#152 March 2003 Communications

Table of Contents Task Manager HCS II Evolution—by Jennifer Huber Priority Interrupt Hammers are for Wimps—by Steve Ciarcia New Product News—edited by John Gorsky —Feature Article of the Month— 2-D Optical Position Sensor Read it Now! by Roger Johnson & Chris Lentz Surprisingly, it isn’t too difficult or expensive to build a two-dimensional optical position measurement system. In this article, Roger and Chris show you how to do it. All you need is a PIC, LCD, and some analog gadgets to get moving on the perfect PSD project. p.10 Keywords: Optical, position, sensor, PSD, laser, PIC16F873, ADC, lateral-effect, centroid, duolateral, tetralateral, pincushion, photodiode Intelligent Light-Effects Controller for Entertainment Systems by Victor Kremin Unimpressed by the outmoded lighting systems used in many entertainment venues, Victor built an intelligent light-effects controller. In contrast to manually controlled systems, this high-tech award winner uses participants’ actual movements to create visual effects. p.20 Keywords: Lighting, effects, controller, visual, movement, Doppler, ultrasound, DMX, lamp, stepper, LNA, BPF, ADC, CY26443, PSoC, RS-485, AGC (If you have pop-ups disabled click here for password) MCS-51 SBC for the Classroom—Part 2: Software Development by Praveen Deshpande, Prajakta Deshpande Last month, Praveen and Prajakta challenged you to test some hardware and come up with a few embedded applications of your own. Now that you’ve had some time to think, they are going to show you how to implement a “retargetable” debugging monitor program. p.28 Keywords: SBC, 8051, AT89C51, C, debugging, RAM, ROM, monitor, user interface, context switch, assembler, disassembler (If you have pop-ups disabled click here for password) Updating the Home Control System—Part 1: FPGA Upgrade Board by Robert Morrison For years, home automation enthusiasts have been putting their time, energy, and expertise into the home control system. Following suit, Bob is updating the system and using an FPGA module to prepare for future enhancements like connections to Ethernet and the ’Net. p.40 Keywords: HCS II, FPGA, home automation, XV2000E, Verilog HDL, UART, voice, CID, keyboard, display (If you have pop-ups disabled click here for password) Build an MP3 Player by Jan Szymanski Now that Jan has put together a tutorial on building an MP3 player, you have an important decision to make: Should you buy an MP3 player or build your own? Sure, building one from scratch is more complicated, but it makes for a more interesting afternoon. p.46 Keywords: MP3 player, ISO11172-3, SmartMedia, power, MSP430F149, LCD, keypad, decoder, VS1001K (If you have pop-ups disabled click here for password) —Sponsored Article— Read it Now! Using Rotary Encoders as Input Devices by Brian Millier Numeric keypads aren’t the only options for your electronic instruments. You may save money by choosing the often-overlooked rotary encoder. Here, you’ll learn how rotary encoders work, how to connect them to a micro, and how to read them with the right code. p.54 Keywords: Rotary encoder, input, ADC, quadrature, 2-bit binary, Gray, multi-bit binary, phase, PCF8574, BASCOM-AVR Sponsored by MCS Electronics (If you have pop-ups disabled click here for password) A Look at Computer Viruses by Chris Cantrell How do the viruses that worry us daily work? How do they replicate? How do they get into operating systems? To answer these questions, Chris played high-tech archeologist and dug up the Stoned virus, a member of the nearly extinct class of boot sector viruses. p.60 Keywords: Virus, computer, Stoned, indirection, boot sector, loader, registers, infector, x86 (If you have pop-ups disabled click here for password) Applied PCs Get Hook on Video With the STV5730A by Fred Eady The video display portion of a recent project prompted Fred to study on-screen display (OSD) technology. Now that he’s back from TV land, Fred will show you how he used an inexpensive OSD—the STV5730A—and a PIC to turn a TV into an LCD. p.66 Keywords: Video, television, STV5730A, sync, CVBS, RS-170A, NTSC, subcarrier, porch, color bust, breezeway, blanking, IRE, luma, PIC16F876 (If you have pop-ups disabled click here for password) From The Bench The Switching Approach—Infiltrating the Linear Supply Market by Jeff Bachiochi The word on the street is that the switching converter is rapidly becoming an intelligent (and cost-competitive) alternative to the linear regulator. Read on to find out why Jeff is sticking with the switching approach. p.74 Keywords: Power supply, linear, switching, efficiency, chopper, SMPS, buck, flyback, MAX5022 (If you have pop-ups disabled click here for password) Silicon Update Not Fading Away by Tom Cantrell Tom has a message for all of the 8-bit MCU doubters out there: they’re not fading away. Shipments are steadily increasing, and it’s the companies that stick with the MCU business that will come out on top. p.78 Keywords: MCU, 8-bit, 8051, LPC9xx, LPC932, memory, power, speed, PIC18Fxx20, eZ8 (If you have pop-ups disabled click here for password) Test Your EQ Advertisers Index PREVIEW March #153 Robotics Electrical Engineering Robot—Follow the Line Mini-Sumo Meets IsoPod Muscle for High-Torque Robotics Portable MSP430 DMM Communications Protocol—MIL-STD-1553B Data Bus Updating the Home Control System—Part 2: FPGA Design Methodology Get One Chip Programmer Power Above The Ground Plane: Balancing Mixing From the Bench: Making Sensor of Geber File Format Silicon Update: Digilog Déjà Vu