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Issue #207 October 2007 — Signal Processing
Task Manager
Mark Your Calendars, by C. J.
Abate
Priority Interrupt
The Law of Unintended Consequences,
by Steve Ciarcia
New Product News, edited by John Gorsky
FEATURE ARTICLES
Signal Recovery
Restore the Attenuated Portion of an AC-Coupled
Signal
by Brian Felder
Brian developed an algorithm for a digital filter that restores the attenuated
portion of an AC-coupled signal. A digital storage oscilloscope captures
the waveform and data is passed through the digital filter. The result
is the original signal without the DC portion. p. 10
Keywords: Signal, filter, algorithm, digital, analog, AC coupling, sensor, digital oscilloscope, load cell, piezo
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
Wireless Thermostat System
by Darryl Uchitil
Darryl designed a wireless zone thermostat system that can remotely read
the temperature, calculate the dew point, and force a setback. This easy-to-implement
design is perfect for the home or office. p. 18
Keywords: Thermostat, wireless, temperature, dew point, TX9000, ZigBee, SARD, MC9S08GT60, MC13192, ZENA ZigBee sniffer, PAN802154HAR00
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
The Monarch Butterfly
Build a Barometric Altimeter
by Thomas Black
The Monarch is a compact, easy-to-use barometric altimeter. The ATmega169-based
system is used for the barometric sensing of air pressure, digital temperature
sensing, and RC servo pulse decoding. p. 26
Keywords: AVR Butterfly, ATmega169, altimeter, air pressue, temperature, RC servo, LP2951, MS5534B, weather
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
Resilience in Embedded Designs (Part 2)
RS-485, Voltage Supervisors, Watchdogs, & Outputs
by Aubrey Kagan
Last month, Aubrey described how you can protect your designs’ inputs
so they can endure under the worst conditions. This month, he covers RS-485,
resilient outputs, and watchdogs. Keep your designs protected! p. 35
Keywords: Resilience, RS-485, RS-422, supervisor, watchdog, output, subprocessor, back EMF, sensor
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
Simple Ethernet
by Ken Merk
You can use a picoFlash SBC with an Ethernet controller to send embedded
Ethernet packets between master and slave nodes. The easy-to-use system
makes writing software and debugging a cinch. p. 40
Keywords: picoFlash SBC, Ethernet, master, slave, TCP/IP, Forth, pico186, RTL8019, F-PC compiler
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
Embedded Speech— Read it now!
Speech Synthesis for Small Applications
by Nicusor Birsan & Ionut Tarsa
It’s time to try your hand at an embedded speech application. In this
article, Nicusor and Ionut introduce you to speech synthesis technology
and describe how to bring audio capabilities to small embedded applications.
p. 46
Keywords: Speech, synthesis, audio, text-to-speech, eSpeak,
LM3S811, wxWidgets
COLUMNS
ABOVE THE GROUND PLANE
Hearing Clearly
Hardware
by Ed Nisley
In his last column, Ed covered his hearing booster’s design. This month
he focuses on the actual circuit board and its limitations. p. 55
Keywords: Hearing booster, audio, MAX4467, MAX4334, MAX4298, noise, TrueRTA audio spectrum analyzer, MAX1706
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
FROM THE BENCH
RoboGrowth
by Jeff Bachiochi
Jeff attended the recent RoboBusiness Conference and Expo in Boston. This
month, he presents everything you need to know about this year’s crop
of promising robotics technologies. p. 60
Keywords: RoboBusiness Conference, robotics, iRobot Create, network, Robotics Studio, BomBot, navigation, hospital, AI, animatronics, DARPA, URBI
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
THE DARKER SIDE
No Fear with FIR
Put a FIR Filter to Work
by Robert Lacoste
Working with finite impulse response (FIR) filters isn’t black magic.
Robert covers the basics and touches on the mathematical concepts you’ll
need to understand in order to put a FIR filter to work. p. 70
Keywords: FIR filter, Fourier, DFT, IDFT, Scilab
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
SILICON UPDATE
I Sense, Therefore I Am
by Tom Cantrell
As Tom has said in the past, “Sensors are as key to embedded control applications
as the controllers themselves.” Read on to learn about the hot new sensor
technologies that he encountered at the 2007 Sensors Expo in Chicago.
p. 80
Keywords: Sensors, Sensors Expo, MEMS, accelerometer, MMA7450L, CDC, capacitive, AD7147, 6LoWPAN, IrDA, Courier-115, TSOP98200, load sensor, USB, Field Oriented Control algorithm, energy harvesting, PMG17, microgenerator, IP Radio
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
PREVIEW
Issue #208 November 2007 — Analog Techiques
◊ Embedded
IP-PBX: Switch Analog and VoIP Calls
◊ Hybrid
Computing on an FPGA
◊ iEthernet
BootCamp: Get Started with the W5100
◊ NimbleSig: A Compact DDS RF Signal Generator
◊ SMT Manufacturing:
Take a Board from Prototype to Production
◊ Resilience
in Embedded Designs (Part 3): Software
◊ Communication
Protocols
◊
LESSON FROM THE TRENCHES
A Flash in the Pan
◊ FROM
THE BENCH Motor Driving for a Robotic Arm
◊ SILICON
UPDATE Thanks for the MEMS
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