-=> Mike Ross said to Greg Mayman
 -=> about "LOOKING FOR A SCHEMATIC" on 12-03-04  10:05.....

 MR> That is a laudable goal because in the past most such magazines were
 MR> only really interested in the publishing aspects and the bottom line.
 MR> I still remember 80-Micro Magazine dropping their TRS-80 readers to
 MR> specialize in only the PC and their clones. This was a deliberate slap
 MR> in the face to the subscribers who supported the magazine from the
 MR> start. The same sort of thing happened with Popular Electronics when
 MR> it dropped most of the electronics hobbiest content to become
 MR> Computers & Electronics with very little electronics in effect.

It is such a shame when a magazine drops its proven format and
tries for something new. Sometimes it might work and attract a
new lot of readers.

But in the case of Electronics Australia's change to a coffee-
table magazine, they were already doing alright.

All the change did for them was to lose most of their old
readers, and not attract any new ones. They lasted for about four
monthly issues....

 MR> I recall many such articles in "hobbiest" mags had
"deliberate" errors
 MR> in the diagrams so as to discourage the DIY and entice them to order
 MR> the "kit" from the suppliers who were sponsering the construction
 MR> articles. The corrections typically only turned up in the 2nd or 3
 MR> issues later. Elektor magazine for one was great for their updates.

If the kits existed before the article was published, and these
kits did NOT contain the errors that were in the article, I'd say
you had a good case.

But in that case the magazine would get found out for their
falsification of the project, if anyone bought the kit before the
corrections were published in the magazine.

SilChip actively encourages the DIY builders, even to the extent
of publishing PCB layouts for the people able to etch their own.

And when someone brings out a kit for that project, they usually
use the magazine as the basis for their notes.

But occasionally, Silicon Chip publishes a project based on
someone's pre-existing kit. In those cases their article
faithfully follows what is in the kit. And they'll only publish
the article after they have carefully tested that kit for
themselves.
 
 GM> SilChip, and EA and ET in their time, all have (or had) a column
 GM> of submitted ideas that were passed on because of their apparent
 GM> worth, for the readers to judge.

 MR> Perhaps the daytime running lights chopper article was one of these
 MR> reader circuit ideas? But you say it wasn't?

It was one of their own projects.

 MR> However, the way I see it, switching about 5 amperes rapidly with long
 MR> wires attached to behave as antennas is a recipe for RFI.

It is fairly easy to filter the output line so the radiated RF is
at a level that it doesn't cause any problems.

The principles of filtering are the same as have been used for
many years in AC mains power supplies for electronic equipment.

The only difference is that the chopper frequency is higher so
the filter components are smaller.

   ,-./\
  /     \ From Greg Mayman, in beautiful Adelaide, South Australia
  \_,-*_/    "Queen City of The South"    34:55 S  138:36 E
       v

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