Reader Feedback
Dear Nuts & Volts:
Just a quick request that your
magazine publish more articles
describing projects for the PIC
Microcontroller that DO NOT involve
robotics and that DO NOT require
STAMP programming. A program in
PIC Basic that would involve, say,
model railroad block control circuitry
or block detection or a Christmas
light display would be nice.
Jim Cavanaugh
via Internet
Dear Nuts & Volts:
Your December 2004 column
“Open Communication” about ham
radio is great. I was interested in just
that receiver kit when the issue
arrived. It cleared up many of the
questions I could not find on the
website. I can’t wait until the February
issue is here for the transmitter kit!
Gene Arnold
via Internet
Dear Nuts & Volts:
Please feature more analog "how-to-circuits" such as op-amps and
transistor circuits. I know electronics
is constantly changing, but there are
still plenty of technicians around who
have worked with these types of
circuits. There is a real void now that
Radio Electronics and Electronics
Now are gone.
Frank Pohs
via Internet
Dear Nuts & Volts:
This is my last year in college
(engineering) and your last four
magazines were and still are
extremely helpful for my senior
project class in school. However, I still
need some help on building my
project (a portable microcontroller-
based electrocardiograph recorder).
I'm looking for a way to be able to
store the collected data into a USB
Flash drive (or USB memory sticks)
that can be plugged into the device.
Wilber Hernandez
via Internet
Dear Nuts & Volts:
While catching up on my
magazine reading, I came to the nice
"Just for Starters" article on counters
by Mark Balch in your October 2004
issue. Mark mentioned the problem of
spurious clocking due to switch
contact bounce.
A few years ago, while working
on a project with several push-buttons, I looked for a low parts-count
solution and discovered a chip that
some of your readers may not know
about and may find as useful as I did.
It is the MC14490 hex contact
bounce eliminator. It is a CMOS
device in a 16-pin DIP. Each of the six
circuits takes an input signal from a
bouncing contact and generates a
clean digital signal four clock periods
after the input has stabilized. The
clock frequency (bounce delay) of
the built-in clock is set by a single
external capacitor. You can get this
device from Digi-Key for $5.12 each,
or $4.10 each if you want 25 of them
( www.digikey.com).
Bob E. Baker
via Internet
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NUTS & VOLTS
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by J. Shuman
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