Nuts & Volts - September 2005

TechKnowledgey 2005

ing iron. Well, I’ve got the right soldering iron and I spent the entire summer hacking the brains out of the thing. If you’d like to learn more about how you can exploit your own PSP, just wait until my book PSP Unplugged (McGraw-Hill, 2006) is released early next year. Please wait, pretty please.

Circuits and Devices

It’s ALIVE

experimenting with 802.15.4 ZigBee wireless technology. Consisting of two reference design boards equipped with accelerometer sensors, MC13192 2.4 GHz RF transceiver data modems, and MC9S08GT60 microcontrollers, the DSK includes all of the software, documentation, and even a trial version of Metrowerks Code Warrior™ IDE that is needed for building and testing

a ZigBee design. Reasonably priced at under $200, the 13192DSK is a great way to evaluate ZigBee. Let’s take a look at each of the DSK’s major components in greater detail.

1. MMA6200Q Series XY-Axis 1.5g Accelerometer. Able to measure small exertion from tilt, motion, positioning, shock, or vibration forces.

Photo © Wow Wee Ltd.

Run, don’t walk, into the jungle for the latest innovation from WowWee — WowWee Alive! Chimpanzee ( www.wowwee.com). Developed by Hollywood F/X expert George York, WowWee Alive Chimpanzee employs a new cutting edge technology for replicating the sounds and movements of nature called Facetronics™.

Sporting all of the features that we’ve come to expect from a WowWee toy — sound sensors, touch sensors, and IR vision — the Facetronics Chimpanzee has something no other toy currently has — mood swings. Who can argue with the people that fused “personality and technology?” Better yet, WowWee Alive has come up with one of the best advertising lines in this year’s toy race — “this chimp is so real, it’s unreal.” That’s enough for me, I’ll take a couple for Halloween, please.