the wind defeated that. IR – the sun beats me there. RF (radar) – there are kids about and some people want more. The only one that I can think that may work is a metal detection type. HF across the rails won’t work with DCC systems and some of us run live steam and battery power. By the way, the white LED torch has another use. I made one for my niece who goes scuba diving. She did not like the cost of a decent diving torch, so I made one up with a couple of NiMh C cells, 10 5mm white LEDs and an inductive charg­ er (bits and pieces of your previous projects jumbled together), all in an old Dolphin-like (smaller) torch case. I then filled the case, after testing, with casting resin, lens area and all. She now has one solid, pressure proof and near indestruct­ible diving torch that throws a good beam and lasts a long while. I wonder how long it will be before headlights are made of white LED arrays? (R. P., via email). • We’ve done two train detectors that will work outdoors, in April 1994 (a Hall effect sensor) and a 25kHz system in June 1995. We can supply these issues for $7.70 each, including post­age. Thanks for the information on the diving light. Voltage droop when connecting the circuit to the supply usually means there is a short circuit somewhere on the PC board. This could be shorted pins on one of the op amps or a fine solder whisker joining tracks. Check with a magnifying glass on the underside of the PC board. Also do a close comparison between the published PC artwork and the copper tracks for solder bridges which should not be there. • Diode for white LED I have built the 15W class-A amplifier described in the August 1998 issue and am pleased with its performance. The specs state that it is rated at 15W into 8Ω. Can you tell me what it is likely to achieve into 4Ω? Also is it possible to increase the output by paralleling the output transistors and increasing the power supply? (S. F., Lake District, UK). • You can operate the class-A amplifier with 4-ohm loads and it will We are very interested in producing the white LED torch as described in the May 2001 issue but we are having trouble locat­ing the Schottky diode (BYV10-20). We have inquired at numerous electronics outlets including Jaycar, Altronics, Dick Smith Electronics and other outlets in Melbourne. (A. H., via email). The Schottky diode for the LED torch does not need to be the BYV1020. You can use the 1N5819 which is available from (Jaycar ZR-1020), (Dick Smith Electronics Z-3250) and (Altron­ics Z-0040). By the way, the BYV10-20 diode is also available from Farnell. Phone 1300 361 005. 4-ohm loads for class-A amplifier probably deliver about 25-30 watts maximum. The only problem is that once the load current exceeds about 1.9A peak, the amplifier will no longer be in class A. Instead it will be in class AB (albeit with exceedingly low crossover distortion arte­facts) for power levels above 7.5 watts. While we have not looked closely at the biasing, if you wanted to run in class-A up to full power, you would need to double the quiescent current. You would not need to double up on the output transistors but you would need a fan cooled heatsink to cope with the 80-watt dissipation and you would need a bigger power supply. Charging two sets of AAA cells I have a Kodak MC3 digital camera and MP3 player. They each use three AAA batteries and buying new disposable batteries all the time is impractical and expensive. I need a charger that can fast-charge two lots of three AAA batteries at a time. Could you suggest a kit that can or a product I could buy? (A. T., Wagga Wagga, NSW). • The Fast Universal Charger published in the June & July 2001 issues will charge 3.6V Nicads or NiMH batteries (ie, it can do three AAA nicads in series) but it could not do two sets at one time because it could not properly monitor the “end-point” vol­tage of each set. More IRLEDs for remote control extender Could you let me know if it is possible to run more than one IRLED on the remote control extender featured in the July 1996 issue. If so, what do I have to do so it still works. I need to do this because I have two units WARNING! SILICON CHIP magazine regularly describes projects which employ a mains power supply or produce high voltage. All such projects should be considered dangerous or even lethal if not used safely. Readers are warned that high voltage wiring should be carried out according to the instructions in the articles. When working on these projects use extreme care to ensure that you do not accidentally come into contact with mains AC voltages or high voltage DC. If you are not confident about working with projects employing mains voltages or other high voltages, you are advised not to attempt work on them. Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd disclaims any liability for damages should anyone be killed or injured while working on a project or circuit described in any issue of SILICON CHIP magazine. Devices or circuits described in SILICON CHIP may be covered by patents. SILICON CHIP disclaims any liability for the infringement of such patents by the manufacturing or selling of any such equipment. SILICON CHIP also disclaims any liability for projects which are used in such a way as to infringe relevant government regulations and by-laws. Advertisers are warned that they are responsible for the content of all advertisements and that they must conform to the Trade Practices Act 1974 or as subsequently amended and to any governmental regulations which are applicable. 92  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au Dr Video not good on latest Macrovision I recently constructed two Doctor Video kits from the April 2001 issue and have since tried to use them only to find that although they do help they don’t work fully. I tried to copy my Star Wars trilogy set so as to keep the originals in perfect condition. I found that it helped stop some of the horizontal tearing in the picture but not enough to stop all of the colour and hori- in different places. (R. S., via email). • You can run another IRLED via a separate 220Ω resistor connected to transistor Q1. Ignition circuit runs hot I have built the High Energy Ignition described in the June 1998 issue. It works well but the case gets very hot. I checked the current draw which was around 4A at idle, dropping to 3A when I revved the engine. All this seems OK but I am just a bit con­cerned that it runs so hot; I can’t keep my hand on the case. (P. C., via email). • Paradoxically, it is the current limiting which causes the circuit to run hot. If you want to check that your circuit is running properly. Short out D3 to disable the current limiting. The case should now run just warm to the touch; if it is still hot, you have a fault. Another possibility is that the case is too close to the engine. It is best to Notes & Errata Audio/Video Distribution Amplifier, November 2001: the 12 47kΩ resistors for the audio distribution outputs should be changed to 1kΩ. This is to avoid undue treble loss due to long cables. Though not essential, to ensure an extended bass response down to 20Hz with all six outputs in use, increase the output coupling capacitors from 0.39µF to 1µF. Programming Adapter for AVR Microcontrollers, October 2001: Fig.1 on page 69 shows the optional programming indicator connected to ground. www.siliconchip.com.au zontal problems. Can you help? (P. C., via email). • It sounds like the tape you want to copy has the very latest version of Macrovision which is designed to be much harder to remove than the earlier versions. If so, the Dr Video box won’t be able to give clean enough video. As far as we know, there isn’t any complete fix for the latest Macro­ vision – luckily it hasn’t been used on too many movies yet but that may quickly change. mount the case away from exhaust manifolds and preferably where air can pass over it. MicroZed Computers HAS MADE THESE NAMES FAMOUS IN AUSTRALIA micro Engineering Labs, Inc. NOW WE INTRODUCE Cooler not cold enough for beer I have built the Switching Temperature Controller described in the August 1999 issue but cannot get it to regulate the tem­perature below 10°C; not cold enough for my beer. I am a pommy but not that much. It was built using the Oatley kit. The Esky can cool to -1°C by removing the thermistor from the circuit. Please help! (Andrew, via email). • If the circuit can cool to below 1°C without the thermistor, we suggest you connect a 100Ω resistor in series with trimpot VR1. This will compensate for any tolerance variation in the thermistor. It seems likely that either there is a wide spread in the thermistor tolerances or a different thermistor has been supplied in the kit. The LED polarity should be reversed and connected to +5V. Universal Fast Battery Charger, June & July 2001: in some cases, transistor Q2 turns on slightly even though the unit is not in Refresh mode. The cure is to install a 1N4148 or 1N914 diode in series with Q2’s base (anode toward pin 10 of IC1). This diode can be installed in place of the link connecting pin 10 of IC1 to the base of Q2. Low Ohms Adaptor for DMMs, September 2001: the Circuit Notebook item on page 68 shows a GND terminal on the LM317. It should be labelled ADJ. SC Basic Micro offer ATOM: a Stamp2 lookalike with extended capabilities available in an IC or OEM format. A development board with sockets for IC and OEM version with a breadboard space instead of solder pads. Basic Micro also offer BASIC compilers, programmers and a range of development boards for 18, 28 and 40 pin PIC Chips. MicroZed Computers PO Box 634, Armidale, NSW 2350 (296 North Cooke’s Rd) Tel: (02) 6772 2777 Fax: (02) 6772 8987 Mob: 0438 277 634 http://www.microzed.com.au December 2001  93 MARKET CENTRE Cash in your surplus gear. Advertise it here in Silicon Chip. FOR SALE DAY/NIGHT COLOUR Camera in-built IR LEDs SEE-in-the-DARK Water Resistant Case for disturbance-free Baby – Bird – Animal – Porch – Driveway surveillance from $286 * www.allthings.com.au www.procontechnology.com.au Fischertechnik robotic kits, interfaces and software. Industrial I/O boards and microcontroller boards. Programming and design service available. Credit cards accepted. Phone 03 9830 6288. Fax 03 9830 6481 for a free catalogue. TELEPHONE EXCHANGE SIMULATOR: test equipment without the cost of telephone lines. Melb 9806 0110. http://www.alphalink.com.au/~zenere TIME LAPSE VCR 24 Hour from $399 ! International Manufacturer * Australia Wide Service Centres * www.allthings.com.au SPEAKER REPAIRS. New surrounds and voice coils. New and reconditioned speakers, boxes and kits. (03) 5986 1128, 0418 125367. CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING RATES Advertising rates for this page: Classified ads: $20.00 (incl. GST) for up to 20 words plus 66 cents for each additional word. Display ads: $33.00 (incl. GST) per column centimetre (max. 10cm). Closing date: five weeks prior to month of sale. To run your classified ad, print it clearly in the space below or on a separate sheet of paper, fill out the form & send it with your cheque or credit card details to: Silicon Chip Classifieds, PO Box 139, Collaroy, NSW 2097. Or fax the details to (02) 9979 6503. 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Provide us with a sample and we will supply you with schematics. www.elcomtel.com.au DIGITAL TIME LAPSE VIDEO RECORDER ! $999 ! Stand-Alone unit VCR like controls * Pre-Alarm Recording * International Manufacturer * Australia Wide Service Centres * 720 Horizontal Pixels * www.allthings.com.au TRANSMITTING COLOUR SECURITY CAMERA AND RECEIVER $NZ550, Video sender kit $NZ250, both 2.4GHz, 1km+ line of sight, Headset-vox, Bone-conduction mic. Lots more. www.amalgamate2000.com/sales PC CCTV Surveillance Digital-Video-Recording W98/ME/2000 Web-Cam Remote-View Dial-In Dial-Out Paging 768 x 576 Resolution software from $99 ! www.allthings.com.au WEATHER STATIONS: Windspeed & direction, inside temperature, outside temperature & windchill. Records highs & lows with time and date as they occur. Optional rainfall and PC interface. Used by Government Departments, farmers, pilots, and weather enthusiasts. Other models with barometric pressure, humidity, dew point, solar radiation, UV, leaf wetness, etc. Just phone, fax or write for our FREE catalogue and price list. Solar Flair/Ecowatch phone: (03) 5968 4863; fax: (03) 5968 5810, PO Box 18, Emerald, Vic., 3782. ACN 006 399 480. KITS KITS AND MORE KITS! Check ‘em out at www.ozitronics.com VGA-VIDEO Converter from $139 display PC / MAC images on Large Screen TV / LCD Projector - Record on a VCR - Ideal for Games - DVD - Presentations - Create Software Tutorial Videos www.allthings.com.au Audio, Video, S-Video and VGA cables distribution amps, switchers, adaptors, price lists at: www.questronix.com.au www.siliconchip.com.au VALVES, TRANSFORMERS, Radio and Hobby Era. Job Lot. Best Offer 02 9807 2755. MINI Cameras with Microphone only $44 ! COLOUR only $79 ! www.allthings.com.au NEED A PCB FOR YOUR IDEA? Supply us with your schematic. We can design and supply you with a PCB. www.elcomtel.com.au CCTV Quads from $168 / $303 Mono / Colour 4 pixs 1 screen www.allthings.com.au UNIVERSAL DEVICE PROGRAMMER: Low cost, high performance, 48-pin, works in DOS or Windows inc NT/2000. $1320. Universal EPROM programmer $429. Also adaptors, (E) EPROM, PIC, 8051 programmers, EPROM simulator and eraser. Dunfield C Compilers: Everything you need to develop C and ASM software for 68HC08, 6809, 68HC11, 68HC12, 68HC16, 8051/52, 8080/85, 8086, 8096 or AVR: $198 each. Demo disk available. ImageCraft C Compilers: 32-bit Windows IDE and compiler. For AVR, 68HC11, 68HC12. $396. Atmel Flash CPU Programmer: Handles the 89Cx051, 89C5x, 89Sxx in both DIP and PLCC44 and some AVR’s, most 8-pin EEPROMS. Includes socket for serial ISP cable. $220, $11 p&p. SOIC adaptors: 20 pin $99, 14 pin $93.50, 8 pin $88. Full details on web site. Credit cards accepted. GRANTRONICS PTY LTD, PO Box 275, Wentworthville 2145. (02) 9896 7150 or http://www.grantronics.com.au BIG CLOCK (Silicon Chip, 3/2001) and TELEPHONE CALL LOGGER (Silicon Chip, 12/2001) available from www.ozitronics.com or ring (03) 9434 3806. SEE-in-the-DARK Camera in-built IR LEDs in Water Resistant Case for disturbance-free Baby – Bird – Animal – Porch observation from $147 * NEW Wireless Version available NOW ! * www.allthings.com.au COLLECTOR’S ITEM: Radio-Television and Hobbies – E.A. Magazines 19551997 approx 99% complete. What offer the lot? Buderim (07) 5445 2058. www.siliconchip.com.au Satellite TV Reception International satellite TV reception in your home is now affordable. Send for your free info pack containing equipment catalog, satellite lists, etc or call for appointment to view. We can display all satellites from 76.5° to 180°. AV-COMM P/L, 24/9 Powells Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Tel: 02 9939 4377 or 9939 4378. Fax: 9939 4376; www.avcomm.com.au Need prototype PC boards? We have the solutions – we print electronics! Four-day turnaround, less if urgent; Artwork from your own positive or file; Through hole plating; Prompt postal service; 29 years technical experience; Inexpensive; Superb quality. Printed Electronics, 12A Aristoc Rd, Glen Waverley, Vic 3150. Phone: (03) 9545 3722; Fax: (03) 9545 3561 Call Mike Lynch and check us out! We are the best for low cost, small runs. New New New Mark22-SM Slimline Mini FM R/C Receiver • • • • • 6 Channels 10kHz frequency separation Size: 55 x 23 x 20mm Weight: 25gm Modular Construction Price: $A129.50 with crystal Electronics PO Box 580, Riverwood, NSW 2210. Ph/Fax (02) 9533 3517 email: youngbob<at>silvertone.com.au Website: www.silvertone.com.au PCBs MADE, ONE OR MANY. Low prices, hobbyists welcome. Sesame Elec­tronics (02) 9586 4771. sesame<at>internetezy.com.au; http:// members.tripod.com/~sesame_elec NEED A SPARE WHICH IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE OR TOO EXPENSIVE? We can design and supply a replacement. www.elcomtel.com.au DOCUMENTATION: Can we help you get that work on paper? Text, drawings, photos to govt. or house spec. maurief<at>bigpond.com DIY CCTV PAKS 4 Cameras Mikes & Switcher..... $265 4 COLOUR & Switcher............... $385 4 Cameras Mikes & PC DVR...... $311 4 COLOUR & PC DVR............... $431 4 Cams Mikes & QUAD .............. $360 4 COLOUR & QUAD ................... $637 Time-Lapse 24 hr VCR only $449 with CCTV PAK ! DIY INSTALL-PAKS Plug-In Cables – Power Supply – etc www.allthings.com.au RCS HAS MOVED to 41 Arlewis St, Chester Hill 2162 and is now open, with full production. Tel (02) 9738 0330; Fax 9738 0334. rcsradio<at>cia.com.au; www.cia.com.au/rcsradio SMD LEDs for your phone mods and components go to www.lazer.com.au Multiplexers CCTV Full-Screen Full-Resolution Recording FOUR TIMES MORE DATA than a Quad from $597/$944 Mono/Colour. www.allthings.com.au USB 4 channel Voltmeter with logging, Digital Oscilloscope kits. http://www.ar.com.au/~softmark HOME SOHO PAKS DIY only ! $82 / $109 ! Mono / COLOUR Camera & MICROPHONE + Plug-In 20 metre AV Cable Set + Plug Pack ! www.allthings.com.au CCTV Equipment * BLEMISH FREE & LOW BLEMISH CCDs * up to 5 YEARS WARRANTY * OVERNIGHT DELIVERY * www.allthings.com.au VIDEO amplifiers, Stabilisers, TBCs, Converters, Mixers, etc. QUESTRONIX (02) 9477 3596. DOME CCTV Cameras from $49 / $75 Mono / Colour www.allthings.com.au continued next page December 2001  95 Electro-mechanical/Electronic repairs, rebuilds, maintenance, calibrations etc. Quality service at your site/s or in our workshop. PH: 0416 278-775 Positions At Jaycar We are often looking for enthusiastic staff for positions in our retail stores and head office at Silverwater in Sydney. A genuine interest in electronics is a necessity. Phone 02 9741 8555 for current vacancies. Buy Direct From Manufacturer D.I.Y. PCB SUPPLIES G.S. & W.M. MILLAR ELECTRONICS SUPPORT SOLUTIONS Pre Sensitized Copper Clad to make your own boards. Developer, Carbide Drills & Mills also manufacturer of Single & double sided boards. Comprehensive details at acetronics.com.au goto shop page ACETRONICS PCBs 5/32 Seton Rd Moorebank NSW 2170 02 9600 6832 Fax: 02 9600 6834 Mail: acetronics<at>acetronics.com.au Credit cards welcome Advertising Index Acetronics..................................95 Alltac International.....................73 Altronics............................... 76-77 Allthings Sales & Services.. 94-96 Av-Comm Pty Ltd.......................95 Dick Smith Electronics........ 22-25 Elabronics...................................74 Emona...........................................5 Futurlec.......................................13 Grantronics.................................95 G.S. & W.M. Millar.......................96 KITS-R-US 08-82703175 NEW RANGE OF ELECTRONIC KITS FROM EUROPE NOW AVAILABLE FROM AUSTRALIA & NZ Authorised Distributors Q-Mex PO Box 10060, Adelaide B.C. S.A. 5000 Web site: www.q-mex.com.au Email: qmex<at>bigpond.com Ph/Fx: (08) 8340 1384 ABN 56 098 091 028 More at www.bettanet.net.au/GTD $2 PACKS Buy 10 packs, get the 11th one free #001 20 x quality USA nylon cable ties #002 10 x 14-pin IC sockets #003 20 x 16-pin dip 8 x 47k resistor array #004 20 x 7408 quad 2 input and gate #005 10 x 1.5uF 6VW SMD chip capacitor #006 10 x 0.47uF 20VW SMD chip capacitor #007 10 x 2.2uF 2VW SMD chip capacitor #008 2 x 8MHz ceralock for PIC CPU chips #009 4 x Murata UHF 3pF trimmer cap #010 2 metres 40-way IDC cable #011 2 x 52-pin PLCC IC sockets #012 6 x BF86 no brand RF transistors #013 40 x 1N4148 signal diode ($5/100) #014 2 x DB series connectors your choice of any 9 to 50 pin M/F plugs and sockets, limited stocks. Harbuch Electronics..................75 Hy-Q International......................73 Instant PCBs...............................95 Jaycar ................................... 45-52 JED Microprocessors...........43,73 MicroZed Computers............93,73 Oatley Electronics......................65 Pavika Management...................35 PolyKom....................................IFC Premier Batteries.......................13 Printed Electronics................... 95 Q-Mex..........................................96 Questronix.............................73,95 RCS Radio..................................95 RTN..............................................75 RF Probes...................................73 Robotic Education Products.....35 IFR FM-AM 500A Communications Test Set with or without cal. cert. Barry 0249711668. barry.sullivan<at>bigpond.com DESIGN DEADLINES? If you have more work than you can cope with, then we can assist you with the design. www.elcomtel.com.au VCR Controller use your home VCR to Record Events Wireless IR Learning Remote from $30. www.allthings.com.au GEM * COLOUR Video Camera * 600 + H-Line Resolution * High 0.007 lux Sensitivity * Extraordinary 58 + dB Signal : Noise Ratio * SUPER WIDE 275 + Dynamic Range * Incredible 150 + dB Smear Rejection * www.allthings.com.au 96  Silicon Chip KIT ASSEMBLY NEVILLE WALKER KIT ASSEMBLY & REPAIR: • Australia wide service • Small production runs • Specialist “one-off” applications Phone Neville Walker (07) 3857 2752 Email: flashdog<at>optusnet.com.au WANTED WANTED: EARLY HIFIs, AMPLIFIERS, Speakers, Turntables, Valves, Books; Quad, Leak, Pye, Lowther, Ortofon, SME, Western Electric, Altec, Marantz, McIntosh, Good­ mans, Wharefdale, Tannoy; radio and wireless. Collector/Hobbyist will pay cash. (07) 5449 1601. johnmurt<at>highprofile.com.au RobotOz......................................73 Silicon Chip Binders..................31 Silicon Chip Bookshop........ 88-89 SC EFI Tech Special...............OBC SC Electronics Testbench...... IBC Silicon Chip Subscriptions.......53 Silvertone Electronics...............95 Solar Flair/Ecowatch..................94 VAF Research........................73,81 Wiltronics..................3,31,44,73,91 _________________________________ PC Boards Printed circuit boards for SILICON CHIP projects are made by: • RCS Radio Pty Ltd. Phone (02) 9738 0330. Fax (02) 9738 0334. www.siliconchip.com.au