February 1988

Intelligent Time Standard

Universal Multiplexer
EIG'" Speech Synthesis

ectrooico UK £1.50
IR £2.20
(incl. VAT)

TELECOMMUNICATIONS
ISDN Satellites
Fibre Optics
EE
February 1988

BBC Micro Computer System EPSON

PRINTERS
KP9151156 con £369 (a)
LX800 £195 lal BROTHER HR20 E349 fa)
BBC MASTER SERIES: WORD PROCESSOR ROMs:
AMB15 BBC MASTER 128K. _ £380 (a) VIEW 2.1 E35 (dl VIEW 3.0 .. E48 (c) FX800 £299 (al STAR Nib (Parallel (lace)... £179 fa)
ADC06 Turbo 165C102) Card E99 Idl Speemaster E49 (dl VIEW INDEX £12 (dl FX1000 £405 (al STAR NL1O (Serial Interface) . £219 la)
ADC08 512 Processor £189 lb/ WORDW1SE E24 (dl WORDWISE+ £38 (dl EX800 £409 JUKI 61(x (Daisy Wheel) .... £295 fa)
ADF14 Rom Cartridge £12.75 (dl SPELLCHECK III EX 1000 E549 fa) INTEGRE( (Colour) £549 (al
ADF10 Econet Card £41 fd) WYSIWIG+ E21 (dl E31 (dl LCI850 (80 Col) £439 la) NAT PANASONIC KX P 1081. £149 (a)
ADJ22 Ref. Manual I £14 (C) INTERWORD E46 (dl EDWORD II E43 (al L01050 (136 col) E529 Dal NAT PANASONIC KX P 3131_ E249 (a)
ADJ23 Ref. Manual Part II £14 fel TAXAN KP815 180 col) E269
ADJ24 Adv Ref Manual £18 (c)
LANGUAGE ROMS: We link/ stock a large variety of printer attachments, interfaces and consumables.
Micro Prolog £62 @I Microtext ... £52 la Please write or phone for details.
WIC ARCHIMEDES ISO PASCAL £51 (c) LOGOTRON £55 Ic)
Please enquire about avaiabaty and LOGO £46 (c) MACROM £33 (dl
details of the USP £39 (dl COMAL £43 Id) ACCESSORIES
UPGRADE KITS: Oxford Pascal £36 (C) BUFFALO 32K Buffer for Epson primers £75 (di; FX80 plus sheet feeder £129 lb):
1.2 OS ROM EPSON Serial Inteface: 8143 £30 lb); 8148 with 2K buffer E65 (3).
£15 (dl COMMUNICATIONS ROMS:
DNFS ROM £17.50 (dl TERMULATOR EPSON Paper Roe Hader E17 (b): FX80/130+/85 Tractor Attach £37 lb); RX/FX80
£25 (dl Dust Cover E4.50 Id): LX80 Tractor Unit £20 (c(; L0800 Tractor Feed £47 (13).
BASIC II ROM IBEIC 8) £22.50 (dl MASTER TERMULATOR E34.75 011
ADFS ROM £26 (dl COMMUNICATOR £49 (dl EPSON Ribbons: MXiFtX,FX80 ES: MX/RX,FX100 £10 (dl LX13.0 £4.50 (dl;
1770 DFS Kit E43.50 (dl COMMSTAR II E28 (dl
Econet Kit 113E03+1
JUKI: Serial Interface £65 (dl: Tractor Attach. £149 fat Sheet Feeder £219 (a):
E55 (dl MODEM MASTER E11 (dl Ribbon E2.50 (al: Spare Daisy Wheel E14
ACORN ADD-ON PRODUCTS: COMMAND £34 (dl
Torch ZEP 100 BROTHER HR20: Sheet Feed E229; Ribbons Carbon or Nylon E3; Tractor Feed
E22 9 Ia) UTILITY ROMs: £116 (a): 2000 Sheets Fanfold with extra fine perf. 9.5- - £13.50; 15" £17.50 lb).
512 2nd Processor £19 5 lb) DOTPR1NT PLUS for RUM compatibles
IEEE Interface BBC Parallel Lead £6: Serial Lead E6 fdl; IBM Parallel Lead 12m) E12 (dl.
£26 5 (b) DOTPR)NT DUAL for MX range
Teletext Adapter E9 5 @I
Acorn 65CO2 Turbo £9 9 (b)
Acorn Graphics Extension Rom £28 (dl MONITORS
Medal with 57 disc utility commands MICROVITEC 14" ROB TAXAN K12SV620 12- . £279 (al
100 page manual £37.50 (c) 1431 Standard Resolution £179 la) TAXAN K12SV625 12" E329 fal
Ask for full details on our full range of software
1451 Medea Resolution £225 la) 12" MONOCHROME MONITORS:
1441 Hi Res E365 la) TAXAN:
MULTIFORM Z80 2nd Processor for the BBC MICROVITEC 14- RG&PAL & Audio Taxan KX 117 12" Green P31 E 85 (a)
This unique Z80 2nd Processor running OSIM vrmi atow use of almost any standard CP/M soft- 1431 AP Standard Resolution E199 (a) Taxan KX 118 12" Green P39 E 95
ware on the BBC micro. It is supplied with a number of different CPM formats and includes a 1451 AP &tedium Resolution E259 la) Taxan KX 119 12- Amber 95 (a)
unity to configure it to read other formats. This is particularly useful in environments where com- PHILIPS:
MICROVITEC 20" RGRIPALtAudo 7502 Green Screen E 75 (al
puters with afferent CP/M formats are used and the data cannot be easily exchanged between 2030 CS std Res £380 la)
them. Mains powered (includes Pocket Wordstar & MS.DOS RN/ utlbtyl £249 (Dl 7522 Amber Screen E 79 (al
2040 CS Hi Res £685 la) 7542 White Screen £ 79 (a)
!..IS DOS Read Write U. E49 (c)
Pirrtsubishi 14" RGB Med Res (813C,18M) All Philips Monitors supplied with swivel
META Version 3 ASSEMBLER £219 (al stand
Assembles 17 of the popular processors. Over 70(1 long program on two rams and a disc and
provides complete Editing and Assembly facilities_ It uses appropriate mnemonics for different BOOKS
processors. Fully nestabie macros, nesrable conditional assembly IIFIELSEENDIF), modular
source code, true local and global labels. 32 bit labels and arithmetic. 30 ways to send ob}ect No VAT on books; Carriage (c)
code and 50 directives. View 3.0 User Guide £9.00
A powerful editor with many features. Send for detailed leaflet. LANGUAGES: Viewstore £9.00
£145 Ibl
6502 Assy Lang Prog £19.95 Viewstmet £9.00
BBC DISC DRIVES 8086 Book E23.95 Wordwise Plus E9.95
5.25' Single Drive: Acorn BCPL User Guide £15.00
x 400K 40,801 DS: TS400 E99 (b) PS400 with psu Acorn FORTH £7.50 SOUND & GRAPHICS:
1 £109 (b) Acorn USP
5.25" Dual Drive: £7.50 Mastering Music £6-95
2 x 400K 40 80T IDS: TD800 ....E179 (a) PD800 with psu Acorn ISO Pascal Ref Manual ..£10.00
£199 (a) Intro to COMAL £10.00 DISC DRIVE SYSTEMS:
2 x 400K 40i807 DS with psu and bunt in monitor stand P01300P
3.5" Drives:
E209 fat Intro to LOGO E7.50 Advanced Disc User Guide ....E14.95
Micro Prolog Ref Manual £10.00 Disc Book E3.50
1 x 406K BOT DS TS35 1 E75 1131 PS35 1 with psu E99 (b) Disc Programming Techniques
Introduction to Turbo Pascal... £14.95 E7.95
1 x 4001( 80T DS with psu TD35 2 E129 Ill PD35 2 'with psu E169 (b) Disc Systems E6.95
Prog the Micro with Pascal ....E8.50
The UNIX Book E7.50 File Herding on the BBC E6.95
3M FLOPPY DISCS Unix User Guide £19.95 APPLICATIONS:
Industry standard floppy discs with a life time guarantee. Discs in packs of 10: Understanding Unix £18.45 Interfacing Proj for BBC C6.95
5Y4 DISCS 3% DISCS BBC MICRO GUIDE BOOKS BBC and Small Business E5.75
40T SS DD £8.50 Id) 40T DS DD £10.50 Id) 80T SS DD £15.00 (dl BBC User Guide Acorn £15.00
£15.00 PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE
80T SS DD£11.50 (dl 80T DS DD .£13.25 Id) 80T DS DD £19.50 (dl BBC Plus User Guide
Drawing your Own BBC PrograrnsE6.95 Wordstar made easy £16.95
Inside Information Introduction to Wordstar
E8.95 Wordstar Handbook
E17.95
E11.95
DISC ACCESSORIES Math Prog in BBC Basic E7.95 dBase-II for the first time user
£16.95
Toolbox 2 £10.95 Understanding dBase-III £22.95
Sigh Disc Cable E6 Idl Dual Disc Cable £8.50 (dl VIA 6522 Book 450 Multiplan Made Easy
10 Disc Library Case E1.80 lc) 30 Disc Storage Box E6 (c) E18.95
40 Disc Lockable Box E8.50 (c) 100 Disc Lockable Box £13 (c( PROGRAMMINGNTIUTY Multimate Complete Guide ... £16.95
Roppiciene Drivehead Cleaning Kit with 20 disposable ermine kits 51.1" £14.60 (dl: Ili" EIS fdl Advanced Sideways Ram User ABC of LOTUS 123 £17.45
Guide £9.95 1.23 for Business E16.95
BT APPROVED MODEMS Advanced User Guide (138C) .£12.50 Adv Tech in dBase II III E22.95
Appfied Assitang on the BBC £9.95 Mastering CP,'M £17.95
Bible E16.50
MIRACLE TECHNOLOGY WS Range BBC Micro Sideways ROM's RAM'sE9.95
Guide to the BBC ROM £9.95 Introducing CP.M on BBC & Z80 E9.95
Beginners Guide to I.V.P £7.95 MS.PC DOS Prompt £10.95
WS4000 V21/23. WS2000 V21.V23
(Hayes Compateale, Intelligent, Auto Dial Manual Modem £92 (bl
Auto Answer) E135 lb) WS 2000 Auto Dial Card £27 (d) PROGRAMMED ROMS FOR ELEKTOR
WS3000 V21/23 Professional WS 2000 Auto Answer £27 (a PROJECTS
As WS4000 and with BELL standards and WS 2000 SKI Kit E5 (d) 503-N Jnr. Computer Monitor 516 Taking Dice 2716 E 7.30
battery back up for memory .... E244 lb) WS 2000 User Port Lead E5 (d)
WS3000 V22 Professional 2708 E 4.80 521 charGen & Video Routine for DOS
504 Disco lights 2708 E 4.80 Junior 2732 + 2716 £16.40
As WS3000 V21/23 but with 1200 baud full
duplex £409 (a) 505 Chess Intelekt . 2 2716 E14.60 522 CharGen & video; Routine for ex-
W53000 V22 Ms Professional 506 J C Tape Monitor 2716 E 7.30 tended junior 2732 + 2 x 2716 E24.00
(Offer knifed to current stocks) 507-N J C Printer Mon & PME 523 Char. Generator .. 2732 E 9.00
As V22 and 2400 baud full duplex E537 (a) 2732 E 9.00
WS3000438C Data Lead E7
2716 E 7.30 524 CluantisUer
508 J C Bus Control 82523 . E 4.80 525 Universal Term 2732E 9.00
510 150 MHz Freq Meter 2x 82523 526 Wind Div Ind 2716E 7.30
527 Babyritth 2716 £ 7.30
SPECIAL OFFER PROJECTS: £ 9.60
5-14 Dark Room Computer 2716 E 7.30 530 Daisywheel (face 2x 2716 £11.00
EPROMs/RAMS Junior Computer Kit £86 (b)
2764-25 £2.80 (d)
Housekeeper kit £58 (b) ALL PRICES TECHNOLINE
Elekterminat Kit (1980) . £50 (b) VIEWDATA SYSTEM
27256
27512
£5.00 (d)
£9.90 (dl
ASCII Keyboard kit £75 (b) EXCLUDE VAT. Tel. 01-450 9764
J C Books 1, 2, 3, & 4E6.90 (c) ea P/ease add carriage 50p unless Using 'Prester type protocols.
6264LP-15 £2.60 (d) Universal Terminal (6502) Kit £75 (b) indicated as follows: For information and orders
27128-25 (12.5 Vpp) £3.40 Id)
Elekterminal Kit (19831 £70 (b) avadatie 24 hours. 7 days
27128-25 (21.0 Vpp) £4.80 (d) lalf8 651 f2.50 (c) 1'1.50) 611f1.00 a week.

SEE OUR PAGE 5 ADVERTISEMENT FOR COMPONENT PRICES

PLEASE ADD CARRIAGE AS PER CODE & 15% VAT
TECHNOMATIC LTD
MAIL ORDERS TO: 17 BURNLEY ROAD, LONDON NW10 1ED
(Export: no VAT p&p at Cost)
Orders from Government Depts. Et Colleges etc welcome.
SHOPS AT: 17 BURNLEY ROAD, LONDON NW10 Minimum telephone order £5.
Detailed Price list on request.
(Tel: 01 208 1177, Telex 922800)
Prices subject to change without notice
305 EDGWARE ROAD, LONDON W2, Tel: 01 723 0233
 13 Editorial
In next month's
issue:
The main theme is
INFComponents
sensors and a number
14 Industry standard moves to CHMOS of articles will deal
by Bernhard Meier with this important
devices. Further,
Computers Computer con-
trolled slide fader
18 PROJECT: Universal multiplexer
PID 11 infra -red
21 News detector
Low -Noise pre-
Intelligent time standard Radio & Television amplifier for FM
p. 22 receivers
22 PROJECT: Intelligent time standard Signal divider for
31 News satellite TV
32 Flat aerial for satellite TV reception receivers
Uniphase loud-
speaker system
Telecommunications Slave indication
unit for intelligent
34 Geneva calling: ISDN and satellites at time standard
Telecom 87
39 Videotex: a promise unfulfilled? Owing to unforeseen
by C.H. Freeman circumstances, the
42 Optic fibre communication Active Loudspeaker
by Bill Presdee has had to be post-
poned until the April
43 Computer and telecommunications revol- issue.
ution will bring its legal problems
by John McQueen Geneva calling
p. 34

45 Readership survey: first results

Test & measurement

48 PROJECT: Prescaler for multi -function fre-
quency meter
see pages 8 and 9
53 News for our special
54 Testmex '87: a report from Julian Nolan offer of three Crotech
Dual -trace oscilloscopes part 3 oscilloscopes
56
by Julian Nolan

Flat dish aerial p. 32

Audio & Hi-fi

63 PROJECT: Infra -red headphones
66 News
67 Application notes: speech synthesis

Information
46 New literature 47 Events 47 Letters 70 New Front cover
products 72 Readers' services 74 Terms of Artist's impression of
a communications
business satellite in orbit
Prescaler for frequency meter around the earth.
p. 48 Guide lines Copyright Seth
75 Switchboard 76 Buyers' guide 78 Classified Shostak/Science
ads 78 Index of advetisers Photo Library.
 4 EE
February 1988

NEW THIS MONTH 1988 CATALOGUE

VC1400 VIDEO COMPUTER
A 600MHz Z816 Games machine that used car-
tridges (none available). Main console
OUT NOW - 88 pages of bargains from
resistors to disco mixers. Price in-
cludes latest bargain list, discount
contains UHF modulator ÷ various vouchers, order form. Don't be with -
FREQUENCY COUNTER! chips. PSU has mains input, 15V out your copy - send £1.00 now!!
0.16A and 8V 1.22A output. 2 hand
neld controllers each with joystick and
i4 button keypad. All in original box.
,se-^1,',,,TIr
e. e 1 e i- e /1. ii . ---.... ....
,..

. a. T -r. . . I
IN THE NEW STYLE
a .

yew Note: These are returns, and may be

WINTER 1987/88 I 1120 faulty

FUSED SUPPRESSOR
£12.50

2003 Potted unit 60 x 45 x 30 has

_ . _

- -

Chid, CATALOGUE
electronic
co now
screw term ifp far mains, 20mm
fuseholder & ()/p tags for appliance
Z810 KEYBOARD Really smart alpha
numeric standard qwerty keyboard
with separate numeric keypad, from
ICL's 'One Per Desk'. Nicely laid out
rftr 99p
VIEWDATA LTU keys with good tactile feel. Not en -
e StarageliK1 Z697 Interface Panel 166 x 150 with coded - matrix output from PCB taken
''' ._M324, LM339, LM393, 4066, 11 to 20 way ribbon cable. Made by Alps.
e 7iT3eature Condrged kers = sistors, 3 reed relays etc. 3m lead Size 333x 106mm. 73 keys.. £8.95
-3 Ftmer Heads ONLY ;,,ti. BT plug attached. Supplied with SPEAKERS
=
O £1.20 comprehensive data and ccts. £2.90
REED SWITCHES
2578 Submin speaker 30 x 30 x 3mm
thick by Fuji. 16R 0.4W. 60p ea; 10
K569 A selection of about 15 types £3.70 25 £7; 100 £22; 1000 E180.
from 12 to 50mm long. mostly form A, Z575 70 x. 45mrn 45R 0.5W 55p e:!
few form C. Pack of 30 £2.75 10 £3.30 25 £6 100 £20
2797 Min 15.3mm long. SOLDER
20/£1.50; 100/£6; 2501E12 500g reels resin cored. 18g _ . £5.95
Z798 Large 50.8mm long. 500g reels resin cored 22g .. £7.95
av
0, 101E1.50; 25/13;
Z799 Changeover 40mm long.
5/E1.50; 25/16;
100:110
100,120
LOGIC PROBE
For TTL, CMOS etc. LED and sound in -
dication. Pulse enlargement capability
TOOLS allows pulse direction down to
Scoop purchase of high quality surgical 25nsec. Max f = 20 MHz 4-16V. I -P
instruments ideal for electronics use. Z:1 M £9.99
PACKED WITH NEW LINES I 2308 5" lightweight long nose pliers
4134 Z309 51i" as above but with ratchet.
9 9p SOLDER SPECIAL' I
Available from your local N:?0 This enabes pliers to be locked * 15W 240V ac soldering iron
together - for holding small compo- * High power desolder pump
newsagent or direct from Cirkit at the nem% or as heat shunt etc. . . £1.20
Other types on Bargain List 36 * Large tube solder
address shown below
ENTERPRISE PANELS ALL FOR
Z658 PCB 325 x 158 with 64k of RAM
U
Cii £7.95
Access
VISA (8 x 4864). Z80A microprocessor, ÷
21 other chips, UHF modulator.
speaker etc. ROM and Nick and/or Z620 68000 Panel. PCB 190 x 45 be -
Dave chips missing supplied with cct lieved to be from ICL's 'One per Desk'
and data £8.00 computer containing MC68008P8
Cirkit Distribution Ltd. 18MHz 16/8 bit microprocessor, ÷ A
ROM's, all in slots; TMP522OCNL,
Park Lane, Broxbourne, Herts EN10 7NQ 74HCT245, 138, LS08, 38 etc. £5.00
Telephone (0992) 444111 Telex: 22478 2625 32k Memory Board. PCB
170 x 170 with 16 2k x 8 6116 static
RAM's. Also 3.6 V 100 mA
memopack nicad, 13 other HC _ ',-
devices, 96w edge plug. 8 way 2
switch, R's, C's etc. 14.80
SOLAR CELLS
OSCILLOSCOPES MARCONI AF POWER METER TF893A
Giant size, 90mm dia giving 0.45V
20 Hz - 35 a 20µW - 10W with ma-ual IP&P Ell
1.1A output. E4 each; 10+ £3.50_
TELE-QUIPMENT 083 Duel Trace 50MHz. Den Mega size - 300 x 300mm. These in-
Sweep. With Memel E350 Only E35 ..,, corporate a glass screen and backing
COSSOR CDt1150. Duel Trace 35Wfz. SoFd State.
Portable 8 10 cm display with mama! . £180
litARCONI IV POWER METER " Ar- panel, with wires attached. 12V
DC - 500 Mhz. 0.5 to 25 - with . 200mA output. Ideal for charging
S.E LABS SIAM. Dud Trace 18141-t 5- t State_ manual. 1P&P 17) .
Portable AC or External DC opeatbn ' dis- nicads. £24.00
play. With Manual E150 LABGEAR '
Z662 COIN ACCEPTOR MECHANISM
TELEOUIPMENT 061. Dual Tra c With (P&P Ea! Z004 Skeleton Joystick, switch type. Made by Coin Controls, this will accept
Vanua' L150 DISX 0Fi.E Good quality, made by AB. Brass various size coins by simple adjust -
TELEQUIPMENT 043. Dual Tre:e 15MHz With _. _i-÷. ii75mm. DIE:- - spindle has 44mm long black plastic menu of 4 screws. Incorporates various
1,t2r,,,31 E100 - ORLI Handle attached. Body has 4 mounting security features - magnet, bent coin
MARMON C01400. DUAL BEAM. IS MHz. Sup
°WERT 3 KEY EDARD. Cased ASC I Lc."
holes. These really are a fantastic rejector etc. Microswitch rated 5A
Nect with marital Only E85 oath '.

bargain!! ONLY £1.00

TREQUIPMENT SS4A. S3.44 Trace 10Mier. Solid Coded Keypad & Function Keys- Requires - 240V_ Front panel 115 x64. depth.
State. Wth l.tans.W E90
With Info. Un-used E25 SWITCHED MODE PSU 130mm. Cost £10.85 Our price£4.00
OWERTY KEYBOARD les in LYNX MICRO). Push to Astec type AA7271. PCB 50 x 50mm
COMMUNICATION RECEIVERS make. Cased ONLY £5 ea. (P&P £21 was 6 transistor cct providing current
Pocai RAWL 500Kliz-30/ithlz .. only E150 each DISK DRIVE 5%" FULL HEIGHT 80 Track Double
overload protection, thermal cutout
With Manuel
Toed. Double Denrny. With Memel. Used
and excellent filtering. Input 8-24V
DC. Output 5V 2A. Regulation 0.2%.
MULTIMETERS (P&P 15)
V Black & White Monitors from
E60 each
E45 £5.00
AVO 91.!k4 itelenti:N to Ai -QS 0,1k4 but scaled differ- 0.25A: 5V ISA -,,,..,
SWITCHED MODE PSU CREAM DISPENSER
ently! Complete with Batteries & Leeds £55 etc E20 each P&P E3.
AVO 8 Val Complete Aith Batteries & Lads £45 Z801 Coin operated machine
for
DATRON 3000 PROM COPIER (copies up to 101 dispensing hand cream. Cabinet 620
Above items XI GOOD WORKING OMER - appear- £150 each. P&P £7.
exe nut Al hence the price x 365 x 200mm. wt 10kg, contains
,WO TEST SET No 1 Itiliftery vrneon of AVO Bi ISOLATING TRANSFORMER 240V In - 240V OuL coin mech, PCB. counter, pump mech
Corrpiete with Batteries. Leads & Corning Case £65 SOOVA EIS ea P&P ES; 100VA E6 ea. P&P £2 24V consisting of high torque geared 6V ---,.,. ... __
-EST LEADS suitable for AVOMETERS. Red & fiLe:k Out. 500VA £6 ea P&P £5; 200VA £4 P&P 14 motor driving cam that pumps cream.
th 2 Croo-Clips & 2 Prods. (p&p 121 E5
NEW EQUIPMENT & sensing components, all powered by '3.1...a.
INALOGUE POCKET MULTIMETERS Prrelpslaylot internal 6V 2.6A recharaeable battery
l'.'0 etc. Como -fete with batteries & leads from E10 HAMEG OSCILLOSCOPE 605. Net Trace 601,1it
Delay Sweep. Component Tester £583
£15 - £5 can.
STEPPING MOTORS HAMEG OSCILLOSCOPE 203.6 Duel Tree 201,1Hz SPEECH CHIP
- 1. 200 Steps per rev 4 Phase 15 wrel 12,14V. Cormorant Tester with 2 pro,.. £314 Z733 SP0256A -i- index chip ULA
Torque 2z inch run err 5V with All Other Models Avelable chip as used in Currah microspeech.
mtuced torque, E15 ea. Cct and info for using SP0256 with Z811. Cumana Touch Pad for the BBC
-foe 2. 6;12 Steps per rev. 3 Phase. 12,24V le -A BLACK STAR FREQUENCY COUNTERS P&P £4 Spectrum, ZX81, BBC, VIC & C64. No computer. This remarkable add-cn
wt.& on 5V) .... E2 ea. 5 off .... E7.50 Meteor 100.100MHz E 99 info on other 2 chips. All 3 for £3.00
"'re 3. NORTH AMERICAN PHILIPS 24 Steps Meteor 600-600MHz £126 enables you to draw on the screen
pe rev. 4 wire 5V 3.3Amps 0-250rpm Meteor 1000-101z E175
AUTO DIALLER using a stylus with the touch sensitive
0-200 PPs E6 ea. BLACK STAR JUPITOR 503 FUNCTION GENERATOR_ Sloping front case 240 x 145 w 90150 pad. Supplied with 2 stylli, power/data
-,ne 4.200 Steps per rev. 120V 13 weal Torque SaieSquate,Tries*. 0.1Hz 500KHz P&P 14 1110 contains 2 PCB's: One has 4 keypads connecting lead & demo tape with 4
25 oz inch E4 ea_ (total 54 switches) + 14 digit LED dis progs. Contains state of the art elec-
.rie 7. WARNER 24 Steps per rev. 3 Phase 16 wire). HUNG CHANG 0MM 7030 3a digit. Hand het 28 play, 2 x ULN2004. ULN2033 & 4067; tronics. Originally being sold at
28V. Holdng Torque 45 oz. inch £5 ea. ranges incioding ID Amp AC DC 0.1%. Complete the other has 12 chips ÷ 4 power 179.95, later reduced to £49.95 -
with battery & Part. P&P £4 139.50 devices etc. Case contains speaker. 8 but we can offer a limited quantity of
AVO TRANSISTOR TESTER TT169 As above DMIA 6010.0.25% £33.50 core cable 2m long with plug. For use these brand new and boxed for just

MM
sold GO NOGO for Testing. Complete with PABX . £9.00
Batteries. leads & instructions (P&P 13)
£19.95
OSCILLOSCOPES PROBES. Switched .1:. 10
NOW ONLY E12 _La 12 An paces nay& VAT: lust add £1.00 P&P-
I.tn Access ceder £10 Itio min. CWOI. Offc :
Used equipment - with 30 days gu.i_ Manuals smelled if possdele Ord0s, fetus schools etc. im.3-
a .ERY SMAI=.5:= STOCK. SAE.
otterilg :1 -s EFT VAT
::..7,3re for Lists
to Tc:E: - Carriage_
.
GREENWELD Come - mss invoice char_.:10.

Our shop has el -emote a:: :. :1 1 ft. MCI CS ape -

tc 5 2 - _

ELECTRONIC
9 -5.30 Mc,S, e - -e ervi see us,
Sergi SAE fee Welt __,_ _ ,!
STEWART OF READING COMPONENTS
t1S4
110 WYKEHAM ROAD, READING, BERKS RG6 1PL
443E Millbrook Road Southampton
Telephone: 0734 68041 SO1 OHX Tel (07031 772501 783740
 EE 111
February 1988

A Wolters Kluwer Company

Managing Editor: Len Seymour
Personal Assistant: L. Vousden
Technical Editor: J Buiting
Advertisement executive:
Mother of the Free (?)
Pauline O'Rourke
Editorial offices: Last November, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Lord Young of
1 Harlequin Avenue Graffham, laid before the House of Lords the Copyright, Designs, and
BRENTFORD TW8 9P.1.1 Patents Bill. This is now being studied by the House. It is the first revision of
England
Telephone: 01-847 2618 (National)
the Act of Copyright 1956 and is intended to create a new legal frame-
or +44 1847 2618 (International) work of protective measures for intellectual property and innovation.
Advertising: 01-847 2619
Telex: 917490 (elektr g) The bill is much more than a safeguard for artistic work: it covers broad-
Fax: 01-847 2610
European offices:
casting (including that emanating from a satellite), typography, computer
Postbus 75 programs. and graphics, such as the design of an electronic circuit.
6190 AB BEEK (L) Moreover, protection will be given to artificial intelligence, that is, the pro-
The Netherlands duction of work by computers without the direct involvement of a human
Telephone: +31 4490 89444
Telex: 56617 lelekt nil author.
Fax: -31 4490 70161
Overseas editions: As under the 1956 Act, all of the author's rights pass to the holder of the
Publitron Publicacoes Tecnicas Ltda copyright. Also, employers retain the copyright of his or her employees.
Av Ipiranga 1100, 9' ander
CEP 01040 Sao Paulo - Brazil Under the bill, this will not only cover writing or translating, but all other
Editor: Juliano Barsali design and computer programming. So, employees who compile a com-
Elektor sari puter program for their employer will not (legally) be allowed to use this for
Route Nationale: Le Seau; B.P. 53 their own purposes. Computer programmers: beware!
59270 Bailieul - France
Editors: D R S Meyer;
G C P Raedersdorf As far as graphics is concerned, this will be well nigh impossible to define.
Elektor Verlag GmbH Some years ago, there were attempts in the USA to legally protect a
SUsterfeld-Strafe 25 number of graphic designs. They never got off the ground owing to the dif-
5100 Aachen - West Germany ficulties of defining such work; it must be expected that this will prove the
Editor: E J A Krempeisauer
case in Britain, too.
Elektor EPE
Karaiskaki 14
16673 Voula - Athens - Greece As is to be expected, the bill contains a number of controversial clauses.
Editor: E Xanthoulis For example, the government has opted for consumer rights rather than for
Elektor Electronics PVT Ltd. protection of the record industry by not including proposals for a levy on
Chhotani Building
52 C, Proctor Road, Grant Road (El
blank tapes. But why, oh why, does the bill not contain any attempt at
Bombay 400 007 - India clarifying the legality or otherwise of home recordings from any source?
Editor: Surendra lyer
Elektuur B.V. Worse are certain proposals under Fraudulent reception of broadcasts and
Peter Treckpoelstraat 2-4 cable programmes. The bill defines a broadcast as a transmission by
6191 VK Beek - the Netherlands
Editor: P E L Kersemakers wireless telegraphy of visual images, sounds, or other information which is
Ferreira & Bento (a) broadcast for general reception; (b) is transmitted for presentation to
R.D. Estefaille, 32-1° members of the public; (c) is a satellite transmission not within (a) or (b)
1000 Lisboa - Portugal which is accessible by members of the public. Furthermore, such broad-
Editor: Jorge Gonsalves
ingelek S.A.
casts may be provided from a place in the United Kingdom or any other
Plaza Republica Ecuador country or territory. The place from which the broadcast is made is defined,
2-28016 Madrid Spain in the case of satellite transmissions, as the place from which the signals
Editor. A M Ferrer carrying the broadcast are transmitted to the satellite.
Electronic Press AB
Box 63 The bill then proposes to give a person who makes charges for the recep-
182 11 Danderyd - Sweden
Editor: Bill Cedrum tion of such broadcasts the same rights and remedies as a copyright
International co-ordinating owner has in respect of an infringement of copyright against a person who
& technical manager: (a) makes, imports, or sells or lets for hire any apparatus or device de-
K S M Ws-lraven signed or adapted to enable or assist persons to receive the programmes
International editorial secretariat:
GWPv Linden; M Pardo without payment, or (b) publishes any information which is calculated to
Distribution: enable or assist persons to receive the programmes without payment.
SEYMOUR
334 Brixton Road There can be no objection to legislation that seeks to protect, within
LONDON SW9 7AG.
reason, transmissions from domestic satellites (i.e., those that can only be
Typeset & composed in the
Netherlands by GBS, Beek (Li. used to transmit signals to the country that operates it), but this should not
Printed in the Netherlands by be extended to those from international satellites, such as those operated
NDB. Zoeterwoude. by Intelsat or the USSR -sponsored Intersputnik.
Copyright 1988 E ektuur BY.

ABC
141.r.IRtr7.f. ALL',
CT
 EE
14

INDUSTRY STANDARD MOVING

TO CHMOS
High CPU power and a very high level of integration have developed the Type 80186 and 80188 16 -bit
microprocessors into industry standards in the embedded control arena. Most systems in the automation
and power engineering area, like CNC machines and robots, are based on the 80186/188 architecture.
by Bernhard Meier, Dipl. Inform. (FI-11-

INTEL's 80C186 is the newest member

of the popular, high integrated 80186/ 1

188 microprocessor family. The chip

provides full hardware and software
trttr
I I-1-1

TIMER/
INTERRUPTS
compatibility with its NIVIOS prede- CCrU/ITERS

cessor 80186 and gives the design engin-

eer additional opportunities via an inte-
grated DRAM refresh unit, special
power -saving logic and the new asyn-
chronous numerics coprocessor (NPX)
interface.
The 80C186 is manufactured with IN- SUS

TEL's CHMOS III process technology

(the same process on which the 32 -bit
80386 is based) and is specified for 10,
12.5, or 16 MHz operation. 880055-1

facility of internally dividing the typical 80C186 based CPU -board, where
Two operating modes clock frequency of the 80C186. Soft- additional hardware is only necessary
The 80C186 supports two operating ware determines the internal speed for EPROM, RAM and special I/0
modes: Compatible Mode and En- and power consumption of the total functions, like disk-, winchester- or
hanced Mode. When running in Com- chip. Power savings of up to 94% can LAN -interfacing.
patible Mode, the chip is fully hardware be achieved by this unique feature. The on -chip DMA controller has two
and software compatible with the asynchronous numerics coprocessor channels which can each be shared
NMOS 80186, with identical pin -out, interface. by multiple devices. At a speed of
timings, instruction set and driving levels This asynchronous interface replaces 12.5 MHz each channel is capable of
on the I/0 pins. Fig. 1 shows the block the current synchronous 8087 - transferring data at up to 3.12 Mbytes
diagram of the new CHMOS compo- interface, which is no longer sup- per second. It offers the choice of byte
nent. It is seen that all 80186 peripheral ported on the 80C186. A 80287 -type and word transfers and can be pro-
functions are present: of numerics coprocessor can be inter- grammed to perform a burst transfer of
a clock generator faced without any TTL-glue in be- a block of data, transfer data per speci-
two independent, high speed DMA tween. The current integrated bus fied time interval, or transfer data per
channels controller (IBC) 82188 is no longer external request.
one fully programmable interrupt necessary either. The on -chip interrupt controller re-
controller A detailed description of these new sponds to both external interrupts and
three programmable 16 -bit timer/ features will be given after the following interrupts requested by the on -chip
counters brief overview of the 80186/80C186 in- peripherals such as the timers and the
user programmable memory and ternal architecture. DMA channels. It can be configured to
peripheral chip -select -logic generate interrupt vector addresses in-
a wait -state -generator ternally like the INTEL microcontrollers
and the local bus controller. 80186/80C186 Base or externally like the popular 8259A in-
Enhanced Mode operation offers an terrupt controller. In addition to that, it
even higher level of integration. Ad-
Architecture can also be configured as a slave con-
ditional facilities are: The 80C186 CPU provides full object troller to an external interrupt controller
the DRAM refresh unit. code compatibility with the other (iRMX 86 mode) or as a master for one
It is added to the bus interface unit of members of the 8086 -family (8086/186/ or two 8259As, which in turn may be
the 80C186 and automatically 286/386), but offers twice the 8086 -CPU masters for up to 8 more 8259As. When
generates the refresh bus cycles for performance by virtue of a couple of operating in this master mode, each
the system DRAM -banks. Additional architectural enhancements. The regis- channel can support up to 64 external in-
costs and design effort for a seperate ter- and base instruction set, as well as terrupts giving a total of 128.
refresh -controller now belong to the segmented memory organisation, The three 16 -bit timers are also inte-
history in 80C186 -designs. follows the 8086 -standard. The chip of- grated on the chip. Timer 0 and timer I
fers (like its predecessor the 80186) up to can be programmed to be 16 -bit counters
power -saving logic. 15 standard peripherals, thus reducing able to count external events. If con-
This unit is placed before the clock overall system cost dramatically. Fig. 2 figured as timers, they can be started by
oscillator circuitry and provides the shows the high level of integration in a software or by a specific external event.
 EE
February 1988
Timers 0 and 1 each contain a timer out-
put pin. Transitions on these pins occur 2
when the timers reach one of the two
possible maximum counts, which is es- r°1 X2
pecially helpful in real-time appli-
cations, where external hardware has to
be synchronized with internal timing -4 :373 ADORES

events. Timer 2 can be used as a

_ATCH

:TY Fe
prescaler for timers 0 and 1, and is able ism fT,E

to generate DMA requests to the two on -

chip DMA channels. 830055-2
Finally, the integrated clock generator,
the wait state generator, and the chip sel-
ect logic reduce the external logic
necessary to build a processing PCB. =7

Enhanced Mode
As mentioned earlier, the 80C186 is com- ARDY

patible with the NMOS-version 80186 rya

when operating in Compatible Mode,
with the exception of the 8087 -support,
so that no numerics coprocessing is
possible in Compatible Mode. All the LCS

Enhanced Mode features are completely TWA 1310

e-
masked during operation in Compatible OUT 0
Mode. A write to any of the new control
and status registers will have no effect,
while a read will return irrelevant data. 71.14C215
TRA1SCDVE < > TERmisAL
In order to bring the 80C186 into En- cer T
hanced Mode, the user has to supply a
Drfri
special level combination at the PCSO
TEST#/BUSY input during and after AI
A2
RESET. If the processor sees a HIGH on
the TEST# pin at the rising edge of the VITO

RESET signal and a LOW four clocks

later, it will start working in Enhanced
Mode. From a board layout point of DLSK
INTDVA
view, this can easily be achieved by tying !OF.: ATi-

the RESETOUT signal from the 80C186

to the TEST#/BUSY input. Together
with a numerics coprocessor, the CPU is
working only and automatically in En- (offset EOH), CDRAM (offset E2I-I) and the internal clock by a programmable
hanced Mode. EDRAM (offset E41-1). The function of factor of 1, 4, 8 or 16. As shown in the
these registers is shown in Fig. 3. To following table, typical power savings of
avoid missing refresh requests, the value up to 94% can be achieved with this
DRAM Refresh Unit (DRU) in the CDRAM register should always be unique feature.
at least 18 (12H). Therefore, the refresh
Many hardware designs in the past have request rate should be in the range of 18- Divisor Power consumption
used one of the DMA channels for 512, despite the fact that theoretically a 1 100% of full power
dynamic RAM refresh. This was very minimum value of 1 is possible. 4 25% of full power
cost effective and easy to implement but Fig. 4 shows all the necessary logic to 8 13% of full power
left only one channel for real DMA. To implement a 1 Mbyte (512K x 16) 16 Pio of full power
offer a higher level of integration and DRAM design together with the 80C186.
free the DMA, the 80C186 uses a fully The design can be effected with three Because the CPU is not stopped, only
programmable DRAM refresh unit in 74LS157s as address multiplexers and slowed down, it may continue to execute
the Enhanced Mode. The refresh request only one 20 -pin EPLD 5C032 to tasks with low priority like scanning a
rate can be set from one to 512 phase 2 generate DRAM control signals PRE keyboard or serving a serial channel.
clocks and performs a dummy read with RAS#, RAS#, MUX#, CASO#, This power -saving mode is controlled via
the correct chip select activated. It is im- CAS1#, WEL# and WEH#. The two bits in the new register PDCON,
portant to mention that the 80C186 necessary PAL/EPLD equations, which has the offset FOH in the
deactivates a given HLDA signal when- together with the corresponding DRAM peripheral control block (see also
ever a refresh request is pending and speed calculations, can be obtained by Fig. 5).
reactivates the HLDA after the refresh contacting the application group at your Important for the whole system is the
bus cycle. The signal combination of local INTEL sales office. By using a fact that the divided internal clock is
HLDA going inactive while HOLD is more flexible EPLD 5C060, one could also available at the CLOCKOUT pin of
still active is showing the system that a remove one of the LS157s. the 80C186. All internal logic, including
DRAM refresh has to be performed to the DRAM refresh unit and the timers,
maintain the data integrity. will have their clock slowed down by the
To program the DRU, the 80C186 Power -save logic dividing factor. To maintain a real-time
peripheral control block (PCB) has been To save power in CMOS designs, the count, or a fixed DRAM refresh rate, the
enlarged by the three registers MDRAM 80C186 offers the opportunity to divide user has to ensure that these peripherals
 EE
16
February 1988

3 ous one. For example, the clock fre-

MEMORY PARTITION REGISTER quency of the NPX is not limited by the
CPU -clock rate. To get maximum
15 14 13 12 11 10 9 B 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
HORAN: MS M5 M4 M3 M2 141 MO 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 floating point performance, the NPX
Offset EON
clock frequency can be higher than the
80C186 system clock. Additionally,
Bits 0 8 : Reserved.
Bits 9 - 15 : MO MG, are address bits A13 A19 of the 20 -bit memory refresh address. 80C186 DRAM refresh bus cycles can in-
terrupt NPX-data transfers, for example
CLOCK PRE -SCALER REGISTER during the NPX-commands FRSTOR
and FSAVE. The new asynchronous in-
8
CORAIt
15
0
14
0
13
0
12
0
11
0
10
0
9
0 ce
7
C7
8
C6
5
C5
4 3
C4 C3
2
C2
1

Cl
0
CO
terface also allows the full use of the
Offset Eat 80C186 chip select, wait state generator
and bus control logic for memory.
Bits 0 - 8 : CO - C8, clock droisor register. Holds the number of CLOCKOUT
cycles between each refresh request The handshaking between the 80C186
Bits 9 - 15 : Reserved. and the NPX is accomplished with four
ENABLE DFIRC REGISTER
dedicated pins: NPS#, ERROR#,
PEREQ and BUSY#. To keep the
15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8. 7 8 5 4 3 2 1 0 80C186 in the standard 68 -pin form fac-
EDRAM: 0 0 0 0 0 0 T8 T7 14 13
Offset E411
E TS T2 T1 TO
tor and yet accommodate these pins, it
has been necessary to redefine three of
Bits 0 - B : (TO -T8). These tits contain the refresh clock counter output
Bits 9 - 14 : Reserved.
the mid -range memory chip select lines
Bit 15 : (E Bit). Activation (E=1) and deactivation (E=0) according to the following table:
of the DRAM refresh urit
880055-3

Compatible Mode Enhanced Mode

MCSO# PEREQ
4 ADINESS
KULTIPLECERS MCS1# ERROR#
LS157
DRAM AOCRESS (A8 -AO) MCS3# NPS#
M:9
ROW
LATCHED The pin PEREQ means Processor Ex-
ACEICESS s MEI: Al s
C
I (2) 2561( X A tension Request. This is used to signal to
A10: 13
C -
the CPU that numeric data transfers to
ip WISt#
and from the numerics processor have to
0154
be performed. The ERROR# pin is
RI=
SI
11111,.11. useful during ESCAPE instructions,
52
CASO# where a low on this pin will vector to the
EPLD
5C032 MS INT 16 interrupt. Lastly, NPS# is the
CASIO
PRE-
117) 294E x i numerics coprocessor select line. For a
UCSI NC. -RAS* RAS I s 80C186-NPX CPU board design it is im-
AO
W844,
CASt o II portant not to use pins MCSO/1/3. An
wee),
external decoder is recommended to re-
LATCHED A19
1315-9 07,:` place their functions.
i-scii BYTE LCri SYTO In addition to the four pins, four
DATA 15:8 dedicated I/O port addresses are re-
DATA 7:0 served for passing information between
the 80C186 and the NPX:

I/O Read Write

are re -programmed when entering and complex mathematical functions, which address definition definition
leaving the power -saving mode. The are not provided by the instruction set of status/ opcode
00F8H
power -saving mode is excited whenever a general purpose CPU. Such functions control
an interrupt is processed or whenever the as square root, sine, cosine, and 00FAH data data
user clears the enable bit in the register logarithms are not directly available in a CS:IP,
00FCH reserved
DS:EA
PDCON. general purpose processor like the
80C186. Software routines to get high opcode reserved
00FEH status
speed numerics are too slow, so that
Asynchronous numerics special numeric coprocessors (NPX), Fig. 6 gives details of the asynchronous
like 8087/287/387 have been designed as interface between the 80C186 and the
coprocessor interface a hardware extension to the correspond-
ing CPUs. numerics coprocessor (NPX). Note that
The 80C186 is a general purpose 16 -bit there is no TTL-glue between the two
microprocessor, designed for a wide For the NMOS 80186/188, numerics re- chips. It should be mentioned at this
range of embedded control applications. quirements can easily be fulfilled with point that the interface is not available
Typically, these areas need fast, efficient the 8087 and the integrated bus con- with the 8 -bit version 80C188.
data movement and a very short inter- troller (IBC) 82188. The 80C186 does not
rupt response time combined with a very support this synchronous coprocessor
high level of integration. Traditionally, interface in either Compatible Mode or ONCE Mode and
the arithmetic on data values in these ap- Enhanced Mode. As a replacement, in
plications tended to be simple, so that Enhanced Mode the 80C186 has been development tools
the 80186/188 fulfilled these needs in a equipped with an asynchronous nu- The 80C186 has an additional feature
low-cost, effective manner. merics coprocessor interface, which is which allows the user to electrically
However, more and more automation similar to the 80286/80287 interface and isolate the device from the PC -board
equipment requires extremely fast and shows some advantage over a synchron- when it is soldered through hole or sur-
 EE 111
February 1988
face mounted. This special test mode is
called ONCE (ON Circuit Emulation) 5
and provides an easy way of testing and Poweraave Control Reg:stet

inspecting devices that are fixed into a 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

target system. During this mode, all ROCOR: E 0 0 0 0 0 0 O 0 O 0 0 0 0 F1 FO

80C186 pins are placed in a high im- Offset FON

pedance state so that a board test can be

tits 0 - 1 :Clock -Division -Factor (1,4.8 oder 16).
accomplished without the need of Bits 2 - 14 : Reserved. 660055-5
removing the 80C186. The ONCE mode Bit 15 : Ensile Rower Save Mode.

isselected by tying pins UCS# and

LCS# low during RESET and is ter-
minated by a normal RESET (UCS#
and LCS# high). 6
LATCH
ADDRESS <15 :0>
The success of new board designs is
more and more dependent on the Al
availability of efficient hardware and AD < IS 0. 01401
software development tools. These tools ALE EN
CAJ4 0
are required to run on industry standard 'IPX
hosts. Because the 80C186 shows object
C186
i IS -SIT viRsc,i; STEN .0
code compatibility with the 8086 -family, P.S.ET RESET
PEACE/
the current INTEL compilers, like C-86, 'RP RFWA* 1)4CCE SaECTI

FORTAN-86, PLM-86, PASCAL -86 and RO

CLA CUT
11. HMO&
CLA
the standard 8086 -Assembler, can be HCS3 40"-S a NPS
used. These software tools are available P,:,S SIERROR EFR'Rf
on a variety of hosts, including INTEL'S "4."-#:71Er--E0 PERZO
14.52 -b. 0
MDS III/IV, INTEL's systems 310/320 T-Mi.Eusy 4 BUSY
D -EP:

and of course on the IBM PC XT/AT

and its compatibles. For designs of up to DATA <15: 0>

10 MHz in Compatible Mode, the

12ICE-186 is a comfortable hardware
emulation vehicle also for the 80C186.
To support new, true CMOS designs the availability of powerful hard- and (2) 8088/8086/80188/80186 Hardware
with the 80C186 and clock frequencies software development tools, make this Reference Manual INTEL Corporation,
of up to 16 MHz, a new emulator, the new processor the ideal solution for 1986.
ICE -186, has been developed. This new many new embedded control appli- (3) 8088/8086/80188/80186 Program-
tool incorporates the 80C186 bond -out cations. For current 80186 -based prod- mers Ref Manual INTEL Corporation,
chip, which provides full access to all the ucts the 80C186 is a logical and efficient 1986.
new features of Enhanced Mode. upgrade. All conditions are there for it to
become the next embedded control mi-
croprocessor standard. * Bernard Meier is with INTEL Semi-
conductor GmbH, Munich
Summary
The new features of the 80C186, the ad- Literature:
vantages of the CHMOS-process with (1) 80086 Data Sheet, INTEL Corpor-
speed selections of up to 16 MHz, and ation, 1987.

Alphacam Products Ltd The old

Mailings 135(9) Ditton NNalk
CAMBRIDGE CB5 8QD Telephone
(0223) 214214.

New Centronics connectors

Custom Cables has introduced a new
range of Centronics connectors which
have metal shells. These are intended to
provide EMI/RFI shielding as laid down
by recent FCC directives.
The connectors can be supplied in either
EPROM emulation accessory right angle or straight formats, male and
Alphacam Products, who have acquired female, and are available as 14-, 24-, 36-,
the rights to Camel Products' and 50 -way models. They are suitable for
BLOPROM-RS EPROM programmer, terminating all types of flat cable, and
have introduced an EPROM simulation are insulation displacement contact
accessory called ROMSIM. It plugs (IDC) types, obviating the need for wire
into the ZIF socket of the BLOPROM- stripping and soldering.
RS and provides soft simulation of Custom Cables International, Ltd
EPROMs 2716 to 27256 (2 kB - 32 kB). Units 3-4 Shire Hill Industrial Estate
ROMSIM retails at £89.95 plus VAT and SAFFRON WALDEN CB11 3AQ
is available from Telephone (0799) 22036.
 EE
18
February 1988

UNIVERSAL MULTIPLEXER
A fast, analogue and digital compatible, 16 -channel multiplexer with provisions for manual and
computer control. The circuit is offered as a design idea, and should find applications in test, measure-
ment and instrumentation equipment.

The circuit described here is essentially routed direct to the switching section: µP/MAN and LOAD is within every pro-
an electronic I6 -way rotary switch. It is AND gate N35 effectively blocks them grammer's reach when the appropriate
composed of 2 functional sections: one when the microprocessor or microcom- data is sent to the computer's parallel
takes care of the connection between the puter holds circuit input itP/MAN logic output port (e.g. the Centronics outlet)
selected input channel and the "pole" of high. In that case, LED D19 lights to in- with the aid of a simple BASIC program
the 16 -way switch, i.e., the output of the dicate that the increment pulses or (machine language) subroutine.
circuit, while the other provides the con- originate from the computer, and are ap- The use of computer control on the pro-
trol signals necessary to select a par- plied to the CLK input of binary counter posed multiplexer makes it possible to
ticular channel from the 16 available. ICI via N3I and N40. The clock pulses re- activate any I of 16 (24) channels at any
The control section accepts manual as ceived by ICI increment the 4 -bit binary time. This is in contrast to the sequential
well as computer or automatically gener- value at outputs QA ...QD. LED D20 and unidirectional channel selection in
ated channel selection codes. Appli- indicates the presence and the relative the manual (automatic or switch -
cations of the universal multiplexer in- speed of the received or internally controlled) mode.
clude quasi -simultaneous temperature generated clockpulses. The 4 DIP switches marked RESET in
measurement in a network of sensors the circuit diagram determine the last
mounted in different locations, con- (highest) channel that can be activated.
trolled capturing of signals from strain Computer control Four -bit comparator ICJ compares the
gauges, light sensors or transducers, and So far, the circuit description suggests number of the selected channel to the
the routeing of command signals and that channel selection in the multiplexer configuration of the DIP switches, i.e.,
voltages in automated test, measurement is sequential and unidirectional. This to the number of the channel defined as
and production systems. means that if, for example, channel 3 is the last one. Output A=B (signal RS)
currently selected, the next channel can goes high when equal channel numbers
only be number 4, making it is imposs- are applied to the An and 13n inputs of
Manual or automatic control ible to step back to, say, channel 2, or on ICs. The LOAD input of counter ICI is
In the manual mode, the desired channel to 5 with a single clock pulse. This activated, and inputs A ...D read 0000
is selected by the user pressing the chan- restriction was found inacceptable, so thanks to pull -down resistors R2. . . R
nel increment key as many times as re- that the circuit was extended to enable incl. This resets the counter to output
quired. In the automatic mode, an oscil- the direct selection of any 1 of the 16 state nought.
lator provides the channel increment channels via input lines DO . . .D3, which The current channel number is indicated
pulses. With reference to the circuit control counter inputs A .. . D direct. by 1 of 16 LEDs selected by 4 -to -16
diagram of Fig. 1, the user selects be- When the computer's output port ap- decoder IC2. The channel code is also
tween manual and automatic channel in- plies a logic high level to inputs applied to display driver ICto, which ar-
crement pulses with the aid of toggle siP/MAN and LOAD, pin 1 of ICI goes ranges for the decimal channel number
switch Si. This supplies a clock pulse to high, so that the binary value on to be shown on a I 1/2 -digit common
bistable FF1 via set -reset bistable ICnb, DO ...D3 is transferred to QA ...QD. cathode display. It should be noted that
whose Q and Q outputs toggle on each The control of input lines DO...D3, binary input 0000 on the SAB32II
rising edge of the CLK signal. Thus,
each time Si is pressed, the multiplexer
changes between manual and automatic
channel control, or vice versa. LEDs
D17 and Dis indicate the currently selec-
ted mode. On power up, network RI -CI
at the SET input of FF1 selects manual
channel increment pulses. These are
generated by S2 and S -R bistable ICna,
which functions as a debounce circuit.
AND gate N36 blocks the manual chan-
nel increment pulses when the unit is set
to the automatic mode. Similarly, N34
prevents the channel increment pulses
from oscillator IC4 being applied to pin
1 of N42 in the manual mode. The oscil-
lator pulses are only used in the auto-
matic channel increment mode, that is,
when Q of FF1 is logic high. The output
frequency of the oscillator set up around
IC4 is adjustable to enable the channel
increment speed being set as required for
the application in question.
The channel incement pulses are not A prototype of the universal multiplexer built on a piece of veroboard.
 EE
19
February 1988

1
aP
rOO

I ?? 7

0 0 MEN z z

oeo
0
RPM
z

-C=I
O.
Et
U
H
3
0 U
o
gl a D
FIW g
000 EEZIEI

0 t
0
PC.

1-

Ai o
2$
0 82
8.2
.8 :A
.aa
NMI
2 is

0
1_43>L4. 057
a
0.2
o
el! 6
Pu 0
21.
O ha"
0

tt 5
* r
a
Oa sai
t

0
IC
7
x
O

EMI
-I
vi 17 Z

Z
z

/7.;

tij 3
z
.
z

'L /
1

' I 1
yEEcE
1 114444
4i 4444H4
T00ll
-o

1 6* 00000
o D.crroofI7a

Fig. 1. Circuit diagram of the universal multiplexer.

causes the display to read "16". The Relays or electronic switches so that inverters Type 4049 are required
Type SAB3211 manufactured by
is instead of non -inverting buffers Type
Siemens, and may be a difficult to ob- Some applications of the multiplexer call 4050. Do not forget to fit a protective di-
tain component. The more familiar Type for the use of relays rather than elec- ode across each relay coil as shown. The
9368 is suggested as a suitable alterna- tronic switches in IC6... IC9 incl. The R -C filters on the input lines may not be
tive, but it should be noted that this modifications to the circuit to enable op- required in all cases, but are rec-
causes the channel numbers to be eration with relays are shown in Fie. 2. ommended as a protective measure
displayed in hexadecimal (0...F) rather The Type 4514 decoder is replaced by a against crosstalk and switching noise.
than decimal. 74HC154, whose outputs are active low, Electronic switches not only consume
 20 EE
Febrc3n, 1988

2 for driving a wide variety of test equip-

ft ment.
The analogue switches may be protected
against static discharges by fitting 2
I I®I small -signal diodes on each input line.
One diode is connected with its cathode
to ground, and its anode to the input
channel indication
4049
1...16
line; the other with its cathode to the
positive supply voltage, and its anode to
the input line.
SAB Depending on the type of relay used,
4+ and the multiplexing speed, the inertia
3211Z
{=÷1.1 MEM
of the contacts may give rise to er-
roneous measurements owing to brief
short-circuits between input channels.
input filter This is prevented by delay network R27 -
R28 -C6 freezing the output state of
decoder IC2 for about 10 ms in between
Decoder 4+16 I 2 clock pulses. This ensures that the cur-
rently energized relay has enough time to
channel code
complete opening its contacts before the
1E
next channel is selected.
74HC 154 channel 1...16 The multiplexer can be fed from any
channel inhibit 19 supply voltage between 5 and 16 V, pro-
16
5V vided the series resistors for the LEDs
and the display are dimensioned accord-
ingly. Relays, as well as the 74HC154, re-
0 quire a supply of 5 V.
RELAYS
A or D output Finally, it should be noted that the cir-
cuit described is experimental: it can be
L extended as well as simplified to in-
*see text 87159-2a dividual needs. The RESET configur-
ation around IC3 can be simplified by
Fig. 2. Modifications to the multiplexer to enable the use of relays in the switching stage. hard wiring the relevant inputs An on
the comparator; the 11/2 digit read-out
little power, they also have the advantage cause problems, it is recommended to can be set up around a display driver
of being fast, silent, small, and inexpens- ensure adequate insulation through the other than the SAB3211; the LEDs and
ive. They do not, however, allow the safe use of relays. associated driver ICs are optional; the
use of different potentials in the channel The multiplexed signal is buffered in op- number of channels can be reduced, and
selection circuit (i.e., the multiplexer) erational amplifier ICs. This guarantees the gates used for the microprocessor in-
and the circuit(s) drivingthe input lines. light loading of the selected channel, terface may be omitted if computer con-
In applications where this is expected to and a relatively low output impedance trol is not envisaged.

CORRECTIONS
SSB receiver for 20 and 80 m
November 1987, p. 53
Resistor Rs shown in the circuit diagram is not present
on the printed circuit board. This has no consequence
for the operation of the receiver.

BASIC computer
November 1987. p. 25
Constructors should note that pin 14 of Ku is connec-
ted to pin 14 of Kr.

Long-range infra -red receiver -

transmitter
November 1987, p. 37
Factor 71 was erroneously omitted in the denominators
of the 2 fractions preceding equation fa
 EE 111
February 1988

COMPUTER NEWS COMPUTER NEWS CO

Lower cost transputer embedded control applications such as posure. The tray slides fully in to the
The Kuma K -Max Transputer Develop- automated test equipment, factory auto- main body of the unit, thereby obviating
ment System for the Atari ST series is mation (robotics and machine vision), the risk of UV light leakage. As a further
now available at £695, excl. VAT: a re- imaging applications, and aircraft flight safeguard, a safety interlock will stop
duction of £300. simulators. the unit from operating until the tray is
The standard K -Max is supplied with an correctly closed.
Inmos T414, 256 K RAM, and an as- Stack LTD Unit 8 Wedgwood
sembler, which can be upgraded by ad- New encryption device Road BICESTER OX6 7UL s Tele-
ding a further T414 and 256 K RAM. It Master Systems has introduced a low- phone (0869) 240404.
is supported by two Occam products cost encryption device, the Key Master,
from Kuma: Occam-ST and Cascade - to meet the growing needs for security of
XP. sensitive information held on com-
Occam-ST is suitable for producing puters. New software for data
Occam I programs on a standard Atari Key Master guarantees the security of acquisition
ST, enabling users to experiment with data communications traffic by enforc- A new data acquisition package,
the parallel processing language before ing keyword password identification and LABTECH ACQUIRE, is available
purchasing a transputer. It retails at through the implementation of a novel from Adept Scientific. It is menu -driven,
£59.95, incl. VAT. self destruct facility. so there are no commands to memorize.
Kuma Computers Ltd 12 Horseshoe Only machines with the exact keyword
Park PANGBOURNE RG8 7JW combination can encode information
Telephone (07357) 4335. and then transmit or receive data via the
new device. The total number of
keyword combinations amounts to 10",
Silicon disc drive a figure that is close to the number of
atoms in the universe.
Vermont Research has recently intro- In view of the Data Protection Act,
duced a new solid-state memory sub- which now requires every organization
system, Model 4256, which was devel- that keeps information subject to the Act
oped and is manufactured entirely in the on a computer to ensure that this infor-
UK.
mation is adequately protected, the in-
A wide variety of moving head disc troduction of the Key Master has been
drives and fixed head discs/drums can timed to perfection.
be emultated with the Model 4256,
which can be configured with up to Master Systems Ltd Telephone
128 Mbytes of memory in a single (0276) 685385
chassis that requires only seven inches of
vertical rack space.
Apart from the cooling fan and the tape EPROM eraser
cartridge drive, there are no moving A new range of EPROM erasers is
parts in the 4256. The device is, available from Stack Ltd. These allow
therefore, very reliable and can be fully for the re -programming and re -use of
repaired in the field in no more than 30 EPROMs, PCBs and wafers. The range
minutes by exchanging sub -assemblies. contains 11 models with capacities from
Vermont Research Cleeve Road eight to 600 24 -pin EPROMs.
LEATHERHEAD KT22 7NB Tele- Standard models with capacities of 8, The package runs on PC, AT, and XT
phone (0372) 376221. compatibles and can typically be used to
acquire data after only a few minutes'
familiarization.
New VME board from A single menu is used to configure the
National data acquisition, specifying start-up
National Semiconductor have intro- method, data rate, run duration, data
duced a high-performance 32 -bit board - scaling, and the parameters for display,
level system based on the company's new storage, and output. The system sup-
NS32532 32 -bit microprocessor, and ports up to four channels of analog data
is compatible with the widely used and one digital channel. Date rates are
VMEbus standard. variable from very slow up to 50 samples
The new system, the VME532, can ex- per second on each channel. Methods
ecute up to 10 million instructions per 18, or 36 EPROMs produce up to may be stored for future use.
second (MIPs), the highest performance 9,000 uW/cm2 at the EPROM's surface, LABTECH ACQUIRE is available at a
available in VMEbus CPU at present. while the industrial models produce up UK price of £185 from
The VME532 is an ideal solution for to 18,000 uW/cm2 at the EPROM's sur- Adept Scientific Letchworth Business
systems integrators building UNIX face. Centre Avenue One LETCH-
Systems V -based multi-user systems (64 All models include an integral tray lined WORTH SG6 2HB Telephone
to more than 200 users). It is also well - with anti -static foam, in which the (0462) 683355.
suited for high-performance board -level EPROMs are assembled prior to ex-
 zbruary 19.8

INTELLIGENT TIME STANDARD

This advanced central clock processes the time signals supplied by the DCF77 receiver described last
month. The microprocessor controlled instrument is menu -driven, and has many useful options for
control, time indication, and read-out.
Ticking at atomic accuracy, and providing a precise 10 MHz reference signal, this laboratory grade
instrument enables central timekeeping for a wide range of equipment, and can be operated as a BASIC
computer also.
The central time processor discussed in
Intelligent time standard for DCF77 receiver this article forms the logical follow-up to
the DCF77 receiver and 10 MHz fre-
Features:
quency standard proposed in "'. The
Continuous display of time and date, derived from Federal Germany's VLF time transmitter central clock not only indicates the cur-
DCF77 at 77.5 kHz. rent time and date on a 2 -line LC dis-
Alphanumerical liquid crystal display (LCD) shows time, date, instrument status, and time play, but can also be prompted by other
convention on 2 lines of 16 characters. equipment to output time and other
Date indication in English, French. German or Dutch. useful information digitally via its serial
Programmable sound output for 15, 30 or 60 minute chime. port. The design is our second to be
Audible and visual warning of impaired reception. Last synchronization time instantaneously based on the Type 8052AH-BASIC
available on display and serial output. microcontroller from Intel. Useful infor-
Operation and programming completely menu -guided. mation on this exceptionally versatile
Simple to install default configuration.
Programmable logic output supplies one pulse per second, minute, hour or day. chip can be found in references (1' and
(3).
RS232 or TTL compatible serial interface can be set to operate at 1 of 4 commonly used
baud rates.
Time processor can communicate with terminals, computers or slave display units.
Transmission of time and date via serial output (on request or automatically each second). Structure of the time signals
Time setting or adjustment via serial input. The DCF77 receiver described last
Built-in, PLL controlled, frequency reference (10 MHz, 0.5 ppm).
Advanced design based on microcontroller Type 8052AH-BASIC.
month outputs time pulses (output -r)
Option to list BASIC control program on terminal. and an error signal (output E). The latter
Enclosure and appearance in line with Elekror Electronics test equipment. is used for sienalline to external equip-
ment that the internal PLL has lost lock
 EE
February 1988
as a result of impaired reception of the compatible serial I/O block is used for
VLF time station. The 10 MHz output is outputting time & date information, and
then automatically short-circuited, be- for receiving commands from external
cause the stability of the reference signal equipment. The ourPur line can be pro-
can not be guaranteed. Constructors of grammed to provide an audible signal.
the DCF77 receiver may have noticed while INPUT enables the user to select
that reception is occasionally lost for automatic serial transmission of the time
more than half an hour due to slow and date information at regular inter-
fading, which is typical of the VLF fre- vals.
quency band. Fortunately, this is not a The 4 input keys are membrane types
problem for the clock described here, used for menu -guided configuration and
since it switches automatically to its in- operation of the central clock. The in-
ternal timebase when the error signal is strument communicates with the user
active. Synchronization with DCF is via these keys, and a number of texts on
restored within 2 minutes or so of clear the 2 -line LC display.
reception, so that the long-term devi-
ation of the clock is virtually nought Fig. 1. Structure of the time code transmitted
24 hours a day on DCF77.
even when the station is briefly received Circuit description
2 or 3 times a day. The circuit diagram of the time standard
On DCF77, the time and date infor- activated RXD line with the aid of recti-
mation-called time code hereafter-is is given in Fig. 3. When the supply is fier Dz-D3-CI. Omit D2 and D3, and re-
switched on, the clock is cleared and in- place CI with a wire link, to enable
transmitted every minute as a 35 -bit itialized by the brief logic high pulse
BCD code as shown in Fig. I. The func- bidirectional communication using TTL
aplied to the RESET input of the CPU by levels. Gates NI, N2, N4 and N5 convert
tion of the special bits transmitted after C6-Ru. The CPU clock frequency is
the 14th second marker is as follows: the 15 Vpp pulses from the CMOS
11.0592 MHz, just as in the BASIC com- drivers on the receiver board to 5 Vpp
puter (reference (3)). Trimmer C3 enables for the processor in the time standard.
RI: aerial bit indicating switch -over to accurate adjustment of the oscillator fre-
the spare transmitter. The function of the signals carried via
quency to ensure minimum deviation of ICI will be reverted to.
Al: summertime announcement bit.
Z1; Z2: summer- and wintertime in- the clock when this is not synchronized
by DCF77. A small deviation from
The membrane keys in the ready-made
dicators. front panel foil are connected to 4 lines
11.0592 MHz is, of course, irrelevant of port P1 via 1C2. Port bit P1.0 is pro-
A2: announcement bit indicating a cor- once the processor is synchronized, grammed as an output line for control-
rection of UTC relative to the because the time is automatically cor-
astronomic time standard. ing the monostable multivibrator set up
rected every minute. around NT. Active buzzer Bzi is
S: start bit for the time code imminent. switched on by T3 during the mono -
Serial interface and memory time provided by N7.
Pl, P2 and P3 are parity bits. One bit, The RS232 -TTL level converters set up Octal latch IC3 is an intermediate
M, is reserved for marking "second 1" around Ti and T2 are simple, yet per- storage device for the least significant
in each minute. fectly adequate, circuits similar to those
The length of the second pulses trans- (LS) address byte (A0... A7) on the
used in the BASIC computer. The nega- multiplexed data/address bus. The LS
mitted by DCF77 is either 100 ms (bit = tive supply for the TXD driver is derived address byte is present on the AD bus
logic 0) or 200 ms (bit = logic 1). The from- the negative level on the non - when ALE is logic high. The 8 data bits
start transition of each pulse is used to
accurately time the seconds. The end of 2
each minute is signalled by the absence
of the pulse for "second 59". address
The time processor described here 00- "RS232" SERIAL decoding
verifies the structure of the received .13
pulses, measures their duration, and pro-
cesses the combined information to en- 0- // TTL 4-- 'KT" Al2 Al2
sure correct display of time and date. BASIC AS
ROM
The information contained in the cur-
rently received minute is constantly com-
ME10.1.
DATE
EK ADZ,
AD] -r\-r\
-v- -v- A.: D. --V-
A7
AO

pared to that of the previous minute, and ALE

MUX
8K
EPROM
the clock is synchronized if the current YES
Mho
code makes sense with regard to the in- -s'o-
CPU DO
formation gathered during the previous 8052AH V- 07
minute. The synchronized and non - BASIC

synchronized (free -running) modes of LAST

the clock are indicated by LC display
symbols "*" and "-" respectively. 0-

GCE 7" 00 1..T 1

OUTPUT AOIF
Block diagram INPUT 00
The block diagram of Fig. 2 shows that - D7
LC DISPLAY
the time standard is essentially a small, DO
2x 16 characters
closed, microcomputer system with
ROM, RAM, serial and parallel I/O, JJ. 2E124 -2

and a read-out in the form of an LC dis-

play. The processor's INT (interrupt) in-
put is driven with the time pulses from Fig. 2. This block diagram of the intelligent time standard shows that the instrument is essen-
the DCF77 receiver. The RS232 and TTL tially a small microcomputer system.
 EE
24
February 1988
are valid when ALE is logic low simul- Default configuration The default options shown in Table I are
taneous with RD or WR. The presence or absence of diodes mostly self-explanatory. The data for-
The 3 highest address lines of the CPU, forms a default system con-
DI7 mat on the serial port of the time stan-
A13, A14 and A15, are connected to 3 - figuration byte which is read at address dard is
to -8 decoder IC2, which provides C000H. Each diode fitted causes the rel-
memory selection signals for address evant data line to be pulled low, 1 start bit, 8 databits, no parity,
areas of 8 Kbyte. The memory areas representing a "0" in the corresponding 1 stop bit.
assigned to the RAM, EPROM, the dis- bit location. It will be noted that the en-
play, and the default configuration tire memory area from C000H to D1-1-1-11 The acoustic signal selected with D12 is
diodes in the microprocessor system are is reserved for a single input device, in composed of 6 pips from the buzzer (5
shown in the circuit diagram. The case 8 diodes, but this is no problem in for the last 5 seconds in the minute, and
EPROM holds the tokenized BASIC the "closed" microcomputer system. 1 for the start of the next minute),
program that controls the time standard. The default configuration created with similar to the time markers on many
The non -used block select outputs on the diodes is read by the processor when radio stations. It is also possible to have
IC2 enable ready adding of 8 Kbyte this is initialized after a reset pulse. The the buzzer sound briefly every 15 or 30
RAM blocks in the memory area be- menu, however, still allows changes to be minutes, but this option is only access-
tween 2000H and 7FFFH. made to all default parameters. ible via the menu.

3 5V
0
C6l 5V
1111.
101s
5V tov 6 78
GI 0 7
Y7
9
Ye
117 IC2
Y5
9 011
Y4
RST 0 EA 74 Y3 8402-9877,(_t
P3.0
(SER. 111) P27
213.4115 3 C HCT
E008.-F7FFHEx
63 09 RA P2.5 270%14 2 138
CON_DFFIHEx
P2.S 26 A13 1A YO 015
-J
7
65 63.1
" (SER. OUT) P2.1 25 Al2
H44148
T6D
P23 221 Ail
23 A10
110
2x
BC557 P2.2
P2.1
22 A9 ka
1144148 1.2.0
21 A9\
61400 D4 5V 5V
/ R6
DI SV
111*3 I=1Cl *

10707
SIGNA
B
IC1 0
CLZL.
12 8052 AH CIL
K1 BASIC 100n 28,
H6
111 13 P3.7
20
0 D7 12 A7A7 12 12
i 0 27
20ID

Al2
71_1 63.301411) P0.6
23 All Vp p
IS
P1 .91) 1C3 Mos it jiA:a'2321 A11:f cE2® A10 21 A10 26
625414 P3-5
TP3 P3.
cm .44 :krill 424 Ai A2 24
A9
MENU 25
AD 105
DATE P3.3 02D3 H7e4T. 0203 it -:32,,.\\A7 : "A7I C4 D7 "AD7 A7 3
AA:
19 AD7
P0.2
YES 0-
P1.7
P6.1
P0.0
Ao--0,1/LIna 0, 573 at sA.LavkAs
ADO SOD spiko A5 5 A5'6 RAM :6 M67
A6
AS
4
"t8 A
AS 17 ADS

NO 0 5 Al6 " 64046 la ADA AA 6 2764

Dt
55 AD4
5
P1.0
1 10 Ka & A3 t 7 A3 03
li AD3 #3 7 A303 15 AD3
LAST
ALE D_A_732_ A2 a A2 W2.1.Aja
Ne. 1, e AZ
1 N2 Al 9 Al 12 AIM ,,,,z,.440A1 .09
Al D1 1
12 AD1
N. AO .70 AD 11_
AO 0011
5 OE -
OUTPUT 43 WE J. OE
4
P .3 279=0 220
a 14 15 3
'1041114. E P .2
2 (WR)P3.6 SS
P .1
INPUT P .0 (AD)P3.7 17

////
NI

2 [11
mm
20
2 XVI&
161 19

r- - 11.0592MItz
/ AMY/
Xi
1, 41 KI` 7
12 DISPLAY
R19
La C3 OS 44 i t K3(a,b) 12

73p 7274 5V 5;31

5-20o
0 VD0 1, 07 AD7
1

51: 2 06 A 04
RS 11 3 05 ADS AD2
V LC 12, AD4 4...._1121AD3
0 4112 I *Da
C12
O 503 AD3
P1
O 8 D2 AD2 7-1 I ADS
=adorn MTV* c.,_1121.1:11
100 'S..in 4x 1144001
305
107 vss u. O 8 DO ADO / Trig4
O6 07
8x 1N4148
5V SV

B D9 Ht...146 = ICS = 74HC(T)4050

ti 106 IC7 147...1410 =IC7 =74HCTO2
C7 C13 CSI
5-107
Oo 220n 100.
25V 65124 -3

Fig. 3. Circuit diagram of the time processor for DCF77.

 EE
February 1988
Two diodes, D14 and Ds, select the time
convention on the central clock. It is
possible to select UTC, (Universal Time 014
017 DIG 015 TINE
Coordinated, formerly GMT), DCF77 RATE
--o
1310 LAI1GUAGE

(MET, Middle European Time, with 1200 CCF 77* 1%-tch

summertime corection), or UTC +1 hour 2400 WIC +I- Ftench

(MET without summertime correction). 4800 UTCr th German
When both diodes are omitted, the clock 9600 -1- BCE 77 Et
is set to DCF77 time, but accepts the *CTL-C e,at:eri
CONTROL -C (03n) command on the
serial input for switching to the pro- cf,ote f,tted
cessor's programmable (BASIC) mode. DI2 ACOUSTIC
SIGNAL
D13 DATA FORMAT (I-0)
= rode
This effectively turns the time standard Cs --F
STRING
into a terminal controlled BASIC com- -F ON NUMERICAL
puter. Command CONTROL -C is ig- EE12411TI

nored in the other 3 modes.

Diode D13 selects between numerical or
alphanumerical (string) transmission of Table I. The default configuration of the instrument is defined with the aid of diodes.
time and date on the serial output of the
clock. The clock transmits data when ni- contained in the system EPROM. front panel which are scanned for ac-
pur is activated, i.e., held logic low. The length of each pulse supplied by the tivity at the highest possible speed when
receiver (output T) indicates the logic the microcontroller is not engaged in
LC display level of the relevant bit in the time code. other calculations or data processing ac-
This is an autonomously operating indi- The time pulses are applied to the inter- tivities. It should be noted that the
cation unit with its own processor and rupt input, INT1, of the 8052AH- response to key action may be slowed
memory. The basic operation of the BASIC via level converter N5. The down by interference on the received
Sharp LC display is detailed in reference 625 Hz signal from TP3 in the DCF re- signal. It will be clear that erroneous
(4'. In the circuit of the central clock, ceiver is used for clocking a counter in- time pulses give rise to an increase in the
the LC display is a write -only device ternal to the CPU. The counter is halted processor's calculation load, so that the
mapped in the 8 Kbyte area between on the negative going edge of the time keyboard scan frequency is effectively re-
E000ft and FFFFH. The type of display pulse, and its contents, CNT, are read duced. In the normal time & date display
used for the clock has 2 lines of 16 out. Next, the counter is reset for a new mode, the clock does not respond to keys
alphanumerical characters, and is timing period. The 625 Hz pulses are ap- other than LAST and MENU/DATE.
available with different pin -outs from a plied to the counter again on the positive Pressing LAST prompts the clock to dis-
number of manufacturers. Text on the edge (end) of the DCF time pulse. The play the last time is was synchronized,
display is clearly legible thanks to the control program then deduces the pulse - while MENU/DATE starts a series of
character matrix of 5 x 7 dots. Control width, PW, as questions asked by the clock. The user is
of the intelligent display is simple, since prompted to answer these by pressing the
it can work from 8 data bits, and a PW=1-CNT(1/625). YES or NO key. The LAST key enables
register select bit, which is read from line The basic operation of the pulse -width returning to the previous question for
A0 here. Multiturn preset Pt enables ad- measurement is illustrated in Fig. 4. A correcting an incorrect entry. The pro-
justing the polarization voltage for the clock internal to the microcontroller gramming of the clock with the aid of
display to achieve optimum contrast and makes it possible to recognize error the menu is completely self-explanatory,
legibility for a given viewing angle. pulses and noise. The software detects and requires no further detailing here.
interference or irregularities of any The flowchart of the menu programme
Power supply nature, and causes the CPU to automati- is given in Fig. 5. The first option of-
The regulated 5 V power supply for the cally await the next "clean" pulse in fered for each item is always that set by
time standard is of conventional design, order to establish the logic level on the the default configuration.
and requires no further detailing. basis of pulse -width calculation as
shown.
The decoding principle Function of the OUTPUT
The decoding of the DCF77 time pulses
The menu: versatile and user terminal
is carried out by the CPU, which ex- friendly The logic pulse on the OUTPUT line
ecutes the tokenized BASIC program The time standard has 4 keys on the (see the circuit diagram and the menu
flowchart) can be used for various appli-
4 cations, but it should be noted that the
period as well as the onset point are not
calibrated. The rising edge of the pulse
has a tolerance of 200 ms with respect to
-0-
'0' the real pulse from DCF77, while the
s period is between 5 and 200 ms in the
E PULSE/SECOND mode. The duty fac-
tor is very nearly 0.5 in the other 3
w
I I I

PW PW modes, so that the falling edge occurs at

the end of each half minute, half hour,
PW = 1-CUT 5 11625 PW = S -CUT 5 1/625
86124-0-4 or half day, as selected by the menu. Set
to the PULSE/SECOND mode, the syn-
chronized clock supplies a guaranteed
3,600 pulses per hour. Remember that
Fig. 4. This timing diagram illustrates the operation of the software -based pulse -width OUTPUT carries a CMOS and TTL com-
measurement. S is a spurious pulse. patible logic level with a swing of 5 V.
26 EE
February 1988
Time and date in ASCII:
formats and options
The time standard transmits time and
date information via the serial output
when
system line INPUT is held logic low for
0.5 to 1 s. Depending on whether or not
default configuration diode D13 is fit-
ted, the clock outputs its data in
numerical or alpha -numerical (string)
form, every second, and as long as INPUT
is held low;
character "T", "S" or "L" is re-
ceived, followed by a carriage return,
<CR>, at the appropriate baud rate on
the serial input.
Character T <CR> prompts the clock
to output data to the format of the
example shown in Fig. 6a. Note that
leading zeroes in numbers are replaced
by spaces (20H).
Character S <CR> selects the data for-
mat of Fig. 6b. Once again note the use
of the space character instead of the
leading zero.
Character L <CR> prompts the clock
to send the "last synchronized time" to
the format shown in Fig. 6c. Remember
that the transmitted information is
always DCF77 time, not UTC or
UTC +1.
The processor in the time standard also
responds to character "S" <CR> re-
ceived on the serial input. This enables
adjusting or setting the clock by means
of the the terminal. The data format for
the "set clock" mode is shown in
Fig. 6d. The clock accepts the received
time from the terminal, but reverts to the
"real" time from DCF77 the instant it is
re -synchronized. In the "S" mode, be
sure to send the relevant time and date to
the format shown in the example of
Fie. 6d on penalty of stopping the clock.
Normally, it is not possible to halt the
processor. It simply executes the instruc-
tions fetched from the ready -pro-
grammed EPROM, ICs, ignoring the
"break" command CTRL -C (13H). The
system does respond to CTRL -S (serial
XOFF), however, by suspending serial
output data until CTRL -Q (serial XON)
isreceived. This means that sending
XOFF to the time standard before
"T","S", "L" or "S" <CR> makes it
impossible for the processor to return
with the required data, because the serial
channel is disabled by the XON-XOFF
protocol. Therefore, take great care
using hexadecimal code 13 on the serial
input line.
The processor accepts a BREAK com-
mand (CTRL -C) on the serial input,but
only when DI4 and DI5 are not fitted.
Send a BREAK command via the ter-
minal, and note that the time standard is
turned into a BASIC computer. Type
LIST <CR>, and the complete BASIC
control program loaded in ICs is sent to
Fig. 5. Flowchart showing the configuration options offered by die menu. the terminal.
 EE 111
February 1988
Construction with the main board for the DCF77 re- via 14 -way socket Km-this will be
ceiver and locked frequency standard de- reverted to. Soldering pins A and B, and
It must be reiterated here that the in- scribed in The component mounting
41/. connectors K2 and K33 are fitted at the
telligent time standard, the DCF77 re- plan for the ready-made, single sided component side. Km is not yet fitted.
ceiver and locked frequency standard, printed circuit board Type 86124-2 is All other soldering pins, and Ki (6 pins)
and the slave display unit yet to be pub- shown in Fig. 7. Commence the con- are fitted at the track side of the board.
lished, are advanced and complex pro- struction by installing all the wire links The height of the heat -sink for ICs may
jects, and just for once we think it on the board, using relatively thick wire. not exceed 12 mm in view of the
reasonable to recommend them to ex- Many components are mounted upright. available space between the clock board
perienced constructors only. Connector Ki is a special socket from and the rear side of the LC display.
Molex that accepts the 5 -way flat cable Consult Table I and the paragraph
The time standard is fitted in an instru- from the membrane keys in the front Default configuration to decide which of
ment style Verobox enclosure, together panel foil. The LC display is connected the diodes Dii)...D17 are required in the
corresponding positions.
6
EXTRA INFO OFF The self-adhesive front panel foil with
RxD T(CR)
: integrated membrane keys and a trans-
parent display clearance is available
DAY (monday=1)
ready-made through our Readers Ser-
DAY OF MONTH
vices. This high quality product is sup-
MONTH plied with a drilling template for the alu-
YEAR minium front panel, and gives the in-

1
I HOUR
UTE
SECOND
telligent time standard an attractive and
finished appearance-see Fig. 8 and the
photographs in this article. The protec-
tive film on the face of the foil should
TxD :uu2uu13uuuluu87uuu8uu52uu45u(CR/LF) = space = 2014EX
i not be removed until all mechanical
ASCII: 20 20 32 20 20 31 33 20 20 20 31 20 20 38 37 20 20 work is finished.
20 38 20 20 35 32 20 20 34 35 20 OD 0A
The parts list gives 6 types of intelligent
LC display that can be used for this pro-
EXTRA INFO ON ject. Many displays have 2 rows of 7 con-
RxD : T(CR) tacts, designed to accept a 14 -way DIP
header for attaching to a length of flat
42= SYNC cable running to Km. The pin assign-
45= NO SYNC ment on K33 corresponds to the connec-
0 = DCF77
tions on LC display Type M1632 from
1 = UTC
Seiko. This display is, therefore, the
2 = UTC+1
easiest to use, since it allows a direct con-
nection to Km via a 12 cm long flatcable
TxD :uu2uul3uuu1uu87uuu8uu53uu49uu42uuu0 (CR/LF)
fitted with 14 -way DIP headers at both
ends. Figure 9 shows the pin -outs of all
86124-11-6a
suitable displays. In some cases, the con-
nections to the clock board will have to
EXTRA INFO OFF be made in individual wires. Whatever
RxD $(CR)
:

display is used, the connection to Km

TXD TUE.uul3uJAN.u87uuuu8u:u53u:u16u(CR/LF)
and/or Km needs verifying against the
relevant pin assignment of Fig. 9.
:

EXTRA INFO ON Beware of interchanging the power

RxD $(CR)
:
supply connections!

TxD TUE.uul3uJAN.u87uuuu8u:u54u:u17uuluuDCF77u The rectangular clearance in the alu-

minium front panel supplied with the
:

86124-11-6b Verobox enclosure is cut to size with the

aid of the drilling template. The display
should fit snugly in the clearance, and its
face should rest flat against the protec-
RxD :
tive film on the front panel foil. It is rec-
ommended to secure the display to the
TxD : LASTuSYNC.uu8u:u54uuDCF77u(CR/LF) aluminium plate by means of silicone
mastic, since this enables ready removing
66124-6-6c
of the unit, if necessary.
Before carefully securing the front panel
foil onto the cut and drilled plate, make
sure that the flatcable for the keys can be
RxD : S(CR) fed through the relevant slot without
damaging the plastic insulation, or risk-
TxD : WDAY,DAY,MONTN,YEAR,HR,MIN,SEC LCR;LF. ? ing breakage due to twisting.
RxD : 7,1,3,87,13,1,25(CR) The front panel plate and the foil on it
may be too thick to fit in the moulded
(Sunday, 1 March 1987. 13:01:25)
slots in the enclosure's top and bottom
86124 -U -6d lid. This problem is readily solved, how-
ever, by filing away some of the alu-
Fig. 6. time and date formats that can he selected on the serial input arid output. minium in the corners at the rear side of
 EE
28 February 1988

x.11111
WitZe3a°
-42r
iffailiMMEarArAciZti,,co.'
ie411.
PT, Pi Aa '

Fig. 7. Track layout and component overlay of the time standard PCB.
the aluminium panel to reduce the
thickness locally. 8
I

Wiring
The equally sized PCBs for the receiver
(main board) and the time standard are
secured with the aid of 25 to 40 mm long
0000
plastic or metal spacers as shown in the
constructional photograph of Fig. 10. ELEKTOR .r-----K--. TIME STANDARD
The time standard board is held verti-
cally in the moulded PCB guides on the
bottom of the enclosure. The non -used.
rectangular, area near the voltage regu-
lator on the receiver board is cut out Fig. 8. The ready-made front panel for the intelligent time standard has 4 built-in membrane
along the lines on the overlay, and the keys.
 EE
29
February 1988
clearance obtained is used for passing
Parts list SEIKO
141632
the wires to and from the buzzer and the
2
07
D6
sockets on the rear panel, as well as
Resistors 1±5%): 3 DS those from the mains transformer
4 D4
131;R2;Ra:Fie;R1o=4K7 03 secured onto a separate aluminium
R3= 100R 00
0000
7
D2
DI
panel, which is also held in moulded
Rs=1K8 00
00
8 DO guides.
a E
R7 = 470R 10 Inexpensive phono sockets are perfectly
Rs = 3M3 II
12
RS
adequate for the active aerial input, and
R9 = 2K2 VLC
13 Vss system lines INPUT and OUTPUT. A 5 -way
Rtt=8K2 viewed rem LCD side 14 V00
DIN socket is ideal for the serial I/O in-
R12 . . RI incl.= SIL resistor network 8x 10K
R20 = 5K6
66124 -II- 11a terface, and a single -hole BNC socket
= 11(0 multitum preset for the output of the 10 MHz frequency
standard. It is also possible to fit the
Capacitors: DENSITRON
BNC socket in the rectangle drawn in
Ci=10p; 16V
LM22 Vs, bottom right hand corner of the front
Cz:Ce;C to;Cla;C 14 = 100I1
2
3
VDD
panel.
VLC
C3= 20p trimmer
4
5
RS
FLAY
Do not forget the ground connection be-
Ca= 22p ceramic 12.54 mm pitch) 00
00 E tween the receiver and the clock board
00 7
Cs = 33p ceramic (2.54 mm pitch) 00
00 a
DO
DI (pin I of Kt). Pin 2 of Ki is connected
Ce;C11;Cl2= 10p; 10 V 00
00
9
to
D2
03
to output T (time pulses) on the receiver
C7=470p; 25 V 11 O4 board, pin 4 to output E (error), and pin
Cs= 220n 0- 12 135
3 to TP:4 (625 Hz).
13 1:16

Veered turn LCD side 14 07

Semiconductors:
Di;Dz;Da;De=1N4148 SHARP HITACHI RTC
Da= LED LI416252 LM016L LTN 21144 D7 Setting up
Ds... D9 incl.= 1N4001 2 06

010...D17 incl.= see text

3 O5 The following description is based on
4 04
ICI =8052AH-BASIC V1.1 (Intel). 5 D3 the use of a fully operational and cor-
IC2= 74HCT 138
6
7
02
DI
rectly aligned DCF77 receiver. It is rec-
1C3=74HCT573 DO ommended to provisionally connect this
9
IC4=6264 8K x 8 static CMOS RAM 10 RAV to the active aerial and the time standard
ICs = pre-programmed EPROM Type 2764; 11
12
RS board, i.e., in an experimental set-up
VLC
order no- ESS 535 -UK (see Readers Services 13 VDD before fitting the units in the enclosure.
14
page).
Vetred tram Len side
VSS
Carefully check all component values
IC6=74HC4050 or 74HCT4050 66124 -II- 110
IC7 = 74HCTO2
and orientations against the overlay and
ICa = 7805
the parts list. Do not apply power before
TI;Ta=8C547 you are convinced that everything is in
T2=8C557
Fig. 9. Pin -outs of the LC displays that can perfect order.
be used in the time standard.

Intel distributors are listed on InfoCard 505 in

the March 1987 issue of Elektor Electronics. The
chip is also available from our advertisers
Universal Semiconductor Devices Limited, and
CSI Electronics.

Miscellaneous:
Tri = mains transformer 8..10 V; 0.5 A.
Fi = fuse; 100 mA; delayed action, with panel
mount holder.
= quartz crystal 11.592 MHz.
Bzi = active buzzer: 5 V; 50 mA.
Kt= 6 -way terminal strip with turned pins, or 6
solder terminals.
K2= 5 -way socket for front panel cable; e.g.
Molex Type 7583-005 (Molex ref. 15242050).
Molex Electronics Limited 1 Holder Road
ALDERSHOT GU12 4RH. Telephone: (0252)
313131.
K3= 4 off 7 -way terminal strips with turned pins.
Heat -sink for ICs.
Display: 2 lines of 16 characters:
II direct connection: Seiko M1632.
III refer to Fig. 9:
Hitachi LMO16L or LM086 AIN;
Sharp LM16252;
Densitron LM22;
RTC LT 211-N.
PCB Type 86124-2 (see Readers Services page).
Front panel foil with built-in membrane switches:
Type 86124-F (see Readers Services page).
Enclosure: Verobox Type 075-01411D. Fig. 10. A prototype of the intelligent time standard. The vertically mounted PCBs are secured
with the aid of four 35 mm long spacers.
 EE
30
February 1988
Apply power. After a short delay (ap-
prox. 0.5 s), the display should read:
Table 2
DCF77 - 0:00:00
MON. 1 JAN. 00 It ED 07 SMUT% 151 BASIC OINUIli (If NYI-d. 1:6.71 554
701 ,(TEE: 27 Evueu 1%7 551
Adjust Pi for optimum legibility of the 71 1414 MT 11177551 Metal 1 SI :Pt

display. The text "DCF77" may, of 19E4

IN DEM 'TM OW RAD,
Sift
551
course, read "UTC" or "UTC +1", de- 135 110!! 'DATE 11.1.11' ESLL51AS 541

pending on the default configuration PA MR "Drfef

142
ININCOrle IDDis
Pilliann:Fitit:Pini
617
6:4
selected. The same goes for the language 145 CI= 1 63?

and the day and month indication. 115 TINE.*

162 DO
TE.TINE

Provided DCF77 is received "loud and 164 D3

Est
664 COFEE 11465
clear", the clock needs about 3 minutes 142
225
Fart
GCiES 1752
671 54.1

to synchronize. When reception is im- 210 571.5

625
654
DO : LIfT11
1E.IDE
paired, the RECEIVED SIGNAL LED 2:4
251 611.1
LNT11 5.20
?te OCRS WE
115750
flashes irregularly, and the buzzer on the 241 ceae 15125
711 UNTIL 1
1054 Mt MOM
: Etlf

receiver board starts to crackle. tit 545.1

1410 54 15111111.1
a.# 113401M751
Familiarize yourself with stepping 274 1574
1724 If 214.55 THEN 4114
MIAS
1442.1

through the menu while awaiting 250 a 1135 IF 51.24 TAN

2000 el.e 516141,117 .1
T=NIN OSA WI IN;
synchronization. After this has taken 351 5-41
IF 411517 MEN 7£41.41
2211 D5Y.DA1.1
place, the correct time is displayed, and 312 MIL 5728
:ta IF 517,29.AND.11.2 tm EAfri

the dash on the LCD is replaced by an

3.24

322
71T#53.5
GOSOE 17551
-1
:521 IF DAY:29.2.4DIV2.4JEL(4.14IlliA4/41./Ilil 1553 rAT=1
2242 IF 747.31.51D.1M.4.61.M.6.04.-9.02.44=111 1513 61541
asterisk. 345
3E4
E.E.1
V.3442144241
:56e IF 70,31 TEN DAT=1 11441

The adjustment of trimmer C3 is fairly Mt F12.0

2475 IF 1.12 THEN
2150 IF YE1I,99 THEN YEAfrt
1111.11,0.1

straightforward. Use either a low 37,1

364
Di
0.WE, 1422
:192 EMI
capacitance probe and a precision fre- 315 54541
5424 704
I.1114T,Ift.164-17.15I4//lti fat ECD larbl
quency meter to set the oscillator to 442
414
UNTIL 5.15
DIT.Fli.112.1
552e If IT.L4.11,k71,4 IDIEN 771:1 ELSE

11.0592 MHz, or adjust the trimmer for 425 easte 11+55

5110 152.117.71.1
5925 21674H34'2
minimum time deviation of the non - 432
441
54-541

MAg.#######I
54:e Tag MOD
synchronized clock over a period of 49 14.5.1
53.45 EIDEN
IDNi 171111 U0I9140.'
several hours. You are now ready to con- 151
471
CO
I4611 : 0.9£ 5144
Mit RINI "TINE:'.Ht.':..MIN.*:'.5. CI .

nect a terminal, or a personal micro run- :it 545.1

11012 FUL2461.(142.11//14
11111 3) : UNTIL TINE -7S,41
ning a communication program, to ex- !A)
DITIL E=i2
NA -4.444i41441
11525 mrea
plore all the interesting features of the to
11232 FC111.21
1114 1') : TINE-TS..FOLSE
intelligent time standard. Remember to f
NEAT :
5--.341
+71"76
112 St 55i71.42

select the correct baud rate and data for- 5.41 WU E=45
11771 1E7E3

mat!
Finally, it may be necessary to fit an alu-
minium shielding plate between the ver-
tically mounted PCBs when the fully Table 2. This program for the Elektor Electronics BASIC computer simulates the lime pulNeN
from DCF77.
assembled clock, in contrast to the ex-
perimental set-up, fails to synchronize, if
only a few times a day. The ferrite rod '" Single -chip microcontrollers. Elektor
should be fitted clear of sources of inter- Electronics September 1987, p. 18 ff
ference, such as large metal objects, (3) BASIC computer. Elektor Electronics
luminescent tubes, dimmers, computers November 1987, p. 24 ff.
and TV sets. (4)LC displays. Elektor Electronic
April 1986, p. 38 ff.

Simulation of DCF77
The BASIC computer described in refer-
ence '3' is eminently suited to simulating
the time pulses transmitted by DCF77.
Simulation may be useful in many cases
for testing the time standard separately.
Construct the simple 625 Hz oscillator
of Fig. 11 before keying the programme Note: The listing of the BASIC control
of Table 2 into the BASIC computer. program loaded in EPROM ICs is
Connect output P I .o on the BASIC com- available free of charge from our Techni-
puter to input DCF on the time standard, cal Queries Service. Send a 23 x 16 cm,
and you have 100% DCF77 compatible self-addressed, stamped envelope,
time pulses (but not, of course, atomic marked TQ-S, to our Brentford office
accuracy...). A similar test program for (overseas readers: please include 2
the BBC micro is available on request IRCs). Remember that the listing can min
from our Technical Queries department. not be used to load the EPROM your- 570Hz < f <715Hz 86124 -11- 7
Ordering information is given below. Th self with the program in ASCII form,
since the 8052AH-BASIC recognizes
References: tokenized codes only. Ready -pro-
grammed EPROMs for this project are
11' DCF77 receiver and locked frequency available from us or Technomatic under Fig. 11. A simple 625 Hz oscillator that is re-
standard. Elektor Electronics, January Software Service number ESS 553 - quired in conjunction with the DCF77
1988, p. 24 ff. UK -see the Readers Services page. simulation program.
 EE
February 1988

ELECTRONICS NEWS ELECTRONICS NEWS

Laser trimmer for small -batch manufacturer of high -purity silicon. from the near 1% setback in 1986, put-
circuit production Work is expected to be completed next ting the 1988 performance on a rising
November. trend. However, 1988 is seen as a peak
A low-cost trimmer that brings the year, with growth tailing off again dur-
cleanliness and accuracy of laser tech- ing 1989-91 at an average of 4% per year
nology within the reach of low -volume Peak year for European over the period.
and small -batch production manufac- The most bouyant sector in 1988 will be
turers is available from DEK. electronics market
The 15th Edition of Benn's Yearbook of electronic data processing (EDP), which
The DEK Lasertrim is a self-contained
system consisting of three main units West European EleCtronics Data is expected to expand at a rate of nearly
plus a VDU, control console, and com- forecasts that the market for electronic 11%, following a modest 4.8% growth in
puter. The laser and worktable are con- equipment and components will reach 1987 after a 3% downturn in 1986.
tained in a benchtop cabinet; power and S144 billion at constant 1986 values and Benn Electronics Publications Ltd
cooling water are supplied from a exchange rates, a real growth of 7.5010 Chiltern House 146 Midland Road
freestanding power unit; and a second over 1987 and the best year since 1984. LUTON LU2 OBL Telephone (0582)
benchtop unit contains the electrical Benn estimate growth in 1987 for the 421981.
control system. total European Electronics market at
The control system runs on an IBM- around 4.4% in real terms, a recovery
compatible PC using the standard PC - West European Electronics Market
DOS operating system. The software
supports three modes: Setup allows the (Annual real increase co at constant prices & exchange rates)
user to register a new substrate and 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1 9 8 9-9 1
define trim parameters; Development 13% 6.9% -0.7% 4.4'3 7.5% 4`'-p.a.
trim permits manual laser -beam adjust-
ment for experimental work or develop- Source: Benn Electronics Publications Ltd
ing trim procedures on a new circuit; and EUROPEAN ELECTRONICS MARKET
Production trim allows fully automatic CONSTANT 1986 VALUES & EXCHANGE RATES
operation.
DEK Printing Machines Ltd 11
Albany Road Granby Industrial
Estate WEYMOUTH DT4 9TH
Telephone (0305) 760760.

Digital image processor

EDP
Low-grade video images with variable
COMPONENTS
brightness and noise can be enhanced by
an image -processing system that also has TELECOMS

storage capabilities from Quantel. 1 CONTROL & IhST

The Crystal Sapphire is housed in a CONSumER

20
single machine dedicated to scientific COEVAIS &

image processing that can achieve a OFFICE EOL:P

digital shading correction to pixel level, MEDICAL It IND

interactive zoom or roam on live or 1966 1957 1968 1991
frozen images, text -entry overlay
170
through the operator's mouse -driven
160 -
keyboard, and automatic tech sequences.
150 -
These functions are in addition to noise
140 -
reduction, di fferencing, pseudo -
130
colouring and spatial filtering for image
120
enhancement, and where the non-
110
destructive testing (NDT) of materials
100
produces poor -quality images.
90
Quantel Ltd 31 Turnpike Road 80
NEWBURY RG13 2NE Telephone 70
(0635) 32222. 60
50
40
S8 million Scottish plant 30
expansion 20

SEH Europe Ltd a subsidiary of Shin- 10

Etsu Handotai of Japan, is spending £8 0

1986
million to extend its European silicon 1985 1987 1999 1991

manufacturing plant at Livingston near 1ZZ FR fr UZI UK IMSI WG gzi RoE

Edinburgh. The company is the only UK
 February 1988

FLAT AERIAL FOR SATELLITE TV

RECEPTI N
Matsushita Electric Works (MEW) have recently introduced a flat, easy -to -install, 12 GHz aerial
developed by Comsat Corporation. The new product is available in seven versions. Simple to install,
unobtrusive, and complete with a low -noise down converter, the flat aerial is an attractive alternative to
the conventional parabolic or off -set dish.

The flat aerial for satellite TV reception therefore, easy to install-aerials, in

was developed by Comsat Corporation, combination with a low -noise block
known worldwide as one of the technical down converter (LNB or LNC). But even
consultants of Intelsat and Inmarsat as a so-called off -set dish of, say, 60 cm
regards microwave technology. Comsat's diameter may be difficult to install in
research and development laboratories built up areas. In many cases, a building
recently succeeded in designing a permit is required before the aerial may
12 GHz aerial which forms a radical be fitted onto the roof. Another import-
departure from the parabolic concept ant point is the total depth of the dish
used for dishes of diameter between aerial including the pointing system at
50 cm and 1 m. The signals to be the rear, and the the LNB mounting
beamed down by the direct broadcasting system in front. Compared to a depth of
satellites TV-SAT1, TDF-1, Olympus, 30 cm or so for a modern dish of the off-
Tele-X, and others, are strong enough to set type, the aerial introduced by MEW
be picked up by relatively small-and, is truly flat at only 20 mm.

R: Right -Hand Circular Polarization

L Left -Hand Circular Polarization
D: Dual Polarization
Tama:ive Performance

MODEL NO.
PA33-R PA36-R PA66-R
PA66-D
PA33-L PA36-L PA66-L
ITEM

11.7-12.5 GHz (Europe)

12.2-12.7 GHz (USA)
FREQUENCY RANGE 11.7-12.0 GHz (Japan)
i
I
33.0dEli
ANTENNA GAIN 31.0dfli I 33.5d8i 36.0dBa Both R and L

POLARIZATION R or L (Right-hand Circular Poi or Left hand Circular Poll

CROSS -POLAR -CHARACTERISTIC 25 dB Frequency band dependent

BEAM SQUINT ANGLE 0' or 12'

0.95-1.75 GHz (Europe)
0.95-1.45 GHz (USA)
IF -OUTPUT FREQUENCY 1.022-1.322 GHz (Japan)

55 dB (Europe)
55 dB (USA)
LNB CONVERSION GAIN 48 dB (Japan)

NOISE FIGURE 2.3 dB

IF -OUTPUT CONNECTOR F type connector

SUPPLY VOLTAGE/CURRENT DRAIN 15-24 VOC

15-24 VDC <150 mA <200 mA

SIZE (PANEL ONLY) E 354 x 20mm 385 x 720 x 20mm 720 x 720 x 20rrun 720 Y. 720x 20mm
WEIGHT (PANEL ONLY abt. 1.31g abt.5kg abt.9kg abt. 9kg

OPERATING TEMPERATURE -30° -60°C

WIND LOADING 50miset
Fig. 1. The flat aerial is a multi -layer struc-
ture developed by Comsat Corporation.
 EE
February 1988
Multi -layer structure captures via an F connector and a downlead cable Matsushita Electric Works Limited
received power that carries the RF signal and the supply International Trade Development Div-
voltage for the LNB. The noise figure ision
The operation of a dish aerial is based and LNB conversion gain are also fairly 1048 Kadoma-Shi Osaka 571
on reflection of the received microwave standard at 2.3 dB and 55 dB, respect- Japan
power to the focus, i.e., the feed horn or ively. Telephone: 06-906-1823
LNB input. This is in contrast to the flat The ease of use, and a number of instal- Telex: 529-3319 MEW J
aerial, which receives power direct on a lation options, of the new aerials is il- Fax: 06-909-7053
multi -layer laminated structure as shown lustrated in Fig. 2. The smallest type has
in Fig. I. Power loss is minimized by vir- a size of 35 x35 cm and weighs only
tue of the stacking system of radome, 1.3 kg: it is, therefore, ideal for semi -
radiation plate, feed line plate and portable applications.
ground plate. The multi -layer laminated The flat aerial from MEW is among the
structure developed by Comsat is most important of new components in-
claimed to yield high efficiency troduced in support of individual recep-
(60-70%), and sufficient gain for DBS tion of TV satellites. It is a rugged, easy
reception over a wide frequency band. to handle component that can even be
The flat aerial is much easier to point at mounted behind glass surfaces for ex-
the satellite than the dish. This is periments in the reception of audio pro-
because of the greater half power beam- grammes transmitted in narrow band-
width, which is typically 6-8° in the width pulse code modulation (PCM).
azimuth plane. With the exception of the Ku -BAND
"top of the range" model, the Type
PA66-D, the flat aerials receive either
right-hand or left-hand circularly
polarized signals in the DBS band.
The accompanying table shows the main
technical characteristics of the available
models. Note the use of the standardized
LNB intermediate frequency (IF) of
950-1750 MHz, which ensures ready
connection to most types of indoor unit

Simple mounting for roofs or For verandas On walls

gardens

On roofs For PCM music broadcasts Leisure

Fig. 2. Various applications of the new flat aerial for DBS reception.
 34 EE
February 1988

GENEVA CALLING: ISDN AND

SATELLITES AT TELECOM 81/
A brief look at some of the new technical concepts introduced at Telecom 87, the world's largest and
most comprehensive telecommunications exhibition held in Geneva last October.

The main technical topic at Telecom 87

was integrated services digital network-
ing, ISDN. The underlying principle of
this far-reaching technical concept is the
total integration of all electronic corn-
munication equipment in a network that
allows continuous data transfer in all
directions, at the highest possible speed.
Ideally, wait times are eradicated, and
every communication unit, whether this
is an electronic typewriter, a telex, a
grade -4 facsimile machine, or a voice
synthesizer in a telephone exchange, can
communicate direct to every other unit
in the network. Communication is,
therefore, interactive at all levels. An
ISDN structure can only handle digital
data, so that all types of analogue
messages, including voice, require
digitizing.
ISDN supports a multitude of com-
munication services: telephone,
videophone, telex, fax, videotext, slow -
scan television, local area networks
!MX
(LANs), videoconferencing systems, DIGITAL
EXCHANGE
data terminals, personal computers, tele-
phone exchanges, printers, payphones,
and many more.
It is all very well for communication
units to be part of an efficiently
operating network, but can we connect
two or more ISDNs to form an even
larger network? In other words, can we
connect an ISDN to the outside world?
Satellites and fibre optic cables provide
the answer. Digital signals in ISDN
channels travel at 64 kbit/s, and
processor -controlled central units (con-
centrators) regulate the multitude of
data streams in accordance with the ca-
pacity of the lines in the system. Ob-
viously, the higher the bandwidth of the
channels, the more traffic can be carried
at a relatively high bit -rate. The increas-
ing use of fibre -optic technology is cer-
tain to bring the transmission of moving,
pictures in ISDNs within reach in the not
too distant future. An important aspect
of ISDN is that the routeing and buffer-
ing of data in the system are completely
invisible. This means that the user of, :PLESSEY
say, a personal micro can send out a data Linking the world 880036-1
file to another computer user in the of-
fice building without having to wait for
access if the "receiver" is engaged in
other work: the data is automatically
buffered and kept stored until the re- Example of an integrated digital systems network (ISDN). Data flow is regulated and opti-
ceiver is ready to accept them. mized by processor -controlled exchanges, which are completely invisible to the users of com-
Data from the ISDN in an office may be munication equipment connected (courtesy Plessey/GEC).
 EE
February 1988
fed to a satellite uplink unit. It is then
digitally transmitted to a geostationary INTERNATIONAL ISDN NETWORK
transponder, which amplifies the signal,
and beams it down to the receiving
station, which may be thousands of
miles away from the sending office. Both
offices are equipped with transmit and
receive equipment for access to a par-
ticular satellite, or even a network of
SLOW SCAN VIDEO 2.046 Malt s 2.044 MbitS SLOW SCAN VIDEO
satellites, so that high quality full -duplex FULL DUPLEX FULL DUPLEX
communication channels are continu-
ously available.
On the aerial grounds outside Telecom
DIGITAL VO.CE / DIGITAL VOICE

87, a number of companies demon-

strated new, transportable,
uplink equipment in various power
satellite
PHOTO VIDEOTEX
\
.0,
t
64 Wits ,
I 4,,, PHOTO VIDEOTEX
ratings, geared to connection to an
ISDN. Dish sizes varied from about X *N.
1.5 m to 10 m and more. FACSIMILE GROUP IV I
X
FACSIMILE GROUP IV
Companies actively engaged in building
ISDN equipment include NEC, Siemens,
Hewlett Packard, the Northern Telecom DATA FILE TRANSFER I DATA FILE TRANSFER
consortium, Philips AT&T (Sopho-S sys- 880036-9
tem), IBM and Olivetti.

Example of communication equipment installed in 2 offices, and connected to an ISDN net-

ISDN in practice: System X work with an uplink/downlink interface. A geostationary satellite puts the offices in contact
with each other.
Plessey and GEC -Marconi are currently
regarded as the leaders in the develop-
ment of ISDN systems to CCITT stan-
dards. Their joint product is called continuous operation, functioning as
System X. Although System X equip- part of a telephone exchange situated in
ment has been in use for a number of London. Two-way satellite links between
years in British Telecom's main trunk ex- Geneva and London had been set up for
changes, recent improvements as regards the occasion of Telecom 87 to show that
the achievable speed on the internal and part of the traffic carried by a main
external data links have aroused the in- London telephone exchange could be
terest of many national PTTs planning transferred to the system installed on the
and building new data and voice com- System X stand. In fact, the public was
munication networks. Recently, the data invited to contact London extension,
transfer rate of System X has been direct from the stand, without having to
upgraded from 80 to 144 kbit/s, with full prefix calls with STD code 01. The ISDN
compatibility between old and new exchange occupied relatively little floor The new ISDN compatible videophone from
systems guaranteed. space, yet carried fax, telex, slow -scan, Philips Communication Industries.
computer, LAN, voice and videophone
At Telecom 87, Plessey/GEC demon- services for 5 companies simultaneously. The operator console coupled to an
strated the versatility of the latest version ISDN compatible exchange is a radical
of an ISDN compatible trunk exchange. An interesting technical novelty devel- departure from the well-known "switch-
The system installed on the stand was in oped specifically for use in ISDN sys- board". The bulk of the work is now
tems is dynamic line inductance balanc- carried out automatically by a computer.
ing. A computer simulation on the Sys- A high -resolution screen gives an over-
tem X stand showed how an intelligent view of all current and pending connec-
test and control system runs a fast and tions between internal and external ex-
invisible check on the electrical charac- tensions. Internal extensions do not have
teristics of the telephone line. This takes numbers, but easy to memorize letter
place within a second or so after the line codes, which are all displayed on the
has been selected, and provides the basic screen, complete with extension status
settings for the active fork circuit that information. Extensions can be called
terminates the line at the ISDN side. The up with a single command from the
combined termination and source in- keyboard. Automatic redialling, call
ductance of the fork is continuously ad- diversion, automatic reminders, priority
justed to achieve optimum suppression level assignment, interrupting calls,
of noise, pulse ringing, and line echoes. group extension calling, conferencing ar-
These are often troublesome effects in rangements, extension scans to locate
System X live at Telecom 87: London literally data transmission, causing distortion called up persons, and fully automated
transferred to Geneva. With the co-operation
of British Telecom, the Geneva based System and, of course, a reduced bit rate (data dialling of emergency services are among
X exchange from GEC/PLessey operates as speed). In short, the active fork circuit the many features of the new operator
an integral part of the UK telephone net- makes the best of every line, irrespective console, which records the day's ac-
work. Two other companies exhibiting at of the length, or the equipment connec- tivities on a printer. The speed at which
Telecom 87, Comsat and STC, had access to ted to it. As such, it offers new ways to the system works is unbeatable by even
the "London" exchange and its ISDN ser- use existing telephone lines for high- the most experienced and efficient of ex-
vices (courtesy Plessey/GEC). speed modems. change operators.
 EE
36
February 1988

One of the most interesting demon-

l'EST + MEASUREMENT strations of the capabilities of ISDN was
the full -duplex slow -scan link with one
DIGITIZING
camera installed on the Plessey/GEC
ANALOG SIGNAL PATH
OSCILLO-
SCOPE
stand, and the other in an office in Man-
DIGITAL SIGNAL PATH chester. A high-speed fax message was
sent to this office via the System X ex-
change, and an office employee could be
seen to collect it from his fax receiver.
FREQUENCY
For reasons unknown, a demonstration
DIVISION
ANALOG
VECTOR
SIGNAL
of data file transfer to a UK -based
MULTIPLEX
RADIO
GENERATOR
ANALYSER
bulletin board via the ISDN exchange
TERMINAL
SET was less successful.
ES -
CHANGE FYI -
Satellites: competition and
TIME
DIGITAL
RADIO
TERMINAL
co-operation
DIGITAL
DIVISION
MULTIPLEX RADIO
MICRO-
WAVE
Much excitement, optimism and good
DIGITAL
CON.
STELLATION
SPECTRUM
ANALYSER
cheer at the stands of EutelSat, Aero-
DATA
TEST SET
DISPLAY
Spatiale, EuroSatellite, ArianeSpace,
FIBER and many other companies and insti-
OPTIC DIGITAL UNE
DS 3
TRANS. TERMINAL TERMINAL tutions involved in the building, launch,
MISSION
TEST SET
and operation of the first European
direct broadcasting satellite (DBS),
OTDR
SYSTEM
TV SAT -l. At long last, and after much
5E0235 - 12 negative publicity caused by the Colum-
HEWLETT-PACKARD AT TELECOM '87
bia disaster and the launch failures of
2 communication satellites, ArianeSpace
Hewlett Packard proposes to use ISDN structures for fast data throughput in complex was hopeful again: the countdown for
automated test and measurement systems.
TV SAT -I was the topic of the day. Mr
Large transparant panels allowed a and programmed to customer require-
glance at some of the latest electronics ments: it is, for example, possible to sel-
technology fitted into racks that ect a synthesized, male or female, voice,
together form the digital and voice com- which upon request advises cost and
patible System X ISDN duration of the
Plessey/GEC have relied mostly on their can also make use of the synthesized-
own expertise as regards the use of high but remarkably real-voice to obtain
density multi -layer PCBs, VLSI chips, technical information on the line or ex-
SMA components, 8 Mbyte memory change section brought into service. An
boards, multi -tasking processor systems, array of lead -acid batteries provides the
and fibre optic connections between memory back-up function, enabling the
modules, instead of complex and costly complete exchange to be brought into The Stornophone 6000 multilingual radio-
bus structures. The System X exchange is service again within 2 minutes after a telephone can prompt and instruct the user in
completely modular, and can be tailored mains failure. 10 different languages.

EUTELSAT I -F2
EUTELSAT I -F1 EUTELSAT II
and following

Stabilization 3 axis 3 axis 3 axis

Mass at launch 1 045 kg 1 160 kg 1 700 kg ( 7 years)
1 800 kg (10 years)
Mass in orbit (1) 510 kg 550 kg 866 kg
Span (with solar panel deployed) 13 80 m 13.80 m 22.40 m
Electrical power (I) 900 W 900 W 3 000 W
Lifetime 7 years 7 years 7 to 10 years
Frequency bands 14/11 GHz 14/11 and 14/12 GHz 14/11 and 14/12 GHz
Number of transponders 12 14 16
Number of transponder for simultaneous use 10 (2) 10 16
Transmit power of each transponder 20 W 20 W 50 W
Antennas:
- receive/transmit -
-
1 1

- receive only 2 (3} 1

- transmit only 4 4 1

(1) at end of life - (2) 6 only in eclipse -(3) one antenna as a back-up for the other 880036 - T

Comparison of the technical features of future Eutelsat Series -2 satellites to the "good old" Series 1 spacecraft Eutelsat 1 Fl (ECS-1) and
Eutelsat 1 F2 (ECS-2). Not shown in the table is the recently launched Eutelsat 1 F4 (ECS-4; OP= 10° E), which is also a Series 1 type. ECS-3
was lost in an unsuccessful launch (courtesy. Eulelsal).
 EE
February 1988
Jean-Pierre Baudry of EuroSatellite re- stations. In this context, it is interesting
ceived telexes straight from the ESA to note that SES of Luxemburg have
launch site at Kourou, French Guyana, siened a contract with RCA for the con-
and faithfully added a tick to a long list struction of Astra, a 16 -channel medium
of check items related to the prep- power satellite to be launched later this
arations for the launch of the Ariane 2 year.
rocket to carry TV SAT -1 into geo- Meanwhile, Eutelsat has started a
stationary orbit. Now, almost 4 months program for the construction and launch
after Telecom 87, it has evolved that the of their Series -2 satellites in the early
launch was successful, but that TV SAT - 1990s. These satellites will be con-
I is unlikely to be be taken into service as siderably improved with respect to the
scheduled owing to technical difficulties current types in Series -1 (ECS-1, ECS-2,
with telemetry equipment and one of the and, recently, ECS-4). Transmit power
solar panels. This was the last thing the will be 50 W per transponder instead of
German electronics industry had ex- 20 W. Again, it is interesting to note that
pected: a successful launch, but a defec- Eutelsat has no intention whatsoever of
tive satellite. building satellites with the power rating
How does the American satellite in- .of the "heavy -weights" TV SAT, TDF
dustry regard the European efforts at or Olympus. Mr Michel Chabrol, oper-
putting high power TV satellites in or- ational planning engineer of Eutelsat,
bit? Mrs Walda W Roseman, chief press said that 50 W would be adequate, even
officer of Intelsat, argued that the com- for direct (individual) reception, con- Fuba's off -set parabolic dish aerial Type
bined power of the European satellite in- sidering the recent technical advances OAP120 for satellite TV reception (Fuba
press photograph).
dustry is not, or not yet, a serious com- achieved in satellite receiver technology.
petitor to her company, simply because Indeed, lowering the receiver's noise fig-
"the technology lacks the experience". ure by about 0.5 dB is easier, and cer-
She then went on to show the huge tech- tainly less costly, than increasing the sat-
nical potential and the good financial ellite transmit power by, say, 100 W.
results achieved by Intelsat, an inter-
national consortium renowned for its ex-
perience in operating tens of geostation-
ary satellites for data communications
and TV services. The 4 -channel German
and French DB services, TV SAT and
TDF, are so heavily sponsored by the
respective governments as to be econ-
omically unviable: in other words, they Telecommunications has developed spec-
can not be, nor become, profitable tacularly since Alexander Graham Bell's in- Better luck than TV SAT1, we hope:
simply because they have no channels vention of the telephone in 1876 (courtesy engineers working on the French national DB
available for leasing to commercial TV ITU). satellite, TDF-1 (courtesy Aerospatiale).

341.5° 359° 60° 63° 66° 1-!4°18121* To 341.5' From 359°

IOR POR AOR

Proposed network of Intelsat geosynchronous satellites for coverage of this year's Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea (courtesy Intelsat).
 EE
38
February 1988
D2 -MAC: already a skeleton Since the Hi -vision picture contains
in the cupboard? about 5 times the information of a con-
ventional PAL picture, NHK set out to
Not a single West -German company on develop the MUSE transmission system
Telecom 87 was able to show a working, for use on satellites. MUSE means
D2 -MAC compatible, satellite TV re- Multiple Sub Niquist Sampling En-
ceiver for the consumer market. This coding. Studio equipment has been
was simply because ITT Semiconductors developed to compress the HDTV band-
of Freiburg did not have the key compo- width of more than 20 MHz to about
nent ready in time. Embarrassed press 8 MHz, the standard uplink baseband,
officers and engineers on the stands of without reducing picture quality. NHK
Fuba, Hirschmann and Bosch had to ad- have already conducted many ex-
mit that receive systems for TV SAT -1 periments in broadcasting Hi -Vision
were still incomplete without the Type signals via the Japanese satellite BS -2B.
DMA2270 transcoder chip. The aim of NHK is to increase the
Whether or not D2 -MAC will succeed in number of lines in the TV raster to
becoming the new European TV stan- 2,200, while 3 -dimensional television is
dard, the professional world is ready for Motorcycle top box with Storno's "Silent
Messenger" radio installed in a shock absor- also being studied. A HDTV video
it: Matra Communication of France and bent enclosure. cassette recorder is already available, and
Fuba of West Germany showed working was demonstrated successfully.
prototypes of D2 -MAC to PAL/SECAM airlines will be able to offer passengers Further interesting new items on the
transcoders. These systems are only in- world-wide telephone and data trans- Japanese stand were Ricoh's and
tended for cable head -end stations, how- mission facilities. Before long, the Canon's fast, ISDN compatible G4 fac-
ever, and come as a number of racks fit- businessman on board an aeroplane will simile machines. The Canon fax Type
ted in a 19 inch enclosure. be seen sending reports prepared on his 14003 is complete with a desk -top
Plessey and Philips are also reported to lap -top computer to the head -office. publishing system, a vertical A4 moni-
have commenced a joint programme for Inmarsat currently operates communi- tor, and a medium -resolution laser
the development of a MAC transcoder cations capacity on 9 satellites in geo- printer. At the speed of 64 kbits/s, the
chip, but details of this were not known stationary orbit around the world. These machine transmits a document in just
at Telecom 87. are the Marecs A and B2 satellites, 3 seconds. Who needs telex any longer?
The Japanese industry has simply three MariSat spacecraft, and transpon- Hitachi presented its new HMAP-D
skipped everything to do with MAC ders leased on four Intelsat series -5 satel- system, which is a complete workstation
transcoders, and have come up with the lites. Inmarsat expects to satisfy the ever for the design, storage and retrieval of
far more powerful MUSE transmission increasing demand for more communi- map information. The system was
standard, which is briefly discussed cation capacity at higher speed by means demonstrated live on Telecom, using a
further on in this article. of three Inmarsat-2 satellites currently satellite link to receive information from
being constructed by an international a central storage computer in Tokyo.
consortium headed by British Aero- Real estate listings and detailed maps
Inmarsat space. Inmarsat will own, rather than complete with street names and traffic
The International Maritime Satellite Or- lease, these new satellites. information were available almost in-
ganisation (Inmarsat) had built an im- STC, one of the companies that supply stantly on a 58 -inch high resolution
pressive and colourful stand. Inmarsat is Inmarsat approved communications colour display, and a colour printer.
totally dedicated to operating a network equipment for use on ships, demon- Colour coding, magnifying, reducing or
of geostationary satellites that carry data strated a new mechanically steered dish scrolling of maps are among the many
and voice communication between ships, aerial that uses an electronic gyroscope technical features of this powerful
shore stations, and, shortly, aeroplanes. to keep itself pointed at the satellite with system.
The main topic was InmarsaCs new in- an accuracy of tenths of a degree.
itiative to extend their services with land -
mobile and aeronautical communication
systems. In the not too distant future, Oriental power IIIrd WORLD
Twenty-six Japanese organizations and BOOK AND AUDIOVISUAL FAIR
telecommuncations manufacturers par- ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS
ticipated in Telecom 87. Their collective AND ELECTRONICS
stand was the third largest on the exhi-
bition, following the United States and GENEVA. 20.27 CCit&T.F'L-
I \ France. Japan Radio, Hitachi, Fujitsu,
if
n NEC, Sony, Panasonic, Matsushita, DIPLOMA
-_ NHK (The Japanese broadcasting cor-
poration), Canon, Ricoh, OKI and KDD 4:1

made their presence as the most import-

t N.\ ant companies. Etaktorlicttronic4
4
One of the most interesting technical b bro.= .. ,Arbe
novelties on display was the HDTV (high ars
ne=mus-
hoc Irin-samixice-ora, wb,
-

r, Oci=b
definition television) equipment devel- =--r.onrss

C.V1V-SS R.C.0 WM.. oped by NHK. This TV standard is

MA.F.,10.11 based on 1,125 lines and a horizontal -to - RLIWIE. BUTLIM
Serr.-1-:Ca-ve

880036 - 8 vertical picture aspect ratio of 9:16, and

is expected to revolutionize TV watch-
Geostationary satellites operated by Inmarsat ing. Colour pictures of unparallelled
can play an important role in the forming of brightness and resolution are displayed No way can the telecommunications industry
a worldwide distress calling system for ships on 32 or 40 inch monitors, and the ac- go round informative books and magazines
(courtesy DFVLR). companying sound is to CD standards. on the subject!
 EE
39
February 1988

VIDEOTEX: A PROMISE
UNFULFILLED?
by C.H. Freeman

Although Britain has set the rest of Europe an example in the liberalization of its telecommunications
system, it has failed in one area where other countries, particularly France, have not: Videotex, or
Prestel, as it is called in Britain.

Prestel began life as the brainchild of the Four main areas of service provision 3: Educational systems.
British Post Office. The rationale behind were identified: The interactive capabilities and 'intelli-
its development was simple: High invest- gence' possessed by the computer of-
ment in STD telephone equipment was 1: Information retrieval. fered the possibility of programmed
demanding ever greater economic pene- The aim here is to provide up-to-date in- learning and computer aided instruction
tration of telephone usage in Britain. formation from a database via some ac- via the Viewdata system. Home edu-
Having come to the conclusion that in- cess and retrieval mechanism. News, cation courses, self-improvement,
creased sales of telephones alone would sport, weather, advice, timetables, road remote medical diagnosis all lend
not produce the necessary levels of conditions, recipes, bank balance re- themselves to Viewdata application.
revenue, it was decided that the solution trieval, reviews etc. are all prime can-
lay in increasing usage of installed tele- didates for this cateeory. 4: Games and recreations.
phone equipment at off-peak times. The interactive nature of the medium
Sam Fedida had been working on a 2: Transaction systems. again offers itself to one -person games
research project for the PO since the In this context, the Videotex system acts (Cribbage, Lunar Lander etc.) as well as
early 1970s. If successful, the project as go-between 'twixt "trader" and more complex multi -player scenarios
would bring together telephone, tele- "customer" (and I use these descrip- such as war games, fantasy role playing
vision and computer technology into an tions in the most general of terms). games etc.
amalgam that would allow telephone Identifiable amongst this category are
subscribers to interrogate and interact bank account transactions and teleshop- This, then, was to be the brave new
with a central computing/database fa- pings. world of Viewdata. Plans were to be
cility. The subscriber would be able to
VIEW DATA held on the machine.
By 1973, a working system had been de- Welfare & consumer Product & price reviews & comparisons, benefits & entitlements,
vised and tested; proof of concept advice shopping advice, government aid programmes.
studies had already been considered a
success from a technical viewpoint. The Amenities & services What's on, current events, local facilities, schools & libraries.
creative leap was for the PO to realize openingiclosing times.
that here lay the potential for increased
usage of installed telephone lines. The News, sport, weather News headlines, news summaries, local and regional news, sports
Viewdata (as it had become known) con- fixtures and results, regional weather forecasts.
cept was born. The coming together of Home education Teach yourself, home ed. courses, cooking, DIY, gardening, library
available technology and economic services, hobbies, encyclopaedia, self-improvement (sic), facts and
necessity marks an important point in figures, general knowledge.
the Videotex saga. It is quite obvious
that the PO saw the Videotex system as Travel and tourism Timetables, road conditions, sight-seeing, route planning, tours and
a way of inducing far greater telephone special offers, holiday packages.
usage. They were seduced by the glitter-
ing promise of a mass -appeal system ap- Personal health Diets, keep fit, recipes, exercises, medical care, self -diagnosis.
pealing to a mass -market, with all the at- medical advice.
tendant implications of high financial Promotion. tele- Promotional advertising, catalogue sales, classified ads, special
returns. Once this philosophy had been shopping, class. offers.
implanted within the echelons of the PO adverts
it proved almost impossible to change it
until many years later.
Reservations Hotels, planes, trains, theatres. restaurants, sports facilities.

Original concepts of services Banking Account balances, account transfers.

provided. General entertainment Quizzes and games, jokes and amusements, raffles. reviews, and
In line with the mass -appeal philosophy, comments, betting.
ideas of the type of services along with
Calculations Tax routines, mortgage calculations, discounted cash flow, net
the type of information to be provided
present value.
were being formulated. Table 1 shows a
list of representative across-the-board
Table 1 Representative applications
applications typical of those 'marked Extracted from Videotex by Woolfe Page 6.
down' for Viewdata. The mass -appeal
philosophy is, indeed, very apparent.
 EE
40
February 1988
laid, market forecasts to be projected
1
and trials to begin.
8

Early optimism.
Assuming the logistical problems of
equipment supply and installation to Millions 7
of
present no serious problems, what rates sets
of audience growth were anticipated? in use
Nicholson & Consterdine, in 1980, drew
an interesting parallel between the 6
growth of T.V. ownership and their pro-
jected growth of Prestel. Fig. 1 depicts
their projection. Commenting on this
projection, the two authors have this to
say:
"We suspect that a similar shaped
growth curve may apply to Prestel,
though this does depend on the range of
services offered to the Prestel con-
sumer."

Their figures also mirror projections

produced by the electronics company
ITT's Commercial Intelligence Unit
(sic!), published in February 1980: ITT
also predicted "An explosive growth ..."
in residential sets from 1983 onwards Colour TV MMMII

"...when the cost of a Prestel receiver Prestel 096

would only be about £100 more than its Protection
non-Prestel equivalent...". Thereafter, Monochrome
it was predicted, residential sales would TV
surge ahead and overtake sales to busi-
ness users. Monochrome 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954
There were also forecasts of Prestel Colour 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
adaptors for ordinary TV sets to retail at Prestel 1980 1981 1982 1983
around £150 by the end of 1980 along Sources: BREMA & TML
with a report of a hard -copy printer on 880056-1
sale in spring 1980 with a price tag of
around £400.
A similar mood of optimism was prevail- 20 service centres by the end of 1980, executive was quoted as saying that
ing by the end of 1979. Aggressive ex- with the capacity to provide local -call Prestel's development had been slow,
pansion of Prestel was planned for 1980, service to over 6007o of the telephone unacceptably costly and that he could
with the planned opening of provincial owning populace and able to support see "No light at the end of the tunnel."
'service centres' (consisting of secondary over 1 million terminals. By the end of By the end of 1981 even the PO were ac-
distribution computers). The aim was 1979, Prestel had only 2000 users in total cepting the fact that they had made
for more than half of the telephone- (including test service users and infor- serious errors of judgement in their
owning populace to be within local call mation providers). The mass -market estimations of a mass market. Action
reach of Prestel within 12 months. philosophy was clearly in trouble. was taken. Advertising campaigns aimed
The next major step in the Prestel story specifically at the business user were in-
comes with the advent of "Viewdata stigated and a major cost-cutting exer-
Prestel: the reality 80". Viewdata 80 was a UK specification cise pruned 14 of the 20 service centre
Pilot trials with Prestel began in 1978 for the second generation of videotex computers, re -deploying some 100 staff
with the PO placing a number of prestel terminals. Determined with volume pro- in the process.
receivers in businesses and homes. As duction of terminal equipment in mind, As the IPC executive had said, the time
these pilot trials progressed, it became it is remarkable not so much for its tech- had come to "... rethink information for
clear that there was growing disquiet nical considerations but for the fact that the masses..."!
among the information providers with it marked a concensus that volume
regard to the residential market. There markets were to be found in the business The Prestel dichotomy: why?
were real fears that such a market simply sector rather than the domestic sector. A
was not there, and that initial capital in- watershed had been reached. Infor- Success in the business sector.
vestment could not be recouped, let mation providers who had been seeking The authors Nicholson & Consterdine
alone justified, in such a climate. Such a mass domestic market curtailed their put forward an interesting justification
fears seemed to be confirmed when an activities, the TV manufacturers sought for the business use of Prestel:
analysis of results of the pilot trial, at more lucrative ventures and by 1982 the "There is a case for obtaining Prestel for
the end of 1979, indicated very clearly makers of TV adaptors for Prestel were business use because the businessman
that business participants had responded left to contend with the domestic catches trains (... ABC travel guides and
towards Prestel with far greater en- residential market alone. B.R. data on Prestel), flies (British Air-
thusiasm than the residential partici- July 1982 saw IPC Publications Ltd. pull ways, British Cal., Pan. Am. etc), enter-
pants. In spite of these early alarm bells, out of the Prestel support market: selling tains ("Good Food Guide" and other
the PO still clung to its mass -market their Prestel support magazines to restaurant guides), exports (British
philosophy, planning to open over another publishing concern. An IPC Overseas Trade Board, Export Credits
 EE
41
February 1988

Assume that a typical residential user connects to Prestel once per day, each time for a
a change in the users' behaviour patterns
session of about 3 minutes, mainly in the evening. The total weekly connect -time is about (for example, from checking a news-
20 minutes, and the total no. of frames viewed, assuming one every 15 seconds, is 80. paper weather forecast to consulting the
Prestel weather frames). There may also
Approximate costs are: be problems of frustration in the early
connect -time, say 30P
frame accesses, say 50p
stages of use as the user ascends the
telephone charges, say 20p learning curve.
equipment costs, say £1 The British people are, by and large,
notoriously resistant to change!
200p
That is about £2 per week at 1980 prices. These figures are approximate and simplistic. Conclusion
There can be little doubt that Prestel has
Table 2 Typical weekly residential user charges 1980 price estimate.
moved a considerable distance away
After Videotex by Woolfe (P.1021 from the original concept of a mass -
appeal system. An examination of the
economics of Prestel in 1980 concluded
Guarantee Dept. etc), invests (stock ex- cheaply and readily available? that an economically viable s) stein
change), and so forth. It is not that this The games and entertainments side of could only be maintained if subsLriber
information cannot be found elsewhere. videotex died a natural death with the levels of around a quarter of a million
It is that Prestel can often add the poten- advent of the cheap home com- users were realized. Little wonder, then,
tial benefits of speed and convenience. puter/games console. that the past few years have seen the
Which is better: to spend an hour on the ditching of the residential market in
'phone trying to get through to Euston 2: High capital outlay. favour of pursuit of an established (and
or to use Prestel and extract the infor- The videotex terminal equipment market potentially lucrative) business market.
mation within 2 or 3 minutes?" is highly volume sensitive. Initial sales of The irony of this strategy is this: such
Prestel terminals never reached levels users will increase peak -time loading of
General opinion seems to throw up four high enough to trigger price reductions the telephone system; Prestel was orig-
main reasons why Prestel was so (rela- to the extent where the general consumer inally conceived as a means of increasing
tively) readily accepted by the business would become interested. offpeak usage.
community: Aldrich has this to say:
3: High running costs. "The system was a technological
Businesses can afford the capital The most violently disliked concept of triumph, but not a commercial one. It
outlay needed to invest in expensive ter- Prestel amongst residential users is that was technology -driven, rather tha
minal equipment. one has to PAY to use it. Table 2 shows market -driven. The British seem to have
a simplistic price breakdown for a a penchant for such endeavours. They
Businesses are prepared to meet the typical domestic user. Are residential focus on a techhology and blindly try to
running costs of Prestel (telephone line users prepared to pay this kind of sum? develop it in a vacuum."
charges, connect -time charges, frame ac- All the evidence to date suggests not.
cess charges etc.) Connection and access changes have
also been the main factor behind the The author would like to acknowledge
Information provided is of sufficient demise of the remote education/CAL the assistance of Dr. G. H. Kirby, Dept.
quality to be desirable. Typically it will idea. of Computer Science, University 01
be volatile, compact, with a high Hull, in the preparation of this article.
momentary value (again the speed of ac- 4: Poor human/computer interface.
cess to up-to-the-minute information The slowness and clumsiness of the con- BIBLIOGRAPHY
scores heavily for Prestel). nection and search procedures are off-
putting to the average user. Whilst the The Information Explosion
Edited by Mick McLean.
The "Yuppie factor". This is not as professional man is prepared to put up ISBN 0-86187-535-4.
facetious as it may sound. Many with such frustrations in order to glean Published 1985.
businessmen love to be considered 'with the benefits of Prestel, the average user
it' when it comes to new technological seldom is. The World Wired Up
developments in the office. A further Brian Murphy.
manifestation of this phenomenon came 5: Electronic transacting not widespread ISBN 0 906890 241.
whit the advent of the personal desk -top enough. Published 1983
micro; many were purchased and spent Teleshopping, remote booking, home
banking etc. are simply not widespread The Information Technology Revolution
their lives as little more than expensive Edited by Tom Forester.
executive toys! enough to attract users. There is a ISBN 0 631 13438-7.
"chicken and egg" situation here;
traders are reluctant to offer such ser- Published 1983
Failure in the residential sector.
McLean, writing in 1985, retrospectively vices until a large enough market is VIDEOTEX: Key to the Wired City
surveys a number of countries' ex- perceived and residential users do not Michael Aldrich.
periences with videotex systems, and perceive a large enough body of traders ISBN 0 907621 12 0.
comes to the following conclusions re- prepared to offer the services! In the in- Published 1982.
garding failure in the residential market: stances where such services are offered, a
VIDEOTEX
supplemental charge is invariably levied
Roger Woolfe.
1: Information not unique enough. which usually has the effect of deterring ISBN 0-85501-493-8.
Much of the information offered is the residential user. Published 1980.
available elsewhere in books, news-
papers, television bulletins etc. Printed 6: Behaviour pattern changes required. The Prestel Business
matter also possesses the dual advan- Although not strictly a fault with Roger Nicholson & Guy Consterdine.
tages of permanence and portability; Videotex systems, it is important to ISBN 7198 2601 2.
why pay more for services already realize that regular Prestel usage implies Published 1980.
 cou.,19.

OPTIC FIBRE COMMUNICATION

The development of the self-supporting aerial fibre optic cables Fibrespan and Translite has opened up
enormous possibilities for improving and expanding communications systems at considerably less cost
and effort by relying on existing electrical grid and railway networks.
by Bill Presdee, BSc, CEng, MIEE
The technology of fibre optics generally The first method to meet these re- tric Company-which has undergone
has been making rapid inroads into quirements sought to use the electrical tests with England's East Midland Elec-
various areas of control and communi- conductors as a bearer for the fibre optic tricity Board.
cations, replacing or supplementing tra- communications. A composite cable was
ditional metal conductors and other developed where the earth wire con-
methods. tained a core of fibre optics and, later,
In the aircraft industry when hydraulic another type in which they were wrapped
Fibrespan and Translite cable
and mechanical linkages were replaced around the conductor. features
by electric control cables, the technology But the dependence of the communi- The cable design is based on a single rod
was hailed as "fly -by -wire". With the in- cations on the electrics was a hindrance. of glass reinforced plastic (GRP) with a
troduction of fibre optic cables into air- To maintain the fibre optics, an electrical tensile strength of 65 kN, which is three
craft, the term "fly -by -light" was circuit had to be de -energized and to times the design maximum for operation
coined. One can only wonder how earth- restring electrical conductors, the com- of 22.5 kN. The GRP rod has a longi-
bound aerial optical fibre cables will be munications link had to be broken. tudinal slot in which ribbons containing
described. These restrictions led Standard Tele- up to 24 fibres are laid in a thixotropic
The laying of subterranean trunk com- phone and Cables (STC) to develop gel to cushion them against distortion of
munication cables is an expensive under- Fibrespan as a self-supporting aerial the rod through strains and stresses. The
taking and that of optical fibre cables is fibre optic cable which could be strung slot is covered by a polythene slot cap
no exception. Despite their relatively low between pylons, operated and main- which restores the circular profile and
weight and ease of handling, they still tained quite independently of electrical the whole is covered by a binder yarn
have to be laid in ducting or other pro- conductors and without interruption of and outer sheath.
tective materials. The routeing of the electrical supplies. It has since been sub- The single mode fibres used in the cable
cables and the construction work, with jected to exhaustive tests at the Central operate at 1300 nm with 0.5 dB/km
all the related problems, constitutes a Electricity Generating Board's labora- attenuation or better and a pulse dis-
difficult and time-consuming task. tories at Leatherhead. persion factor of not more than
Its appearance on the market has been 3.5 ps/nm/km. The cable with an outer
followed recently by the announcement diameter of 13mm weights 220 kg/km
Ready-made distribution of Translite as a fibre optic aerial cable and has an operating temperature of
network of generally similar capability. This is -40°C to 70°C.
However, in most countries, there are manufactured by Telephone Cables Ltd TCL offers two types of Translite
existing distribution systems with the (TCL) a subsidiary of the General Elec- cable self -supported by GRP rod: a
potential for enhancement to provide
comprehensive trunk communications at
considerably less cost and effort. These
are the electrical grid and railway net- FIBRESPAti Polyethylene Slot Cap
works which have established routes and Filling Compound
carry their electrical power or signalling Optical Fibre Ribbon
Binder Yam
circuits, for the most part, via poles or Glass Reinforced Plastic Rod
pylons. Sheath

These systems naturally serve the major

centres of population and industry, and
embrace the secondary ones. Communi-
cations planners have, no doubt, con-
sidered for some time the possibility of
using metallic cables on the electric
pylons across the countryside, but the I. )(METHYLENE COATED CENTRE
2. 011KAL nitEs
strong electromagnetic fields associated 3. POLYMER TUIE
4.01[100
with high voltages have precluded their S-StACE PCXTEThYLENE SI-10.11/
15 7dant NC.4AINAL DLAVETER
effective use as communications car- TRANSLITE
riers.
When, in recent years, the development
of lasers and fibre optic cables provided
communication by light circuits unaf-
fected by magnetic fields, a reappraisal
of routeing them together with electrical
distribution became inevitable. However,
the design of a self-supporting cable
suitable for long spans and capable of Lang S;a: sgsw, soe r aa
withstanding a wide range of climatic
conditions presented problems. Sections for Fihrespan and Translite cables.
 EE
43
February 1988
250 kg/km long span circular section of 135 km/h, a normal span would be lowed by a test of each joint by an op-
cable, of 15.7 mm external diameter for up to 800 m, extending to 1000 m for a tical time domain reflectometer, which
installation on towers with spans up to river or canyon crossing. The location of provides a visual display of the optical
1000 m, and a 240 kg/km short span fig- the optical cable on the suspension attenuation through the splice. In a cable
ure of eight cable of 12 mm x 22 mm, towers is of course critical. It must en- section of, say, 40 km, about 15 cable
suitable for mounting on pole routes sure adequate ground clearance at mid - joint housings would be needed. The fre-
with spans up to 100 m. The long span span while avoiding any clash with quency of optical repeater stations
type has a working tension of 25 kN, the electrical conductors under worst would depend on the length of the trunk
while that for the short span cable is weather conditions. route and the type of optical line system
5 kN. employed. For a 565 Mbit/s single mode
In the long span type, up to 24 optical system, for instance, the spacing of
fibres are carried in polymer tubes laid Arc fusion welding stations could be up to 50 km apart.
up with symmetrically disposed load A low cable site is preferred, centrally on With the relentless increase in the bit rate
bearing GRP rods, while for the short the tower near the level of the bottom for optical line systems it would be inap-
span a single GRP rod supports the op- cross arm, or for asymmetric cross arms propriate to designate a particular
tical fibres in their tubes. Attenuation of half way between the two bottom pfase system for use with Fibrespan or
less than 0.5 dB/km at 1300 nm and conductors. This enables installation to Translite cable. The choice of system
dispersion of less than 6 ps/nm/km are be carried out under live grid conditions would depend, apart from the project
quoted for single mode optical fibres. while allowing a minimum ground clear- budget, on current and projected traffic
The standard drum lenght for both ance of 5.6 m. well into the future, especially as the life
Fibrespan and Translite is 2 km but A method of tension stringing appro- expectancy of the cable is over 25 years.
4 km drums can be provided. The maxi- priate to the new cable has been devel- One STC 565 Mbit system operating over
mum span for Fibrespan cable on nor- oped by STC and provides rapid instal- two single mode fibres has the capacity
mal pylons in temperate climates would lation with minimum interference to of 7,680 telephone circuits each of
be 550 m, assuming the worst climatic crops and activities on the ground. A 64 kbits (or a combination of telephone,
condition to be 12.5 mm of radial full kit of installation devices including television, and sound programme chan-
ice and concurrent 88 km/h winds, terminal clamps, suspension clamps, vi- nels, or data up to 546,992 kbits). With
although this could be extended to bration dampers and joint housings, is Fibrespan and Translite offering up to 24
720 m for a river or canyon crossing. available. single mode fibres per cable, the poten-
In tropical climates with no ice hazard The fibres are jointed on the ground tial traffic adds up to a considerable
but a maximum anticipated wind speed using arc fusion welding and this is fol- number of kbits along the pylons.

COMPUTER AND
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
REVOLUTION WILL BRING ITS
LEGAL PROBLEMS
By John McQueen

Since the early 1970's the development dependent on the new technology in large scale deregulation of all types of
of computer and telecommunications order to go about its business. financial transactions within the UK.
technology has been taking place at a And the banking systems within most We are now in a position where massive
breathtaking rate. A world-wide revol- countries in the Western World are flows of money are being transmitted
ution has taken place in the transmission equally dependent upon the new tech- around the world and within countries
of data within countries and between nology. These changes have taken place without any kind of restrictions - a
them. almost overnight against a background situation that would have been regarded
In particular financial institutions of of deregulation for financial dealings as irresponsible just a decade ago.
every type and variety have taken hold of generally. Foreign financial transactions The problems are already beginning to
the new developments in a very big way. which used to be very strictly governed show through. Many experts have
It would be no exaggeration to say that now have very few restrictions. And the blamed the recent world-wide crash of
the world banking system is now totally recent "Big Bang" has brought about the stock markets on unrestricted inter-
 44 EE
February 1988
national transactions completed throughProtection Act 1984 and the Telecom- been very slow to legislate in this field
the push button electronic communi- munications Act 1984. Both are rela- and the new Act has only come about
cations network that now links all the tively new Acts with the former barely because of a ruling by the EEC's Coun-
world's stock markets. If these argu- implemented so most of the provisions cil of Europe that such an Act must be
ments are true then the unrestricted use remain untested in the courts. brought into force in all Member
of communications systems can be said The Telecommunications Act concerns countries.
to have precipitated a world-wide crisis. itself more with the considerable techni- But at the very least the Data Protection
There are those who would argue that cal and legal problems that face the in- Act, however limited its provisions,
the cause of the collapse was due to fac- dustry in the day to day business of run- opened up the debate on the important
tors other than instantaneous computer ning a communication system estab- subject of the issues involved in all this
dealings - even so it cannot be denied lishing rights of access and so on to land electronic transmission of information.
that these dealings were an important and equipment. A complex Act, it deals Professional engineers and all those in-
factor in what happened. with the nitty gritty of everyday prac- volved in the communications business
ticalities. are going to have to give more thought to
But whatever the truth behind the stock But it does not really address itself to the the practical problems involved in pro-
market collapse there can be little argu- important issues of the regulation of the viding for the proper security of sensitive
ment that there are major risks involved transmission of huge amounts of infor- equipment. Society generally is now be-
in the application of computer and tele- mation. It is left to the Data Protection ginning to wake up to the wider impli-
communications technology in the Act to provide the necessary protections cations of this amazing new technology,
financial field. in this regard. and it is important that those actively in-
The amount of money being transmitted There are several main elements to the volved in work in this field are also
around the world and within countries Data Protection Act. It contains the pro- aware of the wider ramifications to their
can be measured in billions of pounds a vision that anyone holding personal data work.
day. The figures and the risks involved on a computer must register their precise The current electronic revolution has
are frightening. uses of their equipment with the new been equated in the scope of its impli-
The financial field is the biggest and Data Protection Registrar, Eric Hove. cations with the industrial revolution of
most obvious example of the impact of Failure to register can bring about the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
the new technology. But masses of other unlimited fines on those involved. Few That revolution brought with it huge
information is also being transmitted. people still realise that the provision social, economic and political changes
Interpol, for example, now have a huge applies to every computer user however that transformed the world.
capacity to exchange information about limited their use of computers for per- The real fear of the present electronic
criminals and suspects. Multi -National sonal data storage might be. revolution is that it is proceeding at such
companies also have their own networks Some companies have still not registered an incredible pace that the social and
to transmit masses of commercial infor- and they face severe penalties if they are legal structures are unable to keep up
mation. caught. Most companies have, however, with it. And now that so many import-
And many government departments are now registered for every possible type of ant financial gnd other institutions are
becoming rapidly computerised. In the use from a list of options to be on the so dependent oh the new technology it
UK, Customs and Excise already have a safe side. may prove impossible to regulate and
sophisticated set up. The Inland Revenue And though discussion surrounding the control its growth.
are currently honing up a huge computer Data Protection Act has largely centred Certainly there is a general feeling about
network that will eventually churn out on the question of privacy because of the that some terrible disaster will occur in
tax forms and demands automatically. sensitive implications, it is important to this field. Otherwise it is impossible to
Yet against this background of incredible point out that the Act is also intended to square the fact that the Data Protection
rapid development there is virtually no ensure the physical security of infor- Act only applies to data stored on elec-
international law in place to deal with mation from possible destruction from tronic files and does not apply to
the problems that may, and which must fire, flood and terrorism. manual tiles. It seems odd in logic that
one day arise. What, for example, is the In general terms there is a right of access such a distinction should be made. But it
legal position if a deal involving many to information held on a computer is also an indicator of the very real fears
millions of pounds goes wrong between about any individual person who has a beginning to open up in the minds of
two financial institutions in different right to be supplied by any data user people about the uses that may be put to
countries? How would any agreement be with a copy of any information held on the transmission of all this information
sorted out if the deal has been set up by that individual, so long as that request is and of all the possible damages.
the transmission of electronic messages? made in writing.
How would the problem be sorted out? During December 1985 a congressional
If the information held is shown to be sub -committee in the United States
More importantly, which country would incorrect then compensation can be
have jurisdiction to sort the matter out? learned that computer problems of the
claimed as a result of any distress or Bank of New York led to it accumulating
The answers at the moment are that damage caused by the holding of inac-
there are no answers. If some gigantic an overdraft of 20 billion dollars in the
curate information. However, it will be a course of a day. Without the interven-
financial accident happens then there are defence for the data user to show they
no international laws in force that can had taken all reasonable steps to store in- tion of The Federal Reserve there could
bring about a solution. And, if as formation they believed to be accurate. have been disastrous implications for the
usually happens in the nature of things, However, a large section of the Act gives whole domestic and international finan-
a series of accidents occurs then chaos itself over to exceptions. Most important cial system.
on the financial markets could result. Incidents like this not unnaturally make
government departments are excluded people worry about the dangers involved
These big nightmares are real enough, from the requirements to provide infor- in computerising virtually all important
yet on the national front there are many mation and there are a whole host of information in government and society
domestic issues to cause concern. The other exceptions which are already giv- generally. Certainly this whole area is a
transmission and storage of electronic ing rise to some considerable confusion fertile legal field that is bound to see
data within the UK is now of gigantic about just what sort of information is major developments in the future.
proportions. Yet the laws that regulates covered by the Act. It is clear however
this field are only in their infancy. that only a limited amount of infor-
The relevant Acts in the UK are the Data mation can be obtained. The UK has
 EE
February 1988

READERSHIP SURVEY
The response to the Readership Survey about the right balance. electrical/electronics engineering).
in our December 1987 issue has been An interesting point thrown up is that, By far the largest number of readers buy
very good. To all those readers who took although they want constructional proj- the magazine for its interesting articles,
the trouble to complete the question- ects, many readers welcome the trend and a quarter do because of its pro-
naire: Thank you! towards a "normal" July and August fessional appearance.
Further replies are awaited from our issue. The main reason for this attitude Around 55 per cent of readers are pro-
many overseas readers, but we hope to appears to be that many "summer cir- fessionally engaged in electronics, tele-
publish the full results - and our com- cuits" of the past are considered too communications, or computing, and
ments - in the April issue. It is none the simple compared with the general level about half of them list electronics as one
less already possible to give you the main of articles during the remainder of the of their hobbies. Almost 40 per cent of
trends shown by the analysis so far. year. readers are electronics hobbyists, and
The areas most of interest to our readers The vast majority of readers look at about 20 per cent of these are students.
are computers, test and measurement, advertisements for components, but The remainder of the readers are
and audio and hi-fi (close together in almost 40 per cent also look at them for students.
that order). Bottom of the list is elec- test and measuring equipment, com- Over 40 per cent of readers have a uni-
trophonics, well below TV and video. puter hardware and software, and books. versity degree (not necessarily in elec-
Of the contents of the magazine, greatest Almost 30 per cent look for audio, hi-fi, tronics). Just over a quarter are qualified
interest lies in constructional projects, and video equipment, and tools. Nearly electrical/electronic engineers, and
closely followed by informative articles a quarter read all advertisements, almost nearly another quarter are qualified
on electronics, telecommunications, half check most, and another quarter technicians. Just over 30 per cent of
computing science and physics (in that read a fair proportion of them. readers have no formal qualifications in
order). More than half our readers want Most readers read at least one other electronics, but 7 per cent are corporate
more of these articles. By and large, technical magazine, and many read more engineers.
readers feel that the magazine has just than three others (not necessarily on

TELECOMMUNICATIONS NEWS a TELECOM

One megawatt radio source plugs into the telephone socket: no bat- simultaneously.
Marconi Communication Systems is to teries are required. It measures Optical switches differ from the elec-
design a one megawatt RF source for the 60 x 100 x 25 mm and weighs 250 2. tronic ones used in modern telephone ex-
United Kingdom Atom Energy Culham Details from Seaward Electronics Ltd changes in that they handle signals in the
Laboratory as part of a project connec- Bracken Hill South West Industrial form of light rather than electrical
ted with particle beam acceleration. Estate PETERLEE SR8 2JJ Tele- energy, so conversations are converted
The RF source consists of a klystron phone (096 586) 0227. into pulses of light rather than electrical
which is capable of delivering one signals. Transmission systems using light
megawatt, continuous wave, at have the potential to carry almost
350 MHz, a waveguide system for limitless information.
transmitting the power to the experiment Solar power for remote There is no requirement for a single
or a test load, and a control and instru- locations global telephone exchange that could use
mentation package for the system. Solar panels provide a cost-effective this switch, but the technology will be
When operated at full power, the power source for remote communi- needed in the very high capacity fibre
klystron consumes about 1.4 MW from cations networks of up to 1 kW con- optic communications networks of the
a 90 kV DC supply and requires a tonne tinuous load and a typical one is future. Plessey believes a more im-
of cooling water per minute. available from Solapak. mediate application will be providing
The company can also supply emergency re-routeing facilities in parts
lightweight folding solar panels and a of existing telephone networks where
portable solar unit. The latter, the HDS there is already a high concentration of
Portapak, can be carried easily and is optical fibre links.
said to be ideal for data logging and The networks of the future will probably
mobile communications. It will operate allow people to tap into remote com-
in normal daylight, but optimum con- puters, receive and make video telephone
ditions are achieved in direct sunlight. calls, send electronic mail, read books
and newspapers on their screen, play
Details from Solapak Ltd Factory computer games, watch dozens of chan-
Three Cock Lane HIGH
WYCOMBE HP13 7DE.
nels of high -definition television, and
shop, bank, and even work-all without
leaving their armchairs.
The traffic capacity required of ex-
Telecom line and appliance New switch is light years changes in these networks will be un-
tester ahead precedented. A future HDTV channel,
Seaward Electronics have brought out a A pocket-size optical switch developed for example, may require a machine
telecom line and appliance tester that is by Plessey's Caswell laboratories has the capable of working 4,000 times faster
suitable for all types of telephones, capacity to handle all the telephone con- than today's most modern telephone
modems, and answering and facsimile versations in progress in the world at any switches.
machines. The pocket -sized tester simply one moment-more than 700 million-
 EE
46
February 1988

NEW LITERATURE NEW LITERATURE NEW

An Introduction to the BBC -BASIC 86 on the Amstrad reference sets of British Standards are
Amstrad PCs PCs and IBM Compatibles - kept for general consultation.
by R.A. & J.W. Penfold Book 1: Language
ISBN 0-85934-172-0 N. Kantaris & K. Thompson
70 pages - 263 x 195 mm ISBN 0-85934-188-7 CATALOGUES
Price £5.95 (softcover) 96 pages - 192 x 129 mm
Price £3.95 (softcover)
A useful book that is intended to give in- A range of new brochures on System X,
experienced users a good idea of what is the advanced digital public telephone ex-
BBC -BASIC introduced a areat advance change is available from Plessey Tele-
involved in operating a personal com- on traditional BASIC languages: it per-
puter, with particular emphasis on the communications. Full technical infor-
mitted structured programming to be mation is provided on all aspects of the
Amstrad PC1512 and PC1640 machines. used with PROCedures to design
The book assumes that the reader has switch, including the many and diverse
modular programs. Throughout the edu- services provided by its inherent ISDN
access to a PC so that example com- cation world, BBC -BASIC has become
mands can be tried. None the less, the capability. Selected brochures from the
the standard programming language. It range are also available in Russian,
information provided should also be has now been developed for the IBM and
useful to those who have as yet no PC Spanish, Mandarin, and French.
compatible PCs as BBC-BASIC86. Plessey Telecommunications Systems
but would like to know more about what The present book is intended for users of
is involved in small business computing. Ltd Edge Lane LIVERPOOL L7
IBM or compatible PCs, who want to 9NW Telephone 051-228 4830.
In spite of the title of the book, much of use BBC-BASIC86. It is the first of two
the information contained in it applies and deals with the BBC-BASIC86
to any IBM compatible PC, although language. The second deals with the
several standard facilities on the BBC-BASIC86 Graphics and File hand- A 44 -page full -colour catalogue on its
Amstrad machines are optional extras ling techniques. Microelectronic Systems and Instrumen-
on most other IBM compatible com- The book does not assume any prior tation Equipment is available from
puters. As the authors point out, this is knowledge of programming. BBC - Flight Electronics Ltd Flight House
one of the factors that make the BASIC statements are introduced and Ascupart Street SOUTHAMP-
Amstrad PCs such exceptional value for explained with the help of simple pro- TON SOI 1LU
money.
Telephone (0703)
grams. Graded problems are included, 227721. The new catalogue covers a
together with full working solutions. An unique range ofproducts manufactured
excellent book for beginners. by G.W. Instrumentation, for whom
Flight are the sole UK distributors.
The three books above are published by G. W. Instrumentation manufacture,
Electronic Hobbyists' Bernard Babani (publishing) Ltd among others, the Hitachi V212 oscillo-
Handbook The Grampians scope reviewed in the December 1987
by R.A. Penfold Shepherds Bush Road issue of Elektor Electronics.
ISBN 0-85934-178-X London W6 7NF
88 pages - 263 x 195 mm
Price £4.95 (softcover)
BRITISH STANDARDS A 16 -page Application Note, entitled
The electronics hobbyist is confronted How to Correct Power Line Disturb-
with an ever increasing range of compo- BS6301:1987 ances, published by Dranetz Tech-
nents and types of circuit, coupled with This new Specification for electrical nologies Inc., which reviews the econ-
masses of data. Some of these data are safety requirements for apparatus for omical and technical aspects of handling
of a simple nature, such as details of re- connection to certain telecommuni- power line disturbances, is available
sistor colour codes, while others are very cation networks supersedes the 1982 from Livingstone Technical Sates Ltd
specialized, such as those pertaining to a edition of the standard. It forms one of Livingstone House 2-6 Queens Road
dedicated IC. a series of British Standards being pro- TEDDINGTON TW11 OLR e Tele-
Mr. Penfold's new book aims to provide duced following the liberalization of cer- phone 01-977 0055.
a useful collection of data for the tain telecommunications apparatus in
amateur electronics enthusiast, so that the UK. The 1982 will, however, remain
many of the data he or she will require in effect pending regulation, i.e., until
are available in a single source, where designation of the revision under Section A quarterly newsletter, entitled
they can be quickly and easily located. 22 (6) of the Telecommunications Act SIGNAL, reporting on events in the
This is not a course in basic electronics; comes into effect. world of interactive communications,
indeed, a certain knowledge of elec- has been launched by BIMSA (BEAMA
tronics is required to be able to make British Standards may be ordered from Interactive & Mains Systems Associ-
proper use of the data provided. In fact, The Sales Department ation). The newsletter will concentrate
a better title for the book would have BSI initially on mains signalling with techni-
been Electronic Hobbyists' Data Book. Linford Wood cal articles to keep abreast of this rapidly
This does not detract from its MILTON KEYNES MK14 6LE developing industry.
usefulness, however. Indeed, it should BEAMA 8 Leicester Street LON-
prove to be an essential book for most, Readers should also note that each DON WC2H 7BN Telephone
if not all, electronic hobbyists. county in the UK has at least one or two 01-437 0678.
large Public Libraries where complete
 EE 47
February 1988

LETTERS LETTERS LETTERS

Letters of a general nature, or expressing an English edition of Elektor Electronics carry- Sir-As I am often asked by customers which
opinion, or concerning a matter of common ing articles on satellite broadcast coding and of the two recent Elektor Electronics pre-
interest in the fields of electronics, telecom- decoding systems. amplifiers sounds better, I was fascinated to
munications, computers, and related see the letter from Cameron Brook on that
disciplines, should be addressed to The Guy Selby-Lowndes subject and the reply to it (EE, December
Editor. Their publication in Elektor Elec- Billingshurst 1987).
tronics is at the discretion of the Editor. In my experience, the sound quality of a pre -
amp is determined by the quality of passive
Sir-The government has begun to steer the Sir-Spurred on by the Readership Survey in components (resistors, capacitors) and
Copyright, Designs, and Patents Bill through your December issue, I write, somewhat electro-mechanical parts (cables, switches,
Parliament. It is a vast bill with 277 clauses belatedly, to tell you what an improvement I connectors) and by the size of its power
and 7 schedules. In the course of perusing it, found your new presentation of the July/ supply.
I have discovered some clauses which may August issue. I am sure I speak for many So, the answer to Mr Brook's question is that
place restrictions on your ability to publish readers when I say how glad I was not to have the pre -amp to which it is easiest to fit the
technical articles. to forgo Elektor Elektronics from June to highest quality parts (i.e., much higher than
Clause 270 apparently gives the owner of a September. Past issues of the July/August specified in the article) will exhibit the better
satellite transmission, which is the subject of issue were not really suitable for reading, but sound quality.
charges, the right to take legal action against rather for going back to time and again. Now AUDIOKITS has produced component notes
anyone who publishes information that can you have succeeded in giving us the best of for each project showing how constructors
assist in reception of such transmission with- both worlds; a magazine to read and study, can significantly improve the sound quality
out payment. This right seems to be intended and a supplement that can be taken out and by using better components. Both have sold
to prevent the publication of articles such as used over and over again to find ideas! extremely well, but the one on the valve pre-
your excellent Decoding Satellite TV Signals. May I (and, undoubtedly, many other readers) amplifier has sold about twice as many
Initially, the clause only applies to signals hope that this year you will follow the copies as the one on the 113p -of -the -Range
originating in the United Kingdom, but example of your competitors and publish pre -amp. Readers can make up their own
power is given to extend this to any other twelve monthly issues. The so-called "sum- minds from that!
country or territory. mer circuits" (winter here!) could always be
It is still a bill and there is time for your contained, as last year, in a supplement (sup- Graham Nalty
readers to write to their local lords and their plements?). (Audiokits)
MPs and object before the bill is enacted.
I can see the whole thing ending up in Derek Battersby
another Spycatcher type farce with all but the New Zealand

EVENTS EVENTS EVENTS EVENTS

Frost & Sullivan Seminars and one -day seminar and exhibition at the NER IIA5 2AE Telephone 01-868
Conferences this month Heathrow Penta Hotel on Tuesday, 2 4466.
1-3 Taking full advantage of computer February. Details from ERA Technology
software packages Ltd Cleeve Road LEATHER -
2-5 Broadband communication sys- HEAD KT22 7SA Telephone (0372) CHAITECH '88 - China Advanced In-
tems 374151.
formation Technologies, will be held in
9-10 Fibre optics in communication Beijing, from 20 to 25 June. Over the
systems (conference chaired by past 30 years, China has succeeded in
Dr William R.F. Gosling) SEMICON Europa will this year be held building up a sizeable electronics in-
18-19 Networking data communications in Zurich from 1 to 3 March. The show dustry. CHAITECH '88 is a trade fair
components is organized by Semiconductor Equip- with a new type of concept intended to
18-19 Security and contingency plan- ment and Materials International meet current needs and offering the
ning for communications net- CCL House 59 Fleet Street I.ON- most effective communication between
works exhibitors and interested persons in
DON EC41' 1JU Telephone 01-353
/1-14 ISDN: status and trends 8807 from whom full details may be ob- China. In addition to the trade fair itself
/5-16 ISDN: protocols and implemen- tained. and the symposium, the intention is to
tation provide accompanying events such as an
Exhibitor Dialogue Forum, a Tech-
Details of these events may be obtained nology Transfer Exchange. and a Person-
from Frost & Sullivan Sullivan House The second Software Tools Exhibition nel Transfer Exchange.- Further infor-
4 Grosvenor Gardens LONDON and Conference, oreanized by Online In- mation from Company for Exhibitions,
SW1W ODH Telephone 01-730 3438 ternational, will take place from 14 to 16 Fairs and Congresses Postfach 19 17
June at the Wembley Exhibit* and 40 Messedamm 22 D-1000
Conference Centre, London. Details BERLIN Telephone +49 30 3038
Electromagnetic Compatibility and from Online International Ltd Pinner 2288.
Microprocessor -based Equipment: a Green House Ash Hill Drive PIN-
 48 EE
February 1988

PRESCALER FOR MULTI-

FUNCTION FREQUENCY METER
An add-on board that extends the usable frequency range of the instrument introduced 2 months ago
from 10 MHz to well over 1.2 GHz.

The prescaler described here is intended gate time of the counter by a factor Block diagram
as an optional extension of the multi- 1,000. This results in more count pulses
function frequency meter introduced in fed to the counter circuits, and hence re- The present prescaler was designed for
reference 11). tains the formerly available resolution. ready connection to the multi -function
There are various ways of adding a The gate time of a frequency meter is de- frequency meter without compromising
prescaler to an existing frequency meter. termined primarily by the output fre- its usability in other, similar, instru-
The simplest of these is based on the quency of the central clock oscillator, ments.
assumption that the instrument is which is quartz -controlled in most cases. With reference to the block diagram of
mainly intended for measuring relatively The oscillator frequency is scaled down Fig. 1, electronic switches ES5, ES6 and
low frequencies, indicated on a kilohertz internally to obtain the required gate ES- select between 10 MHz, 2.5 MHz
(kHz) scale. Fitting a prescaler with a time. Inserting, for instance, a binary and 78.125 kHz at point E. The switches
divisor of 1,000 to the input of such a scaler between the clock output and the are controlled by signal detectors on the
frequency meter effectively changes the internal divider cascade results in a input channels. The existing 10 MHz in-
kHz scale into a MHz scale, obviating doubling of the gate time, so that the put on the multi -function frequency
the need for changing the position of the measured signal must be passed through meter is retained along with the 2
decimal point. The main disadvantage a ÷2 divider also. These applications are prescaler inputs, so that the complete in-
of the above method is the reduction by often thought to be restricted to the use strument has 3 frequency ranges in all.
1,000 of the meter's resolution. of decade scalers, while in practice any A separate 10...40 MHz input is used
A better approach entails increasing the other divisor works equally well. in view of the reduced sensitivity of the
 EE 49
February 1988
+64 prescaler in this frequency range.
The sensitivity of the +64 prescaler is
highest at around 250 MHz. The use of
the 10..40 MHz input is also advan-
tageous because it enables the use of
relatively short gate periods.
With the greatest divisor, 128, the
available gate periods are in the range
from 0.14 to 140 s. Detector controlled
switches ES1 and ES2 arrange the cor-
rect selection or disconnection of
prescaler outputs on the 10 MHz input
of the main frequency meter. ES4 func-
tions as an inverter, while ESs takes care
of the "mode" settings, and the shifting
of the decimal point.
The switch configurations for the 3 fre-
quency ranges of the meter are as
follows:

Switch (ES) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Range (MHz)
40-1250 x x x
10-40 x x x x
<10 xx x x x x x

x: switch opened
: switch closed Fig. 1. Block diagram of the 1.2 GHz precaler.

AC
100r..nf
N1 -N4 = IC 1 = 74 HC(1)66
Ct 545._N 10 = 1C2 = 74HC04
B olin
19 63V EXL
341 37135 DEC. EXT.
DC PMT OSC. 000
TEL CMOS

KI
K2
K3 9 03
04 n Ka
AC 05 13 KS
>ICCRW EXT. OSC.00 33 XT. OSC 34 KE
O6
K7
0914.1
O7 19
KA
A SUE F OSC es:f 38 SUIT_ OSC
IC 3
DC IC F4722613
TTLCMOS RANGE FtANGE

26,

ng
30 tlP FUNCT1031
DP YSS AST
PRIM 20 O
01...05 = 1N4148
R7 R17

19

LDS LD7
-
106 105 LD4
LD1-.L108 = H011070

103 L02
I.60
LD1
71Do
MN
H011070
09 30 TOPVIEW
0r 00
OK KO
0e 00
03 all
0.

El KG KS 04 Ti K21 Tel OVERFLOW

010...1313 = 1H4001

880005-2

Fig. 2. Modifications to the multi -function frequency meter to enable using the prescaler extension.
 50 EE
February 1988
Preparing for the extension scaler board is connected to the Ex.r.osc Circuit description of the
input of IC3 (point E). Points x and Y prescaler
A few simple modifications are required are connected by a wire link as shown.
on the main frequency meter board Configuration switch S7 is replaced by a The main functional blocks in the
before the prescaler extension can be wire link. Remove S6 and Ss, since their prescaler discussed under Block diagram
used. functions are taken over by ESs on the are readily found back in the circuit
With reference to Fig. 2, power for the prescaler board. Connect the anodes of diagram of Fig. 4. Crystal oscillator and
prescaler is available from terminals + D6 and Ds to create point D. Point c in buffer TI:r2 ensures the required stab-
and 1. at the output of the regulated 5 V the prescaler circuit is connected to junc- ility of the 10 MHz digital signal applied
supply on the frequency meter board. tion R9 -A,37. The 10 MHz crystal may to counter ICI and electronic switch
The AC coupled input of channel A on be removed for re -use in the oscillator on ES5. Binary ripple outputs Q2 (+22=4)
the frequency meter, point F, accepts the the prescaler board. Figure 3 shows the and Q7 (+2" =128) of ICI carry the
prescaler output signal. The divided or locations of the various points and con- 2.5 MHz and 78.125 kHz clock signal,
undivided clock signal from the pre - nections on the frequency meter board. respectively.

Fig. 3. Location of the %sire links and terminals to he fitted on the main frequency meter board.
 EE
February 1988
Signals applied to the 10...40 MHz in- by 2, so that the total divisor on this capacitors C13 and C14. Both disc and
put are amplified in fast opamp IC2, channel is 128. The function of the recti- rectangular versions may be used in
and divided by 4 in bistables FFI (+2) fier and the threshold preset is similar to these positions. Cut the required slots in
and FF2 (+2). Preset Pi enables accurate that of the corresponding circuits in the the PCB, push -fit the capacitors, and
setting of the bistable's switching 10...40 MHz channel. The dashed lines carefully solder the pretinned sides to
threshold to 2.5 V . The rectifier (signal in the circuit diagram denote metal the relevant copper areas. Solder fast
detector) for controlling the electronic screens fitted to prevent stray radiation and accurately: leadless ceramic
switches as discussed is formed by and erroneous meter readings caused by capacitors are relatively brittle compo-
diodes D3, D4 and D7, together with R- digital interference. . nents. The next somewhat unusual part
C combination R9 -C12. is prescaler IC4. Use precision pliers to
Signals in the frequency range of carefully bend the 8 pins of this IC over
40...1250 MHz are applied direct to Construction of the prescaler 180°, and mount the chip at the track
-64 prescaler IC4, a Type U664B from The first components to be fitted on the side of the board, observing the orien-
AEG1Telefunken. Bistable FF3 divides prescaler board are leadless ceramic tation indicated on the component over -

4
5V 5V
ES5

C24 C19
13
C20 °C2I O C22 14

C R4 12 1C3 105 IC 6 mmi IC 7

710n
N am BF
14
10n ES6
O
.000
11
1014Hz T1 494 02
XI IC 1
ax .777.
C6 G2 HCT
100P ES7
470p 4024
3
07 0
C2 C4I R2
5*
40p 7p 1470P
*styraIlex

r
O+ 5V

R6 C9 010i

10...46MHz 1=11=11. 131

a
10
E S3
7 1N4148
B C7 CS R S
CIO 1310
5 11 10
CLK FF1 0 CLK FF2 470 0
560p 560p R5 1C 100p
D O D 6i
14 60 12L C11
01 D2 Re MEI
C23 D9
In D7

100n
P
1N4148
t_2x 1N4148 Sk

2x AA119

C15 5V
I R14
131 101
E52

CLK FF3 0

IC 4 D

U664B 12}

All 1N4148 ES4

MI= 13

C1S. R13
5k
TIOOn

2x AA119
FF1, FF2 = IC 3 = 74HCT74 ES1...ES4 = IC 6 = 74HCT4066
FF3, FF4 = IC5 = 74HCT74 ESS...ES8 = IC 7 = 74HCT4066 880005- 4

Fig. 4. Circuit diagram of the 1.2 GHz prescaler for the Elektor Electronics multi-function frequency meter. The dashed lines denote metal
screens.
 EE
February 1988
lay. If bending the pins is considered soldering pins-see Fig. 6. The screen- recommended to make the connections
risky, it is also possible to mount the IC ing of the VHF/UHF prescaler is "con- between the prescaler and the main fre-
at the component side of the PCB, pro- tinued" at the track side of the PCB as quency meter board in coaxial cable,
vided a suitable clearance is cut. What- shown in Fig. 7. The connections be- with the exception of the supply wires.
ever mounting method is adopted, the tween the BNC sockets and the prescaler
connections to the prescaler pins should inputs are made in thin (03 mm) coaxial The completed prescaler board is fitted
be as short as possible. cable, e.g. Type RG174/U. Keep the con- vertically behind the main frequency
The fitting of the remaining components nection of the centre cores to the meter board as shown in the introduc-
on the prescaler board is straightfor- prescaler inputs as short as possible. The tory photograph of this article.
ward. It is recommended to use sockets shielding braid of the .40...1250 MHz Finally, make sure that the mains adap-
for the 6 ICs. The screens at the compo- input cable is soldered direct to the tor can handle the additional current
nent side of the PCB are made of 15 mm screening plate at the track side. Use drain of the prescaler board.
high brass or tin metal sheet, bent to copper foil to shield the connections of
shape and secured with the aid of the BNC sockets to the coax cables. It is

Parts hst

Resistors I ± 5%): Ca:Ca= 470p polystyrene or styroflex IC3;1C5=74HCT74

Ce:C1s;Cts;C20;C21:C22:C24 = 10n ICe=U664B
RI =22K
C5;Cio;C1e= 100p IC6;IC7 = 74HCT4066
R2fle;R7=1K0
Ci;Ce = 560p
R3=1001(
Ca;C12;Cle;Cza =100n
R4;li1o=470R
C1i;Ci7=1n0
R5= 56R
C13;C14=1n0 leadless ceramic (disc or AEG-Telefunken distributors in the UK are fisted
1;R14=4K7
rectangular, e.g. Cirkit stock no. 04-10211) on InfoCard 502 (EE February 1987).
Re;Rtz;Ria= 10M
Ris=82R
Semiconductors:
P1;132= 5K0 or 4K7 preset H
Ti =BF494
Tz =BF982 Miscellaneous:
Di ;92;97... Dm incl. = 1N4148
Capacitors: D3 . . . D6 incl. =AA119 Xi = 10 MHz quartz crystal; 30 p series resonant.
-CI =40p trimmer ICI =74HCT4024 PCB Type 880005 (see the Readers Services
Cz =27p polystyrene or styroflex IC2=733 or pA733 page).

Fig. 5. Track Itt)out and component mounting plan for the prescaler PCB. READ THE TEXT BEFORE FITTING IC4, Cu AND C14.
 EE
February 1988
Setting up
The setting up of the extended frequency
meter is fairly simple if a signal source of
10...40 MHz and 40...1250 MHz is
available. To begin with, set the clock os-
cillator to 10.000 MHz precisely with the
aid of a second, calibrated, frequency
meter.
Apply a test signal at a frequency higher
than 40 MHz to prescaler input A, and
reduce the generator output until the
read-out becomes unstable. Adjust P2 to
restore the correct read-out, reduce the
input signal, re -adjust P2, and so on,
until the optimum threshold setting is
achieved. The sensitivity of the
prescaler's B input is set likewise.
A carefully aligned prototype of the fre-
quency meter achieved a sensitivity of Fig. 6. Prototype of the prescaler board. Note the use of metal screens around the inpu
about 400 mVrais at 1190 MHz. sections.

Reference:

1" Multi -function frequency meter.

Elektor Electronics December 1987, p.
42 ff.

Fig. 7. Close-up photograph showing the screen around the Vills CH F input at the track side
of the board.

RF Communications Tester European system, selective call radios, according to a new study from Frost &
Solartron Instruments has introduced a DTMF phone, and pagers. The instru- Sullivan, IBM Telecommunications
portable RF Communications Tester, the ment is also suited to production test ap- Strategies (#A1789).
4031, which is intended primarily for use plications. The 'virtual desk' concept is a network
in service and repair of all communi- Outstanding features include a built-in that will allow 'any -to -any' communi-
cations sets, such as military or private spectrum analyser operating to 1 GHz, cation: any user, at any point in a net-
mobile radios, world-wide cellular radio eliminating the need for a separate in- work, can access information on any
systems, digitally encoded radio sets, in- strument, and a digital oscilloscope that other part of the network without
cluding Band III and, later, the pan- uses a 7 in (178 mm) screen for optimum having to know where the information is
clarity. The high -accuracy crystal, which physically located in order to ask for it.
provides one part in 107 accuracy within Of course, IBM hopes to make its own
15 minutes from power -up, is standard. systems network architecture (SNA) and
High input sensitivity, 2 pV, makes the system application architecture (SAA)
4031 ideal for off -air monitoring of basic to the business world's implemen-
transmitters for cellular and mobile tation of such a concept. As the study
channels. As well as many built-in firm- points out, with 755 to 80% of the main-
ware routines, a full IEEE 488 interface frame market in hand, IBM has already
is standard for automatic operation and established SNA as a de facto standard.
dowloading of results to a printer. A None the less, the concept is a major
microphone input is provided to enable change in direction for IBM, away from
voice-over testing in mobile and cellular its closed proprietary system to a system
radio applications. open to equipment and software from
Solartron Instruments Victoria Road many vendors. It is also an acknowledge-
FARNBOROUGH GU14 7PW ment that no single vendor can provide
Telephone (0252) 544433. all of a customer's needs.
IBM's goal is an architecture that allows
systems of widely different sizes to con-
nect into arbitrary networks, even if one
is a star, another a ring, and so on. The
IBM seeks ultimate network local area network (LAN) will be the ve-
IBM is about to bet its future on the de- hicle to do this, and IBM has given other
velopment of a 'virtual desk', that will firms go -heads to develop such products.
help push its sales to S74 billion by 1991,
 EE
54 February 1988

TESTMEX 1987
by Julian Nolan

Testmex 87, incorporating Itame, was LeCroy chose Testmex as the debut for pact Series range of scopes is their small
held at the excellent new venue of the its model 9100 arbitrary function gener- and lightweight design, the weight being
Business Design Centre in Islington, ator (AFG), which is capable of generat- a modest 6 kg. In addition to this, all
London. The timing of this annual exhi- ing standard or custom waveforms. In models have an autoranging timebase,
bition, which is dedicated to the test and addition to custom high speed wave- CRT readout, auto trigger level and
measurement forum, coincided with the forms, the standard waveforms, which delayed sweep facilities. The top two
Test and Transducer Exhibition at are- sine, square, triangle, pulse, ramp models of the range of four also possess
Wembley. That exhibition, as its name and DC, are available at speeds up to a cursor readout function. Trigger
suggests, also covers test equipment, but 200 megapoints/sec. holdoff is automatically adjusted de-
puts rather more emphasis on transducer Sine waves can be generated upto pending on the sweep speed once it has
products. 25 MHz, while square or pulse wave- been set at a reference level, enabling the
Textmex 87 had some 50 stands, rep- forms can extend upto 100 MHz. The stable display of a variety of complex
resenting nearly 200 companies. Prod- dual output of the 9100 can be summed waveforms.
ucts ranged from small hand-held meters internally to provide a dynamic range of
to sophisticated bench top ATE systems. up to 12 bits and provides unique wave-
Finalists in the Testmex Awards for form control in that the amplitude of
Innovation were Bristol University and any one portion of a waveform may be
Kingston Polytechnic. controlled independently of the rest of
it. In addition, the LeCroy is also
equipped with a 64 K point high speed
New products launched at memory, along with a 350 K point RA \I
Testmex disk. A software package is also avail-
Datron, who have now merged with able for IBM or compatible computers.
Wavetek, had on show their latest
Called EASYWAVE, it enables the easy Fig. 2. The Hitachi V-1065 Compact Series
DMM. Aimed at standards and cali- creation and manipulation of wave- scope
bration laboratories, the Model 1281 pre- forms. Typical applications for the gen-
erator include radar, sonar, disc testing, In addition to the Compact Series, a new
cision 81/2 digit digital multimeter is DSO was also introduced at the exhi-
reliably claimed to be the worlds fastest scientific research and communications
and equipment calibration. bition. The 1(:)0 MHz (real time band-
81/2 digit DMM, and incorporates
Siemens chose Testmex as the launch - width) VC -6165 includes a 100 MHz
Datron's `selfcal' internal calibration fa- sampling rate, 4 K of memory per chan-
cility. A number of novel features are in- pad for its range of PC -compatible in-
struments, which use any IBM or com- nel, cursor readout functions and an ad-
corporated in the 1281, along with a one ditional 4 K of battery backed RAM
year specification on DC and AC voltage patible personal computer as a display
device. A large number of software con- among its line up of facilities.
ranges of -5 ppm (10 nV to 110 V) and Thurlby Electronics had on display the
_90 ppm (100 nV to 1100 V) respect- figurations allow the user to make full
use of the various instruments which are competitively priced Kenwood CS8010
ively. DSO, featuring a 10 MHz sample rate,
available. In addition to this, a mouse
and program eenerator are also avail- cursor measurement and full triggering
able, enabling custom software to be functions among its characteristics.
written by non -programmers. The inter- Manufactured by Thurlby come the
faces which are available include a 51/2 DSA 524 and 511 Digital storage adap-
digit autoranging multimeter with a tors. The 524 offers a sampling rate of
sample rate of up to 500 times a second; 20 MHz, on -screen cursors and post -
digital calibration is also fitted as stan- storage manipulation of waveforms. A
dard. Three transient recorders are also storage memory of 20 K is also offered.
available with sampling rates up to
10 MHz. These also have a 2*32K signal
memory, a dual timebase and measuring
ranges from 0.1 to 50 V (B3140). A PLL
function pulse venerator provides the
Fig. 1. The Datron
waveform eeneration facilities of the
Selfcal Digital
Multimeter. range, with a frequency range of 0.05 Hz
to 5 MHz and VCO input and AM facili-
ties. The four other instruments which
Wavetek meanwhile were demonstrating are available include a scanner and
their 680 mainframe, which includes a counter/timer. The software supplied in-
controller and eight card slots. Four cludes a zooming function, together
cards are already available, the two with full sienal processing capabilities.
Wavetek designed cards being an ar- Hitachi Denshi were in evidence at a Fig. 3. The Thurlby DSA524 Digital Storage
bitrary function generator (10 MHz) and number of stands, taking the oppor- Adapter.
a 100 MHz timing generator. Available tunity to launch their new Compact
in addition to this are a DVM card by Series of 60 and 100 MHz real time Spectrum analysers were visible on a
Datron and a counter timer card, oscilloscopes with and without cursor number of manufacturers' stands, rang-
developed by Racal and based on their measurement facilities. Perhaps the most ing from a relatively low cost 20 kHz
1994. distinguishing characteristic of the Corn - FFT system to instruments such as the
 EE
February 1988
new Marconi 2383 100 Hz to 4.2 GHz 1.3 GHz measurement frequency, 9 -digit STC exhibited equipment ranging from
spectrum analyser. Possessing a total resolution (1 second), full GPIB control Coutant power supplies to Hewlett
level accuracy of ±1 dB to 1.5 GHz and and maths capability, the 1992 has been Packard computer systems. Also offered
±1.5 dB to 4.2 GHz, a 3 Hz resolution sold in numbers of between 8 and 12 is Hitachi's range of both cursor and
and excellent intermodulation perform- thousand to the US Air Force Logistics non -cursor scopes, ranging from 20 to
ance, the 2383 provides an impressive Centre. Worth an estimated f10-16 150 MHz.
specification. An internal tracking gen- million over five years, the contract was Tektronix demonstrated scopes ranging
erator is also available. The 2022C won against heavy competition from from their 50 MHz 2225, aimed prin-
10 kHz to 1 GHz signal generator was such companies as Hewlett Packard. cipally at educational and servicing en-
also in evidence with 13 dBm output Anritsu had on display a wide range of vironments because of its low cost, to
power, ±0.5 dB level flatness and low communication products, ranging from the 11400 series of 1 GHz (with suitable
carrier distortion: 100 front panel set- optical fibre test equipment to relatively- plug-in) digitizing scopes. Based on a
tings can be stored in non-volatile high -frequency FFT spectrum analysers, three -slot mainframe, these scopes
memory. with the interesting option of a
Telonic Instruments announced the
3- feature a large CRT, menu operation in
dimensional 16 -plane display. From the addition to a host of other facilities.
launch of a new GPIB compatible coun- same company comes the recently in- Currently, a choice of five plug -ins are
ter/timer running from 10 Hz to 1 GHz, troduced MG649A synthesized signal available, including a four -trace unit.
or 1 ns to 0.1 sec. Programmable func- generator covering from 100 kHz to
tions include frequency/period select, 2 GHz, with AM, FM or PM. Offering As already mentioned, digital storage
reset and start, plus transfer of measured and waveform analysis played an im-
excellent spectral purity, a reference os- portant part in the exhibition. Both
data. AC power supplies offering 2 to cillator with a very low ageing rate and Thandar and Thurlby offer relatively
280 V and 5 to 500 Hz were also given level flatness of ±0.5 dB, the MG649 is low cost instruments in this sector.
their first showing by the company. aimed principally at the research and Feedback's newly formed Test and
Electronic Brokers also chose Testmex to design sector of the industry. Measurement division had on offer a
launch a new counter/timer. The Philips Electronic Brokers, who act as
120 MHz to 1.1 GHz counter/timer variety of instruments from a number of
distributers for a variety of manufac- the manufacturers mentioned above. In-
gives high resolution counting and trig- turers, were offering instruments ranging
ger accuracy. It also includes a high stab- cluded in this is ITT's DSO which offers
from the new Hameg HM205-2 5 MHz a 2 MHz sampling rate along with a
ility MTCXO (mathematically compen- sampling rate DSO, to Marconi's
sated crystal oscillator) timebase option. number of additional features not
2380/82 spectrum analyser. Philips usually found on a run-of-the-mill DSO.
Rohde and Schwarz has launched its range of DVM, scopes and frequency
model SMX signal generator. With a fre- counters were also on show.
quency range from 100 kHz to Fieldtech Heathrow were demonstrating
1000 MHz, the SMX covers all fre- an interesting range of test equipment,
Conclusion
quency bands from LF to UHF, while in- including a portable low-cost spectrum The overall trend at the exhibition was
corporating IEEE 488 remote control in- analyser and various RF signal gener- towards that of ATE and in more general
terface, and RF overload protection of ators, including those of the synthesised terms towards that of instruments which
up to. 30 W. Fifty complete instrument variety. Also involved in the distribution possess some kind of acceptable inter-
settings can be stored in the instrument's of low-cost equipment are Flight Elec- face bus, such as the IEEE standard. In-
non-volatile memory. Output levels tronics. Their GFG-813 sweep function creasing numbers of DSOs and Digital
range from -137 dBm to +13 dBm with generator offers a 13 MHz frequency storage adaptors are now becoming
a total error level of < ±1.5 dBm down range, digital frequency readout and AM available at ever higher sampling rates,
to -127 dBm. and FM facilities at under £800. Flight and this was also reflected in the prod-
Electronics also manufacture a wide ucts.
range of educational and training prod-
Other products ucts, the 68000 and transputer training
A wide range of digital meters were systems being perhaps the most promi-
exhibited by Soar, ranging from a novel nent from the range of computer based
analogue bargraph only instrument to a products.
41/2digit, true RMS system. Keithley
also had on show a range of meters,
ranging from a conventional handheld
unit to a benchtop IEEE programmable
system instrument.
Racal -Dana's recently launched 1990
universal counter range was also in
evidence. With features such as a

Fig. 5. The Gould 4070 oscilloscope.

Digital storage scopes were much in

evidence at the exhibition, Gould offer-
ing a comprehensive ranee in terms of
price. Starting at the 1421 with a 2 MHz
sampling rate and repetitive sampling
capability extending the maximum
storage bandwidth to 20 MHz, the range
extend to units such as the 4074, featur-
ing single shot capture up to 100 MHz
and 4 channels (each with 400 Ms/sec
Fig. 4. The Racal 1990 Counter/Timer. digitiser).
 EE
56

TEr4 & MEASURING EQUIPMENT

The 3rd part of Julian Nolan's review of dual trace oscilloscopes looks at the Philips PM3050 and the
Kenwood CS1045 instruments.

Parr 1: dual -trace oscilloscopes (C)

Philips PM3050 The LCD provides a clear alphanumeric

The Philips PM3050 is one of a range of readout of all settings and is also back-
high grade oscilloscopes ranging from lit for operation in low ambient lighting
the 15 MHz PM3206 at £320 to, for conditions. This is particularly advan-
example, the new range of 400 MHz tageous for timebase, delayed sweep and
scopes. Other instruments manufactured Y -amplifier readouts, providing a very
bij Philips include logic analyzers mul- clear and unambiguous display. Its rel-
timeters, pulse generators, chart re- evance is increased for the timebase
corders and a comprehensive range of sweep time when in the x10 deflection
waveform analysers. Philips has a long magnification mode, showing the actual
standing reputation for the reliability of sweep time (down to 5ns/div) instead of
its instruments. The PM3050, which was the user having to manually multiply the
launched in 1986, is no exception to this, sweep speed by 10, thereby eliminating
selling in its first year to a wide range of any possible scaling error. An asterisk is
Fig. 13. The Philips PM3050 oscilloscope also shown on the LCD when in x10
both universities and companies such as
GEC. mode. Unfortunately, a non-volatile
The modern styling and unconventional on a par with that taken in more conven- memory is not used to store the front
appearance of the PM3055 are brought tional scopes. In some cases, however, panel settings 'and as consequence they
about mainly by its use of a LCD panel such as when changing the triggering (or are reset to their default value should the
and the use of 'softkeys' for the set- X, when in X -Y mode) source, the time instrument be turned off. This is 1V/div
ting of most of the operating par- taken to, for example, change from trig- for the vertical deflection coefficient and
ameters. An Autoset key is also pro- gering on CH B to CH A can be con- Ims/div for the timebase. Although
vided, allowing automatic setting of am- siderably longer than on most conven- there can be little doubt that the 'soft -
plitude, timebase and triggering func- tional. scopes. This is largely because key' system is easier to use and less am-
tions. These characteristics are com- CH B is one of five different triggering biguous in most cases than its analogue
bined with a Y -amplifier bandwidth of source options available, so that to counterpart, this cannot be said of the
50 MHz ( -3dB), a 16 kV tube and a change back to triggering on the A chan- speed of operation for the up/down
IEEE option for £845 (3055) or £795 for nel a total of 3 key presses are required. range keys, which can be significantly
the single timebase PM3050.

Antoset and `softkey'

functions
These two features distinguish the
PM3050 from other 50 MHz scopes and
are unique in its price range, being aimed
at providing ease of operation along
with increased reliability. The `softkeys'
convict of a group of 21 keys, which con-
trol n11 oscilloscope functions with the
exception of those which need to be con-
tinuously variable such as the trace pos-
ition, triggering level and hold off con-
trols. The state of these, some of which
combine up to 5 functions, is continu-
ously displayed on the LCD panel along
with the range settings of the three
up/down switches, controlling timebase
and Y -amplifier coefficients. The 'soft -
keys' replace all the usual rotary or slider
switches which are to be found on com-
parable scopes. On the whole, I found
that operation in term of time taken was Fig. 14. Internal construction of the PM3050
 EE
February 19881
Table 9. Specification

ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Line voltage: 100 to 240 VAC continuous
(SM power supply). Power 50 Watts (max)
Line frequency 50-400 Hz

MECHANICAL CONSTRUCTION
Dimensions: W 387 mm, H 146 mm, D
455 mm
Housing: steel sheet; chassis + front and
rear panels plastic
Weight: approx. 7.5 kg

Y AMPLIFIER ETC.
Operating modes:
CH A alone, CH B alone.
Inversion capability on CH B only.
Dual; alternate or chopped
CH A + CH B
frequency response 0...50 MHz ( -3dB) to
20 mV/div; 35 MHz ( - 3dB) to 2 mV/div
Risetime <7 nsec. (<10 ns below 20 mV/div)
Deflection factor 12 steps:
2 mV/div. ...10 V/div ±3%, vernier control
adjusts min sensitivity on 10 V/div range to
approx 30 V/div (fully anti Ow).
Input coupling AC, DC or Gnd.
Input impedance 1 M52/20 pF; Max input
voltage 400 (DC +peak AC)
Signal delay time approx 20 ns on CRT
screen.

X -Y MODE
CH A or B X-axis and Ext Y-axis. Bandwidth
DC to 2 MHz ( -3dB). X -Y phase shift <3'
at 100 kHz

SWEEP
Type: A:X-Y.
Sweep time 50 ns/div to 0.5 s/div. ±3% in
22 ranges; 1-2-5 sequence. Vernier control
slows sweep down by up to 3:1 :
Sweep magnification x 10; 4% -total error
limit
Hold off: variable upto 10:1

Fig. 15. Front vim of the PN13(150 $ith the trace and 1.C7) shun enlarged TRIGGERING
Trigger modes; Auto {bright line); normal,
slower, especially on the deflection coef- In addition to this, the microcontroller single -reset.
ficient settings when in manual mode. Trigger coupling: peak -peak. DC. TVL, TVF.
also incorporates other functions, in- Trigger sources: CH A. CH B, Line, EXT. (AC
For example, to change from a timebase cluding a menu facility in which the or DC). Composite (alternate).
speed of 0.5 s/div to 50 ns/div takes ap- functions of any one of the `softkeys' Triggering sensitivity: Internal <1 div at
proximately 5 seconds using softkeys, can be displayed in a step -through func- 50 MHz; external 0.15Vp-p at 50 MHz
while speeds of typically under 1 second tion sequence, without affecting any of
MISCELLANEOUS
can be obtained with a standard rotary the operating parameters that have been CRT -make Philips, measuring area
control. In practice, this may not be so previously set. A test routine is also pro- 80 x 100 mm, accelerating voltage 16 kV.
noticeable as it is unlikely that such large vided, which provides a 6 step visual test Compensation signal for divider probe, ampli-
changes in the deflection coefficients of Y amplifier, triggering and timebase tude aprox. 1.2 Vpp (±3%). frequency
2 kHz.
will be required, but the time required functions. Z modulation sensitivity: 2 V (detectable
may still be longer than that in its rotary intensity nodulation)
counterpart. Covered by 1 year warranty.
The use of a single chip microcontroller Y -amplifiers
enables not only `softkey' control, but PM3055, as PM3050 plus the following
The maximum bandwidth of 50 MHz
also a full Autoset facility. This function (-3dB) is only usable at sensitivities Trigger View -Frequency response
is increasingly being introduced into a above 20 mV div; below these a maxi- DC .. >50 MHz (-3dB), via Ext Ya, Yb.
range of oscilloscopes, although at pres- mum bandwidth of 35 MHz can be ob- Deflection coefficient 100 mV/div via Ext
ent the Philips PM3050 and 3055 are the served. This lack of sensitivity at higher input, 2 mV ... 10 V div via Ya or YB.
only units to incorporate it in their class, frequencies is rather disappointing for Horizontal display modes
i.e. 50 MHz and under £1000. The Auto - an oscilloscope in its range: some of its MTB, MTBI, Alt. TB, DTB, X -deft.
test function allows the automatic set- direct competitors maintain the full Delay Timebase
ting of both Y -amplifiers, timebases and 50 MHz bandwidth down to 5 mV/div, Time coefficient 1ms/1:J1v...50ns/1:fly in 1-2-
the triggering source. The total time re- although admittedly they do not have 5 sequence.
quired for one 'setting' is approximately the advanced level of control of the Expansion * 10 fastest sweep speed 5ns/div.
3 seconds, so continuous assessment and Error limit 3%
PM3050, nor several of its other
setting of the required and necessary facilities. Deflection coefficients range
parameters is not possible. Obviously, all from 2 mV to 10 V per division, the ver-
continuously variable controls, includ- nier control decreasing the minimum (con rinueci overleaf;
ing trigger holdoff remain unaffected. sensitivity to 25 V/div. Uncalibrated op -
 EE
58 February 1988

Table 10
Delay Timebase Multiplier
Resolution 1:10,000 Unsatis- Sails- Very
Error limit total 4%(* 10 magn.) CATEGORY factory factory Good Good Excellent
Delay time jitter 1:>20,000
TRIGGER FACILITIES *
Triggering (DTBI
Starts, A, B, Composite IA, B). Ext (DC or
TRIGGER PERFORMANCE *
AC), TVL DELAYED SWEEP FACILITY N/A
DELAYED SWEEP PERFORMANCE N/A
Other oscilloscopes available at under £1500
CRT BRIGHTNESS *
Rack mounted versions of PM3050 and
PM3055. at £995+ VAT and £1045+ VAT CRT FOCUSING. *
respectively Y -AMP ATTENUATION RANGE *
PM3206-Dual channel 15MHz bandwidth, Z - INTERNAL CONSTRUCTION *
modulation. 2 kV acc. voltage, sweep speeds
100 ns/div to 200 mstcliv: f350 -4- VAT
EXTERNAL CONSTRUCTION *
OVERALL SPECIFICATION *
PM3217-50 MHz dual trace, 2 mV sensitivity
to full 50 MHz I-30), dual timebase and OVERALL PERFORMANCE *
delayed sweep, automatic p -p triggering,
trigger holdoff. 10 kV CRT: £1325 - VAT
EASE OF USE *
MANUAL *
For an explanation of the table, see Elektor Electronics, December 1987, p. 33.

Table 9. Specification Table 10. Performance summary -

eration is indicated by a flashing `>' Triggering

sign on the LCD. Provision is also made Timebase
for automatic x10 probe sensing when The PM3050 is equipped with a wide The timebase can also be set automati-
used with the recommended PM8936/09 range of triggering features which in- cally by the Autoset control, with speeds
x 1/x 10 switchable probes which come clude peak to peak and composite, or ranging from 0.5 s to 50 ns, providing a
at f95 +VAT per pair. This enables the alternate sourcing facilities. The trigger- total of 22 ranges. A clear indication of
scaling on the LCD to be automatically ing functions are, like the Y -amplifiers the speed is provided by the LCD, which
divided by 10, minimizing any possible and timebase, under the control of the also takes into account the x10 increases
reading errors. Both Y -amplifiers per- microcontroller when in Autoset mode. in deflection speed which is brought
formed reasonably well for a scope in Perhaps not surprisingly, no great about if the X10 magnifier is operated.
this price range, possessing a dynamic benefit appears to have come of this, In Autoset mode, typically three cycles
range covering the full vertical deflection
however, as far as the automatic setting of the waveform are displayed where
capability of 8 cm at 50 MHz. Both the of the trigger coupling, mode and slope possible. The minimum timebase speed
risetime and base line jump were also is concerned. These settings are largely automatically set in this mode appears
within the specified limits at 7 ns (down user -dependent and inevitably set to to be 20 ms/div. Sweep speed accuracy
to 20 mV/div) and 1 small division (vari- their default values of p -p, auto and was well within the specified 3%, or 4%
able) respectively. Overshoot, ringing rising edge respectively when the Autoset with the x10 magnifier in operation.
and rounding were restricted to approxi- key is pressed. The Autoset function has Linearity is also good.
mately 1.4 small divisions p -p for an in- an effect on the triggering source in X -Y operation benefits from a versatile
put pulse of amplitude 5 divisions selecting either CH A or CH B, but not range of available sources: CH A, CH B
centred around the screen centre. One on the external input which might have and external, all of which can be in-
slightly odd cause of trace shift is the been useful. The LCD gives an indi- dependently selected and displayed in
graticule illumination control, which has cation of whether the scope is triggered any combination.
the effect of causing approximately 1/3 or armed in single shot mode. All other
small division shift if the graticule il- triggering functions, such as triggering
lumination is varied from zero to maxi- slope, trigger coupling and mode are CRT
mum. In Autoset mode, vertical deflec- also displayed. When both Y -amplifiers
are grounded, an automatic bright line is The PM3050 is equipped with a 16 kV
tion coefficient selection is usually ac- CRT which enables it to give a good level
curate, typically being set for a deflec- displayed irrespective of the operating
mode in which the scope is set, i.e. single of brightness even at its maximum
tion of 4 cm. One inconvenient but in- deflection speed of 5 ns/div. The high
evitable result of this is the need to set shot, triggered or auto. Triggering per-
formance was good; signals of over level of intensity also allows easily
the input coupling to AC, as obviously definable traces to be obtained at the
only the user can decide whether it is 100 MHz were displayed stably, while
the delayed holdoff control was effective same deflection speeds in bright of am-
necessary to view any DC offset which bient light. The focusing could have
may be present. The `softkeys' con- against most complex pulse trains. When
in peak to peak mode, the level control been slightly sharper, although it is per-
trolling the Y -amplifiers are neatly and fectly acceptable, especially at higher
logically grouped together opposite the thresholds are automatically set for the intensity levels. A small amount of
appropriate section of the LCD, and in- peak values of the waveform, enabling defocusing occurs if the intensity is
clude the usual alternate/chopped, add/ both the triggering stability of a normal altered by a large coefficient,
invert functions. In common with some p -p automatic triggering circuit and ver- necessitating an adjustment in the focus-
other scopes in this price range, only satility of the more usual auto mode to ing potential. Tube geometry was par-
CH B can be inverted, which, although be combined. One noticeable absence ticularly good with the minimum of bar-
not restricting the range of possible from the facilities available is that of HF relling and pincushioning over the whole
algebraic functions, could entail the and LF filtering.
of its area. Overall, the CRT's perform-
swapping of the CH A and CH B input ance was very good for a scope in the
leads. 'under £1000' price bracket, especially in
 EE
February 1988
the brightness sector of its performance of other instruments where required, at
characteristics. A graticule illumination a great saving in cost. The IEEE inter-
facility is also provided, although due to face is capable of controlling all scope
its very low level of illumination it is functions remotely, with the exception of
only really effective in correspondingly the potentiometer settings. This makes
low levels of ambient lighting, or for its use valid for a wide range of appli-
photographic uses. cations, such as ATE and production
line QC environments.
Other interfaces available include front
Construction panel memory backup, the PM 8998 at
The construction is perhaps the most £54+VAT. A number of output options
revolutionary part of the PM3050: it is such as Y -amplifier signal out are also
completely and
drastically different available.
from the more conventional oscillo- Fig. 16. The Kenwood CS -1045
scopes, which up to the PM3050's
launch dominated the 50 MHz market. should further help reliability. Obvi- Manual
A one-piece moulded plastic chassis is ously, many of the ICs are custom de- The manual contains information on
the basis of the PM3050, housing all signed, making the return to Philips of a setting the scope up, performance
components, including the CRT and faulty board essential. For this reason, characteristics and preventative mainten-
PCBs. This appears to be reasonably none of the boards is silk screened. The ance. All of these are covered in some
rugged, and in use should be as robust as PM3050 has been designed, however, depth, but areas such as applications are
the more usually encountered alu- with ease of servicing very much in not included, which, given the sector of
minium. Two of the oscilloscope's total mind: each PCB is easily accessible for the market the scope is aimed at, may
of four screws are used to keep the two the minimum of down time. A switch not be surprising. A service manual con-
steel covers in place, which are free of mode power supply is also a feature of taining circuit diagrams etc is available
ventilation slots. The PCBs, CRT and the PM3050, resulting in a weight of free of charge upon request.
other components are secured by a only 7.5 kg and enabling a non -switched
system of customized plastic clips and line voltage range of 100 to 240 VAC at
slots. This system of snap in components 50 to 400 Hz to be specified. Short IDC Conclusion
enables quick servicing, while appar- terminated ribbon cables provide the The Philips PM3050 represents a radical
ently not affecting the robustness of the vast majority of internal connections,
further improving the ease of servicing. new approach to the design of an oscillo-
instrument. The CRT and Y -amplifier scope in its class. Only time will tell
shielding are practically the only pieces Typical assembly time of the PM3050 is
20 minutes compared to 10 hours for a whether or not this new approach will
of metal in the scope; the extensive use increase the reliability of the instrument,
of plastic mouldings keeps the number conventional scope.
but on the face.of it, one must expect it
of mechanical components to an absol- to. Ease of use sis greatly simplified by
ute minimum and should increase the use of `softkeys' and the LCD, but
MTBF. Interface facilities this may be limiting so far as the speed
The instrument itself is constructed The PM3050 is unique in its price range of operation is concerned, which is
around 7 PCBs, all of which are double in that an IEEE interface is available as worth bearing in mind if large range
sided, enabling a clear an uncluttered an optional extra. This is external to the changes have to be made in situations
layout. The microcontroller, an 8052, scope, and is fitted by means of the 9 -pin where it would be innappropriate to use
and associated circuitry are mounted `ID' type connector provided at the rear the Autoset function. This in itself can
directly onto the front panel PCB, which of the scope. The external nature of the help to save a great deal of time com-
also houses the `softkey' switches, all of interface, which is priced at £349 +VAT pared to a conventional analogue os-
which are independently mounted and allows it to be used with a large number cilloscope, although it rarely sets the
ideal setting in terms of input and trigger
coupling. Despite this, it should still be
of a value, even if in some situations it is
restricted to an intelligent beam finder.
As a 50 MHz oscilloscope, the PM3050
performs well, the high brightness tube
being of particular benefit at higher fre-
quencies.
The PM3050 should fit a large range of
applications, from ATE to educational
environments and this has been proved
by the fact that its users so far range
from building societies to calibration
laboratories. Its particular strengths lie
in its ease of use, price/performance
ratio and construction characteristics. It
does have one or two minor failings,
such as its 20 mV maximum sensitivity
at the full 50 MHz (-3dB) bandwidth,
but on the whole its performance
equates with what can be expected from
a 50 MHz scope in its class. If the ease
of use and additional features, including
Autoset, are then added to this, together
with the IEEE capability, the instrument
Fig. 17. Detail of CS -1045 front panel becomes a good choice, whether its in-
 EE
60
February 1988
tended use is for the latest 007 film (the
PM3050 was used in 'The Living Day-
lights'), or a servicing application.

PM3055
The PM3055 incorporates a dual
timebase and delayed sweep facilities, as
well as trigger view. Both timebases have
independent trigger level controls. The
16 kV tube allows high levels of magnifi-
cation while maintaining a reasonable
trace intensity. Highly accurate setting
of the delay time multiplier is possible
because of the incorporation of the
LCD. Overall, the PM3055's additional
features should be well worth the extra
£50 for most users.

The Philips PM3050 was supplied by

Pye Unicam Ltd, York Street, Cam-
bridge, CBI 2PX. Telephone (0223)
358866.

Kenwood CS -1045
Trio, or Kenwood as it is now called, is Fig. 18. Internal view of the CS -1045
a long-established Japanese company
renowned for its products in the elec-
tronics sector, particularly communi-
ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS SWEEP
cation receivers and oscilloscopes. The Line voltage: 100, 120, 220, 240 VAC Type: A; A Sweep; Alt; A sweep (intensified
Kenwood CS -1045 is one of a new series 10%, externally adjustable. Power for duration of B sweep) and B sweep
of oscilloscopes, raneine in price from a 61 Watts. (delayed sweep) alternating: B; delayed
competitive £319 (20 MHz) to £1695 for Line frequency: 50-60 Hz sweep: X -Y.
the top -of -the -range 150 MHz scope. A sweep time 0.1 s/div to 0.5 s/div, ± 3% in
The CS -1045 is a 40 MHz, 3 -trace, MECHANICAL CONSTRUCTION 21 ranges, 1-2-5.sequence. Vernier control
delayed -sweep, dual-timebase oscillo- Dimensions: W 319 mm, H 132 mm, slows sweep down by up to 3:1; B sweep
D 380 mm 0.1 s/div to 50 ms/div, ± 3% in 18 ranges,
scope retailing at £695 A -VAT. Two high -
quality x 1/x 10 switchable probes are Housing; steel sheet 1-2-5 sequence.
Weight approx. 9.2 kg Sweep magnification x 10 ± 5% (±8% on
supplied with the CS -1045, as well as a
0.1 s/div to 0.2 s/div range)
set of spare fuses, covering the different Y AMPLIFIER ETC. Hold off; variable upto 10:1
line voltage options that are available on Operating modes: Delay modes: continuous delay, Trigger Delay
the instrument. CH 1 alone or CH 2 alone (Trig), Trigger Delay (TV line), delay = zero
The CS -1045 is a relatively small unit, Inversion capability on CH 2 only. Delay jitter: 1/20000
measuring 319 mm (W) x 132 mm (H) Dual; CH 1 and CH 2 (alternate or chopped
x 380 mm (D), although what it loses in (250 kHz)) TRIGGERING
size is made up in weight, which is Triple; CH 1, CH 2 and CH 3 (alternate or Trigger modes: Auto (bright line). Normal.
9.2 kg. A robust multiposition stand is chopped) Fixed (automatic triggering), single -reset.
CH 1 + CH 2 Trigger coupling: AC, DC, HF reject, TV
fitted, which also has the appropriate
fixing holes for an optional soft vinyl Frequency response: 0...40 MHz (-3 dB); frame and line.
15 MHz 1 mV and 2 mVidiv. Trigger sources: CH 1,CH 2, Line, Ext. or
probe pouch. These two features should Risetime <8.8 ns, (23.4 ns 1 mV/div to CH 3, Vertical (alternate)
prove extremely useful if portability is re- 2 mVidiv) Triggering sensitivity: Internal <1 div at
quired. Mains connection is by a stan- Deflection factor 12 steps: 40 MHz, External <0.5 Vp-p at 40 MHz,
dard IEC style socket; the line voltage is 1 mVidiv ... 5 V/div ±.3%, vernier control Normal mode
externally selectable from 100 VAC to adjusts min sensitivity on 5 Vidiv range to
240 VAC. approx 17 Vicliv (fully cw) -CH 1 and 2 only. MISCELLANEOUS
The CS -1045 has several features which, Input coupling: AC, DC or Gnd. CRT -make Trio-Kenwood, measuring area
Input impedance: 1 MQ/20 pF;max input 80 x 100 mm, accelerating voltage 12 kV,
although uncommon even on 'top -of - voltage 250 (DC -peak AC) Domed -mesh type.
the -range' units a few years ago, are Signal delay time: approx 20 ns on CRT
becoming increasingly popular, es- Compensation signal for divider probe, ampli-
screen. tude aprox. 1 Vp-p (±3%), frequency 1 kHz.
pecially on medium -price oscilloscopes. Z modulation Sensitivity 5 V (complete
In this case, they include 3 input chan- CH 3 only specifications blanking)
nels, comprehensive TV triggering on Sensitivity: 0.5 V/div ±3%; input impedance Vertical CH 1 output approx 50 mV/div into
both timebases and trigger holdoff fa- 1 M.Q/20pF. 50 2: frequency response 100 Hz to 40 MHz
cility. In common with several other Frequency response: 40 MHz; risetime 8.8 ns except on 1 mV/div and 2 mV/div ranges
ranges of oscilloscopes, a CH 1 output is Max input: 50 V(DC ÷ AC peak) (100 Hz to 15 MHz)
provided along with the more standard X -Y MODE Covered by 1 year warranty.
Z-axis input, both of which are situated CH 1 Y-axis, CH 2 X-axis; X bandwidth DC
on the back panel. The mounting of to 1 MHz ( - 3d81; X -Y phase difference <3°
these connections on the back panel is at 100 kHz
virtually common to all scopes, includ-
ing the CS -1045. I feel that this is a pity Table 11. Specification
 EE
February 1988
trace. Other features of the second
Table 12 timebase include the more common
Unsatis- Satis- Very after -delay and zero -delay functions.
CATEGORY factory factory Good Good Excellent
Performance on the trigger side was on
the whole good, triggering reliably on
TRIGGER FACILITIES . * the vast majority of waveforms. The
TRIGGER PERFORMANCE * holdoff control contributed significantly
DELAYED SWEEP FACILITY * to this, enabling irregular waveforms,
which otherwise may have been a prob-
DELAYED SWEEP PERFORMANCE * lem, to be stably triggered. An HF reject
CRT BRIGHTNESS * trigger coupling facility is provided, but
CRT FOCUSING * there is a notable absence of any such LF
Y -AMP ATTENUATION RANGE * function. I found, however, that this did
not seriously affect the unit's triggering
.INTERNAL CONSTRUCTION * performance, as it is sometimes possible
EXTERNAL CONSTRUCTION * to compensate this function by very
OVERALL SPECIFICATION * careful adjustment of the triggering
threshold. There is usually no delay
OVERALL PERFORMANCE * when locking onto a waveform in fix
EASE OF USE * mode, although on signals of approxi-
MANUAL * mately 1/2 div amplitude, delays of up to
about 10 seconds can be observed in cer-
For an explanation of the table, see Elektor Electronics, December 1987. p. 33. tain circumstances. This can usually be
Table 12. Performance summary corrected by increasing the vertical
deflection to roughly 1 div. A single
since in some situations these connectors width (-3dB). The third channel's input sweep facility is also available for non -
become almost inaccessible. impedance is matched to channels 1 and repetitive waveforms etc.
The CS -1045 has a comprehensive set of 2, so that swapping of x10 or x100 Timebase A on the CS -1045 covers from
functions, as can be seen from Fig. 17. probes across all three channels causes 0.5 s/div to 0.1 ps/div, while the second
As already mentioned, the CS -1045 pos- the minimum of trace distortion. No timebase, B, covers from a faster
sesses 3 input channels, 2 of which are provisions are made for an internal trig- 50 ms/div to the same 0.1 gs/div. Both
variable, while the third is fixed at a con- ger view, which would have been helpful these speeds are extendable to 10 ns/div
venient 0.5 V/div. The two main chan- in some instances. On the review model, deflection speed by the use of a x10
nels have a maximum sensitivity of it was noticeable that the DC balance on magnifier control. The error over the
1 mV/div, which is, however, only usable both channels was slightly out, necessi- deflection speed range of 10 ns to 20 ns
to a bandwidth of maximum 15 MHz tating the need for a readjustment of the is surprisingly', specified as ± 8%,
(-3dB). A sensitivity of 5 mV/div can horizontal position of the Y amps on the although on the review model these
be sustained across the full 40 MHz most sensitive ranges. A trace shift of speeds appeared to be within the more
(- 3dB) bandwidth. Input impedance is approximately 3-5 mm occurred during normal ±5% limit. Only timebase A has
IM4 at 20pF and should be of con- the warm-up period of about 10 min- a continuously variable sweep time/div
siderable help in observing signals from utes, making accurate measurements control. Incidentally, neither the Y -
very high impedance sources, especially within that period difficult. amplifiers nor the A timebase have un-
if a x10 probe is used. The performance The third channel can only be displayed calibrated indicators to show when these
of the Y -amps was good: the 1 mV/div in the tri-trace mode and not in- controls are in use. I found that this in-
and 2 mV/div ranges have a good re- dependently, but when the nature of itially led to one or two measurement er-
sponse up to 25 MHz, while still main- channel is taken into account, this rors where these controls had been used
taining a reasonable frequency depen- should hardly be important. In the tri- or for a previous reading. Horizontal
dent attenuation of just over -3dB. dual -trace modes the channels can either modes cover the timebase sweeps being
This kind of performance was repeated be displayed in chopped (f=250 kHz) or displayed separately or alternately and
across the rest of the range: the attenu- alternate mode, although only CH I and there is also the usual X -Y mode. These,
ation at 40 MHz (5mV/div) was inside CH 2 can be added or subtracted. coupled with the B timebase mode func-
the quoted -3dB range. The triggering The CS has a wide range of trigger func- tions, cover a comprehensive range of in-
range of the unit extends well beyond the tions, typical of an oscilloscope in its put possibilities from the standard
40 MHz Y -amplifier bandwidth, and it class. These include a fix mode, where delayed sweep and magnified sweep to a
is possible to stably trigger the main the unit is automatically triggered from triggered B sweep. An external accessible
timebase with signals approaching the centre of the waveform, and an alter- intensity control for the B trace would
100 MHz. Both Y -amps have a continu- nate channel triggering mode (or vertical have been helpful in delayed sweep
ously variable control, which can in- mode), which is vital for stable display mode, especially at the higher sweep
crease the maximum deflection ampli- of non -synchronized waveforms. Other rates. The trace separation control only
tude, from the calibrated 5 V/div to ap- features include TV line triggering on allows the separation of the B sweep in
proximately 15 V/div. To prevent any the second timebase (B), enabling the A the downward position and, while this
further cramping of the front panel timebase to be triggered on the frame helps to avoid any confusion over which
layout, only one channel is invertable. frequency, and perhaps displaying one trace is which, it is also slightly limiting
The third channel's usefulness is limited frame, while the B timebase is triggering in that often the A trace has to be repos-
by its fixed deflection factor of on line frequency, perhaps displaying itioned to accommodate the positioning
0.5 V/div, but this can be increased to one line of information. This section, of the B trace below it. The delay time
5 V/div by the use of a x10 probe, mak- shown on the A timebase sweep by a itself is controlled by a continuously
ing it useful for digital measurements. It bright spot, is selected by the delay time variable, fully calibrated, 10 -turn control
can also be used, for example, as a multiplier. When the correct section, over 0.2 to 10 times the A timebase
marker channel for both digital and such as a single line, has been selected, speed. The action of this is very smooth
analogue applications, when the band- the B timebase sweep can be displayed and consequently allows readings to be
width extends to the full 40 MHz band- on its own, centred on the original A taken very accurately, for example, over
 EE
62 February 1988
a pulse width measurement. Calibration layout is good and allows the unit's CS -1100A
accuracy is good, and there is the mini- range of functions to be quickly oper- Similar to CS -1065 + 100 MHz band-
mum of jitter. In most cases, the results ated. One minor point is, however, that width, 16 kV CRT, different physical ap-
obtained with the delayed sweep (T a some of the controls extend a good pearance: £1195 +VAT
few digits) typically corresponded to distance from the front panel, and may,
those obtained from a digital counter/ therefore, be easily damaged.
timer. The timebase performance is very The 31 -page manual is good, providing CS -2110
good, but it would have benifited from a particular emphasis on dual timebase Similar to CS -1100A + independent
maximum timebase speed of 50 ns/div, operation, with shorther descriptions of triggering of second timebase, il-
given the 40 MHz Y -amp bandwidth and the more standard operating modes. De- luminated push-button switches, 4 chan-
the wide bandwidth of the triggering tailed sections are included on a large nel capability, 20 kV CRT: £1395 +VAT
system. number of dual timebase applications
The Trio Kenwood CRT is of the 12 kV, which also include the appropriate CS -8010
domed -mesh variety, and produces a examples. No circuit diagram, or de- 10 MHz sampling cursor measurement
very clear and well focused trace, as can scription is given, but a service manual is DSO, 2k memory (8 -bit), full pen
be expected from a tube with a available separately. recorder facilities-will be covered in a
reasonably high accelerating potential. later review: f1195 +VAT
The brightness is also good, although,
when used in dual timebase mode, Conclusion
magnification rations of over 200 can be Overall, the CS -1045 is a highly specified
difficult to observe on the B sweep in instrument, and should meet most users'
average bright light. When, however, the present requirements, as well as their
unit is used in artificial light of fairly future ones. The delayed sweep facility is
poor brightness, it is possible to observe particularly good, and has some useful,
ratios of over 1000 times. Front panel if perhaps specialized functions such as
controls for astigmatism and also for the independent TV line triggering. Trigger
scale illumination are provided on the performance is also good over and
CS -1045. The graticule, which is fully beyond the stated Y -amp bandwidth.
marked with the appropriate risetime The CRT provides a fairly high standard
graduations, lights to a highly visible of performance, giving a well focused
amber colour on maximum illumi- trace at the vast majority of timebase
nation, making measurements in sub- speeds and magnification ratios com-
dued lighting conditions an easy task. bined with a reasonable brightness
A very sensitive Z -modulation input is range. One or two features, such as inter-
provided at the back panel; it has a nal trigger view or comprehensive chan-
typical sensitivity of +3 V for complete nel selection, are not included, and this
blanking to -5 V for a large increase in is worth considering. To sum up, the CS -
trace intensity. The CH 1 output is AC 1045 gives a good allround performance
coupled, providing a 50 mV/div output and is well worth considering.
and a reasonable degree of calibration
accuracy, enabling it to be used for The Kenwood CS -1045 was supplied by
voltage or frequency measurements, etc. Thurlby Electronics Ltd, New Road, St.
The output is also consistent over the en- Ives, Huntington, Cambs. PE17 4BG.
tire deflection range, in contrast to Tel. (0480) 63570
similar outputs provided by some other
manufacturers, where clipping occurs if
the total deflection exceeds approxi- Other scopes available under £1500 in
mately 6 divisions. A signal delay line is the Kenwood range
also fitted, enabling the viewing of the
triggering edge of most waveforms.
Internal construction is centred around CS -1021
four main PCBs, all of which are silk Dual trace, 20 MHz bandwidth,
screened and single sided. The compo- 1 mV/div to 10 MHz, 50 ns/div max
nent side is screened with the track sweep, alternate triggering, 2 kV CRT:
layout and this should prove a great help £319 + VAT
if any servicing is necessary. The number
of boards and external connections CS -1025
necessitates a large number of wire links, Similar to CS -102l + 6 kV CRT,
but I am satisfied that these will in no 20 ns/div maximum sweep, scale illumi-
way affect the reliability of the instru- nation.
ment, although servicing may be rather
time-consuming. The PCBs and other CS -1044
components are mounted on a steel Similar to CS -1025 +. 40 MHz band-
frame, from which the external casing is width, variable holdoff: £575 +VAT
also constructed. This should enable the
scope to be used successfully in a variety CS -1045
of environments. All components and Covered in review: £695 +VAT
presets appear to be of a good quality,
especially the mode and triggering selec- CS -1065
tion switches which have a light, yet very Similar to CS -1045 + 60 MHz band-
positive, action, providing easy oper- width, 5 ns/div maximum sweep+ wider
ation of the instrument. Front panel bandwidth probes supplied: £795 +VAT
 EE
63
February 1988

INFRA -RED HEADPHONES

A low-cost infra -red transmitter and receiver to put an end to the inconvenience of an ever too short
headphone cord.

The infra -red band around 950 nm is

ideal for short-range communication: no
permits are required, there is very little
interference, and active components for
transmission and reception are readily
available at reasonable prices. This
article discusses a frequency modulated
infra -red transmitter and associated re-
ceiver capable of covering typical "living
room" distances. The designs of trans-
mitter and receiver are fairly simple, of-
fering many ways for further exper-
iments in infra -red communication.
Readers interested in a theoretical
background to the subject are advised to
consult reference (".

The transmitter
Figure 1 shows the circuit diagram of the
transmitter. The design is based on only
2 integrated circuits: one for AF amplifi- Fig. I. Circuit diagram of the infra -red transmitter.
cation and pre -emphasis (ICI), the
other, IC2, for frequency modulation for the transmitter is conventional as
(FM) of the pulsed current passed shown in Fig. 2.
through IRED (infra -red emitting diode)
Di.
Resistors R4, Rs, Re, and capacitors C3 The receiver
and C4 form the negative feedback net- With reference to the circuit diagram of
work for the operational amplifier, and Fig. 3, photodiode Di conducts when it
provide a 6 dB/octave pre -emphasis cir- receives incident infra -red radiation. The
cuit whose roll -off is set at about base of Ti is pulled to ground at the fre-
3,000 Hz. The gain of the opamp is quency of the modulated IR signal from
defined almost exclusively by R4: a the transmitter. A parallel tuned circuit,
higher resistor value results in higher LI-Ct, forms a filter that can be set for Fig. 2. Suggested power supply for the IR
gain of the input stage. a centre frequency of about 150 kHz. transmitter.
IC2 is a voltage controlled oscillator The filter forms a low impedance for all
(VCO), whose central frequency, fo, is signals other than those at about period, the output signal has roughly
determined by the product (P2+R9)C6, 150 kHz, and keeps the base of Ti at twice the frequency of the input signals,
and the direct voltage applied to pin 5. about +2.5 V when no IR signal is re- while the period is directly related to the
In this circuit, fo is about 150 kHz. This ceived. phase difference of the input signals.
frequency can be set with the aid of P2 The received pulses are magnified in a 2- The output signal of N2 is applied to in-
in the absence of a modulating signal. stage, direct coupled transistor amplifier. tegrating and averaging network Rio -C&,
The modulation signal applied to the in- Gate NI, and anti -parallel diodes 114-D4, whose operation is illustrated in the
put of the transmitter is translated into a function as limiters to prevent overdriv- curve below the rectangular signals
corresponding change of the direct ing the FM detector. This is composed of shown in Fig. 4.
voltage at the input of the VCO, and so phase comparator N2, VCO N3 -N4, and The averaged output of the phase com-
results in a frequency modulated output low-pass filter RI3-R14-Cs. Gates N3 and parator forms the control voltage for the
signal, which is used for switching the N4 form an astable multivibrator, or os- VCO. The FM detector is a closed loop,
IRED on and off. cillator, whose output frequency is set by so that the VCO has its output frequency
The rectangular output signal of the the voltage at junction Rio -Rat. This corrected until the phase difference with
VCO is applied capacitively to switching voltage depends on the setting of Pi, respect to the received pulses is constant.
stage Ti. This transistor is switched and the signal at the output of N2. Fig- Referring back to Fig. 4, constant phase
hard at the VCO output frequency, and ure 4 shows how this X01kgate can work difference is achieved only when the
so pulses the forward current through as a phase comparator: the carrier pulses VCO signal and the received signal are of
connected IREDs between RI! and the are applied to one input of the gate, the equal frequency. The received signal is
positive supply line. Dimension Riz as VCO signal to the other. The output of frequency modulated, however, so that
follows (the value is given in brackets the XOR gate goes high when the inputs the control voltage of the PLL is, ideally,
after the number of IREDs): are driven with different logic levels. As a copy of the modulation signal applied
1 (120R); 2 (100R); 3 (82R); 4 (68R); the IRED, Di. The output power, .and, to the transmitter. In other words, the
5 (47R); 6 (33R); 7 (22R). therefore, the range, of the transmitter demodulated signal is available on junc-
can be increased by fitting up to 7 series - tion R13-12.14.
Finally, the 12 V regulated power supply this happens nearly twice in every Low-pass filter Ras -C9 forms the de-
 EE
64 February 1988

Fig. 3. Circuit diagram of the infra -red receiver. Note the use of CMOS gates in the FM detector.

emphasis network in the receiver. The

demodulated and filtered signal at junc-
tion Ris-C9 is applied to volume control
P2 and from there ,to integrated head-
4

05
=
phone amplifier IC2.
4111
The receiver is powered from a 9 V PP3
or NiCd battery. The latter has a higher 0 0 0
capacity, and can be charged from the 56 4
circuit shown to the right in Fig. 3. The
value of current limiter R17 is calculated g6 0 0 0
from 0 1 1

R17= 10(Ura-9.6) [Q] =, /MM.. .111, 1 0 1

1 1 0
where U-rg is the secondary voltage sup- 04
plied by the mains transformer.
Regulator IC3 ensures the stability of
the supply voltage for the DC coupled
input stage and the FM demodulator.
Current consumption of the receiver is
of the order of 10 mA.
87187-5a
Construction
Construction of the project is com- Fig. 4. A single XOR gate and an integrating network can work as a demodulator for FM
menced by cutting the printed circuit signals.
board shown in Fig. 5 to enable building
the transmitter (right-hand section) and soldering pins. Photodiode Di should of all the components, the absence of
the receiver (I e ft -hand section) as be fitted on soldering pins to ensure that short circuits and faulty solder joints,
separate units. its face is above the rim of the metal and the connections to the supplies and
The majority of parts on the 2 boards is screen. The receiver board can be fitted external controls, it is time to set up the
mounted upright to make for compact in a transparent Heddic enclosure Type transmitter. Power up the unit, and
units. Observe the correct orientation of 222. If an opaque enclosure is used, Di verify the presence of the voltages indi-
the transistors, diodes, ICs and electro- should, of course, be fitted in a small cated in the circuit diagram. Use a long -
lytic capacitors. clearance to ensure that it can receive the wave radio, an oscilloscope, or a fre-
The power supply for the transmitter is transmitted IR beam. The connections quency meter connected to pin 3 of IC2,
conveniently built on a small piece of of volume control Pi are soldered direct for adjusting the centre frequency of the
prototyping board. Provision has been onto the board, and the potentiometer is VCO to 150 kHz with the aid of Pi.
made for fitting 3 series -connected secured in the top panel of the enclosure. Apply a monaural line signal of about
IREDs in position Di: these should, of The photographs in this article can be 200 mVpr to the modulation input on
course, protrude from holes in the top used as a guide in fitting the completed the transmitter. Place the IR receiver
panel of the transmitter enclosure. transmitter and receiver in the respective 3 metres or so from the transmitter, and
The rectangle drawn on the overlay of enclosures. set CI and Pi to the centre of their
the receiver board corresponds to the travel before switching on. Connect a
dashed lines in the circuit diagram of the small loudspeaker or headphones to the
receiver. The lines denote a vertically AF output. Point the IRED(s) and the
mounted, 15 mm high screen cut from photodiode in each other's direction.
brass or tin metal sheet. The 10 cm long Setting up Peak CI and Pi in the receiver for opti-
metal plate is shaped as shown, and then After carefully checking the completed mum reception, increasing the distance
secured in the corners onto 4 grounded boards for the correct position and value in steps of 1 metre. Prototypes of the IR
 February

Parts list

TRANSMITTER. CIRCUIT DIAGRAM: FIG. 2.

Resistors I ±
Rt= 470K
R2;R3 = 47K
R4;Rs=4K7
R6= 33OR
R7 =3K3
Rs= 1K0
Rs:1310;R 1 = 2K2
- R12 = 120R; 0.5 W (see text)
Pt =50K or 47K preset H
P2 = 10K preset H

Capacitors:
Ci;C2=100n
C2;C4= 10p; 16 V
C3;Cs= 10n
C6= 270p
Cs=100p; 16 V

Semiconductors:
Di -,--L0271 (see text)
Ti =BC550C
ICt =LF356
1C2=NE566

Miscellaneous:
12 V power supply (Fig. 21.
suitable ABS enclosure. The IR transmitter and associated mains Prototype of the battery -operated IR receiver
Cinch socket for AF input. pcmer supply fitted in a small ABS enclosure. fitted in a transparent Heddic 222 enclosure.

transmitter and receiver had a usable Reference:

ranee of nearly 20 m. B "' Long-range infra -red transmitter -
receiver. Elektorlectronics November
1987, p. 36 ff.
Parts list

RECEIVER. CIRCUIT DIAGRAM: Fig. 3.

Rt;R2;R9=8K2
133;F14;R5=68K
R6;R7=6K8
Re;1114=1k0
fito;Rt1;R13=10K
Rt2=1M0
R15=4K7
F116=1OR
R17= see text
Pt =25K or 22K preset H
P2 = 50K logarithmic potentiometer
Capacitors:
CI =80p trimmer
C2=10p; 16V
C3:03;CI0;C15= 1p; 16 V
C4 = 47n
Cs;C9=10n
Cs;C2=180n
C 1;C13;C14= 100p; 16 V
Ci2=100n

Inductor:
Lt =33 mH; e.g. Toko Type 1811Y-333 (Cirkit
stock no. 34-33302)

Miscellaneous:
St = miniature SPOT slide switch.
PP3 or N1Cd battery (9 V).
Transparent enclosure Heddic Type 222.
Available from Emtek Electronic Products
Limited Unit 19a Industrial Estate
Stanton Bury. St Edmonds Suffolk IP31
2AR. Telephone (0359) 511155.
PCB Type 87640 (see Readers Services page). Fig. 5. This printed circuit board should be cut in two to separate the sections for the receiver
(left) and the transmitter (right).
 EE
66
February 1988

ELECTRONICS NEWS ELECTRONICS NEWS

New award for Electrex '88 the market lost 5% of its value in real expected to gain overall market share
exhibitors terms. over the 1986-91 period.
A new Supreme Award for Advanced
The report also highlights the Benn Electronics Publications Ltd
fast -
changing technological composition of Chiltern House 146 Midland Road
Technology will be added to the five the world market, with CMOS products LUTON LU2 OBL Telephone (0582)
existing classes of Electrex Awards for expected to account for 44% of the IC 421981.
Technical Excellence at Electrex '88 be- sector value in 1991, compared with only
ing held at the National Exhibition 23.5% in 1986. In the discretes market,
Centre, Birmingham from the 29th of the changes are less dramatic, but Op-
this month to 4 March. toelectronics and Power devices are both
The award will be made to the exhibitor
whose entry is considered to be of
outstanding merit in its use of advanced World Semiconductor Market (at constant 1 986 values & exchange rates)
technology. Products which might have
won the award in previous years include 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991
hydrogen -cooled alternators, the gate USS bn 30.7 32.9 36.6 38.6 42.1 47.4
turn-off thyristor, the gas turbine, fibre % increase 1.2 7.1 11.2 5.5 9.1 12.8
optics, and vacuum contactors.
Electrex Ltd Wix Mill House West Source: Benn Electronics Publications, Luton, UK
Horsley KT24 6DZ.

Removable fastener
A one-piece steel fastener that can be in- WORLD SEMICONDUCTOR M.-,rET
serted into electronic components as
quickly as a rivet and removed as easily 16 SIen.
as a screw has been introduced by Avdel. 17

The Rivscrew is a prelubricated threaded 16

IS
steel fastener that is inserted from one 14

side of the workpiece. Depending on the 13

12
application, installation equipment 11

ranges from portable hand-held power 6 10

tools through automated continuous - 5

feed systems to hydra multihead systems
which can place a number of fasteners
simultaneously.
The fastener is suitable for most small - 3

component assemblies since its radial ex- 2

pansion during installation minimizes

the risk of damaging the parent ma- 1955 1457 1555 19-59 1990 1991

terial. Made from zinc -plated and gold- 63Iu55 1770, Evan ESM 40759 t6N PLn
passivated low -carbon steel, the fastener
is not recommended for use where the
accepting material hardness is in excess
of HV580.
Avdel Ltd Mundells WELWYUN
GARDEN CITY AL7 lEZ Telephone
(0707) 328161. 1506 WORLD C 1.62R35_1 ISO!

World semiconductor market

to expand by 11%
A report from Benn Electronics, Profile
of the Worldwide Semiconductor In- tts841.

dustry 1987-88, forecasts that the in- 0021 "CC (. 100

dustry is set to expand at a rate of 11% wTrI, '11.1

n.cs w.< ("1I:
in 1988. This increase will take the total
value of the market to 536.6 billion, up
from $32.9 at constant 1986 values and
exchange rates. Growth will be highest in
the USA (14%), followed by Europe
(11%), and Japan (7%). For Japan, the
improvement represents a recovery from
the performance in 1986 and 1987, when
 EE
February 1988
67

APPLICATION NOTES
The contents of this column are based on information obtained from
manufacturers in the electronics industry, or their representatives,
and do not imply practical experience by Elektor Electronics
or its consultants.

SPEECH SYNTHESIS
OKI's Real Voice Series offers a continu-
ally expanding line of CMOS devices
that can brine natural sounds to appli- PIN DESCRIPTION
cations in Telecommunications, Auto-
matic Pagers, Telephone Answering
NIachines, Security Systems, Video VCK This pin outputs a signal whose frequency is equal to the sampling frequency
Games, PBX Systems, Personal Com- selected by S1, S2 inputs.
puter Voice Interaction, Training DO -D3 Data I/O port for the ADPCM data. For 3 -bit ADPCM data. DO input is not used.
Simulators, and many more. Ana/Syn Analyze/synthesize function selector. Controls data I/O port direction. When
Instead of a constrictive lexicon of words high, data I/O are outputs and simultaneous analysis and synthesis occur. When
and phrases delivered without expres- low, data I/O are inputs and no analysis occurs.
sion, system designers now have access 413138 Specifies whether 3 -bit or 4 -bit ADPCM data is to be used. High = 4 bit
to infinite vocabulary and tonal variety.
S1, S2 These inputs select the sampling frequency according to the table below.
Anything that can be recorded on tape
can be recorded equally well with the
NISM5218 Speech Analysis/Synthesis
IC. S1 S2 Sampling Frequency
OKI has managed to apply advanced L L 4 kHz (384 kHz196)
ADPCM telephone techniques to silicon L H 6 kHz (384 kHz/64)
for speech synthesis. Adaptive Differen- H L 8 kHz (384 kHz/48)
tial Pulse Code Modulation provides a H H Prohibited
simple, low-cost system for analysis and
synthesis of audio waveforms. ADPCM
compresses all audio data fed into the SICK Clock input for clocking in serial PCM data from an external ADC into the internal
system to 3 or 4 bits without compromis- 12 -bit shift register.
ing the waveform. In playback, the ADS! Serial PCM data input.
sound is simply recalled from memory, VSS Ground (0V)
reconstructed by the synthesizer, and fed
into a loudspeaker. SCON Output which signals the start of conversion.
There is also a playback -only version of SOCK When serial PCM data output mode is selected (DAS = HI, this pin provides a
the IC, the Type NISNI5205, which is, 192 kHz signal which is synchronized with the output of the serial PCM data
however, not equipped with an overflow through the MSB/SO pin. Each bit of the 12 bit PCM data will be valid before
protection. When, in the MSNI5218, all the positive edge of this 192 kHz signal.
12 PCM bits are high, the data overflow DAS Selector for analog signal output (DAS = LI, or serial PCM data output (DAS =
caused by any further analogue input is H).
rerouted as the MSB. In the NISM5205, T1, T2 IC test pins used at factory for testing purposes only. During normal operation,
a data overflow would cause all bits to be T1 is grounded and T2 is left open.
reset low, with the result that the output DAOUT Analog signal output pin.
is badly distorted.
MSB/SO MSB/serial data output pin - MSB of the data in the internal 10 -bit DAC will ap-
Sampling is carried out at 4, 6, or 8 kHz
as required by the user. The sampling pear at this pin if analog signal output mode (DAS = Li is selected. When serial
frequency is derived from a 384 kHz PCM data output mode is selected (DAS = HI, serial PCM data can be clocked
out of this pin.
crystal -controlled oscillator.
Handshaking signals are provided for BIN/TOC Specifies whether the input serial PCM data is in binary or 2's complement form.
synchronous operation with an external RESET An active high input which initializes the MSM5218RS internal circuitry. To be
analog/digital converter. effective. must be held true for at least One VCK time.
Power consumption from the single 5 V Xt, XT Oscillator inputs for a 384 kHz crystal or ceramic resonator
supply amounts to about 15 m\V VDD Power supply pin (Typical -T- 5V).
(NISM5218) and 10 mW (MSM5205).
OKI's newly introduced Speech Pro-
cessor IC, the Type NISM6258, will be
discussed in a future Application Note. Table 1. Pin functions on the NISM5218.
 68 EE
February 1988

32 PIN PLASTIC FLAT PIN DESCRIPTION

VCK S1, S2 These inputs select the sampling frequency according to the table below.
0- XT
NC S11 S2 1Sampling
NC XT
RESET
L 1 L 14 kHz (384 kHz196)
0t BIN/W:Z L 1 H 16 kHz (384 kHz64)
NC H1 L i8 kHz (384 kHz/48) 1

MSBfSO On H 1 Prohibited I

4813B DAOUT
S NC 48:138 Specifies whether 3 bit or 4 bit ADPCM data is to be processed.
S T2
DO -D3 ADPCM data inputs. For 3 bit ADPCM data, DO input is not used and should be
SICK
connected to ground.
NC DAS
ADS; SOCK VSS Ground (0V)
NC NC
DAOUT Output for synthesized analog signal. Peak -to -peak saving is proportional to Vdd.
SCON

Ti, T2 IC test pins used at the factory for testing purposes only. During normal oper-
ations, T1 is grounded and T2 is left open.
24 PIN PLASTIC DIP
VCK This pin outputs a signal whose frequency is equal to the sampling frequency
selected by the S1, S2 inputs.
VCK ver.
'Fr
Reset An active high input which initializes the internal circuitry. Internally, the reset
pulse is synchronized with the VCK signal. To be effective, be true for at least
D XT
twice VCK time.
RESET
Xt. XT Oscillator input and output for a 384 kHz crystal or ceramic resonator (Fig. 8)
Ds BIN/TOC
MSB/0 VDD Power supply pin (Typical 4- 5V1.
Ana/Syn
48/38 DAOUT
S Ts
Table 2. Pin functions on the MS\15205
S

SICK DAS
sr
ADS! SOCK

Vss SCON ST R065

1C OK
6
87106-3 ESET
-.7
S 12 3 4013
D
3 4013
Fig. 1. l'in-out of the two versions of the Ra
MSM5218. KOK

2
0
14 12 14 IS
KA KB 16 vm OR RES
5 Yoo
3 13
12 6 O _

6 4019 tt 5
IASI% 1.520541S

17- E XT 4 4
Os
2 41E4
S, s, \ T XT XT
F-7 ,6 Xi
1 213 12. 1611 77
364tHz

D- E E RESET 0-t--
E E VCK
2200- .":1-; 2239. 87106 - 10

02 E E Fig. 3. Circuit diagram of a typical NISM5205 to Centronics Interface.

t2 T,

NC E t1 NC

s1 9 Toi CA OuT

87106-6

Fig. 2. Pin -out of the MSM5205. MSM5205 to Centronics Timing Diagram

 EE
69
February 1988
4

CUTOFF FRED -4FSEL1151)

SELECT
FSEL 2(521
AUDIO IN 12 1
v 3 11
24.15 201
VccOAS
ast ill .44e/3a
ANA ON 4 ANA SYN
PilEAMP
v. v' -'081W9 14
15 07 -2. AOS1 TOO
0* OUT
LPF EIGNO 9
-cr AWND 8 10 1..5,45214AS 141S8 CUTOFF FRED

rC5 -
7
6
4
5
401 13
T.
T;
SELECT

5 6 XT T RESET VOX 02020, 0.S°CV:

17
CLK
,
4 7 CL.K
:1* 2203. 21 1 5 4 3 21 121 AUP_ AUDIO
13 INTR ONO LPF L,F!ER
NA 01 P%-5 4069 SPEAKER
t 11 9 12,-1
0-
11. - D.
384kHz 1.02
P.D3

11 4013
C
13 -
6

4013 l2
5

13
4011
1

in 4011
3
VC K

.9)1 0
S.
9)..
4069 3
4069
5
12 14081

4011 °
4011
5

916
4069 304 14
1c).2 3c>04 4024 1too
GND

HALT RUN
500kHz
SYNTHESIS (WRITE) ANALYSIS (READ)

125psec
VCK (8kHz)
ANA/SYN RECOMMENDED TIMING
FSEL1 2.4B/3B FOR pP CONTROLLED
SYSTEM
HALT/RUN
Data latched into5218 appro. 49 5psec Appro, 57 3µsec
Do - 01 Islnibble 2nd nibble 0::::0:41MMIIIIIM:0:0:0)(1112MTOD 2nd nibble
INPUT TO 5218 OUTPUT BY 5218 87106-9

Fig. 4. Circuit diagram of a typical application of the MSN15218.

Some useful OKI locations

COUNTRY COMPANY TELEPHONE TELEX FACSIMILE

AUSTRIA Burisch GmbH Vienna 43-222-3876380 132655 43-222-301643244
BELGIUM Betea SA Brussels 32-2-7368050 23188
DENMARK P. Petersen & Co Silkeborg 45-6-836211 63243 45-6-836383
EUROPE HQ OKI Electric Europe GmbH Duesseldorf 49-211-59550 8584312 49.211-591669
FINLAND Kaukomarkkinat Oy Espoo 35-80-5211 124469 35-80-5216641
FRANCE J-Tronic Boulogne 33-14-6216869 203073 33-14-6099992
FRANCE Europavia Palaiseau 33-6-9305050 692113
GERMANY, FRG Ultratronik GmbH Seefeld 49.8152-7090 526459 49-8152-7587
GERMANY FRG Intraco GmbH Quickborn 49-4106-72086 2180670 49-4106-72089
GERMANY, FRG Unitronic GmbH Duesseldorf 49-211-626364 8586434
GREAT BRITAIN Manhattan Skyline Ltd Maidenhead 44-628-75851 847889 44-628-782812
GREECE Digital Electronics Athens 30-1-5743815 222968
HONG KONG OKI Electronics Ltd 5-263111 62459 5.200102
ITALY De Mico SpA Milan 39-2-9520551 330869 39-29522227
JAPAN OKI Electr Ltd Tokyo 3-454-2111 J22627 3.798-7643
NETHERLANDS Nijkerk Elektronika BV Amsterdam 31-20-5495969 11625
NORWAY H. Schive AS Oslo 47-2-845160 19124 47-2-846020
PORTUGAL Digicontrole Lisbon 351-1-761161 62551
SPAIN Cioce SA Barcelona 34-3-257062 50089
SWEDEN Teleimport AB Stockholm 46-8-7617220 15372 46-8-7612011
SWITZERLAND Altrac AG Dietikon 41-1-7414644 56169 41-1-7411960
USA OKI Semiconductor Sunnyvale CA (408) 720-1900 (910) 338-0508 (408) 720-1918
 EE
70 February 1988

NEW PRODUCTS NEW PRODUCTS NEW PI

designs). Multilayer PCB images are eas- user, there is the advantage of being able
ily analysed and modified using the to use 15 inch paper.
Panel Editor's 24 trace layers and 24 Costing just £34.99 for the 8 K Epson
drafting layers. Another 12 layers are version and £44.99 for the Canon
dedicated to silkscreen, assembly, title, equivalent, the Comprint is clearly a
board and package outline, and pad and cost-effective answer for anyone wanting
via manipulation. to get more out of their Commodore.
A high-perTormance graphics acceler- Micro Control Systems Electron
ator enhances PCB image manipulation House Bridge Street Sandiacre
and provides instant graphics response Nottingham NG10 5BA. Telephone:
for even the largest and most complex (0602) 391204. Telex: 265871 MONREF
panel layouts of up to 64" x 64" in size. G.
The on -screen representation exactly
matches the final artwork produced by
the system. New range of products from
Cadnetix Limited Cherry Orchard Toolrange
Cadnetix introduces North Kembry Park SWINDON Digital multimeters:
manufacturing workstation for SN2 6UH. Telephone: (0793) 616400. The Beckman family of Circuitmate
fully integrated electronic digital multimeters is claimed to offer
systems design the widest choice of high quality test in-
Cadnetix, the leading CAE/CAD sup- struments. All demands are catered for
plier for electronic systems design, has from the hobbyist's call for an economi-
launched a new Manufacturing Work- cal yet reliable instrument, the labora-
station (MWS) which, for the first time, tory's need for the highest precision, to
truly links design with manufacture in the industry's demand for a virtually in-
an electronic systems design environ- destructable meter.
ment. The 3 latest models available from
The MWS is claimed as the first com- Toolrange feature manual ranging,
plete computer aided manufacturing AC measurement, a
(CAM) workstation available from a diode test fuhction and have a basic
CAE. CAD vendor, making Cadnetix VDC accuracy of 0.8%.
the only company to offer a complete The handy, pocket sized DM10 has 17
CAE/CAD/CAM solution to electronic ranges, maximum DC/AC Voltage 1000/
systems design. 500, maximum DC/AC Amp 200 mAdc.
Designated the CDX 60000S, the MWS The DM23 standard size has 23 ranges,
Printer interface for maximum DC/AC Voltage 1000/750,
is a 32 -bit, 68020 processor based,
colour workstation with 8 MB of RAM, Commodore computers maximum DC/AC Amp 10. It also offers
configurable with up to 12 MB and Micro Control Systems (MCS) has an- a continuity bleeper and transistor LFE
160 MB of hard disk storage. It incor- nounced an 8 K version of its popular test function.
porates the Cadnetix Panel Editor soft- Comprint buffered interface. The unit The de -luxe DM25L has 29 ranges and
ware, powerful post -processing allows Epson and Canon printers to be all of the features of the DM23 plus giv-
capabilities, and a Database Query attached to Commodore 64, SX64 and ing capacitance measurement and logic
Language (DQL) facility. 128 microcomputers. test.
The new Manufacturing Workstation A major drawback of Commodore's The DM10 is available at £32.50, the
enables panels to be created graphically range of 64 and 128 home computers is DM23 at £52.00 and the DM25L at
and data to be generated for a variety of that they feature a unique bus system £59.00.
manufacturing, assembly and test equip- and non-standard character set. The
ment, covering all phases of the manu- result is that these micros are completely
facturing process. By strengthening incompatible with the most popular
communications between CAE/CAD printers. MCS's Comprint device over-
and the manufacturing process, the comes this difficulty by being designed
IvIWS shortens product development around a code translator which, essen-
cycles and improves manufacturability tially, makes an Epson or Canon printer
whilst contributing to lower production behave exactly like a Commodore device.
costs. The printer interface is extremely easy to e"
In addition to use within an integrated install. Simply plug the Comprint circuit
Cadnetix network, the Manufacturing board inside the printer, connect the
Workstation accepts PCB designs from cable supplied to the serial port on the
other CAD systems through the Gerber Commodore computer, and the Epson
photo plotter format. or Canon machine is ready to run. New soldering station:
The MWS Panel Editor allows the The Comprint unit provides total emu- The Weller EC2000 soldering station is
system user to construct a multiple - lation as well as allowing access to all the claimed to represent the ultimate in tem-
image tooling area - or panel - for the other features found on fhese two perature controlled hand soldering
manufacture and assembly of one or printers such as condensed print and presently available.
more instances of a PCB design (or other typestyles. While for the business The EC2000 is electronically tempera-
 EE
February 1988
79

'8052 -BASIC cRi

microcomputer prototyping board
ELECTRONICS LTD OD
by MATRIX Systems WRITE OR PHONE
special features include:
* powerful BAS
Intel 8052.
-.terpreter in the ROM of an NOW
* on board EPROM programmer.
* up to 255 different programmes can be
FOR OUR FREE
stored in the EPROM.

* 2 RS232 ports, one for a VDU and the other

PINK
for a printer.

* 24 general purpose fro lines.

COMPONENTS
* 8 kbytes of static CM OS RAM.
* 8 kbytes of EPROM.
CATALOGUE
* on board switching regulators generate
+10, -10 and 21 volts. You just need a
simple 5v supply
* MATRIX prototyping space to build your
own circuit.
* decoded signals are provided for expanding
ifo and memory.
* 116 instructions including floating point
arithmetic.
'The 8052AM BASIC microcontroller ...offers air elegant and efficient way of writing
control programmes for computer based projects." Elektor Electronics Sept 1987.
The MX1 board costs £250 inclusive of post and packing
and £5 for just the hardocok
For full details write to MATRIX Systems
23 Grove Road, Leighton Buzzard, LU7
Telephone enquiries to Peter Cox -Smith on 0234-751001
Cheques with orders payable to MATRIX Systems

cosM
4306
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Telex: 914977
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1.988 BUYER'S GUIDE TO ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS
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VISIT OUR NEW

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