Electronics Now articles from December 1999

Electronics Now archives from December 1999

Poptronics.(two electronics magazines merge into new publication)(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... The millennium is upon us. The year 2000 is right around the corner. What will it bring? -- Poptronics -- the magazine for the bands-on electronics activist! Today's challenging electronics marketplace does not leave room for a variety of...

LETTERS.
December 1, 1999... Gravity Waves Explained I have been a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center astrophysicist for over 35 years, and I retired not long ago. I have been working in relativistic astrophysics since the early 60s and have published numerous articles...

CREATIVE LABS NOMAD MP3 PLAYER.(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
December 1, 1999... Portable, personal stereo systems were all the rage back in the early 1980s when Sony first introduced the legendary Walkman. Those devices, and similar ones from other vendors, featured a cassette tape player in a handheld package that used...

Looking Back.(history of shortwave reveivers, and the companies that made them)(inlcudes other related items)
December 1, 1999... AS YOU READ THIS, Y2K IS NOW JUST A SHORT TIME AWAY. FOR THE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS, WITH THE AID OF JEROME S. BERG S HISTORY OF SW BROADCASTING, ON THE SHORTWAVES, 1923-1945, WE VE BEEN LOOKING BACK ON THE EARLY years of our listening hobby. ...

More on Semiconductor Testing, DVD Notes, and More.
December 1, 1999... THIS MONTH WE'LL COMPLETE OUR DISCUSSION OF SOLIDSTATE DEVICE TESTING ALONG WITH SOME VERY SIMPLE CIRCUITS THAT CAN BE PUT TOGETHER IN ABOUT 10 MINUTES TO DISPLAY THE CHARACTERISTICS OF TWO-TERMINAL DEVICES ON an oscilloscope. We'll also...

"Colossal" Magnetoresistance And Improved Data Storage.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... A team of Japanese researchers have identified an oxide material that could greatly improve the storage capacity of hard disks and magnetic tapes. The discovery, reported earlier this year in Nature, relies on a phenomenon called "colossal...

Mini-Robots in Space.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, are developing an autonomous robot to support future space missions. About the size of a softball, the compact design of the Personal Satellite Assistant (PSA) will allow it to keep...

Digital Optical-Disc Video Recorder.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... NEC Corporation recently announced the release of a digital video recorder, called Giga station, that uses a 120mm diameter rewriteable large-capacity optical disc as its recording medium. The unit offers the same functions as...

Predicting Traffic Congestion.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Dr. John Leonard, an associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is designing a cutting-edge model that uses data from traffic surveillance systems to make real-time decisions...

Internet TV Programming.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Scientists at Siemens Corporate Research have developed a filter technology called HotStreams, a software program that will enable video material and TV programming to be transmitted via the Internet. The development could be used by Internet...

Digital Imaging Sensor.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... A megapixel sensor capable of operating at 500 frames per second (fps), PB-1024 is said to be the world's fastest CMOS image sensor. The PB-1024 uses Photobit's CMOS "activepixel" technology, which has high-image quality, lower-power...

Fast SRAM.(new static random access memory chip from Motorola)(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... The world's first ultra-fast SRAM using copper interconnect technology is now available from Motorola. The device, an 8Mb Late Write SRAM, delivers greater than 333MHz performance by combining copper interconnects with leading edge 0.15-micron...

Updating Windows.(updates for Microsoft 98 operating system)
December 1, 1999... A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO WE TALKED ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF SYSTEM MAINTENANCE AND OPTIMIZATION, AND SAW HOW WINDOWS MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO DO QUITE A BIT OF TWEAKING. THIS MONTH, WE THOUGHT WE'D RETURN somewhat to the topic of operating-system...

The End of a Long and Pleasant Road!(the last antique radio column)
December 1, 1999... WELL, READERS, IT HAD TO COME SOME TIME AND IT SEEMS THAT THE TIME IS NOW! THIS WILL BE OUR LAST ANTIQUE RADIO COLUMN. AS I UNDERSTAND IT, NEXT MONTH POPULAR ELECTRONICS AND ELECTRONICS NOW WILL be replaced by a single magazine, Poptronics,...

Capacitance Units?(units of measure for capacitors)(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Q I'm sorry, I'm new to electronics but what are the units for capacitors in your schematics? Microfarads or something else? K. G., no location given A That's actually a very wise question to ask. We give capacitance in microfarads...

Active Audio Crossover.(building frequency filters for homemade amplifiers)(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Q I have a set of two-way speakers that cross at 1800 Hz. I'd like to build four amplifiers (two for the tweeters and two for the woofers) that have active filters ahead of them, so that each amplifier gets only signals in the appropriate...

Analog Computers?(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Q OK, obviously your article about the amazing new analog microprocessor was an April Fools gag, but was all the theory you were stating true? If a miraculous analog-to-digital converter were invented, would an analog computer be possible? --...

What's In A Keyboard?(references to help in the building of a keyboard)(Questions and Answers)(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Q I'd like to use PIC microcontrollers to build a programmable keyboard for my PC. Where are the PC keyboard signals documented? If I can find this out, I would gladly develop and post a construction project.--N.J., no location given A The...

Printer Communication.(printer operation)(Questions and Answers)(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Q I have a question about how the printer drivers in Windows tell the printer to advance to a new page. Does the software send a form-feed character (FF, ASCII 12) through the DO--D7 data lines, or does it use the AUTO FEED pin?--S.L. G.,...

PC Power-On Self Test.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Q In the past you've reviewed a commercially available POST diagnostic card (November 1995), but you haven't published instructions for how to build one. It sounds simple. Could you steer me to a source of information that would enable me to...

Electronic Organ Resources.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... If you need parts or manuals for older electronic organs and other musical instruments, here are some useful addresses, courtesy of Bill Stiles, Hillsboro, Missouri: Keyboard Systems, 3637 East 7800 South, Salt Lake City, UT 74121; Tel:...

Au Revoir!(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... That's all she wrote, friends! I've certainly enjoyed serving the readers of Hands-On Electronics, Popular Electronics and Electronics Now over the past thirteen years or so. And I'm saying "Au Revoir" rather than goodbye because I hope many of...

Freeze Motion with the Laser Scope.
December 1, 1999... Measure the speed of rotating objects with this affordable, compact instrument. What s more, you can easily view them in stop-action or slow motion! If you are involved with mechanical designs as a part of your electronics activity, you no...

Understanding Digital Modulation.
December 1, 1999... Digital modulation is the key to today s high speed data transfers and has made possible such developments as high-speed digital modems and even HDTV. Analog modulation techniques have served us well for many decades, and have been the...

Test Equipment for Audio Technicians: Balanced-Line Converter.
December 1, 1999... Connect consumer-audio gear to professional amplifiers. As you probably know, professional sound equipment typically has "balanced-line" inputs and outputs. The balanced-line configuration is used because it is great for reducing hum pickup...

A SCROLLING LED CLOCK.
December 1, 1999... Time Marches On is more than just an expression with this clock s display! Low-cost digital clocks have been available for many years, but most show the time in a static four-digit display. The Scrolling Clock described in this article...

Component Notebooks.
December 1, 1999... A new way to organize an electronics experimenter s workbench For electronics hobbyists, the most common method for keeping track of components is the ubiquitous plastic-drawer cabinet. The author also has several such cabinets, but has...

A COMPUTER DISPLAY IN YOUR EYEGLASSES.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Most of us have had our eye on a computer at one time or another, but having a computer--or at least its display--in our eye is a completely different matter. You're reading a book and your computer announces: "you got mall." With a...

A Mixed Bag.(the use of inductive coupling in battery powered toothbrushes)(this and other items are dicussed)
December 1, 1999... WE HAVE A MIXED BAG OF STUFF FOR THIS MONTH--EVERYTHING FROM NEAT MATH TRICKS TO NEW MACHINE TOOL INTERFACES TO SEVERAL SUPERB ENERGY RESOURCES TO INDUCTION HEATING BOOKS. SO LET S JUST JUMP right in. Contactless Charging Have you ever...

Composite Video to S-Video.(equipment to convert to S-video signals)(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... A reader in the August issue needed to convert composite video to S-video signals (with luminance and color on separate wires). We found a product that does this the Tribute C2S Convertor, which retails for about $100 and is made by...