Elektor 12.2009.pdf

[ ANALOGUE • DIGITAL • MICROCONTROLLERS & EMBEDDED • AUDIO • TEST & MEASUREMENT ]

December 2009

AUS$ 13.90 - NZ$ 16.90 - SAR 99.95 £ 4.65

www.elektor.com

PRESELECTOR FOR

ELEKTOR SDR

ENERGY SAVINGS FROM

Standards compared

Technology

Projects

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS CIRCUITS

13 pages of beginner’s and junkbox projects

THE AWARD follow the story

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Goodbye Standby

This piece is traditionally the last copy I have

to hand to my colleague in the page layout

department. Time lies — this December

2009 edition is the last of the decade, and

although at the time of writing it’s early

Autumn, January 2010 production is already

upon the entire Elektor team.

This edition tackles issues that are sure to

keep us busy and concerned over the next

decade, with a prominent role for energy,

natural resources and the environment

— globally!

The European Commission is dead serious

about it all and with my sincere advice to our

American readers that “it ain’t half bad if you

see it coming”, they successfully pulled all

incandescent lamps with a matt bulb and/or

a wattage of more than 75 from active retail

on September 1. That was just the start of it

— more drastic measures will follow in the

new year, so let’s see what’s cooking — on

the EC’s electric hub, of course.

From January 7, 2010, new household and

ofice equipment is limited to a power con-

sumption of 1 (say, one) watt when switched

off but in standby mode, or 2 watts when a

display is still active (for example, a clock).

From 2013, these limits will be tightened to

0.5 W and 1 W respectively.

An EC ‘Eco-Design’ initiative rules that from

April 27, 2010, “external power supplies”

(a.k.a. wallwarts) are forced to behave

sparingly, too. They are allowed to con-

sume 0.5 watts of power under no-load

conditions, dropping to 0.3 watts exactly

one year later. The eficiency of equipment

in actual use is also ‘regulated’ by Brussels

and there we have no objection, in fact the

article ‘Squeezing Out the Last Drop’ on

page 31 not only reveals mediocre design

of some power supplies in respect of efi-

ciency, but also suggests rather simple

ways of saving lots of kilowatt-hours on an

annual basis.

Back to the calendars, limiting values and

deadlines have been set for lots of other

electrical equipment like TV sets (Janu-

ary 7, 2010), advertising signs (February 2,

2010), electromotors (June 16, 2011) and cir-

culating pumps (January 1, 2013). Electricity

metering will also be reviewed massively as

a result of lexible rates and ‘smart meter-

ing’, so the main two themes of this issue,

energy saving and home automation, do

go hand in hand.

6 Colophon

Corporate information

on Elektor magazine.

Mailbox/Corrections&Updates

A compilation of letters to the Editor.

10 News&NewProducts

A monthly roundup

of all the latest in electronics land.

14 HomeAutomationStandards

Roadmap or Tower of Babylon?

20 OpenStandards

fortheAutomatedHome

X10, KNEX and DigitalSTROMcompared.

26 PreselectorforElektorSDR

The long awaited automatic tuning

upgrade.

31 SqueezingOuttheLastDrop

How to make your electronics devices

(even) more energy eficient

36 Top-of-the-BillLightsSequencer

A highly original and challenging design

for an Xmas rope light.

43 BLDCandPIMmodules

addedtoRSComponents’EDP

New boards on the block! E-Labs report.

Merry Christmas

& Happy New Year

from all at

Elektor

44 ElektorDevelopers’Conference

Edition1

What’s brewing in the Elektor design

department?

Jan Buiting

Editor

12-2009 elektor

CONTENTS

Volume 35

December 2009

no. 396

20 OpenStandards

fortheAutomatedHome

48 ChristmasHolidaysCircuits

Bat detector (8)

Back door alarm (9)

Poltergeist (0)

Power cut alert (1)

Mini radio gives maxi sound (3)

Nostalgic tube sound from an IC ()

A higher note…()

Poor man’s metal detector (7)

Eficient camping dimmer (8)

Touchless switch (9)

There are lots of home automation standards around but just which ones are

suficiently open to allow DIY hardware to be developed, and have the advan-

tage of being supported by more than one manufacturer? We investigate.

26 PreselectorforElektorSDR

62 TheVikingsareComing!

Our ATM18 AVR board

gets a Bluetooth extension.

Elektor’s Software Deined Radio (SDR) is deservedly popular. The preselector

described here allows the use of up to four ilters, tuned under software control

using varicap diodes. A tuned loop antenna is also described that lets you use

our SDR without an outdoor antenna.

68 MinimalisticTimeSwitch

Smaller and cleverer than most

commercial switching clocks.

72 AnothertwoNCHeadphones

An addendum to our

October 2009 NC-Headphones review.

31 SqueezingOuttheLastDrop

74 Hexadoku

Our monthly puzzle

with an electronics touch.

Your TV set is never in standby mode, and you’re giving serious consideration

to having a solar panel installed on your roof. What else can you do to reduce

your power bill without too much fuss and bother?

76 Retronics:

TheZM550M:

anunusualcountervalve

Regular feature

on electronics ‘odd & ancient’.

Merry Christmas

& Happy New Year

from all at

Elektor

48 ChristmasHolidaysCircuits

84 ComingAttractions

Next month in Elektor magazine.

A compilation of circuits for the odd ‘learn-while-u-tinker’ hour you should be

able to claim for yourself this December. Most of the parts used in the projects

we reckon may be in your junkbox or hidden in a drawer. Good instructive stuff

for the Christmas holidays period — have fun!

elektor 12-2009

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