November 2024

Ideal Diode Bridge Rectifiers

“Active” rectifiers have a much greater efficiency than silicon ones and consequently dissipate less power and run much cooler. This feature article shows how to construct six different types of active bridge rectifier that will meet many needs in terms of space and power capacity.

Multi-Channel Volume Control (Part One)

If you have a home theatre or surround system then you probably have to control six or more audio channels. This very sophisticated Multi-Channel Volume Control incorporates a 2.8” touchscreen that will enable you to optimise volume settings on your system. An IR receiver is built in and optionally a small OLED (shown) and rotary encoder can be added. RCA phono sockets are utilised for input and outputs. Our PIC micro-based design can be expanded to handle up to 20 channels. In Part One this month, circuit operation is described.

Teach-In 2024 (Part 9)
Learn electronics with the ESP32

In this final part of our latest Teach-In tutorial, keypad interfacing is described along with a practical application of a keycode-operated entry control system. There’s plenty of coding examples with expert guidance from our Teach-In tutors as always, in a series that ESP32 users will not want to miss.

Coin Cell Emulator

This sophisticated project will assist with the development and testing of coin-cell powered circuits. It uses a PIC micro and OLED display to emulate the properties of a coin cell, enabling a wide range of characteristics to be captured and displayed, so that you can get the most out of your coin-cell powered circuit design.

MG4 XPower – 12,500 mile Special Report

This EV feature is a special report on the MG4, with our Australian columnist reporting on the practicalities and problems of running this latest-generation electric vehicle from China’s MG Cars.

14-segment, 4-digit LED Display Modules

Reporting on a multi-segment LED module that can display alphanumeric characters and a few symbols as well. We show how to utilise one with an Arduino Uno or Nano.

Also in this issue

• The Fox Report – investigating the interesting development of ‘heat batteries’
• Net Work – celebrating 60 years of Practical Electronics, we look at the history of the magazine’s evolution, plus a British perspective on the UK’s involvement with the early development of the Internet that we know today.
• Practically Speaking – Jake Rothman warns of the risks of suffering a nasty electric shock from the residual charge lurking on some circuit boards.
• Max’s Cool Beans – a mega-sized chapter for Arduino users, looking at BCD numbering and displays.
• Techno Talk – Max muses about how much simpler life was in years gone by, compared to today.
• Circuit Surgery – continuing an in-depth primer on the topic of digital signal processing (DSP). This month, the subject under discussion is digital-to-analog (DAC) frequency response.

Next month

Secure Remote Switch – relay switching with up to 16 keyfob transmitters, and rolling code protection. USB-PS/2 Converter – use a modern mouse and/ or keyboard with legacy devices that utilised PS/2 ports. Multi-Channel Digital Volume Control (Part 2): construction details. Contents may be subject to last-minute change.