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Ingenuity is our regular round-up of readers' own Oscilloscope
circuits. We pay between $16 and $80 for all material • 50MSPS Dual Channel Storage
published, depending on length and technical merit. Oscilloscope
We're looking for novel applications and circuit tips, not
• 25MHz Spectrum Analyzer
simply mechanical or electrical ideas. Ideas must be the
reader's own work and must not have been submitted • Multimeter
for publication elsewhere. The circuits shown have • Frequency Meter
NOT been proven by us. Ingenuity Unlimited is open to
• Signal Generator
ALL abilities, but items for consideration in this column
should preferably be typed or word-processed, with a If you have a novel circuit idea which
brief circuit description (between 100 and 500 words would be of use to other readers, then a
maximum) and full circuit diagram showing all relevant Pico Technology PC based oscilloscope
component values. Please draw all circuit schematics could be yours.
as clearly as possible. Every six months, Pico Technology will
Send your circuit ideas to: Alan Winstanley, be awarding an ADC200-50 digital storage
Ingenuity Unlimited, Wimborne Publishing Ltd., Allen oscilloscope for the best IU submission. In
House, East Borough, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 1PF. addition, two single channel ADC-40s will
They could earn you some real cash and a prize! be presented to the runners up.

HOT WIRE ANEMOMETER — Blowing Hot and Cold

+24V
The principle of the hot wire will try to maintain the state of
wind-speed indicator R2 equilibrium. In order to compen-
2k2 sate for low ambient tempera-
(anemometer) depends on an Output
object, much hotter than its am- tures, a second thermistor
R1 R3 (shielded from the wind), could
bient surroundings, being 470 470
cooled by an amount propor- Ohms Ohms 3 7 be arranged to offer a small
+ 6b voltage output of appropriate
tional to the wind speed. Here 2
are two - polarity.
4
simple methods by which this RTH 1 R4 How an LM317 variable
IC1
5k 1k
principle can be utilized. -t0
CA3140 regulator, IC1, could be used in
0V
The circuit diagram shown an alternative design is shown
in Fig.1a uses a self- Figure 1a “Hot-wire” principle in Fig.1b. To self-heat the
compensating bridge circuit Anemometer circuit thermistor in still air so that
containing an opamp IC1 and its resistance is 1k requires a
an NTC thermistor RTH1 (5k @ resistor R4 in value. Equilibrium +30V IN IC1 OUT +
25°C). On power-up, the opamp is then established, so that the LM317
VR1
output goes high, which drives circuit supplies sufficient current ADJ
220 Output
transistor TR1 (an emitter fol- to the thermistor to match heat Ohms
C1 + C2
lower) to feed more current into losses through conduction or 1u 100n
the bridge circuit comprising convection currents around the
resistors R1, R3 and R4 and the device. RTH 1
thermistor. 0V -t0 -
If the thermistor (RTH1) is
With the values given, the exposed to air flow, this results Figure 1b. Anemometer
thermistor self-heats until the in a proportional increase in the
value drops to 1 kilohm (at
formed from a variable
opamp output voltage, which regulator.
around 65°C) when it equals

Copyright © 1998 Wimborne Publishing Ltd and EPE Online, December 1998 - www.epemag.com - 112
Maxfield & Montrose Interactive Inc

|voltage across it of around 12V
and a current of 12mA. Hence,
preset VR1 should be set to just
under 100 ohms in value. The
regulator output is 13V in still air
and rises markedly when the
thermistor is exposed to airflow.
Input from R1
100K
regulator (Fig. 1b)
R2
100K
-15V D.C.
ME1
VR2
100uA
uA
10k
0V
Figure 1c Moving coil meter
display for the anemometer
of figure 1b.
A method of displaying the
output on a microammeter is
shown in Fig.1c, and it is also a
good idea to decouple the “still
air” quiescent voltage at the same
time. This “still air voltage” could
be nulled out from the
current by using a 15V supply, so
that the meter only registers the
“excess” voltage developed by
the airflow.
A.E. Whittaker,
Stone, Staffs.
INGENUITY UNLIMITED
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Copyright © 1998 Wimborne Publishing Ltd and
Maxfield & Montrose Interactive Inc
Ingenuity Unlimited
SOLDERING IRON “READY” INDICATOR -
RED FOR GO
The simple circuit of Fig. 2 … watts, where P1 is the
is suitable for indicating when iron power and Vs is the mains
your soldering iron has r.m.s. voltage.
reached its operating tempera- The circuit must be con-
ture. It may be used in
structed within a fully insulated
conjunction with any thermo- plastic box and care must be
static iron such as the Weller taken to ensure than no metal
TCP series, and it can even
be used with thermostatic R2
D1
100
irons that use a low voltage
power supply, and also
Ohms
a
RED LED
k
electronically controlled irons. MAINS R1 MAINS
INPUT 22 Ohms OUTPUT
The circuit is connected in
series with the mains supply to TO IRON
D2 5V6
the soldering iron. The LED 400mW
D1 will illuminate when the k a
iron is drawing enough current
to drop a few volts across re- Figure 2 Circuit diagram for
sistor R1. This means that the Soldering iron Ready
Indicator. (See text for
when the thermostat in the
iron switches off, the LED will component ratings.)
extinguish to indicate that the
iron is ready. The Zener diode
D2 protects the LED against mounting screws etc. which are
reverse voltages and limits the accessible to the user can be-
forward voltage to 5⋅6V. come live. Use
With the values shown, nylon mounting screws.
load powers of between 45W Jeremy Siddons,
and 60W are suitable. For Buxton, Derbyshire.
other powers, resistor R1 is
adjusted according to the
formula R1=1000/P Ohms,
where P is the power of the
iron. This ensures about 15mA
r.m.s. runs through the LED
when the iron is warming up.
For R1=22 ohms and an iron
of 45W, a normal 0⋅6W
resistor is fine.
Resistor power dissipation
is given by the formula …
2
P=
1
2 ( ) R1
P1
Vs
EPE Online, December 1998 - www.epemag.com - 113
 Ingenuity Unlimited

NOT JUST 0 AND 1

In the context of electronics, the term digital is often considered to refer to components or systems
that use just two voltage levels to represent two logical values (logic 0 and logic 1). Thus, a common
asumption is that “digital” always refers to a two-value set, such as 0 and 1, Up and Down, On and Off,
Open and Closed, and so forth.
However, “digital” does not necessarily imply only two values. In its pure sense, a digital value is one
that can be represented as being in one of a finite number of discrete states called quanta. For example,
consider a staircase comprising 6 steps mounted alongside a ramp, and also imagine a person sliding
down the ramp. The ramp-slider’s position may be accurately measured using a tape measure, or it may
be approximated to the closest step. In this latter case, we have a digital system comprising six quanta.

BITS AND TRITS

Today’s digital computers are composed of large numbers of simple logic gates. As fate would have
it, it’s relatively easy to create logic gates that can generate, and respond to, two distinct voltage levels.
For this reason, digital computers internally use the binary (base-2) number system. The term “binary
digit” is usually abbreviated to “bit.”
Some experimental work has been performed with tertiary logic, which refers to logic gates that can
generate, and respond to, three distinct voltage levels. The digits used in the tertiary (base-3) number
sytem are called “trits.” Working with tertiary systems makes one’s brain ache, so you can be thankful
that we’re not going to discuss this any further here.

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