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Issue #232 November 2009
You're Covered
by C. J. Abate
If you need it, we’ve got it. Whether you are looking for solutions to design problems, helpful programming tips, ideas for exciting new projects, or insight on the new technologies coming down the pipe, Circuit Cellar has you covered. That is our main objective, and it always has been. Ask any staffer who has been around since Issue 1 and you’ll find that we’ve always considered ourselves a “one-stop shop” for everything embedded. But this month we’ve outdone ourselves. How? We literally have something for everyone. Linux lovers, C language devotees, surveillance enthusiasts, power-hungry design engineers, innovative embedded network developers, signal theory buffs, and do-it-yourselfers who love popping open MCU-based gadgets and repurposing them for exciting new applications—we’ve got you covered! Heck, we even have a project for those of you who have metal lathe shops next to your circuit cellars!
In “Embedded Linux-Based Location System,” James Stephanick explains how to build a vehicle location device (p. 16). An ARM-based USB network storage link, a prepaid GSM cell phone, and a USB-GPS device comprise this handy location system.
Turn to page 26, where Noel Rios presents a switched-mode power supply design. With it, he can adjust voltage from 1 to 20 V and current from 0 to 1 A. He does this by entering the values on a keypad.
When precision matters, consider a linear encoder. Carl Stoesz explains how he mounted an optical linear encoder to a metal lathe that he uses to create small precision parts (p. 36). He uses the setup to send speed and displacement information to an LCD.
There’s a big difference between “hacking” and “repurposing.” Hacking is about deconstruction and investigation. Repurposing takes things a bit further: you take apart a design and use its features to create something new or improved. On page 44, Cyrille de Brebisson explains how to repurpose an HP financial calculator and use it for a variety of embedded design apps.
Check out George Martin’s “Passing Parameters” for yet another lesson from the trenches of C coding (p. 50). He makes a convincing argument for passing parameters in the first place, and then describes how to do so and get results.
Do you remember Dennis Seguine’s 2006 Circuit Cellar 194 article titled “Simplified FSK Signal Detection”? There he presented an efficient method for detecting FSK signals. This month he describes how to to generate FSK modulation with low-distortion and low-transition phase error (p. 54).
On page 60, Tom Cantrell presents a truly exciting concept: wireless power on a microelectronic scale. That means wireless power delivery! The future is now.
And lastly, we arrive at a topic important to everyone: device management. Jeff Bachiochi explains how to monitor networked devices via the simple network management protocol (SNMP). With the SNMP, you can keep build an MCU-based managed device to monitor numerous networked modules and log critical data (p. 66).
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