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Contents Vol.30, No.5; May 2017 SILICON CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Features & Reviews 17 Technorama – a Community Radio Station Initiative Did you know there are 440 Community Radio Stations in Australia? They’re always on the lookout for technical volunteers to keep them on the air – and they’re even providing assistance via “Technorama” – by John Maizels 18 Industrial Robots – coming to a workplace near you! Industrial robots can take over tasks which are too difficult, too repetitive, too dangerous or too arduous for humans – by Dr David Maddison 40 Micromite Tutorial, Part 3: strings and arrays It has become one of the great micro success stories – not just in Australia but around the world. This series will help you understand all the excitement about the Micromite – by Geoff Graham 48 Check your tyre pressures from inside the car Correct tyre pressure is vital but most people forget them! Now you can keep a constant check on tyre pressure and temperature inside the car, with the data sent by wireless from your wheels – by Leo Simpson and Nicholas Vinen 90 The latest digital hearing aids from BlameySaunders With this 1000:1 prescaler your frequency meter can measure up to 6GHz and beyond – Page 30 Keep tabs on your tyre pressures! Just look at the readout inside the car – Page 48 The Opus 96 represent the state-of-the-art in digital hearing aids. We compare them to earlier models – and hear the difference! – by Ross Tester Constructional Projects 30 Turn your 10MHz counter into a 6GHz+ counter If you have an old, low frequency counter (even in a DMM) you can dramatically extend its range – up to 6 gigahertz and more – with this neat little scaler. Instead of reading MHz, you’ll be reading GHz! – by Nicholas Vinen 61 The Microbridge: universal PIC32 programmer plus! Manipulate the PIC32 from your PC or program any PIC32 – plus you get a USB/serial converter. It can be used with many other processors including those on Arduino or Raspberry Pi – by Geoff Graham The Microbridge lets you program a PIC32 from your PC and also gives you a USB/serial converter – Page 61 74 New Marine Ultrasonic Anti-Fouling Unit Marine growth hates it – but you’ll love it . . . maximise the “out of water” intervals and minimise the growth of algae, weeds, barnacles and coral. Suits boats moored or berthed in salt or fresh water – by John Clarke 84 Micromite BackPack V2 with touch-screen and USB This revised version of the Micromite LCD BackPack incorporates the Microbridge (see above) adding a USB interface and the ability to program/ reprogram the PIC32 chip while it’s onboard – by Geoff Graham Your Favourite Columns 68 Serviceman’s Log Own a boat? Fitting an Ultrasonic Anti Fouling Unit can save you a boatload of money – Page 74 Getting sucked in by a vacuum cleaner! – by Dave Thompson 94 Circuit Notebook (1) Using the GPS Analog Clock as a 1pps signal source (2) Atmel-based digital clock and stopwatch (3) Using a CAN bus to monitor individual solar panels 98 Vintage Radio HMV’s 64-52 Little Nipper – by Charles Kosina Everything Else! 2 Publisher’s Letter    4 Mailbag – Your Feedback siliconchip.com.au 46 Product Showcase 103 Ask SILICON CHIP 108 SILICON CHIP Online Shop 111 Market Centre 112 Advertising Index 112 Notes and Errata New Micromite LCD BackPack V2 with touch screen – Page 84 May 2017  1 www.facebook.com/siliconchipmagazine