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SILICON SILIC CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher/Editor Nicholas Vinen Technical Editor John Clarke – B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Jim Rowe – B.A., B.Sc. Bao Smith – B.Sc. Tim Blythman – B.E., B.Sc. Advertising Enquiries (02) 9939 3295 adverts<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Allan Linton-Smith Dave Thompson David Maddison – B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Geoff Graham Associate Professor Graham Parslow Dr Hugo Holden – B.H.B, MB.ChB., FRANZCO Ian Batty – M.Ed. Phil Prosser – B.Sc., B.E.(Elec.) Cartoonist Louis Decrevel loueee.com Founding Editor (retired) Leo Simpson – B.Bus., FAICD Silicon Chip is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 626 922 870. ABN 20 880 526 923. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Subscription rates (Australia only) 6 issues (6 months): $70 12 issues (1 year): $127.50 24 issues (2 years): $240 Online subscription (Worldwide) 6 issues (6 months): $52.50 12 issues (1 year): $100 24 issues (2 years): $190 For overseas rates, see our website or email silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au * recommended & maximum price only Editorial office: Unit 1 (up ramp), 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 194, Matraville, NSW 2036. Phone: (02) 9939 3295. ISSN: 1030-2662 Printing and Distribution: Editorial Viewpoint Our new Mini Projects Starting with this issue, we have a new section for the magazine: Mini Projects, sponsored by Jaycar Electronics. You can think of this as somewhere between Circuit Notebook and our regular projects. The idea is that they will be simple, coming in at 2-3 pages each, with two or three in each issue. They are designs that relative beginners should be able to understand and build, using parts that can be easily obtained at your local Jaycar store and assembled in a few hours at most. Unlike in the Circuit Notebook column, which consists mainly of contributed circuits, we have built and tested these designs. The articles include a full list of parts, some photos, typically a circuit or wiring diagram, plus links to software and source code when required. They won’t need a custom PCB, instead using a breadboard or protoboard if more than a handful of components are involved. Due to the shorter article length, we’ll likely leave some of the finer details to the reader/constructor. Given that the circuits will generally be pretty straightforward, that should not pose any obstacles to building them. We have wanted to present simpler projects for a while now, but there were a few roadblocks. For a start, many of the simple things you can build with a handful of parts have already been presented in the past, either in earlier issues of Silicon Chip or in other magazines like Electronics Australia. We didn’t want to publish too many articles similar to existing ones as it seems lazy. Also, many ideas that start simple (or seem simple initially) increase in complexity by the time they are finished. So even when we have planned to have more basic constructional articles in the past, it hasn’t always panned out that way. This new column should satisfy the demand for more straightforward and educational projects. One of the great things about these new articles is that they all use off-the-shelf parts. You can go from reading the article to buying the parts, assembling and testing one of the designs in a few hours! The Mini Projects will not displace our usual projects, feature articles, and other columns, at least most of the time. We still plan to run four projects in most issues, along with two or three Mini Projects, for a total of 6-7 projects. We see this as a significant benefit to our readers, who will get more content thanks to Jaycar’s support! I can’t rule out the possibility that we will occasionally have to hold over one other article (eg, a smaller project) to be able to fit the extra Mini Projects. I don’t expect that to happen too often, but it may occasionally occur, depending on factors like article lengths. Regardless, we will still have more content than before on average. You will not be surprised to discover that these articles will mainly use parts sold by Jaycar. That doesn’t mean you are locked into shopping there; those products will be available elsewhere, and many readers may already have most of them in their collections. (Obviously, Jaycar would like you to be their customer, but we can’t twist your arm...) Still, Jaycar has indicated that they may start offering discounted packages of the parts required for specific Mini Projects. If that happens (I can’t promise it will), we’ll have the details in those articles. To make it easier to find software and other items relating to the Mini Projects, we are allocating them numbers. However, note that they might not be published in the same order they were produced. For example, in this issue we have three Jaycar/Silicon Chip Mini Projects: JMP001, JMP003 & JMP004. There is a JMP002 but it will appear in a future issue. by Nicholas Vinen 24-26 Lilian Fowler Pl, Marrickville 2204 2 Silicon Chip Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au