Electronics Now articles from October 1998

Electronics Now archives from October 1998

Tektronix TX-3 digital multimeter.
October 1, 1998... Tektronix outdoes itself once again with the TX-DMM family of hand-held digital multimeters. A company that is renowned for producing products that are topnotch in quality and performance faces a unique problem: When it comes time to freshen...

Celestial reasoning, more on PRNGS, and a new long-term project. (pseudo-random noise generators)
October 1, 1998... It's crystal ball time. The recent alignment of certain celestial bodies has enabled the following truths to reveal themselves to yours truly. I've decided to pass them on royalty free. PC performance is topping out. For the first time ever,...

Cell phone battery may soon be the talk of the town. (methanol fuel cell being developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory)
October 1, 1998... A new power source for cellular phones, portable computers, and other portable electronic devices promises to deliver power up to 50 times longer than standard nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries. Following a long-time dream of electrochemists to...

Outer space antenna. (Orlan antenna)
October 1, 1998... A unique antenna for the NASA-led International Space Station may soon keep astronauts safe and in touch as they prepare for challenging space walks. Called an Orlan antenna, this two-foot long "loop" design is being developed by Georgia Tech...

Brain-imaging system. (magnetoencephalography system being developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory)
October 1, 1998... A medical instrument that will help physicians assess patients with brain injuries and diseases, and that might even help solve the mysteries of how the brain works, was recently presented by Los Alamos National Laboratory. The whole-head...

CD-player system problems and alignment.
October 1, 1998... When looking at cd and cd-rom players, it sometimes seems that there are no end to the problems that can occur. Well, there are indeed a lot of them, and we have been going down that list for the past few months. This time we are going to start...

Storm-warning lightning monitor.(Cover Story)
October 1, 1998... Although discussions of El Nino are no longer frontpage headlines, the unpredictable weather - including violent thunderstorms - has always been here and likely always will. For example, an estimated two-billion dollars worth of damage is...

An electronic wind vane.
October 1, 1998... Weather - probably one of the most talked-about subjects in the world. Increasingly, people are taking an interest in the unusual weather patterns that have been the subject of news reports over the past few years. Amateur weather-watchers are...

A small antenna with a big future. (Rotman-lens antenna)
October 1, 1998... New technology has yielded a low-cost, high-reliability antenna that can operate at frequencies to 37 GHz. The first Rotman lens to operate at millimeter-wave frequencies (i.e, frequencies as high as 37 GHz) has been designed and built,...

Add daytime-running lights to your car.
October 1, 1998... It's a simple matter to convert your current headlights to daytime-running lights with the addition of this easy-to-build circuit. Daytime-running lights (DRLs) are one of the newest safety features of modern cars. Many safety studies have...

Using constant-current sources.
October 1, 1998... Constant-current sources are easy to use, and can make other circuits work better. Here's how. The constant-current source (CCS) is an overlooked circuit that has a lot of uses in its own right, and makes many other circuits work a lot...

Buying surplus electronics, class D audio amps, and more.
October 1, 1998... There is an absolute glut of used test equipment around these days. On the "supply side" of things, that's been largely caused by aerospace-industry cutbacks, military reductions, industry downsizing, and from community. colleges dropping their...