Practical
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Editor
Matt Pulzer
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Louisa Pulzer
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Alan Winstanley
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Technical enquiries
We regret technical enquiries cannot be answered over the
telephone. We are unable to offer any advice on the use, purchase,
repair or modification o commercial equipment or the incorporation
or modification o desi ns published in the ma a ine e cannot
provide data or answer queries on articles or projects that are
more than five years old
Questions about articles or projects should be sent to the editor
by email: pe<at>electronpublishing.com
Projects and circuits
All reasonable precautions are taken to ensure that the advice and
data given to readers is reliable. We cannot, however, guarantee
it and we cannot accept legal responsibility for it.
A number of projects and circuits published in Practical Electronics
employ voltages that can be lethal. You should not build, test,
modify or renovate any item of mains-powered equipment unless
you fully understand the safety aspects involved and you use an
RCD (GFCI) adaptor.
Component supplies
We do not supply electronic components or kits for building the
projects featured, these can be supplied by advertisers. We
advise readers to check that all parts are still available before
commencing any project in a back-dated issue.
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Although the proprietors and staff of Practical Electronics take
reasonable precautions to protect the interests of readers by
ensurin as ar as practicable that advertisements are bona fide
the magazine and its publishers cannot give any undertakings
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these advertisements are printed as part of the magazine, or in
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for late delivery, or for faults in manufacture.
Volume 50. No. 10
October 2021
ISSN 2632 573X
Editorial
More Cricket
We introduced the clever little IoT Cricket back in the June issue,
and we know you liked it from the large number of devices
purchased with the PE discount code. Well, the good news is
there is more Cricket this month as we learn how to integrate it
with Raspberry Pi via the ‘codefree’ programming environment
Node-RED. This is the next stage in a series that will explain how
to build small-scale, low-power, Wi-Fi-based home automation
systems that can collect, process and act on sensor-acquired data.
Cricket is definitely ‘one to watch’ – it’s inexpensive, easy to use
and can happily run for months on just one or two AAA batteries.
(Plus, if you decide to buy a Cricket then do make sure you take
advantage of the new special offer from OKdo.com at the end of
the article!)
Maximite 2 (Gen 2)
Another welcome return is the latest version of the Maximite,
an inexpensive, compact, single-board retro (1980s-style) home
computer programmed in MMBasic. Many of you built the first
version a couple of years ago, and now it’s back with a much
more powerful processor, more memory and a whole host of
other improved features. If you liked the first one, you’ll love this
upgraded model!
Further projects
But wait, there’s more! On top of Maximite and Cricket we’re
adding Wi-Fi connectivity to LCD Touchscreen Micromite
BackPacks; detailing the construction of our High-power
Ultrasonic Cleaner; and we have the second part of our state-ofthe-art USB SuperCodec. Time to get the soldering iron out!
Radioactive Diamond Batteries
Finally, the above is my favourite headline of the month. In fact,
it came from a 2020 article, but I only recently stumbled across
it in The Wire magazine (https://bit.ly/pe-oct21-dia) looking for
something completely unrelated – that’s the fun of clicking on
hyperlinks! These devices sound like something out of Star
Trek or the Marvell Universe – however, not only do ‘radioactive
diamond batteries’ really exist, but they also offer some genuinely
unique and useful properties. Just for starters they are very
long lived and could eat up radioactive waste produced in
nuclear power stations. It’s a fascinating piece of research, and
in case you hit a paywall at The Wire, you can read about these
revolutionary mini power plants for free at the Bristol University
website: https://bit.ly/pe-oct21-c14
Keep well everyone
Matt Pulzer
Publisher
Transmitters/bugs/telephone equipment
We advise readers that certain items of radio transmitting and
telephone equipment which may be advertised in our pages
cannot be legally used in the UK. Readers should check the law
be ore buyin any transmittin or telephone equipment as a fine
confiscation o equipment and or imprisonment can result rom
illegal use or ownership. The laws vary from country to country;
readers should check local laws.
Practical Electronics | October | 2021
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