4 May/June 2018
10 TechKnowledgey 2018
Events, Advances, and News
Read about these cool topics:
• Fusion is Coming! Again!
• MEMS + Lens = Compact LIDAR
• HPC from Lenovo
• Pick a New Berry
• Io T-on-a-Chip Introduced
• Pop a Pic
• 3D Breakthrough?
• Number One Again
14 Q&A
Reader Questions Answered Here
Topics discussed this time:
• Moisture Monitor
• IDE Madness
• Lever Up with Steppers
18 The Ham’s Wireless
Workbench
Practical Technology from the Ham World
Antenna Supports: What You Need to Know
Aloft
For short-range and in-the-home wireless, you don’t need
much more antenna than what is supplied with your
router, dongle, or laptop. Handheld FRS (Family Radio
Service) radios are great for inside a warehouse or around
a campus. Once you start thinking about a longer link,
you’ll need outdoor antennas and something to put them
on. The goal of this column is to give you an idea of what
options you have and point you to resources where you
can learn the details of doing things right. Along the way,
you’ll be introduced to some terms and techniques to help
get you started.
70 The Design Cycle
Advanced Techniques for Design Engineers
EasyPIC Fusion v7 Development Board Really
Clicks with Cellular IoT
Thanks to MikroElektronika, cellular Io T is within your
budget. In this installment of Design Cycle, we’ll explore
sending SMS messages using some cheap embedded
cellular equipment and some just as cheap cellular
service.
76 Near Space
Approaching the Final Frontier
Raspberry Pi Zero Flight Computer
People write a lot about the Raspberry Pi single board
computer (SBC) and the Arduino microcontrollers. I’m a
BASIC Stamp and PICAXE man myself but thought it
might be fun to expand a little bit after all that I’ve read. I
experienced several difficult days going from
programming a PICAXE to programming a Pi. After a lot
of hair pulling and head banging, I’m quite happy with my
progress. Now, I can’t wait to send a Pi into near space.
80 The Spin Zone
Adventures in Propeller Programming
Programming in the Real World
It's a fair understatement to suggest that the Propeller is a
different beast from other popular microcontrollers. In lieu
of specialty hardware modules like UARTs, etc., the
Propeller has eight processors (called cogs) that can be
used to synthesize peripherals as needed. That said, the
Propeller isn't completely devoid of extra hardware; each
processor has two general-purpose counter/timers, as well
as a shift-register intended to facilitate video output
(though clever coders have used it for myriad other
things). My focus this time is on the counters, and how
their flexibility helped me knock out a critical application
for fixing a lighting element in a superhero costume in
very little time.
85 Open Communication
The Latest in Networking and
Wireless Technologies
Seven Common Ways to Generate a Sine Wave
The sine wave is a naturally occurring signal shape in
communications and other electronic applications.
Many electronic products use
signals of the sine wave form.
Audio, radio, and power
equipment usually generates
or processes sine waves. As it
turns out, there are literally
dozens of ways to generate a
sine wave. This article
presents some popular
methods you should be
familiar with.
May/June 2018
Columns