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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.
■ By Dane Weston
December 2015
05 DEVELOPING
PERSPECTIVES
For Learning, Old
School Can be the
Best School
20 NEW PRODUCTS
21 SHOWCASE
44 ELECTRO-NET
61 CLASSIFIEDS
62 NV WEBSTORE
64 TECH FORUM
65 AD INDEX
Departments
Columns
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