Nuts and Volts - November 2013

Nuts & Volts (ISSN 1528-9885/CDN Pub Agree #40702530) is published monthly for $26.95 per year by T & L Publications, Inc., 430 Princeland Court, Corona, CA 92879. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT CORONA, CA AND AT ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES. POS TMAS TER: Send address changes to Nuts & Volts, P. O. Box 15277, North Hollywood, CA 91615 or Station A, P. O.

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4 November 2013

08 TechKnowledgey 2013

Events, Advances, and News

The first human B2B interface, the world’s thinnest keyboard, digital detox, and some tough little fuses are some of the tittilating tidbits you’ll read about.

12 The Spin Zone

Adventures in Propeller Programming Digging Into Dynamixels.

Learn the inner workings of these drivers, so you can use them to make your own projects move.

20 Q&A

Reader Questions Answered Here

A Jacob’s ladder redux, a video monitor alarm, and robot communication issues are discussed this time.

53 Smiley’s Workshop

Programming • Hardware • Projects

Arduino Handheld Prototyper — Part 5.

Data Logging — Take a look at the SRAM and EEPROM on the Arduino, then graduate to SD cards to learn cheap and easy ways to store LOTS of data.

62 Near Space

Approaching the Final Frontier

A New Airframe Design for Near Spacecraft — Part 1.

After a recent capsule landing that did not go smoothly, it was the opportune time to come up with a better and stronger design.

71 The Design Cycle

Advanced Techniques for Design Engineers Discovering a Better and More Powerful Engineering Workstation.

One of the first commercial operational amplifier-based computing components was the Model K3-A Adding Component. Unfortunately, you needed a full blown lab to gather the K3's analog results. In contrast, the Analog Discovery packs an oscilloscope, waveform generator, voltmeter, and digital I/O into a space smaller than the first vacuum tube operational amplifier.

28 Quick and Easy USB Keyboard Input This circuit is perfect for any application where you use a physical trigger to input data onto a computer. Read how it was implemented for video TIC-TAC-TOE and a bag toss game.

■ By William Pippin

34 Build the CHROMATICON

Want to be sure you’re playing musical chords correctly? This unit will tell you if you are and display a light show in the process.

■ By Matthew Bates

40 Build a Personal Guitar Microphone Pre-Amp

Fine-tune the sound for your guitar just the way you want it with this handy device that will also work with Karaoke machines, boom boxes, and surround sound systems.

■ By Ron Hoffman

46 MakerPlot — The DIY Software Kit Part 2

Besides being a great debugging tool, the real power of this customizable software is in its ability to become a virtual instrument for your microcontroller’s data.