Circuit Cellar Ink 74
September 1996

Table of Contents

2 Ken Davidson	Task Manager The Windows 95 Convert
6	Reader I/O Letters to the Editor
8 Harv Weiner	New Product News
14 J. Conrad Hubert	Getting Started with Xilinx EPLDs The move from PLDs to EPLDs isn't a question of if, but when. In this article, Conrad shows you how to painlessly desgin with EPLDs. But, beware. If you're convinced, you might leave microcontrollers behind forever.
20 Craig Pataky	Getting Beyond the Box with Windows 95 Interfacing gadgets to the PC was easy until Windows 95.... Although user applications can't touch hardware directly, Craig shows us how to create helper programs that access any memory location or port. Download: BEYOBOX.ZIP
26 David Prutchi	Designing Medical Electronic-Device Prototypes Part 1: Design for Electrical Safety Safety enters a new dimension when you're desgning electrical devices for medical purposes. David looks at electrical safety compliance standards, using sample circuits to illustrate how to "get safe".
42 Bob Perrin	High-Resolution ADCs High-precision ADCs save corporations a lot of cost, but are far from a plug-and-play solution for design engineers. Bob goes over many of the gnats that determine which part is best for your situation.
50 Graham Moss Ross McMillan Ken Mardle	In-Circuit Emulators Part 3: Low-Cost ICE Wrapping up this series of articles, the authors look in on a specific low-cost ICE -- Philips' PDS51 emulator. Hardware, software, and specific debugging techniques offer ways to get around tricky debug tracing.
56 Ed Nisley	Firmware Furnace Tuning Up: Part 2: Zerobeat Firmware With integration it gets harder to figure out what a circuit is doing. This month, Ed takes a look inside Zerobeat's micro. He wants to know how the firmware is measuring audio frequency and converting it into a moving-dot LED display.
Home Automation & Building Control 64 Harv Weiner	Innovations in Home Automation & Building Control
Home Automation & Building Control 66 Chris Arndt	Do-it-Yourself Brain (Room) Surgery If you've wondered how to wire that new house, here's how. Audio, video, automation, telephone, cable, amateur radio -- every kind of wire imaginable combines in the central Brain Room.
Home Automation & Building Control 72 Jeff Fisher	Maximizing X-10 Where others insist X-10 is unacceptable, Jeff relishes in finding solutions. No feedback from X-10. Well, not exactly true if you take the right steps. Too slow -- again, not if you're careful how you program. Curious how he does it? Check it out. He has some very practical solutions to X-10's lack of reliability.
78 Jeff Bachiochi	From the Bench Nonintrusive Current Monitoring: Part 2: Real-time Energy Profile Last month, Jeff built toroids to check the current consumed in his home. This month, he puts them to work. Using a spreadsheet, he shares that information with us. Listen up if you also want to know where those kilowatts go.
84 Tom Cantrell	Silicon Update Oh Say Can USB? Even if you have long hair, the worst snarls are frequently not on your head, but on your desk -- at least according to Tom. He applauds industry moves to sort and simplify his desktop wires. He's all for USB.
81	Advertiser's Index
91 Ken Davidson	ConnecTime -- Excerpts from the Circuit Cellar BBS
96 Steve Ciarcia	Priority Interrupt Software -- the Real Generation Gap

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