JUNE 2007
COLUMNS
PROJECTS and FEATURES
10 TECHKNOWLEDGEY 2007
Events, advances, and news
from the electronics world.
16 GETTING STARTED WITH PICs
C language introduction.
22 Q&A
Russ Kincaid offers his own
solutions to reader questions.
67 IN THE SPOTLIGHT
This month: SchmartBoard.
80 OPEN COMMUNICATION
Fiber optics.
84 THE DESIGN CYCLE
Working with peripherals.
Due to technical difficulties, PERSONAL
ROBOTICS will return next month.
DEPARTMENTS
60
30 CON TROL YOUR WORLD
Home Automation — Part 5:
Build a microcontroller-based weather station.
■ By Michael Simpson
60 SONIC REALISM
Part 2: Put the sound theory
from last month into practice.
■ By Gerard Fonte
68 UNDERSTANDING
DIGITAL BUFFER, GATE,
AND LOGIC IC CIRCUITS
This month, learn about
NAND gate and OR gate
circuits.
■ By Ray Marston
72 CREATING AN EXERGAME
WITH THE HYDRA GAME
SYSTEM
Start your own dance dance
revolution with the latest
offering from Parallax.
■ By Bryan Bergeron
06 DEVELOPING
PERSPECTIVES
08 READER FEEDBACK
26 NEW PRODUCTS
44 SHOWCASE
66 ELECTRO-NET
78 NV BOOKSTORE
38 THE MUX MUX LIGHT
DISPLAY
See how to light a display
one segment at a time.
■ By Richard Satterlee
46 PROBING CORES
Build an oscilloscope
accessory that displays the
B-H curves of inductor cores.
■ By Tom Napier
46
92 CLASSIFIEDS
52 CREATE YOUR OWN
SERIAL PORT
With a “bit” of luck, you can
create a software serial port
for your microcontroller.
■ By G. Y. Xu
38
94 TECH FORUM
97 ADVERTISERS INDEX
Nuts & Volts (ISSN 1528-9885/CDN Pub Agree#40702530) is published monthly for $24.95 per year
by T & L Publications, Inc., 430 Princeland Court, Corona, CA 92879. PERIODICALS POS TAGE PAID AT
CORONA, CA AND AT ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES. POSTMASTER: Send address changes
to Nuts & Volts, P.O. Box 15277, North Hollywood, CA 91615 or Station A, P. O. Box 54, Windsor
ON N9A 6J5; cpcreturns@nutsvolts.com
4
June 2007