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Issue #205 August 2007
Another Eclectic Mix
by C.J. Abate
Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the warm months of June, July, and August mark our summer season. During this time, many engineers exercise their vacation days at work and take some time to travel, relax, and spend time with their families. It’s also a time of contemplation. During the last two months, I’ve received dozens of e-mails from engineers who have been using their summer downtime to work on a wide range of projects. During the last few weeks in particular, I’ve read proposals and article submissions about a barometric altimeter, a ZigBee-based thermostat, and an “ultra-stable” precision frequency calibrator. These are the seeds of some great articles. We’re looking forward to working on them.
If you’ve been brainstorming during the last few months, we’d love to hear from you. A simple e-mail describing your project will do. As you know, our submission guidelines and editorial calendar are available at www.circuitcellar.com/submissions.
This issue offers an eclectic mix of articles touching on a variety of interesting topics. As usual, there is something for everyone, from retired engineers interested in new hardware apps to young grad students with a penchant for video games.
On page 14, Jingxi Zhang and Yang Zhang describe how they built an award-winning multifunctional oscilloscope. The design placed first in the highly competitive Luminary Micro DesignStellaris2006 Contest. After you read the article, go to www.circuitcellar.com/designstellaris2006/winners/winners.html to learn more about the project.
Ready for the next big thing in bicycling? On page 24, a team of designers from Camosun College describe an interesting electronic bicycle design that you can easily replicate on your workbench. It’s the perfect combination of manpower and machine power.
Have you ever played the Pyramid 2000 text game? In “Text Adventure Gaming” (p. 40), Chris Cantrell explains how to give it a go with a Parallax Propeller chip and his cog coordination language (CCL).
On page 48, Keith Brown describes how to build a handy PHP components database. The useful program enables you to log and track the parts you keep in your design space.
The last feature article is the first part of Steve Hendrix’s series entitled “1-Wire in the Real World” (p. 58). In this first installment, Steve, who is a great designer and an avid aviation enthusiast, explains the challenges associated with taking a 1-Wire deicing system for small aircraft from a laboratory prototype to a real-world application.
Finally, note that we’re happy to welcome Robert Lacoste to the Circuit Cellar columnist team. From 1998 to 2004, Robert wrote 10 feature articles for us. His first article, “PIC’s Spectrum: Audio Spectrum Analyzer,” appeared in issue 98. This month, we’re running Robert’s first column, “Let’s Play with EMI!” (p. 66). In the future, Robert’s column—“The Darker Side,” which is devoted to some of the lesser-known aspects of electronic design—will appear every other month.
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