In this issue, you’ll find articles about two of the top prize-winning projects in the Motorola Flash Innovation 2003 Design Contest. Richard Dreher, of the U.S., took home Grand Prize for his Remote Observation Station (p. 26). Robert Lacoste, of France, won First Prize for his Smart Tracker 2 (p. 10). Both projects are designed around the Motorola MC68HC908QY4 microcontroller.

The impulse to start a project can come from surprising sources. I think our contests offer some incentive, but the real impetus is the entrants’ own drive and ambition to design something interesting, useful, and sometimes even groundbreaking. Richard was inspired to build his observation tower after hearing countless tales about the indigenous wildlife in northern Wisconsin. Viewing wild animals can prove difficult—even with binoculars—when you have to remain at a lengthy distance to keep from scaring them away. So, Richard wanted to figure out a way to see them clearly without getting physically close.

Building the observation tower was one thing, powering it was another. Electric power was illogical considering that the tower would be in the woods. Solar power would do the trick; however, that meant Richard needed an effective charge controller to handle the voltage swings inevitable with solar energy. Not wanting to trek to the station regularly to check on things, he needed something different—something better—than a standard controller. So, he designed a unique charge controller system that remotely monitors the charge level. Using wireless transmission, he was able to build an observation station that intrudes little on the landscape (keeping the wildlife at ease), and provides him a close-up view of Wisconsin black bears, timber wolves, and whitetail deer via his TV.

Practicality was the driving force behind Robert’s Smart Tracker 2. He endeavored to solve the wire question. Dealing with a rat’s nest of unidentified wires tries a person’s patience. Robert’s problem with off-the-shelf solutions is that they require you to identify a ground connection. Plus, the cost can exceed the average person’s budget. So, how do you untangle your mess of wires? Robert’s system consists of two boxes: the first is a 10-channel transmitter that sends test signals to the wires (up to 10), and the second contains a probe that can be connected to a pair of wires for identification. Notable benefits are, of course, that the system doesn’t need a ground connection, and that it can also identify short circuits. And yes, the wire tracker is inexpensive to build.

In addition to the Remote Observation Station and Smart Tracker 2, there are a number of other innovative and helpful projects in this issue. For example, Dick Cappels designed a digital lock-in milliohmmeter based on Atmel’s AT90S2313 microcontroller (p. 50). Like Richard and Robert, Dick had looked at off-the-shelf options, but decided they were too expensive. Still, he wanted a way to check the trace resistance on his PCBs, identify shorted traces, and measure the contact resistance of switches and connectors. With a microcontroller and an op-amp, Dick was able to inexpensively build his own milliohmmeter that effectively improves analog performance.