e

018

ROIVLIHE PUBLISHERS OF B0140

NlerTODA TERNATIO
, Kt:PP R1 R38 R41
1k5 1k5

016
BC 548
e
74LS113
TO PINS 3, 4 IC6 e
3 ICG 017
P, A5Bc

MOT

IC12
6 ICG
,IC
C3
10,• RR
411.

.1)
F3Cb58
FO EPROM
OUTPUTS
IC19 OUT
7905 BD675
C15 .
lop R20- R26

CuMNION
IC17
-16V - 51
INPUT 712 RI,1PUT

-24V
Contents:
ALARMS Temperature to frequency converter 34 Rising edge trigger 95
Variable temperature controller 34 Solid state switch 98
Alarm power supply 7
Three-way CMOS switch 95
Burglar alarm cum water level detector 6 GAMES Touch switch 95
Code lock . 5
Channel splitter for radio controller 41 Two-wire relay control 97
Gentle clock alarm 4
Controller for model trains 38 'Whistle- up' switch 98
Guess what — combination lock 5
Dual digital dice 42
Sequential combination lock 4
Electronic casino 41 POWER
Shop doorbell 7 Electronic hangman 44 Automatic nicad charger 66
Silent sentry 6 Electronic roulette 43 Battery charger controller 67
Simple burglar alarm 6 Electronic travelling dice 43 Battery state indicator 66
Warbling alarm 7 Heads or tails 40 Constant current source 66
LED chaser 45 Fail-safe for IC voltage regulators 69
AUDIO Increasing regulator outputs 66
Pot shot 37
Audio equalizer 16 Mille- power inverter 70
Power supply suits battery-operated toys 37
Automatic cut-off for amanual turntable 9 Nicad charger 70
Proper identification for TV game chip 38
Cassette tape preamp 16 Regulator problems 67
Siren circuit 39
Cheap microphone 13 Relay PSU protector 68
Slot car brake lights 37
Class A amplifier 8 Short circuit protection for ETI-132 69
Supply protector 39
Getting off the ground — cheaply 14 Simple dual power supply 70
Traffic light controller 39
High quality headphone amplifier 12 Stabiliser for battery supplies 68
Train chuffer 42
High quality tone control 17 Voltage level indicator 68
Train controller with inertia and brake 40
Inexpensive intercom 10 Zener-less battery eliminator 69
Two- chip electronic device 45
Jury-rig intercom 8
LED audio power indicators 19 GENERAL RADIO FREQUENCY
LED indicators — many uses 19 CMOS radio 71
Ballpoint spacers 50
Moving coil cartridge preamp 10 Direct-conversion receiver 72
Common semiconductor pin-outs 51
Novel loudspeaker coupling circuit 12 Frequency doubler 71
Copying pc board designs 47
One-chip preamplifier 11 FM signal conditioner 71
Dimmer modification 50
Pop killer 18 LED S-meter 73
Divide by 4.320,000 counter 49
Priority audio switch 17 RF monitor meter 72
Doorbell current saver 50
Scratch and rumble filter 18 Synchrodyne tuner 73
Electronic Spirograph' 48
Simple ten watt amplifier 9
Single point stereo input selector 13
Extra hands , 47 TECHNIQUES
Flip-flop flasher 50 Constant current source 80
Speaker power indicator 11
Heartbeat preamplifier 49 Current-sharing for diodes 81
Stereo balance meter 12
Incinerated ICs — stopped 50 Darlington drivers 81
Super bass excavator 15
Keeping coil slugs in place 51 Electronic capacitor 79
Switchable rumble filter 9
Operating asonalert from 240 Vac mains 47 Endless LED chaser 79
Tape recorder controller 10
Silence those ads , 51 4027 oscillator 80
Telephone amplifier 13
TO-3template 47 555 micro input reset 77
Touch station selector 14
TV ad blanker 46 555 upside-down 79
AUTOMOBILE TV opto- isolator 46 Improving the 8038 function generator 75
Analogue readout for ETI-318 digital tacho 22 Unijunction pulse stretcher doorbell extender . 49 LED chaser 76
Auto garage light 25 Multivibrator 77
Automatic antenna retract 27 LIGHTING Oscillator has variable mark/space ratio 75
Automobile immobilisation 21 Audio display 53 Precision ac/dc converter 78
Battery charge/discharge indicator 23 LED spotting 54 Precision rectifier 78
Blinker controller 24 Lighting effects 54 Retriggerable flip-flop 81
Car horn repeater 27 Magnetic light dimmer 52 SCR oscillator 75
Car lamp failure warning 24 Porch light controller 54 Simple sequencer 76
Car lights reminder 28 Sound- modulated light source 53 Simplest divide by 1or 10 scaler 74
Car voltage regulator 21 Sound to light modulator 52 Simple square-wave generator eo
Cold start ignition 29 The ubiquitous 555 74
Cold start for CD units 25 MUSIC — ELECTRONICS Transistors mimic SCR 77
Digital bike speed 28 Anti- acoustic feedback system for group or disco 64
Dummy car alarm 27 Autowah without tears 65 TEST AND MEASUREMENT
Electronic odometer 20 Battery operated VCO 57 AC range booster for your multimeter 85
Hazard warning flasher 28 BCD tone generator 56 AF signal generator 82
Interior light delay 22 Cheap micro music box 64 All-round modulator 87
Motorbike protector 25 CMOS mixer 58 Capacity checker 90
Over-rev safety cutout 24 Computer music — without the computer 55 CMOS gate identifier 93
Seat belt indicator for vehicles 26 Digital keyboard controller 61 CMOS tester 89
Solid state tacho circuit . 23 Extension trigger device for synthesizers 62 Digital thermometer 93
Ten gallon digital fuel gauge 29 Four- input mixer 61 Frequency meter overflow indicator 93
Trip petrol meter 26 Guitar sustain unit 57 Function generator 88
Guitar treble boost 64 GSA meter 92
COMPUTERS Hybrid mixer 56 LED logicator 84
Cheap micro output 30 Keyboard tracking for the ETI sequencer 59 Linear scale ohmmeter 90
D2 kit modification 31 Parametric equalizer 60 Logic noise detector 93
External input for micros 30 Shifty phase adaptor 57 Logic probe mimics H-P unit 83
Improved sync for the 640 VDU 32 Simpler 4-channel synthesizer 63 Mods to the ETI-140 1GHz frequency counter .. 87
Simple cassette interface 31 Simple rhythm generator 63 NPN-PNP indicator 90
Simple software-controlled keyboard encoder 32 Simple sequencer 59 One-chip logic probe 84
2102 memory tester 31 Sixteen- note sequencer 65 Over-range for the ETI-117 digital voltmeter 91
VDU bleeper 30 . Stereo VCA 62 Pocket digital frequency meter 86
Sweep generator for VCO 61 Pulse width modulation controller 91
CONTROL Touch- sensitive piano keying 58 Signal injector for logic probe 92
Condensation detector 35 VCO for the ETI-450 bucket brigade delay line 60 Simple crystal frequency meter 83
Electronic ballcock 36 Simple LED mains tester 87
Electronic thermostat 34 TIMERS Simple logic prob.: uses 555 chip 86
Extractor fan controller 36 Random delay timer 94 Simple voltage reference 84
Half-wave control 35 Ten-minute timer 94 Test unit for sequential logic 89
Immersion heater protector 33 Triac tester 88
Improved half-wave 35 TRIGGERING AND SWITCHING
TTL square-wave generator has 5watt output 85
Impulse power 33 Clock switching unit 97 VLF sine generator 89
Low-cost transducer amplifier 33 CMOS monostable 97 Wide- range ammeter 91
Speed controller 34 Multi-flash trigger 96 Wide- range voltage-controlled oscillator 88
Temperature stabilised relay 33 One-contact touch switch 96 Zener tester 92

2
ETI CIRCUITS No3
ideas and data for experimenters

Editor: Jan Vernon The Ideas for Experimenters' section published each month in
Design: Bill Crump Electror ics Today International has fcr many years been one
Managing Editor: Collyn Rivers of the most popular parts of the magazine. But by the very
nature of being a monthly feature, it becomes impossible
(without an elaborate filing system) :o remember particular
circuits — or compare them with similar ones.
Our answer to this problem is this series of Circuit Books.
This, the third book in this series, is the best yet. It contains a
substantial number of circuits not previously published in the
Australian edition of ETI. This edition has been totally
assembled and produced in Australia.

CIRCUITS NO. 3 IS AN IDEAS DIRECTORY AND IS NOT

MEANT FOR THE BEGINNER. WE REGRET WE CANNOT
ANSWER QUERIES ON ANY CIRCUITS IN THIS
PUBLICATION.

Electrorics Today International will consider circuits or ideas

submitted by readers for inclusion in ETI magazine and/or
future editions of this series of books. All items used will be
paid for. Drawings should be as clear as possible and text
preferably typed. Each submission must be accompanied by
a aeclaration that the circuits or ideas are not subject to
copyrignt. Send your ideas to ETI, 15 Boundary St,
Rushcuilers Bay NSW 2011.

ETI Circuits Book No. 3 was printed in 1D81 by Offset Alpine, cnr.
Wetherill and Derby Sts, Silverwater, NSW, and distributed by
Gorion & Gotch.
All reasonable care is taken in the preparation of this publication to
ensure accuracy but we must emphasise : hat in many instances the
circuits ir cluded originate from readers and have not necessarily been
assembled or tested by the publishers. The Circuits Books are
essentially ideas directories', and are not intended for use by
begnners.

*Recommended and maximum price only.

(ete an ELECTRONICS TODAY publication

3
ALARMS

+12V +12V

+12V

r:n t
L
4CK 9 11
—0 0
14 c

CK
8 9-- 9 --
9-
T
1M
C2
100n
7 7 »--
5
6

+12V 4017 5
4017 4017
4 22-
3 1-
3 1-
'7100n
15 RE 2 4
2 4 2
I
R1 5 E
5 RE
N/C
1M

+12V
Sequential combination lock
Another combination lock, this one from to count the combination which can be
Ronald Mellor of Peakhurst, NSW. easily changed by simply changing the
To operate the lock, the buttons must be output pin of each divider. The network
pressed the right number of times and R1 and C1ensures all counters reset at
in the right order. If the 'D' button is switch-on, while R2 and C2 are for
pressed ahead of time the alarm sounds. debouncing.
Here, the combination is 2, 5, 3, 1. The The output transistors both remain
odds against pressing the right number conducting in the quiescent state. A '0'
first up are 17 496 to 1, not good odds for or ' 1' signal on the 'Y' line will turn Q1
apotential thief'. or Q2 off respectively, giving either an
Three 4017 decade dividers are used unlock or alarm signal.

E". HIGH
LS1
IMPEDANCE

builds up from being inaudible to fairly The resultant signal is a rather pleasant
Gentle clock alarm loud over the course of about aminute. warbling sound. This is shifted in dc
As aresult, you are always woken up by level by the voltage at the non-inverting
RING! RING! BUZZ! CLANG! PIP PIP!
the minimum volume required to wake input of the op amp, and since this
This is hardly the sound that anyone you: a far more comfortable experience voltage is provided by R and C, it will
wants to hear first thing in the morning than the usual trauma! rise slowly, shifting the signal in dc level
(especially one of those mornings!) The three multivibrators are and thus increasing the dc bias of the
connected so that the first two transistor. Thus the output of the
There are gentler ways to wake up.
This circuit provides an alarm which modulate the power supply of the third. circuit will rise slowly in volume.

4
 Code lock
TO LOCK
CLOSE

TO LOCK
OPEN
13 15 9 6 16 . 6V
11
IC3/A 14 C'i 13-

12 2 4 7 10 1 58
9
10
IC3/E;

1µ
13 12
•
IC2A

IC2C
8
11 13
IC4A - c1
,1 TO ALARM
5
9 8 )
IC3D
9
13
C2 B 11 12
IC4B

10 12
2
.1111111M.

0 00
4
umMim
O 00
8
«Jam.
o 00

1 3 5 6 7 9 10

This circuit, featuring separate LOCK

r In
goes through the ENTER button to ENTER button one more tme for the
and ALARM outpats, was sent in by IC4A, B or C. This IC is an exclusive- OR door to open. To close and reset, press
Michael Saleeba of Croydon in Victoria. gate, so if you press the wrong button the ENTER button once again.
When the ENTER button is pressed a logic 1 will appear on the output of As the circuit is very versatile, you
it triggers a monostable, formed by one of the gates. The outputs of these could get almost any code by extending
IC3A and IC3B. The output pulse from gates are safeguarded by IC2D and IC3C. the code button sequence; e.g: 1,2,3,4,
this monostable gDes to the input of When you press the wrong button a 5,6,7,8,9 or 2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2. Another
IC1, a decimal decade counter. The out- logic 1 appears on the output of IC3D idea would be to have your phone
puts are safeguarded from shortcircuits which goes to the reset and the alarm. number as a code ( although that does
by OR gates IC2A, B and C. The code number for this circuit is present asecurity risk ... Ed.).
The ENTER button also takes 2,8,4,4,2,8. To operate the code lock The ICs are: IC1-4017A, IC2-4071B,
outputs from the keyboard. If one of you must press this number and then
IC3-4001A, IC4-4030A. The two diodes
the correct buttors is pressed, logic 1 the ENTER button. Then you press the
may be any small signal silicon diode.

Guess what!
IC1,2 7400

+5V
ANOTHER COMBINATION LOCK we unit provides a large number of com- can be mounted in any order. If any of
hear you say! Th:s one, from Denis binations to foil the would-be thief. By the switches SW5 - SW10 are pressed
Dowling of Mulwala, NSW, only the way, the correct order for this circuit the circuit will reset. The ten switches
operates the relay when the switches is SW1, SW2, SW3, SW4, but of course, should be mounted in a matrix and
are pressed in the correct order. The when you build the unit these switches wired in the combination you want.
ALARMS
Silent sentry on via RV1. LED 1lights, Q3 is turned
on via R2, SW1, LED 1 and Q4. Q3
B. J. Lowery forms alatching circuit for Q4 and this
will keep LED 1alight until the RESET
switch is operated. The GAIN control
The Silent Sentry' is a form of intru-
is a sub- miniature preset and should
sion alarm. It will indicate the
be adjusted to give LED 1 a positive
breaking of a light beam by means of
on/off action.
lighting aLight Emitting Diode, which
will remain lit until the RESET switch
LED 1
is activated. Q1 may be any suitable 7IL220
NPN photo-transistor available, eg
276-130 ( Tandy) and BPX 25
04
(Maplin). BC109C
When light from the light source is LIGHT SOURCE
falling on Q1, Q2 is turned on, .11111.

causing both Q3 and Q4 to be turned

off, therefore LED1 will not light. As
soon as the light beam is broken Q2 is OV

turned off, allowing Q4 to be turned

REED
+5 - 15V SWITCHES
VCC
A normally closed loop system is em-
ployed, using reed switches, trip wires,
window tape, photoelectric relays etc.
These hold the 555% ' inhibit' pin low
during normal operation. When the loop
is broken, the 555 will commence to
oscillate and the alarm will sound.
The circuit operates from any supply
rail from 5V to 15 V; standby current is
Simple burglar alarm less than 3mA at 6V, so the alarm is
capable of being run from a small
A 555 timer IC is used both as alarm and battery. Set the 100k potentiometer for
sensor in this simple circuit from the desired alarm tone. A horn loud-
Simon Moran of Wollongong, NSW. speaker is recommended.

Burglar alarm cum water level detector

'I'his circuit can be used to suit your own +VCC

alarm applications and comes from Lim

Beng Cheng of Singapore. +VCC ( 5V TO 15V)

The ' sensor touch probe' can be used

to trigger the alarm circuit from a SENSOR
person touching it or from aprobe in a TOUCH
PROBE
water vessel being covered by the water
+VCC
or some fluid). For conventional SENSOR
o
TOUCH .11......0
burglar alarm operation the alarm can p
be triggered by normally closed contacts DOORS .---DOOR 14

such as reed switches, window tape etc. -z. NORMALLY ICI

3

A switch permits selection of the mode CLOSED

7
of operation. Another switch permits
the alarm to be ' SET' or turned ' OFF'. 8
IC 1is a 4611 CMOS quad NAND-gate
while IC2 is a555 timer used to derive
an audio alarm. Three gates from IC1
IC1-4011 CMOS 10k
are connected as aflip-flop. When both IC2-555 TIMER 25V 27R
inputs are high, the output goes high 4 8 3H
and IC2 will oscillate, providing an
audio alarm. The sensoi touch alarm is 1k IC2

simply one CMOS NAND- gate connec- 2 SPEAKER 0:

ted as an inverter. When the sensor (To avoid false triggering, we'd 6 1

touch probe is touched, the gate input suggest a 100n capacitor be connected
will go low and the output high, acti- between pin 13 of ICI and ground . . .
vating the flip-flop. Ed.).

6
 RIO
2706 I2V
Cl

LL

C4
100u
63V
NOTE'
DOOR DI Cl IS UA78L15
SWITCH IC2 IS CD4093
100n
D1.-.3 ARE 164148
D4 8. CA ARE 164001 ®03
Tcs
01 IS BCI49 100u
25V 63V
02 IS 13C157
03 S614.12501

0 E

Shop doorbell delay operates from the closing of the When the door is closed the
R. Gamester, Chesham door for a period of 20-30 S, during oscillator is stopped, leaving Q1 on.
which time the LED is constantly This gives aconstant indication until C2
This unit was designed to give a illuminated. discharges through R3, PR1 and R4.
remote indication of a shop door When the door opens, C2 charges The bell is astandard 3V vibrator
opening. The bell rings once as the door quickly through D1 and IC2b turns Q2 type and is powered by C4, this being
opens and aflashing LED indicates that on. The oscillator ( IC2d) is running and discharged through the armature by
the door is open. To prevent the unit interrupts the LED by switching Q1 on Q3. IC2c generates the drive pulse, its
being repeatedly triggered, a time and off. duration being the charge time of C2.

Alarm power supply

A

House alarms require apower source in

the event of amains failure. This unit, 240V

from Mark Tiddy of Highgate S.A., is 12V RAIL TO ALARM

a simple unit to fulfil that function. E

Most alarms operate from a 12 Vdc rail 12V BATTERY INPUT

so that a 12 V battery may be used to

OV RAIL TO ALARM.
supply power during mains failures.
RLB
The circuit employs a conventional
transformer-bridge rectifier configura- During mains failure, the '12 V supply from the positive output of the bridge
tion and a three-terminal 12 V rail from the regulator will discharge rectifier te the positive terminal of the
regulator. The coil of a relay is con- and the relay will drop out, connecting battery, plus a diode between the OV
nected directly across the 12 V the supply rail for the alarm through to RAIL TO ALARM and bridge rectifier
regulated supply rail and is held a 12 V battery. negative will keep the battery trickle
operated during mains operation. A suitable resistor (or even a diode) charged.

Warbling alarm until the voltage across it is low enough

A warbling alarm has a certain attract- that DI again becomes forward biased.
iveness compared to the usual nerve- The whole cycle then repeats. The
wracking attention getters. This circuit, charging cycle of C2 causes afrequency
rescued from deep within our files, is variation in the oscillation of the 555,
quite simple and may be activated in giving the warbling sound. Output is
a number of ways. Centred on a 555 via pin 3of the 555 and either a16 ohm
timer IC, the alarm works as follows: or higher impedance speaker is
the CONTROL pin activates the recommended.
oscillator when it is taken high ( to the The alarm is controlled via pin 4 of
supply rail). Capacitor C2 will charge the 555. When held low ( connected to
up via R1, R2 and Dl. When the voltage zero volts) the circuit is inactive. Con-
across C2 reaches 2/3 of the supply necting this pin to the positive supply
voltage (i.e: 6 V), pin 7of the 555 goes rail will activate the oscillator after a
low ( to zero volts). This reverse biases short delay. Either logic circuitry or a
D1 and CI is effectively taken out of simple switch may be used.
circuit. The 555 then operates as an Diode DI may be any silicon switch-
astable oscillator, the frequency being ing diode ( 1N4148, 1N914, 1N916 etc)
determined principally by R2 and Cl. and C2 may be either astandard electro-
Meanwhile, C2 will discharge via RV1 lytic type or a tantalum capacitor.

7
AUDIO

STATION1

'Jury-rig' intercom
This intercom can be 'jury-rigged' in an
instant ( well, ... almost), yet is very
effective. You need atape recorder ( say,
a cheap cassette deck or whatever you
have on hand), two small speakers and
two crystal or dynamic microphones
(crystal types are best).
It uses the 'monitoring' function in
the tape recorder in the recording mode.
MICROPHONE When a person at either station talks
11 21 3( 4( I into the mic. the signal passes through
STATION 2
FOUR CORE CABLE r
the recorder, is apiplified and passed to
the speakers. To avoid feedback, levels
4321 I
should be kept low and the mic. and the
speaker physically shielded from each
other at each station. Alternatively, a
DPDT slide switch could be connected to
switch the ,mic. in and speaker out
during ' talk' and vice versa during
'listen'. A 'dummy' cassette has to be
inserted to ' fool' the recorder.
That's quite an ingenious idea from
Craig Forsythe of Williamtown, Vic.
MICROPHONE

Class A amplifier
The main advantage of class A amplifiers and R10. The use of aconstant current input impedance of 1.5M2 and a
is the absence of crossover distortion. source here effectively isolates the out- sensitivity of 180mV for full output.
Against this major advantage must be put from line variations and ripple. Transistors 04 to 07 must be
weighed the disadvantage of permanent- With the components shown, the mounted on an adequte heatsink, a 5'
ly hot heatsinks and large capacity circuit has a bandwidth of 10Hz — by 4" finned type is suitable, but must
power supplies. 30kHz at -3dB, adistortion of less than be mounted vertically and in such a
The circuit shown here contains 0.1% before the onset of clipping, an position as to allow ample ventilation.
several novel features and will deliver
5W of pure class A sound into an 8 SZ
load.
01 and 02 form, with the associated
components, ahigh quality voltage amp-
lifier with overall ac and dc feedback
applied from the collector of Q2 via R6
to the emitter of 01.
The output stage proper, consists of
06 and 07 connected as an emitter
follower darlington pair. These transis-
tos are driven by IC1, a 741 op amp,
and are included in the latter's feedback
loop.
These three form anear perfect out-
put stage with an input impedance of
several megohms and a bandwidth
extending from dc to over 100 kHz.
Quiescent current is provided by the
constant current source 03, 04, 05, R9

8
 113 o
68k +6.35y SW2

Switchable rumble filter

Ass

1
1 Flat
R4, 39k
SW1 a
ci ::_mt_e C5 I C6
2 150Hz
The circuit shown provides acut-off at
r
3 100H
470n 1 ; 680n

*
39k
111
115. 22k 25, 40, or 80Hz. Cl and C2 in con-
Cr- 1/W- 0 junction with R3-9, form second order
CI C2 Butterworth filters with 12db/octave
100n 100n roll-off below the turnover frequency.
Il II SW2 Unlike most designs, the feedback is
ICI taken from the inverting input. In
447 + 01—C)
SWIb 2 C7
practise this works well once the signal
10u at this point follows exactly that at

‘
1111
the non- inverting input.
• yhei 2k2
SWI -3dB
A useful feature is the deep bass
116
)R7 Ci R8 R9
1 25Hz boost provided by the feedback loop
68k 2 40Hz
39k 22k 2k2
3 80Hz
proper.
4 FLAT S2 in position 3 gives a +3db point
C3
IR2
39k T 47u at 100Hz whilst position 2 provides a
+3db point at 150Hz. A supply 6-35V
o DC at 10mA is required.

o
+32V

Simple ten watt amplifier

A Hiley, Woking.

This is an extremely simple and inexpen- 03

ON HEATSINK
sive general purpose amplifier. The design BD131
is conventiondl, the only point of interest
being that the output transistors are under-
biased: This means that there is no possibi- C3
113 2000u
lity of thermal runaway - it should, how- R1 330k I 25V
10k
ever, introduce large amounts of distortion,
but, in fact, due to the high level of negative 0
04
feedback employed, the distortion is 100u BD132
INPUT 25V
reasonably low. Frequency response is
extremely good.

R6
61311 8 OHMS
10W
RMS
COMMON KW) LINE

Automatic cutoff for a

pin 2 rises, operating the relay and relay drops out and the turntable stops.
manual turntable starting the turntable. When the beam The potentiometer is adjusted for
Mr. T. Threlfall of West Perth, WA, is broken the voltage on pin 2falls, the correct operation.
built this unit into amanual turntable
to prevent the record being carved up, or
more likely, to prevent stylus wear if he
forgot to take the tone arm off after the
record had finished. I
A neon tube is mounted in the end of a
black plastic tube and an LDR in the L _ _
other end. A slot is cut across the tube so 12V
the light beam can be interrupted by a RELAY
530S2
small plastic flag connected to the tone
arm shaft. The flag must be light, to
allow proper operation of the tone arm,
and positioned so the light is interrup-
ted when the tone arm is at the end of
the record. N TO ON/OFF SWITCH
ON MANUAL TURNTABLE
The 555 latches when the voltage on E

9
AUDIO
recorder and receiver to warm up. As
the timer output goes low. C4 charges
through (.24 momentarily, operating
RLC which starts the recorder.
At the end of the preset time the
clock contacts open, discharging C2
through 02 and 03 which delays RLA
from dropping out by approximately
5 seconds. As the clock contacts re-
open Cl charges through 01, operating
ALB opening the normally closed stop
contacts for ashort period, stopping the
recorder. After the 5 second delay has
o
elapsed, RLA opens, removing power
Tape recorder controller
enAI
TAM RI COMM

from the equipment.

programme starts, and switch off as RLB and RLC may have light
The circuit shown enables a solenoid
operated tape recorder to be left to it finishes. contacts, but RLA must be a heavy
When the clock contacts close, RLA duty mains rated type. Ideally the
record a programme unattended. It
was originally designed to be used on is operated via Q2 and 03, applying digital clock should by crystal
a Revox A77, in conjunction with power to the receiver and recorder. At controlled, to eliminate short term
the same time Cl is discharged, and C2 mains frequency fluctuations. The
a digital clock based on the Caltex
CT7001, but could be adapted for applies a negative pulse to pin 2 of the numbers shown in brackets are the
other recorders, clocks, or mechanical timer, which triggers, discharging C4. appropriate pin connections on the 10
time switches. The clock is set to The output of the timer goes high for way remote control plug of a Revox
switch on one minute before the one minute, allowing time for the A77.

Inexpensive intercom
SCREENED
A small transistor radio can be coh- CABLE
LISTEN
verted into an intercom by adding a SW1a
SW1b
AMPLIFIER SECTION
switch, a bit of cable and another OF RADIO NEW 8 OHM
speaker. EXISTING ITALK SPEAKER
SPEAKER
First, sever the 'tuner' section from the
rest of the circuit by cutting the appro-
priate pc tracks. Then connect awire to
the input of the amplifier section — the switch can then be fitted as shown in will usually go the the earphone socket
wiper of the volume control is the best the diagram. and so an earphone may be used in the
place. The extra speaker and DPDT The output of the amplifier section 'listen' mode.

Moving coil cartridge preamp

Although moving coil cartridges un- emitter mode. Heavy local AC and DC Output signals being taken from across
doubtedly give better reproduction feedback is introduced by R5 and this R7, R8.
from disc they usually require expen- defines the gain of the stage at 20dB. To R1 should be determined by experi-
sive step up transformers to enable them minimise noise a BC109C is used here ment but can be initially found by using
to be used with conventional RIAA operated with a low collector current, a 470R preset in the Al position and.
equalisation. 50uA. The output stage of this amp- adjusting this for optimum sound quality
The reason for this is that.most cart- lifier is the darlington pair 02 and 03. by ear.
ridges of this type have outputs of 60-
150uV and like to ' see' an input imped- R9 + 9V
R6 470R
ance between 60-330R.
The circuit shown was developed to C2
100u
T C3
82p
270R

cater for a particular cartridge of this

type although by modifying the value R2
510k
of one component, Al, it is possible to
cater for the complete range of inputs ® 02
03

detailed above. O
0/P1
Inputs signals are coupled to the base —6mV for 60uV I/P
R7
of Q1 via the isolating capacitor Cl. Al 01 1k5
0/P2
—5.2mV for 120uV I/P
damps the input impedance to the 'P

correct value to match the particular O

NOTE:
cartridge in use. R2 and R3 bias Q1 R5 01 IS BC109C
4k7 02,3 ARE BC159
which is employed in the common
*SEE TEXT
OV
o
10
 201 NOTE
R2
33V 1k D1— (34 are 1N914
Cl ,s 741
Speaker power indicator LE01.s 0.2"LED

This circuit will indicate the peak level

of an input signal applied to aspeaker. v,„
02
It is primarily intended as a fail safe
R5
device when connected to an
amplifier of higher power rating than
the speaker.
The circuit is unique in that no
separate DC power supply is required
since the circuitry operates from the
input voltage to the speaker.
R5 isolates the amplifier's output
V 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
stage from possible fault conditions in
R3kn 5.6k 9.1k 12k 15k 16k 18.
the circuit. D1 to D4 full wave rectify 22.

the input signal and the resulting DC

is used to supply the op amp.
The 741 is used as a comparator a output being unable to go less than the value required for the component
reference voltage being obtained from 1.5V above earth under these circum- for different input powers across an 8
across ZD3 and fed into the inverting stances. ZD2 defines the upper limit of ohm load. If different load values are to
input of the op-amp. The non inverting the op amp's supply voltage in the be used for the speaker the value of R3
input samples the rectified input signal. presence of large transients whilst R2 can be determined from the equation,
When a peak is fed into the circuit the is the current limit resistor. It should
IC's output goes high and the led flashes. R3 = 1.4\/PR — 3.3 laZ
be obvious that the level at which the
ZD1 prevents the LED turning on when led lights is dependent upon the value P = Pout
the output of IC1 is low due to the of R3. The accompanying table shows R = load in S
-2

R13 . 9 - 30V
100k

IC1 is used in the inverting mode. work built around IC2. This required
Signals from the cartridge are fed via little comment although it should be
the blocking capacitor and R1 to the noted that individual volume controls
One chip preamplifier inverting input. R1 defines the input
impedance and provides the right
are employed four each channel. This
not only reduces crosstalk between
J. P. Macaulay damping for the cartridge. channels but also works out cheaper
R5 and R6 define the midband in that only two single gang poten-
The circuit shown utilises the four gain of the stage whilst the network tiometers are used.
Norton op amps contained within an R3, R4, C2 and C3 provide the req- Performance is good with overall
LM3900 to produce a high quality uired RIAA equalisation. From here distortion below 0.1% and a S/N
stereo preamp, catering for magnetic the equalised signal is fed to a
cartridges. ratio of — 67db unweighted, ref 500
standard Baxendall tone control net- mV out.

11
AUDIO
o
.25V

10k
NOTE:
01,3 ARE BCY7O

High quality headphone

02 IS BC107
04,5 ARE BFY51
04,5 REQUIRE CLIP

amplifier
ON HEAT SINKS

A. J. Jones, Cobridge

+1
This circuit is capable of high
C5-8
performance using low cost, readily 470e
35V
available components. The class A
amplifier is designed to drive C3
efficient, high impedance R5
22u
16V
470k
headphones of 150R and above, TANTALUM LS1
R9 8 —60OR
although it will drive 8R headphones R1 47k
2k2
with reduced performance. OV
o
Feedback is applied by R1,2 and
gain with the specified components
is 11. For maximum output the input for maximum output. Noise is less Quiescent current is set by R9
sensitivity is 0 dB. Q3,4 and C4 form than — 80 dB unweighted. Power (approximately 60 mA).
a gyrator circuit and present a high bandwidth is less than 10 Hz to over Performance is good with
impedence to AC signals. This gives 50 kHz. Slew rate is greater than 5 distortion and noise measured on
the circuit a high open- loop gain. V/uS. Radford test kit at less than 0.01%

+9V, 16mA
o
s.›. 03
TI L209

Novel loudspeaker R4 D4
1N4001
coupling circuit
100k

39k
In most amplifier designs the speaker Cl D1 R1
10u 0A91 R7
is fed by a high value capacitor to 620R
provide DC blocking, but this may
result in aheavy switch-on surge, as the
capacitor charges up.
An alternative approach, which is 1113
C2 02 620R
worthy of experiment, is shown in the 10u 0A91
diagram below. Here the ground side of
the speaker is conrected to the junction 05
of two equal high value capacitors 1N4001

(1000 uF is typical), across the supply. R6

'a D6
39k
The amplifier output voltage will be TIL209
at Vs/2, and so will the voltage across
ov
C1 ( if C1 and C 2 are equal); so as the
supply voltage bui ds up, the DC voltage
Stereo balance meter
One of the more irritating aspects of and the resulting dc voltages are applied
owning a stereo system is the need to to the inputs of the IC.
keep both channels in balance. What The output voltage from the IC1. is.
often sounds right when adjusting the applied to the LED's D3 and 06
controls turns out wrong when via the current limiting resistors R7
resuming one's normal listening and R8, and the diodes D4 and D5.
TO PINS 3, 4, 5
7, 10, 11, 12. position. These latter components allow the
LED's to extinguish at extremes of the
This circuit offers a solution to this
IC's voltage swings.
problem provided that one's equipment
across the speaker wilt remain zero, To use the indicator, switch the
is fitted with a stereo/mono mode
eliminating the switch- on surge. C1 and amplifier into the mono mode and
switch.
C, will also provide supply smoothing. adjust the balance control until both
The circuit is shown with the LM380, IC1, a 741 op amp, is used as a LED's are equally illuminated. The
but could be applied to any amplifier differential amplifier. L and R signals amplifier can now be switched back into
circuit, providing that the DC voltage are taken from across the speaker stereo mode and will be found to be in
at the output is half the supply voltage. terminals. D1 and D2 rectify these perfect balance.

12
 A BC D

LEFT INPUTS

It 14 le 112
ov
0 0 3 2 13
CLOCK
5
Single point stereo input
'h 4013
3

IC
4016
9
11 10 selector
IClb
Four different inputs can be switched
through by the continual pressing of
SW1.
IC1 is a dual ' D' type flip flop. The
1 12 9 13
Q outputs are connected to the D inputs
CLOCK 2
5 so that the clock inputs are divided by
S4013 3
12 • RIGHT

Cid e
4016 • 0 two. The two flip flops are connected in
Q •
13 13 10
series, giving atwo- stage binary counter.
4012
IC2 is a quad AND gate. This is used
to decode the four states of the counter.
11 4 61121
RIGHT INPUTS
The outputs are used to control the
A BC D quad switches at IC3 and IC4 ( 4016AE).

Cheap microphone
What do you do if you need a micro- critical and the prototype was found to fed into the mic input of atape recorder
phone in a hurry — the shops are closed work OK with 20% variation in values. or ceramic pick-up input of an
and your friends are on holiday? Or you The output is high impedance and is amplifier.
are just a little short of money? The
answer is to build the following circuit C2
470n
from your odds and ends box. This
OUTPUT
circuit uses a small speaker as a micro- LS1
(MICROPHONE) 8R
phone, one transistor and only four
other parts and draws only about 2 mA +
Cl R2
current from a9 volt battery. BI
30p 27K
_ 9V
The transistor shown is 2N1184 and
is a PNP germanium medium power
type but is not critical — try the ones COMMON

you have first before buying this new SW 1 GROUND

type. The components too are not

telephone conversation? Normally, a problem neatly.

Telephone amplifier 'phone conversation is a one-to-one No direct connection to the tele-
Have you ever had occasion where two affair. This simple amplifier, from phone is necessary. Mr MacAulay has
or more people needed to listen to a J.P. MacAulay of the UK, solves the cunningly used an ordinary 5 mH RF
choke as a pick-up coil — taped to the
side of the phone set. Q1 is acommon-
base amplifier, the output signal on its
collector driving the input of a 741
op-amp. The power output stage is
driven by the output of the 741. Two
complementary transistors are used and
feedback is applied to the inverting
input of the 741.
The gain of the op-amp may be
varied by R6 and you can use either a
preset pot or a standard pot and knob.
The frequency response of the
amplifier is tailored to suit the voice
characteristics of the telephone.
Quiescent current consumption is less
than 5 mA so the circuit can be run
easily from a pair of PP3 9 V batteries
connected in series.

13
AUDIO

Getting off the ground —

cheaply
G. Adams, Poole.

The cost of loudspeaker stands

prohibit many from buying them,
although they are important to
floor-standing arrangements for two SCREW FIXINGS :

reasons. They reduce possible

colouration via floorboards etc.
and, more importantly, they
effectively heighten floor-standing
loudspeakers so that the sound from
each is directed where it should be,
to one's ears, not to the upholstery
and one's ankles!
With the latter problem partic- PLYWOOD
ularly in mind, this design was
finally decided upon. It is rather
uniquely versatile, in that by using
different sizes of plywood any
degree of lift may be obtained.
However, a lift of around 10° is
considered a useful stone upon
which to build 1" MINIMUM THICKNESS HARDWOOD CUT TO LOUDSPEAKER DIMENSIONS

1Cla disabled. The astable produces an

O ,Ve INPUT
output square wave of 0.5 Hz, when
RV1 — 7ARE 100k
01 — 8 ARE 1N914 enabled. When a finger is applied to
01 IS BC109c
the touch pad ICla's output goes low
sending ICib's output high, enabling
0.1" MATRIX
VEROBOARD
the astable whose, output is loaded
into the decade counter, IC2. The ten
TO
outputs go high sequentially with the
VARICAP SUPPLY ( MAX 15V) VARICAPS
leading edge of the square waves
Vdd o
D1 provided by the astable. When the
RV1
finer is removed the counter will
02
'freeze' retaining the last count.
Tuning is accomplished by the
presets attached to the outputs of IC2.
03
As shown, the circuit caters for seven
1C2
4017 stations but this can be extended to
ten by making similar connections to
all the outputs. Diodes D1 - 7 ensure
05 that the individual tuning voltages
TUNER
SUPPLY don't interfere with one another whilst
120V MAXI
D8 helps to stop drift due to tempera-
ture variations. In order to know
01 3
which station has been 'selected the
07
display and driver transistor is fitted to
1k0
the outputs.
In this manner a LED correspon-
LED1 RV7 ding to the chosen station is dis -
Played. The touch switch used in the
prototype is simply a small piece of
0.1 inch vero with alternative strips
Touch station selector connected together.
If the oùtputs of the decade
J. P. Macaulay
Under quiescent conditions the counter were to be connected to
This circuit, used in conjunction with
an FM tuner, will enable stations to be output of IC1 a is high. In conse- CMOS transmission gates the circuit
quence the output of ICI b is low and could also be used as a multiway
selected by means of a single touch
pad. the astable formed around IC1 c / d is switch for audio signals.

14
 (+3 dB)

NEW CUTOFF OLD CUTOFF C3,C4

—3 dB POINT —3 dB POINT
Super bass excavator 38 Hz 50 Hz ' 47 nF
45 Hz 60 Hz ' 39 nF
The main problem with small in-
52 Hz 70 Hz 33 nF
finite baffle speaker systems is that
the bass response rolls off rather 60 Hz 80 Hz 27 nF
,
sooner than their larger brothers. 68 Hz 90 Hz 22 nF
This circuit overcomes this problem
by boosting the deep bass response 75 Hz 100 Hz 18 nF
...
of the power amp driving the
speakers. Certainly this is not an
altogether new idea as regular 99.99% of al; known power amps in- of roll-off of infinite baffle
readers of this magazine well know to clipping. enclosure is 12 dB per octave and
but this particular circuit does the In order to overcome the the slope of the filters is the same.
job rather better than most and the crossover distortion problems of Thus, by the simple expedient of
audible improvement is well worth these op amps the output stage of choosing the capacitor values to be
the time and money spent. each is biased into class A by R7 and equal in value and by matching the
The circuit is based around the R10. Cl, C2, R3 and R6 form a But- quoted -3 dB point of the speakers
well known quad op amp LM324. terworth second order filter which with the + 3 dB values in the table
This device contains four indepen- removes any signals below 20 Hz one extends the lower -3dB limit of
dent op amps of the 741 type. thus preventing amplifier overload the speakers by half an octave.
Before any purists hold up their from record warp signals. R5 and C2 The device must be inserted bet-
hands in horror it should be noted in conjunction with R8 and C4 pro- ween the pre and power amplifiers
that these are capable of delivering duce ashelf in the circuit's response and has a unity gain except in the
2 V RMS of 20 kHz sine wave below the frequency determined by bass. The maximum gain has been
without slew rate problems and that the reactance of the capacitors. set at 6 dB to prevent amplifier
is more than enough to drive Now it so happens that the rate overload.

o
+9-30V

R1
100k
VIN O
V OUT

R4
39k

It R2
100k
NOTE:

C
fr
IC1 IS LM324

10u

15
AUDIO
BASS TREBLE RV3
BOOST/CUT BOOST/CUT 10k
MID
BOOST/CUT
I C4
R3
1500p
Audio equaliser 10k

RV2
lkO lkO

100k
C3 RV1 IC?
22n 100k LM301 R9 R8
10k 10k
R5
39k IC3
LM301

R4 C5 C8
10k 1n5 30P
LM301 R2
C7
Cl 4k7
30p
100n

C3.
7
/. 1n0
RI NOTES'
Vin
100k MID RANGE
C2 FRED.
30P
o CO, C14 — 2n5 — OKHz
C10,C15 — 5n — 2KHz
C11,C16 — lOn — 1KHz
C12,C17 — 20n — 400Hz
C13,C18 — 50n — 250Hz

RV1,2,3 ARE LINEAR

R11
100k
IC4
LM301
give HF roll-off at around 30 kHz. IC2
and associated components form a
familiar bass/treble tone control
giving 20 dBs of boost and cut IC4 is
configured as a multi- feedback type
C8
30P band pass filter with a 0. factor of 3
MID—RANGE and a centre frequency selectable by
FREQUENCY
the switched capacitors C9 to C18.
This band pass filter is connected in a
feedback path of IC3, giving up to 20
dBs of boost or cut at the centre
frequency by varying RV3.
All three potentiometers give no
The circuit is a versatile line level pass filter and, therefore, far fewer boost or cut at their centre ( midway)
audio equaliser providing many of the components. positions and give a smooth increase
useful functions of a multi-channel IC1 acts as a buffer, providing an in boost or cut on rotation to the right
equaliser but using only one band input impedance of 100 k. R2 and C3 or left respectively.

Cassette tape preamp mestic, portable and automatic applica- C12-C14 decouple the internal feedback
loop of the IC and C8 decouples the supply
tion. In operation RI-C1 and R3-C11 pro-
RWillis, Felsted. vide RF immunity. R2-C4 and C15-C16 line. Cl -
C8-C10-C17 AC couple the input
provide the 120 uS time constant. C3-05- and output screened wires.
Preamp circuits utilising the LM382 low-
noise preamp chip have been used in Eli +9 TO +40V
C8
before. However, when using them in con- 10u

junction with a cassette player the results

INPUT 1
can be disappointing as the cassette equali- Cl
R1 C24 C9
10k 10u
330n
sation was to NAB standards. OUTPUT

This circuit is equalised for the Philips 13

cassette system and will provide a high
quality output of about 100 to 200 mV
when driven from astereo tape head. R2
4k7
The circuit will work on supply vol-
tages from + 10 Vto + 40 V, taking about 10 NOTE
mA and is suitable for industrial, PA, do- ICI IS 1111382

16
High-quality tone control
When designing a high quality pre-
amp, the author was faced with the
problem of designing a suitable tone
control stage. Op amps such as the
741 are commonly used, but in
general have a poor slew rate, fairly
high distortion and .high noise when
used in this application.
The circuit shown is based on an
inverting op amp using discrete tran-
sistors to overcome the above pro-
blems. The output stage is driven by a
constant current source, biased by a
green LED to provide temperature
compensation. The design is suitable for inputs tion of transients. The usual screening
With the controls flat the unit pro- between 100 mV and 1VO. and pro- precautions against hum should be
vides unity gain, so the stage can be vides a good overload margin at low carried out.
switched in or out. distortion for the accurate reproduc-

prototype was used to switch between The hysteresis is controlled by R8 and

acassette player and atwo-way radio the delay before the relay switches
Priority audio switch whenever a call was received. Other back to the normal channel at the end
T.P. Hopkins, Manchester. uses include priority calls in PA of a priority call depends on C2
systems, monitoring several (approximately 2 S with the value
This circuit switches a single infrequently-used radio channels, etc. shown).
loudspeaker from a 'normal' to a Audio from the priority input is If stereo outputs from the cassette
'priority' circuit whenever a signal rectified. and applied to the Schmitt recorder, etc. are to be switched, RLA
appears on the priority input. The trigger circuit, IC1. If the rectified will require two changeover contacts.
NORMAL
voltage exceeds the voltage set by PR1, Several of these circuits may be
INPUT IC1 switches and the relay is operated cascaded to provide more than one
by Q1. The switching level is set by PR1. level of priority.
NC OUTPUT
(TO SPEAKS RS1
R1
2k2
RLA
NO 'VVv`
R7 1
1 05
+12V
10k

D2
R13
PRIORITY
INPUT
o PR1 1k2
10k R8
470k
7
D3 R8
R2 Cl
10k IC 01
2k2 1u0
D1 R9
3k3
115
10k

R3 R4 R10
58k 100k 1k2 SW1
O
4u7

NOTE: RLA
ICI IS 741 12V
R12
01 IS 8C212
1k0 3k3 134
01-4 ARE 1N4148 C3
D5 IS 1N4001 470

o
OV

17
AUDIO

RUMBLE SCRATCH

SW3

SW1
al
13C109C Bi
9V
OUT

I-
Circuit of the Scratch and Rumble filter. This unit
+ may be mounted on matrix board and mounted
cl
10u inside your amplifier — don't forget two will be
needed for stereo. If you construct it as an out-
board unit it should be mounted in ametal box and
R6
4k7 connected into your amplifier system with short
lengths of shielded cable. It may be connected
between the " preamp out" and " main in" sockets.

Scratch and Rumble Filter

SCRATCH AND RUMBLE filtering is a reinforcing the input signal from the maintains dc blocking at the input. SW2
valuable feature in ahi-fi amplifier but output of the buffer amplifier based on can be used to bypass the low pass filter
is one which is absent from many de- Ql. Well below the cutoff frequency, components when only high pass filter-
signs, or if this filtering is present it losses through C4 result in the signal ing is required.
may well be in the form of arelatively level at Q1 emitter being well below
ineffective 6dB per octave type filter. that at the junction of C3 and C4. This With the specified component values
This circuit is a12 dB per octave add-on results in some of the signal at the the rumble filter response falls below
scratch and rumble filter which can be junction of C3 and C4 being tapped off unity at approximately 45 Hz, reaches
connected into the 'tape monitor' circuit through R1, with C3 and R1 effectively the — 6.dB point just above 30 Hz and
or some similar facility of the amplifier. forming a second high pass filter net- then falls away at anominal 12 db per
work. This eliminates the slow initial octave. The scratch filter response
This is a conventional second order
roll off rate ( in fact there is asmall and crosses the unity gain point at about
filter circuit having passive high pass
insignificant peak of about 0.5 dB above 6.5 kHz, reaches the — 6dB point at
filter formed by the series capacitance
the cutoff frequency) and speeds up the approximately 10 kHz, and then falls
C3 and C4, plus the parallel resistance
attenuation rate to anominal 12 dB per away at a nominal 12 dB per octave.
of R2 and R3 ( the latter also being used
octave. The worst-case input impedance is
to bias emitter follower transistor Q1).
around 30 kto 40 kwith SW1 and SW2
A passive filter of this type gives only a The low pass filter works in much the closed.
very slow initial roll off and an ultimate same way as the high pass one, except of
A BC549 or similar transistor may
attenuation rate of only 6dB per octave. course the R and C filter elements have
also be used for Ql. The circuit should
A bootstrapping resistor is therefore been transposed so as to give the correct
used to improve performance. be housed in a shielded enclosure to
filter action.
avoid hum pickup. Use shielded input
Above the cutoff frequency, where the If only low pass filtering is required, and output leads. A dual circuit, with
gain of the circuit would otherwise fall SW1 can be used effectively to bypass two-pole switches for SW1 and SW2, is
off somewhat, R1 has the effect of the high pass filter components. C2 then necessary for stereo operation.

TO RECTIFIEt
BRIDGE

Pop killer
After building a small 12 W/channel handling mains) which cuts off the
amplifier, Brian Modra of Elizabeth speakers at the same time as the power
Vale set about developing a means of is switched off.
stopping it from making annoyihg Unfortunately, this circuit is not
pops and bangs as it was switched off. suitable for use with bridged amplifiers,
This little circuit uses only adouble- but a little thought and a three pole
pole switch (which must be capable of switch should sort things out. TO AMP OUTPUTS

18
 63

LED audio power

4706

indicators INPUT FROM .5V

LOUDSPEAKER STABIL.SED

M. P Downes
',4001 3906

The circuit diagram shows the input

circuitry from the loudspeaker ter-
\‘‘
minals. For simplicity only two of the 1E01

monostable and LED driver

cuits are shown. Six of these '44001 1,6 4049

circuits can be constructred using •59 OV

three 4001s and one 4049 RV2

CMOS ICs. The circuit is based 160

on the fact that CMOS has an input

threshold of approximately half the
supply volage ( actually 0.45 — 0.55
supply volts). IC la and IC1 b are dual
input NOR gates connected in a
monostable configuration with timing
components R1 and Cl. VVrien the The lowest inpi_.? voltage that can
input to ICla exceeds the threshold trigger the monostable is lim;ted by
voltage, the monostable's output the voltage drop across the bridge OV

goes high for a period determined by o

(0V8) and the threshold voltage oi
R1 and Cl ( with values shown IC1 a ( approximately 2V5). The
approximately 200 mS). This output threshold limit is largely overcome by required for stereo use, two corn -
is inverted and buffered to drive aLED using RV2 to bias point A to just pletely separate -1- 5 V power supplies
for this period. The input to trigger the below the threshold voltage. In prac- are essential to prevent partial shor-
monostable comes from the speaker tice, the circuit operates on an input ting out of the input bridge, due to a
terminals where it is full wave rectified frequency of from less than 5 Hz to possible common loudspeaker ter-
and appears across RV1. R3 is a more than 50 kHz sinewave and at an minal in the amplifier. Greater input
safety resistor in case of bridge fail- input voltage of from approximately sensitivity can be achieved by using
ure. IN4005 diodes have the desired 1V4 RMS ( 0.25 W into 8R) to more 0A91 diodes in the input bridge. but
voltage and frequency characteristics than 90 V RMS ( 1 kW into 8R). A with slight loss in high frequency
for the bridge. R2 is to limit the cur- single positive or negative 4 uS wide response and alower maximum input
rent flowing into ICla's internal pro- pulse will also operate the circuit. voltage. If there is a variation in the
tection diodes under large signal con- The -1-5 V supply must be stabil- threshold voltage of individual ICs
ditions and the value of RV1 depends ised to ensure stable threshold levels then the lower threshold ICs should
on the desired input triggering vol- and the usual decoupling of ICs and be used in the most sensitive positions
tage. supply is advisable. If two units art of the circuit, ie. 0.25W.

LED indicator's many uses clipping. In this application it has very small scale with low-level input
limitations as the LED brightness varies requirement; while level displays using
This circuit, from T. Threlfall of with the variable conductance of the several LEDs may be better, the cost
Nedlands WA, was originally designed transistor: an improved circuit may use is high.
as a peak audio detector to supplement aUJT or FET with better results. The gain of the 741 can be adjusted
inaccurate moving-coil VU meters in a An alternative use is as a low cost down if desired, by reducing the 320 k
recording preamplifier susceptible to visual display — a " musicolor" on a resistance.
The "rectifier" used was from a
3.PIN IC + Ve VCiLTAGE
damaged moving coil meter; connecting
REGULATOR USED AS CONSTANT the negative output to ground gave a
CURRENT SOURCE
higher output than leaving it floating.
This type of rectifier has alower voltage
drop than silicon diodes, and may be
useful if extreme sensitivity is needed.
Otherwise, a single diode suffices.
I = 70mA MAX
)°, The voltage regulator output current
LED was made high for brighter illumination
and can be reduced by increasing R
INPUT
from 68 ohms.
The transistor type is unimportant
if current rating is not exceeded. A
PNP type could be used if the positive
output terminal of the rectifier is
grounded and the negative terminal is
used as output.

19
AUTOMOBILE

Electronic odometer
THIS DEVICE, which is inexpensive
and easy to build, will measure accu-
rately how far a vehicle has travelled
over the ground. It is of particular
interest to persons who want to know
accurately how far they have travelled
down any of the thousands of unmarked
bush tracks in Australia.
The device works by counting the
revolutions of the back wheel of the
vehicle using a phototransistor which
looks at a white strip painted on the
tyre. Signals from the phototransistor
are processed in an integrated circuit to
provide pulses at high enough level to
operate arelay. Counting is achieved by
making the relay operate in parallel
with a function key on a cheap elec-
tronic pocket calculator.

The Circuit
A 555 is connected to operate in the
monostable mode as shown in the cir-
cuit. Its operation is controlled by a
phototransistor type 4PT100 which has Overall view of my odometer. The calculator and electronics are attached to a chipboard base. The
phototransistor sensor is mounted on the wheel guard and connects via shielded cable.
excellent sensitivity. The base connec-
tion of the phototransistor is not used.
Under "dark" conditions the is to trigger the device. Not all cheap calculators have this
collector-emitter resistance of the The output from pin 3 operates a "totalling" facility. The contacts of the
phototransistor is high and this holds small reed relay. This can be any small reed relay are parallelled across this
the 555 in the 'off state (pin 3 low). relay with acoil resistance greater than function key.
When the phototransistor is illumi- 60 ohms. The type used was a Marble Care has to be exercised when open-
nated its resistance falls and the voltage MEL 400, available from Dick Smith. ing the calculator to ensure that the
at pin 2falls. When this reaches about A Tandy pocket calculator type four moulded locking tags are not
two thirds of the supply voltage, pin 3is EC-201 was chosen to do the counting broken off. When opened, peel the sheet
switched to the high state. Poten- because successive 'unit additions or of switch retaining plastic back from the
tiometer RV1 provides control of the subtractions can be achieved by the area of the = switch and solder two
triggering point of the 555, pérmitting operation (after setting up) of one 100 mm long tails to the printed cir-
adjustment of the level of lighting which function key, in this case the ( = ) key. cuit runs leading to each side of this

9V

COMPONENT PINOUTS

ICI RV1
IC
0

(
6
IC 75
COAX
555 3 RL1 TO
0 FUNCTION KEY
OF CALCULATOR
LEAD 2
TOP VIEW
555

O PT
BOTTOM
e VIEW RLA

4PT*00

DV o

The circuitry is simplicity itself. The potentiometer ( RV1) provides control of the triggering point of the
555. The function key you use on the calculator will depend on the make — the Tandy EC- 201 ( like most)
will totalise using the = key, others employ the + key.

20
switch. Spend some time preparing the trical connections of the device inserted ation with the calculator were mounted
surface and ensure that agood soldered into the tube and to make it watertight. together with the calculator on a
joint is made. When mounted, the sensor is no more wooden board as shown in the photo-
The switch board inside the calcu- than 20 mm from the tyre. graph. In the arrangement shown, the
lator sits on four plastic spigots and a The phototransistor, which inciden- calculator and relay circuit each have
way has to be found to get the board tally can be obtained from Tandy, and their own nine volt batteries.
back onto these spigots while closing the terminals were fixed to astrip of paxolin
case, otherwise there might be problems and slipped into the sensor tube and
with the relative positioning of the keys sealed in place with silicone rubber. To Setting up
on the case and the switches on the eliminate the effect of glare, a small Test the circuit in stages during con-
printed circuit board. When you have plastic tube, painted with matt black, struction. Set RV1 to mid position to
closed the calculator Isuggest that you was slipped over the phototransistor start with and adjust it subsequently to
secure the wires to the case with epoxy and held in place with silicone rubber. take account of the light level. The unit
glue to take the strain off the soldered The coax lead was fed through the gland is so simple that there is really nothing
connections. and soldered to the terminals. The else to do. This unit has been used at
The sensor assembly is shown in the gland was then sealed with epoxy glue speeds up to 50 kph but it might do alot
photograph. It is made of 23 mm square- and the sensor tube was sealed with sili- more and be of some interest to rally
section lightweight steel tube with a cone rubber. drivers. Cyclists might even be inte-
flange welded to it to match the turned- A point which must be taken into rested. Ibuilt my system to help me find
in flange of the mudguard. It is secured consideration is movement of the wheel my way to remote gold mining sites lo-
to the mudguard by two self-tapping vertically with respect to the mudguard cated in the depths of State forests.
screws. (when the vehicle is laden or when it The advantage of using acalculator to
One end of the tube is sawn off at an lunges). The ideal mounting point for do the counting is that, apart from being
angle to give an end parallel to the tyre. the sensor is at 3 o'clock. Thought ready-made, it will allow aconstant to
The other end is drilled and asmall steel should also be given to covering the end be keyed in so that it will display the
tube welded over the hole to form a of the sensor tube with clear plastic to exact distance travelled in yards,
gland. The purpose of the gland is to keep it free from dust and water. metres, miles etc., instead of just wheel
take the strain of the cable off the elec- The few components used in associ- revolutions.

Automobile
ICI IS 741
01 IS MJE3055
immobilisation
02 IS EIC461
0315 EIC177
01. 3ARE 1/44001
In order to discourage theft of an auto-
mobile, many people incorporate a
'secret' switch to break the ignition
circuit ( usually in series with the key
switch). This system is very easily by-
holds the battery voltage constant. The passed using 'jumper' leads.
Car voltage regulator battery voltage is adjusted by RV1 to A more effective method of immobil-
This circuit provides solid state control approximately 13.5 volts. isation is shown in Fig. 1, also using a
of battery charging. The field winding Under cold weather starting the 'secret' switch. A 10u F/400V capacitor
of the dynamo is initially energized via battery voltage drops very low. Once is switched across the points preventing
the ignition light as in a conventional the engine has started the internal resis- the ignition being started; at the same
system. Current flowing down the WL tance of the battery is also very low, time this prevents the use of 'jumper'
lead passes through Q1 to the F lead which would draw excessive current leads.
then to the field coil. Once the engine from the dynamo causing possible
.12V OR — 12V — le--
has started, current from the dynamo damage. To limit the current R4 is
passes through 02 to Q1. The ignition inserted in the main power lead from IGNITION SWITCH

light goes out because the WL lead rises the dynamo, the resistance of R4 is
in voltage to that of the battery. chosen so that at maximum current H.T. COIL

Current also passes through 05 to the (Typically 20 amps) 0.6 volts is

battery. The battery voltage is sensed developed across it, this then turns on e
by ICI, which is wired as acomparator, 03. When Q3 turns on current flows
once the voltage of the non inverting from the power rail through R2 to the
POINTS
input rises above that of the inverting base of Q2 turning it on, which in turn
input ( Held at 4.6 volts by D4) the out- turns off Q1 and cuts off current to the 10y
400v
put goes high. Current then flows field winding. The output from the
DISTRIBUTOR
through 03 and R2 to the base of Q2 dynamo then drops.
turning it on. This then pulls down the No changes have to be made to the
base of Q1 turning it off and cutting off existing wiring. The circuit can be
the current to the field winding. The housed in an old regulator box, 01, Q2
CAM
output from the dynamo then drops and 05 should be mounted on a heat
bringing down the battery voltage. This sink.

21
AUTOMOBILE

ADDED
COMPONENTS

Zr>

PIN 4
IC4
+5V CLR

YI,C779447788
IC8

L
7493 CLK
L 8
RO 1 OV
10k
L.
R24
10k
.5V

5'552
r
1
RV1
25k

I47OR
2

R7 B
*GI IC11 GI
74154
74154
CS R22 _1 R23
18k
Tp r — _ _J 18k

mit
07
ov 06 .BC559
BC559
+5V
.15V LEDS
LEDS
17-32
1-16

IC5,7 GND IC10.11 PIN 12 +Ve IC10,11 PIN 24

02-5 GND IC8 PIN 11 +Ve ICS PIN 4
NOTE
CO,C10 GND IC7 PIN 7 We IC9 PIN 14
THESE COMPONENTS FROM ORIGINAL
DESIGN ARE NOT USED R11,13,15-21
DISP 1

Analogue readout for readout in abar or ring display of LEDs. in aring surrounding adigital clock and
The LEDs each represent 200 rpm, the LEDs were green from 0-4800 rpm
ETI-318 digital tacho when the unit is calibrated properly, and red above 5000 rpm. This gave a
which gives a range of 0-6200 rpm, clear indication when the engine was
Here is a modification to the ETI-318 sufficient for most cars. being over-revved. Another fine idea
digital car tacho to produce an analogue The prototype had the LEDs mounted from D.L. Shaw of North Ryde, NSW.

Interior light delay

S.A. Johnson, Newcastle One big fault with most delay closed, or when the engine is started,
units is that the delay is so long that the whichever occurs first. The unit may be
The circuit shown will delay the car light is still on when you drive away, fitted without running any extra wires
interior light by about 10-15 S. which can be very annoying at night. to it and may be fixed behind the
depending upon the time constant of This unit, however, will extinguish the interior light.
R2-Cl. light either 10-15 S after the door is Capacitor Cl charges up through
R2, thus turning Ql, Q2, RL1 and Q3 off
o
EXISTING I . 12V after 10-15 S. When the door is opened
INTERIOR I
LIGHT e5) Cl is discharged by the opto- isolator
± C2 and begins to charge up after the door
is closed.
R1
If, however, the engine is started
RLA1
68OR
MIN DIL before 10-15 Sthe supply voltage will
RELAY
drop sufficiently to de-energise RL1,
(approx 3V) and give C2 a positive
pulse via Q3 which will charge Cl up
t
r-
sufficiently to switch Q1 off. NOTE:
The value of C2 and ZD1 may need to
01 02
8D132 90132 132 be altered to get this effect.
; OPTO- SOLATOR
The unit draws very little current
EXISTING when not in use and has only ten
IDOOR
1 SWITCH OV components.
o

22
Battery charge/discharge
indicator
A. A. C. McInnes

This circuit is intended to monitor car 'emu«

NOMINAL

battery voltage. It differs from other

circuits in that it provides indication of
the nominal supply voltage as well as
low or high voltage. This makes it
particularly useful for indicating de-
viation of the supply voltage from the
nominal.
Three LEDs are used — red, yellow
and green. Yellow indicates the
nominal voltage and red and green
indicate low and high values respec-
tively. RV1 and RV2 adjust the point
at which the red/yellow and yellow/
green LEDs are on or off. Therefore, a
wide supply voltage may be moni-
tored.
The prototype has been installed in
a car and set so that the red LED
comes on at 11V. 7 and the green
LED at 12V.8. The yellow LED is on
between these values.

ALL LEDS

>I
50n 3

II— IC5
4028 >I 4
IC2
Cl 5
D
9 4017 6

CE

>I
C1 01
IN
IC6
IC3 ,,
4516
OUT C 4028
>I
10T ZD1
IC4
>I
Vss 4042

ZD1 Vz = Vdd — Vss

470n

Solid state tacho circuit (cheap) gadgets. puts. On count " 9" IC3 is reset.
IC1a / b form an oscillator The number now on IC4 output is
P Stephenson which drives decade counter IC2. decoded by IC 5/6 to light up one of
During eight tenths of each cycle of 16 LEDs corresponding to rpm.
this section, binary counter IC3 is Calibration is by adjusting RV1
The circuit is designed to give a non- counted up. On count " 8", the coun- whilst inputing a known frequency
critical display for those who like ting stops and IC4 latches the out- (e.g. mains frequency 50 Hz).

23
AUTOMOBILE
Blinker controller
Having fitted a set of auxiliary blinker
lights to his car, Kris McLean VK2ZKL FROM FROM
PARKER BLINKER
of Granville Tech, was faced with the SWITCH CIRCUIT
problem of how to turn them on and
off. No problem, you say, put them in
parallel with the main blinker circuitry. MAIN
That is all very well if all you want BLINKER
(USUALLY
tham to do is blink on and off, but what PARKING
18W)
LIGHT
if you want: (USUALLY BD140
1) The auxiliary lamps to go on 6W)

when the parking lights are on. _ J

2) The auxiliary blinkers to light
at the same time as the main ones Kris spotted the fact that this was an
AUX. SIDE
BLINKER
when the parkers are off. exclusive-or function, the auxiliaries (USUALLY 6W)

3) The auxiliaries to go on in an coming on when either the main blink-

inverted cycle (ie to light up when ers or the parking light was lit, but not
the main blinkers go out and vice if both were lit. He devised the circuit
versa) when the parkers are on — here which he then fitted into aplastic
presumably for ' hazard flasher' pill bottle (useful things) and inserted
operation. into the wiring at each side of his car.

Car lamp failure warning

BRAKE
24 SWG WIRE OR Many lamp failure warning circuits
SIMILAR WOUND
SWITCH ON REED
BRAKE LIGHTS indicate only when the lamp being
monitored is supposed to be on. This
TO + 12 VON circuit will ' latch' to show that the
IGNITION
SWITCH o brake lights are faulty — even if the
SPDT REED
fault is intermittent, as is often the case
SWITCH with wiring faults.
4p7 Enamelled copper wire is wound
4A 100V 25V
SCR onto an SPDT reed switch until a
certain number of turns is found ( by
RESET FAIL
experiment) that will open the contacts
when both lamps are working. If either
of the lamps should fail, the contacts
LAMP
TEST
will remain closed, triggering the
thyristor.

•12V
could drive a relay, the contacts of
Over-rev safety cutout .12V which short the SCR gate to ground in
o

In the ETI-322 Over- rev Alarm project

0 COIL
o
the CDI. Mount the relay close to the
(March 1980, p.45 ), it was pointed out SCR. It is suggested that R7 be reduced
4-s-TeIML , to 1k.
that for road use, the alarm should
never be used to cut the ignition. How-
ICI
LIA2917N For a conventional ignition system,
ever, N. Pollock of Sandringham, the circuitry shown here should do the
Vic. points out that many high per- trick. The output stage of IC1 in the
formance engines used in racing cars ETI-322 alarm is taken via a 500 ohm
and boats have a very small speed resistor to the gate of a 2N4172 SCR,
margin between maximum power and shunting the points. The resistor R
physical destruction! For such engines, but requires somewhat more work for a (4R7, 2W) effectively shunts the points
used in competition, it may be desired to conventional system. The following when the engine exceeds the rev limits,
have an over- rev ignition cutout to pre- suggestions should assist those wishing and its value must be low enough to
vent the otherwise very expensive to convert the ETI-322 project to a prevent spark production, but high
consequences of amissed gear change or cutout. enough to leave sufficient signal for the
abroken propellor shaft. For a CDI system ( referring to the input comparator on the LM2917 in the
An ignition cutout cannot simply original article) Q1 can be used to pull ETI-322 alarm. It should be noted that a
turn off the low tension supply to the the gate of the CDI's SCR to ground, but cutout of this type will have some small
ignition system since this would deprive a germanium transistor lie: AC127) delay in operation when the engine
the cutout of its engine speed informa- should be used so that its c-e voltage speed is increasing rapidly. To reduce
tion. This problem is easily overcome for hard-on is lower than 0.6 V else the SCR this delay it is suggested that C4 be
.a capacitor discharge ignition system may still trigger. Alternatively, QI removed and C3 reduced in value.

24
 FROM
THYRISTOR
'Cold-start' for CD units RECTIFIER
CCT NC

12V EXISTING
Many cars are fitted with cold-start RELAY CAPACITOR
BALLAST
TO COLD START
coils, which operate at full current only Cl RESISTOR
CONTACT ON
on starting, then are fed via a ballast IGNITION SWITCH (NOT USED)
discarded when CD ignition is fitted, OR STARTER
SOLENOID TO
and the coil is run at 'full power' all the
TRIGGER
time. It's a simple matter to arrange for CCT
COIL
the cold-start circuit to operate a relay C2
PRIMARY
inside the CD unit which switches in a
second capacitor C2 across the main
one, thus increasing the energy of the
spark when the engine is starting. After current to the coil, thus alleviating any RLA is any 12 volt relay, and C2 can
starting, C2 is no longer in circuit and charging problems with attendant loss have the same value as the existing
the main capacitor Cl alone supplies of power at high revs. capacitor Cl, usually 470n or 1;10.

O Vec

O TO HORN

NOTES
ICI 4011
IC2 741
01 TO SUIT
TO SUIT
HORN

O ONO

Motorbike protector accessories. Diode D1 is mounted discharges through R3 and the com-
inside the box or other accessory and parator is triggered. However, if an
P. M. Jessop two leads are run to the rest of the enterprising thief tries to bypass the
circuit which should be mounted near alarm by shorting the leads, the
Many of the accessories fitted to a to the.horn. Gates IC 1aand IC1b form voltage on C2 falls to about 1/ ‘./ c.
2 c and
motorbike can be quite valuable and an oscillator which charges C2 again the comparator is triggered.
easily removed by a thief. On a through D1 and R2. The voltage on SW1 which shbuld be well con-
motorbike, atop- box may be lockable C2 (normally nearly Vcc ; is fed to cealed, disables the alarm which will
but can easily be removed complete. comparator IC2. If D1 is removed otherwise sound the horn if triggered.
This circuit will protect such from circuit by cutting the leads, C2

Auto garage light

The circuit here, from Andrew Mum of
Clarence Gardens in South Australia,
C1060
100R
was used to turn on a40 Watt light in
1k5 20k
• •
14W agarage.
15OR
The car headlights drop the
240V co resistance of the LDR, triggering the

5.„
INPUT cD
20p
6 555 555 timer, turning on the light.
20V
The light can be manually turned on

T
or off by the single pole two position
switch SW1. The LDR must be shielded
20V SW1
from daylight or it will trigger at sunrise.
1k LDR The time delay for the light to turn off
is set by the value of the 47
electrolytic capacitor.

25
AUTOMOBILE
100k 100k

1u0
CLOCK
IC4
1
111--M:1 TO
KEY

1C4b
o
TO KEY
+9V
o

47tà

IC4e
o
RESET TO 0 KEY
o
IC3

IC4d I. TO 0 KEY
I.

CLOCK 0 0 KEY
INHIBIT
o

WIRES ACROSS
KEYS OF CALCULATOR

TO PETROL PUMP
CONTACTS NOTE:
ICI IS 4011
IC2 IS 4081
IC3 IS 4017
IC4,5 ARE 4018

lkO

+12V
FROM
LED
470R IGNITION
LED

2k2
11V TO
1N4148 LOGIC
sty9V TO
CALCULATOR

Trip petrol meter

This.circuit can be used to measure the 'junk' calculator chosen — a suitable and the counter counts from zero. As
amount of fuel used in a single car calculator can be bought for the price of each output goes high the respective
journey with greater accuracy than that a couple of seven-segment displays switch of the 4016 is enabled, simulating
of the standard petrol gauge. The circuit alone akey press. When the counter reaches
counts the number of pulses of the The function of most of the circuitry '9', the clock is disabled and the pulses
(electric) petrol pump over the journey, is to initiate the calculator chip to from the petrol pump are enabled to
using a converted calculator to give a increment by one on each simulated switch the = key. Now each time the
digital display. Interesting results can be press of the = key. I used a TI30 petrol pump pulses, the displayed value
obtained by taking measurements ot the machine, so the sequence on power up on the calculator is incremented by one.
same journey whilst varying the route or was; C/CE , 1 , + , K. On power-up the At the end of the journey the displayed
just the driving style. reset pin of the 4017 is held high. As the value thus reflects the volume of petrol
Circuit operation depends on the capacitor charges, the reset pin goes low consumed since switch-on.

IGN SW

Seat belt indicator for vehicles Dl

+12V
SUPPLY

S. Winder LAMP
R1
12V 100mA
10M
As areminder to put the seat belt on, a
small opaque panel with the inscrip- D
01
tion " SEAT BELT" can be fitted to the VN88AF

dashboard with alamp behind, which S o

SGD
R2
lights up for ten seconds after the 070k

ignition has been turned on. The new

VMOS power FET can be used in a
very simple circuit to achieve this. The across a capacitor cannot change in the circuit falls to about 50 uA after a
current between source and drain is stantaneously (Cl is discharged by minute. The gate resistor R3 is pro-
dependent upon the gate/source vol- R1 when the supply is removed). As vided to protect the zener diode which
tage. When the ignition key is turned the capacitor charges up the gate is between gate and source of Q1, the
the + 12 volt supply is initially drop- potential of 0.1 drops and the lamp input resistance of Q1 is too high to be
ped across R2, since the voltage extinguishes. The current drawn by affected by this resistance normally.

26
 Automatic antenna retract IGNITION SWITCH

This circuit was designed to retract RLA1 RLA2

automatically amotorised car antenna (+12 V)
every time the ingnition is turned off. RIA
2
With ignition on, relays A and B are .12V
energised (total current drain about 02 D3 / o

100 rnA). When the ignition is turned

off, relay A is turned off and 12V from
R3
the battery drives the antenna down 15k
and charges Cl via R3. With the values 4-0
DOWN
0--
UP
I

shown for Cl and R3, after about athree 01

BC108
second delay relay C is energised and
interrupts power to relay B, removing RLB1

supply voltage from the circuit. This Cl

circuit suits the two-wire control 47), — _ _J
25V
motorised antennas commonly avail-
able and comes from Ian Hawke of RL8 EXISTING ANTENNA
AND SWITCH
North Richmond, NSW. The values of ° RLC1

R2 and R3 may need to be adjusted to

suit different motors as the retraction
o
.12V FROM
012.3 1N4001

time varies. BATTERY

•Ve BATTERY
TERMINAL

LAIN. Dummy car alarm flash asmall lamp. When the key is in
A flashing light on your car dashboard the ignition and the accessories circuit
could be an effective deterrent to is completed, the BC107 conducts and
the 555 is inactivated. As soon as the
thieves, leading them to believe that an
alarm system lurks behind it. accessories circuit is opened (by re-
moving the ignition key), the transistor
This circuit, from Gregory Smith of
is cut off and the 555 activated. So the
TO Meadowbank NSW, uses a555 timer dummy alarm is set every time you
(what would we do without them?) to
ACCESSORIES
CIRCUIT BC107
leave the car.

NOTES
IC2 6 IC3 ARE 4093

TO
HORN
RELAY
o

Car horn repeater When SW1 is pressed initially, long as the switch is closed.
I. Hopkins gates IC2a and IC3d propagate the LED 1is optional and monitors the
signal, turning on transistors Q1 - Q3 operation of the horn — very useful
and sounding the horn in the conven- during testing. The oscillator
This circuit allows the horn to sound tional manner. Releasing SW1 trig- frequency can be varied by altering
either continuously or repetitively gers the monostable IC1 ( a 555 C9, while the monostable period is
while the horn switch is pressed. The timer). If SW1 is pressed again while adjusted using R2 and C5. C3 and C6
second option is activated by pressing IC1 is active, flip-flop IC3a / b is set, suppress the effects of switch bounce
the horn button twice in quick suces- enabling oscillator IC3c and causing and R7 sets the mark/space ratio of
sion. the horn to operate intermittently as the oscillator to approx 3 1.

27
 AUTOMOBILE
R1
33k

LATCH
SW1

kph mph
RESET

Car lights reminder

RV1
kph
20k
RV2
mph
/D2 IC1
L o>

ENABLE
SINTEL
MOS 2 DIGIT
LATCHED COUNTER
20k
VssIG CLOCK 0
Many circuits to warn motorists that
D1
they have left their headlights on after
switching the engine off have appeared

T1.0u
in the past. I feel this circuit is an R2
- C1
improvement over many of these in 4k

that it requires no switches, and it is

only necessary to make three connect-
ions to the car's electrical system. NOTE
LAMP 1 01
2V5
Cl is 555
I P81
01,2 are 1N914 R3 'IMO
01 is 2N5777 3 j-
03

Digital bike speed so that the barriers interrupt the beam

This unit provides push-bike speed in operation. The counter operates
measurement between zero and 100 km whilst PB1 is pressed, but latches after
hr or 100 mph! The circuit is based on atime determined by RV1 or RV2. IC1
the Sintel MOS counter block, which and associated components. IC1 forms a
counts the pulses from the photo square-wave oscillator with variable
transistor Ql. mark-space ratio. The time for which
The pulses are provided by fixing 18 pin 3 is taken low is determined by RV1/
aluminium 'barriers' to the wheels. 01 RV2 — this enables the counter.
was an unmarked type in the prototype, The speedo accuracy is determined
in aTO 18 package. This mounts in an by the accuracy of setting of controls
old felt-tip pen case opposite the lamp RV1 and/or RV2.

Hazard warning flasher

If the ignition is switched off while
the lights are on, an audible warning LASHE III
IFNI I
is sounded for about ten seconds. This
tone is produced by NAND gates IC1/2, 4. 120 1
,_ire
IC1/3 and IC1/4. Operation of this
oscillator is inhibited by an ' 0' on the
gating input of IC1/2. This in turn
corresponds to a logic ' 1' present at
the input to IC1/1 while the ignition
switch is on, supplying a high logic
WARNING
IAMP

level TO IC1/1, the oscillator is thus

disabled. 1111,111
'NMI A IONS

When the ignition is switched off, the Hazard warning lights can be alife-saver flasher unit is required. As 02 carries
output of IC1/1 goes high, enabling the in motor vehicles. But the high cost of the full current of the right hand
oscillator. At this stage C2, which has commercial units prevents some people indicators ( 3.5A to 5.25A) it must be
until now been charged up via D1, from fitting them. The circuit I have mounted on a suitably large heatsink.
begins to discharge via R4. While the devised is both simple and inexpensive This can be achieved by fitting the
voltage on C2 is high, the gating input to install. circuit in an alluminium case 4" x 3" x
of IC1/4 allows oscillator operation, A flasher unit is used to operate the 11
4" and mounting 02 directly using a
however as C2 discharges, this action is left hand indicators. At each flash a mica shim and rubber bushes to isolate
inhibited. This occurs after about ten current of 5mA is supplied to the base it from earth. The flasher unit should be
seconds. of 01, switching it on. The emitter mounted on the outside of the case for
now goes high switching on 02 which ease of replacement.
Power for the circuit is provided by connects the right hand indicators. If The circuit shown is for negative
R3 and ZD1 from the vehicle's 12 V more lamps are to be lit ( i.e. when a earth, but is easily adapted for positive
rail. trailer is being towed) a more powerful earth vehicles.

28
 +12V

THIS CIRCUIT 7.SEGMENT

FOR EACH INPUT COMMON ANODE
OF 7447 DISPLAY

L _

BC107
7.SEGMENT
47k SEGMENTS b,c
COMMON ANODE
2201.1 DISPLAY
SEGMENTS c.c1,0,1,g
12V

NE555

+12V 2k2

10M

47k

33k
33n
NOTES:—
+12V I. ALL DIODES IP4904 OR SIM.
100k 2. V» k 12V. STABILISED IF DESIRED

10 Gallon digital fuel gauge B. R. H. King

This circuit is based on the design extinguishing all the lower- numbered display to give the figure one. This
published in ETI Circuits No 2, but has ones via the diode network. The out- display is also used to show an E
been extended to ten gallons without puts are fed to a decimal-to- BCD en- which is flashed by a 55Sturnedon by
the need for the large number of coder (two pieces of veroboard with output from the E 741. A certain
diodes which would be required if the tracks at right-angles, with diodes amount of trial-and-error is required to
original circuit were used. Also incor- sandwiched between). Each of the .get values to suit individual cars,
porated is aflashing Ewhen the tank four outputs drives a BC107 to sink display types etc and the voltage
is nearly empty. the inputs of a 7447 BCD-to- 7 seg- divider at the input provides bias to
The input is the voltage across the ment converter. This system is more compensate for the non-zero output of
fuel- tank ' sender which typically economical in space and components the 741"s in their off-state. The circuit
rises from zero at full tank, to about than adiscrete diode, decimal, 7seg- needs to be calibrated by filling the
5V when empty. As the voltage falls, ment matrix. Output ten also provides tank gallon by gallon and adjusting
the higher- numbered 741 comes on, drive to segments b and cof another the 10 kpresets. The prototype works
very satisfactorily.

Cold start ignition FROM

IGNITION
TO IGNITION
CIRCUIT
SWITCH
M. C. Polgreen

The heart of the circuit is a small

auxiliary battery with a capacity of
one or two amp hours. If a nickel
cadmium battery is used then R1
should be increased in value so that
the maximum trickle charge current
is not exceeded. R2, ZD1, and RLA
connect B1 into circuit when the
ignition is switched on, thereby GROUND —0
reducing the amount of additional tage to drop. When the main battery voltage rises, forward biases D1 and
wiring. Any small 6 volt relay with a voltage falls, D1 becomes reverse reverse biases D2. Therefore the
contact rating of 5amps will do, and biased and D2 forward biased, ignition current comes from the
ZD1, R2 ensure that the relay will therefore allowing B1 to supply cur- main battery, and B1 is trickle
remain energised when the starter rent to the ignition circuit. When the charged via R1. The two diodes D1,
motor causes the main battery vol - engine is running, the main battery D2 should be rated at 50 V, 10 A.

29
COMPUTERS

External input for micros

This simple circuit provides a micro
with an 8 bit switch/external signal
input port. The state of the switches
controls the byte read by the micro,
but any totem pole TTL signal applied
to the external input socket over- rides
the signal from the corresponding
switch. The value of the resistor is not
EXISTING CIRCUITRY as critical. The circuit is shown for
only one bit.
VDU bleeper
When using the ETI 630/631/632 VDU, .5V

one problem I've come across is it's EXTERNAL

totally silent operation! Being used to INPUT

a teletype (which is far from silent), I

find that when entering lists of numbers, 1/6 0050

for instance, it is necessary for me to The operation of the circuit is fairly

keep looking at the screen for the pro- straightforward, the reset pin of the 555 100 TO STANDARD
GENERAL PURPOSE
cessor's ' prompts'. To alleviate this being used to gate its oscillation. RV1 INPUT PORT

problem, the following circuit modifi- sets the frequency (which is largely a
cation will produce audible ' bleeps' matter of personal preferrence) and the
whenever characters are received from switch allows the bleeper to be switched
V
the processor. off when dumping onto tape.

+5V +5V

—
Cheap micro output A14 DECODER

A13

In simple systems were little or no out-

put bus buffering is needed, users may
shy away from using standard TTL due L _
to the drive requirements this places on
the µP chip. Where unlatched outputs —
are acceptable, buffers are often used if
DOO
standard TTL is to be driven. This is not
always necessary.
Looking at the diagram, it appears 010
that the micro will have to pull down
one TTL load per gate and so many
TTL loads if several of these ports are ozo
used. This is not so, due to the nature of
the input to the gate — once one input 030
is low, only a few µA are required to
drive the other and so the bus loading is
negligible. Of course, the enable line
still needs to be driven from aTTL out- D40
put but as this is usually derived from a
decoder, it should prove no problem.
050

D60

{->
2 x7401
D70
OPEN-COLLECTOR
QUAD NAND

30
 Simple cassette interface Take the output of the 7402 to the
•5V serial input link LK3.
R Thomas, Port Talbot Component values are not that
R2
242 critical and by inserting another resistor
The cassette interface on my NASCOM1 .ind capacitor of the same value in front
has never worked correctly and despite of Cl and R1 the response will be
many frustrating fault finding sessions ;mproved, although Idid not find these
1N4148 the only solution was to replace it. No necessary. The interface does require a
o- 1
01 OUTPUT
BC108 originality is claimed for this circuit. fairly large input signal and the volume
OR
SIM 11. IAR Indeed anyone with a basic knowledge setting is rather precise but once set the
INPUT
of electronics or radio will recognise interface should work perfectly. Al-
part of it as an envelope detector or though built for the NASCOM, the
demodulator. No alteration of the interface will work with any low speed
cassette output of the NASCOM is re- cassette interface system that switches
quired assuming it dumps properly. an audio frequency on or off.

2102 memory tester allows the write of a signal onto the

This circuit provides for the testing of memory, then continuously reads it to
1024 bit X 1 memories, such as the ensure the data is stable.
2102 series, in two modes. Mode- 1 In both modes, the output from the D2 kit modification
cycles the memory continuously memory is compared with what should
through write and read, alternately be there, and if there is a difference,
writing zeroes and ones then reading to an LED flashes, accompanied by aclick E1
ensure the write was successful. Mode-2 from the speaker. In mode-2, on power
on, a continuous noise will be hearc
from the speaker, on pressing the NIV o
'WRITE' button this should vanish. 74156 f. o
Similarly, a brief pulse of noise will be CONNECT O 0 CONNECT
JUMPER O o JUMPER O CUT o
heard in mode- 1 before the write is \% 11 O
TRACK
o
O
completed. The oscillator frequency O o
is about 20 kHz with components
—04 o
arr :_/-0 O o
shown.

c__F-
0
TRACK O o
In mode- 2, when the supply voltage
O o
drops below 4.5V memory is not stable 1 10 O o
for more than a fraction of a second,
IC1c NOTE: O o
ICI IS 7404 although this does not show up using
IC2,3844 ARE 7493 O o
IC5 IS 7486 mode- 1.

Î
V
CK
A
When using the Motorola D2 kit with
13
IC2 cc external RAM located at 0000, the 512
C AO
e bytes of RAM supplied with the kit is
D 'overlayed' by the external chips. This
4
5
means that the user has 'lose his 512
6 3
bytes.
c 7 2102 4.5v
Allen Bruce of Millfield thought
8 2 SOCKET 9 that this was abit of waste ( excuse the
1C3 C 1 pun — Ed) and decided to do something
about it. He has effectively moved the
D 16
15
on-board RAM so that is starts at A000,
allowing the use of all the RAM in the
9 143 11 12 system.
RAM Din Dout The modifications are as follows:
C Cut the track from the MC74155 at
B pin 4. This is the 'not RAM' signal going
1G4
C to the four RAM sockets. Connect a
piece of wire between pin 11 of the
CYCLE TEST SW' 74155 and the track going away to the
1k8
four RAM sockets.
READ TEST Pin 10 of A000 RAM is connected
+5V to + 5V. Cut this track and take pin 10
to address line 9. The best place to
SW2 IWRITE
connect this is at the place where " El"
is marked on the top side of the board.

31
COMPUTERS

Simple software- controlled CONNECT TO KEYS AND THROUGH TO VCC

e

keyboard encoder
This circuit, sent in by J. Hardy from
Cheltenham in Victoria is suitable for 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12322 21 2 9 18 17 16
encoding hexadecimal and can be 01234567 89A BCDE
24
VCC
adapted for baudot or even ASCII. The
encoder is based on an inexpensive ENABLE
WHEN USED IN LARGER
SYSTEMS CONNECT TO
74150 16:1 line multiplexer which is 12 74150 D DECODED ADDRESS LINES
ONO
9 OTHERWISE SHOULD BE
connected to the MPU address lines and EARTHED
is controlled by asimple program which
D
could reside in the microcomputer ROM 15 14 13 11 oto
or RAM.
The MPU utilizes an internal 16-bit
data counter to address the multiplexer
and is incremented if no response is AO Al A2 A3
INT
received. The address is cycled through
over and over until an interrupt is MPU
received from the keyboard. This
indicates that a key has been pressed
and that the address in the MPU data
counter is the binary equivalent for that
key (least significant bits). plexers, 16 lines each and using more
The interrupt service routine could address lines to enable each multi-
transfer the four least significant bits plexer one at a time ( i.e. short form
of the data counter to the user program ASCII-6 bits can be encoded by four
area and then loop back to collect the multiplexers, four lines address all
next keypressings. multiplexers and the other two lines
The encoder can also be adapted to select only out of four multiplexers to
longer codes by using more multi- be enabled).

Improved sync for

the 640 VDU

Having spent some time getting his 640

VDU to produce sync which his modified
TV would lock on, Mark Johnson of 01

Wahroonga in Sydney, sent us this

remarkably simple modification. This
change will improve the stability of the
display, particularly on the first lines
following the vertical retrace. R9
True composite television sync has
horizontal sync pulses during the
vertical retrace. A simplified TV sync
pulse waveform is shown in A in the exclusive -OR gate, followed by an In normal TV sync, horizontal sync
diagram here, compared to the original inverter. As both the ex-OR and the pulses are transmitted during the
640 VDU sync in B and the sync inverter are available spare in packages vertical sync period, allowing continued
produced by this modification in C. on the VDU board, this modification phase lock of the horizontal oscillator.
The simple sync pulses generated by can be made without extra parts or The ex-OR approximates this character-.
the 640 VDU are often not adequate to cost! istic allowing horizontal sync pulses
drive modified TVs which many 640 Diodes D1 and D2 are removed and during the vertical retrace. While not
owners may be using. Whilst the sync their cathode pads connected to the ideal, this modification enables quicker
pulses produced by this modification inputs of the ex-OR ( in IC17) by flying phase lock after the retrace, stabilizing
are not ideal, life is made alittle easier leads. The output of the ex-OR ( pin 3, the first few lines.
for the TV's horizontal oscillator during IC17) is linked to the inverter (
in IC32) At the same time, without the diode
retrace ( orjust after!). input, the inverter output being voltage drops, the overall sync magnitude
The changes are simple. The diode returned to the anode pads of DI and available is a little greater, generally
OR gate, D1 and D2, is replaced by an D2. resulting in better locking.

32
 CONTROL

Immersion heater protector FUSE

13A
LIVE à

230V COIL
RELAY
K. Cooper 15A CONTACTS

The circuit was designed to cut the

power to an immersion heater should
the thermostat fail. This stops the
NO.
water boiling over and all the subse-
r — —
quent damage. The cutout is fitted to TO HEATER ( 3kW), 1
awarm part of the tank ( not too hot, or So THERMOSTAT 70 ° C THERMAL
CUTOUT SWITCH MAINS
120k
it will trip in normal use). Thus, if the I RESET
SWITCH
1
water starts to boil, the cutout trips, NEON 1
cutting all power and lighting the FITTED TO TANK
neon.
The unit must be fitted in a well
insulated box and care should be
L _
FAULT
taken with the wiring to the cutout, INDICATOR

which can be fixed and insulated with

NEUTRAL
epoxy resin.
E
o EARTH
o

Low cost transducer amplifier

Capacitative transducers are often used most types of frequency-to-voltage
to measure displacement or pressure. converter.
Impulse power The versatility of the low-cost 555
integrated circuit timer can be utilised
with these types of transducer to
provide afrequency modulated output.

I
EM401 This output, fed into a frequency-to-
SOLENOID
voltage converter, will give an analog
output voltage proportional to the
capacitance of the transducer.
The 555 module is connected with
SCR the transducer Ct substituted for the
A C C2OD Rl
external timing capacitor. Precise setting
of the duty cycle is obtained with
resistors Ra and Rb and with pins 2and CAPACITIVE

6 connected together, the device will

IlEANSDUCT
THE IvITT IVC`r

trigger itself and thus free- run as a C

MODULA11
moTPu1

multivibrator. As the output will source

100o

1(HIP CI
or sink current up to 200 mA or drive
lOpf
TTL circuitry, it can be fed directly into
OV

This circuit is often used in electrically

powered stapling machines, impulse
hammers etc. and causes load Temperature stabilized relay
current to flow through the load for one
complete half-cycle of the ac supply PcEu t

whenever SW1 is actuated ( i.e. moved Scp. a. Accurate relay trip- point operation can
from its normal position [ 1] to energise- be obtained over an ambient tem-
load position [ 2]). The circuit is perature range from — 50 ° C to +90 ° C
using this simple circuit.
arranged so that the SCR is always
triggered at the beginning of a positive The temperature sensitivity of the
half-cycle of the ac supply, even though silicon transistor 01 is balanced out by
the switch may be closed randomly at the silicon diode Dl. Gain/temperature
any time during the previous two stabilization may be obtained if required
preceding half-cycles. by using a positive temperature co-
efficient resistor for R3.

33
CONTROL
Variable temp. controller
Speed controller the mains supply, with diodes D5-8
ensuring unidirectional current flow
Some AC motors judder badly at through the transistor.
low speeds when controlled by triacs Bias to the transistor is supplied by
TO
using phase control. This circuit gives the mains transformer and controlled CONTROLLED
very smooth operation with no RF I. by RV1. Q1 must be able to withstand UNIT

01 acts as a 'variable resistor' in peak mains voltage (- 350V).

2k

NOTE:
D1-4 ARE 1N4001
D5-8 ARE 1N4007
01 IS 8U2800A lk

This thermostat circuit, from

P. Schoenwald of Doonside NSW,
employs the pull- in current of arelay to
determine the trip point, the trip tem-
perature being set via apotentiometer.
The sensor is acommon thermistor.
+9v The thermistor is part of the bias cir-
cuit for a super gain Darlington pair
01 is IN914 using a TT801 and 2N3055. When the
01 is ZIX 300 voltage on the wiper of the potentiome-
021s ZTX500
ICI is 4007 ter exceeds about 1.2 volts, the two
transistors will be biased on. When the
bias current increases, determined by
the decrease in resistance of TH1 and
the setting of the potentiometer, the
390 2N3055 collector current will exceed
the relay pull- in current at aparticular
temperature and the relay will operate.
At atemperature lower than this point,
the bias current to the Darlington pair
will decrease such that the collector
ov current will fall below the relay hold- in
current and the relay will return to the
non-operated condition.
Temperature to frequency converter The switching temperature is deter-
This circuit uses the fact that when fed the forward voltage of DI falls tending mined by the exact range of resistance
from a constant current source, the to turn Ql off. The output voltage from variation with temperature of TH1 and
forward voltage of asilicon diode varies 01 will thus rise, and this is used as the the setting of the 2k potentiometer.
with temperature, in areasonable linear control voltage for the CMOS VCO. The 2N3055 may need asmall heat-
way. With the values shown, the device gave sink depending on the relay used. TH1
Diode DI, and resistor R2 form a an increase of just under 3 HzC -1 should be mounted remote to the circuit
potential divider, fed from the constant (between 0 C and 60 C) giving a such that it measures the temperature
current source. As the temperature rises frequency of 470 Hz at 0 C. of the controlled unit.

Electronic thermostat
Yet another idea for a555. This circuit,
from Benjamin Simons of Beeeroft,
NSW, uses a 555 timer IC to switch a
relay when the temperature on ather-
mistor reaches apreset upper level and
turn it off when the temperature
reaches apreset lower level. The on and
off states are determined by the values
of R1, R2 and R3 and on the resistance
of the thermistor. You'll have to TO CONTROLLED
CIRCUIT
experiment to find them o
Mr Simons suggests the circuit may o
be used to control a ventilator, fan or
chemical bath.

34
Half-wave control
One of the most common
Improved half-wave
applications for SCR phase control
As may be seen from the circuit diagram
systems is speed control of
it is necessary to bring out separate
commutator motors — such as those
connections from the armature and field
used for food mixers, sewing machines,
windings. This is generally a simple
pottery wheels etc.
operation and providing it can be done
However one of the disadvantages of
the circuit will provide stepless speed
controlling motor speed by varying
control down to virtual standstill. In
input power is that as the effective
this circuit the 20 V zener diode provides
power input is reduced to slow down
a constant voltage for the discharge of
the motor — the torque available is
Cl. Capacitor C2 and resistor R4 are
reduced as well.
connected from gate to cathode of the
This may be overcome by using a
SCR to stabilize the circuit by
feedback signal to advance the firing
preventing the SCR from being triggered
angle in proportion to the load on the
by extraneous signals.
motor — thus increasing the power
input if more torque is required.
The circuit shown ( right) achieves reducing the back emf — hence D2
this load compensating function by becomes forward biased earlier in the
deriving a feedback signal from the cycle (triggering the SCR earlier in the
armature back-emf ( produced by the cycle), and thereby supplying the motor SPEED
ADJUST
residual field of the motor). In this with more power to offset the effect RV2

circuit, the SCR is triggered when the of the loading.

voltage on the wiper arm of potentio- The component values shown are
meter R2 rises to a high enough value suitable for most fractional horse-power
to forward bias diode 02 — thus motors — for optimum results it will be
allowing gate current to flow. As the necessary to adjust component values
back emf tends to reverse bias 02, to suit the motor used.
the firing point of the SCR depends The circuit described above will
largely upon the back emf and this in provide stepless speed control over a
turn is afunction of speed. If the motor wide range of motor speed — but tends
is loaded, the speed reduces, thus also to cause jerky operation at low speeds.

The detector is built around an applied to the inverting input of the 741
Condensation detector RS307-913 reflective opto- switch. This op amp from the voltage divider R2
consists of an infra-red diode and a and R3. The voltage at the non-
T.M.H. jenvey, Langport. photo Darlington transistor in one inverting input can swing either side of
package arranged so that when a
T his circuit was designed to prevent reflector is placed close to the switch
the reference voltage depending upon
the conduction state of the photo
condensation on a glider when stored (optimum distance 4.6 mm) the photo Darlington and the setting of the
in its trailer, by switching on a fan Darlington is turned on. In this device sensitivity control, PR1. Positive
heater as soon as condensation occurs the reflector is asmall piece of highly feedback is obtained via R4, providing
and off again when the condensation polished stainless steel, the reflectivity Schmitt trigger action to prevent relay
has evaporated, but it is equally of which is reduced when misted by chatter at the changeover point. The
applicable to kitchens, bathrooms or condensation, thus switching the rest of the circuit is straightforward, but
anywhere with a condensation heater on. ensure that the relay is adequately
problem. A reference voltage of about 4V is rated.

FSI
NOTE:
ICI IS 741
DI IS 1N4148
D2-5 ARE 1N4001
01 is 13D136

- R2

®.1
36k e3
D COPYRIGHT MODMAGS Ltd

D2

cl L R5
1009 OPTO 4k7
18V 7
SWITCH Ti
RS 307-913 12V 6VA

RI A cautionary note — if the device

à
1k2

DO
is used in abathroom afan heater must
R4 R
not be used; wall mounted radiant
wE

POWE

05
120k RELAY
heaters only are permissible.

35
CONTROL

12.0

FAN

L
N

0/
IMO
D2
100002

R1
1000
TIC
ZOID MAINS
— VIA 3A FUSE

03
02 1144005
RS
2500 F/IW
1011
Re
363
01
2113/04

••••»

1W TA
Ci
100n/400V

1-
POLYESTER
ID'
12V

1000u

ON

running indefinitely. The trigger or If the light is still on at the end of

triggers are connected to the live the timing period, the IC is retrig-
side of one or more lights, which, gered, but, because C3 has not been
Extractor fan controller when switched on, cause Q1 to con- fully discharged, the next pulse is
duct and trigger IC1. This is a less than four minutes. Thus, the fan
B. Carro!, Aldershot monostable which gives a pulse runs for four minutes or the period
period of ? bout four minutes and its the bathroom light is on plus two
output gates the triac so that the fan minutes, whichever is greater.
This timer is useful for controlling a runs. R1, Cl protect the triac against
bathroom extractor fan, if your reswitching; C2, C5 protect against Note: Careful insulation of the
family forgets to use it or leaves it mains transients. PCB from the case is necessary.

' A FS I DI
,l1404
02
EM404

240v 10„
II r1
o
12V
Cl
1000p
35V

RI VAL V1
100k ENERGISING
Coll
240v
AC 01
TTF101

Electronic ballcock can simply be a couple of bolts through needed for IC2 to change the inverting
the side of a fibreglass pool). When the input voltage of IC3 past it hysteresis
After fitting a filter system to his pool, water lcvel is low the probe will go open point.
Clifford Heath of Camberwell found circuit and the output of IC2 will go While the output of IC3 is high, QI
that the pump had to be re-primed low. C2 will begin to charge and after will turn on and energise the water
every time the water level dropped due about 2 minutes, the output of IC3 supply valve coil. Care should be taken
to evaporation. will change state. This 2 minute delay with the valve mains supply — it's a
This circuit detects low water level in is to prevent waves from setting the good idea to put the end of the water
aswimming pool and switches the water device off prematurely. supply hose into the pool. This will
supply on for about 20 seconds when it Once triggered, IC3 (which is remove the possibility of mains-voltage
occurs. connected as aSchmidt trigger) will give water falling into the pool due to a
The inverting input of IC2 is held a high output voltage for at least 20 short inside the valve.
low by ashort across the probe (which seconds — this is the length of time

36
 GAMES

HAND CONTROL
I TOY
AND LEAD

Ti
240V I5V IA

A
0-0

INPUT
N
0-0
SYVI
E
o

02
2N3055

Power supply suits is a hand- made wire resistor adjusted to voltage. RS is 1k for 3 volts, 1.8k for
get one amp output current with the 4.5 volts, 3k for 6 volts and 10k for 9
battery-operated toys output shorted. A small four pin socket volts.
is n-.ounted on the case for the output. For cars with no speed or direction
Here is a power supply for toys such as A four core extension lead is made to control a hand control unit goes
race tracks, cars, Meccano motors etc. go between the power supply and the between the extension lead and the
modified from the ETI 221 Basic power toys, with plugs on both ends. cars. Control is by a 30 k log pot and a
supply. A four pin socket is fitted to each double pole change over switch fitted
The power supply components are toy so that one extension lead is in atobacco tin.
fitted inside a metal box with the sufficient for all toys. Resistor RS is Diode D5 is fitted only to toys that
2N3055 in contact with the case. R6 fitted to this socket to set the correct must not go in reverse.

RI
LE01- -170 N

Slot car brake lights

C2c II 7

RVI 100k ,d11

•
A novel circuit for all you modellers. f 3 7 II

P. Ruse of Ferntree Gully has added IC 7h) 0.1L CLOCK

IC ? U 1
some realism to his slot cars by build-
14" 13
ing this little circuit into them. When
+ 91" R SF r vss NU 1811 V DI

the voltage on the track reduces, the

NOTE 0 IC ? PIN 14
I.E Ds light up. Neat and simple. ICI IS 4072
IC? IS 4011
Unfortunately, this circuit is not LED 1-8 ARE TIL 209
0 9V
IC ?
applicable to model railways as trains PIN ?
PB 1

don't have brake lights.

CZ ,==
Zo2 ••••
R2
10

SL O T
Pot shot
CAR
BRUSHES
This is a circuit for a game of the done, the whole display is blanked for
shooting gallery variety. IC2a and b a few seconds signifying a hit. Other-
form an astable multivibrator clocking wise, the LED which was lit remains lit.
IC1 which causes LEDs 1-8 to flash in When the push button is released, C2
turn LED 5 is the " target" LED and discharges through R2 taking 8 pin 13
the object of the game is to depress low again and the LEDs will start to
RBI just as LED 5 comes on. If this is flash again.

37
GAMES

Proper identification for BALL

6

T.V. game chip R1 104

01
Many of the T.V. game circuits, whether LEFT BAT R2
10
10k

ready built or as amagazine project, use

VIDEO OUT
the popular GI 8500 chip. The standard SCORE AND
FIEL')
TO MODULATOR

circuit gives white players, ball and 24 O

court on a black background. The

circuit described below gives a grey
OUTPUTS
background, one white and one black FROM
player and awhite ball and court. This AY - 3-asno

is aesthetically more pleasing and has

the advantage of making the squash
game less confusing.
2
The modifications are shown below. R14
RIGHT BAT 5
The output on 02 emitter spends the 9
10k
0
majority of the time at a "grey" level, NOTE
and this "grey" voltage is defined at the IC1 - Vcc PIN 14. OV PIN 7
D1 - D4 GP SILICON SWITCHING
01-03 GP SILICON NPN
junction of R6 and R7. WHITE WHITE
04 2N3053
ICI 4011 CMOS
The three signals from the 8500 BAT BOUNDARY

requiring a white output are Ball ( pin 6V —

T SYNC

--
j
6), left player ( pin 10) and the score 4V —
PULSE
t
and field ( pin 24). These are "OR'ed" WHITE
will TE
BALL
together by 01 to produce a white 2V — 9OUNOARY
-t -

level defined by the ratio of R1- R3 GREY BLACK

BACKGROUND BAT
and R4. The white level on 01 takes the OV —

output on Q1 to white via diode D4. WAVEFORMS ' LINE SCAN)

The one black signal is the right bat

(pin 9). This is buffered by two stages of when the bats cross in squash) the white With the values shown and asupply
a CMOS 4011 chip, and turns on 04. from Q1 will predominate. of 9V the open circuit output voltages
This takes the output to ablack voltage The sync output from pin 16 is are White 6V, Grey 4V, Black 2V and
defined by R6, R7, R8. If awhite and inverted and turns on 03 pulling the sync bottom OV. The output is positive
black signal occur together (as happens output down to sync level, OV. going video.

•12v

Controller for
model trains
Most model railway controllers have the
unfortunate characteristics of giving
instant starts and stops to the train which
would be very unnerving for the model
passengers. The circuit described gives a
steady acceleration or deceleration on
speed changes, and the speed and acceler-
ation controls do not interact.
The power supply is 12V split by R8
and R9 so it appears to the op amps as
a ± 6 V supply. Voltages in this
description are referenced to the 6V POW

centre tap. IC1 and IC2 together form

aunity gain inverting amplifier, with the
gain determined by R1 and R2. The a constant rate until it is equal in the transiswr Vb. drops. The motor
slope of IC2's output, is determined by magnitude ( but opposite in sign) to the should have some current cut-out or
Cl and R3/RV2. The output of IC1 will voltage on RV1). This is summarised limit connected in series with it to
thus take up one of three states: +6V on the waveform drawing. protect the transistors.
(hard positive), 0 V ( balanced), —6V Voltage b drives buffer amplifiers In use RV1 sets the speed, and RV2
(hard negative) dependent on the IC3 and IC4 to give a push pull 12 V the acceleration. It gives avery realistic
output voltage being more positive than drive to the motor for forwards and train control, although much more skill
equal to or more negative that the out- reverse. Note that the feedback is needed to stop a train accurately at a
put voltage set by Mil. The output resistors R5 and R7 are taken from the station platform. In this respect it is
voltages will thus ramp up or down at transistor emitters to compensate for very close to driving areal train.

38
 o

It la

2
2
RV1
500h
ICI 14
74C 14

I-44- CO 103
4017
4017

.--1.411— e

10u

R2
110R

RI
110R

"\A"\e`--•

OV

'AMBER' RED' .614EN'

Traffic light controller Michael Miller

This circuit is relatively simple and do), to IC3, a quad OR gate, which IC2 should be taken to pin 15 of the
gives a realistic timing sequence. sorts the consecutive decade pulses IC2 of the other circuit. This second
IC1 sets the timing clock pulse and into three groups, monitored by the circuit should have pin 15 biased to
can be adjusted by RV1. 1C2 is a three coloured LEDs. OV via a 100 k resistor. When the
decade counter, whose output To couple this circuit to a similar first circuit is showing red, the
pulses are mainly fed through diode one, for the other intersection of the second circuit will be showing
buffers ,
,
any small cheap diodes will crossroads, the pulse from pin 1 of green.

8 ohm

Supply protector OV

For those expensive ( computer) boards,

place a 1W ( or bigger) zener diode
across each supply rail, with a voltage
Siren circuit
rating 1-2V above the rail voltage. A This circuit simulates the sound of an The changing voltage on the base of the
6.2 V one will be ideal for a 5volt rail, American police car. Just the thing to first transistor changes the frequency of
for example. It doesn't cost much and stimulate a child's ebbing enthusiasm the oscillator, rising quickly in fre-
when you drop the 50 V supply leads for an expensive Christmas present! quency and falling slowly.
across the 5 V rail ( accidentally), the The 555 timer is used as a very low
zener will protect the circuit and in frequency oscillator giving regular Flashing LEDs can be added with a
the case of gross overload will go short charges to the 22u capacitor, Cl. The current limiting resistor at the point
(usually). You blow a 50e zener instead capacitor discharges through RI and R2 marked 'A'. Submitted by David
of $50 of ICs. until the next pulse comes from the 555. Brighton of Huonville, Tasmania.

39
GAMES

PUSH SWITCH

SW2 PP3

IMO 14

12

02

68OR
68OR
Cl 2u2
2200u
22k 47OR

GREEN
RED

NOTES:
ICI IS 7472 FLIP FLOP
01 ANY GP UNIJUNCTION
EG 11843
02 BC108 OR SIMILAR

Heads or tails
Steven Snook

This circuit differs from previous Heads charges via the 2k resistor, when SW1 is fed into an inverter, Q2, then into
or Tails circuits in that when the switch is released Cl produces a gradually the 7472 flip flop. The 470R preset
is released the switch is released the decreasing voltage into the emitter must be adjusted to give equal chances
LEDs will continue to flash at acontin- junction of Q1. This produces aslow of each LED. A novel, untested, modifi-
ually decreasing speed, until eventually drop in frequency of oscillation, the cation would be to omit the red LED
they stop and one or the other will oscillation ceases when Cl is completely and drive another 7472, this would give
remain on. When SW1 is depressed Cl discharged. The output of the oscillator four combinations instead of two.

+Ve
02-5
2AMP
16V
SILICON
BRIDGE

rfic107
2N3035 R3
IRO
I6V
A.C. RV2 R2
DI 1k0 5k6

OUTPUT

—Ve

Train controller with Switch Si switches in the inertia output and provides short-circuit pro-
inertia and brake simulator (comprising D1, RV1, R2 tection. When a short occurs, D2
and C2). S2 switches in the brake, the lights up and the current into Q1 is
M. Bright action of which is altered by RV3. reduced. Hence, the output is
RV2 controls the amount of idertia, so reduced. Two 1W resistors are used
that the train can take as long as ten for R3,4 rather than a wiiewound
D2-5 full wave rectifies the AC and Cl seconds before even moving. Q1,2 /W resistor, which would cost more.
2
1
smooths the output. RV1 acts as a act as a Darlington pair, supplying S3 simply reverses the polarity and
regulator controlling train speed. current to the output. Q3 monitors the hence the train.

40
 ; 0-25Hz CLOCK INPUT

0 lk

•-"VVVI

14

l
Electronic casino
This is a game of chance which can be 40178
e_0
10v
played by up to seven players. The
decimal point has three connections
which gives the house athree out of ten
1 #02 T03
chance of taking all bets. The clock is set
at a frequency which gives a rapidly
flickering display. When aplayer holds 01 02 03 04 05 06 07
down a key for a few seconds and re- DP o
+10V
leases it the display stops and anumber
1k 1k > 1k > 1k > 1k ≥ 1k 1k
or point is displayed. The odds are on the
point. Submitted by Keith Bennet and
Peter White of Burwood, Victoria. A 8 C E F G
LEO DISPLAY
DI] 01-07 2N4401
D1-133 1N4148
All 11G
a=f=a

Channel splitter for radio control

This circuit is designed to replace the by the tuning circuit R1, VR1 and Cl, ion. If avoltage output is required then
electromechanical reed units used as and is given by the formula:- a resistor can be connected from Pin 6
channel-splitters in radio controlled to the positive supply and the voltage
models. 1 Hz output taken from Pin 6.
The circuit is based on the MC 1310P The MC1310P is triggered when the
Cl ( R1 + RV1)
integrated circuit, a chip that is prom- input to Pin 2 contains its tuned fre-
arily a stereo decoder for use in stereo quency at a level greater than 16 mV.
radio tuners. When used as astereo de- The value of Cl is chosen to give It can be triggered by noise if the noise
coder, the MC 1310P automatically the required tuning range for the preset level is greater than 16 mV. Some radio
switches itself from the mono mode RV1. For example, if Cl is 10,000 pF, control transmitters tend to transmit
to the stereo mode whenever its input then the tuning range is approximately noise when they are not transmitting a
contains the 19 kHz subcarrier of a 750 Hz to 1,000 Hz. tone, and if this is the case the trans-
stereo multiplex signal at asufficiently The output is aswitched current out- mitter should be modified to prevent
high level ( 16 mV), and switches back put between Pin 6 of the chip and the noise being transmitted. This could
to the mono mode when the 19 kHz positive supply rail. This current should be done by making the transmitter
subcarrier ceases to be present. Pin 6 not exceed 35 mA and so a470 ohm re- transmit an extra unused tone when-
of the integrated circuit drives astereo sistor is inserted in the output connect- ever it is not transmitting one of the
indicator lamp to give avisual indication ion from Pin 6 as short circuit protect- used audio tones.
of whether the circuit is operating in the
stereo or mono mode. TO 01+1R MC1310P CIRCUITS
TUN! TI 10 Dif If RINI AUDIO
It is this lamp driver facility of the IRI out NC IC S

MC 1310P that makes it an ideal chip o

to use as a channel-splitter. When used IIV

as a channel-splitter the circuit is not

tuned to the 19 kHz of the stereo
decoder but to the audio frequency that
the circuit is required to detect, and the
lamp driver output from pin 6 is used to
drive a power transistor controlling a
motor or other device.
The output from the detector of a
tryPuT 1140M
1kC 1014 01
c H(Ckly€1,
radio receiver is amplified by the
BC 108 and then fed into a series of
MC 1030P channel-splitters (connected
in parallel) each tuned to a different
audio frequency.
The audio frequency to which the
channel-splitter responds is determined ny
o

41
 GAMES

NOTE:
4 100k 01 & 2 ARE 8C108
ICI IS 4011

10M
RV1
1k0

iC1a IC1b
T5u

LSI n+
8R0 2u2
18OR
0A91

0 OV

Train chuffer
C.S. Histed, Chislehurst on with the high' part of the square of noise produced and the 1k pot on
wave output from the clock circuit. the speaker controls the pitch of the
This circuit will produce a train The frequency of the clock is adjusted average noise.
chuffing' noise and might prove with the 10M pot and the output The circuit works by amplifying
interesting to anybody with their own voltage of the clock is adjusted by the the amount of noise let through by the
train layout. 100k pot ( these pots control the rate of seemingly wrong way round diode and
The circuit consists of a white chuff and the volume of the chuff). only letting the circuit be ' on' when the
noise generator, which only switches The 2M2 pot controls the amount output of the clock is at logic 1.

Dual digital dice

9V Two identical seven-segment display
driver circuits, driven from a common
counter circuit, provide the numerals
for this dice devised by Russell Sharp
of Belmont, Victoria.

The counter is driven from a 2kHz

oscillator, the 4011, and generates a
count sequence from 1001 to 1110. The
terminal count ( low on output 1111) is
inverted to load 1001 into the parallel
TOUCH 8 input of the 4029. When your finger is
PAD ONE
47k
12 pressed on the touch pad the collectors of
Q1 and Q2 go high and pins 4and 5on
13 1
'44081
the 4511 are held high for about three
OV
seconds after your finger is removed
CIRCUIT 1 ( 2 NEEDED) from the touch pad. The delay is pro-
vided by Cl and RI, together with the
OSCILLATOR CCT ( ONE NEEDED/ 4081 gate. The high on pin 5of the 4511
9V loads the last data present on the
address inputs ( AO to A2) into the latch
of the 4511, whilst a high on pin 4 re-
7
leases the display from the 'blank' mode
100k 56k
to display the contents of the latch. The
8 12
11
1 4 10 110 116
number is then displayed. When pin 4
15
CL PO 6
o goes low again after three seconds, the
13
k, 4011 01
1 displa), is blanked to conserve battery
1 0 TO BOTH 4511's
4029 power.
02 1 o
O3
The high clock frequency ensures
C P1 P2
b 18 112113
that the dice has arandom result. Even
if you attempt to touch both pads simul-
taneously, each die shows a different
OV
throw.

42
Electronic travelling dice CLOCK OSCILLATOR

M.G. Argent

The heart of the unit is the 4017 divide by n

counter, IC3. The outputs in turn give a
logic 1level (+ 9V) with each clock pulse.
To divide by six as required by adice, the OA 80
seventh count (output six, confusingly) is 0 0 0
connected to the reset (RST) input. This C D E
OF GO
resets all outputs to logic 0and the count
starts all over again ad infinitum.
So long as the clock enable input is
connected via the 10k resistor to Vco, the NOTES
ICI i$ 4049
ICE Is Am
count carries on as normal. If it is connect- IC3 IS 4017
BATT SUPPLY 9VOLE
ed to 0V the counter stops and remains in .
the state it was in at that time. This is achiev- acts as the SPIN switch. When the switch is
ed by anormally-open push switch which operated it stops the counter.

o
Sol .9V
DO

P81
3

IC5a

2
R1
13 14 6k8
CF CND .Vcc

R3
IC2 *IMO

CLK
14
•Vcc 3 2 4 7 10 1 5 6 9 11 R4
00 01 02 03 04 (35 06 07 08 09

Cl 820k
2 7 47,1
00

GND 5.6
7 C2
1000p
1
IC 3
4 8 o 7
03

02 13 DIODE MATRIX
ARRANGED IN A CIRCLE
13 IC4
CE
56

IC5b

4 NOTES
Cl IS NE555
11 12
o IC2,3 ARE CD4017
10
IC5c
13 IC4,5 ARE CD4011
IC5d 9

OV
o
Electronic roulette Initially, when PB1 is depressed, C1 cular motion is generated. After the 'wheel'
charges via R1 . The voltage on IC1 pin 7 has been spun, PB1 is released. Cl now
AC Dickens, Leicester.
rises, causing ICI to start generating pulses discharges via R2 and R3, so that the
which rapidly increase in frequency. IC2 & 'wheel' apparently slows down and then
IC3 are decade counters, arranged so that stops at one of the 37 numbers, each of
The advantage of this design over ten each one of the 36 red LEDs in the matrix is which has an equal probability of occuring.
number versions, is that all 37 numbers are illuminated in turn. The gates of ICS are The running time, and speed of 'revolution'
catered for, as in aconventional game, and arranged so that D (which is green in my can easily be altered by changing the
the electronic circuit remains cheap and circuit) is illuminated after D,. , and value(s) of appropriate capacitor(s) or
simple. followed by D.. Hence an apparent cir- resistor(s).

43
GAMES

1C11
14

Ij

P82
WRONG

,1SPLA 1r
1

lj c

à1

C 08
lj

01

IC 2h

NOTES
ICI 5,9 ARE 4081
IC6 IS 4011
IC? IS 41
ICE IS 4017
IC.8 IS 555
Dl 9,12 11115 OM ARE 0 125' LED
01 010 11 ARE 0 2" LED

Electronic hangman after that. In fact, all the parts light up AND gate, connected as achain linking
in sequence, until the last part lights, each output of the 4017, so their out-
G.N. Durant, Selby when the display blanks again, and the puts will go high, when a ' higher'
whole 'chasing' process starts again. LED is lit.
The circuit diagram shows adesign for This process repeats itself until the When the top LED is lit, another
an Electronic Hangman Game. The 'Reset' button is pressed, when the dis- AND gate (gate 3, IC 6) goes low,
scoring display is made up of 0.125" play blanks, ready for a new game to locking a latching flip-flop formed by
and 0.2" LEDs, as shown. The controls begin. gates 1 and 2 of IC6, a CMOS NAND
consist of two one pole make push- The circuit consists of eight ICs, gate. This latch allows the output of
buttons. The first button is pressed one of them being a 4017B CMOS an astable multivibrator to go to the
every time a letter is wrongly guessed. device. This device is aten stage decade trigger input of the 4017 and to start
At the start of the game, the other counter. Each output is fed directly to the automatic sequencing. The reset
button is pressed, to reset the display, its own LED and, because some outputs button makes the input of one of the
blanking it. When a letter is wrongly require more than one LED and there is gates go high, unlatching the flip flop
guessed the 'wrong' button is pressed not enough current from the 4017 to and resetting the display. The small
once; and the first part of the display, drive more than one, the affected out- preset varies the clock rate over awide
(A), is illuminated. Every time another puts are connected to a CMOS ' AND' range, speeding or slowing the sequen-
wrong letter is guessed, the ' wrong' gate which is in turn connected to a cing.
button is pushed, and the next part of LED, so the required power is ob- If desired, a ' Display PCB' can be
the display is lit up. When the display is tained from the power supply and not designed to ease the LED wiring. When
all lit up, and the victim is 'hung', the the outputs of the 4017. The input of the circuit is known to be functioning
display automatically blanks. the 4017 is triggered by apush button correctly, lines can be painted onto
Now this is where the clever bit connected to the positive supply rail, the display to join up the LEDs, and to
comes in. To show that the victim has yo when it is pushed ( Wrong button) make them appear as a ' picture'.
lost, the display is blanked, then the tir IC is triggered and the next part of When all the LEDs are illuminated,
first part of the display lights itself, the LED display is illuminated. The the circuit will take agreat deal of cur-
then the next part and then the one 'lower' LEDs are kept lit by another rent, so amains power supply is advised.

44
2chip electronic dice TRUTH TABLE
4o MODE OA OB OC OD
P. Adams
1 LOAD 0 1 1 1
This electronic dice produces a true 2 SHIFT 1 0 1 1
ICI 15 79132
3 LOAD 0 0 1 1
dice display using only two IC's — a 4 SHIFT 1 0 0 1
5 LOAD 0 0 0 1
74132 and a 7495. The 7495 is a 6 SHIFT 1 0 0 0
1 LOAD 0 1 1 1
4- bit parallel- access shift register. It ETC

can either operate as ashift- register or

RI
be parallel ( broadside) loaded at in- 47OR

puts A- D. Control over these two

functions is by a mode control un put.
When the mode is high data is loaded
into Ga — Qd from inputs A - D on the ICla
next negative- going clock edge.
When the mode is low. data is shifted
SWI
on Ga — Gd on the next negative- C2
going clock edge 47u
LED DISPLAY
By connecting the mode control to 8 • • C

Ga so that the register alternates bet- D . A

. .

C • • B
ween load and shift and making the
OV
input word a function of the existing
output word, with some simple logic,
the register can be made to execute a SW1 stops the oscillator and halts the
count that will drive LEDs in a dice count. On switch-on the register may
display. Note LEDs are lit when out- start on an invalid count, but in a
puts are low. I•Cla is connected as a couple of clock cycles it will produce a
conventional Schmitt oscillator pro- valid count and then remain in that
viding clock pulses to the register. sequence.

LED chaser
This game is a test of skill and output taken from the monostable high, the two matching outputs both
patience. The aim is to align a LED formed around IC3d. This has adura- go high, the monostable formed
chaser ( under your control), with tion of about 6 seconds to ensure the around IC3f is triggered. This enables
another preset chaser. display is fully counted. the astable formed by IC4c,d, to
A matching pair of outputs are fed When you think you've matched signal success. The unit can also be
to an AND gate ( IC4a, IC3e). This gate the displays up PB1 is pressed. IC3d automatically reset by feeding IC3f's
feleds the NAND gate IC4b, its other output goes high and if while this is output to the clock inhibit pin of IC2
o opr 1).
•Vs 1. C2
100n
/TM OV

C3
RV? 1,0
2M2

OV

IttO

NOTES
1C1,2 ARE 4017
IC3 IS 40106
IC4 IS 4011
DI,2 ARE 114914
01 IS 2N3904

45
GENERAL

TV ad blanker
TV opto-
isolator
The problem of how to connect aTV s neon or LED — but be careful that you If you dislike having to watch TV
sound to an amplifier or tape recorder preserve the electrical isolation) and adverts, then this idea, from Graham
is basically one of safety — TV sets use shielded from outside light sources. The Taylor of Glen Iris, may be to your
very high voltage. One approach is to output of the detector is probably best liking.
pick up the IF from the set, but this fed to the most sensitive amplifier input Basically, it's a light-controlled AB
requires that you strap a coil onto the you have, as the amplitude will be small. switch. When the photo-transistor
back. receives a pulse of light — from ahand
One way of getting an audio signal torch held by the person watching the
out without the risk of high voltage TV — it toggles the bistable IC2 and
outside the set is to use an opto-
isolator. changes the state of its Q output.
This uses circuitry which converts Depending on whether this output is

1
the audio into a changing light level, TRANSMITTER 1 at + 9 V or —9 V, either the TV sound
and then detects this modulated light input or the radio sound input will be
using another stage — electrically OUTPUT
TO ANODE
..) VALVE
OF SOUND fed to the amplifier output. This can
isolated from the first. either be connected to your hi-fi ampli-
ABOUT 180k
Two types of light modulator are fier or, if you feel capable of tackling it,
shown here — the one with the neon back into the sound section of your
attaches to the anode of the sound out- TV set.
put valve and the other attaches to the fi Operation is simple. You're watching
loudspeaker terminals of the set. TV, and suddenly the action is
NEON
The photocell has to be very close to interrupted by acommercial. Quick as a
the light producing part of the circuitry flash, you pick up the torch ( which you
(it's a good idea to tape the cell to the keep on the coffee table) and point it
TRANSMITTER 2
at the Ad Blanker, which sits on top of
+Ve SUPPLY ( Vi)
the TV set. The circuit senses the light
and cuts off the advert's sound,
Vs 4
replacing it with some soothing inter-
50p mission-like music from the radio. As
soon as the ad is over, you fire another
4V light beam at the unit and it reverts to
15OR its original state.
OUTPUT
de TO The use of this device has another,
LOUDSPEAKER.
SILICON
hidden advantage. Listening to the TV
PHOTOCELL with the radio sound playing instead
sometimes produces hilarious combi-
•ADJUST FOR MINIMUM DISTORTION nations.

RADIO
INPUT

OUTPUT TO
(1 AMPLIFIER
1 )_>
2k2

1µ0

10n

IRÇ
(SEE
TEXT)

01,2,4 = BC109, BC149, BC549, OR SIMILAR

03 = BC179, BC159, BC559, OR SIMILAR
Q5 = AY8140, TT801, OR SIMILAR

46
 Copying pc board designs
Bill Materna of Kilkenny S.A. found
an easier way of copying acircuit board
design that "... is as old as kinder-
garten games".
Simply hold the design over the pre-
pared piece of blank board and with a
compass or sharp scriber make pin
pricks through the drawn component
holes on to the board. Then it is asimple
matter of joining up the marks with a
resist pen.

Operating asonalert rectifier, with the alarm across the

output. The zener diode across the
from 240 Vac mains alarm limits the maximum voltage and
the electrolytic capacitor provides
smoothing.
There are occasions when it is
The value of Cl depends on the type
convenient to operate a Sonalert-type of alarm used and its current drain. TO-3template
piezo-electric alarm from the 240 Vac As an example, for the popular
mains. The accompanying circuit, from Sometimes it's a bit trickey trying to
"Murata" make, two 33 nF, 250 Vac mark out the holes for aTO- 3case on a
Barry Wilkinson of Nebula Electronics,
rated capacitors in parallel gave reliable heat sink. If, however, you keep a
shows how it's done.
operation. Current drawn was around blown TO- 3 device ( and most people
The 'ACTIVE' input is switched to
5 mA. This gave about 8 Vdc across will have plenty of those!), then by
activate the alarm. Capacitor Cl acts as
the alarm and adequate sound output. removing the cap and the leads it will
a current-limiting device, the four
Not that Cl must be rated for form a useful template for centre-
diodes being arranged as a bridge 250 Vac operation. punching the holes.

NNW
Extra hands!
This neat, nifty idea comes from Otto
Patterson of Canuneray, NSW. Four
rods of a suitable plastic are slotted at
one end and abolt inserted in atapped
hole such that it passes into the slot. The
rods are slipped onto the pc board of the
project you're about to build up and se-
cured by tightening the bolts — with
your fingers is enough. Load all the
components on the upper side then slip
the rods off the board, invert the board
and slip them back on. Stand the board
up and you're ready to solder every-
thing!
The rods are made quite easily. Any
suitable solid plastic rod material about
9mm to 15 ram or so in diameter will from this end cut aslot about 2/3 of the
suffice. Cut them about 60 - 80 mm long. companying photographs tell most of
way through the rod. This slot should be the story.
Next drill and tap ahole in one end, a about 2mm wide to take pc boards of the
little off-centre. About 4 - 5mm down That's it ! No more awkward juggling
usually-available thickness. The ac-
with that pc board on the bench.

47
GENERAL

SINE WAVE
90' PHASE
OSCILLATOR FIXED SHIFTER
(150Hz)

Electronic ' Spirograph' O

SW1a SW1b

The circuit will generate 'Spirograph'

patterns on aconventional oscilloscope. TO y INPUT TO x INPUT
The circuit consists of two sinewave RVla RV1b
250k 250k
generators followed by allpass filters
which we use to phase shift the input
signals by 90°. Applying a sinewave to
the y input gives a circular trace. If a SINE WAVE
OSCILLATOR 90° PHASE
second set of sin and cos signals are VARIABLE SHIFTER
mixed in, a 'Spirograph' pattern is 150111-1.5kHz
obtained. A block diagram of the
system is shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 1. Block diagram of the 'Spirograph'.
RV1 is abalance control which varies
the contribution of each oscillator to
the pattern without affecting the size,
so that once set up there is no need to
R1
re-adjust the gain controls on the 910R
oscilliscope. This type of control can ;

only be used if the oscillators have alow

RV4
impedance output. 10k
SW1 is a reversing switch which has GANGED
the effect of turning the pattern inside
out.
An existing sinewave oscillator can of
course be used and the 50 Hz mains
could be employed ( attenuated to about
2V RMS from alow voltage transformer
secondary) as the fixed oscillator.
However flickering is a problem with
lower frequencies ( complex patterns Fig. 2(a). Suitable oscillator for the 'Spiro- Fig. 2(b). Arrangement to give fine control of
requiring four or more cycles to graph'. the frequency of the oscillator shown in
complete will flicker at about 10 Hz Fig. 2(a). For 150 Hz fixed frequency use
using the mains frequency as an Rfl Rf2= 10 k.
oscillator. Ifound 150 Hz to be agood
compromise ( higher frequencies require
more critical tuning).
The allpass filter is recommended
for phase splitting as it has aunity gain
for all frequencies and settings of RV5.
First connect the y input of the
scope to the output of an oscillator and
adjust RV2 until a two volt RMS sine-
wave is obtained, repeat for second
oscillator. Then connect up the xand y
inputs as shown in Fig. 1, turn the
balance control to one end so as to look
Fig. 3. Phase shifter circuit for use in the
at the output of the fixed oscillator 'Spirograph' circuit.
then adjust the 100 k pot until acircle
is obtained (with suitable xand y gains).
Now put the balance control in the
middle and adjust the frequency
controls until a stable pattern is
produced. SW1 and RV1 the balance
control can be used to alter the nature
of the pattern without affecting its
overall size, stability or symmetry.
Adjust RV5, the phase control
(following the variable oscillator) for
Fig. 4. PSU for 'Spirograph'.
symmetry. — Have fun!

48
 Divide by 4,320,000 counter
So what is a 4320000 counter good
for? Well, 50x60x60x24 = 4320000 so
that if you feed in 50 Hz at the input
the counter will give 1 pulse per 24
hours, e.g. it can form the basis of an
extremely accurate 24 hour alarm. Such
an alarm never requires setting once the
counter has been reset to zero at the
required time of day and will thereafter
give the alarm at exactly the same time
every day. It can thus be used for in-
NOTE
stance to wake oneself up every morning Cl IS CD4020
without fail. IC2 IS
IC3 IS
CD4040
CD4011
Such a circuit is very easily built IC4 15
IC4 IS
4012
CD4012
using just 4 cheap CMOS chips, IC1, a
14 stage binary counter is set to divide
by 10000 ( binary 10011100010000) by
reseting to 0 on the count of 10000.
Similarly IC2, a 12 stage binary counter
divides by 432 ( binary 110110000).
IC3 and IC4 provide the necessary are reset by alogic ' 1' unlike TTL where ally the gating allows the counter to be
decoding to reset the counters (which alogic '0' is usually required). Addition- reset to 0by SW1.

Heartbeat preamplifier
This simple circuit, when connected
to an audio amplifier, allows one to
listen to heartbeats. The low frequency
-9V
gain is set by R1 and R3, in conjunction
with VR1 and R4. VR1 permits the gain
to be varied over the range 60-80 dB.
C3
C1 and C2 introduce some low
frequency cut, reducing 50 Hz pickup
RV1
9V
50 '
10k whilst C4 and C5 help prevent
instability caused by the high gain of
C4 92 OUTPUT
101,n 1k the circu it.
94 The output should be connected to
131, 1k
2" SPEAKER the magnetic cartridge input of the
IMICROPHONEI audio amplifier, with the bass turned up
O high.

Unijunction pulse stretcher — door bell extender

The circuit presented is a practical
monostable timer which was designed
to extend the ringing time of a door
bell. It can be useful in cases when the
bell push button might not be engaged
long enough to attract attention, though
it could be used in many other
applications.
When the push button is closed the
thyristor will switch on delivering power
to the unijunction transistor timing
circuit and energising the relay, the
contacts of which are used to control
the bell circuit. At the same time,
capacitor C2 quickly charges to the load
voltage potential via R3. After a time
interval given approximately by 0.8 C1 TO SELL

R1 ( about 6 seconds in this case) the CIRCUIT

unijunction transistor will fire and the

corresponding output pulse which is
coupled to the cathode of the thyristor
via C2 will put the thyristor in reverse
bias switching it off. O OV

49
GENERAL
4k7
Flip- Flop flasher
This simple flip-flop circuit from Paul
Taylor, of Eltham Vic, can be used to
operate a relay or flash a lightbulb on
OUTPUT and off at a rate that may be varied
TO RELAY
LIGHT etc
between three flashes per second to
one flash every five seconds. The speed
is altered by the 1M potentiometer.
Component values are not critical and
most general purpose NPN transistors
will work. A relay with acoil resistance
between 50 and 180 ohms should work
well (delete 120 ohm resistor).

Dimmer modification Doorbell current saver

Readers involved in stage lighting may We are indebted to the reader who Graeme Scott of Surrey Hills, Victoria
be interested in a modification to the phoned this suggestion in to Nebula developed this little trick when he was
ETI 588 theatre dimmer. Electronics. Unfortunately, he didn't teaching Electronics in schools. It's an
leave his name. elementary way of saving current in a
Resistors R12, R22, R32 ... et doorbell circuit. (Why didn't we think
cetera are removed and the two diodes of it? — Ed )
shown are added, one pair to each The circuit uses two components — a
R14
channel. This gives the dimmer the same two-pole momentary action switch and
operating format as commercial ones. a very large capacitor. Operation is
To explain: In most dimmers, the self-evident.
value of the master setting is multiplied Although it is shown in conjunction
by each individual fader and the with the ETI 044 electronic doorbell,
maximum of the values from the two the technique will probably be useful
masters is used for the output. In the in many other applications.
ETI 588, however, the sum is used
instead of the maximum.
For example, if on Channel 1 both
channel faders are at maximum, Master
A is at half maximum and Master B
is at zero, on the ETI dimmer before
TO OTHER
CHANNELS modification the output on Channel 1
will rise as Master B is moved from
zero to half. After modification it will
only start to rise after Master B passes
the half-way mark.

Ballpoint spacers Incinerated ICs —

stopped!
W. McEwan, Argyll
Now here's agood idea if your soldering
The use of dried-out ballpoint pen iron is abit too hot for soldering delicate
plastic bodies as test prods is well known. components to aprinted circuit board—
Recently, Idiscovered that they also why not use a standard light dimmer
make excellent spacers for printed between the iron and the mains?
circuit boards. Simply cut them to size A reader from Pentland in
with a Junior hacksaw — excellent for Queensland, Mr B.D. Dever, found this
awkward lengths. The internal hole is an ideal solution to soldering-without-
suitable for either M3 or M4 bolts. sizzling.

50
 1
*10V
CONNECT IN SERIES
_ WITH LOUDSPEAKER
O RI.1
o
506

56OR
01 02
555 3
2

6k8 2$
6k6
ORP12
LED — INDICATES
UNIT OPERATED

Keeping coil slugs in place

Ferrite or powdered iron slugs are wide-
ly used to adjust the inductance of RF
coils. There are many ways to secure the
Silence those ads slug in the coil so that it does not move
no effect but the positive pulse on Q1 after initial adjustment ( causing some
This circuit, from G.B. Wolfe of collector is passed ,on to the base of Q2
measure of inductance value drift), yet
Bombala NSW, will switch off the via the 2k2 resistor and Q2 begins to
to allow subsequent adjustment. Some
sound from aTV when those annoying switch on. The collector voltage of Q2
manufacturers employ rubber 'string'
adverts come on just as the programme now begins to fall rapidly and this
or 'tape', others specify asticky rubber
is getting interesting. All you need is a drives base of Q1 towards OV, switching
solution, or something similar. As
torch handy in order to flash alight at the transistor off. The circuit thus
usual, Murphy's Law gets into the act
an LDR. rapidly changes state to Q1 off, Q2 on.
and the stuff disappears when you most
The circuit operates as follows: when When Q2 is on, the relay operates, the
need it.
light is incident on the photodiode its loudspeaker is disconnected and the
resistance drops, driving pins 6/2 of the LED goes on. A neat idea from Gary Brooker, of
555 towards OV. This produces a A further flash of the torch on the Newcastle NSW, is to use Teflon
positive-going pulse from pin 3which is photodiode will cause apulse from the thread-sealing tape that plumbers use.
passed to the collectors of Q1 and Q2. 555 Eind the flip-flop switches back to Q1 Wrap asmall piece around the thread of
Suppose the flip-flop is set with Q1 on, on, Q2 off. The loudspeaker is the coil slug and then insert it in the coil
Q2 off when power is switched on. The reconnected and "Cop-Shop" comes former. The tape will hold the slug quite
positive pulse on the collector of Q2 has back into your living room! well following initial adjustment.

COMMON SEMICONDUCTOR PIN-OUTS

(Cut this out, attach to strong card and stick it to your workshop wall)
NOTCH OR SPOT
AT THIS END FLAT ON SIDE 01
CASE OR SHORT
LEAD

0 BA5k
-

COL
LE
SHIELDO

BT 115 51 185
BOTTOM VIEW

E
COLLECTOR IINTERNALLV
TIP31, TIP32 CONNECTED TO CASE I BC547, KM& RCS«. EIC557 BC558

METAL AREA

t
DULLECTOR

SG
Bass 0 el»

o
)

EMITTER CE
L
ççqe,_j'\
.96 BC en AC SAO E
2N6457. 1,6458. 265459. 3145484
INSKIS LEADS ARE CLOSER 90139. BDIE0 -
BOTTOM VIEW
TO THIS END OF THE
PACKAGE

2955,3065 POWER TRANSISTORS

51
 LIGHTING

Magnetic light dimmer SW1 RI

10k

T. Hopkins SW2 R2
47k

6,--nr
,eee R8

A partial solution to theproblem of leaving SW3 R3

120R
W
lighting on unnecessarily is to have areset- 100 k

table timer in place of aswitch. However,

The choice of delay is difficult, particularly SW4 R4
150k
when the room may be used continuously.
C3
Ideally, it should be impossible to leave SW5 R5
47n

the room without turning out the light. One 270k 8A 400V 600V
TRIAC
solution, shown in Fig. 1 is to build the (INTERNAL DIAC)
circuit into a wall box and carry a small SW6 R6

magnet on akeyring. When the magnet is 390k

placed over the reed switch, the lights are \NV

turned on and, if the circuit is mounted on a R7
Cl 10k
steel front panel, the magnet will stay in 100n LOAD
place for as ling as is required. 250V (UP TO 1kWI

The magnetic dimmer shown in Fig. 2

allows achoice of six different light levels N

depending on which reed switch is operat-

ed. The resistor values shown were chosen 220R
to suit the available triac. Other triacs may E

require changes to some ofthese values. 3A o

The reed switches used measured ap- REED SWITCH

400V
TRIAC /74
proximately 1.125" and were mounted on LOAD
(UP TO 500W)
N
apiece of tinplate with epoxy resin ( Fig. 3).
The front was then covered with athin layer
of plastic. A magnet of 1 /"diameter was
2
used to operate the dimmer.

Sound to light modulator

+15V
Modulating a light, or abank of lights, +15V

from a sound source (such as a tape MIN MAX RV2

150k
recorder or record player) is an ever- 10mV 2V

popular topic so we dragged this circuit RV1

10k
01 +15V
from the depths of our files. 2N5459
10k
A high impedance input is provided F AAAA__4 1

by a source-follower, Ql, so that the 2Y2 2

25V IV
unit may be driven from either ahigh or
low impedance source. An op-amp 10k

(a 741) then provides sufficient gain to

trigger the SCR which drives the LED.
As the input varies, the drive to the
LED will vary, modulating the light 0.1'
1
SECTION 2
output. Each `Section' ( 1,2,3 ...) drives
a LED, all the LEDs being mounted in that section so that its LED lights with
arow. 0.9 volts at pin 6 of the 741. Continue
When setting up, RV1 and RV2 are with the subsequent sections so that
adjusted so that with the maximum each LED lights at 0.8 V, 0.7 V etc at
input voltage available, 1V is available the output of the 741. The display
at pin 6 of the op-amp. Then VRX is produced is rather like a VU display; SECTION 10
adjusted so that the LED lights. Then with the column lighting up as the
Section 2 is tackled; adjust VRX for sound rises and falls.

52
Audio display R1 RV2
•9V

2k2 2M2

C.S. Histed
01
AC128
R3
This circuit is a novel LED display, which INPUT 4k7

when plugged into your hi-fi will send adot RV1 Cl

3
100k NE555
of light zooming around a ring of LEDs at
different speeds, depending on the music. R2
1k0
The input signal from your hi-fi is fed into a
voltage controlled oscillator ( IC1), which R4
then sends its variable length pulses to the 10k

clock input of a4017.

Cl
This causes each LED in turn to be brief- 150n

ly lit and, because the clock input changes,

o
the time taken for the dot of light to move OV

along the LEDs varies in time with the NOTES

music. The best visual output is achieved if LEDS 1 10 ARE TIL209
Cl IS NE555
the LEDs are arranged in acircle of about IC2 IS CD4017
01 IS AC1213
14
11/2"to 2" in diameter.

The input voltage can be adjusted by IC2 CD4017 15

the 100k preset and the normal speed of the 10 9 10 13

LEDS 1-10
711209
leds can be adjusted as desired using the
2M2 preset. The 4017 is able to drive the V 11 1 1 VV
LEDs directly and no current limiting resist-
ors are needed.

LOC CODE KEY 15 611 SBR 1 32 71 RST

16 323 STO 3 33 00 0
00 346 SUM 6 17 331 RCL 1 34 81 RIS
01 336 RCL 6 18 22 xt 35 71 RST
02 35 Yx 19 332 RCL 2 36 860 2nd LBL 0
03 30 2nd 20 76 2nd x t 37 55 X
04 85 21 22 xt 38 01
05 — 35 INV Yx 22 333 RCL 3 39 00 0
06 05 5 23 76 2nd x t 40 85
07 85 24 515 GTO 5 41 325 STO 5
08 — 49 INV 2nd INT 25 333 7 RCL 7 42 49 2nd INT
09 36 2nd PAUSE 26 394 2nd PRD 4 43 — 61 INV SBR
10 346 SUM 6 27 516 GTO 6 44 861 2nd LBL 1
11 610 SBR 0 28 865 2nd LBL 5 45 355 RCL 5
12 321 STO 1 29 394 2nd PRD 4 46 — 49 INV 2nd INT
13 611 SBR 1 30 866 2nd LBL 6 47 610 SBR 0
14 322 STO 2 31 56 2nd DSZ 48 — 61 INV SBR

of the transistor, the circuit forms a

Sound-modulated peak detector.
light source This drives the gate of the SCR,
lighting the globe, the brightness of
which will vary as the sound level varies.
This circuit, submitted by Michael C2 may be removed for a faster
Thong of Crawley WA, modulates a response.
light beam with voice or music from the Michael used his original circuit
output of an amplifier. If the 10k pot for a low cost colour organ from his
is adjusted to slightly less than the Vbe amplifier.

53
 LIGHTING

1N4004

Porch light controller to control the brightness of the porch or similar. Note that Q1 is a BCY71,
Mr. R. Johnson from the UK has light, conduction angle being controlled Q2 is a BC107/BC547/BC207 etc.
designed this auto-dimmer for turning by Q1 and an SCR pulse circuit via a The transformer Tl is a 12-0-12 low
on a porch light at dusk and then transformer, L2/L3. current type. Li is an interference
controlling the brightness such that it The potentiometer KV1 varies the suppression choke and consists of 30
is inversely proportional to the surround- light level at which you wish to have the turns of 20 swg enammelled wire on a
ing lighting conditions. It sets the porch porch light turn on. Potentiometer RV2 12 mm length of 'Ioopstick' antenna
light brightness to aminimum at dusk, sets the maximum brightness (maximum ferrite. The transformer L2/L3 consists
increasing the brightness until it reaches conduction angle of the SC151) of the of 15 turns wound bifilar (two parallel
a maximum after total sunset. In the porch light. the LDR determines when wires) on a 15 mm length of loopstick
morning, the light is slowly reduced in the dimmer starts and ceases to operate. antenna ferrite also.
brightness as the sun rises, turning it Its resistance varies between 600k at A fuse is connected in series with
off at full daylight. dusk to about 6M at dark. A suitable the lead going to the porch light for
The dimming circuit uses a triac type might be an LDRO3 or LDR04, safety.

LED spotting
560k Since the leadout on LEDs varies
O-- 9V
ON- OFF
according to the manufacturer's pre-
ference, leadout diagrams are not
always worthy of the trust placed in
them. In some cases a reverse
connection will destroy the device being
used.
A simple way to avoid this is to use
•
the following technique.
NOTE
01 is T1543
SCR1 IS 400V Ply CU,

OV

a k

lighting effects load ( a light bulb) will not be supplied

If the LED is held up to the light, the
structure can be clearly seen. There is a
This circuit can be used to produce at the same frequency as the
"cup" and an "arm" carrying afine wire
some interesting lighting effects. A uni - unijunction oscillator, and some to the LED itself, which is in the
junction relaxation oscillator is used to interesting effects can result. Care "basin" of the cup ( see drawing).
trigger the thyristor. The frequency of should be taken with this circuit as it is The lead with the cup is the cathode,
the oscillator is controlled by RV1. The not isolated from the mains.
and the other is the anode ( of course).
54
 MUSIC ELECTRONICS

dc Input

+5V
IC4
+ 5V
7805 +9V

+ 9V
PIN 16 +5V
PIN 8GND
17 18 23 24
22 28 91
01
BC237
15 27 4t 1C3 110n
R2 NE555
C1
100k 26 1
12
25 31
1C1
02 1 71
13 SN76477 IC2
BC307
CD4020 2
D1

21t2 7 5t

47k 02
•
•--,\AAC—M-46t

D3

e—NAIV'— --NAM
• -->H
21 10
111RESET)

PIN 14 +Vs
PIN 2GNO TO DIODE AND GATE
TO RESET AT PREDETERMINED
BINARY NUMERAL

*SELECT COMPONENTS TO SUIT

'PIN 7 IS ONE EXAMPLE. ALL
OF THE OTHER PINS COULD
BE RIGGED IN A SIMILAR WAY
tPIN SEQUENCE CAN BE CHANGED

Computer music — without the computer! Pin 9 ( system enable)

0 ( system enabled)
Pin 22 ( VCO/SLF select)
O ( VCO selected)
1 ( system disabled) 1 ( SLF selected)
Pin 1 Pin 28 0/P ( envelope logic)
Those seemingly random musical sound resistors and capacitors around the VCO

effects one hears on movie tracks when o Mixer Only

SN76477 marked with an asterisk are One shot ( mono)
a computer on screen is "thinking" are chosen from the data sheet and applica- 1 1 VCO/mono
Pin 27 Pin 25 Pin 26 Output ( mixer)
familiar to just about everyone. More tions circuits to produce the desired VCO
O
recently, the sounds of 'machine music' sounds. Output from the SN76477 SLF
have been heard. This circuit can be O 1 o Noise
drives a simple audio power output 1 0 o SLF/noise
arranged to produce a whole range of stage ( Q1 and Q2) and an eight or fifteen 1 0 SLF/VCO/noise
similar sounds, play tunes, random ohm speaker. Cl is a 1000 uF electro-
1 1 o SLF/VCO
1 1 inhibit
notes and sounds, etc, with that familiar lytic.
machine music sound. So that the sound sequence repeats,
Centred on a Texas Instruments the 4020 is reset using a diode AND
SN76477, a 'sound synthesiser' chip,
plus two other ICs, selecting the values
gate. Note that the sequence of output
pin connections of the 4020 can be
Any ideas ?
of a group of resistors and capacitors changed around. Have you had a bright idea lately,
will determine the 'sounds' you want, Pins 1, 9, 22, 25, 26, 27 and 28 on the or discovered an interesting cir-
while selecting the speed of a555 clock SN76477 all require TTL level pulses cuit modification? We are always
and the way the SN76477 is interfaced (generally active . high) to select the looking for items for these pages
to a divider chip will determine the appropriate function. The table here so naturally, we'd like to hear from
sequence of sounds to be played. shows what is selected when each pin is you.
The 555, IC3, is connected as an high and low ( 0or 1). We pay between $5and $ 10 per
astable multivibrator. The two timing item — depending on how much
resistors ( between pins 8-7-6) and the G.P. Hicks (L/App) from the work we have to do on it before we
timing capacitor determine the repe- RAAF Base, Laverton, Victoria, who publish it.
tition rate. Consult the data on the 555 sent in the idea, says that a4017 could The sort of items we are seeking,
to select values for these components so be used instead of the 4020. He also and the ones which other readers
that IC3 runs at the speed you wish notes that if the VCO resistor on the would like to see, are novel appli-
(anything from say, 10 Hz to 1kHz). SN76477 is altered experimentally, and cations of existing devices, new
The output of the 555 drives a 4020 using a similar circuit arrangement to ways of tackling old problems,
divider and its outputs drive the drive pin 7 as shown here, it may be hints and tips.
SN76477 'function select' inputs. The possible to play tunes.

55
MUSIC ELECTRONICS

DATA
INPUTS

NOTE CODE ( BINARY)

BCD tone generator

Nn HGFE DCBA
1 0000 0001
2 0000 0010
3 0000 0011 When one of the binary codes in the
4 0000 0100 table is set up on the data inputs, a
5 0000 0101
6 0000 0110
corresponding preset connected to IC1
Ov
7 0000 0111 and 2 will be grounded, and the uni -
8 0000 1000
junction will start to oscillate. The
9 0000 1001
10 0001 0000 frequency of oscillation depending
II 0010 0000 on which output of the ICs is grounded.
12 0011 0000
13 0100 0000
If the 18 presets are tuned to form
14 0101 0000 a chromatic scale and the inputs inter-
IS ono 0000 faced to your MPU data bus — hey
-5V
16 0111 0000
17 1000 0000 presto you have a simple MPU
NOTE, 18 1001 0000 controlled organ!
1C1,2 ARE 7041

PRESETS 22k

Hybrid mixer
This circuit shows one channel of a
stereo mixer, the other channel being
-6- 15V
identical. The input signal is applied to
the volume controls RV1&2 and from
thence to the NAND gates via the block-
ing capacitors and R1&2. These gates
are first used as inverters by strapping
both their inputs together, and are
biased into the linear region by the
NOTE
feedback resistors, R3&4. In this way Cl IS 4011A
the gates act as high impedance, high IC2 IS 747

quality, unity gain amplifiers. OV

The output from the gates are sum-
med by the mixer, IC2. This IC is a
dual op-amp of the same specification
as the commoner 741, which could be
used instead. As a single power supply
is used the non- inverting input must be
biased at half the supply voltage. This is
done by the potential divider, R7&8, C5
de-couples this point to earth.
A perfect . . divided by 149 and doubled to give
The output impedance of this IC As any orchestral player knows, a 439.8 Hz, an error of only 0.05%!!!
when used in the manner described is source of 440 Hz, perfect or standard To enable a division of 149 to be
less than 1 ohm and so can be fed A is essential if he is to be in tune. On obtained, adual AND gate is used. The
directly into a line socket. This circuit many occasions a piano will not be first gate detects the 149th pulse, and
will only work with ' A' series 4011's available — hence this circuit. the second resets the binary counter on
as the B series contains protection In the following a standard crystal the 150th pulse.
circuitry which will prevent it working at 32.768 kHz is used to stabilise an The resulting 30us pulse may be fed
in the linear mode. oscillator. This frequency is then to asuitable amplifier.

56
 This circuit can be used in conjunction ORIGINAL
Shifty phase adaptor
with the Audio Phaser from December's e SIGNAL

ETI, or with any other phasing unit for SOURCE

that matter. The circuit provdes acom-

plementary ( antiphase) shifted wave-
form and amplified.
When this is fed through stereo
speakers, it provides the ear with some
very peculiar sounding phase inform-
ation. SHIFTED
At slow speeds, the effect is very SIGNAL

much like panning, except that the IC Lr

f
image is ambient irrespective of the
position of the listener. At higher
frequencies, where actual frequency
shift occurs, adelayed tremelo effect is
obtained.
This phase or frequency shifted
panning would be most useful in stereo
PA systems where the only place where
all of the instruments can be heard is in
the middle of the dance floor!

Battery operated VCO

By using the LM3900N quad- op-amp, a
simple portable battery operated VCO
10k
can be made very cheaply. A2 forms a
MARK SPACE
RATIO integrator, the ramp rate depending on
V,0 5V .15 V the voltage Vi and capacitor C. This
ramp is fed to a Schmidt trigger which
switches at about 5V8, making Al ramp
rill down, generating a triangular wave of
°
about OV85.
OV The Schmidt trigger feeds atransistor
switch and an emitter follower.
The triangular wave is then fed to
A3 which acts as an inverting amplifier,
and the output is fed to A4 which is an
exponential integrator set at a pseudo
ground of 4V5. The bias and gain pots
must be adjusted to give the best sine
waveform.
Vi can be any positive voltage r7om
+0.5 + 15M V, giving a frequ, . cy
rano of about 1:100. Capacitor e
012 ARE BC 108
D 1-11 ARE SIGNAL be any value from lOn ** 47n and the
DIODES
outputs have a low distortion up to
about 20 kHz.

Guitar sustain unit

Irie sustain to be described here holds
the output at a constant level over a
9v
wide range of input levels. It was desig-
ned to use with electric guitars and has a
maximum effect with the guitar pick-up
full up.
The principle employed is that of
an AGC, whereby the circuit output is
monitored by a DC voltage follower OV
which controls the gain of the VCA
through which the signal passes. The NOTE
01.2 are 2N 38 9
advantages of this circuit are that,
,
0 3.4.5 are BC 09C
,
1.0.6511
unlike many such devices, it does not 33.0

use opto- coupling which draws too equipment; it produces no audible dis- — and cost is low.
much current for battery powered tortion; components are easily obtained Construction method is not critical.

57
MUSIC ELECTRONICS

OUTPUT
NOTE i BUSBAR
01 IS BC177
02 IS BC107
KEYSWITCH

key is fully depressed Q1 is turned off

and the remaining voltage on Cl then
charges up C2 via DI. Both capacitors
FROM
then discharge via R3. The envelope pro-
TONE duced by this decaying voltage is chop-
DIVIDERS
ped by Q2, driven directly from the tone
R4
100k
dividers. Upon the release of the key, Cl
is disconnected from the chopper circuit
and C2 discharges rapidly via R3,
simulating the action of the dampers. DI
is included to prevent C2 discharging
through R2 when the key is released and
Touch-sensitive piano keying D2 prevents interaction with other key-
ing circuits.
he circuit is operated by asingle-pole on by the bias current supplied by R2 As the voltage remaining on Cl at
change-over key switch. When the key is When the key is depressed Cl is discon- the completion of akeystroke depends
in the fully released position Cl is held nected from the 15 V rail and starts to on the key velocity, adegree of touch-
charged from the 15 V rail. Q1 is turned discharge through Q1 and Rl. When the sensitivity is obtained with this circuit

CMOS mixer shown in the schematic. The other When the circuit is turned on, by
gate, along with all the components to placing a finger on the touch plate,
J. P. Macaulay the left of C3 are duplicated on the the output of this gate goes high
other channel. The other two gates switching Q2 hard on and supplying
Although this circuit employs only
are used in a touch operated on-off the circuit with current. To switch off
one cheap CMOS IC and two transis-
switch. the other touch plate is touched with
tors it is capable of high quality
The plates, which may consist of a the finger. The output then goes low
results. The IC, a4011, contains four
small piece of Veroboard with altern- removing the operating current from
dual input NAND gates. Two of these
ate strips linked together and con- the circuit. The transistor Q2 gives the
are used with their inputs connected
nected to the input of the gate and line circuit a low output impedance and
together to form inverters and biased
respectively, control the output the gain with the input pot at maxi-
into the linear mode by means of the
polarity of the gates. mum is four.
feedback resistors, R2. Inputs are
applied through the pots RV1 / 2 and 0 . 4-15V

are mixed by the gate to which they

are coupled by Cl, R1, R3 and C2.
Although only 'two inputs are shown
here, the circuit will mix up to four
inputs by duplicating the input circui-
try.
For clarity only one mixer gate is

R1
1M0
RV1

log

NOTES:
ICI IS 4011
01 IS BC149
02 IS BC147

0 ov

58
 011V

913
287
64
92 919
470k
70k 474
8V2
487 814
100k
0 . 9V

16
7

470 RI ICI I2
22k RV3
C2 580
47n 13 9
020
470k
ar17
R113
4k7
RVI
1004
loq R21 822 OUTPUT
C7
lkO 1k0
470
R3 915
220k 10k
Ce
20n 823
474

r
611
1k0

95 •9V
.911 10k o
10 11
RE
10k RV4 911
500 100k
Ian NOTES
IC Cl IS 741
Cl IS TOA 1022
110 IC3 IS 1458
47K ICA IS 4047
01 IS 2N5457
812
1004
3
I0n
R7
IC312
33k

170, ...p
IC3*

913
e•AM
474
99
120k

RV5
100k

output filtering is kept to a mini- put. Tune this with RV4 to the open
A simple sequencer mum. 6th string on the guitar and then turn
S. Giles The usual precautions should be RV5 until the oscillator is barely aud-
taken when handling the TDA 1022 ible. If the guitar is now played with
This is an example of how not to use a (in other words — don't use an IC RV1 fully on, both the guitar note and
bucket brigade IC (according to the insertion clip). the oscillator will appear at the output,
manufacturer's specifications). The with the oscillator tending to follow
The setting up procedure is as fol-
circuit shown is basically that of a the guitar's change in frequency. For
lows
normal flanger but with two important best results the oscillator should be
differences RV2 should be at its mid- point, turned to the key being used. Finally,
1. The clock modulation oscillator although this is not too critical. Turn clock breakthrough can be minimised
operates within the audio range. RV5 full on and the clock modulation by use of RV3, which should prefer-
2 There is no input filtering and oscillator should be heard at the out- ably be a 20 turn preset.

Keyboard tracking for the [TI sequencer

KEYBOARD
Val Starr of Canberra, ACT, has DIRECT .5V

made a small modification to our se-

quencer to allow it to track up or down
in key with the keyboard, giving avery
noticeable effect on short runs of four
notes or so. This effect is used exten-
sively on modern pop recordings.
The + 5V line is broken between IC1
and RV3 and fed to a switch. The + 5V
supply can then be taken from the regu-
lator as before, or from the keyboard for
tracking.

5$
MUSIC ELECTRONICS
Parametric equaliser +9V at 3.5mA C2

1
C.E. Read, Norwich
SWla

T
6 POLE
he parametric equaliser offers six 1 ,_214AY

bands of tone control separated by an PP3

octave in frequency, each frequency
band being selected by the six position
rotary switch. • 11-L-7
1

Potentiometer RV1 permits the

selected frequency band to be boosted
• 1 f

or cut by 12 dB. The filter is particularly

ideal for use with aguitar to modify and
enhance the tonal qualities of the in-
strument.
For example, the 500 Hz setting
with cut gives a hollow funky sound,
whilst the 500 Hz setting with boost
gives an overdriven valve amplifier, the
R2
raunchy sound favoured by many rock 270k

guitarists, but without the unpleasant

muddy, harsh should resulting from
INPUTR1
boosting the entire audio frequency 270k
Cd
spectrum. "" OUTPUT

RUG ( Hz) C2 ( pF) C3 ( pF)

a 125 47000 4700
b 250 22000 2200
A
c 500 12000 1200
d 1k 5600 560
e 2k 2700 270
f 4k 1500 150

OV +14V -14V 1k5

o o /WV
t
IF-43
2+2 4+7
IkS

-u-
47n B1PFIASE OUTPUT
3 14
820p TO PINS 2810
AND 6 & 12 OF
6 PAN3001
150k
7 7
4
IC1 11
Lit301
o- 10k 2 8
4048
12
16 5
V.0 O. 104, 3

1Fè.
CONTROL
INPUTS
- Ve
15k
820P 'SEE TEXT
•--e\AAA--`

VCO for the ETI-450 390k

25k
39k
-
V.
bucket brigade delay line 390k

The ETI-450 Bucket Brigade Delay trol voltages and amplifies them to MN3001 bucket brigade chip in the
Line ( see December 1977 ETI, or Top about 14 V to control a 4046 CMOS ETI-450. The components C5, R8 and
Projects Vol.5. or 30 Audio Projects) has VCO chip. The 25k potentiometer sets R9 may need adjustment "to taste" as
many uses. In some applications I i.e: the minimum range of control voltage the oscillator tracks over awide range.
phasing or flanging) it requires avari- and hence the minimum frequency. In Decreasing the capacitor value or in-
able clock. This circuit, submitted by this case it's set to about 20 kHz, just creasing either resistor will increase
Hugo Bramall of Canterbury, Vic. beyond the audible range. the frequency, whilst Ht also trims the
will interest those enthusiasts con- The phase comparator in IC2 is an oscillator range ( though this component
sidering the tlise of the Bucket Brigade exclusive-OR gate; wired as shown, it is optional). Several control voltages
Delay Line project. becomes an inverter, providing one can be mixed if the inputs are sourced
An op- amp, ICI ( LM301), sums con- opposite- phase output to drive the from an impedance around 150k.

60
 Sweep generator for VCO
A sudden and immediate need for a
sweep circuit to drive a 566 VCO led »-4
ella
141
J. Elkhorne, of Chigwell Tas., to devise am.
this circuit. 14.
The circuit is by no means critical
as several different general purpose "
active devices were tried.
Forward bias through the emitter-
base junction of Q1 provides acharging
current for a timing capacitor; this
,•,
exponential curve is amplified in Q1 and Fe.
taken from the collector circuit to
provide a descending sweep of the 566.
The signal is also routed to Q3, asimple

re-
inverter, to provide an ascending sweep
voltage.
The UJT will not drive the 566
directly, as voltage divider action
T
between the timing resistor and the IC
drops enough voltage to keep the unit
from firing.

+12 +12
Digital keyboard controller
This circuit was designed to overcome code set up by the diodes is clocked
3k3 all the problems associated with res- into the flip-flop ( IC2-1C4) by the
istor ladders and analogue memories monostable ( IC6). IC7 along with its
OUTPUT normally found in synthesisers. The associated resistors forms a D/A con-
1
key depressions cause adiode matrix to verter. The 33K resistors along with 01
03 set up binary patterns which are memo- form a circuit which inhibits further
BC108
rised on abank of flip-flops. data being clocked into the flip-flops if
OUTPUT The main advantages of this method more than one key edge to trigger
2
are tnfinite memory hold; more accurate envelope shapers.
6k8
output since there are only six main Up to 63 semitones ( over five octaves)
tuning resistors ( it is economical to can be catered for using six data bits as
make them variable). If more than one shown, although more bits can be added.
:ey is depressed at a time, no "out of RV1 to RV6 should be adjusted so
une" notes will be produced because of that each successive bit causes twice as
a multiple key depression detector. much change in the output voltage. RV7
Only one set of single make contacts is adjusts the voltage/frequency relation-
required for the keyboard. Octave trans- ship. RV8-10 adjust the starting voltage;
pose and portamento is included. they should be set to give the required
When a key is depressed, the binary octave shifts on the transpose control.

41k
100k
1D--I LOG 10+
1 100k
o
±
C)-

47k
c o
Four- input mixer 100k
LOG
2
AC128
Mr D. Marzolla of Leichhardt claims OR SIMILAR
9V-1 F
- a .

Cfri
that this mixer circuit has very low
current drain and can give an operating
life of three to four months from aNo. 47k
100k
10+

216 9-volt battery with moderate use. 3

LOG

The input impedance is 47k and the

gain of the mixer is 3dB. Perhaps a C>1.

good use for those old germanium

transistors you were going to throw out 47k
but knew they would come in handy 00k
LOG
sometime! 4

61
 MUSIC ELECTRONICS

o + 15V

Stereo VCA
RI VOUT
J Macaulay 100k

3
14
'Cl
The circuit shown is of astereo VCA 74 O
CONTROL
VOLTAGE
whose gain can be varied over a 90
dB range by the application of a R4 IC3
Cl R2 10M 4007 10
control voltage between 0-15V. 10u 1
VINM0
Maximum gain is limited to 20 dB
and occurs when the control voltage 12
CZ
is OV. Minimum gain occurs with the 100u
R3
application of + 15V at the control 100E

input. 0 OV
The circuit works as follows.
Cl / 2 are 741 op amps operated in
the virtual earth mode with R1, R5 4
determining the input impedance at Re IC2
IMO o VOUT
1M, regardless of gain. The feed- VIN 74

7
back loop from the output of the IC's
are completed by the resistors R4, Re
10M
R6. A pair of MOSFETs, internal to
IC3, are connected in parallel with
these resistors and the control vol-
tage is applied to their gates, pins 3 15V

and 10.
When zero volts are applied to the FETs decreases and the gain of the —3 dB points whilst the distortion at
gates the resistance across the feed- amplifier decreases in sympathy. maximum gain is about 0.1% at 1
back loop is some 10 9 ohms in all Once the voltage is increased to 15V kHz. If the feedback resistors are
with R4-6. In consequence these the impedance across the FETs close tolerance types, 2%, the gain
latter components determine the lowers to roughly 300R. will be found to be within i1 dB
gain of the stage. When the control The frequency response of the between channels due to the closely
voltage is increased in a positive amplifier extends from ap- matched characteristics of the FETs
direction the impedance across the proximately 5 Hz- 100 kHz at the within IC3.

Extension trigger device

for synthesizers
.5V
NOTES -
131 - 4 IN4148 OR SIMILAR
LED 1 TIL209 OR SIMILAR
J Trinder Rx TO SUIT LED USED
INPUT FROM SMALL POWER AMPS
ITO BRING SIGNAL FROM GUITAR
ETC TO SUFFICIENT LEVEL TO
OUTPUT
OPERATE CIRCUIT)

The following device is intended to

provide a trigger pulse for a syn-
thesizer when using an external input
source, e.g. aguitar.
The output from the guitar must
first be amplified by a small power
amplifier in order to bring the signal to
asufficient level to operate the device.
OV
The AC input to the device is con-
verted to DC by the bridge rectifier.
When the DC levelleaches asufficient the transistor off. connections of the external trigger
level the input of the AND gate is The output from the device is device have to be reversed so that the
taken high. As the other input is approx 3V5 (off) and approx OV (on). external trigger input usually sees
already high its output becomes high. The LED is on when the unit is trig- —3V5 (off) instead of + 3V5
When th.s happens the transistor is gered. The circuit can be easily modified
turned on, thus taking the output The synthesizer intended for use to suit individual needs. An example
voltage to nearly zero. When the DC with the circuit has an extension trig- of its use is to trigger a filter sweep
level at Pin 2 falls below the required ger input which requires less than when the input of, e.g. a guitar,
level its output goes low thus turning —3V on, thus the common and output reaches acertAr, level.

62
Simpler 4-channel 100k

synthesizer 100k

100k

In March this year (p 105), we pub- 100k

lished a design for a circuit which

o
LEFT LEFT

synthesised the back channel signals FRONT

IN
BACK
OUT
for an `artificial' 4-channel system, 10k
using the existing front channel signals. 100k

Mr. P. Dennis of Berala has pointed

out to us that the circuit we published
can be massively simplified without
affecting its operation. The above 100k 100k

circuit uses less than half of the number 100k

of op-amps that the original used. It

100k
does this partly by utilising the op-amps
as mixers with both inverting and non- RIGHT
-0
RIGHT
FRONT
inverting inputs, instead of separate IN
BACK
OUT
inverters and inverting-only mixers as
100k
in the March circuit.

.45V

10014 3
PIN 14 17404)
1k0
2
KO
CD4017 2 4

01 3 7 EACH OUTPUT
C54821.1 82
10
E 4 10
404

02
2N4891 101.
7404
2 3 14 7 6
CLK

e 9

9 11

1000
IN 7
Li CE
17404)
113 115

OPO OP1 OP2 0473 OP4 OPS OP6 OPT OPEI OP1

2k2 2k2

Simple rhythm generator 1n0

8C548 NE556

J. J. Trinder

The circuit was designed to be used

140
with a synthesiser to play simple
KO
repeating rhythms automatically. All OP
10E
that was required in this case was a OUTPUT
LEVEL
trigger signal, although a pitch signal
could be added easily by duplicating OV O

the switch and resistor networks on

the 4017 outputs.
fhe clock drives the 4017, which The outputs are added together to trigger a monostable formed
sequentially takes its outputs high. and fed back to the base of (:11, thus around an NE555. This circuit pro-
These are used to turn on switches. varying the speed of the clock depen- vides the gate pulse for the synthes-
The output voltage from each switch ding on the setting of the pot on the iser. The gate length can be varied by
can be varied by adjusting the pot. output selected. The clock is also used adjusting the 100 kpot.

63
MUSIC — ELECTRONICS
Anti-acoustic feedback
system for group or disco MIC. INPUT
(20rnV INTO 50k) 5mV
INTO 100k
The directional properties of Line- LINE SOURCE
(MC. d MUSIC)
Source Loudspeakers are best for
minimising acoustic feedback (" Howl-
Round"); unfortunately their bass re-
sponse is usually inadequate for the full
musical range. The ideal system would
consist of a completely separated MUSIC INPUT 1
MUSIC INPUT 2
amplifier system for microphone inputs (25mV INTO 20k)
MUSIC GAIN 1 (25mV INTO 20k)
MUSIC GAIN 2
terminating in line-source loudspeakers,
the "music" being amplified indepen-
dently and fed at suitable power levels
to less-directional full- range loudspea-
kers. However, as this is costly and
increases transportation problems, a FULL - RANGE
system was evolved in which a full- (MUSIC ONLY)

range non-directional loudspeaker

would respond to "music" inputs only, 5mV
INTO 100k
a line-source being used at the same
time responding to both "music" and 26 dB reduction in microphone signal monophonic programme material by
"mic." inputs. voltage between the input to amplifier connecting a capacitor ( about 2n2)
The principle has been proved in 'A' and the input to amplifier 'B'. between point 'Z' and earth; another
practice using the passive network The circuit is easily adapted to other capacitor (about 1n0) being connected
shown in the diagram. As the micro- signal levels and impedances by modify- in series at 'W'.
phone input is attenuated successively ing component values on aproportional An inherent advantage of the system
by three potential dividers before reach- basis; amore elaborate "active" system is that a "music" output is obtained
ing the full- range loudspeaker system, is possible using virtual-earth summing even if one of the power amplifiers, or
the risk of feedback from this speaker is amplifier stages. one of the loudspeakers, should go
negligible. Typically there is at least Simulated stereo is possible from faulty during aperformance.

Guitar treble boost

Q1 is connected as an emitter
follower in order to present a high
input impedance to the guitar. C2,
being relatively low capacitance, cuts
out most of the bass and C3 with RV1
acts as asimple tone control to cut the
treble and hence the amount of treble
boost can be altered. Q2 is a simple
preamp to recover signal losses in C2,
C3 and RV1

Cheap micro music box

02 7
5k6
T.M. Tobin, Birmingham APPROX
22k
26
6OR
• 25

This circuit may be connected to the

47k
•---.-AAA/1-0 24
output port of any micro to generate 4k7 100k
555 TO COMPUTER
musical notes over arange of about 11 /
2 23
PARALLEL
1 2 6 220k OUTPUT PORT
octaves. On/off control is provided by •----AAAA-0 22
the most significant bit and the resistors 470k
21
provide seven bit resolution. Alternative
on/off control methods can be used to -W" ----02 °
give eight bit resolution, eg by using the To0X 2M2

handshake lines, if available. o o

C COPYRIGHT MODMAGS Itrl
If the diode is replaced by aresistor,
say 10k, it will be found that below a The resolution is sufficient to enable depends largely on the loudspeaker
certain output value the voltage at pin 7 values to be found corresponding to impedance and is generally low enough
is insufficient to charge the capacitor. tones and semitones throughout the for power to be taken directly from the
Thus the sound can be switched off. frequency range. Current consumption computer

64
 o
.5V STABILISED

1
R1 RV2 17
47k R3 4k7
1k0 .V PRESETS
RV1
A R1
100k R5
IN A B 1 100k
fin Ike
IC1 LS1
2
01 RESET
3
OV
4

cc).
6
IC2 02
R2
7 —
22F Re
8 470R
9
10
Cl 11 C2
407 R6 100,
12 22R

18 13
R4 04
19 14
2k2
15
OV
NOTES
01,2 ARE 2N6027 OR MEU21
03,4 ARE BC108 OR EQUIVALENT
IC1 IS SN7493 BINARY COUNTER
IC2 IS SN74154 16.1NAY DISTRIBUTOR 13V
o

16 Note-sequencer the TTL requirements. The frequency they block the normally ' high' outputs
of these events is easily changed by from interfering with the selected low'
PGatehouse, Buckingham
altering the time constant - a 100 k output. The type of diode used is not
This circuit is designed to play a re- variable resistor was used. critical. 1N914s are probably the best
peating sequence of 16 notes which are IC1 generates abinary count on its (and cheapest).
programmed by variable resistors. IC1 is four outputs -- only if you ground both Interesting results can be obtained
a binary counter which runs off aPUT the reset terminals. IC2 selects asingle by connecting a fairly large capacitor to
oscillator. The oscillator is built around output line for each of the sixteen various parts of the gate terminal of
Q1, which can be a2N6027 or MEU21. possible input combinations. The result the second ( AF) oscillator. Connect the
The RC time constant connected to is that the presets are connected one-by- other terminal ground or positive line —
the anode charges up, causing the one, in sequence. Q1 is the audio watch the polarity, if it's electrolytic.
voltage at the anode to rise. At acertain frequency oscillator, whose frequency Another oscillator can be connected to
voltage, controlled by R3 and R4, the can be changed by altering the resistors the same outputs provided it is fitted
PUT conducts. This allows the capacitor which determine the anode voltage of with diodes isolating it from the first
to discharge through Q3 as agood clean the PUT. Don't be tempted to leave out oscillator. If the outputs are mixed,
clock pulse. Q3 inverts the pulse to suit the diodes in series with the presets as polyphonic effects are possible.

Autowah without tears .9V

R3 I@ 1.5mAi
S. N. Goodwin R2 4k7

The main disadvantage of a simple

wah-wah circuit is that it requires a
manual trigger for the effect, usually GUITAR
provided by afoot- pedal, which needs PICK-UP

solid ( and often expensive)

mechanical construction and also LDR
prevents the guitarist from moving OCP12

freely about the stage. After a couple

of hand- made pedal systems col-
lapsed in use, the standard wah-wah shining on the LDR, the higher the Fluorescent lights could give pro-
circuit was modified as follows A light frequency- range boosted by the blems with mains hum, but, under
dependent resistor was mounted on circuit. normal incandescent lighting, none
the soundboard of the guitar about 2 It is tolerant of quite a wide range were experienced. The wire to the
cms from the highest string, pointing of light levels and if the range is found LDR should ideally be screened, but
out about 1 cm from the front of the to be incorrect this can be rectified in over short distances this is not vital.
instrument. The shadow of the two ways. Lenses or filters can be put Avoid bending its leads close to the
player's hand moving across the gui- across the LDR, or resistors can be body, as they can be snapped off very
tar triggers the effect — the more light connected in series/parallel with it. easily.

65
 POWER

Automatic nicad
charger
M.G. Baker, Port Elizabeth
This circuit will charge up to eight
1V25 Nicad cells at a constant current
of up to 100 mA. When the battery
voltage reaches a preset level, the
charger trips and charging ceases.
The voltage of aNicad cell increases
as it is charged and reaches avalue of
approximately 1V45 when fully charg-
ed. A battery of eight cells would,
therefore, be fully charged when its
voltage is 11V6. The recommended 11V6 for eight cells. A milliammeter is between terminals C and D. When SW1
charging current of aNicad cell is usual- then connected between terminals C is depressed, LED 2comes on indicating
ly 10% of its mAh rating ie 50 mA for a and D. Reset button SW1 must be the battery is charging. When the bat-
500 mAh battery. momentarily depressed and the re- tery voltage exceeds the preset trip
To set up the circuit, connect a quired charging current is adjusted by voltage, the charging current drops to
voltmeter across terminals A and B. PR1 PR2. zero and LE D 1comes on indicating the
is adjusted to the desired trip voltage eg The battery may now be connected battery is fully charged.

Increasing regulator outputs

It is often necessary to arrange an inte- to be the complications of heat dissi-
grated circuit 3-terminal voltage pation and inefficiency.
regulator to give ahigher output voltage The circuit above avoids the problem
than that set by the regulator alone. The by using transistor Q1 to generate alow
normal way of doing this is to connect impedance at the regulator common
the "common" terminal to the mid- point terminal by emitter-follower action,
of apotential divider hung between the while transferring the voltage derived
regulated output and ground. The from a relatively high- resistance divider
regulator voltage now appears across the network. The value of R3 is not critical,
top divider resistor; hence, if for but must be low enough to accept the
example equal divider resistors are used, highest likely quiescent current without
the output voltage is twice that main- causing 01 to turn off.
tained by the regulator between its The circuit shows apractical 24 Volt
common terminal and output. supply using a7812 regulator.
The problem with this method is
that most IC regulators (eg the 78-series)
have a small quiescent current ( approx
Battery state indicator
UNREGULATED •14V
REGULATED
10mA) flowing out of the common
INPUT
OUTPUT
1.17V..40V1
Pl
terminal to ground. The magnitude of A flashing LED can be used to give an
4k7

this current is not closely controlled, accurate indication of the state of a

and hence the total output voltage battery, without using a lot of battery
R1
becomes somewhat unpredictable due 5k6 power. The circuit shown can be
to this extra current flowing in the adapted to batteries from 4V to 16V by
bottom half of the divider. Low divider selecting R1 to limit the LED current to
resistor values help, but there are likely about 20 mA and choosing ZD 1about
1V lower than the voltage of a flat
°artery.
RV1 sets an upper voltage, below
Constant current source which the LED flashes; the flash rate
This circuit uses a standard panel reference voltage for a transistor in a increasing as the voltage drops. RV2
mounting LED to provide a constant constant current generator. sets a lower voltage, below which the
The output current I, is given by the LED is continuously lit, and this should
equation be used to indicate the need for
immediate battery charging or
I= VLED VBE
replacement.
RE If a stable reference voltage is
When the circuit is not connected to a available elsewhere in the equipment,
load, the LED is extinguised, giving a this may be used instead of R3and ZD 1.
"visible indication of when the circuit is Now that's quite a cunning idea,
240V AC
nv operating. from F. Gillespie of Findon W.A.

66
 Regulator problems
INPUT

Secondly, if for any reason the wiper

Also from Mr P. Dennis, some comm- of the output voltage preset pot goes
ents on the use of the 723 regulator IC. to earth, the IC may be damaged as the
Firstly, the shown circuit configura- amplifier differential voltage ( 5 V max)
tion, designed to supply about 500 mA, may be exceeded. This usually occurs
CURRENT LIMIT
RESISTOR 1-500mAl will oscillate at times, even with a220p with multi-turn pots where the wiper
compensation capacitor. The solution to position cannot be seen. It can easily
OUTPUT
this one is to use atransistor with lower be avoided by pre-setting the wiper
gain. As long as the f t stays the same, to the output end of the track before
then the 3dB corner frequency will go switch-on.
up by the same amount that the beta Thirdly, when operating the 723
goes down. without an output transistor ( in which
COMPENSATION Usually the lower gain presents no case it can supply up to 150 mA),
CAPACITOR
problem to the 723, although it does remember that it may heat up, causing
PIN NUMBERS FOR 14- OIL represent ahigher load. the reference voltage to drift.

THY 500-12
(RS. 261- 514)

•
RI R2
INPUT FROM 15k PUT >220R BATTERY
CHARGER (2N6027)
,RV1 SET CUT-OFF
DI- 1 250R POINT
KZY88 -
5.6V

o • o

(RSTi
196-369)

Battery charger battery voltage to determine when from the battery, the circuit will
controller charging should cease. The battery
being charged provides the power
naturally not be self starting if the
battery is completely flat or charged
D VVedlake for the oscillator which, in turn, to less than about 7 volts. This pro-
triggers the thyristor via • the pulse blem could be overcome by pro-
transformer Ti. As the anode of the viding apdsh-button shorting switch
The battery charger circuit illust- PUT is clamped to 5V6 by the Zener across the thyristor to initiate char-
rated was designed to be incorpo- Diode, ZD1, it follows that the circuit ging. In a short while the battery
rated in any conventional battery will not oscillate if the potential at voltage should have risen suf-
charger rated up to 10 amps, where the slider of RV1 is correspondingly ficiently to maintain normal opera-
the output is full-wave rectified and higher. Therefore, RV1 controls the tion. However, one should bear in
unsmoothed. It is fully protected as cut-off point which should be set to mind that the charger will not be
it cannot be damaged by short 13V8. This is best set under actual protected when the start push but-
circuit or reverse battery connection. operating conditions and the char- ton is pressed, so if included, one
Furthermore, charging ceases when ging current will gradually reduce as should provide a fuse as additional
the battery voltage reaches a pre-set this voltage is approached. protection.
voltage normally 13V8 for a fully The charger is fully protected as If used at full load current, the
charged battery). the circuit cannot oscillate under thyristor should be mounted on a
The design is based on the Pro- short circuit conditions or reverse suitable heat sink having a thermal
grammable Unijunction Transistor battery connections. However, as dissipation of 4 C/W , ,eg RS 40 1-
PUT) oscillator which senses the the power for the oscillator is derived 49 7).

67
POWER

Voltage level indicator This circuit, by Fred Zickar of BelIambi, in the 3909 supply line varies the
indicates the state of nickel-cadmium brightness of the LEDs. You can change
batteries in portable equipment. it to suit ambient lighting conditions.
LED 2 indicates a low battery The potentiometer sets the required
voltage and the 3909 IC will make it 'battery OK' voltage. The circuit draws
flash when this occurs. The 3k9 resistor less than 10 mA.

Relay PSU protector

This circuit may prove very useful
when trying out a project for the first
time. Any power supply shorts will pull
the supply voltage ( Vi) down, turning
the transistors on and tripping the
relay. This then causes the 10 k resistor
to latch the circuit in the ' tripped'
mode. The relay is connected so that it
disconnects the supply to the circuit
being tested. The circuit can be reset
by pressing the momentary-contact greater than Vs/R2. R2 must be greater The circuit ( which was sent in by
switch shown. than RI and Vs/R2 must be large enough Scott Field of Taree) work with Vi
RI is selected so that YURI is to turn the first transistor on. ranging from 3to 18 volts.

Stabiliser for selected between 470 ohms and 3k3. 01

battery supplies
TT800
With the components shown, the output
voltage varies less than 2% for battery
The accompanying circuit, is useful voltages from 5V to 8V and output
when voltage sensitive devices (such as currents from zero to 200 mA. For
TTL ICs) must be battery operated. higher currents, RI may need to be
It uses very little power from a good decreased.
battery; whilst with a flat battery, the Always use a power transistor for
output voltage is within 0.1V of the Q2 or it will overheat when the battery
battery voltage. is nearly flat. Both Q1 and Q2 should
ZDI should be selected to obtain have a current gain of at least 40, while
approximately the desired output the gain of Q3 should be as high as
voltage; for fine trimming, R2 may be possible.

68
 -Vi TO REST
OF CIRCUIT
-Ve FROM Cl
N/c
Short circuit protection for ETI-132
John Peschar of Marks Point found that has occurred. RELAY
the overload indicator of his ET! 132 The SCR used in his device was a
R6
power supply gave insufficient warning. C106D1, which had sufficient current 1N910
1M
He developed this circuit which cuts capability to drive the indicator he
the output of the supply when the used. DI can be almost any silicon
current drawn reaches approximately diode. It prevents feedback from the
R7
1.3A, latches and turns on an indicator SCR gate to the rest of the circuit. INDICATOR
to show that an overload condition
L SNG
EXITI
CIRCUIT.

'Zener-less' battery through R2. The potential at point A is R3 limits the current through the
thus given by: parallel combination of the transistor
eliminator and R1/R2. Suppose as an example that
P.J. Hunt, Wimborne V =- Vbe x(
R1 + R2) V„ tries to rise. The potential divider
R1 formed by the three resistors will try to
Designed as avariable-voltage battery raise the voltage across R1. This will tend
eliminator, this circuit provides a hence the name Vbe -multiplier. to increase the collector current and thus
stabilised output without Zener diodes increase the potential drop across R3,
as the reference source. Instead, a Vi .
e- leading to astabilising effect at point A.
multiplier is employed, so that the This is a case of voltage-derived series
output voltage may be continuously VI*
MULTIPLIER feedback.
varied by PR1 over the range 6-10 V. In the practical circuit, R3 also
The Vbe-multiplier is shown schema- provides base current for the series'
tically in the inset. Provided that V„ is transistor Q2. Q3 and R4 form acurrent
high enough, the potential across R1 will limiter. If the output current exceeds
be about 600 mV for asilicon transistor. approximately 100 mA,Q3 starts to turn
The current through R1 can thus be on, reducing the output voltage. If
adjusted so that the base current of the desired, Q3 and R4 may be omitted, in
transistor may be ignored for practical which case R3 may be de-rated to 1 / W.
2
purposes. In this case, the current The whole unit fits easily inside a PP9
through R1 will equal the current battery case.

03
9-0-9V BC109
". OD en A (SEE TEXT/

REGULATOR

Fail-safe for IC voltage regulators Andrew Bain

One of the problems with using power By using the regulator as shown
NORMAL CONFIGURATION
supplies based on IC voltage regula- and taking the output from another VOLTAGE
tors is the chance that the common connection to the metal case, the REO

+0
(case) connection could come off, output will drop to zero if a lead be- Vin
0+
Vout
allowing the output to rise to the full comes disconnected. EXTRA CONNECTION
TO CASE

input voltage. If the regulator was An LED can be connected as OV

OV

driving TTL there could be disastrous shown, if required, to provide an in-

consequences. dication of afault. OPTIONAL
LED

69
POWER

Many home-grown projects require a

Mille-power inverter high voltage, low current source. The
simplest and safest means of pro-
J. S. B. Dick viding this is by an inverter. The
circuit described here is versatile,
efficient and easily capable of pro-
viding power for portable Geiger
counters, dosimeter . chargers, high
resistance meters, etc.
The 555 timer IC is used in its
multivibrator mode, the frequency
being adjusted to optimise the trans-
former characteristics. When the out-
put of the IC is high, current flows
through the limiting resistor, the
primary coil to charge C3. When the
output goes low, the current is
reversed. With a suitable choice of
frequency and C3 a good symmetric
output is obtained.

Simple dual power supply +V IN

2

LSwann

This circuit offers a cheap and simple

way of obtaining a split power supply
(for Op- amps etc.), utilising the
quasi-complementary output stage of
V OUT
the popular LM380 audio power IC.
The device is internally biased so
that with no input the output is held
mid-way between the supply rails.
R1, which should be initially set to
mid-travel, is used to nullify any inba-
lance in the output. Regulation of Vou ,
-V IN
depends upon the circuit feeding the
2
LM380, but the positive and negative
outputs will track accurately irrespec- over 1watt, and so extra cooling may ceeded, current limiting occurs if the
tive of input regulation and unba- be required. The device is fully pro- output current exceeds 1A3.
lanced loads. tected and will go into thermal shut- The input voltage should not ex-
The free-air dissipation is a little down if its rated dissipation is ex- ceed 20 V.

Nicad charger Quite a number of portable appliances voltage divider on their bases. The out-
use battery supplies for which NiCad put normally comes directly from the
batteries are ideally suited. This circuit, vehicle's battery supply until the voltage
from Ron Smith of Rockhampton QLD, falls and the relay drops out. The values
charges two sets of 6 V NiCads from a shown provide about 100 mA charge
12 V source. This allows a 12 V NiCad which is suitable for NiCads of 1 AH
battery supply to be charged from the capacity or larger. The charge rate may
12 V supply in a car or boat, and used be varied by changing the value of
as an emergency power source. It would R2 and R3.
be useful for charging NiCad batteries Ql, Q2 MJ2955
used in handheld transceivers. Dl— Do 1N4004
The circuit splits the NiCads into two R1 330R, 1W
6.25 V groups and charges from two R2, R3 15R, 1/W
2

current regulators with a common RLA I 12 V relay, DPDT

70
 RADIO FREQUENCY

Frequency doubler
This circuit from staff files can be used
to double the frequency of an RF signal
generator. A generator with a top range
of say, 100 MHz, can be used to provide 4 x5082 2800

signals of up to 200 MHz. Fundamental, 50 ohms

third and fourth harmonic are about INPUT
20 dB or more below the second har- 100p

1
monic ( desired) content provided the
diodes are all well matched. -4° 50 ohms
OUTPUT
Input and output impedances are 0.1pH•• —0
around 50 ohms. All wiring should be as
short and direct as possible. The whole
circuit may be mounted in a short ••••••

•5 TURNS TRIFILAR WOUND

piece of tube with a BNC connector on ON SMALL BALUN TRANSFORMER
each end. ••10 TURNS 30 B&S WIRE 18R••
This could also be used in an osci- ON Y W RESISTOR
lator/multiplier chain and for VHF/UHF
converters or transverters and would •••••
IMF

most likely be followed by some sort of

tuned amplifier.

CMOS radio that little damping occurs, and thus the

receiver is highly selective. The output
The circuit shown is of a simple MW of IC1/1 is an amplified RF signal and
receiver based on the 4011 CMOS IC. is passed to IC1/2 for detection.
The four gates in this package are The unwanted RF appearing at the
used as linear amplifiers by connecting output of the detector is removed by
loop N/C TO
OTHER PINS their inputs together and applying the lowpass filter formed by R4 and C2.
negative feedback.
The audio signal is then fed to an
L1, 80 turns of 22 SWG enamelled amplifier formed by IC1/3 and IC1/4.
wire close wound on a 3/8" diameter The circuit's current consumption is
ferrite rod, is the pickup coil. This is about 10 mA when operated from a9 V
tuned by the 500- trimmer and the supply.
resulting tank circuit referrred to earth Note that the IC used must be a
at RF by C1.
40011AE and not the 4011B whose
The high input impedance, that of input protection network will prevent
Id/i, ' seen' by the tank circuit ensures it from operating in the linear mode.

FM signal conditioner
As an alternative to an extra IF stage
R2
in an FM tuner, a PLL IC can be used 1M R8
4M7
as a signal conditioner. The VDO of L1

the PLL tracks the input signal to

provide a less noisy and stronger signal
at its output.
The circuit shown in suilt around R4 R5
the Signetics NE561B PLL. The only 100k 470k

C3
thing necessary is adjustment of the 10u
C2 D1.1N914 OUT
3/30 p trimmer which sets the VCO's 150p IC1=4011AE

centre frequency to 10.7 MHz.

The circuit should be effectively
screened to avoid interaction with the
FM front end that provides the circuit's
input.

71
 RADIO FREQUENCY

•90

I / 6V1

3900

21'
=,,,1
1

121
LI IOU

1
4

100Is

IATT T OOe TOOn

1 00

SCREENED CABLE
NOTE
ICI IS ST 1812
IC2 ISLAM°
01,3AS ARE OCIOS
02 IS 2N31119
DI I ARE INS'S
DS IS 1114001
1
101111110•1 - 271 201 IS EIVIRSCSV6

Direct-conversion
receiver 2t2
TOn

LI
E. Vaughan, High Wycombe

A direct-conversion receiver has

many advantages over the superhet,
when looked at in terms of performance
versus complexity and cost ( this
receiver can be built for around fifteen
pounds or less). The SL1612 is an RF
amplifier providing premixer gain. D1,2 CW, AM can be resolved by tuning to correctly set up, this receiver should
protect the IC. The mixer is abalanced zero beat. The circuit employs varicap switch-tune to the 14 MHz, 21 MHz and
type, driving an M-derived single sec- tuning. 28 MHz amateur bands.
tion lowpass filter with a cut-off fre- Using a wire aerial 66 feet long, L1,2 are wound on Ye inch diameter
quency of 3kHz. The oscillator is aCol- separated at 33 feet by an insulator and slug tuned formers using 36 SWG wire.
pitts type followed by abuffer stage to fed with 75R coax, it is possible to pick Winding details of 1:1 are shown in the
prevent pulling of the oscillator when up stations from all over Europe, North diagram. L2 is 25 turns tapped at 9and
tuning. Although mainly for SSB and and South America and Africa. When 14 turns. L3 isl mH and L4 10 mH.

RF monitor meter Cl D1
3k3
R2 LIN
A simple RF and modulation monitor INPUT 5P

is always a handy instrument to have

around the shack. This one should cost
C2
less than $ 10 — half that if you use a lOn
'surplus' bargain meter movement. The
lOnT
input could be taken from two coax
connectors mounted in asmall box with
their centre conductors connected
together — providing a through Capacitor C2 should have very short Alternatively, the ' free' end of R3
connection so that the unit may be leads for best effectiveness. At VHF could be connected to ground to
slipped in series with the transmission its value could be reduced to 470 pF provide agreater range of control.
line to the antenna. or 1 n. The pot, R3, is a sensitivity When using the monitor on SSB
Just about any small signal silicon control. The value of Cl should be transmissions, C3 may be increased to
or germanium diode may be used for D1 varied so that full scale deflection is say 100 nor as much as 1uF to provide
— like 1N914, 1N4148.0A200, 0A202, obtained with the usual RF power used some ` hand' for the meter indication.
AA119, 0A90, 0A91, 0A95 etc. with R3 at maximum resistance.

72
Synchrodyne tuner

The main component of this design,

from H. Lee of Vaucluse NSW, is the
integrated circuit which can be any of
the many types of FM detector and
limiter chips such as LM 1351, MC 1351, 13

LM 1841, ULN 2136A, LM 2111, ULN 25µ

1 AUDIO
2111A, LM 2113 and ULN 2113A. F — C., OUTPUT

There is very little difference among

these ICs, except the pin connections.
The detection of the AM signal takes
place when two synchronous signals are —9V

fed into the balanced product detector o

FERRITE ROD , 100mrn LONG
(or multiplier) section of the chip. The
two signals are obtained from the same
RF amplifier, MOSFET-PNP combin- The selectivity is rated fair for the another LC tuned circuit similar to Ll
ation, Ql and Q2 (hence the name high frequency end of the AM band but Cl. This was not used since the author
synchrodyne). The de-emphasising stations like 2FC Sydney on the lower is a 2FC fan most of the listening time!
capacitor, C2 at pin 14 of the LM 2111 end are entirely satisfactory. However If a replacement is used for Q2 then it
IC smooths the audio output at pin 1. at a small increase in cost and a little must be a high fT variety and R4 can
The author does not find it necessary effort of alignment, selectivity can be be trimmed for the required gain of the
to incorporate a 10 kHz whistle filter. increased greatly if R3 is replaced by RF stage.

LED S-meter
This circuit, from Ivan Zaletel of
Liverpool, NSW, employs two quad 1k

comparator ICs connected to drive arow

of LEDs in a bargraph arrangement ICI, 2339L

with the input coming from the detector

lk
dc output or AGC line of a receiver.
Thus, signal strength is indicated on the
row of LEDs. IF 220R

Transistors Q Iand Q2 provide acon- 1k IF

TRANSK 3
stant current drive for the row of LEDs. # 47P

All the comparators have one input tied

together and driven from the detector 1k
1

output ( -signal in -). Each other input of

470k 4 , (9"
the chain of comparators is connected to 560 0
GAE 99

taps on a resistive divider ' ladder'. As

1k
the input voltage increases, it will ex-
ceed the voltage on each successive tap
A
of the ladder and the comparators will
each change state in turn. The output of lk

each comparator will initially sink

current until it changes state and thus
the LEDs will only turn on in sequence, 1k
commencing with LED1. The output
from my receiver was derived from the 68 R

point A in the supplementary circuit 11 A 14

added the 47p capacitor, 47 k resistor SIGNAL _ 12 80140

IN
and 0A90 germanium diode). The vol- HEAT
SINK
tage at point A varies from 0V with no
signal to just under 1V for a strong 02
EIC157
signal. The 47k preset pot in the 369

S- meter is set so that no LEDs are lit

when no station is being received.

73
TECHNIQUES

The ubiquitous 555

These two circuits come from the pen of
F. Zickar of East Corrimal NSW and
illustrate some interesting applications
of the ever-present 555 timer IC.
Circuit ( 1) shows avoltage doiibling
dc-to-dc inverter which consists of a555
as an oscillator driving a comple-
mentary pair of transistors, Q1 and Q2,
followed by avoltage-doubler rectifier.
When pin 3of the 555 goes high, the
collector of Q2 drops to near OV as it
turns on (Q1 is off) and the 10u capacitor
charges through DI and the collector-
emitter of Q2, reaching avalue almost
equal to the supply voltage.
When pin 3of the 555 goes to OV, Q2
turns off and the collector of Q1 goes to
the positive supply rail as it turns on.
Now, the 10u capacitor discharges into
the 200u capacitor through D2 and the
process repeats with every cycle of ICI.
After afew cycles, this latter capacitor
is fully charged to a value equal to
almost twice the supply rail voltage. If
the supply is 12 V say, Vout will be
100m
about 22 V.
This can be used to supply an audio 8 OHM

preamp, for example, in an amplifier

that has low voltage supply rails, in
order to improve overload margin etc.
Load current may be about 10 - 15 mA.
The circuit in (2) is asuggestion for a
voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO).
Here, aFET (Q 1) is used as avoltage- IC2 can then be used to drive, for and the LED used as a simple signal
variable resistance to control the example, an LED (dotted circuit). Its strength indicator in place of a more
voltage on pin 7of the input 555 ( IC2). brightness would vary with the expensive 'S-meter'.
As Q1 forms part of the CR timing variation of the output frequency pulses The rest of the circuit shows how to
network, this varies the frequency of the from IC2. The gate of Q1 could be 'slave' another 555 (IC1) to provide an
pulse from pin 3of IC2. connected to the AGC line of areceiver audio output.

Simplest 'divide by 1or 10'

scaler
Variable division of clock signals is a
nuisance to implement, because of the
gating and switching it usually requires.
Inspection of the internal circuitry of
7490 indicated an ultimately simple
method of scaling.
Reset 9 overrides reset 0 in 7490.
Thus if reset 0 is active and reset 9 is
cycled, the D output will rise and fall
in time with reset 9. When the common The technique, from D. Brown of
reset line is at 0 the counter divides by Lindfield NSW, can be extended to any
ten in the normal fashion. number of cascaded 7490s.

74
 +12 .12
HIGH FREQUENCY
SYMMETRY CONTROL 470n
150E
HIGH FREQUENCY
470 SYMMETRY CONTROL
REVERSE
LOG
(FINE
100n
FRED)
S.O.T.
82k
255

5 5kHz-500kHz
2M2
—8 500Hz-50kHz
30Hz-3kHz
8038
(INTERSIL) 10
50Hz-5kHz
3Hz-300Hz
470n
5Hz 500Hz
12 11 9 3 2

I 1 I
S.O.T. I
82k
S.O.T. SELECT ON TEST FOR S.O.T. SELECT ON TEST FOR
-12
MINIMUM SINEWAVE DISTORTION MINIMUM SINEWAVE DISTORTION

Improving performance of the 8038 function generator

When using the popular 8038 Function control resistors along with the fre- pacitor is less than InF. Values are
Generator IC in a switched range quency determining capacitor. given for two typical circuit configura-
oscillator, connect aseries RC network The bypassing RC network on pin 4is tions. The maximum rate of frequency
between pin 4 and the positive supply proportioned to counteract the dis- sweep is reduced in this circuit, with all
rail to retain waveform symmetry when torting effects of the IC's internal other IC functions being unaffected.
operating on the higher frequency parasitic circuit paths on the high fre- This suggestion comes from R.
ranges. This a‘ oids the need for re- quency charge-discharge characteristic Beaumont of Pennant Hills, NSW.
adjusting or switching the symmetry when the frequency determining ca-

CI OUTPUT

Cl

necessary if t2<5ti while D2 is

t 0.7R 1,C1 t 0.7R 2,C2 necessary if ti<5t 2 approximately. This
is to speed the discharge of the
FF1 FF2
associated capacitors. R1 may be any
Oscillator has variable
O 1 15
13 2 14 value in the range lk to 22M, while
402713 J 6 10 Cl should be between 10p and 100µ.
K
CP
5
3
11
13 mark/space ratio The circuit may latch up with both
CD
SD
4
7
12
9
outputs high if the power supply rises
+ 16 16 This oscillator allows the period of each slowly at power-up or if the outputs
- 8 8
half-cycle of the output wave form to are shorted to the positive supply,
be independently set by the RC net- according to its designer, Barry
zero V C2

works R1C1 and R2C2. DI is only Wilkinson, of Nebula Electronics.

or supply —

28mS

l
Çflf
s
oops

SCR oscillator 3Vtri)

An SCR can be made to oscillate when The frequency is determined by the +10V
connected in the circuit as shown. The gate voltage and the value of the capaci-
component values specified give 100 us tor and the charging resistor, R2. The
pulses at intervals of 28 mS. The output output voltage is largely dependent on
voltage with a 10 V supply is about the voltage on the capacitor when the
three volts. SCR fires. Pulse width is determined by
The current through the bias resis- the value of R1 and the capacitor.
tors, R3 and R4, must be high enough to The circuit can be voltage controlled
allow adequate gate current for reliable by altering the gate voltage, but this
switching. Thé charging resistor, R2 will also alter the output voltage.
and the supply voltage are chosen so the Another cunning circuit from Phillip
current through the SCR is below its Denniss of Chippendale, NSW. DV

minimum holding current.

75
 NIQUES
i*e
dnple sequencer resisters RV1 — 16 in turn. A preset IC1b. Resetting zeros all shift register
DC voltage is thus available at the outputs and results in a logic 1 app-
Hill output, after being buffered by R1 - ears at the input of IC4.
simple sequencer can be con- 16 and IC6 for each clock pulse. A When aclock is applied a positive
structed using shift registers. sequence of control voltages can be going edge at pin 8 of IC4 and 5
A logic 1 is shifted down the shift set up and used to drive a voltage corresponds to a negative- going
registers ( IC4, 5) qutputs, otherwise controlled oxillator. edge at pin 1of IC2, due to inverters
at logic 0, at each clock pulse. This The sequencer is reset by Si. The IC1c and IC1d. The first positive
places a voltage across the variable switch is debounced by IC- la and going edge at pin 8 of IC4 and 5
causes the logic 1 at pin 1 and 2 of
IC4 to be transferred to pin 3. Since
IC2 is positive edge triggered its
output remains at logic 0, allowing
the logic 1to be transferred to pin 3.
On the following negative edge the
NOTES:
iCi & 3ARE 7400 logic 0 appears at pin 1and 2 of IC4.
IC2 IS 7474
IC4 & 5 ARE 74164 For subsequent positive edges the
IC6 is 741
logic 1 is shifted down the shift reg-
ister outputs and is replaced by the
logic 0 at the input.
When the logic 1 is clocked to pin
13 of IC5 it is fed to pins 1 and 2 of
IC4 via IC3b and IC3a and, at the next
clock, the logic 1will appear on pin 3
of IC4 and thus continuously cycle
.
around the shift registers.

'hIC2 6
IC4 13 13
IC5

Hi*
3
IC3a
RV1-16
10k

4 4 4,41 4 14 14 1 I 41

R17
RI - 16 47k
47k
OV

OUTPUT
IC6 o

OV

.0VDC This simple circuit for a LED chaser

LED chaser comes from M. Spokes of Glen Iris,
Vic. The circuit uses a 555 oscillator
RV1 driving a4017B counter. RV1 is used to
IM
vary the rate of the chaser, by varying
the oscillation frequency of the 555. The
RI
22OR
16

40178

10
R2
555
1k
e
e
6. •
LED1 LE 010

C2
lOn
c
"..1"
er' ,1
gy
output of the 4017 drives ten LEDs, but
with asuitable interface it could be used
with light bulbs.

76
 Transistors mimic SCR (programmable unijunction transistor)
100k This circuit, from J. da Silva of and by replacing the lower transistor
SENSITIVITY
Croydon, NSW, simulates an SCR. with aphototransistor the circuit can be
The 'sensitivity' trimpot is useful to set light activated. Any complementary
the triggering voltage and prevents the silicon transistor pairs are suitable for
circuit sefl-triggering from the leakage this circuit. ( Ed. Note: whilst we are
current of the transistors. aware that this circuit is not really new
By reversing the polarity of the tran- or original, it is not one that is widely
sistors the circuit becomes a PUT known amongst hobbyists).

Multivibrator
E. Vaughan, High Wycombe

The frequency of a conventional resistor in aconventional multivibrator but should have aswitching time that
multivibrator is controlled by the R-C changes the frequency. This had no will permit operation at the desired
times constant of its feedback loops. effect on the frequency the crystal frequency.
This circuit has fairly good rise and fall controlled circuit. Then the The circuit ( Fig.1 modified)
time and will operate at repetition capacitance of the 7MHzand3.5 MHz controls symmetry by employing
rates as high as 10-15 MHz. The crystals in Fig. 2 were measured and different frequency crystals in the two
disadvantage of this kind of circuit is came out as 13pF and 12pF feedback loops. R3 and R4 were
poor frequency stability. Also, the respectively. changed to 10k and X2 to 3.5 MHz. The
frequency can by affected by These capacitors are not in the 7MHz crystal remained in the second
temperature, voltage variations, and range that create an R-C time constant feedback loop. All other values are the
variation ( within tolerance ranges) that permits the circuit to work at the same as shown in Fig. 1. This produces
between capacitors and resistors in the above frequency, so there is no doubt a symmetry of 2:1, but maintained a
feedback loops, the latter affecting not the crystal was controlling the frequency stability of 0.007 percent
only frequencies, but waveform frequency. With a crystal the circuit with a 20 percent supply voltage
symmetry. operates only at its rated frequency. variation. This modification has other
With the circuits shown, all these Frequency tolerances in the order of advantages. It can be used to produce
disadvantages can be eliminated and 0.001 to 0.0001 percent can be an extremely stable asymmetrical
the advantages of a conventional obtained with this circuit. The 2N2475 square wave. Crystals for this type of
multivibrator will not be lost. The same used is a very fast switch. If another operation must have a harmonic
number of components are required as transistor is used it need not be as fast, relationship.
the crystal or crystals replace the
capacitor in one or both feedback
loops. The resistor value in the
feedback is not critical. As it is used
with acrystal it no longer controls the
time constant.
Both CT cut or AT cut crystals are
suitable. The circuit in Fig. 1 uses a
crystal of 7 MHz with a low activity.
Crystal activity was down to about one
tenth of its 7MHz value when in the
circuit, so it was not possible for it to
operate below 750 kHz. To get below
this a higher activity crystal would
have to be used. Varying the feedback Fig. 1. Fig. 2.

signals are usually negative ( in the

555 micro input reset author's experience) and so, with the
Pul
P. Davidson use of a 555, these requirements can
be filled reliably (as opposed to the
When dealing with a microprocessor normal flip-flop debounce circuit)
R2 system, there are several features The circuit saves on logic used to
100k
which place requirements on the invert the normal 555 monostable
duration of their input leg reset. These action.

77
 TECHNIQUES

R4

Precision rectifier 100k

The LM3900 is different from most

op-amps in that it is current-differencing
and operates from a single supply rail.
Standard precision rectifier circuits are
IN
not applicable for this device but the
circuit shown here works well.
Two feedback paths are provided —
R3 for dc stability and R4 for the ac
signal after C2 and R5 have filtered out
the dc bias. When R2 = 2 x R3, point A
will be at half the supply voltage,
allowing the diode to be reversed by the
input signal. vcc
For large positive input, input is — R4/R1, since R4 is made much blocking capacitors and determine the
impedance equals R1 and voltage gain smaller than R3. Cl and C3 are dc low-frequency roll-off.

Precision AC to DC form the rectifier and first hold circuit. hold is clear again.
C4 acts as the second hold circuit. A level shifting network is used to
converter Thus after every 12 cycle of Vin, the
/ shift the reference level to + 6V.
DC level of the first hold is being With the components used in the
transferred to the second hold circuit circuit, the system works very well
The circuit is a precision AC to DC by the sample pulse before the first from 25 Hz to 20 kHz.
converter (amplitude). The important +12V
feature is that the system operates
happily with amplitude and frequency
of Vin varying (e.g. speech signal). R7
2k2
IC1 in its inverting mode squares
the incoming signal and leading- edge Ce •

trigger mono 1 which produces a

"sample pulse" to the switch. The
sample pulse is in turn fed to mono 2
which triggers on the trailing-edge of ICE MC 14528

the sample pulse and produces a

pulse to clear or discharge C3.
IC2, the bipolar transistor and C3
C5 1071

LEVEL SHIFTING NETWORK 56 4k7 OV

NOTES:-
ICE is CMOS QUAD BILATERAL SWITCHES
Cl 10u
ALL UNUSED PINS SHOULD BE CONNECTED
.12V
TO OVI
o--I IC6 IS CMOS DUAL MONOSTABLE
MULTIVIBRATOR
Vin

,i7R1
"VVVV
R5 • 1k0
IC
68k

Rt 10k
+6V o
.6V +12V
1
+ R3 IC5
C2 100u 470 "
01
14 13 12 11 10 9 8
253704

4066 AE
741
1 2 3 4
IC2

741
02
2N3819
IC3
ALL IC, POWE R. D FAO+.1 0 + 12V

C3 ion

+6V

78
 •Vcc(5V-15V)

'Endless' LED chaser THIS CIRCUIT

R6
REPEATED
This unusual LED or lamp chaser SEVERAL
470R

employs a 'chain' of inverter stages con- TIMES

nected in a ring. The portion of the

circuit inside the dotted box is repeated
as many times as you wish, the collector R2
ICI,
of the transistor in each stage going to Cl 47E

the input capacitor of the following

stage and so on. Finally, the circuit
arrives at SW1 and SW2 and the stage RI

involving IC lb, Q2 etc.

According to Greg Thamm of Burra
North, S.A., who submitted it, the
whole thing works like this: after apply-
ing power, close SW2 until all the LEDs
go out. Then, open SW2 and momentarily lower threshold. When it does, the out- around the chain. The input R-C for
close SW1 (a pushbutton could be used put of IC lb will go low and Q2 will turn each stage ( Cl, RI etc) determines the
here). This starts the chaser as the collec- off. Then, C1 will charge via R6 and 'on' time. The diodes (D1- D2, etc) dis-
tor of the transistor connected to C2 will LED2, but the initial pulse will turn Q1 charge Cl - C2 etc when the preceding
be at supply potential, Q2 will turn on on via IC la and LED1 will light. When stage transistor turns on.
and LED2 will light when you close SW1. C1charges such that the input of IC la By using high dissipation transistors
However, C2 will charge via the LED and goes below its lower threshold, Q1 will and 12 V lamps instead of LEDs, the
dropping resistor of the preceding stage turn off, triggering the next inverter circuit is suitable for such applications
until the input to IC1b goes below its stage in the chain and so on, right as Christmas tree light displays, etc.

The 555 upside down! The lurk is to use the upper comparator
47n
Normally, a 555 is used with negative in a different way by biasing the

11 — triggering for a positive output pulse

but it doesn't have to be this way, as
threshold port, pin 6, at half supply and
using the control voltage port, pin 5, as
pointed out by J.L. Elkhorne of the trigger input.
Chigwell, Tasmania. An inverted The pulse length is determined by the
scheme can also be used, giving positive time constant of R1 and Cl, the larger
triggering and anegative-going output. either value, the longer the pulse.

FROM NEGATIVE
GOING TTL PART

Electronic capacitor
J.P. Macaulay

The circuit shown is essentially agyra-

PRI
tor which amplifies the effect of Cl to 220k
produce an equivalent capacitance at
the output, many times the value of Cl.
PR1 is used to set the output voltage 02
2N3055
to the required level whilst Cl charges VO
NOTE:
through Dl. Once the voltage across the 01 D2 114914
R2
diode drops to less than 0.6V Cl will 10E

continue to charge through R1 until the

voltage across Cl is equal to that on the
slider of PR1.
The equivalent capacitance at the
output is equal to the product of the
current gain of the circuit and the FX10 6 =100F! 02 is included to allow the output
value in Farads of Cl. If we assume that In practice the input impedance at voltage to be quickly adjusted by allow-
the input impedance at the non- invert- low frequencies is many tens of meg- ing Cl to discharge to earth through R2.
ing input of the 741 is MO and the ohms whilst the output impedance is a In practice however the output voltage
output impedance is 1R0 then this small fraction of an ohm, so the above will only respond rapidly to input volt
capacitance will be equal to 10- 4 figure is very conservative. age changes of more than 600m V.

79
 TECHNIQUES

Constant current source

J Macaulay

The circuit shown will provide 3 pre-

set currents which will remain con-
stant despite variations of ambient
temperature or line voltage.
ZD1 produces atemperature stable
reference voltage which is applied to
the non inverting input of ICI.
100% DC feedback is applied from
the output to the inverting input
holding the voltage at Q2s emitter at
the same potential as the non inver-
ting input.
The current flowing into the load
therefore is defined solely by the re-
sistor selected by Si. With the values
employed here, a preset current of R3 R4
10mA, 100mA or 1A can be selected. 56R 5R6
iwcj 10W
02 should be mounted on a suitable OV

heatsink.

Simple square wave generator

This circuit employs a non- inverting

amplifier using two transistors with an
RC network in the positive feedback *6 TO 15V

path between the output and the input.

Benjamin Simons of Beecroft,

NSW submitted the circuit and ex-
plains that it works as follows: when
power is first applied, C is not charged
and Q1 is not conducting. Q2 is thus
hard on and its emitter will be at apo- E OUT

ON TIME 7 Rl.D1 tential near Vcc. Capacitor C will

OFF TIME 7 52.C2
charge via R4 until Q1 begins to con-
duct. This will cause Q2 to cease
conducting, and as the action is regene-
rative, cutoff will be very rapid. The
4027 oscillator voltage on the emitter of Q2 will then
fall to avoltage determined by the ratio OV
Taking Barry Wilkinson's idea one step of R1 to R3 and C will discharge through
further ( see ETI Nov '79 p. 61) an R4 until Q1 cuts off and the whole cycle
oscillator can be made using half a4027. repeats itself.
The `on' time is set by R1, Cl while the
off time is set by D2 and R2. Another to-space ratio over a wide frequency
The transition time is extremely
idea from Philip Denniss of Berala, range. This can be trimmed if required
rapid and the rising and falling edges of
NSW. by adjusting the ratio of R2/R3, or by
the square wave produced have very
placing asmall value ' trimming' resis-
short durations. The circuit will work
tor in series with the base of Ql. Top
with many common small signal tran-
frequency will be influenced by the
sistors and pulse repetition rates
input capacitance of Q1 and circuit
beyond 500 kHz can be obtained. The strays.
output has very nearly an equal mark-

80
 Voc

LOAD LOAD

BFY51

OV OV

2N3055 in place of the BFY51 will

Darlington drivers low on pin 6 drives Q1 and switches the
enable loads of up to 3A to be driven lower CMOS transistor off and the
This circuit from C.J. Ramey, UK, at voltages limited only by the Vceo upper CMOS transistor on.
offers a very efficient way of driving a of the transistors. The result is fast switch off at low
pair of transistors in Darlington con- The circuit at left shows the internal cost and efficient switch on.
figuration from CMOS. The circuit circuit of one section of the 14007. A A bonus is the inverter between pins
at right shows how two loads of up to high on pin 6 switches the lower CMOS 10 and 12. Note: Vcc should be 5-6 V
lA may be driven from asingle 14007 transistor on, holding Q2 off and to prevent excessive current being
chip with no external resistors. Using a sinking the leakage current of Ql. A drawn from the CMOS chip.

Current- sharing for diodes

The current handling capacity of a If a saiall value resistor is put in them and, at one amp, would require a
diode can be increased by adding a series with each of the diodes the effect one ohm one watt resistor.
second diode in parallel. However no two of differing junction resistance will be
diodes have exactly the same swamped by the external resistor and
characteristics. This will result in one of the current will divide equally between
the diodes taking more than its share of the diodes. The resistors should be
the current and destroying itself. selected for a one volt peak drop across Mr G. A. Bundell of Nedlands,
Perth shows how it is done.

Retriggerable flip-flop
G S. Wills

The following circuit was devised as a

cheap retriggerable flip-flop using a
single Quad- NAND chip ( 4011).
It is sometimes useful to have a
single input flip-flop instead of the
usual SET & RESET, this one being Gates 3 and 4 are wired as a is that the input pulse must be shorter
used on the end of an ultrasonic standard flip-flop configuration, their than the CR constant of the circuit,
remote pause for a cassette recorder inputs going to gates 1 and 2 which but this is easily arranged by in-
and switching to its opposite state for steer the input pulse alternately. cluding a differentiator network (at
each received pulse. The only requirement to remember the input) with a lower time constant.

81
 TEST AND MEASUREMENT

S1N2
ON OFF
R7
6800
RV1I,
10k

SW 16

C7 FC8 '7"
RI/le 10n 1001 kJ() 81
10k 86 9V
hn • 6800 PP6
RV?
ICI
Cl 560
100u LF 351
lin
10V

2 6

R4
22k 08
85 467
56k OUT
C2 o
100u
10V
C 10
01
2u2
203820

D2
DI 0091
0.691

14

n :

203820 BASE F351 TOP

VIEW VIEW

AF signal generator

ONE OF the most useful items of test R7 and RV1, the latter permitting the source resistance of Q1 form anegative
equipment to have, especially if one has unit to be tuned over the ranges quoted feedback network which controls the
an interest in any type of audio gear, is above. This network provides positive closed loop gain of IC1. Initially Q1 is
an AF signal generator. The circuit feedback over operational amplifier forward biased by R3 so that there is
shown here provides a good quality IC1, which is a FET type giving low enough gain to give strong oscillation.
sinewave output over three con- noise and distortion levels. VR1 a and Some of the output from IC1 is coupled
tinuously variable ranges ( Range 1, R6 also bias the non-inverting input of by R8 and C10 to a rectifier and
below 20Hz to above 200Hz; Range 2, ICI to a central tapping on the supply smoothing network comprised of D1,
below 200Hz to over 2kHz; and Range produced by RI, R2 and C2. D2 and C3. These produce a positive
3, below 2kHz to over 20kHz) covering The closed loop gain of IC1 must be bias which tends to cut off Ql, pro-
more than the entire audio frequency maintained at precisely the correct ducing reduced circuit gain. The
spectrum. level if good results are to be attained. stronger the circuit oscillates, the larger
The circuit uses the usual Wien Insufficient gain would lead to less than the bias, and the lower the gain be-
Bridge type circuit, and this form of full compensation for the losses through comes. Lack of oscillation produces
oscillator consists of an amplifier the C-R Wien network, with insufficient reduced bias, more gain, and stronger
having frequency selective positive feedback and consequent violent oscillation. The required stabilising
feedback provided via a C- R net- oscillation with the output signal be- action is thus obtained.
work. The capacitive elements of this coming clipped and seriously distorted. Variable attenuator VR2 enables the
network are whichever two capacitors An automatic gain control ( AGC) output to be adjusted from zero up to
are selected by SW1, the three sets of circuit is used to maintain stable about 1.5V RMS. The current
capacitors giving the unit its three operating conditions and aconstant out- consumption of the circuit is about
ranges. The resistive elements are R6, put level. R5, R4 and the drain to 7mA.

82
 470R 470R

+5V

11 5
4n7
330
12 7490 7490
BC109 OR
-0 7490
Z40
7 SIMILAR

7,10
L 110 11(
°PIN CONNECTIONS
CRYSTAL AS PER FIRST IC
UNDER TEST

Simple crystal frequency meter 100nA

Have you ever had a whole heap of crystals in the range 500 kHz to METER

crystals which are unmarked or stamped 10 MHz.

with a frequency which is not the Two gates of a 7400 form a crystal
crystal frequency but rather the output oscillator with a third gate used as a
frequency of atransmitter. buffer. Four 7490s divide the crystal
John Rickard of Hcadunont, Vic. frequency by 10,000 to give an output crystals will oscillate at their
Certainly has and he has submitted his between almost zero and 1 kHz. This fundamental in this circuit which may
circuit for a crystal frequency meter. output is differentiated by C2 and R3 be misleading. To calibrate the
The meter gives a direct reading of and the meter integrates the pulses instrument adjust R4 with a known
frequency on a moving coil meter for giving alinear frequency scale. Overtone crystal in circuit.

TO ALL
+Ve POINTS

GRAIN OF
WHEAT LAMP

ICI = LM393
IC2 = 555
IC3 = 74C00
= 74C22I
IC5 = 78108

Logic probe mimics H-Punit

This logic probe was designed to operate
in similar manner to the Hewlett-
Packard Logic Probe. It uses a single gives half brilliance. low. This triggers IC4b for 50 ms. The Q
lamp to indicate all states including When a logic 1 is applied, both the output of IC4b is connected to the in-
open circuit and pulse trains, says R.A. comparator outputs go high. IC3a out- hibit input of IC4a. This prevents
Jackson of Glenelg, S.A. put goes low thus inhibiting gate IC3b retriggering until 100 ms after the first
IC1 is adual comparator: IC la detects and driving the lamp to full brilliance. pulse. The Q outputs of IC4 drive gates
the logic 1level threshold and IC lb de- A logic 0input gives low outputs from IC3c and d. This arrangement turns the
tects the logic 0 level. The resistor the comparators. IC2 stops oscillating lamp off, then on, giving apositive indi-
network is set for CMOS levels but can and its output goes high. This gives cation of apulse, regardless of the input
easily be changed for rn. IC3b two high inputs and the lamp is level or the pulse frequency.
With ti.c, probe input open circuit, turned off. IC5 is an 8V regulator. This limits
ICla output is low and IC1b output is If a pulse is present at the input, its the lamp voltage when the input voltage
high. IC2 oscillates at about 100 Hz and negative-going edge is coupled to the is high ( up to 18 volts). The diode pro-
the square wave output is fed through trigger input of IC4a. This is one half of tects against reverse voltage.
gates IC3b, cand d to drive the lamp adual monostable. Pin 5goes high for With careful construction the probe
with a50% duty cycle square wave. This approximately 50 ms, and then goes can be built into apenlight torch case.

83
TEST AND MEASUREMENT

100R LOGIC 1

One chip logic probe PROBE

K.D.Hedger

This circuit, although very cheap and

with a low component count, is very
effective. When logic 1is at the input of
Id/1 output goes low causing IC1/2
OV
output to go to logic 1 lighting LED 1.
Logic 0 at the input of IC1/1 causes the
output to go high, IC1/3 goes low and
IC1/4 goes to logic 1lighting LED 2.
SW1 takes the output of the IC1/2
back to the input of Id/1 so locking NOTES:
LED one on until the push to open IC1 = 7400
Pin 7 = OV
switch is released. Pin 14 = . 5V
SW1 = PRESS TO OPEN
OGIC

TO IC PINS

LED 'Iogicator'
This circuit, submitted by Michael
Kyrannis of Pascoe Vale Vic, can be
used as a logic monitoring device to
plug into an IC socket. A `high' level
on each of the pins will light its
corresponding LED. One good idea
might be to build the indicator onto the
pins of an IC test clip. The indicator
could then be simply clipped over the
top of an operating IC. Be careful
though that the circuitry can drive the
LEDs.

R1 LED1 D1
470R RL54 0A200

Simple voltage reference

E02 + 2 < Vin < 36V
This circuit, from R. Gibson of Shortland R3 while the zener current is set by Rl.
NSW, uses a 741 op-amp and a zener R4 is included to equalise the impedance R3
diode to produce a stable reference at the imputs of the 741 and thus 2k2
voltage, which can be used in regulated minimize the effect of input off-set
power supplies or for calibration current drift. The component values
applications. shown give Eol = 6.8 V, Eo2 = 9 V,
zener current = 5mA. E02
An unusual feature of this circuit is
that the zener voltage is used by the op- The maximum current drawn from +9V
amp to define aconstant current in the Eo2 should be no more than 2 mA. If R1
zener and thus stabilise it's own voltage. a slight variation of the output with 446

To keep the temperature coefficient of temperature can be tolerated, then R4 E01

the output low, an EM401 is connected and DI can be omitted and R1 and R3
+6.8V
in series with the 6.2 V zener. At 5mA changed to 560 ohm and 3070 ohm, ZD1

the BZX79C6V2 has atemperature co- respectively. BZX796V2

efficient of + 2.3 mV/°Cwhile the EM401 For different output voltages and
01
has a temperature coefficient of zener currents, the component values EM401

-2.2 mV/ °C approx. The twc cancel are given by:—

each other giving a low temperature Eo2 = Eol ( R2 + R3)/R2
stable output The output voltage, Eo2, RI = ( Eo2 - Eol). Izener
is determined by the values of R2 and R4 = R2. R3/(R2 + R3), approx.

84
AC range booster for your multimeter
MEASURING small audio frequency the circuit is set at over 1M by R1 and the output. C5 is a supply decoupling
signals is often impossible using an R2 so that the unit places little loading capacitor and should be mounted
ordinary multimeter because most of on the circuit under test. R7 biases the physically close to IC1, C3 is the com-
these have a lowest ac range of about inverting input and gives a quiescent pensation capacitor for IC1 and
1V to 5V full-scale deflection ( fsd). A output voltage of about half the supply prevents the device from becoming
simple and inexpensive solution to the potential. unstable. Note that acarefully designed
problem is to add an amplifier, such as Although IC1 has an extremely high layout having the input and output well
the one shown here, ahead of the (open loop) voltage gain, the voltage isolated from one another is required or
multimeter. gain of the amplifier as awhole ( closed the circuit as a whole may become
The amplifier has aswitched voltage loop) is much lower, and is set by the unstable.
gain of 10 or 100 and would therefore ratio of two resistances. With SW1 in Screened input and output cables
boost the sensitivity of (say) a multi- the x10 position the two resistances are should be used to prevent stray signal
meter switched to the 2.5 Vac range to R7, and R3 plus R4. The voltage gain is pickup affecting the signals. The unit
250 mV and 25 mV fsd respectively. equal to the sum of the two resistances has a maximum output of about
Measurements down to just afew milli- divided by the shunt resistance ( R3 + 3V rms. It should therefore be used
volts rms can then be made with R4) in this negative feedback network. with the multimeter set to arange of 3V
reasonable accuracy. This gives almost exactly the required or less, or if a higher range must be
The circuit uses a CA3130T opera- figure of 10 with the specified values. used, the part of the scale above 3V is
tional amplifier in the non-inverting With SW1 in the x100 position the ignored. The amplifier has a flat
mode. The non- inverting input is biased lesser shunt resistance of R5 and R6 is response up to about 30 kHz in the x100
to about half the supply voltage by R1 switched into circuit, boosting the volt- mode, and up to about 300 kHz in the
and R2 and the input signal is coupled to age gain to almost exactly 100. x10 mode.

) +9V
this point by Cl. The input impedance of

CC—C
Capacitor C4 provides dc blocking at

2M2R
I C339p SW2ON/OF F
R3 C1 3
R4 ICA3130T 7 +C44u710V
6
TOTIME TE RC5220n CA313074
_

R7IMO MULOUTPUT
,
4)

100k 11k

2M2R2 X100
SW1

TOP VIEW
—
X10

TC22u2
R5 R6100R
10V
10k

R3, R4, R5 AND R7 ARE 2% OR BETTER o

+Ve
111 squarewave generator
has 5watt output
Although many square wave generators

OV
have been designed in the past many
have two inherent disadvantages;
namely, low power and pulses offset
above OV.
This square wave generator, from

OUTPUT
William Carson of Mt Waverly Victoria,

IA gives a power output of 5 W with a

±-5 V supply in an 8 ohm load.
Transition between levels is fast and no
ringing occurs on the edges.
The transistors should be fast
switching types such as 2N3563 or
2N3564. The input to the flip flop can
be aTTL or unijunction oscillator.

85
TEST AND MEASUREMENT

174001141

150

004
7SEGMENT
7DIGIT II
1COMMON CATHODE)

e 471.1 'Cl
15
47M
'4 7400
2 3

Ige 19 404549 7473 12 3 ICM 7200

2097152

IB-
2D1

10
5V1
10115

70
14 7400 1006
12

17400 171
2
IC
71305

ON/OFF
INPUT
7400

1 CYCLE 12 SECS)

A pocket digital frequency

meter 4046 PIN 7
SEC R

S. J. Barlow 'G SEC •

4045 PIN 8 2

The circuit uses only five ICs and 13 1

•••••••(
1/32 SEC
passive components. It is designed to
fit into the casing of a pocket calcula- 10611•7208 PIN 13
(INHIBIT)
tor and makes use of the calculator's
seven segment display.
It has asingle range measuring up
to 10 MHz. The display is updated
ICIA 7208 PIN 14 4
withanew reading everytwoseconds. 1RESET)

The preceding frequency count is held

in the display during this period, thus
avoiding aflashing display during the
sampling interval. IC1807208 P116 11
1STROBE )

The 7805 provides the 5V supply

for the logic. The 4045 and the crystal
form an oscillator and 21 stage binary pulse (waveform 3). Waveforms 2 with a 5V1 zener diode providing a
counter producing 1 / 32 second and 3 are NAN Ded into pin 14 of the, clamp and discharge path. The dif-
pulses at 1 sec intervals as shown in ICM 7208s counter chip to produce ferentiated waveform ( 5) gates the .
waveforms 1 and 2. The 7473 flip- the RESET signal. Waveform 3 is also new frequency reading into the dis-
flop produces the one second gating inverted before driving adifferentiator play.

Simple logic probe

Power for the probe is taken from
uses 555 chip the device under test. Because of the
few components it can be housed in a
Alan Reek, of Woolwich in Sydney, small pill container ( plastic) or a
devised this simple logic probe around commercial probe container can be used.
a 555 timer IC. This circuit has the Square wave inputs will cause both
advantage that it places very little load LEDs to light equally and the duty
on the circuit under test. As shown, cycle of the input can be estimated by
the circuit can be used with rn, the relative brightness of each led. A
(R=120 ohms). For CMOS circuitry small silicon diode could also be
using a supply rail above 5V, the LED connected in series with the Vcc line so
current limiting resistors should be as to prevent damage to the probe if the
increased. wrong polarity is applied to the circuit.

86
 A very handy device around any 0A91, 0A95, 0A202 etc
All-round modulator hobbyists workshop or serviceman's drive will need to be aroul
bench is a simple modulator. For hundred millivolts.
aligning IF amplifiers, receiver front A silicon signal diode, ot
2n AM OUT
ends etc — especially with only basic carrier, diode may be used, bu
CARRIER
test instruments, it's amust. need around half avolt of RF drive.
H — le Constructed in a small shielded
Reader, G.J. Armitage of Melbourne container, with coax input and output
Vic, sent this circuit in. A common connectors ( RCA connectors are good),
signal diode is used as a `mixer'. You'll
prevents radiation of signals and a
need to drive the audio input with more switched attenuator may be connected
signal than the RF input to get good on the output.
modulation depth. The circuit may also be used as a
The circuit will work across avery product detector. BFO injection should
wide frequency range, from very low be fed in the 'Audio' input and the
frequencies to well into the VHF resultant audio taken from the output
region. The diode can be any (add a 'pi' RF filter using two In
germanium signal diode, such as 0A90, capacitors and a1nH RF choke).

Mods to the ETI-140 1GHz frequency counter

'T.* et.

mpomy PC3, PIN E

110 . —
(R57)

REV .L.V 1 \ 11 11 t - 11 \11 R

4k7
The following modifications to the ETI- SW5, anode to the switch. TO SW5 ANY NPN

140, from Kit Scally of North Ryde To produce aMHz/kHz decimal point +5V WHEN IN (BC107 etc)
0-50MHz POSITION
NSW, will make it alittle easier to use. on the 0-50 MHz range, add the extra
Firstly, an extra two decimal points circuitry shown here. The components
470R
on the display improves the appearance may be 'hung' off the board.
of the reading. Change R75 from 470R The PL18/20VA transformer in the
to 220R and common the decimal point power supply runs hot and this may be
on display 1to displays 4and 7 (pin 6on replaced by aPL18/40VA unit to reduce TO DECIMAL PT.
each IC). the temperature. A one anip, quick blow DISPLAY 6
If the decimal point on display 5lights 3AG fuse placed in the primary circuit
dimly when using the "time with pre- is also agood idea. using a 1M resistor as a dc ground
scale", this can be cured by adding a Erratic readings when measuring fre- return. Place it from input to ground for
IN914 diode in series with pcb pin Eand quencies below 100 Hz can be cured by these signals.

Simple LED mains tester Neutral open-

circuit all LEDs lit
This simple little circuit from D.L. Active open-
Shaw of North Ryde NSW, will help circuit none of LEDs lit
you find out if your power wiring is ok. Note that when Active and Neutral
The circuit indicates the following are interchanged the red LED will be lit
wiring conditions: even when the power switch is off. Both
Normal . . . green and yellow LEDs lit 680n capacitors should be rated at
Active and Neutral Inter- 350 Vdc working or greater — 630 V
changed .... red and yellow LEDs lit polystyrene or lkV polyester capacitors
Earth open-circuit all LEDs lit would be prefered.

NOTE
BOTH CAPACITORS MUST
BE GREATER THAN 350V OC
WORKING

87
 AND MEASUREMENT
4/
LIGHT
GLOBE
Iac tester
.his circuit was made to fill aneed to
quickly test triacs under alight load. By
observing the neon it is possible to tell
NEON
whether ac or dc is flowing through the DEVICE
UNDER
light-globe. The device to be tested is TEST
connected to the circuit with clip leads
and the 470k potentiometer advanced
until the globe lights. lf the neon glows m
oo, 0 .T. len
on both stalks the globe is fed with
NEUTRAL
ac and the triac is working properly. If DC
AC
one stalk only gloirs, one cycle of the
l
:íl GLOWS ON ONE
waveform is passing through the globe GLOWS ON
e
ELECTRODE ONLY
signifying a fault with one junction of Kevin Benson, of Quakers Hill NSW, BOTH STALKS DEPENDING ON
POLARITY
the triac. Of course, if it doesn't glow built the unit on a light dimmer pc
at all and the light is not lit, the triac board with only minor modification to
is completely faulty. the board.

Function generator
J. S Paterson

IC1 is an integrator which, along with

IC2, etc, forms a voltage controlled
ramp oscillator, the frequency of
which is set by RV1. Si and diodes
D1, 2 control the direction of the
ramp. The output of IC2 is taken to
IC3, which is acomparator providing
a square output at pin 6. RV2 pro-
vides control of symmetry. Lastly, this
square wave is fed to an integrator,
which gives atriangular waveform. If
TRIANGLE
OUT
the control voltage is applied via the
O circuit in Fig. 2the frequency will vary
logarithmically with voltage — useful
for synthesizers.
With RV1 slider grounded, aramp
can be fed into the circuit at point A,
so the oscillator will sweep through its
range — useful for testing filters, etc.

Wide range voltage The control voltage, which ideally

should be in the range 1.5 V to 3.5 V,
controlled oscillator is applied to the power supply
connections. IC2 is used to square up
This little circuit comes from our
and buffer the output.
London office — it's an example of the
lateral thinking for which the British o

are famous! CONTROL

Any section of ICI can be used but VOLTAGE

all unused inputs must be earthed —

00k

o
otherwise the CMOS will pick up mains OUTPUT

hum and operate in its linear region, IC2

CA3144

overheating as aresult.
With the values shown, a frequency Ds—

1
range of about 50 Hz to 20 kHz is
ICI
4001

C,

7
obtained — just right for an audio
sweep oscillator. If the mark/space ratio
is unimportant, it can go down to 1Hz. O e“›.‘ o

88
 careless handling. Two gates on each The output of the astable is fed to a
CMOS tester side of the 14 pin DIL package are transistor which acts as abuffer, driving
tested independently. Each pair is con- the LED and providing an audio output
C. Jordan, Sompting
nected as an astable, the timing to a crystal earpiece. P81 should be
This circuit was designed to test 4001 capacitor being switched to allow the a push-to-make type, so that it is im-
and 4011 devices which were suspected device to oscillate at two different fre- possible to insert or remove a device
of being damaged due to static from quencies. with the power on. Although intended
P111 to test 4001 and 4011 devices, it will also
.9V quite happily test 4030, 4071, 4077, 4081
COPYRIGHT MOOMAGS IA/1
and 4093.

VLF sine generator

Generating very low frequency sine
OUTPUT
waves ( i.e. less than 0.1 Hz) presents
NOTE .
several problems, Timing capacitors
Cl IS IC UNDER TEST
01.2 ARE BC1C11 usually have to be large valve electrol-
ytics, any amplifier used must be D.C.
coupled, and the amplifier's input
Test unit for sequential logic impedance must be very high. One stan-
Any one testing a sequential logic The components shown give the dard method is to first generate low
circuit requires input pulses free of clock a frequency range of 1-200 Hz. frequency square waves, and then to
contact bounce. This unit does this, The clock's buffered output will drive shape these into an approximation of a
providing two switched, jitter-free up to two TTL inputs. sine wave by the use of several non
outputs and a 'slow' variable speed The 100R resistors on all outputs linear devices, such as diodes. The
clock. The complements of these signals circuit shown in Fig. 1 is a relatively
provide some measure of accidental
are also provided. simple approach based on the familiar
short circuit protection.
wien bridge. An n-channel FET and a
pnp transistor are arranged in a DC
coupled circuit and the voltage gain is
determined by the negative feedback R3
and R4. The gain need only be about
three, thus if the bias required by the
FET is 3V the output level will be
approximately half the supply voltage.
Since R1 can be a high value resistor
the value of the capacitor is only 1u5
for sine wave outputs of 0.01 Hz. This
capacitor is available in polycarbonate.
The amplitude of the output can be
adjusted by RV1 to give low harmonic
distortion and to be about 10V peak to
peak. As expected, with this wien
bridge circuit, frequency stability is
good with changes in both supply
voltage and temperature.

o
.20V

1-1 f
C3I
D>
'
IC3d 100p
t7FI

:5V

IC2 330 R LED2

21(7 5V

4,C4a> 41 \)
0P
tv,___0
0,P2
SPOT
Cl C2

IOOR NOTE:
IC4b 1
e 02 o
01 IS EICY71
IS 2N31119 1u5
LI IC4b 0/P2 RA
NOTE
ni is CD4049 CMOS
IC2 is SN 7404 TTL 330R LED3 RS
IC3,4 are SN7400 TTL 10M
IC2e 5V
.NAelf

89
TEST AND MEASUREMENT

Linear scale ohmmeter

This circuit has several advantages over
.9V other linear scale ohmmeters.
1k0
Only one preset resistor is used for
10k all the ranges, simplifying the setting
100k
up and reducing the cost. Diode clamp-
01 ing is included to prevent damage to the
1M
IC1 meter if the unknown resistor is higher
10M
than the range selected. The use of a
FET 741 op-amp reduces any zero
NOTE: error and makes offsetting unnecessary.
IC1 IS 741
lk 01 IS 2143704 When the meter has been assembled,
OilS 0A91
D2 IS 141914 a 10k precision resistor is placed in the
M1 IS lmA
OV
test position, Rx, the meter is set to the
10k range and RV1 adjusted for full
scale deflection.

NPN-PNP indicator PNP

The first 2 inverters IC1a and IC1b form 3

a multivibrator running at approxi- R4

3304 1E131
mately 2 kHz. The next two inverters
2k2
buffer the'multivibrator outputs, which
NOTE
then go to the collector and emitter of TO PIN 7, IC1
11›
ici us TO PIN 14, ICl .V•
SN7404 .46 6V
the transistor under test.
The signal applied to the base of the R2

transistor is always in phase with the 2k2

NPN

collector so the transistor, whether PNP

of NPN, will always be turned fully on RS
33OR 1102

every half cvrip

" I"
When aNPN transistor is being tested
the collector will always be near OV and
when a PNP transistor is being tested terminal is held at OV and drive the The six inverters needed are. all
the emitter will always be near OV. appropriate LED via the current limiting contained in a single IC package — the
The last two inverters detect which resistors R4 and R5. SN7404

SVV2 Ti
A A

D1-4

R1 VR1
MAINS
The capacitor under test is inserted in
B- B, the unit is switched on and VR1
H
rotated until a maximum value reading
is obtained on meter M1. At this point,
L SW1
a reading is taken from the calibration
scale on the pot which initially must be
B B calibrated in ratios, i.e.:
1000:1, 100:1, 10:1, 1:1, 1:10, 1:100
H M1 = 100uA etc. The unknown value is then cal-
D1-4 = 1N4001
lOn
R1 = 25k
culated from this reading. Original cal-
100n VR1 = 10k Lin ibration is from known values.
11.240V/3V-0-3V
lu To increase the range of the circuit
switch SW1 has been included to bypass
good indication as to the value of the
Capacity checker capacitor.
R1. Since the frequency used is 50 Hz
from the mains, ranges are limited; if
This bridge was originally designed to A known value component is placed another source .were used, driving an
find values for odd, unmarked or un- across terminals A— A, polarity is not audio output transformer, the versatility
decipherable capacitors. While not being important, but polarised capacitors of the unit would then be further
of great accuracy, it does give a very must not be used, and cannot be tested. increased.

90
 Pulse width modulation controller This novel idea, from Donald N
of Bundaberg, uses a 555
generate a variable width pulse t
+5-16V
slot cars, model trains etc or the
may be used as alight dimmer.
The pulse width is controlled by the
voltage on pin 5, set by the poten-
tiometer. The output transistor is
switched on and off at several hundred
hertz, the on to off ratio determining the
speed of the motor, or brightness of the
RV1
lamp.
SPEED
ADJUST The supply voltage may be 16 V
Sk LIN
maximum and the circuit can switch up
to 10 A with an appropriate heatsink on
OV the output transistor.

r
Overrange for ETI-117 digital voltmeter
After building our ET! 117 digital volt- OVERF LOW 0
meter, S. Springett of Scarborough,
WA, decided to add an overrange 3 11

facility. It is an inexpensive addition RESET RESET

CLOCK
O
10 CLOCK
RESET
— 12
TO BLANKING
which does not interfere with the +vcc 5 „
INPUT. PIN
4 ON IC2
normal operation of the instrument.
D

O CUT COPPER
Y.4013
The display will flash when overrange 8 T
TRACK BETWEEN
PINS 3 AND 4
SET S
occurs and reset to normal when the
voltage is within range.
In normal operation there is an over- 0 OV
PIN 14 4013 IS + Ve
flow pulse between the reset pulses. The PIN 74013 IS — Ve

first flip flop will be continuously

clocked and reset. When overrange pulses, causing the second flip flop to and the first overflow pulse. This pro-
occurs there will be multiple pulses on change state, blanking the display. The duces aflashing display which can still
the overflow line between the reset display will re-appear after areset pulse be read.

R2 o
1OR is

Wide range ammeter

clp/
3
The instrument shown will measure
SWT 3 7
currents from 1µA to lA F.S.D. in „NPUT
1
,
3 R4
C2
IM ADD1
seven ranges. Cl
741 eete
SW2
00//0
2 741 3CV71
2
?,1
,914
5 R5
IC1 is connected as a unity gain IM

buffer and the input current flows 'Ve IN

R6
through the resistor selected by SW1 to o
ity .1004

R7
earth. In so doing avoltage proportional RVI 4
10k
to the input current is developed across SWI
1
PSI)
1OrnA
SET SW
RS
1k
ZERO
the resistor and this appears at the out- 2
3
100mA
14
put, pin 6. ISW? CLOSED)

Small currents are measured by IC2. SW3 FSD MI

ImA FSD
In this mode the current flows into the 1
2
1A
10,,A
non- inverting input. Since this is a 3
4
100A
1mA 02 RV2
BC107 82OR
virtual earth, the output will generate a ISVI2 OPEN)

voltage proportional to the input 6 1TV

current.
Q2 and RV1 form ameter protection damage to the base emitter junction of
In practice, this voltage is developed circuit and the latter component should $01 in the event of an input of wrong
across R9 and hence provides aproport- be adjusted so that 02 starts to conduct polarity.
ional current through Q1 and Ml. at F.S.D. D1 is included to prevent

91
 ,AND MEASUREMENT
*1

Zener tester
This circuit is to provide a cheap and +30V
reliable method of testing zener diodes. NOTE:

RV1 can be calibrated in volts, so IC1 IS 741

that when LED 1just lights, the voltage

on pins 2 & 3 are nearly equal. Hence
the zener voltage can be read directly
from the setting of RV1.
0--
The supply need only be as high a
value as the zener itself. For a more TEST

accurate measurement, a precision pot ZENEH

could be added and calibrated. LED1

OV

The galvanic skin response meter is Since the needle responds to stress
probably the easiest both to construct within the body or mind, it is easy to
GSR meter and to use. Fig.1 uses a single BC108 — make it move; talking, thinking hard or
D.Chivers incidentally, the meter used was simply biting a finger all cause the needle to
the 1triA range of a multimeter. While move up, making it go back down by
the circuit shown had the required removing the factor causing the stress.
sensitivity, it was not selective enough Moving the needle below its mean value
and under all sorts of stresses and strains was far more difficult especially while
the needle refused to budge from a set watching the meter and actually trying
position. The darlington pair configur- to relax — in fact to start with this
ation of Fig.2 greatly increases sensi- actually caused tension. The easiest way
tivity and the 100k pot will bring the to do this is to simply close the eyes and
reading down to a usable level — with- relax, while an observer takes note of
out this, the current passing through the the results. On opening the eyes the
meter would be about 30mA. This reading would jump up to what it had
modified circuit proved to be amply been before relaxation commenced.
selective. This circuit will of course function
For use as probes, silver foil taped as a lie detector but since stress is
onto the tips of the first and second caused by any question the results are
fingers proved to work well, though for not too reliable and certainly of no
more permanent use steel gauze is significance.
recommended. Naturally the hand must An unexpected use for the circuit
be kept as steady as possible during of Fig.1 is that of a transistor tester. If
experiments. a fixed value resistor of about 2M25 is
First experiments proved highly used in place of the pot the gain of the
successful; the meter needle drifted at transistor may quickly be tested; FSD=
first and frequent use of the sensitivity approx. hfe 250. For NPN transistors,
NOIE control was required, but after a few polarity of the meter and battery must
01 2 BC108 OR SIMILAR
minutes the needle stabilised. be reversed.

Ian Shearer of Darwin, NT, added a

Signal injector for logic probe signal injector to his ETI-148 logic
probe using two inverters and a two-
TEST TO IC
PIN 7 pole, three-position switch. The centre
4049A
PROBE
position is a test function, which, when
TIP the oscillator and probe are working
APPROX, 50Hz correctly, should light all LEDs on the
probe.
The oscillator circuit uses two in-
FROM
verters in a 4049 IC and oscillates at
20n
IC PIN 10 about 50 Hz. The frequency can be
varied by changing the values of the
92 capacitor and the two resistors.
 COMMON
PUSH TO ANODE
DISPLAY
TEST
PB1

14 4011 +12V
4011
6k8

OVERFLOW
OUTPUT OF
ETI 533

EIC108 OR
SIMILAR NOTE
I. +12V 0 1 -3 APE BC109

CMOS gate identifier an AND gate is inserted into the socket,

The circuit can be used to distinguish an A appears on the LED. An 0 denotes
O
G ON CIRCUIT four types of dual input gates — AND, an OR gate. The decimal point is used
DIAGRAM OF
OR, NAND, NOR — it is also a quick to denote inverted function, i.e. A is
Eli 118
method of checking IC function. If an NAND gate.

To 7490's

and Dosplays
Frequency meter overflow
indicator
After Gregory Freeman of Nairne had
built the ET! 118 digital frequency
meter, he found that the lack of an over-
flow indication was rather disconcerting.
As a result, he built this little circuit,
which latches the overflow output from
the ET! 533 digital display module and
resets it after apre-determined period.
Although the circuit was originally Digital thermometer
intended for the ET! 118, it should be
This circuit we haven't tried yet but it results in equal charge and discharge
fairly easy to add it to any of the pro-
looks very good, anybody who tries it, intervals that depend only on the
jects which use the 533 module.
let us know how you get on. The thermistor/resistor network. The ther-
Operation is fairly straightforward.
circuit's output frequency varies in a mistor is one with avalue of 5000 ohms
When the overflow output of the 533
at 25 ° C and a resistance ratio of 9.06:1
pulses high, it sets the latch formed by nearly linear manner from 38 to 114Hz
as the temperature changes from 37 ° F over the temperature range 0° C to
the 4011. This lights the LED via the
to 115 ° F. The 555 is set up in the nor- 50 ° C. The capacitors need to be,tem-
transistor which will remain on until
mal astable•configuration with one re- perature stable and may need to be
the 555 resets it.
hand selected and added to give the
The 555 is operating in the mono- sistor replaced by a thermistor/resistor
best results. It would seem that asimilar
stable mode, being triggered about every network and other replaced by a
transistor. The transistor's near zero on- circuit for Centigrade might also be
three seconds by the timebase output of
resisteice and very high off-resistance possible — any ideas?
the DFM (which is pin G on the board).

SW2
Logic noise detector
Ever since the advent of binary logic, +5V SUPPLY 470R
spurious noise spikes and pulses have FROM
LOGIC
been the curse of the designers of even SYSTEM
elementary systems. This circuit will
help detect ' noisy' logic levels. With
OV FROM
SW1 in position I, any logic zero spikes LOGIC SYSTEM
occurring on a steady logic ' I' will set
the R-S latch and the LED will be
NOTE
illuminated. With SW1 in position 2, SWI is 2 POLE CHANGEOVER
an extra inverter is brought in, and SW? is PUSH BUT TON
ICI us 7402
the circuit will be triggered by any logic LEO , IS TIL209
'I' spikes.

93
 dom delay timer S. D. Lang

circuit is designed to add to the 13 is grounded and counting starts. tone from IC1 is gated by this high
excitement of many board games. The high output moves wildly bet- signal to drive the loudspeaker via
Players must make their moves within ween the outputs until the switch is Cll.
a random unknown time. The delays released. Only one output will then be Pressing the switch at any time
can be adjusted and the circuit uses high, which one being entirely amat- clears the monostable and selects a
only four ICs and afew passive com- ter of chance. The resistor connected random delay resistor. The delay res-
ponents. to this high output determines the istors can be of any value selected by
The 555 ( IC1) provides a clock charging time of the capacitor. For the you. G1-3 are any NAND gates from a
frequency for the 4017 and the ' time 100 ucapacitor shown, 10 kshould single 4011/7400. If the battery
up' tone frequency. Normally the be allowed for each second of delay. voltage is greater than 6 V a 4011
4017 clock is inhibited as the clock When the capacitor has sufficiently must be used.
inhibit pin 13 is high. However, when charged up, IC3 switches off. This is
the ' reset timer' button is pushed, pin inverted by G1 and appears high. The

ON
OFF

116 10
110

TIME
uP

151
26 606
SSS

G? IC.
,03

6 - RO
IC2
0017

5, 5 9
2
15 RESET

01.0 01
BC106

91
RESE T
TIMER
100u

Ten-minute timer
Curiously, this one was sent in by A delay of approximately 10 to 12
+12V
Roger Harrison many years ago and has minutes can be obtained with the values
only just surfaced! shown if the Vp of Ql is around 1.5
The circuit is a hybrid Schmitt volts. Longer delays can be obtained by
trigger, using a FET and a bipolar using a FET with a lower Vp and
transistor. Initially, Ql will be on and increasing the value of Cl . OUTPUT

Q2 will be off. The output will be high

INITIATE
(+12V). The timer is initiated by SW1
pressing Si. Cl will rapidly charge to
—12V and Ql will be cut off. Q2 will 0-0
—12V
then turn on.
When Si is released, Cl discharges
through R1 until the voltage across Cl
equals Vp of Q1. The circuit will now
change state and Q2 will turn off
rapidly, providing a suitable output
step which can be used to operate a
relay driver or any external circuit.

94
TRIGGERING AND SWITCHING

Touch switch
A nice simple little circuit from Paul
Tannard of Brighton — a touch switch
and flip-flop built from one CMOS IC. .9V
The advantage of having a flip-flop
on the output of atouch switch is that 4M7 OR
12x1OM IN
it then becomes touch-on, touch-off. A PARALLEL)
further gain is that, if you're inputting 100k
single pulses to some sort of counting
circuit, it makes avery positive deb ounce 'A 4049

0
1
TOUCH
circuit. Remember that if you are using CONTACTS

it for this purpose and you wish to hang

a LED off the end to show you what's
-
happening at the output, you can drive
the LED by using one of the unused
gates in the package as a buffer and
connecting it to the other output of the
flip-flop. That is, unless you want to
build two of the switches from one
package!

3-way CMOS switch

When the input is switched positive the
8V — • 19V
voltage across the zener is sufficient to
bias the junction between R3 and the
zener high, producing a high output at
C.
With the input unconnected, the
junction between 131 and R2 is high
while the junction between the zener
ZD1
39V and R3 is low. This will produce ahigh
30OrnVto
output at B.
Connectin the input to OV causes
output A to go high.
R3
10k NOTE
The circuit was primarily designed to
Cl IS 4001 be used with quad CMOS switches ( i.e.
4016, 4066) for audio switching but can
be used for avariety of applications.

For this reason the falling edge of the

Rising edge trigger output pulse is not as fast as it might
be, but is sufficient for most purposes.
The diagram shows a method of
triggering aconventional monostable on +Vcc
the rising edge of a short negative-
going pulse. The additional transistor,
TR1, provides good isolation between
560R
the output pulse and the triggering C
circuitry. The circuit shown gives a ,triggers here
pulse of 5psec duration, but of course
the usual design formula r = 0.65 RC
can be used to determine circuit values
for other pulse widths. OV
Trig
One slight disadvantage of this circuit 221(
is that the collector of TR2 is held
down by the triggering wave-form, so
the switch-on of TR3 is not regenerative.

95
 TRIGGERING AND SWITCHING
Multi-flash trigger
This circuit provides a cheap and safe When one or more flashguns are pulse turns on the SCR which then
system for parallel connection for connected to the unit, the cathodes of carries the trigger current of the flash-
electronic flashguns and prevents dam- D2— D5 rise to ahigh positive value, say guns.
age to shutter sync. contacts. +200 V. When the flashguns fire the trigger
Electronic flashguns used for pho- Cl is charged via R2, R1 and D1 voltage drops to zero and the SCR turns
tography usually have a voltage of in a time constant Cl x ( R1 + R2) = off. Cl will recharge as the voltage of
between +200 V and +400 V present at 0.02 x 118 k = 2.36 mS. the flashguns recover ready for the next
the trigger input connector. SCR1 is non-conductive at this time flash.
The flash unit operates when the as its cathode is slightly positive and its As can be seen, the maximum cur-
trigger is grounded ( by the shutter gate is grounded. rent through the camera contacts is
sync. contacts) and a current pulse of When the shutter contacts of a thus reduced even with a flashgun
between 1and 3amps, lasting about 10 camera connected to the device are voltage of 400 V, to only 22 mA.
to 30 microseconds is carried by the closed the R2 end of Cl is grounded When using more than one flashgun
sync. contacts. and therefore the R1 end is driven in a direct lighting system, allowance
Direct connection of electronic negatively to —200 V. This enables a should be made for the increased
flashguns in parallel can cause two negative current pulse to be delivered guide number: —
major proCems: to the cathode of SCR1 ( D1 allows SCR Effective Guide Number =
(a) Different makes or powers of cathode to go negative) of about 11
flashguns may have different oper- mA, for about 360 uS duration, this \./a2 + 13 1 + C2 - - - -
ating voltages and may therefore
be damaged by parallel connection. Wv Ake

(b) Shuttei contacts could be TO

R2
100k TO
ADDITIONAL 1.0 SCR I -I> ADDITIONAL
damaged or burned by the excess CAME RAS BTX — 18
400
FLASHGUNS

current of multiple gun operation. 0 .4— —11»

This circuit overcomes these two prob- CI

20e FLASH
lems as follows: RI
D2 - 05
GUN
18k
(a) Diodes D2 to D5 effectively 1N4007
CAMERA
isolate the hot side of each flashgun SHUTTER
CONTACTS
from the next and also prevent the 01
145408
high voltage appearing on the un-
used flashgun contacts.
(b) The SCR trigger circuit operates
as follows:

o
+9 — 15V

R3 4
33k
03

4
TOUCH NORMALLY
PLATE ill
F R2 -08 CLOSED
12k 14
09
IC3
IC2
\‘: 0 10

011
DI NORMALLY
1N4148 OPEN
01
.M.M1 NOTES
Cl IS 4001 OR 8011
IC2 IS 4024 02
R4 13
IC3 IS 4088
1k2

-Ve 9-15V
o

One contad Schmitt trigger ( ICI b,c). Once the trigger ing QI on and off. The plate is touched
output starts to change, R3 provides the until the desired state is obtained and then
touch switch trigger for arapid change. released.
G.N. Durant IC2 is aseven stage ripple counter. QI QI sends apulse through to IC3, asolid
is driven from the output of the seventh state CMOS switch. This can be fed via an
The switch is operated by stray mains hum, stage via R5 (current limiter resistor). C2 inverter if desired. The switch must not be
connected to the touch plate when briefly and R4 reset IC2 at switch-on so the outputs used at more than its supply voltage -.up to
touched. The hum is coupled to the input of are all low and the switching transistor is 15 V. The 'off' switch resistance is about
ICla ( used as an inverter) via RI (alow pass off. When the touch-plate is touched, IC2 10 1ohms and the 'on' resistance is about
filter). The output of IC1 ais not sufficient to will receive a 50 Hz signal. At pin 3, the 80 ohms at 15 V VDD ( at 9V V1)) it is 120
operate the final stage, so it goes through a logic state changes every 64 pulses, switch- ohms99

96
Clock switching unit NOTES:
P111 PB2
CAN BE
REPLACED
A. Claughan WITH TOUCH
CONTROLS PSI

IC2
On normal clock modules such as the 8 2 9VOLTS

National MA1002 or the Liton LT701

15 18 14 13 717
6
six bulky and untidy looking pushbut- 13
IC1 4017 « p211
tons have to be used. This circuit cuts 1 47

these six to two. 3 2 4 7 10 1

Vas

The output of IC2 is connected to 01 1k0 PB2

w.

HOLD
the clock input of IC1. On reception of
the first pulse, the first output goes
high. Each time the output goes high,
a corresponding LED is switched on °2 @ FAST SET
and the base of the adjoining transis-
tor goes positive. When the correct
LED is switched on, pushbutton two is SLOW SET
DISPLAY
pressed. This switches on the transis-
tor, completing the corresponding Vdd

function. The rate at which the LEDs 07

140
SECONDS
light up is adjusted by changing the //
value of R1 . The seventh output of the SLEEP DISPLAY
IC is used as a pause so that the clock
can run normally. The eighth output is
connected directly to the reset input ALARM DISPLAY

on IC1. This causes the IC to 01-7 BC107

automatically reset on the eighth 11s5
pulse. The 9 V supply is obtained by "VN.A.A

regulating one of the clock inputs.

Two-wire relay control CMOS monostable

Barry Wilkinson (of Nebula Electronics)
devised this mono using a4027B CMOS
JK flip-flop. The time constant is set
the opposite way round to D2. A
by Rid, and D1 speeds the discharge
reversing switch at the end of the line,
of Cl.
before the dc voltage required to
operate the relays, is used to set which 1
relay will be activated. With the dc
voltage connected in the polarity t. 0.7R1,C1
shown, arid the reversing switch set as

D
11 . 11I
OUTPUT PULSE OCCURS ON POSITIVE EDGE
indicated, DI will conduct and current OF OUTPUT

will flow through RL1 which then

operates Device 1 connected to its
EVICE €V contacts. D2 will be reverse biased and
will not conduct. When the reversing
The problem of how to operate two switch is set the opposite way D2 will
relays independantly from just two conduct, D1 being reverse biased now,
wires always produces a lot of head and RL2 will operate.
scratching — and not just with beginners! If you want both relays off for some
This circuit, from the ETI files, shows purpose, the dc voltage will have to be
how it's done. disconnected. The simplest way to do
The relays RL1 and RL2 are each this is to have athree-position two-pole
connected to the two-wire line via a toggle switch, the centre position being
series diode. However, D1 is connected 'off'.

97
TRIGGERING AND SWITCHING
2M +9V

.9V 10E
100n 10k
MIL \A.A.es_ 6 2
100n 10E 104
INPUT
1N4148 *9V

4 1044148
A )

-9V

4
470P
10E -9V 1 10V

1k2

200n — .
9V
680R
100n
680R 10E

10k 10k

1N4148

IN4148

10E

<
470R 914148 3k3 470E

6 IC6 -1.
741 3

TTL DIL 4701

REED RELAY LED2
10E 6k8
WITH PROTECTION HIGH e 11C:d3
DIODE) LEDA NOTE NOTE
RELAY ON

"Whistle-up" switch The Schmitt trigger is 'set', activating A concealed microphone picks up
the relay, when the high note is whistled the note whistled. The mic output is
There are many applications — both and reset when the low note is whistled, amplified by a 741 op-amp ( IC1), the
'novel' and useful — where one could the relay then dropping out. output of which is filtered by two active
use a switch that is activated by Points A and B can be used to drive peak filters. IC2 is the 'high' note filter
whistling. This circuit operates a relay other logic functions. However, if high and IC3 is the `low' note filter. The
when a high-pitched note is whistled, impedance ( i.e: CMOS) logic is used output of each filter is rectified and
the relay latching on until alow-pitched a 10k resistor should be placed across smoothed then each is passed to the
note is whistled. The circuit comes from the 470 u capacitor on the outputs of input of a Schmitt trigger — consisting
R.C.W. Gate of the UK. IC4 and IC5. of IC6 and IC7.

Solid state switch

The circuit was designed for use as a
solid-state calculator on-off switch, as
the mechanical equivalent was found
to be unreliable.
Layout is not critical and the switch
will operate with a supply from +6V
to + 15V and current consumption in
the 'OFF' state is anegligible 304A.
A finger across the 'OFF' contacts
turns 01 off and takes the base of
04 to the +ve rail, turning 04 off.
This in turn stops 05 conducting, and
R6 and 03 latch the circuit in this
state. Touching the 'ON' contacts,takes
R3 to ground turning Q4 on. 05 now
contacts and again R6 and Q3 latch
the circu it.

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