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Seeing Red (Infrared, That Is) As Tom explains， having all the MIPS and megahertz in the world means nothing unless your design has some meaningful real-world data to process. To gather such meaningful data， you need innovative sensors. This month， Tom introduces a handy option you should consider for your next temperature-sensing design-an infrared noncontact IC thermometer. This month， let‘s take a look at yet another new MCU-not！ Don‘t get me wrong. As far as I'm concerned， MCUs are t...

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Your design is only as good as its sensors. With the latest sensors incorporating smarter silicon， alternative energies， and wireless technologies， the possibilities for your next system are limitless. This month， Tom shows you some of the interesting sensors he discovered at the 2008 Sensors Expo & Conference. I hope you‘ll forgive the headline. Consider it a last hurrah as the seemingly perpetual political season finally totters to an end. Posturing and pandering the headline may be，...

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Robert recently came across an old book about electronic design. After reading about the topic of noise coupling with various cables and wiring setups， he reproduced the cable shielding experiments described in the book. This month， he shares the results. Welcome back to the Darker Side. I always do my best to find a topic that coincides with the monthly Circuit Cellar theme， but this time I failed. I will not talk about signal processing，and I apologize. But I have an excuse. I just redisco...

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Jeff has covered optical encoders in previous columns. As you know， while they work well in some projects， they can be expensive. This month， Jeff describes an alternative based on magnetics. A noncontact rotary encoder may be the perfect fit for your next design. There is something comforting about knowing you have control over your destiny. When the automobile and airplane were first manufactured， all of their controls were mechanical. Failure of the controls on the ground was typically an...

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Jeff used to keep an old laptop in his lab just because it had a real RS-232 port. But he found himself in the lurch recently when the laptop broke in the middle of a design project that required an RS-232 port for operational verification. Fortunately, Jeff had another work in progress that involved the hardware he needed to fix the problem. In this article, he describes his serial terminal solution. Serial terminals continue to be one of the most useful gadgets in our arsenal of peripheral equ...

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This month， George gets back to work examining the C language. Follow along as he explores the use of C structures in a real-world application. Well， I hope you enjoyed the diversion of my last two articles on solar living. I‘ll now be dividing my time between the East Coast and the Southwest. Of course， I'll update everyone on the workings of my solar power system. But now it‘s time to get back to work and earn some money for the next big project. This month， I would like to explore the u...

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Several years ago， Ed built a system that enabled him to communicate with a fellow rider via an electret microphone connected to an amateur radio during bicycle rides. This month， he explains how he rebuilt the interface and combined it with a GPS tracking system. Seven years ago， I wrote about electret microphones and the circuitry that interfaced one with the amateur radio mounted on my recumbent bicycle. That circuitry let my wife and me talk during family rides and provide safety communic...

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A Design for Indoor-Outdoor Use Brian‘s indoor-outdoor weather monitor project is an exercise in precision circuit design and accurate mathematical computations. The electronic system-which features relative humidity and barometric pressure sensors-was designed around an Atmel Butterfly evaluation module incorporated in a decorative wall mount. Like many people who make their living in electronics， I like to build electronic items for my home. However，almost any consumer gadget you can imagin...

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How Hardware Emulation Leads to Prototype Development Hardware emulation is an effective phase of the prototyping process. The purpose of this project was to build a robust hardware platform to run the rule sets for old pinball machines. Using the PinMAME program， the design emulates the hardware for almost 500 pinball machines and runs the rule sets. The electronic gaming industry has never been more popular than it is today. Modern consoles are making the gaming experience more realistic. Thi...

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While examining 32-bit microcontrollers last month， Tom decided that the STMicroelectronics STM32 was worth a second look. With the new ARM Cortex M3 core，good peripherals， integration， and energy efficiency， this could be just the MCU for your next project. Having covered the territory last month （"More Bits， Less Filling，"Circuit Cellar 212， 2008）， it‘s not my intention to get stuck on the topic of 32-bit MCUs. Believe me， there's plenty of other neat stuff going on with FPGAs， w...

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If you are unable to access your old data because you don‘t have the right controller， this group of designers may have the solution for you.Their design enables projects without serial or USB ports to transfer data to a USB device. We are like kids in a candy shop when it comes to new tools. There is always a better and more expensive tool that we want. When we were children， our parents determined if the cost of the new tool was justified. Now， hopefully， we know better and are a bit more...

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Build an Embedded Server Application This well-designed embedded server application enables you to find airfare deals on the ‘Net. The WIZnet W5100-based system uses Kayak， an online travel search engine， to search for flights. The data is then graphed to show you the best time of year to travel. The bone-chilling wind and weekly ice storms that come with winter in central Illinois often leave us wondering where we can go to get away from the cold. Far away. Destinations on our short list thi...

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If you haven‘t used touch sensors in your designs， you will soon.Tom explores the new touch sensors from Cypress Semiconductor and Silicon Laboratories. Traditional keypads and touchscreens beware！ Last year， during my visit to the Sensors Expo， I concluded that touch sensing was one of the hotter topics on the show floor （"I Sense， Therefore I Am，" Circuit Cellar 207， 2007）。Over my years covering the hightech sector， I‘ve noticed that where there's smoke， there‘s either mirrors o...

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Synchronize with the WWVB Time Code Signal Coordinate your Ethernet applications with Steven‘s Time Server. The system keeps a master time and date clock that is synchronized to the U.S. WWVB time code signal. It connects to an Ethernet network and sends time and date information according to the SNTP， DAYTIME， and TIME protocols. Now， no matter their locations， your devices can connect to the system，request the time and date， and synchronize their local clocks. Back in the 1980s， charac...

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A lot has changed since Tom started covering ARM microcontrollers back in 2003. This month he brings you up to speed on the new parts and players in the ARM MCU world. I first covered the ARM MCU trend back in 2003 when it was just getting started （"In ARM‘s Way，" Circuit Cellar 159）。 Now， almost three years later， the bandwagon is really rolling. A popular catch phrase is that ARM is the 32-bit equivalent of the '51 of tomorrow，reflecting that venerable 8-bit MCU‘s immortality. From a ...

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