Optical Mixer

Mixing signals at different frequencies is common practice in many areas of electronics. Audio systems, communications systems and radio systems are typical application areas. With conventional frequency mixers, feedback capacitance can cause the signal sources to be affected by the output signal, thus making supplementary filter circuits necessary. The signals from the individual signal sources can also affect each other. In an optical mixer,...

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Simple Oscillator / Pipe Locator

Sometimes the need arises to construct a really simple oscillator. This could hardly be simpler than the circuit shown here, which uses just three components, and offers five separate octaves, beginning around Middle C (Stage 14). Octave # 5 is missing, due to the famous (or infamous) missing Stage 11 of the 4060B IC. We might call this a Colpitts ‘L’ oscillator, without the ‘C’. Due to the reactance of the 100-µH inductor and the propagation...

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Proximity Switch

This circuit is for an unusually sensitive and stable proximity alarm which may be built at very low cost. If the negative terminal is grounded, it will detect the presence of a hand at more than 200mm. If it is not grounded, this range is reduced to about one-third. The Proximity Switch emits a loud, falling siren when a body is detected within its range. A wide range of metal objects may be used for the sensor, including a metal plate, a...

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Phantom Supply From Batteries

Professional (directional) microphones often require a phantom supply of 48 V. This is fed via the signal lines to the microphone and has to be of a high quality. A portable supply can be made with 32 AA-cells in series, but that isn’t very user friendly. This circuit requires just four AA-cells (or five rechargeable1.2 V cells). We decided to use a standard push-pull converter, which is easy to drive and which has a predictable output voltage....

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Simple Relay Step-Up Circuits

Have you ever needed to power a 12-volt relay in a circuit but only had 6 or 9 volts available? This simple circuit will solve that problem. It allows 12-volt relays to be operated from 6 or 9 volts, or 24-volt relays from 12 volts. While most normal relays require the manufacturer-specified coil voltage to reliably pull the contacts together, once the contacts are together you only need about half that rated voltage to hold them in. This circuit...

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AM Modulator and 50W RF Output Stage

The circuit presented here makes amplitude modulation possible, and it also has the significant advantage that it replaces the somewhat exotic and quite expensive OP603AP output opamp with a standard type. Of course, this amplitude modulator can also be used with other models of function generator or for other purposes. As you know, the gain of an NE592 video opamp can be set to 400, 100 or 10 by means of an external jumper. Intermediate settings...

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13V/2A PSU For Handheld Rigs

This compact 13-V/2-A power supply for ham radio rigs and other VHF/UHF portable PMRs is based on the STR2012/13 voltage regulator IC from Sanken Electric Co. Many power supplies for handheld amateur radio rigs are based on the LM317, LM350 or even the good old LM723. Unfortunately, these regulators are invariably associated with a fair number of external components, while we should also consider design factors like total power dissipation...

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