Nuts & Volts

38
68 50
8
PROJECTS
and FEATURES
38 OCTAL LOGIC PROBE
Plug this device directly into a
prototyping socket to view eight
adjacent pins at the same time.
■ By Jim Brannan
ON THE COVER ...
The new Propeller by Parallax
is more than a microcontroller
— it’s a multi-controller.
Check out this month’s Stamp
column for all the details.
APRIL 2006
44 BUILD THE POCKET
MARQUEE BADGE
Put your name in lights with this
eye-catching pin.
■ By Doug Malone
50 THE CREATION OF
THE THEREPING
No musical skills are required to
play this digital instrument.
■ By Vern Graner
60 VIDEO DIGITIZER CHOICES
“Edited version” to cut through
marketing trivia to find out the
best choices for your video
editing needs.
■ By Brian Mork
68 CONSTANT CURRENT
SOURCES — PART 1
This very applications-oriented
tutorial first defines a constant
current source, then shows what
it can do for you.
■ By Vaughn D. Martin
COLUMNS
08 TECKNOWLEDGEY 2006
Events, advances, and news
from the electronics world.
12 OPEN COMMUNICATION
Short-range networking.
16 STAMP APPLICATIONS
A new spin on embedded control.
24 Q&A
Digital wind vane, USB power
booster, vacuum tube power
amps, and more.
74 GETTING STARTED WITH PICs
Going beyond 31 commands.
80 PERSONAL ROBOTICS
Zen and the art of Zigbee.
86 THE DESIGN CYCLE
Arm yourself with Philips
microcontrollers.
DEPARTMENTS
06 READER FEEDBACK
34 NEW PRODUCTS
36 SHOWCASE
67 ELECTRO-NET
96 CLASSIFIEDS
99 NEWS BYTES
100 NV BOOKSTORE
102 TECH FORUM
105 ADVERTISERS INDEX
Nuts & Volts (ISSN 1528-9885/CDN Pub Agree#40702530) is published monthly for $24.95 per year
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4 April 2006