In the past couple years, authors have shown great interest in our Wireless Communication issue. People send us ideas for articles about wireless projects throughout the year, but there’s always an especially impressive showing of interest for this particular issue. This year, we received proposals on a wide selection of related topics, and the result is a collection of high-quality articles that we’re sure you’ll enjoy. The creative projects featured in this issue cover everything from wireless telemetry to thermography.

The Wireless Communication issue wouldn’t be complete without a discussion about ZigBee. ZigBee has been getting a lot of attention lately. Everyone seems to love it, but do they know all there is to know about it? In a two-part series starting this month, Pete Cross covers the basics and provides a thorough analysis of ZigBee (page 16). Anyone with unanswered questions about this standard won’t be disappointed with this read.

If you’re looking for workbench solutions, you’ll find Dick Cappels’s article particularly useful (page 24). Dick’s Atmel AVR-based project will remove some of the wire clutter from your workbench and generally make life easier. This coupler enables wireless connections among your pieces of equipment and PC. Dick designed this project to function using minimum controller resources and as few components as possible. The result is a high-quality, inexpensive system that’s useful for any workbench.

In addition to Dick’s project, we also have an AVR-based wireless telemetry system designed for formula racing (page 40). For their senior project, a group of four students at the University of Akron built an efficient and effective system to monitor a race car in real time from the pit. One of the main benefits of this ATmega8-based application is the flexibility of the software. Moreover, its adaptability makes it the perfect solution for a variety of data acquisition applications.

Temperature monitoring is essential in any number of manufacturing and laboratory settings. When you’re working with sensitive materials or a production line though, using a standard thermometer or sensors is often imprudent. Noncontact infrared thermometers are an effective solution. Brian Millier discusses the benefits of using Melexis’s IR thermography equipment in his latest article (page 30).

This month, we also have an article by Henry Jacobs about the XTstat, which is a Microchip PIC12F629-based wireless thermostat that controls X10-connected devices (page 74). The XTstat’s small size makes it ideal for situations that require a portable thermostat. Henry honestly discusses a valuable lesson many engineers learn the hard way: despite careful planning, the expense of a project can creep up. Sometimes you have to trade off a low-cost goal to achieve the kind of functionality and effectiveness you’re looking for.

Well, that’s all I have room to highlight this month. If you’re looking for something new to work on, this issue is chocked full of interesting projects to help you go wireless.

jennifer.huber@circuitcellar.com