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The new
Introducing a whole new category of handheld instruments: the new 860
Series Graphical MultiMeters (GMM) from Fluke. GMMTM test tools pair
the world's most advanced multimeter capabilities with graphical display
power. You choose what information you want to see, and how you want
to see it. All by turning the simple, multimeter-style rotary knob and
pressing the Display Mode button. It'll feel so familiar, yet what you'll see
is brand new.
Turn the knob to the function you want, press Display Mode to select
waveform display, and you'll see noise, waveform distortion, and intermittent
-
failures or capture glitches -
automatically.

TM

Graph:ica
ca
Use In- Circuit Component Test to look at component signatures in-circuit,
without risking damage to sensitive components. Or let the GMM test tool
monitor a test set up, plotting meter readings for up to 30 hours with the
TrendGraph1M Display Mode.
With the 860 Series, you'll be using the most accurate handheld meter
ever made -
0.025% basic dc accuracy and a 32,000 -count (more than
4 -2/3 digit) display. All functions offer true !EC 1010 -1 Class III 1000V
protection. Plus the most comprehensive set of muftimeter functions
(including capacitance and dB) in a handheld meter. The Dual Display
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And you don't have to buy special test leads; one simple set
of meter leads supports every function of the fully integrated
860 Series.
GMM test tools start at $795. For a graphic demonstration,
see your local FLUKE distributor or call
1- 800-59 -FLUKE for direct
connection to a distributor
near you. For immediate
fax -back of 860 Series literature,
call 1- 800 -86-FLUKE.

C
USA
om Fluke.
1994 Fwke Corporation. P.O. Box 9090, M/S 250E, Everett, WA,
98206 -9090. U.S.: (800)44 -FLUKE or (206) 356 -5400. Canada (905) 890 -7600.
Europe (31 40) 644200. Other countries (206) 356-5500.
All rights reserved. Ad No. 00698.

Serious Tools for Serious Work.

FLUKE
CIRCLE 121 ON FREE INFORMATION CARD
 Intelligent benefits. With AutoCommand,
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raised, brake pedal is pressed or the vehicle is
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without the key in the
ignition, preventing UPGRADE OPTIONS.
theft or tampering. You can replace your
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also monitors your car remote control with the
while you are away. Garage Door Remote
The built -in Vacation Control replacement
Option will automati- system. This system
cally start and run can be added to any
your car for 10 min- garage door that has
utes every four to six an existing electrical
hours when the tem- garage lift unit. It will
perature drops below share the same trans-
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days, AutoCommand Command, eliminating
will also start your car extra keychain
when the interior remotes! You can also
reaches 140 degrees. If add the Shock Sensor
your battery drops be- option to the built-in

New microprocessor puts the brain of low 11 volts, Auto -

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It detects any impact
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a $50,000 car under your hood... Try it risk -free. At added protection.

Comtrad, we back all

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by Charles Anton
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The powerful microprocessor brain learns
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 1I

1P)
Vol. 66 No. ,

CONTENTS APRIL 1 995

ON THE COVER TECHNOLOGY

LASER LIGHT SHOW 42 VOLTAGE CONVERTERS

33
Learn how
voltage -
Most readers have probably seen the dazzling laser conversion
light shows at concerts and planetariums. Unfortu-
nately the equipment necessary to perform such -
circuits work.
Ray Marston
"'

L- t
shows is usually prohibitively expensive. This month
51 CUSTOM METER FACES
we present a rela-
Customize
tively inexpensive analog meters
device that can
project an unlimit-
ElectronicS faces with your
PC and a laser

ed variety of laser
graphics onto a laser light -
printer.
Skip Withrow

wall or screen. Show1xrRmq Sts,Rely:

A HIGH -TECH CAREER
Any laser- solid- *n ..
ohne 4ma
63
FOR THE '90sß-
.
7n
.wn .q.Mn n /wiv
state or helium - ...,.,* Technical

neon -can be
7tÁn,Mn careers in the
'90s are more
used, which can Jnifagn r.amfarlEr
Anni,.nirIVIIIrt than circuit -
help to reduce
cost. Three rotat- wgm
WM
`alrgOanP, Urtar
-
repair jobs.
Ronald A. Reis

ing mirrors under

71 OFF -LINE REGULATORS
remote control direct the laser beam into the un- These off -line
usual patterns.
David Williams - voltage
regulators
produce 8- to
12 -volts DC
from 120 -volt

- AC inputs.
J. Daniel Connell

As a service to readers, ELECTRONICS NOW publishes available plans or information relating to newsworthy products, techniques and scientific and technological
developments. Because of possible variances in the quality and condition of materials and workmanship used by readers, ELECTRONICS NOW disclaims any
responsibility for the safe and proper functioning of reader -built projects based upon or from plans or information published in this magazine.
Since some of the equipment and circuitry in ELECTRONICS NOW may relate to or be covered by U.S. patents, ELECTRONICS NOW disclaims any liability
for
the infringement of such patents by the making, using, or selling of any such equipment or circuitry, and suggests that anyone interested in such projects consult a
patent attorney.
ELECTRONICS NOW, (ISSN 1067 -9294) April 1995. Published monthly by Gernsback Publications, Inc., 500 -B Bi- County Boulevard, Farmingdale, NY 11735.
Second -Class Postage paid at Farmingdale, NY and additional mailing offices. Canada Post IPM Agreement No. 334103, authorized at Mississauga, Canada.
One-year subscription rate U.S.A. and possessions $19.97, Canada $27.79 (includes G.S.T. Canadian Goods and Services Tax, Registration No. R125166280), all
other countries $28.97. All subscription orders payable in U.S.A. funds only, via international postal money order or check drawn on a U.S.A. bank. Single copies
$3.50. ©1995 by Gernsback Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to ELECTRONICS NOW, Subscription Dept., Box 55115, Boulder, CO 80321 -5115.
A stamped self- address envelope must accompany all submitted manuscripts and/or artwork or photographs if their return is desired should they be rejected. We
disclaim any responsibility for the loss or damage of manuscripts and/or artwork or photographs while in our possession or otherwise.
 A P R I L 1 9 R 5
BUILD THIS

39 PUT THAT PHONE ON HOLD!

Build a telephone hold circuit that
Electivnics
NOW®
works from any phone in your
Hugo Gernsback (1884 -1967) founder

-
home.
Frank Montegari LARRY STECKLER, EHE CET,
Editor-in -chief and publisher
55 TELEPHONE COST METER
Keep tabs on phone costs with this EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
BRIAN C. FENTON, editor

-
8085 -based phone meter.
Rodger G. Rahhal
MARC SPIWAK, associate editor
NEIL SCLATER, associate editor
TERI SCADUTO, assistant editor
JEFFREY K. HOLTZMAN
computer editor
ROBERT GROSSBLATT, circuits editor
DEPARTMENTS LARRY KLEIN, audio editor
DAVID LACHENBRUCH
contributing editor
DON LANCASTER
6 VIDEO NEWS contributing editor
EVELYN ROSE, editorial assistant
field.-
What's new in this fast -changing
David Lachenbruch ART DEPARTMENT
ANDRE DUZANT, art director
RUSSELL C. TRUELSON, il!UStratOr
14 EQUIPMENT REPORT
Elenco Electronics FO -30 Fiber PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT
Optics Kit. RUBY M. YEE, production
director
KAREN S. BROWN
advertising production
75 HARDWARE HACKER KATHRYN R. CAMPBELL
The DNA computer language, production assistant

-
wavelet resources, and more.
Don Lancaster
CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
JACQUELINE P. CHEESEBORO
circulation director
WENDY ALANKO
83 AUDIO UPDATE
circulation analyst

-
Build a simple cable tester.
Larry Klein
THERESA LOMBARDO
circulation assistart
MICHELE TORRILLO
reprint bookstore
90 COMPUTER CONNECTIONS

-
Unauthorized Windows. Typography by Mates Graphics
Cover photo by Chris Gould
Jeff Holtzman Cover design by David Loewy

Electronics Now is indexed in Applied

Science & Technology Index, and Read-
ers Guide to Periodical Literature, Acade-
mic Abstracts, and Magazine Article Sum-
maries.
Microfilm & Microfiche editions are avail-
A N D M O R E able. Contact circulation department for de-
tails.

Advertising Sales Offices listed on

page 94.
4 WHAT'S NEWS 26 NEW LITERATURE Electronics Now Executive and
Administrative Offices
1- 516 -293 -3000.
8 Q&A 94 BUYER'S MART Subscriber Customer Service:
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Order Entry for New Subscribers:
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98
OFFICES
NEW PRODUCTS
22
98 ADVERTISING INDEX 43
Audit Bureau
of Circulations
Member
3
 WHAT'S NEWS
A review of the latest happenings in electronics.

Blue -LED fabrication neering and a professor of physics,

Researchers at Boston Universi- said, "Making the blue LED from
ty's College of Engineering and the gallium nitride is the first step in
Center for Photonics Research getting to the [low-cost, durable
have developed a new method for blue] laser."
making a gallium- nitride light -emit-
ting diode (LED) that emits light in NAB vs. satellite radio
the ultravioltet -blue spectrum. The The National Association of
blue LED -the first of its kind made Broadcasters (NAB) submitted a
in the United States -is critical in point -by-point response to a docu-
the development of the much - ment filed with the FCC by a propo-
awaited blue semiconductor laser nent of satellite radio. The NAB
and is expected to have a major RESEARCHERS AT BOSTON UNIVERSI- says that the document, filed by CD
TY have developed a new method to Radio, Inc., erroneously downplays
impact on U.S. competitiveness in make a gallium nitride blue /ultraviolet
the technological marketplace. LED that is expected to speed the de- the competitive effects of satellite
Industry analysts predict that blue velopment of a blue semiconductor radio on local radio service nation-
LEDs will constitute 20% of a $2 laser. wide.
billion LED display market by the 'Any loss in national advertising
turn of the century. Low-cost UV- for their operation, some of the revenues... will have a significant im-
blue lasers will be significant com- problems associated with the met - pact on overall (radio) station profits
ponents in the combined color cop- allorganic chemical -vapor deposi- and the station's ability to serve lo-
ier, printer, and fax market, which is tion (CVD) method used in Japan cal needs," the NAB report- titled
expected to grow to $8 billion by are avoided. "The Truth About Satellite Radio,"
2003. The largest market segment For more than two decades, sci- said. In particular, it pointed out that
expected to benefit from this tech- entists have been trying to develop "any diversion of audience by satel-
nology breakthrough is optical stor- semiconducting materials that pro- lite services will reduce the reve-
age, which is expected to reach $30 duce true bright blue light efficiently. nues local advertisers will pay local
billion by 2003. Red, yellow, and green LEDs were stations."
According to Dr. Donald Fraser, developed in the 1960s and became The NAB reminded the FCC of a
director of the Center for Photonics commercially available in the 1980s. 1992 Price Waterhouse study,
Research, The blue /ultraviolet The third primary color, blue, how- which revealed that three out of five
semiconducting laser, when avail- ever, has eluded semiconductor re- U.S. radio stations lost money. Be-
able, will revolutionize the way the searchers. tween 1987 and 1993, radio revenue
world does its copying, printing, and One of the most promising poten- growth has not kept pace with infla-
storing of data, and create enor- tial applications for the blue laser is tion. Small- market radio stations
mous markets for those companies in low -cost optical storage. It would are particularly vulnerable to the im-
with the technology," adding, The allow a four to ten times increase in pact of satellite radio, which "will
Photonics Center will work with in- storage density over current CD- provide virtually no opportunity for
dustrial partners to assure that our ROM systems. Blue LEDs will be diversification of ownership and will
country retains this advantage." used most dramatically in bright, have virtually no public interest or
Professor Theodore Moustakas full -color displays, such as those in- minority employment obligations,"
and his research team first pro- tended for sports stadiums. Other the NAB said in its critique.
duced a long -life, room -temperature potential applications include their Broadcasters also contend that
blue LED in April 1994, using a use in diagnostic and therapeutic there is little demand for new radio
method distinctly different from that medical equipment, true -color print- service, citing the FCC's own con-
introduced the same month by Jap- ing, underwater communication, clusion, just two years ago, that
anese researchers from Nichia and satellite to satellite communica- there were too many radio stations
Chemical Industries Ltd. The tion. The same materials are also in the U.S. New FCC rules, adopted
Boston University method involves suited for electronic and electro- at the time, encouraged a market -
the reaction of gallium with atomic mechanical applications such as driven consolidation.
nitrogen and leads to uniform depo- high- temperature, microwave, and The NAB believes that adding
sition over large water areas. Be- spacecraft electronics. mobile satellite radio service to the
cause the LED devices do not Moustakas, a professor of elec- mix would set up the nation's 11,000
require any post -growth treatment trical, computer, and systems engi- Continued on page 92
4
 IcGRAW HILL the complete
1
LECTRONICS book of
[ jCTIONARY OSCILLOSCOPES
-second edition-

0404348 -XX 049.50 4199H $29.95

3825P $17.95
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Incredible
&
Video
Projects
when you join the Electronics Book Club"
You ('au
Mudd Basic
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NSWERING' Second Edition
INES

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Counts as 2/Hardcover Hardcover 4416P $9.95 3765P $19.95 004439 912.95 0691562 019.95 4331E-XX $29.95
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M L raw -u u CIRCLII I BUILD YOUR OWN

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simply return the reply form to us by the date specified.'f
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you can return it at our expanse. Plus, you'll he el gible If you select a Counts as 3 choice. write the book number in one box and XXX in the next 2 boxes.
tor FREE BOOKS through our Bonus Book Program Your
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5
 VIDEO NEWS
What's new in the fast -changing video industry.
DAVID LACHENBRUCH

Status of HDTV. The "Grand portfolio updates tailored to the indi-

Alliance" digital high- definition sys- vidual user, will be added. A hand-
tem has been delayed again. The held remote control is used to
companies charged with manufac- access the information, which is de-
turing a working prototype for test- livered over ordinary phone lines.
ing failed to meet the January 31 The Information Center black box
deadline for delivery to the Ad- will sell for$329, according to AT &T,
vanced TV Test Center and an- and a "basic group" of services will
nounced a delay until March. There cost less than $10 a month. Zenith
was some cynicism about the new will manufacture TV sets and cable
March deadline, since the earlier boxes with the Information Center
deadline for delivery of the equip- built in.
ment was late in 1994. Assuming so, you'll be able to go to your local
that the new deadline is met, testing electronics store or AT &T Tele-
could begin some time in April, but phone Store and buy a black box
now there seems to be little chance that will link your television set to
that the timetable of a final recom- your phone lines, according to
mendation to the FCC by early Au- AT &T. The "Television Information
gust will be met. The major Center" is designed to connect to
RCA'S DSS SATELLITE SYSTEM was
equipment work remaining was products that almost everyone 1994's surprise consumer-electronics
completion of performance testing owns to supply information ser- hit, quickly surpassing all projected
of the video encoder-decoder at vices. AT &T says that it's not neces- sales figures.
Bell Telephone Laboratories. The sary to have a computer to be "on
remainder of the system has been line," since the TV is a ubiquitous Satellite System, or DSS, the high -
assembled at David Sarnoff Re- display device in the home and the powered satellite home -delivery
search Center and waits final test- telephone line can feed it. Initially system that is supplying TV pro-
ing when the encoder-decoder the Information Center will provide gramming to well over a half million
arrives. According to a Grand Al- telephone answering and electronic homes in the United States that are
liance spokesman: "The equipment banking and bill -paying with on- equipped with 18 -inch satellite dish-
is working, we have pictures, and screen displays. Custom services, es. Thomson Consumer Electronics
we just need a little more time to such as sports scores and stock - announced that it had shipped
finish our work." Zenith, which is partnered with 593,098 RCA -brand DSS receiving
AT &T in developing home hardware systems to dealers between last
"TV Information Center." for the system, says that the sys- June's launch and the end of 1994,
Some time within the next month or tem "advances our strategy to posi- and that it has started a $40- million
tion the television as the primary expansion of its Juarez, Mexico
source for interactive services." plant to handle the demand. Two
However, just in case someone
wants to use a computer instead of
a TV set, AT &T will also offer a PC
versions of the system are avail-
able-priced at $699 and $899 -
with installation available for $200
interface. And for someone who or on a do- it-yourself basis.
wants the system but doesn't want Ironically, the very success of
to tie up either the TV or the corn - DSS will end RCA's exclusivity pre-
puter (or the phone line), AT &T will maturely. Under the terms of Thom -
offer a telephone with two lines and son's pact with its partners Hughes
a built -in screen for $199. The basic Electronics and U.S. Satellite
Information System has a built -in, Broadcasting, Thomson has the ex-
2400 -baud modem and more than a clusive right to make and sell re-
THE AT &T TELEVISION INFORMATION megabyte of DRAM and flash mem- ceivers for 18 months or until the
CENTER, available in a set -top box or ory. first million systems are sold. Now
built -in to a Zenith TV (shown) allows an Satellite Success. The con- the goal of selling one million units
ordinary TV to be used as a telephone might be reached in May, since
answering machine, for electronic bank- sumer-electronics success story of
ing, and to supply information services. 1994 unquestionably was the Digital Continued on page 89
6
beyond
our SCO
Tektronix gives you an entire bench
of affordable test instruments.
You know us for our oscilloscopes. (Considering we are the widely

accepted market leader, it's not surprising.) Now we've expanded,_

our vision. And it's grown to include function generators,

timers, multimeters, power supplies, and accessories. All built

same devotion to accuracy and reliability that you've experienced

our scopes. It's all compatible, fully integrated and best of all, simple

to use. And all made

TEKBEIVCH M

f r o m T e k t r o n i x
available to you in a compre-

hensive, affordable port-

folio we call TekBench".

Come, try one out when

you next need something for your bench. We believe we'll be well

within your scope. For more information or the name of the

Authorized TekBench" Distributor nearest you, call 1- 800 -426 -2200.

(When prompted, press 3 and request ext. 335.)

marksof Tektronix, Inc DPW -500173

ONVIFIrATION CARD
. Tektronix
 Q&A
Write to Q & A, Electronics Now, 500 -B Bi- County Blvd., Farmingdale, NY 11735

NEGATIVE REGULATOR FM broadcasting station to nals with reed relays; that's the di-
Could you please explain cover a 10- to 20 -mile radius. The rection to go in if you want to build
what a constant negative volt- language used will not be purely your own. Alternatively, here's a "no
parts'' solution: just plug the
age regulator is and could you
also draw a schematic of one? - English. Can you comment
about the legality of such a proj- monitor into whichever computer
Justin Williams
A constant negative voltage reg-
ulator is inserted into the negative
ect? Is any kind of permit re-
quired, and from whom?
Bandar Al- Mashary
- needs it at the time. You can unplug
a monitor from a running computer
and plug it back in without harm, as
supply instead of the positive sup- A low -power license -free trans- long as you take care to touch the
ply line. Figure shows the basic
1 mitter can cover at most only a cou- case of the computer first in order
ple of miles. Your station will have to to discharge static electricity.
be licensed by the Federal Commu-
78o s
pos/7-/Va
nications Commission (Wash-
ington, DC 20554). The best way to I
NO HOT BOOT
have a 486 DX2 computer
,ec7UCATO,e proceed is to find someone who is that boots up fine from a cold
2 already operating a similar station, start, but if attempt to reset it, it
I

and get guidance from them. refuses to recognize the hard

Another option is to transmit your drives. I have had several pro-
programs on a subcarrier of an ex- fessional computer technicians
isting FM station, like a third stereo look at it and they are stumped.
channel. Members of your com- Do you have any ideas ? -R. No-
19v munity would then use special re- tarfranco
2 ceivers to pick up the broadcasts. One of two things might be
Ethnic communities in a number of wrong. If there's a temperature -de-
7906 3
NEGAI/VE cities are already doing this. The pendent loose connection, the
REEUL,AToe station engineer of any major FM computer will start when cold but
station can tell you what's being not when warmed up. To track it
FIG. 1- HERE'S THE BASIC difference done in your area. In fact, if your down, substitute parts one by one,
between how a 7905 negative 5 -volt reg- community is large enough, some- starting with the disk controller.
ulator and a 7805 positive 5 -volt reg- one who is already in the broadcast- It's also possible that something
ulator are used in a circuit.
ing business may be interested in is happening at boot -up that inter-
setting up a commercial radio sta- feres with access to the boot ROM
tion to serve it. when you reset the computer. In
that case, turning the computer
/2oV
AC MONITOR SWITCHER off -even for a moment -will reset
I have two 386DX computers it correctly even if the reset button
that I am using as file servers. doesn't. To solve the problem, sim-
The two computers sit next to plify your configuration as much as
each other and their monitors possible until you find out which de-
are almost always turned off. vice driver or other piece of soft-
FIG. 2 -TWO REGULATORS can be used Can I use a switch box to con- ware is responsible. Also, check
to make a bipolar power supply. nect one monitor to both com- your CMOS configuration settings
puters? -Brian D. Allison and tell it not to copy the ROM BIOS
difference between how a 7905 In principle, yes. In practice, the into RAM.
negative 5 -volt regulator and a 7805 high frequency of VGA analog video
positive 5 -volt regulator are used in signals makes ordinary switches READY-TO-USE TRANSMITTER
unsuitable. Frequency response I lack the tools and expertise
a circuit. Figure 2 shows how the
two regulators can be used in a bi- has to be flat from DC to over 30 to build the "FM Stereo Broad-
z polar power supply (one with MHz, and you have to switch five caster" (Radio- Electronics, July
o positive and negative outputs). signals at once without introducing 1992). Can you recommend a
2
MINI RADIO STATION
crosstalk between them.
As you noted in your letter, com-
company that can provide an as-
sembled and tested unit?
Brian D. Murphy
-
Eu We are a small community mercial VGA switch boxes do exist,
within an American city. We but they are expensive. have had
I How about an easy -to- assemble
8 would like to build a small AM or some success switching VGA sig- Continued on page 18
 Just like these
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t was appealing since I could study at my
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I

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we're the largest home study
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conceptual learning. The thing which school specializing exclu- graduate. representative contact you - there
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curriculum is the way they show application been training career -minded PERSONALIZED Please Print Clearly
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Daniel N. Parkman
students for nearly sixty
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ELECTRONICS...
IT'S THE ONLY SUBJECT electronics others are just
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Threshold Audio & Video
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A Class of One. Since 1934.
J 11
 LETTERS
Write to Letters, Electronics Now, 500 -B Bi- County Blvd., Farmingdale, NY 11735

CABLE COMPLAINTS Does that sound more like reality? Have you seen DSS? It offers
Regarding your article and inter- People who distribute video- more service options than any cable
views on the subject of signal theft, I tapes, laserdiscs, and other elec- company in existence. While the
think you missed the boat on some tronic software rarely incorporate service may now be expensive,
points. The vast majority of custom- any form of copy protection into costs will come down. You have to
ers who "steal signals" are people their products. Those products are compete in this market-and you
who would not otherwise pay for the readily available to anyone, and desperately need competition. Up
service. To say that cable, pay tele- some people take advantage and until now you have been unable or
vision, and subscription services illegally copy videotapes. Many are unwilling to provide a level of service
"lose" billions of dollars is an unfair prosecuted and a lot are in jail where that would eliminate the need for
characterization. The fact is that a they belong. such competition. The market is
certain number of people will pay Cable television, on the other ripe, and you have grown old and fat.
regardless of the cost of the ser- hand, is a subscription product that You must compete or die.
vice, some will pay unless they feel the company can deny you if you do PATRICK LEARY
the service is cost prohibitive, and not comply with their standards and Sherman Oaks, CA
some will never pay-regardless of practices. They can simply remove
the cost. the product from any household and THE DIALOG CONTINUES
If you count lost revenue against make it extraordinarily difficult, if not I'm writing to respond to Donald
the number of people you believe impossible, for the subscriber to G.Chessier's letter in the
are "stealing" your service, and reconnect the service on his own. November 1994 issue of
then add the number of people who The industry does not need any pro- Electronics Now, in which he com-
you failed to properly disconnect tection. Cable companies are more mented on my letter (August 1994)
upon termination of their service, than capable of protecting them- concerning D.A. Butch's "Tele-
and then add the number of people selves. All they really need are sub- phone Ring Amplifier" letter (Febru-
who illegally reconnect their own stantial and effective standards and ary 1994).
service upon termination, then, yes, practices. The industry is too young Contrary to Mr. Chessier's theo-
it's a big number of dollars. If you to have developed all of these yet, ries, there are no errors in the de-
take reality into account and count but once they are in place and ac- sign described.
I

lost revenues against the number of cepted, there won't be any sur- I considered Mr. Butch's design,
15eople who would actually pay you prises. Consumers will know what and my modification, to be a good
for the service, then the number is to expect of the product and of the way to build a simple and practical
much smaller. industry as a whole. They won't be device that shouldn't cost anything
There will always be a certain ele- upset about changes from one tier if made from readily available junk -
ment of loss in any business, and of service to another because, while box components. For commercial
subscription television is no excep- all of the service providers will have production of telephone ringers,
tion. The trick is weighing the costs their subtle differences in the level there are several specialty ICs avail-
of making the system so secure that of service and the manner in which it able, but they often carry fairly high
it is virtually impregnable versus is delivered, the fundamental corn - single-unit prices.
providing a quality product. ponents of that service will meet a My suggested changes to the
If you spend a lot of money provid- basic standard. Butch design were based on a cir-
ing a good quality product that you To all you service providers: Get cuit that came up with about 11
I

can deliver at a reasonable cost, off your duffs and stop blaming the years ago. Since then, I've built
then no one will even bother trying customers for all of your problems. more than two dozen units for my-
rn to "steal" your signal. If you spend a Most consumers are honest and self and friends, and only one has
lot of money "protecting" a product only want a respectable level of ser- failed (due to a breakdown in capaci-
of lower quality, then the consumers vice for their money. If you can't do tor C4).
Q
will feel little remorse about stealing that, technology will obviate the The design recognized that the
z your signal. Likewise, the money need for your service altogether. Big capacitor would only supply usable
spent protecting your product will communications companies will not power for a limited number of rings
ó be passed on to consumers, result - buy you out; you will just die a long each time (about eight or nine in the
ing in a system that is so incredibly and painful death as customers and case of a 4700 -µF capacitor). But
w cost- prohibitive that the govern- profits migrate to these newer, bet- that, decided, was enough to get
I

ment might even have to step in to ter technologies and their delivery anyone's attention and represented
12 protect people from those tariffs. systems. Continued on page 17
 It measures one thing
no other meter can.

HP 971A for rugged performance

Sophisticated math 1 kHz frequency response
4,000 display count Display with bargraph
Standard features 0.3% basic dc accuracy $195* HP 973A
of the HP 970- series Versatile testing
Sophisticated math 4,000 display count
(Min /max with time, rel %) 0.1% basic dc accuracy
M11WLITT
ac /dc Voltage LTA PACKARt7 Mll! iMO hH 971A 20 kHz frequency response
ac /dc current
Relative dB and dBn display
Freq.lency
0.1 dB resolution
Continuity 4100 Capacitance to 1000 pF
Diode /auto diode
Ohms
High -resolution temperature
® 1 u u, u
tu.q...q....pu.tn..t.oqo..puq
mV Thermocouple temperature
True RMS ACV response
Dual digital display and bargraph
Safety shutter 0 2 3 4
S290*
3 -year warranty
Certificate of Calibration
Rubber boot

HP 972A Great for HP 974A

low -level signals Extra precision
4,000 display count 49,999 display count
0.2% basic dc accuracy 0.05% basic dc accuracy
20 kHz frequency response 100 kHz frequency response
Capacitance to 1000 pF True RMS ACV response
Dual digital display and bargraph Relative dB and dEm display
40 mV range for Vac and Vdc
S370*
$245*
V
1kHx

oaxm-u

J IH4L I lrwlw-Packard t'o- TMI5I1 r. .

t0A

1110
Fused
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mAµA

Fused
Com

1M.° s
Vff
m

Your sense of value.

Sure, you'll find other With four models to choose from, Call HP DIRECT at
multimeters with sophisticated each customized to meet your 1-800 -452-4844", Ext. 9139.
math and temperature. But for specific measurement needs We've got your DMM in stock.
under $200? and having a Certificate of U.S.list price.

When it comes to finding Calibration, you won't find a In Canada, call 1-800.460-2271, Dept 110.

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CIRCLE 197 ON FREE INFORMATION CARD
6 3 HEWLETT'
PACKARD
13
 EQUIPMENT REPORTS
Elenco Electronics FO -30 Fiber Optics Kit.

a fiber -optic cables must first be

Learn the principles of data converted into a light signal (pho-
communications over fiber- tons). Those photons must then be
optic cable with this converted back into electrical sig-
nals by the receiver.
inexpensive and easy -to-
build kit. Transmitter and receiver
CIRCLE 15 ON FREE INFORMATION CARD The Elenco Electronics Fiber Op-
tics Kit consists of a transmitter and
receiver board that must both be
he transmission of light networks (LANs) and in industrial built from scratch. Each circuit

T waves over fiber-optic cables

has become a practical alter-
native to the transmission of elec-
process control systems. Reports
of new applications for fiber-optic
technology appear regularly
newspapers and magazines.
in
board contains only a few compo-
nents, so the whole project can be
built in less than two hours. For
those not in a hurry to complete the
trical signals over copper wires. The
increasing availability and falling project, the work can be spread out
costs of conversion electronics The FO -30 Fiber Optics kit ' over a couple of evenings by build-
have accelerated its acceptance. Fi- The FO -30 Fiber Optics Kit from ing only one board each night.
ber -optic communication offers Elenco Electronics (150 W. Car- The transmitter board contains a
many advantages over wire com- penter Ave., Wheeling, IL 60090, microphone, an amplifier IC, an in-
munication including broader band- 708 -541 -3800) offers an excellent frared- emitting diode (LED), and a
width, reduced cable size and opportunity for anyone who wants collection of other simple compo-
weight, signal security, and safety. to learn more about the fascinating nents. In one position a slide switch
subject of fiber optics while, at the applies the signal from the micro-
The waves of the future same time, gaining hands-on expe- phone to the amplifier, and in its
In addition to transmitting far rience. With this $19.95 kit, one can second position the amplifier IC is
more information than comparably build a working system in a single converted into an oscillator.
sized wire and cable (thus replacing evening and then have the neces- The signal from the amplifier IC
big bundles of wire), fiber-optic ca- sary hardware to perform many dif- (either the amplified microphone
ble saves weight and space in un- ferent interesting and educational signal or the oscillator tone) is con-
derground and building ducts. experiments. verted to a light signal by the LED. A
Optical -fiber cables are difficult (if second switch turns power on and
not impossible) to tap, so they offer Fiber -optic fundamentals off, and a LED lamp lights to indicate
higher data and message security Glass or plastic optical fibers that power is turned on.
than wire and cable -based systems. function like wires, but they are ac- The receiver board contains a fi-
Signals transmitted over fiber-op- tually waveguides for the transmis- ber-optic phototransistor, an ampli-
tic cable are immune to interference sion of light rather than electricity. fier IC, a speaker, and a few other
from nearby electrical wires or other Light passes easily through the components. A switch here also
electromagnetic interference core, but it is reflected back from turns power on and off, and a poten-
sources. Also, because the fiber- the cladding because of its different tiometer permits the speaker vol-
optic cables carry no electricity, optical properties, thus confining ume to be adjusted. Another LED
shock hazards are eliminated, and the light to the core as it travels. lamp indicates when power is on.
there is no danger of electrical arc- Thus lightwaves reflect back and The signal received at the pho-
ing. Thus fiber-optic cables can be forth off the cladding as they propa- totransistor is amplified and can be
passed safely through places where gate down the fiber, much as radio heard from the speaker. Two 9 -volt
there are explosion or fire hazards. frequency waves bounce off the batteries are required to power the
It can also be placed under water ionospheric layers as they are trans- system, one for each board.
without the corrosion problems of mitted around the world. However, The kit includes a 3 -foot length of
copper wire and cable. lightwaves, like radio waves, are at- fiber-optic cable. After preparing the
The nation's telephone operating tenuated as they travel, so they lose cable ends, this cable makes the
companies are replacing large bun- strength in transmission. Thus am- connection between the transmitter
dles of conventional cables with thin plifying relays are required for long - and receiver board. The ends of the
fiber -optic cables. The cables are distance links. optical fiber must be cut off at 90°
14 also serving in computer local area All signals to be transmitted over with respect to the fiber axis with a
 sharp razor blade. It can then be
polished with a wet square of fine -
Measure It All!
grit sandpaper that is included with
the kit.
The DMM /LCR Meter/
Then a short length the black
plastic cable jacket is removed from
Frequency Counter. All in One.
each end with an 18 -gauge wire
stripper. The prepared ends of the
cable are inserted into the openings
in the LED emitter and phototran-
component level -
Troubleshoot down to the
aliy
component! Verify poorly
marked parts, test for toler-
sistor on the transmitter and re-
ances and damage. Wavetek's
ceiver boards. The cable ends are
new DM27XT is not only a full -
clamped with a threaded collar that
function DMM, but also
tightens on each end.
includes complete inductance,
When the two boards are com-
capacitance, and frequency
pleted and connected by the fiber-
measurement capabilities.
optic cable, the system is ready to
use. When both sides are powered, Wide LCR range:
either the microphone input or the 10 S2 to 2000 Mc
oscillator tone is heard from the 10 pF to 2000 pF
speaker, depending on the setting 100 pH to 20 H
of the function switch. mH H
Autoranging frequency mV V
The manual included with the kit pAmAA
meter 10 Hz to 20 MHz kHz MHz
clearly explains how the circuitry BAT
f) kW Mil

works, how to build the kit, and how Ac and dc current to 20 A nFpF

to use it. The principles of light com- Logic test, diode test, max LOGIC -F )) MAX
munication and fiber optics are ex- reading hold, continuity
plained. The manual contains beeper, input warning
schematic and parts placement di- beeper, fused input
agrams and soldering tips, and trou- protection, battery saver
bleshooting hints are provided.
Many interesting and educational
experiments can be performed with
the completed data communica-
one meter that does it all
Wavetek's high -performing,
-
Consolidate your test bench with

tions system. For example, if the full -function XT Series DMM.

fiber -optic cable is disconnected Its all in one compact, rugged,
from the transmitter (while leaving it field -ready package with a big
attached to the receiver), and the 0.7 -inch, 31/2-digit display.
open end of the cable is pointed at a Insulated probes and alligator
bright light source, a hum will be clip leads are included, and
heard from the speaker; the brighter there is a huge selection of
the light, the louder the hum. accessories, including current,
If a television /stereo infrared re- rf and HV probes, temperature
mote control is pointed at the open converters, holsters, and cases.
end of the fiber-optic cable, and a Mk for Wavetek DMMs. They're
button on the remote is pressed, the meters to pick when you
the sound of a pulsed tone will be have things to fix.
heard. Different tones can be heard
if different buttons are pressed.
The lightwave transmission sys-
tem built from Elenco's Fiber Optics
Kit is an economical and effective
demonstrator of fiber-optic commu-
nications. The builder will gain prac- CO

tical hands -on experience in build- m

ing a working system as well as m
some mastery of the theory behind ó
7
fiber optics. The resulting circuitry
Other XT Series DMMs from $89.95
will be suitable for personal experi- zo
ments and as useful addition to any
inventory of classroom science
equipment. it
U.S.A.: (619)279 -2200
Europe: (44/243) 531323
Asia Pacific: (852)865 -1903
\A/AVeTe K 15
©I993 Wavr¢k Corporation
CIRCLE 98 ON FREE INFORMATION CARD
How to get surround
sound without buying
the theater...
Chase Technologies brings you an amazing new
patent pending surround sound decoder that turns
your stereo into a five-channel home theater.
By Charles Anton

As much as I love renting videos, it's just "...the new Chase FITS-1,
not the same as seeing a movie in a when used to decode the
theater. I remember the first time I saw hidden ambience in all
-I
Jurassic Park nearly jumped out of my seat musical recordings, defi-
nitely outperforms all the Dolby and THX Easy installation. Hooking up the HTS-1 is
when the dinosaurs roared. One of the reasons
movies seem so real is because surround sound processors (which could cost you up to easy -just connect the speaker outputs of your
makes it seem like you're actually there when $3,000)...1 am impressed!" receiver or amp to the HTS-1, then connect
events are happening. Now there's an incredi- Passive circuit. Last year, audio industry speaker wire to the front and rear speakers. The
ble new device that lets you use a stereo receiv- veteran and Chase president Bob Rapoport rear channel speakers don't have to be big.
er to get that same invented a new five - We suggest the Chase ELF -1 in either black or
surround sound in channel "passive" cir- white finish to match your decor.
The secret of surround sound
your home. cuit for decoding every Center Channel.
Surround sound has become the rage of the
It takes more than
surround sound encod- The "Dialog" pow-
90's because it adds depth and realism to
ed movie available. This ered center chan-
five speakers to get stereo sound, giving you the home theater new decoder can be nel speaker is the
surround sound; there experience. It makes you feel like you're ac-
used with two, three,
needs to be a way of perfect add -on for
tually at a concert or theater. To 'fill a room" four, or five channels of
separating the signals. home theater. It
with surround sound, you need more than two amplification, making it
The new Chase Tech- keeps voices and
channels. The HTS -1 provides five channels the most cost effective
nologies HTS -1 de- sound effects cen- The ELF -1 rear channel
of sound from any two-channel stereo source. method for upgrading
coder does just that, tered on screen for speakers integrate perfectly
Free center channel. By connecting your an existing stereo sys- stunning localiza- with the HTS -1.
and in a revolutionary VCR or laserdisc player to your TV, you get tem to full home theater
way that rivals the tion and clarity.
sound from your TV speaker; this acts as the performance on the
best Dolby Pro-Logic fifth or "center channel."
Risk -free home
market today.
and THX systems. Upgradeable. The new HTS -1 gives you
trial. The best
Breakthrough. The way to evaluate
Wins over critics. the ability to upgrade by adding the "Dialog" HTS-1 is able to decode
In the September '94 surround sound is
powered center channel speaker (instead of the Dolby Surround'
issue of "High Perf- in your home, not
using your TV speaker.) The decoder can signals in a stereo,
ormance Review," in a showroom.
also feed an extra amp for the rear speakers videotape or laserdisc
noted audio critic That's why we're
if you want the ultimate in discreet five because the spatial and
Daniel Kumin said channel performance.
offering this risk - The Dialog powered center
depth cues have been free home trial. channel speaker Is video
"the HTS-1 can do matrixed into the "out-
Submerge yourself We're so sure that shielded.
quite a job of recreat- in rich surround of- phase" L minus R you'll be delighted
ing a 3D theatrical ex- sound.
portion of the program. with the quality of these products and the sur-
perience...surround By decoding passively,
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satisfying fullness... the HTS-1 avoids costly 30 days to try them for yourself. If they're not
sound was clean at and noisy signal pro- everything we say, return them for a complete
any level...with quite cessing. Plus you don't "No Questions Asked" refund.
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 LETTERS no problems figuring that one out. put voltage. Besides compensating
As for the voltage rating of tran- for incorrect line voltage, this allows
continued from page 12 sistors Q1 and Q2, the 2N3904s, at the equipment under test to be run
60 volts, are quite adequate. above or below normal voltage to
a good capacitor recharge time If the unit has rung itself out (nine help uncover latent faults.
compromise. rings or so), the C4 capacitor will The second comment is directed
Mr. Chessier's claim that the not go below the off -hook voltage of to Tom Heald and his very helpful
4148 diode's ratings aren't suffi- about 6 volts and would still be able article, "Phantom of the Ether." It's
cient is in error! First of all, the old to signal another incoming call (al- possible that he's looking for an
Bell ring voltage specifications allow though at low volume) immediately electronic solution to a problem that
a Central Office level between 85 after hanging up. Even when newly is essentially optical. Fluorescent
and 100 volts AC RMS (and that installed, with zero charge on C4, it tubes contain argon gas (or perhaps
voltage can drop to as low as 55 will ring several times after only four xenon or krypton), which has strong
volts AC at the end of a long loop). or five minutes (not the 15 minutes spectral lines in the 1000 -
Even at maximum voltage levels, the claimed in Mr. Chessier's letter). nanometer region. If those lines
worst that can happen is that the RUNE H.J. SODERMAN could be suppressed by changing
diodes break down and Zener at a Jandrain, Belgium the composition of the glass in the
safe level determined by the two 33 tube or by some overcoating that
kilohm resistors. No harm is done to A READER'S SUGGESTIONS would absorb in this region but be
either the diodes or the other circuit Your fine January 1995 issue transparent to visible light, the prob-
components. If you want to use prompted me to comment on two lem would go away.
1N4004 diodes, by all means do so, articles that appeared there. The Keep up the good work. I've been
but it isn't necessary. Mr. first is the article by Doyle Whise- a regular reader of Electronics Now
Chessier's claim that doing so nant: "Build an Isolation Trans- and its predecessors for at least 50
would impart some protection former." The information is fine, but years and have found it to be at least
against electrical storm transients the project might be improved by as helpful as a number of 'profes-
is a bit much. If you want that kind of keeping the filament windings and sional" journals that use regularly.
I

protection, it won't come about connecting them, with suitable E. FRED CLOSE
from just changing some of the switching, to provide adjustable out- Apache Junction, AZ
components (a chain is no stronger
than its weakest link). Instead, that
would best be done by putting a
250 -300 volt MOV (metal oxide
varistor) across the phone line
where it enters the building.
"EASY METERS"
As for Mr. Chessier's second
point (also wrong), the base current
trough Q1 is design limited to about
FROM
Protek
30 pA, so the transistor never fully
switches on, giving a collector cur- Easy to Use...
rent that is well within specified lim-
its. Transistor Q2, although fully Easy to Hold...
switched on during part of a ring, is
also current -limited through the in- Easy to Read...
ternal resistance of the buzzer.
Point three: I've done a lot of play- Easy to Buy...
ing around with various piezo buzz- Auto Ranging
ers and one thing I've found Auto Select AC/DC (Models 122, 222)
common to all those I've tested is Frequency (to 500 KHz)
that they can all handle a 50 -volt Bar Graph
supply in intermittent service (such Large LCD Readout
as with a phone ringer), regardless Thumb Wheel Function Selector for
of their rated voltage. Some were Convenient One Hand Operation
bought at Radio Shack, some as (Models 221,222 & 223)
surplus, and others came out of dis- Auto Power Off
Two Year
carded greeting cards (where they Product Warranty
played a tune) and broken "Hong
Kong" telephones. Model 223
Although no polarity was shown
for the buzzer in the original figure,
anyone who knows which end of a
soldering iron to grab should have
Model 122
with Rotary Switch
Function Selector -
$59.95
® Pro"tek $79.95

154 Veterans Drive, Northvale, NJ 07647

Tel: (201)767 -7242 Fax (201) 767 -7343 17
CIRCLE 198 ON FREE INFORMATION CARD
 Rates: Ads are 21/4in x 2'/e ". One insertion $1025 each. Six insertions $1000 each Twelve
insertions $950 each. Closing date same as regular rate card. Send order with remittance to

EN Engineering Admart Computer Admart, Electronics Now Magazine, 500 -B Bi- County Blvd.. Farmingdale, NY
11735. Direct telephone inquiries to Arline Fishman, area code-1-516-293-3000. FAX
1- 516 -293 -3115. Only 100% Computer ads are accepted for this Admart.

Best Proto" prototyping

boards include low noise power and High Power
ground planes, plated through holes, Audio Amplifier
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stamped envelope (SASE) and a copy ufacturer, to be easily connected together and
sign information on high power audio ampli-
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fiers capable of 300 ±400 watts r.m.s. You'll
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find MOSFET and bipolar output transistors in
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sized Best Proton' card. Mail to BEST inverting and non -inverting circuits. To order
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PROTO Dept. E4, Box 232440, San your copy send $6.25 plus $2.50 for shipping
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at (619) 286 -9000 for more product Today Inc., P.O. Box 240, Massapequa Park,
information or to pay by credit card. 11762 -0240.
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CIRCLE 199 ON FREE INFORMATION CARD

O&A CONCRETE DRAIN

Á 71-RA//aToR Please! Educate me, or help
7P
continued from page 8 ACCES OR/E5 me put a myth to rest. All my life
I've been told that lead -acid bat-

!i:Y 4q
kit? Try the FM -10 from Ramsey teries will lose their charge if
Electronics (793 Canning Pkwy., they're stored resting directly
Victor, NY 14564), featured in the on concrete. can see no logical
I

February, 1995, issue of our sister reason for this to happen. -Lar-
magazine, Popular Electronics. Al-
FIG. 3-
BATTERY ISOLATOR CIRCUIT. ry Ball
The diodes ensure that current can flow
ternatively, maybe you can use one into both batteries from the alternator, We've heard the same thing and
of the low- priced FM transmitters but the main battery can't feed the ac- it doesn't make sense to us either.
designed to transmit a CD player's cessory system, nor vice versa. We know of no way that a concrete
output to a car radio. floor can discharge a battery. But if
starting power even if you run the the battery cracks open, the acid
BATTERY ISOLATOR other battery down operating camp will certainly damage the concrete.
Do you have plans for the cir- lights or other accessories.
cuitry used in automotive dual - Figure 3 shows the circuitry in- VCR MODIFICATION
battery isolators? Do the bat- side an isolator. The diodes act as Iwant to use a VCR to record
teries have to have similar or one -way valves so that current can programs while on the road in
identical output- current rat- flow into both batteries from the al- my RV. haven't been able to
I

ings? If they're not isolated, will ternator, but the main battery can't locate any 12 -volt DC units (all
one battery just drain the feed the accessory electrical sys- I've found are video player -only
other ? -Randal Christman tem, nor vice versa. The batteries units). Since all solid -state elec-
You could probably connect two need not have the same capacity as tronics operate on DC, why can't
batteries in parallel without harm if long as they have the same voltage. I modify a conventional AC-
they are both in good condition and The diodes must be able to han- powered VCR ?-William Rauch
are matched for voltage (not neces- dle heavy current (80 amps or more) Mainly because some of the volt-
sarily matched for capacity). If one with as little forward voltage drop as ages in a VCR are higher than 12
battery developed a shorted cell, it possible. Suitable diodes, such as volts. To obtain them, you'd have to
would discharge the other battery; the NTE 6075 or ECG 6075, cost use a DC -to -DC converter, which is
otherwise, they'd be OK. over $13 each. You'll probably do essentially an inverter followed by a
The purpose of a battery isolator just as well buying a complete iso- rectifier. If you're going to do that,
is to let you use one battery without lator from an auto parts store. One you might as well feed the VCR with
discharging the other one. The main source for the NTE 6075 is Tandy 120 volts AC from a regular inverter,
18 battery can remain available for National Parts (800- 322 -3690). rather than building one. o
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display active channels

PCMCIA MODEMS. with the push of a button.
Motorola's Transmission All functions are accessible
Products Division has intro- through multilayer menus.
duced two series of credit - The HP 54620A pro-
card -sized modems called vides a front -panel trigger
Lifestyle and Power. The Lifestyle Series output to link the logic ana-
14.4 PCMCIA modems lyzer to an oscilloscope.
conform to the standards
14.4, p This gives users a com-
of the Portable Computer Data
plete picture of circuit oper-
Memory Card International ation, with the logic ana-
Association (PCMCIA). lyzer providing signal rela-
The Lifestyle data and tionship information while
fax modems are intended the oscilloscope displays
for laptop, notebook and :he related parametric
palmtop personal comput- waveform information.
ers with PCMCIA slots. With the HP 54620A
The modems permit the linked to an oscilloscope,
sending and receiving of CIRCLE 20 ON FREE INFORMATION CARD the triggering capability of
faxes and files over stan- the logic analyzer can cap-
dard phone lines. They also proprietary EC2 (Enhanced ror correction for increased ture elusive glitches so that
permit connection for on- Cellular Control) tech- data reliability and fax cost the signal can be examined
line services such as bank- nology for improved cellular reduction. Power reduction in detail. It offers simple
ing and shopping. The Life- phone operation. of 25 to 90% in standby edge triggering, pattern
style modems can be Both series of modems modes over competitive triggering qualified with an
upgraded for use with cel- can be inserted in comput- modems is claimed. edge, or advanced trigger-
lular telephones. ers with PCMCIA Release The Lifestyle modem ing sequences for applica-
By contrast, the Power 2.0 and higher, Type II slots. (pictured) is priced at tions where simpler trigger-
data and fax modems for They are fully compatible $279.00, and the Power ing methods won't isolate
laptop, notebook and pal- with the installed base of modem is priced at the event of interest.
mtop personal computers CCITT Group III and EIA $390.00. The price for both
with PCMCIA slots are in- Class modems. When modems includes Delrina
I

tended for use with cellular used with Class software, WinFax /WinCom soft-
1

or traditional phones. The the modems can send and ware, and one month of
series permits the sending ree jive a document at free service on America
and receiving of faxes, E- 14,400, 12,000, 9600, OnLine, CompuServe, Pro-
mail, and the downloading 7200, 4800, or 2400 bits digy, and the Reuters
of files anytime, anywhere per second, assuring com- Money Network.
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CIRCLE 21 ON FREE
A Motorola MC2 flip cel- chines and modems. Products Divsion
INFORMATION CARD
lular telephone is required The modems automat- 5000 Bradford Drive
for compatible cellular con- ically adjust speed as Huntsville, AL 35805 -1993 The new logic analyzer is
nectivity. The Power mod- needed. Both series of Phone: 800 -365 -6465 compatible.with the HP
ems supports Motorola's modems perform T.30 er- Fax: 508 -261 -1058 54600- series add -on mod-
ules for computer /O, data
I

storage and test automa-

16- CHANNEL LOGIC ANA- delayed -sweep os- debugging. It features a tion. HP 34810A
LYZER.Hewlett -Packard's cilloscope, it permits timing BenchLink /Scope (version
simplified control panel and
HP 54620 16-channel logic analysis across all of its 16 easier setup procedures to
1.2) software allows users
analyzer can be coupled to channels. encourage its use. The HPto import logic- analyzer
an oscilloscope to permit The logic analyzer was 54620 has a 500- millise-data into their own Win-
quicker and easier trou- designed for those who cond sampling speed and dows applications.
bleshooting of complex routinely use an os- 20- screens /second dis- The HP 54620A 16-
digital circuits. Priced in the cilloscope instead of a log- channel logic analyzer is
play update rate. An auto -
22 same range as a 100 -MHz ic analyzer for testing and scale feature lets users priced at $2995.00
TekMeterMcan show you the aniMinillIM'
before you even know the question.
TekMeter'" is the new handheld instrument from remain free to probe more accurately and safely.
Tektronix that combines the functions of a DMM and Especially in small places.
an oscilloscope. It's practically "auto everything: Weighing barely 2 pounds, TekMeter includes a host
Which in the service business means you'll get the of features like cursors and spike detect that improve
answers you need faster than ever before. your ability to maintain and troubleshoot a wide range
It's easy. Just connect the probes. TekMeter finds of equipment. TekMeter can even capture
the signal then makes the correct scope or DMM set- incoming line voltage spikes and sags,
tings to display voltage, current or waveforms in the measure voltage and current simulta-
most meaningful way What's more, your hands neously, compute true power, and more.
All automatically. For as little as $875*

111
CHECK OUT THE ENTIRETEKTOOLS° LINE FOR ALL YOUR MEASUREMENT NEEDS.
TekMeter is the answer you've been looking for.
Contact your local authorized Tektronix distributor
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*Suggested retail price, model TMS 550 0 Copyright 1994, Tektronix, Inc. All rights reserved. TekMeter, TekTools, and Tektronix are trademarks of Tektronix, Inc. DPW- 284597
CIRCLE 92 ON FREE INFORMATION CARD
Tektronix
 Hewlett- Packard Company trum averaging allow spe- fier if the wrong band is
Direct Marketing Organiza- cial measurements to be switched, the wrong anten-
tion, P.O. Box 58059 made. na is connected, or the
MS51 L-SJ The SA2600 spectrum SWR on the transmission
Santa Clara, CA analyzer has a base price of line is high. The amplifier is
95051 -8059 $4995.00. packaged in a case mea-
Phone: 800 -452 -4844 DKD Instruments suring 6 x 91/2 x12 inches
1406 Parkhurst CIRCLE 23 ON FREE and it weighs 12.5 pounds.
Sun Valley, CA 93065 INFORMATION CARD The ALS -600 amplifier
SPECTRUM ANALYZER. The
SA2600 spectrum ana- Phone: 805 -581 -5771 The toroids are sold on with the ALS600PS power
lyzer from DKD Instru- Fax: 805 -583 -8270 tape reels in lots of 1000 on supply is priced at
ments can convert a 13 -inch diameter, 25 -mm $1,299.00
personal computer into a SURFACE -MOUNT wide reels. Ameritron
spectrum analyzer /re- TOROIDS. The KM Series KM Series surface - P.O. Box 494
ceiver. It covers the 100 - of toroidal inductors from mount toroids are priced at Mississippi State, MS
kHz to 2.4 -GHz frequency Associated Components $1.60 each in quantities of Phone: 601 -323 -8211
range and draws less than Technology is intended for 1000. Fax: 601 -323 -65551
12 watts at 12 volts. The surface -mounting on cir- Associated Components
SA2600 offers fully syn- cuit boards. They are suit- Technology INSULATED TOOL KIT. Jen-
thesized tuning with a crys- able for use in miniature 11576 Trask Avenue son Tools has introduced a
tal reference. Less than 2- high- frequency switching Garden Grove, CA 92643 set of electrically insulated
Hz frequency resolution is power supplies where en- Phone: 800 -234 -2645 and tools to protect users when
provided by its direct digital ergy storage and filter in- (714- 636 -2645 CA) working on live power cir-
synthesizer. Video and res- ductance are critical and Fax 714 -636 -8276 cuits. Made in Germany,
olution bandwidth are pro- noise -filtering ability is a each tool has been individ-
grammable from 300 kHz desirable feature. AMATEUR RADIO LINEAR ually test to withstand
to 500 Hz for making pre- The toroids' molyper- MOSFET AMPLIFIER. The 10,000 volts and is cer-
cise measurements. malloy powder cores ALS600 amateur radio lin- taified to protect the user
makes them suitable as ear amplifier from Amer - at either 1000 volts AC or
noise filters in situations itron requires no tuning or 1500 volts DC.
where the inductors must so it as
withstand AC voltages as soon as it is turned on. It
high as 100 to 220 volts includes four Motorola
without core saturation. TMOS radio -frequency
The cores have a flat fre- power MOSFETs. A sepa-
quency response between rate AC power supply
CIRCLE 22 ON FREE DC and MHz. Intended
1 (ALS- 600PS) with cord
INFORMATION CARD for unidirectional drive ap- can be plugged into the
With a spurious free dy- plications, the inductors amplifier and the 120 -volt CIRCLE 25 ON FREE
namic range of 80 dB and can be placed in a circuit in AC outlet. INFORMATION CARD
the optional internal, pro- either direction without
grammable, 60 -dB step at- concern about damaging The tool set contains 11
tenuator, signals from them. vanadium steel tools: 7-
-130 dBm to +20 dBm When Used to store en- inch side cutters; 8 -inch
can be accurately mea- ergy within the circuit, the long nose pliers; 61/2-inch-
sured. Internal gain com- toroids offer high capacity long nose pliers; 8 -inch
pensation and power cal- in a small volume. A 2 -am- lineman's pliers; and seven
ibration give power ac- pere toroid can store 8 mi- assorted screwdrivers.
CIRCLE 24 ON FREE Each tool has a perma-
curacy to ± 1.4 dB. In croJoules, and a 0.25 -
INFORMATION CARD
addition, wide and narrow ampere unit can handle up nently attached insulated
FM demodulators provide to 20 microJoules. The Rated for 600 watts PEP sheath. All the tools are
audio for directed search toroids occupy 0.40 by and 500 watts CW, the am- packaged in a handy zip-
and surveillance. 0.38 inches of board plifier covers the 1.5- to 22- pered case.
The software supports space. MHz band continuously. It The insulated tool kit
features such as overlays, The inductance values of includes a cooling fan and (Jensen Part No.
trace math, marker func- the toroids range from 10 an illuminated cross -nee- 194B675) is priced at
tions, and autologging and to 250 microhenries (µH), dle standing -wave ratio $225.00.
hard copy to a printer. Theand DC resistance is be- (SWR) /wattmeter. To safe- Jensen Tools Inc.
instrument's features in- tween 0.04 and 0.7 ohms. guard the amplifier, both 7815 South 46th Street
clude signal track, peak The safe operating temper- SWR and over -power pro- Phoenix AZ 85044
search, and delta marker. ature range for the toroids tection are included to pre- Phone 800 -426 -1194
24 Maximum hold and spec- is from -
55°C to + 125 °C. vent damage to the ampli- Continued on pape 28
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CIRCLE 126 ON FREE INFORMATION CARD 25

 NEW LITERATURE
Use The Free Information Card for fast response.

Create Your Own Virtual Re- spite today's short life

ality System; by Joseph R. cycles of processors, soft-
Levy and Harley Bjelland. VIRTC`Ai. ware and peripherals.
REALITY The newsletter publisher
Windcrest /McGraw -Hill,
7.

SYSTEM ÿ
Blue Ridge Summit, PA expects both business and
17294 -0850; Phone: home PC users to benefit
800 -233 -1128; Fax from the feature articles,
717 -794 -2103; Paper regular columns, and prac-
$32.95, Hard $44.95; 320 CIRCLE 337 ON FREE
tical tips for that can be ap-
pages, 62 illustrations; in- INFORMATION CARD plied immediately. He be-
cludes disk. lieves that the editorial
Virtual reality (VR), now The authors also explain coverage will help readers
a common high -tech how to play interactive VR
"buzz" word, refers to the games, generate real -time , PC Toolbox
combined computer and VR images, and carry out
video technologies that many different interesting
place the observer in com- VR experiments. -_
puter- generated situations The book discusses the
for obtaining new and excit- limitations and advantages
ing visual experiences of desktop VR systems. It
vicariously, training in the also includes information
operation of moving vehi- on how to obtain free or
cles, gaining insights into low -cost VR demonstra-
architectural structures, tion disks and how to con-
and yes, even -playing tact VR- related organiza-
games. tions and publications.
This book by Levy and Finally, the book looks
Bjelland provides an excel- beyond the existing equip-
lent introduction to the ment and technology to ex-
concepts of VR, yet it does plore the future of VR and
not require that the reader its applications in science,
have training and experi- medicine, commerce, en-
ence in the technologies tertainment, and other
discussed. Experiments in human activities.
VR are now taking place in
some of the most ad- The PC Toolbox; Dynamic
vanced research laborato- Learning Systems, P.O. Box
ries in the world. An 805, Marlboro, MA 01752,
accompanying disk will Phone: 508 -366 -9487; Fax:
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Included in the book are up newsletter; one -year
descriptions of consumer- subscription (six issues),
grade VR hardware and $39.00; two year (12 is-
software products now on sues), $69.00.
the market. It gives prices This newly announced
along with the addresses, newsletter is intended for
telephone and fax numbers personal computer users
of the suppliers. Chapters at all levels of experience,
in the book explain how to wherever they are. How-
build and install head - ever, it is focused on the
mounted displays, "data PC enthusiast who wants
gloves," stereoscopic to optimize the operation of
glasses, audio speakers, his PC and keep it function-
26 and other VR components. ing at top efficiency de-
 pects of computer net- The Microcontroller Idea ply, 6221 South Maple
working. offers tips and
It Book; by Jan Axelson. Avenue, Tempe, AZ85283;
"secret handshakes" to Lakeview Research, 2209 Phone: 602 -820 -5411; Fax:
the unusual services and Winnebago Street, 800-706-6789; $2.00
exchanges available on the Madison, WI 53704; Phone: This is the 1995 edition
various personal computer 608 -241 -5824; $31.95 of a catalog for antique ra-
networks. +$3.00 S &H; 277 pages. dio and instrument collec-
This entertaining book This is a book of circuits tors and the hobbyists and
includes the on -line ad- and programs for applying professionals who like to
CIRCLE 340 ON FREE
INFORMATION CARD
dresses to hundreds of un- the popular Intel 8052 - restore them -or perhaps
usual and perhaps even BASIC microcontroller even or build new ones
12 separate 48 -volt power bizarre exchanges, includ- (MCU). The MCU, other- from scratch. Newly ex-
supplies with output power ing many local cult or spe- wise known as the single - panded to 36 pages, the
ratings from 10 to 480 cial interest bulletin board chip computer, contains all catalog lists more than
watts. These products are services. the CPU functions of the 3000 different kinds of re-
packaged as modules, microprocessor (MPU) as ceiving, transmitting, au-
wall -outlet plug -in units, Computers in Science & Art well as memory and I/O dio, and industrial vacuum
and in floor- mounted or Catalog. Media Magic, P.O. functions not found on the tubes.
rack -mounted cases. Box 598 -PR, Nicasio, CA MPU chip. Although more
Many accept AC line 94946;
power from 90 to 260 volts,
Phone: limited in computational ca-
415 -662 -2426; 132 pages; pability than the MPU, the »
wr
..a
50 to 60 Hz. free. MCU chip is ideal for re-
The power supplies are This mail -order catalog petetitive control and data
intended for PBX consol- lists more than 1000 prod- logging.
es, data -interface sys- ucts that provide informa-
tems, T-1 telephone and tion on the leading -edge of The
fiber-optic systems. Com- art, science, and tech- Microcontroller
Idea Book
plete mechanical and elec- nology. It is a valuable re- ti
.,O.,-..w,.raner.
trical specifications and source for determining 0052 BASIC CIRCLE 344 ON FREE
pricing is included. All mod- what material is available INFORMATION CARD
els meet applicable UL, for classroom and self-edu-
CSA, and European safety cation in those fields. In addition, the catalog
standards. lists capacitors and other
CIRCLE 343 ON FREE electronic components
The Net After Dark; by La- INFORMATION CARD suitable for use with AC
mont Wood. John Wiley & line- and battery- powered
Sons, Inc., Professional Axelson's book contains receivers and instruments
Reference and Trade Group, complete circuit diagrams, of the vacuum -tube era. In-
605 third Avenue, New York, parts lists, design theory, cluded is a list of 75 books
NY 10158 -0012; Phone and construction tips for devoted to the collection
1- 800 -CALL-WILEY; $16.95. working with the 8052 - and restoration of vacuum -
This book, subtitled BASIC. Its on -chip tube circuits.
CIRCLE 342 ON FREE
"The Underground Guide INFORMATION CARD BASIC -52 programming
to the Coolest, and the language simplifies the Electronics For Your Future;
Newest, and the Most Bi- The catalog covers such task of writing applications by Daniel L. Metzger. Tech-
zarre Hangouts on the In- varied topics as artificial software. Special com- nology Training, Inc., 6969
ternet, Compuserve, AOL, life, astronomy, chaos the- mands store programs in Streamview Drive, Lam-
Delphi, and More," was ory, computer animation, EPROM or other non- bertville, MI 48144; Phone/
written to introduce read- computer networking, volatile memory. Fax 313 -854 -3605; 300
ers to the recreational as- fractals, mathematics, In addition to its pages; $35.00.
medical imaging, multi- coverage of the basic cir- This basic textbook on
media, robotics, satellite cuits needed to complete electronics emphasizes
imaging, three -dimensional any project, this book ex- brevity and reader friend-
art, scientific visualization, plains how to add keypads, liness. Each page is divided
and the world of virtual real- switches, relays, displays, into six panels -like a com-
ity (VR). sensors, clock/calendars, ic book -with colorful
These subjects are pre- motor controls, wireless sketches, icons, and di-
sented in such diverse me- links, and other input /out- agrams to illustrate the
dia as books, MAC and put interfaces. basic concepts behind
IBM -PC compatible (DOS) electronics.
CIRCLE 341 ON FREE software, video tapes, and 1995 Antique Supply Cata- Metzger's book covers a
INFORMATION CARD CD -ROMs. log. Antique Electronic Sp- wide range of subjects 27
 NEW PRODUCTS when three channels are
active. The sum (or dif-
continued from page 24 ference with channel 2 in-
verted) of channel and 2
1

MULTIFUNCTION GENER- can also be displayed to-

ATOR. Compuvideo has in- gether with channels to 3.
1

troduced the Series 7000 This makes it possible to

multufunction video, sync, view eight traces.
and test pattern gener- The main time base
CIRCLE 345 ON FREE
ators that meet NTSC or ranges from 50 nanose-
INFORMATION CARD
PAL transmission stan- conds per division to 0.5
CIRCLE 27 ON FREE seconds per division in 22
from diodes, transistors, dards. Outputs include the INFORMATION CARD
power supplies and ampli- S -VHS, composite, and steps. The times 10 magni-
fiers to overviews of linear component. The RAMs have 32 -kilo- fier increases the fastest
and digital integrated cir- bit by 18 -bit organizations, sweep speed to 5 nanose-
cuits. Each topic is covered and they can be interfaced conds per division. A single
on a single page or a pair of directly with an external sweep mode captures one-
facing pages, and diagrams cache controller and the time events.
appear in the same panel CPU. The cache data Trigger capabilities in-
that explains them. Each of RAMs ease the installation clude a time -saving auto-
the 24 chapters concludes of cache memory in sys- matic source selection
with four pages of review tems with micro- coordinated with V-mode
and examples of circuits processors by meeting the operation. Manual override
that have been analyzed. CIRCLE 26 ON FREE processors' requirements allows the source to be se-
INFORMATION CARD for setup and hold time at lected from any of three
The book is suitable for
self -study or as a text in The six models in the se- 66 MHz. They will also sup- channels and the power
formal training courses. ries are intended for TV ed- port zero -wait state memo- line.
iting, production, post - ry access and burst se- The trigger modes in-
Serial EEPROM Handbook; production, and mainte- quence addressing. clude AUTO, NORMAL, and

Microchip Technology Inc., nance. The generators The W73B586B and FIXED. Trigger coupling set-

3255 West Chandler Blvd., consist of four sections: 12 W73B601 cache data tings include dedicated
Chandler, AZ 85224 -6199; test patterns; six black -bur- RAMs, packaged in 52 -pin horizontal and vertical TV
Phone: 602 -786 -7200; Fax st outputs; sync and sub - plastic leadless chip carrier sync separators for video
602 -899 -9210; 480 pages; carrier outputs; and an (PLCC) packages, are observations.
free from Microchip sales audio generator. priced from $30.00 to
offices or distributors. The pricing for Series $35.00 (based on speed)
This handbook is the first 7000 multifunction gener- in quantities of thousands.
reference published for en- ators is from $299.00 to IC Works, Inc.
ginners who use Micro- $1199.00, depending on 3725 North First Street
chip's serial EEPROMs. It unit configuration San Jose, CA 95134 -1700
Compuvideo, Inc. Phone: 408 -922 -0202
3861 Oceanview Avenue Fax: 408 -922 -0833
Brooklyn, NY 11224 CIRCLE 28 ON FREE
Phone: 212 -213 -6818 100 -MHz, THREE -CHANNEL INFORMATION CARD
Fax: 718- 714 -9873 OSCILLOSCOPES. Leader
Instruments has intro- The Model 8104 can
CACHE DATA RAMS FOR duced two new analog os- make automatic cursor
PENTIUM, 486, AND cilloscopes, the Models measurements of voltage,
POWERPC PROCESSORS. 8103 and 8104. Both of its time, frequency, and
IC Works has introduced new oscilloscopes have phase, and it can display
CIRCLE 346 ON FREE
the W73B586B cache data 100 -MHz bandwidths, on- screen sensitivity, time -
INFORMATION CARD three channels, and the base, and delay -time set-
RAM for Pentium and 486
includes 25 product speci- microprocessors and the same basic operating ting messages.
fications sheets, more than W73B601 cache data characteristics. The Model 8103 is
12 applications notes, and RAMs for PowerPC micro- Both oscilloscopes offer priced at $1600.00 and the
nine qualification reports processors. Both offer ac- calibrated sweep with alter- Model 8104 (pictured) is
on the company's cess times from 9 to 12 nate sweep so that the priced at $1900.00
EEPROMs development nanoseconds, and they main and delayed traces Leader Instruments Corp.
tools. Included are data on support burst sequence can be viewed simulta- 380 Oser Avenue
the 64- kilobit serial addressing at 66 MHz with neously. Hauppauge, NY 11788
EEPROM and the Total En- a two -bit wrap- around Six traces are displayed Phone: 800 -646 -5104
28 durance Disk. i2 counter. in an alternate sweep mode (516- 321 -6900 in NY) o
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 WILLIAMS DAVID An 1. Fig. in show light laser
the of schematic the to Refer
circuit The
show. light laser own your with
altered. is tern
create can you displays dazzling the pat- laser spiral the of shape and
with family and friends your Amaze size the adjusted, is motor each
of speed the As circuit. control
-
speed separate a by driven is
motor each and motor, DC small
a on -axisoff slightly mounted
is mirror Each shapes. metric
geo- complex create to combine
patterns the and beam, the

',.'
to pattern spiral unique adds
a
mirror Each rrors. "Itrobbly"
=_-
a
three from fPi' la ` in

? /offi
fleet- fascinatin
li cT
eir trol
on an
remote handheld
assem laser -state solid
to addition in circuits, drive
-
motor and motors, mirrors, the
houses unit base The control.
remote -linked wire a and unit
base a of consists project The
optics and Mechanics
20850.) Maryland Rockville,
Road, Gaither .2098 pliance,
Com- of Office Health, ological
Radi- and Devices for Center
the from available are ments
require- these on formation
in- (Detailed on. so and ments,
require- mechanical power, by
lasers classify regulations The
Administration. Drug and Food
the of Health) Radiological and
Devices for (Center C.D.R.H.
the of regulations safety
th,. to conform must product
laser this assembled, When
manner. responsible and
safe a in only used be must and
toy a not is It supervision. adult
with or adults by only used
b should unit The else. one
any at laser the aim nor beam,
lase the into directly look er
Nev- eye. human the into rectly
di- aimed if harmful is device
this by projected is that beam
laser The Notice: Safety
patterns. geometric complex
unlimited create to laser any
with works project -build -toeasy
This show! light laser own very
your creating by friends you
of all impress can you Now cert?
con- a or nightclub a at show
light laser professional a by
IMYRESSEL BEEN EVER YOU HAVE
 IC4 VCCA
+8V LM7808T
D7
J1
1N4001
LEDI
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1
IC3 +9VIN N V Vo
M1 C11
LM78L05

GND
V
3
T
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POWER D10
1 N4001
T- GND

' +8V
MOTOR 220µF

R4
2 C4 TCS T10 6200 s
0.1 µF #R5
22K Qi
IRF510

C9 C6
0.1 0.1
1N 14 VCCB
R8 D1
3.3MEG 1N914 VCCA
114 OFF
C1 ON
R11 _ 1 5
.01 4
500K ICI -b CNS1 D8
2 1/4 4011 6 1/4 4011 POWER 1N4001 = M2
D2 VCCA C12
MOTOR

-04 1N914
71 R1
1000
J3 J2
O
+BV
220µF

0 1 6 O

R9 D3
0 2 5 0
R2
3.3MEG 1N914 0 3 4 0 R6
1000 02

R12 1
3
C2
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0
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-0
4

6
5
3
2 0-
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0-
22K
IRF510

500K IC2-a
1
C7
2 1/4 4011 K RJ-11 RJ-11
0.1
D4
1N914
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D9
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R13
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9 1/4 4011 K 13 1/4 4011

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22K
IRF510

C8
0.1

HAND HELD LASER

REMOTE UNIT BASE UNIT

FIG. 1-SCHEMATIC OF THE LASER LIGHT SHOW. An external DC wall -outlet adapter
powers the circuit at J1; the LM7808 voltage regulator produces a constant -8 volts to be varied from 0% to only about
power the rest of the circuit.
20 %. (Without the 3.3 megohm
resistor, the potentiometer can
external DC power adapter would operate fine at 8- volts, vary this on time from 0% to
plugs into connector J1 to powering them from the output 100 %.) The 0% to 20% duty-cy-
power the circuit. Diode D10 of IC3 helps to isolate the os- cle gives a good speed range
provides reverse -polarity pro- cillator circuits from the elec- with the motors used in the au-
tection for the voltage regulator, trical noise produced by the DC thor's prototype unit. You might
IC4. The LM7808 voltage reg- motors. The remote section has have to experiment with the val-
ulator and capacitor C13 con- three identical oscillator cir- ues of R8, R9, and R10 depend-
vert the transformer voltage to a cuits that produce pulse -width ing on the motors that you
constant regulated + 8 volts to modulated signals to control choose.
power the rest of the circuit. the speed of the DC motors in The three motor-control sig-
This main power is fed to the the base unit. Each oscillator nals pass through connector J3
handheld remote through an consists of two NAND gates from and a six -conductor modular
RJ -11 modular cable and jacks a CD4011 (wired as inverters), cable to J2 on the base unit. In
J2 and J3 and is switched on and a 0.01 -microfarad capacitor the base unit, each pulse -width
and off by Sl. Light- emitting di- that determines the oscillation modulated signal controls the
ode LEDI indicates when power frequency. motor speed by switching an
is on. 'IWo signal diodes and a 500 - IRF510 N- channel MOSFET
On the handheld remote side, kilohm potentiometer control transistor. The 100 -ohm re-
the LM78L05 (IC3) regulates the duty cycle, or on time of sistor and the 0.111F capacitor
the 8 -volts down to 5 volts to each pulse -width modulator. filter noise in the cable and the
power the CD4011 quad NAND With the 3.3 megohm resistor 22- kilohm resistor connected to
34 gate ICs. Although ICI and IC2 in the circuit, the duty cycle can the gate of each MOSFET keeps
the transistors biased off if the Start by assembling the the top of the case for the three
remote is unplugged. Each DC handheld remote unit. Figure 2 potentiometers. Mount the PC
motor has a 1N4001 diode wired is the parts -placement diagram board in the bottom half of the
across it to suppress reverse for that board. Use two 14 -pin case with any suitable hard-
voltage spikes. The 220 µF ca- DIP sockets for ICI and IC2. ware. Determine where the LED
pacitor supplies instantaneous Mount the LED to the PC board will protrude through the top of
current when the MOSFET with a 3/4-inch plastic spacer. the case, and drill a 3h6-inch
turns on and also provides extra This will allow the LED to pro- hole in that spot. Drill another
power filtering. trude through a hole in the plas- 3/16-inch hole for Si in any open
tic cover. location on the cover. Thst fit the
Construction lb connect the three potenti- case's end panels, and cut an
The easiest way to build the ometers, cut nine 4 -inch pieces opening in one end to allow ac-
laser light show is to use PC of stranded hookup wire and cess to modular connector J3.
boards. We've provided foil pat- solder the wires from the PC Mount the three potentiometers
terns for the two boards, but if board to the potentiometers, as and switch Si on the case cover.
you don't want to make your shown. Do the same for switch Align the cover so that the LED
own boards, pre- etched and Si. Last, install ICI and IC2 in fits through its hole, and secure
drilled boards can be purchased their sockets, observing the the two halves of the enclosure
from the source given in the proper orientation of pin 1. together. Set the remote unit
Parts List. Drill a row of three holes in aside for now and begin assem-
R13
bling the base unit.
Refer to Fig. 3 for the parts-
placement diagram of the base
unit. When installing the elec-
trolytic capacitors C11, C12,
and C13, be sure to follow the
proper polarity orientation.
Jack J1 is a 2.1 millimeter
power connector that attaches
to the PC board and accepts
power from a wall transformer.
05 You can either install J1 or you
can attach the wires from a DC-
output wall -outlet adapter di-
rectly.
Install the three MOSFET
transistors on the board. Be
sure that the metal tabs are ori-
ented as shown in Fig. 3 before
soldering them in place. Note
that MOSFET transistors are
ESD- sensitive, so always take
precautions to discharge static
FIG. 2- HANDHELD REMOTE parts -placement diagram. Use 14 -pin DIP sockets for electricity from your body by
IC1 and IC2. touching grounded metal be-
3oi" 8V1J ,£eel tril}lixgo0
-C9-

-C8-

Q1
R5 R7 --
C10 C13 Q3
+1 +I

FIG. 3 -BASE UNIT parts -placement diagram. You can install power jack J1 or attach
the wires from a DC- output wall -outlet adapter directly. 35
 k----.74 PARTS LIST

All resistors are Ye-watt, 5 %.

1/4 "DIA
R1 -R3 -100 ohms
R4-620 ohms
R5 -R7-22,000 ohms
4- 1.0"
R8- R10 -3.3 megohms
R11 -R13-500,000 ohms, panel -
mount potentiometer
.125MA
Capacitors
2 PLACES C1 -03 -0.01 µF, ceramic disk
C4- C9-0.1 µF, ceramic disk
.75" 010-1 F, 16 volts, tantalum elec-
trolytic
C11 -013 -220 µF, 16 volts, elec-
trolytic
Semiconductors
IC1, IC2- CD4011 quad 2 -input
NAND gates
IC3- LM78L05, 5 -volt regulator
(TO -92 case), Motorola or equiv.
IC4- LM7808T, 8 -volt regulator
1.10 (TO -220 case), Motorola or equiv.
Q1- Q3- IRF510 N- channel
MOSFET transistors, Interna-
tional Rectifier
Dl- D6-1N914 diode
D7-D10-1N4001 rectifier diode
LED1 -red light emitting diode,
T-1 -3/a
Other components
FIG. 4-RIGHT-ANGLE ALUMINUM brackets. These are attached to the motors and
J1 -2.1 mm power jack
can pivot on the base for alignment adjustments.
J2, J3-6 -pin RJ -11 jacks
M1 -M3 -DC hobby motor
Sl -SPST subminiature toggle
31/18*
switch, PC mount
29/18' Miscellaneous: 9 -volt DC, 300 mA
a 2 3/18' wall outlet adapter; plastic en-
113/18" closures (remote, Serpac A -21;
base unit, Serpac A -31); knobs for
11/2'-
potentiometers; three aluminum
1/4" motor brackets (see Fig. 4); three
1 -inch diameter round plastic mir-

rors and three plastic mounting

disks; two PC boards; two 14 -pin
IC sockets; 3 -foot, 6- conductor
modular cord; No. 24 gauge
stranded wire; hardware; glue;
solder.
Note: The following items are
available from LNS Tech-
nologies, 20993 Foothill Blvd,
Suite 307R, Hayward, CA
94541 -1511, 1- 800 -886 -7150:
Complete kit of parts for the
Laser Light Show (LSHOW-
KIT) includes two PC boards,
brackets, mirrors, enclosures,
motors, and all components
listed above (laser not in-
cluded, see below) -$99.00
t (. 4 3/8"
Solid State Laser Kit
1/8'
(LASER- KIT)-$89.00
FIG. 5-IF YOU ARE MOUNTING THE BASE UNIT in a plastic enclosure, you will need
Add $5.00 S &H to all orders. Cali-
an aluminum baseplate cut and drilled to these dimensions.
fornia residents add local sales
observing the proper orienta - tax. MC /VISA orders accepted.
fore you handle them. Next in-
36 stall the voltage regulator IC4, tion of the metal tab. Solder six
pieces of 6 -inch long stranded ments. If you don't purchase smaller than the diameter of the
hookup wire to the board as the kit for the laser show, you'll motor shaft to make for a snug
shown for connecting the three have to fabricate these brackets fit and it should be drilled at a
DC motors later on. yourself. If you are mounting very slight angle. The angled
the base unit in a plastic en- axis will give the mirror a slight
Final assembly closure like the author's pro- wobble as it spins. A small
The three motors and their totype, you will also need the amount of wobble is necessary
mirrors must be mounted se- aluminum baseplate shown in for proper operation, but an ex-
curely and aligned accurately to Fig. 5. Otherwise, you can sim- cessive amount will prevent
properly deflect the laser beam. ply attach the three motor proper alignment.
The right -angle aluminum brackets to a wood base as long Put together the motorized
brackets shown in Fig. 4 attach as you match the hole spacing mirror assemblies by attaching
to the motors and can pivot on to the base plate shown in Fig. the mirrors to the mirror
the base for alignment adjust- 5. mounts. Use quick -set epoxy,
You need three 1 -inch diame- cyanoacrylate adhesive (super
ter mirrors for your light show. glue), or double -sided foam tape
MIRRORS ADHESIVE DISK
REFLECTIVE PLASTIC DISK
Do not use glass mirrors. They and make sure the reflective
SURFACE
NO. 2 x 3/32 SCREWS (2)
are too fragile and can break or side faces away from the motor.
shatter and cause injury. At Repeat the procedure for all
most plastic supply houses or three mirrors and mounts, and
hobby shops, you can purchase wait at least an hour for any ad-
mirrors made of plastic. Ask the hesive to set.
clerk to cut the material into f- Next attach an aluminum
inch circles or carefully cut your bracket to each of the motors,
own. You also need three 1 -inch as shown in Fig. 6, with two No.
SHAFT HOLE
(SLIGHT OFF-AXIS)
round disks to attach the mir- 2 X 332 self- tapping screws.
rors to the motors. Here you can Press a mirror onto each motor
L t
MOUNTING MOUNTING
use wood or plastic. Whatever shaft. The mounting disc
HOLE BRACKET material you choose for the mir- should be pressed onto the
ror mounts should be approxi- shaft as far as possible without
FIG. 6-AN ALUMINUM BRACKET is at- mately Vs -inch thick. hitting the motor screws. If the
tached to each motor with two No. 2 -
3V32 self- tapping screws. The mirror -
Before mounting the plastic mirrors spin freely, remove
mounting disk should be pressed onto mirrors to the disks, you must them and then reinstall them
the motor shaft as far as possible with- drill a hole in the center of each using a few drops of adhesive to
out contacting the screws. disk. The hole should be a bit permanently bond them to the

BOTTOM OF ENCLOSURE

EXTERNAL LASER

MOTOR & MIRROR ASSEMBLY

FIG. 7 -THE MOTOR ASSEMBLIES can pivot on the baseplate to allow for alignment of
the laser beam. 37
 DRIVE
J1
MOTORS

LASER
BEAM
PATH 1
1 7/8 INCHES
REMOTE CONTROL FOIL PATTERN.
----{
FIG. 8 -LASER BASE UNIT. Any laser will work with the laser light show. The laser
shown here is a solid -state unit from an available kit.

MOTOR
CONTROLS

J3

FIG. 9 -THE REMOTE CONTROL UNIT lets you vary the speed of the three motors in
the base unit individually.

motor shafts. on the baseplate as shown in

After everything has dried, Fig. 7 and partially tighten the
carefully inspect each motor mounting screws. A final align-
and mirror assembly. Make sure ment will be done later with the
that the plastic mount, the mir- laser in place. Solder a pair of
ror, and the motor are all firmly wires from the base -unit board LASER BASE FOIL PATTERN.
attached to each other. Any to each motor (see Fig. 3). Before
loose part could fly off and inju- soldering, the leads can be trim- device can be mounted so that
re somebody. Make sure each med in length to fit the case. It the laser beam can be bounced
mirror turns freely. Do not run doesn't matter which wire goes off the mirrors as shown in Fig.
the motors if anything is bind- to which terminal on each 7. The author used a solid -state
ing or rubbing. Correct any motor. laser for which a kit is available
problems now. Any laser will work with the (see the Parts List). That laser
38 Mount the motor assemblies laser light show, as long as the Continued on page 54
IF YOU HAVE TOUCH -TONE TELE- and a current of about 20 milli-
phone service, you can now put
a call on hold from any phone in
your house by plugging this
PUT amps flows through the phone,
which causes the line voltage to
drop to about 3 to 8 volts, de-
simple device into any tele- pending on the telephone. Cur-
phone jack. The universal hold rent also flows through circuits
circuit works with any phone
that has a keypad with a # key.
lb put a call on hold, press the #
THAT at the central office, indicating
that a phone has been picked
up.
key and hang the phone up. A A call is put on hold when all
timer extends the # -key func-
tion while you hang up phones
that have a keypad built into the
handset.
PHONE phones are hung up and the
SCR in ICI is triggered on by
circuits driving its LED. When
the SCR conducts, current
The universal hold circuit flows through BR1, D2,
first detects the dual-tone, LED1, ICI, IC2 and back
multifrequency (DTMF) signal through BR1, placing a
that is generated when the # load on the line that keeps
key is pressed. It then activates the central -office circuits ac-
a circuit that partially loads tive. A 15 -volt drop across D2, a
the telephone line so that the 2 -volt drop across D1, a 1.5 -volt
central office thinks a drop across the LED in IC2, and
phone is still off-hook even about a 1.5 -volt drop across the
after it is hung up. The diodes in BR1 result in the nor-
hold circuit remains mal 48 -volt line voltage being
active for five sec- clamped to about 20 volts. That
onds after the # allows line current to flow, but
key is released, so the at a higher voltage than normal.
key does not have to be held The LED lights to indicate that
down while the phone is being a call is on hold. When a phone
hung up. When any phone is is picked up and the line voltage
again picked func- drops to 8 volts or there
tion is canceled.
How it works
Figure 1 shows the schematic
ON no longer enough voltage to
keep current flowing through
D2, D1 IC1, IC2, and BR1, and
the hold function is canceled.

HOLD!
diagram of the universal hold The telephone line also con-
circuit. The telephone line is nects through capacitor C4 and
connected to the hold compo- transformer Ti to capacitor C8,
nents through bridge rectifier which couples the DTMF signal
BR1 so that the input is not po- to the input of IC4, a Motorola
larity sensitive. The positive Build a telephone MC145436 DTMF decoder used
side of the line is always con- to detect the # -key tone. Zener
nected to Zener diode D2, and hold circuit that diode D6 clamps IC4's input
the negative side of the line is voltage to 9.1 volts to prevent
always connected to IC2. The works from any damage from transients. The
telephone line also connects to phone in your decoder has four outputs that
tone -decoder IC4 through C4 produce a hexadecimal code
and Ti. Power is supplied to the
circuit by a 12 -volt DC power home-even corresponding to the tones it re-
ceives when a key is pressed (see
adapter and by IC5, a 78L05 5-
volt regulator, and is filtered by
cordless! Table 1). Notice that only when
the # key is pressed will pins 13
C2 and C3. and 14 both go high (logic "1 ").
Optoisolator IC1 contains a That is convenient, as the cir-
silicon -controlled rectifier FRANK MONTEGARI cuit has to monitor only two
(SCR) that latches on after it's outputs of IC4 to decode the #
turned on by current flowing key.
through an optically coupled stops, it will not resume until Decoding the outputs of IC4
LED within the IC. The SCR the SCR is again triggered by pins 13 and 14 is done by a log-
continues to conduct even after the internal LED. ical AND circuit consisting of
the LED current is removed, When all phones on the line two diodes, D4 and D5, whose
providing that enough anode are on -hook, the voltage across cathodes must both be high for
current is available to sustain the telephone line is about 48 their anodes to be pulled high
it. When the SCR anode voltage volts. When a phone is taken off- by R5. That discharges Cl
is removed and conduction hook, it places a load on the line through R4 into the positive 39
 +5V IC5
C2 78L05
R4 1000pF
R5 2
IC1
56K
10K
O
R2
LEDI H11C1 10K
+K

R3 05
56U R6
R1 XTAL1
D2
1N4744
56K S
D4
3.57MHz -__? MEG
15V 1N914

4 3 f 13 112 111710 f9
IC2 103 104
4N28 555 MC145436
C5
1µF 4 5 6
2 6 6 7 8 2 1
1

13131
PL1 DF04 MA
RJ11 D3 C6 R7
1N914 01 1MEG
C4 C7
PC .1
4.7µF C8
250V 9.1V 01
1N4739

+12V
WALL
120VAC XFMR
J-

FIG. 1- SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM of the universal hold circuit. The telephone line is
connected to the hold components through bridge rectifier BR1, so that the input is
not polarity sensitive.
TABLE 1 -1C4 OUTPUTS
Key IC pin 13 IC pin 14 IC pin 1 IC pin 2
supply. When the # key is re-
leased, pins 13 and 14 go low 1 0 0 0 1

0
again and a negative pulse is 2 0 0 1

produced by Cl and R4 at the 3 0 0 1

0 0
1

trigger input (pin 2) of 555 4 0

0
1

0
timer IC3. That starts IC3's tim- 5
6 0
1 1

0
ing cycle where pin 3 goes high 7 0
1 1

1
for about five seconds. That
1 1

8 0 0 0
drives current through R3 into
1

9 0 0 1

the LED within ICI, latching

1

0 1 0 1 0
the internal SCR. The five -sec- 1 0 1 1
ond output from IC3 keeps cur- # 1 1 0 0
rent flowing long enough to
hang up the phone. The 5 -sec-
ond duration is controlled by R7
and C7 and may be altered by C5 142 I Ct
changing the value of R7. 14
I
XTALi
Optoisolator IC2 has a tran- +' ' D4 105 -R6-
sistor output. After the # key is
pressed and the phone is hung
up, telephone line current flow- I

R1 ICi
I

R3 1C3 IC4 12 -VOLT

ing through the LED in IC2 C3 POWER
ADAPTER
turns its transistor on, which LEDI

resets timer IC3.

The reset function removes PL1
---- D2 C6-
7

current from the LED in ICI and BR1

C71

allows a hold to be canceled im- T1

mediately after initiating it -C2-+

without having to wait for the
1

-C4-
five -second cycle to complete.
The transistor within IC2 also
performs a power -on reset by FIG. 2- PARTS -PLACEMENT DIAGRAM. Leave LED1's leads long and bend them in an
having its base coupled through "S" shape so its position can be adjusted later to fit through top of the a hole in the
40 C5 to the positive supply. When case.
 PARTS LIST

All resistors are '/s -watt, 5 %, un-

less noted.
R1, R4- 56,000 ohms
R2, R5- 10,000 ohms
R3-56 ohms
R6, R7 -1 megohm
Capacitors
Cl, 03 -0.1 µF, 50 volts, metal film
C2 -1000 µF, 16 volts, electrolytic
C4-0.1 µF, 250 volts, polyester
C5-1 µF, 50 volts, electrolytic
C6, C8 -0.01 µF, 50 volts, metal
film
C7-4.7 µF, 35 volts, electrolytic
Semiconductors
IC1 -H11C1 SCR optoisolator (Har-
ris or equiv.)
IC2 -4N28 transistor optoisolator
(Harris or equiv.)
IC3 -555 timer
IC4- MC145436 (Motorola or FIG. 3 -THE COMPLETED PC BOARD. Point -to -point wiring will also work for this
equiv.) or CD22204 (Harris or project.
equiv.) DTMF decoder
IC5-78L05 voltage regulator
BR1 -0F04 1- ampere, 400 volt,
DIP bridge rectifier (Allied Elec-
tronics or equiv.)
D1 -not used
D2- 1N4744 Zener diode, 15-volts,
T.
îri' ;
.

-I 4.,-
11
:
1.-
point wiring will work just as
well, however.
If the printed- circuit board is
used, use Fig. 2 as a guide to
install the parts. It's always best
watt
1
r r- to use IC sockets for all ICs, al-
D3 D5-1N914 silicon diode Et_F.L1RCMECHflN7CRL INC though they aren't absolutely
D6-1N4739 Zener diode, 9.1 volts, necessary.
1 watt When installing LED1, leave
LED1- light- emitting diode, any its leads long and bend them in
color, T1 -3/4 an S shape so its position can be
Other components adjusted later on to fit through a
XTAL- 3.579545 MHz crystal hole in the top of the case. After
T1- matching transformer, 600 - all parts are installed, plug the
ohm primary, 600 -ohm second- ICs into their sockets. Keep in
ary (Jameco P/N 105902) mind that IC4 is a CMOS device
PL1 -RJ11 modular plug attached that is sensitive to ESD or elec-
to telephone wire
Miscellaneous: three 6 -pin IC
trostatic discharge. Figure 3
sockets, one 8 -pin IC socket, one
shows the completed PC board.
14 -pin IC socket, 120 -volt AC to
The author installed the
12 -volt DC, 100 milliamp, power
board in a 2- x 3- x 1 -inch plas-
adapter, 2- x 3- x 1 -inch plastic tic case (see Parts List), in
project box (Jameco P/N 18921), which the board fits perfectly
FIG. 4 -THE BOARD FITS tightly in a 2- and is held securely without any
two cable ties, PC board, wire,
x 3- - 1 -inch plastic case, and is held hardware. You are free to use
solder securely without any hardware.
Note: The following items are any case you like, but the in-
available from American Elec- stallation details are up to you if
tromechanical Inc., 134 Van power is turned off, C5 dis- you decide to go that route.
Voorhis Terrace, Wappingers charges through D3. Place a nylon tie around the
Falls, NY 12590: power leads and the telephone
Complete kit of parts includ- Construction wire to act as strain reliefs, or tie
ing PC board and pre -drilled Since this is a low- frequency knots in them to serve the same
enclosure- $49.95 circuit, parts layout and wiring purpose. Cut and file slots in
Etched and drilled PC board are not at all critical, parts toler- the edge of the case to pass the
only -$6.95 ances are not critical, and wires through and drill a hole in
Check or money order, only. Add equivalent types may be sub- the top of the case directly above
$4.00 shipping and handling. stituted. where the LED will be once the
NY State residents must add The prototype was built on a
sales tax
board is installed. Figure 4
small PC board for which we've shows how the board fits into
provided a foil pattern. Point -to- Continued on page 54 41
 RAY MARSTON

THIS ARTICLE EXPLAINS THE DE-

sign of a many different low -
power electronic voltage con-
verters. These circuits generate
VOLTAGE
higher -value supply voltages
from low- voltage DC sources
Learn how to build a variety of voltage
and negative DC voltages from
positive DC voltage sources.
integrated circuits and put then
The circuits in this article in-
clude the popular 555 industry- to 200 milliamperes when set Figures 2, 3, 4, and 5 are volt-
standard timer IC and the Har- up as a free -running square- age- converter circuits based on
ris Semiconductor ICL7660 wave generator. the 555. The 555 is configured
voltage converter IC, devices
that simplify the design and
construction of a variety of volt-
age converter circuits. FREE -RUNNING NONINVERTING
SOUAREWAVE VOLTAGE O
OUTPUT
Low -voltage generation. GENERATOR MULTIPLIER VOUT

The easiest way to increase .Ax+V

the voltage level of a DC source Z O
voltage or reverse its polarity is
to apply that DC voltage to a a
free -running, squarewave gen-
erator whose output is fed to a
multisection capacitor-diode
voltage-multiplier network. Fig- FREE-RUNNING INVERTING
ure 1 shows block diagrams for SOUAREWAVE VOLTAGE
positive and negative output GENERATOR MULTIPLIER VOUT
voltage converters. .-(Ax+V)
If a positive output voltage is 0
desired, the multiplier must Z
provide a noninverting re- b

sponse, as shown in Fig. 1 -a. FIG. 1-VOLTAGE CONVERTER BLOCK DIAGRAMS: positive output (a) and negative
But if a negative output is re- output (b).
quired, the multiplier must
function as an inverter, as +5 TO +15V
shown in Fig.1 -b. N'
Voltage converters are based R1
C4
on a variety of multivibrator cir- 3.3K 148 10µF

cuits. These converters can in- C D2 D3

clude free -running, square - Rz 6
1 N414 1N4148

wave- generating multi - C1

18K
vibrators based on bipolar or 0.1
5
C5
OUTPUT
field- effect (FET) transistors or 10µF
1
-+V x3
CMOS or TTL integrated cir- C2
0.01
C3
0.01
15 TO 45V

cuits. In general, the square - O

wave generators should oscil-

late at frequencies between 1 FIG. 2 -DC VOLTAGE-DOUBLER circuit based on the 555 timer IC.
kHz and 10 kHz so that the mul-
tiplier section can operate effi- +5 TO +15V
ciently. This frequency range
permits the use of multiplying
capacitors with low values. ; R1
' 3.3K 4 8
An easy way to build a voltage 2 D2
converter is to design it around 1 N4Ú18
an industry- standard 555 timer R2
18K
6
+O
IC. (This versatile device and 0
C4
many practical circuits that in- 1 5
10µF OUTPUT
clude it were discussed in the -+V x2
C3 15 TO 45V
November and December issues 0.01
of Electronics Now, starting on o
pages 61 and 62, respectively.)
42 The 555 can source or sink up FIG. 3-DC VOLTAGE-TRIPLER circuit based on the 555 timer.
 The precise output value is:

CONVERTERS 2 X V e,ak (Vfdl + Vfd2)

Where: 'peak is the peak out-
put voltage of the squarewave
generator Vfdl arid Vfd2 are the
forward voltage drops (about
-conversion circuits from popular 600 millivolts) of multiplier di-
odes D1 and D2.
to work in your own circuit designs. The output voltage of the cir-
cuit decreases when the output
is loaded.
as a free -running astable multi - The circuit in Fig. 2 is a DC The Fig. 2 voltage doubler cir-
vibrator (squarewave generator) voltage- doubler that generates a cuit will work with any DC sup-
operating at about 3 kHz in all of DC output voltage with a value ply of 5 to 15 volts. Because of its
these circuits. The 3 -kHz fre- that is approximately twice that voltage -doubling response, it
quency is determined by the val- of the supply voltage. The 555's can provide voltage outputs
ues of resistors R1 and R2 in output is fed to a voltage -dou- over a range of about 10 to 30
series with capacitor C2. Sup- bler network made up of capaci- volts. Higher voltage can be ob-
ply -line capacitor Cl prevents tors C4 and C5 and diodes D1 tained by adding more multi-
the 3 -kHz output of the 555 and D2. The network produces plier stages to the circuit.
from feeding back into the de- the approximate two times sup- The Fig. 3 DC voltage tripler
vice, and capacitor C3 en- ply voltage output when that circuit can provide output volt-
hances circuit stability. output is unloaded. ages from 15 to 45 volts. The
Fig. 4 DC voltage quadrupler
+5V TP +15V circuit can provide output volt-
J ages from 20 to 60 volts.
CS
Figure 5 is the schematic for a
I
Ri
3.3K
2
4 8
0.4
10µF
I 10µF
D1
1N4148
D2
1N4148
= D3
1N4148
I oa
1N4148
DC negative -voltage generator,
capable of producing an output
7S R2 8 SSg
Cl 18K 7
X4.
voltage that is approximately
0.1
+p equal in amplitude but opposite
5 + OUTPUT
C2 TC C3 CB -+V x4 in polarity
0.01 0.01
10µF 20V TO 80V supply.It also operates at 3 Hz,
V and it drives an output stage
FIG. 4-DC VOLTAGE -QUADRUPLER circuit based on the 555 timer. consisting of capacitors C4 and
C5 and diodes D1 and D2. This
circuit's split-supply output is
useful for powering ICs that re-
quire both positive and negative
power from a single -ended
source.
High -voltage generation.
The generation of higher out-
put voltages with voltage multi-
pliers is usually cost -effective
only when the values of the re-
quired voltages are less than six
FIG. 5-DC NEGATIVE VOLTAGE generator based on the 555 timer. times the supply voltage. Where
very large step-up ratios are re-
+9V
quired (e.g., hundreds of volts
generated from a 12 -volt sup-
ply), other circuit designs are
01
1144008 recommended.
9V T1 It is usually cost -effective to
apply the output of the low -volt-
;4- R1 7S 250V age oscillator or squarewave
100K C2
Cl 0.1
f generator as the input to a suit-
0.1 µF Cl 9V C37 O able step -up voltage trans-
0.470
0.01
Q1 350V
OUTPUT former. The required high AC
2149004
+300v output voltages appear across
the transformer's secondary
winding.
This AC voltage can easily be
FIG. 6-NINE-VOLT-T0-300-VOLT DC -to -DC converter. converted back to DC with a 43
 Figure 6 is a DC -to-DC con-
verter circuit that can generate
a 300 -volt DC output from a 9-
volt DC power source. In this
circuit, transistor Q1 and its as-
D7
1N4004
sociated circuitry form a Hartley
inductive -capacitive (LC) os-
cillator. The voltage on the pri-
Vr mary winding that swings
C3 (DC) between zero and 9 -volts is ap-
10µF plied to 250 -volt transformer
Ti. The inductance of the pri-
mary is the inductive element in
the LC oscillator, which is tuned
FIG. 7-HIGH -VOLTAGE GENERATOR that can also be a neon lamp driver. by capacitor C2.
The supply voltage is stepped
up to about 350 volts peak at
the secondary of Ti. This out-
put is half-wave rectified by di-
ode D1, and it charges capacitor
C3. Without a permanent load
Cl on C3, the capacitor can deliver
0.1 a powerful but non -lethal elec-
R5 AC OUTPUT trical shock. With a permanent
47K
(SETf)
120V TO 230V
50 TO 60Hz
load, the output drops to about
300 volts at a load current of a
few milliamperes.
The Fig. 7 circuit can either
drive a neon lamp or generate a
FIG. 8- DC -TO -AC INVERTER based on the 555 IC.
low- current DC voltage of up to
several hundred volts from a 5-
to 15 -volt DC supply. The 555 is
CAP+
configured as a 3 -kHz astable
RC
VOLTAGE
LEVEL
O multivibrator whose square -
OSCILLATOR TRANSLATOR
CAP- _ wave output is fed to the input
of transformer Ti through the
O
resistor R3.
OSC
O
LV In this circuit, Tl is a small
audio transformer with a turns
ratio necessary to give the desir-
VOLTAGE ed output voltage. In this cir-
REGULATOR
cuit, a 10 -volt supply and a
transformer with a 1:20 turns
ratio will give an unloaded DC
output of 200 volts peak. This
AC voltage can easily be convert-
FIG. 9- FUNCTIONAL DIAGRAM for the ICL7660 CMOS voltage converter. ed to DC with a half -wave rec-
+V
ICL7660 +1.5V TO +3.5V

NC V+

2 7
CAP+ OSC 7

3
GROUND LV 6 ICL7660
Cl
4 5 10µF
CAP- VOUT
O

Cl
Vr
+ t0µF -V
FIG. 10 -PIN CONFIGURATION for an o
ICL7660 in an eight -pin miniDIP.

FIG. 11- NEGATIVE VOLTAGE CONVERTER for a 1.5- to 3.5 -volt supply.
simple rectifier filter network, if
required. Figures 6, 7 and 8 high -voltage generation cir- tifier and filter capacitor, as
44 show schematics for low- power, cuits based on of this principle. shown in Fig. 7.
 +V CMOS voltage converter
+3.54 TO +6.5V The Harris ICL7660 is a
monolithic CMOS voltage con-
verter that converts its supply
voltage from positive to negative
for an input range of + 1.5 volts
to +10 volts. This results in
complementary output voltages
of -1.5 volts to -10 volts. For
example, if powered from a + 5-
volt source, the device will gen-
erate a -5 -volt output.
The ICL7660 has a typical
open-circuit voltage conversion
FIG. 12- NEGATIVE VOLTAGE CONVERTER for a 3.5- to 6.5 -volt supply. efficiency of 99.9% and a typical
power efficiency of 98 %. When
+V
+6.5V TO +10V
the output is loaded, the
ICL7660 acts like a voltage
source with an output imped-
ance of about 70 ohms. It can
supply maximum currents of
+ about 500 microamperes.
Cl
ICL7660 6 Only two external capacitors
10µF are needed to perform the
5 N charge pump and charge reser-
D1 voir functions. The ICL7660
(SEE TEXT) C2 cari also be configured as a volt-
10µF
age doubler andit will generate
output voltages up to + 18.6
FIG. 13- NEGATIVE VOLTAGE CONVERTER for a 6.5- to 10 -volt supply.
volts with a + 10 -volt input.

+V
+3.5TO+6.5V

J 8 J

2
+ C3
+
TC IC1 IC2
Cl ICL7660 10µF 3 ICL7880
10µF

< > o
Vow.
< > YC2 C4 -2(+V - Va)
DN7 10µF 10µF
o
FIG. 14- METHOD FOR CASCADING voltage converter ICs for increased voltage.

The DC -to -AC inverter circuit +4

in Fig. 8 will produce an AC out- +3.5 TO +10V
put at line frequency and volt-
age. The 555 is configured as an
astable multivibrator whose
output frequency can be ad-
justed over a range of 50 to 60 cl
>10uF
R 1CL7880
(3+
Hz by trimmer potentiometer (SEE TEXT)
R5.
The output of the 555 is fed to
the paired NPN and PNP bipolar
5- i C2
o
Vovr
< N > tOpF
transistors Q1 and Q2, and Dt (SEE TEXT) -V
o
their output is fed into the low - 1Sr
voltage side of reverse -con-
nected filament transformer T1. FIG. 15- CAPACITOR SUBSTITUTION for reducing the voltage converter's oscillator
frequency.
It has the necessary step -up
turns ratio. Capacitor C4 and that the transformer input is es- Figure 9 is the functional
coil L1 filter the input to ensure sentially a sinewave. block diagram of the ICL7660. 45
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ELECTRICAL
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SECRETS OF

ELECTRONIC
MEASUREMENTS
Et TESTING
RF
CIRCUIT
DESIGN
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most current and comprehensive test equipment available, what from principles to applications." comportent measurements, sys- circuits, and principles of radio
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TROUBLESHOOTING
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and their solutions, this in-depth the best software drivers and use personal computers with trade by a veteran electronics this self-improvement guide ex-
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46
 n.acnca --- SECOND EDITION
DATA
COMMUN/C4DONS
"tcr,,ts -11;11 CIRCUIT
ENCYCLOPEDIA
RF POWER FOR
DESIGN TECHNIQUES PHASE.LOCKED LOOP
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TROUBLESHOOTING
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 1 0,000 It contains an RC oscillator, di- quency can be lowered by the
vide-by-2 circuit, voltage -level addition of an external capaci-
translator, voltage regulator, tor to the osc terminal, or the
four output power MOS switch- oscillator can be overdriven by
es, and an unusual logic net- an external clock.
work. The logic network senses The Lv terminal can be tied to
the most negative voltage in the GROUND to bypass the internal
device and ensures that the out- series regulator and inprove low
lo put N- channel switch source - voltage (LV) operation. At medi-
i substrate junctions are not for-
ward biased. This is intended to
um to high voltages ( + 3.5 to
+ 10.0 volts), the LV pin is left
1
10Hz 100Hz 1KHz 101dtr ensure latchup -free operation. floating to prevent device
OSCILLATOR FREQUENCY The unloaded oscillator oscil- latchup.
FIG. 16- FREQUENCY OF OSCILLA- lates at a nominal frequency of The ICL7660 is available in
TION as a function of external oscillator 10 kHz when the input supply eight -pin miniDIP and small -
capacitor value ( +V = 5 volts). voltage is 5.0 volts. This fre- outline IC (SOIC) packages as
well as TO -99 cases. Figure 10 is
+V
+3.5 TO +10V
the drawing of pin configura-
tions for the eight -pin miniDlP
package, the least expensive
version. Power dissipation of
CMO3 CLOCK this package is 300 milliwatts.
ßATE INPUT The ICL7660S, an enhanced di-
ICL7660
1 rect replacement for the
ICL7660, is now available and
o can be substituted if desired.
]C C2 vc, The operation of the ICL7660
+ 10µF -V is similar to that of the oscillator
o and voltage -multiplier shown in
Fig. 2, but it performs that func-
FIG.17- EXTERNAL CLOCKING METHOD for reducing the internal oscillator frequen- tion more efficiently. As stated
cy of the ICL7660. earlier, the use of conventional
+V
silicon multiplier diodes causes
+3.5 TO +10V the circuit's unloaded output
voltage to drop by about 1.2
volts-the sum of the forward
voltage drops of the two diodes.
The ICL7660 eliminates the
voltage drop by replacing the di-
odes with MOS power switches.
These switches are driven by
the logic network so that each
switch automatically closes
when it is forward biased and
opens when it is reverse biased.
This feature accounts for its
high operating efficiency.
FIG. 18- POSITIVE VOLTAGE MULTI PLIER based on the ILC7660.
+V Do's and don'ts
+3.5 T0 +10V The manufacturer recom-
mends some Do's and Dont's to
assure reliable device operation:
1. Do not exceed the device's
+ = D1 maximum supply voltage.
í. ICL7660 2. Do not connect any pins to
Cl
10µF
voltages greater than + V or less
< 0 than ground.
C2
10µF -Vovr
3. If the IC is operating in the
< N > -(+V -vm) power supply range of 1.5 to 3.5
D3 D2
o volts, ground the Lv.sx pin 6; at
)1+
C3
~ +
+Vom. supply values greater than 3.5
C4 71i
10µF 10µF 2(+V)-(Vb,-Vold volts, leave pin 6 open circuited.
4. Do not short circuit the out-
put to the + V supply for volt -
50 FIG. 19-COMBINED NEGATIVE VOLTAGE converter and positive doubler. Continued on page 62
 !umx.:...

Customize analog meter

faces with your PC and a laser printer.

SKIP WITHROW, WBOBBE Finding the right meter Other things that must be
The first step to successfully known about the meter before it
EVEN IN TODAY'S WORLD OF DIGITAL making a newly labeled meter is can be used in a circuit properly
electronics there are still times to start with the right meter. Al- are its full -scale current and the
when an analog meter is the bet- though many meters can be resistance of its movement coil.
ter choice for displaying voltage, found for very reasonable prices For a new meter, these are easy
current, or other signal levels. in the surplus market, not every to determine from the meter's
With the use of a personal com- meter is a candidate for a new specification sheet. Sometimes
puter and a laser printer, this scale. Several specifications, you will be lucky enough to find
article shows how you can such as the full -scale current information printed on an old
customize analog meters from and the meter movement's re- meter face that will help deter-
your junk box or local surplus sistance, are critical in deter- mine the full -scale reading.
dealer to display almost any mining whether meter is a If you know nothing about a
scale and units. Gone are the suitable choice. meter's electrical specifications,
days of trying to draw meter lb change the scale of a meter, they can be determined rather
scales by hand; you can make the face must be accessible. easily. Generally most meters
your computer and laser printer Some inexpensive meter move- have a full -scale current be-
do the work for you. ments have cases that can't be tween 100 microamperes and 1
Any laser printer that under- opened, and these should be milliampere. Coil resistance
stands HPGL (Hewlett- Packard avoided. Generally the cover of a generally varies between about
Graphics Language) com- meter face can either be re- 40 and 1000 ohms. The setup to
mands is compatible with the moved by simply prying it off, or measure full scale current and
techniques presented here. The by removing several small coil resistance is simple. The
BASIC programming language screws on the outside of the value of the power supply is not
is used to assemble the com- meter. The second task is to re- critical. A potentiometer be-
mands which are then sent to move the meter face itself. tween the supply and the un-
the printer. The printer prints Again, some inexpensive known meter should be large
the new scale on a whole -page meters might have their faces enough to limit current to
laser label and then the label is mounted permanently, but the about 50 microamperes (about
applied to the old meter. Figure majority of meters have several 200K). First set the potentiome-
1 shows a meter, purchased for small screws that hold the ter to its maximum value, turn
$2 at a surplus electronics out- meter face in place. The ability on the power supply, then de-
let, before and after modifica- to remove the meter face is es- crease the resistance until the
tion. sential. meter reads full scale. Measure 51
 the program that draws the new statements, professional look-
meter face. ing meter scales can be created
The next step in putting a with customized features.
new face on your meter is to The BASIC language can send
carefully remove the old meter HPGL commands to the printer
face plate. After opening up the for drawing the various features
meter case it is usually just a of the scale. Using a computer
mater of removing the small language to send the com-
screws holding the face plate mands to the printer is helpful
on. A set of jeweler's screw driv- because many commands can
ers can sometimes be helpful for be generated using program
particularly small meters. Once loops with an incrementing
the face plate is loose it can be variable. This lets rather short
removed by very carefully slid- programs generate many dif-
ing it from under the needle of ferent individual graphic ele-
the meter. Be careful not to bend ments to compose the new
or bump the needle. meter face plate.
Listing 1 is the BASIC pro-
Using HPGL gram that draws the meter face
!ì.>.l'FRY 13" HPGL is a graphics language in Fig. 2. Only a few of the many
VM TAGE of short, simple statements that HPGL commands are used in
allows lines, arcs, and text to be the program. Most are two -let-
drawn. Originally developed for ter commands followed by argu-
plotters, this language has been ments. In Listing 1 many of the
incorporated into many of to- arguments are calculated by the
day's laser printers. By using BASIC program. The program
just a few of the many HPGL plots points on a graph that has
FIG.1-A VOLTMETER, purchased for $2 LISTING 1
surplus, shown before (top) and after
modification (bottom). REM - PUT THE ORIGIN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE.
REM - THIS IS THE NEEDLE PIVOT POINT
XORG = 4000
the voltage of the supply and the YORG = 5500

value of the variable resistance. REM - CONSTANTS USED FOR PLOTTING

IRAD = 1.4 * 1016
The voltage divided by the resis- ORAD = 1.5 * 1016
tance will then give you the cur- IIRAD = 1.33 * 1016
rent required to deflect the ANGLE = 90
K = .0174533
meter full scale. MAJORDIV = 5
MINORDIV = 50
Another potentiometer can
determine the meter coil resis- REM - CLEAR THE PRINTER
LPRINT CHR$(27); "E"
tance. With the meter indicat- REM - PUT THE PRINTER INTO HPGL MODE
ing full -scale current, place a 1K LPRINT CHR$(27); " %0B"
REM - INITALIZE HPGL MODE
potentiometer across the meter LPRINT "IN;"
and adjust until the meter reads REM - SELECT A PEN SO IT WILL PRINT AND SET THE WIDTH
exactly 1/2 scale. Remove this po- LPRINT "SP1;"
tentiometer and measure its LPRINT "PWO ;"
value. This will be the value of REM - DRAW THE UPER AND LOWER ARCS FOR THE METER SCALE
the coil resistance of the meter. LPRINT "PA "; XORG - SIN(ANGLE / 2 * K) * ORAD; ","; YORG + COS(ANGLE
* ORAD; ";PD;"
/ 2 * K)

The meter in Fig. 1 had a full - LPRINT "AA "; MORO; ","; YORG; ","; -ANGLE; ',
scale current reading of 229 mi- LPRINT "PU;"
LPRINT "PA "; XORG - SIN(ANGLE / 2 * K) * IRAD; ","; YORG + COS(ANGLE / 2 *
K)
croamperes and a coil resis- * IRAD;;PD;"
"

tance of 819 ohms. LPRINT "AA "; XORG; ","; YORG; ","; -ANGLE; ",

REM - PUT IN THE 50 TICK MARKS FOR TENTHS OF VOLTS

Making faces FOR I = -ANGLE / 2 TO ANGLE / 2 STEP ANGLE / MINORDIV
LPRINT "PU;"
A protractor is the best tool LPRINT "PA"; XORG + SIN(I * K) * IRAD; ","; YORG + COS(I * K) * IRAD;
for measuring the total angle of LPRINT "PD ;"
LPRINT "PA "; XORG + SIN(I * K) * ORAD; ","; YORG + COS(I * K) * ORAD; ',
movement of the meter needle, LPRINT "PU ;"
which generally runs from 90 to NEXT I

120 degrees. Also measure the REM - PRINT THE VOLT MARKS USING HEAVIER LINES AND EXTENDING BELOW THE ARC
distance from the pivot point to LPRINT "PW.S ;"
FOR I = -ANGLE / 2 TO ANGLE / 2 STEP ANGLE / MAJORDIV
the scale of the old meter face LPRINT "PU;"
and the location of the face- LPRINT "PA "; XORG + SIN(I * K) * IIRAD; ","; YORG + COS(I * K) * IIRAD; ",
LPRINT "PO; ".
plate mounting holes with re- LPRINT "PA "; MORO + SIN(I * K) * ORAD; ","; YORG + COS(I * K) * ORAD; "7"
spect to the pivot point. Those LPRINT "PU ;"
NEXT I
52 measurements will be input to
 mands is explained in the tech- new label on the reverse side of
nical reference section for the the old face plate since it's usu-
HPGL language in your printer ally a nice clean surface. Punch
manual. Since some commands pinholes in the location marks
BATTERY take X and Y coordinate loca- to help locate them from the
VOLTAGE tions, some simple trigonome-
FIG. 2 -THIS METER FACE is the result try is used to calculate the
of the BASIC program in Listing 1. arguments from the index angle
in the program of Listing 1.
1016 points (pixels) per inch in Developing your own meter
both the X and Y directions. face is a simple matter of run-
Here's a list of the commands ning the program and printing
that are used and short descrip- the resulting graphics on the
tions: printer. You probably won't get
IN- Initialize it right the first time, but mak-
SP- Select Pen ing modifications is easy. Writ- 17
PW-Set Pen Width ing the program in blocks that
PA-Plot Absolute add a new graphic after each it-
AAArc Absolute eration works best. Printing lo-
PU-Pen Up cating marks on the new face for
PD-Pen Down the mounting holes helps to al-
SD- Standard Font Definition ign the new face properly on the
DT -Define Label Terminator old face plate.
SS-Select Standard Font Once everything looks the
LO -Label Origin way you want it to on paper,
LB-Label print the results on a full -page
The syntax of those corn- laser label. It's best to apply the

REM - PRINT THE HALF VOLT MARKS USING A HEAVY LINE BETWEEN THE TWO ARC LINES
LPRINT "PW.S;"
FOR I = -ANGLE / 2 TO ANGLE / 2 STEP ANGLE / MAJORDIV / 2 FIG.3 -HERE IS THE NEW LABEL pas-
LPRINT "PU ;" ted onto the surplus meter.
LPRINT "PA"; XORG + SIN(I * 5) * IRAD; ","; YORG + COS(I * K) * /RAD;
LPRINT "PD;"
LPRINT "PA"; XORG + 5IN(I * K) * ORAD; ", "; YORG + COS(I * K) * ORAD; ',
LPRINT "PU;"
back side of the label. Peel off
NEXT I the backing of the new scale la-
REM - SET UP TO LABEL THE METER AND PRINT "BATTERY VOLTAGE" bel and place the label face
LPRINT "SD1,21,2,1,4,10,7,4148;" down. Then stick the face plate
LPRINT- "DT *,1 ;"
LPRINT "SS;" to the label, lining up the locator
LPRINT "PA "; XORG; ", "; YORG + 900; ", holes in the center of the face
LPRINT "L04;"
LPRINT "LBBATTERY * ;" plate mounting holes. After ap-
LPRINT "PA "; XORG; "; YORG + 750; ", plying the label use a modeling
LPRINT "LBVOLTAGE*; "
knife to trim the excess paper
REM - PUT THE LOW AND HIGH VALUE BELOW THE SCALE ARC
LPRINT "LO16 ;"
from around the meter face
LPRINT "PA "; XORG + SIN(( -ANGLE / 2) * K) * IIRAD; ","; YORG + COS(( -ANGLE /
plate and mounting holes. Fig-
2) * K) * IIRAD; " ;"
LPRINT "DI "; COS(ANGLE / 2 * K); ", "; SIN(ANGLE / 2 * K); " ;"
ure 3 shows the new label ap-
LPRINT "LB10 * ;" plied to the old meter.
LPRINT "PA "; XORG + SIN(ANGLE / 2 * K) * IIRAD; ","; YORG + COS(ANGLE / 2
* IIRAD;
* K) Reassembly finishes the job.
Carefully slide the face plate un-
'

LPRINT "DI "; COS(( -ANGLE / 2) * K); ","; SIN(( -ANGLE / 2) * K); ";
LPRINT "LB15 * ;" der the meter needle and replace
REM - PUT THE INTERMEDIATE VALUES ABOVE THE SCALE ARC the mounting screws. Next, re-
LPRINT "L014 ;"
FOR I = - (ANGLE / 2) + ANGLE / MAJORDIV TO ANGLE / 2 - ANGLE MAJORDIV STEP
place the meter cover.
ANGLE / MAJORDIV
/
Creativity is the key to adding
LPRINT "PA "; XORG + 5IN(I * K) * ORAD; "
LPRINT "DI "; COS( -I * K);
; YORG + COS(I * K)
SIN( -I * K); "
* ORAD; an exciting meter display to
;

LPRINT "LB "; INT(I / (ANGLES / MAJORDIV) + 12.5); " *;" your next project. Expanded -
NEXT I
scale voltmeters are an ideal ap-
REM - PUT IN THE LOCATION DOTS FOR THE MOUNTING HOLES plication for this technique.
LPRINT "PA"; XORG - 508; ",
LPRINT "PD;"
;YORG; ". Power supply current meters
LPRINT "PU ;" are also nice to have. This tech-
LPRINT "PA "; XORG + 508; ","; YORG; "7"
LPRINT "PD;"
nique can also create non -linear
LPRINT "PU;" meter scales such as decibel
REM - RESET THE PRINTER
meters for audio or RF applica-
LPRINT CHR$(27); "%OA" tions. Meter recycling can en-
LPRINT CHR$(27); "E"
END
hance your projects with just a
small investment in time. S2 53
 make sure that the mirror can- PHONE ON HOLD
LASER SHOW not accidentally hit the laser
continuedfrom page 38 when it does turn. Loosen the continued from page 41

FIG. 10-THE LASER LIGHT SHOW consists of a wired remote control and the laser
base unit that holds the rotating mirrors.

comes with a plastic mounting

bracket that fits the two mount-
ing holes for it on the aluminum
bracket -to -base mounting
screws and adjust the position
of each motor so that the laser
1 7/B INCHES -)
FOIL PATTERN for the universal hold cir-
cuit's single -sided board.
base plate. If you are substitut- beam is reflected from the first
ing a different laser, solid -state mirror to the second mirror and the case.
or otherwise, you must provide then to the third mirror and out Before closing up the case,
a suitable power supply and the side. connect the hold circuit to the
mounting bracket for it. Figure Next, fine tune the beam telephone line and plug the wall
8 shows the inside of the alignment by slowly turning transformer into an AC outlet.
finished base unit, and Fig. 9 As the Pick a phone up, press the #
shows the inside of the remote mirror turns, the beam will be key, and hang it up within five
control unit. Figure 10 shows deflected. Adjust the position of seconds; the LED should light.
the completed assembly. each motor so that the deflected Pick a phone up and the LED
beam never leaves the surface of should go out. Press the # key,
Alignment and operation any mirror. wait about eight seconds, and
Do not attach the cover to the Adjust the last motor so that hang the phone up; the LED
base unit until you have check- the laser beam will correctly exit should not light.
ed the operation of the motors through the hole in the en-
and have finished the align- closure cover when it is in- Operation
ment of the mirrors. During stalled over the base. The power supply, DTMF de-
check -out and alignment, fol- Once everything is aligned, coder, and timing circuits are
low all laser safety precautions aim the laser light show at a isolated from the telephone line
and never let the beam shine blank wall or screen. As you vary by the optoisolators and trans-
into anyone's eyes. Wear eye pro- the speed of each motors you'll former. The five -second timing
tection when running the see the endless variety of spiral cycle that starts after the # key
motors without the enclosure forms that are created. If some- is released gives ample time to
cover in place. thing was not assembled cor- hang up a phone with a keypad
Connect the handheld remote rectly, stop the motors before on the handset. If the keypad is
to the base unit with a 6 -con- you try to adjust anything. on the telephone base, the # key
ductor modular cord. Next, plug When you are satisfied with the can be pressed while the phone
the wall outlet adapter into an light show's alignment and op- is hung up.
outlet and into J1. The toggle eration, shut both the unit and If the # key is pressed for rea-
switch on the remote turns the the laser off and install the cover sons other than to place a call
unit on and off, and the motors on the base unit. on hold, such as to signal the
will spin with varying speeds as This project should provide end of a number entry after
you adjust the three potentiom- hours of fun and excitement. using a fax -back service, the
eters. Everyone who sees it will want timing cycle will end after five
With the laser device posi- to take a turn at the remote con- seconds and will probably not
tioned as shown in Fig. 7, and trol unit. Use your imagination be active when the phone is
without the motors running, in a dark room -with some hung up. To be sure that the line
apply power to the laser and background music and a little is not on hold after using the #
make sure that the beam strikes smoke you can create some key, just pick the phone up and
54 the first mirror as shown, and truly sensational shows! tt hang up again. ti
 Keep tabs on phone costs
with this 8085 -based
phone meter

RODGER G. RAHHAL

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN SHOCKED BY ing place, the LED display gives After the unit is calibrated, all
an excessive phone bill? If so, the present time. You can review setup is done with the tele-
PhoneMeter's for you. This low-
cost, "intelligent" device allows
you to monitor the cost of your
and update the alarm time as
needed.
The PhoneMeter works by
phone keypad. You'll need a
Touch -Tone -not a pulse
phone with this project.
-
phone calls -as you make maintaining a list of as many as You can disable and reset the
them. In addition, it also pro- 150 telephone numbers, each phone cost summing function
vides useful clock and alarm with an associated per-minute as desired.
functions. cost. A default rate allows you to You can increase or decrease
During its operation, Phone - estimate the cost of calls to non - all rates by a specific value (mea-
Meter displays, on a four-digit listed numbers. Alternatively, sured in cents).
LED display, the minute -by- the default rate can be set to a Per -minute cost varies ac-
minute charge of each phone value of one to display the time cording to the telephone rate
call as it accrues. And when a in minutes of each call. schedule. Calls between 8 AM
phone conversation is not tak- Other features include: and 5 PM Monday through Fri - 55
 day are charged the full rate. time and ongoing call charges. the two cost digits have been
After 5 PM, calls are discounted Function mode allows you to en- entered, the display shows
30 %, and after 11 PM, 50 %. ter times and default values. "E000" to indicate that the
Calls are also discounted 50% Data mode allows you to enter
on weekends. Of course, you telephone number and rate
can adjust those values to data. Enter data mode by press-
match the values charged by ing the asterisk key " * "), and
(

your local phone company. enter function mode by press-

The PhoneMeter begins tim- ing the pound key " # ").
(

ing from the moment the call On entering function mode.

begins ringing on the receiving the display reads "000." To aid
end. The display is updated on a data entry, the display always
one -minute basis; charges are shows the last digit entered in
not displayed for calls shorter the right position, and the total
than one minute. number of keys pressed in the
Dual -tone multiple frequency left two positions. Enter time in
(DTMF) decoders in conjunc- a 24 -hour format, most- signifi-
tion with an 8085A micro- cant digit first, and include
processor provide the required leading zeros. Table 1 lists the
"smarts." Setup and calibration available functions. FIG. 1-
STANDARD TELEPHONE key-
are simple, and although there On entering data mode, the pad: A connection at any junction pro-
duces the two tones associated with the
isn't room to print it here, com- display reads "E000." To aid corresponding row and column.
plete assembly-language source data entry, the display always
code is available from the shows the last digit entered in GUCK
Gernsback BBS (516- 293 -2283, the right position, and the total -L__rQVfOL;rS -6VOLTS
v.32, v.42bis); look for file number of keys pressed in the
PHONMET.ZIP. The file also con- left two positons. ON HOOK
-36 VOLTS OR LESS I
tains an object -code file suitable Enter each phone number as
for most EPROM programmers. you would dial it. After entering FIG. 2-STANDARD TELEPHONE volt-
the complete telephone number, ages: When on -hook, voltage is at least
-36 volts. When it is off -hook, voltage
How to use it press the pound key, then enter rises to about -5 volts. The "click" is
PhoneMeter has three modes the two -digit base rate associ- caused by a temporary transition to 0
of operation: normal, function, ated with that number, using a volts when the phone initially goes off-
and data. Normal mode displays leading zero, if necessary. After hook.

TABLE 1 -SETUP FUNCTIONS

Key Function Description Example

#0 Disable cost monitoring Meter functions only as a clock
function and alarm
#1 Enable cost display Meter displays time and cost
information
#2 Enter current time and Time in 24 hour format, including For Wednesday, 9:14 AM, enter
day leading zeros if necessary. Day 09143
numbering: Mon =1, Tue =2,
Wed =3, Thur =4, Fri =5, Sat =6,
Sun =7
#3 Set alarm time Time in 24 hour format, including For 9:34 PM, enter 2134; for
leading zeros if necessary 8:56 AM, enter 0856
#4 Display alarm time Display alarm time in 24 hour
format as long as "4" key is
pressed
#5 Enter default cost Cost per minute, two digits For 6 cents, enter 06; for 19
cents, enter 19
#6 Increase all rates Increase or decrease the cost of To increase all rates by 5 cents,
all telephone numbers by the enter 05. To decrease all rates
specified amount. Enter two by 5 cents, enter 95 (100 +mi5)
digits including leading zeros if
necessary. Default rate not
affected. Decrease by entering
tens complement
#7 Reset database Erase all phone numbers in
memory
56
 +5V
1014 IC14
+5V MR2
ON-HOOK
PB7 1W
697Hz
PBO
R12 1426
1.5K 68K ZOK 18
R1
150K 7 R33
01 10K
2N5951 C3 2 6
2.2µF IC2
3 3 LM567 5
+5V
47R0K IC14
4
- R19
4.7K
C10
C17
.47 W1
1209FIz
PB4 ,
IC9 1µF R30
R16
CLICK 20K
+5V 38K
7
R4 +5V
51- 1137
1.5K
vr.
770Hz
IC14
BI
+ 2
IC6
el ¡ß.19K
2.2µF 3 5
R13 R27 LM567
We 20K
R6 68K 4
C22
470K
+ 5
C4 2 6
2.2µF IC3
R9 3 LM567 5 4.7K
150K +5V

Cl R8
M R20
4
C18
.47
R7 4.7K
200K 150K
7
W1
ICI 6 +5V
LM741 IC14
852Hz
R 4 C2 We W
3.9µF R28 1431
R14 R17
TO 20K 20K

61;
LINE We 68K 8
7
88K
R11
R35 7 R38
R10
180K 11.8K +
160K C5
2.2g
2.2µF IC4
6
W 2.2µF
2
IC7
3 LM567 5
+5V LM567
41 024
TO o C19 = R24
V. R21 015
PHONE 4.7K r C17
tµF 4.7K 1µF
.1

X
o
+5V +5V
J1 Cl a F K;14

NV*
941Hz
PB3 > W 1477Hz
P86
R29 R18 1132
R15
20K 8 68K 20K 8
68K

C6
6
7 R36
,41.420K + 09 2
IC8
7

6
NVOK
R39

IC5 2.2µF
2.2µF C13 5 3 LM567 5
LM567
1µF
=
= R22 C20 1425 C16
4

4.7K. y1
4.7K 1µF
A
C21
250µF

FIG. 3-AN OP -AMP BUFFERS THE INCOMING SIGNAL for decoding by the seven
DTMF decoders. Junction FETs 01 and 02 provide on -hook and click detection, example, pressing the "4" key
respectively. The outputs of all the DTMF decoders drive Port B of an 8255 programma- causes 770- and 1209 -Hz tones
ble peripheral interface IC.
to be generated.
Now consider the signaling
meter is ready for the next standard phone cable has
A voltages. When the phone is on-
number. You do not have to four wires: red, green, black, hook (not in use), the voltage on
press the asterisk key to enter and yellow. Voice communica- the red wire is - 36 volts or less.
another number. For example, tion occurs on the red and green When the phone is off-hook (in
to set a six -cent base rate for wires, yellow is for the ringer, use), that value drops to about
(212) 123 -4567 the complete and black is the common con- -5 volts. The click heard when
data entry sequence would be nection. The phone meter uses the phone initially goes off-hook
" *12121234567 #06." If you only the red and green wires, occurs because of a momentary
make a mistake while entering a with the green wire connected 0 -volt signal, as shown in Fig. 2.
telephone number, press the as- to circuit ground. Voice -signal amplitude varies
terisk key to start over. Once Modern telephones use a dual in proportion to sound
data has been entered into the tone multiple- frequency signal- strength. It can reach 4 volts
PhoneMeter, it remains in mem- ing scheme to generate unique peak -to -peak when someone
ory until it is cleared by Func- frequency -pair combinations yells into the phone. Syn-
tion 7. for each element of a 4 x 3 array thesized DTMF tones typically
of keys, as shown in Fig. 1. have values of approximately 4
How it works Whenever a key is pressed, the volts p -p.
To understand how the DTMF circuitry generates the With that background in
PhoneMeter works, it neces- pair of tones represented by the mind, look at the circuit. First
sary to review some background row and column headings of look at the analog portion of the
on telephone line operation. that element of the matrix. For circuit, which includes the tele- 57
 phone -line interface, DTMF-de-
SOFTWARE coding, and phone -state detec-
There is insufficient space to print the at a 60 -Hz rate. Each pulse triggers the
tion (on -hook, off -hook, or
entire 8085A assembly -language microprocessor's RST 5.5 interrupt, "clicking "). Then look at the dig-
source code, so a brief overview of the which in turn calls the clock routine. The ital side, including the basic mi-
software will be provided. It consists of a clock increments a set of time -keeping croprocessor circuit, the dis-
start-up process, a main program loop, counters (seconds, minutes, hour, day). play driver, and the real -time
an interrupt -service routine for handling Main Loop. The main program loop clock.
the real -time clock, various utility func- displays present time and checks
tions, and variables. Table 3 describes whether the alarm should be turned on
key variables, and Table 4 describes or off. It then checks to see whether the The telephone interface
major subroutines. phone is on- or off-hook. If the phone is The telephone -line interface
Program Initialization. At power -up, off-hook, the program then determines consists of a 741 op -amp, seven
the microprocessor begins execution at whether a key has been pressed. If the LM567 tone decoders, and two
address 0000. That address contains a " #" or "e" keys were pressed, the soft-
jump to the initialization routine, which ware jumps to the appropriate function
2N5951 N- channel JFETs, as
sets up the stack (at RAM address code loop. If the phone remains off-hook shown in Fig. 3.
47FFH), enables interrupt 5.5 (for the for 60 seconds and no function keys are The op -amp buffers the line
real -time clock), and performs other ini- pressed, the program goes into the signal to provide optimal ampli-
tialization chores. charge recording mode, in which rates tude to the tone decoders. The
Real -time Clock Interrupt. The mul- are summed, discounts applied, and the op -amp's input and output both
tivibrator circuit generates a 70 -µs pulse results displayed. S2
are AC coupled. The op -amp has
TABLE 3 -KEY PROGRAM VARIABLES a gain of one; potentiometer R7
Name Description
adjusts the input signal so that
ALARMIN AND ALARI-IR Alarm time setting.
a 1.75 -volt p -p signal drives the
COUNT Tracks number of keys pressed during current function. tone decoders.
COUNT -SEC Number of seconds since phone went off hook. If greater than 20,
further key receipt inhibited.
Obtaining class A output (an
COST Base rate cost associated with current phone number, or default unclipped signal) from the op-
value if not match. amp requires biasing the non -
COST -A000M
DATA
Accumulated by- minute cost of current call.
Start of telephone number and base rate cost data list.
inverting input of the amplifier
DATA-END One byte beyond telephone data. to 2.5 volts, midway between
DAY Current day of week (Monday =0, Tuesday= 1....Sunday=6) the + 5 -volt supply and ground.
DATA -AT Address of current field in DATA. The bias voltage is generated by
DEFAULT
DIGO -DIG3
Pointer to address that contains default rate, in high, low order.
Address of current display data.
the voltage divider consisting of
DISPLAY -SW If 1, displays ongoing cost; if 0, does not. R10 and R11.
HOUR Current hour. Each tone decoder responds
INITSEC AND INITMIN Time of most recent key press. to one of the seven required
Keypad buffer.
KDIGO-KDIG12
KEY Last key pressed. Contains 88H if decode 'error, 7FH if no key
DTMF signals (H1 -H3, L1 -L4).
pressed and phone off -hook, or FFH if phone on -hook. The output of a given tone de-
MIN Current minute. coder goes to logic low whenever
Current second.
SEC
SIXSEC Counts 1/60 second interrupts from real -time clock.
it detects the presence of the de-
sired frequency. That frequency
TABLE 4 -MAJOR SUBROUTINES depends on the value of the re-
Name Description
sistor connected between pins 5
COLONOFF Turns colon by writing to bit 0 of Port C.
1
and 6 of the IC, and on the ca-
COLONON Turns colon off by writing 0 to but 0 of Port C. pacitor connected between pin
CONNECTED Inhibits key detection. Called after connect click detected. 6 and ground. The center fre-
COST -OUT Sums next cost increment into cost- accumulation register.
DISPLY-DE Displays low-order nibble of E register on digit 3, high-order nibble
quency of the tone decoder is
on digit 2, low-order nibble of the D register on digit 1, and high -
order nibble on digit O.
determined by the frequency
DISPLAY Display values stored in DIGO-DIG3.
equation:
DIV Divides BCD value in A register by BCD value in D register. Result Fo -= 1/(1.1 RC)
goes to E and remainder to B. D is first converted to tens
complement. Division then performed by multiple addition of tens
complement. For some frequencies, fixed
FCDISCD Disenables display of phone costs. RC combinations give the desir-
FCENCD Enables display of phone costs. ed results. The generation of
GET-COST Searches phone data to find match between values in
KDIGO-KDIG12. If match, low-order nibbles of next two addresses other tones such as 697, 770,
combined and saved at address specified by COST. If no match,
address DEFAULT saved at address specified by COST.
941, and 1477 Hz, requires vari-
GET-KEY Buffers keypresses into phone keyboard buffer. able resistors.
INIT Configures 8255 to make ports A and C outputs, port B input. The JFETs provide on -hook
KEYSAV
Initializes data and display.
Saves each key in key buffer, displays last key entered in display
and click detection. When the
digit 3, displays keystroke count in digits 0 and 1. phone is on -hook, the red -wire
PHLBL2A Determines cost of next minute, adds to current cost, displays. voltage varies from - 36 to - 50
PMOFF
PMON
Turns PM indicator off.
Turns PM indicator on.
volts. On -hook detection re-
WAITKEY Calls GET-KEY until phone is off-hook and no key is pressed. quires that the gate of Q1 be bi-
ZERO -DISPLAY Loads zeros in DIGO -DIG3. ased to + 5 volts. That is
ZERO-KDIG Loads zeros in KDIGO-KDIG12. accomplished via 150 -kilohm
58 resistor R1. The biasing ar-
rangement lets the JFET begin RAM address space, rather than those the circuit uses three. The
conducting when the red -wire the separate I/O space, is used EPROM begins at address
voltage is greater than -9 volts for addressing its I/O devices. 0000H, the 8255 programma-
(i.e., between -9 and 0 volts). This permits the use of non-In- ble peripheral interface (PPI)
Click detection is accom- tel bus -compatible peripherals. discussed next begins at
plished in a similar manner, ex- The microprocessor runs at a 2000H, and the RAM begins at
cept that the JFET (Q2) has no clock rate of about 1 MHz, as 4000H. Because the address
positive bias, so it does not be- supplied by a 20 pF capacitor space is not fully decoded, only
gin conducting until voltage ap- (C26) and a 10- kilohm resistor half the EPROM is accessible,
proaches O. The -5 -volt level (R40). Crystal control is not re- half the RAM's address block is
that is present when the phone quired because the 60 -Hz AC wasted, and the PPI uses only
is off-hook suffices to keep the power line provides suitable ac- four of the 4096 available slots.
JFET off. The click detection curacy for time -keeping. The circuit has no need for ad-
output drives the serial input The 8085A multiplexes the ditional address space.
data (SID) input of the 8085A. data bus with the low -order ad-
The serial input data input dress lines. Hence IC10 latches I/O control
functions as a one -bit port on the low -order address lines for When the microprocessor ac-
the microprocessor. addressing RAM and ROM. cesses memory addresses
Latching occurs when the mi- 2000- 2003H, it is addressing
Microprocessor and company croprocessor's address latch en- the 8255 PPI, as shown in Fig.
The "brain" of the project con- able (ALE) line goes high. At 5. The PPI has three eight -bit
sists of an Intel 8085A micro- that point, the low -order ad- ports, A, B, and C, which are
processor, 2 kilobytes of 8 -bit dress lines are available at the addressed at 2000- 2002H, re-
RAM, an 8- kilobyte EPROM, an outputs of IC10. spectively. Location 2003H is
address latch, and a 4 -to -10 line The 74LS42 (IC 11) decodes the PPI's control register; it de-
decoder, as shown in Fig. 4. One the upper nibble of the address termines the operating modes
unusual feature of the circuit is bus to provide 10 unique 4 -kilo- of the three ports.
that part of what is normally byte regions of address space; of Port A provides address and
DATA BUS

ADDRESS
+5V 20pF BUS
R40
101( D1
1 12 11

,
1M X1 ADO D2
C 2
X2 1
13 i---, 4
AD1 Al D3
13
36 14 14
RST IN AD2 AD2 A2 D4
35 8 15
RDY AD3 AD3 03 A3 D5
40 3 18
IC17 V. AD4 18 AD4 04 A4 D6
9
AD5 17
...--\ 14 IC12 17
CLK
39
RST 5.5
18 ,-.\ 17
AD5 05
06 6116
D7

6
HOLD
TRAP
AD6
AD7
19 ,,-, 18
AD6
AD7 07
A6
A7 WR
21
CT-1R
8 IC10
C71 RST 6.5 A8 20
74LS373 RD < RD
SID SID ALE A9
l 1 LATCH
RST 7.5 A10 18
o EN É4
INTR
V 24
+5V
IC9
808M
A8
RST 11
A9 DO
30 A10 12
ALE Al D1
A11 13
25 A2 D2
Al 2 15
A3 D3
WR A13 26 134
16
A4
A14 A5 D5
17
A15 IC13
A6 2784 D6
A7 D7
14 A8
B D 22
15 A9
C
A10
A11
27
Al 2 VM
Vp
ICI V.s V 2.l +5V
5
74LS42

FIG. 4-THE MICROPROCESSOR AND MEMORY INTERFACE appears here. Decoder

IC11 breaks the address space down into ten 4- kilobyte blocks; in this circuit, the 8255
is memory- mapped. 59
 15
WR PAO AO DIGITI
6
RD PA1 Al DIGIT2
RD 10 8
PA2 A2 DIGIT3
EN 40 12 20 10
PA4 DO DIGIT4
39 11
a 27 15
RST > RST PA5 D1 IC15 r
38 3 19
PA6 D2 ICM7218CIJI b
41111111 DO PA7
37 14
D3 C
1 20
15 8 3
D1 PC1 WR SEGMENTS
18 e 2 11
D2 PBO
DATA
31
30 D3
IC14
8255A
PB1
19 .11
19
28
V 24 18
22
BUS 20 26
2D4
9
PB2
PB321
FROM J. g
D5 TONE LC
28

-
D6 PB4 DECODERS
27 VC
D7 PB5
R42 7
PB6 VLC
1800 R43
AO DISP1
25 o FROM ON -HOOK 1500
8 PB7 OFF LN543RA
Al 14 DETECTOR
26 Voc PCO Q3 ON
+5V .+5V
V PC2
16 R41
820
2N3904
S1
BZ1
13 ALARM
PC4 Wt- 5-VOLT
BUZZER

FIG. 5-THE 8255 PPI drives the LED driver via Port A, reads the decoder outputs via
Port B, and uses several lines of Port C to control the display, the alarm, and the
display controller.

data information for LED de- TABLE 2-8255 PPI ADDRESSING

coder/driver IC15. Three ad-
dress bits allow each of the four Binary Hex Bit Value Function
LED digits to be addressed sep- Addressed
arately. The PPI provides those 0000 0001 00 0 1 Turn on colon
three bits via the low three bits 0000 0010 02 1 0 Write data to ICM7812
of Port A. The four high bits of
Port A provide the values that 0000 0011 03 2 1 Turn PM indicator on
the LED digits display. 0000 1001 09 4 1 Turn alarm on
Port B accepts the inputs
from the analog circuitry. The
seven tone decoders drive bits +5V
0-6 of port B; the on -hook de- R R47
tector (Q1) drives bit 7. When R45
1K
22046K 12K Ics
the phone is on -hook, all Port B CLK
inputs are high. D4
10
By setting bit 7 of the com- IN761A
C29
4.9V
mand register (address 2003H) .05 IC17 13
to 0, each bit of port C can be 741_5123

individually set or reset. One bit D3 15

of Port C provides the write IN4002I C281

function that latches data into
.1 i` 14
R44
LED driver (IC15). Several other 2.2K 4
D1
bits control auxiliary display 1N4002
1016 o
functions and the alarm driver P1 LM309K
O +5V

(Q3). Table 2 shows several sam- 120VAC

C27 +
ó
ple values and the correspond - ° 100µF
ing actions taken by the circuit. ti
Dz
IN4002
The LED display is a four -dig- T11
ñ it, common -anode type, with 12.6VCT
colon and PM indicator. The dis-
c play driver interprets digits FIG. 6-POWER SUPPLY AND CLOCK CIRCUIT: IC17 is a dual monostable multi -
z numbered 0 to 3 from left to vibrator that pulses 60 times per second. That clock signal drives the micro-
processors RST 5.5 input.
right.
2 The last section of hardware
a) that will be discussed is the real- work, the 60 -Hz power line driv- That pulse, in turn, directly
time clock. The clock circuit ap- es a pair of 74123 monostable feeds a hardware interrupt
pears in Fig. 6, along with the multivibrators arranged to gen- (RST 5.5) that is on the micro-
60 power supply via a clipping net- erate a 70- microsecond pulse. processor.
 and a direct memory access port
(DMA), to download test pro-
grams into RAM.
Several other components are
not mounted on the main
board. The exceptions include
the LED display, the alarm
buzzer, a duplex phone jack, the
power transformer, the voltage
regulator, the power supply and
time -base circuit. The author
built the time -based circuit on a
separate piece of perforated cir-
cuit board.
All components fit into a
small "U "- shaped aluminum
case measuring 5 -1/8 X 51/2 x
27/8inches. The author
mounted the power supply
board, the LM309, and the
FIG. 7 -THE AUTHOR'S PROTOTYPE fit in a case measuring approximately 5.5 alarm to the base of the case.
5.125x_ 2.875 inches. The alarm switch, phone jack,
and transformer are mounted
on the rear, and the LED display
PARTS LIST on the front wall of the case.
All resistors are 1/4-watt, 5%, unless C27 -1000 µF, 16 volts, electrolytic Three 17/8-inch high standoffs
otherwise noted. C29 -0.05 µF, mylar hold the perforated board above
R1-150,000 ohms Semiconductors the case -mounted components.
R2, R4 -1500 ohms IC1 -LM741 op-amp When building the circuit,
R3, R6- 470,000 ohms IC2-1C8 -LM567 DTMF decoder, Na-
observe all device polarities,
R5-not used tional Semiconductor or equiv.
R7-200,000 ohms, potentiometer IC9 -8085A microprocessor, Intel or and try not to form any solder
R8, R9- 150,000 ohms equiv. bridges or open- circuits.
R10, R11- 180,000 ohms IC10-74LS373 Octal D latch Setup calls for tuning the four
R12 -R18- 68,000 ohms IC11- 74LS42 BCD to decimal decoder tone decoders (IC2, IC3, IC5,
R19 -R25-4700 ohms IC12 -6116 2K static RAM, Hitachi or and IC8 ), and verifying that
R26 -R32-20,000 ohms equiv.
each responds to the correct
R33, R39- 10,000 ohms, potentiometer IC13 -2764 8K EPROM, Intel or equiv.
R34 -5000 ohms, potentiometer IC14-8255A programmable peripheral telephone keys. A convenient
R35- 11,800 ohms interface, Intel or equiv. method of tuning the decoders
R36-20,000 ohms, potentiometer 1C15- ICM7218CIJI LED display driver, is to dial your own number. Dur-
R37-6190 ohms Harris or equiv. ing the busy signal, you can
R38-7500 ohms IC16- LM309K 5 -volt regulator, TO-3 freely press keys and measure
R40- 10,000 ohms case, National Semiconductor or equiv.
outputs without inadvertently
R41-82 ohms 1C17-74LS123 dual retriggerable
R42 -180 ohms monostable multivibrator dialing an undesired number.
R43 -150 ohms DISP1- LN543RA multiplexed 4 -digit Tine each of the variable tone
R44-2200 ohms LED display, Matsushita or equiv. decoders by pressing the corre-
R45-1000 ohms Dl-D3-1N4002 50 -volt rectifier diode sponding telephone key and
R46-220,000 ohms D4- 1N761A 4.9 -volt Zener diode varying the associated potenti-
R47-12,000 ohms 01, Q2-2N5951 JFET
03- 2N3904 NPN transistor (or equiv-
ometer while monitoring pin 8
Capacitors
C1 --0.33 µF,50 volts, mylar alent) of the tone -decoder IC. The volt-
C2 -3.9 µF, 16 volts, electrolytic Other components age at that pin will drop to zero
C3- C9-2.2 µF, 16 volts, electrolytic BZ1- Buzzer (5 -volt DC) when the keypad signal
C10 -C16 -1 µF, 16 volts, electrolytic J1 --Dual RJ11 telephone jack matches the tuned frequency.
C17, C18-0.47 µF, mylar P1 -117 VAC plug with cord After tuning all adjustable de-
C19, C20, C22, C24, C25, C28 -0.1 µF, Sl-SPST toggle switch coders, as a precaution, go back
mylar T1 -12.6 volt center tapped transformer
C21 -250 µF, 16 volts,
electrolytic Miscellaneous: Case, display bezel, and monitor the output of each
C23-0.33 µF, mylar circuit board, mounting hardware, IC decoder while sequentially
C26-20 pF, disk, ceramic sockets, etc. pressing all telephone keys. Be
sure that output goes to logic
low only when the associated
Construction and setup of the electronics. In the photo key is pressed. There should be
The author wired the pro- you can see several empty IC no spurious oscillation. The de-
totype point -to- point, as shown sockets. During development, coders are very sensitive to
in Fig. 7. A 4.5 X 5 -inch piece of those held a UART (universal small changes in tuning resis-
perforated construction board asynchronous receiver trans- tance, but after correct adjust-
was big enough to mount most mitter), a baud -rate generator, ment, they remain stable. o 61
 VCR
Cross Reference VOLTAGE CONVERTERS IC's RC oscillator. This can be
done by inserting an external
NOW Find the right Part continuedfrom page 50 oscillator capacitor Cosc be-
tween osc pin 7 and + Vpin 8,
for your VCR ages above 5.5 volts for ex- as shown in Fig. 15.
tended periods. The relationship between the
5. When installing polarized ca- value of Cosc in picofarads and
pacitors, connect the positive the oscillator frequency fosc is
lead of the capacitor to the CAP + shown in Fig. 16. For example, a
pin 2 and the negative lead to Cosc of 100 pF reduces the oper-
the cAP- pin 4 of the ICL7660. ating frequency by a factor of
Connect the positive terminal of ten, from 10 kHz to 1 kHz.
capacitors to VouT pin 5 to However, it will be necessary
ground. to alter the values of capacitors
6. Be sure that pin 5 does not Cl and C2 to compensate for
swing more positive than GND this 10 to 1 reduction of fre-
pin 3 to prevent latchup quency if circuit efficiency is to
7. If the supply voltage is greater be kept high. Increase the val-
than 6.5 volts, put a protective ues of Cl and C2 (both 10 micro -
diode in series with pin 5. farads) by the inverse of the
reduction function. For exam-
With the Practical ICL7660 Circuits. ple, if the oscillator frequency is
The most popular application to be 1 kHz, both CI and C2
ISCET VI R for the ICL7660 is as a negative should have values of about 100
CROSS REFERENCE voltage converter. Figures 11, microfarads.
12, and 13 are three basic nega- Oscillator frequency can also
This 270-page reference contains tive converter circuits. In each be reduced by connecting osc
both model and part- number cross- circuit, capacitors Cl and C2 pin 7 as shown in Fig. 17 so that
references updated to include 1992
units.
are multiplier capacitors with a an external clock input over-
value of 10 microfarads. drives the internal oscillator.
VCR's are made in a few factories The negative voltage convert- Feed the clock signal to pin 7
from which hundreds of different er circuit in Fig. 11 is designed through 1- kilohm series re-
brand names and model numbers to be powered from a 1.5- to 3.5- sistor Rl. The clock signal
identify cosmetically- changed iden- volt supply, and it requires only should switch fully between the
tical and near-identical manufactured two external electrolytic capaci- two power supply values. The
units. Interchangeable parts are very tors, Cl and C2. The circuit in CMOS NAND gate is connected as
common. An exact replacement part Fig. 12 is similar, but it is de- an inverting buffer stage to en-
may be available only a few minutes signed to be powered in the 3.5- sure reliable switching between
away from you even though the to 6.5 -volt range and its Lv pin 6 those values.
manufacturer supplier is out -of- stock.
You may be able to cannibalize scrap
grounded. The ICL7660 can also be a
units at no cost!
The negative voltage convert- positive voltage multiplier. It
er circuit in Fig. 13 is designed can produce a positive output
The ISCET VCR Cross Reference for a 6.5- to 10 -volt supply. Di- voltage that is nearly double the
is pre -punched for standard loose - ode D1 is in series with +VouT initial supply voltage value
leaf binding. .$38.00 plus $3.00 for
.
pin 5 to protect the IC from ex- when set up as shown in Fig. 18.
shipping for each Reference. cessive reverse biasing by C2 The oscillator output signal at
Claggk Inc.
when the power supply is re- cAP+ pin 2 drives a capacitor-
VCR CROSS REFERENCE OFFER moved. Diode D1, which should diode voltage-doubler network.
P.O. Box 4099 be a Schottky diode, reduces the It is the same network as the
Farmingdale, New York 11735 available output voltage by Vfd. one shown in Fig. 2.
Name Up to ten cascading ICL7660s The two diodes, D1 and D2,
Business will give increased output volt- reduce the available output volt-
Address age. For example, if three ICs are age by an amount equal to their
City cascaded, their final output combined forward volt drops.
State Zip
voltage will be -3 volts. Figure Consequently, both D1 and D2
Phone
14 shows how to make the con- should be low-loss germanium
Endose $38.00 for the Third Edition of the ISCET nections for cascading two of diodes.
VCR Cross Reference and $3.00 for shipping for each these stages. Connect all addi- Figure 19 shows how the cir-
Reference.
The total amount of my order is $ tional stages in the same way as cuits of Figs. 12, 13, and 18 can
Check enclosed -do not send cash. shown in the schematic. be combined to form a positive
or please charge my credit card.
Visa MasterCard Exp. Date /_/ voltage multiplier and negative
Card No. Output frequency change voltage converter that provides
Signature In some applications there dual output voltages. Each volt-
New York State residents must add applicable local might be a reason for reducing age source has an output im-
62 Lsales
tax to total.
J the operating frequency of the pedance of about 100 ohms. n
 A HIGH -TECH
CAREER
FOR THE '90s
Your skills as an electronics
technician can give you a
never- ending source of
job opportunities.
RONALD A. REIS

Zbgether, these influences are

expanding the role of today's
it takes to become -a profes- electronics technician. At a
time when it is often cheaper to
sional electronics technician in
BILL HANSEN COULDNT HAVE BEEN the 1990s. Are you a hobbyist or replace than to repair electronic
happier, as well as being sur- experimenter thinking about products, technicians have
prised. At 28, and only three parlaying your interest in elec- seen their activities extend out-
years out of a two -year technical tronics to the career level? Or ward from component replace-
college in Los Angeles, he had perhaps you're a seasoned elec- ment to systems maintenance.
just landed a lucrative elec- tronics technician who wants to As a consequence of these new
tronics technician's position at keep up on how your profession challenges, new opportunities
Advanced Electronics, Inc., is changing and what you can are opening up to the astute and
winning out over a dozen other do to broaden your oppor- enterprising electronics techni-
candidates. "Why me," he won- tunities? cian who is ready to take charge
dered out loud? "Why was I the of his or her career.
chosen one ?" The times, they are a- changing
John Parry, one of the twelve Global competition and major Replacement to maintenance
applicants who didn't make it, transformations in the elec- Before electronic products,
was speculating, too. With 18 tronics industry are combining especially in the consumer field,
years of experience as an elec- to inject significant change into became relatively inexpensive to
tronics technician, the last 12 the career of the electronics produce, and back when their
working for Hughes Aircraft Co. technician. Automation, fierce costs were high and their re-
as a high- frequency antenna business competition, and cor- liability low, technicians spent
specialist, "Surely I should have porate downsizing are the prin- most of their time repairing
had the edge for that job," he cipal causes of that change. equipment. The typical techni-
mused. They make the immediate post cian would troubleshoot down
Why had Bill succeeded where World War II era of job stability, to the component level. He, and
John and the other applicants predictability, and specializa- it was almost certainly a he,
failed? Because, as we shall see tion in all fields seem a dim would spread out a schematic
later, Bill possessed what it memory. drawing, grab a few instru-
takes to make it as an elec- At the same time, the elec- ments (meter, generator, scope),
tronics technician in the 1990s. tronics industry is seeing enor- and search for a faulty diode,
He had the knowledge, the mous increases in the demand transistor, or SCR. Once dis-
skills, and, most important, the for electronic products and ser- covered, he would remove the
attitude required for success. vices, unparalleled tech- defective component and re-
Unfortunately, many of "yester- nological innovation resulting place it with a good one.
day's" highly specialized elec- in a continuous flood of new hi- This is still done today, es-
tronics technicians do not. tech products, and a downward pecially for expensive products.
This article will update you on pricing spiral that makes such One rarely tosses out a $500
what it means to be -and what products affordable. motherboard from a big- screen 63
 TV set. Yet, for some time now,
troubleshooting has retreated
from component -level to board -
and modular-level. This is es-
pecially true for field techni-
cians who must get a custom-
er's product up and running as
quickly as possible. As a con-
sequence, technicians are re-
quired to understand product
and process operation at a high-
er level. The technician must
survey the entire operation, be
it that of a VCR or a sophisti-
cated industrial control pro-
cess.
'Ib be sure, today's electronics
technician is still likely to fall
into one of the traditional 10
subfields shown in Fig. 1. But
within a given field, he or she
must think at the systems level.
For example, Byron Munoz
works as a microcomputer tech-
nician for TEAM LA. He is re-
sponsible for restoring and
installing personal computers
in non -profit agencies through-
out the city. "When I first got FIG. 1-TODAY'S ELECTRONICS TECHNICIAN is likely to fall into one of the traditional
here," he said, "I thought I 10 subfields.
would be concentrating on
what's in the box [computer).
Actually, I've become what is
known as a systems analyst. STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3

Working with both hardware PRO

PRODUCTION AND
and software, I must constantly
take a systems approach, where
DESIGN STAGE PROTOTYPE STAGE
F TESTING STAGE
TES

I tie everything together. With

local area networks and all man-
ner of data communications ex-
ploding like crazy, the 'system' STAGE 4 STAGE 5 STAGE 6
keeps getting bigger." MAINTENANCE AND i---
Or, take Norm West, working INSTALLATI ON TROUBLESHOOTING CUSTOMER SERVICE
STAGE STAGE STAGE
at the Los Angeles Times Olym-
pic printing plant. "I'm what
they call an 'electrotech,' al- FIG. 2-
TECHNICIANS ARE BECOMING MORE INVOLVED in the entire product cycle,
though I was trained many beginning with product design and culminating in customer service.
years ago as an electronics tech-
nician. Now I'm responsible for lied fields as they take the sys- course, their strengths are the
maintenance on the complete tems approach to even higher installation, maintenance, and
system, a system that off -loads levels of integration. troubleshooting of electronic
one -ton rolls of newsprint from devices and systems (stages 4
railroad boxcars at one end and Beyond product repair and 5). But today, new oppor-
sends a finished product out as Electronics technicians are tunities are emerging for the
a printed, stuffed, and folded also becoming more involved in technician at the product -de-
newspaper at the other. I have to the entire product cycle, begin- sign stage, too. You don't have
keep the entire process (system) ning with product design and to be a graduate electrical engi-
in mind all the time." culminating in customer ser- neer with a B.S.E.E. (bachelor
In the job -subfield wheel in vice (see Fig. 2). of science in electrical engineer-
Fig. 1, notice that the spokes Thee, electronics technicians ing) to do design work. Elec-
unite at a center hub; the vari- have always found themselves tronics technicians, with their
ous subdivisions in electronics fabricating engineering pro- hands -on product familiarity,
are not islands unto them- totypes, "tweaking" production can often contribute to circuit
selves. Increasingly, electronics lines, and performing product modification, packaging, and
64 technicians are crossing into al- tests (stages 2 and 3). And, of production facilities layout.
The demand for computer programmers will double by the year 2005!

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`!s.:: ..
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addition to OBasic, C, and Visual Basic programming software, you train with and keep a
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(please print)
Intel 486DX2 microprocessor Double -speed CD -ROM drive
8 meg RAM installed Sound Blaster-compatible sound card and Address
420 meg hard drive speakers
City
3.5" floppy drive
Super VGA color monitor with .28mm
dot pitch
Windows 95 -
Internal fax modem
the very latest version of
this popular graphical interface
State /Zip
67
Accredited Member, National Home Study Council 5415 -0495
Pentium Overdrive -ready socket
 Another design area open to The three T's the number of small compa-
the technician is printed circuit Technical writers, who docu- nies, and even giant corpora-
board design and artwork gen- ment product repair, operation, tions, that will give you an
eration. l'ì-aditionally, individu- and assembly procedures in assignment. That's exactly how
als working in this field have data sheets, pamphlets, man- I got started, writing two -sheet
been drawn from the drafting uals, and even books, are in assembly manuals for an elec-
profession. However, such de- strong demand-especially for tronic kit company, part -time.
signers often lack an in-depth writers with a technical back- Technical trainers, those that
background in electronics. Take ground. 11-aditionally, technical explain to customers the opera-
an electronics technician, writers have emerged from the tion and maintenance of elec-
though, and give him or her ranks of college English majors. tronic equipment, or put on in-
CAD (computer-aided design) While their writing skills are house or vendor seminars, are
training, and you have what fine, these individuals often also in high demand. Again, a
many consider to be the win- lack the technical savvy that strong technical background is
ning combination of skills nec- would heighten their effec- the first priority. As a techni-
essary to design printed circuit tiveness. "What is desperately cian, you'll already have that.
boards. needed," according to John Can you also teach or explain
Though design possibilities Giesler, documentation man- things to others? If you itch to
are opening up for electronics ager at 'IYansaction Technology get in front of a class or a com-
technicians, it is at the end of Incorporate, in Santa Monica, pany- sponsored training semi-
the product cycle, in customer California, "is a person with a nar, it's never too late to
service, where the greatest op- capital T. In other words, some- consider becoming a technical
portunities for technicians are one with strong technical skills trainer.
rapidly emerging. As anyone in first and writing ability second. To develop the skills neces-
the personal- computer field can We'll settle for the lower case w. sary to teach, first watch others
tell you, customer service is the With enough exposure and en- in action. The next time you are
fastest growing-and most de- couragement, a good technical in a college class or are receiving
manding -part of the business. writer will surface." training from a product vendor,
Customer service isn't just trou- If you have a proclivity for observe the instructor's style
bleshooting customer problems writing, why not consider tech- and techniques closely. To get
over the telephone. Specifically, nical writing as a adjunct to started yourself, volunteer to tu-
there are growing opportunities your work as an electronics tor other students or take new
for technicians in the three re- technician? One way to get technicians under your wing.
lated "T's ": technical writing, started is by freelancing. Just Any direct contact with custom-
technical training, and tech- let the word out that you're in- ers, providing customer sup-
nical sales. terested. You'll be surprised at port, is invaluable experience.
Soon enough you'll be ready to
COMPARISON OF 1993 BASE SALARY work as a valued technical
BASE SALARY
BY INDUSTRY
trainer.
$100,000 If you are an electronics tech-
nician who is often in contact
with customers, what you say
and do can have a significant
impact on company sales. Why
50,000 not expand such experiences
into full -time technical sales?
As with technical writing and
30,000 technical training, the key is to
first possess technical exper-
tise. There is no way anyone can
20,000 sell today's complex electronic
equipment by bluffing the tech-
nical details. Potential custom-
ers won't stand for it. If you're
already technically strong and
10,000 I I I have the personality and drive
2 4
0
JOB LEVEL
6 8 10
to sell, here, again, is an allied
field that will allow you to go
COMPUTERS AND
SYSTEMS
COMMUNICATIONS
EQUIPMENT
PERIPHERALS
OFFICE EQUIPMENT MEDICAL
beyond the strictly technical
and expand your career oppor-
tunities.
FIG. 3- SALARY COMPENSATIONdepends on what subfield you're in. Salaries within
To get started, start selling.
the medical equipment sector tend to be highest at the lower job levels. Salaries within When out in the field, you might
the communications equipment sector are among the lowest at lower job levels and suggest that users purchase
68 highest at the higher job levels. various equipment upgrades
 TECHNICAL SUPPORT GENERAL EDUCATION
CORE COURSES COURSES
COURSES

SURVEY OF ELECTRONICS NATURAL SCIENCES

MATH FOR ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY

TECHNICAL REPORT FUNDAMENTALS SOCIAL AND

WRITING OF DC /AC BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

PHYSICS FOR INTRODUCTION TO HUMANITIES

ELECTRONICS ELECTRONICS:
DEVICES AND CIRCUITS
LANGUAGE AND
COMPUTER USAGE RATIONALITY
DIGITAL ELECTRONICS

DRAFTING FOR HEALTH AND PHYSICAL

ELECTRONICS EDUCATION

ADVANCED COURSES
IN ELECTRONICS

ELECTRONICS
+ rr -1 1
CONSUMER
COMPUTER BIOMEDICAL INDUSTRIAL
COMMUNI- AVIONICS Ì
ELECTRONICS
TECHNOLOGY ELECTRONICS I1 ELECTRONICS
--LJ LL--T---J
I I

L--
I I
CATIONS sow TN=

ROBOTICS RADIO
RADIO ADVANCED
MICROWAVE
DIGITAL
' INDUSTRIAL
TV
MICRO- CONTROLS VCR
DIGITAL PROCESSORS
PLCs STEREO
COMPUTER
SYSTEMS CD PLAYER
NETWORKS TELEPHONE

CAMCORDERS

ASSOCIATE DEGREE
4

FIG. 4-A TYPICAL ASSOCIATE DEGREE PROGRAM will not only contain core
courses in electronics, but technical support and general education courses as well. geles, but they are booming in
Salt Lake City and Meson.
your company is offering. If you And what kind of salary can What about compensation?
are successful in convincing they expect to earn? As shown in Fig. 3, it depends to
them to buy, your boss will According to Robert B. Reich, some extent on what subfield
notice. Soon you'll have the op- U.S. labor secretary, the de- you're in (see Fig. 1). It also de-
portunity to sell all the time. mand is strong: "The cause for pends on whether you're at the
real optimism," he declared re- job entry level (for example, field
Demand and compensation cently, "lies in a trend just emer- service trainee), or at the higher
Today's electronics techni- ging from the occupational job levels well beyond that of the
cians are finding renewed job statistics. Look closely and traditional electronics techni-
strength and opportunity by you'll find a growing demand for cian (director of technical ser-
moving from the more narrow technicians -people with the vices, for instance). As seen in
focus on product repair to sys- skills to test, repair, upgrade, the graph, salaries within the
tems maintenance. Further- and sell complex products. The medical- equipment sector tend
more, they are finding openings Bureau of Labor Statistics pre- to be highest at the lower job
in allied fields of design and dicts that these jobs will in- levels. Salaries within the com-
technical writing, training, and crease 37% from 1990 to 2005." munications equipment sector
sales. But what, in this chal- Of course, with regard to job are among the lowest at lower
lenging job market, is the de- demand, much depends on job levels and highest at the
mand for these skilled and where you are located. Things higher job levels. The average
knowledgeable individuals? are still pretty tight in Los An- annual salary for an electronics 69
 technician, according to 1990 not only contain core courses in Beyond formal education at a
Department of Labor figures, is electronics, but technical -sup- technical school or community
$23,028. The minimum is port and general education college, you should consider
$14,244, while the maximum is courses as well (see Fig. 4). electronics certification. The
$39,180. Figures for 1995 are Your core program usually be- purpose of such certification is
estimated to be approximately gins with a survey course de- to distinguish the highly skilled
17% higher in all three catego- signed to get you excited about and knowledgeable technicians
ries.
Becoming a 1990's technician
the field of electronics. From
there it's on to the fundamen-
tals of DC and AC circuits, or
Many employers encourage
and some require-their tech-
-
from those with less experience.

To become an electronics basic electricity. Then you'll nical employees to be certified.

technician you will need formal take a course on devices and cir- There are a number of private -
training and education. While cuits, or basic electronics. A sector certification organiza-
some old timers will tell you they digital electronics course is also tions, two of which are promi-
learned everything on the job, part of most core curriculums. nent. Both the International
today a certificate (not to be con- At some institutions, such as Society of Certified Electronics
fused with certification, which ITT, you will not be able to Technicians (ISCET) and the
will be discussed shortly) or a choose a second year advanced Electronic Technician Associa-
two -year associate degree is the course sequence for specializa- tion (ETA) offer certified elec-
recognized "ticket" to an entry- tion. At ITT, every student takes tronics technician (C.E.T and
level position. every course, core and ad- CET, respectively) certificates.
Certificate programs are of- vanced. It is a program that pro- The ISCET even offers two levels
fered by correspondence duces generalists. At most of certification: Associate Level
schools, trade, vocational, or community colleges, though, and Journeyman Level. The As-
technical schools, and many some form of specialization is sociate Level is designed for
community colleges. They are encouraged. As shown in Fig. 4, electronics technicians with
designed to recognize a stu- various subspecialties, parallel- less than 4 years experience and
dent's satisfactory completion ing the subfields shown in the students studying electronics.
of an organized program of vo- wheel of Fig. 1, are offered. Of Think of what having that Asso-
cational study. Certificate pro- course, no one institution will ciate Level Certificate as a stu-
grams for technicians can take offer all subfields. Check your dent would mean on your
from a few months to 1 or 2 local institution to see what resume? Bill Hansen did.
years to complete, depending subdisciplines, if any, are em- Bill's first, entry-level posi-
upon the course of study and phasized. tion, straight out of college, was
type of institution offering the As mentioned a moment ago, at Micree Corporation, an elec-
program. an array of technical support tronic contract manufacturing
One problem with certificate courses will also be part of any firm in Torrance, California. He
programs is that courses re- 2-year curriculum. Not only do started as a test technician. But
quired to earn the certificate are these courses "support" your rather than just do "his job,"
almost entirely in the major field work in electronics, they "sup- Bill made it a point to investi-
of study. This is fine for a short - plement" it. They will round out gate what others were doing as
term, focused program, such as your technical training as an well.
one for CAD expertise or quality electronics technician. At the time, Micree was in-
assurance testing. In a broader Rounding out your education stalling a new surface -mount
sense, however, certificate pro- will be the function of your gen- technology (SMT) production
grams are inconsistent with the eral education courses. Don't line. Bill let it be known that he
kind of training you'll need to fight against these courses, em- wanted to be involved with this
become today's electronics tech- brace them. A class or two in new packaging technology.
nician. If you choose the certifi- language and psychology or in When an opening came up, he
cate route, try to supplement the behavioral sciences will jumped at it.
your technical education with mark you as an educated elec- On the SMT line, Bill learned
various courses in English, psy- tronics technician. all aspects of SMT production,
chology, speech, and technical from PC board inspection to
writing. FURTHER READING final test. Since Micree assem-
You won't have to go search- For a more in -depth discussion of bles boards for clients under
ing for such courses when seek- what it means to be and what it takes to contract, Bill found himself in-
ing a 2 -year associate degree, be become an electronics technician, you terfacing with customers and
might want to pick up a copy of the au-
it at a public community college thor's book, Becoming an Electronics
explaining to them the new
or proprietary technical in- Technician: Securing Your High -Tech technology. Soon he was repre-
stitute, such as Cleveland In- Future, Prentice Hall Publishing, Inc., senting the company at trade
stitute of Electronics, 445 Hutchinson Ave., Columbus, Ohio shows and conventions. Even-
Grantham College of Engineer- 43235. Also contact ISCET, 2708 West tually, Bill even gave seminars
Berry St., Ft. Worth, TX 76109, and ETA,
ing, ICS Computer training, 602 N. Jackson St., Greencastle, IN
on surface -mount technology
ITT, and NRI schools. A typical 46135.
and wrote a paper on SMT sol-
70 associate degree program will der-paste applications. st
 OFF -LINE REGULATORS

warms
These off-line voltage regulators produce
adjustable DC outputs of 8 to 12 volts at as much as
100 milliamperes.
THIS ARTICLE EXPLAINS HOW TO J. DANIEL CONNELL
ulators from Supertex. One ver-
build two lightweight, mini- sion is a three -terminal, fixed
ature power supplies. One will output device that can be pur-
provide an adjustable output 5 volts DC. A conventional 5- chased in TO -92 plastic,
between 8 and 12 volts DC at as volt, 100 -milliampere linear DC TO -220 plastic, or SOT-89 plas-
much as 100 milliamperes. The supply typically occupies about tic packages. Adjustable voltage
other will provide a precision 5- 18 square inches of board versions of these regulators are
volt DC output. space. available in eight -pin plastic
Off -line linear voltage reg- Linear power supplies occupy DIP and small -outline IC (SOIC)
ulators permit the regulation of larger board areas because they packages.
120 -volt, 50/60 Hz AC line volt- include bulky 50 /60 -Hz trans- The three -terminal fixed reg-
age down to DC voltage levels formers and large aluminum ulators permit input voltages
suitable for powering logic -level electrolytic capacitors. By elim- up to 450 volts AC, and they
semiconductor circuits that in- inating those components, have fixed 10 -volt DC outputs.
clude integrated circuits. both weight and space can be The adjustable voltage reg-
An attractive feature of off- saved. Moreover, the possibility ulators in eight -pin DIPs have
line regulators is that they can of damage to the circuit by outputs that can be trimmed
be made with a small number of chemical leakage from large over the range of 8 to 12 volts
components and they require electrolytic capacitors has been DC. Moreover, their output cur-
neither transformers nor large eliminated. rent can be increased with an
aluminum electrolytic capaci- If the proper safety precau- external depletion -mode
tors. They offer long life and oc- tions about isolation from the MOSFET.
cupy only a fraction of the 120 -volt AC line are observed, The circuits in this article are
circuit board space required for off-line power supplies can be based on two versions of the
conventional linear power sup- economical and space- and LR6 regulator -LR645N4 and
plies. weight- saving power sources, LR645N3. The LR645N4, an ad-
One of the off-line linear reg- and might be perfect for your justable eight -pin DIP, was se-
ulator circuits discussed here next circuit design. lected for its higher power
can be built on a circuit board rating and ability to control
that measures only 4 by 2 LR6 linear regulators higher current than some of the
inches (8 square inches) and The key components in the other LR6 devices. The
the other can be built on a cir- off -line regulator supplies ex- LR645N3, in a TO -92 package,
cuit board with an area of less plained in this article are mono- serves as a preregulator stage in
than 4 square inches. One cir- lithic members of the LR6 the second circuit that will be
cuit provides 8 to 12 volts DC family of high -input voltage, discussed here, a precision volt-
and the other provides a precise low- output current linear reg- age source. Table 1 summarizes 71
 TABLE 1 sheet allows values between 200
LEADING FEATURES OF REGULATOR CIRCUITS and 300 kilohms. The 250 -kilo-
hm value minimizes loading,
Characteristic Values Units permitting the circuit to pro-
Input voltages 15 to 450 volts DC vide more accurate output volt-
Outputs current (1) to 150 milliamperes age. The power supplies de-
Supply current 50 (Typical) microamperes scribed here do not have
Line regulation (2) 0.1 millivolts per volt trimmed input, although they
Ripple rejection 60 (Typical) decibels (dB) could be trimmed.
Output trim range 8 to 12 volts DC After building an off-line reg-
(1) With external FET installed ulator, you might want to modi-
(2) On adjustable type fy it to include a trimmed input.
(The printed circuit board
shown in this article has provi-
the leading features of LR6 reg- sion for mounting resistors Rl
ulators. and R2.) Figure 4 shows a typ-
ical adjustable voltage circuit.
LR6 applications Warning: There is no AC iso-
Off-line linear regulator cir- lation at thefinal 5- voltDC reg-
cuits are suitable for many dif- ulated outputs of the circuits
ferent applications. Some ex- described here. Potentially le-
amples of them are: TRIM thal,voltages are present on off-
GATE
Low- to moderate -power off- line regulators when they are
line DC regulation. operated from 120 -volt, 50/60 -
Regulators for noisy inputs. Hz line voltage.
Proximity- controlled switch- GND Provide adequate protection
es and alarms. FIG. 1- FUNCTIONAL DIAGRAM for LR6 from line voltage when adjust-
Start -up circuits in switch - series voltage regulators ing the regulator for powering a
mode power supplies (SMPS). device. A discussion of how to
Power supplies for double- LR645N4 LR645N3
provide adequate protection
insulated products such as con- when working on or with off-
sumer entertainment products line voltage regulators is beyond
or power tools. the scope of this article and is
the responsibility of the builder/
How the LR6 works user.
Figure 1 is a functional di- It is strongly recommended
agram for all LR6 series linear that the builder /user become fa-
regulator ICs. They all include a miliar with safe AC isolation
comparator to control a field - practices and the principles of
effect transistor (FET). Input a double -insulated electrically -
voltage is applied directly to the FIG. 2 -PIN FUNCTIONS of LR6- family powered devices, circuits, and
FET. A reference voltage is set by voltage regulators. appliances.
the Zener diode and it's associ- Devices or appliances with
ated resistor. The Zener voltage This change in output voltage double -insulation will have a
is applied to the noninverting repeats the process, and the re- metal chassis or frame con-
terminal of the device's internal sult is a regulated voltage. nected to an electrical ground
comparator. installed in an insulating plas-
Another voltage, derived from Adjustable supply tic enclosure that has no ex-
the ratio of the two internal trim The ability to trim the output
resistors, is applied to the inver- voltage of some LR6 linear reg- 12

ting terminal of the internal op- ulators is useful for powering

erational amplifier. The nonin- circuits or devices with unusual
verting terminal always has the voltage requirements. By con-
same potential, regardless of in- necting a pair of selected re-
put or output voltage. Because sistors between Vow, TRIM, and
the voltage at the inverting in- the GROUND pins of the LR6, any
put will change in proportion to voltage between 8 and 12 volts
the source applied, the output DC can be obtained at the out-
of the comparator will swing be- put terminals.
tween the input voltage (VIN) Figure 3 is a graph of typical
and ground. output -voltage vs. resistor 8
That output then commands ratio. The ratio of the resistors 25 3 0 3.5 4.0
the FET to supply more or less determines the output voltage. RESISTOR RATIO, R2JR1
current, causing the variation The best value for Rl plus R2 is FIG. 3- RESISTOR RATIO chart for trim
72 in the output voltage (VouT) 250 kilohms, although the data settings
 D1
liamperes, more than adequate
o N current for most logic circuitry.
LR645N3 R2
The 5 -volt DC is also filtered by
5
TRIMMED 10µF tantalum capacitor C3 for
INPUT
(24 TO 277VAC)
C2 VOLTAGE additional circuit stability un-
0.01g OUTPUT
Cl (SET BY R2/R1) der full current load.
1µF R1

o o Building the first regulator

AC RETURN The discussion of con-
FIG. 4-TRIM VOLTAGE example circuit struction practice and precau-
01

i
1/4 OF J1 DN2540N5

150VDC v9 TO 12VDC
2

D1
1144003
N
4
1 /4OFJ1
IC2
IC1 1
LM7805 1

LR645N4

OUTPUT
O.%
5VDC
Cl C2 C3
1µF 47µF 10µF

AC
(NEUT)

ACF
(HOT)
PL1
(POLARIZED)

FIG. 5 -Off-LINE REGULATOR rated at 5 voltsDC, 100 milliamperes tions will be limited to this first
off-line regulator. It can be built
posed metal parts that could be ter capacitance is unusually low with any conventional assembly
touched or contacted by the because IC1 has a ripple rejec- method. If you plan to wire -
user. Double insulation con- tion ratio (VINNoUT) of 60 dB at wrap the regulator point -to-
struction is commonly found in 120 Hz with no load. point, use No. 28 AWG wire -
television receivers, computer The filtered input DC is also wrap wire. (No. 30 AWG is not
.

monitors, power tools, and ap- applied to pin 2 of N- channel, recommended because of the
pliances that are powered di- depletion -mode MOSFET Q1, high currents and voltages in
rectly from the AC line. also made by Supertex. It was the circuits.)
designed to be compatible with The foil pattern for the pro-
Adjustable voltage regulator LR6 linear regulators. MOSFET totype regulator circuit board
The schematic Fig. 5 shows Ql conducts up to 100 milliam- was drawn manually and etched
the adjustable off -line regulator, peres from the high -voltage as shown in this article. If you
the first of the two discussed source through the gate control make your own circuit board,
here. An input from 12 to 120 line of the IC1, thus bypassing pay careful attention to the
volts AC is applied to pins 7 and it. The combined regulated volt- spacing between conductive
8 of the eight -pin circuit- board- age and current source from Q1 traces. Following good design
mounted header J1. Although and IC1 is then filtered through practice, at least 'Á6 -inch spac-
the LR645N4 (ICI) can accept capacitor C2 to stabilize the reg- ing has been left between the
voltages up to 450 volts, the in- ulated output. high -voltage and low- voltage
put of this circuit is limited by The regulated output of IC1 is traces.
the 200 PIV (peak inverse volt- applied to the LM340 (7805) There is wider spacing be-
age) rating of the bridge rectifier voltage regulator (IC2) that reg- tween Q1 and IC2 to allow for
BR1. The full -wave rectified in- ulates the output voltage of the the installation of the heatsink.
put is applied to the 1µF filter combination of IC1 and Ql to a After you have etched the circuit
capacitor Cl. logic -compatible 5 -volts DC. board, "tin" the exposed copper
The filtered 150 volts DC is ap- The total available current at traces with a thin layer of soft
plied directly to pin 1 of ICI. Fil- the 5 -volt DC output is 100 mil- Continued on page 87 73
 Countersurveillance
Never before has so much The professional discussions seen on
professional information on the art the TV screen in your home reveals how
of detecting and eliminating to detect and disable wiretaps, midget
electronic snooping devices-and radio- frequency transmitters, and other
how to defend against experienced bugs, plus when to use disinformation to
information thieves -been placed confuse the unwanted listener, and the
in one VHS video. If you are a technique of voice scrambling telephone
Fortune 500 CEO, an executive in communications. In fact, do you know
any hi -tech industry, or a novice how to look for a bug, where to look for a
seeking entry into an honorable, bug, and what to do when you find it?
Bugs of a very small size are easy to
rewarding field of work in
build and they can be placed quickly in a
countersurveillance, you must matter of seconds, in any object or room.
view this video presentation again Today you may have used a telephone
and again. handset that was bugged. It probably
contained three bugs. One was a phony
Wake up! You may be the victim of bug to fool you into believing you found a
stolen words-precious ideas that would bug and secured the telephone. The sec-
have made you very wealthy! Yes, profes- ond bug placates the investigator when
sionals, even rank amateurs, may be lis- 1- 516- 293 -3751 he finds the real thing! And the third bug
tening to your most private con- is found only by the professional, who
versations. HAVE YOUR continued to search just in case there were
Wake up! If you are not the victim, VISA or MC CARD more bugs.
then you are surrounded by countless vic- AVAILABLE The professional is not without his
tims who need your help if you know how tools. Special equipment has been de-
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There is a thriving professional service cording studio the world had ever vated (VOX) and remote -activated bugs.
steeped in high -tech techniques that you known. The building had to be torn Some of this equipment can be operated
can become a part of! But first, you must down in order to remove all the bugs. by novices, others require a trained coun-
know and understand Countersurveilance tersurveillance professional.
Technology. Your very first insight into Stolen Information The professionals viewed on your tele-
this highly rewarding field is made possi- The open taps from where the informa- vision screen reveal information on the
ble by a video VHS presentation that you tion pours out may be from FAX's, com- latest technological advances like laser-
cannot view on broadcast television, sat- puter communications, telephone calls, beam snoopers that are installed hun-
ellite, or cable. It presents an informative and everyday business meetings and dreds of feet away from the room they
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pecially if he is a thief! Address
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74 building in Moscow. They converted L J
 HARDWARE HACKER
The DNA computer language, some wavelet book references, magic
digital sinewave codes, an engineering economics review, and a hot new
FM RBDS tuner. DON LANCASTER

incoming letters tell me

that some readers ought
My
to get back to the funda-
mentals of efficiency and econom-
ics before they write me letters
either to praise or condemn me.
-
Several recent letters gave me the Winegard CA -6060 Yagi,
idea that the time was right to do a fixed roof mount
little review of those subjects for
those who never studied them -or Radio Shack 15 -1117 coax inline 10 db amplifier
those who have forgotten what they Solid
once knew about them. earth I Lightning /static block
ground!
Efficiency and economics 750 coax roof drop
Efficiency, otherwise known as
"bang- for-the- buck," is simply how Line splitter /two set coupler
much of something you get back
compared to what you put in. This Denon TU- 650 -RD
can be stated in terms of power, FM RBDS tuner
dollars, or other variables. However,
physical systems never return more IN Existing cable system
than is put into them.
Paradoxically, an enterprise or a Other stereo
technical venture might have an reveiver
apparent efficiency well above
100 %. That's the case if the rear-
rangement of the financial and ma- FIG. 1 -MY TEST SETUP for ultra-fringe FM and RBDS reception.
terial investments and the personal
value added of the entrepreneur or
management causes the perceived solar space heating is impractical in Just try to break even
value of the products shipped (or much of a state like Arizona. If your total costs are less than
services provided) to exceed the your returns, you will have an eco-
value of materials, time, overhead, Zoom in on details nomic loss. The total costs must
and sweat equity that went into Suppose you want to start a tech- include all parts, labor, overhead,
them. nical venture. The first thing you do and the time value of your money.
Engineering economics is simply is borrow $1000 for tools and mate- Add to that the cost of a lot of intan-
the study of finding out exactly what rials. Today, the true time value of gibles. Even this makes no mention
the bang for the buck is. If you get money of those dollars will be of taxes and inflation. Paying cash
more than one buck back, you have somewhere around 10 %. Thus, just will not make much difference be-
a profit or will be a winner. On the to break even, your venture must cause there are many other things
other hand, if you get less than a generate more than $100 per you ought to be doing with that
buck back, you probably should year -and do it forever! money to give you better returns.
have been doing something else. But your tools and materials Sadly, any "hacker economy"
Efficiency and engineering eco- won't last forever. If they last only for that substitutes time and energy for
nomics explains why solar cells that ten years, your venture must gener- cash will only shift the viability of the
are only 6 % efficient are useless ate more than $270 per year to breakeven points. But this shift is
electric power generators at any amortize your initial expense and likely to be a lot less than you might
price -even if free! Those same the time value of money over its first guess, even when you factor in
principles explain why ther- effective life. With a five -year life- entertainment, ego, and enjoyment.
moelectric coolers simply don't time, your venture must generate A hacker economy in no way gets
work at power levels beyond about more than $329 per year just to around the fundamentals of engi-
eight watts. They also tell us why break even! neering economics. Moreover, 75
 there are likely to be both subtle and Thermoelectric coolers are so 14 to 38. Also review the December
obvious subsidies involved. grossly inefficient that its heatsink 1993 issue of IEEE's Transactions
Consider some examples of typically has to handle six or more on Signal Processing. Be aware that
really bad engineering economics. times its cooling power. At high these are two different IEEE publica-
The amount of electricity per unit power, the heat rise across the tions. For your information, there is
area that a six -percent efficient so- heatsink exceeds the cooling drop wavelet shareware on GEnie PSRT.
lar cell produces can't ever pay for provided by the Peltier modules. File No. 365.
all the expenses of the power sta-
tion installation, interest, land, and Million dollar ideas Hot new FM tuner
operating expenses. The energy re- Why does patenting your million past Hardware Hacker articles
In
covered is simply inadequate. The dollar idea make no sense? The an- and reprints, have discussed ultra -
I

longer you run the station, the more swer is simply because you will nev- fringe frequency -modulation recep-
it will cost you! er earn enough profit from a million - tion as well as new FM RBDS data
Their lack of reliability makes dollar idea to begin to cover the services. The folks at Denon were
amorphous solar cells dismally poor costs of obtaining the patent and kind enough to loan me one of their
performers. Their low level of effi- successfully defending it in court superb new TU- 650-RD FM tuners.
ciency holds them perilously close from challenges and copy cats. Your It has a list price of $375 but is
to the economic breakeven point. breakeven point is approximately available on the street for about
This is also the reason why commer- $12 million in gross sales. At that $299.
cial solar electric power plants are level, its a matter of chance whether RBDS is a 1200 -bit -per- second
being dismembered and their com- a patent is or is not worth all of the (bps) data subcarrier service. gave
I

ponents are being sold to hackers struggle it takes to make it profit- some information on it as
at yard sales. There's a lot more able. There is a discussion of this HACK73.PS on GEnie PSRT along
profit to be made selling junk than subject in my wHEN2PAT.PS on GEnie with some do- it- yourself circuits.
there is in selling solar power. PS RT. The most common application for
In the Arizona desert, for exam- Is there any time when efficiency RBDS today is for the display of
ple, there are too few winter degree - and engineering economics are not station call letters and station for-
days to make solar space heating of crucial importance? Only if no- mat on receivers.
economical. It's hard for solar space body else can come up with a good However, RBDS is also used for
heating to compete with $10 worth answer to "Uh... compared to traffic, weather, and emergency
of propane or a few branches of what ?" For example, inefficient so- alerts on radio and broadcasting
mesquite tree. lar cells are wonderful for cal- differential Global Positioning Sys-
culators but useless as economical tern (GPS) position corrections for
power generators. vehicles, services, and individuals
NEW FROM
Peltier thermoelectric circuits are requiring more accurate position in-
DON LANCASTER great for cooling microscope slides formation than is available from the
HARDWARE HACKING or infrared detectors, but they are commercial -grade signals available
Incredible Secret Money Machine II 18.50 worthless for making ice. Water to ordinary citizens directly from the
The Case Against Patents 28.50
Hardware Hacker Reprints 11,111, or IV 24.50 heated by solar power is great in the satellites.
Blatant Opportunist Reprints 24.50 Arizona desert, but solar space Unfortunately, most FM stations
Resource Bin Reprints 24.50
Ask The Guru Reprints I, II or III 24.50 heating does not cut it in that desert have not yet adopted RBDS ser-
CMOS Cookbook 24.50 climate. vices, although they are all provided
TTL Cookbook 24.50
Active Filter Cookbook 24.50 inexpensively. The latest Radio
Micro Cookbook I
Lancaster Classics Library
19.50
119.50
Wavelet update World listing shows that only about
There has been a lot of interest 220 stations have adopted it.
POSTSCRIPT STUFF
expressed inwavelets recently. In addition to showing the station
PostScript Secrets (IIe/Mac/PC) 29.50
Book-on-demand resource kit 39.50 These can be a superior performing call letters, the Denon receiver lets
Intro to PostScript VHS Video 29.50
PostScript Beginner Stuff 29.50
replacement for the older Fourier you search format. For example,
PostScript Show & Tell 29.50 analysis techniques related to time you can ask it to scan only for clas-
PostScript Cookbook (Adobe) 19.50
PostScript Ref. Manual II (Adobe) 32.50 and frequency. Wavelet concepts sic rock. There are now only a few
PostScript Program Design (Adobe) 24.50 apply to everything from video corn - stations in Arizona offering RBDS,
Type I Font Format (Adobe) 15.50
Acrobat Reference (Adobe) 24.50 pression schemes to human vision but the reception on several is ex-
LaserWriter Reference (Apple) 19.50
and seismography. The field is ma- cellent. However, most provide only
PostScript by Example (McGilton) 29.50
Pgm Display PostScript with X 29.50 turing and there are now dozens of the format and call letters.
PostScript Visual Approach (Smith) 22.50 This is an example of a typical
Thinking In PostScript (Reid) 22.50
books available on the subject. I

Undst PS Pgrmmg (Holtzgeng) 29.50 have listed several of the more pop- chicken -and -egg problem. Lis-
The Whole Works (all PostScript) 379.50
ular books in my resource sidebar. teners don't want RBDS if only a
FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA/MC
In my view, the best tutorial paper few stations have it, and the sta-
SYNERGETICS on wavelets was written by Rioul tions do not want to spend money
Box 809 -RE and Vetterli in the IEEE Signal Pro- on a service if nobody is using it.
Thatcher, AZ 85552 cessing Magazine, Volume 8, Nevertheless, the benefits are
(520) 428 -4073
76 Number 4, October 1991 on pages there, especially for car radios.
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TERS! New Surface Mount Technology
The fundamental peak amplitude Is 1.0545 times the '1' amplitude. (SMT) makes all others obsolete! XST500
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1

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2nd Harmonic: 0 12th Harmonic: 0 powered, transmits conversations up to Y
3rd Harmonic: 0 13th Harmonic: 0.2285 mile. Both tune 88 -108 MHz. Easy to assem-
4th Harmonic: 0 14th Harmonic: 0 ble E -Z KITS (SMT components pre -as-
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FIG. 2 -A MAGIC 30 -BIT WAVEFORM for generating power sinewaves.

Scottsdale, Arizona's KSLX Figure 1 shows my test setup for
(100.7 MHz), Kingman, Arizona's receiving ultra- fringe FM and
KZZZ (94.7 MHz), and Cotton- RBDS. mounted a Winegard
I

wood, Arizona's KZGL (95.9 MHz) CA -6060 Yagi antenna high on my

broadcast the differential GPS cor- roof and pointed it due west. A ten -
rections. These can upgrade the lis- decibel Radio Shack 15 -1117 ampli-
tener's position accuracy to within fier is in the transmission line be-
several feet of true position. tween the antenna and a grounded
The theory behind differential lightning /static blocker.
GPS is that the radio transmitting A 75 -ohm coaxial cable couples
station has a known and fixed loca- the blocker to a line splitter /two -set
tion. At ranges of several dozen coupler in my living room. One line
miles, the errors in radio station po- drives the Denon TU- 650 -RD, and
sition will be about the same as the the other line drives my second
error in your handheld GPS receiver. lower quality receiver.
You just subtract the two values to What about performance? First
increase the accuracy of your posi- and foremost, FM station KDKB
tion data.
More information on differential
comes in like a champ. You can
practically arc weld with the power CALL NOW
GPS is given in GPS World. Two of its signal! That's all that really
principal information sources for
RBDS are Differential Corrections
matters to me. There are about 40
FM station signals of listenable
AND
Inc. and Coupon Radio. quality available to me at an average
RESERVE
The Denon receiver would have distance of over 105 miles from my YOUR SPACE
to be modified slightly to receive antenna.
GPS signals. This is a custom and The Denon's IF filter is incredible. 6 x rate $1,000.00 each insertion.
encrypted fee -based commercial The weak Tucson, Arizona station Fast reader service cycle.
service. Several unique features KXCI broadcasting at 91.3 MHz is Short lead time for the placement of
ads.
make Denon's TU- 650 -RD receiver easily separated from the much
We typeset and layout the ad at no
good for ultra- fringe reception: A stronger signal from the Phoenix additional charge.
fully shielded high -performance station KJZZ broadcasting at 91.5
Call 516-293 -3000 to reserve space.
front -end design and an optional MHz. Try out the bandpass filter. If
Ask for Arline Fishman. Limited number
narrow -band IF filter that blocks the station changes, or noise in- of pages available. Mail materials to:
most co- channel interference. Yes, creases, you have co- channel prob- mini -ADS, ELECTRONICS NOW, 500 -B
you can stili receive stereo and lems. However, keep in mind that Bi- County Blvd., Farmingdale, NY
RBDS in the narrow mode. any weak signal might be received 11735.
77
FAX: 516 -293 -3115
 better without the filter. In general, on the car radio in the driveway. TV channel 6 near 87.8 MHz.
the filter makes a difference only for Some experiments with an un- However, there is a strange re-
a few stations. boosted, inexpensive fringe Radio striction here: this tuner is so hot
Does it make sense to add a Shack 15 -1636 FM antenna sur- that must activate the internal RF
I

lower quality booster at the antenna prised me. Many FM stations seem attenuator to prevent an overload on
ahead of a high -performance re- to use vertical or circular polariza- cable systems. For some reason,
ceiver? A modest 10 -dB boost at tion. Their apparent objective is to this can only be done from the re-
the antenna gives the antenna a improve nearby automobile recep- mote. I suspect this might have
fixed impedance to work into and tion at the cost of distant coverage. been an afterthought before the re-
compensates for both line and dis- Our reception of station KUAT im- ceiver design was completed.
tribution losses. The slightly higher proved dramatically here in Thatcher Because there is a micro -
signal level is enough to override the when flipped the Yagi antenna to its
I controller chip inside, the tuner has
"no stereo on weak signal" feature. vertical position. many unusual features. For exam-
This permits manual switching The ultimate solution seems to lie ple, you can manually store any non -
rather than having to depend on the in raising antenna height. can take I RBDS station call letters and format
factory setting. Mono is cleaner for a $4 pocket FM receiver to the top or store other messages of 13 or
marginal signals. of the two-mile high mountain in my fewer characters. You can also scan
However, any preamplifier also front yard and tune it to 93.3 MHz. for all of the classic rock stations, all
adds to cross -modulation and can By pointing the whip antenna in one the news stations, or any of 20
cause overloading. This is only ob- of three directions, can receive
I other formats. Because it has no
servable at a half channel away from KDKB in Phoenix, KKOB in Albur- keyboard, selection of 66 charac-
a nearby station. If you use a pre- querque, New Mexico, or a Mex- ters is made with a single up /down
amplifier, be sure to get an in -line ican station from the south. button.
coaxial version that is totally Tuning graduations on the Denon There are 30 station presets.
shielded. It will provide only the bare TU- 650 -RD are at 100 -kHz inter- These are "intelligent" enough to
minimum gain needed. Does a fixed vals, giving one stop between chan- remember the RBDS or manually
antenna make sense? Yes, it is nels. This can reduce co- channel entered data, AM vs. FM, the RF
cheaper and more rugged. interference, and it can be useful for attenuator setting, and the filter
But Bee can't receive her classic receiving some homebrew wireless bandwidth. The tuner has a panel
Tucson, Arizona, FM station KUAT broadcaster who is off frequency. It light dimmer. All presets are saved
very well despite the strong signal also to from when is
power consumption is only 12
watts. Because it is a component
tuner, an external stereo amplifier is
WAVELET BOOK RESOURCES required.
However, I'd like to see a "raw"
C.K. Chuff, An Introduction to Wavelets, Academic Press, 1992.
C.K. Chui, Wavelets, World Scientific Pub, 1992.
RBDS output jack on the tuner.
C.K. Chui, Wavelets: A Tutorial in Theory & Applications, Academic Press, 1992.
Other improvements I'd like to see
C.K. Chui, L. Montefusco & L. Pucclo, Wavelets, Theory, Algorithms, & Applications, are a monthly updated plug -in card,
Academic Press, 1994. chip, or modem line that stores all of
J.M. Combes, Wavelets, Spr -Verlag, 1989. the stations in North America with
I. Daubechies, Ten Lectures on Wavelets, Soc Indus -Apps Math, 1992. all of their formats and their operat-
G. David, Wavelets & Singular Integrals on Curves & Surfaces, Spr-Verlag, 1992. ing hours. This would come in handy
M. Farge, Wavelets, Fractals & Fourier Transforms, 1993. on long auto trips.
E. Foufoula- Georgiou, P. Kumar, Wavelets in Geophysics, Academic Press, 1994,
Frazier, Wavelets, Mathematics & Applications, CRC Press, 1993. More magic waveforms
Jawerth, Practical Guide to Wavelets, CRC Press, 1994. High power sinewaves have be-
G. Kaiser, A Friendly Guide to Wavelets, Birkhauser, 1993. come a hot hardware hacker topic.
T.H. Koomwlnder, Wavelets: An Elementary Treatment of Theory & Application,
World Scientific Pub, 1993.
They have applications in car battery
W. Light, Advances In Numerical Analysis, V2, OUP, 1992.
power inverters, uninterruptible
Y. Meyer, Wavelets: Algorithms & Applications, Soc Indus -Apps Math, 1993. (UPS) computer power supplies,
Y. Meyer, Wavelets, Cambridge University Press, 1993. telephone ringers, electric -powered
Y. Meyer, Wavelets & Applications, Spr -Verlag, 1992. automobiles, power -line con-
R.L. Motard & B Joseph, Wavelet Applications in Chemical Engineering, Kluwer Ac, 94. ditioning, and variable -speed induc-
D.E. Newland, An Introduction to Random Vibrations, Spectral & Wavelet Analysis, tion motor drives.
Halsted Press, 1993. Most of these applications re-
Ruskai, Wavelets & Their Applications, Jones & Bartlett, 1992. quire well formed sinewave outputs.
L.L. Schumaker & G. Webb, Recent Advances in Wavelet Analysis, Acad. Pr., 1993. Square or other sloppy waveforms
G.G. Walter, Wavelets & Other Orthogonal Systems with Applications, CRC Press, 94. could cause circuit inefficiencies,
G. Wornell, Wavelet -Based Signal Processing with Fractals, P -H, 1994.
heating, resonances, cogging, or
R.K. Young, Wavelet Theory & Its Applications, Kluwer Ac, 1992.
severe audio whine.
Analog solutions based on power
78
 amplifiers will not hack it because of
NAMES AND NUMBERS their poor efficiency. A micro -
controller- oriented digital solution is
the only method to use these days,
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(214) 450-0400 Figure 2 shows a "magic" 30 -bit
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Denon
When one examines all possible
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second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth,
eighth, ninth, and tenth harmonics.
The peak fundamental is about five
Bean FCC
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behaved switching currents. The
seventh harmonic ends up at about
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80
 E A R N Y O U R
B.S. DEGREE
IN

COMPUTERS
OR
Shorthand Code: 0x2,1x2,0x9,1x5,0x5, 1x9, 0x2 ,1x38,0x2,1x9,0x5,1x5,0x9,1x2,
0x3,- 1x2,0x9,- 1x5,0x5,- 1x9,0x2,-1x38, 0x2,- 1x9,0x5,- 1x5,0x9,-1x2,0x1.
ELECTRONICS
The fundamental peak amplitude is 1.0281 times the "1" amplitude.

Fundamental: (1 .0000) 11th Harmonic: 0.0108 (!)

2nd Harmonic: 0 12th Harmonic: 0
3rd Harmonic: 0 13th Harmonic: 0.0891
4th Harmonic: 0 14th Harmonic: 0
5th Harmonic: 0 15th Harmonic: 0
6th Harmonic: 0 16th Harmonic: 0
7th Harmonic:
8th Harmonic:
9th Harmonic: 0
0
0
17th Harmonic:
18th Harmonic:
19th Harmonic:
0.2892
0
0.2613
By Studying at
j
Home
10th Harmonic: 0 20th Harmonic: 0
Grantham College of Engineering,
now in our 45th year, is highly experi-
FIG. 3-AN EVEN MORE MAGIC power sinewave with 210 bits.
-
enced in "distance education" teaching
by correspondence- through printed
windings. At longer bit lengths, you must
Details vary with use. think smarter rather than harder to
materials, computer materials, fax,
modem, and phone.
The general purpose PostScript get useful answers in a hurry. But
No commuting to class. Study at
computer language is the quick and PostScript explores any high -bit your own pace, while continuing on your
fun way to analyze waveforms inter- count words with aplomb. The se- present job. Learn from easy -to-
actively. have written a new
I cret to its efficient operation is to understand but complete and thorough
FOURIER.PS tutorial exploration utility represent words by ones and zeros lesson materials, with additional help
and a ZEROHARM.PS code finder to in a string and then manipulate the from our instructors.
GEnie PSRT. am now evaluating
I strings. I'd like to thank mathemati- Our Engineering Technology B.S.
210 -bit words using nothing more cian Jim Fitzsimons for his help on Degree Program is available in either of
than PostScript. One interesting this subject. two options:
210 -bit example is shown in Fig. 3. (1) The B.S.E.T. with Major Em-
Its first nasty harmonic is its seven- New tech lit phasis in Electronics, OR
teenth. Three new data books are avail- (2) The B.S.E.T. with Major Em-
able: Crystal Semiconductor is phasis in Computers.
A library of low harmonic codes
Our Computer Science B.S. Degree
with listings of different fundamen- offering its new Audio Databook on
Program leads to the B.S.C.S. -the
tal amplitudes can provide back- digital audio products with particular Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.
ground on variable output voltage attention given to low- distortion, de- An important part of being pre-
from a fixed supply. Call me for de- lta -sigma analog -to- digital convert- pared to move up is holding the right
tails. ers; Dallas Semiconductor is college degree, and the absolutely neces-
offering a System Extension Data sary part is knowing your field.
Book that includes data on digital Grantham can help you both ways -to
NEED HELP? potentiometers and electronic ther- learn more and to earn your degree in
Phone or write your Hardware mostats; and National Semiconduc- the process.
Hacker questions to: to is offering a Power IC's Databook Write or phone for our free catalog.
full of information on linear and Toll free, 1- 800 -955 -2527, or see
Don Lancaster
Synergetics switching regulators, motion con- mailing address below.
Box 809 -EN trols, and power drivers. This should Accredited by
Thatcher, AZ, 85552 be of interest to readers. the Accrediting Commission of the
(520) 428 -4073 Distance Education and
The November 24, 1994 issue of
For fast PSRT access, modem Science proves something that has Training Council
(800) 638 -8369. On prompt, enter
been obvious to me for some time.
JOINGENIE. When asked for the
It pointed out that 97 percent of so-
GRANTHAM
keyword, enter DMD524.
Internet email access link:
called "junk" DNA is really a sophis- College of Engineering
SYNERGETICS @GENIE.GEIS.COM. ticated computer language! At the Grantham College Road
very least, the DNA passes all of the Slidell, LA 70460 81
 Electronic
Securit tests that have been applied to
human and computer languages.
The details on this finding are found
on page 1320.
° If you want to make a real quick
"YOUR FREE
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We get that sort of comment all the
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I
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 AUDIO UPDATE
Build a super -simple audio /video cable tester for under $10.
LARRY KLEIN

Im departingfrom my usual col- common ground. The circuit is em- in wiring the piezoelectric buzzer
umn format to share with you a barrassingly simple and would make (BZ1); its terminals are marked ap-
gadget that built to alleviate a
I a good practical first project for a propriately. The buzzer is mounted
personal problem had with
I beginner. In fact, I'm considering in a 7/8 -inch hole cut in the front pan-
shielded connecting cables. The using it for just that purpose in a el and fixed in place with a couple of
problem, of course, is that they
don't always stay that way
shielded and connected, that is. Re-
- basic electronics course I'm con-
ducting for our local middle -school
students.
drops of hot -melt glue. (Although
the Japanese call anything that gen-
erates a sound a "buzzer," BZ1's
member the last time you spent a Referring to the schematic in Fig. generated tone is around 3 kHz and
frustrating half hour or so trying to 1, the "B" jacks (J3 and J4) are fairly pure.)
track down the specific shielded ca- shorted to themselves and to each The optional test probe shown in
ble that was causing the intermittent other-this is not a schematic error. the photo is made up of a 2 -foot
hum or signal loss in a system-and shielded phono lead with an RCA -
which seemed to fix itself every time plug on one end and a test probe
FUSE
you touched or switched anything? TEST J3 and ground clip on the other. The
(Defective cables sometimes short RCA lead's inner conductor is soldered
circuit or open up seemingly at ran- to the probe tip, and the shielding
J1
dom due to vibration, contact oxida- RCA
braid is twisted, brought out through
tion, and bad solder connections.) the rear of the probe, and soldered
The only sure way to test for an to a foot or so of flexible lead with an
intermittent cable is to plug it in, put insulated alligator tip installed on its
a signal through it, and try to end.
provoke the problem. A standard BZ1 B1
ohmmeter isn't very helpful unless 9V Using the tester
the cable is permanently shorted or The short test should always be
A JACKS B JACKS
open- assuming you're not an oc- made first. Plug either end of the
topus, it's difficult to hold the test cable under test into the appropri-
probes firmly on the plug elements FIG. 1 -AS SIMPLE AS IT LOOKS, the ate phono or F- connector 'A" jack.
audio /video cable tester tests cables
while simultaneously flexing the ca- while they are plugged in. You can flex Only one end of the cable need be
ble in an effort to make it mis- them vigorously while listening to the plugged in fora complete short test;
behave. built-in buzzer. the other end is left free. If the buzz-
The audio /video cable tester er sounds, there is a short circuit
tests cables in the same way they The 3/4 -inch spacing between the somewhere in the cable. If nothing is
are used: plugged in and with a volt- fuse -test screw heads will accom- heard, test for an intermittent short
age going through them. And since modate type 3AG and smaller by flexing the cable several times,
they are plugged in, you can flex fuses. Unlike the phono jacks (J1, particularly in the plug area of both
them vigorously while keeping an
open ear on the built -in buzzer
which responds faster and more
- J3), some F- connector jacks (J2,
J4) do not come with grounding
lugs, so before installation, a loop of
the free and plugged-in ends.
The continuity test will indicate an
open circuit in the inner signal -carry-
definitely than an ohmmeter. The in- thin, bare wire must be placed under
expensive, easy -to- build, battery- each mounting nut to serve as a PARTS LIST
powered cable tester will make a ground soldering point. Each pair of
welcome addition to any electronics phono and F- connector jacks is J1, J3- RCA -type panel -mount
toolbox or test bench. wired in parallel. Of course, other phono jack
jacks such as BNC, phone, etc., J2, J4- Female panel -mount F
Construction that you encounter in your work can connector
The parts layout is not critical, and be installed in the tester and wired in BZ1 -PC -mount piezo buzzer
the tester can be built into any con- parallel with the existing jacks. The B1 -9 -volt battery
43/4 x 21/2 x 1Y16 inch plastic case,
venient box. However, suggest that connection between J3 and J4 al-
9 -volt battery snap and holder, 6 -32
I

you use a plastic case (such as the lows cables with a phono plug on x 3/8 nuts and bolts, test probe, al-
one specified in the Parts List) since one end and an F connector on the ligator clip, shielded lead with pho-
the normally grounded sections of other to be tested for continuity. no plug on one end.
the test jacks do not all connect to a Proper polarity must be observed 83
 What Do These Prestigious
Companies Have, In Common?
Leadership in electronics is not

Aerovox LIAM
m,tRnín just a matter of designing
products better and
DC him and RFISuppression Capacitors, Aluminum
manufacturing them better, but
Electrolytic and AC Oil Capacitors, EMI Filters Dale Electronics, Inc. Fixed Ceramic Capacitors, Variable Capacitors and

Resistors, Networks, Oscillators, Displays,

Resistors, Crystal Oscillators, Ceramic Filters, also of marketing them better.

AMP
Electrical/Electronic Connectors, IC Sockets,
Inductors, Thermistors, Connectors, &

Transformen

DI
Resonators, EMI Filters, Hybrid Circuits and more.

Panasonic
Industrial Company
And the sponsors of this

message understand that better

service to customers requires

PCB Switches
INDUSTRIES. INC.
Resistors, Resistor Networks, Ceramic, Film,

Batteries: Computer, Cordless Phone, Laptop, Electrolytic, Double Layer Capacitors,

effectively involving distributors
Scanner, Alarm and Medical Potentiometers, Switches, Inductors, Filters,
as part of their marketing
M Antennas: Cordless Phone and Scanner Resonators, Varistors, Thermistors
RAD Engineering. Inc. teams.

Motor Run Capacitors, HID Lighting Capacitors,

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Resistors, Ferrite Components lower prices, quicker deliveries,

Alluminum Electrolytic, Film & Ceramic Capacitors
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Miniature and Subminature Coaxial

E:TN
Eaton Corporation, Commercial They sell
Buyer wins...the Seller wins.

Connectors and Cable Assemblies.

& Military Controls Operation
Switches, Relays, Displays and Keyboards
through Distributors help achieve

/AM( CORPORATION
distributors. marketing leadership. So

the manufacturer's involvement

does

MLC, Tantalum and Thin Film Capacitors, Resistors,

Networks, Integrated Passive Components,
They belong in the Components Group of

Trimmers, Oscillators, Resonators, Filters, Piezo

Devices, and Connectors
ELECTRONICS
Quartz Crystals, Clock Oscillators. Surface Mount
Products, Programmable Devices
to the F.I.A. the Electronic Industries
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BERG-
ELECTRONICS GERNSBACK on. your industry standards, and the
T
T
PUBLICATION
vendor list. sharing of ideas, which helps
High Density and Industry Standard

Connectors /Subsystems Electronics Now Magazine one another and serves

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CAROL V GUARDIAN Quam

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 Earn $1000
ing conductor and /or its shielding.
RAIN FOREST RESCUE: For the test, leave one end of the A Week While You Learn High
cable plugged into an "A" jack and Paying VCR Repair.
To HELP SAVE TIE BIRDS
plug the free end into the matching ...
Earn While You Learn
OUTSIDE YOUR WINDOW "B" jack. A continuous tone indi- Secrets Revealed ...
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Train at Home
Every spring, millions of colorful conductor and shield plug connec- If you are able to
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forest. They winter in the rain forests eral times, particularly in the area hand tools and pos-
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86
 OFF -LINE REGULATORS
continued from page 73
solder to improve solder "wet-
ting" to component leads and
prevent corrosion of exposed
copper traces.
Take precautions to prevent - Ca-
damage to semiconductor de- C2
vices from electrostatic dis- C3
-131 -6
charge (ESD) when handling D1

them. Handle those parts on a

conductive surface, and attach NOTES: 01 FASTENED TO HEATSINK
a grounded wrist strap to your FI MOUNTED IN CLIP

wrist. Do all soldering with a 20 FIG. 6 -PARTS PLACEMENT for the 8- to 12-volt, 100 -milliampere off -line regulator
to 40 -watt, grounded-tip solder- D1
ing iron. 1144003
Refer to the parts placement
diagram Fig. 6. Begin circuit ICI
LR645N3
IC2
0M7805A1H O
board assembly by inserting O
OUTPUT
and soldering bridge rectifier INPUT
5VDC
24 TO 277VAC
BR1, observing the correct pin íT Cl
orientation. Then insert and 1.0 T
C2
0.01
solder swamping diode D1, ob- 1

serving its correct cathode loca- +5VDC RETURN

tion. Next, install and solder an 7- PRECISION 5 -VOLT off-line regulator.

.t
FIG.
eight -pin DIP socket for ICI
(LR645N4), observing the cor- J J
rect pin locations.
Locate a square mica elec-
trical insulator on the drilled
hole for mounting the LM7805
voltage regulator IC2 and fasten
the Jieatsink tab of its TO -220
package with a screw through
f \ o

the insulator and circuit board

and a lockwasher and nut. Sol-
der the three pins. It is recom-
mended that a heatsink be
placed on IC2 when the total
current drawn exceeds 30 mill -
amperes. 7
Caution: MOSFET Q1 must
4 1/4 INCHES
be insulated from the copper-
foil traces and external heatsink FOIL PATTERN for the 5 -volt, 100 -milliampere off-line regulator
because up to 170 volts will be
present on Q1 when it's powered meter. Caution: If you do not the correct voltage readings as
from the 120 -volt line. electrically isolate Q1 from IC2 specified, disconnect AC power
Position the external heat - the supply will be destroyed! to the off -line regulator imme-
sink (rated at 8.3° C /watt) on the Insert and solder the elec- diately. Failure to do so promptly
circuit board at the location for trolytic capacitors C2 and C4, could result in injury to you and
MOSFET Q1, place a square after verifying that their polar- destruction of the circuit. Thou -
mica (polyester) insulator on ity and pin orientation are cor- bleshoot and make all needed
the heatsink and fasten the rect. Then insert and solder film repairs before reapplying AC
TO -220 heatsink tab of Q1 with capacitor Cl and ceramic disc power. Do not use a reversible
a screw though the tab, in- capacitor C4. Insert and solder line cord or a line cord whose
sulator, external heatsink and the eight -pin in -line header J1. ground pin has been removed
circuit board with a screw, lock- Insert and solder the two sepa- because of their potential shock
washer and nut. Solder the rate clips for the fast-blow, '/4- hazard.
three pins. ampere fuse Fl. Insert ICI in its Connect a polarized AC line
After installing Ql and IC2, socket. cord and at pins 7 and 8 of the
verify that there is no electrical board mounted header J1. (An
continuity between the mount- Power -up and check -out optional DPDT switch Si can be
ing tab with a digital multi- Warning: If you do not obtain inserted as shown in Fig. 5. Ver- 87
 former that meets all the re- This represents the worst
PARTS LIST quirements for testing off-line case situation for the regulator.
voltage regulators. If a lower voltage were applied
Voltage regulator, 8 to 12 volts
(See Fig. 5)
If you do not have a 120 -volt (i.e., 24 volts AC) the result
AC to 120 -volt AC isolation would be a lower power dissipa-
Capacitors
C1 -10.F, 250 volts
transformer, locate one that has tion across Q1:
C2-4711F, 35 volts a 120 -volt AC primary and a PD = (VIN VOUT) x I
C3--10µF, 35 volts minimum 24 -volt AC secondary PD = (30- 9)x(100)
C4-0.01µF, 500 volts rated for 300 milliamperes. The PD = 2.1 watts
Semiconductors transformer specified in the The author tested MOSFET
BR1- bridge rectifier, 1 amp, 200 parts list can be purchased Q1 to verify its ability to operate
Ply, DIP style from electronics parts dis- to 100 milliamperes with an in-
D1-1N4003 silicon diode, 200 PIV tributors or retail stores. Apply put voltage of 150 volts DC. This
IC1-LR645N4 linear regulator, the AC to the polarized plug as was done by placing a 50 -ohm,
DIP, Supertex shown in Fig. 5. 1 -watt resistor across the 5 -volt
1C2- LM340T5 (7805) 5 -volt, Carefully measure and verify DC output and operating the
TO -220, National Semiconductor the voltages with a DC voltmeter regulator for one hour. The reg-
or equiv. referenced to pin 2 of bridge ulator functioned satisfactorily.
Q1- DN2540N5, MOSFET, BR1 at the following points with However, if the regulator is to
TO-220, Supertex a 120 -volt- to- 120 -volt isolation operate under continuous full
Other components transformer in place: load current, it is recommended
J1- header, vertical, 8 -pin, single Approximately 150 volts DC that the regulator be placed in
row, 0.10 -inch centers, AMP or at pin 1 of BR1 an aluminum case with wall
equiv.
S1- switch, DPDT, (optional) 125 9tolo volts DCat pin 4ofIC1 thickness of at least 0.090 -inch
VAC, 10 amps
Approximately 5 volts DC at with a solid, surface of less than
T1- transformer 120 VAC to 24 pin 3 of IC2 8 square inches. Heatsink
VAC, standard, 25.2 center tap With a 120 -volt -to-24 -volt AC MOSFET Q1 to the enclosure
secondary, 450 mA transformer the voltage at pin 1 wall.
F1 -fuse, 1 amp, fast -acting of BR1 should be approximately The metal enclosure must
Precision voltage regulator (See 30 volts DC. The voltages mea- permit constant air exchange
Fig. 7) sured at pin 4 of IC1 and pin 3 of for ventilation and be grounded
Capacitors IC2 should be the same as those to the ground line of the three -
C1 -1µF, 250 volts measured with the 120 -volt- prong power plug, as shown in
C2-0.011,..F, 35 volts to -24 -volt transformer. Fig. 5. Consider improving the
Semiconductors If all voltage measurements air circulation with a miniature
D1-1N4003 silicon diode, 200 PIV are correct, disconnect the AC tubeaxial cooling fan rated for at
IC1- LR645N3 linear regulator, power, and allow adequate time least 30 cubic feet per minute
TO -92 plastic, Supertex for C1 to self- discharge. If you (cfm).
IC2-OM7805AIH precision volt- are unable to obtain the correct The final output of the reg-
age regulator, Omni or equiv. voltages, remove the input AC ulator under no load was 4.96
Miscellaneous: circuit board; proj- and examine the circuit board volts DC. Under full load corídi-
ect enclosure (optional, see text); for improperly located or sol- tions (100 milliamperes) and
heatsink (Thermalloy No.7020 or dered components and make after 1 hour of operation, the
equiv.); mica or fiberglass in-
sulators for semiconductors; 120-
any corrections necessary. output was 4.83 volts DC. A
volt AC polarized line cord with 3-
50.4 -ohm load resistor was in-
pin plug; PC-mount fuse clips, Regulating the output stalled in the circuit.
nuts, bolts and lockwashers, sol- MOSFET Q1 (DN2540N5) is
der. Note: Sample LR6 linear rated for 15 watts. The input to Precision regulator
regulators and MOSFETs, data Q1 at 120 volts, 60 Hz AC is Refer to the schematic for the
sheets, application notes, and about 150 volts DC. The output precision regulator, Fig. 7. The
information can be obtained of Q1 should be between 9 and AC input is applied directly to
from Supertex, Inc., 1350 Bor- 10 volts DC. Therefore, by apply- diode Dl. The half-wave rec-
deaux Drive., Sunnyvale, CA ing the values given, the power tified DC is then applied directly
94089 drop across Q1 can be calculated to filter capacitor Cl and then to
for any current drain when 120 - the three -terminal LR645N3
ify thatthe AC "hot" side is con- volt AC line power is applied. fixed regulator IC1.
nected to Pin -8. With an The power dissipated by Q1 at The 10 -volt DC output of ICI
isolation transformer between 100 milliamperes is determined appears across stabilization ca-
the AC line and the plug, power- as follows: pacitor C2. The 10 -volt DC is
up the assembly. PD = (VIN VOUT x I then applied to the post -reg-
The article "Build An Isola- PD = (150 9 x 100 ) ulator IC, an Omni 0M7805AIH
tion Transformer" by Doyle PD = 14.1 watts precision regulator that will
Whisenant, January 1995 Elec- Where: PD equals power dissi- provide 5 -volt DC output ± 0.05
tronics Now, page 62, explains pated, voltage is in volts DC, volts DC.
88 how to build an isolation trans- and current is in milliamperes This circuit is useful for mak-
ing transimpedance (current to
voltage) measurements and
providing precise offset refer-
ences for single-ended opera-
tional amplifier buffer circuits.
feeds of ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox,
it doesn't necessarily carry the
broadcasts of local affiliates or inde-
pendents. So to have complete re-
ception, viewers must have either a
AL i
However, the circuit cannot
supply more than 5 volts at 3
regular broadcast antenna or basic
cable service in addition to DSS.
CABLE TV
milliamperes. Verify that you The DSS system currently is re- DESCRAMBLERS
have carefully calculated the
total current demand of any cir-
ceiving 175 channels from two sat-
ellites, with a third bird scheduled WE'LL BEAT
cuitry you want to connect to
this regulator. st
for launch later this year. The sys-
tem is being upgraded to MPEG -2
ANY PRICES
specifications this year, with Dolby
CALL TOLL-FREE
AC -3 audio to be added as well.
When Sony starts to offer competi-
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was offered only by cable oper- .5U hZ71Htl1I SALES

continued from page 6 ators, but a retail effort is now being CIRCLE 129 ON FREE INFORMATION CARD
mounted as well.
Thomson says it has back orders for
400,000 receivers. At that point, Commercial -killing VCR. Choose from 46
Sony becomes the second brand to Coming this spring: A VCR that Career Opportunities!
offer receivers, and Thomson ex- really kills commercials. RCA has Get Your Specialized Associate Degree
become the first licensee to build a or Career Diploma at Home in Spare lime
pects a shortage of receivers to last Now without attending college class-
until them. After Sony, the second unique system into VCRs that cen- es and with no previous experience,
licensee, enters the field, Thomson sors commercial. When the record- you can train for a money- making
career...even get a Degree. Send for
concedes that the product will be er makes a tape from a broadcast or free facts and color brochure on
employment opportunities in the field
subject to an "aggressive price cable program, it automatically re- that interests you most See how easy
curve." winds it to the beginning and fast it is to train at home for a great career,d
or advancement in your present job. MI
The success of DSS has sur- forwards to the start of the first
prised some critics, because it com- commercial break (whose location 1- 800 -595
-24
-5505 Ext.
CALL ANYi1ME
7164=
x
hours a day. 7 days a week
petes directly with cable, which has been memorized on the VCR's OR MAIL COUPON TODAY!
doesn't require the basic equipment tape counter based on visual and Ìru cs
International Correspondence Schools Ì
s^'®e Dept. ADES35S, 925 Oak Street, Scranton. PA 18515
investment. It was expected to suc- audio cues). The VCR then encodes Please send me free facts. color brochure and full information
on how can study at home for the career I have chosen.
ceed in areas without cable service. commercial -start and -end signals I

No obligation. No salesman wiN visit. CHECK ONE BOX ONLYI

But in many areas where cable is on the tape's control track. It con- ASSOCIATE IN SPECIALIZED
BUSINESS DEGREE PROGRAMS
ASSOCIATE IN SPECIALIZED
TECHNOLOGY DEGREE PROGRAMS
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Mechanical Engineering Txh
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using the service as a substitute, ed commercials to the end of the OD
o
Bus.
Bus. Mgmt.- Marketing Option O Electronics Technology
Applied Computer Science O Industrial Engineering Technology
praising the clarity of its digitally tape, and then rewinds. On play- CAREER DIPLOMA COURSES
O High School O Motorcycle Repair
transmitted image and the service's back, the VCR goes into the for- O Auto Mechanics O Catering/Gourmet Cooking
O Surveying and Mapping o Computer Programming
ability to free them from the woes of ward search mode during the o
o
Personal Computer Specialist
D
O Air Conditioning a Reingeration Computer-Assisted Bookkeeping
dealing with their current cable com- commercials, while a blue field Wildlife/Forestry Conservation
Fashion Merchandising
O PC Repair
o Desktop Publishing 3 Design

panies. The DSS system delivers masks the picture. The end signal O Diesel Mechanics
Electrician
Secretarryy with Computer
O Fitness 8 Nutrition
the same programming as cable, puts the VCR back in the play O
O
Small Business Management
Gun Repair
O TV/VCR Repair
o Animal Care Specialist

mode. Thus, instead of a commer- o Electronics Photography

and it has a higher channel capacity o HnrelRestaurant Management D .uuma1ismlShort Story Wring
o child Day Care o Florist
than most cable systems. It also cial, the viewer sees a blank blue o Legal Assistant o Teacher Aide
Interior Decorating o Medical Transcriptionist
offers a near video -on- demand ser- screen for a maximum of 30 sec- o Medial On ice Assistant o Professional Locksmithing
o Bookkeeping Appkance Repair
vice for movies, as well as 28 chan- onds, according to Arthur D. Little Name Age

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Phone ( f J
 Unauthorized Windows
JEFF HOLTZMAN

Wendows. Can't live with it,

can't live without it. But RING 3 (SYSTEM VM)
what is it? What is its rela-
tionship to DOS? Is it an operating WIN32
system, as Microsoft has in recent APP SYSTEM WIN16
RING 3 RING 3
years started to claim? Or is it sim- SERVICES: APP
(MS -DOS (MS-DOS
ply an oversized branch grafted WIN32 VM) VM)
APP
onto that spindly old twig, DOS? KERNEL WIN16
And what about DOS, the 16 -bit GRAPHICS APP
WIN32 WINDOW MGMT
hanger-on in the emerging 32 -bit APP
world? Will Windows 95 really and
truly and finally put DOS out of its
misery-and ours? RING 0
A new book, Unauthorized Win-
dows 95 (UAW95), by Andrew PROTECT -MODE FILE SYSTEM VIRTUAL MACHINE MANAGER
VFAT, CDFS, SCSI, NETWORK PAGER, SCHEDULER, DPMI SERVER
Schulman provides the definitive an-
swers to all those questions. The
book is difficult to understand. It as-
sumes the reader has knowledge
FIG. 1 -EVEN UNDER WINDOWS 95, all GUI applications are multitasked in a single
about Intel CPU architecture, DOS process, potentially against several independent DOS tasks. The good news is that
interrupt services, other DOS inter- device drivers now load as VxDs (Virtual Device Drivers) in protected mode, thus
nals-oh yes, and equal under- potentially providing better performance, better reliability, more conventional memo-
standing of the Windows architec- ry for legacy DOS programs, and no more juggling memory configuration to squeeze
ture and programming model. everything in!
Shulman provides cursory coverage
of some background material, but if theless, am going to devote this
I write a program (in C, assembler, or
you don't know what Int 21h is, or column to it. In so doing, hope I both), "hook" it into the DOS inter-
the various Intel CPU modes, this either to convince you of the merit rupt- handling structure. He then
difficult book will be impenetrable. of Schulman's argument, or to in- monitors the output it produces in
The author, Andrew Schulman, is spire you to read his book and de- various environments, including
one of just a few recognized, inde- cide for yourself. both the unreleased Windows 95
pendent (of Microsoft) DOS/Win- What will do is threefold: 1) Dis-
I (formerly known as Chicago), and
dows gurus. Schulman appeared as cuss his methodology, the kinds of several prior versions of Windows,
an expert witness in the Stac vs. thinking he does to arrive at his con- including 3.0, 3.1, and 3.11 (Win-
Microsoft case. He has written clusions, although not the thoughts dows for WorkGroups). He also dis-
other books on undocumented fea- themselves, as they depend on cusses how some architectural
tures of DOS and Windows. And he highly technical and lengthy chains features date, in embryonic form, all
edits a column called the "Undocu- of logic; 2) Summarize the DOS/ the way back to Windows /386.
mented Corner" for a first -rate pro- Windows picture that arises; and 3)
grammer's magazine called Dr. Discuss the importance of his find- Will the real OS stand up?
Dobbs Journal. Schulman knows ings. For details, see the book. Until publication of UAW95, most
his stuff. In fact, the January 1995 By the way, there are actually two people, if they thought about it at all,
issue of Dr. Dobbs published a high- versions of the book. The one sub- considered DOS to be the operat-
ly condensed summary of titled "Developers Resource Kit" ing system with Windows merely an
Schulman's argument by Schulman comes with a floppy disk containing application that ran on top of it.
himself (p. 127f). source and executable code for Looking a little closer, many said
In the 600 -page book, Schulman most of the monitoring programs in that DOS handled disk and file /0, I

spells. out in excruciating detail his the book. It also contains a so -so whereas Windows handled video,
vision of what constitutes DOS, CD full of trial and demo versions of memory, and just about everything
what constitutes Windows, the rela- various programming tools. else.
tionship between the two, and how UAW95 paints a totally different,
he arrived at the picture. can't hope
I
Methodology yet highly compelling picture. This
90 to do justice to UAW95 here. None- Schulman's typical tactic is to picture directly and deliberately
contradicts the picture painted by operating system; DOS plays only a of as Windows -and all Windows
both Microsoft and the computer subservient role, one that has been applications run in another V86 pro-
press, which usually bases its de- in steady decline since the 386 En- cess, the System VM (Virtual Ma-
scriptions on uncritical adoption of hanced Mode was introduced with chine). The System VM and all DOS
the Microsoft party line. There are Windows 3.0. To be more specific, a VMs run at CPU Ring 3. The fact
two critical points to comprehend component of Windows called the that all Windows programs run in
about the controversy: Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) is the same process means that there
DOS is alive and well, and what assumes the lowest level of is less protection among them; any
Windows is a real operating sys- control over all system resources. In one that crashed could take them all
tem. Schulman's words (p. 82), "VMM is down. NT runs all GUI tasks as sep-
the Windows operating system." arate processes, thus providing bet-
DOS is not dead As shown in Fig. 1, the VMM is a ter overall protection, but at the cost
First, contrary to what Microsoft piece of code that runs in Ring 0 of of performance.
and nearly everyone else is saying, the microprocessor's protected The Ring 0 VMM controls all ac-
DOS is not dead. The two system mode. Recall that 386 and later Intel cess to memory, I/O ports, and in-
files (IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS) CPUs have three modes: Real, Pro- terrupts -both hardware and soft-
that contain DOS have been com- tected, and V86. Real mode is what ware. The VMM's control over
bined and renamed (WIN - the original 8088/8086 CPUs ran. software interrupts is what allows it
BOOT.SYS). This new system file Real mode allows access to MB of
1 to grab control from DOS and se-
has been given the ability to launch memory. Protected mode, intro- lectively perform various tasks it-
Windows automatically, so that un- duced with the 286, provides ac- self, or pass them on to DOS to
der normal conditions, the user nev- cess to more memory (16 MB on perform. The mechanism is based
er sees a DOS prompt during a the 286; 4 GB on most later CPUs), on software components called Vir-
boot. However, it's easy to circum- has a different mechanism for ac- tual Device Drivers (VxDs), which
vent the auto - boot -to- Windows fea- cessing memory, and provides a are, in Shulman's words, the TSRs
ture, and boot directly to a much more sophisticated means of of the 90's."
command line. Justadd a PAUSE controlling what happens when in- Even when the VMM passes a
statement to the end of your AUTO - terrupts occur, illegal opcodes are task on to DOS, DOS does not ex-
EXEC.BAT, and when it prompts you encountered, and I/O ports and ecute it in the microprocessor's real
to press a key, press Ctrl -C. You'll memory are accessed. V86 mode is mode, but rather in a protected VM.
end up at the DOS 7 /Windows 4.0 a form of protected mode that pro- There can thus be very complex se-
command line. vides the same MB address space
1 quences of events when a nominal
Of course, the presence or ab- as the original 8088, but with the DOS call is made by either a DOS
sence of a command -line interface advantage of full protected -mode or a Windows program. However,
does not, in and of itself, mean that control over interrupts, I/O ports, tracing even a single example of that
DOS is either present or absent. illegal opcodes, and memory. kind of event chain far exceeds avail-
However, it is a visible indication that Shulman shows how, under sev- able space.
things are changing. Less visible, eral versions of Windows, you can Nonetheless, can provide a fla-
I

but more relevant, are hundreds of create simple batch files to run the vor of how it works. For example, a
DOS Application Program Interface VMM all by itself to get an "ex- DOS character-mode application
(API) calls. Of course, they're still tended" version of character-mode could issue a call that is serviced by
there; the question is whether Win- DOS that allows direct access to underlying Ring 0 Win95 code run-
dows or DOS is what's on the other many, many megabytes of memory, ning in 32 -bit protected mode. Con-
sode of the "I" in that API. As we all through standard DOS API calls versely, a Windows program could
learn from UAW95, however, it's not that under normal circumstances issue a DOS call that is serviced by
a question of DOS or Windows; it's can never provide more than about plain old DOS running in a 640K
a question of both. The real ques- 600K of memory. VM. In fact, a given call could
tions are: which calls are handled by Another interesting charac- bounce back and forth several times
Windows, which by DOS" how teristic of the V86 mode is that un- between one or more VMs and the
does DOS handle them, and just der control of a proper multitasking full 32 -bit protected mode VMM.
what is DOS. operating system, multiple V86 ma- Further, it is even possible for that
If Windows itself handled all chines can be active simulta- ultra -protected Ring 0 code to ex-
those calls (as NT does), it would be neously, along with one system - ecute DOS VM code. In fact, all
fair to say that DOS was gone. But level control program. This is, in three kinds of events happen all the
Shulman demonstrates con- fact, how Windows (and OS /2 for time while Win95 is running.
clusively that DOS still handles nu- that matter) runs DOS and Win-
merous calls, and for reasons of dows programs. Under Windows' Whither DOS?
compatibility, that is a good feature Enhanced Mode, you can start one The bottom line here is that DOS
of DOS. or several DOS boxes simulta- is not dead. Its role has pro-
neously. Each is a separate V86 gressively diminished, but even in
Windows is the OS process. In addition, both the Win- Windows 95, which supposedly
Second, Windows really is the dows GUI-what we normally think does away with DOS, numerous 91
 DOS calls are still executed by The Pentium bug than 200 people, and has dozens of
DOS running in a protected 386 With the attention given to Intel engineers working with client MCM
VM. Windows 95 and Enhanced by the nontechnical media, it's un- and hybrid designs.
Mode Windows (all versions) are likely that anyone could have Multichip modules are individual
true 32 -bit operating systems and missed hearing about the infamous electronic packages that contain
have been so since Windows 3.0 Intel division error. Just in case, I've multiple ICs and passive devices.
was released in May of 1990.
Microsoft would like people to
believe that DOS is dead. DOS
assembled a file of information and
test programs; see PENT
BUG.ZIP on the BBS
- Hybrid circuits usually contain dis-
crete devices. Both contain devices
in packaged or die form, bonded to
rightly scares people who have no (516- 293 -2283, v.32, v.42bis). a ceramic substrate or printed cir-
interest in learning about installing On a related note, you've proba- cuit board. The circuits function as
peripherals or managing memory. bly seen Intel's Nine Lives adver- RF power amplifiers and front ends
Corporate information departments tisement in which there are three for wireless communications, active
expend all sorts of resources re- groups of nine cats. That first group filters, fiber-optic drivers and re-
solving DOS compatibility prob- is labeled "386," and all nine cats ceivers, analog -to- digital convert-
lems. Hence Microsoft has a vested are covered by big red Ks. The sec- ers, and ATE components such as
interest in making it seem as if DOS ond group is labeled "486," and pin drivers and attenuators.
were gone. seven of the cats are crossed off. Formed last summer, Maxtek is
One key component of the W95 The third is labeled Pentium, and the descendent of the Tektronix
architecture is called "Plug 'n' prior to discovery of the bug, none MCM and hybrid facility, which pro-
Play." PnP is supposed to provide were crossed off. My question is: duced more than eight million de-
Macintosh -like ease in system how many lives did this cost the vices since it opened in the early
(re)configuration. Just insert or re- Pentium? To help ensure truth in ad- 1970s. The MCM- and -hybrid facility
move a peripheral, reboot, and the vertising, contact Intel's marketing developed unique capabilities to
system makes any required adjust- department with the correct meet the needs of Tektronix, a man-
ments. That's the goal, anyway. At- number of Ks. ufacturer of measurement equip-
taining that goal, however, will be Comments to jkh @acm.org. n ment, color printers. video sys-
difficult, because of the huge tems, and network display prod-
number of existing PCs and pe- ucts.
ripherals. It is a certainty that com-
WHAT'S NEWS
One Tektronix need is "active
patibility problems will not go away continued from page 4 trim," the process of using lasers to
when W95 is finally released (latest change timing parameters, on a de-
estimate is now August of this year). radio stations for a "financial free vice while it is running. Maxim, a
The only question is whether PnP fall." The organization, which developer in the development of
on new systems will really work as serves and represents America's ra- analog ICs for data -acquisition and
advertised. Meanwhile, don't plan dio and TV stations and all the major control systems as well as for high -
on losing your knowledge of the broadcast networks, contends that frequency semi -custom arrays and
PC /DOS system architecture. a satellite radio service would chase full custom designs, brings a world-
away national advertising dollars wide sales and marketing presence
Ramifications end dilute local audiences, threaten- to the new company.
Shulman makes a number of ing the profitability of the local radio Maxtek's expansion targets the
compelling points. I'll let him speak stations. military/aerospace, ATE, communi-
for himself on one of particular inter- The NAB is pressing the FCC to cations, data -acquisition, and OEM
est: "Windows supports general - adopt an overall policy for digital ra- markets. Maxtek's engineers help
purpose non- Microsoft applications dio service before considering indi- circuit designers integrate complex
in the same way that a rope can be vidual applications for a narrower analog /mixed signal functions with
said to support someone who will digital service such as satellite ra- multiple ICs into single device pack-
soon be hanged. Your product may dio. A digital radio service that oper- ages, said Peter Guest, president of
be a Microsoft DLL just waiting to ates within the AM and FM bands is the company. iZ
happen." (p. 11) expected to be demonstrated to the
Second, and related, is the idea, public at the 1995 NAB convention
discussed here many times in the in April.
past, that the operating system is
gradually growing to encompass Maxim and Tektronix form
nearly every software component of new company
value. Extending the concept, Shul- Maxim Integrated Products, Inc.
man quotes an unnamed source and Tektronix Inc. have formed Max -
who asserts that "Microsoft Office tek Components Corporation, to
is the operating system, and Visual develop and manufacture custom,
Basic the API." high- frequency multichip modules
Lotus who? Borland who? Novell (MCMs) and hybrids. Maxtek is
92 who? ISO 9001 certified, employs more
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107 All Electronics
85

98
For Advertising ONLY
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GREAT DEAL! 199 Best Proto 18

SURFACE MOUNT 109 C &S Sales 32 Larry Steckler

publisher
SPEAKERS 129 Cable Warehouse 89
Arline Fishman
CLAGGK Video 74 advertising director
These surface mount speakers were designed
for use with car stereo, but they will work as CLAGGK Inc 62 Denise Mullen
well, or better as intercom or communications
speakers in your home or workshop. 4 ", 4 advertising assistant
Cleveland Institute of Elec l I

ohm, speakers mounted in an Kelly Twist

unbreakable black plastic, slant- Command Productions 79
faced enclosure, they are
credit manager
rated 5 watts. Comtrad Industries 1, 16
Subscriber Customer Service
Enclosure
1- 800 -288 -0652
measures EIA 84
4.82 "X
4.5" X Electronic Tech. Today 86 Order Entry for New Subscribers
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Each pair is 121 Fluke Corporation CV2
7:00 AM - 6:00 PM M -F MST
boxed and includes two
short pieces of hook -up wire.
75 182 Foley-Belsaw Company 85
CAT # SK-411
vp3
per pair
Grantham College 81

MINIATURE TOGGLE ADVERTISING

197 Hewlett Packard 13 SALES OFFICES
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' 89
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PC terminals. Stanley Levitan
25 126 Interactive Image Technologies 25 Eastern Advertising
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But don't just take our word for it...

purchased the Scout... WHAT A 400 Frequency Memory with 250
NIT! VERY IMPRESSED!!!" Hit Counter
Allen Wilde - Littleton, MA
Sleep Mode to prevent data loss
take my Scout with me every- when battery dies
here - it's very effective in mobile
Reaction Tune - will tune a reciever
se, either in the car or on foot. I
with CI -V port in .01 seconds
commend a Scout over another
:canner when adding to your collec- Beeper and Vibrator Signal
'on... the most effective device so indicator
r from Opto for the Scannist."
Steve Dawkins - Pensacola. FL Digital Filter and Auto Capture

his is a breakthrough product in CI -V Serial Data Port

veryway... KUDOS!"
Software for uploading
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Frequencies to a PC included

18811W TO 7 8 GM FREQUENCY SCOUT 16 Segment Signal Level Bargraph

The Scout is AWESOME -the folks
OPTO keep coming up with 10MHz to 2.8GHz Frequency Range
POWER FILTER
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ON
SLEEP
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Gordon West 7 Hour Battery Operation

Gordon West Radio School AC CMG OFF OFF GATE Maximized Sensitivity for maxmum
cantastic" antenna pick -up
Brad Schroeder - Omaha, N -° CAL
SCOUT-. S449.00

PTI0 Option 1: Mini DB32 Ant....$29.00 Option 2: AC100 Rapid Charger....$39.00 Option 3: Spectrum -CD ROM....$39.00

Scout SPECTRUM -CD ROM Scout Reaction -Tune

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 DC-2000 MHz

AMPLIFIERS
f rom ea. (gb.50)
In plastic and ceramic packages, for low -cost solutions to dozens of Freq. GAIN MAX. Pc.-wer NF Price
(MHz) (Typ. dB) ®1 dB Comer.) dB $ea.
application requirements, select Mini -Circuits surface mount or flatpack wide -
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MODEL DC TO At 100MHz dBm (TYP.) (Qty. 50)

band monolithic amplifiers. For example, cascade three MAR-2 monolithic
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amplifiers and end up with a 25dB gain, 0.3 to 2000MHz amplifier for less than MAR -1 1000 18.5
4.5 1.35
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$4.50. Design values and circuit board layout available on request. MAR MAR -3 2000 12.5 10.0 6.0 1.45
ft's just as easy to create an amplifier that meets other specific needs, whether MAR -4 1000 8.3 12.5 6.5 1.55
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page RF/IF Designer's Handbook or available from our applications department.
All Mini -Circuits amplifiers feature tight unit -to -unit repeatability, high reliability, a g
RAM
RAM-1
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RAM -6 2000 20.0 2.0 2.8 *6.40
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MAV MAV -2 1500 12.5 4.5 6.5 1.40
DESIGNER'S KIT, KH -1 available only $59.95 includes:
MAV -3 1500 12.5 10.0 6.0 1.50
40 AMPLIFIERS'10 MAR -1, 10 MAR -3, 10 MAR-4, 10 MAR -8 1.60
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150 CAPACITORS* 50 100pf, 50 1,000pf, 50 10,000pf Typical Circuit Arrangement
740 page RF /IF DESIGNER'S HANDBOOK MAV -5SM 50 -1500 8.0 18.0 6.5 2.07
Rbias ,.
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ELECTRONIC ATTENUATORS l &Q/QPSK MODULATORS VAM -3 2000 11.5 9.0 6.0 1.45
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VAM -6 2000 19.5 2.0
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Values or models may be substituted without notice, suffix to model number and 54 to price. Example: MAR- 25M...$1.40.
depending on supplies. MAV -5SM available plastic surface mount ony.
finding new ways ... RAM MODELS: Ceramic surface mount.
VAM MODELS: Plastic surface mount.
setting higher standards

Mìnì- Circuits WE ACCEPT AMERICAN EXPRESS AND VISA

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