CURRENT ISSUE
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Issue #216 July 2008 — Internet & Connectivity
Task Manager
Energy Costs Drive Design Ingenuity, by C. J. Abate
Priority Interrupt
A Real Rube Goldberg Solution, by Steve Ciarcia
New Product News, edited by John Gorsky
FEATURE ARTICLES
’Net-Enabled Alarm Clock
Second Place Microchip 2007 Design Contest — Read
it now!
by DJ Delorie
Unlike old-school mechanical alarm clocks that you have to set manually, DJ’s Internet-connected alarm clock provides three primary features: automatic time setting on power-up, streaming MP3 music, and remote management. The PIC24FJ64-based clock is connected to an ENC28J60 Ethernet chip, an MP3 decoder chip, an organic LED graphical display, and a 24LC512 EEPROM for storage. p. 12
Keywords: Alarm, clock, MP3, PIC24FJ64, ENC28J60,
OLED, streaming, Ethernet, SPI, STA013, ADC, time, SNTP
Internet Information Retrieval
Target And Display Web Site Content
by Fernando Jordan
Fernando’s SwissJazz system retrieves artist and song title information from an Internet radio station’s web site without a PC. Information is shown on an LM3S811 evaluation board’s display and updates every time a new song begins. p. 30
Keywords: Web content, Internet artist, song title, LM3S811, MA701, wireless, Compact Flash, display, UDP, TCP, sniffer
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
Launch Control
Build A Coil Gun Controller And Launcher
by Andrew Sterian
Andrew’s educational system works as a controller and data recorder for a dual-coil coil gun. Use the LM3S811-based controller to experiment with various aspects of the coil gun, including timing and voltage control. You can also measure the real-time voltage and current. p. 38
Keywords: Coil gun, launcher, LM3S811, timing, ferromagnetic, high current, capacitor bank, LTC1861, MOSFET
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
Card Connection
Magnetic Card Data Decoding And Transmission
by Carlo Tauraso
Almost a decade after he built his first magnetic stripe card reader, Carlo updated his design with a PIC18F2550 microcontroller. His new system is an inexpensive commercial TTL swipe card reader that reads, analyzes, decodes, and codes bitstreams. p. 46
Keywords: Magnetic card, reader, decoding, PIC18F2550, swipe, KDR1000, USB, ANACARD, descriptor
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
Create A Modbus Slave
by Aubrey Kagan
Several months after creating a Modbus master, Aubrey continues his Modbus exploration by creating a Modbus slave on a Cypress PSoC microcontroller. To enable you to change configurations or speed up the CRC generation, he describes three different methods of slave creation. p. 54
Keywords: Modbus, PSoC, CY8C27243, packet, data rate, RS-485, CRC, simulation
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
PSoC Design Techniques (Part 1)
Build An Eight-Channel Mixer
by Chris Paiano
Ready to learn several useful PSoC design techniques? Chris describes a switched capacitor and continuous time modules. He also walks you through an interesting PSoC project: an eight-channel mixer with adjustment knobs. p. 62
Keywords: PSoC, mixer, switched capacitor, continuous time, routing,
PGA
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
Sound Effects Processing
by Robert Papp
The StellarisGFX is a well-designed sound effects processor. The system’s keyboard is used for navigating through the user menu. You can set the volume level and select effects such as overdrive, tube overdrive, and distortion. p. 69
Keywords: Sound, processing, guitar effects, LM3S811, ADC, OLED, DAC,
LC7881, BA10324AF, op-amp, Sallen-Key, filter, PWM
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
COLUMNS
INTELLIGENT ENERGY SOLUTIONS — LESSONS FROM THE TRENCHES
Living And Working Off The Grid — Read
it now!
Part 1: Planning And Design
by George Martin
George is going solar by installing an off-the-grid photovoltaic (PV) power-generating system at his workshop/apartment in New Mexico. In the first part of this series, he describes how he planned and designed the system. p. 22
Keywords: Solar, intelligent energy, power usage,
Kill A Watt meter, radiation, panels, inverter, charge controller, battery,
SX 170B, MX60
FROM THE BENCH
Electric Motor Technology
Theory, Construction, And Requirements
by Jeff Bachiochi
The principles behind electric motors have been around for almost two centuries, but the technology has come a long way during the past few years. Jeff examines electric motor theory, construction, and requirements. p. 74
Keywords: Motor, electromagnetic force, field, commutator, torque, rotor, generator, DC, AC, dynamo, core, eddy current, permanent magnet, control, PWM, FET, stepper, nanotube
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
SILICON UPDATE
MIPS For The Masses
by Tom Cantrell
To compete with the rest of the 32-bit market, Microchip Technology designed its 32-bit offering around the MIPS architecture. The PIC32 combines Microchip’s in-house MCU know-how with MIPS Technology’s extensive IP, software, and tool library. Expect to see PIC32s for a long time to come. p. 80
Keywords: MIPS, architecture, PIC32, RISC, Thumb, cache, memory, power, DMA
(A link to the article will be emailed to you.)
PREVIEW
Issue #217 August 2008 — Embedded Development
◊ The DMX Portal: Obtain Lighting Control Via Ethernet
◊ INTELLIGENT ENERGY SOLUTIONS Electric Vehicle Inverter Design: Build A System For Powering AC Induction Motors
◊ A Bootloader For Blackfin
◊ PSoC Design Techniques (Part 2): Add DSP Effects, A User Interface, And More
◊ Create A USB Virtual COM Port
◊ THE DARKER SIDE Direct Digital Synthesis 101
◊ ABOVE THE GROUND PLANE IR Proximity Sensing
◊ FROM THE BENCH Water War Prevention: An MCU-Based Monitor For A Communal Well
◊ SILICON UPDATE Icy Hot: The Soft-Core Concept, FPGAs, and You
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