Electronics Now articles from January 1995

Electronics Now archives from January 1995

Don't interface - interact. (Computer Connections)
January 1, 1995... Last month I started a discussion of computer-industry unmentionables, beginning with the "D" word, documentation. Second on my list is the user-interface design. What is user-interface design? Some think of it as sizing, shaping, and coloring...

Signal theft.
January 1, 1995... The theft of video signals has cable-TV and satellite-TV programmers aggressively pursuing signal pirates. VIDEO SIGNAL THEFT IS NOT NEW, it's hardly sensational, and it's rarely prosecuted. However, the cable-TV industry, by its own...

Build a chip tester.
January 1, 1995... This simple, passive integrated-circuit tester can be a valuable addition to your test equipment. A TESTER FOR INTEGRATED CIRcuits can be passive or active. An active tester determines how a device reacts to a set of input signals. It can...

Programmable sinewave generator.
January 1, 1995... Build this programmable sinewave generator once, and you can program it forever! A PROGRAMMABLE SINEWAVE GENerator can be a lot more accurate than an analog-based generator. When teamed with a PC or single-board computer, a programmable...

Phantom of the ether. (energy saving fluorescent bulbs)(includes related article)
January 1, 1995... The new energy-saving fluorescent bulbs save money on electric bills, but they can interfere with infrared remote controls. I WAS WATCHING A MOVIE ON A CAble channel one night when suddenly my TV set jumped channels. I grabbed my universal...

Operational amplifiers.
January 1, 1995... Learn how to design with operational amplifiers and put them to work in various analog and audio circuits THE OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIER (OP-amp) is a high-gain, DC-coupled amplifier with a differential input (two input leads) and a single-ended...

Build an isolation transformer.
January 1, 1995... Build an isolation transformer to protect yourself--and your equipment--while you service electronics. EVERYONE WHO REGULARLY SERvices television sets really should have an isolation transformer. One side of the chassis of most line-powered TV...

Power controller.
January 1, 1995... Control eight channels of 120-volt AC with a 68705. HAVE YOU EVER WANTED TO VARY the power delivered to a 120-volt AC toad under software control? In this project a 68705 micro-controller will do just that. Specifically, it can control eight...

Halogen cycle mysteries, science versus pseudoscience, vector-to-step conversions, a hacker PostScript interface, and programmable interconnects. (Hardware Hacker)
January 1, 1995... I recently reviewed several books that I believe are worth reading. Who Owns Information? by Anne Branscomb (Basic Books, 1994] seems to cover everything from the Internet to the Dead Sea Scrolls. It focuses on the new intellectual properties...

Getting a quick fix, or service with a smile. (Audio Update)
January 1, 1995... As with many other boys, it all started for me when I was about 13 years old. Not sex, electronics. Hours of immersion in The Boy Electrician, Everybody's Radio Manual, and Radiocraft ultimately led me to apply for an after-school apprenticeship...

Converting spark count to engine RPM. (revolutions per minute) (Drawing Board)
January 1, 1995... It's been a long time coming but we're down to the last leg in the design of the tachometer. At this point, some arithmetic must be done, and here's where the job can get tedious. The output of the latest circuit is the number of sparks...