September 1999 Issue Articles and Columns   Select Year and Month to View Other Issues

ARTICLES

SERVOS, STEPPERS, AND OPTICAL ENCODERS PART 2 - TJ Byers
Which one works best in your robotic or R/C project? This month: bipolar stepper motors.

HAMS HAPPY IN HOLDING PATTERN - Gordon West
Ham radio operators are getting the royal treatment from equipment manufacturers and dealers in preparation for the long-awaited amateur radio service restructuring rules.

OUTFITTING YOUR “MAD” SCIENTIST’S LAIR - Walt Noon (PDF File 325kb)
This Halloween is your time to cackle, throw back the curtains, and reveal wild arcs of electricity surging through your house with your very own Tesla coil!

POWERPOINTING YOUR PROJECTS — PART 1 - Steve Daniels
Learn how to use Microsoft’s PowerPoint for creating a personalized “palette” of schematic symbols and a “toolkit” for creating PC board drawings.

ION PROPULSION IS A REALITY! - David Williams (PDF File 287kb)
Build your own ion propulsion motor that works on the same basic principles as NASA’s Deep Space 1 craft.

PUT THE OPERATION BACK IN OP-AMPS - Richard Panosh
Almost every project today uses an op-amp to amplify analog signals. However, operational amplifiers were originally designed to perform mathematical operations in analog computers. Check out these sample circuits that can do much more than just amplify.

BUILD A PHOTO-ELECTRIC COUNTER - Fred Blechman
You can “count” on this construction project to give you the numbers that you need for a myriad of applications.

COLUMNS

AMATEUR ROBOTICS NOTEBOOK - Robert Nansel
Why use a multimaster I2C network? Read on ...

OPEN CHANNEL - Joe Carr
Dealing with instrument problems.

STAMP APPLICATIONS - Lon Glazner
Protecting your Stamp from the cold, cruel world through de-coupling capacitors.