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PRODUCT SHOWCASE 6/12V Automotive Battery Tester Just how do you check out your car’s battery? Unless you try to start your engine on a very cold morning you really don’t know if the battery is up to standard. And when that cold morning arrives, the battery may fail when called upon to do its job. TOROIDAL POWER TRANSFORMERS Manufactured in Australia Comprehensive data available Harbuch Electronics Pty Ltd 9/40 Leighton Pl. HORNSBY 2077 Ph (02) 476-5854 Fx (02) 476-3231 BassBox® That’s where the Model 50113 battery tester from Jaycar can be handy. It can check the battery’s state by monitoring the voltage with no load and with a 100-amp load, to simulate the loading of a typical starter motor when cranking the battery. As well as a voltage scale up to 16V, the unit has a colour scale which grades 6V and 12V batteries in terms such as “bad”, “weak” and “OK”, as well as having a scale which corre­ lates the voltage under load of a 12V battery to “cold cranking amps”. This is a measure of the battery’s ability to crank the engine when the temperature is under 5°C. According to the manual which comes with the tester, a typical fully charged battery at 5°C has only 40% of the capacity that it possesses at 25°C. In practice, the tester is connected directly across the battery and the voltage is noted. The red rocker test button is then pushed for 10 seconds and the reading on the scale noted. If the needle is in the red region, the battery is a dud. Unfor­tunately, two of the heavy duty batteries used in our lab were found wanting in this test; luckily we were not depending on them to start a car! The tester becomes quite warm after TES sound level meter Design low frequency loudspeaker enclos­ures fast and accurately with BassBox® software. Uses both Thiele-Small and Electro-Mechanical parameters with equal ease. Includes X. Over 2.03 passive cross­over design program. $299.00 Plus $6.00 postage. Pay by cheque, Bankcard, Mastercard, Visacard. EARTHQUAKE AUDIO PH: (02) 9948 3771 FAX: (02) 9948 8040 PO BOX 226 BALGOWLAH NSW 2093 90  Silicon Chip How quiet is your office or working environment? For the safety of your hearing you should not be exposed to noise levels of more than 85dBA for long periods at a time. Many factory environments are much noisier than this and safety muffs are regarded as more or less mandatory in such situations. Many other working environments are also quite noisy and are a cause for concern. Your own home can also be a hearing hazard, particularly with such appliances as food mixers and blenders, vacuum cleaners and even a load check, as you might expect because it has to dissipate something in the region of 1000 watts. For this reason, only three such tests are permis­ sible in a 5-minute period. The tester appears to be well made and is easy to use. It is available from all Jaycar Electronics stores and re­ sellers for $89.95. (Cat QM-1620). hair-dryers. Many of these can exceed 90dBA and you would be required to wear hearing protection under normal conditions of employment. And most power tools are exceedingly noisy. Want to check out your own situation? This TES 1350 sound level meter will do the job. It has a calibrated inbuilt electret microphone and a 4-digit liquid crystal display which reads in dB with either “A” or “C” frequency weighting. The TES 1350 has two ranges: Lo, reading from 35-100dB; and Hi, reading from 65-130dB. The meter response can be switched to slow or fast and there is a hold facility to catch noise peaks. In addition, there is an inbuilt oscillator which provides a reference signal for calibration. This is brought into play by setting the function slide switch to CAL and then tweak­ ing the adjacent trimpot to give a reading of 94dB. The other worthwhile feature of the instrument is that it has a 3.5mm stereo jack socket which provides two output signals for use with external equipment. One is an AC output with an impedance of 600Ω while the other is a DC logarithmic signal corre­ sponding to 10mV/dB. The unit is powered with a standard 9V battery with an expected life of 100 hours (using an alkaline type). The TES 1350 is available at $399 from Altronics, 174 Roe St, Perth WA 6000. Phone 1 800 999 007. If you are seeing a blank page here, it is more than likely that it contained advertising which is now out of date and the advertiser has requested that the page be removed to prevent misunderstandings. Please feel free to visit the advertiser’s website: www.emona.com.au/ Spectrum analysers from Promax The Promax range of spectrum analysers is available from Emona Instruments. There are three instruments in the range covering the frequency range up to 1GHz or with an option to cover up to 1.75GHz, which takes in the satellite TV IF band. Key features of the instruments are automatic selection of the optimum resolution bandwidth, switchable input impedance of 50Ω or 75Ω, indication of frequency on a 4½ -digit display, total dynamic range of 120dB and built-in calibration. They offer three vertical axis settings of 2dB/div, 10dB/div and linear Audiosound home cinema speakers detection. Measurement range is 15dBµV to 130dBµV. For further information, con­ tact Emona Instruments. Phone (02) 519 3933; fax (02) 550 1378. Audiosound Laboratories has developed three home theatre speaker system packages which include their new CE-1 passive equalised centre channel speaker with double magnetically shield­ed drivers. System One is very unobtrusive and uses the Audiosound space-bass system incorporating two subwoofers. The total package comprises seven loudspeakers in all for under $2000. August 1996  91 and the CE-1 for the centre. The main 8015s have received an Australian Design Award and this complete package is well priced at $1890. System Three is similar to System Two and the same price but uses the unobtrusive DM-1s instead of the Piccolos for the rear channels. Audiosound are also able to supply complete home theatre packages including Dolby Pro Logic receivers and large screen TVs to match. For further information, contact Audiosound Laboratories, 148 Pitt Rd, Curl Curl, NSW 2099. Phone (02) 9938 2068. Miniature DC motor can be sterilised The tiny front and rear speakers come with wall mounting brackets and can be colour-matched to order for a highly unobtrusive total system. System Two (pictured) uses the floor-standing 8015s up front, with their Piccolo system for rear channels Designed for medical, surgical and chemical applications, the Maxon RE 035 40-watt and 2326 6-watt DC motors can be repeat­edly sterilised in an autoclave. Dismantling is not necessary. They have ironless rotors and are intended for use in medical hand tools such as bone saws, drilling and milling machines, dental and der­m­ atological equipment, infusion pumps, therapeuti­cal assistance de­­vices, and KITS-R-US PO Box 314 Blackwood SA 5051 Ph 018 806794 TRANSMITTER KITS •• FMTX1 $49: a simple to build 2.5 watt free running CD level input, FM band runs from 12-24VDC. FMTX2B $49: the best transmitter on the market, FM-Band XTAL locked on 100MHz. CD level input 3 stage design, very stable up to 30mW RF output. •• FMTX2A $49: a universal digital stereo encoder for use on either of our transmitters. XTAL locked. FMTX5 $99: both FMTX2A & FMTX2B on one PCB. •connector FMTX10 $599: a complete FMTX5 built and tested, enclosed in a quality case with plugpack, DIN input for audio and a 1/2mtr internal antenna, also available in 1U rack mount with balanced cannon input sockets, dual VU meter and BNC RF $1299. Ideal for cable FM or broadcast transmission over distances of up to 300 mtrs, i.e. drive-in theatres, sports arenas, football grounds up to 50mW RF out. FMTX10B $2599: same as rack mount version but also includes dual SCA coder with 67 & 92kHz subcarriers. • AUDIO •soldDIGI-125 Audio Power Amp: this has been the most popular kit of all time with some 24,000 PCBs being since 1987. Easy to build, small in size, high power, clever design, uses KISS principle. Manufacturing rights available with full technical support and PCB CAD artwork available to companies for a small royalty. 200 Watt Kit $29, PCB only $4.95. AEM 35 Watt Single Chip Audio Power Amp $19.95: this is an ideal amp for the beginner to construct; uses an LM1875 chip and a few parts on a 1 inch square PCB. Low Distortion Balanced Line Audio Oscillator Kit $69: designed to pump out line up tone around studio complexes at 400Hz or any other audio frequency you wish to us. Maximum output +21dBm. MONO Audio DA Amp Kit, 15 splits: $69. Universal BALUN Balanced Line Converter Kit $69: converts what you have to what you want, unbalanced to balanced or vice versa. Adjustable gain. Stereo. • • •• COMPUTERS •to Max I/O Card for PCs Kit $169: originally published in Silicon Chip, this is a real low cost way to interface the outside world from your PC, 7 relays, 8 TTL inputs, ADC & DAC, stepper motor drive/open collector 1 amp outputs. Sample software in basic supplied on disk. •onlyIBM3 chips PC 8255 24 Line I/O Card Kit $69, PCB $39: described in ETI, this board is easy to construct with and a double sided plated through hole PCB. Any of the 24 lines can be used as an input or output. Good value. •• Professional 19" Rack Mount PC Case: $999. All-In-One 486SLC-33 CPU Board $799: includes dual serial, games, printer floppy & IDE hard disk drive interface, up to 4Mb RAM 1/2 size card. •PC104 PC104 486SLC CPU Board with 2Mb RAM included: 2 serial, printer, floppy & IDE hard disk $999; VGA card $399. KIT WARRANTY – CHECK THIS OUT!!! If your kit does not work, provided good workmanship has been applied in assembly and all original parts have been correctly assembled, we will repair your kit FREE if returned within 14 days of purchase. Your only cost is postage both ways. Now, that’s a WARRANTY! KITS-R-US sell the entire range of designs by Graham Dicker. The designer has not extended his agreement with the previous distributor, PC Computers, in Adelaide. All products can be purchased with Visa/Bankcard by phone and shipped overnight via Australia EXPRESS POST for $6.80 per order. You can speak to the designer Mon-Fri direct from 6-7pm or place orders 24 hours a day on: PH 018 80 6794; FAX 08 270 3175. 92  Silicon Chip analytical and dialysis equip­­­ment. Both can be vapour sterilised to 135°C and are pressure insensitive to 3.6 bar in 100% relative humiity. The 40-watt RE035 has a diameter of 35mm, is 71mm long and has an efficiency of 82%. The smaller 6-watt model is 26mm in diameter, 44mm long and has an efficiency of 75%. Both are easy to speed control and have a speed range from 0-11,000 rpm. For further information, contact M. Rutty & Co, 4 Beaumont Rd, Mt Kuringai, NSW 2080. Phone (02) 457 2222. Static RAM has on-board battery A new range of modules from Bench­m arq incorporate a static RAM with onboard battery, real-time clock and CPU supervisor and directly replaces industry standard 28-pin static RAMs. In ef­fect, the Benchmarq bq4830 provides non-volatile static RAM by combining an internal lithium battery with a 32K x 8 CMOS SRAM, a quartz crystal clock and a power-fail chip. It provides 10-year minimum data retention and unlimited write cycles. The bp4832 provides full CPU supervision plus the features of the bp4830 in a 32-pin package. It provides a watchdog timer, power-on reset, alarm/periodic interrupt, power-fail and low battery warning. The bp4842 has all the features of the bp4832 but is a 128K x 8 SRAM as well. For further details, contact Rep­technic, 3/36 Bydown St, Neutral Bay, NSW 2089. Phone (02) 9953 9844; fax (02) 9953 9683.