Nuts and Volts - December 2015

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. POSTMAS TER: 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 December 2015

06 TechKnowledgey 2015

Events, Advances, and News

Read about looney tonnes, mini Android PCs, the top

10 world changers, plus some other neat stuff.

10 Q&A

Reader Questions Answered Here

Plain Old Telephone Service blues, CPLDs versus FPGAs, and a sump pump alarm for when a breaker trips are the topics this time.

14 The Spin Zone

Adventures in Propeller Programming

Some Like It Hot.

Temperature and humidity monitoring using the SHT11 module.

46 Near Space

Approaching the Final Frontier

Showing Teachers One Way to Incorporate Near Space.

BalloonSats are a fantastic STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) activity for students of all ages, but first, teachers need to know how to design, build, test, and fly them.

50 Practical 3D Printing

Real World Uses for the Electronics Experimenter

Fabrikator Mini.

This 3D printer is open source and the perfect size for your benchtop.

54 The Design Cycle Advanced Techniques for Design Engineers

Automagic with the MPLAB Code Configurator.

If you’re tired of flipping through PIC datasheets while you’re trying to write code, this month’s Design Cycle is written just for you. Join us as we put the Microchip MPLAB Code Configurator through its paces. The automagic code we generate with the MPLAB Code Configurator will be used to construct a set of RN4020 Bluetooth Smart Module drivers.

22 Automatic Hallway Light

Deck your halls with automatic lighting so you don’t have to “go dark” anymore.

■ By Derek Tombrello

28 Fax On! Fax Off! The Faxer

Keep your phone lines straight and those calls coming in with this convenient invention.

■ By E. Paul Alciatore III

32 The Smart Doorbell

This simple programmable relay project acts as a tutorial on how to replace older hard-wired electromechanical control systems with microcontroller-based devices.

■ By Richard Agard

37 Vintage Computing — Building a Propeller-Based Mentoring Platform

Are you looking for a way to contribute to the education of the next generation of scientists and engineers? Well, this platform may be just the ticket.