Practical Electronics 2023-01

Practical
Electronics
The UK’s premier electronics and computing maker magazine
Circuit Surgery Audio Out Make it with Micromite
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Volume 52. No. 1
Practical January 2023

ISSN 2632 573X
Electronics Contents
Projects and Circuits
Classic LED Metronomes by Randy Keenan 14
These two Metronomes use only discrete components and simple logic chips, making
them easy to understand and build. They are both great projects for a beginner.
Geekcreit’s 35MHz-4.4GHz Signal Generator by Jim Rowe 27
This self-contained module uses a wideband digital synthesiser chip, onboard
microcontroller, OLED display and pushbuttons to set the desired frequency.
Remote Control Range Extender by John Clarke 32
Convert an IR remote to use UHF and it will work at much longer ranges – even
when something is between the remote and the device.
Multi-Channel Speaker Protector by Phil Prosser 41
If you’re driving a lot of speakers you need a matching compact speaker
protector to prevent driver destruction should something go wrong.
Series, Features and Columns

Techno Talk by Mark Nelson 8
Raudive Voices Revisited
Net Work by Alan Winstanley 10
This month’s Net Work looks at smart light bulbs, tests Alexa’s ‘skill’ in controlling
them and offers an overview of the latest energy labelling bands for LED bulbs.
Audio Out by Jake Rothman 46
Universal single op amp board (optimised for audio electronics) – Part 2
Make it with Micromite by Phil Boyce 52
Part 43: Connecting more than one display to a PicoMite
Circuit Surgery by Ian Bell 56
Electronically controlled resistance – Part 5
Max’s Cool Beans by Max The Magnificent 62
Arduino Bootcamp – Part 1
Regulars and Services

Wireless for the Warrior 2
Subscribe to Practical Electronics and save money 4
NEW! Practical Electronics back issues DOWNLOADS – 2021 now available! 6
Reader services – Editorial and Advertising Departments 7
Editorial 7
SMD tips and tricks... Thank you, PE writers!
Exclusive Microchip reader offer 9
Win a Microchip PIC32CX-BZ2 and WBZ451 Curiosity Development Board
PE Teach-In 8 51
Practical Electronics PCB Service 68
PCBs for Practical Electronics projects
Teach-In bundle – what a bargain! 70
Classified ads and Advertiser index 71
Next month! – highlights of our next issue of Practical Electronics 72
Made in the UK.

Written in Britain, Australia,
the US and Ireland.
Read everywhere.
© Electron Publishing Limited 2022
Copyright in all drawings, photographs, articles,
technical designs, software and intellectual property
published in Practical Electronics is fully protected,
and reproduction or imitation in whole or in part are
expressly forbidden.
The February 2023 issue of Practical Electronics will be
published on Thursday, 5 January 2023 – see page 72.
Practical Electronics | January | 2023 1

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Techno Talk – What’s in a name? 09 Techno Talk – Solar flares – time to panic? 10 Techno Talk – Hidden hazards 11 Techno Talk – Giant boost for batteries 12
Techno Talk – Raudive voices revisited 01
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Practical
Volume 52. No. 1
January 2023
ISSN 2632 573X
Electronics Editorial
Editorial offices
Practical Electronics Tel 01273 777619
Electron Publishing Limited Mob 07973 518682 SMD tips and tricks
1 Buckingham Road Fax 01202 843233
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I hope you enjoyed last month’s article and project on soldering
East Sussex BN1 3RA Web www.electronpublishing.com SMDs. As a follow up, I was pleased to hear from reader Mike
Cowlishaw, who emailed me with a very neat SMD soldering tip.
Advertisement offices Like all great ideas it’s completely obvious – but only after you’ve
Practical Electronics Adverts Tel 01273 777619
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seen it! Mike wrote:
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East Sussex BN1 3RA ‘I have been using SMD devices
Editor Matt Pulzer
since the 1980s. I often made my
General Manager Louisa Pulzer own SMDs from through-hole
Digital subscriptions Stewart Kearn Tel 01202 880299 devices by bending the leads 90°
Online Editor Alan Winstanley and snipping them off at surface
Web Systems Kris Thain
Publisher Matt Pulzer level; this saved much hole-
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Print subscriptions to read (on p.43) that “Fine-tipped
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We regret technical enquiries cannot be answered over the
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it and we cannot accept legal responsibility for it.
A number of projects and circuits published in Practical Electronics Thank you, PE writers!
employ voltages that can be lethal. You should not build, test, Another year, another 12 issues – I’ve said it before, and I’ll say
modify or renovate any item of mains-powered equipment unless
you fully understand the safety aspects involved and you use an
it again, Practical Electronics is nothing without its loyal band of
RCD (GFCI) adaptor. fantastic writers. They work very hard every month to bring you
original content that makes electronics accessible and inspiring. So,
Component supplies in no particular order – a huge 2022 ‘thank you’ to Alan Winstanley,
We do not supply electronic components or kits for building the
projects featured, these can be supplied by advertisers. We Mike Tooley, Ian Bell, Mark Nelson, Mike Hibbett, Clive ‘Max’
advise readers to check that all parts are still available before Maxfield, Phil Boyce, Julian Edgar, Barry Fox and Jake Rothman.
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Transmitters/bugs/telephone equipment then we have a huge stock of PCBs for projects suitable for all levels
We advise readers that certain items of radio transmitting and of skill, ability and experience.
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Publisher

Raudive Voices Techno Talk
Revisited Mark Nelson
It’s 13 years since we discussed electronic communication with folk who have departed this life. The
emergence of a new hobby product for conducting your own experiments offers a great excuse for
examining this ‘weird wireless’ topic afresh.
T
he topic of ‘Raudive Voices’ people. Some of these recordings were you will find chapter and verse on how
(or Electronic Voice Phenomena conducted in a laboratory screened these mysterious voices can be record-
– EVP) is somewhat ethereal and against electromagnetic signals. They ed and enhanced, as well as listen to
controversial, often (strongly) associated contained words that Raudive said were sample recordings and read more on
with the words ‘debatable’ and ‘alleged- identifiable and the clarity of the voices the subject. The page warns that intense
ly’. Some folk are firm believers, and in heard in his recordings was such that concentration is required in order to
a research project conducted under lab- they could not be readily explained by hear the voices on the tape, which usu-
oratory conditions and involving more normal means. It is in recognition of his ally has to be replayed several times in
than 400 people, each of the participants efforts that the name ‘Raudive Voices’ is order to decipher the speech. You are
claimed to hear mysterious voices. The now given to this phenomenon. recommended to work in a quiet room,
sincerity of experimenters in this field wear headphones and confine your re-
is probably not in doubt. On the other The Ghost of 29 Megacycles cording to a few minutes.
hand, some commentators classify EVP EVP was discussed in 1970 in the en- If you are feeling flush, you can buy
with the paranormal, life after death and cyclopaedia Man, Myth and Magic, and a ready-made ‘Raudive Diode Receiver
assorted other-worldly dimensions. during the early-1980s a new British and Microphone for Paranormal Research
If, like me, you enjoy having your in- magazine on the paranormal was issued Ghost Hunting’. Check out the specifica-
telligence insulted now and again, and with a cover-mounted flexi-disc (remem- tion at: https://bit.ly/pe-jan23-ken
are willing to waste half an hour listen- ber them?) of EVP recordings. However, This improved version connects to al-
ing to total weirdness, then why not give it was not until a few years later that the most any type of digital voice recorder
this mind-bending ‘science’ a hearing? subject attracted truly significant attention and now incorporates a switched micro-
when the American investigative writer phone to allow you to record your voice,
What’s it all about? and broadcaster John Fuller wrote a book calling out to the spirits, along with the
Michael Daniels, whose PsychicScience. called The Ghost of 29 Megacycles. This output from the diode receiver.
org website is possibly the most ac- substantial and seemingly level-headed
cessible introduction to the subject, paperback introduced the subject of EVP Is that all?
explains that EVP effects are now to the public at large. American inves- Seemingly not. Interest in the subject
considered by researchers as one of a tigators were convinced the dead could has not gone away and apparently many
broader range of phenomena known communicate with us by radio, setting people around the world are members
as ‘Instrumental Transcommunication’ up a half-million-dollar project called of electronic voice societies (see https://
(ITC). Inconsequential experiments to Spiricom to establish the proof. bit.ly/pe-jan23-evp). They remain con-
capture spiritual voices by electronic It was pretty obvious that they would vinced that they can record the voices
means began in 1941, with the first ac- never establish scientific proof, even if of the dead, receiving messages from the
ademic discussion being published by they believed their findings were real. other side. The growing new wave of such
the Journal of the American Society for They argued that if it had been legitimate belief systems is ‘a seemingly irrational
Psychical Research in 1959. for Marconi to investigate the subject in response to an increasingly irrational
The real ‘breakthrough’ came in the the 1930s, then why should they not do world,’ as one commentator puts it.
same year when the Swedish painter and so now using more sophisticated equip-
film producer Friedrich Jürgenson was ment. Where credibility broke down And finally
recording birdsong. When he replayed was that for some reason the ‘transmis- Earlier this year, I mentioned a recre-
the tapes, he heard faint but intelligible sions’ from the dead were confined to ation of Ceefax, the BBC’s teletext service
voices in the background, even though the 29MHz band, used actively by ra- (https://worldofpaul.com). Now there is
there was no-one else in the vicinity dio amateurs in the UK and elsewhere. Telstar, an emulation of BT’s erstwhile
when the recordings were made. He in- Even the book’s author was not entirely viewdata service, Prestel. Its creator John
terpreted what he heard to be his dead convinced, conceding on the first page, Newcombe says: ‘The aim of the system
father’s voice, and after making more re- ‘This is a strange story. It is either true is to provide a viewdata experience for
cordings, he subsequently claimed he’d or it is not.’ The book is still available at anyone who is interested in how things
heard a message from his late mother. affordable prices, and you can also read ‘used to be’. Services in the past typically
Following this, Konstantin Raudive, it online at: https://bit.ly/pw-jan23-29 provided access via the public switched
a Latvian psychologist who had taught telephone network (PSTN) connection,
at Uppsala University in Sweden, and Don’t try this at home? and this is indeed how Telstar works.
who had worked in conjunction with I must admit that I don’t feel like dis- However, Telstar also makes use of a
Jürgenson, went on to make more than turbing the dead, but if you feel like simple internet connection for modern
100,000 recordings which he described having a go, please feel free to visit internet modems.’ Take a visit to https://
as being communications with deceased https://psychicscience.org/evp, where glasstty.com/telstar/ and be impressed.

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Net Work
Alan Winstanley
This month, Google is ousted by Amazon (at home, anyway) and we try some typical smart
light bulbs, testing out Alexa’s ‘skill’ in controlling them. The latest energy labelling bands for LED
bulbs are also explained.
T
he search engine giant browser extension uses a private search translate foreign text such as instruc-
Google has attracted its fair share engine to eliminate a user’s web surf- tion manuals or packaging, or read text
of criticism and ire over the years, ing trails, or you can search the web out loud. I can use the mobile app to
morphing from a search index with the directly at: www.duckduckgo.com translate foreign signs that appear on-
motto ‘Don’t be evil’ into an advertising However, Google Search reigns su- screen, and desktop Google Chrome
broker that tries to monetise every preme, with Microsoft’s Bing still a can search by image as well.
corner of our online lives. Armed with distant runner up, at least as far as Despite bringing us these positive
your valuable profile data, advertisers breadth and accuracy of search re- benefits, Google can be a source of
can target web visitors with ‘relevant’ sults are concerned. There are some irritation and it increasingly seems
commercials. The Internet Advertising Google functions that users would like it’s grown too big to care. Google
Bureau (IAB) pre-dates Google and is the probably struggle to live without: Maps, for example, does not recog-
self-help trade body that helps online Google Street View gives an insight nise the common English habit of
media to comply with the EU’s fearsome into the contemporary street scene, giving a house a name as well as a
General Data Protection Regulations and it can wind the clock back over number, or sometimes just a name.
(GDPR). Many big brand names are IAB a decade or more, so we can see our There are countless British homes
members, and Internet marketing is big landscape changing over the years. called Dunroamin or Yew Tree Cot-
business: in the early days of online Google Maps is the author’s desktop tage for example. In my case, one
advertising, UK commerce spent a mere go-to guide for finding addresses and day a map pin suddenly appeared on
£8m in the whole of 1997, compared planning journeys, and many use the Google Maps over someone else’s lo-
with £12.5bn (yes, billion) in the first free app for in-car navigation. cation in town, wrongly labelled with
six months of 2022 alone, says the IAB. my house name! It was nearly impos-
Some very sophisticated techniques Looking at Planet Earth sible to change Google Maps’ error as
are used to profile a web user when More than 98% of the planet has now their mindless ‘Suggest an Edit’ form
they hop from one web page or social been mapped by Google, including did not accommodate English house
media post to another. Cookies are cen- (surprisingly) Russia though, (unsur- names. Suspecting a case of identity
tral to this, and some benign cookies are prisingly), not China. Germany all but theft, I seriously considered engag-
necessary anyway to enable a website banned Street View outside Berlin and ing a solicitor. After drawing a blank,
or shopping cart to function proper- regional capitals on privacy grounds eventually I logged into my Gmail ac-
ly. We tend to shrug off such creepy (see the blog at: https://tinyurl.com/ count for a change, before going over
and silent monitoring when we visit, 2j2275he). Surfing around on Street to Google Maps and using the ‘Suggest
say, a furniture website, only to then View can be quite engrossing and it an Edit’ link yet again. This time I got
see banner ads for the same furniture offers a taste of different worlds and an automated email acknowledging
popping up after we jump to anoth- cultures, whether in Britain or Bang- receipt and promising a follow-up,
er website. Tellingly, Google’s legacy kok. There is also no disputing the but that never happened. However,
‘Urchin Web Analytics Software sup- educational and informative value of the erroneous map pin silently dis-
port’ page admitted that, ‘In attempting Google Earth, which offers a 3D satel- appeared a few days later, though an
to identify and track unique visitors lite-eye view of our place in the world: online login still shows my complaint
and sessions [this way], we are basi- https://earth.google.com as ‘pending’ – many months later.
cally going against the nature of the Another handy
web, which is anonymous interac- app is Google Lens
tion.’ (If ever you see ‘?UTM_blah=...’ (see June 2022,
in a lengthy URL, it stands for ‘Urchin Net Work), which
Tracking Module’ – it’s Google’s track- will try to match
ing system hard at work.) images on a phone
or tablet camera,
Duck! or a photo gallery.
With online privacy concerns in mind, Once the mobile app
British TV viewers recently saw an is installed, a Google
ad campaign by DuckDuckGo (see: Lens icon appears in
https://youtu.be/QWpPyYlZXNI), an the Google search
alternative privacy app that claims bar for easy access,
to offer snoop-free web browsing and and it’s great for
email protection. DuckDuckGo is at identifying flowers,
pains to remind web users how Google plants, bugs, artwork
is ‘watching them’ and so their desktop and more. It can also DuckDuckGo offers private web searching without any snooping.

Service discontinued
Google’s idea of handling complaints
follows an established pattern. Reg-
ular readers might recall problems
with my Google Home Hub (now, Nest
Hub), an LCD smart speaker that for no
reason suddenly stopped responding.
Others blamed Google for a software
or system update that had ‘bricked’
their Home Hub. It looks like Google
forum staffers were feeding complaints
through to the support team who
raised a ticket number before going
silent on the matter. I received several
such support ticket IDs but never got
an answer. My perfectly satisfactory
2–3-year-old LCD smart speaker was
nearly worthless by then, and even-
tually I had no choice but to scrap the
device. Google’s press office failed to
First-generation Amazon Echo Show smart displays have a lower-spec camera but will
answer when I raised this with them,
be perfectly fine for everyday users. Check Amazon for special offers.
and more persistent tech writers than
me also tried and failed.
Other Google services that are fall- streaming music service. Otherwise, range of smart Wi-Fi sockets, bulbs and
ing by the wayside include their song choices are now ‘shuffled’ with a few handy-looking peripherals. They
Stadia cloud gaming platform, which ‘similar music’ and you can only skip are easy enough to configure using the
never found traction and is closing in so many ‘duff’ songs per hour. Ama- Tapo app on a tablet or phone, and
January 2023, with users receiving re- zon’s Alexa isn’t entirely a match for would be an ideal starting point for
funds. The ‘Killed by Google’ website Google Search either, but even though anyone wanting to harness smart de-
(https://killedbygoogle.com) has 275 some users dislike the idea of smart vices without spending a fortune. Note
entries listing the history of every dis- speakers eavesdropping on us, I’m that they are not interchangeable with
continued Google project. Some useful happy to try Amazon ‘skills’ to con- TP-Link’s Kasa smart device range,
services such as Google Cloud Print, trol some smart devices by voice, as I which needs the Kasa app instead.
which was embedded into some Wi-Fi describe next. As well as the Tapo P110 energy-sav-
printers, are sorely missed, but others ing smart socket featured last month,
were clearly never going anywhere, LED to believe I’ve been trying out some Tapo smart
including the instant messaging ser- Last month, I introduced TP-Link’s Tapo LED bulbs. The Tapo L510B has a UK-
vice Google Hangouts which is being smart devices, which is an entry-level style bayonet cap (B22) base and is
dropped this month.
I then went further by dumping
my Google smart speakers in favour
of 5-inch and 8-inch Amazon LCD
Echo Show displays that were being
heavily discounted in price. These
cheaper first-generation devices work
perfectly well, and will prove ideal
for many everyday users, especially
if they are used by Amazon Prime
subscribers. While Google states that
Google Home services are ‘subject to
change without notice or obligation’,
Amazon promises to deliver updates
for at least four years after the devices
are removed from sale. I now enjoy
seeing my gallery of thousands of
Amazon Photos streaming to my Echo
Show LCD screens: the 5-inch model
is ideal for bedside or desktop use.
Amazon Photo storage is unlimited
for Prime users, but I bought extra
storage at 100GB for $19.99 a year to
carry more video files, making 105GB
available in total.
It’s not all good news for Amazon
customers: Amazon Prime is now
pushing Amazon Music subscriptions
for an extra £8.99 a month after hob-
bling this enjoyable and rewarding The Tapo L510B smart light bulb is dimmable and equivalent to a 60W light bulb.

a YouTube video at: https://youtu.be/
DgIsn0Zac3o – try not to laugh, or cry!
Additionally, the Tapo smart socket
(see last month) is working well, pow-
ering up a smart TV, but I wouldn’t use
it to switch a heavy mains load like
an electric heater or any current-hun-
gry white goods.
Alexa, good night

Then it occurred to me that the
Amazon Echo Show devices could
also voice-control the Tapo devices by
installing the Tapo ‘skill’. This is easily
achieved by telling Alexa to install it,
or I could set it up via the Alexa app
instead. In theory, automated routines
(so far untested by me) can be set up
such as ‘Good night,’ which could turn
everything off, and the Tapo app offers An ‘F’ rating for a 9W LED lamp isn’t as
‘Sunrise’ routines that use a smart bulb bad as it looks. Higher-efficiency light
sources are under development. Users
to simulate sunrise.
scan the QR codes for more data.
Testing this new regime over the last
few weeks revealed some practical lim- enough most of the time, and the benefits
itations though, highlighting that all largely outweigh any drawbacks. Hope-
is not ideal in the smart-device world. fully it will settle down in due course,
Sometimes a Tapo bulb responds im- but I sometimes find Alexa stubborn-
mediately, but occasionally there’s a ly disobedient when the system isn’t
disconcerting delay before a lamp finally responding as expected. Before taking
switches on a few tens of seconds later, the plunge, the best port of call is the
if at all. The Tapo app may also flag up Tapo website which details all these
The Tapo smart bulb can be controlled an ‘Unreachable’ warning symbol on devices and how they work together.
via the Tapo app or by using Alexa or either one of the bulbs. The app and the So to learn more, visit: www.tapo.com
Google Assistant. smart bulbs seem to get out of sync, at
least for a short time, leaving me with EPREL Showers
dimmable, with a rating of 9W. The no idea whether the smart device is ac- As every European consumer knows,
smart bulb is self-contained so, unlike tually on or off until the system catches many electrical products carry an EU
some systems, it does not need a sepa- up with itself again. There are so many energy label indicating its energy effi-
rate hub. A colour-changing LED bulb variables at play that it’s been impossi- ciency, based on a 25-year-old system
is also available (Tapo L530B). In my ble to fine-tune the system to improve that was intended to inform/influence
test set-up, several Tapo smart bulbs are reliability any further. our buying habits. Appliances were
used in light fittings between a duo of The Tapo range has some handy originally rated A to G, then A+++ to
whole-home mesh hubs, so Wi-Fi cov- smart devices, including 1-gang and G to accommodate more energy-ef-
erage should not be a problem. 2-gang light switches (S210/ S220) ficient units, but so many products
After a short delay the Tapo app to control room lighting, but only a ended up jostling in those top ‘A’ tiers
found the new bulbs without too much practical test at home would prove that makers had no incentive to evolve
fuss. The app allows these bulbs to be how well they worked for you. A any further: they couldn’t improve on
dimmed on demand, and there is a stick-on smart contact sensor (T110, A+++. The system therefore reverted
useful 7-day time switch and ‘Away’ £15) monitors doors, windows, fridge in 2021 to show ratings of A-G again,
mode, to give a burglar-deterrent effect doors, filing or medicine cabinets or with energy bands ‘telescoped out’ to
during allotted hours. A timer switch- even the mailbox. It can push mes- allow consumers to distinguish be-
es the bulb on or off after a delay of up sages or activate a smart bulb (see: tween different models more easily.
to 24 hours. I named each bulb – eg, https://bit.ly/pe-jan23-tapo). It also The European Commission explains
‘standard lamp’ and ‘reading lamp’ – requires the separate Tapo Hub H100 that the new scale has been designed
in the app and they were then grouped (approx £30), a small plug-in chime so that very few products will initial-
together to unify their control. It all unit with the form factor of a wireless ly be able to achieve the top ‘A’ and
looked promising – on paper anyway. doorbell. Their smart PIR sensor (T100, ‘B’ ratings at all. This will allow room
Early on, I hit one or two frustrat- £28) detects movement, and a handy, for waves of more efficient products
ing setbacks, with either or both bulbs multipurpose stick-on smart button to arrive and work their way up the
sometimes becoming ‘unreachable’ and (S200B, £15) might make a doorbell, scale. Currently, the most energy effi-
not responding. Occasionally, they fell lighting controller or an alarm-call cient products will typically be labelled
off the network and rebooting them for the elderly, for example. These as ‘C’ or ‘D’, but simple market forces
didn’t always work either, so once or peripherals also need the Tapo Hub should encourage progressive makers
twice they were re-installed or facto- H100. Tapo Wi-Fi cameras and LED to reach ‘A’ and ‘B’ in due course.
ry-reset (a process of turning them on lighting strips are also sold. Some new elements have also ap-
and off repeatedly). This is nothing like In summary, I guess budget-price sys- peared on the revised energy labels,
as bad as the totally crazy factory-reset tems like these are alright as far as they including a QR code that links to an
routines for ‘C by GE Bulbs’ shown in go. My own domestic set-up works well EU product database called EPREL

(European Product Registry for Energy
Labelling) where consumers can find
out more details. Many more products,
including car tyres, water heaters and
solid fuel boilers are indexed there too.
The public face of the database is still
in Beta, but the go-to address for future
reference is: https://eprel.ec.europa.eu
Of the two QR codes printed on my
Tapo smart bulb energy label, one clicks
through to TP-Link’s website while the
EU label jumps to the EPREL database
showing full technical data (and you’ll
feel sorry you asked).
I noticed how a stock 42W halogen
bulb was rated ‘D’ on the old scale, yet
my Tapo LED bulbs were rated ‘F’. The
market for what the EU now calls ‘light
sources’ (bulbs, LEDs, modules and so
on) has changed due to the urgent need The ITER nuclear fusion site in France continues to take shape. – this view looks inside
to raise efficiency and conserve energy. the 30m-deep tokomak pit (Photo: © ITER Organization)
Since the A-G thresholds were revised,
the current generation of LED bulbs The 200-tonne ‘pancakes’ have taken storage on my LAN, so some parts of
have been demoted down the scale. ten years to develop and are manufac- the network were working properly. It
The Tapo consumes 9kWh/1000 hours tured in Russia. One of three magnetic looked like a DNS look-up problem, per-
(9W in old money) and, as LED bulb systems, the coils will be positioned haps with my ISP, so after much hair
energy ratings are based on lumens/ horizontally outside of the ITER vacuum pulling, I eventually found a solution:
watt (lm/W), it outputs 806lm at 9W vessel to shape the plasma and contrib- I changed the DNS address nailed into
(ie, 90lm/W): hence its paltry ‘F’ energy ute to its stability by ‘pinching’ it away the TV’s network settings by choosing
rating which sounds a lot worse than it from the walls, says ITER. Many more ‘Manual’ instead of ‘Automatic’ and
actually is. For interest, a tungsten fila- components and coils made for ITER entering 8.8.8.8 instead. The TV im-
ment bulb emits about 12-14 lm/W and by international manufacturers have mediately sprang into life! This DNS
wastes over 95% of energy consumed already been safely delivered to the IP is a Google public DNS address
as heat, so my halogen bulb would now massive site, which continues to come (see https://bit.ly/pe-jan23-dns for an
be ‘G’ rated. Future LED bulbs will need together ready for ‘first plasma’ in 2025. explanation); others worth trying in-
to be two or three-times more efficient There’s more at www.ITER.org and read- clude 8.8.4.4. or Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1.
than today’s models if they to reach ers might enjoy ITER’s new video at: The latter one is suggested by my own
the new ‘A’ rating (210 lm/W) – Philips https://youtu.be/f9nW01PBOOQ ISP, so I configured those in my router,
has already nearly achieved this with Recently, my Samsung Smart TV and now all is well. If you suspect
prototype ‘TLED’ light tubes. Readers suddenly refused to connect to the In- DNS problems, try those IP address-
can expect the energy efficiency of LED ternet, citing ‘No network connection’. es instead.
bulbs to climb steadily in coming years I ripped everything apart, including That’s all for this month – I’ll sign off
as they aim for that ‘A’ rating. changing Ethernet cables and swap- by wishing all readers a Happy Christ-
ping Ethernet ports on a nearby access mas and look forward to you joining
And finally point, but it made no difference and me next month for more Net Work.
The ITER nuclear fusion plant under the stubborn problem dragged on for
construction in France (see last month) weeks. I feared that the Ethernet port
has received the first of six ‘poloidal on my TV must have failed, but the TV The author can be reached at:
field coils’ destined for the tokomak. still connected to the network-attached
[email protected]
1557 IP68 sealed enclosures

w !
Learn more: hammfg.com/1557 ne
Contact us to request a free evaluation sample.
[email protected] • 01256 812812
ClassiC lED
MEtronoMEs
These two Metronome designs simulate
the classic mechanical, inverted-
pendulum metronome with its baton-
like pointer swinging left-and-right,
producing a click at each extreme. Both
designs use only discrete components
and simple logic chips, making them
easy to understand and build. Plus, they
are both great projects for a beginner.
By Randy Keenan
I
dislike typical ‘modern’ electronic forward and reverse, to mimic the Two designs
metronomes that only click and/or swing of an inverted pendulum. A The slightly simpler 8-LED Metro-
blink once per beat. I came up with click at each end of the LED arc fur- nome uses 74HC-series logic ICs and
these designs to better simulate the ther simulates a mechanical metro- can be battery-powered, while the
mechanical metronomes that I know nome. A typical metronome tempo 10-LED Metronome uses CD4000-
and like. Both designs light a series of range is 40-208 beats/minute, a ratio series logic ICs and is intended to be
LEDs, accompanied by a speaker that of 5.2 to one; in these Metronomes, powered from a plugpack. The two cir-
produces beat sounds. the range is extended to 36-216 beats/ cuits operate similarly: a pulse gener-
The first design uses eight LEDs minute, a ratio of six to one. ator clocks an up/down counter IC at
and fits in a standard plastic case, Either project is excellent for a begin- the rate required for the desired tempo.
while the second, slightly more ner; there are no high-frequency sig- Another IC decodes the counter value
complicated design has 10 LEDs nals, high voltages or tricky wiring to light the LEDs sequentially.
and is housed in an elegant custom- involved. Nor is there any need to pro- A set/reset flip-flop (SR-FF) switches
made timber case. So the latter is a gram a chip with software. However, the counter direction when either end
good project for those readers who some measurements and adjustments LED is lit, giving forward and reverse
have some woodworking experience. will be needed to calibrate the instru- LED sequences. The click is produced
In both cases, the LEDs are arranged ments after construction, given the by ORing the signals to the end LEDs,
in an arc and light up in sequence, expected component tolerances. followed by a differentiator to shorten
Fig.1: the 8-LED Metronome is based around three 74HC-series digital logic ICs. The 74HC132 generates pulses at a
selectable frequency. These clock the 74HC191 counter, and its three-bit output drives the eight LEDs via the 74HC137
decoder chip. The remaining three gates in the 74HC132 quad NAND package are used to form a set-reset flip-flop to
reverse the LED chaser’s direction each time it reaches one end, and to generate a pulse from the speaker.

However, all LEDs should have high
luminous intensity, ideally at least
4000mCd (sometimes called ‘super-
bright’). This is to reduce power con-
sumption. For the 8-LED Metronome,
that maximises battery life, while in
the 10-LED design, it limits the load on
the CD4028 driving IC to a safe level.
Both Metronomes were made using
5mm oval LEDs: green for the 8-LED
version, and red for the 10-LED ver-
sion. I used oval LEDs because they
glow in a line rather than a dot, provid-
ing a more interesting display. 3mm
and 5mm round LEDs are also suitable.
Tinted and diffused lenses look best.
You can use different LEDs from
those specified, but you might need
to adjust some resistor values.
The 8-LED version

The LEDs should be of the same type
and matched; but if using different
LEDs at the ends, use matched LEDs
for those two and separately matched
LEDs for the rest. The minimalist circuit
The LED metronome comes in two versions; one with eight LEDs and is shown in Fig.3 and works as follows.
another with 10 LEDs (shown in this photo). The case to house it can be as Schmitt-trigger quad NAND gate
simple as a small timber frame with a clear plastic panel at the front.
IC1d is configured as a pulse genera-
tor. The pulse frequency, and thus the
metronome tempo, is determined by
potentiometer VR1, resistors R1 and
the pulse and a one-transistor ampli- up/down counter IC3 (CD4029) which R2 and capacitors C1-C3.
fier to drive a small loudspeaker. drives decoder IC4 (a CD4028) with 10 For an explanation of the operation
The block diagrams of the two outputs. The SR-FF logic is again proof a Schmitt-trigger pulse generator,
Metronomes are shown in Figs.1 vided by two gates from IC1, although see the adjacent panel. Its pulses clock
and Fig.2. In the 8-LED Metronome, it is a different logic chip. IC2, an up/down binary counter. IC2’s
the tempo pulse is generated by a Both versions enable the LEDs at outputs are fed to decoder IC3 to light
Schmitt-trigger NAND gate (part of each end of the arc to flash brighter. the eight LEDs in sequence.
a 74HC132). This clocks four-bit up/ You could also use either of these The outputs of IC3 and the inputs
down counter IC2 (7HC191). Only circuits anywhere an LED ‘chaser’ of IC1a, IC1b and IC1c use negative
three of the four binary outputs are is needed. (active-low) logic because IC1 is a
used to drive 3-to-8-line decoder IC3 NAND gate rather than a NOR gate
(74HC137) that lights the LEDs in LED options (see the panel on SR-FFs).
sequence (eight is the 137’s limit). The There are many options for the LEDs The alternative would have been
SR-FF is made from two more NAND in these Metronomes. The parts lists to use the 74HC7002 Schmitt-trigger
gates in the 74HC132. indicate the suggested LEDs, but other NOR gate with a 74HC237 decoder
In the 10-LED Metronome, the pulse sizes, shapes and colours can be sub- and positive logic, but the 74HC7002
is generated by a CMOS version of the stituted. The two end LEDs could even is less common and more expensive
ubiquitous 555 timer. It clocks four-bit be different from the middle LEDs. than the 74HC132.
Fig.2: the 10-LED Metronome uses a 555 timer IC instead of a logic-gate-based oscillator as the pulse generator. The remaining
logic ICs are from the 4000-series. A 4029 acts as the up/down counter, while a 4028 is the 4-to-10 decoder that drives the
LEDs. Two of the gates of the 4001 quad NOR IC form the set-reset flip-flop, and the other two gates form the click pulse.

When IC3 is counting up, it lights 4.7V. If you want all LEDs to have (ZD1). Alkaline, dry cell, recharge-
each LED in sequence, from LED0 to equal brightness, fit a wire in place able NiMH or Li-ion AAA cells can
LED7. When LED7 lights, the low level of LED8/ZD2. be used.
at pin 7 of IC3 (Y7) is also applied to The 4700μF and 470μF bulk bypass
the SR-FF formed by IC1a and IC1b. Click sounds capacitors, in combination with the
This causes pin 6 of IC1b (Q) to go When either end LED is lit, the low 47W series resistor, reduce the supply
high, causing IC2 to reverse its direc- level at Y0/Y7 is also sent to IC1c, voltage pull-down by the click-pulse
tion and count down. Each LED is which behaves as a NOR gate when current through the speaker.
now lit in sequence in the opposite operated in negative logic mode (a low PCB-mounting potentiometers with
direction. When the first LED, LED0, at either input causes a high output). built-in switches are rare, so a separate
is lit, the SR-FF is reset, IC2 reverses Its output is fed to the Click Loudness power switch is used. A regulated 6V
and counts up, and the cycle repeats. control (VR3) and then to a simple DC plugpack could be used instead of
VR2 controls the overall LED transistor amplifier. a battery. Make sure you verify it is
brightness. The circuit is designed to However, the pulse from IC1c is regulated as otherwise, its output volt-
make LED0 and LED7 brighter than too long and would cause a click at age would be too high for the circuit.
the others. The relative brightnesses the end of the pulse as well as at its
of the end-vs-middle LEDs is main- beginning, and the current would be The 10-LED version
tained as VR2 is adjusted by LED8 high during the pulse on-period. To The circuit for this version is shown
or a zener diode, ZD2. Whenever avoid this, the pulse passes through in Fig.4. It is similar to the 8-LED
current is applied to LED1-LED6, C4 and/or C5 to yield a short pulse at design but positive logic is used
LED8/ZD2 is in series with that LED, each end of the original pulse, a pos- throughout. The pulses are gener-
reducing the voltage across the cur- itive one at the beginning and a nega- ated by CMOS 555 timer IC2. It clocks
rent-limiting resistors and thus the tive one at the end. IC3, a four-bit up/down counter. IC3’s
LED current. Diode D1 shunts the negative pulse outputs are decoded to 10 individual
VR2 could be changed from 500kW so that only the positive pulse is outputs by IC4, lighting the 10 LEDs
to 1MW to extend the brightness range applied to the base of transistor Q1. in sequence.
down to very dim levels. If you want When an end LED (LED0 or LED9)
VR2 to turn the LEDs completely off Power supply is lit, the SR-FF formed by IC2a and
at minimum, fit R3 (300kW), but note This design is powered by a battery IC2c is set or reset, thus switching IC3
that this creates a large ‘dead zone’ in of four AAA cells. 74HC ICs are used into up or down mode, reversing the
the lower range of VR2. rather than 74HCT or 74LS because LED sequence.
LED8 may be the same type as LED0 the 74HC series allows a slightly VR5 controls the LED brightnesses.
through LED7, but for more bright- higher supply voltage, up to 6V. Fresh Instead of the technique used for the
ness contrast between the end and standard alkaline AAA cells supply 8-LED design to make the end LEDs
middle LEDs, use a type with higher marginally more than 6V, so the volt- brighter, this version uses a current
forward voltage such as blue or white, age rail for the ICs is limited using mirror comprising Q1 and Q2 with
or use a zener diode of approximately a 47W resistor and a 6V zener diode trimpot VR4, control potentiometer
8-LED ‘Classic’ Metronome

Fig.3: this 8-LED Metronome circuit shows more details than Fig.1. VR2 allows you to set the LED brightness while LED8
or ZD2 reduces the brightness of the middle six LEDs compared to the outer two. Extra capacitors C2-C3 and resistor
R2 allow you to adjust the frequency range to match the beats-per-minute (bpm) range shown on the dial. Additional
capacitor C5 is provided to change how the clicks sound.

Using a Schmitt-trigger gate as a pulse generator
Gate IC1d of the 74HC132 Schmitt-

Fig.a and Fig.b: the transfer function of a standard NOR
trigger input NAND chip generates the
gate. The output is low when the input is high and vice
pulses that clock the counter (IC2). versa, but if the input voltage is intermediate, the output
So what is a Schmitt-trigger gate, and voltage can be anywhere in between.
why are we using one?
An ‘ordinary’ non-Schmitt-trigger
gate or inverter is effectively a high-
gain but mostly linear amplifier. As
a result, the output transition from
high-to-low or low-to-high takes place
over a narrow input voltage range, as
shown in Fig.a, which is a plot of out-
put voltage versus input voltage.
Consider, the negative-feedback
RC circuit shown in Fig.b. It will typi-
cally reach equilibrium at some point Fig.c and Fig.d: a Schmitt-trigger inverter has
(E), with the output ‘stuck’ at an inter- hysteresis, so once its input voltage is high
mediate voltage. If the input were to enough, the output snaps low and stays low
increase in voltage, as indicated by until the input voltage drops significantly.
the arrow, the output would respond Similarly, when the input voltage drops and
by decreasing and would restore the the output goes high, it remains high until the
input voltage increases significantly.
circuit to point E with a time constant
determined by R and C. The reverse
is true if the input voltage decreases.
You can test this yourself on a bread-
board if you have a spare 74HC00
NAND gate chip. Just remember to
connect all the unused inputs to one
supply rail or the other. A DVM will
show that the voltage at pin 3 is stable.
In contrast, the Schmitt-trigger
version of the gate ensures oscilla-
tion due to its built-in hysteresis and
associated positive feedback. This is
illustrated in Fig.c, which is an equiv- Fig.e: the input
alent plot to Fig.a but for a gate with and output
Schmitt-trigger inputs. waveforms for a
Once the input voltage increases Schmitt-trigger
above the upper-threshold input volt- inverter used as
age (VT+, point U), the output imme- an oscillator.
diately ‘snaps’ to a low level (point
V). It remains there until the input
decreases below the lower-threshold
input voltage (VT−, point L) and the
output ‘snaps’ high (point W).
This can be demonstrated by bread- amplitude equal to the hysteresis
boarding the circuit shown in Fig.d. spread, as shown in Fig.e.
Begin with the pot at extreme clock- One crucial point to consider is
wise (pins 1 and 2 at +6V) and apply how the rate of oscillation will vary
power. The LED should remain off. with supply voltage (especially in
Slowly decrease the input voltage via a battery-powered circuit). As it
the pot until the LED goes on; note turns out, the deceased capacitor
the input voltage. Now increase the as indicated by the arrows in Fig.c. charging current is somewhat com-
input voltage gradually until the LED Because of this, if you substitute pensated by the decrease in hyster-
goes off. There should be a couple of a Schmitt-trigger 74HC132 for the esis spread (as it is somewhat pro-
volts difference; this is the hysteresis 74HC00 in Fig.b, you will find that it portional to the IC’s supply voltage).
spread (VT+ − VT−). oscillates, generating a square wave Thus, the pulse rate only changes by
You have made one clockwise at the output. The input exhibits an a few percent from 6V to 5.5V (an
trip around the hysteresis rectangle, exponential pseudo-triangle wave of 8% change in voltage).
VR5 and some fixed resistors. VR4 Click generation and circuit vari- Construction
adjusts the brightness of the middle ations are the same as for the 8-LED Fig.5 is the PCB layout diagram for
LEDs relative to the brightness of the Metronome design. The higher sup- the 8-LED version, while Fig.6 is for
two end LEDs. See the adjacent panel ply voltage of this version provides a the 10-LED version. Most components
for an explanation of how this works. louder click. mount on the boards. A few might need

their values tweaked; that is why some oriented opposite to the other two ICs. Note that the PCB has footprints to
parts do not have an associated value. Fit the capacitors next, starting with accommodate different types of tran-
PCBs for each version are available the smaller non-polarised types and sistors from those specified. However,
from the PE PCB Service. then moving onto the electrolytic capac- assuming you are using the BC558 sug-
Whichever version you build, the itors, which must be oriented with their gested in the parts list, they are placed
construction process is initially similar. longer positive leads placed towards as shown in Fig.6.
Start by fitting all the resistors with fixed the + symbols. The 1000μF capacitor Both boards use a 3-way terminal
values given, using a DMM to check the on the 10-LED board is laid over as block for power, although you can sol-
values before soldering them in place. shown before soldering and trimming der wires to its pads instead. If fitting
Follow with the diode(s), ensuring its leads. As with the resistors, leave off it, do that next, with the wires enter-
their cathode stripes face as shown any that don’t have values indicated as ing the front of the board and passing
in the appropriate overlay diagram those pads are for tuning later. around to the rear via the notch on the
and that you don’t get the different There are no trimpots or discrete edge of the board.
types mixed up. Remember that for transistors on the 8-LED board. How- Continue by selecting the LEDs you
the 8-LED version, you either fit zener ever, on the 10-LED board there are are going to use. You might wish to
diode ZD2 or LED8, not both. If using three trimpots: two 5kW (VR1 and order extras so that you can pick out
LED8, push it down onto the board VR3) and one 100kW (VR4); as well a matched set from the larger num-
with the longer lead to the pad marked as two PNP transistors (Q1 and Q2) ber. Note that it’s common for their
A and then solder it in place. and one NPN transistor (Q3). Fit them brightnesses to look similar when
The ICs are next. They can be sol- now, being careful not to get the dif- fairly bright, but at very low currents
dered directly to the PCB or plugged in ferent types of transistors mixed up. (say around 30μA), they can vary con-
via sockets; it’s up to you. Either way, If your Q3 transistor is taller than siderably when dim. Try to select the
make sure the pin 1 notches/dots face the others, bend its leads so that it is ones which match best for the mid-
as shown and don’t get the two dif- laid over on its side before soldering dle LEDs.
ferent 16-pin ICs mixed up. Note that to ensure sufficient clearance for the If you have a bench supply, one
IC3 on the 8-LED board (74HC137) is front panel later. good way to compare the brightness
10-LED Deluxe Metronome

Fig.4: the 10-LED Metronome uses a more complicated LED brightness control scheme with PNP transistors Q1 and Q2
forming a current mirror, so the brightnesses of the middle eight and outer two LEDs track over a wide adjustment range.
LED10 lights up the beats-per-minute adjustment dial. Besides these differences, and using a CMOS 555 timer as the pulse
generator, the circuit is quite similar to the 8-LED version.

How a current mirror works
A current mirror circuit is used to match two or possibly

more currents under varying conditions. Fig.f shows a basic
example; similar NPN bipolar transistors Q1 and Q2 have
their bases tied together and set at a control voltage, Vb.
Thus, their emitters will be at equal voltages, approximately
0.6V lower than Vb.
If the emitter resistors, R1 and R2, are of equal resis-
tance, they will conduct equal currents of approximately
Ic = (Vb – 0.6V) ÷ R.
Assuming a sufficiently high current gain (>≈100) for the
transistors, and thus negligible base currents, the collec-
tor current of each BJT would be the same as its emitter
current; in other words, the currents through LOAD 1 and
LOAD 2 would be matched. If the base voltage (Vb) is varied,
the emitter and collector currents will vary, but will remain
matched between the two transistors. Fig.f: a basic current mirror circuit. Since Q1 and Q2
Likewise, if one or both loads vary in resistance – within are similar transistors, and thanks to the negative
limits – their currents will still be equal and given by the feedback provided by the emitter resistors, varying their
equation above. base voltages using the potentiometer results in closely
For the brightness control of the 10-LED Metronome, we matched currents through the two independent loads.
want the current to the middle LEDs to be a fraction of the
current to the end LEDs, and to be the same fraction over
a wide range of currents. If we used the above scheme, the
circuit would be something like Fig.g, with R being a frac-
tion of VR + R, ie, unequal emitter resistors.
However, there is a problem with this: since each group of
LEDs is alternately turned off, that load resistance becomes
extremely high. As a result, the transistor in the off leg of
the circuit has no collector current, and the base current
becomes large because the base-emitter junction is a for-
ward-biased diode. This reduces the base voltage, and thus
the collector current of the other transistor.
For example, Fig.g shows one of the middle LEDs on,
while the end LEDs are both off, resulting in high base cur-
rent through their transistor (Q2).
To avoid this, I devised a different scheme for the 10-LED
Metronome, shown in Fig.h. This works because the two
loads are, in practice, nearly constant and equal, each con-
Fig.g: different emitter resistor values can be used to
sisting of one LED at a time.
make the load currents different, but they keep similar
The current-mirror circuit is turned on its head, using PNP current ratios when the base voltage is varied.
transistors rather than NPN. Each group of LEDs is made
part of an emitter circuit, in series with a resistor that will
determine its current and relative brightness.
When lit in sequence, each middle LED is in series with
R1 + VR4, which is made larger than R2 in series with each
end LED. The collector current of Q1 will be a fraction of
that of Q2 (R2 ÷ [R1 + VR4]). This fraction — the ratio of cur-
rents — will be maintained over a range of Vb as controlled
by VR5, and thus the brightnesses of the eight middle LEDs
will be a fraction of the brightnesses of the two end LEDs
over a wide range.
This situation will break down if Vb is above 12V − Vled −
0.6V or about 10V. This is avoided by padding the ends of
VR5 with fixed resistors. Trimpot VR4 allows the resistance
ratio R2 ÷ [R1 + VR4] to be set as desired, thus setting the
brightness difference.
Fig.h: the circuit shown in Fig.g can suffer from excessive base current problems when the loads can be switched on
and off independently. This circuit solves that by swapping the NPN transistors for PNP and keeping the current-
setting resistor connections at the transistor emitters.
is to connect several in series, along make a direct comparison of several Finishing the 8-LED Metronome
with an appropriate current-limiting candidate LEDs over a useful range Measure the resistance across VR1’s
resistor, then power the entire string of brightnesses. track (from one end pin to the other) and
from the bench supply and slowly The construction approach now divide the reading by five. This is the
wind its voltage up. That way, you can diverges for the two versions. value you should aim for with R1 + R2.

Fig.5: most of the
8-LED Metronome
components mount
on the PCB, as shown
here. Assembly is
straightforward
but be careful
to orientate the
ICs, LEDs and
diodes as shown.
Also, don’t get the
potentiometers
mixed up as they all
have different values
(check the codes
printed on their
bodies).
We’ve specified two 10kW resistors in lengths and shorten them as needed Next, paying close attention to
the parts list because VR1 should be for your knobs. their orientations (see the A and K
close to 100kW. The shaft-gripping sections of the markings on the PCB), insert the LED
If VR1 does not measure close to knobs that I used were recessed by leads into the board without solder-
100kW, vary the values of one or both of several mm. So for pots VR2 and ing them. If using oval LEDs, they
those 10kW resistors (eg, changing one VR3, I sanded down the backs of the will need to be twisted slightly to
to 9.1kW or 11kW) to get their total as knobs to about 12.5mm total height conform to the arc.
close as possible to 20% of VR1’s value. to enable the knobs to grip the shorter Again, attach the PCB to the front
The 8-LED version fits in a Serpac pot shafts adequately. half of the enclosure and manoeuvre
131-BK plastic enclosure, but other If the knobs are not tight enough, each LED into its proper hole in the
enclosures could be used instead. If the plastic shafts of the potentiome- front of the enclosure. It’s best to have
using the 131-BK, use the side with ters can be deformed a little by pinch- them protruding slightly. Check the
the best appearance as the upper end. ing them with pliers. Solder the three LEDs’ appearance and adjust as nec-
After selecting the LEDs, drill the LED pots now, after re-checking they have essary, then solder the LEDs to the
and potentiometer holes in the front the correct values. PCB while it is in place. The LEDs
half of the enclosure. Fig.7 may be used
as a drilling template. Fig.7: a drilling template
You can print the guide onto card for the front panel of
stock, punch out the mounting holes the 8-LED version.
to 5mm and temporarily glue the Eleven holes need to
guide to the inside of the front half be drilled: eight for the
of the enclosure. LEDs (size and shape
If using the recommended oval to suit the LEDs you
LEDs, you will need to carefully elon- are using, marked ‘A’)
gate the holes after drilling. Note that and three 8mm holes
for the potentiometer
the illuminated line from an oval LED
shafts, marked ‘B’.
is perpendicular to the larger dimen- The dashed circles
sion of the LED body. Decide which show the positions of
orientation you want and orient the mounting posts within
LEDs and holes accordingly. When the specified case; do not
drilling or adjusting the LED holes, drill those.
check that the LEDs fit into the holes
snugly but do not require excessive While we specify 3mm
insertion force. diameter holes for ‘A’, the
Fit the three pots to the PCB without size will depend on what
type of LEDs you are using.
soldering them, and attach the PCB to
the front of the enclosure. I removed This is available to
the small protruding bits on the front download as a PDF from
of each pot. To allow space for the com- the January 2023 page of
ponents on the PCB, you might need the PE website (https://
spacers on the screws. Check the shaft bit.ly/pe-downloads

Fig.6: the 10-LED Metronome is slightly more complicated than the 8-LED version. Note the components laid on their sides
and make sure to place the transistors in the positions shown, unless you are substituting those with a different pinout.
will probably not be seated on the This assumes that VR1 is equivalent this is because pots typically have a
PCB but spaced away from it by sev- to the type specified in the parts list; dead zone at each extreme where the
eral millimetres. it needs to rotate through a 280° arc. resistance changes very little.
Fig.8 is the tempo dial; this can be Align the dial to the tempo pot shaft NPN transistor Q1, the 4700μF
downloaded from the January 2023 and glue it to the front of the enclo- capacitor, switch S1, the speaker and
page of the PE website (https://bit.ly/ sure. Fit the knob to the tempo pot the battery holder are not mounted on
pe-downloads). It is a good idea to print such that its rotation extends equally the PCB but attached to the rear half
it on photo paper for a good appearance. beyond the 36 and 216 tempo lines; of the enclosure (see the photo). The
Set-reset flip-flops (SR-FF)

Both Metronome designs incorporate a diagram, or you can get dedicated flip- NOR gates, and the SR-FF is set and
set/reset flip-flop (SR-FF), a logic circuit flop ICs. In the 10-LED Metronome, reset by negative (low) pulses, spe-
with two states: set and reset. Applying we’re already using NOR gates for other cifically, from LED7 (set) and LED0
a high level to the S input while keeping purposes, so doing it this way avoids (reset). The SR-FF Q output is sent to
the R input low puts the flip-flop into the need for an extra IC. the 74HC191 counter to change its
the set state, and it remains there until It works as follows. Imagine that counting direction.
reset. Similarly, applying a high level to both the S and R inputs are low. The The 10-LED Metronome has an SR-FF,
the R input while keeping the S input circuit can initially be in either state: constructed from two NOR gates in the
low puts the SR-FF into the reset state, set, with Q high and Q low, or reset, vice CD4001. Positive logic is used, and the
staying there until set again. versa. Pulsing S high will cause Q to go SR-FF operates as described above.
By today’s naming standards, the low or to stay low, which will cause Q to
SR-FF is a transparent latch and not a go high, which is the set state. Further
flip-flop as it has no clock input, but the pulsing of S will have no effect since Q
traditional term ‘flip-flop’ continues to be holds the upper NOR-gate input high,
used. Another way of thinking of it is as assuming that R remains low.
a 1-bit memory store or a bistable circuit. Similarly, pulsing R will cause Q to
An SR-FF is a simple type of sequen- go low and thus Q to go high, which
tial logic circuit, which means that its is the reset state. Further pulsing of
output depends on its ‘history’; it has a R will have no effect, assuming that S
A set-reset flip-flop (SR-FF) made from
memory. Compare this to combinato- remains low.
two NOR gates. The Q and Q outputs
rial logic in which the outputs depend For the 8-LED Metronome, the SR-FF always have opposite polarity; Q is
only on the value of the inputs; there is is constructed from two NAND gates brought high when the S input goes
no history or memory involved. rather than NOR gates. All this means high, while Q goes low when the R
An SR-FF can be made from two is that the SR-FF uses negative logic; input goes high. Both inputs must not
NOR gates, as shown in the adjacent in negative logic, NAND gates become be high at the same time.

speaker holes may be in any pattern. I
used a perforated metal sheet, selected
a drill bit of the diameter of its holes,
clamped the sheet to the inside of the
rear half of the enclosure and used it
as a drilling guide.
Attach the slide switch to the panel
50mm
120
120
using small screws and nuts. The bat-
tery holder and speaker are held in
place with clips made from a large,
heavy-duty paper clip.
Q1 and the 4700μF capacitor are
mounted close to the speaker and
wired directly to the speaker termi-
nals to minimise parasitic resistances;
they are not switched by S1, likewise Fig.9: there are two dials for the 10-LED Metronome to suit the larger 300°
to reduce parasitic resistance. This can potentiometer (left), or the standard 280° potentiometer (right). Unlike the 8-LED
version, these are printed on transparent film and connected to the rotating pot
be important since the supply volt-
shaft. Thus LED10 behind can shine through and illuminate the selected tempo.
age is relatively low and the speaker
impedance is 8W.
When the Metronome is switched wiring of these components carefully: in the photos. If you don’t want to use
off, there will be only a minuscule a mistake can cause excessive current a terminal block, you can solder the
leakage current through these com- and damage Q1 or cook the speaker wires directly to the PCB pads.
ponents. However, if the Metronome coil and cone.
is unused for an extended period, it’s Cut a timber base to suit the enclo- Adjustments
best to remove the cells. sure and attach the rear half to it using The tempo and its range will likely
Solder the emitter lead of transistor screws, giving the enclosure a slight need adjustment. Eight different
Q1, the negative lead of the capacitor, backward tilt. 74HC132 ICs showed a spread of
and a wire to a solder lug before fit- Finally, attach the off-PCB parts to a few percent, with one about 7%
ting them to the enclosure. Check the the 3-way terminal block, as shown above the average. The tempo may
For the LED Metronome, some of

the components such as the speaker
and battery holder are not mounted
on the PCB, but are instead fitted
onto the rear of the enclosure. This
photo shows the 8-LED Metronome
arrangement.
54 60 72
48 88
44 104
120 50mm
40
38 160
36 216
Fig.8: print this dial artwork for the

8-LED version on photo paper, cut it
out and glue it to the front of the case.
The exact diameter is not critical,
but it should be close to 50mm. This
is available to download as a PDF
from the January 2023 page of the PE
website (https://bit.ly/pe-downloads.

not correspond to the dial markings
because of this, plus variations in the
CON1
timing capacitors and the resistances
of VR1 and R1/R2. Pots can vary by as 3 2 1
much as 20%.
If you are not happy and want to
bring the tempos into agreement, a
frequency meter is very helpful. The
type built into many low-cost DMMs
is adequate.
Measure the pulse frequency at pin
11 of IC1 or pin 14 of IC2. With VR1 set
at the lowest tempo (aligned with the
marking showing 36 beats/minute),
find a capacitor or paralleled capac-
itors for C1-C3 that give a pulse fre-
quency of 4.2Hz (see Table 1).
If you don’t have a selection of
capacitors to try out (or want to save
time), calculate the percentage error in
the frequency (actual vs expected) and
measure the capacitance across C1-C3.
Multiply the capacitance reading by
the percentage and divide by 100. This
is how much capacitance you need to Similar to the 8-LED Metronome, the 10-LED metronome also has components
add (if it’s too fast) or subtract (if it’s mounted on the rear panel rather than on the PCB, as can be seen in the photo
too slow). below, with the wires emanating from the top of this one.
To subtract capacitance, you’ll need
to replace C1 and/or C2 with lower The final result should have all tem- should give a more ‘mellow’ click.
value capacitors, then re-check and pos from 36 to 216 (and thus pulse fre- You can also try the speaker in both
possibly add a bit more capacitance by quencies in Table 1) agreeing with the polarities as that can affect the sound.
fitting C3 to get the frequency spot-on. dial markings.
Assuming you selected R1 and Finally, check the click loudness Troubleshooting
R2 as 1/5th the value of VR1, with and timbre. Check that VR3 varies If the LEDs don’t light up or behave
VR1 aligned with 216 beats/min, you the click loudness smoothly from zero strangely, check the orientation of all
should get a frequency reading of to maximum. If it is too soft at max- the parts.
25.2Hz (see Table 1). If this is signifi- imum, a transistor with a higher hFE Check for solder bridges or poor
cantly off, you might want to adjust is needed. If the click does not vary joints and that IC pins are not bent.
those resistor values, reducing the total smoothly, replace the 220W resistor Check also that there is a pulse at pin
to speed it up or increasing them to with a higher value until the loudness 11 of IC1 and pin 14 of IC2.
slow it down. Calculating the percent- variation is satisfactory.
age frequency error relative to 25.2Hz You can vary the timbre of the click Finishing the 10-LED Metronome
tells you the percentage by which the by adding a capacitor at the posi- The mounting holes for VR2 can accept
total resistance must change. tion marked C5. Adding capacitance a 280° pot (matching the others) or a
Table 1 – Pulse frequency (Hz)

versus tempo (beats/minute)
Tempo 8 LEDs 10 LEDs CON1 pin 3
(bpm) (Hz) (Hz)
36 4.20 5.40
38 4.43 5.70
40 4.67 6.00
44 5.13 6.60
CON1 pin 1
48 5.60 7.20
54 6.30 8.10
60 7.00 9.00 CON1 pin 2
66 7.70 9.90
72 8.40 10.8
80 9.33 12.0
88 10.3 13.2
104 12.1 15.6
120 14.0 18.0
160 18.7 24.0
216 25.2 32.4

larger 300° pot. While the difference is
subtle, the 300° pot allows the tempo Parts List – 8-/10-LED Metronome
numbers to be spread out slightly
more. Before fitting VR2, measure its 8-LED Metronome
resistance, divide by 5.5 and check that 1 double-sided PCB coded 23111211, 71 x 98mm (from the PE PCB Service)
this is close to 18kW. If not, you might 1 3-way terminal block (CON1)
need to replace the 18kW resistor with 1 Serpac 131-BK plastic instrument case, 111 x 82.5 x 38mm
a different value that’s close to this. [Mouser 635-131-B, Digi-Key SR131B-ND]
If your IC3 is a 4029, fit the solid 1 timber base, 75 x 90 x 12.5mm (DIY)
red wire link shown in Fig.6. Other- 4 AAA cells, preferably NiMH rechargeables (BAT1)
wise, fit the wire link where there is 1 4xAAA battery holder (BAT1) [Keystone Electronics 2482;
a dashed red line. You can use a com- Mouser 534-2482, Digi-Key 36-2482-ND]
ponent lead off-cut for either. 1 8W loudspeaker, 36mm diameter (SPK1) [DB Unlimited SM360608-1;
Insert LED10 through the PCB from Mouser 497-SM360608-1, Digi-Key 2104-SM260608-1-ND]
the back (see the photo on page 23). 1 100kW linear 9mm/10mm vertical potentiometer (VR1)
Solder its leads on the back of the PCB [Mouser 652-PTV09A4025UB104]
to pads ‘K’ and ‘A’. 1 500kW linear 9mm/10mm vertical potentiometer (VR2)
Rather than a dial applique, as used [Mouser 652-PTV09A4020UB504]
in the 8-LED version, the 10-LED Met- 1 5kW linear 9mm/10mm vertical potentiometer (VR3) [Mouser
ronome uses a transparent plastic 652-PTV09A4030UB502, Digi-Key PTV09A4030UB502-ND]
disc printed black with clear tempo 1 SPST or SPDT slide switch (S1) [Alpha SS60012F-0102-4V-NB; Mouser
numbers (Fig.9). Choose the design SS60012F-0102-4V-NB]
appropriate for your VR2 potentiom- 1 14-pin DIL IC socket (optional; for IC1)
eter type. If the printed disc is not 2 16-pin DIL IC sockets (optional; for IC2 and IC3)
sufficiently rigid, a clear backing disc 3 knobs to suit VR1-VR3
might be needed. 4 adhesive rubber feet
Glue the disc to the back of a plastic 2 small machine screws and nuts (for mounting slide switch)
bushing fitted by friction or glue onto 1 large, heavy-duty paper clip
the shaft of VR2. This bushing can be 8 No.4 x 6mm self-tapping screws
made from a cut-down knob. LED10 2 small, short (~10mm) panhead wood screws (for mounting case to base)
illuminates the tempo numbers of the 1 solder lug with ~3.25mm diameter hole
disc to show through the plastic panel. various lengths and colours of light-duty hookup wire
LED10’s brightness is determined by Semiconductors
the value of resistor R2, specified as 1 74HC132 quad 2-input Schmitt-trigger NAND gate, DIP-14 (IC1)
10kW; if you aren’t happy with the 1 74HC191 presettable 4-bit binary up/down counter, DIP-16 (IC2)
brightness, lower the value of R2 to 1 74HC137 or 74HC138 3-to-8 line decoder, DIP-16 (IC3)
make it brighter or increase it to make 1 30V 1A NPN transistor, TO-92 (Q1)
it dimmer. [KSD471ACYTA, KSC2328AYTA or ZTX690B]
For the 10-LED version, the LEDs do 8 ‘superbright’ LEDs, round or oval (LED0-LED7)
not protrude through the front panel, [Broadcom HLMP-HM74-34CDD (green, oval), Kingbright WP7083ZGD/G
but show through, so holes for the (green, 5mm), Jameco 2169846 (green, 3mm)]
LEDs are not needed. The holes for 1 6.0V 500mW zener diode (ZD1) [1N5233 or equivalent]
the two lowest potentiometers (VR5/6) 1 blue/white LED or 4.7V zener diode (LED8/ZD2) [1N5231]
can be 8mm, but VR2 will require a 1 150mA schottky diode; eg, BAT46/BAT48/BAT85 (D1)
larger hole to accommodate the bush- [Jaycar ZR1141, Altronics Z0044, Mouser 511-BAT46]
ing holding the tempo dial.
You will need to cut a thin panel on Capacitors
which to mount the PCB with 15mm 1 4700μF 6.3V electrolytic [Mouser 667-EEU-FS0J472]
threaded standoffs. This panel will fit 1 470μF 6.3V low-profile electrolytic [Mouser 232-63AX470MEFC8X75]
into the back of the timber frame. This 4 1μF 50V multi-layer ceramic
panel also carries the speaker, power 1 100nF 50V ceramic
jack, power switch, 4700µF electro- 1 220pF 50V ceramic
lytic and two 22W resistors (see photo). Resistors (1% 1/4W, 1/8W or 1/16W small body metal film unless otherwise stated)
Use the correct power socket to match 1 300kW (optional)
your plugpack output. 2 10kW While we recommend using 1% resistors, you can
The speaker is held in place by screws 1 2.2kW use 5% resistors if desired. It might need more
and nuts, with washers that have been 2 220W adjustments to get the tempo range correct.
bent down on one side. You can use hot 1 47W
melt glue or silicone sealant to secure
the large electrolytic capacitor. 10-LED Metronome
This panel, and thus the PCB, is 1 double-sided PCB coded 23111212, 108 x 89mm (from the PE PCB Service)
secured to the frame by small wood 1 12V DC 100mA+ plugpack
screws that attach to four approxi-
mately 8 x 8 x 12mm pieces of timber
glued to the inside corners of the frame. If you don’t like doing woodwork, Checkout and adjustment
There’s nothing extraordinary about you could probably find a plastic box Before applying power, carefully check
the case; I made mine in the same man- with a clear lid that’s large enough to the wiring to the off-board components;
ner as a picture frame, with four 45° house the PCB and other components, a mistake here can cause excessive cur-
mitred timber pieces glued together. and drill holes in the lid for the pots. rent and damage Q3 or cook the speaker

frequency at pin 3 of IC2 or pin 15 of
IC3. Adjust the control voltage (pin 5)
of the timer (IC2) via trimpot VR1 to
get a frequency of 5.4Hz (see Table 1).
1 3-way terminal block (CON1) If adjusting trimpot VR1 cannot bring
1 chassis-mount barrel socket to suit plugpack (CON2) the frequency to 5.4Hz, you need to
1 8W loudspeaker, 50mm diameter (SPK1) add another capacitor in parallel with
[DB Unlimited SM500208-1; Mouser 497-SM500208-1] C1 and C2 (at position C3) to slow it
2 5kW top-adjust mini trimpots (VR1, VR3) down, or reduce the value of C1 and/
1 100kW 280° linear 9mm/10mm vertical potentiometer (VR2) or C2 to speed it up.
[Mouser 652-PTV09A4025UB104] OR Once this frequency is correct, set
1 100kW 300° linear 9mm/10mm vertical potentiometer (VR2) the tempo to 216 beats/min and adjust
[Mouser 652-PDB12-M4251-104BF] (see text) trimpot VR3 to get 32.4Hz. If VR3 can-
1 100kW top-adjust mini trimpot (VR4) not bring the frequency to 32.4Hz,
1 20kW linear 9mm/10mm vertical potentiometer (VR5) change the value of its 18kW series
[Mouser 652-PTV09A-4030UB203, Digi-Key PTV09A-4030U-B203-ND] resistor, then repeat the adjustments
1 5kW linear 9mm/10mm vertical potentiometer (VR6) for the slowest and fastest tempos.
[Mouser 652-PTV09A4030UB502, Digi-Key PTV09A4030UB502-ND] Finally, adjust trimpot VR4 to
1 SPDT slide switch (S1) [Alpha SS60012F-0102-4V-NB; the desired difference in brightness
Mouser SS60012F-0102-4V-NB] between the two end LEDs and the
1 14-pin low-profile DIL IC socket (optional; for IC1) middle LEDs.
1 8-pin low-profile DIL IC socket (optional; for IC2) Click timbre and loudness can also
2 16-pin low-profile DIL IC sockets (optional; for IC3 and IC4) be modified for the 10-LED version.
1 timber base, 75 x 150 x 12mm (DIY) Adjust the value of resistor R1 for
1 timber frame, 110 x 130 x 40mm (DIY) a smooth variation in loudness, as
1 red-tinted transparent acrylic panel, 100 x 125 x 2.5-3mm (or to fit frame) described for the 8-LED version.
3 knobs to suit VR2, VR5 and VR6 To change the timbre of the click,
1 clear, printable plastic and plastic backing for tempo dial, bushing or cut- you need to experiment with the
down knob for mounting onto VR2 combined value of C4-C6. A larger
4 M3-tapped 15mm spacers (for mounting PCB to panel) capacitance should produce a more
8 M3 x 6mm panhead machine screws (for mounting PCB to panel) mellow click. The speaker can also
2 small machine screws and nuts (for mounting slide switch) affect the tone, so try the speaker in
2 M3 x 10mm panhead machine screws, flat washers and nuts (for mounting both polarities if you aren’t satisfied
speaker) with the initial result.
1 large, heavy-duty paper clip
6 small, short (~10mm) panhead wood screws Troubleshooting
various lengths and colours of light-duty hookup wire If the Metronome is not working, check
1 55x55mm square of speaker cloth the orientation of IC2 and associated
Semiconductors parts. Also, check that the IC pins are
1 CD4001BE quad 2-input NOR gate, DIP-14 (IC1) all inserted correctly; they sometimes
1 TLC555IP or LMC555CN CMOS timer, DIP-8 (IC2) get bent and don’t go into the socket or
1 CD4029BE, CD4510BE or CD4516BE 4-bit binary up/down counter, DIP-16 PCB. Check if there is a pulse at pin 3
(IC3) of IC2 and pin 15 of IC3.
1 CD4028BE 4-to-10 binary decoder, DIP-16 (IC4) If the LED sequence is only in one
2 BC558 30V 100mA PNP transistors, TO-92 (Q1, Q2) direction, it is likely that the SR-FF is
1 30V 2A NPN transistor, TO-92 (Q3) [KSC2328AYTA or ZTX690B] not working or not receiving the S and
1 150mA schottky diode; eg, BAT46/BAT48/BAT85 (D1) R pulses from IC4.
[Jaycar ZR1141, Altronics Z0044, Mouser 511-BAT46]
10 ‘superbright’ LEDs, round or oval (LED0-LED9) Operation
[Cree C566D-RFE-CV0X0BB1 (red, oval) recommended] The operation of either version is
1 5mm ‘superbright’ red LED (LED10) [Kingbright WP7113SRD/J4 straightforward. Turn the Metronome
recommended] on and adjust the Click Loudness, LED
Capacitors Brightness and Tempo as desired.
1 4700μF 16V electrolytic, 13mm diameter [Mouser 232-16PK4700MEFC125X] The supply current for the 8-LED
1 1000μF 16V electrolytic, 8mm diameter [Mouser 232-16ZLH1000MEFC8X2] Metronome is about 2-4mA, depend-
5 1μF 50V multi-layer ceramic ing on the LED brightness, click loud-
2 100nF 50V ceramic ness and tempo. AAA cells typically
are rated at about 900mAh. Thus,
Resistors (1% 1/4W, 1/8W or 1/16W small body metal film unless otherwise stated)
assuming it is used for about half an
1 22kW 1 18kW 2 10kW 1 4.7kW
hour a day, alkaline or rechargeable
1 3.3kW 2 390W ½W 4 220W 2 22W
cells should power the 8-LED version
for about a month.
coil or cone. Compare your wiring to (even a very basic one as found in
that shown in our photos. many DMMs) or scope is helpful for
Because of variations in compo- adjusting the tempos. Reproduced by arrangement with
nents, the tempo will likely need to be Turn VR2 to the slowest tempo (36 SILICON CHIP magazine 2022.
brought into line. A frequency meter beats/min) and measure the pulse www.siliconchip.com.au

Using Cheap Asian Electronic Modules By Jim Rowe
Geekcreit’s
35MHz-4.4GHz
Signal Generator
This self-contained module is based on the Analog Devices ADF4351

wideband digital synthesiser chip. It has an onboard microcontroller unit
(MCU), OLED display and pushbuttons to set the desired frequency and
adjust the output level. All it needs is a 5V DC power supply.
I
f the ADF4351 sounds familiar, diagonal screen, and seven pushbutton external master clock, an alternative to
that’s because it was also used in switches. The five at lower right con- the onboard 100MHz crystal oscillator.
the digitally-controlled oscillator trol the module, while the one in the The ADF4351 chip at the heart of
we reviewed (May 2019). But whereas centre resets the MCU. The one near the module is a digital ‘phase-locked
the earlier unit needed to be con- the upper left with a square body and loop’ or PLL device, and a pretty
trolled via a separate microcontroller blue actuator is the ON/OFF switch. fancy one at that. But there isn’t space
such as an Arduino or a Micromite, The ADF4351 synthesiser chip and here to give you a full explanation
this one is a self-contained instru- its surrounding components are all of PLLs and how the ADF4351 itself
ment, delivered ready to use. in the upper right-hand corner of the works. So if you want to know more
It is larger than the earlier one, mea- PCB. The two nearby edge-mounted about these aspects, refer to the May
suring 88 x 67mm compared to 48 x SMA sockets are the RF outputs, while 2019 article: 35MHz-4.4GHz digitally
36.5mm. But the price isn’t all that the vertical SMA socket near the centre controlled oscillator, which has a
much higher, currently setting you of the PCB is an input for an optional comprehensive explanation.
back £30 including shipping to the
UK. It can be purchased from Bang-
A close-up of
good (https://bit.ly/pe-dec22-bg). the 1-inch OLED
As shown in the photos, it comes screen when
with two cables: a USB Type-A to using the ‘Point’
mini-B cable and a 240mm-long DC command from the
cable with a plug on one end to match main screen.
the module’s DC input socket.
It also comes fitted with four
5mm-long nylon mounting spacers
and matching screws. But no case is
supplied, so you’ll either need to use
it as a ‘bare’ module, or come up with
your own arrangement.
On the PCB, there’s an STM32F103
MCU (lower left), a small OLED
(organic light-emitting diode) display
with a 128 x 64 pixel 25mm (1-inch)

Reproduced by arrangement with
SILICON CHIP magazine 2022.
www.siliconchip.com.au
Geekcreit 35MHz – 4.4GHz Signal A brief rundown

Generator Module The ADF4351 is a wideband digital
synthesiser IC with a ‘fractional-N’
PLL, allowing it to be programmed to
produce any desired output frequency
between 35MHz and 4.4GHz. It is
locked to a ‘master clock’ crystal oscil-
lator of typically 25MHz or 100MHz.
It can be programmed to change the
output frequency in steps as small
as 10kHz, and can also provide an
output sweeping over a range of fre-
quencies in steps of the same mini-
mum size.
The whole chip is controlled/
programmed via a simple three-
wire serial peripheral interface
(SPI), in this case, via the onboard
STM32F103 MCU.
The data sheet for the ADF4351
can be found at: https://bit.ly/
pe-dec22-ad1
Lack of instructions
The Geekcreit 35-4400MHz signal gen-
erator module comes with very little
user information, so you have to work a
lot out for yourself. All you get is a brief
Fig.2: plot of the output level vs frequency when terminated by 50W. summary of its main specs and features,

Fig.1: the circuit diagram for the
Geekcreit signal generator module.
and you can download a circuit dia- filter (to optimise its performance), CON2, or 5-15V DC from concen-
gram that is not easy to decipher. while the capacitors at pins 19, 23 tric DC socket CON1. This flows via
So before I began testing the mod- and 24 bypass key reference points on-off switch S7 to power indicator
ule, I spent a couple of hours redraw- in its internal circuitry. LED1 and the rest of the circuit. The
ing the circuit so that we can all see The digital control signals from incoming supply powers REG1 and
how it works – see Fig.1. IC1 that direct IC2’s operation are REG2, both of which are LT1763 LDO
Like the earlier module, this one fed to pins 1, 2, 3 and 4 at centre left, (low drop-out) 3.3V linear regulators.
is fairly closely based on Analog labelled CLK, DATA, LE and CE. The REG1 provides 3.3V to the control
Devices’ evaluation board for the only other signal that passes back circuitry, while REG2 generates a
ADF4351. That is described in their from IC2 is the LD (lock detect) signal separate 3.3V supply for synthesiser
User Guide UG-435, which you from pin 25, which is high when IC2 IC2. The incoming supply to REG2
can download from their website: is locked to the requested frequency. is via T1-T2, a balanced decoupling
https://bit.ly/pe-dec22-ad2 As well as being fed back to the transformer wound on a small ferrite
MCU, this signal is also used to illu- balun core.
How it works minate LED2, the blue lock indicator. As mentioned earlier, the control
In Fig.1, the ADF4351 (IC2) is on the The power supply section is at circuitry is based around IC1, an
right, with its onboard 100MHz mas- upper left in Fig.1. This accepts STM32F103C8T6 microcontroller,
ter clock oscillator to its left. These either 5V DC from mini USB socket and the 128 x 64-pixel OLED display
form the actual VHF-UHF RF synthe-
siser ‘heart’ of the module. The two
complementary RF outputs emerge
from pins 12 and 13 of IC2, and are
fed via 1nF capacitors to the two SMA
output sockets at far right. The 3.3V
DC supply to pins 12 and 13 flows
via inductors L2 and L3.
Only the RF output from pin 12 of
IC2 (RFOUT+) has an onboard 51W ter-
minating resistor.
The other components on the right-
hand side of Fig.1 are to provide IC2
with power, set its operating mode,
or feed it control signals. For exam-
ple, the components between pins
7 and 20 at upper right form the
ADF4351’s low-pass loop feedback On starting the module, the OLED display lists the five available functions.

module to its right. The four digital
Fig.3: a graph of the signals to control synthesiser IC2 con-
module’s output at nect to pins 25-28 of IC1, while the LD
2.5GHz with a 60MHz signal from IC2 is fed back to pin 29.
span provides a
reasonably clean plot
Pushbuttons S1-S5 at lower left
with just two small select the operating mode of the syn-
spurs at the edges. thesiser, its operating frequency, out-
put level and so on. The MCU provides
a series of menus and indications on
the OLED display to make this reason-
ably straightforward. The OLED dis-
play is driven via an SPI serial control
link from pins 14-17 of IC1.
The instruction and master clock
for IC1 is generated by an internal
Fig.4: the span is now oscillator using 8MHz crystal X2,
set over the range connected to pins 5 and 6.
50MHz to 4.4GHz with
the same 2.5GHz output.
Pushbutton S6 manually resets IC1
Note the additional if necessary. The D– and D+ data lines
spurs approximately from mini USB socket CON2 are con-
600MHz apart. nected to pins 32 and 33 of IC1, so
its firmware can be updated from a
PC if needed.
It’s also possible to communicate
with IC1 via a second serial link con-
nected to pins 34 and 37, brought
out to the pins of CON5. This is not
a physical connector, but provision
on the module’s PCB for fitting a four-
Fig.5: setting the output
frequency higher to pin SIL header.
3GHz also provides a
clean plot. Trying it out
When I received the unit and tried
powering it up, there were a couple
of problems. The first of these was
that the DC supply cable provided
with it turned out to have an open
circuit in its red (positive) lead. So
I had to discard it and substitute a
known good cable.
Then when I powered it up, I found
that the module was on regardless
Fig.6: the output of whether power switch S7 was
frequency now set pressed or not. The cause turned
to 4GHz. out to be a solder bridge under the
PCB joining its two active pins per-
manently. Luckily, I fixed that easily
with a soldering iron.
I also tried powering the unit from
a 5V USB plug pack, using the USB
Type A-to-mini Type B cable pro-
vided, which worked fine.
When the module is first powered
up, the OLED screen shows its func-
tion menu, or more accurately, the top
of it – listing the first three functions:
Fig.7: setting the module 1. Point: used to set the module’s fre-
to an output frequency quency to a particular figure, for
of 100MHz produces example 4375.05MHz
a large number of 2. Sweep: used to set the start and
spurs at the harmonic stop frequencies for sweeping over
frequencies (ie, a range
multiples of 100MHz)
3. Step Fre: not clearly explained,
with varying amplitude.
but seems to be used to set the fre-
quency steps used during sweeping
Then if you continue pressing the

down (DWN) button, S5, you find the
remaining two options:

4. Step Time: not clearly explained, but it appears to two small spurs at about –55dBm around 25MHz either
be for setting the time between steps when sweeping side. So far, it looks reasonably clean.
5. dB Set: see below But now look at Fig.4, which shows what the analyser
displays when set to span over the total frequency range
When you press the OK button (S4) to select this last from 50MHz to 4.4GHz, with the module still set to 2.5GHz.
option, you get a screen giving a choice of four RF Power Several additional spurs are visible, spaced at about
settings: +5dB, +2dB, –1dB or –4dB. These appear to be 620MHz apart on either side of the main output, with
provided to allow ‘fine adjustment’ of the module’s RF amplitudes varying between about –6dBm and –18dBm.
output level. So the output is not nearly so clean as Fig.3 suggests.
When I tried checking these output level options with The full-scan plots don’t look so bad with the mod-
the module’s frequency set to 1GHz using my Agilent ule set to higher frequencies, though. For example, Fig.5
V3500A power meter, I obtained the following results: shows the result when the frequency is set to 3.0GHz,
• With the +5dB setting, the meter registered +3.60dBm while Fig.6 shows a similarly clean plot when it is set
• With the +2dB setting, it registered –0.24dBm to 4.0GHz.
• With the –1dB setting, it registered –1.99dBm On the other hand, Fig.7 shows the result with a full
• With the –4dB setting, it registered –4.52dBm scan showing what happens when the module is set to
produce a 100MHz signal. There’s now a virtual ‘forest’
These were all measured with the meter connected to of spurs, varying in amplitude from –10dBm down to
the RFOUT+ connector, using a very short (<20mm) SMA- about –49dBm in alternating steps. Not a pretty picture!
SMA coupler. So the reference (0dB) level appears to be Because of the lack of information regarding how to
around –1dBm, and while these settings are not partic- get the module sweeping or stepping from one frequency
ularly accurate, they give you the ability to adjust the to another, I gave up trying to test those functions.
unit’s output level somewhat.
The next step was to measure its RF output over the Summary
whole frequency range, again using the V3500A power So although the Geekcreit 35MHz-4.4GHz signal gener-
meter. I did these measurements again using the SMA- ator module is a low-cost, self-contained unit that can
SMA coupler, connected between the power meter and generate output signals of around 0dBm (1mW) over
first the module’s RFOUT+ connector, and then the RFOUT- that wide frequency range, it does have a few draw-
connector. In each case, the output not being measured backs and limitations.
was terminated in 50W, to hopefully prevent any stand- One of these is the lack of much information on oper-
ing wave disturbances. ating the module, especially with regard to getting it to
As you can see from Fig.2, the level from the RFOUT+ perform sweeping. Another is the large number of ‘spur’
connector is about 4dBm lower than that from the RFOUT- components in the outputs, especially when it’s gener-
connector, probably due to the loading from the onboard ating a frequency below about 1GHz.
51W terminating resistor across RFOUT+. But apart from That is because its outputs are essentially square
that, both plots are relatively flat, rising slowly by about waves, rather than the sinewaves that are needed for
2-3dB between 40MHz and 1GHz, and then wobbling a many signal generator applications. Filtering these to
bit to return very close to the 1GHz level at 4.4GHz. produce a smoother signal is virtually impossible due
So overall, both outputs were within the range of –4dBm to to the wide range of possible output frequencies; how-
+4dBm over the entire frequency range. Next, I checked the ever, external filters could be used if you need cleaner
module’s RF output signal purity at several different frequen- signals at specific frequencies.
cies, using my Signal Hound USB-SA44B spectrum analyser And finally, because of its lack of any shielding
with the latest version of Signal Hound’s ‘Spike’ software. (especially for the RF generation circuitry around the
The results were reasonably acceptable, bearing in mind ADF4351), it would be tough to achieve accurate con-
that the module’s outputs are essentially square waves trol over its output level.
with significant harmonic content, along with the inevita- But overall, the module would still be useful, for
ble spurs you tend to get from any PLL-type synthesiser. example, if you want to generate digital clock signals
To illustrate this, Fig.3 shows the module’s output at over a very wide range of frequencies. Just bear in mind
2.5GHz, with the analyser set for a 60MHz span (ie, 30MHz that to use it as the basis of a practical VHF/UHF signal
either side of 2.5GHz). The main output is a reasonably generator, you’d have to add shielding, output filtering
clean peak reaching about +1.5dBm in the centre, with and a wide-range output attenuator system.

REMOTE CONTROL
RANGE
EXTENDER
Most remote controls use pulses of infrared light to control equipment.
This usually only works reliably up to a few metres and is easily blocked by
furniture, people, plants... just about anything. Convert an IR remote to use
UHF instead, and it will work at much longer ranges. It will even work when
something is between the remote and the device, regardless of where the
remote is pointed!
M
ost of the time, infrared using the projector screen, but that the light from a single transmitter can
remote controls work very doesn’t always work reliably. reach all their receivers.
well. But there are times Regardless of why the IR signal
where they are woefully inadequate. doesn’t work well, this device is a Concept
This could be because there is an great solution. It allows you to convert Fig.1 shows the general arrange-
obstruction between the remote con- the infrared remote to transmit using ment for the Range Extender. Fig.1(a)
trol and appliance to be controlled. UHF radio signals rather than infrared shows how the IR-to-UHF Converter
Or the receiver on the device may be light. Another small box positioned works, while Fig.1(b) shows the
awkwardly placed, making it difficult in front of the infrared receiver on UHF-to-IR Converter.
to direct the infrared beam to it. the appliance picks up these radio The IR-to-UHF Converter monitors
Sometimes you might even want to signals and transmits IR directly into the signal that would normally be fed
use the remote control in a different room the device’s receiver. to the IR LED. When a button on the
from the appliance being controlled. Note that if you have more than one remote control is pressed, it produces
Or you might need to position the appliance to be controlled, you could a ~36kHz modulated signal to drive
appliance so that the receiver is not convert all their remotes to transmit on that LED. IC1 instead demodulates
facing where you will usually be UHF and use a single UHF-to-IR con- that signal, and its output (waveform
located, such as a projector, where it verter to relay the signals to all those B) is shown in scope grabs Scope 1 and
will typically be behind you. Some- devices. That’s provided the appli- Scope 2 (which can be seen overleaf,
times you can reflect the IR signals ances are in the same vicinity, so that with the other scope grabs).
Fig.1(a): the Remote Control Range Extender has two parts. The first is the IR-to-UHF Converter which runs from the
remote’s battery and converts its IR LED drive signal to a UHF transmission. The second is the UHF-to-IR Converter which
picks up those UHF signals and drives an infrared LED with appropriate modulation to control the appliance(s).

IR-to-UHF Converter
n
Transmission range: 25m through one weatherboard and Gyprock wall
Signal delay: 56μs
n
n
UHF transmitter power-down period: 600ms after the last signal
n
Standby current: 80nA typical at 3V supply (90nA measured)
n
Operating current: 8mA average during transmission
UHF-to-IR Converter
n
Valid transmission detection: requires 3ms minimum quieting period
n
Acknowledge LED lighting: 654ms time-out after a valid signal
n
Modulation frequency: 32.4kHz to 41.4kHz in 32 steps
n
Modulation duty cycle: 33.3%
n
Current consumption: close to 50mA during signal reception
n
IR transmission range: typically 2m to appliance receiver
By John Clarke
‘Demodulation’ converts the series onto the appliance(s) via their onboard a small remote control for an LCD pro-
of brief 36kHz pulses to a signal that’s IR receivers. jector. There just wasn’t any room for
high when the pulses are present and Note that 36kHz is a typical modula- it. Subsequently, the entire IR-to-UHF
low otherwise. tion frequency used in infrared remote circuit has been redesigned using sur-
When IC1 detects it is receiving a controls. You can adjust the modula- face mount components.
signal, it powers the UHF transmit- tion frequency of the final infrared out- Instead of using a large pre-built
ter (IC2) and sends the demodulated put to match that of the original remote UHF transmitter module, we use a
signal to the UHF transmitter’s input. control, since the remote control could very small UHF transmitter IC with a
The result is that the UHF transmitter use another frequency between about few discrete components.
produces a 433.92MHz modulated sig- 32kHz and 41kHz.
nal to the transmitting antenna. This Overall, the original handheld Remote’s battery life
is waveform C. remote signal is duplicated at the One question that arises is what hap-
So overall, the original 36kHz output of the UHF-to-IR Converter. pens to the battery life of the modified
modulated signal is converted to a The appliance receiving the signal is remote. Will the battery be flattened in
433.92MHz modulated signal for wire- none the wiser that any processing a short time when the UHF transmitter
less transmission. has occurred. circuitry is added?
The corresponding UHF-to-IR Con- We have made sure that there will
verter has a UHF receiver (RX1) that Previously be a negligible effect on battery life by
provides the demodulated waveform, Note that we published a similar proj- keeping the circuitry in a sleep mode
shown as waveform D. This matches ect named Add a UHF link to a univer- when the remote is not being used. A
the B waveform – see Scope 3. Pro- sal remote control (PE, August 2014). typical infrared remote control draws
cessor IC1 on the second board then While that project is still valid, this about 1-2μA from the battery contin-
uses a new 36kHz carrier to produce one has a much smaller transmitter uously and around 10-20mA during
a modulated waveform, waveform E, circuit that can be fitted into small infrared transmission. The UHF trans-
that matches the original waveform infrared remote controls, unlike the mitter’s added power draw has almost
A, as shown in Scope 4 and Scope 5. one from 2013. no effect on these figures.
This modulated signal then drives This became apparent when we With the IR-to-UHF Converter
an infrared LED that sends the signal tried to install our earlier design inside installed, we measured the standby
Fig.1(b): the waveforms at right, both here and in Fig.1(a) opposite, show how the original IR LED drive signal is
demodulated, then remodulated to 433.92MHz, then demodulated, and then finally remodulated to around 36kHz to drive
the IR LED.

A real soldering challenge!
One of the main goals of this design – that’s 0.6 x 0.3mm! Unless you have Even the larger (by comparison)
was for the UHF transmitter to be excellent vision, it will just look like devices on this board are a little tricky
tiny enough to fit inside just about a dot to you (if you can see it at all). to solder because it’s so packed with
any remote control case. That rules And the metric 1206 SMD inductors components – again, to keep it small
out using a pre-built UHF transmitter (imperial 0402) aren’t all that much and also so it can transmit 434MHz
module, and due to the relatively high bigger at 1.2 x 0.6mm. signals efficiently.
frequencies involved, the components Soldering these devices is a chal- Besides being a useful little device
need to be small. Very small. lenge, to put it mildly. If you decide to build, if you have reasonable SMD
This project uses by far the small- to go ahead, we suggest you pur- soldering skills and want to push your-
est components we’ve ever specified chase at least 10 of each (hey, they’re self to achieve the next level of skill,
in a design. cheap!). That way, if you mangle or assembling the transmitter module
The 68nH inductor comes in a met- lose them, you can grab another one described here would be a great way
ric 0603 SMD package (imperial 0201) and try again. to do that.
current increasing by a mere 90nA 9-12V DC plugpack or USB power demodulated output at pin 4. That pin
(0.09μA)! The current drain when a source should be suitable. goes high when a modulated signal is
button is pressed is essentially unal- present and low when the modulation
tered and possibly even a little less Circuit details is absent.
than before, as the remote’s IR LED is Fig.2 shows the circuit of the IR-to- IC2 is a UHF transmitter that sends
not used and replaced by UHF trans- UHF Converter that’s designed to be digital data using two different car-
mission, which is on average 8mA built into the remote control. It com- rier wave amplitudes. This is known
when active. prises a PIC10LF322 microcontroller as Amplitude Shift Keying (or ASK).
By the way, we measured the 90nA (IC1), a MICRF113 UHF transmitter For our purposes, there is no UHF
figure by connecting a 100kW resistor (IC2) and associated components. transmission when the digital signal is
in series with the device’s supply and IC1 monitors the infrared LED drive low (near 0V) and a 433.92MHz carrier
shorting it out until it went into sleep signal originally used to drive the transmission when the digital signal
mode. We then measured 9mV across infrared LED. The handheld remote is high (near 3V).
this resistor, which equates to 90nA output will drive either low or high IC1’s demodulated signal at pin 4
(9mV ÷ 100kW). to power the LED. is suitable for driving IC2 at its ASK
An open-collector driver transistor input (pin 6). Note that the pin 3 out-
Receiver or MOSFET in the remote control IC is put of IC1 drives the supply input for
The companion UHF-to-IR Converter normally used. This output requires a IC2, at its pin 3. This way, IC2 can be
is housed in a small plastic case. One pull-up resistance to turn it into a digi- shut down when not needed, drawing
end of the case has a red acknowledge tal signal for sensing, which is supplied no power at idle.
LED and an IR LED to re-transmit the by a MOSFET we enable inside IC1. The transmission frequency is set
received UHF signal as an IR signal. A 1kW pull-down resistor is shown using a crystal oscillator that is multi-
There is also a 3.5mm jack socket to on the circuit, but this is only required plied by 32 within IC2 to produce the
allow the connection of an external IR if the remote control has an open-col- UHF carrier. So the 13.56MHz crys-
LED via a cable. lector (or open-drain) output that tal gives a carrier at 433.92MHz. This
This device either draws power from drives high to power the LED. We will matches the carrier frequency used in
a 9-12V DC plugpack or from USB 5V. describe how to check for this later. most UHF ASK transmitter/receiver
The circuit draws a maximum current IC1 converts the LED drive mod- modules that are available for low-
of 50mA when transmitting, so any ulation (typically 36kHz) into a power UHF data transmission.
IR-to-UHF Converter V2
Fig.2: the IR-to-UHF Converter section circuit deliberately uses few components to make the PCB as small as possible.
It’s powered by the typically 3V supply of the remote control (from two 1.5V cells). IC1 demodulates the drive signal that
would normally go to an infrared LED. When it detects a button press, it powers up UHF transmitter IC2 and feeds it the
demodulated signal that is then radiated by the antenna at 434MHz.

The MICRF113 and its associated Scope 1: the top yellow trace is the
components are tiny, fitting in a much infrared LED drive signal from the
tighter space than most pre-built UHF remote control, applied to pin 1 of
transmitter modules that are available. IC1. This is a series of 36kHz pulses.
The lower blue trace shows the
The supply current for IC2’s RF
output of IC1 at pin 4 that drives the
output stage is via two series-con- ASK input (pin 6) of the MICRF113
nected 220nH inductors, also acting 434MHz transmitter (IC2). This signal
as a 440nH driver load. The following is high whenever there is a 36kHz
12pF series capacitor and 68nH induc- signal at the input and low otherwise.
tor plus the 5pF capacitor to ground
act as a filter that removes second and
third harmonics from the UHF signal
before it passes to the antenna. Scope 2: this is the same capture as
Scope 1 except with a faster timebase,
We mainly use two 220nH inductors
so the 36kHz modulation is visible.
instead of one 470nH inductor because Note the delay of about 56μs between
we found suitable 220nH inductors IC1 receiving the 36kHz pulses and
easier to source. Any inductor used in producing the demodulated pulses at
the circuit must have a self-resonance its output. This does not distort the
(SR) frequency above 433.92MHz; oth- signal because it is symmetrical.
erwise, it will not function as an induc-
tor at that frequency.
Power for IC2

IC2’s power rail at pin 3 is bypassed Scope 3: the top yellow trace shows
with a 1μF ceramic capacitor, while a the IR drive signal from the handheld
100nF capacitor bypasses the output remote as in Scope 1, but the lower
stage supply. These two capacitors trace is the output from the UHF
are essentially in parallel but are at receiver in the UHF-to-IR Converter,
different locations on the PCB so that ie, after it has passed over the
the supply for each part is bypassed wireless link.
directly at its supply connection.
We include schottky diode D2
between the ASK signal and the IC2
supply to boost the supply whenever
the IC is transmitting. The pin 3 out-
put drops in voltage when supply- Scope 4: the top yellow trace is the
ing current; and the current flowing infrared LED drive signal from the
from pin 4 of IC1 via diode D2 assists original infrared remote, while the
in maintaining a stable supply volt- lower blue trace is the IR LED drive
age for IC2. signal in the UHF-to-IR Converter.
While IC2 can operate down to 1.8V, The two waveforms are essentially
the same except for the slight delay
it’s best to keep its supply voltage as
in the second trace, and the different
close as possible to the 3V from the voltage levels due to the UHF-to-
remote battery for the best efficiency. IR circuit being powered from 5V
IC1’s supply is bypassed by another instead of 3V. The signal inversion is
100nF ceramic capacitor. Diode D1 of no consequence.
is included in case the cells in the
remote are inserted the wrong way Scope5: a zoomed-in version of Scope
around, causing a reverse polarity to be 4 showing the modulation on both
applied. In this case, D1 will conduct signals. The rise time of the original
and reduce the reverse voltage applied waveform at the top is slow due to the
low pull-up current from pin 1 of the
to IC1, preventing it from being dam-
PIC10LF322. The lower blue trace is
aged (at least in the short term). the IR LED drive from the UHF-to-IR
Converter. The frequency has been set
UHF-to-IR Converter to about 36kHz to match the handheld
The UHF signal needs to be detected remote. The top trace is inverted
and converted back to a stream of compared to the lower trace, as the
infrared pulses to control the appli- original LED in the handheld remote
ance being operated. The UHF-to-IR was on when the output was low,
Converter circuit is shown in Fig.3, whereas the IR LED in the UHF-to-IR
and comprises UHF receiver RX1, a Converter LED drive is active-high.
PIC12F617 microcontroller (IC1) and
an infrared LED (LED1). With no signal present, the data out- the receiver’s sensitivity so that the
The circuit is powered via either DC put from the UHF receiver is just ran- detected signal is essentially noise-
socket CON1 or micro-B USB socket dom noise with an amplitude of 5V. free. This is fed to the GP5 input (pin
CON2. The UHF receiver is powered In this state, the receiver operates at 2) of PIC micro IC1.
continuously, ready to receive a trans- maximum gain due to its automatic To determine if a signal is valid,
mission from the IR-to-UHF Converter gain control (AGC). When a UHF IC1 checks for periods where the data
in the handheld remote. signal is received, the AGC reduces line from the UHF receiver is at 0V for

at least 3ms. This indicates that the external IR LED (if necessary). This Next, mount the two ICs. IC1 and
AGC has reduced the sensitivity of IR LED can be mounted near the IR IC2 are positioned so that the small pin
the receiver and that a transmission receiver of the appliance(s) which are 1 location dot aligns with that on the
is occurring. being operated. PCB. When the IC is held with pin 1
The data output from the UHF Power from a 9-12V DC plugpack is at lower left, the writing on the IC top
receiver matches that data applied to fed in via diode D1, providing reverse face will be the right way up. IC1 will
the UHF transmitter. This data signal, polarity protection. A 78L05 3-termi- be marked LF followed by two trace-
in part, becomes the Acknowledge nal regulator then provides a 5V sup- ability code numbers. IC2 will have
waveform that drives LED2 via digital ply for RX1 and IC1. Power via the USB ‘F_113’ etched on the top face.
output GP0. The 1kW resistor limits the connector is applied to the 5V supply Orient the ICs on the PCB with the
LED current to around 3mA. rail via a 4.7W resistor. This resistor pin 1 dot at upper left. For each IC,
IC1 drives the IR LED (LED1) from prevents excess current flow between solder one pad first and then check
its GP1 and GP2 outputs in paral- the REG1 output and the 5V from the their alignment. Readjust the com-
lel to provide sufficient current. The USB should be connected. ponent positioning by reheating the
220W resistor limits this current to solder joint if necessary before sol-
around 18mA. Construction dering the remaining pins. Any shorts
The infrared LED drive signal needs The IR-to-UHF Converter PCB is coded between pins can be cleared using sol-
to include the same or similar modula- 15109212, measures 15mm x 12mm der wick to draw up the excess sol-
tion as that used by the original remote. and is available from the PE PCB Ser- der (adding flux paste first will help
So when the data output from the UHF vice. It has components mounted on this process).
receiver goes high, the GP1 and GP2 both sides. Refer to the PCB overlay Now diode D2 can be soldered in
outputs are driven with pulse-width diagrams, Fig.4a and Fig.4b, to see before fitting crystal X1. Make sure D2
modulated signals. The duty cycle is which parts go where. is oriented as shown in Fig.4(a).
33.3%, so they are high 1/3 of the time Now is the time to program IC1 – the You can then install the remaining
and low 2/3 of the time. code is available for download from top-mounted components. Note that
The GP4 input of IC1 monitors the the January 2023 page of the PE web- many of the capacitors and induc-
voltage set by trimpot VR1, connected site: https://bit.ly/pe-downloads tors in surface-mount packages are
across the 5V supply rail. Its wiper Begin assembly by fitting the sur- unmarked, so you will need to rely on
voltage is converted to a digital value face-mount parts on the top side of the packaging to show what they are
within IC1, allowing the IR carrier the PCB. These can be soldered using and their value. Mount one component
frequency to be adjusted to match the a fine-tipped soldering iron. Good at a time to avoid mixing them up.
original transmitter. The adjustment close-up vision is necessary; you might We are using capacitors and a resis-
range is from 32.4kHz to 41.4kHz in need a magnifying lens or glasses to see tor in slightly smaller M2012/0805
32 steps. Setting VR1 to its mid-posi- well enough. Fine-point tweezers can packages compared to the M3216/1206
tion gives 37kHz. help to hold the components in place. packages we use elsewhere. This
Usually, somewhere near the mid- It will be easier to install the two makes it easier to avoid accidentally
dle setting is satisfactory, but some 220nH inductors first. Solder one pad making solder bridges to adjacent com-
devices might require a different car- and then check alignment. Reheat the ponents when fitting them.
rier frequency to operate reliably. soldered pad and move the device if It is also possible to lose compo-
A second output is provided via the inductor needs moving before sol- nents, so be careful and, if possi-
a 3.5mm jack socket (CON3) for an dering the second pad. ble, get spares. SMD resistors and
Fig.3: the UHF-to-IR Converter PCB uses a pre-built UHF receiver module
(RX1) to pick up the signals from the transmitter, then microcontroller
IC1 adds modulation at a frequency adjustable by VR1, and drives
onboard infrared LED1 plus an external LED when plugged in via CON3.
It can run directly from a 5V USB source via CON2 or 9-12V DC from
barrel socket CON1, regulated to 5V by linear regulator REG1.
UHF-to-IR Converter V2
capacitors are generally very cheap
and sold in useful sets which are well
worth investing in.
Incidentally, we recommend that
you mount the 68nH inductor after
fitting the 12pF and 5pF capacitors;
otherwise, you might accidentally
desolder this inductor.
Now turn your attention to the
underside of the PCB. There are two
18pF capacitors, one 1kW resistor
and diode D1. Take care to position
the diode correctly, with the cathode
stripe, as shown in Fig.4(b). Note that
the resistor might not be required, so
leave it off for the moment.
If you want to be sure that the
components have been soldered cor-
rectly, you can trace the connections Before mounting the IR-to-UHF
to the other sections of the PCB to Converter inside a remote, you will
where there should be continuity. need to check whether a pull-down
For example, pin 3 of IC1 should pro- resistor is needed.
vide a low resistance reading to pin 3
of IC2. Additionally, check that there
are no short circuits between compo- with a thin implement to separate Wire up the supply connections: ‘+’
nent pins on the PCB that shouldn’t the two halves. to the +3V on the remote, GND to the
be connected. Once inside, locate the positive and 0V terminal and IN to the LED drive
negative battery terminals. To check pin on the remote’s IC (eg, to the pad
Pull-up or pull-down whether the resistor is needed, it is where the LED was soldered). You
As mentioned, the handheld remote just a matter of making some measure- might need to trace out the PCB to fig-
control might drive its output high ments with a multimeter. ure out which one to connect.
or low to turn the IR LED on. The First, check the resistance between Now place the PCB in a suitable
way the LED is driven determines the battery’s positive terminal and the spare space within the remote. Next,
whether you need to install the 1kW anode (+) of the LED. If it is low (less solder the antenna wire, and route
pull-down resistor. The internal than 30W), you can expect that the pull- this around the case in a position
pull-up within IC1 is automatically down resistor is not needed. That is where it will not be caught when it
activated if the pull-down resistor because the cathode of the LED would is reassembled.
is not fitted. be pulled down to power the LED. Note that while we specify a 170mm
To determine this, first you will If the resistance between the cathode length of antenna wire, the transmis-
need to open the remote control case. (–) of the LED and the negative battery sion range does not suffer signifi-
Some remote cases are secured using terminals is low (less than 30W), that cantly if it is shortened. We found that
screws that are easy to spot, but they means the LED drive is active-high, so a 53mm length of antenna wire only
also could be hidden under the cells. the 1kW pull-down resistor is needed. reduced the range by 5m compared to
Open the battery compartment and After the pull-down resistor is sol- the 170mm length.
remove the cells to check for screws. dered in place (if needed), the assem- Finally, clip the case together and
Once these are out, open the case bled PCB can be mounted in the remote’s reinstall the securing screws if they
by gently working around the sides case. The IR LED should be removed. were present.
These two photos show the top and bottom of the

IR-to-UHF PCB at approximately triple actual size.
Fig.4 (right): the IR-to-UHF converter PCB is packed so it can fit inside just about any
remote control case. Don’t worry too much about bridging the pins of IC1 and IC2 when
soldering them as that can be fixed quite easily using solder wick and flux paste, but
do be careful to orient those ICs correctly and don’t mix them up. The 68nH inductor
is minuscule, so be careful not to lose it. After soldering it, check for a low resistance
reading between the antenna terminal and left end of the 12pF capacitor.

54 x 31mm UB5 plastic utility box.
Parts List – Remote Control Range Extender A 78 x 49mm lid panel label can be
attached to this.
IR-to-UHF Converter Now is the time to program this IC1
1 double-sided PCB coded 15109212, 15mm x 12mm, from the PE PCB Service – the code is available for download
1 13.56MHz surface-mount crystal (X1) [RS Components 171-0468] from the January 2023 page of the PE
2 220nH 500MHz inductors, M1005/0402 SMD (L1) [RS 741-3797] website: https://bit.ly/pe-downloads
1 68nH 1.2GHz inductor, M0602/0201 SMD (L2) [element14 3386563] Fig.5 shows the parts layout for
1 170mm length of light-duty hook-up wire (for the antenna) this board. Start with the micro USB
1 200mm-length of red hook-up wire socket, which is surface-mounted.
1 200mm-length of green hook-up wire Align the solder pads with the leads
1 200mm-length of blue hook-up wire on the connector and solder one of the
Semiconductors mounting tabs to the PCB.
1 PIC10LF322-I/OT 8-bit microcontroller programmed with 1510921M.HEX, Re-check the alignment of the small
SOT-23-6 (IC1) [download from the January 2023 page of the PE website: signal pins before soldering the sig-
(https://bit.ly/pe-downloads] nal pins and then the remaining tabs.
1 MICFR113YM6 ASK UHF transmitter chip, SOT-23-6 (IC2) [RS 177-3314P] The solder on the mounting tab can be
1 1A SMD diode, DO-214AC (D1) [SM4004 or GS1G; Altronics Y0174, remelted, and the connector realigned
Jaycar ZR1003] if it is not correct.
1 BAT54S ➊ small signal schottky diode, SOT-23 (D2) [Altronics Y0075] Check the signal pins for solder
➊ BAT54, BAT54S, BAT54C, BAT54FILMY and BAT54SFIMLY are all suitable bridges; if you find any, clear them
using solder wick. Make sure the pins
Capacitors (all SMD M2012/0805 size ceramic) are still soldered to the PCB.
1 1μF 16V X7R (preferred) or Y5V [Altronics R8650] Now fit the resistors. The resistor
2 100nF 50V X7R (preferred) or Y5V [Altronics R8638] colour codes can be used as a guide
2 18pF 50V C0G/NP0 [Altronics R8533] to their values but checking the resis-
1 12pF 50V C0G/NP0 [Altronics R8527] tances with a multimeter is always a
1 4.7pF or 5pF 50V C0G/NP0 [Altronics R8512] good idea.
Resistors Next, mount diode D1, ensuring it is
1 1kW SMD M2012/0805 ⅛W (might not be required; see text) [Altronics correctly oriented. The capacitors can
R1220] go in next; only the two 100μF electro-
1 10kW to 470kW ¼W axial leaded resistor (for testing) lytics are polarised. As well as ensur-
ing their longer leads go to the pads
UHF-to-IR Converter marked with ‘+’ symbols, they must
1 double-sided PCB coded 15109211, 79 x 47mm, from the PE PCB Service be bent over to clear the lid when the
1 UB5 Jiffy box, 83 x 54 x 31mm PCB is mounted in its case.
1 lid label, 78 x 49mm REG1 can then be mounted, fol-
1 433.92MHz receiver module (RX1) [eg, Jaycar ZW3102, Altronics Z6905A] lowed by the DC socket (CON1), the
1 PCB-mount barrel socket to suit plugpack (CON1) 3.5mm jack socket (CON2) and trim-
1 micro-USB SMD Type-B USB socket (CON2) [Jaycar PS0922, Altronics pot VR1 (set it mid-way now). Next, fit
P1309] the UHF receiver (RX1), making sure
1 3.5mm PCB-mount switched jack socket (CON3) [Jaycar PS0133, it goes in the right way around.
Altronics P0092]
1 8-pin DIL IC socket (for IC1) Installing the LEDs
1 170mm-length of light-duty hookup wire LED1 must be mounted at full lead
1 10kW miniature horizontal trimpot (VR1) length (25mm) so that later it can be
bent over and its lens pushed through
Semiconductors
a hole in the side of the box (above
1 PIC12F617-I/P 8-bit microcontroller, DIP-8, programmed with
the 3.5mm socket). LED2 is mounted
1510921A.hex (IC1) [download from the January 2023 page of the PE
with the top of its lens 20mm above
website: (https://bit.ly/pe-downloads]
the PCB surface. Make sure the LEDs
1 78L05 5V 100mA linear regulator, TO-92 (REG1)
are oriented correctly, with their
1 3mm infrared LED (LED1)
anode (longer) leads going to the pads
1 3mm red LED (LED2)
marked ‘A’.
1 1N4004 400V 1A diode (D1)
Now solder in an 8-pin DIL socket
Capacitors for IC1, but do not plug the PIC micro
2 100μF 16V PC electrolytic 1 100nF 63V MKT polyester in at this stage. That step comes later
Resistors (all ¼W 1% thin film axial) after the power supply has been tested.
2 1kW 2 220W 1 4.7W Complete the PCB assembly by fitting
Optional parts for extended IR transmitter lead the 170mm-long antenna wire made
1 3.5mm mono jack plug from insulated hookup wire.
1 1m length of single-core screened cable
1 3mm infrared LED Final assembly
1 100mm length of 3mm diameter heatshrink tubing The PCB simply clips into the integral
ribs of the UB5 case. Before doing this,
you need to drill holes in the case ends
UHF-to-IR Converter assembly 151009211 that measures 79 x 47mm for the USB socket, the DC socket, the
The companion UHF-to-IR Converter and is available from the PE PCB Ser- 3.5mm socket and the two LEDs. The
is built on a double-sided PCB coded vice. This clips neatly into an 83 x drilling diagrams are shown in Fig.6.

►
The IR LED in the remote is replaced
with our IR-to-UHF PCB. This PCB
can then be covered with
heatshrink and placed
in the remote’s
housing.
►
The UHF-to-IR PCB can
be mounted inside a UB5
case and placed near the
The DC socket hole can be drilled receiving device. You will
first. This is positioned 6.5mm down need to drill holes in the
from the top lip of the base at the left- UB5 case for the sockets and
hand end. LEDs, as shown in Fig.6.
Start this hole using a small pilot
page of the PE website: (https://bit.ly/
drill, then carefully enlarge it to 6.5mm
pe-downloads) printed onto a suitable
using a tapered reamer. The 3.5mm
label and affixed to the lid. The four cable with a 3.5mm jack plug at one
socket hole is centred along the hori-
corner holes for the case screws can end and an external IR LED at the
zontal axis at the other end of the case,
be cut out using a sharp hobby knife. other. Fig.7 shows the details. You
10.5mm down from the lip. Again, use
will need to use a suitable length of
a pilot drill to start it, then enlarge it
Making an extension cable single-core shielded cable, while the
to 6.5mm.
Depending on how your gear is LED leads should be insulated from
The hole for LED1 can then be
arranged, you may want to make up a each other using heatshrink tubing.
drilled 3.5mm down from the lip,
directly above the socket hole. Drill
this hole to 3mm, then drill a simi-
lar hole for LED2 about 12mm to the
right. The rectangular USB cut-out can
be first drilled and then filed to shape
with needle files.
Now clip the PCB into the slots The front panel
in the side ribs of the box (push the label for the Remote
3.5mm jack socket into its hole first). Control Range
Extender can be
Once it’s in place, bend the two LEDs
downloaded as a
over and push them through their
1-1 scale PDF from
respective holes in the adjacent end.
the January 2023
Secure the assembly by fitting the nut
page of the PE
to the jack socket.
website: (https://bit.
The lid label can be downloaded
ly/pe-downloads).
(in PDF format) from the January 2023
Fig.5: the assembly of this board is straightforward as the components are much larger than on the other board. Watch
the orientations of the UHF receiver, IC1 and diode D1.

Use a length of larger diameter heat- ►
shrink tubing to cover the end of the Fig.6: shown here are the holes that
need to be drilled or cut in the UB5
cable, including both LED leads and
Jiffy box. The hole for the jack socket
part of the lens, as shown below. in the right-hand end of the box can
be left out if you aren’t using the IR
Testing extension lead, and similarly, you only
First, check that IC1 has not been need to make one hole in the left-hand
installed. Apply power and check end, depending on whether you will
there is 5V between pins 1 and 8 of be using the USB or barrel socket to
the IC socket. If not, verify the supply supply power.
polarity and ensure that D1 and REG1
are correctly oriented.
If you measure 5V, switch off and Fig.7: if you need to mount the IR
install IC1 with its notched end LED away from the receiver unit
towards the adjacent 100nF capacitor. (eg, mounting it directly in front
Now reapply power and check that the of the appliance’s receiver), you
can make up an extension cable as
red acknowledge LED flashes when the
shown here. It plugs directly into
remote control buttons are pressed. the socket on the receiver.
Next, test the appliance. The UHF-
►
to-IR Converter needs to have its IR
LED pointing towards the appliance at
a range of about 1m. If it doesn’t work,
adjust VR1 as you operate the remote
control until the appliance responds.
Usually, setting VR1 mid-way (cor-
responding to a carrier frequency of
around 37kHz) will be suitable.
Once it’s operating correctly, try
using the remote to control the appli-
ance from another room. You should
get a free-air range of 20-25m, but the
range will be less than this inside a
house, depending on any obstacles
(walls, doors, furniture and so on)
between the remote and the UHF-
to-IR Converter.
Reproduced by arrangement with

SILICON CHIP magazine 2022.
www.siliconchip.com.au
An extension cable can be made and attached to the UHF-

to-IR Converter via the 3.5mm jack socket (CON3); Fig.7
has the details for how to design this cable.

Protects up to six amplifier modules (six
single-ended or three bridged outputs)
Very simple, small in size and low in cost
Can operate from the same power supply
as the amplifiers (up to ±40V DC)
Disconnects the speaker(s) in 100ms for
full-rail DC fault @ 30V
Provides a 1-2 second turn-on delay,
allowing amplifier outputs to settle
Insensitive to low-frequency
AC signals
Uses DPDT relays with contacts rated
to break 10A @ 28V DC (repetitive)
Multi-Channel
Speaker Protector
If you’re driving a lot of speakers, you will need a matching compact speaker
protector to prevent driver destruction, should something go wrong. Our
Speaker Protector, when combined with our Hummingbird Amplifier module
(published last month), is excellent when driving stereo loudspeakers with
an active crossover or for surround sound systems where you have many
speakers to drive.
A
re your expensive speaker subsonic filtering. This is a surefire off the first time it activates, but we all
drivers protected if the worst way of killing a bass driver.(It can hope this is one project that you never
happens, and an amplifier be addressed in active crossovers by see ‘work’.
module failure results in them hav- including a subsonic filter.) There are many ways of approaching
ing direct current applied? This very 2. By DC from the output of an ampli- a speaker protector. This design aims
simple and effective board matches fier, either due to a failure in the to keep it simple and small by keeping
our Hummingbird Amplifier modules, amplifier or finger trouble by the the parts list to a minimum.
protecting between one and six chan- builder. (Have you ever left a fuse
nels with a switch-on delay in a PCB out or forgotten to connect a wire?) Circuit details
measuring just 67 x 120mm for up to The circuit used is straightforward, as
six channels, or 67 x 91mm for the This project solves #2. But, you might shown in Fig.1, with three duplicated
four-channel version. ask, what about over- powering a stereo sections providing the six pro-
Over a few years of building Hi-Fi speaker? Won’t it blow up that way tection channels.
and PA equipment, it would be fair to too? In my experience, that takes a The main part of the Speaker Protec-
say that this author has not destroyed heroic effort if your crossover is set tor circuit is elegant, but it might not
that many speaker drivers. But when up correctly, so we leave the volume be obvious how it works at first glance.
I have, it has always been expensive, control to your discretion. Its first job is to detect the presence
painful and inconvenient. of DC at an amplifier output, connected
The experience of watching a 60W The impetus to one of the AMP x OUT terminals at
amplifier deliver 40V DC to the voice When I built an active crossover com- right. This is done by the 100kW input
coil of a very expensive driver that rep- bined with six Hummingbird Ampli- resistor and 47μF bipolar capacitor,
resented months of savings is burnt in fier modules, I found myself running which form an RC low-pass filter with
my memory. This was a 250W driver out of room. To fit this lot with power a −3dB point (corner frequency) of
but it was no match for 40V DC! In a supplies into a 330mm-deep 2RU case, 0.25Hz. The output of this filter feeds
matter of seconds, the voice coil turned I had to move from beer mat sketches a DC detector that triggers at the VBE
into smoke, much faster than a human to CAD and ‘the computer said’ that I voltage of a transistor, around 0.6V.
being could turn the power off—all for needed to make the speaker protector So for regular operation, the ampli-
the sake of a 50p insulator. small. So I did. fier must generate less than 0.6V at the
There have been two main destruc- This device will protect your output of this filter. Choosing 10Hz as
tors of my drivers: speaker from most amplifier failures. a ‘safe’ low frequency limit and assum-
1. Over-excursion of drivers, partic- The modest investment will pay itself ing an amplifier that can deliver 100W
ularly in vented enclosures below into 4W, we can calculate that only
resonance without appropriate By Phil Prosser 135mV would appear on the output

Fig.1: the Speaker Protector has three
identical sub-circuits handling two
channels each. Each input signal
passes through a simple RC low-
pass filter and is applied to three
transistors. If a large DC voltage is
detected, those transistors switch
off the associated DPDT relay,
disconnecting the speaker from the
amplifier. A basic linear power supply
provides around 24V to drive the
relay coils and incorporates a switch-
on delay of around one second to
avoid thumps.
of the filter. So it won’t trigger during

regular amplifier use.
But say an amplifier goes faulty and
delivers its rail voltage of 40V DC (of
either polarity) to the output instead
of an AC waveform. In that case, after
100ms (0.1s), the low-pass filter output
will reach 0.84V, which will definitely
trigger the DC detection circuit that fol-
lows. This filter operates identically for
both positive and negative voltages.
With 40V across 8W for 100ms,
20J of energy will be delivered to the
voice coil (the impedance will drop
over time, approaching its DC resis-
tance value, but this is a good enough
approximation). This will make a solid
thump and probably make you jump,
but it won’t cause anything to catch
on fire. Even better, if the fault exists
from switch-on, the speaker will sim-
ply never be connected.
The DC Detector comprises a total
of three transistors. For the top-most
section in Fig.1, these are Q2, Q3 and
Q4. Positive DC detection is handled
by Q2, which has its collector tied
directly to the 4.7kW load resistor. A
positive voltage from the filter of more
than about 0.6V will switch this tran-
sistor on and consequently pull the
base of Q1, an emitter follower, low
and thus turn off the relay.
Q3 and Q4 detect negative volt-
ages. NPN transistor Q3 is connected Multi-channel Speaker Protector
in a common-base configuration; its
base is tied to ground, and its emit- to the emitter, this current must be collector of Q1. So a negative DC volt-
ter is the input. A negative input kept low. age from the filter similarly pulls the
voltage will pull current from 0V via Hence, this tiny current is buffered base of Q1 low, switching the relay off.
the base-emitter junction, causing its by Q4, a PNP device connected as an There is a balance in this circuit
collector to sink current. Because the emitter-follower. The emitter of Q4 between setting a low cut-off fre-
current it sinks at the collector goes connects to the same resistor as the quency and the minimum DC voltage

the DC regulator, and the BD139 can
Parts List – Multi-Channel Speaker Protector handle its heat load (see below).
1 double-sided plated-through PCB coded 01101221, 67 x 121.5mm The circuit uses the power ground
available from the PE PCB Service pin as the ground reference. This con-
3 (2) 30V DC 10A contact, 24V DC coil DPDT PCB-mount/cradle relays nects to the earth of the power ampli-
(RLY1-RLY3) [Altronics S4313, Jaycar SY4007] fiers being protected. Since the inputs
8 (6) 2-way 5.08mm pitch mini terminal blocks (CON1-CON8) are already paired up, this Protector
1 44mm-tall, 16.5 x 10mm PCB-mount finned heatsink (HS1; for Q16) would work well for DC protection in
[Altronics H0645] a bridged amplifier.
1 TO-126 or TO-220 silicone insulating washer and insulating bush
[Altronics H7230, Jaycar HP1176] The power supply
1 M3 x 10mm panhead machine screw The power supply is a basic series-
1 M3 shakeproof washer pass regulator generating about 25V
1 M3 hex nut DC. The relays need 24V on their coils,
4 tapped spacers and 8 machine screws (to suit installation) and this suits amplifiers with various
rail voltages. It can be adapted for
Semiconductors supplies below ±25V or above ±40V
16 (11) BC547B/C 50V 100mA NPN transistors, TO-92 (see below).
(Q1-Q3, Q5, Q6, Q8-Q10, Q12, Q13, Q15, Q17-Q19, Q21, Q22) The power supply provides a
6 (4) BC557B/C 50V 100mA PNP transistors, TO-92 [BC558-9B/C will also turn-on delay of about one second.
work] (Q4, Q7, Q11, Q14, Q20, Q23) This is because the 47kW resistor
1 BD139 80V 1.5A NPN transistor, TO-126 (Q16) delays the charging of the 47μF capac-
1 27V 1W zener diode (ZD1) [1N4750] itor at the base of Q18. This applies to
3 (2) 1N4004 400V 1A diodes (D1-D3) all channels protected by the board.
Capacitors As you increase the supply voltage,
6 (4) 47μF bipolar/non-polarised electrolytic [Jaycar RY6820] the turn-on delay decreases slightly
3 47μF 50V electrolytic [Altronics R4807 or Jaycar RE6344] because the capacitor will charge
Resistors (all 1/4W 1% metal film axial) faster. You could compensate for
6 (4) 33k-100kW (see text; if unsure, use 100kW) that by increasing the resistor value
1 47kW 3 (2) 4.7kW if needed.
(n) for the four-channel version (PCB code 01101222, 67 x 91mm), the If you have an amplifier with rails
quantities required are listed in red. below ±25V, you have the option of
swapping the relays for 12V DC coil ver-
sions and make necessary adjustments
at which the circuit will switch the or BC547C transistors, which have in the regulator (we expect a 15V zener
relay off. 47μF is a reasonable max- higher guaranteed hFE figures and will would work well for ZD4). Similarly,
imum for the filter capacitor, so any switch the relay off with about 1.5V if you have higher rail voltages, this
tweaking is best done by varying the DC on the input. Lowering the input should be fine; just watch the sizing of
value of the input resistor(s). resistors would reduce that trip volt- the heatsink. The specified Altronics
We chose the 100kW value to guar- age further. H0655 heatsink (or similar) should be
antee no problems with false trigger- The DC Speaker Protector discon- fine for any normal rail voltage.
ing for very high power, very low fre- nects the speaker any time that DC is
quency applications. But if you are detected. The relays used are robust Construction
not protecting a subwoofer, any value and should be able to interrupt the Construction is straightforward. There
greater than 33kW should be fine and, fault current that can be expected from are two PCBs available; a six-chan-
as a bonus, lower values will provide a Hummingbird Amplifier module or nel version (coded 01101221, 67 x
faster turn-off for fault conditions. similar. However, there is the possibil- 120mm) and a four-channel version
The 100kW resistors also affect the ity that upon disconnection, the volt- (coded 01101222, 67 x 91mm), both
lowest DC voltage that will cause the age and current will be high enough to available from the PE PCB Service.
detector to trigger. A fault in the ampli- form an arc between the relay contacts. We have described the six-channel
fier front-end could cause a few volts The normally closed contact of the version here; the four-channel version
DC to be present at the output, and if relay is used to shunt this current to is identical except that one relay and
applied to a driver for long enough, it ground when the speaker is discon- its associated components are omit-
could overheat and be damaged. So nected. So if an arc forms and current ted, so the PCB is smaller. Refer to the
ideally, we want to detect that condi- continues to flow, the amplifier’s DC appropriate overlay diagram, Fig.2 or
tion too, not just a fault where it imme- fuse for that rail will blow, and the Fig.3, during assembly.
diately pegs to one of the supply rails. arc will extinguish. You likely have a Start with the resistors and diodes.
Assuming a minimum transistor hFE failed output transistor already, so a Make sure you get the diodes in the
of 120, and that the relay will switch blown fuse won’t exactly be high on right way around. Then mount the
off with 20V across the 4.7kW resis- your list of concerns. two-way terminals for power, each
tor (leaving just a few volts across the We have put three sets of this cir- input/output pair and the earth ter-
relay coil), the transistor base current cuitry on one board, allowing six stan- minal to prevent any arcing in the
must be at least (20V ÷ 4.7kW) ÷ 120 dard amplifier channels to be moni- relays (CON8).
= 35μA (or thereabouts) to switch the tored and protected. The relay selected Now it’s time to solder in the BC5XX
relay off. This means the DC from the has a standard pinout and is available transistors. Try to mount them at the
amplifier must be at least 3.5V (35μA from many suppliers. Make sure that same height so it looks neat.
x 100kW) to trip the relay off. you get the correct version, though; we Next come the capacitors. The three
But this is with a worst-case hFE are specifying 24V DC coils, though 47μF polarised capacitors need to
value. We recommend using BC547B you could use 12V provided you adjust be rated at 50V DC, and all go in the

same way, with the longer positive
leads to the pads marked +. The six
47μF bipolar/non-polarised electro-
lytic capacitors do not need a high
voltage rating as they will never see
more than 0.6V – they mount to the
PCB in any orientation.
Now fit the BD139 to the heatsink
using an insulating washer, 10mm M3
machine screw, locking washer and
nut. Solder the heatsink to the PCB, but
remember it can be hard to get enough
heat into it to solder those big pins.
Finally, mount the relays. The PCB
has 1.5mm holes which are the mini-
mum that this family of relay recom-
mends – the devices from Altronics
and Jaycar leave a fair bit of room in
the holes. Solder them in well.
Fig.2 and Fig.3:
Testing build the smaller
Now that you have all the parts board to protect
up to four
mounted, it is time to test it out. During channels, or the
the initial tests, leave the amplifier ter- slightly larger
minals (CON1-CON6) disconnected. board for five
First apply power and check for the or six channels.
25V output of the regulator The end Assembly is
of the closest 4.7kW resistor right near straightforward;
Q11 is a convenient place to probe; all components
you can use the anode of any of diodes are through-hole
D1-D3 as a ground reference. The read- types and can
ing should be between 24V and 26V be fitted in order
from shortest to
for an input above 32V DC. tallest (the latter
If this is not present or correct, check being the relays
that ZD4 has about 27V across it; if not, and heatsink
look to the 47kW resistor and transis- for Q16).
tors Q16 and Q18. Check that these two
transistors are the right types and sol-
dered in correctly. Also check for short
circuits – is the BD139 getting hot?
After a second or two, the relays
ought to click in. If this does not hap-
pen, check the voltage on the bases of
Q1, Q8 and Q15 (the driver transistors
for the relays). Are these within a volt
or two of the 25V rail? If not, check
that they are the proper devices and
soldered in correctly.
Check the voltage at the output
of the RC filters. The voltage at both
ends of the 100kW resistors (or other
value you might have changed them
to) should be close to 0V. If not, check
that the BC547 and BC557 parts are
in the right places and they are ori-
ented correctly.
Assuming the relays do switch on,
let’s check that they trip off correctly. The finished Speaker Protector board will look something like this. Note the
The easiest way to test it is to take holes drilled into the board under the heatsink to allow convection to pull fresh
a 9V battery and connect the negative air up from underneath. The CON8 (GROUND) terminal block is missing on this
prototype version; you could leave it off, but it provides better protection for the
end of the battery to the ground termi-
speakers if you wire it up to the amplifier earth.
nal on the DC protector. Then touch
a wire from the positive pin of the
battery to the ‘AMP’ terminal of each Then repeat the test with the battery ends of the 100kW resistor. One should
installed channel of the DC protector. the other way around (ie, positive be ±9V, the other ±0.6V.
The associated relay should switch out terminal to GND and negative to the If the ±9V end is not correct, there
almost instantly. AMP terminals). is a short or open circuit somewhere
Repeat this for all channels, check- If a channel does not switch as in that area. If the other end is not
ing that the relays switch quickly. expected, measure the voltage at both close to +0.6V, check the two NPN

The Multi- Remember to fit an insulating washer to the BD139
Channel Speaker transistor (visible above) to prevent it from shorting
Protector comes in a out on the heatsink. Also note the use of shakeproof
six-channel (pictured) and washers on all screws so they won’t loosen due to
smaller four-channel version. vibration or movement.
The four-channel version would
be suited to a two-way stereo speaker Reproduced by arrangement with
system with an active crossover or a SILICON CHIP magazine 2022.
bridged stereo amplifier. www.siliconchip.com.au
transistors on the DC detector (eg, Q9

and Q10), especially their orientations.
Check the associated PNP transistor
(eg, Q11) for a fault where you aren’t
registering −0.6V.
We don’t suggest you do this, but to
verify that the Protector does indeed
protect the driver, we connected a 4W
subwoofer to the DC Speaker Protector
along with a 6A limited, −34V power
supply to the ‘AMP’ input of the Pro-
tector. There was a solid thump and
click as the relay saved the sub from
inevitable destruction. We monitored
this with an oscilloscope, and the
result is shown in Scope 1.
We noted a flash of arcing as the
speaker was disconnected, which is
no surprise when breaking the very Scope 1: the blue trace is the voltage across a 4W loudspeaker driver (zero volts
high direct current flow. Please don’t at top), while the yellow trace is −34V applied to the DC Speaker Protector from
try this at home, as a speaker protector a bench supply. The speaker is disconnected in less than 80ms. The AC voltage
does not make this sort of thing safe generated by the cone movement due to back-EMF after the relay disconnected
for your speaker. the driver will not occur in this final version as long as CON8 is connected to
earth, as that will brake the cone movement.
Application
The DC Speaker Protector needs to
be connected to the power amplifier
ground/earth via the provided termi-
nal (CON8) and supplied with 30-40V
DC to the power connection (CON7).
If your amplifier has a higher positive
rail voltage than this, you can use a 5W
wirewound resistor to drop the sup-
ply voltage to the Protector. The six-
channel Protector draws about 100mA,
so a 100W 5W resistor will drop 10V
and dissipate about a watt.
Connect the terminals marked AMP
to the amplifier and the corresponding
SPKR terminal to your speaker out-
puts. It’s OK to leave some channels
unused; for example, if you have a 3-
or 5-channel amplifier. Once installed
in your amplifier, let’s hope that you Scope 2: this scope grab shows the response time of the Protector to a 20V
never hear those relays click unexpect- DC fault. The input voltage step is at t=0 and the output starts to drop before
edly. But if you do, you will be glad t=60ms. It reaches 0V before t=80ms. The 80ms delay is due to the RC time
they are there! constant of the filter reaching 0.6V.

AUDIO AUDIO OUT
L R
OUT By Jake Rothman
Universal single op amp board (optimised for

audio electronics) – Part 2
Fig.18. Differential
or balanced input Basic circuit Rf
10kΩ
amplifier, possibly the R1
R14
most common add- 10kΩ 10kΩ
Sum input
on op amp circuit for C4 R7 Vin1 –
C7
+
100pF C8* IC1

converting consumer Vin2 + Output
audio equipment to Feedback R2 All resistor equal
professional operation. components R10 R11 10kΩ R3
Bias
10kΩ
Gain = (Vin1–Vin2)(Rf/R3)
Balanced R3 –input V+
Remember that input R4 pad
C1 C11
for each amplifier 10µF C3 10kΩ 100nF C9 Output
+
2 7 22µF
shown, only the red Cold – 0V
6
+
R5
IC1
components and green 10kΩ
+
3 4
Hot + R12
links are used. C2 8 47Ω R13
5 C10
10µF R6 +input 100nF 100kΩ
Gnd V+
R2 10kΩ pad Power on 3-pin
R1 100kΩ connection
Vb bias C6
100kΩ R9 22pF V–
C5
100pF C12
Vb
100nF
+ 0V
C13 R8 Link pads
Link Used Not used
L
ast month, we introduced C7
0V
C1 R1
our Universal Single Op Amp –input
+input
Board, a really useful op amp- R
R R5 R2
12 R C2
based amplifier PCB that is perfect for 14 6
R4
both design/development and finished
C5 R13
products. It takes a through-hole or SMD
C C 0V
op amp, around which you have lots of 6 10 IC1
Output
options for adding passive components C11
so that you can build a whole host of C9 0V
V+
common amplifier configurations. + V–
I’m an audio engineer, so it’s not C12 Power
surprising that I’ve designed the
board with audio in mind, but there
is absolutely no reason why it can’t be
used for instrumentation or any other
high-quality op amp application that
requires a quick and easy PCB solution.
We’ve already covered the op amp
non-inverting, inverting and summing
amplifier configurations, and this month
we will look at three more handy designs.
Fig.19. (right middle) Component

placement for differential amplifier.
Fig.20. (right) The finished differential
amplifier board.

Fig.21.Measured
Audio Precision A-A FAST RMS FREQUENCY RESPONSE RIAA curve of the
phono amplifier
circuit in Fig.22.
+30 +30 Mid-band gain at
1kHz is +30dB.
+25 +25
Max gain is +50dB
+20 +20 at 20Hz giving
+15 +15 150mV for a typical
cartridge input
+10 +10
of 5mV at 1kHz.
d +5 +5 d
B B
This requires a
r +0 +0 r lot of open-loop
gain for a single
A –5 –5 B op amp; however,
–10 –10 this approach
–15 –15 generally gives the
–20 –20
best noise and
overload capability
–25 –25 if all the gain and
–30 –30 equalisation is done
20 50 100 200 500 1k 2k 5k 10k 20k in one first stage.
Hz
Fig.22. Phono
RIAA
5.23kΩ 63.4kΩ amplifier circuit –
network if you are using
14.32nF 50.15nF only one op
Basic circuit
*Can be scaled
(see text)
R14* amp (as here) to
Sum input 220Ω accomplish the
C4 R7 C7 C8
–
+
14.32nF* 50.15nF*
+ RIAA equalisation,
Input IC1
220µF
+ Output then odd RC
Feedback R10 R11
components 5.23kΩ* 63.4kΩ* 0V values are needed
0V R3
Bias 10kΩ
for the negative
V+
R3 –input feedback network.
C3 R4 pad C11 0V
C1 220µF 220Ω 10µF
25V (Solid aluminium) Output
+
2 7
– 0V
6
+
IC1
R5
+
3 4
Input + R12 C9
8 47Ω 100µF
C2 5 C10
100µF R6 +input 100nF 25V
Gnd V+
R1 10V 68kΩ pad Power on 3-pin
C6 connection R13
Vb bias 100kΩ
R2 R9 4.7pF V–
C5
180kΩ 100pF C12
Vb 10µF +
25V (Solid aluminium)
+ 0V
C13 R8 Link pads
Link Used Not used
Differential amplifier Extra cap

This amplifier is useful for adding a C7
0V
balanced input to consumer audio –input
equipment. The input is connected via +input
R C2 R2
R
the three-pin Molex. C3 is normally C8
12 6 +
E R4
replaced with a wire link (short). As x
t C5 R R
r 10 11
with the non-inverting amplifier, R6 a
+
R13
c C C C3
can be linked to the bias point for a
p 6 10 IC1 0V
Output
single-rail operation. The circuit is
C11 +
shown in Fig.18, the overlay in Fig.19 0V
and the final stuffed board in Fig.20. V+
+ V–
Now we’ve covered the basic amplifiers, C9 +
C12 Power
here’s a couple of more specialised
circuits that can be built on the board.
Fig.23. Component placement for phono amplifier. Note extra capacitors wired in parallel.
RIAA phono amplifier
This is probably the most complex standard-value components with a book Electronics for Vinyl. Getting the
design to be built on this board. The tolerance of 2% or better. These values E96 resistors is not too difficult now,
equalisation to implement the RIAA are difficult to calculate, but Douglas and Farnell’s pricing is reasonable
curve, shown in Fig.21, requires non- Self has got them all worked out in his with their Vishay 1% MRS25 series

compensation capacitor (C6) is 4.7pF,
which works in practice, even though
the gain of the circuit falls to unity
at high frequencies. The theoretical
value should be 22pF, but the lowest
high-frequency distortion is achieved
with lower values. The coupling
capacitors can all be tantalum. There
is no distortion problem since the
signal levels are all below 1Vpk-pk.
The polarity of the capacitors is
unimportant for dual rail, although
fusspots may wish to align them with
the offsets.
For bipolar op amps with high
input bias currents feeding NPN input
transistors, such as the NE5534, the
output offset is usually negative.
Therefore, the negative terminal of
the electrolytic capacitors should be
connected to the op amp. The circuit
is shown in Fig.22 and the overlay in
Fig.23, along with the final construction
in Fig.24a and b. The NE5534 is still one
of the best op amps for moving magnet
cartridges and the NE5534A version
has guaranteed noise specs. I’ve only
got significantly better than this by
using ±25V discrete circuits with an
expensive J74 JFET on the front end.
Cherry low-frequency
compensation
I put this capability on the board because
it’s a current interest of mine and I
think the technique needs to be more
Fig.24. (above) Phono amplifier construction – a bit untidy, but it can at least be
widely known. DC coupled circuits
accommodated on the board; (below) Alternative RIAA amplifier construction. Single
give a perfect square-wave response at
capacitors are used for C7 and C8, but half the value. Resistors R10, R11 and R4 are
low frequencies, but can suffer from
scaled up to 10.5kΩ, 127kΩ and 442Ω respectively.
dangerous DC offsets. Placing a capacitor
in the lower arm of the feedback network
if you buy a lifetime’s supply of 100! 1.3nF. I rescued these caps out of a skip of a non-inverting amplifier offers
Mouser are cheaper, supplying the 1% at the end of a production run of filters protection by reducing DC gain to unity,
Yeago MFR-25FBF52 series. (Often, and they are all still spot-on. Of course, but a low frequency square wave, such
E96 resistors are 0.1% and can cost a five 10nF capacitors, or any other as 20Hz, will suffer from a pronounced
fortune, so these 1% options are well combination could be used for C8. ‘tilt’ at the top and bottom of each cycle.
worth considering). These were the original Doug Self Professor Ed Cherry devised a scheme
Getting accurate capacitors is more values. For a simpler version (Fig.24, to compensate for this by adding an
difficult and ±1% or 2.5% tolerance lower), I decided to double the resistor extra RC network (see ETI magazine,
devices are considered top-notch, values and halve the capacitors, so 60W NDFL Amplifier, May 1983). This
but here in Wales, home of the UK’s only two capacitors, one of the 24.76nF technique can also be used to minimise
‘capacitor cluster’, LCR (who absorbed and an LCR 7.15nF were needed. The the value of the capacitor, which can
Suflex) still make excellent polystyrene noise increases by about 1dB by doing often be hundreds of microfarads in
capacitors, available from the author this because of the higher impedance. a power amplifier, down to say 47µF.
– see contact details in the AO Shop To provide the final part of the RIAA This then allows longer-life tantalum
ad on p.50. curve, −20dB at 20kHz relative to 1kHz, capacitors to be used. For those worried
To aid constructors I’ve made a further low-pass filter is required. about distortion, the capacitor can
available some low-cost kits of these This is due to the op amp’s response then be configured as a bipolar part by
odd-value resistors and capacitors flattening off to unity, since the non- putting two capacitors back-to-back and
(also via the AO Shop). The 50.15nF inverting configuration has a minimum applying a 5V bias voltage to the centre
capacitor (C8) can be made up using gain of one. This is achieved with a 4.7nF connection. A demonstrator circuit is
two surplus Suflex 1% 24.76nF capacitor inserted in R13’s position in given in Fig.25, the overlay in Fig.26 and
capacitors in parallel (giving 49.52nF) conjunction with a higher-than-normal the finished board in Fig.27.
using the extra pads as shown earlier value for R12 (510Ω). This network
in Fig.6. You can add an extra 680pF should be omitted if a roll-off at 66kHz Positive feedback
as well for more precision. The other is provided further on, as is usually the The vast majority of op amp circuits for
capacitor (C7) needs to be 14.32nF and case, such as with stabilising capacitors audio, as well as instrumentation and
I made mine out of a parallel 13nF and or an output balancing transformer. The other signal-processing designs, use

R14 Low-frequency
Sum input compensation boost
C4 R7 Rf
+
C7 C8 Basic circuit 15kΩ 33kΩ
2.2µF
R10 R11 Polyester
Feedback
components 15kΩ 33kΩ 2.2µF
R1
750Ω
V+
C1 C3 –input –
100µF Bias 100µF R4 pad + IC1
Input
20V 20V 750Ω C11
+ Output
Output
+
+
2 7 47µF
– 0V 0V
6
R3 IC1 Gain = 1 + (Rf/R1)
+ R5 3
Input + 4 R12 C9
8 47Ω
C2 5 C10
R6 0V
Gnd 10µF V+ 100kΩ +input 100nF
10V pad Power on 3-pin
R9 C6 connection R13 With compensation
Output
R2 1MΩ V–
100kΩ C5
Vb C12
0V Time
Vb bias
+ +5V
0V
C13 Link
R8 pads
470kΩ Link Used Not used Without compensation at 20Hz
Fig.25. Circuit for demonstrating Cherry low-frequency compensation. Feed with a 20Hz square wave and short out the
compensation network C8 and R11 to see the effect. The ‘scope must be set to DC input coupling. Gain is 21x or 26dB.
+
C7 C1
0V
–input
+input
R R R2
12 C2
C8 6 +
R4
C5 R R
10 11
+
C C3 0V
10 IC1
Output
C11 +
0V
R R
V+
9 8
V–
+ Power
C12
Fig.26. Component placement for Cherry low-frequency compensated amplifier.
Fig.28. There is provision for SMD op

amps, such as this MOSFET CA3140.
outline in parallel with the DIP socket

pins. This is shown in Fig.28.
Allowing for a few diagonal links,
it should be possible to accommodate
almost any audio op amp circuits, such
as pre-emphasis/de-emphasis filters,
integrator/servos, gyrators… and I’ve
thought of about 20 more circuits. I’m
sure readers will adapt the boards for
themselves in ways limited only by their
ESP (electronic spatial perception).
Fig.27. The final Cherry compensated op amp board. The big red capacitor (C8)
provides a compensating low-frequency boost to compensate for the roll-off induced PCB for Universal single
by the lower arm feedback capacitor (C1, C3) and associated resistor R4. op amp board
The PCB described in this two-
negative feedback. Positive feedback is Soldering on part series was designed by Mike
generally only used for oscillators, and There may come a time when some audio Grindle and is available from the
comparators with snap-action hysteresis. op amps are only available in surface- January 2023 section of the PE PCB
This board does not really cater for these mount packs (heaven forbid), so the Service, part no. AO1-JAN23.
circuits, but I’m sure a way will be found. board includes a standard SOIC 8-pin

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OC139, OC140, ASY73, AC141K, LS3/5As and other similar speaker Philips solid-aluminium (axial) 121/123 Mil Spec hermetic 10Ω £8.00
AC176K, AC176 £2.00 systems (pair) £200-£350 47/16 £1.00
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100/35 £4.00 Theremin Clearance Sale!
CV7049 (OA10), CG92 (OA91) £0.50 Vifa BC14 5-inch woofer (each) £15
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Si semiconductors 10/16 £0.30 PCBs
Low-price speakers
10/25 £0.50 Pocket Theremin (EPE, 1996) £4.00
Diodes Celestion elliptical 6x4-inch 5Ω
ZC5800 RF Schottky £0.20 (Robert’s Radio) £3.50 Silvered mica (radial) Elysian Theremin (EPE, 1996) £12
Philips 4-inch 4070 £2.00 4.7nF/500 5% £1.00 Synth VCF, VCO (EPE, 2017) £3.00
Low-noise silicon transistors EMI 10x6-inch, 30Ω Alnico £10 48V PSU (EPE, 2019) £3.00
BFW16A, 2SC3071 £1.50 Trimmer capacitors
64mm 64Ω neodymium £1.20 Vishay plastic-film 4-40pF £0.80 Relays
2SC2204, 2SD655 £0.50 3.5-inch 25Ω £3.50
ZTX651 £0.30 Vishay plastic-film 5.5-45pF £1.00 STC hermetic 4190 24V DPDT £4.00
5x3-inch elliptical 50Ω or 80Ω Vishay plastic-film 5-80pF £1.20
RF transistors (suitable for Theremin) Alnico £3.50 Switches Blore Edwards/Plessey
Vishay plastic-film 10-250pF £2.00 MH1 4-pole 3-way £3.00
BF199 £0.50 1.65x2.75-inch 8Ω £1.50 Mica 1-12pF, 2-40pF £1.00
BF245 £0.60 Elma 01 2-pole 6-way £6.00
3PDT guitar pedal stomp switch £2.50
Audio power MOSFETs Can’t see what you Audio transformers and
Exicon 10N20, 10P20 £6.50 inductors Valves
want? Just ask – we EC88, PCL84 £3.00
Hitachi 2SJ99, 2SK343 £3.50 Eagle transformers
Hitachi 2SJ 50, 2SK135 £7.00 have a huge stock LT44, LT722 driver, LT700, LT723 Robert’s Radio modules
Hitachi 2SJ56, 2SK176 £8.50 of inexpensive 500Ω output £2.50 Tuners LP1169, LP1179 £7.00
JFETs high-quality parts! LT30 500mW output £3.50 IF strip LP1171 £7.00
BFW11, BFW10, TIS73L, J177, J113, Repanco Knobs – large Bakelite
U1994, U1898, 2SJ176 £1.00 T/T3 splitter transformer £4.00 Bulgin 1960s and Sifam 1970s £1.50
Capacitors CH2 5mH RFC £2.00
MOSFETs
ZVP2106A £0.30 Note ‘10/63’ denotes ‘10µF 63V’.
Balanced output transformer Contact
Dual-gate 3SK45, BFS28 £1.50 Polyester Vigortronix 600Ω VTX-101-007 £10 Jake Rothman
Metal-cased transistors 3.3/100, 4.7/250, 4.7/63 £1.00 Vigortronix 600Ω VTX-101-3001 £10 The Old Rectory, Arlais Road,
BC143 £0.35 5.6/63, 8.2/63, 10/63 £2.00 Vigortronix 600Ω VTX-101-3002 £15 Llandrindod Wells, Powys
2N1711 £0.50 Mullard ‘Mustard’ C296 0.22/400 £2.00 Gardners 150Ω £10 LD1 5HE (visit by appointment)
BCY71 £0.30 Reclaimed BBC LL74/MPC nickel +44 (0)1597 829102
Polycarbonate
BC109C £0.60 core 600Ω £12
Axial 2.2/63 1%, 4.7/160, 6.8/63 £1.00 [email protected]
Amplifiers Radial Reclaimed mic input transformer £15
TL082 dual JFET input op amp £0.25 6.8/160V, 10/63 £2.00 Minimum order £5.00 inc post
LM318 high-speed op amp £0.35 Inductors Quantity discounts negotiable
Reclaimed 22/63 £2.00
µA709 metal-cased op amp £2.00 82µH, 4.7mH, 100µH, 270µH £2.00
5534H metal-cased op amp £3.00 Polystyrene 7-inch ferrite rod with MW and LW Payment
LM384, TDA2030A £1.50 Philips 1% 4.7nF/160, 6.2nF/500, windings £3.00 PayPal, cards (via phone), bank
TAA435 (power amp driver) £1.20 12nF/63, 22nF/63, 110nF/63 £1.00 transfer, cheques (payable to ‘J
RIFA 1% 100nF/100 £2.00 Special resistors Rothman’, UK pounds only)
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3059 JM panel-mount £2.00
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Thermistor CZ1, CZ6 £1.50 Small Jiffy bag £2.99
CA3082 VCA/VCF £4.00 2.2/25 £0.80
Holco H2 2.2MΩ 1W, 1% £1.00 Small package £4.99
LM13600/ LM13700 VCA/VCF £2.00 Electrolytic – Mullard blue 017 series Welwyn 1GΩ 2W £1.00 Big boxes and overseas at cost
CA3086 transistor array £1.00 10/25, 22/25, 100/10 £0.50 Allen Bradley 1.2kΩ 2W C-comp £1.00 – ask for a quote
PT2399 echo/delay £1.50 150/40, 470/40,1000/40 £1.00 Lots of big valve resistors available.

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Phil Boyce – hands on with the mighty PIC-powered, BASIC microcontroller
Part 43: Connecting more than one display to a PicoMite
O
K, so this month’s title Concept n

Connect all display modules (effectively
is probably not what you were The thought process when exploring this in parallel) to the PicoMite in the usual
expecting, especially if you had topic was as follows. If MMBASIC can manner apart from the ‘enable’ pin of
started building Part 1 of the Fingerprint send data to successfully drive a single each display
Reader. Now for a confession, I seem display, then what is preventing a second n
Connect each ‘enable’ pin from each
to have somehow destroyed a second identical display (connected to the exact display to a dedicated PicoMite I/O pin.
fingerprint module, and hence I’ve had same PicoMite pins) from displaying
to purchase yet another replacement. the exact same ‘image’? Providing the Then, before using any graphical command,
This is all rather ironic bearing in mind displays are just receiving data from enable only the display module(s) that we
the first unit I received for free (since my the PicoMite (and not sending data back want to receive that command by setting
supplier had sent it in error in place of a to the PicoMite), then in theory you the relevant I/O pins to the correct state.
GPS module that I’d ordered – but said I could connect multiple identical display Now that the concept has been covered,
could keep it). So, while I await delivery modules to the PicoMite and they will all we next need to understand any restrictions
of what will be the third fingerprint display the exact same image when the when choosing and using multiple displays
module, this month we’ll be discussing data is simultaneously received by them. with a PicoMite.
an alternative topic, one that I hope you’ll The reason we don’t want to concern
find useful: how to use multiple displays ourselves with data sent from a display Restrictions
with a PicoMite (or MicroMite). Why is module back to the PicoMite is because 1. The first restriction is that all displays
this of interest? Remember, by design, it makes the overall design much easier used in a multi-display project must be
MMBASIC’s firmware is only capable (and also eliminates any potential shorts exactly the same type. This is because
of driving a single external display (the that could occur between conflicting the MMBASIC firmware can only be set
specific type being configured with OPTION logic levels). to a single type of display via the OPTION
LCDPANEL). So, how can we connect more Now for an important point: the LCDPANEL command.
than one display to a PicoMite? image on a display is only updated by 2. The second restriction is the type of
MMBASIC graphical commands, such interface that the identical displays use.
Examples of use as TEXT, BOX, CIRCLE, PIXEL, LINE, Referring to the PicoMite User Manual
First, let’s acknowledge that there are some CLS, RBOX, POLYGON and so on. Once (available for download from the January
restrictions as to what is achievable when the MMBASIC firmware has processed a 2023 page of the PE website: https://
driving more than one display – but, once graphical command and the PicoMite has bit.ly/pe-downloads), you will see that
these limitations are understood, it will sent the relevant data to the display(s), MMBASIC supports various LCD and
be possible to achieve some very creative the updated image on the display(s) will OLED displays that use either a serial
multi-display projects. For example, how remain in place until the next graphical SPI, a serial I2C or a parallel interface.
about adapting a project that uses multiple command is sent (or until power is However, the way that serial I2C and
7-segment LED modules and replacing each removed from the display modules). parallel interfaces work means that the
one with a small LCD display module. This Put another way, there is no need to data line(s) are used for both writing to and
would allow each ‘digit’ to offer endless continually write data to the display(s) reading from the display modules, and
options in terms of colour and font. Or to maintain the image. hence there will likely be contradictory
how about building a data logger that has Having the same image on all displays logic levels present on the ‘common’ data
multiple sensors, and providing each sensor isn’t very useful since ideally we will lines when connecting displays together
with a dedicated mini-display to show want to control each display separately. to the same pins. Only the SPI interface
relevant data. Another idea would be to However, if each display also has some has a dedicated signal for writing data to
modify the Micromite Robot’s animated form of ‘enable’ pin, then in theory, only the display. Thus, the second restriction
eyes (that originally used two 8x8 LED the displays that are enabled would is that only displays that use a serial SPI
matrix modules) and replace them with process the data sent out by the PicoMite. interface will work with the technique
two coloured LCD displays; this would So, theoretically, all we need to do for we’re using here. To see this, think
allow much more detailed eye effects to multiple display control is the following about the serial SPI interface as having
be animated. in terms of hardware: three connections: SPI-Clk, SPI-Out and

number of digits to be displayed across
the screen. However, the proportions
of the screen would make it larger in
height than we really need; so instead,
let’s consider using multiple small LCD
displays for each digit.
We are not going to build a frequency
counter as such, but let’s take the idea
of building a simple 4-digit counter
comprising four displays; each one
Fig.1. Frequency counters typically uses displaying a single digit and all driven
multiple 7-segment LED displays. This by a single PicoMite. Four identical sub-
one has 11 digits, resulting in a display displays means we can create an overall Fig.2. The ST7735S module is an 0.96-
that is conveniently wide, but not too tall. display that is wide enough, but not inch IPS display module with a pixel
excessively high. Ideally. we want digits resolution of 160x80.
SPI-In. The PicoMite acts as the master that are about 25mm (1 inch) high, which
and generates the SPI-Clk signal while will be easy to read from a distance. 3. DC (Data/Command) – connect to
transmitting any data that needs to be Now we know what we are trying to any available I/O pin. Defined as a
sent to the displays via the PicoMite’s achieve, let’s choose a suitable display. parameter in the OPTION LCDPANEL
SPI-Out pin (to the display’s SDA pin). command.
The PicoMite’s SPI-Out pin only sends ST7735S module 4. RES (Reset) – when low, the display is
data to the display(s) and there is no risk The ST7735S (see Fig.2) is one of our reset. Connected to any available I/O
of any logic-level shorting. Note that the favourite mini displays that is compatible pin and defined as a parameter in the
SPI-Out pin has nothing to do with any with the PicoMite, plus it meets all our OPTION LCDPANEL command.
data that a display might want to send to requirements: 5. SDA (SPI Data In) – connect to the
the PicoMite. Because we want to avoid n
SPI interface PicoMite’s SPI-Out pin (defined as
any potential logic-level shorts in our n
‘Enable’ pin in the form of a ‘ChipSelect’ a parameter in the OPTION SYSTEM
application, we will not be receiving data (CS) pin SPI command).
from the display modules, and hence n Compact size: 0.96-inch 6. SCL (SPI Clock) – connect to the
we will not be connecting anything to PicoMite’s SPI-Clk pin (defined as a
the PicoMite’s SPI-In pin. If we were to Furthermore, it is an IPS display, which parameter in the OPTION SYSTEM
connect more than one display to the means it provides a nice clear and bright SPI command).
single SPI-In pin, and if more than one image that is viewable from most angles 7. VCC (3-5V) – connected to 3.3V in our
display module were to be enabled, (much better than an ordinary LCD display). application (can also be connected to
then logic-level shorting would likely It is reasonably cheap – some well-known 5V to give a brighter display image)
occur. Hence, we won’t read data from online sites offer it at under £1.50 per unit, 8. GND – connect to PicoMite’s GND pin.
any display. although around £5 each is more common
3. Since we can’t read data from any of the from UK suppliers. So, this is the screen A point to make here is that the MMBASIC
displays, certain graphical commands we will use for our counter demo. firmware drives pins 1-6 (once two
(that require data to be read from the Fig.2 shows the ST7735S has just eight OPTIONs have been configured). The
display) will not work. For example, connections, as follows: remaining two pins simply provide power
the BLIT command that is used to copy 1. BLK (Backlight) – connect this to any to the display.
one area of the display to another is I/O pin (defined as a parameter in the
unavailable; likewise, transparent text. OPTION LCDPANEL command) which Demo 1
will then control the brightness of the We will begin by connecting multiple
Understanding the above restrictions display via the BACKLIGHT command. screens in parallel to check that we can
means we can now experiment with the 2. CS (ChipSelect) – the ‘Enable’ pin. write to all displays simultaneously so
concept; but first, let’s choose a multi- When low, the display is enabled. that they display the exact same image.
screen application. Defined as a parameter in the OPTION The easiest way to assemble this circuit
LCDPANEL command. is to use a small piece of stripboard
Simple counter
Traditionally, multiple red 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38
7-segment LED displays would A A
B B
be used to build a counter display C C
since the displays are cheap and D D
E E
are bright enough to read clearly, F F
especially when mounted behind G G
H H
a red filter. Six, eight or even 10 I GP11 BLK I
digits is not uncommon when used J GP28 CS J
K GP26 DC K
in something like a professional L GP27 RES L
frequency counter (see Fig.1). M GP19 SDA M
N GP18 SCL N
If we wanted to build a frequency O 3V3 VCC O
P GND GND P
counter based on a PicoMite (a Q Q
great idea for a future article), we R R
could simply choose to implement a 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38
single large LCD screen. If the large 8-way pin header 8-way sockets
screen is used in landscape mode,
then it would allow for a sufficient Fig.3. Four ST7735S modules are mounted in parallel on a piece of stripboard.

n
PTION
O LCDPANEL ST7735S, The next step is to modify the stripboard
I/O GPx
10kΩ
orientation, DC, RESET, CS, so that we only control displays that are
GP28 CS CS Backlight ‘enabled’. Before we do this, let’s first
From To display by using: OPTION LCDPANEL ST7735S, explore how to modify the CS pin so that
PicoMite
P, GP26, GP27, GP28, GP11 we can use a dedicated I/O pin (one per
Fig.4. When the I/O pin is set high, the display) to effectively enable (or disable)
display is disabled (because CS is high). Once this is done, type any graphical the display.
However, when the I/O pin is floating command to check that all displays behave
(SETPIN GPx, OFF), then the CS signal in the same way. For example, type CLS Modifying the CS signal
from the PicoMite can control the display’s RGB(GREEN) and observe what happens. Currently, the CS pin from the PicoMite
CS line. The 10kΩ resistor prevents device If all screens turn green, then you have drives each CS pin simultaneously on
damage when the I/O pin is set high and successfully completed the first step. all four displays (and that is the reason
CS is driven low by the PicoMite. However, if things don’t work as expected, they all display the same image). We need
visually check the eight connections to a way of holding any display’s CS pin
since all we need to do is mount four the PicoMite, and also check the two high whenever we want to ‘disable’ those
8-way sockets so that all displays are OPTIONs have been configured correctly displays from responding to the data that
connected to each other in parallel. by typing OPTION LIST. If either OPTION is being sent from the PicoMite (from the
Refer to Fig.3 for how we prepared our is incorrect, type OPTION RESET and PicoMite’s SPI-Out pin simultaneously to
stripboard. The 8-way pin header on carefully re-enter both OPTIONs again. all the SDA pins). By using a dedicated
the left is used with eight female-to- Also check that there are no shorts between I/O pin, we can hold an individual
female DuPont leads to connect it to the adjacent tracks on the stripboard. Once you display’s CS pin high, and then that
PicoMite. Once everything is connected see the correct response to any graphical particular display won’t respond to any
and you have correctly inserted multiple command, check that you can adjust the SPI data that it receives. But we also
ST7735S display modules, connect the brightness by typing BACKLIGHT 25. need a way of ‘releasing’ the logic-high
PicoMite to your computer so that you This should noticeably dim the display. from the display’s CS pin whenever we
can configure MMBASIC to work with Type BACKLIGHT 100 to return to full want the display to respond to the SPI
the ST7735S. To do this, you just need brightness. If the display’s brightness is data. Refer to Fig.4 to see how we can
to set two OPTIONs as follows: unaffected by the BACKLIGHT command achieve this with a single I/O pin (GP0),
n OPTION SYSTEM SPI CLKpin, then check the connection between pin and a single 10kΩ resistor to control one
MOSIpin, MISOpin GP11 and the BLK pins on the displays. display. This circuit is repeated four
by using: OPTION SYSTEM SPI GP18, Also check the last parameter in OPTION times, one for each display’s CS pin – in
GP19, GP16 LCDPANEL is indeed set to GP11. other words, we will need four I/O pins,
and four 10kΩ resistors for
our four-digit counter.
DIGIT1_DISABLE GP0 1 40 VBUS
DIGIT2_DISABLE GP1 2 39 VSYS
Display operation
GND GND GND
With the I/O pin (eg, GP0)
3 38
DIGIT3_DISABLE GP2 3V3EN
in a floating state (SETPIN
4 37
DIGIT4_DISABLE GP3 3V3 3.3V
GP0,OFF), the display’s CS
5 36
GP4 ADC REF
pin is controlled by the CS
6 35
GP5 GP28 LCD_CS
output from the PicoMite.
7 34
GND 33 GND
In other words, the display
8
GP6 32 GP27 LCD_RES
behaves normally. Note that
9
GP7 31 GP26 LCD_DC
the 10kΩ resistor has no
10
GP8 11 30 RUN
impact on the logic level
GP9 12 29 GP22
received on the display’s
GND 13 28 GND
CS pin. However, if we now
GP10 14 27 GP21
set GP0 to a high logic level
LCD_BACKLIGHT GP11 15 26 GP20
(with SETPIN GP0,DOUT
GP12 16 25 GP19 SPI_DATA
and PIN(GP0)=1) then the
GP13 17 24 GP18 SPI_CLOCK
CS pin for that display is
GND 18 23 GND
held high and hence the
GP14 19 22 GP17
display is disabled and will
GP15 20 21 GP16
ignore any data received
on its SDA pin. In this
scenario, the 10kΩ resistor
ensures that the CS signal
GP3 GP11 BLK GP2 GP11 BLK GP1 GP11 BLK GP0 GP11 BLK BLK from the PicoMite is not
CS CS CS CS CS shorted by the logic high
GP26 DC GP26 DC GP26 DC GP26 DC DC from the GP0.
10kΩ 10kΩ 10kΩ 10kΩ
GP27 RES GP27 RES GP27 RES GP27 RES RES In summary, with GP0
GP19 SDA GP19 SDA GP19 SDA GP19 SDA SDA floating, the display is
GP28 GP18 SCL GP28 GP18 SCL GP28 GP18 SCL GP28 GP18 SCL SCL enabled (and will respond
3V3 VCC 3V3 VCC 3V3 VCC 3V3 VCC VCC to data), but with GP0 set
GND GND GND GND GND GND GND GND GND high, the display will be
Digit 4 Digit 3 Digit 2 Digit 1
disabled (and ignore any
data) – it’s that simple!
Fig.5. Circuit diagram showing how the four ST7735S displays are connected to a single PicoMite. Fig.5 shows an overview

5-way pin header 1) R1-R4 are 10kΩ
enabled/disabled at any one time,
2) Four track breaks on row J at column 4, 14, 24, 34 producing a flexible solution for
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 driving multiple displays from a
A A single PicoMite.
B B
C GP0 DIGIT1 C
D
E
GP1
GP2
DIGIT2
DIGIT3
D
E
Challenge
F GP3 Having seen how easy it is to DIGIT4 F
G GP28 write to each individual display CS G
H R R R R H
I GP11 4 3 2 1 BLK I module, how about challenging
J CS J
K GP26 DC K
yourself to see if you can adapt the
L GP27 RES L Demo2 counter into displaying a
M GP19 SDA M
N GP18 SCL N
simple clock (hours and minutes
O 3V3 VCC O from the inbuilt TIME$ string
P GND GND P
Q Q variable). Alternatively, connect
R R four temperature sensors to the
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38
PicoMite, and then map each
8-way pin header 8-way sockets sensor to its own display. And if
you’re feeling ambitious, why not
Fig.6. The modifications to the stripboard for individual control of each ST7735S display. have a go at creating some kind
of game. Whatever your creative
of all the required pin connections that we’ll be using in juices come up with, do send us an email if you end up
our simple counter. building something interesting.
Modifications to stripboard Next time

See Fig.6 for the changes that are required for the stripboard, Fingers crossed – the replacement fingerprint module will
comprising the following: arrive soon to complete Part 2 of the Fingerprint Reader project.
n
Make four track cuts Until then, stay safe, and have FUN!
n
Add a five-way pin header
n
Insert four wire links
n
Add four 10kΩ resistors. Questions? Please email Phil at:
[email protected]
Before modifying the stripboard, remove all the displays to
avoid accidental damage. Once the changes have been made,
perform a visual check to ensure there are no track shorts and
the four track cuts are made correctly. Once all looks good,
re-insert the displays, and connect the PicoMite to the two
headers, as shown in Fig.6 (left-hand side).
Demo 2
BACK ISSUES
Once the CS signal modifications have been made on the
stripboard, and everything has been connected, you should Practical
test that everything works correctly by running the Demo2.txt Electronics
program (available for download from January 2023 page of the
PE website). Install the program into your PicoMite and observe
what happens when you RUN the program. If all is working, BACK ISSUES – ONLY £6.49
you will see a counter like that shown in Fig.7. Do makes sure
D NA –
D NA –
IG E
IG E
PE
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Practical
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We can supply back issues of PE/EPE by post.
We stock magazines back to 2006, except for the following:
Fig.7. Our simple 4-digit 2006 Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jul
counter comprises 2007 Jun, Jul, Aug
four ST7735S display 2008 Aug, Nov, Dec
modules assembled on 2009 Jan, Mar, Apr
2010 May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Oct, Nov
stripboard – all controlled 2011 Jan
by a single PicoMite. 2014 Jan
2018 Jan, Nov, Dec
2019 Jan, Feb, Apr, May, Jun
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then a PDF can be supplied – your email address must be
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Circuit Surgery
Regular clinic by Ian Bell
Electronically controlled resistance – Part 5
I
n this issue, we continue our
series on electronically controlled re-
sistance. Last month, we started looking
digipots – digital potentiometers – which
are integrated circuits providing a similar
function to mechanical potentiometers
and trimmers. They are commonly inter-
faced to microcontrollers to adjust system
parameters such as gain and bias voltage.
We introduced the basic principles of di-
gipots and discussed some example ICs
which demonstrate some of the character-
istics and functionality that are available.
Prior to digipots we were looking at
JFETs as voltage-controlled resistors,
including a number of simulation examples
using LTspice. There was no significant Fig.3. LTspice digipot schematic using basic SPICE elements.
issue with setting up simulations using
JFETs as electronically controlled resistors because JFETs are basic devices in SPICE non-ideal digipots characteristics (and
simulation, and models for both generic how to simulate them as well).
and specific commercial devices are Fig.1 shows the structure of a digipot
A
readily available. Digipots are more resistor ladder and switch network, which
SN
complex integrated circuits for which was discussed in some detail last month.
models may not be available from the In this schematic we have included the
RN–1 manufacturer (although some are). This wiper resistance, which is a non-ideal
SN–1 month, we will consider some approaches characteristic exhibited by real digipots.
to simulating digipots in LTspice and at The wiper resistance is due to the on
the same time discuss a couple of key resistance of the MOSFET transistors used
RN–2
SN–2
RW
RN–3 Wiper (W)
R1
S1
R0
S0
Fig.1. Circuit structure of a digipot.
Control input
RW
(wiper position)
RAB Wiper
B
Potentiometer
Fig.2. Digipot equivalent circuit. Fig.4. Results from simulation of the circuit in Fig.3.

also shown. The total resistance between
A and B (RAB) is the sum of the individual
resistors R0 to RN-1. This is the resistance
of the digipot, with commonly available
values ranging from 5kΩ to 100kΩ.
Digipot simulation approaches

When simulating a digipot we can either try
to create a circuit close to the implemented
structure, as shown in Fig.1, or use a more
abstract model, similar to the circuit in
Fig.2. We will start with the former –
Fig.3 shows an implementation of the
circuit in Fig.1 (for N = 4) using basic
SPICE elements – resistors and switches.
The switches are implemented using the
voltage-controlled switch element (‘sw’
Fig.5. Larger view of output voltage (bottom trace in Fig.4). symbol in the component selector). The
simulation applies a 1V peak 5kHz
sinewave to the digipot circuit. RL
is a load resistor – since it is much
larger than digipot resistors it will
not have much effect.
The switch requires a model to
specify its parameters – here we
use the model name DPSw (digipot
switch). The model sets the switch
on resistance (Ron) to 50Ω, which
models the wiper resistance. The
switch off resistance (Roff) is
100MΩ. The Vt model parameter
is the switch threshold voltage. It is
set to 0.5 and is used with control
waveforms which switch been 0V
(off) and 1V (on). The switches
are controlled, via the PS0 to PS5
signals, by five pulse voltage sources
Fig.6. LTspice digipot schematic using an ADG1208 multiplexer to implement the switches. which switch the five switches on
for 1ms each in sequence.
Using analogue
multiplexer switches
The results of the simulation are shown
in Fig.4, and Fig.5 shows a larger view of
the output waveform so that the amplitude
steps obtained by different wiper positions
can be more clearly seen. The circuit in
Fig.3 works well but is not particularly
convenient – it requires each switch to be
individually controlled, when ideally, we
want a digital code or a voltage to represent
the code value as the control input. This
issue can be overcome by using an analogue
multiplexer integrated circuit model to
implement the switches. There are a few of
Fig.7. Results from simulation of the circuit in Fig.6.

to implement the wiper position switches in Fig.1 – it is drawn as a potentiometer of
(S0 to SN in Fig.1). Strictly speaking, there resistance R and a control signal to set the
is a different resistance for each switch, wiper position (in practice this is a digital
so this a simplified representation. Fig.2 code which selects one of the switches Fig.8. Simple LTspice schematic to
shows the equivalent circuit of the digipot S0 to SN to be on). The wiper resistance is illustrate component value variation.

Fig.9. Results from simulation of circuit in Fig.8. Fig.10. Plotting specific sweep step waveforms of the circuit in Fig.8.
to enable the switches. Like the circuit
in Fig.3, this example applies a 1V 5kHz
sinewave to the digipot potential divider.
The results of simulating the circuit
in Fig.6 are shown in Fig.7. The binary
count on the address bits (signals n0, n1
and n2) can be seen together with the
output voltage, which is similar to that
in Fig.4 and Fig.5, except the amplitude
is stepped in the opposite direction. This
is because the switches in the circuit in
Fig.6 are in the opposite order to what
Fig.11. Using LTspice behavioural resistors to implement a variable potential divider (digipot). they should be – but it was convenient
to drop the ADG1208 into the previous
schematic this way round and is sufficient
to show the principle of operation.
Use of the analogue multiplexer
component models makes the digipot
schematic easier to draw and facilitates use
of digital codes. 16-channel multiplexer
models are available (eg, ADG1206) and
multiple chips could be used (by controlling
their enable pins) to build larger switch
networks. The disadvantage of this approach
compared to the circuit in Fig.3 is that the
characteristics of the switches are based
on the multiplexer model and cannot be
configured to match the characteristics of
a different circuit implementation. The
circuits in Fig.3 and Fig.7 both require a
significant amount of drawing for digipots
with larger numbers of switches, which
would probably be impractical in most
cases (eg, for 1024 taps).
The effects of tolerances

Before looking at other approaches to
Fig.12. Results from simulation of the circuit in Fig.11. implementing digipots we will take a
quick look at simulating component value
these available under the ‘Switches’ section value on its address inputs (A0, A1 and variation. All components are subject to
of the component selector in LTspice. The A2). The simulation uses pulse voltage some variation or tolerance in individual
ADG1208 Low Capacitance, 8-Channel, sources to control the address signals in values. Standard single resistors are readily
±15V/+12V iCMOS Multiplexer from a similar way to the circuit in Fig.3, but available with relatively small tolerances
Analogue Devices is close to the top of these are configured to produce a count in (±1% or less) but the total resistance (RAB
the list and is suitable to use in a variant of binary from 0 to 5 and are set to 3.3V for in Fig.1 and Fig.2) of many digipots are
the circuit in Fig.3 because it has sufficient compatibility with the ADG1208 address subject to much larger tolerances, for
switches (we will use five of the eight). This inputs. The ADG1208 model also requires example ±20% or more. This may cause
is shown in Fig.6. ±15V supplies (implemented using V5 difficulties in some situations, for example
The ADG1208 simplifies the switch and V6). The ADG1208’s EN (enable) pin by restricting the range of values (eg, bias
wiring and provides decoding of a binary must be connected to the positive supply voltage or gain) that can be set up in a circuit.

would ordinarily use a numerical value –
for example, for the value of a resistor. In
the circuit in Fig.8 the parameter Rdigipot
is defined and given the value 10k by the
.param command:
.param Rdigipot=10k
The value of resistor R1 is written as

{Rdigipot} on the schematic – LTspice
parameters are written inside curly braces
when they are used. If we did not do
anything else the simulation would simply
use 10k as the value of R1. However, in this
case we also have the .sweep command:
Fig.13. Variant of the circuit in Fig.11 with digital signals use to control wiper position.
.step param Rdigipot LIST 8k
10k 12k
This tells LTspice to run the simulation

multiple times with the set of values of
Rdigipot as listed – here three values
are used to represent the nominal value
and extremes of a 10kΩ resistor with
±20% tolerance. This corresponds to a
digipot with total resistance RAB = 10kΩ
and 20% tolerance.
The results of simulating the circuit in
Fig.8 are shown in Fig.9. To identify the
traces right-click on the schematic and select
View -> Step Legend from the menu. You
can also select which steps are displayed
using View -> Select Steps. Individual step
plots can be displayed by adding @step_no
after the signal name, for example I(R1)@1
to display the current in R1 for step 1 of the
sweep. This is illustrated Fig.10.
Model based on a potentiometer

As mentioned above, an alternative to a
direct circuit implementation (as in Fig.3
and Fig.7) is to use a more abstract model
based on a simple potentiometer. This
requires that the resistor values can be
controlled by mathematical expressions
to relate the resistor values to the control
input – fortunately, this is possible in
LTspice using ‘behavioural resistors’.
Fig.14. Results from simulation of the circuit in Fig.13. We have used behavioural voltage and
current sources (BV and BI elements) a
Given that digipots are often controlled by to be plotted together, but results in a more number of times in previous Circuit Surgery
embedded system software, the problem complex overall schematic and it can be articles. These sources allow the use of a
can be addressed by calibration routines in difficult to track which result is which. mathematical expression to set the voltage
the code as long as the circuit is designed The second approach does not allow easy or current – the expression can make use
to be usable with the full range of possible direct comparison of results. of other circuit voltages and currents and
digipot resistance values. simulation time, and a wide range of
The circuit is Fig.8 shows one approach Using a sweep command mathematical functions are available for
to simulating the effect of component value LTspice provides the means to run multiple use. The resistance of a resistor (R element,
variation. It is simply a resistor with a simulations of the same circuit with different as in a standard resistor) can also be set by
DC voltage applied across it. We perform component values using the .sweep an expression in similar way. This feature
a DC sweep simulation, increasing the command. There are a variety of ways is not fully documented in LTspice – at the
voltage from 0 to 5V and plot the current. of using .sweep, which are documented time of writing, if you look up ‘resistor’
To investigate the effect of resistor variation in the built-in Help. Here we define the in the built-in Help it is not mentioned.
we could create separate copies of the circuit resistor value using a parameter and use a However, we can use behavioural resistors
(on the same schematic) with different parameter sweep to change the value. In to implement a digipot function.
resistor values, or we could simply change LTspice, parameters can be defined using In general, a potentiometer comprises
values and run the simulation again. The the .param command, after which they two resistors R1 + R2 such that the total
first approach allows the different results can be used in many places where you resistance R1 + R2 = RAB where RAB is

Fig.15. Circuit to narrow digipot
adjustment range. This simulation includes
component tolerance.
the resistance between the terminals A

and B (as in Fig.2). The relative values
of R 1 and R2 depend on the wiper
position. If we define the wiper position
as a value N, where N = 0 with the
wiper at B and N = 1 with the wiper at
A then we can write if R1 = NRAB and
R2 = (1 − N)RAB. In LTspice we can set up
a voltage on node N, V(N), which can vary
from 0 to 1V to represent N. We can define
a parameter Rdigipot for the RAB value
of the digipot. Then we could use two
behavioural resistors to implement a potentiometer
with values set by expressions using:
R = {Rdigipot}*V(N)
R = {Rdigipot}*(1-V(N))
Things are a bit more complex than this because the

behavioural resistor value must not be set to zero, and
ideally not become negative. We can use the LTspice
limit(x,y,z) function, which returns z unless it
is outside the range set by x and y, in which case x or
y are returned. Using this we can limit the minimum
resistance to some very small value (eg, 1mΩ) and the
maximum to the RAB value (Rdigipot), for example:
R = limit(1m,{Rdigipot},{Rdigipot}*V(N))
An LTspice schematic using this approach is shown in

Fig.11. The behavioural voltage source (BI) is used to
create a stepped waveform on node N, starting at 0V at
time 0 and stepping every step-time (stept parameter)
by 1/(number of steps) (nsteps parameter) until a
maximum of 1 is reached. The parameter values shown
in Fig.11 step V(N) from 0 to 1V in 8 steps, with each
step lasting 1ms. The results are shown in Fig.12 and
show a similar behaviour to the previous examples.
However, unlike the previous examples, it is easy to
change the effective number of taps (switches) in the
Fig.16. Results from simulation of the circuit in Fig.15. digipot. For example, for 256 switches set nsteps to
256 and the simulation end time to 256ms.
The circuit in Fig.13 is similar to the one
in Fig.12 except the behavioural source
producing V(N) is obtained from a set of
signals (on nodes N0 to N3) representing a
4-bit binary control word for the digipot. This
provides a more realistic control input but
requires the additional sources to generate
the digital control signals. The B1 source uses
a weighted sum of the digital bits (which
are at 0V or 1V for logic 0 and 1) to produce
the control voltage V(N). The results are
shown in Fig.14 and are as expected. There
are some glitches on V(N) caused by the
relative switching times of the digital signals
Simulation files
Most, but not every month, LTSpice
is used to support descriptions and
analysis in Circuit Surgery.
The examples and files are available
for download from the PE website.
Fig.17. LTspice circuit to investigate the effect of wiper resistance when using rheostat mode.

Fig.18.
Results
from
simulation
of the
circuit in
Fig.17.
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Fig.15 shows a circuit in which the digipot could use the value in calculations to set - Encoders
- Web server - LCD
is placed between two fixed resistors. This the required control value. - Modbus - Analog inputs
technique narrows the proportion of the - CNC (Mach3/ 4) - Compact PLC
potential divider output which is controlled Wiper resistance - IO
by the digipot – it is not unusual to require Previously, we mentioned that digipots
an adjustment range significantly smaller have a wiper resistance – this can affect
than 0 to 100% of the input (as provided by the performance of circuits. For example,
the circuit in Fig.11). For a given number if a digipot is used in rheostat mode (single
of taps (wiper steps) this increases the variable resistor) the wiper resistance will
resolution with which the output can be contribute to the total resistance. Fig.17
controlled. This simulation is run with shows three circuits using a digipot in
value variation for the digipot of ±20% rheostat mode. The top two circuits have
for a nominal value of 10kΩ using the a relatively large wiper resistance (500Ω)
- up to 256 - up to 32
approach discussed earlier. The input is to show its effect and the lower circuit microsteps microsteps
simply 8V DC so the output will be a DC has minimal wiper resistance (1mΩ) as a - 50 V / 6 A - 30 V / 2. 5 A
value as set by the potential divider formed reference for comparison. In rheostat mode, - USB configuration
by the four resistors. one terminal of the potentiometer is not used - Isolated
– it can either be shorted to the wiper (top
Digipot resistance variation left in Fig.17) or left disconnected (top right). PoScope Mega1+
The results are shown in Fig.16. Here The results in Fig.18 show that the two
we can see that the variation in digipot spare terminal options produce different PoScope Mega50
resistance results in a variation in the behaviours. The top pane plots the resistance
range of output voltages that can be set. of all three rheostats against time as the
This is potentially a major problem – if control input is stepped from 0 to 1 (zero
the circuit was designed to utilise the full to maximum resistance in 256 steps). The
control range available with the nominal reference rheostat (green trace) has the lowest
10kΩ resistance, individual digipots with total resistance, and the others are larger due
smaller resistance would not be able to to the wiper resistance being included in
control the full range of output levels. The the total value. The lower pane shows the
design should be based on the worst case difference between the reference value and
(in this case 8kΩ gives the smallest control the top two circuits. The circuit with the
range – green trace for V(out)@1). Another disconnected spare terminal has a constant
problem here is that different control difference equal to the wiper resistance.
- up to 50MS/ s
inputs give different output levels with The circuit with the shorted spare terminal - resolution up to 12bit
different digipot resistance values. This has a lower difference (is closer to the - Lowest power consumption
could be accounted for using calibration ideal value) but the difference varies with - Smallest and lightest
procedures in software. For example, if wiper position, which would make it more - 7 in 1: Oscilloscope, FFT, X/ Y,
Recorder, Logic Analyzer, Protocol
the individual digipot resistance value difficult to account for the wiper resistance decoder, Signal generator
was known and stored in non-volatile in software calibration.

Max’s Cool Beans
By Max the Magnificent
Arduino Bootcamp – Part 1

your guide (I pride myself on (the ATmega328P is the big 28-pin chip pre-
Fig.1. Arduino Uno my humility). sented in a dual in-line (DIL) package that’s
R3 microcontroller located in the middle-ish of the board).
development Meet the micro You can find these little rascals all over
board. You’ve probably heard the terms the place (like Amazon, for example:
microprocessor and microcon- https://amzn.to/3TFkltu). When you are
troller. These are often abbrevi- making your purchase, check that your
ated to MPU (for microprocessor Arduino Uno comes with an associated
unit) and MCU (for microcon- USB cable, otherwise make sure that you
troller unit), respectively. So, have a USB-A to USB-B cable lying around
what’s the difference? (the A end plugs into your host computer
Well, a high-level way of while the B end plugs into the Arduino).
looking at this is as follows.
The brain of a digital computer What a shock
is its central processing unit Call me an old fuddy-duddy if you wish,
(CPU), which is where all the but I’ve been the victim of electrostatic
A
s I happily meander (some number crunching and decision making discharge (ESD) more times than I care to
may say ‘blunder’) my way takes place. An MPU is essentially an remember, so I strongly recommend that
through life, I meet a lot of people integrated circuit (IC) – also known as you take appropriate anti-static precautions.
with ages ranging from youthful sprogs a silicon chip – containing only a CPU, Is this mandatory? No. Is it a good idea?
to venerable golden-agers who are in- with everything else (eg, memory and Yes. Suppose you are ambling your way
terested in learning about computers in peripheral functions) being presented around your home after making a refresh-
the form of microcontrollers. externally as separate devices. By coming cup of tea, and you build up an electro-
These people come from all walks of life. parison, in addition to its CPU, an MCU static charge on your way. (For modelling
A few years ago, for example, I was intro- also contains on-chip memory and on- the effect of ESD on sensitive electronic
duced to an ex-army attack helicopter pilot chip peripheral functions. devices, a human being is represented as
whom we’ll call Mike (because that’s his The MCU’s on-chip memory comes in a capacitor of 100pF (picofarads) charged
name). Mike was in the process of build- two main forms: Flash and RAM. The Flash to a voltage of up to 35kV (35,000 volts).
ing a gigantic model railway. He wanted is non-volatile, which means it retains its Suffice it to say, it can be a monumental
to be able to illuminate the streetlights and contents when power is removed from the pain if you zap yourself. It can also make
houselights in his miniature world, but he system. In turn, this means we can store a your eyes water if you end up destroying
didn’t want them to all simply turn on and program in the Flash memory and, when one of the elements – a pin on your nice
off at the same time. Mike’s wish was that power is applied to the system, the MCU new Arduino, for example – of a project on
when he dimmed the lights in the room will wake up and immediately start to ex- which you’ve been working for hours, before
housing the layout, the streets in his model ecute that program. By comparison, the you’ve even had a chance to play with it.
would light up at slightly different times. RAM, which stands for ‘random-access To prevent any such unfortunate oc-
Also, that the lights in the houses would memory’, is volatile, which means it for- currence, may I make so bold as to sug-
start to turn on in a random fashion. This gets its contents when power is removed gest that you invest in an anti-static mat
was, of course, a perfect task for a micro- from the system. When the MCU is run- (https://amzn.to/3g1YH4A) and an anti-stat-
controller, so I gave Mike a crash course ning, the RAM is used by the program to ic wrist strap (https://amzn.to/3WYZ9Bu).
and helped him get things up and running. store temporary values, intermediate re- Both typically come with crocodile clips
There are vast amounts of training results from any calculations, and data read (a.k.a. ‘alligator clips’ in the US), which
sources already available for this sort of from the outside world. you can pull off to reveal banana plugs. My
thing in the form of books, websites and The microcontroller with which we preferred modus operandi is to plug these
YouTube videos, but sometimes it can be will be playing is an ATmega328P. This banana plugs into an anti-static grounding
hard to take that first trepidatious step device was originally created by a com- plug (https://amzn.to/3hDIcML), which is
(don’t worry, I’m right behind you and I’ll pany called Atmel, which was acquired – in turn – plugged into a wall socket or
be happy to give you a push). by another company called Microchip a power strip. To be clear, the connection
It’s also true that there are many ways into Technology in 2016. is just to ground – never to the bitey ter-
this topic, and everyone teaches things dif- A microcontroller development board is minals (live/active or neutral)!
ferently, so if you’ve already tried dipping a printed circuit board (PCB) that contains
your toes in the microcontroller waters, a microcontroller along with other devices Let’s get started
only to find them cold, confusing and un- and connectors. The microcontroller de- An Arduino Uno (Fig.2) requires 5V to per-
inviting, perhaps I can persuade you to try velopment board we will be using for our form its magic. One possibility is to use
once more with your humble narrator as experiments is an Arduino Uno R3 (Fig.1) a 9V supply plugged into the Arduino’s

AREF
GND
13
12
~11
~10
~9
8
7
~6
~5
4
~3
2
TX-1
RX-0
DIGITAL IN/OUT (PWM ~)
USB
Orange LED
Green LED
ATmega328P
RESET
POWER ANALOG IN
IOREF
Power
GND
GND
3.3V
Vin
5V
A0
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
Jack
Fig.2. Arduino Uno pins and two of its LEDs.

power jack, in which case the Uno’s primary on-board reg-
ulator will drop this down to the desired 5V. For the pur-
poses of our initial experiments, however, we are going to
supply power via the Uno’s USB port, with the other end of
the cable being plugged into our host computer (Windows, Fig.3. Our first look at the Arduino IDE.
Mac or Linux). In addition to being used to download pro- Creating our first program
grams into the Arduino, this cable (well, the host computer) also As we see, the IDE has already started to create a program (sketch)
supplies up to 500mA of current at the required 5V. for us. There are many more computer programming languages
This is a good time to note that various external sensors and roaming wild and free in the cybersphere than you might sup-
other components we might one day wish to connect to our Ar- pose. If you visit the ‘List of programming languages’ page on the
duino Uno may require either 5V or 3.3V. Thus, the Uno has a Wikipedia (https://bit.ly/3NZMQ3N), I think you’ll be surprised
secondary on-board voltage regulator that takes the 5V supply (the words ‘astonished’ and ‘alarmed’ may also apply).
and drops it down to 3.3V. Note the header (connector) marked Two of these languages are called C and C++. (We can think of
‘POWER’ on the bottom of Fig.2. This is one way in which we C++ as being a superset of C, although this isn’t strictly true.) Ar-
can access 5V and 3.3V sources to power our external devices. duino programs are written in C/C++. There are many resources
Now, take your USB cable, plug the A end into a port on your available to you to learn these languages, one of which will be
host computer and plug the B end into your Arduino Uno. The this series of Arduino Bootcamp columns.
first thing you should observe is that the green LED on the Uno Every Arduino program includes two functions called setup()
starts to glow continuously to tell you that power is being sup- and loop(). The setup() function is executed only once at the
plied to the board. If you don’t see this LED light up, then check beginning of the program, after which the loop() function is
that your computer is powered on and that your USB cable is executed over and over again.
plugged in all the way at both ends. If the LED still doesn’t light, The body of each function is bounded by open ‘{‘ and close ‘}’
we might need to consider the possibility that you have a broken squiggly brackets – their official name is ‘braces’ (smooth curved
cable or a non-functioning Uno (or a non-functioning green LED). versions – ( ) – are called ‘parentheses’, while square ones – [ ] –
Assuming the green LED does light up and this is a brand new are ‘brackets’). Anything following a pair of // characters is seen
Arduino Uno, then the second thing you should observe is that by the IDE as a comment (for humans) and is ignored (by the
the orange LED starts to slowly flash, turning on for one second program). The first thing I always do is remove the IDE-generat-
and then off for one second and then repeating this cycle over ed comments. The second thing I do is move the squiggly open
and over again. brackets so that they are vertically aligned with their squiggly
The reason for the orange LED flashing is that, by default, every close bracket counterparts (Fig.4).
Arduino Uno is loaded with a sample program called Blink before We should probably note that C/C++ are free-form languages,
it’s delivered to the end user, which is you, where the sole pur- which means the positioning of characters on the page in the
pose of the Blink program is to flash the orange LED. program text is insignificant. However, experience has taught
me that it’s a lot easier to understand and debug programs when
Meet and greet the IDE matching pairs of squiggly brackets are vertically aligned.
In a moment we are going to create our own version of the Blink Now let’s create our program, as shown in Fig.5, and use the
program (Arduino aficionados typically use the term ‘sketch’ as File > Save As command to save it with the name MyBlink. The
an alternative to saying ‘program’). To do this, we need something Arduino IDE includes a predefined suite of easy-to-use func-
called an integrated development environment (IDE), which is a tions. We are employing three of
software application that runs on our host computer. these functions in our program:
The Arduino IDE provides a suite of tools and capabilities, like pinMode(), digitalWrite(),
a source code editor, a compiler, a debugger, and the ability to and delay().
upload our programs into our Arduino. To access the IDE, visit The digital pins on a micro-
the Arduino.cc website and click on the SOFTWARE tab. There controller can act as both inputs
are two versions of the IDE – the original IDE 1 and the more and outputs, which is why we
recent IDE 2 – we will be working with IDE 2, so this is the one call them input/output (I/O)
you should download and install. pins. When a microcontroller
Once you’ve installed the IDE, connect your Arduino Uno is first powered up, before its
to your host computer and launch the IDE (it doesn’t matter in program starts to execute, on
which order you perform these two tasks). Observe the upper the principle of primum non
left-hand corner of the IDE window (Fig.3). nocere, which is Latin for ‘first,
Note the field containing the ‘Select Board’ text. Click the down- do no harm,’ all of its pins are
pointing arrow at the right-hand side of this field and select the set to be inputs by default.
entry reflecting your Arduino Uno and the COM port to which it is The pinMode() function
connected (alternatively, use the Tools > Board menu to select the is used to configure a speci-
Arduino Uno and the Tools > Port menu to select the COM port). fied pin as being an input or Fig.4. Let’s get organised!

To summarise the contents of our Suppose we wish the LED to give
current loop() function: we turn the two 100ms flashes separated by 100ms,
orange LED on and wait for one second, and we want this to happen once every
then we turn the LED off and wait for two seconds, can you modify your pro-
one second. Remember that, in the gram to achieve this? If you are unsure,
Arduino world, the loop() function you can sneak a peek at my solution
is automatically called over and over (file CB-Jan23-02.txt).
again, so this will result in the con-
tinuous flashing of our orange LED. Things to note
There are a couple of things that are worth
Compiling and uploading noting at this point. The first is that C/C++
In computing, the term ‘compiler’ are case-sensitive languages, which means
refers to a computer program that uppercase and lowercase letters are treat-
compiles (translates) computer code ed as being distinct entities. Thus, fred,
written in one programming language Fred and FRED would be seen as being
(the source language) into another three totally different things by the C/C++
language. In our case, the Arduino compiler. Try changing one of our delay()
IDE’s compiler translates our C/C++ function calls to Delay(), click the Verify
source code into the machine code icon, and see what happens (remember to
that will be executed by the Arduino change it back again afterwards).
Uno’s microcontroller. Also, every statement in our program
Let’s start by verifying our code is (which would be our function calls in this
good by clicking the Verify icon (Fig.6). example) must be terminated by a semico-
Fig.5. Our first version of our own Blink program.
We can also use the Sketch > Verify/ lon ‘;’ character. Try removing one of the
Compile command. Hopefully, we will semicolons associated with a statement in
be presented with little popup win- our loop() function, click the Verify icon,
dows saying, ‘Compiling sketch’ and and see what happens (don’t forget to add
‘Done compiling’ accompanied by a the semicolon back in again afterwards).
report saying ‘Sketch uses 924 bytes
(2%) of program storage space’ along Break out a breadboard
Upload icon with some other stuff. Alternatively, if A solderless breadboard (or ‘breadboard’
Verify icon we’ve done something wrong, we will for short) allows us to create circuits with-
be presented with a popup window out the need for soldering. The reason for
Fig.6. The Verify and Upload icons.
saying ‘Compilation error’ accompa- the ‘solderless’ qualifier is that hobbyists
an output. This function accepts two ‘ar- nied by a report detailing any errors. of yesteryear (prior to 1971 when the sol-
guments’ (parameter values in computer If the IDE informs you that you have derless breadboard was invented) often
speak). The first is the number of the pin errors and you can’t work out what the created their circuits by hammering nails
in which we are interested. The second problem is, then bounce over to the Things into pieces of wood and then wrapping
is a keyword (INPUT or OUTPUT), which to note section a little later in this column. their component leads and wires around
specifies the mode. In this program, we are If you still have problems with your own these nails. Much to the chagrin of a youth-
declaring digital pin 13 as being of type version and simply can’t resolve them, ful experimenter’s parents, this piece of
OUTPUT. The reason this statement is in then download my version (file CB-Jan23- wood was oftentimes the same board upon
the setup() function is because we only 01.txt) from the January 2023 page of the which members of the family sliced their
need do it once. PE website: https://bit.ly/pe-downloads loaves of bread.
Just to be sure we’re all tap dancing to Let’s assume there are no errors. In this Breadboards come in several sizes. If you
the same skirl of the bagpipes, digital pin case, we are ready to upload our program happen to have a half-size board, then this
number 13 on the ATmega328P is con- into the Arduino. We do this by clicking will suffice for the purposes of this column.
nected to the pin marked 13 on the DIGI- the Upload icon (Fig.6). We can also use Otherwise, I recommend you purchase a
TAL IN/OUT header on the Arduino Uno the Sketch > Upload command. This time full-size board to accommodate our future
development board (Fig.2). Also, it’s con- we should see a series of popup windows columns. Actually, I just found a really
nected to the orange LED on the board. saying, ‘Compiling sketch,’ ‘Done compil- good deal involving three full-size and
The digitalWrite() function is used ing,’ ‘Uploading,’ and ‘Done Uploading.’ two half-size breadboards for only £11.19
to write a value to a specified digital pin, Also, during the upload portion of the pro- on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3O2L3e8
where this value will be presented to the cess, two more LEDs marked TX (‘trans- Another thing we’re going to need are
outside world. This function accepts two mit’) and RX (‘receive’) located close to multicore jumper wires. These are typi-
arguments. The first is the pin number in the orange LED on the Uno will flash to cally presented in rainbow-coloured rib-
which we are interested. The second is the indicate that the upload is taking place. bons of various lengths from which we peel
value we wish to present to the outside off individual wires as required. 4-inch
world. In this example, we are using the Tweaking and 8-inch lengths tend to be the most
keywords LOW and HIGH, which – for the Unfortunately, since all we’ve done is rep- useful, but it doesn’t hurt to have a few
moment (and with respect to our on-board licate the program that was already run- 12-inch jumpers lying around. These little
orange LED) – we can consider as repre- ning in our Arduino, nothing will appear scamps come in male-male, male-female,
senting the states Off and On, respectively. to have changed. and female-female flavors (Fig.7), but all
Last, but not least, the delay() function Let’s try tweaking the LED’s On and we will need for our experiments are the
pauses the execution of the program. This Off times. For example, set the On time male-male configuration. You can buy a
function accepts only one argument – the to 100ms and the Off time to 900ms, and starter set of 40 wires for £4.49 on Amazon
amount of time the program will pause – then click the Upload icon again. Observe (https://amzn.to/3O4hnxk), but this is a case
specified in milliseconds (ms), where there that the orange LED now displays a 100ms of ‘the more the merrier,’ so it wouldn’t
are 1000ms in a second. (1/10th of a second) flash once a second. hurt to get more if you can afford to do so.

suggest purchasing a variety pack, such as the 1,350-piece set I
Conducting pin
just found for £12.99 on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3O4RvBt
Plastic shell Insulated wire
Male-Male Setting up the breadboard

Male-Female We can power our breadboard in various ways. For the sake of
these discussions, we will power the breadboard from our Ardu-
Female-Female
ino (Fig.8). This is the way in which I usually set up the bread-
boards for all my projects. When I connect the USB cable to the
Fig.7. Multicore jumper wires. Arduino Uno and the green LED on the breadboard lights up:
(a) I know that my power and ground rails are connected and (b)
Additional bits and pieces I already have a bright green LED glowing before I start build-
We are going to need a single LED for our first set of breadboard ing my main project (a glowing LED always makes me happy).
experiments. If you happen to have one laying around, then let’s One of the things I can’t stress too strongly is that it’s a really,
use that. Otherwise, on the basis that LEDs come in handy for so really good idea for you to pick a colour scheme for your wiring
many projects, it really can’t hurt to purchase a box of assorted co- and then stick to it. For example, I use red wires for power (5V),
lours. I just found a box of 300 yellow, red, green, blue and white black wires for ground (0V), and other colours for control and
LEDs for only £7.09 on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3E7VAQE data signals. This may seem like an obvious point, but you’d be
We’re also going to need a current-limiting resistor to go amazed how tempting it can be to use whatever wire comes to
with our LED, otherwise it will quickly become an ex-LED. hand in the heat of the moment. Sticking to a defined scheme
Every LED has two important parameters: its forward-voltage makes it easier to understand and debug your circuits should
drop (VF) and its maximum forward current (IF). Ohm’s law problems arise later.
states that V = I × R (with units in ohms, volts and amps, re- Does anything you see in Fig.8 cause you to think ‘What? Wait!
spectively). Since we wish to calculate R in this case, we rear- Why did he do that?’ If so, it might be a good idea to bounce over
range things to give R = V/I. The way we calculate the value of to my Cool Beans website to peruse and ponder the special bread-
the current-limiting resistor is to subtract VF from the supply board column I wrote just for you – see: https://bit.ly/3NZ70uF
voltage (which is 5V in our case) and divide the result by IF.
I just pulled a green LED out of my treasure chest of parts. The Controlling the LED’s anode
data sheet says that this LED’s VF = 3V and its IF = 20mA (that Suppose we wish to use our Arduino to control the green LED
is, 0.02A), which means that my current-limiting resistor needs on our breadboard. One way to do this is to leave the LED’s
to be (5V – 3V) / 0.02A = 100Ω. This value of resistor will have cathode connected to 0V (GND) and use one of the Uno’s dig-
brown-black-brown colour bands. ital I/O pins to drive the LED’s anode via its current-limiting
Resistors are available in a fixed set of values (visit here: resistor (Fig.9a). We are going to use the Arduino’s digital I/O
https://bit.ly/3O01LLj for more details about resistor values pin 6 for this purpose. Why pin 6? There are two reasons: (1)
and colour bands). If, when you perform your own current- it’s not pin 13 (we want to mix things up a bit) and (2) six is
limiting calculation, the result doesn’t exactly match one of my lucky number.
the available resistor values, use the next higher value, which Let’s start by repositioning the resistor and adding an orange
will result in a slightly lower current (you don’t want to use jumper wire from pin 6 on the Arduino to the breadboard, as il-
the next lower resistor value because this will result in a cur- lustrated in Fig.9a. Next, we are going to modify the first version
rent that’s higher than the LED’s specified maximum). of our own Blink program which we introduced in Fig.5. Actu-
If I were a betting man, I’d say we will almost certainly be ally, we’re going to modify the first tweaked version – the one
using a bunch of 100Ω and/or 150Ω resistors during the course where we set the On time to 100ms and the Off time to 900ms.
of our experiments, along with other assorted values. On the All we really need to do is replace the number 13 with the
basis that, like LEDs, resistors always come in handy, I would number 6, but we have to do this three times and I’m feeling
lazy. This isn’t a huge problem in
this case, but it could become so
if our program were hundreds or
thousands of lines long. One alter-
native approach is to use a #define
preprocessor directive, as illustrated
in Listing 1 (overleaf).
In this case, we are using the
#define directive to equate some-
thing we are calling PIN_LED (the
pin driving our LED) with the
number 6. Following this defini-
tion, every time the preprocessor
sees the PIN_LED string of charac-
AREF
GND
13
12
~11
~10
~9
8
7
~6
~5
4
~3
2
TX-1
RX-0
ters in the body of the program, it

DIGITAL IN/OUT (PWM ~) will replace it with the number 6.
Top view USB Definitions of this type can use
a both uppercase and lowercase char-
Side view a = anode
k k = cathode acters (along with numbers and un-
derscore characters). Like many pro-
a k fessional programmers, however, I
RESET
POWER ANALOG IN
IOREF
Power use only uppercase and underscore

GND
GND
3.3V
Vin
5V
A0
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
Jack
characters for this sort of constant
definition because this makes it
Fig.8. Setting up the breadboard. obvious to me what they are when
I’m reading my code at a later date

Components
Pin 6 5V
Microcontroller: Arduino Uno R3 https://amzn.to/3TFkltu
LEDs (assorted colours) https://amzn.to/3E7VAQE
Resistors (assorted values) https://amzn.to/3O4RvBt
Solderless breadboard https://amzn.to/3O2L3e8
Multicore jumper wires (M2M) https://amzn.to/3O4hnxk
GND Pin 6
Other recommended stuff
Anti-static mat https://amzn.to/3g1YH4A
Anti-static wrist strap https://amzn.to/3WYZ9Bu
Pin 6 Pin 6
From From Anti-static grounding plug https://amzn.to/3hDIcML
GND GND
Arduino Arduino
5V 5V
(a) Driving the LED’s anode (b) Driving the LED’s cathode
pin to the LED’s cathode, a HIGH (5V) turns the LED Off and a
LOW (0V) turns it On.
Fig.9. Different ways of driving the LED.
Assuming we prefer our original short On flashes, one way in
(speaking of which, you can see my version of this program in which we could address this would be to simply swap the two
file CB-Jan23-03.txt). delay values. Another approach would be to leave the delay values
Once you’ve made these changes, click the Verify icon to ensure ‘as-is,’ but to swap the HIGH and LOW arguments. A better option,
that all is as it should be, then click the Upload icon to upload however, would be to create two new definitions for LED_ON and
this new program into the Arduino. If you’ve wired everything LED_OFF (Listing 2 and file CB-Jan23-04.txt).
correctly, the LED on your breadboard should start to display a This means that if we wish to return to driving the LED’s
1/10th second flash once a second. anode at some time in the future, all we will have to do is swap
the LOW and HIGH assignments associated with our LED_ON and
Controlling the LED’s cathode LED_OFF definitions.
An alternative way of controlling the LED is to leave its anode
connected to 5V via its current-limiting resistor, and to use one Phew!
of the Uno’s digital I/O pins to drive its cathode. Once again, we ‘Wanger gadangers,’ as one of my old friends used to say, there’s
will use pin 6 for this purpose. Rewire the breadboard as shown a lot to wrap our brains around here. On the one hand, all we’ve
in Fig.9b (remember to remove the black wire connecting the learned thus far is how to use a microcontroller to flash a single
LED’s cathode to ground). LED. On the other hand, WE’VE LEARNED TO FLASH AN LED!!!
Observe that, this time, using our current program, the LED is (Break out the party hats!)
On for 9/10th of a second and it flashes Off for 1/10th of a second. In reality, we’ve covered a lot of ground and we’ve set our-
The reason for this is that when we use our digitalWrite() selves up for some exciting experiments when next we meet.
function to output logical values of LOW or HIGH, these appear on As a helpful hint, without giving too much away, you may wish
the pin as physical values of 0V and 5V, respectively. to get a head start by ordering one or more common-cathode
When the Arduino’s pin was connected to the LED’s anode as 1-digit 7-segment displays. I just found a pack of 10 for £7.49 on
discussed above, a HIGH (5V) turned the LED On and a LOW (0V) Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3Afm8yu
turned it Off, all of which tends to be the way in which we think As always, I welcome your insightful comments, perspicacious
about things. However, now that we’ve connected the Arduino’s questions and sagacious suggestions.
Online resources
For the purposes of this series,
I’m going to assume that you
are already familiar with fun-
damental concepts like volt-
age, current and resistance. If
not, you might want to start
by perusing and pondering
a short series of articles I
penned on these very topics
– see: https://bit.ly/3EguiJh
Similarly, I’ll assume you
are no stranger to solderless
breadboards. Having said
this, even if you’ve used these
little scamps before, there are
some aspects to them that can
Listing 1. (above) Defining PIN_LED. trap the unwary, so may I sug-
gest you feast your orbs on a
Listing 2. (right) Defining LED_ON and column I wrote just for you
LED_OFF. – see: https://bit.ly/3NZ70uF
Last, but not least, you will
Cool bean Max Maxfield (Hawaiian shirt, on the right) is emperor of all he
find a treasure trove of resourc-
surveys at CliveMaxfield.com – the go-to site for the latest and greatest
es at the Arduino.cc website,
in technological geekdom.
including example programs
Comments or questions? Email Max at: [email protected] and reference documentation.

STEWART OF READING
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USED ELECTRONIC TEST EQUIPMENT
Check website www.stewart-of-reading.co.uk
Fluke/Philips PM3092 Oscilloscope HP 54600B Oscilloscope
(ALL PRICES PLUS CARRIAGE & VAT)
2+2 Channel 200MHz Delay TB, Analogue/Digital Dual Trace 100MHz
Autoset etc – £250 Please check availability before ordering or calling in
Only £75, with accessories £125
LAMBDA GENESYS PSU GEN100-15 100V 15A Boxed As New £400 Marconi 2305 Modulation Meter £250
LAMBDA GENESYS PSU GEN50-30 50V 30A £400 Marconi 2440 Counter 20GHz £295
IFR 2025 Signal Generator 9kHz – 2.51GHz Opt 04/11 £900 Marconi 2945/A/B Communications Test Set Various Options POA
IFR 2948B Communication Service Monitor Opts 03/25 Avionics POA Marconi 2955 Radio Communications Test Set £595
IFR 6843 Microwave Systems Analyser 10MHz – 20GHz POA Marconi 2955A Radio Communications Test Set £725
R&S APN62 Syn Function Generator 1Hz – 260kHz £295 Marconi 2955B Radio Communications Test Set £800
Agilent 8712ET RF Network Analyser 300kHz – 1300MHz POA Marconi 6200 Microwave Test Set £1,500
HP8903A/B Audio Analyser £750 – £950 Marconi 6200A Microwave Test Set 10MHz – 20GHz £1,950
HP8757D Scaler Network Analyser POA Marconi 6200B Microwave Test Set £2,300
HP3325A Synthesised Function Generator £195 Marconi 6960B Power Meter with 6910 sensor £295
HP3561A Dynamic Signal Analyser £650 Tektronix TDS3052B Oscilloscope 500MHz 2.5GS/s £1,250
HP6032A PSU 0-60V 0-50A 1000W £750 Tektronix TDS3032 Oscilloscope 300MHz 2.5GS/s £995
HP6622A PSU 0-20V 4A Twice or 0-50V 2A Twice £350 Tektronix TDS3012 Oscilloscope 2 Channel 100MHz 1.25GS/s £450
HP6624A PSU 4 Outputs £400 Tektronix 2430A Oscilloscope Dual Trace 150MHz 100MS/s £350
HP6632B PSU 0-20V 0-5A £195 Tektronix 2465B Oscilloscope 4 Channel 400MHz £600
HP6644A PSU 0-60V 3.5A £400 Farnell AP60/50 PSU 0-60V 0-50A 1kW Switch Mode £300
HP6654A PSU 0-60V 0-9A £500 Farnell XA35/2T PSU 0-35V 0-2A Twice Digital £75
HP8341A Synthesised Sweep Generator 10MHz – 20GHz £2,000 Farnell AP100-90 Power Supply 100V 90A £900
HP83630A Synthesised Sweeper 10MHz – 26.5 GHz POA Farnell LF1 Sine/Sq Oscillator 10Hz – 1MHz £45
HP83624A Synthesised Sweeper 2 – 20GHz POA Racal 1991 Counter/Timer 160MHz 9 Digit £150
HP8484A Power Sensor 0.01-18GHz 3nW-10µW £75 Racal 2101 Counter 20GHz LED £295
HP8560E Spectrum Analyser Synthesised 30Hz – 2.9GHz £1,750 Racal 9300 True RMS Millivoltmeter 5Hz – 20MHz etc £45
HP8563A Spectrum Analyser Synthesised 9kHz – 22GHz £2,250 Racal 9300B As 9300 £75
HP8566B Spectrum Analsyer 100Hz – 22GHz £1,200 Solartron 7150/PLUS 6½ Digit DMM True RMS IEEE £65/£75
HP8662A RF Generator 10kHz – 1280MHz £750 Solatron 1253 Gain Phase Analyser 1mHz – 20kHz £600
Marconi 2022E Synthesised AM/FM Signal Generator 10kHz – 1.01GHz £325 Solartron SI 1255 HF Frequency Response Analyser POA
Marconi 2024 Synthesised Signal Generator 9kHz – 2.4GHz £800 Tasakago TM035-2 PSU 0-35V 0-2A 2 Meters £30
Marconi 2030 Synthesised Signal Generator 10kHz – 1.35GHz £750 Thurlby PL320QMD PSU 0-30V 0-2A Twice £160 – £200
Marconi 2023A Signal Generator 9kHz – 1.2GHz £700 Thurlby TG210 Function Generator 0.002-2MHz TTL etc Kenwood Badged £65
HP33120A Function Generator 100 microHz – 15MHz £350

HP53131A Universal Counter 3GHz Boxed unused £600
HP53131A Universal Counter 225MHz £350
Audio Precision SYS2712 Audio Analyser – in original box POA
Datron 4708 Autocal Multifunction Standard POA
Druck DPI 515 Pressure Calibrator/Controller £400
Datron 1081 Autocal Standards Multimeter POA
ENI 325LA RF Power Amplifier 250kHz – 150MHz 25W 50dB POA
HP/Agilent HP 34401A Digital Keithley 228 Voltage/Current Source POA Marconi 2955B Radio
Multimeter 6½ Digit £325 – £375 Time 9818 DC Current & Voltage Calibrator POA Communications Test Set – £800
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Circuit Surgery Make it with Micromite Audio Out Circuit Surgery Make it with Micromite Audio Out Circuit Surgery Make it with Micromite Audio Out Flowerpot speakers! PIC n’ Mix Circuit Surgery Make it with Micromite Audio Out Circuit Surgery
Timing and metastability Build an RGB display project Construct a Timing and metastability Fun display project How to make a Transformers Accessing Internet data Superb microphone A low-cost route to Software tools for Understanding Analogue inputs and Constructing the PE Micro-Cap 12
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We can supply back issues of PE/EPE by post.

We stock magazines back to 2006, except for the following:
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2007 Jun, Jul, Aug
2008 Aug, Nov, Dec
2009 Jan, Mar, Apr
2010 May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Oct, Nov
2011 Jan
2014 Jan Our patented range of Plug-of-Nails™ spring-pin cables plug directly
2018 Jan, Nov, Dec into a tiny footprint of pads and locating holes in your PCB, eliminating
2019 Jan, Feb, Apr, May, Jun
the need for a mating header. Save Cost & Space on Every PCB!!
Issues from Jan 1999 are available on CD-ROM / DVD-ROM
Solutions for: PIC . dsPIC . ARM . MSP430 . Atmel . Generic JTAG . Altera
If we do not have a a paper version of a particular Xilinx . BDM . C2000 . SPY-BI-WIRE . SPI / IIC . Altium Mini-HDMI . & More
issue, then a PDF can be supplied – your email address
must be included on your order.
Please make sure all components are still available before
www.PlugOfNails.com
commencing any project from a back-dated issue.
Tag-Connector footprints as small as 0.02 sq. inch (0.13 sq cm)

Practical Electronics PCB SERVICE
PROJECT CODE PRICE PROJECT CODE PRICE
JANUARY 2023 FEBRUARY 2022
Classic LED Metronome – 8-LED............................................23111211 7.95 Arduino-based Power Supply ............................................ 18106201 9.95
Classic LED Metronome – 10-LED..........................................23111212 8.95 Battery Monitor Logger ...................................................... 11106201 10.95
Multi-Channel Speaker Protector – 6 channel ........................01101221 9.95 Electronic Wind Chimes .................................................... 23011201 10.95
Multi-Channel Speaker Protector – 4 channel ........................01101222 7.95 Analogue Vocoder – Driver Amplifier ................................. AO-FEB22 8.95
Remote Control Range Extender – IR-to-UHF .......................15109212 5.95
Remote Control Range Extender – UHF-to-IR .......................15109211 7.95 JANUARY 2022
AO Universal Single Op Amp Board .....................................AO1-JAN23 7.95 Vintage battery Radio Li-ion Power Supply ....................... 11111201 9.95
MiniHeart: A Miniature Heartbeat Simulator ...................... 01109201 8.95
DECEMBER 2022
Hummingbird Amplifier .............................................................01111211 9.95 DECEMBER 2021
SMD Trainer PCB .....................................................................29106211 8.95 AM/FM/SW Digital Receiver .............................................. CSE200902A 13.95
SMD Trainer PCB + parts ........................................................29106211 13.95 Balanced Input and Attenuator for USB CODEC............... 01106202 11.95
NOVEMBER 2022 NOVEMBER 2021

USB Cable tester – main PCB .................................................04108211 12.95 Dual Battery Lifesaver ....................................................... 11111202 £6.95
USB Cable tester – front panel ................................................04108212 5.95
USB Cable tester – optional panel...........................................SC5970 5.95 OCTOBER 2021
Model Railway Carriage Lights – PCB ....................................09109211 6.95 Mini Wi-Fi LCD BackPack ................................................. 24106201 £8.95
AO transfmr PCB – standard VTX-A range ....................... VTX-101-007 6.95
AO transfmr PCB – dual-outline VTX102-3001/101-3002 ...VTX-Dual 6.95 SEPTEMBER 2021
USB SuperCodec PCB ...................................................... 01106201 £14.95
OCTOBER 2022 Audio DDS Oscillator PCB ................................................ 01110201 £5.95
SMD Test Tweezers – PCB and pair of tweezer arms ............04106211-2 11.95 Audio DDS Oscillator rotary encoder................................. 01110201-ENC 6.95
SMD Test Tweezers – programmed PIC12F1572-I/SN ..........0410621A 7.95 Programming Adaptor Board for Audio DDS Oscillator ..... 01110202 £5.95
Tele-com ............................................................................ 12110211 12.95 High-power Ultrasonic Cleaner main PCB ........................ 04105201
£14.95
High-power Ultrasonic Cleaner front-panel PCB ............... 04105202
SEPTEMBER 2022 Night Keeper Lighthouse PCB........................................... 08110201 £5.95
Touchscreen Digital Preamp – main board........................ 01103191 12.95
Touchscreen Digital Preamp – adaptor board pair ............ 01103192 5.95 AUGUST 2021
20A DC Motor Speed Controller ........................................ 11006211 9.95 Ol’ Timer PCB .................................................................... 19104201 £11.95
Ol’ Timer 8x8 RGB LED module using WS2812B ............. 19104201-88 £8.95
AUGUST 2022 Ol’ Timer set of acrylic case pieces and spacer ................ 19104201-ACR £8.75
Multi-purpose Battery Manager – I/O Expander module ... 11104212 5.95 Ol’ Timer DS3231 RTC IC wide SOIC-16................................19104201-RTC £5.95
Multi-purpose Battery Manager – Switch Module .............. 11104211 8.95 Wideband Digital RF Power Meter .................................... 04106201 £9.75
Simple MIDI Music Keyboard (for 8 switches) ................... 23101213 6.95 Switchmode 78xx regulators (PACK of 5!) ....................... 18105201 £7.95
Nano Pong......................................................................... 08105212 7.95 Cool Beans SMAD display ................................................ CB-AUG21 £11.95
JULY 2022 JULY 2021

Silicon Labs AM/FM/SW Radio.......................................... CSE210301C 10.95 ATtiny816 Breakout / Dev Board with Capacitive Touch ... 24110181 £9.75
Level Crossing Controller .................................................. 09108211 6.95 IR Remote Control Assistant (Jaycar version) ................... 15005201 £8.95
IR Remote Control Assistant (Altronics version)................ 15005202 £8.95
JUNE 2022 PIC18F Development Board.............................................. PNM-JUL21 £12.95
Full-wave Motor Speed Controller ..................................... 1010221 8.95 Microphone Preamplifier.................................................... AO-JUL21
PIC Programming Helper for 8-pin PICs only .................... 24106211 7.95 £11.95
PIC Programming Helper for 8, 14 or 20-pin PICs ........... 24106212 10.95
Advanced GPS Computer ................................................. 05102211 9.95 JUNE 2021
Roadies’ Test Signal Generator (surface-mount version) .. 01005201 £8.95
MAY 2022 Roadies’ Test Signal Generator (through-hole version) ..... 01005202 £9.95
Bus board PCB for Analogue Vocoder .............................. AO1-MAY22 10.95 Touchscreen Wide-range RCL Box (Resistor module) ...... 04104201
£18.95
Complete set of 14 PCBs for Analogue Vocoder ............... AO2-MAY22 97.95 Touchscreen Wide-range RCL Box (Ind/Cap module) ...... 04104202
Programmed EEPROM for Digital FX Unit ........................ FX1-MAY22 10.95 KickStart Part 3 – Gyrator-based Audio Filter.................... KS3-2021 £7.95
Programmed PIC for Digital FX Unit using potentiometer....FX2-MAY22 8.95
MAY 2021
APRIL 2022 7-Band Equaliser (Mono)................................................... 01104201 £8.95
64-key MIDI Matrix shield .................................................. 23101211 8.95 7-Band Equaliser (Stereo) ................................................. 01104202 £10.95
64-key MIDI Matrix switch board ....................................... 23101212 11.95 Car Altimeter ...................................................................... 05105201 £7.95
High-current Battery Balancer .......................................... 14102211 10.95
Digital FX Unit – using potentiometer ................................ 01102211 9.95 APRIL 2021
Digital FX Unit – using BCD switch ................................... 01102212 9.95 Reflow Oven – DSP Active Crossover (CPU).................... 01106193
Universal Audio PSU ......................................................... AO1-APR22 11.95 Reflow Oven – DSP Active Crossover (Front panel) ......... 01106195 £19.95
Reflow Oven – DSP Active Crossover (LCD) .................... 01106196
MARCH 2022 Frequency Reference Signal Distributor.................................... CSE200103 £8.95
Mini Isolated Serial Link..................................................... 24102211 £5.95
Busy Loo Indicator ............................................................. 16112201 £5.95
Analogue Vocoder – Band-pass filter board ...................... AO1-MAR22 9.95
Analogue Vocoder – HP/LP filter board ............................. AO2-MAR22 9.95
PCBs for most recent PE/EPE constructional projects are available. From the July 2013 issue onwards, PCBs with eight-digit codes
have silk screen overlays and, where applicable, are double-sided, have plated-through holes, and solder mask. They are similar to
photos in the project articles. Earlier PCBs are likely to be more basic and may not include silk screen overlay, be single-sided, lack
plated-through holes and solder mask.
Always check price and availability in the latest issue or online. A large number of older boards are listed for ordering on our website.
In most cases we do not supply kits or components for our projects. For older projects it is important to check the availability
of all components before purchasing PCBs.
Back issues of articles are available – see Back Issues page for details.

Double-sided | plated-through holes | solder mask

MARCH 2021 APRIL 2020
Nutube Guitar Effects Pedal .............................................. 01102201 £12.95 Flip-dot Display black coil board................................................. 19111181
Programmable Thermal Regulator (Peltier Interface)........ 21109181 Flip-dot Display black pixels ....................................................... 19111182
£18.95 £14.95
Programmable Thermal Regulator (Peltier Driver) ............ 21109182 Flip-dot Display black frame ....................................................... 19111183
Tunable HF Preamp .......................................................... CSE190502 £8.95 Flip-dot Display green driver board ............................................ 19111184
FEBRUARY 2021 MARCH 2020

4G Remote Monitoring ...................................................... 27111191 £9.95 Diode Curve Plotter ........................................................... 04112181 £10.95
Steam Train Whistle / Diesel Horn Sound Generator ............... 09106181 £8.50
Universal Passive Crossover (one off) ...................................... UPC0320 £12.50
JANUARY 2021
Nutube Valve Preamplifier ................................................. 01112191 £12.95
Arduino DCC Controller ..................................................... 09207181 £10.95 FEBRUARY 2020
Motion-Sensing 12V Power Switch ................................... 05102191 £5.95
DECEMBER 2020 USB Keyboard / Mouse Adaptor........................................ 24311181 £8.50
Pseudo-Random Sequence Generator ............................. 16106191 £7.95 DSP Active Crossover (ADC) ............................................ 01106191
Clever Charger .................................................................. 14107191 £11.95 DSP Active Crossover (DAC) ×2 ...................................... 01106192
PE Theremin Amplifier ....................................................... AO-1220-01 £8.95 DSP Active Crossover (CPU) ............................................ 01106193 £29.95
DSP Active Crossover (Power/routing).............................. 01106194
NOVEMBER 2020 DSP Active Crossover (Front panel).................................. 01106195
LED Christmas Tree (1 off) ................................................ 16107181-1 £6.95 DSP Active Crossover (LCD)............................................. 01106196
LED Christmas Tree (4 off) ................................................ 16107181-2 £14.95
LED Christmas Tree (12 off) .............................................. 16107181-3 £24.95 JANUARY 2020
LED Christmas Tree (20 off) .............................................. 16107181-4 £34.95 Isolated Serial Link ............................................................ 24107181 £8.50
USB/SPI Interface Board ................................................... 16107182 £5.95
45V/8A Power Supply PCB plus acrylic spacer ................. 18111181 £14.95 For the many pre-2016 PCBs that we stock please see the
45V/8A Power Supply front panel five-way display bezel .. 18111181-BZ £3.95
Five-way LCD Panel Meter/Display ................................... 18111182 £7.95
PE website: www.electronpublishing.com
OCTOBER 2020
Digital Audio Millivoltmeter................................................. 04108191 £9.95
PE/EPE PCB SERVICE
Precision Signal Amplifier .................................................. 04107191 £7.95 Order Code Project Quantity Price
SEPTEMBER 2020 .........................................................
PE Theremin PSU ............................................................. AO-0920-01 £5.95
PE Theremin PSU transformer .......................................... AO-0920-02 £7.95 .........................................................
Micromite Explore-28......................................................... 07108191 £6.95
Ultrabrite LED Driver ......................................................... 16109191 £6.95 .........................................................
AUGUST 2020 .........................................................

Micromite LCD BackPack V3 ............................................ 07106191 £9.95
Steering Wheel Audio Button to Infrared Adaptor .............. 05105191 £7.95 .........................................................
JULY 2020
AM/FM/CW Scanning HF/VHF RF Signal Generator ........ 04106191 £13.95 Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Speech Synthesiser with the Raspberry Pi Zero ............... 01106191 £5.95
Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PE Mini-organ PCB ........................................................... AO-0720-01 £14.95
PE Mini-organ selected parts ............................................ AO-0720-02 £8.95 .........................................................
High-current Solid-state 12V Battery Isolator – control ..... 05106191 £6.95
High-current Solid-state 12V Battery Isolator FET (2oz) ... 05106192 £9.95 Tel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
JUNE 2020 Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Arduino breakout board – 3.5-inch LCD Display ............... 24111181 £6.95 I enclose payment of £ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (cheque/PO in £ sterling only)
Six-input Audio Selector main board ................................. 01110191
£10.95
Six-input Audio Selector switch panel board ..................... 01110192 payable to: Practical Electronics
MAY 2020 Card No . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ultra-low-distortion Preamplifier Input Selector ......................... 01111112
£11.25
Ultra-low-distortion Preamplifier pushbutton Input Selector ..... 01111113 Valid From . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Expiry Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Universal Regulator .................................................................... 18103111 £7.95
433MHz Wireless Data Repeater .............................................. 15004191 £8.50 Card Security No . . . . . . . . . .
Bridge-mode Adaptor for Amplifier ............................................. 01105191 £7.95
iCEstick VGA Terminal ................................................................ 02103191 £5.95 You can also order PCBs by phone, email or via the shop
Analogue noise with tilt control ................................................... AO-0520-01 £7.95 on our website: www.electronpublishing.com
Audio Spectrum Analyser ........................................................... PM-0520-01 £8.95
No need to cut your issue – a copy of this form is just as good!
All prices include VAT and UK p&p. Add £4 per project for post to Europe; £5 per project outside Europe.
Orders and payment should be sent to:
Practical Electronics, Electron Publishing Ltd
113 Lynwood Drive, Merley, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 1UU
Tel 01202 880299 Email: [email protected]
On-line Shop: www.epemag.com
Cheques should be made payable to ‘Practical Electronics’ (Payment in £ sterling only).
NOTE: Most boards are in stock and sent within seven days of receipt of order, please allow up to 28 days delivery if we need to restock.

Practical Electronics PCB SERVICE
18108173
DECEMBER 2019 18108174
Extremely Sensitive Magnetometer ................................... 04101011 £16.75 JULY 2018
Four-channel High-current DC Fan and Pump Controller ... 05108181 £8.75 Touchscreen Appliance Energy Meter – Part 1 ................. 04116061 £14.95
Useless Box ....................................................................... 08111181 £11.50 Automotive Sensor Modifier .............................................. 05111161 £12.95
NOVEMBER 2019 JUNE 2018

Tinnitus & Insomnia Killer (Jaycar case – see text) ........... 01110181 £9.95 High Performance 10-Octave Stereo Graphic Equaliser ... 01105171 £14.95
Tinnitus & Insomnia Killer (Altronics case – see text) ........ 01110182 £9.95
MAY 2018
High Performance RF Prescaler........................................ 04112162 £10.45
Micromite BackPack V2..................................................... 07104171 £8.45
Microbridge ........................................................................ 24104171 £5.95
OCTOBER 2019 APRIL 2018

Programmable GPS-synced Frequency Reference .......... 04107181 £11.50 Spring Reverberation Unit ................................................. 01104171 £13.95
Digital Command Control Programmer for Decoders ........ 09107181 £9.95 DDS Sig Gen Lid ............................................................... Black £5.95
Opto-isolated Mains Relay (main board) ........................... 10107181 DDS Sig Gen Lid ............................................................... Blue £5.95
£11.50
Opto-isolated Mains Relay (2 × terminal extension board)...10107182 DDS Sig Gen Lid ............................................................... Clear £5.95
AUGUST 2019 MARCH 2018

Brainwave Monitor ............................................................. 25108181 £12.90 Stationmaster Main Board ................................................. 09103171 £17.75
Super Digital Sound Effects Module .................................. 01107181 £6.95 + Controller Board .............................................. 09103172
Watchdog Alarm ................................................................ 03107181 £8.00 SC200 Amplifier Module – Power Supply .......................... 01109111 £16.45
PE Theremin (three boards: pitch, volume, VCA) ............. PETX0819 £19.50
PE Theremin component pack (see p.56, August 2019) ... PETY0819 £15.00
JULY 2019 FEBRUARY 2018
Full-wave 10A Universal Motor Speed Controller .............. 10102181 £12.90 GPS-Synchronised Analogue Clock Driver ....................... 04202171 £11.95
Recurring Event Reminder ................................................ 19107181 £8.00 High-Power DC Motor Speed Controller – Part 2
Temperature Switch Mk2 ................................................... 05105181 £10.45 + Control Board ................................................... 11112161 £11.95
+ Power Board .................................................... 11112162 £15.30
JUNE 2019
Arduino-based LC Meter ................................................... 04106181 £8.00 JANUARY 2018
USB Flexitimer................................................................... 19106181 £10.45 High-Power DC Motor Speed Controller – Part 1 .............. 11112161 £15.30
Build the SC200 Amplifier Module ..................................... 01108161 £13.95
MAY 2019
2× 12V Battery Balancer ................................................... 14106181 £5.95 DECEMBER 2017
Deluxe Frequency Switch .................................................. 05104181 £10.45 Precision Voltage and Current Reference – Part 2............ 04110161 £14.95
USB Port Protector ............................................................ 07105181 £5.95
NOVEMBER 2017
APRIL 2019 50A Battery Charger Controller ......................................... 11111161 £12.95
Heater Controller ............................................................... 10104181 £14.00 Micropower LED Flasher (45 × 47mm) ......................... 16109161 £7.95
(36 × 13mm) ......................... 16109162 £5.95
Phono Input Converter ...................................................... 01111161 £7.9
MARCH 2019
10-LED Bargraph Main Board ........................................... 04101181 £11.25 SEPTEMBER 2017
+Processing Board ............................................. 04101182 £8.60 Compact 8-Digit Frequency Meter..................................... 04105161 £12.95
FEBRUARY 2019 AUGUST 2017

1.5kW Induction Motor Speed Controller........................... 10105122 £24.95 Micromite-Based Touch-screen Boat Computer GPS ....... 07102122 £10.45
Fridge/Freezer Alarm ......................................................... 03104161 £7.95
NOVEMBER 2018
Super-7 AM Radio Receiver .............................................. 06111171 £15.95 JULY 2017
Micromite-Based Super Clock ........................................... 07102122 £10.45
Brownout Protector for Induction Motors ........................... 10107161 £12.90
OCTOBER 2018
6GHz+ Touchscreen Frequency Counter .......................... 04110171 £12.95 JUNE 2017
Two 230VAC MainsTimers ................................................ 10108161 Ultrasonic Garage Parking Assistant ................................. 07102122 £10.45
£11.95
10108162 Hotel Safe Alarm................................................................ 03106161 £7.95
SEPTEMBER 2018 100dB Stereo LED Audio Level/VU Meter ......................... 01104161 £17.75
3-Way Active Crossover .................................................... 01108171 £17.95
Ultra-low-voltage Mini LED Flasher ................................... 16110161 £5.95 MAY 2017
The Micromite LCD BackPack........................................... 07102122 £7.95
AUGUST 2018 Precision 230V/115V 50/60Hz Turntable Driver ................ 04104161 £13.95
Universal Temperature Alarm ............................................ 03105161 £7.95
Power Supply For Battery-Operated Valve Radios ........... 18108171 APRIL 2017
18108172 £24.95 Microwave Leakage Detector ............................................ 04103161 £7.95

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING
Practical
Electronics
If you want your advertisements to be seen by the largest readership
at the most economical price then our classified page offers excellent Practical Electronics
value. The rate for semi-display space is £10 (+VAT) per centimetre reaches more UK
high, with a minimum height of 2·5cm. All semi-display adverts have a readers than any other
width of 5.5cm. The prepaid rate for classified adverts is 40p (+VAT) per UK monthly hobby
word (minimum 12 words).
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Cheques are made payable to ‘Practical Electronics’. VAT must be
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Electronics, 113 Lynwood Drive, Wimborne, Dorset, BH21 1UU. We have been the leading
Tel 07973518682 Email: [email protected] monthly magazine in
For rates and further information on display and classified advertising this market for the last
please contact our Advertisement Manager, Matt Pulzer – see below. twenty-seven years.
Unit 10, Boythorpe Business Park, Dock Walk, Chesterfield,
Send large letter stamp for Catalogue
BOWOOD ELECTRONICS LTD Electrical Industries Charity (EIC)

Suppliers of Electronic Components We help people working in the
electrical, electronics and energy COAST ELECTRONICS
www.bowood-electronics.co.uk community as well as their family BREAKOUTS-COMPONENTS-
Unit 10, Boythorpe Business Park, Dock Walk, Chesterfield, members and retirees. CONTRACT DESIGN-3D PRINTER PARTS-
Derbyshire S40 2QR. Sales: 01246 200 222 We use workplace programmes that MUSICAL-MICROCONTROLLERS
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grants and a comprehensive
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VALVES AND ALLIED COMPONENTS? www.electricalcharity.org EPO UKIPO USPTO

Circuits Electric Machinery Mechatronics
For free stock list and/or advice, please
Web: www.akennypatentm.com
contact me: [email protected] Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 01788 574774 Tel: 0789 606 9725
PIC DEVELOPMENT KITS, DTMF kits

and modules, CTCSS Encoder and
Decoder/Display kits.
Visit www.cstech.co.uk
ADVERTISING INDEX
AO SHOP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Advertisement offices
CRICKLEWOOD ELECTRONICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Matt Pulzer
ESR ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
HAMMOND ELECTRONICS Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Electron Publishing Ltd
iTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover (iv)
1 Buckingham Road
JPG ELECTRONICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Brighton
MICROCHIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover (ii) East Sussex BN1 3RA
PEAK ELECTRONIC DESIGN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Tel 07973 518682
POLABS D.O.O.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Email [email protected]
QUASAR ELECTRONICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
SILICON CHIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Web www.electronpublishing.com
STEWART OF READING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
TAG-CONNECT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 For editorial contact details see page 7.
TERRINGTON COMPONENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Next Month – in the February issue
Driveway Gate Remote Control
Sliding/swinging gate controllers inevitably fail after some years
of service. The solution is to replace the controller with this much
more robust design, and since you’ve built it yourself, it’s easy to
fix if it does go wrong.
Cooling Fan Controller & Loudspeaker Protector
This board controls up to three cooling fans, switching them on at a preset
temperature and ramping their speed up as it increases, preventing
overheating while minimising noise. It can also protect loudspeakers from
damage while also preventing power switch-on and switch-off thumps.
Geekcreit’s LTDZ V5.0 Spectrum Analyser
This compact unit can perform spectral analysis from 35MHz to
4.4GHz. It includes a tracking generator for frequency-domain
analysis of filters, RF amplifiers and similar items. It needs to be
controlled from a PC via a USB cable (which also provides its 5V
DC power supply), using a very impressive free application.
Solid-State Flame Discharge Tesla Coil
This relatively small and simple device generates extremely high
voltages, enough to form a ‘flame discharge’ resembling a candle
flame. It can also demonstrate wireless power transmission by
lighting up neon globes and fluorescent lamps at some distance.
PLUS!
All your favourite regular columns from Audio Out, Cool Beans and Circuit
Surgery, to Make it with Micromite, Techno Talk and Net Work. On sale 5 January 2023
Content may be subject to change
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Published on approximately the first Thursday of each month by Electron Publishing Limited, 1 Buckingham Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 3RA. Printed in England by Acorn Web Offset Ltd., Normanton WF6
1TW. Distributed by Seymour, 86 Newman St., London W1T 3EX. Subscriptions UK: £29.99 (6 months); £54.99 (12 months); £104.99 (2 years). EUROPE: airmail service, £33.99 (6 months); £63.99 (12 months);
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Did you know our online shop
now sells the current issue of
PE for £5.49 inc. p&p?
Practical
Electronics Prac
Electro tical
The UK
Circuit Surgery
Simulating digipots
in LTspice
Audio Out
Further circuits for the Cir
nics
c
Universal op amp boardUn uitfor
and u
Make’s itpwith
remie
Sua PicoMite
dersta rgery
n d in
Micromite
Multiple displays
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udio O
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sing d g U n u t maker
WIN! igipots
Remote Control iversal
(optim op amp b
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PIC32CX-BZ2 Range Extender r audio
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icoMite
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Curios M
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Board ent
Classic LED
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SM D T
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Multi-Channel print r
ea d e r
Speaker Protector U SB
PLUS! Ca b l e
P
LUS! Jan 2023 £5.49
Techno Talk – Raudive voices revisited
Techn
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01
Cool Beans – Introducing the Arduino oBootcamp
Talk –
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eans skills b 9 772632 573023
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Net W – LogiS oost for ba
witch d tte
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ork – E eboun ries
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@practicalelec
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nd mo kou
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You read that right! We now sell the current issue of your favourite electronics
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journey into town to queue outside the newsagent. Just go to our website, set
up an account in 30 seconds, order your magazine and we’ll do the rest.
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innovative Technology Projects
WiFi OSCILLOSCOPE
Using a computer based oscilloscope was
never easier than with the WiFiScope WS6
DIFF: simply switch it on and start the
software on the computer:
no power cables required as it is battery
powered and can operate hours on a
fully charged battery
no interface cables required as it uses
WiFiScope WS6 DIFF WiFi to connect to the computer
The 1 GSa/s 14 bit quad differential channel
High Resolution WiFi Oscilloscope. Base model: Options:
WiFiScope WS6 DIFF-1000 Extended memory (XM)
Prices start from WiFiScope WS6 DIFF-500
WiFiScope WS6 DIFF-200
EMI (E)
SureConnect (S)
Five year warranty (W5)
£1,581*
Key specifications
Differential inputs
8, 12, 14, 16 bit resolution, 0.25 % DC
vertical accuracy, 0.1 % typical
Up to 1 GSa/s sampling, up to 250 MHz
bandwidth
Up to 256 MSamples memory per
channel
Up to 200 MSs/s continuous streaming
WiFiScope WS6 DIFF Carry Case and Accessories 1 ppm time base accuracy
For a selection of WiFi Oscilloscopes, see www.itp101.com for more

details and products
*Prices vary depending on model and specification, contact [email protected] for a quotation
27 Stephenson Road, St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, PE27 3WJ, UK

www.itp101.com [email protected] +44 (0)1480 700158

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Practical

Robust Wireless Performance

The Microchip name and logo and the Microchip logo

Practical January 2023

Series, Features and Columns

Regulars and Services

Made in the UK.

Practical Electronics | January | 2023 1

ORDER YOURS TODAY!

Solutions for Home, Education & Industry Since 1993

Brightdot Clock Kit - BLACK Edition Digitally Controlled FM Radio Kit

Universal op amp board

20A DC Motor Speed Controller Build a

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4 Practical Electronics | January | 2023

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FIVE-YEAR collections – 60 issues!

PE2832: Jan 99 to Dec 03 – £14.95 PE3741: Jan 08 to Dec 12 – £19.95

PE2832: Jan 99 to Dec 03

240 magazines for just PE3842: Jan 09 to Dec 13

Do you have the 15-year bundle?

Download your collections at: www.electronpublishing.com

Practical Electronics | January | 2023 7

8 Practical Electronics | January | 2023

Win a Microchip PIC32CX-BZ2 and

How to enter September 2022 winner

Practical Electronics | January | 2023 9

10 Practical Electronics | January | 2023

Practical Electronics | January | 2023 11

Alexa, good night

12 Practical Electronics | January | 2023

1557 IP68 sealed enclosures

14 Practical Electronics | January | 2023

The 8-LED version

Practical Electronics | January | 2023 15

8-LED ‘Classic’ Metronome

16 Practical Electronics | January | 2023

Gate IC1d of the 74HC132 Schmitt-

Practical Electronics | January | 2023 17

10-LED Deluxe Metronome

18 Practical Electronics | January | 2023

A current mirror circuit is used to match two or possibly

Practical Electronics | January | 2023 19

20 Practical Electronics | January | 2023

Set-reset flip-flops (SR-FF)

Practical Electronics | January | 2023 21

For the LED Metronome, some of

Fig.8: print this dial artwork for the

22 Practical Electronics | January | 2023

Table 1 – Pulse frequency (Hz)

Practical Electronics | January | 2023 23

24 Practical Electronics | January | 2023

Practical Electronics | January | 2023 25

This self-contained module is based on the Analog Devices ADF4351

Practical Electronics | January | 2023 27

Geekcreit 35MHz – 4.4GHz Signal A brief rundown