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SILICON SILIC CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Editor Nicholas Vinen Technical Editor John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Ross Tester Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc Bao Smith, B.Sc Photography Ross Tester Reader Services Ann Morris Advertising Enquiries Glyn Smith Phone (02) 9939 3295 Mobile 0431 792 293 glyn<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Brendan Akhurst Ian Batty David Maddison B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Associate Professor Graham Parslow Dave Thompson SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 003 205 490. ABN 49 003 205 490. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Subscription rates: $105.00 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see our website or the subscriptions page in this issue. Editorial office: Unit 1 (up ramp), 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9939 3295. E-mail: silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au Printing and Distribution: Derby Street, Silverwater, NSW 2148. ISSN 1030-2662 Recommended & maximum price only. 2  Silicon Chip Publisher’s Letter Incat’s world-class really fast ferries – designed and built in Tasmania Back in April this year I was fortunate to visit Incat’s impressive production facilities in Hobart, Tasmania, as the guest of Gary Johnston, of Jaycar Electronics. This was actually an extension of a trip with Gary and Dick Smith to attend the 35th birthday celebration dinner of the Historical Radio Society in Melbourne where Dick Smith was the keynote speaker at the event. That was a most enjoyable experience but the trip to Incat was a truly memorable bonus as we were given an extensive guided tour by the founder of Incat, Bob Clifford. While the article starting on page 16 of this issue attempts to describe the scale of the overall production facilities and gives some dimensions of the vessels that we saw being built, being on-site gives an entirely different impression. These vessels are huge. For a start, they are 32 metres wide; that’s over 100 feet in good olde Imperial units. This is the same beam dimension as ships which comply with the so-called Panamax standard, allowing them to – just – pass through the Panama Canal! Even standing outside these ferries really doesn’t drive home just how big they are. To fully appreciate their size, you have to walk the length of the ship on the various decks, particularly the one which accommodates the massive semi-trailers and which allows them to turn around at the end of the deck and drive back out! That these vessels are also designed and completely manufactured in little old Tasmania with a highly skilled and highly motivated workforce is truly gratifying. It shows that Australian companies really can compete with the rest of the world, in spite of our high labour costs and distance from the main markets in Europe. LEDs are now the overwhelming choice for domestic lighting If you have not recently visited some newly constructed homes or apartment blocks, you may not have realised how ubiquitous LED lighting in homes has now become. In virtually every new home, the standard lighting source is the flush-mounting LED downlight, designed to fit into a 90mm circular cutout in plasterboard ceilings. A typical 4-bedroom home could easily have 60 or more of these downlights. The once popular 12V halogen downlights and those horrible compact fluorescent lights have gone but so has any other form of incandescent (halogen or otherwise) and fluorescent lighting too. This is good from an energy perspective, because it means that the lighting energy limits in Australian building standards are now fairly meaningless. People can have as much lighting in their homes as they want, without worrying about energy cost, climate change or any limits placed on them by overbearing government regulations. That is not to say that everything about LED lighting is good – some of these fittings do generate a lot of interference and there is no indication when you buy a LED fitting that it might be a problem. Of course, you need not be confined to downlights for domestic lighting. There is now a LED equivalent for virtually every conceivable lamp shape and function with the only notable exception being those lamps exposed to high temperatures, such as those used in ovens. The only drawback with some LED lamps is that they may not be suitable for bedrooms and in living and dining rooms, particularly those that are cool white. Some people may find their light too bright and harsh. In that case, they would need to choose warm white for those rooms and even then, probably need dimmers in each bedroom and living room. And the old faithful dimmers which worked OK with incandescent may not be suitable, as we discuss in the article starting on page 24 of this issue. Leo Simpson siliconchip.com.au