Resource Bin

Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

selected reprints

Book-on-Demand self-published using the Apple IIe computer and the LaserWriter NTX. All graphics were done in their entirety by ProDOS AppleWriter 2.1.

i Resource Bin I

ii Resource Bin I

Introduction

In early 1992, the Nuts & Volts electronic shopper magazine decided to dramatically upgrade their editorial content and become a "full service" technical hobbyist magazine. Newly included would be construction projects and how-to info columns. Coverage would include the full spectrum of computers, communications, CB, ham radio, robotics, satellite and cable tv, antique collect1bles, home entertainment, surplus bargains, and hobby electronics in general.

So, I started up my ongoing Resource Bin series of columns. As with most of my stories, almost anything at all is likely to appear. But the main focus would be "places to get stuff". It turns out there are some really outstanding hacker resources out there. Many are very low in cost or even free. A lot of them are virtually unknown. And pinning them down can really get tricky.

I base most of my stories on things I find personally interesting, useful, amusing, challenging, or potentially profitable. The chances are pretty good that if I happen to like something, lots of others may also find the topics of more than passing interest.

Backing up the ongoing columns would be this collection of bound Book- on-demand published hard copy reprints. Along with a no-charge voice helpline at (520) 428-4073. Free access to the Synergetics Consultant's Network referrals is included. A special area on my GEnie PSRT RoundTable has also been set aside for direct use by all of you Nuts & Volts readers. Offered on PSRT are electronic preprints and one-on-one contact with other Nuts & Volts subscribers.

My PSRT RoundTable is also set up to become a forum for direct digital masters of printed circuit layouts, dialplates, and such. Which should utterly and totally revolutionize hobby construction projects, since you can now start with absolutely perfect production artwork, rather than a third generation copy of a copy out of a magazine. When combined with the direct toner printed circuit methods, you can now quickly and cheaply make your own printed circuit boards at home. Device independently, using nothing but your favorite word processor or comm program.

The Nuts & Volts subscription number is (714) 371-8497. To access GEnie PSRT by modem, dial (800) 638-8369. Type HHH. After the U#, enter XTX99005,SCRIPT. For a free pair of insider secrets brochures, you can contact me through my Synergetics helpline at (520) 428-4073. ✦

iii Resource Bin I

About the Author

As he said in his classic Incredible Secret Money Machine II, Don Lancaster writes books. And quests tinajas.

Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don Lancaster is the author of 28 books, 2 videos, and countless articles. These include his TTL Cookbook and CMOS Cookbook internationally published million seller classics. Don is considered by some to be the father of the personal computer, for his early ground-breaking work with hacker digital electronics and low cost video terminal displays. He is considered by others to be the patron saint of the Walter Mitties of the World. And by yet others as the¼ Uh, I guess we better skip that one.

Don is the Hardware Hacker in Electronics Now (516) 293-3000, runs his Resource Bin in Nuts & Volts (714) 371-8497, and is the Blatant Opportunist in Midnight Engineering (719) 254-4558. Don is also the sysop for GEnie PSRT, a leading Hardware hacking, PostScript, laser publishing, and money machine on-line resource. His Ask the Guru columns continue to be published electronically on PSRT. For fast GEnie modem access, dial (800) 638-8369. Then HHH followed by XTX99005,SCRIPT.

Don is also the head honcho of Synergetics, a new-age design and consulting firm that specializes in computer applications, laser printing, PostScript development work, electronic prototypes, Book-on-demand publishing, technical writing, and innovative software design. His avocations include firefighting, cave exploration, bicycling, and, of course, tinaja questing.

Don maintains a no-charge voice helpline at (520) 428-4073. He does welcome your calls and letters. The best calling times are 8-5 weekdays, Mountain Standard Time. Referrals to Don's Synergetics Consultant's Network are available through this same number. ✦

iv Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

selected reprints

Table of Contents

S . .tarting . . . . . off. . . your. . . . resource...... quest...... 1

F . .inding . . . . . unusual...... or . .outdated ...... integrated...... circuits...... 5.

H. . acker. . . . . friendly...... printed ...... circuit . . . . .alternatives ...... 9.

S . .ources . . . . . for. . .unusual ...... and. . . .interesting ...... semiconductors ...... 13 .

E. .xploring ...... labor-of-love ...... technical...... newsletters ...... 17 .

T . .he . . wondrous...... world. . . . . of. . electronic...... surplus...... 21 .

U . . nique. . . . . opportunities...... in . .auto . . . . electronics...... 25. .

E . .xploring ...... those . . . . electronic...... trade. . . . . journals...... 29. .

E . .xploring ...... PostScript ...... for. . .fun . . .and . . . profit...... 33. .

O . . ddball...... sources ...... for . . .just . . . plain. . . . stuff...... 37. .

T . .echnical ...... books . . . . .that . . . made. . . . . a. .difference ...... 41 .

S . .ecret . . . .sources ...... for. . .desktop ...... publishing ...... stuff...... 45. .

SFHETUO159229333741453715tartinoecretindinheechnicalxniackerddballurcespql owuerin oggsndr o friendloppofunusual gourcesso offbrPlabtho urcesoo ounusualusyoostScrirtunitiesoseks uryfr-wo o electrp thatorfresf-l orintedrldrpdeskt rto o andj utdatedvefusto urcemadeooinfr nic op technical electrcircuitfunautinterestinp lainqtradep uesta oublishinand intedifferenceo electr stuffnicalternatives jo pgnewsletters grratedsururnalso ogsemicfitnics pstufflus circuitsonductors Resource Bin I

Table of Contents

P . .erils . . . .and . . . pitfalls...... of. . patents...... and . . . patenting...... 51 .

S . .tarting . . . . . up. . .your . . . .own . . . .technical ...... venture...... 55. .

S . .ecrets . . . . .of . .professional ...... prototypes ...... 59. .

O . . pportunities...... in. . hacker...... robotics ...... 63. .

E . .xploring ...... ham . . . .radio . . . . publications...... 67. .

T . .he . . furry. . . . with. . . . the. . . syringe...... on . . top...... 71 .

R . . oyalty-free...... real. . . .PostScript ...... for . . .homebrew ...... lashups...... 75. .

S . .tarting . . . . . your. . . . integrated...... circuit. . . . . databook...... collection...... 81. .

R . . esources...... for. . . Book-on-demand...... publishing ...... 85. .

A . . .look . . . .at . .online . . . . . resources...... & . .opportunities ...... 91. .

T . .ools . . . for. . . electronic...... prototyping...... 95. .

A . . .look . . . .at . .electronic ...... collectibles ...... 99. .

M . . .aster . . . .Names ...... & . Numbers...... A1. .

I . ndex...... viii . .

vi Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number one

Starting off your resource quest

elcome to my brand new Nuts are trade journals. And trade journals tutorials, and specialty book sales. & Volts column. Our prime are where the ultimate action lies in There is also that oversize Thomas W focus will be in pinning down any field. Directly, trade journals give Registry of Manufacturers which can hard-to-find sources, ideas, reprints, you lots of up-to-date tech stories and show you pretty near everybody that hardware, software, and publications. bingo-cardable ads. Indirectly, they makes anything. But this tends to be But just about anything is likely to lead you to data books, catalogs, free overrated and is often out of date in show up. And probably will. samples, seminars, contacts, useful fast-changing fields. To make this much more than just a directories, and scads more. An extremely little known resource one-way column, I have now added a Many trade journals are sent free to that is almost magic: It is called the no-charge voice helpline that you can a highly selected group of insiders. Science Citations Index. Unlike other call at my Synergetics for possible help This usually gets done to qualify for a references, this one can let you move on nearly any tech resource topic. Or special controlled-circulation postal forward through time. Just start with for consultant referrals. Or for tinaja rate. You might sometimes qualify by any original "horse’s mouth" author. quests or for off-the-wall networking. using nothing but a phone call or a Any time a newer paper mentions Your best calling times are weekdays properly laser-printed letterhead. To them in a bibliography or footnote, 8-5 Mountain Standard Time. try, you ask them for a subscription you’ve got a more recent reference. I have also just added a brand new qualification card. Ferinstance, anything new on active Nuts & Volts Resource Bin topic to my A few examples of the electronic filters has to reference Sallen and Key. PSRT RoundTable on GEnie. Call (800) trade journals do include E.E. Times, Anything related to unfocused solar 638-9636 (voice) for local connect info. EDN, Electronic Design, and Electronic collectors has to reference Winston, The average file downloading cost on Products. A pair of fine mechanical and so on. PSRT is around twenty one cents. design trade journals include Machine You then use the new authors and You can direcly contact other Nuts Design and Design News. There are lots the avalanche effect to generate newer & Volts readers on this forum. You more where these came from. and more current references. can reach me via my [SYNERGETICS] To give you a further taste of the But the library resource that I’ve email address, once again on GEnie. incredible variety of trade journals, a found second only to my trade journal Among its hundreds of other files, I few I currently subscribe to include access is that… now do have my master names and Fire Engineering, Sensors, the Pollution numbers list up on GEnie PSRT as our Dialog Information Service #330 NAMENUMS.GPS. These names At two dollars per minute typical are also available in several of my NEXT MONTH: How to charges, Dialog might seem expensive ongoing Book-on-demand published find unusual or oddball at first glance. But, if used properly, reprints. And I have now got a free integrated circuits. Dialog is far and away your cheapest insider’s top secret resources brochure and fastest way to find out everything waiting for you if you call or write. and anything on any scholarly topic. Equipment News, Powder & Bulk Solids, From untold zillions of international Your best resource of all and Paper, Film, & Foil Converter. conferences and pubs. I thought we might start off with One ploy that usually works to pick Dialog gives you instant on-line the fundamentals of how to pick up up a copy of nearly any magazine or access to thousands of data bases. A info on anything. What is the single trade journal is the SCAR technique. tiny corner of Dialog is INSPEC. This most important resource for nearly Just ask for a sample copy and their can give you a paltry twenty million any Nuts & Volts reader? No, not an ad rates from their ad department. up to date references to electronic, oscilloscope. No, not a soldering iron. computer, and physics topics. You can Instead, it is a "magic" book that you Other library stuff also try MATHSCI and COMPENDEX. have probably never even heard of. There are several other obscure For instance, from just knowing the It is known as Uhlricht’s Periodicals library tools that you just might find two words "magnetic refrigeration" to Dictionary and you can find it on the useful. The Encyclopedia of Associations having the two dozen key abstracts in reference shelf of your local library. shows who is doing what in your field hand took only twelve minutes and What Uhlricht’s does for you is list of interest. Many of the groups listed only cost me $24. This in an explosive 50,000 or so magazines. Many of these will also have trade shows, seminars, and highly secretive new field that is

February 1992 / Resource Bin I 1 local librarian. The costs for all of the stocking all of the best tech books in a new from manuals and reference materials get narrow field. From all the available out of hand otherwise. And carefully publishers in the field. DON LANCASTER worded searches can easily save you For instance, Lindsay Publications ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK lots of big bucks. can’t be beat for their machine shop The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog Dialog has now introduced their reprints and early radio titles. The op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active quarter price late evening rate. At $25 MIX Bookshelf is far and away the best filters. De-mystified instant designs. $19.50 per hour, this is only somewhat more place to go for electronic music info. expensive than many of the other BBS For automotive electronics, it’s SAE. CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS services. Dialog is also available on For off-the-wall and utterly bizarre Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two CD ROM. Check your local university perpetual motion and free energy books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. for more access details. stuff, High Energy Enterprises. About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. Or, for one of the very few walk-in Getting reprints bookstores in the world that has an INCREDIBLE SECRET I get dozens of calls a week from unlisted address, try Singing Wind for people living in "such a remote area" Southwest literature, lost mine lore, MONEY MACHINE II that they "just can’t find" any way to and assorted eclectic arcania. Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 get a reprint on any technical info. Well, maybe one hint. Go north on Since two of these "remote areas" have Ocotillo road out of Benson, Arizona included Cambridge MA and Palo until it feels about right. Then hang LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY Alto CA, I’ve decided there are those right just past the seventh cow. Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes of you out there who couldn’t find a Here at my own Synergetics, I try to the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly pig in a dishpan. stock autographed copies of all my revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and In reality, it is trivial to pick up any books and reprints, along with only those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 reprint from anywhere. I’m sitting the best of PostScript titles from other here on my sand dune smack in the leading authors. LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES middle of the Upper Sonoran desert, Your trick, of course, is to collect all ...... Ask the Guru I or II or III $24.50 and have never had any trouble at all of these specialty bookstore catalogs ...... Hardware Hacker II or III $24.50 getting reprints on anything from and mailings ahead of time. Your own ...... Book-on-Demand Resource Kit $39.50 anywhere. Even for research literally resource files should always be your ...... PostScript Beginner Stuff $39.50 ...... Intro to PostScript Video $39.50 done up on wilderness fire towers or first place to look...... GEnie PSRT Sampler $29.50 even underground by carbide light...... PostScript Reference II $28.50 So please don’t give me any of this Networking ...... PostScript Tutorial/Cookbook $16.50 ...... Whole works (all PostScript) $349.50 "remote" bull. Networking is simply asking others ...... PostScript Secrets Brochure FREE There are three useful sources for for help. These can be real people in ...... Hacking Secrets Brochure FREE reprints. These vary bunches in speed the case of work associates, technical and price. Your cheapest usually gets hotlines, community college courses, POSTSCRIPT SECRETS called the Interlibrary Loan Service and ham radio clubs, or computer user A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free is available at any library. All you groups. Local or national. fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, have to do is ask. Or you can pick the electronic BBS workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 The best all-around reprint source route. There are tens of thousands of is UMI, who used to call themselves electronic bulletin boards up today. University Microfilms. They stock one With general or special interests that BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I each of everything. You do, of course, can apply to pretty near anything or The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering columns. Includes the case against patents, book have to know the exact journal, page anyone. These are by far the fastest on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm numbers, and author. and cheapest way to link yourself up stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 Finally, you can get many reprints with experts in just about any field, directly from Dialog, either instantly technical or otherwise. FREE SAMPLES on line or in a few days via fax or There are four electronic boards Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on mail. But this costs more than UMI. which are head and shoulders above GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. the rest. The first two of these are The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 Technical books cents. Call (800) 638-9636 for connect info. GEnie and CompuServe. GEnie alone FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA / MC Technical books place a very distant has nearly 125,000 files and programs third behind all the trade journals and available for your downloading at SYNERGETICS Dialog. But these certainly can be a costs averaging around twenty one Box 809-NV valuable resource. As you may have cents each. Thatcher, AZ 85552 noticed, libraries tend to only have Besides my own PSRT RoundTable (520) 428-4073 older and usually non-paperbound on GEnie, other areas here that you texts. And mall storefronts having a will find of more than passing interest "bookstore" sign in front of them often do include MAC, IBM, RADIO (for its as much as fifty times more efficient end up less than useless. useful tech downloads), HOSB (for than conventional refrigeration. Instead, you want to keep your eyes home office and small business) and While you can subscribe to Dialog out for obscure specialty direct mail DTP (for desktop publishing). There yourself, it is usually much faster and bookstores. Who, for one reason or are many hundreds more. cheaper to work closely with your another, have some vested interest in A third superb BBS is The Well. This

2 February 1992/ Resource Bin I online Whole Earth offering is now very heavy into the areas of alternate energy, small-is-beautiful, and similar IMPORTANT RESEARCH RESOURCES right livelyhood topics. And finally there is UseNet, which CompuServe High Energy Enterprises SAE forms the greatest piracy cove in the 5000 Arlington Center Blvd. PO Box 5636 400 Commonwealth Drive known universe. The time from when Columbus, OH 43220 Security, CO 80931 Warrendale, PA 15096 someone decides to keep some code a (800) 848-8199 (719) 475-0918 (412) 776-4841 secret till the time a fully decrypted, Design News Inspec/IEEE Sensors explained, and the greatly improved 44 Cook Street, #210 445 Hoes Lane 174 Concord Street Denver, CO 80206 Piscataway, NJ 08855 Peterborough, NH 03458 version appears on UseNet is usually (303) 388-4511 (908) 981-0060 (603) 924-9631 measured in nanoseconds. In several Dialog Info Service Lindsay Publications Singing Wind cases, the response time clearly has 3460 Hillview Avenue PO Box 538 Ocotillo Road, Box 2197 exceeded the speed of light. To gain Palo Alto, CA 94304 Bradley, IL 60915 Benson, AZ 85602 free UseNet access, you will have to (415) 858-2700 (815) 468-3668 (520) 586-2425 ask around at your local university. EDN Magazine Machine Design Synergetics UNIX-based UseNet is also known as 275 Washington Street 1100 Superior Avenue Box 809 Anarchy 101 among its denizens. Newton, MA 02158 Cleveland, OH 44144 Thatcher, AZ 85552 (617) 964-3030 (216) 696-7000 (520) 428-4073 Two magazines EE Times Midnight Engineering Thomas Registry There is at least one magazine set 600 Community Drive 111 E Drake Road #7041 1 Penn Plaza Manhassat, NY 11030 Ft Collins, CO 80525 New York, NY 10119 up specifically for new computer and (516) 365-4600 (303) 491-9092 (800) 222-7900 technical startups. This is Midnight Electronic Design MIX Bookshelf Uhlricht's Dictionary Engineering. You’ll find bunches of 611 Route #46 West 6400 Hollis Street #12 1180 Americas Avenue stuff here that is flat out not covered Hasbrouck Ht, NJ 07604 Emeryville, CA 94608 New York, NY 10016 elsewhere on the perils and pitfalls of (201) 393-6060 (800) 233-9604 (212) 916-1600 any new product development and Electronic Products Paper, Film & Foil UMI introduction. Free sample copies are 645 Stewart Avenue 29 N. Wacker Drive 300 North Zeeb Road available on request. Garden City, NY 11530 Chicago, IL 60606 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 I do author my Blatant Opportunist (516) 227-1300 (312) 762-2802 (800) 521-3044 column here which looks at emerging Encyc. of Associations Polution Equipt. News The WELL technical happenings suitable for any 835 Penobscot Bldg. 8650 Babcock Blvd 27 Gate Five Road Detroit, MI 48226 Pittsburgh, PA 15237 Sausalito, CA 94965 small scale startups. (313) 961-2242 (412) 364-5366 (415) 332-4355 A second quarterly journal that no GEnie Power & Bulk Solids Whole Earth Review researcher can afford to be without is 401 N. Washington Street PO Box 640 27 Gate Five Road the Whole Earth Review. Their original Rockville, MD 20850 Morris Plains, NJ 07950 Sausalito, CA 94965 "access to tools" charter remains alive (800) 638-9636 (201) 292-5100 (415) 332-1716 and well after several decades of their outstanding reporting. And just about an essential tool itself. Just do remember that sincerity is If possible, include a catalog or put everything. Once you have that faked, me on their mailing list. Do be sure to Establishing credibility all else follows. send your written entries to me at the The deck gets very much stacked I’ve gathered most of our resources address below, and not to the Nuts & against independent and small scale together into a new Names & Numbers Volts editorial. research to start with. So you certainly sidebar. Be sure to check here before As with most of my contests, your don’t want to make things any worse calling our technical hotline. chances of winning something are than they already are. very good. Let’s hear from you. ✦ In much of the real world the way A Contest things are perceived are accepted as Bunches more on pinning down Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don reality. Thus, you definitely do not useful resources appears in a newly Lancaster is the author of 28 books and want to volunteer to anyone that you revised second edition of my Incredible countless articles. He now maintains a are a student, a startup, or lacking in Secret Money Machine. By one of those no-charge tech helpline found at (520) "accepted" credentials. You definitely absolutely astonishing coincidences 428-4073, besides offering all of his own do want to use your own laser printed that seem to infest this column, I just books, reprints, and his consulting letterhead, have a properly registered happen to have autographed copies services. He also has a free brochure full of company name ($15 or so in typical waiting here for you when you call his resource secrets waiting for you. Your states and trivial to do), and always the helpline below. best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, answer your phone in a professional Let’s have a contest here. To enter, Mountain Standard Time. and business-like manner. just tell me about any little known or Don is the sysop of GEnie PSRT, For some strange reason, most large unusual resource. There will be a where a special Resource Bin topic has technical firms tend to treat apparent dozen or more autographed Incredible been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. higher volume customers better than Secret Money Machine prizes, plus an You can call GEnie at (800) 638-9636 any random callers. So, cause them to all-expense paid (FOB Thatcher, AZ) (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach think they heard what they thought tinaja quest for two going to the very Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, they wanted to hear. best entry of all. AZ 85552.

February 1992 / Resource Bin I 3 4 February 1992/ Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number two

Finding unusual or outdated integrated circuits.

elcome back once again to a and full cross reference manuals for pay for itself after only a few uses. new Nuts & Volts column. As around $4. Zillions of semiconductors Sadly, freebie general electronics W before, our main focus will lie are indexed. Yes, they stock suitable directories are ending up few and far in pinning down hard-to-find ideas, replacements for most parts. between. The Electronic Design Gold hardware, software, reprints, sources, There are many other firms which Book and the Electronics Buyers Guide and publications. address the MRO or "maintenance and are no more. But Hearst still publishes To make this much more than just a repair" markets. The older SK series a companion to the IC Master called one-way column, I have now added a parts are now still offered by way of the EEM Master. This lists everybody no-charge voice helpline that you can Thomson Consumer Publications. who makes everything electronic. Do call at my Synergetics for possible help Need to find a 2000 volt 1500 amp note that the IC Master and the EEM on nearly any tech resource topic. Or thyristor for your locomotive? For this Master are different pubs. for consultant referrals. Or for tinaja and lots of other "big mutha" power quests or off-the-wall networking. The electronics, try Galco. Electronic Phone Books best calling times are weekdays 8-5 And I just got a brand new catalog The old Electronic Industry Telephone Mountain Standard Time. from Dalbani which now lists 45 fine Directory from Harris Publications is I have also just added a brand new print pages full of semiconductors. quite handy, since it lists the phone Nuts & Volts Resource Bin topic to my Parts Express also has a pretty good numbers for just about everyone else PSRT RoundTable on GEnie. You can selection for replacement consumer in electronics. It costs around $45 per directly reach the other Nuts & Volts electronics, especially VCR parts. year, and is my number two helpline readers on this forum. And you can resource, second to my own files. reach me via [SYNERGETICS] email. Radio Shack Speaking of which, I do have my A reminder here that I have got a While your local Radio Shack is not own personal 1800 entry Names and no charge insider’s secret resources even remotely in the same league as Numbers Directory which I’ve built up brochure waiting for you if you call or ECG and NTE whenever it comes to over the years. These do have all of write per the end blurb. oddball replacement parts, they do my secret sources of supply, and are have two resources that you may find heavy in hardware hacking and the Finding Oddball Chips both handy and useful. desktop publishing resources. You Where can you find the key parts The first one is their Semiconductor can get these as appendices to my Ask for any unusual electronic projects? Reference Guide, that now lists nearly the Guru I, II, or III, Hardware Hacker II, Or to service or repair an older piece 100,000 substitutions for their stock or III, or Blatant Opportunist I reprints. of equipment? Or simply to find an You can also electronically download alternate source? the same from GEnie PSRT as my file Naturally, we would hope that you NEXT MONTH: Don #330 NAMENUMS.GPS. would start off by using our many explores Hacker-friendly Another possible directory from a fine Nuts & Volts advertisers. Who printed circuit alternatives local library is the Thomas Registry of have all gone out of their way to make Manufacturers. But its not all that great many semiconductors and integrated for new technical stuff. circuits available to you in small carded parts. Secondly, Radio Shack quantities, with quick delivery, and at also offers a locator service via their Electronic Distributors reasonable prices. Start with the ads, main office and plant. You ask at your Semiconductors have traditionally and then use the bingo cards to collect local store for further details. been sold through parts distributors. working catalogs. Today, you’ll find two distinct types Here’s where I go to locate the The IC Master of distributor available, the new age really hard-to-find stuff… There’s one chip directory that is firms, and the old line traditionalists. head and shoulders above all of the The new age firms are usually lean ECG and NTE others. Which is the IC Master from and mean, have low minimum orders, Two large firms that specialize in Hearst Business Publications. This three and do aggressively seek out hacker replacement semiconductors are ECG volume set has just about any and all or hobbyist lower volume business. Philips and NTE. integrated circuits listed. At $170, this While you should find many of these Both firms offer fat technical guides directory is rather pricey. But it can listed right here in Nuts & Volts, four

March 1992 / Resource Bin I 5 outfits tend to be anti-hacker. They’ll sold by the lot and with rather stiff often have very stiff minimum orders, minimum orders. There is absolutely new from expensive and non-available catalogs, no hand holding or technical support DON LANCASTER ridiculously long delivery times, and whatsoever. And the order of the day unreturned calls. Plus other similar is "no screwing around". Turnover is ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK hassles that make it quite clear that usually measured in hours. The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog you are not welcome as a customer. On the other hand, if you know op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active Unfortunately, the traditionalists exactly what you want and if they filters. De-mystified instant designs. $19.50 may end up your court of last resort. happen to have it, and if they have Since they are full service distributors, only as many as you need, the unit CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS they are required to provide all of a prices are often unbelievably low. Say Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two company’s products, not just the hot one penny for an LED or a dime for a books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. best sellers. If you work with them, jelly bean integrated circuit. About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. save them for last and expect heavy Wholesale surplus sources form a duty hassles. sort of netherworld. The players come INCREDIBLE SECRET and go with the economy. You will Dealing Direct MONEY MACHINE II often find their ads in the classified Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting In theory, most chip sources have section of Electronic Buyers News. up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 local sales reps. Most of the local reps One wholesale surplus source I like are even more anti-hacker than the is Surplus Traders. More on all these old line distributors are. After playing outfits in a future column. LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY this game for nearly four decades, not Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes Older Military Stuff the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active once has any involvement with any Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly local sales rep been anything except a A few semiconductor houses have revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and monumentally frustrating waste of set themselves up specifically to stock those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 time and money. mostly the oddball and out-of-date Usually, the rep will ignore you if components needed to maintain older LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES there is nothing in it for him. And will military electronic systems. Since they ...... Ask the Guru I or II or III $24.50 hound you if there is. will often have the only remaining ...... Hardware Hacker II or III $24.50 But working directly with the home stock in the world of these parts, they ...... Book-on-Demand Resource Kit $39.50 ...... PostScript Beginner Stuff $39.50 office is another story. I’ve found that will charge whatever they darn well ...... Intro to PostScript Video $39.50 professional inquiries made directly please for them...... GEnie PSRT Sampler $29.50 to applications engineering at the But, if the part is old, and if it has or ...... PostScript Reference II $28.50 ...... PostScript Tutorial/Cookbook $16.50 main office and plant to nearly always had some mil market, these outfits are ...... Whole works (all PostScript) $350.00 yield prompt and courteous ap notes, definitely worth checking. One leader ...... PostScript Secrets Brochure FREE databooks, and useful samples. in this area is Rochester Electronics...... Hacking Secrets Brochure FREE A lot of the semi houses are now offering data on disk and on CD ROM. Electronic Trade Journals POSTSCRIPT SECRETS Either free or at nominal costs. While As we found out last month, there A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free Motorola was one early leader here, are lots of trade journals now being fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any around half the firms offer electronic published. Trade journals are aimed PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 catalogs of one sort or another. at qualified industry insiders, and are A very few of the more enlightened often available at zero charge. They BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I integrated circuit houses are belatedly never appear in newsstands, and only The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering beginning to discover that the old line rarely show up in libraries. columns. Includes the case against patents, book distributors are their worst possible These do include Electronic Design, on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm enemy. The Dallas Semiconductor folks EDN, E.E. Times, Electronics, Electronic stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 are to be highly praised for their great Products, and the Electronic Component no-hassle, no-minimum direct order News. Directly, you will find "focus" FREE SAMPLES line at (800) 336-6933. stories that include sources for key Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on Other firms with no-hassle direct component parts, manufacturer’s ads, GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 order lines include Hewlett Packard for selection guides, and bingo card info. cents. Call (800) 638-9636 for connect info. printer parts and manuals. Indirectly, trade journals lead you to FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA / MC data books, ap notes, free samples, Wholesale Surplus Sources and special parts offers. SYNERGETICS You’ll find lots of great ads here in For much more on trade journals, Box 809-NV Nuts & Volts for retail surplus sale or on your independent research and Thatcher, AZ 85552 sources which may or may not have development in general, check into (520) 428-4073 what you are after. But there is an my newly republished Incredible Secret entire other surplus world out there Money Machine II. of the best include Mouser, Jameco, consisting of wholesale surplus sources. Digi-Key, and Active. These are wheeler-dealers who buy Asking For Help The old line traditionalists include and trade in bulk lots. Have you thought about asking any such firms as Allied, Newark, Cramer, With a wholesale surplus source, others for help? Such as someone at a Arrow, Hall-Mark, and others. These everything is done by fax, and gets local ham radio club or a computer

6 March 1992/ Resource Bin I user group? Or a counterperson at a local surplus store? Or our helpline? I’ve also found technical editors of RESOURCE BIN NAMES & NUMBERS hobby magazines, the trade journals and all the scholarly pubs to be really Active Electronics Harris Publishing/EITD Rochester Electronics useful sources for offbeat information. 11 Cummings Park 2057-2 Aurora Road 10 Malcolm Hayt Drive If they do not supply an immediate Woburn, MA 01801 Twinsburg, OH 44087 Newburyport, MA 01950 answer, the chances are that they can (800) 677-8899 (216) 425-9000 (508) 462-9332 put you onto someone who does. Dalbani Hearst/ IC Master Rohm There’s also thousands of electronic 2733 Carrier Avenue 645 Stewart Avenue Box 19681-631 bulletin boards out there. And the Los Angeles, CA 90040 Garden City, NY 11530 Irvine, CA 92713 (800) 325-2264 (516) 227-1300 (714) 855-0819 largest have millions of subscribers. Start with the RADIO board on GEnie. Dallas Semiconductor Heathkit Samsung 4350 S. Beltwood Pkwy PO Box 1288 3725 N. First Street Many magazines also have their own Dallas, TX 75244 Benton Harbor, MI 49022 San Jose, CA 95134 BBS systems as reader services. (800) 336-6933 (616) 982-3200 (408) 434-5400 And, of course, you can use a Nuts Devtronics Jameco Electronics Solid State Music & Volts classified ad to buy parts as 6101 Warehouse Way 1355 Shoreway Road 2076-B Walsh Ave well as sell them. Sacramento, CA 95826 Belmont, CA 94002 Santa Clara, CA 95050 (916) 381-6203 (415) 592-8097 (408) 727-0917 Still Having Trouble? Digi-Key Mouser Electronics Surplus Traders If you have gone through most of 701 Brooks Avenue South 11433 Woodside Avenue Winters Ln Box 276 these sources and still can not find Thief River Falls, MN 56701 Santee, CA 92071 Alburg, VT 05440 (800) 344-4539 (800) 346-6873 (514) 739-9328 what you are after, there’s a message here. Chances are the part is so off the ECG/Phillips NTE Electronics Synergetics PO Box 3277 44 Farrand Street Box 809 wall or so old that "we just don’t do Williamsport, PA 17701 Bloomfield, NJ 07003 Thatcher, AZ 85552 things that way anymore." (717) 323-4691 (201) 748-5089 (520) 428-4073 Sadly, a lot of low priced electronic Electronic Buyers News PAIA Electronics Thomas Registry of Mfrs. project books are ancient and list lots 600 Community Drive 3200 Teakwood Lane 1 Penn Plaza of parts that just aren’t that easy to Manhasset, NY 11030 Edmond, OK 73013 New York City, NY 10119 find any more. Others originally come (516) 562-5000 (405) 340-6300 (800) 222-7900 from Australia or England, making Electronic News Parts Express Thomson Consumer Pubs. the problem even worse. Box 1051 340 East First Street 2000 Clements Bridge Road Some parts, such as vacuum tubes, Southeastern, PA 19398 Dayton, OH 45402 Deptford, NJ 08096 (215) 653-0951 (513) 222-0173 (609) 853-2417 tunnel diodes, unijunction transistors, the germanium power devices, RTL Galco Philips/Signetics Thomson/SGS 26010 Pinehurst Drive PO Box 3409 1000 East Bell Road integrated circuits, large zener diodes, Madison Heights, MI 48071 Sunnyvale, CA 94088 Phoenix, AZ 85022 and others are largely extinct. (800) 521-1616 (408) 991-2000 (602) 867-6259 A lot of great electronic music and GEnie PMI Trade Winners digital sound effect chips that existed 401 N. Washington Street 1500 Space Park Drive PO Box 2868 years ago are simply no more. Owing Rockville, MD 20850 Santa Clara, CA 95052 Vancouver, WA 98668 to having been shot out of the saddle (800) 638-9636 (800) 843-1515 (206) 694-1765 by sampled sound techniques and new digital signal processing chips. Two sources to try for oddball older parts, especially the far eastern ones. your written entries to me at the music and analog synthesizer chips Unfortunately, the only one I do know address below, and not to Nuts and might include PAIA Electronics and enough about to even suggest is Trade Volts editorial. Devtronix. The older Solid State Music Winners. This is sort of a Hong Kong Let’s hear from you. ✦ line of integrated circuits still remains answer to Computer Shopper. available through PMI. Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don If your part proves impossibly hard A Contest Lancaster is the author of 27 books and to pin down, there is a hidden lesson For this month’s contest, just tell me countless articles. He now maintains a here: Find a newer way of doing the a good way of finding substitutions no-charge tech helpline found at (520) same task. There is probably a good for foreign semiconductors. Or any 428-4073, besides offering all of his own reason why nobody wants to use this other resource you can think of that books, reprints, and all his consulting part any more. simplifies finding and actually buying services. He also has a free brochure full of oddball, out-of-date, or any otherwise his resource secrets waiting for you. Your Foreign semiconductors off-the-wall semis. best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, This gets tricky fast. Many foreign There will be a dozen autographed Mountain Standard Time. substitutions are listed in the Radio Incredible Secret Money Machine prizes, Don is the sysop of GEnie PSRT, Shack, ECG, and the NTE directories. along with an all-expense paid (FOB where a special Resource Bin topic has Such firms as Philips/Signetics, Rohm, Thatcher, AZ) tinaja quest for two been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. Samsung, and Thomson/SGS inherently going to the very best entry of all. You can call GEnie at (800) 638-9636 give you foreign substitutions. If possible, do include a catalog, a (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach There are some trade journals that sample issue, or place me on their Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, specialize in international semis and mailing list. Do be certain to send AZ 85552.

March 1992 / Resource Bin I 7 8 March 1992/ Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number three

Hacker-friendly printed circuit alternatives.

reminder here that our ongoing supply bypassing needed for today’s steps. The good news is that today’s Resource Bin is really a two-way high speed computer, RF, and even newest surface mount components can A column. You can get tech help, microwave circuits. In fact, many of minimize or even eliminate the need consultant referrals and off-the-wall today’s popular projects will not work for any plate through. networking on nearly any electronic, at all should you attempt to "rats nest" At steeply increasing costs you can tinaja questing, personal publishing, breadboard them instead of using a get far fancier than the double sided money machine, or computer topic by printed circuit board. boards by going to multilayer boards calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays The boards themselves are often with buried internal conductors. Most 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider 1/16th of an inch thick and may have of today’s computers would simply secret resources brochures waiting for full copper surfaces initially applied not be possible without the multilayer you when you call or write. to one or both sides. The insulating motherboards. There are also such An area of the great GEnie PSRT at portion of the board is often made specialty items as 3-D molded boards (800) 638-9636 (for voice info) has been from a phenolic, which is cheap but and flexible, thin circuit boards. Two set aside specifically for use by all of cracks easily and has to be preheated specialty firms in the thin and flexible you Nuts & Volts readers. You’ll find before it can be sheared. Or from an department are Rodgers and Schaedahl some superb technical downloads and expensive fiberglass, particularly the if you want to get fancy. lots of tutorials here. Mil G-10 variety. Or, most popularly, The bottom line: Forget about any Finding effective and useful ways from an economical epoxy which has plate-through and multilayer for your to build up one or two printed circuit only a layer or two of fiberglass in it. homebrew work. It just won’t happen. prototypes can get tricky in a hurry. Typical board costs vary from $2 to At least not today. Some commercial outfits now charge $20 per square foot, depending on the Any particular process that helps $125 or even more for four identical source and quantity ordered. you create a circuit board is additive if prototype boards. With month-long The two often-used copper weights the copper is build up on an insulator, turnaround times. And many of the are the one ounce copper of an 0.00135 or subtractive if unwanted portions of tools and techniques for doing your inch thickness, and two ounce copper copper get chemically or physically own homebrew boards are outdated 0.00270 inches thick. Thus, the more removed. As a ferinstance, you might or second rate solutions which often popular one ounce copper is slightly build up a double sided plate through cause more problems than they solve. over one mil thick, while the heavier board by starting with double sided Ferinstance, spray-on photoresist and two ounce copper is nearly three mils PC stock, drilling your through holes ferric chloride etchant are inexcusably thick. Two ounce copper gets used for and then additively electroplating the lousy homebrew tools. Some others higher current applications. conductors against your through-hole that look good may end up horribly The simpler boards are single sided walls. And later on, after selectively overpriced. Much better solutions are ones that end up with all conductors applying an etch resist, you will go available if you just know where to only on their foil side. Fancier boards subtractive by etching away the large look for them. have their conductors on both sides, copper areas on one or both of the foil So, for this month’s resource bin, I and are known as double sided boards. sides of your board. thought we might review some of the On the cheap, you can easily connect Although there are lots of possible more hacker-friendly ways to do your between the two sides by using your sources for smaller quantity printed own custom prototyping and limited component leads, small eyelets, wire circuit materials and supplies, one of production circuit boards. We’ll first feedthroughs, jumpers, or socket pins. the best are those Kepro folks. Whose start with some of these… Another trick is to employ wirewrap products are available either direct or sockets spaced enough off the board through distributors and from many Circuit Board Fundamentals that you can solder to both your top Nuts & Volts advertisers. So, for sure, and bottom sides. your number one homebrew printed Printed circuit boards are used to But most commercial double sided circuit board resource would be the simplify and unify electronic circuits. boards use plated through holes. The free Kepro catalog. Besides supporting components, their bad news here is that plated through There are lots of different methods "locked in" patterns minimize wiring holes seem to require a minimum of of creating circuit boards, and many errors. They also give you that tight $10,000 in machinery and can involve variations of each method. But the control for circuit strays and power deadly chemicals and scads of costly three that I have found most practical

April 1992 / Resource Bin I 9 for homebrew and prototyping work holes. To any precision. new from are the silk screen method, the dry film A photoresist is some chemical glop DON LANCASTER method, and the direct toner method. Let that can be applied to your board one us look at each in turn… way or another. It is exposed to light LASERWRITERTM SECRETS through your artwork and then gets A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free Silk Screen Method processed, leaving a hardened resist fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, only where you want traces. Resists workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 The silk screen method is the lowest could be either negative acting (light cost way to home produce a dozen to selectively hardens) or positive acting several hundred or more identical (light softens). Because of physical THE WHOLE WORKS boards. This gets best used on looser laws and some other constraints, the All of the very best in PostScript books, software, tolerance "hacker" or "end consumer" negative acting photoresists tend to be utilities, and videos by all the major authors in one money-saving startup package. Includes… products that do not demand plated faster, better, and cheaper. 20 40 PostScript Tutorial and Cookbook through holes. Say mil lines on Traditional photoresists arrive as Incredible Secret Money Machine mil centers minimum. Although fancy liquids and are sprayed or spin coated Understanding PS Programming screens can do better than this. in place. The liquid resists are quite Two hours free Guru consulting The procedure is the same as silk hacker unfriendly because of the pin PostScript Reference Manual II PostScript: A Visual Approach screening a greeting card or a Gimmie holes, dust, coating hassles, board Apple LaserWriter Reference cap. A metal or wooden frame has a cleanliness, exposure variability, and PostScript Program Design special piece of silk or stainless steel so on. Thankfully, there has long been PostScript Beginner Stuff PostScript Show and Tell screen tightly stretched across it. The a newer and much better way. Intro to PostScript video typical screens used have 1600 to 2000 That newer way is called dry film Thinking in PostScript holes per square inch. Next, a special photoresist. A dry film photoresist is Real World PostScript photosensitive blocking photofilm is just that – a thin and a dry film of PSRT GEnie Sampler LaserWriter Secrets I placed on the screen and gets exposed photoresist material that is bonded to Ask the Guru II & III through your 1:1 artwork positive. A a thoroughly cleaned circuit board Type I Font Format chemical processing and washout using the heat and pressure of a All items also available separately. A real bargain leaves silk holes where all the traces laminating machine. In one swell at a UPS shipping prepaid price of $349.50. were and blocking elsewhere. foop, all problems with liquid coating, A small amount of etch resistant ink drying, pinholes, and any variability POSTSCRIPTTM BEGINNER STUFF is placed on the screen and dragged magically disappear. Don and Bee’s PS course notes in a convenient across the bare but ultra-clean circuit You can get small boards precoated self-study form. A heavy emphasis on "out the board using a squeegee. with dry film resist from Kepro and door" products, notepads, ads, resumes, badges, The process is fast, simple, cheap similar sources. These are by far the labels, announcements, letterheads, business cards, menus, heaping bunches more. $39.50 and fairly low tech. But there is an fastest and friendliest way to do all hour’s worth of setup and makeready simple hacker photoboards in small that may cost you $30 to $100 if it is quantities. But if you require plated INCREDIBLE SECRET ordered outside. So screening isn’t all through holes, you have to drill and MONEY MACHINE II that great for single prototypes. plate the holes before your dry film Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting Two leading silk sceen magazines gets mounted. up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 are Screen Printing and Signcraft, while Two leading suppliers of the dry two major suppliers of materials and photoresist itself are Dupont Riston FREE SAMPLES supplies are Advance Process Supply and Thiokol Dynachem. Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on and Southern Sign Supply. The largest Your pre-coated boards must be GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. source of screen films is Ulano. kept in dark packages, but they can be The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 quickly handled in a subdued room cents. Call (800) 638-9636 for connect info. Dry Film Method light. To expose, you can place your FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA/MC artwork negative in tight contact with There is an obvious "chicken and the precoated board and apply strong SYNERGETICS egg" problem with your circuit board ultraviolet light. You could use an Box 809-NV Thatcher, AZ 85552 layouts. You need the final layout to exposure unit or leave your contact (520) 428-4073 make sure the circuit works. But you printer outside in the direct sun for can’t prove the circuit works till you several minutes. Write in 146 on Reader Service Card. have your final board. So, at least one After exposure, the dry film resist is or two prototype boards are a must developed or hardened by using a Direct Toner Method for all your initial design and debug. plain old sodium triphosphate wash Especially for higher frequency and solution from your local hardware The direct toner method is potentially higher speed designs where the exact store. Etching proceeds as usual. but by far your most hacker friendly, component positioning and supply There are lots of industrial trade fastest, simplest, and cheapest process bypassing noise is critical. journals that center on photoresist for any high quality prototypes. Your A number of different photo process methods. These do include Circuits custom circuit boards can be done at methods are now available for board Assembly, the Surface Mount Design, home in seconds for pennies. The only prototypes. These can also be super Printed Circuit Design, and Electronic little problem is that we aren’t quite accurate and are easily extended into Packaging and Production, among there yet, so some experimenting and multilayer boards and plated through several others. a lot of luck is still needed. But things

10 April 1992 / Resource Bin I are about to get a lot better in a very of one type or another. from Black Lightning and Midnight big hurry. Some things that may improve your Engineering. You could pick up more The key secret is that laser printer direct toner results: A squeaky clean details on the process from my GEnie toner makes a very fine etch resist. circuit board which has a ten second PSRT download #269 DIRECTPC.TXT, Which is not really all that surprising pre-etch to give it a better surface or through my new Hardware Hacker since toner is an inert polyethelene "tooth". A temporarily "dry" wiper III Book-on-demand reprints. plastic with certain additives. pad in your SX-style laser printer. With the direct toner method, you And preheating the circuit board so it The Etching Process first use the PostScript language to does not act as a giant heat sink. A laser print a good grade of graphics careful choice of toner. Rubbing the Regardless of the resist method toner onto a suitable transfer film. The back of the fused transfer sheet with used, your PC board material must film substrate must be dimensionally an ice cube in a baggie. Very slowly start out squeaky clean and stay that stable and must loosely but reliably and carefully peeling the transfer way throughout the entire processing. accept toner. The transfer film is then sheet away at right angles. The usual way to clean a bare board is placed in contact with an ultra clean And, of course, not trying to use a to scour it thoroughly using a chlorine bare circuit board. Applied heat and clothes iron or someone else’s plain based cleanser such as Comet and by pressure bonds the toner to the circuit old walk-in copier. using a Scotchbrite pad from 3-M. board where it is directly used as an Sadly, we are still one generation Done at home, it takes at least twenty etch resist. away from the optimum combination minutes to properly clean up a small One older transfer film is TEC 200 of toner, transfer materials, and the board. Any less time spent is inviting through Meadowlake, while a greatly transfer system that is needed for the a near-certain disaster. improved new film is stock number reliable "works every time" direct Those chemical brightening copper PCBTF-1000 and is supplied through transfers. But this process is so new, cleaners are also a very good idea, but Techniks Inc. so fast, so cheap, and so incredibly these can be toxic and do require In theory, you could use just an iron hacker friendly that it just can’t be some care in their use. to transfer your toner. But you will ignored. From print to etch typically Besides allowing a fully unbroken get far better and more consistent takes twenty seconds and uses a stream of water to flow over it, any results by using some heated roller quarter’s worth of materials. properly cleaned board will not be a transfer device such as a Kroy Color Two magazines that deal with the copper color at all. Instead, it will be a machine, a laminator, or a heat press direct toner method include The Flash distinctive hot pink. The object of etching is to eat away the copper that is not protected by the RESOURCE BIN NAMES & NUMBERS resist. There are two popular etchants. One ancient etch is known as Ferric Advance Process Supply Meadowlake Screen Printing Chloride and is an ugly and sloppy 400 North Noble Street 25 Blanchard Drive 407 Gilbert Avenue opaque brown liquid. The modern Chicago, IL 60622 Northport, NY 11768 Cincinatti, OH 45202 (312) 829-1400 (516) 757-3385 (513) 421-2050 one is known as Ammonium Persulfate and is a clean granular powder that Black Lightning Midnight Engineering SignCraft Riddle Pond Road 111 E Drake Road #7041 PO Box 06031 mixes with water to create a clear West Topsham, VT 05086 Ft Collins, CO 80525 Fort Myers, FL 33906 liquid that changes a progressively (800) BLACK-99 (303) 491-9092 (813) 939-4644 deeper blue as the etching proceeds. Circuits Assembly Mouser Electronics Southern Sign Supply Besides Kepro, you’ll find both types 600 Harrison Street 11433 Woodside Avenue 127 Roesler Road of etchant at Mouser Electronics and San Francisco, CA 94107 Santee, CA 92071 Glen Burnie, MD 21061 through other Nuts & Volts ads. (415) 905-2200 (800) 346-6873 (301) 768-8600 I overwhelmingly do prefer to use DuPont Riston Nordson Corporation Surface Mount Technology ammonium persulfate etchant, as do 2841 Junction Ave #110 1150 Nordson Drive 17730 W. Peterson Road most commercial etching houses. The San Jose, CA 95134 Amherst, OH 44001 Libertyville, IL 60048 (408) 433-5600 (800) 477-9878 (312) 362-8711 etchant should be stored in airtight plastic bags inside opaque plastic Electronic Packaging Nuts & Volts Techniks Inc. 1350 E Touhy Avenue Box 1111 45 J. Ringo Road containers. It is best to prepackage Des Plaines, IL 60018 Placentia, CA 92670 Ringoes, NJ 08551 your etchant into individual "single (708) 635-8800 (714) 632-7721 serving" baggies. Ethone-OMI Personal Engineering Thiokol Dynachem Etching is best done with a spray or Box 1900 Box 1821 2631 Michelle Drive other brisk agitation at an elevated New Haven, CT 06508 Brookline, MA 02146 Tustin, CA 92680 temperature. Often 120 degrees or so. (203) 799-4908 (617) 232-3625 (714) 730-4200 The etch should only require ten or GEnie Printed Circuit Design 3-M/Scotchbrite twelve minutes maximum, done at the 401 N. Washington Street 2000 Pwrs Ferry #450 3M Center correct temperature. Longer times Rockville, MD 20850 Marietta, GA 30067 Saint Paul, MN 55144 (800) 638-9636 (404) 952-1303 (800) 328-1303 than this are nearly certain to lead to pinholes, undercutting, or to erratic Kepro Circuit Systems Rogers Corp Ulano Corp 630 Axminister Drive 100 S. Roosevelt Avenue 255 Butler Street results. Most hacker etching problems Fenton, MO 63026 Chandler, AZ 85226 Brooklyn, NY 11217 are caused by trying to etch at too low (314) 343-1630 (602) 961-1382 (718) 622-5200 a temperature. Kepro makes a versatile benchtop etcher. But you can use nothing but a

April 1992 / Resource Bin I 11 warming tray from a yard sale, and a done electronically by using either A final and really major advantage glass pan that is gently sloshed or personal computers or those fancier of PostScript that should be of crucial bubbled from any aquarium pump. workstations. Electronic layout is far interest to both Nuts & Volts authors Your etchant should only contact faster and far cheaper. It is way easier and readers: You can easily create a glass or plastic. I’ve found it much to modify, edit, share, or rework. And special type of PostScript file called a better to etch upside down using plastic there’s none of the old hassles such as Compiled EPS File. Compiled EPS Files clips or standoffs to hold your board dried-out tape, slipped clearances, are plain old ASCII textfiles that can half way down into your etch bath. knife slits, or tennis elbow. be printed, modemed, downloaded, Naturally, you use good ventillation, All sorts of layout packages are floppied, mailed, or otherwise sent rubber gloves, and safety goggles. The now available, with pricing ranging just about anywhere. mercury activator that is sometimes from freeware up to outrageous. Your A compiled EPS file can be used to included in the ammonium persulfate fancier tools include such features as generate a true first generation digital etchant is a poison. autorouting (figuring out where and master on any old PostScript printer, After etching, a thorough and triple how to arrange the connections), and giving absolutely "perfect" art to the rinsing in cold water is done to stop schematic capture, (starting with the end user. And the compiling process the etch process. The resist is then circuit, rather than with your physical completely eliminates any trace of any removed physically or chemically component arrangement). proprietary art generating program. using suitable resist removers. Post Besides the many ads for printed And it should run very quickly on any etching operations usually include circuit layout tools and services right computer. Anywhere and anytime. drilling, immersion tin plating, solder here in Nuts & Volts, you will find lots I definitely have lots of room for masking, and the screening of your of others in Midnight Engineering, downloadable compiled EPS files on circuit callouts. Personal Engineering, and the in the the Nuts & Volts section of GEnie PSRT By the way, Ethone-OMI is a good many workstation-specific high end and will be most happy to work with source for solder mask materials. trade journals. you to get your digitally mastered What can you do with all of your Layout packages are intended to precision layouts into the hands of spent etchant? If you are now on a output to dot matrix printers, laser your end-users. We also have lots of commercial sewer line and have less printers, plotters, or to a precision new EPS compiling tools and options than a pint of it every three weeks, photoplotter. Several languages are readily available. dilute it with great heaping bunches popular, including Hewlett-Packard’s of very cold water and dump it down HPGL, Gerber’s Photoplotter Language, This Month’s Contest the drain. Note that hot etchant can and PostScript. eat through your sink’s copper drain I’ve written a shareware printed For our contest this month, just tell trap. Otherwise, you should follow circuit layout package in PostScript me about any unusual or little-known local guidelines for hazmat disposal. and have posted it on GEnie PSRT as product, service, or secret technique our file #401 PRINCRCT.GPS. It’s just that makes hacker-friendly printed Creating PC Artwork an in-house automated tape and dots circuits easier, faster, or cheaper. putter-downer; works eight or more There will be a dozen or so of my The traditional way to make your levels; 1X, 2X, or 4X; frontwards or newly revised Incredible Secret Money printed circuit artwork was to start backwards; normal or reversed; and Machine II book prizes going to the with a grided mylar sheet that is 1X, even provides for a microscaling to best entries, along with an all expense 2X, or 4X of your final size. Then you compensate for printer errors and paid (FOB Thatcher, AZ) tinaja quest used a light box along with lots of media stretch. It is especially strong in for two going to the very best of all. stickum tape and dots. And plenty of doing fancy circuit overlay art and in As usual, be sure to send all your instant transfers to create your layout generating ready-for-publication art written entries directly to me here at patterns. When completed, a litho for manuals and projects. Synergetics per the end blurb, rather camera got used to make the final 1:1 And my utility runs fully device than to Nuts & Volts editorial. positive or negative for prototyping, independently on nearly any personal Let’s hear from you. ✦ publishing, or production. Careful use computer or workstation, while using of registration marks was needed when nothing but your very favorite word Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don several sheets were involved for top processor. Typical downloading costs Lancaster is the author of 27 books and foil, bottom foil, component callouts, are a dollar or two. countless articles. Don maintains his or whatever. Since PostScript is infinitely more no-charge tech helpline found at (520) One very important detail: Most powerful than any of those older 428-4073, besides offering all of his own modern electronic components are plotting languages, you often can books, reprints, and all his consulting shown and numbered as a top view. translate into PostScript using nothing services. He also has a free brochure full of Everything reverses itself when you do but a simple prolog dictionary. I’ve his resource secrets waiting for you. Your the foil side layout. You have to be also worked out a way to get from best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, super careful that all of your final most PostScript back to the older and Mountain Standard Time. images are "right viewing" in their more primitive vector languages. This Don is the sysop of GEnie PSRT, intended location. And a quick and mind-blower is #387 POSTVECT, and where a special Resource Bin topic has dirty reversal by "printing through is again up on GEnie PSRT. been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. the film base" is a no-no in most of PostScript also lets you eliminate You can call GEnie at (800) 638-9636 the more critical uses. most, and often nearly all, of your (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach These days, just about all of your darkroom and other photo work. No Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, printed circuit layouts are instead more slopping in the slush. AZ 85552.

12 April 1992 / Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number four

Sources for unusual and interesting semiconductors.

ur usual reminder here that the your own MICR bank checks. volt dc switching regulators, lots of Resource Bin is now a two-way On to our business at hand… economical A/D and D/A converters, O column. You can get tech help, As in any field, the biggest and the plus their new single device audio consultant referrals and off-the-wall largest of semiconductor companies and video switching centers. networking on nearly any electronic, rarely offer any unique or innovative tinaja questing, personal publishing, products. They also have other nasty Dallas Semiconductor money machine, or computer topic by habits such as charging big bucks for Up in second place on my top five, calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays full data book sets and making their Dallas Semiconductor Inc. is a second 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider best products available only through smaller, aggressive, and an extremely secret resources brochures waiting for greedy local reps and impossible to innovative firm. They are especially you when you call or write. deal with old-line distributors. big in real time computer clock chips, An area of the great GEnie PSRT at Instead, you’ll have to dig around identification products, and in many (800) 638-9636 (for voice info) has been deep down into all those second- and micropower devices. Many of their set aside specifically for use by all of third-tier sources to ferret out all of chips have built-in lithium batteries you Nuts & Volts readers. You’ll find the very best-of-the-best oddball chips which provide ten years or more of some superb technical downloads and for hacker, hobbyist, and new-product power backup. lots of tutorials here. development use. Dallas is also strongly into the short Three big updates to our previous For it often turns out that the little range telemetry business with several columns: Consolidated Electronics and guys have all the good stuff. microminiature and also micropower MCM Electronics both have a fairly They’ve also usually got the best devices that are interrogated by a VLF good selection of Japanese and other free data manuals, ap notes, samples, field and return an UHF data stream. far east semiconductors and useful reasonably priced kits, and available Anti-shoplifting devices are one big substitutes, along with lots of other help as well. So, for in our resource possible application, besides isopod service and repair parts. Free catalogs bin drawer for this month, I thought I home power monitoring. The current are available. would gather together and comment biggie is a new line of electronic dog And an incredibly stupendous new on some of my favorite off-the-wall tags that last ten years, can be read product has just became available to sources for unique integrated circuits from one single I/O pin and support ridiculously improve the reliability of and other semiconductors. permanent serial numbers, writeable that new direct toner PC method for We’ll start with my personal top memory, and time stamping. making printed circuits. This is the five, and then take a quick look at a The usual data books, data sheets, Toner Transfer System from DynaArt bunch of others. The all time numero samples, and ap-notes are obtainable Designs in California. uno champion good guy, is… on written or phone request. Unlike the oft hoped-for differential Dallas was also the first semi house transfer of the earlier products, this Maxim Integrated Products to realize that the old-line distributors new system uses a water soluble decal Maxim is very big in video switches and local sales reps can be their worst base. You print to film, gently iron to and drivers; in both micropower and possible enemies. At least when it the pc board and then apply warm switching regulators; in digital filters comes to putting sample chips in the water to dissolve away your backing that actually work; and in the serial hands of new users generating new sheet. Besides 100% accurate toner drivers that internally generate their applications and exploring potential transfers just about every time, the own oddball supply voltages. They market areas. To work around this, system is ideal for component callouts have plenty of data books, individual Dallas bravely set up a direct order or anywhere else that water transfer data sheets, and ap-note packages line where you can get one or more of decals can be used. A five sheet, $10 available. They are very liberal with anything immediately, cheaply, and kit is available. freebie engineering samples, besides hassle free. Via VISA. I’ve just posted #435 TONERTRX.PS having great evaluation and test kits I cannot even begin to praise Dallas to GEnie PSRT that gives you a good at quite reasonable prices. They also highly enough for this sorely needed review of the new transfer system, publish the Maxim Design News, an service. It is high time the other semi along with some other "secret" toner outstanding free newsletter. houses saw the error of their ways. products which could give you real Some of their exciting current chips Let all the others know how you feel thermography and the ability to print include single and dual AA cell to +5 about direct order lines.

May 1992 / Resource Bin I 13 Rohm is a really obscure firm with new from LSI Systems an incredibly great chip – the BA1404 DON LANCASTER For my third choice, the LSI Systems FM stereo broadcaster. Which can folks are a virtually unknown source form the the central core of a wireless LASERWRITERTM SECRETS of mind-blowing and low cost chips. broadcaster, miniature FM stations, A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free They seem to be hiding out in a very a "please buy my nice house" driveby fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, obscure Long Island NY town, clear system, or serve as a CD ROM to car workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 across the entire country from Silicon radio antenna interface. Valley. Since they have no foundry, Advanced electronic music circuits they specialize mostly in design and have been really sticky to pin down. THE WHOLE WORKS distribution of unusually unique low But an almost unheard of Integrated All of the very best in PostScript books, software, end consumer electronic products. Circuit Systems has some really fancy utilities, and videos by all the major authors in one money-saving startup package. Includes… They have several dozen exciting new synthesizer chips available off PostScript Tutorial and Cookbook new products, ranging from dimmers, the shelf. Fully polyphonic. Incredible Secret Money Machine touch controls, electronic counters, One of my very favorite mid-range Understanding PS Programming doorbell and sound effects chips, tune manufacturers is GEC Plessey. Among Two hours free Guru consulting generators, and even electronic lock many other areas, they are especially PostScript Reference Manual II PostScript: A Visual Approach circuits. Plus bunches of other lower strong in remote control transmitters, Apple LaserWriter Reference price consumer electronics chips that receivers, and encoders. Of all their PostScript Program Design scream "use me!" dozen useful data books, the Cable, PostScript Beginner Stuff PostScript Show and Tell A full collection of data sheets and TV, and Audio Handbook has the most Intro to PostScript video ap-notes are available on request. parts in it of immediate interest to Thinking in PostScript Nuts & Volts readers. Plessey is also Real World PostScript Signetics/Philips big on frequency synthesizers, and, in PSRT GEnie Sampler LaserWriter Secrets I And fourth on my source list (and a separate division, in SAW filters. Ask the Guru II & III probably topping the list of any radio When it comes to lower price solid Type I Font Format ham) would have to be the Signetics/ state pressure transducers and related All items also available separately. A real bargain Philips folks. Their NE602 series of hot accelerometers, you can immediately at a UPS shipping prepaid price of $349.50. mixers and converters have totally write off the two obvious biggies as revolutionized hobby high frequency being overpriced and unimaginative. POSTSCRIPTTM BEGINNER STUFF communication circuits. As have their Instead, the "gang of three" are by far Don and Bee’s PS course notes in a convenient companders, compressors, satellite, your best places to go. These include self-study form. A heavy emphasis on "out the and cellular comm devices. SenSym who have outstanding data door" products, notepads, ads, resumes, badges, They have scads of products with and design books, NovaSensor, and IC labels, announcements, letterheads, business cards, menus, heaping bunches more. $39.50 lots of untapped potential. Others I Sensors. Prices start under $10. have found of high interest are their The small company leader in many synchronous demodulator chips and telecomm chips appears to be Teltone. INCREDIBLE SECRET zero switching heater proportional Who are strong in touchtone coders MONEY MACHINE II control triac drivers. and decoders, call progress detectors, Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting Bunches of data books and free ap special 911 gear, ring detection, and up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 notes are available. Be sure to get both similar telephone related circuits. A their domestic and foreign catalogs. second source for Teltone is Silicon FREE SAMPLES Systems. Another rather interesting Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on Samsung company in this area would be Sierra GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. Yes they are big, and yes, they are Semiconductor, who have by far the The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 cents. Call (800) 638-9636 for connect info. also foreign, but I would certainly finest new caller ID telephone chips have to include Samsung in my top available, besides pioneering this FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA/MC five preferred semi and integrated single chip calling party field. circuit manufacturers. Among their Certainly one of the most obscure SYNERGETICS many data manuals Samsung offers a semi houses is MX-COM. Yet they Box 809-NV Thatcher, AZ 85552 big three volume set of linear circuit have a great catalog crammed full of (520) 428-4073 books. These are crammed to the gills their pager, tone coders, signalling, with radio control model R/C remote security, communication, and voice Write in 146 on Reader Service Card. controls, five- and ten-channel audio scrambling chips. A niche market for Crystal Semiconductor is yet another equalizers, specialized VCR chips and sure, but one with lots of untapped niche company who lead the field in a much, much more. Their linear data hacker potential. new type of analog-to-digital circuit books read like pulp novels. Each and Another virtually unknown chip known as Delta-Sigma Conversion. At every page has new and wondrously manufacturer is Unitrode. Who are big their fast and high end, they have CD great devices crying to be explored. on very sophisticated battery charger audio quality and beyond circuits. At circuits and power regulators. Several the new slower and super accurate Plus A Few Others interesting ap-notes are available. end, they now provide converters that Let’s briefly cover some of the other For any electrically variable analog are useful for strain gauges, weighing smaller outfits having really exciting potentiometers, Xicor is pretty much a scales, and any other instruments that chips for both hacking and product single product firm with their eepot require an extreme 24-bit (!) resolution development prototyping uses. digitally controlled attenuators. range. Crystal also has some pricey

14 May 1992 / Resource Bin I been Brooktree. But all their brand new multimedia, D/A conversion, lookup, titling, and video interface chips are UNUSUAL SEMICONDUCTOR RESOURCES so exciting that they simply cannot be ignored. And their prices are in fact Allegro Micro Systems LSI Systems Samsung Semiconductor dropping significantly. 363 Plantation Street 1235 Walt Whitman Road 3725 North First Street Worcester, MA 01605 Melville, NY 11747 San Jose, CA 95134 In Memoriam (508) 795-1300 (516) 271-0400 (408) 434-5400 As a general rule, most technical Analog Devices Maxim Integrated Prods. SenSym excellence gets ruthlessly stomped out One Technology Way 120 San Gabriel Drive 1244 Reamwood Avenue Norwood, MA 02062 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Sunnyvale, CA 94089 whenever and wherever it happens. (617) 329-4700 (408) 737-7600 (408) 744-1500 Sadly, many of the very greatest semi Brooktree Mini-Circuits Lab SGS-Thomson houses are no more, have sold out, or 9950 Barnes Canyon Road PO Box 350166 1000 East Bell Road have radically changed who they are San Diego, CA 92121 Brooklyn, NY 11235 Phoenix, AZ 85022 or what they do. (800) VIDEO-IC (718) 934-4500 (602) 867-6259 Ferinstance, Maxim’s grandfather Crystal Semiconductor MX-COM, Inc Signetics/Philips was a company called Intersil. Intersil Box 17847 4800 Bethania Station Rd. 811 East Arques Avenue did sell superb clock, stopwatch, and Austin, TX 78760 Winston-Salem, NC 27105 Sunnyvale, CA 94088 voltmeter chips. Along with a wide (512) 445-7222 (800) 638-5577 (800) 227-1817 variety of innovative linear circuits. Dallas Semiconductor NovaSensor Silicon Systems And some really great ap notes and 4401 Beltwood Parkway S 1055 Mission Court 14351 Myford Road Dallas, TX 75244 Fremont, CA 94539 Tustin, CA 92680 evaluation kits, too. Well, GE bought (214) 450-0400 (415) 490-9100 (714) 731-7110 Intersil. Then RCA bought out GE. General Instruments Plessey Stanford Telecom Finally, a second-tier purveyor of 2355 West Chandler Blvd PO Box 660017 2421 Mission College Blvd overpriced military circuits by the Chandler, AZ 85224 Scotts Valley, CA 95067 Santa Clara, CA 95054 name of Harris picked up the whole (602) 963-7373 (408) 438-2900 (408) 980-5684 dusty pile off of the junk table at a Harris Semiconductor PMI Teltone corporate yard sale. Box 883 1500 Space Park Drive 22121 20th Ave SE Yes, you can still still get some of Melbourne, FL 32902 Santa Clara, CA 95052 Beothell, WA 98021 the more popular Intersil products (305) 724-3739 (800) 843-1515 (800) 426-3926 from Harris. And some of RCA’s linear Integrated Circuit Sys. Reticon Unitrode chips as well. But it just ain’t the 2626 Van Buren Avenue 345 Potero Avenue 580 Pleasant Street Valley Forge, PA 19482 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Watertown, MA 02172 same. The energy level is zero. And (215) 666-1900 (408) 738-4266 (617) 926-0404 the stunning innovation is no more. Mostek Linear Technology Rohm Xicor Another long goner is . They 1630 McCarthy Blvd Box 19681-631 1511 Buckeye Drive were real big in top octave generators, Milpitas, CA 95035 Irvine, CA 92713 Milpitas, CA 95035 organ music chips, telephony, real (408) 432-1900 (714) 855-0819 (408) 432-8888 time clocks and in zero power static RAM devices. It seems SGS picked up the Mostek dregs after a bankrupcty but quite useful evaluation boards for you can’t get a copy of their Best of and still offers a scant few of the older most of their components. Analog Dialog, a large reprint having Mostek devices. SGS does have a Microwave transistors and related classic tutorial info on most areas of bunch of innovative circuits of their integrated circuit devices can often be analog design. own. Not to mention their great free unbearably expensive. But the folks at The Linear Technology folks would sample promotions, often cleverly Mini-Circuits Lab now do offer VHF also have to get a major thumbs up, disguised as soup cans or soap boxes. and microwave amplifiers for under a especially for their great application Their new high side driver power chips dollar each. notes and seminars. They are strong are especially interesting. Reticon is well over in a class by in low noise amplifiers, switching Two other has-beens are Interdesign themselves. For they specialize in the regulators, and for highly unusual and Ferranti. Interdesign had several image sensing and the video camera analog switching circuits and related elegant medium cost build-your-own chips, especially for scanners and FAX techniques. custom ic chips (plus an outstanding machines. They also manufacture I guess my opinion of Stanford design journal), while Ferranti was analog delay line devices for reverbs Telecom is rapidly changing. Many of pretty good with comm chips, A/D and pitch shifting. their sophisticated communication, converters, and some early AM radio And, of course, we would have to error correction, numeric oscillator, receiver chips. Both of these firms mention Analog Devices who have a and digital signal processing chips are have become part of GEC Plessey. But wide variety of new automotive and now priced at several hundred dollars most of the chips are no more. analog chips available, along with a each. But they are starting to come up Let’s see. Several other comings and quite useful monthly Analog Dialog with several cheaper and eminently goings. General Instruments moved newsletter. Among their gems are "the hackable new chips. Especially their across the country, and in the process lights are ok" current transducers so STEL-2130 digital wireless chip that summarily dropped all of their nice sensitive they use a printed circuit immensely simplifies wireless LAN speech, graphics, and sound effects trace for a series sensing resistor; and communications. chips. Amperex was merged by Philips, true RMS power detection chips. See if Another high priced spread has keeping most of their temp sensors

May 1992 / Resource Bin I 15 OTHER MENTIONED NAMES & NUMBERS

Consolidated Electronics GEnie 705 Watervliet Avenue 401 N. Washington Street Dayton, OH 45420 Rockville, MD 20850 (513) 252-5662 (800) 638-9636 DynaArt Designs MCM Electronics 3535 Stillmeadow Lane 650 Congress Park Drive Lancaster, CA 93536 Centerville, OH 45459 (805) 943-4746 (513) 434-0031 but discontinuing all of their low cost which new product you are going to infrared sensors. And the Solid State develop and just how their device is Music analog synthesizer products are essential to your development. Only now available by way of PMI. ask for what you really need. Finally, Sprague has long been a Avoid local reps like the plague. good and economical source of power And save the old line distributors as drivers (The ULN2813 is still one of an expensive and high hassle court of my favorites), liquid level sensing last resort. chips, stepper controllers, automotive electronics, Hall effect switches and A Contest such. Sprague has recently sold their Besides studiously ignoring several chip line to Allegro Micro Systems. of the major players (I still consider Who, thankfully, still offer most of the any chip whose part number starts winners in this line. with an 8 to be intrinsically vile and despicable), who did I miss? Who else Getting Results that is non-obvious, yet offers unusual Naturally, the first place to try and hacker-friendly integrated circuits? find actual chips is in our Nuts & Volts For our contest this month, just tell advertisers. But no matter where you me about any other little known or get all your devices or what you are fresh source of innovative circuits going to do with them, be absolutely useful to experimenters and hardware certain to have current data sheets and hackers. ap notes on hand. And make sure the There will be a dozen or so of my newly revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II book prizes going to the NEXT MONTH: Don explores best entries, along with an all expense the world of labor-of-love paid (FOB Thatcher, AZ) tinaja quest technical newsletters. for two going to the very best of all. As usual, be sure to send all your written entries directly to me here at data is from the same company who Synergetics per the end blurb, rather actually made the chip. than to Nuts & Volts editorial. You can often get one or two free Let’s hear from you. ✦ samples of most any semiconductor just by asking for them. But you do Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don have to be fully professional when Lancaster is the author of 27 books and you try this. Ball point pen on tablet countless articles. Don maintains his paper simply will not hack it. You no-charge tech helpline found at (520) somehow will have to convince the 428-4073, besides offering all of his own supplier that you are a possible high books, reprints, and all his consulting quantity buyer for their products. services. He also has a free brochure full of The best place to start is with the his resource secrets waiting for you. Your bingo cards and response coupons in best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, the various trade journals. More on Mountain Standard Time. this in a future column. And follow Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, this up with a laser printed letterhead where a special Resource Bin topic has or telephone request sent directly to been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. applications engineering at the main You can call GEnie at (800) 638-9636 factory or head office. (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach You’ll get the best results with very Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, specific requests that exactly spell out AZ 85552.

16 May 1992 / Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number five

Exploring labor - of - love technical newsletters.

ur usual reminder here that the experimental and homebrew small Resource Bin is now a two-way Great Newsletters scale possibilities. No profit potential, O column. You can get tech help, Let’s start off with the TecSpec from of course. And they just might end up consultant referrals and off-the-wall Allegro Electronics. This hobbyist and calling you "shorty". Oh well. networking on nearly any electronic, homebrew electronics newsletter is There is some amateur interest in tinaja questing, personal publishing, heavily into electronic strobes, optical high vacuum techniques now being money machine, or computer topic by communications, lasers, magnetics, addressed by Steve Hansen’s The Bell calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays and such. Most of which are easy to Jar. This one is on building your own 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider build from low cost parts and offered vacuum pumps, compressors, neon secret resources brochures waiting for kits and pc boards. displays, and such. The Bell Jar is a you when you call or write. By far my favorite labor-of-love newer publication that is currently in An area of the great GEnie PSRT at newsletter is Frank Reid’s Speleonics. its third issue. (800) 638-9636 (for voice info) has been This "underground" publication is There are quite a few collectors of set aside specifically for use by all of specifically intended for spelunkers old radios. Whose primary newsletter you Nuts & Volts readers. You’ll find and cavers who have an interest in seems to be Antique Radio Classified. some superb technical downloads and high-tech goodies. Covered subjects Besides the hundreds of buy/sell ads lots of tutorials here. include low frequency radio comm, for older AM broadcast band radios, Information is where you find it. rescue gear, electronic compasses and they also cater to ancient military and Over the years, I’ve noticed that the survey instruments; nav services, high wireless receivers, early television, home crafted labor-of-love specialty tech lamps, piezo lighters, mapping loudspeaker rebuilding, upcoming newsletters often give you more info software, remote sensing goodies, and auctions, and special services. faster and better than do many larger geophysical fundamentals. At one time, building a Tesla coil circulation magazines. With honest Amateur radio astronomy is one was a mandatory rite of passage for "from the trenches" reviews and more rough row to hoe. All the equipment an emerging technonerd who just genuinely usable material for you. is expensive, the math is messy, and could neither afford nor understand At its outset, any publication has to finding low noise sites is tricky. For girls. While interest in these "lots of decide what or who is to be in charge. credibility, you also have to avoid the sparks" humongous machines has The options are to be reader driven, ego e.t. and UFO crowd like the plague. dwindled, a dedicated cadre of driven, or end up advertiser driven. In The leading newsletter here is called enthusiasts still remain. And gets an advertiser-driven publication, you The Radio Observer and is associated addressed by the ongoing Tesla Coil the reader, are the product delivered with the Association of Amateur Radio Builders Association newsletter. But be to paying advertisers. Done so on a Astronomers. forewarned: The name "Tesla" tends cost-per-thousand basis. Getting useful tech info on radio to attract several rather strangish If you are lucky, you are worth an controlled models has been hard. But denizens out of the woodwork. Such entire nickel. There is thus an inherent a brand new Micro-Avionics Newsletter as those alien UFO free energy power conflict in delivering any useful and promises to deliver lots on this sorely conspiracy buffs. unbiased end reader info within any needed topic. Several of those R/C Any useful reader-oriented desktop advertiser driven pub. Especially stuff models are now up to one-fifth or publishing magazines which address that warns you about poor products, one-quarter scale. Which gives you a the lower end needs of beginners are operating defects, or any third party very respectable platform for aerial few and far between. Be sure to let me alternatives. Or workarounds that let measurement, experiments and video know if you find one, for I would very you avoid buying anything in the first observations. At a ridiculously tiny much like to move my Ask the Guru place. Sadly, the economics of any fraction of a "real" aircraft. and LaserWriter Corner columns from high-circulation marketplace strongly And, speaking of which, Homebuilt their present state of near limbo. At favor being ad driven. Rotorcraft is a newsletter on building any rate, there is one labor-of-love For our resource bin this month, I your own helicopters. It is intended low end desktop pub which someday thought I’d gather up a great heaping for the gyro gearloose crowd. Yes, the could turn into something big. It is bunch of labor-of-love newsletters, lawyers completely ate up the entire even free. It is called The Flash and is fancier reader-driven magazines, and personal aircraft industry for lunch. now published by Walt Jeffries from several related resources… But, there’s still plenty of interesting Black Lightning. Those topics covered

June 1992 / Resource Bin I 17 include toner thermography, T-shirt new from transfer printing, Book-on-demand House Organs DON LANCASTER publishing, printed circuits, special A house organ will differ from a toner techniques, cartridge reloading, labor-of-love newsletter in that it is ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK decals, and cartridge reloading. published by a company rather than a The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog There are now many hundreds of person. House organs obviously have op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active computer user group newsletters of "sell our product!" as their primary filters. De-mystified instant designs. $19.50 varying quality. Two of my favorites mission in life. Once you recognize include Tom Weishaar’s exceptionally their total and their overwhelmingly CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS well done Resource Central that tightly obvious bias, you will often find lots Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two focuses on those Apple IIe and IIgs of useful info. Much of which can books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. products; and BMUG, an incredible clearly be applied way beyond what About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. publication produced by the Berkeley the writer intended. Or at least get Macintosh Users Group. you started off in a research direction. INCREDIBLE SECRET One Mark Voorhees newsletter of And house organs are usually free on MONEY MACHINE II interest to traditional craftsmen and a credible enough request. Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting musicians is the Classic Organ Builder. There are countless thousand upon up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 Or, if coin operated music is more to thousands of house organs. Let’s look your style, check into Always Jukin’ – at three wildly different ones… The Monthly Jukebox Magazine. The first of these is that Hewlett LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes I’ve only reviewed a scant few of Packard Journal. Which gives excellent the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active those hundreds of ham and specialty technical coverage of the underlying Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly communications magazines. But one I principles behind electronic test and revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and have found of interest is The Lowdown, comm gear. It is particularly handy those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 which does specialize in all those low for picking up any new applied math frequency communications services concepts, unusual packaging ideas, LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES below the AM broadcast band. These and all of the fundamentals of newer Ask...... the Guru I or II or III $24.50 include beacons, navigation aides, measurement technologies. Hardware...... Hacker II or III $24.50 Blatant...... Opportunist I $16.50 and natural geophysical phenomoma Thomson-Shore is a higher quality Book-on-Demand...... Resource Kit $39.50 related to earthquakes and whistlers. printer that specializes in limited run PostScript...... Beginner Stuff $39.50 A second new comm newsletter is paperback and hardbound books. The Intro...... to PostScript Video $39.50 GEnie...... PSRT Sampler $29.50 that Spread Spectrum Scene. Spread Printer’s Ink house organ is an every PostScript...... Reference II $28.50 spectrum communications is getting now and then pub which has lots of PostScript...... Tutorial/Cookbook $16.50 super important for everything from useful info in it for self publishing. PostScript...... Secrets Brochure FREE Hacking...... Secrets Brochure FREE power line controls through wireless Especially if you do read between the modems through ham packet radio on lines to pick up what is really being up through navigation satellites. And said. They also have a free hardback LASERWRITER SECRETS offers the promise of allowing many demo of previous copies. A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free stations on the same frequency at the In what has to be the greatest name fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any same time without major interference. ever thunk up for any trade journal, PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $29.50 With greatly simplified licensing. Foiled Again is published by Transfer If you are at all into home printing, Print Foils. This beauty covers all the FREE SAMPLES be certain to check into The Printer’s different uses for hot stamping foils. Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on Devil newsletter from the Mother of Including scads of emerging desktop GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. Ashes Press. Whose masthead motto is publishing uses. And various ongoing The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 "A home in every press. A press in product decoration and enhancement cents. Call (800) 638-9636 for connect info. every home." Old line fer sure. And techniques. FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA / MC exceptionally well done. Many of the so-called inventor’s Beyond Labor-of-love SYNERGETICS publications are marketing scams in The next step up from labor-of-love Box 809-NV Thatcher, AZ 85552 disguise. But one of the few and far newsletters are what I like to call high (520) 428-4073 between that I can recommend is Ed energy resources. Quite often, these are Zimmer’s useful Inventor-Entrepreneur professionally done "real" magazines Write in 146 on Reader Service Card. Network newsletter. It addresses the which have clearly gone beyond the Here’s a few of my favorites… realities of product marketing and newsletter class. But they still remain First and foremost on my list would development on an individual, small rather strongly reader oriented and have to be the Whole Earth Review. Still scale, and real-world basis. usually have one very charismatic or at that same old stall after all of these There’s also a new resurgence in highly creative head honcho who is years, their "access to tools" charter traditional crystal sets and real down obviously in total charge. remains their central editorial goal. Of home electronics using a minimum of Most importantly, they remain on a the several hundred magazines and the simplest possible parts and found strongly reader driven mission, rather trade journals which I personally do materials. One newsletter that covers than being advertiser based. Which subscribe to, WER is number two. these projects is the new Crystal Set means that useful and top-notch info Second only, of course, to MAD. Builder’s Association. Several similar can still be given out to you without Most of the solar energy mags have mags are supposedly in the works. offending any advertisers. long gone belly up. But Home Power is

18 June 1992/ Resource Bin I also the only pubs I know of where carefully reading all of the ads can immediately save you hundreds and LABOR-OF-LOVE NEWSLETTERS AND SIMILAR RESOURCES even thousands of dollars. I would also have to include Model Allegro Tec Spec Hewlett Packard Journal Printer's Ink Railroader here for three reasons. First, 3 Mine Mountain Road 3200 Hillview Avenue 7300 West Joy Road because this magazine has by far the Cornwall Bridge, CT 06754 Palo Alto, CA 94304 Dexter, MI 48130 (203) 672-0123 (415) 857-1501 (313) 426-3939 very finest technical writing of any publication anywhere in the world. Always Jukin High Energy Enterprises Radio Observer Period. It should be required reading 221 Yesler Way PO Box 5636 7605 Deland Avenue Seattle, WA 98104 Security, CO 80931 Ft Pierce, FL 34951 for any and all tech writers and tech (206) 233-9460 (719) 475-0918 (407) 464-2118 illustrators on all levels everywhere. I Am. Radio Astronomers Home Power Recharger/Supplies Unlim. hope to someday eventually be able to 247 North Linden Street PO Box 130 101 Granite Street, Ste F communicate with my readers as well Massapequa, NY 11758 Hornbrook, CA 96044 Corona, CA 91719 as the Model Railroader authors do. (516) 798-8459 (916) 475-3179 (714) 371-8288 Second, Model Railroader shows Antique Radio Classified Homebuilt Rotorcraft Resource Central how a large circulation magazine can PO Box 2 5555 Zuni SE, Ste 281 PO Box 11250 have zillions of wall-to-wall ads and Carlisle, MA 01741 Albuquerque, NM 87108 Overland Park, KS 66207 still remain overwhelmingly reader (508) 371-0512 (505) 298-9362 (913) 649-0567 driven. It’s common to have a "this kit The Bell Jar Inventor-Entrepreneur Science Probe sucks" review right beside a full page 35 Windsor Drive 1683 Plymouth Road 500-B Bi-County Blvd Amherst, NH 03031 Ann Arbor, MI 48105 Farmingdale, NY 11735 color ad for the very same kit product. (508) 689-1027 (313) 663-8000 (516) 293-0467 Their enlightened advertisers do not BMUG Lindsay Publications Speleonics mind in the least, since they do know 1442A Walnut Street #153 PO Box 538 Box 5283 that any loyal and dedicated readers Berkeley, CA 94709 Bradley, IL 60915 Bloomington, IN 47407 consistently given accurate and useful (510) 849-9114 (815) 935-5353 (812) 239-7305 info tend to buy more products more Classical Organ Builder Low Down Spread Spectrum Scene often. Besides, the kit probably is an PO Box 27476 Longwave Club of America PO Box 2199 atrocity, or they wouldn’t have said Phoenix, AZ 85061 45 Wildflower Road El Granada, CA 94018 so. And hobby kit suppliers have to (602) 973-1395 Levittown, PA 19057 (510) 278-3157 be in the game for the long haul. CompuServe Micro-Avionics News Synergetics Third, because there’s lots of neat 5000 Arlington Center Blvd 4241B Valley Road Box 809 Columbus, OH 43220 Drexel Hill, PA 19026 Thatcher, AZ 85552 tools, materials, and techniques here (800) 848-8199 (215) 259-6430 (520) 428-4073 that you just may not be exposed to The Flash Model Railroader Tesla Coil Builders Assoc otherwise. Low cost chemical milling Riddle Pond Road 21027 Crossroads Circle 3 Amy Lane forms a typical example. Amazingly, West Topsham, VT 05086 Waukesha, WI 53187 Queensbury, NY 12804 Model Railroader published one of (800) BLACK99 (414) 796-8776 (518) 792-1003 the very first practical examples of Foiled Again PC Techniques The WELL non-volatile memory projects. Long PO Box 538 7721 E Gray Road #204 27 Gate Five Road before any of the electronic ones. East Brunswick, NJ 08816 Scottsdale, AZ 85260 Sausalito, CA 94965 (908) 238-1800 (602) 483-0192 (415) 332-4335 Not Quite Newsletters GEnie The Printer's Devil Whole Earth Review While these are not exactly "on 401 N Washington Street PO Box 66 27 Gate Five Road Rockville, MD 20850 Harrison, ID 83833 Sausalito, CA 94965 paper" periodical publications, three (800) 638-9636 (208) 689-3738 (415) 332-1716 other resources deserve mention… First, check out Lindsay Publications, who have now taken upon themselves coming on like gangbusters. And they atmospheric research topics. Kind of a to reprint great books and articles as do practice what they preach, doing "what Scientific American should have far back as the turn of the century. everything off grid and off line. All in become" publication. And Bill Gates They are very good at "lost" machine a down-to-earth and totally hands-on, has a great Midnight Engineering shop techniques, unusual craft secrets, recycled, and eco-friendly style. magazine zeroing in on electronic and and early radio titles. Prices are quite Jeff Dunteman’s PC Techniques is an software startups, money machines, reasonable. interesting bimonthly programming and entrepreneurism in general. Free For perpetual motion, zero point magazine having a strong focus on samples are available. scalar energy, zillion mile per gallon solving end-user problems. A similar Recharger and Supplies Unlimited are carburetors, magnetics-only motors, electronic hardware journal would be a pair of magazines aimed at the laser pan-galactic happy faces on Mars, and Steve Circia’s Circuit Cellar Ink with printer repair and the toner recycling for "Boy, a whole flock of ’em flew lots of hands-on construction projects, industries. While these obviously are over that time" pubs in general, the especailly those related to embedded advertiser driven (one offers poorly definitive bookstore is High Energy controllers and systems. done technical content; the other none Enterprises. A free catalog is offered. Most of you do know by now that at all), the fact that certain Fortune 500 Totally fascinating reading fer sure. Forrest Mims is publishing Science companies definitely do not want you Even if you do not really expect Probe, an amateur science magazine reading either of these mags makes Congress to repeal the second law of heavily into science education and the entire trip worthwhile. These are thermodynamics. At least not in this

June 1992 / Resource Bin I 19 legislative session. technique. Which is short for Sample- Finally, of course, there are now Copy-Ad-Rates. Call up the advertising lots of on-line options for electronic department of the magazine and then labor-of-love publishing. Among the pretend that you just might become a other benefits is instant world wide potential advertiser. Then just ask for accessibility. Avoiding the months of a sample copy and a rate card. Almost delay and high costs of traditional always, you’ll have an express mail publishing. Not to mention the rapid copy of the publication in your hands error correcting and direct end user the next day. "close the loop" feedback. My favorite here is GEnie. Partially Another Contest because they pay me to say things like I do suspect my coverage here is that. Besides my own PSRT on GEnie grossly uneven. Especially for all the where a special area has now been set zillions of regional ham radio mags aside for use by all you Nuts & Volts and computer user group newsletters. readers, you might also find all their And, almost certainly, you’ll find a RADIO, HOSB (home office and small dozen ads right here in Nuts & Volts for several labor-of-love newsletters that I’ve obviously missed. NEXT MONTH: Don previews So, let’s have us another one of our the wondrously bizarre world contests. Simply tell me about any of electronic surplus. publication of any sort that (A) you happen to like, that also (B) actually delivers genuinely useful end reader business), MAC, IBM, AMIGA, A2, info on a no-holds-barred, objective ATARI and DTP (desktop publishing) and fairly priced basis. RoundTables of more than passing There will be a dozen or so of my interest. The average cost of a PSRT newly revised Incredible Secret Money download is around twenty one cents. Machine II book prizes going to the System wide, over 120,000 technical best entries, along with an all expense downloads are immediately available. paid (FOB Thatcher, AZ) tinaja quest It never ceases to amaze me that I for two going to the best of all. can press a button on GEnie and then As usual, be sure to send all your immediately route a "must read" ad written entries directly to me here at message to scads of people. At a cost Synergetics per the end blurb, rather per thousand of – zero! than to Nuts & Volts editorial. I have now seen the future and it is If possible, get me a sample copy. email oriented. Or, better yet, placed on their comp Two obvious competitors to GEnie list. A few months from now, then we include CompuServe and The Well. But can do a resource bin on your favorite there are, of course, thousands more. newsletters and pubs. Both free and fee. While you are at it, be sure to let me know which other types of topics The SCAR Ploy (especially insider secret stuff) that Since sub prices vary all over the you’d like to have appear here in Nuts lot, I’ve purposely avoided giving you & Volts. I’ll see what I can work up on current subscription costs. But the my own or pass on to others. ✦ typical range runs from free to $4 to $30 a year. I very carefully excluded Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don anything that I’d consider too costly Lancaster is the author of 27 books and for what they deliver. countless articles. Don maintains his Please bear in mind the "labor of no-charge tech helpline found at (520) love" in the smaller newsletters. Most 428-4073, besides offering all of his own of these are struggling to say the least. books, reprints, and all his consulting Many are running at a dead loss. So, services. He also has a free brochure full of on the really tiny mags, just go ahead his resource secrets waiting for you. Your and flat out subscribe. Or send along best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, five bucks cash with your request for Mountain Standard Time. info. And a very large pre-addressed Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, envelope with lots of postage. where a special Resource Bin topic has But, on any "real" magazine, there is been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. one simple and useful ploy which is You can call GEnie at (800) 638-9636 almost certain to get you at least one (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach free copy and perhaps even a comp Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, subscription. I call this one the SCAR AZ 85552.

20 June 1992/ Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number six

The wondrous world of electronic surplus.

ur usual reminder here that the seems cheap at the time. Or to assume yeah. And bright yellow Gibson Girl Resource Bin is now a two-way that some major "greater fool" market rescue transmitters that made some O column. You can get tech help, exists for your newly found treasures. really dandy (although highly illegal) consultant referrals and off-the-wall And it could end up deadly to design college dorm AM broadcasters. networking on nearly any electronic, surplus parts into any product only to One of my first really big business tinaja questing, personal publishing, have those sources forever vanish. Or failures involved converting surplus money machine, or computer topic by to buy a zillion parts and maybe sell castings into decorator lamps. I have calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays seventeen of them. Or to have all your still got one or two left if you want to 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider shipping charges eat you alive on raw get in ahead of the hoarders. secret resources brochures waiting for iron or other heavies. The last few years, though, those you when you call or write. Thus forewarned, let’s take a fast military bargains weren’t really there. An area of the great GEnie PSRT at survey of some of the many different At least not very often. The materials (800) 638-9636 (for voice info) has been sources of electronic surplus, to find are typically worn out, filthy, trashed, set aside specifically for use by all of out just where all of this stuff comes truly obsolete, or highly specialized. you Nuts & Volts readers. You’ll find from. And how you could go about Those bidding requirements, certified some superb technical downloads and getting some of it on your own. checks, pickup hassles, and all of the lots of tutorials here. We might start with the oldest and paperwork could end up awesome. This month, I’ve decided we might most obvious… And professional bidders pretty much explore several of the obscure nooks have things down to a cut and dried and crannies in the bizarre world of Military Surplus process all their own. electronic surplus. At one time, surplus was nearly all There’s also the fact that a lot of Surplus is just "stuff left over". Very military. Incredible buys were the rule government surplus gets higraded by often, it is stuff left over because it is rather than the exception. Whole city a triple filtering. First by the military obsolete, broken, worn out, or never blocks were often devoted to long themselves, then by states, and finally worked properly in the first place. Or gone "radio row" stores all of which by schools. You are often at the end of because it just didn’t sell. Sometimes, featured military surplus. Heathkit a very long line. you can score honest bargains. Other and similar companies got their start But, with the newly emerging peace times, surplus can easily become an repackaging old military electronic breakout, military surplus sales just outright ripoff. components into their oscilloscope may be on a sharp upswing again. So Surplus can range from brand new kits at unheard of prices. now may be the time to get back on and first rate materials having a full Surplus "command set" conversions those bidder’s lists. pedigree and provenance, on down to often led to really useful ham gear for Getting onto any military surplus the most abjectly worthless of floor literally pennies on the dollar. One $2 bidders list has been a major rite of sweepings that somebody didn’t want passage for most electronic hackers. to haul to the dump. The process is cheap and quite simple: Usually, there is not any warranty NEXT MONTH: Don details You write or call the Defense Logistics or guarantee with most surplus items. some obscure automotive Supply Agency and ask them for their Either that the stuff works at all or is electronics opportunities. surplus sales brochure. Then you fill in any manner suited to your needs. out a card, giving them your area and And the quality of technical help you material preferences. That’s all there may get can vary all over the lot. But, special formed a "Q-5" instant if strip is to it. Easy. more often than not, it will be dead for high performance homebrew ham After that, you will receive a few wrong info. communications gear. bidders notices per your selections. To Electronic and computer surplus is My personal ventures into military keep their mailing list size down, they a lot of fun to play with. But the big surplus first took place many years will drop you after six or so notices if bucks are only to be made by the lean ago and involved lots of dynamotor you do not actively participate. Thus, and mean full time pros who have the power supplies bought at sixty-five you may have to repeat your requests contacts and know exactly what they cents per. Or aircraft VHF altimeters every few months or so. are doing. It is super easy to grossly at four bucks. And crystals at five Needless to say, you must personally overvalue something, just because it cents each; acorn tubes at four. Oh inspect anything and everything before

July 1992 / Resource Bin I 21 ever submitting any bid. The military antique radio electronics. Anything a new from bidders description might sometimes techie could get off on can and will DON LANCASTER say "Approximate quantity: one". And show up here. they mean just that. One tip: Always arrive extra early, ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK Ah yes, all those $45 jeeps. Vintage preferably well before sunup. All the The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog military vehicles are sometimes still best goodies really go fast. op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active offered at less than commercial prices. Here in Arizona, the main hamfests filters. De-mystified instant designs. $19.50 The only tiny gotcha is that it is illegal are held in Tucson, Yuma, Apache to drive them on any public roads, so Junction, Scottsdale, and Prescott. The CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS they are cut in half with a torch before ultimate primo biggie, though, is the Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two you are permitted to accept delivery. Dayton Hamvention in Ohio. To tune books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. These can be great for giant bookends. yourself into hamfest activities, check About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. But check your local zoning first. all of the listings right here in Nuts & There are also obvious restrictions Volts, read the ham magzines, contact INCREDIBLE SECRET on weapon systems, military aircraft, an amateur radio BBS, or ask around MONEY MACHINE II and all hazardous materials. Federal at your local radio club. The RADIO Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting employees, or their families, or agents board up on GEnie also has extensive up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 are not allowed to bid. hamfest info instantly available. Note that there is also non-military If you don’t have the foggiest idea government surplus. This is handled how to contact any radio ham at all, LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes entirely differently, done through the start with the search and rescue group the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active General Services Agency listed under at your local Sheriff’s office. Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly US Government in the white pages of revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and your nearest large city phone book. Wholesale Surplus Sources those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 The process is also free and works Much of electronic surplus today is pretty near the same way. You contact traded by a shadowy and low profile LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES them, telling them which regions you group of highly lean and mean outfits Ask...... the Guru I or II or III $24.50 seem interested in for what types of who are collectively called wholesale Hardware...... Hacker II or III $24.50 Blatant...... Opportunist I $16.50 products. And then you are placed on surplus distributors. They operate by Book-on-Demand...... Resource Kit $39.50 the bidder lists. At least for a while. buying large lots of stuff and splitting PostScript...... Beginner Stuff $39.50 Neither one of these agencies are it down into smaller lots. Virtually all Intro...... to PostScript Video $39.50 GEnie...... PSRT Sampler $29.50 involved in any way with narcs, DEA, the business is done by fax, and they PostScript...... Reference II $28.50 or RICO confiscated personal items. try to turn their inventory over every PostScript...... Tutorial/Cookbook $16.50 Regardless of what all those fine print twelve minutes. Their idea of long PostScript...... Secrets Brochure FREE Hacking...... Secrets Brochure FREE classified ads say. term is "outtahere before lunch". Yet another source of unusual (and There are often very high ($100 to certainly "surplus") government stuff $500 line item minimums. And much LASERWRITER SECRETS is the Post Office dead letter office. of it is sold by the lot, which can be A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free The main PO in every large city or the anything from 384 to 384,000 pieces. If fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any regional SCF has one or more yearly your needs do not meet those precise PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $29.50 auctions in which the undeliverable, quantities available, tough luck. unreturnable or mystery packages are Typical wholesale prices can be two FREE SAMPLES sold to the highest bidder. Usually by cents for a light emitting diode or a Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on the hamper full. nickel for most jelly bean integrated GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. A central post office should always circuits. On the other hand, if some The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 end in an 00 zipcode. Several calls very critical component gets scarce or cents. Call (800) 638-9636 for connect info. might be involved before you can get suddenly has longer delivery times, FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA / MC any straight info. they might charge you several times list and then some. Any production SYNERGETICS Hamfests manager will gladly pay ten bucks for Box 809-NV Thatcher, AZ 85552 No, you do not have to be a radio a nickel part if it is the only barrier (520) 428-4073 ham to be welcome at any hamfest. item standing between his products Anyone can attend. The admission is and the shipping dock. Write in 146 on Reader Service Card. often free or nominal. Your first and foremost rule when sidebars. While I double checked this A hamfest is an annual and often dealing with any of these people is no list just before our column deadline, outdoor gathering of radio amateur screwing around. You can expect zero you’ll find that these firms come and enthusiasts. The main event is usually handholding or technical assistance. go with astonishing speed. And some a high tech flea market where plenty The assumption is made that you do of them can be rather picky over who of electronic bargains can always be know exactly what you ordered and they allow for customers. found. There’s also prize giveaways, precisely what you are getting into. A few of these wholesale only firms with excellent odds of you winning at You fax them and tell them what you advertise regularly in the Electronic least something. want. If they have it, you buy it. Right News and the Electronic Buyer’s News Besides obvious comm gear, the now. Period. trade journals. Both of these are free focus is often on military surplus, old I’ve listed a few wholesale surplus to qualified requests. Otherwise, these computer boards, scanners, and older distributors in the first of our two outfits may be hard to find.

22 July 1992/ Resource Bin I can advertise your own products. While not really surplus, I would have to include Archie McPhee here. SOME WHOLESALE SURPLUS DISTRIBUTORS They are the world’s preeminent supplier of rubber iguanas and are a Ace Electronics Derf Electronics Micro-C "must have" for any serious catalog 3210 Antoine 1 Biehn Street 11085 Sorrento Valley Court collector. No Nuts & Volts reader can Houston, TX 77092 New Rochelle, NY 10801 San Diego, CA 92121 (713) 688-8114 (800) 431-2912 (619) 552-1213 possibly afford to be without Archie’s free catalog. ACP Components H&R Enterprises New England Circuit Sales 1317 East Edinger 21521 Blythe Street 292 Cabot Street Attention K-Mart Shoppers Santa Ana CA 92705 Canoga Park, CA 91304 Beverly, MA 01915 (714) 558-8822 (818) 703-8892 (800) 922-NECS While not nearly as common (or as All Components Japan Electronics Search Electronics profitable) as they once were, you’ll 5999 Summerside Pl #208 15138 Valley Blvd 228 East Atara still find a scant few retail electronic Dallas, TX 75252 City of Industry, CA 91744 Monrovia, CA 91016 surplus stores scrounging around the (800) 334-4637 (818) 369-5000 (818) 359-3350 marginal neighborhoods in larger Am Design Components J&C Electronics Southwest Memory cities. Many of these regional stores Box 2601 Box 630 3330 Earhart, Ste 213 flat out can not afford to send any Secaucus, NJ 07094 Salem, MA 01970 Carrollton, Texas 75006 catalogs to non-buyers. With others, (800) 776-3800 (800) 447-7014 (214) 484-1595 their stock moves too fast or is too Braniff Industries Leo Electronics Surplus Traders weird, in too small lots, or too cheap 91 South Ottawa 22353 S Western Ave #201 Winters Lane Box 276 Dixon, IL 61021 Torrance, CA 90501 Alburg, VT 05440 to properly itemize. (815) 288-4500 (310) 212-6133 (514) 739-9328 Yet others don’t have the slightest Calcera LJ Enterprises World Wide idea what they’ve got in stock. And PO Box 489 2377 Yorktown Street 18 Stern Avenue there is some sort of a continuum Belmont, CA 94002 Oceanside, NY 11572 Springfield, NJ 07081 from "real stores" on down (wayy… (800) 257-5549 (516) 766-2304 (800) 222-6268 on down) to rusting junk piles in an otherwise overgrown empty lot. Ferinstance, I’d guess there are surplus electronics. Clear on back to about twenty or so regional electronic Some Personal Favorites WWII vintage. Transmitters, receivers, surplus stores here in Arizona, with Naturally, you’ll find hundreds of test gear, antennas, meters, and even the lion’s share of these in or around ads for lots of small quantity surplus electromechanical items are usually Phoenix. The most well known one is electronics right here in Nuts & Volts. featured in their free flyers. Apache Reclamation & Electronics, that And we would hope this would be For any "big mutha" raw iron, my started out as a Honeywell sponsored your best place to start. favorite remains C&H sales. Although self-help ghetto improvement project. Over the years, though, I’ve found a the Burden’s Surplus Center is certainly These days, there’s still tons of stock few sources that clearly and obviously a useful second choice. Both outfits and great prices here, but the quality stand out above the crowd. Here’s a specialize in medium through larger is down markedly and some of the few favorites that I have often used hydraulics, generators, pneumatics, stuff is clearly getting rather long in and personally recommend… strange servos, and motors. Their free the tooth. Sigh. The first and foremost, of course, is catalogs are essential if you are at all To find these unadvertised regional JerryCo, who have recently renamed thinking of going into robotics. surplus stores, start with the yellow themselves as American Science and While I’ve often felt their prices a pages of your largest city. Don’t be Surplus. If your entire universe were tad high, Herbach and Rademan tend to surprised if half of them are closed, reduced to only one surplus store, this offer a quality assembly of unusual have strange hours or are simply not would clearly be it. In fact, the entire electronics gear. Their infrared people there. The other obvious ways to pin industry should now get calibrated in detectors for only $12 seem to be a down these stores are all your local JerryCo units. An exceptionally good genuine bargain. computer clubs and the regional BBS store might be 0.02 of a JerryCo, a Ultra cheapo parts have long been systems. Plus, of course, those same poor one 0.0015, and so on. offered by B & F Sales, who seem to amateur radio resources that got you While not very strong in electronic have cut way back on their fat and to the hamfests. components, their coverage of optics, free catalogs, but are still in business small motors, materials, and weird at their old location. Speakers and My Ultimate And Top gizmos that cry "use me" is genuinely radio chassis assemblies are typical Secret Surplus Source exceptional. listings. Plus bunches more. I have recently discovered several The most obvious surplus house is As a good example of a wholesale absolutely incredible places to go for Edmund Scientific, who have long been surplus distributor who sometimes my surplus electronic and computer the ad leader in optics and scientific sells retail, my first choice is Marvin goodies. At totally astonishing prices. stuff. They are also very big in small Bierbaum of Surplus Traders. He offers Very sadly, many community colleges motors, magnets, and compasses. outstanding large quantity pricing on are either eliminating their electronics Still at their same old stall after all everything from wall power supplies programs outright, or else are sharply these years is Fair Radio Sales. They to solar panels to laser printers to VCR cutting way back on them. Typical remain by far the leading place to go front ends. Free catalogs are offered, schools now have surplus materials for any and all of the genuine military as are co-op mailings in which you auctions open to the public and held

July 1992 / Resource Bin I 23 once a year or more. The big secret: The outlying schools (those a two hour’s drive from any large city) will often end up literally OTHER MENTIONED RESOURCES giving the stuff away. Mostly because all their auctions are not advertised American Sci & Surp Edmund Sceintific Herbach & Rademan 601 Linden Place 101 East Gloucester Pike 401 East Erie Avenue heavily. And because the few locals Evanston, IL 60202 Barrington, NJ 08007 Philadelphia, PA 19134 that do manage to attend are flat out (708) 475-8440 (609) 573-6250 (215) 426-1700 broke. Or don’t know tech values. Apache Reclamation Electronic Buyer's News Archie McPhee There is also the minor fact that 313 West Apache 600 Community Drive PO Box 30852 these sales are sometimes held in a Phoenix, AZ 85003 Manhasset, NY 11030 Seattle, WA 98103 furnace room between 2:13 AM and (602) 254-0613 (516) 562-5000 (206) 547-2467 2:46 AM on a Tuesday morning. With BNF Enterprises Electronic News Nuts & Volts twenty milliseconds advance notice 119 Foster Street Box 1051 430 Princeland Court sent only to four long time friends of Peabody, MA 01961 Southeastern, PA 19398 Corona, CA 91719 the auctioneer. (508) 531-5774 (215) 630-0951 (714) 632-7721 Some examples: A $35,000 theater Burdens Surplus Center Fair Radio Sales Synergetics lighting system has sold for eighteen PO Box 82209 PO Box 1105 Box 809 Lincoln, NE 68501 Lima, OH 45802 Thatcher, AZ 85552 dollars. An almost new $1800 printed (800) 488-3407 (419) 227-6573 (520) 428-4073 circuit benchtop etcher for twelve. An C&H Sales GEnie Used Equipment Directory antique gas pump for twenty. Clean PO Box 5356 401 N Washington Street 1100 Superior Avenue Selectric typewriters for five. A mint Pasadena, CA 91107 Rockville, MD 20850 Cleveland, OH 44144 tube caddy chock full of new vacuum (800) 325-9465 (800) 638-9636 (216) 696-7000 tubes for ten. A Tektronix scope cart Defense Logistics Agency GSA Personal Property Wall Street Journal for twelve. An entire dino mainframe PO Box 1370 Box 25506 DFC B41 R223 420 Lexington Ave, 14th Fl computer for $3.50. Battle Creek, MI 49016 Denver, CO 80225 New York City, NY 10170 On the other hand, if the popular (616) 961-4000 (303) 979-0361 (212) 808-6960 perceived value of whatever is getting dumped ends up too high, you could get ripped off badly. After a spirited names of all those auction houses and tinaja quest for two going to the best. bidding, worn out lathes and older the contract auctioneers in your area. Be sure to send all of your written broken personal computers often go Then call them all and tell them you entries directly to me at Synergetics for ten times what any sane person do want to be notified of upcoming per the end blurb, rather than to Nuts would pay for them. events. Or otherwise find out where & Volts editorial. With many of these auctions, your and how they advertise. As usual, we’ve gathered our Names personal checks are accepted and Now, there positively must be some & Numbers together into a pair of advanced registration isn’t needed. really great auctioneer’s insider trade sidebars. One specifically lists those To tune yourself into these types of journals, bidder’s magazines, or odd wholesale surplus sources, and the school auctions, Get a list of all the newsletters which cover this sort of other lists most everything else I’ve community colleges in your state and thing. Sadly, I just don’t know about mentioned. Be sure to check out these figure out which ones are not in a them. With the single exception of sidebars before you contact our voice high tech and big bucks locale. Then Penton’s Used Equipment Directory, helpline for further technical help. call the school’s public information which is mostly into heavy machine Oh yes. One last chance and utterly office and find out when and where shop stuff. Sorry about that. stupendous surplus offer: What am I these events are held. But, why don’t you tell me instead? bid for a surplus DEC Micro PDP-11? For the first of this month’s two More or less all there. Industrial Auctions contests, just tell me about any insider Approximate quantity one. ✦ Major sources of electronic surplus publication that compiles national or include industrial auctions. Some of regional industrial auctions. If you Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don these involve bankruptcies. Others are can, send along a sample copy or get Lancaster is the author of 27 books and perfectly healthy firms using auctions me on their mailing list. countless articles. Don maintains his for their routine ongoing and orderly no-charge tech helpline found at (520) disposal of excess materials. A Second Contest 428-4073, besides offering all of his own Now, down in Silicon Valley, you On second thought, let’s extend this books, reprints, and all his consulting just pick any local paper and you will to make it even easier. Just tell me services. He also has a free brochure full of have a long list of industrial auctions about any surplus resource I don’t his resource secrets waiting for you. Your to select from. The real biggies will know about that may be of interest to best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, advertise in Electronic Buyer’s News or all Nuts & Volts readers. Electronic or Mountain Standard Time. even The Wall Street Journal. otherwise. Or else, give me some Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, But it may not be obvious who is specific GSA or other local auction where a special Resource Bin topic has auctioning what to whom in your part information for your home turf. There been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. of the country. And it probably didn’t will be a dozen of my newly revised You can call GEnie at (800) 638-9636 occur to them that you might want an Incredible Secret Money Machine II book (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach invitation. prizes going to the best, along with an Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, One obvious ploy is to find all the all expense paid (FOB Thatcher, AZ) AZ 85552.

24 July 1992/ Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number seven

Unique opportunities in auto electronics.

ur usual reminder here that the motors on such accessories as power When de-energized, that straight Resource Bin is now a two-way antennas, seat adjustment, tracking front pipe connects to a filtered vent O column. You can get tech help, mirrors, cooling fans, locks, or even to ambient out the rear. When 12 volts consultant referrals and off-the-wall the power windows are crying to be is applied, those two front pipes are networking on nearly any electronic, applied to new uses. Miniature linear connected together and the ambient tinaja questing, personal publishing, stepping motors are often a part of vent is blocked. While intended for money machine, or computer topic by idle adjusters. Surely all the possible vacuum uses, you can apply positive calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays uses for fuel injectors haven’t yet been pressures on up into the 10 PSI range 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider thunk up. without any cracking problems. Yes, secret resources brochures waiting for And, of course, most auto radios liquids can also be handled simply by you when you call or write. are far more rugged, better shielded, glopping over the vent. Especially as An area of the great GEnie PSRT at and offer much better AM sensitivity an automated barkeep. (800) 638-9636 (for voice info) has been than home versions. Around 150 mils of coil current is set aside specifically for use by all of Step number one is to get some needed at +12 volts DC. While most you Nuts & Volts readers. You’ll find permission to wander around your any old transistor will do, my favorite some superb technical downloads and local junkyard. And paying particular driver for these still remains the octal lots of tutorials here. attention to older and more common Sprague/Allegro ULN2813. Be certain to Are you on a first paw basis with stuff that obviously is not in current provide an anti-spiking diode across your local junkyard dog? Have you demand. Ask not what the parts are your coil if your driver is unprotected ever shared a bowl of Purina together? really intended for. Instead, ask what from transients. Or woofed over the aerobic excercise mechanical or electrical function they These were originally known as potential of Felis Domesticus? Like that are actually performing deep down Transmission Controlled Spark (TCS) or striped orange one that is sitting over inside. Then, use or abuse per your Speed Controlled Spark (SCS) valves. In there on that pile of wheel rims? own needs. their intended emission control uses, Automotive electronics can be a Certainly the least asked-for parts in a spark advance was not permitted at mixed bag. On one hand, much of it is any junkyard are those… lower speeds or in lower gears. primitive and specialized. Additional The original manufacturer was portions are supersecret, overpriced, TCS and SCS electronic valves Carter Carburetor, now renamed Carter and poorly documented. On the other, Despite my shouting it from the Automotive. These valves (and all their there’s all this great stuff just sitting rafters for two decades now, there is newer versions) come and go in all of there crying to be used. Some of it at one auto electronics component that the surplus catalogs, with C&H Sales giveaway prices. Or better. still goes begging. Would you believe currently listing their item #SV7904 for Just how can you get started using, a three-way pneumatic air valve for a $2.95 in singles. American Science and enjoying, and recycling automotive quarter each? Surplus and Edmund Scientific often electronics? We might begin by… Here’s what a typical one of these listed the valves for as little as $25 per dudes looks like… hundred. That’s a quarter each! Starting with the obvious Low pressure pneumatics in the 4-6 Many used auto components offer PSI range has yet to take off. Yet this outstanding robotics potential. Most offers absolutely outstanding hacker especially for the luxury car add-ons potential. Among other things, air and similar auto "peripherals". Those "amplifies" in that the power comes electric fuel pumps could make great from the air source, not directly from fountains, while a typical windshield the actuator control signal itself. Air is washer driver produces an incredible great for acting through a distance, range for smaller liquid volumes. especially around robotic elbows or in Most auto relays are cheap, rugged, hazardous areas. And an air actuator reliable, and have quite high current is ridiculously more linear, lots cooler, ratings. Some will offer latching and and vastly more powerful than most blinking; others can provide variable smaller solenoids. Besides being far speed options. And all those auxiliary cheaper. And easy to hack.

August 1992 / Resource Bin I 25 You could use any larger aquarium analog AFC, it definitely won’t work pump (or even a truck tire) for your with a $400 digitally synthesized one. new from air source, and a hollow toilet bowl Because of serious drift problems. DON LANCASTER float as an air accumulator. Add a $6 Enter a stupendous chip and two regulator from any of a number of wondrously hackable products. The ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK Nuts & Volts advertisers. One tip: You magic chip is called the Rohm BA1404. The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog should have the best luck with your This is a low cost and low power high op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active actuators by following this rule: Never quality FM stereo broadcaster. When filters. De-mystified instant designs. $19.50 have a low pressure air seal that moves! If combined with its crystal stabilized your seal is good, it robs you of all stereo pilot and a crystal stabilized FM CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS your power. If not, it robs you of all of carrier, the BA1404 can provide a very Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two your air. Either way, you will lose. high quality and a locked-to-channel books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. Instead, use flexible actuators such as miniature broadcast source. One that About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. bellows or balloon-style inflators. is easily handled by most any modern Any time you must have a static synthesized receiver. INCREDIBLE SECRET seal, the plain old O-rings from Small The two hackable products are the MONEY MACHINE II Parts are hard to beat. Unless you try Pioneer CD-FM-1, and the Sony XA7A. Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting to freeze a badly underdesigned and These are widely available at most up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 misapplied one on a rocket. audio stores, with pricing in the $10 A second obvious tip: There’s a big (clearance) to $55 (list) range. Both of and very crucial difference between these intended to let you conveniently LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY pneumatic and electronic circuits. If connect a CD audio player into your Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active you try using a "SPST" or a two-way car audio system. To use them, you Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly valve with pneumatics, you’ll extend simply disconnect your antenna from revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and your actuator all right. But it will stay the radio, plug your module in, and those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 extended, because of all the air that then reconnect your antenna. The FM stays stuck in the pipe. All dressed up stereo audio from your CD player LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES and nowhere to go. now magically appears on some lower ...... Ask the Guru I or II or III $24.50 Instead, you have to use a SPDT or FM broadcast frequency...... Hardware Hacker II or III $24.50 a three-way air valve. To extend your Although I like the Pioneer unit ...... Book-on-Demand Resource Kit $39.50 ...... PostScript Beginner Stuff $39.50 actuator, you will power your valve, much better, either of these will hack ...... Intro to PostScript Video $39.50 connecting actuator to air source and beautifully into a stable and precisely ...... GEnie PSRT Sampler $29.50 accumulator. To retard your actuator, on-channel FM stereo limited range ...... PostScript Reference II $28.50 ...... PostScript Tutorial/Cookbook $16.50 you turn the valve off, connecting the broadcaster. Something that none of ...... Whole works (all PostScript) $350.00 actuator to ambient air and flushing the earlier kits or low end products ...... PostScript Secrets Brochure FREE any remaining air pressure. can offer. Additional details on these ...... Hacking Secrets Brochure FREE One good source of traditional (but (including full schematics) appears in costly) miniature air components is my files #414 HACK52.TXT and #415 LASERWRITER SECRETS Clippard Minimatic, while one bellows HACK52.PS on GEnie PSRT. A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free source would be Bellofram. But your fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, Abusing car alternators workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any actuators are easily done using found PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $29.50 or homemade materials. Start off with for fun and for profit those kiddie "push the button" water Auto alternators are often available toys from a yard sale. These contain in junkyards for as little as $5 if you BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering really fine bellows actuators. A good don’t need any specific model or the columns. Includes the case against patents, book source for hoses and sheet rubber for matching regulator that goes with it. on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm custom pneumatic parts is Hygenic Usually included are six high current stalking, insider research, lots more. $18.50 Manufacturing. Two lower cost fitting and low voltage power diodes. sources are Ark-Plas and Value. Your obvious thing to try with an FREE SAMPLES alternator is to rewind it into a 110 Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on The BA1404 volt power generator. Which is most GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 Sometimes, a brand new and first definitely feasible, giving you an ac cents. Call (800) 638-9636 for connect info. run automotive electronics device can generator up in the 500 to 1000 watt FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA / MC be reapplied to totally different uses range. But note that constant input and solve otherwise thorny problems. speed will be needed for a stable 60 SYNERGETICS The word is finally getting out that Hertz output frequency. Box 809-NV the majority of today’s FM wireless More details on practical alternator Thatcher, AZ 85552 broadcaster kits and systems flat out rewinding appear in several low cost (520) 428-4073 no longer work. The problem is that info books and booklets from Lindsay Write in 146 on Reader Service Card. nearly all premium home and auto Publications, while J.C. Whitney offers FM receivers are fully synthesized and various alternator modification kits. tiny hole that accepts a toothpick or a now demand precisely on-channel and One crucial hint: The brushes on an small wire. This can safely lock your super stable input frequencies. While alternator’s slip rings will "explode" if brushes in place. You then pull your any old FM broadcaster kit will work you are not extra careful during your toothpick or wire off after assembly is just fine with a $4 FM receiver having disassembly. In each brush holder is a complete. Watch this detail.

26 August 1992/ Resource Bin I are ridiculously more efficient than ours. And far more comfortable. Key secrets to their 16.0 and higher SEER ratings include variable speed scroll SOME AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS RESOURCES compressors, their variable speed air handling, and fuzzy logic multi-zone American Sci & Surplus Electronic Comp. News SGS-Thomson controllers. 601 Linden Place One Chilton Way 1000 East Bell Road But the really big rage sweeping the Evanston, IL 60202 Radnor, PA 19089 Phoenix, AZ 85022 (708) 475-8440 (215) 964-4345 (602) 867-6259 rest of the world (especially Europe) are the switched reluctance drive motors. Analog Devices Electronic Products Small Parts One Technology Way 645 Stewart Avenue PO Box 4650 The switched reluctance drive is the Norwood, MA 02062 Garden City, NY 11530 Miami Lakes, FL 33014 heir apparent replacement for the low (617) 329-4700 (516) 227-1300 (305) 557-8222 cost single phase ac induction motor, Ark-Plas Products GEnie Sony of America offering fully adjustable speeds, easy Highway 178 North 401 N Washington Street 9 West 57th Street reversibility, and better higher energy Flippin, AR 72634 Rockville, MD 20850 New York, NY 10019 efficiency. All in an actually cheaper (501) 453-2343 (800) 638-9636 (212) 371-5800 mechanical design. Automotive Electronics Hygenic Manufacturing Sprague/Allegro A plain old car alternator can be 7 East 12th Street 1245 Home Avenue 70 Pembroke Road converted into a "sort of" switched New York, NY 10003 Akron, OH 44310 Concord, NH 03301 (212) 741-4184 (216) 633-8460 (603) 224-1961 reluctance drive simply by providing some driver smarts and a few Hall Automotive Industries Lindsay Publications Synergetics PO Box 2056 PO Box 538 PO Box 809 Effect speed and position sensors. The Radnor, PA 19080 Bradley, IL 60915 Thatcher, AZ 85552 details are pretty much the same as (215) 964-4876 (815) 935-5353 (520) 428-4073 when stepping, except you now have Bellofram Motion Control Tektronix reversibility and will often tend to run 30 Blanchard Road 800 Roosevelt Road E-408 PO Box 500 continuously, instead of cogging in Burlington, MA 01803 Glen Ellyn, IL 60137 Beaverton, OR 97077 discrete incremental steps. (617) 272-2100 (708) 469-3373 (800) 835-9433 More on switched reluctance drives C & H Sales National Semiconductor Texas Instruments appeared in the February 1992 issue of PO Box 5356 475 Ellis Street PO Box 809066 Motion Control, on pages 50-53. Pasadena, CA 91107 Mountain View, CA 94043 Dallas, TX 75380 (800) 325-9465 (800) 632-3531 (800) 336-5236 Automotive electronics chips Carter Automotive Pioneer Electronics Uhlricht's Dictionary There are quite a few automotive 9666 Olive Road PO Box 1720 1180 Americas Avenue St. Louis, MO 63132 Long Beach, CA 90801 New York, NY 10016 trade journals. Two of these include (800) 325-4664 (213) 835-6177 (212) 916-1600 Automotive Electronics and Automotive Clippard Minimatic Rohm Corporation Value Plastics Industries. The latter has a really great 7390 Colerain Road PO Box 19681-631 3350 Eastbrook Drive directory in their June 92 issue, and Cincinatti, OH 45239 Irvine, CA 92713 Ft. Collins, CO 80525 does include lots of the electronic chip (513) 521-4261 (714) 855-0819 (303) 233-8306 manufacturers. Auto-oriented chips Edmund Scientific SAE JC Whitney also do tend to appear in all the usual 101 East Gloucester Pike 400 Commonwealth Drive 1917-19 Archer Avenue electronic trade journals. Barrington, NJ 08007 Warrendale, PA 15096 Chicago, IL 60680 Electronic Components News or else (609) 573-6250 (412) 776-4841 (312) 431-6102 Electronic Products are useful choices. Most other auto trade journals can be found through the Uhlrichts Periodicals Most of your larger stepper motors use to create a three-phase stepper Dictionary at your local library. can end up horrendously expensive. motor. By powering ABC you will Sprague/Allegro has long offered lots Particularly those big sizes you might step in one direction; use ACB for the of interesting auto-oriented circuits. need to drive a milling machine or a other. The rotor and the slip rings are Their ULN2429 liquid level chip is one sign router. Could an alternator be separately used as a rotating power example, as are all their various Hall converted into a giant stepper motor? electromagnet. Effect devices applied in and around The answer is yes, the alternators are For best results, you may want to electronic ignition boards. National is fairly easily converted into large size rewind your alternator, providing yet another source of auto liquid level steppers. No, the final performance more turns per slot and having each integrated circuits. will not end up remotely as good as a phase bridge only one slot. Ampere Analog Devices seems to be newly comparable sized stepper. turns are the name of the game here. making noises at Detroit. Their new But at junkyard prices, who cares? I More info on alternators as steppers AD22001 is a specialized lamp sensor have watched several videos of some appears in files #284 HACK44.TXT and chip which seems to have all sorts of incredible sign routers built up from #285 HACK44.PS on GEnie PSRT. interesting new uses. While intended junk alternators. to spot burned out taillights, these are The trick is to remove the diodes Switched reluctance drives? basically comparators so sensitive that and bring out the center of the wye Innovations in power electronics all millivolts of drop across a very short connection of those three alternator do seem to come from foreign sources printed circuit run can be used as a stator windings. This gives you three these days. For several years now, current sensing shunt. separate stator windings that you can Japan has had air conditioners that And their AD22180 is a precision

August 1992 / Resource Bin I 27 battery charger circuit that measures hacking off their customers over this mileage, the EPA will still stake you to both battery voltage and temperature. really dumb radio. the nearest anthill. It even has an input that knows when Naturally, this wonderful scheme What is really needed is one single your headlights are on. in no manner prevents anyone from book or one single BBS service that The big Detroit rage among most ripping off your radio. If they do, the offers immediate and total availability other semi manufacturers centers on radio blows up. So what? If they are of all codes for all manufacturers. On a new high side driver circuits. These are an easy going car thief, they simply continuing update basis. Preferably as basically chips which will or will not throw the radio away. If not, they’ll shareware or otherwise reasonably deliver +12 volts on command. They come back, trash what’s left of your priced. This info is in demand. are smart enough to safely protect vehicle, shoot your dog, and might This is an incredible opportunity themselves, besides detecting open, even burn down your house. for several someones who now have short, overload, or high temperature Good thinking, kiddies. insider automotive connections. I’d be conditions. happy to offer a portion of my GEnie The major sources include National, PSRT as a new forum for information SGS, and Texas Instruments. Since the NEXT MONTH: Don looks at exchange in this area. Otherwise, the part numbers are all rapidly changing all the insider's electronic great GEnie RADIO RoundTable just and since no clear winners are as yet trade journals and mags. might also prove useful. emerging, just ask for their high side Let’s have your thoughts on this. driver info packages. At any rate, there is an opportunity Another resource contest A great freebie manual of sorts here to provide a bypass and To make it as easy as possible for Tektronix has been promoting their repair for the most abysmally stupid you to win, I will make this month’s new SDU miniature battery operated example of technology run amuck I contest as unstructured as I possibly digital storage oscilloscope. They now have ever seen. can. Simply send me anything that by offer a new free Automotive Electronic some wild stretch of the imagination Troubleshooting Using a Digital Storage Automotive books is somehow related to an automotive Oscilloscope booklet. A very good source for technical electronic opportunity. This manual does go into the really automotive books (both electronic and The lumpier the better. obscure auto measurements, such as otherwise) is SAE. Who used to call There will be a dozen of my newly on mass flow air sensors or on those themselves the Society of Automotive republished Incredible Secret Money throttle air bypass valve circuits. The Engineers. They have both a stocking Machine II book prizes going to the inherent memory of a digital scope is bookstore and a new free catalog of all best, along with an all expense paid quite useful for recording any slower their publications. Sadly, the prices on (FOB Thatcher, AZ) tinaja quest for two events, such as those that take place at some of these are rather high. These going to the very best of all. routine engine speeds. titles should also be available through Any junkyard dogs submitted must Digital scopes also let you record a interlibrary loan or similar sources. be housebroken and include both a single cycle of any one event sequence, The other day, I got one of the usual thirty day Purina supply and at least rather than smearing repeated events "lots more miles per gallon" inventor four spare cats. on top of one another. They also offer helpline calls who was having trouble Be sure to send all of your written "negative time" by letting you look at selling his device to either "Detroit" or entries directly to me at Synergetics things that occured before triggering. (get this) to the EPA. The fact that he per the end blurb, rather than to Nuts never even heard of the SAE or any of & Volts editorial. A really dumb move the automotive trade journals or any As usual, we’ve gathered our Names I am very much a Volkswagen fan, scholarly pubs just might have been a & Numbers together into one sidebar. and I consider my ultra-rare 4WD (!) minor cause for some of his problems. Be sure to check out the sidebar first Syncho van to be one of the greatest Another good source for auto books before you contact our voice helpline vehicles anywhere ever. At least for is Chilton. You contact the Automotive for further technical help. ✦ me. Yup, a four wheel drive VW bus. Industries address in the sidebar for a But by far the stupidest thing VW ever complete catalog. Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don did was try to come out with a "theft Lancaster is the author of 27 books and proof" car radio. Which clearly ends A documentation center countless articles. Don maintains his up as neither. I get hundreds of helpline requests no-charge tech helpline found at (520) Here is how this miserable atrocity for all of the insider "secret" codes for 428-4073, besides offering all of his own works: The tiniest glitch on your car auto diagnostics and emission EPROM books, reprints, and all of his consulting battery and your radio blows up and listings. Obviously, manufacturers do services. He also has a free brochure full of needs recoded. You have only three not like this type of material getting his resource secrets waiting for you. Your shots of coding, any four of which are out to their end users. best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, guaranteed to fail. And VW charges So, your availability ranges from Mountain Standard Time. $150 for a code reset. Not to mention the difficult to the impossible. There Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, the seven hour drive involved, since are also severe EPA penalties for any where a special Resource Bin topic has most of their dealerships are going tampering with any emission control been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. belly up. Sigh. device. Particularly on someone else’s You can contact GEnie at (800) 638-9636 I suspect the primary reason their vehicle. Yes, even if your tampering (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach dealerships are failing involves how significantly reduces all of your auto Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, badly and how permanently they are emissions and improves your city gas AZ 85552.

28 August 1992/ Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number eight

Exploring those electronic trade journals.

ur usual reminder here that the Unless, and this is a humongously you focus on very small, unstructured, Resource Bin is now a two-way big unless, you happened to be born and nontraditional companies. O column. You can get tech help, with a soldering iron in your cradle. What is important is knowing what consultant referrals and off-the-wall And are forever willing to eat, live, you’re doing and consistently delivering networking on nearly any electronic, and breathe electronics and computer positive and out-the-door results. On the tinaja questing, personal publishing, hardware/software on a total lifestyle other hand, it definitely takes a few money machine, or computer topic by basis. Which, of course, means forever years in a larger company to learn the calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays forgoing such utter frivolities as food, way the world works. And, Catch 22, 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider clothing, and shelter. chicken and egg, you can’t get into the secret resources brochures waiting for It also helps bunches if you were an larger company without first earning you when you call or write. undersized or underage wimp who that magic sheepskin. An area of the great GEnie PSRT at was terrified of girls as a teenager. Very sadly, many of the traditional (800) 638-9636 (for voice info) has been When even the nerds were constantly opportunities to learn electronics on set aside specifically for use by all of stuffing you into trash barrels. The your own are not nearly as useful as you Nuts & Volts readers. You’ll find jocks didn’t even bother. And gym they once seemed. Some high schools some superb technical downloads and classes were a stark raving horror. have absolutely no electronics courses lots of tutorials here. I strongly feel that trade schools or available. Many community colleges I’m often asked "What is the best BSEET degrees are less than a good are dropping or scaling back on their way to learn electronics?" I’ll usually choice. Most traditional companies offerings. But if you can sign up for answer this one with a new question: tend to draw enormous distinctions any good high school or community "Do you want a well-paying job, or do between engineers and technicians. college courses, by all means do so. you really want to learn electronics?" Technicians are definitely second rate The military is one obvious place to If you simply want an electronics galley slaves. At least they get treated pick up direct electronics training and position with an old line Fortune 500 as such in some corporations. benefits which can lead you to more company, the only sensible route is a Very real and very ugly barriers to technical education. But that sure as four to six year accredited university advancement exist that can mean at hell ain’t me, so I won’t comment any program that produces a magic piece least a quarter of a million dollars of further on this apparent resource. of sheepskin that says BSEE or MSEE lifetime income and benefits. Not to Scrounging around surplus stores, on it. Plus all of the needed advanced scoring junk, taking it apart and then math courses that go with it. rebuilding it remains a great way to Do note that nearly everyone leaves NEXT MONTH: Don gives first learn electronics. Especially when engineering and then starts up a "real" us an insider's look at the combined with kits from Nuts & Volts career twelve to fifteen years after great PostScript language. advertisers and similar sources. they get their EE degree. Sadly, all Heathkit recently dropped many of the so-called "engineering shortages" their kits. But they apparently still trumped up every five years or so are mention a real desk. And chrome trim continue their educational electronics nothing but carefully orchestrated on your chair. For some individuals at courses. These are very well done and outright lies. least a part of the time, technician are quite reasonably priced for what Hey – Before you panic, I am a fully level training can be a sucker bet that they do deliver. The offerings are an degreed and extensively experienced should be studiously avoided. In the all around good deal. electronics engineer and I am very final analysis, the cost/benefit ratio Heath does have several different proud of the fact. And of my track simply may not be there. catalogs. You have to specifically ask record. I’ve also made it very much Also note that bunches of excellent for their industrial education one to my lifetime commitment, and would electronic and computer products are get course and self-study info. not change for the world. It’s just that produced in garages by nondegreed Today, ham radio remains the most the reality of today’s workplace often folks who have largely undermined etheral shadow of what it once was. makes electronic engineering a short the need for formal training and three But your local ham club can still be a term and a largely dead end career. piece suits. A university degree of any good place to pick up electronic basics And it is a severe disservice to tell type is not nearly as important as it and lots of hands-on experience. An young people otherwise. was a decade or more back. So long as important book in your electronics

September 1992 / Resource Bin I 29 library should definitely be the Radio Amateur’s Handbook. But the best way… new from I am also laboring under the grave OK. By far your two best and most delusion that my CMOS Cookbook, TTL cost effective ways to really learn any DON LANCASTER Cookbook, and Incredible Secret Money electronics today is a combination of ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK Machine II should all be an important hands-on personal experience and the The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog part of any electronics library. aggressive use of all of those free trade op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active Computer clubs could also be a big journals as information gateways. filters. De-mystified instant designs. $19.50 help. But make certain you associate It never ceases to amaze me how yourself with hackers rather than end many people have never even heard CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS user groups. Hackers in that original of trade journals. Let alone use them. Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two definition of the term, of course. As Trade journals are only available to books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. creative individuals who’ll push the insiders in a tightly targeted industry. About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. envelope and challenge the limits. On They never appear on newsstands a total lifestyle basis. and only rarely advertise. They are INCREDIBLE SECRET I seem to be ending up associated strongly advertiser driven, since most MONEY MACHINE II with a group of loosely knit ventures subscriptions are free. Besides their Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting which are starting to look more and technical content, trade journals lead up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 more like some medieval guild. Lone you to bingo card ad responses, data artisans who interact and interdepend manuals, ap notes, samples, seminar upon each other. While totally sharing info, specialty bookstores, contacts, LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY experiences. Which leads me to think catalogs, employment ads, directories, Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active that the classic apprenticeship might courses, and great heaping bunches Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly once again become a superb way to more. Most importantly, the trade revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and learn electronics. journals also establish the mainstream those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 So, it might be a darn good idea to vibes and lingo for their target area. try and set up a student-mentor or To qualify for a free trade journal LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES apprentice-guru relationship with an subscription, you must already be in ...... Ask the Guru I or II or III $24.50 appropriate engineer, teacher, or a industry. Or else you have to set up ...... Hardware Hacker II or III $24.50 science type in your neighborhood. your own electronics venture. As my ...... Book-on-Demand Resource Kit $39.50 ...... PostScript Beginner Stuff $39.50 More bluntly, you have to bug the hell new Incredible Secret Money Machine II ...... Intro to PostScript Video $39.50 out of them. At the very least, you shows you, this can get set up in a few ...... GEnie PSRT Sampler $29.50 should be able to score some older minutes for a few dollars. Most trade ...... PostScript Reference II $28.50 ...... PostScript Tutorial/Cookbook $16.50 klunker oscilloscope with this ploy. journals have to be rather fussy over ...... Whole works (all PostScript) $350.00 Or get rid of one. just who their comp subscribers are so ...... PostScript Secrets Brochure FREE Electronics can no longer stand on they can qualify for a special and very ...... Hacking Secrets Brochure FREE its own. These days, you absolutely cheap controlled circulation postal rate. must mix electronics with computer But all that really matters in the end is LASERWRITER SECRETS hardware and software. There is no whether you are genuinely interested A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free point whatsoever in learning one of in (and a potential buyer of) all their fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any these without the other. advertiser’s products. PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $29.50 The newsstand electronic mags are You can pick up some trade journal a great way to pick up the electronic subscription qualification cards at a fundamentals. Besides Nuts & Volts, I larger technical library. Or ask for BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering can personally recommend lots of them over the phone or by way of a columns. Includes the case against patents, book others. Such as Electronics Now (RE), new PostScript laser printed business on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm Popular Electronics, Circuit Cellar Ink, letterhead. Or, you can contact their stalking, insider research, lots more. $18.50 Elector Electronics, Science Probe and advertising department and request a Audio Amateur. Also check out an sample copy and an ad rate card. FREE SAMPLES incredible British pub called Wireless You then fill out their qual card, Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on World. It is one of the finest electronics presenting yourself and your venture GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 magazine anywhere ever. in as positive a light as possible. And cents. Call (800) 638-9636 for connect info. Electronic BBS sources are getting always ask yourself "Who are their FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA / MC more and more important for picking advertisers looking for in the way of up electronic information and gaining customers?" Some trade journals are SYNERGETICS valuable networking contacts. While I rather easy to qualify for; others are Box 809-NV hope you find my very own PSRT on extremely difficult. Thatcher, AZ 85552 GEnie useful, be sure to check into After you do qualify for one or two (520) 428-4073 GEnie’s RADIO RoundTable. trade journals in any industry, all the Write in 146 on Reader Service Card. To quickly research any electronic, others will steal your name from the scientific, or computer topic, you use original mailing lists and actually beg is the Uhlricht’s Periodicals Dictionary. the Dialog Information Service. you to subscribe. You might also find the International Dialog has recently offered a new The best place to get a complete list Standard Periodicals Dictionary to be a and one-quarter cost late evening rate of trade journals is on that reference useful resource. Last time I checked, price structure. shelf at your library. My favorite here there were some 45,000 trade journals

30 September 1992 / Resource Bin I graphics. Electronic News tends to emphasize personalities and who is ELECTRONIC AND OTHER TRADE JOURNALS now doing what to whom, especially which CEO’s are sleeping with which Appliance Electronic Pack & Prod Motion Control government contractors, and/or vice 1110 Jorie Blvd CS 9019 1305 East Touhy Avenue 800 Roosevelt Road E-408 versa. While rather stuffy and old Oak Brook, IL 60522 Des Plaines, IL 60018 Glen Ellyn, IL 60137 line, their classified ads offer good (708) 990-3484 (708) 635-8800 (708) 469-3373 wholesale surplus bargains. Appliance Manufacturer Electronic Products Motor Techniques A second competitor is Electronic 29100 Aurora Road #200 645 Stewart Avenue 120 S Chaparral Court #200 Buyer’s News, which tends to address Solon, OH 44139 Garden City, NY 11530 Anaheim, CA 92808 many issues of interest to purchasing (216) 349-3060 (516) 227-1300 (714) 283-1123 agents in Fortune 500 firms. But, once Automatic ID News Electronics New Equipment Digest again, the classified ads offer lots of 7500 Old Oak Blvd 1100 Superior Avenue 1100 Superior Avenue Cleveland, OH 44130 Cleveland, OH 44114 Cleveland, OH 44114 wholesale surplus. (216) 243-8100 (216) 696-7000 (216) 696-7000 And the EDN News Edition is a "Hey Circuits Assembly Foodservice Prod. News PCIM look! Me too!" imitator of E.E. Times 600 Harrison Street 104 Fifth Avenue 2472 Eastman Avenue #33-34 that tries to do all the same things in San Francisco, CA 94107 New York, NY 10011 Ventura, CA 93003 the exact same way, but it just barely (415) 905-2200 (212) 206-7440 (805) 658-0933 misses in the attempt. Computer Reseller HVAC Product News Pollution Equipment News 600 Community Drive 400 N Michigan Avenue 8650 Babcock Blvd Electronic Design and EDN Manhasset, NY 11030 Chicago, IL 60611 Pittsburgh, PA 15237 These form my number two and (516) 365-4600 (312) 222-2000 (412) 364-5366 number three choices. Two biweekly Design News ID Systems Powder & Bulk Solids magazines that offer in-depth surveys 44 Cook Street S210 174 Concord Street PO Box 640 Denver, CO 80206 Peterborough, NH 03458 Morris Plains, NJ 07950 of component parts and useful tech (303) 388-4511 (603) 924-9631 (201) 292-5100 articles. But note that the stories are EDN Identification Journal Quick Printing provided by their advertisers and 275 Washington Street 2640 N Halsted Street 1680 SW Bayshore Blvd often go out of their way to studiously Newton, MA 02158 Chicago, IL 60614 Port St Lucie, FL 34984 ignore a competitor’s solution or try (617) 964-3030 (312) 528-6600 (407) 879-6666 to shove a point of view down your EE Times Machine Design Sensors throat. As long as you factor in the 600 Community Drive 1100 Superior Avenue 174 Concord Street "Why are you telling me this?", both Manhasset, NY 11030 Cleveland, OH 44114 Peterborough, NJ 03458 magazines do offer excellent tutorials (516) 365-4600 (216) 696-7000 (603) 924-9631 on current technology trends. Electronic Comp. News Measurement & Control Surface Mount Technology Both magazines also offer detailed One Chilton Way 2994 W Liberty Avenue 17730 W Peterson Road Radnor, PA 19089 Pittsburgh, PA 15216 Libertyville, IL 60048 annual directories of microprocessors (215) 964-4345 (412) 343-9666 (312) 362-8711 and such, along with industry wide product listings. Electronic Design Microwave Journal Textile World 611 Route 46 West 685 Canton Street 29 North Wacker Drive Hasbrouck, NJ 07604 Norwood, MA 02062 Chicago, IL 60606 Electronic Products and ECN (201) 393-6060 (617) 769-9750 (312) 726-2802 Both of these cut to the chase. Their EITD Microwaves & RF Trade Winners emphasis is strictly on new electronic 2057-2 Aurora Road 611 Route 46 West PO Box 2868 products and who builds them. The Twinsburg OH 44087 Hasbrouck, NJ 07604 Vancouver, WA 98668 Electronic Products folks also produce (216) 425-9000 (201) 393-6286 (206) 694-1765 the annual EEM Master multi-volume Electronic News Motion TypeWorld purchasing directory that covers just Box 1051 Box 6430 One Technology Park Drive about everything electronic. They also Southeastern, PA 19398 Orange, CA 92613 Westford, MA 01886 (215) 630-0951 (714) 974-0200 (508) 392-2157 publish their IC Master, which is a similar multi-volume directory and integrated circuits selection guide. You can sometimes cop a free or currently being published. surveys. Such far ranging topics as bargain EEM Master, but pretty near Once again, trade journals form a wavelets, HDTV, fuzzy logic, and new everyone has to pay the going rate on high energy and low cost information algorithms all do tend to appear here the IC Master. The charges usually gateway. One that could be a very first. Really useful info. vary from $130 to $174, depending on effective way to learn and improve As with most of the trade journals, the time of year. You can also try to your electronic and other skills. Let’s there’s a bingo card that leads you to get out-of-date copies. look at a few of my favorites… data sheets, ap notes, seminar info, ECN, short for Electronic Component and even free chip samples. Plus lots News is a larger "throwaway" tabloid. E. E. Times of coupons and fax sheets. It consists solely of ads for electronic This tabloid newsprint publication There are several "big newsprint" parts and fake editorial material that is by far the best US electronic trade competing offerings. The oldest is the describes the ads for these parts. Once journal. This is a really fine mix of Electronic News, who have recently again, the bingo cards, coupons, and tech news, emerging developments, reworked their 1948 editorial layout phone numbers are valuable ways to component parts, and employment style into some stunningly fresh 1956 zero in on mainstream components.

September 1992 / Resource Bin I 31 Electronics

At one time several years back, OTHER MENTIONED RESOURCES Electronics was the best industry trade journal. Fat issues were crammed to Audio Amateur GEnie Popular Electronics the gills with quite well-written and Box 576 401 N Washington Street 500-B Bi-County Blvd in-depth technical applications stories Peterborough, NH 03458 Rockville, MD 20850 Farmingdale, NY 11735 and detailed tutorial analysis. They (603) 924-9464 (800) 638-9636 (516) 293-3000 literally defined the industry. Circuit Cellar Ink HeathKit Radio Amateur's Handbook Sadly, this mag has been milked as 4 Park Street Ste 20 PO Box 1288 225 Main Street a cash cow and got passed around Vernon, CT 06066 Benton Harbor, MI 49022 Newington, CT 06111 (203) 875-2751 (616) 982-3200 (203) 666-1541 from corporate takeover to corporate takeover, and is no longer even the Elector Electronics IC Master Science Probe PO Box 876 645 Stewart Avenue 500-B Bi-County Blvd remotest imitation of its once great Peterborough, NH 03458 Garden City, NY 11530 Farmingdale, NY 11735 self. The latest attempt is to make it an (603) 924-9464 (516) 227-1300 (516) 293-0467 international survey magazine with Electronics Now Nuts & Volts Uhlricht's Dictionary an outrageously high and "paid only" 500-B Bi-County Blvd 430 Princeland Court 1180 Americas Avenue subscription price. I would expect it to Farmingdale, NY 11735 Corona, CA 91719 New York, NY 10016 shortly vanish entirely. Sigh. (516) 293-3000 (714) 632-7721 (212) 916-1600 The Electronic Industry Telephone Directory and Appliance New Product Digest. copy, don’t even bother to mention it. No, this one is not really a trade For really great insider prices on And tell me why you feel each of the journal and it is usually very hard to lots of computer products, Computer books is essential. get a current free copy. And it’s only Reseller or Trade Winners. Or else tell me about any obscure published annually. But I find it to be trade journal in any off-the-wall field number two on my resource list, right The other stuff that I have not yet heard about and do behind by own Synergetics Names & My favorite three of the mechanical not already subscribe to. Better yet, Numbers files. design magazines are Design News, send me an actual copy of the trade This looks and works like any other Machine Design, and New Equipment journal. Or at least a qual card or a phone book, with the usual white and Digest. The latter includes lots of free copy of the masthead page. yellow pages. Just about everyone sample offerings. There will be a dozen of my newly electronic is listed here. I do personally subscribe to several republished Incredible Secret Money hundred trade journals that range the Machine II book prizes going to the Specialty electronic journals gamut from Powder and Bulk Solids to best, along with an all expense paid All of those switching mode power Fire Engineering on to Quick Printing to (FOB Thatcher, AZ) tinaja quest for two supplies, motor controls, and the "big HVAC News to TypeWorld to Textile going to the very best of all. mutha" semiconductors have their World to Foodservice Product News. Be sure to send all of your written own collection of trade journals. I do That last gem is the world’s greatest entries directly to me at Synergetics prefer PCIM the best, which once was diet magazine - you just read it before per the end blurb, rather than to Nuts named PowerConversion & Intelligent every meal. And try to second guess & Volts editorial. Motion. The others include Motion, whether the glop in the bottle is a new I have put our Names & Numbers Motor Techniques, Motion Control and dessert topping or an EPA approved together into a pair of sidebars, one Power Techniques. grease trap clarifier. This is also the for trade journals, and another one for For sensors and such, your two best home for all of the world’s dumbest everything else. Be sure to check out selections are Carl Helmer’s Sensors blueberry recipes. these sidebars first before you contact magazine, along with Measurement By now, you should get the general our voice helpline for further info. ✦ and Control. I have also found that idea. Industry trade journals are an Pollution Equipment News throwaway unbelievably outstanding good deal Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don to have useful info here. when properly used as an information Lancaster is the author of 27 books and For radio frequency and higher gateway. And they are a very good countless articles. Don maintains his electronic design, you might try RF means to learn or later improve your no-charge tech helpline found at (520) Circuit Design, the Microwave Journal, electronics and other skills. For more 428-4073, besides offering all of his own Microwaves and RF, and Microwave listings on more trade journals, go to books, reprints, and all of his consulting New Product Digest. Uhlricht’s at your local library. services. He also has a free brochure full of For printed circuit manufacturing, Always keep all your qualification his resource secrets waiting for you. Your try Circuits Assembly, Surface Mount requests fully professional. Never look best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, Technology, or Electronic Packagiong & like a student or a lone individual! Mountain Standard Time. Production. Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, For the bar codes and identification Two contests where a special Resource Bin topic has stuff, Automatic ID News, ID Systems, Let’s have us two different contests been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. and Identificatin Journal. for this month. Just tell what you feel You can contact GEnie at (800) 638-9636 For motors, solenoids, actuators, are the seven most important books (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach valves, timers, and similar goodies, for learning electronics. If the cover Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, try Appliance, Appliance Manufacturer, isn’t broken on your fifth personal AZ 85552.

32 September 1992 / Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number nine

Exploring PostScript for fun and profit.

ur usual reminder here that the quality camera-ready output. Resource Bin is now a two-way The Hacker’s Universal Think of your Mac or your 486 as a O column. You can get tech help, Coprocessing Computer rinky-dink dumb terminal connected consultant referrals and off-the-wall This handy little add-on box has a to your real computer. And then use networking on nearly any electronic, 68030, 8 Meg of memory, and its own the HUCC to do all of your computing tinaja questing, personal publishing, SCSI hard drive on it. And I’ve found for you. You will be utterly amazed at money machine, or computer topic by it to be a fine "Mother’s little helper" the improvement in both quality and calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays for the 65C02 in my IIe. Sort of like an productivity. With zero investment in 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider all-silicon Au pair girl. costly device specific software. secret resources brochures waiting for The Hacker’s Universal Coprocessing you when you call or write. Computer is what I call it. Say HUCC PostScript to the rescue An area of the great GEnie PSRT at for short. The HUCC is programmed Naturally, there’s already millions (800) 638-9636 (for voice info) has been with a magic hacker’s language that is upon millions of these HUCCs in use set aside specifically for use by all of faster and friendlier than Basic, far worldwide. But for some strange you Nuts & Volts readers. more object oriented than C++, and reason, the manufacturers elected to If you are a really serious hardware better at lists and strings than LISP. A place a horribly restrictive label on all hacker, what do you genuinely need downright addictive language, in fact. of them. Nearly all of these HUCCs in for computers and software? A word You simply create plain old textfiles the world today appear to have this processor for sure. But what else? that quickly and conveniently can tell grossly demeaning label erroneously Let’s see. You would want to make your HUCC what to do. The general stuck on them. A small label that says up your own printed circuit boards purpose language inside a HUCC then "PostScript Laser Printer". and artwork. You’d want schematics, does what you tell it to, recording its Worse yet, many users and many as well as figures in both isometric results to hard disk, or else returning applications packages labor under an and perspective. Charts and graphs them to you for a host recording. A insane delusion that such a HUCC is would be handy, as would a universal number of different comm channels of able to work properly under one way and totally general purpose language varying speeds are provided. comm, or their klunky old host (ugh) to do all of your engineering design. A Oh yeah. Almost forgot. As a very is somehow superior in doing typical method to publish projects, memos, minor and an almost inconsequential computing than their HUCC is. flowcharts, manuals, newsletters, tech afterthought, the HUCC is also able to Needless to say, these delusions can illustrations, and proposals. dirty up any otherwise clean sheets of blindfold you and tie both of your feet CAD/CAM for drawings. Analysis paper. There is this printer built in that together. Hopelessly. for circuits, physics and mechanical prints really outstanding artwork for Our magic programming language, stuff. Some dialplates, overlays, and everything from direct toner printed of course, is known as PostScript. Or templates. Fast and convenient ways circuits to business cards to T-shirts. more specifically, as genuine Level II to explore math concepts, including A HUCC is fully device independent. PostScript by Adobe Systems. statistics, fractals, wavelets, and even You can connect it to any computer of PostScript is a universally general image processing. purpose computer language that can, Well, I personally do all of this and consistent with its three I/O modes, great heaping bunches more by using NEXT MONTH: Don reveals do anything you can do with any other nothing but AppleWriter and its WPL his favorite non-electronic modern language. And very often do scripting supervisor on my Apple IIe. sources for wonderments. so far faster, more conveniently, and And that is the only software package with incomparable graphics. and the only computer I use for all my Once again, PostScript’s ability to engineering design, consulting, books, any size, and easily control it with any dirty up any otherwise clean sheets of and columns. word processor or editor. Plain old paper is almost an afterthought, and Well, I will admit that there is this ASCII textfiles do all of the work. At certainly not of major consequence to little black box (actually it is usually the output end, if your pages are too any serious PostScript language user. ivory or beige) that’s sort of connected fuzzy for your tastes, those very same When horribly restricted for use as to my IIe that does help things along a textfiles can be sent to fancier black page description code, PostScript does teeny bit. I think of it as… boxes which generate absolutely first have the ability to generate text and

October 1992 / Resource Bin I 33 graphics that simply and totally blow two are essential… the point that I do not care whether all of the other methods away. you work with me or do everything %!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF3.0 But, using PostScript solely for its off on your own. There is no doubt %%BoundingBox: 20 20 580 750 graphics output is about as dumb as whatsoever that compiled EPS files buying a Porsche because you’d like The bounding box changes with the form the breakthrough technique to another radio in your carport. file. It should be slightly larger than deliver first rate digitally mastered When it’s restricted to dirtying up any marks that are actually going to artwork directly to end users. pages, PostScript offers outline fonts appear on the page. If you want to do things on your having full hinting technology. Which There are also a few rather subtle own, just use that PostScript output means that a single font description is restrictions to EPS files, but most of feature of whatever is generating your needed for any sized font from 3 up to these just involve common sense. You artwork. Then distill and rework your 25,000 points high. With powerful and are limited to files that can print on files into fast running compiled EPS built-in hinting, the fonts auto adjust a single page or less. Obviously, you textfiles on your own. Finally, offer themselves to fit space and resolution. could import as many individual EPS them on any BBS service. PostScript is highly adept at drawing files for as many pages as you want If you want to work with me, I’ll be smooth flowing 2- and 3-dimensional to. Your code should be well behaved, happy to either help you create your curves, through their magic of Bezier and it must leave the machine exactly compiled EPS files or create them for graphics, or otherwise known as third the way it was found. Several rarely you. And then post them on GEnie order cubic splines. used commands that could harm the PSRT in a special library. PostScript also has some incredibly importing program are no-no’s. One quite subtle and little noticed strong imaging capabilities, halftone advantage of compiled EPS files is screens, great grays, and full color A Nuts & Volts First: known as microsizing. It is extremely separation abilities. Digital Mastering important to get the final size of any As a language, PostScript is related There is a simple variation on the printed circuit just right. For instance, to Forth. Sort of as its second cousin EPS files that should have a stunning a 2 percent error in a 25 pin connector three times removed and five times impact upon hardware hackers world could end up shorting pin 24 to 25. disowned. You can think of it as Forth wide. And Nuts & Volts intends to be Nearly all copiers do magnify slightly. without the religion. PostScript is a leader with this incredible hobbyist Most low end printers will be off by a both reentrant and threaded. Meaning technical breakthrough. percent or so, and paper or any media that you can add any instructions you You can take most any EPS file and shrinkage or swelling can add another like any way you like. Subject solely further process it by doing a compile percent. An ultra simple microsizing to new instructions being workable or a pseudocompile on it. Typically, process can instantly fix this. combinations of previous ones. you would use such products as the To microsize a compiled EPS file, No, you do not have to go out and Adobe Distillery or my Maudedoc, as print a working copy and measure it, buy a copy of PostScript. This arrives found on GEnie PSRT. calculating all your errors. Then place built into your PostScript printer. All I call these compiled EPS files. And I a new PostScript scale operator at the you need to talk to it from day one is refer to their creation process as doing beginning of your file. That easy. your favorite word processor. a distilling or double distilling. For instance, say you ended up one Normally, you or an applications At any rate, after you do distill or percent high horizontally and half a package generates a standard ASCII double distill an EPS file, you end up percent low vertically. Just do a… textfile. This textfile gets routed to with a plain old ASCII textfile. With 0.99 1.005 scale your PostScript computer. That’s the care, a short and an astonishingly fast box that wrongly has a "printer" label executing textfile. A royalty free one at the beginning of your file, and you on it. Your PostScript computer then which has no trace whatsoever of any are home free. You can even correct executes the PostScript program on proprietary applications generation for skew in a proc that is only a tad your textfile. It then creates any of the code. A textfile that can be sent to and more complicated. With a short term three possible outputs, either writing used by any word processor on any accuracy better than three mils. Print to its disk, returning data to host, or computer anywhere. shops are just beginning to discover dirtying up sheets of paper. The distilling process extracts only how microsizing revolutionizes such the essential information and then can tasks as flexographic printing. EPS Files either write it to hard disk or return it I have already got lots of doubly There’s a provision in PostScript to to your host for recording. distilled compiled EPS examples up let you select one PostScript file and Which means that we can now offer and ready to go on GEnie PSRT. These insert it into another one. Important true original digital masters, directly to should give you some idea of what examples are moving a logo onto a you readers, of printed circuit boards, can be done. Most of these end with a letterhead or a halftone photo onto a dialplates, schematics, drilling guides, ".PS" tag. Such as HACKFG57.PS. full page layout. CAD/CAM, overlays, templates, and I’d be more than happy to act as a The best way to import files is by calibration charts. Plus lots more. clearing house for this exciting hacker using the EPS file format described in Digital masters which easily can be breakthrough. the red book II. Properly done EPS updated and corrected at any time. files are extremely portable. Even long after publication. Which PostScript Printer? An EPS file is nothing but a plain Digital masters that run on any I strongly recommend using only old PostScript file which has several PostScript printer or software. genuine Adobe PostScript. And Level comments added to it. While there are I feel very strongly about compiled II if you can. My favorite printers are lots of recommended comments, these EPS files as a major hacker concept. To those from Apple, Hewlett-Packard, or

34 October 1992 / Resource Bin I of sense, because it can move duplex printers out of their high price niche SOME POSTSCRIPT RESOURCES market. Now, if only Apple or QMS would offer them… Adobe Systems HP Manuals QMS Most of those lower end "bargain" 1585 Charleston Road 19310 Pruneridge Avenue PO Box 81250 fake PostScript printers range from Mountain View, CA 94039 Cupertino, CA 94014 Mobile, AL 36689 outright ripoffs to more or less honest (800) 833-6687 (800) 752-0900 (205) 633-4300 but inexperienced firms trying to buy Apple Computer HP Printers Recharger into an industry they know pitifully 20525 Mariani Avenue 16399 W Bernardo Drive 101 Granite Street Ste F little about. These printers are simply Cupertino, CA 95014 San Diego, CA 92127 Corona, CA 91719 (408) 996-1010 (619) 592-8333 (714) 371-8288 not cost effective. The low end "bargains" all do seem Bove & Rhodes Report InfoWorld Shreve Systems Box 1289 1060 Marsh Road C-200 3804 Karen Drive remarkably similar to a $999 hot tub. Gaulala, CA 95444 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Bossier City, LA 71112 These may look good in their ad, but (707) 884-4413 (800) 227-8365 (800) 227-3971 you certainly would not want to put Canon MacWeek Supplies Unlimited any water in one, or actually sit in it. One Canon Plaza One Park Avenue 101 Granite Street Ste F Yes, there are used printer bargains. Lake Success, NY 11042 New York, NY 10016 Corona, CA 91719 But you should definitely stick to only (516) 488-6700 (212) 503-4433 (714) 371-8288 Apple, HP, or QMS here. Some of the Computer Reseller Nuts & Volts Synergetics laser printers offered in the Distressed 600 Community Drive 430 Princeland Court Box 809 Yuppy Surplus catalogs are not even Manhasset, NY 11030 Corona, CA 91719 Thatcher, AZ 85552 (516) 365-4600 (714) 371-8497 (520) 428-4073 suitable for flood control rip rap. One fine source for used machines Font & Function Pagemaker/Aldus Don Thompson PO Box 7900 411 First Ave. S. #200 23072 Lake Center Dr. #100 is Don Thompson, who also offers the Mountain View, CA 94039 Seattle, WA 98104 El Toro, CA 92630 finest in training and repair seminars (800) 833-6687 (800) 685-3614 (800) 457-5776 available anywhere. Two other used Freedom of the Press PMI/Lazer Products TypeWorld printer sources are Shreve Systems and 900 Tech Park Drive #8 12741 E Caley Ave. #130 One Technology Park Drive Pre-Owned Electronics. Billerica, MA 01821 Englewood, CO 80155 Westford, MA 01886 Today, the bang-for-the-buck in a (800) 873-4367 (800) 843-5277 (508) 392-2157 honest Adobe $1600 printer is at least GEnie Pre-Owned Electronics U&lc twenty times higher than that that of a 401 N Washington Street 30 Clematis Avenue 2 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza fake PostScript $900 laser. The first Rockville, MD 20850 Waltham, MA 02154 New York, NY 10017 (800) 638-9636 (800) 274-5343 (212) 371-0699 PostScript clone I tested chopped the tail off MEOWRRR, our old Synergetics GoScript LaserGo Printer's Devil Ventura Publisher 9235 Trade Place Ste A PO Box 66 15175 Innovation Drive puddy tat. The second one refused to San Diego, CA 92126 Harrison, ID 83833 San Diego, CA 92128 print my fractal fern. The latest fake (619) 530-2400 (208) 689-3738 (800) 822-8221 was unable to print up my Gonzo test page without a gross error that was obvious at twenty feet. QMS. Although getting a tad long in Although HP has outrageously jacked And the rest of the fakes weren’t the tooth, the best low end bang for up the prices to the $100 range, these nearly that good. After testing most of the buck is still the QMS PS-410. manuals remain essential "must have" these, I have not found any fake clone The best mid-level printers are the bargains. Our sidebar does show you anywhere that can correctly print my Apple LaserWriter G with its superb several manual part numbers for the Book-on-demand production files. Files photo halftones, or the exciting new more popular printers. Note that a that run fine on Adobe printers. QMS Hammerhead machine using the separate address must be used for HP Actually, the working definition of fourth generation Canon BX engine. A manuals. Also note that most low end a "100 percent compatible PostScript good high end printer will be the HP HP printers usually need three pieces clone" is that the prongs on the power IIISI if and when they release their (printer, Adobe PostScript card, and cord are roughly the same size and long-promised PostScript Level II and extra memory) when pricing. spacing as on a real PostScript printer. hard disk support. A duplex printer is one which can If you try to print Meowwrrr on a fake As with an auto, the engine is the print on both sides of the page. These PostScript clone, you can try rubbing mechanism that makes a laser printer can sharply up your productivity and some tuna fish on the page first. go. Canon makes the most popular throughput. They also can be lots What if you flat out cannot afford OEM print engine, and has the best more fun and dramatically reduce any genuine PostScript laser printer? print economics. You could easily hit your scrap rate. Sadly, HP seems to Adobe is soon to release a low cost 0.15 cents per page toner costs with a have a stranglehold on the duplex product called Adobe Showpage for the Canon engine by doing all of your market today. Their older IID is too Mac and IBM which gives you screen own cartridge refilling. Which can be primitive, too klutzy, and too slow to and bitmap images using full Display fifty times cheaper. consider any more. The IIID is an PostScript. It also should (in theory) The best service and repair manuals acceptable lower end machine, while create a bitmap usable by any printer. for the Canon engines are quickly and the IIISI does a really great duplexing Or for that matter, any signmaker, 3-D conveniently available from Hewlett job. The IIISI has a bolt-on duplexer sculpting router, engraving machine, Packard. These manuals apply equally with a $600 list, $400 street price. CAD/CAM mill, Santa Claus device, well to Apple, QMS, and some others. This bolt-on route does make a lot or embroidery setup.

October 1992 / Resource Bin I 35 There are earlier pseudo PostScript products that try to let you work with older or cheaper printers. Commercial Use these HP Manuals for Apple LaserWriter repairs: versions include Freedom of the Press and GoScript, neither of which I can HP MANUAL HP PRINTER APPLE PRINTER QMS PRINTER personally recommend. But there is a great shareware package that recently has gotten much better with release 02686-90920 LaserJet I LaserWriter PS800 2.5. This is called GhostScript and lets (CX Engine) LaserWriter Plus you run fake PostScript from any host LaserWriter NT PS810 & Turbo platform on nearly any printer. One 33449-90906 LaserJet II LaserWriter NTX PS820 & Turbo GhostScript source is GEnie PSRT. (SX Engine) LaserJet III LaserWriter F PS815-MR Ghostscript typically will consist of LaserWriter G PS825-MR three files. The first is a run-time IBM package. The second is the full source 33459-90906 LaserJet IID ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± code written in C and compilable for (SX Engine) LaserJet IIID any reasonable platform. The third is a package of fonts. There are several good magazines 33471-90904 LaserJet IIP Personal LW NT PS410 to keep you up to date on PostScript (LX Engine) printers. By far your best free one is 33491-90929 LaserJet IIIsi ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± TypeWorld. And the most wondrously (SI Engine) bizarre typography magazine is U&lc, short for Upper and lower case. Adobe’s own freebie is Font and Function. Your best street prices for printers As with nearly any general purpose even trickier in Photo Shop. An auto usually are found in Computer Reseller computer language, the best way to list-to-directory converter is real hard magazine. New products will usually learn PostScript is through plenty of to create with Ventura. show up in such sources as Infoworld personal hands on experience. Unlike Start with the "blue" book by Adobe and MacWeek. The leading recharging most of the others, PostScript is fast Systems, also known as the PostScript magazines are Recharger and Supplies and easy to learn. Besides being fun. Tutorial and Cookbook. Then go to my Unlimited. And you certainly do not have to PostScript Secrets book/disk combo, For a rather unusual labor-of-love pick up everything at once. You can followed by Adobe’s "red" book and newsletter, try the Printer’s Devil. And be writing and using useful code with called the PostScript Reference Manual your finest (although big bucks costly) only a dozen commands. I’ve had one II. I do stock all these here at my own industry insider newsletter is the Bove student who never even used a word Synergetics, as well as offering great and Rhodes Report. processor before win a big company heaping bunches of other PostScript My very favorite recharging supply award for her hand coded PostScript products and support. If you want to source is still PMI Lazer Products. business cards. This after only a few get started in a real big hurry, I do I am leery of all the printer reviews hours of practice. offer The Whole Works, which is one shown in most of those slick desktop Yes, there are bunches of high-end each of everything that is useful and magazines, because they simply do applications packages that will write important on PostScript by all major not have even the foggiest idea how PostScript code for you. The obvious authors. At a bargain price. to properly test a PostScript printer. examples include Pagemaker, Ventura The PSRT RoundTable on GEnie has More often than not, all their speed Publisher, Illustrator, and Photo Shop. 500+ files on PostScript immediately tests conclusively prove that they are And these all do handle certain tasks downloadable at a typical charge of baud rate limiting themselves. Or else fairly well. But you will eventually get twenty one cents each. These include they are demonstrating weaknesses in to that "whaddyameanIcant" level with tutorials and working code, utilities, klutzy applications packages. Or are any of these. And the more you learn PostScript-as-language examples, the measuring the cartridge, paper, and and use raw PostScript, the more you interviews with authors and industry operator variability, rather than any will be able to accomplish by adding leaders, and great heaping bunches genuine machine differences. your personal value added to these more. Two good first files are #337 And they never seem to address the fancy packages. And any code these SECRTEMP.PS or #459 SPEEDUP.PS. recharging economics, repair manual packages produce can always be made I’ve also got lots of utilities up on availability, or long term durability. It faster, shorter, and better looking by PSRT that can let you do outstanding is not possible to properly review any reworking it in raw PostScript. schematics or printed circuit layouts, PostScript printer without personally The application packages obviously engineering design, stock analysis, working with it for at least ten hours a do not properly emphasize the use of isometric or perspective illustration, day for six months. Because of ad PostScript-as-language. Several hand histograms, and lots more. Start with interests, they also never say anything coded words of PostScript code can my Gonzo justification package, that truly bad. And they totally miss the often do absolutely astonishing things gives you full and total editibility on "vibes" and "feel" issues critical to a that these packages can’t provide. your final page layouts. decent printer test. Ferinstance, a least squares curve fit Let’s hear from you. Especially if is tricky to do in Pagemaker, while a you want to apply this new hacker Getting Started With PostScript Yagi FM antenna gain optimization is digital mastering breakthrough.✦.

36 October 1992 / Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number ten

Oddball sources for just plain stuff.

ur usual reminder here that the you tell them what they want to hear Popular Science and Popular Mechanics Resource Bin is now a two-way on their qualification cards. fine print classifieds. Quickly leafing O column. You can get tech help, Once you have access to the actual through your Yellow Pages at random consultant referrals and off-the-wall magazines, you use the reader service can also reveal unexpected sources. networking on nearly any electronic, cards to get your catalogs, data sheets, Your final route to unusual stuff is tinaja questing, personal publishing, samples, the local distributors, annual to simply spend a tad additional time money machine, or computer topic by directories, and such. wandering around any oddball store calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays Another way to pick up some trade after you have picked out what you 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider journals is simply to keep your eyes really wanted. Jot down all the names secret resources brochures waiting for and ears open. Especially in reception and addresses on packages of weird you when you call or write. areas or waiting rooms of firms doing goodies. Then write them for catalogs, An area of the great GEnie PSRT at tasks wildly different from your own. data sheets, samples, and distributor (800) 638-9636 (for voice info) has been Never flip past a bingo card without insider price lists. set aside specifically for use by all of ripping it off! Unthinkable. Over the decades, I have gathered you Nuts & Volts readers. Besides Uhlricht’s, most any library together a humongous master names This month, I thought we’d look at also gives you lots of other hints and and numbers list. Since I usually live some unique and unusual sources for tips. Especially in that Encyclopedia of in remote rural areas, I’ve gone out of ordinary old stuff. The mechanical Organizations and the gigantic Thomas my way to build up the best possible bits and pieces you can use to tie all Registry of Manufacturers personal resource files. Let us take a your electronics together. Or simply Your final obvious route to unusual tour of my favorite places to go for the places which have products so weird stuff resources is to just ask anyone bizarre and wondrous… or unusual that you’d probably want involved in anything really weird or to know all about them. Just because strange. The chances are that they will Small Parts they are there. happily talk your ear off. Numero uno on our list, of course, Before we begin, just how can you For instance, you might not be too would be Small Parts. This is by far the put together your own resource file of interested in model railroading. But greatest robotics store in the world. preferred reliable sources? Naturally, Model Railroader has zillions of ads for Besides custom cutting small pieces of we would hope you would begin with miniature tools and materials. Even metal and plastics for you, they stock all our fine Nuts & Volts advertisers, such exotic goodies as photochemical everything your hardware store never and then mosey on to those Names & etch milling. heard of. And, yes, you can order in Numbers directories in the Resource Bin Many firms that cater to ceramics single or very small quantities. Mix or previous columns. people, stained glass artisans, beef match any way you like. Yes, all my back columns, a cross ranchers, blacksmiths, watchmakers, Small Parts is very big in most any reference index, and a master names dentists, bulldozer operators, or other type of hardware. Bolts, nuts, screws, and numbers directory have now all specialties do tend to target all of their plastic standoffs, gears, belts, O-rings, been gathered together into one single advertising so tightly that you’ll never sheets, rods, shims, clutches, E-rings, new Book-on-demand volume. Check balls, cork, clips, shafts, pins, springs, my nearby Synergetics ad for details. retainers, music wire, tools, the whole You could also quickly and cheaply NEXT MONTH: Don looks at bit. Metric and English. They also get access this info on my GEnie PSRT. the electronic books which into such exotics as low melting point All of those industry trade journals really made a difference. alloys and similar curiosities. are your prime method of finding out Their catalog and price lists are who sells what to whom. We’ve seen "must have" hacker resources. bunches on trade journals in previous normally hear about them. Yet their columns. We have also seen that the catalogs are often crammed full of W. W. Grainger Uhlricht’s Periodicals Dictionary on the goodies that scream "use me". Surely everybody knows all about reference shelf of your local library is Don’t overlook the classified ads in W.W. Grainger. But just in case you a superb starting point to pin down the traditional newsstand magazines. don’t, they are the leading electrical just who is now publishing what for There’s some utterly amazing goodies products distributor in the country. whom. Many trade journals are free if tucked away in and around all those They’ve got warehouses in just about

November 1992 / Resource Bin I 37 any larger city. They are fairly liberal with their thick catalogs. The Player Piano Company new from Grainger is now heavy into motors, How’s that again? Yup, the Player tools, and electrical supplies. Heating, Piano Company. They stock all of the DON LANCASTER ventilation, air conditioning, timers, replacement bits and pieces for you ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK controls, fans, dehumidifiers, pumps. individuals restoring player pianos The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog I just bought a replacement hot tub and similar coin operated self-playing op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active blower from them. Only to find a tiny musical instruments. As such, they filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 scrap of warranty paper in the bottom really do get into exotic tools, strong of the new motor box that tells me adhesives, and odd materials. Plus a CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS about Ametek’s great low cost repair library of incredible books. Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two program for sick hot tub blowers. Oh What they don’t recognize is that books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. well. Information is where you find it. they are really in the low pressure About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. The new motor was a perfect fit and pneumatics business and much of works just fine. what they have is ideal for innovative INCREDIBLE SECRET Certain of the local Grainger stores new hacker robotics. will absolutely insist upon tax stamps, MONEY MACHINE II Satco Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting billable accounting, and paper before up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 they’ll sell to you wholesale. Others Satco normally sells primarily to the are largely walk-in. It does seem to schools, prisons, and the industrial depend on the local contractors and training facilities. But they will sell to LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY the unions. Full details on picking up individuals as well. Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active all of the needed credentials and then They have a wide selection of tools, Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly forming your own small business or materials, kits, books, and trainers revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and tech venture appear in my brand new related to industrial arts. Electronics, those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 Incredible Secret Money Machine II. automotive, machine shop, plastic or metal casting, drafting. LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES McMaster-Carr Pricing is fairly reasonable on most ...... Ask the Guru I or II or III $24.50 McMaster-Carr is where all industry items, and they do stock stuff that’s ...... Hardware Hacker II or III $24.50 goes to shop. They do stock virtually extremely hard to find elsewhere...... Book-on-Demand Resource Kit $39.50 ...... PostScript Beginner Stuff $39.50 everything mechanical, all tools, and ...... Intro to PostScript Video $39.50 all of the bits and pieces you need to Modeling materials ...... GEnie PSRT Sampler $29.50 either build a factory or prevent one Your local hobby shop probably has ...... PostScript Reference II $28.50 ...... PostScript Tutorial/Cookbook $16.50 from falling apart. As Grainger, they smaller quantities of most building ...... Whole works (all PostScript) $350.00 have branches in many larger cities. stock. I have found it better to go to ...... PostScript Secrets Brochure FREE McMaster-Carr does distribute an the actual sources for wider variety ...... Hacking Secrets Brochure FREE incredibly thick catalog, but these are and far better prices. For aluminum, very hard to qualify for. Their prices brass, and other metal sheets, rods, LASERWRITER SECRETS are also not all that great. But they do and tubes, try K & S Engineering. For A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free certainly give a new meaning to the styrene sheet stock and similar plastic fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, term "one stop shopping". items, use Evergreen Scale Models. And workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 for "lumber" precisely cut in all of the Edlco train gauge and scale dollhouse sizes, The name is short for Educational Northeastern Scale Models is it. BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I Lumber Company. These folks are into For the larger pieces of flat display, The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering columns. Includes the case against patents, book exotic hardwoods in a very big way. exhibit and modeling materials, your on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm Especially the weird, the beautiful, or best source is Fomeboards. These folks stalking, insider research, lots more. $18.50 the unusual. Nothing like a piece of are strong in foam core plastics and wenge or cocobolo to liven up a small similar base materials for architectural RESOURCE BIN I electronic enclosure. mockups, fancier point-of-purchase A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts A free catalog is offered. signs, trade show panels, and such. columns to date, including a new index and his Several highly unusual decorative master names and numbers list. $12.50 Outwater Plastics sheeting materials are now sold by This outfit believes they are in the Coburn. These can include prismatics, FREE SAMPLES display fixtures business. They have a holographics, foils, glow-in-the-darks, Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. wildly mind-boggling assortment of metallics, and lots of other stunningly The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 low cost and potentially quite useful attractive display materials. cents. Call (800) 638-9636 for connect info. hardware for you electronic hackers. One of my favorite sources for the FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA / MC Plus all sorts of ways of hanging and traditional art supplies is Dick Blick, showing things. They even now offer while the Polyline people are big on SYNERGETICS Grecian urns for writing odes on. cases, labels, and packages for audio Box 809-NV Once again, a fat and free catalog is cassettes and VCR video cases. I use Thatcher, AZ 85552 offered. This one is a real page turner, Polyline cases for my Introduction to (520) 428-4073 chock full of "use me" stuff. Stuff that PostScript videos. They also stock Write in 146 on Reader Service Card. simply cannot be ignored. hard-to-find VHS spine labels.

38 November 1992 / Resource Bin I And bunches more… There are lots of companies which specialize in strange little bits and SOME "PLAIN OLD STUFF" RESOURCES pieces of stuff. Caplugs immediately comes to mind for lots of small plastic AIN Plastics Fomebords Northeastern Scale Models closures, caps, grommets, and seals. 249 E Sandford Blvd 2211 N Elston Avenue PO Box 727 They do have bunches of free sample Mt Vernon, NY 10550 Chicago, IL 60614 Methuen, MA 01844 (914) 668-6800 (312) 278-9200 (508) 688-6019 packs available. For extremely low cost connectors and snaps, try Bead American Safety Razor Fotofoil Outwater Plastics Chain. They are ridiculously cheaper Razor Blade Lane 4400 N Temple City Blvd 4 Passaic Street Verona, VA 24482 El Monte, CA 91734 Wood-Ridge, NJ 07075 than nearly any electronic connector (703) 248-8000 (818) 444-4555 (800) 526-0462 company for such things as student Aremco Garden Fresh Replicas Player Piano Company lab clip-on lashups. PO Box 429 PO Box 208 704 E Douglas Long ago and far away, I did Ossining, NY 10562 Neosho, MO 64850 Wichita, KS 67202 several digital logic microlab projects (914) 762-0685 (800) 545-7304 (316) 263-3241 that centered themselves on the Bead Ark-Plas Products Grainger Polyline posts and spring clip connectors. Highway 178 North 2738 Fulton Street 16018-C Adelante St If its round and either sharp or dull, Flippin, AR 72634 Chicago, IL 60612 Irwindale, CA 91702 try Robert A. Main. These folks make (501) 453-2343 (312) 638-0536 (818) 969-8555 every conceivable type of needle or Bead Chain Hello Direct Roper-Whitney pin or rod of just about any size. For 110 Mountain Grove 140 Great Oaks Blvd 2833 Huffman Blvd Bridgeport CT, 06605 San Jose, CA 95119 Rockford, IL 61103 everything from 78 RPM phonograph (203) 334-4124 (800) HI-HELLO (815) 962-3011 needles to carpet installing machines. Dick Blick Hygenic Manufacturing Satco A mind blowing collection of stuff PO Box 1267 1245 Home Avenue 924 S 19th Avenue that you suspected that someone had Galesburg, IL 61401 Akron, OH 44310 Minneapolis, MN 55404 to make, but weren’t sure who. (800) 447-8192 (216) 633-8460 (800) 328-4644 For the wildest collection of razor Caplugs K & S Engineering Small Parts blades you have ever seen, you can 2150 Elmwood Avenue 6917 W 59th Street PO Box 4650 check American Safety Razor. Up to Buffalo, NY 14207 Chicago, IL 60638 Miami Lakes, FL 33014 eighteen inchers (!) that do nasty stuff (716) 876-9855 (312) 586-8503 (305) 557-8222 in the hog to bacon process. They are Castolite Kepro Circuit Systems Stock Drive Products really fixed for blades. PO Box 391 630 Axminister Drive 2101 Jerico Turnpike Woodstock, IL 60098 Fenton, MO 63026 New Hyde Park, NY 11040 Higher volume plastic and metal (815) 338-4670 (800) 325-3878 (516) 328-0200 connectors, bushings, standoffs, and Clippard Minimatic Kindt-Collins Tandy Leathercraft related hardware are offered in wide 7390 Colerain Road 12651 Elmwood Avenue 1400 Everman Parkway variety from Fastex/ITW. Cincinatti, OH 45239 Cleveland, OH 44111 Ft. Worth, TX 76140 Lower pressure pneumatic tubing (513) 521-4261 (216) 252-4122 (817) 551-9770 and rubber sheeting can be insanely Coburn Corp Klockit Tuners Supply expensive from your typical sources. 1650 Corporate Road PO Box 636 88-94 Wheatland Street Instead, Hygenic Manufacturing offers Lakewood, NJ 08701 Lake Geneva, WI 53147 Somerville, MA 02145 bunches of both at very low cost. They (201) 367-5511 (800) 556-2548 (800) 247-0702 mostly have dentists and hospitals as Devcon Hank Lee's Magic Uhlricht's Dictionary customers, but they’ll sell to anyone. 30 Endicott Street PO Box 1359 1180 Americas Avenue Danvers, MA 01923 Boston, MA 02205 New York, NY 10016 They also have several sample sheets (508) 777-1100 (800) 874-7400 (212) 916-1600 available. For flocks and flocking, traditional DonJer McMaster-Carr United States Plastics Ilene Ct Bldg 8 Box 54960 1390 Neubrecht Road "cabbage duster" flock is still available Belle Mead, NJ 08502 Los Angeles, CA 90054 Lima, OH 45801 through DonJer and aimed largely at (800) 336-6537 (213) 692-5911 (419) 228-2242 school shop and artsy-craftsy markets. EDLCO Archie McPhee Value Plastics The more modern silk screened flock PO Box 5373 PO Box 30852 3350 Eastbook Drive products are offered by HIX. Asheville, NC 28813 Seattle, WA 98103 Ft. Collins, CO 80525 Castable plastics remain obtainable (704) 255-8765 (206) 547-2467 (303) 233-8306 through Castolite, who are still at the Evergreen Scale Models Robert A. Main & Sons J C Whitney same old stall after all of these years. 12808 NE 125th Way 555 Goffle Road 1917-19 Archer Avenue Unusual sticky stuff in tubes and cans Kirkland, WA 98034 Wychkoff, NJ 07481 Chicago, IL 60680 (206) 823-0458 (201) 447-3700 (312) 431-6102 comes from Devcon. Sticks anything to anybody. Machinable, pourable, and Fastex ITW Metalphoto Zero Corporation 195 Algonquin Road 18531 S Miles Road 777 Front Street otherwise unusual industrial ceramics Des Plaines, IL 60016 Cleveland, OH 44128 Burbank, CA 91503 are sold by Aremco. (312) 299-2222 (216) 475-0555 (818) 846-4191 An astounding variety of industrial waxes is available from Kindt-Collins. Everything from machinable wax for cheaply checking out CAD/CAM to a genuine document and wine bottle

November 1992 / Resource Bin I 39 sealing wax. Even water soluable take their phony kale seriously, folks. waxes are offered. Actual, genuine, authentic, 100% real Machinable wax is fully recyclable, kale is used for the mold masters. The besides eliminating wear and tear on molds are destroyed after a custom tools and machines if the plans or feed crafted limited edition of a mere 35 rate are wildly wrong. It can also be replicas. After all, the fake kale would used directly for lost wax casting. look – well – fake if it all ended up Plastic companies tend to be hard to identical. And real powdered kale is deal with. But two having reasonable used for the filler in the plastic resins prices and wide variety include AIN injected for molding. Plastics and US Plastics. And the two Just like the Russian invention of sources for miniature plastic fittings synthetic caviar, their final product is suitable for hobby and pneumatic absolutely indistinguishable from the robotics are Ark-Plas and Value. A real-world original. very pricey source for miniature air Except by taste. components is Clippard Minimatic. Klockit is mostly a source for huge Two contests grandfather clock kits. Hidden among Let’s have a pair of contests for this their other gems are $4 hygrometers month. Either (A) tell me about some that are essential if you are doing any obscure but truly great source for neat laser printing. stuff, or else (B) come up with a new For photo-on-aluminum dialplates and a non-obvious use for synthetic and museum exhibit panels, you can kale. On (A), try to send me a sample try either Metalphoto or FotoFoil. These catalog and get me on their mailing are super durable. list. Or whatever. Hmmm. Looks like I am near the There will be a dozen of my newly bottom of the list, and all that’s left is republished Incredible Secret Money a totally unrelated and disjointed pile Machine II book prizes awarded to the of loose ends. best, along with an all expense paid So, here are a totally unrelated and (FOB Thatcher, AZ) tinaja quest for two disjointed pile of loose ends: Kepro for going to the very best of all. printed circuit supplies and materials; Be sure to send all of your written Hello Direct for consumer telephone entries directly to me at Synergetics products; Hank Lee Magic Factory for per the end blurb, rather than to Nuts all sorts of tricky magic toys, books, and Volts editorial. and special effects; Roper-Whitney for By the way, your odds of winning reasonably priced hand punches and most of our contests are extremely professional layout tools. high. On typical contests most of the Look at Stock Drive Products, for, of time, pretty near everyone ends up all things, stock drive products such wining something. Unless I really get as shafts, gears, bearings, supports, swamped with entries. Which only differentials, and mechanical kits; rarely happens. Tandy Leathercraft for unusual tools As usual, we’ve gathered our Names and materials, especially punches and & Numbers together into one sidebar. perforators. Be sure to check out the sidebar first J. C. Whitney, of course for their before you contact our voice helpline claim of "everything automotive"; and for further technical help. ✦ Tuner’s Supply for piano tuning tools, books, and replacement parts. Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don And, at the very bottom of our list Lancaster is the author of 28 books and Zero Corporation for rounded cans and countless articles. Don maintains his boxes that make fine electronic cases no-charge tech helpline found at (520) and enclosures. 428-4073, besides offering all of his own For the truly and utterly bizarre, books, reprints, and all of his consulting don’t forget Archie McPhee. Off in a services. He also has a free brochure full of corner all by themselves, they are the his resource secrets waiting for you. Your world’s leading supplier for giant best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, rubber iguanas and similar essentials. Mountain Standard Time. Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, The ultimate neat stuff where a special Resource Bin topic has No discussion of unusual products been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. and supply sources can possibly be You can contact GEnie at (800) 638-9636 complete without our mentioning the (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach synthetic kale now available through Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, Garden Fresh Replicas. These people AZ 85552.

40 November 1992 / Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number eleven

Technical books that made a difference.

ur usual reminder here that the learn all the electronics basics. Read Introductory Circuit Analysis Resource Bin is now a two-way and study Grob’s book from cover to Electronic Principles O column. You can get tech help, cover and you are well on your way Solid State Electronic Theory consultant referrals and off-the-wall to an exciting career." Digital Electronics networking on nearly any electronic, Wel’s Think Tank Transistor Basics: A Short Course, tinaja questing, personal publishing, Modern Electronic Communication George Stanley (Hayden). "It is short, money machine, or computer topic by Crash Course in Digital Technology sweet, and to the point. The book for calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays understanding most transistor circuit Respective authors are Boylestad, 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider design. Worth its weight in gold." Malvino, Sanfilippo, Forbes, Wells, secret resources brochures waiting for Miller, and Sams. you when you call or write. Pulse and Switching Circuit Action, We sure did get a wide variety of Henry Veatch (McGraw-Hill). "If you Daniel Gates entries in our important books to learn would like to learn how to build high Here are Dan’s six selections… electronics contest. One rather obvious powered pulse circuits, read this book problem I didn’t anticipate at the time and use your imagination." CMOS Cookbook & TTL Cookbook, was that a book that was great for you Don Lancaster, (Howard Sams, 1977). Electronic Communications Systems twenty years ago just might not end "Lots of useful info. Excellent info on by George Kennedy, (McGraw-Hill). up the best one for today. electronic breadboarding." "The book for learning the basics of So, we’ll broaden our focus a bit to radio system receivers, transmitters, The Active Filter Cookbook, by Don target on books that made a difference. and antennas. An excellent book for Lancaster, (Sams, 1975). "A practical Even the oldest of these just might be anyone wanting to know exactly how intro to all these important circuits. I worth a fresh look. satellite receivers or microwave comm especially do appreciate his optional Many thanks for putting my own works. For low noise amps and radio math approach." CMOS Coookbook, TTL Cookbook, and theory in plain language." Active Filter Cookbook right on the top Build Your Own Z80 Computer, by of your entries. These three, plus the Art of Electronics, Paul Horowitz Steve Circia (Circuit Cellar). "Reduces Radio Amateur’s Handbook and The Art (Cambridge 1992). "The master chef’s the title task to its essentials. Good of Electronics, got the most votes. cookbook for all the ins and outs of basic intro to all the microprocessor But then again, if Kellogg’s ran a my electronic design and construction. It fundamentals." favorite breakfast cereal contest with tells you the components and circuits Getting Started in Electronics by prizes, there might not be too many to use. Gives examples of good and Forrest Mims. "Lets you pick up from Grape Nuts or Cheerios top entries. bad circuit design." what you remember from school." Probably the best way to arrange all Electronics Engineer’s Handbook by this is by the entrants. Let’s start off Engineer’s Mini-Notebooks, Forrest Donald Fink (McGraw Hill) "A good with our tinaja quest winner… Mims (Radio Shack). "Good and low electronics reference book. Coverage cost breadboarding guides." Ken Luchini Some of Ken’s titles are somewhat NEXT MONTH: Don reveals Frank Sergeant dated, but are all good choices… some desktop publishing A GEnie subscriber and another Handy Book of Practical Electricity, secret supply sources. Resource Bin contest entrant, Frank’s Frank Graham (Audel 1925). "Audel’s favorites are… book has everything you wanted to here ranges from materials and basic The Art of Electronics, by Paul know about electricity and electronics electricity to electronics systems. In Horiwitz (Cambridge, 1989). "I love but were afraid to ask. From batteries easy-to-understand format." this book, and must study it in depth to electro-therapeutics. Circa 1925, but someday. Meanwhile, I just use it as a Ohm’s Law is still true." Neil Youshak reference. He does know everything Basic Electronics, by Bernard Grob, Neil sent us a list of his favorites, about electronics and discusses it in a (McGraw Hill). "A very good text to without too many details… very readable fashion."

December 1992 / Resource Bin I 41 CMOS Cookbook & TTL Cookbook Ward Belliston Harry Werner "I’ve been using these steadily over Let’s now turn to Ward Belliston, Harry is a certified electronic tech the years. One of the ideas I love from who teaches industrial technology at doing service and repair work. Here them is that you can use components Utah State in Logan. Ward is also both are his suggestions… for what they actually can do, not for a former student and a department just what they are labeled for. Yes, at Complete Handbook of Electronics head of mine. He is also very much in least the CMOS book is falling apart, Troubleshooting, James Jacox. "This the front line trenches of electronics but I keep stuffing the pages back in book covers methodology rather than education.… place and handling it very gently." the mechanics of other texts." Micro Cookbook, by Don Lancaster Electronic Principles, by Albert Basic Electricity (Synergetics Press, 1993). "The books Malvino, (McGraw-Hill 1989). "A very Basic AC Circuits in this two volume set are very easy to thorough grounding in the basics of Basic Electronics Technology. (Texas understand for anyone wanting to semiconductor electronics, with the Instruments & Radio Shack). "These know microprocessors at a beginning big-picture perspective as well as the three are excellent tutorials." level. Don does a quite good job of individual details." relating the concepts and ideas with Video Scrambling & Descrambling Intro to Microprocessors I, by Adam cartoons and diagrams." Rudolf Grat. "Great coverage." Osborne. "Not volume II, and most My own comment here is that these The RS-232 Solution, Joe Campbell especially not that newer Volume 0, two titles are getting somewhat dated, (Sybex). "A rather well written and but Volume I has all the meat. It was although I am definitely reprinting illustrated book. A must for RS-232 originally published as a deceptively them and still stocking them here at problem solutions." thin book and later got puffed up with Synergetics. The problem is that the larger and thicker paper to appear world got a lot more complicated than Electronic Troubleshooting, Jerome more substantial. It has to be my first it used to be. Any old seventh grader Oleksy. "Very instructional. Excellent recommendation for learning all the could create unique and innovative illustrations. One of the very best." hardware details of microprocessors machine language code for a C-64 or and their peripherals." an Apple. But it takes years of effort Stacey’s and practice to create even atrocious Stacey’s Bookstore decided to vote The IBM PC From the Inside Out coding for most newer platforms. And with their wallet. Here are some of Sargent, (Addison-Wesley 1986). "This much of the fun is long gone. their recent best selling books… is a very pleasant book on the IBM PC hardware and assembly language. It Introductory Circuit Analysis, by Art of Electronics does include understandable low-level Robert Boylestad (Merrill, 1990). "A Art of Electronics Student Manual information and the examples needed good outline, well organized, useful Introduction to DSP for getting at the insides of the PC. problem sets plus good examples. Noise Reduction Techniques While a little out of date in that fancy Includes the use of PSPICE and Basic Programming Pearls video hardware gets omitted, this still example programs." C Language Algorithms for DSP makes a fine general reference." C++ Primer Digital Fundamentals, by Thomas The Kilbaud Klassroom Course in Floyd (Merrill, 1990). "Includes some Respective authors are Horowitz, Digital Electronics, by George Young fine examples. Complete. Thorough." Horowitz, Lynn, Ott, Wall, Embree, (Wayne Green, 1982). "I have hardly and Lippman. Microprocessor Architecture, by touched this in years, but it was just Gaonkar Ramesh (Merrill). "Workable what I needed at the time. The articles Jeff Duntemann from introduction to advanced. Ties that went into this book actually got Jeff Duntemann is the editor and the topics together well. Has a good me breadboarding circuits. It gave me publisher of PC Techniques magazine, building approach to learning. Could the confidence that I could do and a prominent author on programming use more advanced examples." understand just about anything about languages, a long time radio ham, and digital electronics." Modern Electronic Communication, a grass roots hardware hacker. Here Gary Miller (Prentice Hall). "Easy to are his selections of books that made a Lee Hart read and understand. He has a good difference to him… Lee sent us a short list of all his support lab manual to go along with Using Electronics, by Harry Zarchy favorites… the text. Covers the subject well." (Thomas Crowell, 1958). "This book Radio Amateur’s Handbook Electronic Devices & Circuit Theory, contained the first electronics projects Reference Data for Radio Engineers Louis Nashelsky (Prentice Hall, 1992). I ever built. It’s a juvenile, obviously, Troubleshooting Analog Circuits "Uses both the approximation and the but nicely done, with line drawings theoretical approaches. Good outline, and clear explanations. All the usual Respective authors are ARRL, Sams, well organized, good problem sets, one- and two-transistor projects, plus and Robert Pease. and good examples. Uses PSPICE and a regenerative radio using a 3V4 that "But as I think about it, it’s hard to Basic programming." was my first tube project." go beyond these. Though I have a large reference library, it seems that Operational Amplifiers and Linear The Boy’s Second Book of Radio and vital information is getting ever more Integrated Circuits, Robert Coughlin Electronics, Alfred Morgan (Scribners, widely scattered. As with television, (Prentice Hall, 1991). "Introduction to 1957). "This is a larger book with more quantity drives out quality." op-amps that covers a broad area." explanatory content and much better

42 December 1992 / Resource Bin I earlier Resource Bin contest, so his book choices all focused upon library research tools.… SPECIALIZED BOOK RESOURCES Applied Science and Tech Index The Supplementary Periodical Index Active Electronics High Energy Enterprises SAE 11 Cummings Park PO Box 5636 400 Commonwealth Drive Micro Computer Index Woburn, MA 01801 Security, CO 80931 Warrendale, PA 15096 Research Centers Directory (800) 677-8899 (719) 475-0918 (412) 776-4841 Statistical Sources Antique Radio Books Knollwood Singing Wind Bookshop Directories in Print 498 Cross Street PO Box 197 Ocotillo Road, Box 2197 Carlisle, MA 01741 Oregon, WI 53575 Benson, AZ 85602 Most of these should now be on the (508) 371-0512 (608) 835-8861 (520) 586-2425 reference shelf of any larger library. Bob's Electronics Lindsay Publications Stacey's Bookstore Your Guru 7605 Deland Avenue PO Box 538 219 University Avenue Ft Pierce, FL 34951 Bradley, IL 60915 Palo Alto, CA 94301 Outside of recently using my own (407) 464-2118 (815) 935-5353 (415) 326-0681 cookbooks in an intro programming CompuServe MIX Bookshelf Stanford Bookstore course, I aren’t doing all that much 5000 Arlington Ctr. Blvd. 6400 Hollis Street, Ste 12 135 University Avenue lately in electronics teaching. I also Columbus, OH 43220 Emeryville, CA 94608 Palo Alto, CA 94305 feel that technical books can be highly (800) 848-8199 (800) 233-9604 (800) 533-2670 overrated. Especially if you don’t read Computer Literacy Mouser Electronics Synergetics them thoroughly enough and often 2590 North First Street 11433 Woodside Avenue Box 809 San Jose, CA 95131 Santee, CA 92071 Thatcher, AZ 85552 enough. Or select the wrong ones. (408) 435-1118 (800) 346-6873 (520) 428-4073 Sadly, the availablility and quality of most non-computer tech books has Dialog Info Service Newark Electronics Tesla Books 3460 Hillview Avenue 228 East Lake Street Box 121873 plummetted sharply in recent years. Palo Alto, CA 94304 Addison, IL 60101 Chula Vista, CA 91912 Owing to mind-numbing changes in (415) 858-2700 (312) 941-7200 (805) 646-3371 how new books are now produced DigiKey OpAmp Books UFO Books and marketed. Bunches more on this 701 Brooks Ave South 1033 N Sycamore Avenue PO Box 1053 in my Book-on-demand resource kit and Thief River, MN 56701 Los Angeles, CA 90038 Florence, AZ 85232 on my GEnie PSRT. (800) 344-4539 (800) 468-4322 (602) 868-4273 Your first and foremost electronic GEnie Reiter's Whole Earth learning resource is all of your own 401 N Washington Street 2021 K Street NW 27 Gate Five Road hands-on experience. Number two is Rockville, MD 20850 Washington, DC 20006 Sausalito, CA 94965 (800) 638-9636 (800) 537-4314 (415) 332-1716 all the electronic trade journals, which are an absolutely incredible training and learning bargain. drawings, so I learned a fair amount license, and this was the book which Next is the Dialog Info Service, which from it. The problem was the projects put me over the top. Unlike the Radio lets you instantly find out everything were more elaborate and exceeded the Amateur’s Handbook, it was designed about anything. Dialog has recently mechanical skills of a ten-year-old. I for the beginner, and was much more introduced a cheaper late evening think I learned as much from all my detailed in its explanations. The book service, and also now offers CD-ROM failures here as from my successes." works very well, even today." access to information. Number four is the hobby press, Radio Amateur’s Handbook (ARRL, CMOS Cookbook, Don Lancaster, followed by the manufacturers’ data 1964). "I took this book out of the library (Howard Sams, 1977) "Atypically, I books, catalogs, and ap notes. when I was 12 and manfully tried to read this book before encountering I guess I would put the traditional teach myself electronics from it. I gave Don’s TTL Cookbook. I discovered it in textbooks in sixth place. Followed up in frustration, not to try again for conjunction with wire-wrapping my closely by the on-line BBS services, another eight years. But I held the first computer. The book speaks for especially CompuServe and GEnie. The book in tremendous awe and got my itself; without it, I could never have ham radio and computer clubs would first taste for "grownup" electronics." finished or expanded either of my two be my eighth place choice. Provided hand-build 1802 machines." The Elements of Radio Servicing, by you pick good ones and use them William Marcus (McGraw-Hill, 1955). Solid State Design for the Radio aggressively. "In my middle teens, I did manage to Amateur, by Wes Hayward, (ARRL, At any rate, it is interesting to go repair some 50’s era tube receivers by 1978). "I learned most of my RF theory back over the years and see which taking this book out of the library and in connection with tubes, and this books have made the biggest personal reading it closely. It is a model of book more than any other brought me difference to me. Most of these are technical clarity, and taught me more up to speed on solid-state, back in the ancient, but here goes anyway… about receiver theory than anything early 80’s. I built a number of these Radiotron Designer’s Handbook, else I’ve ever read before or since. The projects. The receivers worked well, Langford Smith (Wireless Press 1953). figures are among the best in any of and the theory certainly stuck." This is the most significant and most the tube-era books." important electronic book of all time. Understanding Amateur Radio. "I Rich Skalsky Period. Three or four generations of went on back to my quest for a ham Rich actually entered and won an electronic engineers cut their teeth on

December 1992 / Resource Bin I 43 this tomb, learning all that there then controls, and lamp dimmers. stock special interest titles. We have was to know about vacuum tubes and seen in previous columns and in the 6500 Programming Manual (MOS radio receiver design. It is about as Resource Bin reprints how outstanding Technology, 1979). Everything I did hands-on oriented and as end-user as book collections are available from involving Apple and microprocessors you can get. While obviously dated, I such places as SAE (automotive); Mix and machine language programming still refer to it every now and then. Bookshelf (for audio and video); Whole centered on this text. Which simply Earth (access to tools); High Energy The Mathematical Tables from the and fairly cleanly described the 6502 (pseudoscience); Lindsay Publications Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, microprocessor data set. I used it for (machine shop and radio); Synergetics Charles Hodgman (Chemical Rubber ten years in a micro intro course. (PostScript and guru titles); Antique 1957). An excellent cast of numeric PostScript Reference Manual II, by Radio Books (guess what?); Tesla Book characters, but the plot development Adobe (Addison Wesley, l991). I read Company (and guess again); Knollwood is rather primitive and the ending is this book an average of ten minutes (astronomy); Singing Wind (Southwest totally predictable. This is the one each day. All of the fundamentals of and lost mine tales), Bob’s Electronics book that I have used the most often. PostScript, by far the finest general (radio astronomy); or even that UFO Consistently throughout all the years. purpose hardware hacking computer Bookstore (yup, you got it). Absolutely essential. But then again, I language. Oh yeah, PostScript also There are dozens of rather useful often tend to work my way up from can dirty up sheets of otherwise clean technical bookstores in various parts the fundamentals. Years ago, the book paper. As a very minor and almost of the country. Many are associated eased trig calculations for me. Today, inconsequential afterthought. Covers with or across the street from large it is helping me in doing weird and the PostScript levels I and II, Display universities. But the only five I now wondrous graphics transforms. PostScript, EPS formats, and the file know about and can recommend are My "ABC" Catalogs. Those letters structuring conventions. I do stock Reiter’s in Washington, DC; Op-Amp have changed today, but all of the these if you need one. Books in Southern California; and the plain old hacker friendly distributor Stanford Bookstore, Computer Literacy, I’d also include the Radio Amateur’s full line catalogs were an incredible and Stacey’s, all in Silicon Valley. Handbook as crucially important to me. learning resource. At least for me. In But others have already said enough particular, the original Allied Radio, This Month’s Contest on this indispensible title. Burstein Applebee, and the Cameradio So, why don’t you tell me instead? I guess I’ve also got an "overflow catalogs. Back then, Allied was a full For this month’s contest, just tell me list" of not-quite classics that that I’ve line electronics source, while BA went about any larger technical walk-in sure spent a lot of my time and effort out of their way to welcome hackers, bookstore that you happen to favor. with. These ancients would include and had affordable prices. Except it Or any other source for unusual or Milliman and Taub’s Pulse and Digital was sometimes tough to ante up their specialized books. We’ll try to build Circuits; Fink’s Television Engineering $5 minimum order. Cameradio was up a coast-to-coast directory for a Handbook; Floyd Gardner’s Phaselock Pittsburgh’s largest walk-in old-line future column. Techniques; Louis Weinberg’s Network distributor. Reachable by streetcar. There will be a dozen of my newly Analysis and Synthesis; H. Skilling’s An aside to any of you Allegheny republished Incredible Secret Money Electrical Engineering Circuits; that County Nuts & Volts readers – What Machine II book prizes awarded to the hoary old "Rad Lab I" which refuses to ever happened to Cameradio? When? best, along with an all expense paid die, also known as Rideneour’s Radar And is "beer" still pronounced "Airn"? (FOB Thatcher, AZ) tinaja quest for two Systems Engineering; and R. Landee’s A free ISMM to the first responses. going to the very best of all. Electronic Design Handbook. These days, I guess you’d have to As usual, we’ve gathered our Names Plus, of course Buckminster Fuller’s get MAD instead. Short for Mouser, & Numbers together into one sidebar. Synergetics. Important enough to me Active, and Digi-Key. Plus Radio Shack. Be sure to check out the sidebar first that I named my business after it. And Newark Electronics for their full before you contact our voice helpline service, old line catalog. Finding Technical Books for further technical help. ✦ Electronic Musical Instruments by Good technical books are hard to Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don Richard Dorf (Plimpton Press 1968). A find. Many very much so. Your last Lancaster is the author of 28 books and thorough and well written book that place to look is some mall storefront countless articles. Don maintains his first got me off on technical writing, that has a sign out in front that says no-charge tech helpline found at (520) electronic music, circuit design, and "bookstore" on it. 428-4073, besides offering all of his own solidly communicating with the end Start off by using Books in Print and books, reprints, and all of his consulting reader on their own terms. that Forthcoming Books in Print on the services. He also has a free brochure full of reference shelf of your local library. his resource secrets waiting for you. Your General Electric SCR Manual. (GE, Then pick up the main technical book best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, 1967) Long out of print, this set the publisher catalogs. But note that any Mountain Standard Time. standard for what an industrial data particular publisher will only carry Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, book and ap note collection should one or two real classics, a few current where a special Resource Bin topic has do. It’s been downhill all the way ever winners, several marginally useful been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. since. I created dozens of early Popular texts, and a bunch of second rate titles You can contact GEnie at (800) 638-9636 Electronics construction projects from or otherwise remaindered dogs. (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach these pages. Projects involving color By far your best book sources are Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, organs, psychedelic lighting, motor those who do have a vested reason to AZ 85552.

44 December 1992 / Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number twelve

Secret sources for desktop publishing stuff.

ur usual reminder here that the - Turbo, RISC, co-processor or recharges can lower your toner costs Resource Bin is now a two-way otherwise enhanced CPU. from five cents on down to a mere 0.2 column. You can get tech help, cents per page. And a twelve second O - Full SCSI hard disk support. consultant referrals and off-the-wall service trick can eliminate the need networking on nearly any electronic, - 600 DPI minimum plus edge for your replacing a $12 fusion roller tinaja questing, personal publishing, and photo enhancements. or paying a computer store $300 for money machine, or computer topic by the priviledge of replacing it for you. - Canon engine or better. calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays Sadly, Apple refuses to sell you 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider - Toner costs under 0.15 cents their repair manuals. But the Hewlett secret resources brochures waiting for per page side. Packard service manuals apply to the you when you call or write. Apple and QMS machines, as well as - Service and repair manuals This month, I thought we might any of the others that employ similar cheaply and readily available. take a look at some resources for low Canon Engines. HP now has overnight end desktop publishing. Why? Mostly - 12 PPM minimum; 11 x 17 size VISA service on major parts. because there are so many emerging option available. The best in laser printer training hacker and tech opportunities here. and individual parts (unlike HP, who - Easy toner end-user cartridge Stuff easily done on your own. usually only offers whole modules) is refilling/recycling. We might start off with… available from Don Thompson. Don - All repair parts conveniently also offers fuser rebuilding kits and Laser printers end-user available. occasional buys on used or exchange The desktop publishing universe, of machines. A "perfect" PostScript laser printer course, centers on laser printers. I There are now lots of sources for does not exist today, but the last cut overwhelmingly feel that the genuine refill toner. Most of them advertise in sure got close. HP misses bad mainly Adobe PostScript level 2 printers are Recharger magazine. The typical refill on the SCSI hard disk support and the only route to go here. Once you do costs are in the $5 per bottle range. halftone photo enhancement; Apple start using real PostScript, everything misses mainly on the duplexing. else is an outright joke. Papers Three good resources to start you The two best machines these days Out here in Arizona, we have these on PostScript are those blue and red are the LaserJet IV by Hewlett-Packard, Price Club warehouse stores. And they books from Adobe Systems, (otherwise or the brand new LaserWriter Pro from sometimes will loss lead paper at $16 known as the PostScript Tutorial and Apple Computer. per case. Which is less than the large Cookbook and the PostScript Reference If you can’t afford a real PostScript quantity wholesale truckload lot price Manual II), and my PostScript Secrets printer, the GhostScript shareware on of most major paper distributors. So, book/disk combo. All three are now GEnie PSRT can temporarily get you for plain old white laser/copy paper, started quickly and cheaply, using any try your nearest discount outlet. printer of almost any type. NEXT MONTH: Don looks at There is a nationwide Paper Plus We saw a lot more on PostScript in all the perils and pitfalls of chain, with around a hundred outlets the October 1992 Nuts & Volts. Which in thirty states. They are an excellent is currently available as NUTS9.PS on patents and patenting. walk-in source for plain or fancy ream GEnie, or as hard copy in my Resource or case lots of papers and desktop Bin reprints. available through Synergetics per my supplies. All at reasonable to great Based on all of my own needs for nearby ad. Lots of on-line tutorials, prices. They are my first and foremost Book-on-demand publishing, here’s utilities, and other PostScript support source for just about everything I do what I feel is absolutely essential for a appears on GEnie PSRT. here at Synergetics. Because of where I decent and usable printer… live, I split my business between their Keeping a printer alive Tucson and Mesa stores. - Genuine Adobe PostScript For sane operating costs, you must For ultra fancy papers in smaller level 2 or higher. No clones. do your own machine maintenance quantities, the Paper Direct mail order - Duplex (two sided) printing and all toner cartridge refilling. For service seems to be a winner. Prices option available. instance, doing your own cartridge are usually higher than Paper Plus,

January 1993 / Resource Bin I 45 but you don’t have to buy more than plates can simply be laser printed and you need. Paper Direct also offers a they will work just fine. new from sample pack which is chock full of A good selection of perforated and useful ideas. die cut blanks is found at Die-O-Perf. DON LANCASTER Several imitators are beginning to Tickets, door hangers, tents and tags, ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK copy the Paper Direct concept. A high etc… I really like their self-respons The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog profile one is Quebolo. mailers. The menu covers are usually op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active stocked by H. Risch, Menu Graphics, filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 Paper-like stuff Menu Cover, or MenuTech. Business cards are an first obvious Labels for VHS video splines and CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS desktop product that doesn’t look like cassettes are carried by Polyline. And Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two a plain old sheet of paper. You can the 3-Up postcard mailers come from books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. easily use most any cover stock or Quill Office Products. About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. parchment here. Two firms now do offer pre-perfed Beyond paper INCREDIBLE SECRET business card stocks in a fair variety. An incredibly wide variety of paper One retail source is Cards Now. For a and plastic items can be run through MONEY MACHINE II Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting larger quantity source having lower most laser printers. But one definite up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 prices and more material, color, and no-no is tyvek. Besides the toner not thickness options, use Blanks USA. sticking, tyvek can turn into a Black Note that the positioning details vary Lagoon style gloppy syrup at the LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY slightly different between these two fusion rollers. Yummy. Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active supply sources. Most polyester and mylar products Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly I’ve posted full layout utilities on work just fine. Especially overheads revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and both business card systems as files and self-sticks. The lower temperature those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 #505 CARDSNOW.GPS and that #521 plastics, such as signcutting vinyls or BLANKUSA.GPS to my GEnie PSRT. acetates, usually also melt or at least LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES Both sources are only 10-up instead soften. And some of the static cling ...... Ask the Guru I or II or III $24.50 of the 12-up you can easily get doing plastics may be too thick...... Hardware Hacker II or III $24.50 your own layouts. I’d guess this has to But if any of these are paper or ...... Book-on-Demand Resource Kit $39.50 ...... PostScript Beginner Stuff $39.50 do with old Cunieform-on-clay-tablet carrier backed, and are reasonably ...... Intro to PostScript Video $39.50 printers that are PostScript illiterate. thin, and if you trim the edges, and if ...... GEnie PSRT Sampler $29.50 Dumb move, folks. you are super careful, you can print ...... PostScript Reference II $28.50 ...... PostScript Tutorial/Cookbook $16.50 Certificate and border blanks are these, at least sometimes. But do use ...... Whole works (all PostScript) $350.00 available from Goes Lithography. You extreme care, and experiment with a ...... PostScript Secrets Brochure FREE can also make great ones of your own smaller piece first...... Hacking Secrets Brochure FREE using parchment stocks. One interesting thin vinyl product The most obvious source of badges that can print well with care is the POSTSCRIPT SECRETS and badge kits is Badge-a-Minit. But Form-X Film from Graphic Products. A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free lower prices are now available by way Plenty of different colors and special fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, of Super Badge and Button. effects here. Some new Etch-and-Peel workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 Ticket blanks are offered by Blanks polyester masking films are offered by USA, Ticket Express, and Quick Tickets. Kimoto as Rubylith replacements. A wide variety of bumpersticker Pellon is a popular nonwoven fabric BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I stocks, peel-and-sticks, fluorescents, interfacing product found in sewing The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering columns. Includes the case against patents, book foils, and similar specialty items is stores. You can laser print on those on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm available in those Wasau Print Packs. thinner pellon gauges, creating a cloth stalking, insider research, lots more. $18.50 Paper plus is one retail source. transfer pattern. Or as a stencil for Paper can be easily converted into primary education kiddy stuff. The RESOURCE BIN I notepads, forms, calanders, or other image isn’t all that great, but it sure is A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts ripoffs by use of Padding Compound. useful. Do be absolutely sure to use columns to date, including a new index and his This is cheaply available at Paper Plus the "regular" Pellon, rather than the master names and numbers list. $12.50 or any other printshop source. While "heat fusible" type! red and white are the only colors, you One interesting color-over-clear FREE SAMPLES could add food coloring or ink to the polyester material is Color Key from Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. white to make it any color you like. 3-M. While intended for prepress The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 Real Post-it Notes blanks are available proofing, all sorts of exciting color cents. Call (800) 638-9636 for connect info. from 3-M. In several colors. apps are possible. FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA / MC Applique transparent stick-ons for Extensive self-stick products are architectural use or whatever are sold available from International Films. SYNERGETICS by Saga Stickybak and Stanpat. Others advertise in Converting and the Box 809-NV Direct-to-press laser printing plates Paper, Film, and Foil Converting trade Thatcher, AZ 85552 are offered by both REL Graphics and journals. Insider stuff. (520) 428-4073

Dominick Argenino. But the word on Heavier stock for point-of-purchase Write in 146 on Reader Service Card. the street has it that plain old paper displays or architectural models is

46 January 1993 / Resource Bin I DESKTOP PUBLISHING RESOURCES

Access Laser Press Crane Typesetting International Film/FSK PosterWorks Sunraise 3502 W Earll PO Box 487 45 Industrial Pkwy 1 Kendall Sq. S323-600 PO Box 487 Phoenix AZ 85019 Barnstable MA 02630 Woburn MA 01888 Cambridge MA 02139 Lexington, MI 48450 (602) 272-2525 (617) 362-3441 (800) 633-0140 (617) 395-8350 (800) 521-6367 Adobe Systems Die-O-Perf Inc Kepro Circuit Systems The Printer's Devil Super Button & Badge 1585 Charleston Rd 1721 E Pioneer Dr 630 Axminister Dr PO Box 66 2338 W Burnham Mountain View CA 94039 Irving TX 75061 Fenton MO 63026 Harrison ID 83833 Milwaukee WI 53004 (800) 833-6687 (800) 843-2807 (800) 325-3878 (208) 689-3738 (800) 328-8272 American Safety Razor Dominick Argenio Kimoto Printer's Shareware Synergetics Razor Blade Ln Box 651 Park Meadows Pl 2915 182nd St 5019 West Lovers Lane Box 809 Verona VA 24482 W Patterson NJ 07424 Redondo Beach CA 90278 Dallas, TX 75209 Thatcher AZ 85552 (703) 248-8000 (800) 631-0039 (213) 370-7411 (214) 350-1902 (520) 428-4073 Am. Thermoplastic Co DynaArt Designs Kroy Color Printer's Shopper Techniks Inc 622 Second Avenue 3535 Stillmeadow Ln 14555 N Hayden Rd PO Drawer 1056 45 J Ringo Rd Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Lancaster CA 93536 Scottsdale AZ 85260 Chula Vista CA 92012 Ringoes NJ 08551 (800) 245-6600 (805) 943-4746 (602) 951-1593 (800) 854-2911 (908) 788-8249 Apple Computer Fomebords Magnet Source Queblo Images Therm-O-Type 20525 Mariani Ave 2211 N Elston Ave 607 S Gilbert 131 Heartland Blvd 509 Church Street Cupertino CA 95014 Chicago IL 60614 Castle Rock, CO 80104 Brentwood NY 11717 Nokomis, FL 34275 (408) 996-1010 (312) 278-9200 (800) 525-3536 (800) 523-9080 (813) 488-0123 Atlas Steel Rule & Die Font & Function Menu Graphics Quick Tickets Don Thompson 2000 Middlebury Street PO Box 7900 3133 Chester Ave G-3030 W Pasadena 23072 Lake Center Dr #100 Elkhart, IN 46516 Mountain View CA 94039 Cleveland OH 44114 Flint MI 48504 El Toro CA 92630 (800) 255-8786 (800) 833-6687 (800) 321-9482 (800) 521-1142 (714) 855-3838 Badge-A-Minit Fotofoil/Miller Dial Merigraph/Hercules Quill Thompson Shore 384 N 30th Rd 4400 N Temple City Blvd 300 E Shuman #260 PO Box 4700 7300 W Joy Rd LaSalle IL 61301 El Monte CA 91734 Naperville IL 60566 Lincolnshire IL 60197 Dexter MI 48130 (815) 224-2090 (818) 444-4555 (800) 323-1832 (312) 634-4800 (313) 426-3939 Bennet LaserBrite General Binding Corp. Metalphoto Recharger 3M/Scotch 720 4th St SW 1 GBC Plaza 18531 S Miles Rd 101 Granite St Ste F 3M Center Bldg 220-7E-01 Rochester MN 55902 Northbrook IL 60062 Cleveland OH 44128 Corona CA 91719 St Paul MN 55144 (507) 280-9101 (708) 272-3700 (216) 475-0555 (714) 371-8288 (800) 328-1303 Black Lightning GEnie MICRTECH Group REL Graphics Ticket Express Riddle Pond Rd 401 N Washington St 12 Bartal Court 218 N Clinton St 366 Melody Ln West Topsham VT 05086 Rockville MD 20850 Atco, NJ 08004 Chicago IL 60606 Casselberry FL 32707 (800) BLACK99 (800) 638-9636 (609) 753-8502 (800) 521-1080 (800) 544-8520 Blanks/USA Gerber Scientific Midnight Engineering H. Risch Transfer Magic/EZ Intl 2722 Fernbrook Ln N 83 Gerber Rd 111 E Drake Rd S7041 PO Box 567 130 Grand St Minneapolis MN 55447 S Windsor CT 06074 Ft Collins CO 80525 Rochester NY 14602 Carlstadt NJ 07072 (800) 328-7311 (203) 644-1551 (303) 491-9092 (716) 232-6938 (201) 935-9005 Bove & Rhodes Reports Goes Lithographing OmniPress Saga Stickyback TypeWorld Box 1289 42 W 61st St 454 W Johnson St 400 Hwy 69 South, S105 One Technology Park Dr Gualala CA 95444 Chicago IL 60621 Madison WI 53703 Minneapolis, MN 55246 Westford MA 01886 (707) 884-4413 (312) 684-6700 (800) 828-0305 (800) 328-0727 (508) 392-2157 HS Boyd Grantham/Polly-Stamp Paper Direct Seybold Publications U&lc 6915 E 14th St 418 Central Ave NE 57 Romanelli Ave 428 E Baltimore Pike 2 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Tulsa OK 74112 E Grand Forks MI 56721 S Hackensack NJ 07606 Media PA 19063 New York NY 10017 (918) 835-9359 (218) 773-0331 (800) A-PAPERS (215) 565-2480 (212) 371-0699 Cards Now Hartco Paper & Foil Converter SignCraft Unibind/Pelsaer 6401 Odana Road 1280 Glendale-Milford Rd 29 N Wacker Dr PO Box 06031 4125 Prospect Dr Madison, WI 53719 Cincinatti, OH 45215 Chicago IL 60606 Ft Myers FL 33906 Carmichael CA 95608 (800) 233/9767 (800) 543-1340 (312) 726-2802 (813) 939-4644 (916) 967-6401 Challenge Machinery Hewlett-Packard Paper Plus Specialties Bindery USI Image Creators 1810 E Industrial Park Dr PO Box 10301 3820 S Palo Verde #108 4815 Lawrence St PO Box 644 Grand Haven, MI 49417 Palo Alto CA 94303 Tucson AZ 85714 Hyattsville MD 20781 Branford CT 06405 (800) 866-7800 (415) 857-1501 (520) 889-9500 (800) 638-LOOP (800) 243-4565 Coburn Corp H-P Manuals Photolabels Stanpat Products Velo-Bind 1650 Corporate Rd 19310 Pruneridge Ave 333 Kimberly Dr 366 Main St 650 Almanor Ave Lakewood NJ 08701 Cupertino CA 94014 Carol Stream IL 60188 Port Washington NY 11050 Sunnyvale CA 94086 (201) 367-5511 (800) 752-0900 (708) 690-0132 (516) 883-8400 (800) 538-1798 Converting HIX Corporation Polyline/PolyQuick R.A. Stewart Wausau Paper 301 Gibraltor Dr 1201 E 27th St 1233 Rand Rd 641 S Palm Unit H Wausau Coated Sales Morris Plains NJ 07950 Pittsburg KS 66762 Des Plaines IL 60016 La Habra CA 90631 Wausau WI 54401 (201) 292-5100 (800) 835-0606 (708) 390-6464 (213) 690-4445 (800) 835-7117 available through Fomeboards. Toners to print your own checks destructively will convert any toner The interesting alternate materials, and other banking documents are sold image into a heat transfer applique. including holographics, prismatics, through the MICRTECH Group. The product works by dissolving the foils, glow-in-the-darks and such are An older product is called Transfer paper out from behind your toner offered by Coburn. Some are directly Magic and should be findable at your image. For T-shirts. laser printable, but most are not. local notions store. This instantly but Sandblasting or glass etching from

January 1993 / Resource Bin I 47 toner? Why not? Check Hartco for the masking materials. The options on scoring, slitting, or TRADITIONAL PRINTSHOP TRADE JOURNALS perforating include H. S. Boyd, Atlas Steel Rule, or American Safety Razor. American Printer Impressions Printing Impressions Unusual pad printers are available 29 N Wacker Drive 1515 Broadway 401 North Broad Street Chicago, IL 60606 New York, NY 10036 Philadelphia, PA 19108 which can let you print on anything, (312) 726-2802 (212) 869-1300 (215) 238-5300 including watermelons or eggshells. Business Forms In-Plant Printer Printing Journal See my #170 PADPRINT.TXT on GEnie 401 Broad Street Box 368 Box 91447 PSRT for full details. Philadelphia, PA 19108 Northbrook, IL 60065 Pasadena, CA 91109 Your custom photographs on thin (215) 238-5300 (312) 564-5940 (818) 793-7901 peel-and-stick make a great way to California Printers InPlant Reproductions Printing News PO Box 11766 401 North Broad Street 245 W 17th Street add full color to any desktop product. Santa Ana, CA 92711 Philadelphia, PA 19108 New York City, NY 10011 One source is Photolabels. (714) 836-9653 (215) 238-5300 (212) 463-6727 We’ve seen in previous columns Graphic Arts Monthly Instant Printer Publishing Technology how toner can make an excellent etch 249 W 17th Street Box 368 401 North Broad Street New York City, NY 10011 Northbrook, IL 60065 Philadelphia, PA 19108 resist for printed circuits. Two new (212) 463-6834 (312) 564-5940 (215) 238-5300 and exciting products are the Toner Graphic Arts News Print Equipment News Quick Printing Transfer System from DynaArt Designs 29 North Wacker Drive Box 5540 1680 SW Bayshore Blvd plus the direct transfer system from Chicago, IL 60606 Glendale, CA 91221 Port St Lucie, FL 34984 Techniks. The DynaArt product also (312) 726-2802 (818) 954-9495 (407) 879-6666 can be used for decals and transfers. High Volume Printing Printer's Hot Line Screen Printing Box 368 PO Box 1709 407 Gilbert Avenue One traditional source for all printed Northbrook IL, 60065 Fort Dodge, IA 50501 Cincinatti, OH 45202 circuit supplies is Kepro. (312) 564-5940 (515) 955-1600 (513) 421-2050 Magnetic sheeting for everything Horse Trader The Printers Shopper from business cards to truck signs is PO Box 11712 PO Drawer 1056 Santa Ana, CA 92711 Chula Vista, CA 92012 offered by The Magnet Store. Smaller (714) 921-3120 (800) 854-2911 pieces, of course, are also found at your nearest Wal-Mart. You can create metal dialplates and museum displays using either Fotofoil useful binding systems. In general, the best two selections are either the or Metalphoto. Fotofoil also ended up the bigger the company, the worse the 14 inch Triumph electric or the 18 inch with 3-M’s older Scotchcal vinyl label system and the bigger the ripoff. Challenge manual. system. Now renamed Dynamark. Saddle stapling is a useful low-end More on Bakerizing, cutters, and You can easily convert PostScript method, but it usually needs special binding in general appears in my #569 images into rubber stamps by using costly long throw staplers. One thin BINDCUT.PS. the photopolymers available in small document solution for such things as quantities from Grantham. Or in larger proposals or Fire Department annual Going beyond yourself lots from either R. Stewart or reports is that Personal Velobinder. Of What if you need more quantity or Merigraph. Some really neat stuff. the dozens of those thermal binding higher quality than you can deliver on Thermal transfer toners for T-Shirt systems offered, I have found the your own? The intermediate step up printing are sold by Black Lightning. Unibind system to be the best choice. is a service bureau, while the ultimate But these are still costly and give only Even better is Unibind’s new Pelsaer trip is to pick the traditional volume mediocre results. binders. These are just a flyleaf pair printing route. Fuzzy stuff for T-shirts and Gimmie holding a U-shaped hot glue channel. David Seid of the Access Laser Press caps is offered as flocks by Hix and as Any cover material of any style can be operates a superb Book-on-Demand hot split plastisols by Gerber. used, including spline binding. I feel operation in Phoenix. It is based on Real thermography ("raised" print) that this Pelsaer is by far the most PostScript files electronically sent to from toner? Yup. Check into the new outstanding binding system available his high speed Xerox Docutech system. Bennett LaserBrite system. A spray on today. Bar none. And backed up by the full bindry and glop softens the toner. You then dust Cover durability can be upgraded all the "real ink" traditional printshop on thermography powder, and apply by Bakerizing, a zero cost process that techniques. Costs are unbelivably low some heat. Even a high intensity desk dramatically improves the toner gloss for books in dozen to hundred lots. So lamp could be used. Two traditional and density. Kroy Color is a system is the typical turnaround time. sources for thermography powders that lets you overlay hot stamp foils David also offers free boomerangs. include Sunray and Therm-O-Type over toner. Of the many laminating But he has been getting a high return More info on unusual toner tricks systems, USI offers the lowest costs rate on these. appears in my #435 TONERTRX.PS on and widest selections. A more costly Uh, I’d guess we had better call this GEnie PSRT. compeitor is GBC. next one large format printing. The There is no sanely priced way to PosterWorks service bureau offers full Bound and determined trim books or other stacks of paper. color PostScript Printing of any larger It’s real hard to find decent and Your best bet is to borrow or trade formats, up to and including those a useful ways to hold pages together. time to someone who has a guillotine quarter acre (!) in size. Which is right There’s a lot of obscenely overpriced cutter. A quality cutter will set you up there in the "adequate" range. atrocities out there masquerading as back at least $1500. Of these machines, Be sure to check your local zoning

48 January 1993 / Resource Bin I first. One use is 1:1 scale roadmaps. but unbearably stuffy Seybold Report intended for the T-shirt and gimmie In general, a plain old printshop or on Desktop Publishing. cap printers. It’s likely that the heat jiffy printer is a poor place to get a Joe Singer’s Printer’s Devil is one transfer toners will show up here first, book produced. Chances are they will absolute gem of a low-cost, low-end, along with plenty of other new laser farm it out to a specialized short run and labor-of-love newsletter. Whose printing apps and opportunities. book publisher. motto is "A press in every home. A I suspect I may have missed a few One of the highest quality short run home in every press. This one is also a other mags here, so let me know what outfits is Thompson Shore, who also must have. you can come up with. offer a very nice free newsletter and My favorite magazine for the sign There’s also a great new printshop sample hardbound books. My current painting trade is Signcraft. It’s got lots shareware service known as Printer’s favorite here is BookCrafters who did of immediately useful desktop ideas Shareware. Mostly IBM based, though. my Incredible Secret Money Machine II. in it. One of their competitors is Sign One rather low cost outfit is Crane Business, which just barely misses. This Month’s Contest Duplicating who specialize in the fast And, of course, Bill Gate’s Midnight For this month’s contest, tell me turnaround of bound galleys. Bound Engineering has lots of desktop stuff in about any obscure or off-the-wall galleys are "sort of" books that get it, along with even more on making it resource for desktop publishing. But sent ahead of time to reviewers so the while running your small scale tech keep it low end or little known. reviewer’s comments can appear on ventures. By one of those astonishing There will be a dozen of my newly the "real" book copies later sent out in coincidences that infest these pages, I republished Incredible Secret Money much higher volume. do seem to have a Blatant Opportunist Machine II book prizes awarded to the Two firms that center on printing column in Midnight Engineering. best, along with an all expense paid the wire bound and "lay-flat" manuals (FOB Thatcher, AZ) tinaja quest for two and directories are Specialized Bindry Traditional printshop resources going to the very best of all. and OmniPress. Specialized has a free Many of the tools, supplies, ideas, As usual, we’ve gathered our Names video available. and the tricks for desktop publishing & Numbers together into a pair of ultimately get stolen from traditional sidebars. One for desktop publishing Useful magazines printshop supply sources. The bad resources and one for printshop trade I’ve found most of the slick desktop news here is that traditional prices are journals. Be sure to check out these publishing magazines to be less than nearly always outrageously high, and first before you do contact our voice useless. At least for me. These are much of the sales help is uncaring, helpline for further tech help. usually so strongly advertiser driven incompetent, or worse. It is trivially that they positively refuse to ever give easy to get badly ripped off on used The future… their end users any critical, genuinely printing machinery. A crying need still remains for a useful, or cost saving low-end info. The good news here is that there no-nonsense or strongly user-oriented They are forever getting their "before" are lots of printer’s trade journals out and advertisers-be-dammed desktop and "after" examples mixed up on all there. Many of them are free, and just publishing magazine which honestly their page makeup stories. And they about all of them do have useful ideas and outspokenly covers the real low don’t have the foggiest notion how to and leads for you. end issues and problems. So, there’s properly test a PostScript printer. I’ve created a second and separate this ugly rumor circulating that it is But I have located several useful sidebar for these traditional printshop going to be called On-Demand!, and desktop related magazines. We have trade journals. Your best single choice otherwise known as The Journal of already seen how the Recharger mag is is probably Quick Printing. Quick Alternate Publishing. essential for toner refilling, repairs, Printing’s answer to our Resource Bin Write or give me a call if you are and maintenance. is Helene’s Hotline; she finds obscure interested in subscribing, advertising, One freebie is TypeWorld, who have sources of supply for really unusual authoring, or co-publishing in such a just renamed themselves Electronic printing materials and services. An new venture. Publishing. This one is mostly for new on-line service and data base is also Let’s here from you. ✦ high end product announcements, but newly offered. is rather well done. Funny editorials Instant & Small Commercial Printer Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don too. Intentionally so. and Printing Impressions are both Lancaster is the author of 28 books and A great typography magazine is pretty useful, as is the Graphics Arts countless articles. Don maintains his U&lc, otherwise known as Upper and Product News. no-charge tech helpline found at (520) lower case. Great heaping bunches of Note that the Printer’s Shopper isn’t 428-4073, besides offering all of his own font stuff here. It also is in the running what you think it is. It is just a single books, reprints, and all of his consulting for the most bizarre mag anywhere source supplier catalog. Complete but services. He also has a free brochure full of ever. Sadly, qualifying for free subs costly. The leading national printer his resource secrets waiting for you. Your has recently gotten harder. Pretend shopper magazine is really Printer’s best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, you are an ad director and see what Hot Line. Regional variations include Mountain Standard Time. happens. Even paid for, this one is a my western favorite, the HorseTrader, Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, valuable asset. and the California Printer. Chances are where a special Resource Bin topic has Adobe’s own Font and Function is there are others out in your neck of been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. another useful info source. the woods. You can contact GEnie at (800) 638-9636 Two expensive insider newsletters Please let me know about them. A (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach are the great Bove and Rhodes Insider’s free ISMM for your trouble. Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, Report, and that "industry standard" The Impressions trade journal is AZ 85552.

January 1993 / Resource Bin I 49 50 January 1993 / Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number thirteen

Perils and pitfalls of patents and patenting.

ur usual reminder here that the The foremost reason to studiously personally claim a worthwhile net Resource Bin is now a two-way avoid any "inventor" context is the positive cash flow from their patent O column. You can get tech help, totally absurd popular mythology involvement done as an individual or consultant referrals and off-the-wall which now surrounds patents and small scale startup. networking on nearly any electronic, inventing. Nearly all of which is dead As a mark and not a rube, of course. tinaja questing, personal publishing, wrong. To prove this to yourself, just Your second largest reason for the money machine, or computer topic by mention the word "patent" at any uneven playing field is the patent calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays party and then observe the ludicrous system itself. Over the years, I have 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider disinformation heaped upon you. observed that any individual or other secret resources brochures waiting for Then challenge them to name one small scale involvement in the patent you when you call or write. individual anywhere, ever, whom they system is virtually certain to end up as a This month, I thought we’d take a personally know that, in a small scale net loss of time, energy, money, and slightly different tack. Instead of my context, has shown a net positive cash sanity. Most often, your state lottery is showing you lots of great places to get flow from their patent involvement. A a vastly better investment. stuff, I will be showing you the one cash flow that was worth the time and Very simply, patents are almost resource that you should studiously effort involved. always inappropriate, time-wasting, avoid at all costs. Because it is certain No, the windshield wiper guy has counterproductive, vibe-destroying, to waste your time, energy, money, not collected yet. The Sears wrench and totally unnecessary tools. At least and sanity. dude has wasted his entire lifetime by when misapplied within small scale The term mark first came from the tilting at windmills. To me, Hyatt or individual contexts. carnival midway. Any time a scam looks like a rube. Tesla died a pauper. It is fine to serve as an industrial operator (the rube in carneyspeak) had The patent system drove Armstrong product developer, or run a prototyping significantly lightened a prospect’s to suicide. And Edison was a ripoff house, be a concept consultant, or work wallet, he would give him a friendly artist who made most of his bag by as an evaluation specialist. All of these exiting pat on the back. Along with a simple theft, using the most ruthless form acceptable roles in society for supporting "Gee Fella, that’s too bad." gaggle of renegade patent attorneys which, at least occasionally, you Unmentioned and unbeknownest to ever assembled anywhere. might end up being well rewarded. the lightenee was the fact that the So much for urban lore. These are also the sorts of things you rube had secretly dipped his hand in a Now, patents might or might not should be striving towards. hidden stash of powdered chalk just retain at least a marginal utility in a Now, I simply cannot fathom why before the pat on the back. And thus Fortune 500 context. Our concern here anyone would ever purposely refer to marking a large "X" on the lightenee, themselves as an "inventor". This is clearly identifying him as worthy of the same as pre-chalking yourself up special treatment by the next rube on NEXT MONTH: Secrets of before you enter the carney midway. down the line. starting up your very own Which leads us up to Horschnoggle’s Eventually, every non-rube who so first and second rules… much as entered the carnival midway craft or tech venture. RULE #1– Do not ever, under any area became known as a mark. And circumstances, refer to yourself as an were contemptuously treated as such. is simply whether patents are a useful inventor or behave like one. To do so These days, we no longer have too or appropriate tool for a small scale will open you to interminable scams. many marks left. So, you substitute startup or an individual. Don’t even let anyone else so much as the term inventor instead. Any time an Out of some six million patents filed suspect that you are even capable of "inventor" context crops up, you are to date, I have yet to find one example inventing or marketing anything. assured of an uneven playing field of a lone individual who has profited very much comparable to a carnival from patents. On the other hand, my RULE #2– If you ever do associate midway or a casino floor. A scene patent victim files are bursting at the yourself with any inventor’s resource, which is intended primarily to (A) seams. Putting my money where my use a fake name and wear a disguise. liberate as much money as possible mouth is, a free new Incredible Secret Remember that you are an impartial from the mark, and (B) to keep the Money Machine II to any current Nuts observer and a disinterested outsider. status quo exactly where it is. & Volts subscriber who is now able to You are neither a mark nor a rube.

February 1993 / Resource Bin I 51 are the few unique individuals who The Facts have dedicated their lives to keeping new from Let’s replace the popular myths all the sheep out of trouble. with some cold, hard facts… The three organizations that I can DON LANCASTER personally recommend include Bobbi (A) A patent is only the right to sue ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK Toole’s United Inventor’s Association, someone in a costly and lengthly civil The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog Ray Watts of the Inventor’s Assistance court action. op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active Program, and Ed Zimmer, who works filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 (B) The cost and time to get a patent with the Michigan Inventor’s Council. is utterly negligible compared to the CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS cost and time required to defend and Invention Marketing Services Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two maintain a patent. Everybody picks on poor old lobo. books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. Yet canis lupis gotta eat. And they do About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. (C) Fewer than one patent in one cull the herd of the weak, the infirm, hundred ever shows any net positive or, in this case, the abysmally naive cash flow. Your state lottery is a much INCREDIBLE SECRET and the monumentally dumb. better investment. The wolves, of course, are all those MONEY MACHINE II Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting (D) Fewer than one patent in one invention marketing firms. You can up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 thousand could survive any diligent get a complete list of these by cutting enough search for prior art in obscure out all the fine print classified ads in enough places. Popular Science or Popular Mechanics, LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY Entrepreneur, and similar places that Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes (E) Prior art is not needed to bust a scream "Inventions Wanted". the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active patent. All you have to do is show it Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly Just as typical vanity publishing was obvious to a practitioner in the revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and offprints form the kiss of death for a those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 field. All prior art must be shown. first novel, many invention marketing (F) Ideas are worth less than ten firms are the kiss of death for any LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES cents a bale in ten bale lots. It is only developable product. These outfits are ...... Ask the Guru I or II or III $24.50 the final out-the-door products that basically hired guns, who, for a price ...... Hardware Hacker II or III $24.50 potentially have any value. up front, do perform various services...... Book-on-Demand Resource Kit $39.50 Such as patent searches, data bases, ...... PostScript Beginner Stuff $39.50 (G) Most firms would rather pay ...... Intro to PostScript Video $39.50 press releases, or invention fairs. You their legal department $100,000 to bust ...... GEnie PSRT Sampler $29.50 already know what an invention fair ...... PostScript Reference II $28.50 your patent than stoop to paying you ...... PostScript Tutorial/Cookbook $16.50 is – That’s a place where you go to $10,000 in royalties...... Whole works (all PostScript) $350.00 steal the few good ideas and laugh at ...... PostScript Secrets Brochure FREE (H) Winning ideas are always stolen. all the rest of them...... Hacking Secrets Brochure FREE You will get ripped off. You normally would not ask an ad agency if you needed an ad. Nor a (I) To work within the US patent POSTSCRIPT SECRETS used car dealer if you needed a car. system takes a lifetime commitment to A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free Nor a mugger if you needed mugged. fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, lawers, courtrooms, and legal issues. So what answer would you expect if workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any Time infinitely better spent improving PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 you asked an invention marketing your products. firm if your new idea was worthy of Inventor’s Organizations development? Give me a break. BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I The wolves are largely responsible The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering Yes, there are a lot of inventor’s columns. Includes the case against patents, book for all of the absurd popular patent organizations out there. Hundreds of on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm mythology. That quarter you sent in stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 them in fact. I’ve recently spent a lot for your inventor’s idea kit from a of time and effort gathering together classified Popular Mechanics ad in the what I believe is the most recent and RESOURCE BIN I seventh grade has caused far more complete list available anywhere. I’ve A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts damage to far more people than you columns to date, including a new index and his now posted this resource as my #538 could possibly imagine. The whole master names and numbers list. $12.50 INVENORG.PS up to GEnie PSRT. This "Get an idea" - "Patent It" - "Beat the unique listing is also available in my cash-waving Fortune 500 companies FREE SAMPLES Blatant Opportunist reprints from my away with a stick" - "Retire rich and Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on Midnight Engineering columns. famous" outright ludicrousities can all GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. I like to think of these groups as a The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 clearly be traced to these insidious, meadow that is full of wolves, sheep, cents. Call (800) 638-9636 for connect info. vile, and despicable classifieds. shepards, and watchdogs. The wolves FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA / MC One of the largest and oldest of are all of those commercial invention these invention marketing firms has SYNERGETICS marketing services. The sheep are the recently decided (possibly with the Box 809-NV inventor’s self-help support groups. slightest of federal nudges) to include Thatcher, AZ 85552 The shepards are those government their track record with their original (520) 428-4073 bureaucrats, who’ll usually do more mailings. The odds of them licensing harm than good. And the watchdogs Write in 146 on Reader Service Card. an accepted and prepaid idea has

52 February 1993/ Resource Bin I Many users of those wolf resources fail on all counts, not just a few. Invention Pitfalls RESOURCE BIN NAMES & NUMBERS What are the usual mistakes that beginning inventors and small scale Dialog Info Service Bobbi Tool, United Inventors startups usuall make? Based on my 3460 Hillview Avenue Box 50294 patent victim files and your helpline Palo Alto CA 94304 St Louis, MO 63105 (415) 858-2700 (314) 721-2005 calls, here’s a bunch of them… GEnie US Dept of Commerce (A) The tendency to grossly and 401 N Washington St Patent & Trademark Office Rockville MD 20850 Washington, DC 20231 obscenely overvalue all unproven or (800) 638-9636 (800) 359-3997 undeveloped ideas; to assume that Midnight Engineering Raymond Watts patents are somehow central to idea 111 E Drake Rd S7041 Inventor-Assistance Program creation and marketing rather than an Ft Collins CO 80525 Battelle NW Box 999 K6-54 (303) 491-9092 Richland, WA 99352 avoidable, costly, risky, and largely Synergetics Ed Zimmer, MI Inventors unneeded sideshow; and to assume Box 809 1683 Plymouth Road that others are as excited as you are Thatcher AZ 85552 Ann Arbor, MI 48103 about your product or will place your (520) 428-4073 (313) 663-8000 interests over their own. (B) Not recognizing that the only three responses to a "you are violating been 100:1 against, and the odds for profit from a concept or idea: my patent" letter are to ignore the any positive cash flow comes in at letter; to bust the patent; or obsolete (A) You must now be a reasonably 700:1 against. Of the few which did the technology. Besides the obvious experienced industry insider, who is show positive results, most of them side effect of permanently pissing off eventually capable of turning into a flat out were not worth the effort. your potential finest customer and guru or expert. Now, some people may be appalled making yourself an enemy for life. at these figures, but they sound about (B) You have to very aggressively The totally unthinkable possibility of right to me. Successfully turning any subscribe to all of the more popular voluntarily paying patent royalties raw concept into a positive cash flow industry trade journals. just does not come up. Ever. is one very rough row to hoe. These (C) You must know and love the (C) To assume that big industry odds may in fact be much better than mainstream industry tools and their (especially Fortune 500 companies) you can do on your own. supporting math, along with all of the are actively seeking new products. In In many ways, the wolves are just theoretical underpinnings. reality, most large organizations will selling wish fulfillment and dreams. avoid all change and will categorically Again similar to a vanity publisher or, (D) You must tune in to the related refuse to so much as look at any for that matter, an X-rated vid rental. trade groups, scholarly organizations, outside submissions because of all If anything, I pretty much admire the on-line resources (especially Dialog), the liability hassles. Innovation always wolves rather than condemn any of and industry shows. comes from individuals and smaller them. After all, a well executed scam (E) You must be very aware of the startup firms. is a joy to behold. political, legislative, competitive, and And an art form unto itself. (D) Trying to work towards the marketing realities of the target field. Typical inventors who actually use spectacular (and nonexistent) big win, these invention marketing firms have (F) You must be in an area where rather than accepting simple and solid already preshot themselves in the foot innovation by individuals on a small returns done over and over again. An before they’ve begun and literally do scale is welcomed, rather than being average well developed idea should not have a snowball’s chance in hell of regulated, legislated, or adjudicated typically return around $400 or so. If accomplishing anything. excessively. Put another way, if it is you are playing at a million to one Almost always, your "new" and automotive, forget it. odds, then you don’t want to put "unique" idea is not. Chances are that more than a dollar of time or effort up (G) Your preproduction prototypes others have plowed this ground long for every potential million in expected must be in or beyond their advanced ago. If not, "synchronicity" just about returns. Ever. beta testing stage and have to clearly guarantees that lots of others are now fill some unique needs or perceived (E) Assuming that others may be thinking along the same lines. needs in the mind of your end users. willing to pay more for some mythical Over the years, I have developed And, of course… and unproven sheet of paper instead many ideas and concepts. Several of of buying the solid risk reduction of which I have or continue to receive (H) You must studiously and very beta tested, fully working prototypes royalties over. And continue to center religiously avoid any and all contact and ready-to-use production artwork. my lifestyle on. Countless others of with the patent system in any way, which have failed miserably. On the shape, or form. (F) Forgetting that not less than 95 basis of my own track record and on percent of most any survivable patent those of some winning associates, I I very strongly feel that omitting search must be done in the industry strongly feel that the following are any of these core requirements can trade journals, scholarly publications, absolutely essential if you are going to cause your new idea or concept to fail. and the on-line resources. The patent

February 1993 / Resource Bin I 53 system is your very last place to look chances are that one or two genuine for prior art. winners will pay for all the others lost or inevitably stolen. (G) Failing to recognize that trying to profit from the patent system takes (F) Be realistic. You do not create a lifetime total commitment to courts things to get filthy rich. Instead, you and courtrooms, to lawyers and legal create things just because you like to hassles. Compared to lots of creative create things and seem to have some lab time spent actually developing compelling desire or need to do so. As and improving products. long as there are still enough nickels to keep you going, that’s all that really (H) Not remembering that ideas are should matter. like pancakes or children. You should always throw the first one away. This Month’s Contest Alternates to Patenting For this month’s contest, just tell me a patent horror story that involves an The alternate to patenting that have individual or a small scale startup. worked best for me are… There will be one dozen of my newly (A) Totally avoid any and all contact republished Incredible Secret Money with anything even remotely patent Machine II book prizes awarded to the related. In any way, shape or form. Do best, along with an all expense paid so religiously. (FOB Thatcher, AZ) tinaja quest for two going to the very best of all. (B) Do not even think of creating As usual, send your entries to me anything in any field in which you are here at Synergetics and not to Nuts & not evenutally certain to become an Volts editorial. Let’s hear from you. expert. An expert who is thoroughly familiar with the technical literature, For More Info the history of the field, the marketing Two more GEnie PSRT files about realities, the insider trade journals, patents are my #477 NOPATENT.PS or and the mainstream tools in use. #162 NOPATENT.TXT. And, of course, (C) Publish all your key secrets and the "full set of plans" appears in my ideas in a major magazine, leaving out revised and updated Incredible Secret no details, and omitting no insider Money Machine II, available to you per secrets. This immediately produces my nearby Synergetics ad. positive cash flow for you and safely At this writing, an attempt is being tucks all your ideas away in the public made to convert the patent system domain, preventing most others from into a "first to file" fiasco. Otherwise attempting to patent them. This also known as the Patent attorney and patent exposes your new ideas to the widest examiner’s relief act of 1993. I am very possible audience. much in favor of this legislation in that it will once and for all stamp out (D) Attempt to set up some royalty any remaining vestige of credibility of arrangement with a small to medium the US patent system, at long last firm in some position to market and revealing it for the utter ripoff it is for distribute your invention. A normal virtually all individuals and smaller royalty payment is typically in the scale startups. ✦ five percent range. Now for the tricky part: They must come to you, and never Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don vice versa. That is why it is super Lancaster is the author of 28 books and important to publish your ideas and countless articles. Don maintains his creations and expose them as widely no-charge tech helpline found at (520) as you possibly can. 428-4073, besides offering all of his own You should have one and only one books, reprints, and all of his consulting defense against getting ripped off in services. He also has a free brochure full of any royalty setup – the expectation his resource secrets waiting for you. Your that you will be delivering newer and best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, better stuff in the future. That’s all. Mountain Standard Time. (E) Apply the shotgun technique. Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, There is no way that one single idea where a special Resource Bin topic has or product will hack it. To survive in been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. this game, you’ll need hundreds or You can contact GEnie at (800) 638-9636 even thousands of new ideas and (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach concepts working for you on a total Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, lifetime and total lifestyle basis. The AZ 85552.

54 February 1993/ Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number fourteen

Starting up your own technical venture.

ur usual reminder here that the advanced tech coverage remains Radio technical startups; Whole Earth Review Resource Bin is now a two-way Electronics. They’ve recently renamed for access to tools; Jeff Duntemann’s O column. You can get tech help, themselves as Electronics Now. Their great PC Techniques; and Electronic consultant referrals and off-the-wall sister publication Popular Electronics is Servicing for handling all of your own networking on nearly any electronic, more for the beginners and low end consumer electronics repairs. tinaja questing, personal publishing, projects. But note that this is not the money machine, or computer topic by one-and-only uniquely original PE of Are things really that bad? calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays "Carl and Jerry" fame; only the name It is real easy to get very depressed 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider still remains. over the current hacker scene. A fine secret resources brochures waiting for Steve Ciarcia contunes to publish magazine has died. Heathkit has more you when you call or write. his Circuit Cellar Ink, which is big on or less folded. Although they do still A portion of my PSRT RoundTable embedded controllers and computer offer some educational stuff. Several on GEnie has also been set aside for aps. Like Elector, his projects are all major tech book publishers are only you Nuts & Volts readers. This is the thoroughly tested, well supported, the hollowest shadows of their former place to go for instant tech answers. and carefuly developed. Most are also selves. Nearly all backlist titles have Among the many files in our library, available as high quality kits. vanished entirely. Alarmingly, many you will find complete reprints and The U.S. republishers of Elector do community colleges are dropping preprints for all of my Resource Bin continue offering several well done their electronics programs entirely. Or columns. You can call (800) 638-9636 specialty audio electronics magazines. sharply scaling back. for your voice connect info. These include Speaker Builder, Audio But the worst of all is the following By the way, GEnie has just made two Amateur, and Glass Audio. The latter is horror story: I walked into Safeway major improvements: There are now for people still using vacuum tubes and saw an "All paperback books 25 800 numbers for those of you who live for their amplifiers. percent off" sign. I got to the register in really remote areas. A brand new To me, if you want to get a "tube and a checkout person tried to charge visual screen interface makes things sound", you just take a decent solid me the full $5.99. To make a long story faster and friendlier for Mac users. PC state amp and add some extra noise, short, I suggested I had this oddball users have already had the automated hum, and distortion. Then you give hunch that the correct price might lie Alladin system in place. yourself some second degree burns in somewhere around $4.49. I’m deeply saddened by the local embarrassing places. Similar to the Two checkout persons, a bagger, an version of Elector Electronics shutting ones caused by getting too personal assistant manager, and even the store down after only twenty some issues. with a 6L6GTB. The morphine-like manager were totally unable to figure The immediate causes seemed to be endorphins released by the brain in out just how much to charge me. After ads which cost too much and projects fumbling around for a quarter hour, perceived as "too European". they finally used my wild guess. They Nonetheless, they published more NEXT MONTH: Don reveals also were totally unable to determine hacker projects and better thought out his professional prototyping how much vendor credit was needed hacker projects in each issue than just tips, tricks, and techniques. to reconcile the register totals. As a about anyone. Some back issues do wild stab in the dark, I told them I did remain in stock. feel that $1.50 might come close. The European edition of Elector is response to the burn pain seem to be Naturally, I got blamed for all of still available. the primary cause of the perceived this. I was this here problem that had There are bunches of good hacker sound differences. to be dealt with. Who was obviously mags left, though. You’ve probably Let’s see. We’ve already covered ruining their day. And making them figured out by now that Nuts & Volts the labor-of-love technical newsletters look real dumb to their boss. Yes, I has by far the widest selection of ad in the previous columns and in my was very polite. resources and has greatly expanded ongoing Resource Bin reprints. And I It just never occured to any of the its construction projects and technical will get around to the ham magazines Safeway employees that there was info columns. sometime. Five other magazines of this thing known as "math". Or that The oldest continuously published hacker interest include Forrest Mim’s you could do this math stuff without newsstand magazine with the most Science Probe; Midnight Engineering for using any special machines. In your

March 1993 / Resource Bin I 55 head, even. One quarter of sixty is "real" busines activities or even trying fifteen. Times three is forty five. A to make a profit. new from fraction of a penny is still a penny. Anyone could quickly and cheaply Or that far too many people still start their own technical business. I DON LANCASTER spend way too much time vegging out feel that the best startup form is called ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK on that tapioca pudding scene in a proprietorship, otherwise known as The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog Godzilla versus the Night Nurses. "The business is you". Depending on op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active James Glick makes an observation where you live, your startup costs can filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 on where all the American technical be well under $50. excellence of the earlier decades has First, you go off to your Secretary of CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS come from. In his well done Genius State’s office at your state capitol, or Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two biography of Richard Feinmann, he else play several rounds of telephone books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. points out that practically all of the roulette with them. In Arizona, what About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. older engineers and scientists got that you want is known as the Trade Names way by tearing apart table radios, Registry. In this, you want to place the INCREDIBLE SECRET fixing and modifying them along the name for your new enterprise. They way. Skills that any reasonably swift will probably insist that nobody else MONEY MACHINE II Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting seventh grader could have very easily is using the name, and that the name up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 picked up on their own. is not deceptive or obscene. Although If this country is in fact going to a local boiler room diamond scam did hell in a handbasket, then there are get away using "DeBeers" hoping the LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY obvious emerging opportunities in marks would confuse them with the Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active handbasket creation and distribution. real "DuBeers" diamond consortium. Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly Everybody will now want one. Get in You’ll want to pick out something revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and ahead of the hoarders. flexible and rather vague, high tech those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 The other side of the coin, of course, sounding, and expressing a "funkily is that we are now sitting on the most cautious optimism". LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES incredibly stupendous new collection Whatever that is...... Ask the Guru I or II or III $24.50 of hardware and chips and systems My original trade name choice was ...... Hardware Hacker II or III $24.50 and software. Many lifetimes could Synergetics, largely because I do very ...... Book-on-Demand Resource Kit $39.50 ...... PostScript Beginner Stuff $39.50 not even remotely begin to even start much believe in Buckminster Fuller...... Intro to PostScript Video $39.50 to exploit what we’ve now got. But I have had several scam operators ...... GEnie PSRT Sampler $29.50 So, what’s in all of this for you? try to steal this name for everything ...... PostScript Reference II $28.50 ...... PostScript Tutorial/Cookbook $18.50 More specifically, just how do you go from Oriental Rug ripoffs to hot office ...... Whole works (all PostScript) $350.00 about starting… products. Later, when I became a ...... PostScript Secrets Brochure FREE "real" book publisher (You wouldn’t ...... Hacking Secrets Brochure FREE Your very own venture believe the high you get over seeing In the real world, the perception is your first ISBN number in real ink!), I POSTSCRIPT SECRETS the reality. Under no circumstances added my Synergetics Press. There’s A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free would you ever decide to volunteer apparently another Synergetics Press fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, that you were a student or a hacking in Tennesee, but our paths don’t seem workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 hobbyist or a small scale startup. And to cross all that often. And the master never say that I sent you. That’s almost ISBN directory carefully warns each as dumb as purposely calling yourself about the other. BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I an inventor. Bee registered Abeja, whose utter The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering columns. Includes the case against patents, book Only when and where absolutely and profound significance becomes on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm necessary, you’ll want to cause "them" apparent to anyone with even the stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 to think they heard what they thought slightest smattering of espanol. She they wanted to hear. For "them" is in will sometimes go by Abeja Associates RESOURCE BIN I business to sell stuff. And "them" will or Abeja Discount Software. A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts show interest in you only as long as Some of the others around here are columns to date, including a new index and his you appear to be a potential buyer. starting to look more and more like a master names and numbers list. $12.50 Or in fact become one. free form Medieval guild. And all the So, the best method to unstack the much better for it. FREE SAMPLES odds against yourself is to set up your Kathy St. George selected Special Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. own smaller technical business. The Editions for all her PostScript desktop The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 main reasons you would want do this publishing and script writing. Henry cents. Call (800) 638-9636 for connect info. initially is just to be able to qualify for and Lamel Schneiker have used HDS FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA / MC those crucial free trade journal subs, Systems for their software consulting and to provide some apparently valid and multimedia productions. While SYNERGETICS place to receive data books and other Kate Daniel (my assistant sysop on Box 809-NV useful tech info. GEnie PSRT) uses Dantech. Thatcher, AZ 85552 Much more on this in the Resource In Arizona, the costs are $25 for a (520) 428-4073

Bin reprints. Later on, you can worry five year registration. In certain high Write in 146 on Reader Service Card. about such things as actually doing tech parts of the country, a city or a

6656 March 1993/ Resource Bin I carefully separate the time and place you conduct your business from all of RESOURCE BIN NAMES & NUMBERS your other activities. The IRS defines the difference between a business and Abeja GEnie PSRT PC Techniques any hobby as "the genuine intent to 3860 West First Street 401 N Washington St 7721 E Gray Road #204 show a profit" and "a conduction of Thatcher, AZ 85552 Rockville MD 20850 Scottsdale, AZ 85260 (520) 428-4073 (800) 638-9636 (602) 483-0192 affairs in a business-like manner". Before you are allowed to deduct Audio Amateur Glass Audio Popular Electronics PO Box 876 PO Box 876 500-B Bi-County Blvd your business expenses, they require Peterborough, NH 03458 Peterborough, NH 03458 Farmingdale, NY 11735 you to potentially show a profit at (603) 924-9464 (603) 924-9464 (516) 293-3000 least two years out of five. Complete Blanks USA HDS Systems Queblo receipts and records are totally and 2722 Fernbrook Lane N PO Box 42767 131 Heartland Blvd Minneapolis, MN 55447 Tucson, AZ 85733 Brentwood, NY 11717 absolutely essential here. (800) 328-7311 (520) 325-5884 (800) 523-9080 Certain hobbies, such as Sears, IBM, Cards Now Hello Direct Science Probe Boeing, or Westinghouse seem exempt 6401 Odana Road 140 Great Oaks Blvd 500-B Bi-County Blvd from this two out of five rule. It sure Madison, WI 53719 San Jose, CA 95119 Farmingdale, NY 11735 (800) 233-9767 (800) HI-HELLO (516) 293-0467 would be interesting if they enforced the 2/5 rule as vigorously with the big Circuit Cellar, Ink Int. Std. Periodical Guide Speaker Builder 4 Park Street, Ste 20 150 Fifth Ave #202 Box 494 hobby 500 firms as they do with the Vernon, CT 06066 New York, NY 10011 Peterborough, NH 03458 innovative small scale startups. (203) 875-2751 (212) 741-0231 (603) 924-9464 The IRS has recently gotten very Dantech Midnight Engineering Special Editions ugly over the deduction of any home PO Box 1856 1700 Washington Avenue PO Box 345 Benson, AZ 85602 Rocky Ford, CO 81067 Thatcher, AZ 85552 office space and costs. For instance, it (520) 586-7050 (719) 254-4558 (520) 428-7871 is nearly impossible for any building Elector Electronics BV Nuts & Volts Synergetics contractor to try to deduct his home Postbus 75, 6190 AB BEEK 430 Princeland Court Box 809 office expenses. The Netherlands Corona, CA 91719 Thatcher AZ 85552 011 31 4638 9444 (714) 371-8497 (520) 428-4073 To get away with a home office Electronic Servicing Paper Direct Uhlricht's Periodicals deduction, this essentially has to be PO box 12487 57 Romanelli Avenue 1180 Americas Avenue the only place you conduct business or Overland Park, KS 66282 S Hackensack, NJ 07606 New York, NY 10016 meet all of your customers, and has to (913) 492-4857 (800) A-PAPERS (212) 916-1600 be clearly and exclusively dedicated Electronics Now Paper Plus Whole Earth Review as a work area. If you have any other 500-B Bi-County Road 300 Oceangate #800 27 Gate Five Road Farmingdale, NY 11735 Long Beach, Ca 90802 Sausalito, CA 94965 employer, or if you go to somewhere (516) 293-3000 (213) 436-8291 (415) 332-1716 else to do things for money, don’t even think about a deduction. I’ve found it pays to change your county registration might also be a With any of today’s PostScript laser name slightly on most professional good idea. printers, it is utterly trivial to make up inquiries. So you can immediately sort your own letterheads, stationary, and business from pleasure. For instance, I Going further business cards. The cost is negligible, consider "Donald E. Lancaster" to be A simple trade name registration is and you can do it yourself in minutes. unbearably stuffy. There is no way I all you’ll need to go into business for Companies such as Paper Plus, Paper would ever call myself that. Except to yourself. That’s all there is to it. Direct, Blanks USA, Cards Now, and identify a professional request. Your next step is to go to the Post Queblo now offer you high quality full I’ve found that putting your phone Office and add the name of your new color blanks that you simply can’t tell in someone else’s name (such as a company to the "alias list" or the "who from the real thing. Lots of good wife’s maiden name) is the ultimate in resides there" card for your address, examples are on my GEnie PSRT. unlisted numbers. It also immediately informing them that you will accept You’ll want to start answering your separates the regular scams from the mail addressed to this new name. You phone professionally, treating all calls business ones. keep this action as low key as you as if they went to the switchboard of a Another trick that’s revealed here possibly can. Fortune 500 company. You can ease for the very first time in print: Never Also inform UPS and any express the burden on friends or family with answer the question "How are you services that you are likely to use. email, selective ringing, or caller id. today?" over the phone. Say nothing! I feel that a separate post office box One source is Hello Direct. The next person to speak always loses. for your new venture is a very good Several things you probably do not People who are useful to you will go idea. Here in Thatcher, it is the only want to do: One is to put a sign out right on with their conversation, and route, as there is no home delivery. front or let the neighbors know in any never skip a beat. But those who are At your bank, quietly add the new way that you’ve got a business. It is about to rip you off will pause and name to your signature card, and get also not a good idea to tell the phone then lose their place in the script they yourself some checks printed up that company, for your rates will go up. are reading. Try it. This works 100 include both your name and that of The same goes for special business percent of the time. the business. Always start the new checking accounts. check sequence with number 4000 or From day one, you should keep Your first activities higher. Again, do this as quietly and accurate and meticulous records for The very first thing you will want simply as you can. all your business transactions. And to do after your business is up and

March 1993 / Resource Bin I 57 running is go to the library and spend best of all. several days very carefully studying Let’s hear from you. ✦ the Standard Periodicals Guide and Uhlricht’s Periodical’s Dictonary. Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don Pick several thousand likely trade Lancaster is the author of 28 books and journals and phone or mail each of countless articles. Don maintains his them. Get a subscription qualification no-charge tech helpline found at (520) card. Assuming they are a controlled 428-4073, besides offering all of his own circulation publication. If not, request books, reprints, and all of his consulting a sample copy and their advertising services. He also has a free brochure full of rate card. The SCAR technique. his resource secrets waiting for you. Your Once you subscribe to a few trade best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, journals, the rest of them will climb all Mountain Standard Time. over themselves desperately trying to Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, get you to subscribe. where a special Resource Bin topic has After these start pouring in, you use been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. the bingo cards to instantly become a You can contact GEnie at (800) 638-9636 technically literate and an up-to-date (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach industry insider. Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, AZ 85552. For more information Scads more on all of this appears in my newly revised and self-published Incredible Secret Money Machine II, available per my nearby Synergetics ad. Autographed, even. And you can reach me electronically via GEnie PSRT. Other GEnie RoundTables of interest to you should include RADIO, IBM, MAC, HOSB (home office and small business), and DTP (desktop publishing). There’s hundreds more where these came from. I’ve also got the no-charge voice helpline that you can access per the end blurb. This month’s contest Let’s have three different contests for this month. If you are in any way involved with ham radio, please send me a copy of the table of contents and the masthead of any and all ham mags you know about. Especially any of the oddball and obscure stuff on packet, RTTY, amateur tv, weather sats, key collecting, crystal sets, QRP, antique electronics, and such. And maybe tell me why you do or do not like your particular choices. Or, to test your "any old seventh grader" radio repair skill levels, just tell me the purpose for the filament tap on a 35Z5. Or, if you are a Safeway employee, please send me a copy of the tapioca pudding scene in Godzilla versus the Night Nurses. Unsplattered copies of this cross-genre classic are getting real hard to find. There will be some newly revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II books going to the dozen or so best (or earliest) entries, along with an all-expense-paid tinaja quest (FOB Thatcher, AZ) for two going to the

58 March 1993/ Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number fifteen

Secrets of professional prototypes.

ur usual reminder here that the college? Do they offer a Basic Machine a four inch throat. It can punch up to a Resource Bin is now a two-way Shop 102 course? This can give you an half inch or so in light aluminum or O column. You can get tech help, unrestricted access to an incredible set circuit boards. The round punches are consultant referrals and off-the-wall of tools for a few dollars per month. surprisingly cheap. And even some networking on nearly any electronic, fancy rounded rectangular punches I tinaja questing, personal publishing, Which tools? needed for a custom keyboard were money machine, or computer topic by I’ve got my own little shop I use for not all that bad. calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays mechanical work. It is separate from A small collection of hand tools is 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider my electronics lab. There’s actually also useful. Among the more oddball secret resources brochures waiting for very little in it. A small but quality items I find essential are an automatic you when you call or write. multi-speed drill press. Be sure yours center punch, a scriber, and a nibbling A portion of my PSRT RoundTable provides a quill feed and has enough tool. A table mounted router can also on GEnie has also been set aside for precision to put a #67 printed circuit be surprisingly versatile. you Nuts & Volts readers. This is the drill exactly where you want it. place to go for instant tech answers. A rotary table is an unusual drill Cases and enclosures Among the many files in our library, press accessory that I’ve found very These days we have lots of low cost you will find complete reprints and useful. This basically has three cranks plastic cases available in a stunning preprints for all of my Resource Bin on it for X, Y, and rotation. Besides variety. Even including battery cases columns. You can call (800) 638-9636 light milling, this table is real handy and belt clips. While Radio Shack is for your voice connect info. when you want to drill two or more your cheapest and most convenient One door closes and another opens. holes a precise distance apart. source, a very wide variety of these Last month we saw the US version of Everybody’s gotta have a lathe, boxes are available from Bopla, Bud, Elector Electronics fold. But this month right? Wrong, actually. Lathes are EAI, Hammond, LMB Heeger, PacTec, the Gernsback folks (aka Electronics highly overrated. But I do have an old Serpac, Vector, and Vero. Now, Popular Electronics, and Science six inch Sears/Atlas version, plus all its Be sure to select a case that uses a Probe) are newly publishing a local usual accessories. Plus, of course, a modern engineering thermoplastic. reissue of Silicon Chip, a very popular small grinder for the tool bits. Sadly, I There are still a few older Bakelite or Australian hobbyist magazine. Time have done very little with this superb phenolic cases kicking around. These will tell how good a hacker resource machine. Possibly more coil winding are much harder to work with and this turns into. than anything else. shatter quite easily. Your usual clue A small circuit board shear is a here is a case that is offered only in Secrets of professional must. The only reasonable choice here black or dark brown. appearance Naturally, you’ll find all sorts of Getting a new project to look decent case options from our various Nuts & can be a real hassle. This month, I NEXT MONTH: Don Volts advertisers. At great prices. thought I’d review some of my tricks looks at several ongoing My favorite low cost ultra rugged and techniques needed for making robotics opportunities. outdoor rated waterproof plastic case prototypes and models that are both is the one offered by Pelican Products. attractive and professional. This dude is ideal for a solar pump If you are not really into models is the twelve incher available from controller or a hot tub timer. And can and mechanical stuff yourself, you Kepro. Hint: glue some small mirrors end up fairly cheap when ordered in may want to check around and see on the table under the shear and cut reasonable quantities. what resources you can find locally. things marked side down. This greatly I guess I’ve tended to build up my For instance, a neighbor who is also a improves your accuracy. own enclosures, rather than buying retired machinist can be an extremely You will want several small but ready-to-go ones from others. This valuable source of low cost help and sturdy work tables. And, of course, a can give you exactly what you want ideas. So can non-obvious sources as a decent and somewhat largish bench exactly how you want it. Custom trailer hitch works, a blacksmith, or vise. Non-obvious but very valuable enclosures can also be much cheaper, an air conditioning shop. is a small punch set. I use the Roper especially if you are going to go into Do you have a nearby community Whitney XX. This is a half ton job with limited or small volume production.

April 1993 / Resource Bin I 59 Let’s look at three of my favorites. Don’t feel bad about all of those The first is the Zero Box…. cute little Nauga pups that gave their new from life for your project. The ones with those big, sad eyes. The pups are all DON LANCASTER bludgeoned at an early age and never ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK knew what hit them. Besides, there The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog are at least a dozen or two of them op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active left. At last count. filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 Any accessories such as a carrying handle or a "tilt-up" base stand are CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS conveniently available. One trick I’ve Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two used for a comfortable handle grip is books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. to simply use a many-turn vinyl wrap About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. Zero boxes are simply deep drawn over a heavy aluminum bracket. aluminum shells provided in a wide Two or more ordinary "L" brackets INCREDIBLE SECRET variety of sizes. While many of the can be used to hold bottom to top. Zero Manufacturing products are ultra Knobs for tilt-up bases and such are MONEY MACHINE II Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting fancy Mil-Spec offerings, their basic offered through Dimco-Gray. Keystone up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 boxes are not all that costly. Electronics is one low cost source for You can use the box on its side as case hardware. Other useful sources shown here for traditional electronic do include Bead Manufacturing, Micro LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY projects. Such as an audio oscillator or Plastics, and ITW/Fastex. Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active a color tv pattern generator. Or you For model and display materials, Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly can use a shorter box on its back for FomeBords is the source to beat. A final revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and flat projects such as an stereo mixer or resource for just about all case and those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 a psychedelic lighting control. hardware materials is Small Parts. Many Zero boxes are available with My third favorite is the wooden end LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES optional tight fitting inside or outside rail ploy… ...... Ask the Guru I or II or III $24.50 lids. A recessed inside lid is shown ...... Hardware Hacker II or III $24.50 above. A MetalPhoto dialplate also ...... Book-on-Demand Resource Kit $39.50 ...... PostScript Beginner Stuff $39.50 works beautifully here...... Intro to PostScript Video $39.50 Zero also offers a nice gray epoxy ...... GEnie PSRT Sampler $29.50 splatter finish as an extra cost option...... PostScript Reference II $28.50 ...... PostScript Tutorial/Cookbook $18.50 Being aluminum, these boxes also ...... Whole works (all PostScript) $350.00 can annodize beautifully in dozens of ...... PostScript Secrets Brochure FREE bright colors. Check your local plating ...... Hacking Secrets Brochure FREE shop for more details. Do note that any sealed box can let POSTSCRIPT SECRETS internal parts overheat badly. Limit A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free these boxes to lower power systems. Your main chassis is simply a bent fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, Use the box itself for a heatsink. Or piece of aluminum. Again finished by workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 add external heatsink extrusions. Or a heavy sanding and a clear overcoat. provide enough ventilation. Vented The plain old bends can be done on hole plugs are available at low cost any sheet metal brake. Your end rails BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I from Stimpson. can be an exotic hardwood of your The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering columns. Includes the case against patents, book My second favorite prototyping box choice that has a groove milled or on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm is the clamshell… routed in it with a Moto-tool, rotary stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 table, router, or whatever. I’ve found that older scrap forklift RESOURCE BIN I skids can have some beautiful small A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts pieces of recoverable oak in them. A columns to date, including a new index and his good source for exotic and unusual master names and numbers list. $16.50 woods is Edelco. My current choice is pecan, since I live in a pecan grove FREE SAMPLES undergoing heavy pruning. Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. For projects which will rarely be The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 assembled and disassembled, you can cents. Call (800) 638-9636 for connect info. make use of "L" brackets and wood FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA / MC What you have here is simply two screws. Access these from an open "U" shaped pieces of aluminum or bottom. For removable end plates, use SYNERGETICS other sheet metal. The bottom piece some sort of threaded insert or glue a Box 809-NV can be finished by a heavy textured bracket in place. Thatcher, AZ 85552 sanding followed by a clear epoxy or Pop rivets are another very useful (520) 428-4073 urethane overcoat. The top cover has fastening method. But do note that Write in 146 on Reader Service Card. a fake Naugahyde vinyl glued on. these are semi-permananent. You’ll

60 April 1993 / Resource Bin I RESOURCE BIN NAMES & NUMBERS

Advance Process Supply Dimco-Gray Hammond Manufacturing Micro Plastics Serpac 400 N Noble Street 8200 S Suburban Road 1690 Walden Avenue Hwy 178 North 612 Commercial Avenue Chicago, IL 60622 Centerville, OH 45458 Buffalo, NY 14225 Flippin, AR 72634 Covina, CA 91723 (312) 829-1400 (513) 433-7600 (716) 894-5710 (501) 453-2261 (818) 331-0517 Appliance & ANPD DynaArt Designs Industrial Product Bulletin Model Railroader Silicon Chip 1110 Jorie Blvd CS9019 3535 Stillmeadow Lane 301 Gibraltar Drive 21027 Crossroads Circle 500-B Bi-County Blvd Oak Brook, IL 60522 Lancaster, CA 93536 Morris Plains, NJ 07950 Waukesha, WI 53187 Farmingdale, NY 11735 (708) 990-3484 (805) 943-4746 (201) 292-5100 (414) 796-8776 (516) 293-3000 Appliance Manufacturer Dynamark & Color Key ITW/Fastex New Equipment Digest Small Parts 29100 Aurora Road #200 3M Center Bldgs 220 & 223 195 Algonquin Road 1100 Superior Avenue PO Box 4650 Solon, OH 44139 Saint Paul, MN 55144 Des Plaines, IL 60016 Cleveland, OH 44114 Miami Lakes, FL 33014 (216) 349-3060 (800) 328-1186 (312) 299-2222 (216) 696-7000 (305) 557-8222 Bead Manufacturing EAI Kepro PacTec Southern Sign Supply 110 Mountain Grove 540 Frontage Road 630 Axminister Drive Enterprise & Executive Aves 127 Roesler Road Bridgeport, CT 06605 Northfield, IL 60093 Fenton, MO 63026 Philadelphia, PA 19153 Glen Burnie, MD 21061 (203) 334-4124 (312) 446-6660 (800) 325-3878 (215) 365-8400 (301) 768-8600 Dick Blick Edelco Keystone Electronics Paper Direct Stimpson Box 1267 PO Box 5373 31-07 20th Road 57 Romanelli Avenue 900 Sylvan Avenue Galesburg, IL 61401 Asheville, NC 28813 Astoria, NY 11105 S Hackensack, NJ 07606 Bayport, NY 11705 (800) 447-8192 (704) 255-8765 (718) 956-8900 (800) A-PAPERS (516) 472-2000 Bopla Enclosure Systems FomeBords Lindsay Publications Paper Plus Synergetics 7330 Executive Way 2211 N Elston Avenue PO Box 538 300 Oceangate #800 Box 809 Frederick, MD 21701 Chicago, IL 60614 Bradley, IL 60915 Long Beach, CA 90802 Thatcher AZ 85552 (301) 696-9300 (800) 362-6267 (815) 935-5353 (213) 436-8291 (520) 428-4073 Bud Industries Fotofoil LMB Heeger Pelican Products Vector 7733 West Olive Avenue 4400 N Temple City Blvd 2946 E 11th Street 2255 Jefferson Street 12460 Gladstone Ave. Peoria, AZ 85345 El Monte, CA 91734 Los Angeles, CA 90023 Torrance, CA 90501 Sylmar, CA 91342 (602) 979-0300 (818) 444-4555 (213) 261-0382 (213) 328-9910 (818) 365-9661 Delvies Plastics GEnie PSRT Machine Design Roper Whitney Vero 133 West Haven Avenue 401 N Washington St 1100 Superior Avenue 2833 Huffman Blvd 1000 Sherman Avenue Salt Lake City, UT 84165 Rockville MD 20850 Cleveland, OH 44144 Rockford, IL 61103 Hamden, CT 06514 (800) 533-5843 (800) 638-9636 (216) 696-7000 (815) 962-3001 (203) 288-8001 Design News BF Goodrich MetalPhoto Satco Zero Manufacturing 44 Cook Street Ste 210 9921 Brecksville Road 18531 S Miles Road 924 S 19th Avenue 777 Front Street Denver, CO 80206 Brecksville, OH 44141 Cleveland, OH 44128 Minneapolis, MN 55404 Burbank, CA 91502 (303) 388-4511 (216) 447-5000 (216) 475-0555 (800) 328-4644 (818) 846-4191 have to drill them out if you ever need And my Synergetics stocks everything used in its decal mode. The material is any access. Which might be just what you’ll need to become a PostScript basically a stable transfer sheet onto you want. For a plug in dimmer or pro. Hundreds of PSRT library files which a thin high temperature but other "live" power line project. are also downloadable. This is by far water soluble glue has been applied. A variation on pop rivets can give your fastest and lowest cost method You can try the same thing yourself you "instant threads" in thin metals or to get started in PostScript. by using a premium white glue from even in wood. Squeezing an insert The simplest and cheapest way to the art store and a windshield wiper will cause a portion of it to collapse, get great looking prototype panel art for an applicator. But the DynaArt locking a threaded cylinder into your is to use raw PostScript to print onto stuff is low in cost and ready to use. panel. Early sources included Rivnuts the self-stick mylar sheets offered by At any rate, you laser print your from B.F. Goodrich, but I’m not sure Paper Plus or Paper Direct. PostScript artwork to the DynaArt these are still available. Their fancy You then take a second and clear or material. Their decal method differs "industrial grade" tools cost much see-thru colored self-stick mylar sheet slightly from their printed circuit more than a pop rivet gun. Any larger and apply it over the first sheet, thus transfer method. To use their decal hardware store should have pop-rivet locking the toner inside a two layer method, you’ll first print. You next compatible thread systems. mylar sandwich. Then you just stick overspray your choice of a removable these onto your panel. lacquer or a permanent urethane clear Panels and artwork If you are extremely careful, you coating over the toner images and It is now ultra trivial to get first rate can also use your final artwork as a beyond their edges. When dry, you and fully professional artwork for all drilling and punching guide. cut the individual images somewhat of your dials and panels. The secret is A new and extremely promising oversize and soak them in water. The the incredibly stupendous PostScript hacker prototype imaging system is backing coat dissolves and the toner computer language. We have seen known as the Toner Transfer System can be slid onto the panel. Just like a details on this back in Resource Bin #9, offered by DynaArt Designs. We’ve traditional model railroad decal. also available in my Resource Bin seen in past columns how useful this Pressure and heat can be applied to reprints and as file #511 NUTS9.PS on product is for any direct toner printed help fuse the toner to your panel. You my GEnie PSRT. circuit prototypes. Where you directly can optionally remove the lacquer I’ve got bunches more for you on transfer your toner from PostScript to with a suitable solvent, giving you a PostScript. Just write or call for your the circuit board for direct etching. "silk screen" effect. free PostScript Insider’s Secrets mailer. The DynaArt material can also be Speaking of which, silk screens

April 1993 / Resource Bin I 61 have been the traditional method of nonwoven pad to apply a chemical The latter often has great free product doing panels for limited and small that removes the color from all areas samples on bingo request. volume production. Because of the which were not photohardened. The Three little known sources of useful front end expense and time cutting a result is white over a color or vice prototyping materials, supplies and screen, these work best for a dozen or versa, depending on whether you’ve ideas do include Appliance, Appliance more identical panels. Three good used normal or reverse artwork. Manufacturer, and the Appliance New sources for silk screen materials and A clear epoxy overcoat gives you Product Digest. supplies include Dick Blick, Advance reasonable scratch resistance. You can The school shop magazines are also Process, and Southern Sign Supply. then peel and stick your vinyl over very handy. These include School Shop And, of course, your leading source your aluminum or other panel. Once and Industrial Education, among a for all printed circuit materials and again, if you are very careful, the vinyl dozen others. A source of vocational supplies is Kepro. can also be used as a punching and ed shop supplies is Satco. While you’ll still find traditional drilling guide. Do not overlook the good old Model electronic decals offered by some Kits are readily available, both in Railroader magazine on your favorite old-line sources, these simply aren’t single and assorted colors. Very thin newsstand. They are particularly big worth the time and effort. These are aluminum versions are also offered. on smaller wood, plastic, and metal basically a sucker bet guaranteed to There is also a non-stick product parts. Along with tools hard to find give second-rate results that range called Scotch Color Key offered to the elsewhere. Not to mention the finest from unprofessional to attrocious. printing industry. This gives you a technical writing of any publication. For totally superb panel artwork, mylar film having color selectively Anywhere, ever. consider linking PostScript to those photoapplied to it. Many dozens of There are also a bunch of home old annodized aluminum dialplate colors are offered. There are lots of machinist and live steam mags, but I systems offered by MetalPhoto or prototyping opportunities here. think we’ll save them for a possible Fotofoil. These are somewhat pricey future column. but are ideal for rugged and durable Injection molds? one-up or small quantity panels. They The rule here is simple. Don’t even This month’s contest are also useful for museum signs and think of it! These are certain to end up For this month’s contests, just tell electronic relay rack panels. Picture an a net loss of time, energy, and money me about your favorite little-known aluminum sheet which has only in any small scale setup. No matter prototyping resource or technique. partially gone through the annodizing that you can walk into the hobby shop The more obscure and unusual, the process, leaving a brightly colored but and pick up a two dollar kit with a better. Or just tell me the address for a very open and spongy surface. A dozen precision molded parts in it. the Quick Shooter folks. Uh, it seems I photo emulsion is then applied. You The economics simply do not apply to misplaced it at deadline time. later expose the emulsion through you. Your costs are ridiculous. Actually our new pup may have your custom PostScript artwork. A Yes, there are low end injection eaten it. Last week she ate a one dollar contact printer or an enlarger can be molding machines. But they produce bill. Her tastes are improving though; used. Followed up by a traditional small, weak, and cheap looking parts. she did a ten in yesterday. darkroom slopping-in-the-slush. The Quick Shooter is one of these that No, she is not a Nauga. At least not After developing, you can boil the uses a stock drill press for cylinder yet, anyway. panel in a magic glop that reseals the pressure. A much better machine in There will be some newly revised surface, closing a sapphire (literally!) the two kilobuck range is offered by Incredible Secret Money Machine II hard surface and locking your image Delvies Plastics. Who also offer a wide books going to the dozen or so best inside the panel. The results are quite variety of sanely priced plastics, tools, (or earliest) entries, along with an durable. It takes a highly dedicated and books. all-expense-paid tinaja quest (FOB vandal to harm a Metalphoto panel. Two more reasonable alternatives Thatcher, AZ) for two going to the While the lettering and images are to cast parts are to use extrusions or to very best of all. normally black, a wide range of bright do vacuum forming. One good source Let’s hear from you. ✦ colors are offered. Also the "plain old of vacuum forming books is Lindsay gray" of traditional annodizing. You Publications. Who also stock a wide Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don might use a reverse technique to give variety of machine shop texts, both Lancaster is the author of 28 books and you a black panel having colored or old and new. countless articles. Don maintains his gray lettering. Again, this is utterly no-charge tech helpline found at (520) trivial with PostScript. Finding prototyping components 428-4073, besides offering all of his own There is also a slightly cheaper As with any technical field, your books, reprints, and all of his consulting self-stick vinyl based system. This one foremost resource to tune yourself services. He also has a free brochure full of used to be called ScotchCal, but has into who makes what are the trade his resource secrets waiting for you. Your been renamed Dynamark. Picture a journals. Many of these are free on best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, white self-stick vinyl with a colored professional request. We’ve seen lots Mountain Standard Time. photoglop on it. You contact print the more on trade journals way on back in Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, vinyl using strong sunlight or some Resource Bin #8 and #495 NUTS8.PS. where a special Resource Bin topic has other u-v source, again through your Start off with Machine Design and been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. PostScript artwork. Design News. Then go to the two big You can contact GEnie at (800) 638-9636 Where present, the light hardens free throwaways that are chock full of (voice) for connect info. Or you can reach the photoglop against chemical attack. prototyping stuff: Industrial Product Don at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, You then use a Webril wipe or other Bulletin and the New Equipment Digest. AZ 85552.

62 April 1993 / Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number sixteen

Opportunities in hacker robotics.

ur usual reminder here that the hand-to-mouth stage. But not one of Till then, the hobby robotic scene Resource Bin is now a two-way them can find the quality of technical seems an unmitigated disaster. Yes, O column. You can get tech help, help they need. Or the motivation. there are low end toys and high end consultant referrals and off-the-wall Enough already. Our 35Z5 contest industrial robotic systems. As with networking on nearly any electronic, was the most popular one ever. After any product anywhere, a new robotic tinaja questing, personal publishing, awarding 35 of the promised 12 new project must do some task cheaper, money machine, or computer topic by Incredible Secret Money Machine books, better, and far more conveniently than calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays I shut this one down. My apologies to older "non-robotic" solutions. 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider the many hundreds of you who have Or your dog flat out won’t hunt. secret resources brochures waiting for entered too late to win. Another problem is that robotics is you when you call or write. For those of you that didn’t know best done as a team effort. The skills A portion of my PSRT RoundTable the answer, here’s two hints: (A) The needed include a precision machinist, on GEnie has also been set aside for 35Z5 is located right beside the 50L6, a kinematics specialist, an electronic you Nuts & Volts readers. This is the and (B) Trace out that wire on pin 3 supertech, a nav-literate EE, and a few place to go for instant tech answers. and see where it goes. software specialists well qualified in Among the many files in our library, machine language, C++, AI, and fuzzy you will find complete reprints and Robotics hacking logic. Plus someone who knows how preprints for all of my Resource Bin I do get a lot of helpline calls over to sell something. It is rare that a one columns. I’ve just added a new "fast robotics topics. But the bottom line is person show can put the needed act access" feature for you. Have your that there is very little overall interest together by themselves. modem dial (800) 638-8369, followed in hobby robotics these days. There is And, right now, there flat out isn’t by HHH. Then XTX99005,SCRIPT. virtually no way to make any profit near enough underlying cash flow to A free GEnie brochure if you voice offering hobby robotics projects, kits, attract that quality of hired help. call (800) 638-9636. products, or services. While there is no "hobby robotics" Some more magazine comings and At least not today. industry as such, there sure are lots of goings: Science Probe has apparently One reason is that the "trashcan" potential resources out there. I’m left ceased publication. I’d guess a lack of and "android" role model images of with the feeling we have a technical appropriate advertisers was the main robots are just about totally useless. field with a fringe but no center. reason. Wired is a brand new mag An outright joke fer sure. One of the published out of Multimedia Gulch. favorite stunts in any intro robotics Robotic suppliers Their first issue had articles in it on course is to have the students design a The leading hobby robotics supply cellular phone hacking and virtual robot to clean up their dinner plates. house in the world is Small Parts. The reality, among others. Not a "real" folks here stock everything that your technical magazine, but one certainly hardware store never heard of. They worth a look. NEXT MONTH: Don also custom cut metal and plastic I am deeply saddened by a local takes a looks at the sheet, rod, and tubing. Their catalog is college completely dropping their full ham radio scene. a must. Yes, they do welcome small electronics program. This faced the orders. From anybody. realities of a monumental lack of any Surplus stores are a rather obvious real student interest (caused mostly Only one student in a dozen picks up source of robotic parts and ideas. The by local high schools whose technical on the fact that Sears has been selling foremost surplus store in the world, of offerings are best described as an these for decades. course, is American Science & Surplus outright atrocity); and by the total When and if we pick up effective who used to be JerryCo. absence of instant and high paying speech recognition, useful fuzzy logic The highest profile outfit is Edmund aerospace jobs. But it sure seems short algorithms, autonomous nav, and Scientific. Their catalog is also a must. sighted to me. some non-klutzy "end effectors", then For motors and similar heavy iron, try Like eating your seed corn. maybe the trashcans and the androids C & H Sales, Burden’s Surplus Center, Yeah, there’s only a dozen hi-tech may get better. But only after their or Northern Hydraulics. employers in the entire Gila Valley. computing and reasoning ability gets Plus good old Fair Radio Sales for And only two of those are beyond the at least up to the pussy cat level. military electronics and raw iron.

May 1993 / Resource Bin I 63 The "big three" of precision parts info and other ads for materials with are PIC Design, Stock Drive Products, robotics potential. As do pubs from new from and Winfred M. Berg. If you have to the SAE library, formerly the Society of DON LANCASTER ask how much all their products cost, Automotive Engineers. you cannot afford them. For lots of sensor and transducer ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK For reasonable robotic gears, try info, check into Sensors magazine, and The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog Plastock/Plastimatic. For rubber sheets Measurement & Control. For the motion op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active and tubing, Hygenic Manufacturing. control info, your best trade journals filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 For pins, axles, and such, try Robert A. include PCIM, Motion, Motion Control, Main. A most unusual supplier. and MotorTechniques. CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS The traditional industry superstores There are a number of vocational Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two are another obvious robotics resource. education magazines that may get books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. Be sure to check Grainger for motors into robotic topics. Typical examples About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. and pumps. And McMaster-Carr for include both School Shop and Industrial just about everything industrial. Education. There are a dozen more. INCREDIBLE SECRET There are a lot of specialty houses And don’t forget Model Railroader. MONEY MACHINE II that are in some other business, but Their ads do offer a great selection of Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting just happen to have lots of neat stuff unusual tools and materials. These up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 useful for robotics hacking. Several folks have been in the robotic business obvious examples include the Player for years. They just do not seem to Piano Company, Aircraft Spruce and want to admit it. LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes Specialty, Outwater Plastics, US Plastic, the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active and Satco. The latter is a technical Robotic opportunities Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly education supply house. OK, so what can be done in hobby revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and Heathkit did have their Hero series robotics today? With the possibility of those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 of robots before they went out of the a reasonable cash return for your time hobby kit business. Some robotics and and effort? I see several areas where LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES training material does remain in their original thought might come up with ...... Ask the Guru I or II or III $24.50 industrial education division, which is several long term robotic solutions.… ...... Hardware Hacker II or III $24.50 apparently still active...... Book-on-Demand Resource Kit $39.50 low pressure pneumatics– We saw ...... PostScript Beginner Stuff $39.50 Finally, don’t forget the hobby and back in Resource Bin #7 and in my ...... Intro to PostScript Video $39.50 toy stores. Some toys have all sorts of ...... GEnie PSRT Sampler $29.50 Resource Bin Reprints available from ...... PostScript Reference II $28.50 robotic possibilities. Not the least of Synergetics how you could buy a low ...... PostScript Tutorial/Cookbook $18.50 which is Radio Shack’s Armatron and ...... Whole works (all PostScript) $350.00 pressure 3-way air valve for only a all the great imported pneumatic kits ...... PostScript Secrets Brochure FREE quarter each. Low pressure air has yet ...... Hacking Secrets Brochure FREE from Fischertech. Start off with those to take off but it’s got outstanding America’s Hobby Center catalogs. robotics potential. Aquarium pumps can be used as compressors, and your POSTSCRIPT SECRETS Magazines and trade journals A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free actuators can be nothing but a There are a dozen or so robotics fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, balloon, bellows, or some rolling workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any magazines. The SRS Encoder is a new diaphram. You can get much more PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 labor-of-love newsletter, published by force much more linearly than you the Seattle Robotics Society, a leading could ever hope to with a solenoid or BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I amateur robotics group. There is also another electronic solution. The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering a Robotics Experimenter magazine. The columns. Includes the case against patents, book rest are industry trade journals or autonomous nav– The key to any robot on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm scholarly publications. I’ve tried to list is knowing where it is at and which stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 most of them in our Names & Numbers way it is facing. What is ultimately sidebar. needed is a $5 Navicube that once and RESOURCE BIN I I was unable to review all of these for all solves nav problems. Several A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts columns to date, including a new index and his by column deadline time, so do let me approaches to the navicube include master names and numbers list. $16.50 know which ones you find useful. fluxgates, accellerometers, gyros, IR Electronics Now runs an occasional sensors, or GPS receivers. The time is robotic project or tutorial. long overdue for lots of creative new FREE SAMPLES Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on Many trade journals focus on some solutions to "Where am I?" and "How GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. other field, but may happen to have did I get here?" problems. The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 great robotics info in them. The two cents. Modem access: (800) 638-8369, then a linear steppers– Another underrated HHH. On prompt, XTX99005,SCRIPT. best mechanical trade journals are product is the linear stepping motor. Machine Design and Design News. The FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA / MC Which is just a regular stepper motor largest industrial supply throwaway with an added nutplate on its front. SYNERGETICS mags are New Equipment Digest and Connected to an Acme threaded but Box 809-NV Industrial Product Bulletin. non-rotating shaft. As the nutplate Thatcher, AZ 85552 Appliance, the Appliance New Product steps, the shaft moves in and out with (520) 428-4073 Digest, and the Appliance Manufacturer surprising force. The Hurst model SLS trade journals sometimes have motor Write in 146 on Reader Service Card.

64 May 1993 / Resource Bin I RESOURCE BIN NAMES & NUMBERS

Aircraft Spruce & Special Electronics Now Measurement & Control Player Piano Company Robotics World P.O. Box 424 500-B Bi-County Blvd. 2994 W. Liberty Avenue 704 East Douglas 6255 Barfield Road Fullerton, CA 92632 Farmingdale, NY 11735 Pittsburgh, PA 15216 Wichita, KS 67202 Atlanta, GA 30328 (800) 824-1930 (516) 293-3000 (412) 343-9666 (316) 263-3241 (404) 256-9800 American Sci & Surp Fair Radio Sales Model Railroder Robomatrix Reporter SAE 601 Linden Place 1016 E. Eureka Street 1027 N. Seventh Street 121 Chanion Road 400 Commonwealth Dr Evanston, IL 60202 Lima, OH 45802 Milwaukee, WI 53233 New Providence, NJ 07974 Warrendale, PA 15096 (708) 475-8440 (419) 227-6573 (414) 272-2060 (908) 771-7714 (412) 776-4970 Appliance & ANPD GEnie Motion Robot Experimenter Satco 1110 Jorie Blvd CS9019 401 N. Washington Street Box 6430 Box 458 924 S 19th Avenue Oak Brook, IL 60522 Rockville, MD 20850 Orange, CA 92613 Peterborough, NH 03458 Minneapolis, MN 55404 (708) 990-3484 (800) 638-9636 (714) 974-0200 (603) 924-3843 (800) 328-4644 Appliance Manufacturer Grainger Motion Control Robot Times Sensors 29100 Aurora Road #200 5959 W. Howard Street 800 Roosevelt Dr E408 900 Victors Way, Box 374 714 Concord Street Solon, OH 44139 Chicago, IL 60648 Glen Ellyn, IL 60137 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Peterborough, NH 03458 (216) 349-3060 (312) 647-8900 (708) 469-3373 (313) 994-6088 (603) 924-9631 Automation Heath Company Motor Techniques Robotica Small Parts 600 Sumner Street PO Box 217 120 S Chaparral Ct #200 32 E. 57th Street Box 381966 Stamford, CT 06904 Benton Harbor, MI 49022 Anaheim, CA 92808 New York, NY 10022 Miami, FL 33238 (216) 696-7000 (616) 982-3200 (714) 283-1123 (212) 924-3900 (305) 751-0856 Winfred M. Berg Hygenic Manufacturing New Equipment Digest Robotics SRS Encoder 511 Ocean Avenue 1245 Home Avenue 1100 Superior Avenue 655 Americas Avenue Box 30668 East Rockaway, NY 11518 Akron, OH 44310 Cleveland, OH 44114 New York, NY 10010 Seattle, WA 98103 (516) 599-5010 (216) 633-8460 (216) 696-7000 (212) 989-5800 (206) 362-5267 [E-mail] Burden's Surplus Center Industrial Prod Bulletin Outwater Plastics Robotics & Mfg Stock Drive Products PO Box 82209 301 Gibraltar Drive 4 Passaic Street Maxwell Hs, Fairview Pk 2101 Jerico Turnpike Lincoln, NE 68501 Morris Plains, NJ 07950 Wood-Ridge, NJ 07075 Elmsford, NY 10523 Hyde Park, NY 11040 (800) 488-3407 (201) 292-5100 (800) 526-725-7112 (914) 592-7700 (516) 328-0200 C & H Sales Robert A. Main PCIM Robotics Newsletter Synergetics 2716 E. Colorado Blvd. 555 Goffle Road 2472 Eastman Avenue 1730 Massachusetts NW Box 809 Pasadena, CA 91107 Wychkoff, NJ 07481 Venture, CA 93003 Washington, DC 20036 Thatcher AZ 85552 (213) 681-4925 (201) 447-3700 (805) 658-0933 (212) 371-0101 (520) 428-4073 Design News McMaster-Carr PIC Design Robotics Database US Plastics 221 Columbus Avenue Box 54960 Benson Road Box 617024 1390 Neubrecht Road Boston, MA 02116 Los Angeles, CA 90054 Middlebury, CT 06762 Orlando, FL 32861 Lima, OH 45801 (617) 536-7780 (213) 945-2811 (203) 758-8272 (407) 295-1094 (800) 537-9724 Edmund Scientific Machine Design Plastock/Plastimatic Robotics Today Wired 101 E. Gloucester Pike Penton Plaza Three Oaks Road One SME Drive, Box 930 544 Second Street Barrington, NJ 08007 Cleveland, OH 44144 Fairfield, NJ 07006 Dearborn, MI 48128 San Francisco, CA 94107 (609) 573-6250 (216) 696-7000 (201) 575-0038 (313) 271-1500 (415) 904-0664 is typical. But these even appear on car alternator steppers– "Real" stepper will be some newly revised Incredible some auto carburetors as engine idle motors in the high power sizes are Secret Money Machine II books going to controllers. horrendously expensive and hard to the dozen or so best entries, along drive. But these are what you need for with an all-expense-paid tinaja quest the visual mouse– Some lower cost CAD/CAM milling, for Santa Claus (FOB Thatcher, AZ) for two going to method to cause certain actions to machines, automated woodcarving the very best of all. happen just by looking at something. routers, and similar projects. It should Let’s hear from you.✦ Obvious aps include menu selections, be possible instead to take a $5 car handicapped aides, virtual reality, "if alternator and convert it into a three Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don looks could kill" video games. Maybe phase stepping motor or even into a Lancaster is the author of 28 books and a pair of glasses with a laser diode switched reluctance servo motor. I’ve countless articles. Don maintains his and an attitude detector. seen some videos of hobbyists who no-charge tech helpline found at (520) printed circuit drills– The single most have successfully done just this. But 428-4073, besides offering all of his own important new breakthrough robotics nobody has done the fundamental books, reprints, and all of his consulting project anytime ever would be a $250 engineering here to see what is and is services. He also has a free brochure full of device that automates the drilling of not possible. his resource secrets waiting for you. Your small printed circuit boards. Perhaps best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, two linear steppers, one to move the This month’s contest Mountain Standard Time. board and one to position the drill. Again, I do have the hollow feeling Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, Maybe a dentist’s air turbine drill to that I have missed some really major where a special Resource Bin topic has keep the mass down. Once this new hobby robotics resources. So, for this been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. breakthrough project exists, larger month’s contests, just tell me about For fast modem acess, dial (800) 638-8369 models could lead you to animation any resource that is potentially useful and enter HHH. When prompted, enter stands, low priced vinyl sign cutters, for hobby robotics. If possible, send XTX99005,SCRIPT. You can reach Don computer embroidery machines, the me a catalog or sample copy and get at Synergetics, Box 809, Thatcher, AZ whole nine yards. me on their mailing list as well. There 85552.

May 1993 / Resource Bin I 65 66 May 1993 / Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number seventeen

Exploring ham radio publications.

ur usual reminder here that the bands. Competing for your time and have an annual Field Day. Often in late Resource Bin is now a two-way attention are such obvious gee-whiz spring. The goal of any field day is to O column. You can get tech help, tech wonders as personal computers, quickly start up and operate as much consultant referrals and off-the-wall cable, video gaming, virtual reality, emergency communications as you networking on nearly any electronic, satellite tv, robotics, and plain old can. Off line and off grid. tinaja questing, personal publishing, VCR rentals. Hams also have hamfests. These are money machine, or computer topic by The number of radio hams is down absolutely incredible technical flea calling me at (520) 428-4073 weekdays and their average age is sharply up. markets where outstanding bargains 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider They are overwhelmingly male. And abound. The biggest and best is the secret resources brochures waiting for a strong case could be made that the Dayton Hamvention. Most any state you when you call or write. ham bands serve mainly as a gutless should have dozens of hamfests each A portion of my PSRT RoundTable whipping boy for the mindless FCC year. One tip: Be sure to show up very on GEnie has also been set aside for bureaucracy in a never ending petty early. Well before sunup even. The you Nuts & Volts readers. This is the quest for control and dominance. The best stuff vanishes in a flash. place to go for instant tech answers. FCC’s insistence on using Morse Code There are lots of ham radio clubs. Among the many files in our library, decades after its utter obsolence is one Where all of the usual club stuff gets you will find complete reprints and big example here. Or restricting ASCII done, like setting up the steering and preprints for all of my Resource Bin and other data communications long bylaws committes. Or playing those columns. I’ve just added a new "fast after they were an industry standard. king-of-the-hill power games. Hidden access" feature for you. Have your Or their current foot dragging coming agendas fer sure. The main purpose of modem dial (800) 638-8369, followed down over any innovative ham use of a club is to give you access to fancier by HHH. Then XTX99005,SCRIPT. spread spectrum techniques. antennas and better equipment than A free GEnie brochure if you voice Only recently were the ham band you can personally afford. A rotatable call (800) 638-9636. Morse requirements eased somewhat. 160 meter, twenty element Yagi with a 30 db gain can be tricky to set up in a Ham Radio Today’s Action small apartment. I guess I have mixed feelings over So what is Ham radio today and Another goal of many ham clubs is amateur radio. At one time in the dark why would you want to get involved? installing and maintaining repeaters and distant past I was K3BYG. And Hams are really great at emergency and phone links. Repeaters let you very proud of it. But I’m not currently comm. If an earthquake, tornado, or talk across the country or around the active. Back in those days, ham radio flood occurs, they can quickly set up world from a small and low power was the central core of the technonerd reliable and high power long distance handheld transceiver. Packet Radio is universe. Hams were in the forefront the buzzword here. of stunning new tech developments. Clubs also offer classes to help you Such as bouncing radar signals off the NEXT MONTH: pick up your ham license. Very often, moon, building parametric amplifiers, The furry with the both tech theory and code courses are pioneering the single sideband comm, syringe on top. offered. At several skill levels. helping the International Geophysical And a final goal of certain clubs is Year, and testing out new distributed working with military personnel to amplification concepts. comm without any need for power pass personal messages around the Happiness was a warm 807. And lines or working electrical utilities. world. As part of the MARS Military incredible comm gear for pennies was Locally, radio hams tend to be very Amateur Radio Service program. a phone call to Fair Radio Sales away. active in Search and Rescue groups. You’ll find lots of group sponsored A "Q-5er" anyone? They can range the gamut from fully contests. Most of these seem very These days, technical innovators professional EMT organizations on similar to birdwatching lists. Let’s see. are far more likely to be lurking on an down to beer-sloshed and gun-toting Two penguins, one emu and a great electronic BBS than on the ham radio wannabe cowboys tooling around the auk. A typical contest might involve bands. And if you just want to talk boonies in old pickup trucks. But the working as many states or countries over the radio, there’s the CB citizens better S&R ops are outstanding. as possible. Or using QRP ultra low band and several new wireless comm To practice emergency comm, hams power. Fancy awards are offered.

June 1993/Resource Bin I 67 We’ve seen in recent columns how non-emergency number, of course. many of the opportunities for low cost You then ask to be put touch with a new from technical training appear to be drying Search and Rescue person. Who, in DON LANCASTER up. Quite a few community colleges turn, will line you up with some local are scaling back on all their electronics ham operators. ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK programs or are outright eliminating The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog them. Heathkit has largely packed it Ham Radio Resources op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active in. Lots of technical book publishers I was amazed by how many ham filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 are the tiniest shadow of their former radio magazines there are. Around selves. But ham radio still remains a fifty in the US alone, I would guess. I CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS useful and effective way of learning have tried to gather some of these Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two electronics and related tech topics. together into our resource sidebar. books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. Especially when done one on one on a Some of these are "pure" ham radio About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. mentor-apprentice basis. pubs, while others zero in on special Yes, there are still plenty of hams technical interests that hams might be INCREDIBLE SECRET actively involved in tech innovation. attracted to. MONEY MACHINE II Two hot areas are amateur television The three hardcore magazines are Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting and spread spectrum comm. The ATV QST, CQ, and 73 Amateur Radio Today. up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 amateur tv demands an unusual mix QST is published by the ARRL and is a of ham radio, R/C model, microwave non-commercial venture having the design, and tv production skills. highest technical standards. The cost LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes The different ham bands do tend to is $30 per year and includes the ARRL the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active attract different types of people for membership. CQ seems to be the most Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly different purposes. The older short successful commercial ham magazine revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and wave bands include 160, 80, 40 and 20 and has a lively audience. At $23 per those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 meters. These get used for traditional year. And 73 Amateur Radio Today is QSL contacts, rag chewing, for world a Wayne Green publication. There is LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES wide "penpal" contacts, and certain probably no one individual anywhere Ask...... the Guru I or II or III $24.50 radioteletypes. ever who contributed more towards Hardware...... Hacker II or III $24.50 Book-on-Demand...... Resource Kit $39.50 The six meter band is used for some ham radio and hobby computing than PostScript...... Beginner Stuff $39.50 local handheld comm. But it is not all Wayne Green. On the other hand, the Intro...... to PostScript Video $39.50 that popular because of its potential mere mention of his name in any GEnie...... PSRT Sampler $29.50 PostScript...... Reference II $28.50 television interference problems. crowded room can be a cardiologist’s PostScript...... Tutorial/Cookbook $18.50 Most of your mobile and handheld delight. The subscriptions are $25 per Whole...... works (all PostScript) $350.00 action comes down in the two meter year. Lively reading. PostScript...... Secrets Brochure FREE Hacking...... Secrets Brochure FREE band at 144-148 Megahertz. As does a A fourth and newer publication is lot of search and rescue activity. The Amateur Radio Communicator. This The UHF ham bands at 220 and 440 is published by a maverick alternate POSTSCRIPT SECRETS Megahertz are used for satellites, for to the ARRL known as the NARA or A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free amateur television, repeaters and for National Amateur Radio Organization. fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any additional shorter range mobile and Their bimonthly subs are $10 per year, PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 handheld work. including membership. Finally, all those highest frequency And, of course, our own Nuts & BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I microwave bands are used for spread Volts is the place to go for bargains on The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering spectrum, full bandwidth television, ham gear and for announcements on columns. Includes the case against patents, book and various experimental comm. upcoming hamfests and such. on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 Getting Started Special Interests There’s a number of good ways to There are lots of specialty areas to RESOURCE BIN I get started in Ham Radio. Check the ham radio. And a unique handful of A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts columns to date, including a new index and his listings right here in Nuts & Volts. Or supporting newsletters. master names and numbers list. $16.50 check the offerings on GEnie’s RADIO The RTTY Digital Journal is for FAX, RoundTable. Or the other on-line BBS radioteletype, and digital comm. This posts. Or contact the American Radio one is already up to volume number FREE SAMPLES Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on Relay League. Who are the largest ham 40 and costs $15 per year. GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. organization in the country. Of their The Repeater Journal is published by The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 many fine books, the Radio Amateur’s the SouthEastern Repeater Association. cents. Modem access: (800) 638-8369, then a HHH. On prompt, XTX99005,SCRIPT. Handbook is the "must have" starting $6 per year for quarterly newsletters point. This one is the center of the and association membership. A lot FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA / MC ham radio universe. This should be here on regional packet radio. SYNERGETICS available in just about any library or A group called Worldradio publishes Box 809-NV larger bookstore. a special interest mag that covers ham Thatcher, AZ 85552 By far your quickest and simplest satellites, digital comm, search and (520) 428-4073 way to reach a real live radio ham is rescue, MARS, and similar areas. All to phone your local sheriff. On their at $14 per year. Write in 146 on Reader Service Card.

68 June 1993/Resource Bin I in Communications and their Amateur Communication. Both are published by the same outfit in Florida. AMATEUR RADIO PUBLICATIONS The Communications Quarterly also goes by the subname of The Journal of Communications Technology. A lot of All in Communication Crown Jewels of the Wire RTTY Digital Journal microwave goodies here, plus cellular 8250 NW 27th Street Ste 301 PO Box 38312 9085 La Casita Avenue radio info. Quarterly at $30. Miami, FL 33122 Cleveland, OH 44138 Fountain Valley, CA 92708 (305) 594-7735 (216) 235-2595 (714) 847-5058 Monitoring Times is mostly for short wave listeners. $20 per year. Amateur Communication Electric Radio 73 Amateur Radio Today 8250 NW 27th Street Ste 301 4 Aspen Place 70 Route 202N Amateur Television Miami, FL 33122 Durango, CO 81301 Peterborough, NH 03458 (305) 594-7735 (303) 247-4935 (603) 924-0058 There are two major US amateur tv magazines. One is Amateur Television Amateur Radio Lowdown Short Wave Magazine Box 300 Caulfield South Longwave Club of America C&C Mailers International Quarterly. $18 per year. These people VIC 3162 AUSTRALIA 45 Wildflower Road 900 Lincoln Blvd also run a bookstore that stocks most (03) 528-5962 Levittown, PA 19057 Middlesex, NJ 08846 major ATV texts. Their bound reprints Amateur Radio Action Monitoring Times Spec-Com include two volumes of TV Secrets. 250 Spencer Melbourne 140 Dog Branch Road PO Box 1002 Another useful ATV publication is 3000 AUSTRALIA Brasstown, NC 28902 Dubuque, IA 52004 (03) 601 4222 (704) 837-9200 (319) 557-8791 Spec-Com, who also focus on other specialized communications. Such as Am. Radio Communicator Popular Communications Speleonics RTTY and spread spectrum. Six issues PO Box 598 76 North Broadway PO Box 5283 Redmond, WA 98073 Hicksville, NY 11801 Bloomington, IN 47407 per year at $20 annually. (206) 869-8052 (516) 618-2922 (812) 339-7305 Related Tech Newsletters Am. Television Quarterly Practical Wireless SPRAT 1545 Lee Street Ste 73 Enefco House, The Quay St Aidan's Vic, 498 Manchester There are bunches of labor-of-love Des Plaines, IL 60018 Poole, Dorset BH15 1PP UK Rochdale, Lancs OL11 3HE UK newsletters that offer technical topics (708) 298-2269 (0202) 678558 0706-31812 of interest to radio hams. My favorite AMSAT Journal QEX Spread Specturm Scene one of these is Frank Reid’s Speleonics. 850 Sligo Avenue 225 Main Street PO Box 2199 This one targets cavers. Especially for Silver Spring, MD 20910 Newington, CT 06111 El Granada, CA 94018 (301) 593-6136 (203) 666-1541 (800) 524-9285 ultra low frequency communications, the GPS navigation, efficient lamps, Antique Radio Classified QST VHF Communications digital survey gear, and very rugged One River Road 225 Main Street 5 Ware Orchard Carlisle, MA 01741 Newington, CT 06111 Barby, Rugby CV23 8UF, UK phones. The subscription price is $4 (!) (508) 371-0512 (203) 666-1541 44 788 890365 per year. But anything extra would certainly be appreciated. Communications Quarterly Radio Age Weather Sat Ink PO Box 465 636 Cambridge Road 4821 Jessie Drive Randy Robert’s Spread Spectrum Barrington, NH 03825 Augusta, GA 30909 Apex, NC 27502 Scene zeros in on this new technology. (603) 664-2515 (910) 362-5822 FAX Spread spectrum comm offers private CQ Radio Observer Worldradio and largely interference-free schemes 76 North Boradway 7605 Deland Avenue 520 Calvados Avenue to punch long distances through high Hicksville NY 11801 FT Pierce FL 34951 Sacramento, CA 95815 noise. Licensing requirements are also (516) 681-2922 (407) 464-2118 (916) 457-3655 minimal. $50 annually. A sample copy CQ-TV Repeater Journal Xtal Set Society is offered for a buck. Grenehurst Pinewood Rd PO Box 215 RR1 Box 129A High Wycombe, Bucks Tobaccoville, NC 27050 Lawrence, KS 66044 Randy’s columns can also be seen HP12 4DD, UK 0788 890365 (919) 983-0879 (913) 842-1227 right here in Nuts & Volts. Bob Sickels Radio Observer is the leading US amateur radio astronomy publication. It is associated with the Amateur Radio Astronomers. At $24 per The ARRL also publishes a specialty but bunches of time, nav, and rescue year, it is published monthly. mag for technical topics. It is called services. Also geophysical stuff like Weather Sat Ink is Tom Glembocki’s QEX. Otherwise known as The ARRL whistlers and such. fine quarterly newsletter on receiving Experimenter’s Exchange. Recent issues At $18 per year. weather satellite information. Subs covered digital filtering and comm. are $15 per year. $12 per year for members. Other Hobby Comm There are dozens of ham satellites There’s a bunch of non-ham mags Ancient History in orbit. The AMSAT Journal focus is for others interested in regular old There’s often a longing to get back on satellite reception and packet radio communications. One big newsstand to the "good old days" or the "way technical topics. publication is Popular Communications. things were". Several technical pubs Quarterly at $15 per year. Columns here include RTTY, satellite address the golden age of radio. And The Lowdown is a publication comm, broadcast DX, the emergency The first of these is Antique Radio of the Longwave Club of America. These service scanners, and lots more. $20 Classified. It has got zillions of ads for folks explore the spectrum below the per year for twelve issues. pretty near anybody and everybody broadcast band. No ham bands here, Another pair of publications are All doing anything with older electronics.

June 1993/Resource Bin I 69 OTHER MENTIONED RESOURCES

Am Longwave Club Fair Radio Sales National Am Radio Org 45 Wildflower Road PO Box 1105 PO Box 598 Levittown, PA 19057 Lima, OH 45802 Redmond, WA 98073 (419) 227-6573 (206) 869-8052

Am. Radio Astronomers Garden Fresh Replicas Ragtime 247 North Linden Street PO Box 208 4218 Jessup #AB Massapequa, NY 11758 Neosho, MO 64850 Ceres, CA 95307 (516) 798-8459 (800) 545-7304 (209) 668-0366

Am. Radio Relay League GEnie Roadable Aircraft 225 Main Street 401 N Washington St 338 8th Avenue South Newington, CT 06111 Rockville, MD 20850 Edmonds, WA 98020 (203) 666-1541 (800) 638-9636 (206) 778-0423

Carnivorous Plant News Heathkit SouthEastern Repeater Assn Fullerton Arboretum, CSUF PO Box 1288 140 Dog Branch Road Fullerton, CA 92634 Benton Harbor, MI 49022 Brasstown, NC 28902 (714) 773-3579 (616) 982-3200 (704) 837-9200

All for $30 per year. on ultra low power communications, The Radio Age specifically addresses VHF Communications, CQ-TV on ATV ancient comm gear. One recent issue amateur tv, and Practical Wireless. featured long distance reception on Two Australian mags are Amateur the 1922 Radiola AR. Twelve issues at Radio and Amateur Radio Action. $19 per year. These folks are really into old-style homebrew projects. This Month’s Contest One well done smaller and fancier Once again, I have got this hollow mag is Electric Radio. "Celebrating a feeling that I may have missed some bygone era". Twelve monthly issues mainstream publications here. Plus for $24. Very nice. there have to be lots of very obscure The Xtal Set Society is a newsletter ones that may have fallen through the "dedicated to once again building and cracks. Somewhere along the way. experimenting with radio electronics". So, for this month’s contest, tell me Bimonthly at $6 per year. It includes about any other Ham radio pub or membership and special construction any mag which a ham might have a plan reprints. passing interest in. If possible, send There seems to be a new resurgence me a copy of their title page and the in classic and antique gear. Especially masthead. There will be some of my construction and restoration projects. new Incredible Secret Money Machine II Let me know what your interests are books going to the dozen or so best in this area. entries, plus an all-expense-paid tinaja For something very oddball, Crown quest (FOB Thatcher, AZ) for two that Jewels of the Wire is a special interest will go to the very best of all.✦ publication for collectors of telephone pole insulators. Hey, really. No way I Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don could make this stuff up. I find them Lancaster is the author of 28 books and in the same league as the Carnivorous countless articles. Don maintains his Plant News, steam calliopes offered by no-charge tech helpline found at (520) Ragtime, that Roadable Aircraft flying 428-4073, besides offering all of his own car magazine, and the synthetic kale books, reprints, and all of his consulting from Garden Fresh Replicas. Synthetic services. He also has a free brochure full of kale is totally indistinguishible from his resource secrets waiting for you. Your real kale, except by taste. best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, Crown Jewels subscriptions are $13 Mountain Standard Time. for twelve monthly issues. Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, where a special Resource Bin topic has Foreign Pubs been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. Amateur radio is an international For fast modem acess, dial (800) 638-8369 hobby that transcends most political and enter HHH. When prompted, enter boundaries. Several of those foreign XTX99005,SCRIPT. publications that I have run across You can also reach Don at Synergetics, include England’s Short Wave, SPRAT Box 809, Thatcher, AZ 85552.

70 June 1993/Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number eighteen

The furry with the syringe on top.

ur usual reminder here that the Wayne Green mag calledRadio Fun . Let’s start off with… Resource Bin is now a two-way Mostly for beginners. Then there’s DX O column. You can get tech help, Magazine on long distance reception. Archie McPhee consultant referrals and off-the-wall AndFlorida Skip , a regional pub. Or There is only one firm that begged networking on nearly any electronic, thatDigital Digest , a pub devoted to to be included in our fringe listing. tinaja questing, personal publishing, ham digital radio comm. These folks freely admit to being a money machine, or computer topic by I suspect we may have a few more few chips shy of a full board. And are calling me at(520) 428-4073 weekdays for you next month. Be sure to let me busy static damaging the few of their 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider know about any I have missed. circuits that still function. secret resources brochures waiting for Archie McPhee, of course. Who is the you when you call or write. The Fringe world’s leading supplier of rubber A portion of myPSRT RoundTable Any collection of resources has a iguanas. And lots of similar hacker onGEnie has also been set aside for normalcy distribution. Statisticians use and hobbyist essentials. youNuts & Volts readers. This is the a value calledσ orsigma to measure Their free catalog is a "must have". place to go for instant tech answers. where any smaller part of the whole And is numero uno at the very top of Among the many files in our library, belongs. For instance, the 1s points our fringe collection. you will find complete reprints and include about63% of the total. The 2σ preprints for all of my Resource Bin points will include the next63% of the UFO Resources columns. I’ve just added a new "fast remainder. And so on. I recently made a survey of UFO access" feature for you. Have your But there’s some highly classified resouces, and was astounded to find modem dial(800) 638-8369 , followed info the statisticians don’t want you to that this is an enormousindustry with byHHH . Then XTX99005,SCRIPT . know about. If you go out just beyond worldwide sales of tens of millions of A freeGEnie brochure if you voice the 7σ point and look precisely at a dollars. A listing of the more major call(800) 638-9636 . location loosely defined by a highly players appeared inHACK57.PS on I got my first look atSilicon Chip , an irrational and totally transcendental GEnie PSRT. On request, I’ll throw in a Australian magazine that is being sold top secret magic number, you’ll find free copy with anySynergetics order. in theUS byElectronics Now . "the zoo". At any rate, there is a combined The best way to describe the style of Lookunder your curve out at that Michelin Guide and Thomas Registry to this mag is "what Modern Electronics magic 7σ zoo point, and you’ll find theUFO world. This is the Almanac of could have been with better editing." things there. Stuff, even. UFO Organizations & Publications by There’s lots of construction projects David Blevins. A listing of some 300 here, including such heavy duty stuff groups involved in the investigation as high power sinewave inverters. NEXT MONTH: Royalty- ofUFO phenomenon. On the other hand, thisis the actual free real Adobe PostScript Let’s extract a typical random entry Australian magazine. With Australian for homebrew lashups! from this great resource… ads and prices in Australian currency. "StarSystem Sirian Rainbow Lodge is Many small technical firms (my own mostly anET Alien Outpost program, Synergetics included) quickly discover A lot of which should be left totally specializing in providing information that foreign sales and support often unmolested. As Buckaroo Bonzai has from the alien point of view.SSRL is turn into a sucker bet. Thus, there are said, "Don’t touch that! No telling the onlyET Teaching Lodge whose ET time and availability problems when what it’s connected to." Teachings are actually taught by the responding to their ads. But if you are careful enough and ETs themselves. But this is most assuredly a well brave enough, there is an incredible "Their stated purpose is to assist done technical magazine with lots of world to explore here. This month, I humanity in the Stellar Awakening of understandable and hands-on stuff. It thought I’d brazenly guide you out Terra 14 (Earth), teach theirET star should be able to nicely fill the niche beyond that 7σ point in our master wisdom,ET star paths, and ET stellar left by theUS demise ofElektor . Synergetics resource database. And see knowledge, as well as to bring the ET I apparently did miss bunches of some of the wondrously bizarre items goodwill of stellar humanity to Terra ham radio magazines in our previous which constitute, for want of a better 14 (Earth). column. For openers, there’s another name,the fringe . "TheSSRL founders are the Bennu

July 1993 / Resource Bin I 71 (who is an actualET from StarSystem to fill all your needs. Major resources new from Sirius) and Liah-Maiia GoldenHawk. here includeHigh Energy Enterprises , Who is the Bennu’s Star Flame and Borderland Research, that International DON LANCASTER Star Daughter. Association for New Science, Amazing ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK "Members receive three newsletters, Archives, Lor’d , and Super Science . The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog ET Planetary Origin Reading (which op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active reveals the planet of origin), an ET Tesla filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 Star Name, free Quartz crystal, a gold Nikola Tesla seems to draw in a meditation key, the opportunity to strange crowd of latter-day followers. CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two learn directly from the Bennu, your I’d guess the main problem here is books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. very own membership card plus the that Tesla was a brilliant inventor and About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. certification, and discounts on all the a superb con artist. Despite years of products offered." careful reading and study, I’ve yet to INCREDIBLE SECRET "The Greater Square is their monthly find so much as one credible shred of MONEY MACHINE II newsletter for members. It offers the information that(A) Tesla was an ET Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting Bennu’s Stellar Messages." alien; or that(B) Tesla energy devices up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 They also publishSolar Trek , the ET violated the laws of thermodynamics; Alien Quarterly Journal. Costs are $25 or that(C) Tesla’s "really good stuff" LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes for level 1 awareness, up to$100 for got suppressed by a secret industry the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active your full level 4 access. and government conspiracy. Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and Hey really. Right on pages41-42 of There are a number of good sources those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 the second edition. Check it all out for for Tesla info. Which cover the broad 299 yourself. There’s more where this spectrum from historical fact and the LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES one came from. actual patents and papers. On down Ask...... the Guru I or II or III $24.50 TheUFO enthusiasts seem hung up to outright hogwash. As openers, try Hardware...... Hacker II or III $24.50 The...... Case Against Patents $24.50 on acronyms such asICUFON . theTesla Bookstore , that Tesla Society , PostScript...... Beginner Stuff $39.50 Another fineUFO resource is Mike theTesla Coil Builder’s Association , or Intro...... to PostScript Video $39.50 PostScript...... Reference II $29.50 Sherlock, who’s now in the process of Resonance Research. PostScript...... Tutorial/Cookbook $18.50 PostScript...... by Example $29.50 editing down a video collection called Understanding...... PS Programming $29.50 theUFO Marathon . Mike also runs the More Miles per Gallon PostScript:...... A Visual Approach $22.50 PostScript...... Program Design $24.50 Black Range Lodge, a unique, historic, Lots of these guys advertise in the Real...... World PostScript $22.50 and quite reasonably priced bed and classified sections ofPopular Science , Thinking...... in PostScript $22.50 LaserWriter...... Reference $19.50 breakfast type place tucked away in Popular Mechanics, and all their clones. Type...... 1 Font Format $15.50 Acrobat...... Reference $24.50 the most rugged and remote part of One unique source to check out here Whole...... Works (all PostScript) $350.00 western New Mexico’s outback. isH&A Industries . PostScript...... Secrets Brochure FREE ...... FREE By the way, I do have lots of secret Hacking Secrets Brochure escape places hidden quietly away in Steam Calliopes this neck of the woods. Most of them Steam calliopes are becoming really POSTSCRIPT SECRETS A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free little known. For obvious reasons, I’m hard to find. There’s no good one-stop fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any not going to list them all here. But you full-service supplier that I know of. PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 can give me a helpline call for a hint Ads sometime appear in Amusement or two. Maybe more. Business magazine. PAIA Electronics BOOK-ON-DEMAND PUB KIT I might even join you. once offered synthesized fakes. And Ongoing details on Book-on-demand publishing, a new method of producing books only when and Gurus are supposed to be hard to Live Steam magazine ran a homebrew as ordered. Reprints, sources, samples. $39.50 reach. Firstoff because it adds to the project a decade or so back. mystique, and secondly because the But there is an outfit called Ragtime BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I Gurus and Swamis Union Local #204 who custom createsair calliopes and The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering rules demand it. But we usually do orchestrons. They usually build these columns. Includes the case against patents, book on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm welcome visitors and tinaja questors into older upright pianos. Prices vary stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 that call ahead. with quality and craftsmanship. They have a beautiful$5 catalog that gives RESOURCE BIN I Free Energy full details on their products. A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts columns to date, including a new index and his I sure do get scads of helpline calls Somewhat related isAlways Jukin , a master names and numbers list. $16.50 over people seeking out "free energy". newsletter for juke box collectors; the Which sounds kinda dumb to me. The Player Piano Company which is also a FREE SAMPLES desirability for unlimited free energy great source for low pressure robotic Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. lies somewhere between Herpes and pneumatics; that Experimental Musical The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 AIDS. Unlimited free energy would Instruments; and, for those of you now cents. Modem access: (800) 638-8369, then a HHH. On prompt, XTX99005,SCRIPT. hasten the isoentropic heat death of building your own real pipe organs, FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA/MC the planet. And would be a heinous theClassical Organ Builder . crime against humanity. SYNERGETICS At any rate, there are those of you Synthetic Kale Box 809-NV Thatcher, AZ 85552 out there who are free energy seekers. I do sleep better at night knowing (520) 428-4073 And there are purveyors of goods and there are people out there who have services who will be more than glad dedicated their lives to perfecting Write in 146 on Reader Service Card.

72 July 1993/Resource Bin I synthetic kale. All the folks at Garden Fresh Replicas have done just that. And they do take all their synthetic kale seriously. Genuine kale is used to RESOURCES AT THE FRINGE make the molds, which are broken up after a few dozen impressions. After all, fake kale would look – well,fake – Aircraft Spruce & Specialty H&A Industries Printwear PO Box 424 Rt 2, Box 35E 1008 Depot Hill Road if it all was identical. And real kale is Fullerton, CA 92632 Bowling Green, MO 63334 Broomfield, CO 80020 used for filler in all the replicas. The (800) 824-1930 (303) 469-0424 result is a product which is absolutely Almanac UFO Orgs & Pubs High Energy Enterprises Ragtime indistinguishable from the original. PO Box 1241 PO Box 5636 4218 Jessup #AB Except by taste. San Bruno, CA 94066 Security, CO 80931 Ceres, CA 95307 (415) 359-0432 (719) 475-0918 (209) 668-0366 Grecian Urns Always Jukin Impressions RePlay It never fails. It is3 AM and you 221 Yesler Way 1515 Broadway 22157 Clarendon Street Seattle, WA 98104 New York, NY 10036 Woodland Hills, CA 91365 have this uncontrollable urge to write (206) 233-9460 (212) 669-1300 (818) 347-3820 an ode. And there is no Greecian Urn anywhere in sight to write your ode Amusement Business Int'l As for New Science Resonance Research Box 24970 1304 S College Avenue E11870 Shadylane Road on. What do do? Nashville, TN 37202 Fort Collins, CO 80524 Baraboo, WI 53913 It’sOutwater Plastics to the rescue. (615) 321-4250 (303) 482-3731 (608) 356-3647 Who have got great prices and good Black Range Lodge Lindsay Publications Roadable Aircraft delivery on the Greecian Urn replicas. Star Route 2, Box 119 PO Box 538 338 8th Avenue South They have also got a humongous free Kingston, NM 88042 Bradley, IL 60915 Edmonds, Wa 98020 catalog chock full of unusual low cost (505) 895-5652 (815) 935-5353 (206) 778-0423 metal and plastic hardware. Finials, Borderland Research Live Steam Select Information Exch too. And even plinths. PO Box 429 2779 Aero Park Drive 244 West 54th Street Garberville, CA 95542 Traverse City, MO 49685 New York, NY 10019 Flying Cars (707) 986-7211 (616) 941-7160 (212) 247-7123 Gyro Gearloose is alive and well. Carnivorous Plant News Lor'd Industires Limited Skeptical Enquirer Fullerton Arboretum, CSUF Box 156 PO Box 703 You see, Gyro is one of my big heroes. Fullerton, CA 92634 Hancock, WI 54943 Buffalo, NY 14226 Right up there with Scrooge McDuck (714) 773-3579 (715) 249-5611 (716) 636-1425 himself, P.T. Barnum, William Gaines Classical Organ Builder Archie McPhee Standard Periodicals Guide (who was the greatest philosopher of PO Box 27476 PO Box 30852 150 Fifth Avenue #202 this century), Ed Abbey, Perry Ferrell, Phoenix, AZ 85061 Seattle, WA 98103 New York, NY 10011 and, of course, Bucky Fuller. People (602) 973-1395 (206) 547-2467 (212) 741-0231 real or imagined whom I model my EDM Today Outwater Plastics Tesla Bookstore life after. 1212 State Route 23 4 Passaic Street Box 121873 Roadable Aircraft is a new newsletter Butler, NJ 07405 Wood-Ridge, NJ 07075 Chula Vista, CA 91912 (201) 833-3130 (800) 526-0462 (800) 398-2056 about flying cars. Actually, we can’t really call it anunusual pub. It’s just Eisenbrand Hardwoods PAIA Electronics Tesla Coil Builders Assn your everyday plain old grunt M1A1 4100 Spencer Street 3200 Teakwood Lane 3 Amy Lane Torrance, CA 90503 Edmond, OK 73013 Queensbury, NY 12804 flying car magazine. And obviously (310) 542-3576 (405) 340-6300 (518) 792-1003 well done as a labor of love. Experimental Aircraft Penguin Books Tesla Society For related publications, check out 3000 Poberezny Drive 375 Hudson Street PO Box 5636 Experimental Rotorcraft and that older Oshkosh, WI 54903 New York, NY 10014 Security, CO 80931 Experimental Aircraft. A major source (414) 426-4800 (212) 366-2000 (719) 475-0918 here isAircraft Spruce & Specialty . Experimental Musical Ins Play Meter U&lc 1700 Old Rancheria Road PO box 24970 2 Dag Hammerskjold Plaza Carnivorous Plants Nicasio, CA 94946 New Orleans, LA 70184 New York, NY 10017 (415) 662-2182 (504) 488-7003 (212) 371-0699 And other things that go chomp in the night. Of all places, found inside Experimental Rotocraft Player Piano Co Uhlricht's Periodicals Dict. theCarnivorous Plant News . Nuff said. 5555 Zuni SE #281 704 East Douglas 1180 Americas Avenue Albuquerque, NM 87108 Wichita, KS 67202 New York, NY 10016 (505) 298-9362 (316) 263-3241 (212) 916-1600 Exotic Woods We have seen howEDLCO is my Foodservice Product News Powder & Bulk Solids WELL 104 Fifth Avenue PO box 640 27 Gate Five Road favorite. But a brand new flyer from New York, NY 10011 Morris Plains, NJ 07950 Sausalito, CA 94965 Eisenbrand Hardwoods may have just (212) 206-7440 (201) 292-5100 (415) 332-4335 what you need in the way of wenge, Garden Fresh Replicas Printer's Devil Whole Earth Review goncalo, shedua, or putumujo. PO Box 208 PO Box 66 27 Gate Five Road Neosho, MO 64850 Harrison, ID 83833 Sausalito, CA 94965 The Mail Order Circle (800) 545-7304 (208) 689-3738 (415) 332-1716 There is this collection of rather scroungy and mostly-ads newsprint pubs that loosely refer to themselves as themail order circle . Typical among

July 1993/Resource Bin I 73 The keys to the kingdom are on the reference shelf of your nearby library. Ulrichts Periodicals Dictionary is your OTHER MENTIONED RESOURCES best bet, while the Standard Periodicals Digital Digest Nuts & Volts Guide is a useful alternate that might 4063 N Goldenrod Road 430 Princeland Court be slightly easier to find. Winter Park, FL 32792 Corona, CA 91719 A few examples: Powder and Bulk (407) 671-0185 (714) 371-8497 Solids ferinstance. Or EDM Today for DX Magazine Radio Fun spark machining. PO Box 50 70 Route 202-North OrPlay Meter and Replay for the Fulton, CA 95439 Peterborough, NH 03458 (707) 523-1001 (603) 924-0058 video gaming industry.Printwear and Impressions for the gimmie cap and Florida Skip Silicon Chip custom T-shirt trade. 3840 Conners Cove 500-B Bi-County Blvd Melbourne, FL 32935 Farmingdale, NY 11735 The Barren Observer for the world’s (516) 293-3000 dumbest blueberry recipes. Foodservice Product News, the world’s greatest diet GEnie Synergetics 401 N Washington St Box 809 magazine. Simply read it before each Rockville, MD 20850 Thatcher, AZ 85552 meal. And try to guess whether the (800) 638-9636 (520) 438-4073 blue glop in the bottle is a new dessert topping or anEPA approved grease trap clarifier. the hundreds of participants are such A pair of fine desktop publishing titles asMoney Maker’s Monthly , Mail Whole Earth Review magazines areU&lc on typography Order Bulletin,, Entrepreneur’s Digest If something does seem truly and plus Joe Singer’sPrinter’s Devil . "A andNational Marketplace . wondrously bizarre, the chances are press in every home. A home in every These mags are aimed at the reader pretty good it should sooner or later press." Highly recommended. that hopes to eventually be able to show up on the pages of the Whole Or the quarterlySkeptical Enquirer , receive a chain letter. Earth Review. This is the ongoing saga authored by "name brand" scientists Or has a wildly impossible dream of Stewart Brand and all the original who try to debunk pseudoscience and of someday actually participating in a Whole Earth Catalog crew. They also the paranormal. While using the very multilevel marketing scheme. These sysopThe Well , an innovative West same manic religious fervor that their pubs are the primary home of those CoastBBS . And are actually about to target subjects do. "Find out how I make money. Send reissue a newWEC update. $19.95 to…" ads. This Month’s Contest I’d bet the total collectiveIQ of their The World of Zines So, for this month’s contest, just tell entire audience doesn’t remotely begin There used to be a magazine called me about any good source for steam to approach double digits. Factsheet Five. Who published scads of calliopes. Or tell me about anything I find these pubs totally fascinating. reviews. Underground, alternate ops, else that deserves to be an important First because they are there. And also fanzines, fringe culture, small presses, part of "all of the above". If possible, because good oldP.T. "Don’t miss the and anything off the wall. send me a copy or sample, or adsheet, egress" Barnum in his wildest dreams It is not at all clear to me whether or whatever. There will be some of my would not have had the unmitigated Factsheet Five is still being published. new Incredible Secret Money Machine II gall to offer what these mags do. But the best of the best (or the worst books going to the dozen or so better These are useful because many of of the worst) has gotten released in entries, plus an all-expense-paid tinaja them are textbook perfect examples of book form asThe World of Zines . "A quest (FOB Thatcher, AZ) for two that hownot to write ad copy, how not to guide to the independent magazine will go to the very best of all. ✦ spend advertising dollars, and how revolution". not to desktop publish. Published byPenguin Books and in Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don The best way you can cheaply grab stock at many bookstores. Lancaster is the author of 28 books and a great heaping handful of these all at countless articles. Don maintains his once is through the Select Information Oddball Trade Journals no-charge tech helpline found at (520) Exchange. To me, they seem to be the We have seen time and time again 428-4073, besides offering all of his own definitive repository of ongoing cons how the trade journals and specialty books, reprints, and all of his consulting and scams in the country today. And magazines are your key resource for services. He also has a free brochure full of superbly good at what they do. picking up insider information in any his resource secrets waiting for you. Your field. There are over70,000 magazines best calling times are8-5 on weekdays, Lindsay Publications of this type in theUS alone. Many of Mountain Standard Time. Lindsay is certainly unusual. Their these are free to qualified subscribers. Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, big thing in life is reprinting ancient The majority of them will send you a where a special Resource Bin topic has radio texts and turn-of-the-century free copy if you use my secret SCAR been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. machine shop information. Plus a full sample-copy-ad-rates ploy. For fast modem access, use (800) 638-8369 collection of hands-on books on just Much more on all this can be found and enterHHH . When prompted, enter about any technical, pop science, or in my newly revised Incredible Secret XTX99005,SCRIPT. hobby subject. Often at very low costs. Money Machine II and in the Resource You can also reach Don at Synergetics, Their free catalogs are keepers. Bin collected reprints. Box809 , Thatcher, AZ 85552 .

74 July 1993/Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number nineteen

Royalty-free real PostScript for homebrew lashups!

ur usual reminder here that the Now, your flutterwumper could flutterwumper often comes from one Resource Bin is now a two-way really be a… of two sources:servos or steppers . column. You can get tech help, A servo is simply any reversible O · printed circuit drill consultant referrals and off-the-wall variable speed motor that also safely · vinyl sign cutter networking on nearly any electronic, produces a zero speed holding torque. · trophy engraver tinaja questing, personal publishing, Servos are normally controlled in a · pen plotter money machine, or computer topic by servo loop. Some precise method of · animation stand calling me at(520) 428-4073 weekdays measuring current position is needed · silk screen makeready 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider by most servo systems. Optical shaft · embroidery machine secret resources brochures waiting for encoders or differentialLVDT position · CAD/CAM mill you when you call or write. transformers are typical. · glass etching sandblaster A portion of myPSRT RoundTable Because of the expensive external · Santa Claus desktop prototyper onGEnie has also been set aside for position sensors and the complicated · automated barkeep youNuts & Volts readers. This is the high power control circuits, the servo · air turbine minidrill place to go for instant tech answers. systems tend to be hard to design and · model railroad micro machiner Among the many files in our library, now seem to be largely falling by the · billboard maker you will find complete reprints and wayside. They are not all that popular · microscope stage positioner preprints for all of my Resource Bin among hardware hackers. Except for · halftone scanner columns. I’ve just added a new "fast ultra-precision aps and some model · chem lab processing accessory access" feature for you. Have your remote controls. · automated loom modem dial(800) 638-8369 , followed Stepper motors, on the other hand, · wooden sign router byHHH . Then XTX99005,SCRIPT . are now coming on like gangbusters. · rock music light show A freeGEnie brochure if you voice Any stepper motor normally does not · sculpting machine call(800) 638-9636 . rotate continuously. Instead, it tries to · olive jar stuffer jump into positions as an intermittent · waterknife that "cuts anything" Your very own flutterwumper motion device. The step angle is set by · MIDI player piano Every now and then, a bunch of the number of poles and other factors. · robotic trainer little things will magically fall in place Thus, a three degree step motor needs · laser marking system for a stupendous breakthrough. Some exactly120 steps per revolution. new concept here, an improvement But let’s not use such simplistic and Steppers could easily be used open there. Eventually, it all adds up. horribly restrictive terms here. The loop without any continuous position This month, I thought we’d review measurements. Yeah, you do need a a lot of little things. Not the least of way to tell your "home" position, and which is that you now are able to use NEXT MONTH: A look at a way to calibrate for external stuff genuineAdobe PostScript for custom the major semiconductor like backlash and mechanical ratios. hacker homebrew projects, royalty and IC supply houses. But this is almost trivial to do. Which free! The possibilities here boggle the makes steppers fast and easy for a lot mind. Especially if fonts, lettering, or of hacker aps. smooth curves are involved in any concept of intrinsic flutterwumptocity You will find lots of small steppers way, shape, or form. transcends all of these. right here in ourNuts & Volts ads. Ferinstance, that back burner long All of a sudden, hacker homebrew Prices start around$3 . One traditional term project of yours. For generality, flutterwumpers are now far cheaper, stepper source has beenAirpax . They let’s call it aflutterwumper . much simpler, and infinitely more have several very useful catalogs and The flutterwumper you’ve had in powerful than they used to be. Let’s ap notes available on request. mind has to shove something fairly look at the new "lots of little things" One stepper that I have personally large in anx direction. And do the that make it all happen… found extremely useful is the Hurst same separately in they direction. modelSLS . This is a modification of a You also need a way of "raising" or Servos or steppers? typical small stepper to form a linear "lowering" something like a knife or a Unless you get into pneumatics or actuator. Instead of a shaft, the stepper pen or a sandblasting head. hydraulics, the muscle to move any is designed having a hollow center. A

August 1993 / Resource Bin I 75 nutplate is added to the rotor. A long but there is no reason at all why it new from Acme threaded rod goes through the would not work. Whap the windings middle. In use, this rod is carefully in anABC sequence to go forward and DON LANCASTER prevented from rotating. in aACB sequence to go backwards. ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK As the nutplate turns, the threaded Use the rotor and slip rings as a plain The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog rod moves in and out, giving you a old electromagnet that gets attracted op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active linear motion. And producing twenty to or repelled from the stator phases filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 pounds of force in two or four mil currently getting whapped. steps. From a twelve watt device! The There’s usually42 to 48 slots in an CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS Millions of copies in print worldwide. THE two stock lead screw has an eight inch alternator, so the per-step resolution books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. range. But you could make the lead will be something like eight degrees About as hands-on as you can get. $24.50 each. screw longer if you prevent bowing. or so. Gearing or microstepping tricks Sadly, at$80 list, the SLS pricing is can improve this considerably. INCREDIBLE SECRET way too far up in the "what are they It is usually best to rewind your MONEY MACHINE II on and where can we get some of it?" alternator so that each coil only spans Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting range. You’ll usually want to use a one single slot rather than the three up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 SLS for your initial development, and normally used. Ampere turns are the then conjure up your own two dollar name of the game here. You vary the LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes substitute. Magazines such as Asian wire size and the number of turns to the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active Sources and Trade Winners might be of suit your application. I’ll try to work Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and help in finding cheap equivalents. up some more specific details when I those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 Traditionally, high power steppers get a chance. are expensive and hard to get. One Meanwhile, you’ll find more info in LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES problem is that big steppers are fairly #284 HACK44.TXT. Ask...... the Guru I or II or III $24.50 inefficient, so there is a lot of heat to Hardware...... Hacker II or III $24.50 A great video The...... Case Against Patents $24.50 dump if you try to get into serious tail PostScript...... Beginner Stuff $39.50 twisting. The leading source of high Using alternators as stepper motors Intro...... to PostScript Video $39.50 PostScript...... Reference II $29.50 power steppers has been the Slo-Syn seemed to suddenly show up on the PostScript...... Tutorial/Cookbook $18.50 PostScript...... by Example $29.50 series fromSuperior Electric . They do scene. Serendipitious synchronicity Understanding...... PS Programming $29.50 offer data books and ap notes. and all that. Bob McKnight in Phoenix PostScript:...... A Visual Approach $22.50 PostScript...... Program Design $24.50 Besides theNuts & Volts ads, big is a semi-retired vocational education Real...... World PostScript $22.50 steppers are often findable at heavy teacher, ham, and4WD enthusiast Thinking...... in PostScript $22.50 LaserWriter...... Reference $19.50 iron surplus sources such as C & H that first put me on to the idea. Type...... 1 Font Format $15.50 Acrobat...... Reference $24.50 Sales,, AST Servo Systems Fair Radio He also taught me the key insider Whole...... Works (all PostScript) $350.00 Sales, Burden’s Surplus Center , and at secret in working with alternators: PostScript...... Secrets Brochure FREE ...... FREE Northern Hydraulics. There is a tiny hole in the slip ring Hacking Secrets Brochure Yes, there are a bunch of stepper holder through which youmust place motor trade journals. These form an a wire pin or a toothpick to restrain POSTSCRIPT SECRETS A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free important resource for current info. In the brushes. Fail to do this and your fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any particular, do check outPCIM , Motor reassembly will be gruesome. PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 Techniques,, Measurement and Control But John Reese on down in Sautee, andMotion magazines. Georgia seems to be years ahead of BOOK-ON-DEMAND PUB KIT But we clearly need a cheap and big the pack. John recently built up a new Ongoing details on Book-on-demand publishing, a new method of producing books only when and stepper that is hacker friendly. Which humongous wooden signage routing as ordered. Reprints, sources, samples. $39.50 leads us to our next development… system which uses car alternators as steppers. And in its spare time, this Car alternator steppers BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I incredible flutterwumper also does The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering Can a car alternator be converted precision machining of those rigid columns. Includes the case against patents, book on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm into a high power stepper motor? The heddles needed by weaving looms. stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 amazing answer is that it definitely Yes, this beast is currently producing can. The results won’t be nearly as custom real world products. RESOURCE BIN I good as a real stepper of comparable And John’s entire system is totally A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts columns to date, including a new index and his size. But you could get a surprising homebrew and ultra low in cost. master names and numbers list. $24.50 amount of tail twisting out of one. John has now put together a real And you could pick up an alternator down-homey video on his system that FREE SAMPLES for$5 at a junkyard. Especially if it shows you car alternators as steppers Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. has blown diodes and you don’t need in action. His vid also proudly shows The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 the companion regulator. And could what a lone hacker can accomplish on cents. Modem access: (800) 638-8369, then a HHH. On prompt, XTX99005,SCRIPT. not care less about make and model. their own at home by using a little FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA/MC The trick is to first remove all the creative thought. diodes, and then break out the buried And a lot of personal value added. SYNERGETICS common and hidden"Y" connection By special arrangement, John has Box 809-NV Thatcher, AZ 85552 between the three windings. This gets agreed to share a copy of this hour ()520 428-4073 you three phases of windings. A three long flick with you for$19.50 . I highly phase stepper is somewhat unusual, recommend this one. Write in 146 on Reader Service Card.

76 August 1993/Resource Bin I jobs for a project. There are dozens of these available. Besides the ads here in Nuts & Volts, see the ongoing series in Circuit Cellar Ink, or the coverage in FLUTTERWUMPER RESOURCES Midnight Engineering, or in Personal Engineering News. Addison Wesley Galco Northern Hydraulics Jacob Way 26010 Pinehurst Drive PO Box 1499 There is now this really great new Reading, MA 01867 Madison Heights, MI 48071 Brunsville, MN 55337 microcontroller on the scene that is (617) 944-3700 (800) 521-1615 (800) 533-5545 literally blowing everything previous Adobe GEnie Nuts & Volts away. This is the BASIC Stamp from 1585 Charleston Road 401 N Washington Street 430 Princeland Court the folks at Parallax. This one costs a Mountain View, CA 94039 Rockville, MD 20850 Corona, CA 91719 mere $39 and is exceptionally easy to (800) 833-6687 (800) 638-9636 (714) 371-8497 program and use. It is based on a new Airpax Gerber Scientific Parallax RISC microprocessor manufactured 150 Knotter Drive 83 Gerber Road 6359 Auburn Blvd, Ste C by Microchip Technology. Cheshire, CT 06410 South Windsor, CT 06074 Cirtus Heights, CA 95621 (203) 271-6000 (203) 644-1551 (916) 721-8217 You run development software on your PC and speak BASIC at it. The Allegro Hewlett Packard PCIM 363 Plantation Street PO Box 10301 2472 Eastman Ave #33-34 available commands are surprisingly Worcester, MA 01605 Palo Alto, CA 94303 Ventura, CA 93003 sophisticated and include A/D and (508) 795-1300 (415) 857-1501 (805) 658-0933 D/A conversion, some timers, option Apple Hurst Personal Engineering News pickers, random numbers, and single 20525 Mariani Avenue Box 326 Box 1821 command serial comm. Cupertino, CA 95014 Princeton, IN 47670 Brookline, MA 02146 The host software then tokenizes (408) 996-1010 (812) 385-2564 (617) 232-3625 the BASIC commands and sends them AST Servo Systems Measurement & Control John Reese out a short cable to the BASIC Stamp. 115 Main Road, Box 97 2994 West Liberty Avenue Rt 1, Box 1551 Where they are semi-permanently Montville, NJ 07045 Pittsburgh, PA 15216 Sautee, GA 30571 (201) 335-1007 (412) 343-9666 (706) 865-5495 stored in serial EEPROM. This indirect route means the full resources of the Asian Sources Microchip Technology SGS Stamp are available for your intended 1020 Church Street 2355 West Chandler Blvd 1000 East Bell Road Evanston, IL 60201 Chandler, AZ 85224 Phoenix, AZ 85022 use, rather than needing an internal (708) 475-1900 (602) 963-7373 (602) 867-6259 monitor and operating system. Burden's Surplus Center Midnight Engineering Superior Electric For maximum speed, you can later PO Box 82209 1700 Washington Ave 383 Middle Street replace all your tokenized BASIC with Lincoln, NE 68501 Rocky Ford, CO 81067 Bristol, CT 06010 optimized machine code in a custom (800) 488-3407 (719) 254-4558 (203) 582-9561 programmed CPU. The new chip used C&H Sales Motion Synergetics completely blows away most of the PO Box 5356 Box 6430 PO Box 809 current microcontroller benchmarks Pasadena, CA 91107 Orange, CA 92613 Thatcher, AZ 85552 (800) 325-9465 (714) 974-0200 (520) 428-4073 for speed and code compactness. There are eight real-world I/O lines Circuit Cellar Ink Motor Techniques Texas Instruments included and a small breadboarding 4 Park Street, Ste 20 120 S Chaparral Court #200 PO Box 809066 Vernon, CT 06066 Anaheim, CA 92808 Dallas, TX 75380 area. If you want to, a snap-on 9 volt (203) 875-2751 (714) 283-1123 (800) 336-5236 battery can be used for power. The BASIC Fair Radio Sales Motorola Trade Winners Stamp is ideally sized for most PO Box 1105 5005 E McDowell Road PO Box 2868 flutterwumper uses. Lima, OH 45802 Phoenix, AZ 85008 Vancouver, WA 98668 Additional details on this BASIC (419) 227-6573 (800) 521-6274 (206) 694-1765 Stamp appear in my #728 HACK66.PS file on GEnie PSRT. And many of the fundamental concepts that underlie only cost a dollar or two each. Free most microcontrollers appear in my Stepper drivers samples are even available. Micro Cookbooks. Big old power transistors were once In particular, be sure to look at the used to power larger stepper motors TIPC2301, a triple unit which seems to Royalty-free PostScript! or alternators-as-steppers. One good be ideal for alternator steppers. We’ve seen in previous columns source for power electronics is Galco. and in the Resource Bin reprints how These days though, it’s probably both The BASIC Stamp PostScript could serve as a hacker’s simplest and cheapest to pick some The steppers could get driven from universal and very general purpose microcontroller to directly generate stepper drivers. The stepper drivers computing language. Ferinstance, see all your stepper control pulses. There are themselves driven either from #511 NUTS9.PS on GEnie PSRT. are also older low cost stepper driver older stepper controller chips or from In the past, there have been two integrated circuits available from such a microcomputer or microcontroller. really big deterrents towards using firms as Motorola, SGS, and Allegro. A $30 Commodore C-64 from a yard genuine Adobe PostScript on your Texas Instruments has just released sale can be a good starting point. personal homebrew projects. The first some impressive new Power+Arrays An embedded microcontroller is just is that you will need a rather fancy power MOSFET transistors that are some small computer that is totally high-end computer to be able to run ideal for stepper motor drivers. They dedicated to do one or more internal PostScript internally.

August 1993/Resource Bin I 77 You then use a charpath operator to extract the font path. In general, the font path will be a ROYALTY-FREE REAL POSTSCRIPT combination of moveto, lineto, curveto, and closepath operators. The chances are that your flutterwumper does not want to have to internally handle any cubic splines. Instead, you’ll want to PostScript laser printer serial port break any curves down into shorter straight line segments. The size of task feedback these vector segments depends on the resolution you are seeking and how task commands much time you want to spend. HOMEBREW FLUTTERWUMPER So, you now have your font path in PostScript. You next use the flattenpath BASIC Custom operator to convert any curves into Stamp x-axis stepper vinyl cutter, lots of short line segments. wood routing, You next use PostScript’s pathforall y-axis milling machine, stepper operator to generate a suitable textfile animation stand, that generates all the serial commands awards engraver, pen needed by the BASIC Stamp on your up/down embroidery setup, circuit board drilling, flutterwumper. Finally, use the stock PostScript print command to shove home Santa Claus machine, sensor etc. etc. etc¼ the commands out the serial port. What goes into your textfile? What commands do you use? The choice is up to you. What your textfile has to do is convert your PostScript path The second, of course, are all the serial commands are received by the into a series of "move here" and "cut royalties involved. These could easily BASIC Stamp and then converted into here" flutterwumper instructions. All approach several hundred thousand flutterwumper motions. handled as ordinary printing ASCII dollars. And Adobe Systems has been characters which can go out any old reluctant to spend many development Using PostScript serial comm port. resources on most specialized and So how does PostScript make your There are three popular routes for niche applications. flutterwumper so great? Let’s use a your codes. The really big boys use a But the BASIC Stamp can be used as sign router for an example. Say you series of codes known as the Gerber a simple serial interface between an want to route a fancy large "R" in the File Format Specification from Gerber existing PostScript printer and your bold version of the Palatino font. Scientific. The wannabee big boys use flutterwumper. Presto. A full Adobe PostScript gives you many tens of the much simpler HPGL plotter code. PostScript level 2. For under $40. thousands of superb quality fonts to From Hewlett-Packard. Addison Wesley The figure shows you the details. design with. As commercial, public prints an HPGL Manual. You take an ordinary PostScript laser domain, or shareware, or homebrew. Either one of these standard vector printer and connect its serial port to Your selection is literally unlimited. codes can end up gross overkill for a the BASIC Stamp. The Stamp in turn And PostScript’s device independence simple hacker flutterwumper. Thus, generates all the stepper, positioning, means that any font character can be writing your own serial command set and sensing commands. made any size and shape. All done might be a good route to consider. The BASIC Stamp offers eight I/O with an optimum hinting. No towing Ferinstance, you would really only lines. Reserve two of these for serial humongous bitmaps around for each need six serial commands. Say X for comm. One for the commands from letter. And special effects distortable one step east. x for one step west. Y the laser printer. And a second for six ways from Sunday. for one step north. y for one step feedback of task completions, errors, So, you start off with a genuine south. And, of course, u to move the and position info. Adobe PostScript level 2 printer. The pen or cutter up and d for down. Use two outputs for the x-position LaserJet 4M from Hewlett Packard will Which would be enough to get you stepper phases. Use two outputs for do, but the LaserWriter Pro630 from started. Later on, you could use the y-position stepper phases. Use one Apple is a far better choice. hundreds of other printable ASCII output for pen up-down. And a final The reason we do want to demand characters for vector moves, multiple line for a home position sensor. genuine level 2 is that level 2 offers steps, repeats, and such. For car alternators, you can add a fully open font paths. You can instantly You have a system here with two second Stamp to get the additional extract those exact character shapes. computers. There’s a turbo enhanced phases needed. Or go to one of the Earlier PostScript versions (and most 35 Megahertz 68040 or whatever and fancier Parallax microcontrollers. fake clones) went out of their way to ten megs or more of memory and a In use, the PostScript laser printer make font path extractions a really hard disk in your PostScript printer. converts your PostScript artwork and major hassle. Which makes a jim dandy "mother’s engineering calculations into a group At any rate, you use your favorite little helper" coprocessor for the $2.60 of serial vector commands. These new word processor to select your font. CPU in that BASIC Stamp inside your

78 August 1993/Resource Bin I flutterwumper. of everything by all major PostScript Sort of a silicon Au Pair girl. authors. Your optimum solution might be to partition things so your big computer This month’s contests does as much as it can and the little For our contests this month, just one does only what it has to. send me some new info on your latest So you just may want to make your personal flutterwumper idea. A paper flutterwumper as dumb as possible. design would be just fine. Even just Downright stupid, even. Consistent, the concept should do if it is unusual of course, with sane file lengths and enough. But a video of the beast in reasonable response times. operation would be better. Along with More specific details on PostScript output samples. to vector conversion appear in my file Alternately, (ouch) send me your #387 POSTVECT.PS. secrets for alternator rewinding and stepper motor conversion. Or find me Do I need the printer? a cheap linear stepper source. Should you want to omit using a There will be several of my new "real" Adobe laser printer from your Incredible Secret Money Machine II flutterwumper, there are two other books going to the dozen or so better options to consider. entries, plus an all-expense-paid (FOB You can simply use your PostScript Thatcher, AZ) tinaja quest for two that printer once to print out to disk and will go to the very best of all. ✦ generate an ASCII textfile of suitable commands for the BASIC Stamp. Later Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don on, any old comm program or word Lancaster is the author of 28 books and processor on any old computer can countless articles. Don maintains his read the file and send the commands no-charge tech helpline found at (520) to your flutterwumper. Thus, your 428-4073, besides offering all of his own printer would only be needed for the books, reprints, and all of his consulting first use; repeats of the same pattern services. He also has a free brochure full of can be done off line. You could also his resource secrets waiting for you. Your distribute your runtime files over any best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, BBS system royalty free and license Mountain Standard Time. free. A single printer could service Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, hundreds of flutterwumpers. where a special Resource Bin topic has There is also some really unique been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. public domain shareware known as For fast modem access, use (800) 638-8369 GhostScript. While not remotely in the and enter HHH. When prompted, enter same league as real PostScript, this XTX99005,SCRIPT. one is by far the best of the available You can also reach Don at Synergetics, clones. This also gives you on-screen Box 809, Thatcher, AZ 85552. displays, a trick that many versions of real PostScript lack. I’ve posted the newest and best versions of GhostScript and all their fonts to GEnie PSRT. Full sourcecode written in "C" is included, so you can easily recompile to just about any computer system. For more info We’ve also got nearly a thousand PostScript files up on PSRT, so this is by far your best source to get started on this unique new universal and general purpose hacker computer language. Start off with our file #337 STARTUP.PS. For hard copy, I try to stock nearly everything of value on PostScript here at my Synergetics. For openers, start with the Adobe red and blue books and my PostScript Secrets book/disk combo. Or, to jump in with both feet, check out The Whole Works, one each

August 1993/Resource Bin I 79 80 August 1993/Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number twenty

Starting your integrated circuit databook collection.

ur usual reminder here that the included in the same volume. Master. This is a large and expensive Resource Bin is now a two-way If you are in the right place at the directory of pretty near all integrated O column. You can get tech help, right time, and ask nice enough, most circuits built worldwide. Although a consultant referrals and off-the-wall data books are free. Others do have a great resource, it doesn’t make value networking on nearly any electronic, "suggested" price which you can often judgements as to how economic, how tinaja questing, personal publishing, get around. But several of the larger available, or how mainstream your money machine, or computer topic by outfits (especiallyMotorola , National , selections will be. The cross references calling me at(520) 428-4073 weekdays Intel, and Texas Instruments ) often do in the IC Master are handy for finding 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider charge for their tech info. Unless they oddball part numbers. secret resources brochures waiting for have something brand new they want A third trick is to browse backwards you when you call or write. to promote in a big way. through thoseNTE and ECG catalogs. A portion of myPSRT RoundTable Now, if you are new to electronics, Looking at the block diagrams for the onGEnie has also been set aside for or are merely a casual hobbyist, you chips to see what they do. When they youNuts & Volts readers. This is the might be able to squeak by with as show up here, the chances are you are place to go for instant tech answers. few as45 to 60 data books for your dealing with a mainstream part. Among the many files in our library, personal resource collection. If you By far your most powerful tools for you will find complete reprints and are at all serious over your hardware finding circuits and picking up data preprints for all of my Resource Bin hacking and learning electronics as a books are the industry trade journals. columns. I’ve just added a new "fast career, a minimum of one hundred feet We’ve looked at this in depth a time access" feature for you. Have your of data books is essential. or two in earlier columns and in our modem dial(800) 638-8369 , followed But you better hurry in getting your newResource Bin reprints. In order of byHHH . Then XTX99005,SCRIPT . own personal data book stash started. importance, be sure you subscribe to A freeGEnie brochure if you voice While more data books have gotten E. E. Times,,, Electronic Design EDN call(800) 638-9636 . published this year than ever before, Electronic Products, and that Electronic Several additions to our previous these are now an endangered species Component News. Any random issue of listing on ham radio publications. The soon to become extinct. The costs are E. E. Times is bound to have a dozen really mobile hams should subscribe getting totally out of hand, and things "fax this coupon" pages for no-charge to the Newsletter of Bicycle Mobile Hams are changing way too rapidly for any data books. Freebie sample parts, too. of America. Or that Nomadness Report traditional printing and publishing to Bingo responses to the rest of the ads published by Steve Roberts. cope. So, you should soon be seeing will get you lots of other info. The Canadian Amateur is yet another data book alternates in the form of CD Naturally, you want to appear as foreign pub. Two mags specializing in credible as possible when requesting Morse code areDots and Dashes and info. Youalways contact applications thevery British Morsum Magnificat . NEXT MONTH: Sources for engineering at their main plant, and Key and bug collectors will find the self-publishing your own never the local sales rep! A company Vail Correspondant to be of interest. Book-on-demand titles. name is a must. Details on starting up And also theN7CFO Newsletter . your own technical or craft business This month, I thought we’d take a appear in my newly revised Incredible look at a popular helpline topic… ROM, company BBS data bases, phone Secret Money Machine II. fax response services, and on-demand Getting chip data published info. Adobe’s new Acrobat A guided tour How can you find out more about system should be a major player here. Our resource sidebar for this month new integrated circuits? The standard lists most of the important integrated method is to help yourself to a great Which circuits do what? circuit sources. Let’s go through them heaping bunch of integrated circuit How can you tune into which ic’s in alphabetical order. And I’ll tell you data books. These are bound collections are popular and available? The first my personal views of who I feel are of data sheets offered by just about all way, of course, is through the catalogs the good guys. of the ic manufacturers. Sometimes and sale flyers of all our Nuts & Volts Allegro/Sprague is big on interface the data sheets stand alone. Other advertisers. Check here first. drivers,Hall Effect magnetic devices, times, ap notes and other info may get A second method is to use the IC liquid level sensors, and automotive

September 1993 / Resource Bin I 81 stuff.Analog Devices has every flavor cost digital sinewave generators. new from of op-amp ever invented. Along with Motorola, of course, is one of the temperature sensors, multipliers, new biggies with bunches of reasonably DON LANCASTER sound chips, and bunches more. They priced analog and digital chips. And ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK also publish the freeAnalog Dialog . an extensive data library. But I have The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog Brooktree is kinda pricey, but they often found better devices elsewhere. op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active do have really great multimedia parts. Ferinstance,SenSym builds a better filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 Especially color palettes and chips for pressure transducer,Sierra has better NTSC data conversion.Burr-Brown is caller id chips, andMicrochip has far CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS Millions of copies in print worldwide.THE two big on all theD/A and A/D chips, for better microcontrollers. books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. CD-ROM and digital audio. MX-Com is an obscure outfit that is About as hands-on as you can get.$24.50 each. California Microwave is mostly for strongly into speech scrambling chips, VHF and UHF amplifiers, mixers, and pager encoders, tone signalling, and INCREDIBLE SECRET front ends.Cherry has interesting and similar specialized comm stuff. MONEY MACHINE II low cost automotive chips. National is another one of the real Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting Crystal is your best source for ultra biggies, with bunches of analog and up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 qualityA/D converters for electronic digital stuff. Along with scads of data music and precision weigh scales. books and application notes.OKI is LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes Dallas Semiconductor, of course, is big in speech synthesis chips. the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active by far your all time number one good Plessey has lots of specialized high Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbooks I & II, newly revised Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and guy. Mostly because of their single frequency digital and analog chips, those Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 quantity direct order hotline. They are remote controls, stuff like this. Their very much into timer and stopwatch TV, Cable, and Audio Handbook is a LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES products, security devices, telephone hacker must.Rohm has lots of obscure Ask...... the Guru I or II or III $24.50 interface chips, and comm circuitry. consumer electronics. The BA1404 FM Hardware...... Hacker II or III $24.50 The...... Case Against Patents $24.50 Harris is mostly overpriced mil stuff, stereo transmitter is one of the hottest PostScript...... Beginner Stuff $39.50 but they do still stock some ancient hacker items ever. Intro...... to PostScript Video $39.50 PostScript...... Reference II $29.50 and eminently hackable chips from Samsung has got three giant linear PostScript...... Tutorial/Cookbook $18.50 PostScript...... by Example $29.50 RCA and Intersil . Hewlett-Packard is data books which are crammed full of Understanding...... PS Programming $29.50 strong in opto and microwaves. stunning hacker chips. These are also PostScript:...... A Visual Approach $22.50 PostScript...... Program Design $24.50 Integrated Circuit Systems is another a must have.SGS-Thompson has lots of Real...... World PostScript $22.50 good guy. They have totally stunning memory andEPROM chips, plus some Thinking...... in PostScript $22.50 LaserWriter...... Reference $19.50 multimedia chips, music synthesizers, brand newGPS receiver front ends. Type...... 1 Font Format $15.50 Acrobat...... Reference $24.50 time code generators, and more. Intel Sierra builds telephone stuff. They Whole...... Works (all PostScript) $350.00 is, well, Intel. I guess. Yup. There they also have just about the best caller id PostScript...... Secrets Brochure FREE ...... FREE are. To this day, I still feel than any chips anywhere. By far. Hacking Secrets Brochure integrated circuit whose part number Signetics is another one of the good starts with an"8" is intrinsically vile guys. TheirNE602 and newer mixer POSTSCRIPT SECRETS A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free and despicable. I definitely remain a chips have revolutionized ham radio fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any "6" person. But I guess that’s just me. and similar rf designs. PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 This, of course, is being written with Sony, of course, for all video and AppleWriter on an Apple IIe. multimedia. Especially the high speed BOOK-ON-DEMAND PUB KIT Lambda offers regulators and special A/D converters.Standard Micro offers Ongoing details on Book-on-demand publishing, a new method of producing books only when and power supply chips. Linear Technology video controllers, keyboard encoders, as ordered. Reprints, sources, samples. $39.50 is another one of the good guys. Lots and "terminal oriented" items. of op-amps, particularly lower noise TryStanford Telecomm for extremely BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I ones. And a real innovator for just pricey chips which could be used for The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering about anything linear.LSI/CSI is fully digital receivers and precision columns. Includes the case against patents, book on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm another good guy. Great chips here numerically controlled oscillators. stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 for music boxes, doorbells, counters, Teltone is a leader in the telephone alarms, power controls, timers. chip field. They have lots of touchtone RESOURCE BIN I Maxim is now tied for first place in decoders.Teccor is an obscure outfit A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts columns to date, including a new index and his intrinsic hackability withDallas . They, good for thyristors, light dimmers, master names and numbers list. $24.50 too, offer a direct order line, plenty of and related power control circuitry. free samples, sanely priced evaluation Texas Instruments is another one of FREE SAMPLES kits, and easy lit access. Power supply the real biggies. With great heaping Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. chips, op-amps, comm drivers, great bunches of data books and ap notes The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 A/D and D/A systems. They are very available. I especially like their new cents. Modem access: (800) 638-8369, then a HHH. On prompt, XTX99005,SCRIPT. strong in micropower aps. Power+Arrays driver chips. FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA/MC Microchip Technology is yet another Western Design is a maveric outfit hacker friendly outfit. They’ve got a still carrying the"6" torch. To 32 bits SYNERGETICS newPIC series of microcontrollers and beyond, even. My heros. Unitrode Box 809-NV Thatcher, AZ 85552 that is totally blowing all the big boys has some interesting battery charger ()520 428-4073 away. Great applications info, too. and fluorescent lamp dimmer circuits. Micro-Linear has some unusual low Xicor manufacturesEEPOTS useful for Write in 146 on Reader Service Card.

82 September 1993/Resource Bin I MAJOR SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURERS

Actel Dallas Semiconductor Lambda National Semiconductor Signetics 955 E Arques Avenue 4401 S Beltwood Pkwy 121 International Blvd. 475 Ellis Street 811 East Arques Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Dallas, TX 75244 Corpus Christi, TX 78406 Mountain View, CA 94043 Sunnyvale, CA 94088 (408) 739-1010 (214) 450-0400 (512) 289-0403 (800) 632-3531 (800) 227-1817

Advanced Linear Devices Elantec Lattice Semiconductor NCR Microelectronic Silicon General 1180 F Miraloma Way 1996 Tarob Court 5555 NE Moore Court 3718 North Rock Road 11861 Western Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Milpitas, CA 95035 Mt. Prospect, IL 60056 Wichita, KS 67226 Garden Grove, CA 92641 (408) 720-8737 (408) 945-1323 (800) FAST-GAL (800) 325-SCSI (714) 898-8121

Advanced Micro Devices Exar Linear Technology NEC Electronics Siliconix PO Box 3453 PO Box 49007 1630 McCarthy Blvd. PO Box 7241 2201 Laurelwood Road Sunnyvale, CA 94088 San Jose, CA 95161 Milpitas, CA 95035 Mountain View, CA 94039 Santa Clara, CA 95054 (800) 222-9323 (408) 732-7970 (408) 432-1900 (800) 632-3531 (800) 554-5565

Allegro/Sprague Exel LSI/CSI OKI Semiconductor Sony Corporation 70 Pembroke Road 2150 Commerce Drive 1235 Walt Whitman Road 785 N Mary Avenue 10833 Valley View Street Concord, NH 03301 San Jose, CA 95161 Melville, NY 11747 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Cypress, CA 90630 (603) 224-1961 (408) 432-0500 (516) 271-0400 (800) 832-6654 (714) 220-9100

Altera Fujitsu LSI Logic Panasonic Standard Microsystems 2610 Orchard Parkway 3545 N First Street 1551 McCarthy Blvd. 1 Panasonic Way 35 Marcus Blvd San Jose, CA 95134 San Jose, CA 95134 Milpitas, CA 95035 Secaucus, NJ 07094 Hauppauge, NY 11788 (408) 894-7000 (800) 642-7616 (408) 433-8000 (201) 348-7000 (516) 229-4175

Analog Devices Gould AMI Maxim Integrated Products Plessey Semiconductor Stanford Telecomm PO Box 9106 2300 Buckskin Road 120 San Gabriel Drive PO Box 660017 2421 Mission College Blvd Norwood, MA 02062 Pocatello, ID 83201 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Scotts Valley, CA 95067 Santa Clara, CA 95056 (617) 329-4700 (800) 538-7736 (408) 737-7600 (408) 438-2900 (408) 748-1010

AT&T Harris Semiconductor Micrel Semiconductor Raytheon Semiconductor Tektronix 555 Union Blvd 2401 Palm Bay Road 560 Oakmead Parkway 350 Ellis Street PO Box 500 Allentown, PA 18103 Palm Bay, FL 32905 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Mountain View, CA 94039 Beaverton, OR 97077 (800) 372-2447 (305) 724-3739 (408) 245-2500 (415) 968-9211 (800) 835-9433

Brooktree Hewlett-Packard Microchip Technology ROHM Corporation Teledyne Components 9950 Barnes Canyon Road PO Box 10301 2355 W. Chandler Blvd. 3034 Owen Drive 1300 Terra Bella Avenue San Diego, CA 92121 Palo Alto, CA 94303 Chandler, AZ 85224 Antioch, TN 37013 Mountain View, CA 94043 (800) 843-3642 (415) 857-1501 (602) 963-7373 (615) 641-2020 (415) 968-9241

Burr-Brown Hitachi Micro Linear Samsung Semiconductor Teltone 6730 S Tucson Blvd 2000 Sierra Point Pkwy 2092 Concourse Drive 3725 North First Street 22121 20th Avenue SE Tucson, AZ 85706 Brisbane, CA 94005 San Jose, CA 95131 San Jose, CA 95134 Bothel, WA 98021 (520) 746-1111 (415) 589-8300 (408) 433-5200 (408) 435-5400 (800) 426-3926

California Micro Devices Hughes Aircraft Micron Technology Sanyo Teccor Electronics 215 Topaz 500 Superior Ave M/S B1250 2805 East Columbia Road 80 Commerce Drive 1801 Hurd Drive Milpitas, CA 95035 Newport Beach, CA 92658 Boise, ID 83706 Allendale, NJ 07401 Irving, TX 75038 (408) 263-3214 (714) 759-2727 (208) 386-3900 (201) 825-8080 (214) 580-1515

Catalyst Semiconductor Hyundai Micro Power Systems SEEQ Technology Texas Instruments 2231 Calle de Luna 166 Baypointe Parkway 3100 Alfred Street 47131 Bayside Pkwy PO Box 401560 Santa Clara, CA 95054 San Jose, CA 95134 Santa Clara, CA 95054 Fremont, CA 94537 Dallas, TX 75240 (408) 748-7700 (408) 473-9200 (408) 727-5350 (510) 226-7400 (800) 336-5236

Cherry Semiconductor Intech Micro Switch Seiko Instruments Toshiba America 2000 S County Trail 67 Alexander Drive 11 West Spring Street 2990 West Lomita Blvd 9775 Toledo Way East Greenwich, RI 02818 Research Triangle, NC 27709 Freeport, IL 61032 Torrance, CA 90505 Irvine, CA 92718 (401) 885-3600 (919) 549-8411 (815) 235-6600 (310) 517-7770 (714) 455-2000

Cirrus Logic Integrated Circuit Systems Mitel SGS-Thomson Unitrode 1463 Centre Pointe Drive PO Box 968 2321 Morena Blvd Ste M 1000 East Bell Road 7 Continental Blvd Milpitas, CA 95035 Valley Forge, PA 19482 San Diego, CA 92110 Phoenix, AZ 85022 Merrimack, NH 03054 (408) 945-8300 (215) 666-1900 (619) 276-3421 (602) 867-6100 (603) 424-2410

Crystal Semiconductor Intel Mitsubishi Sharp Electronics Western Design Center PO Box 17847 2200 Mission College Blvd. 1050 East Arques Avenue 10 Sharp Plaza 2166 East Brown Road Austin, TX 78760 Santa Clara, CA 95052 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Mahwah, NJ 07430 Mesa, AZ 85213 (512) 445-7222 (800) 548-4725 (408) 730-5900 (201) 529-8757 (602) 962-4545

Cybernetic Micro Systems Internat'l Microcircuits Motorola Siemens Components Xicor 3000 Highway 84 525 Los Coches Street PO Box 1466 2191 Laurelwood Road 1511 Buckeye Drive San Gregorio, CA 94074 Milpitas, CA 95035 Austin, TX 78767 Santa Clara, CA 95054 Milpitas, CA 95035 (415) 726-3000 (408) 263-6300 (800) 521-6274 (408) 980-4568 (408) 432-8888

Cypress Semiconductor Internat'l Micro Electronics MX-Com Sierra Semiconductor Zilog 3901 North First Street PO Box 170415 4800 Bethania Station Rd 2075 N Capitol Avenue 210 Hacienda Avenue San Jose, CA 95134 Arlington, TX 76003 Winston-Salem, NC 27105 San Jose, CA 95132 Campbell, CA 95008 (408) 943-2600 (817) 561-2244 (800) 638-5577 (408) 263-9300 (408) 370-8000

September 1993/Resource Bin I 83 OTHER MENTIONED RESOURCES

Adobe Systems Electronic Design N7CFO Newsletter 1585 Charleston Road 611 Rt#46 West 15621 SE 26th Street Mountain View, CA 94039 Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07604 Bellevue, WA 98008 (800) 833-6687 (201) 393-6060 (206) 641-5488 Bicycle Mobile Hams Electronic Products NTE Box 4009 645 Stewart Avenue 44 Farrand Street Boulder, CO 80306 Garden City, NY 11530 Bloomfield, NJ 07003 (516) 227-1300 (201) 748-5089 Canadian Amateur GEnie Pure Unobtainium 370 King Street W 401 N Washington St 13109 Old Creedmoor Road Kingston, ONT, K7L 4W2 Rockville, MD 20850 Raleigh, NC 27613 (613) 545-9100 (800) 638-9636 (919) 676-4525 ECG IC Master Rochester Electronics PO Box 3277 645 Stewart Avenue 10 Malcolm Hoyt Drive Williamsport, PA 17701 Garden City, NY 11530 Newburyport, MA 01950 (717) 323-4691 (516) 227-1300 (508) 462-9332 EDN JDR Microdevices SenSym 275 Washington Street 2233 Samaritan Drive 1244 Reamwood Avenue Newton, MA 02158 San Jose, CA 95124 Sunnyvale, CA 94089 (617) 964-3030 (800) 538-5000 (408) 744-1500 E.E. Times Morsum Magnificat Sunset Silicon Products 600 Community Drive Wise Owl Worldwide 402A Ridgefield Circle Manhassat, NY 11030 4314 W 238th Street Clinton, MA 01510 (516) 365-4600 Torrance, CA 95050 (508) 365-6108 Electronic Comp. News Nomadness Report Vail Correspondant 1 Chilton Way PO Box 2185 PO Box 88 Radnor, PA 19089 El Segundo, CA 90245 Maynard, MA 01754 (215) 964-4345 (310) 322-1655 (617) 897-2226 digitally controllable potentiometers having memory. And Zilog remains a This month’s contest useful supplier of serial comm chips For our contest this month, just tell and microcontollers. me about any integrated circuit or ic house that I don’t know about. Ones Some long goners which are sanely priced and usable. Several really great circuit houses There will be a large pile of my new have vanished over the years. Intersil, Incredible Secret Money Machine II General Electric, and RCA have been books going to the dozen or so better combined into Harris. Only a few of entries, plus an all-expense-paid (FOB their great old hacker chips remain. Thatcher, AZ) tinaja quest for two that The dregs of Mostek got absorbed into will go to the very best of all. SGS. But not their fine music circuits. I have gathered all of my previous General Instruments became MicroChip columns together into our new bound Technology. One remaining source for Resource Bin reprints. These include a GI sound chips is JDR Microdevices. full index and my master Names & Sprague recently sold out to Allegro Numbers directory. Check my nearby Electronics. AMI is now Gould. And all Synergetics ad for more info. ✦ those small second tier power semi houses change their names and logos Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don as often as most people change socks. Lancaster is the author of 30 books and Check the power semiconductor trade countless tech articles. Don maintains his journals for the latest scoop here. no-charge tech helpline found at (520) By the way, if you just gotta have 428-4073, besides offering all of his own some ancient chip, try Sunset Silicon books, reprints, and all of his consulting Products, Rochester Electronics or else services. He also has a free brochure full of Pure Unobtainium. These all specialize his resource secrets waiting for you. Your in out-of-date and otherwise hard to best calling times are 8-5 on weekdays, get parts. Pure Unobtanium is a "by Mountain Standard Time. hackers" and "for hackers" labor of Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, love operation. Their catalog costs a where a special Resource Bin topic has dollar cash. A gottahave. been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. But do remember that any ancient For fast modem access, use (800) 638-8369 chip dies for a good reason. There’s and enter HHH. When prompted, enter either some better replacement, or XTX99005,SCRIPT. else a vastly improved way to tackle You can also reach Don at Synergetics, the same problem. Box809 , Thatcher, AZ 85552 .

84 September 1993/Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number twenty-one

Resources for Book-on-demand publishing.

ur usual reminder here that the shopworn copies. Only those volumes owning one. Does it ever. Resource Bin is now a two-way you need ever get produced. And the O column. You can get tech help, lower volume costs aremuch less than BOD insider secrets consultant referrals and off-the-wall old line publishing. After working withBOD for a few networking on nearly any electronic, A decade-oldIRS Thor Decision tax years now, I have found several key tinaja questing, personal publishing, ruling literally pays publishers to shred secrets that make this new technology money machine, or computer topic by books. Your government at work. The simple, cheap, and easy… calling me at(520) 428-4073 weekdays ruling forces publishers to carry any (1) Use only genuine Adobe PostScript 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider older stock at full value. This is why Level II – PostScript isthe industry secret resources brochures waiting for all backlists have vanished. And why standard method for creating graphic you when you call or write. older books seem virtually impossible layouts. PostScript’s strong points do A portion of myPSRT RoundTable to find anywhere. WithBOD , there is include its total device independence onGEnie has also been set aside for no inventory, and thus no reason why and its ability to freely mix text and youNuts & Volts readers. This is the your backlist cannot run forever. graphics in any size and orientation. place to go for instant tech answers. Finally,BOD lets you publish the There are thousands of top quality Among the many files in our library, unpublishable. Stuff that the big boys fonts available. PostScript is adept at you will find complete reprints and simply refuse to touch. Controversial creating smooth flowing curves from preprints for all of my Resource Bin religious tracts. Pseudoscience. Data extremely sparse data sets. Best of all, columns. I’ve just added a new "fast books. Alternate medicine. Extremely PostScript is fast and fun to use. All access" feature for you. Have your specialized topics. Software manuals. you really need is your favorite word modem dial(800) 638-8369 , followed Customized coursework. Grandma’s processor or editor. byHHH . Then XTX99005,SCRIPT . memoirs. Products with an unknown Level II adds open font paths, user A freeGEnie brochure if you voice market size. Reviewer’s copy before a objects, data filtering, compression call(800) 638-9636 . full rollout. Family genealogy. Local options, higher speed, better colors, history. Or just bringing out-of-print and direct FAX interface. Level II is as Book-on-demand printing classics back to life. much a step up from level I as level I A newBook-on-demand publishing Recently,BOD has passed a critical is over clay tablet and Cunieform. opportunity is finally emerging. With Turing Test threshold. In which you Be absolutely certain to get the real BOD, books are published one at a time can not detect any quality difference item directly from Adobe. There are on an as-ordered basis. between your ownBOD product and a several fake PostScript clones that are WithBOD , there are none of those high volume commercial print job. In outright atrocities. staggering front end expenses or the mind-numbing makeready needed by (2) Use 600 DPI resolution– Earlier traditional printing. The time from the NEXT MONTH: Don looks at PostScript printers offered only a 300 author’s disks to the reviewer copies new developments in online DPI resolution. Which gave serious gets measured inminutes rather than computing BBS resources. compromises in the print quality and years. Changes and corrections can be photo halftones. Properly done today, trivially made at any time. Individual typical600 DPI laser printing should copies can be easily customized, up to fact, you can now do abetter product end up looking muchbetter than most and including the owner’s name in than most book publishers offer. jiffy printing. gold on the cover. Author’s royalties You could easily doBOD on your On the other hand, there are several can be as high as80 percent or more of own. Either self-publishing, or as a good reasons to studiously avoid the the selling price. service bureau for others. Or hacking higher resolution printers. As you You get to make all of your own usable new products such as joggers, double resolution, you take four times mistakes. Rather than paying others shears, and binders. longer to process your data and need to make them for you. The quaint old Or maybe even a popcorn sized CD four times the memory. You also get concept of "getting your manuscript machine for instant printing of 200,000 into overpriced bizarre low volume accepted" has no meaning at all with titles. Andall of the rest of them one machines from oddball companies. BOD. Acceptance is a certainty. short phone call away. Several of which are notorious for There’s no remainders, returns, or The real power of the press lies in using buggy fake PostScript and claim

October 1993 / Resource Bin I 85 resolutions beyond what their engine printer off. No need to rebuild all of new from and toner can deliver long term. your fonts bitmaps on power up. Fortunately, there are some newly Naturally, you can have hundreds DON LANCASTER available tricks that create the illusion or even thousands of fonts on your ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK of effective resolutions well beyond hard disk. You can also set up shared The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog 600 DPI. One isresolution enhancement , SCSI comm, where host and printer op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active a simple and cheap chip which adds canboth talk to the same disk system. filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 partial dots to smooth out jaggies. The This is the fastest two-way comm you ApplePhotograde system gives quality can achieve today. CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS Millions of copies in print worldwide.THE two halftones even down at300 DPI that Finally, many level II operators will books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. are the equivalent of an uncorrected demand hard disk access. Especially About as hands-on as you can get.$24.50 each. 1200 DPI. A brand new error diffusion for video compression, fancy forms, technique can cause any gradient or and other user objects. INCREDIBLE SECRET waterfall printed at600 DPI appear PostScript level II does let you use MONEY MACHINE II exactly like it was done on a 2400 DPI certain strings as file objects. This can Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting phototypesetter. form a temporary workaround for a up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 diskless system. Especially when flash (3) Use high speed TWO-way comm– memory is also available. LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY PostScript is a totally general purpose Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes computer language. Ithas to be able to (5) Use a bolt-on duplexer– A duplexer the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active Filter Cookbook, PostScript video, Case Against talkboth ways, getting info from a prints both sides of the page with one Patents, Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and hostand returning error messages and trip through the printer. Duplexers Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 data back to the host screen. dramatically improve throughput and One-way PostScript comm simply will slash your scrap rate. They can greatly LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES not do! Do not use it! raise employee morale. Ask...... the Guru I or II or III $24.50 Hardware...... Hacker II or III $24.50 In fact, one-way PostScript comm is A duplexer is essential for serious The...... Case Against Patents $24.50 PostScript...... Beginner Stuff $39.50 just about as dumb as computing with BOD work. Older duplexing printers PostScript...... Show and Tell $39.50 your monitor turned off. This literally did include the LaserJetIID and IIID . Intro...... to PostScript Video $39.50 PostScript...... Reference II $29.50 blindfolds you and ties both of your These worked fairly well, but were PostScript...... Tutorial/Cookbook $18.50 feet together. slow and lacked hard disk access. The PostScript...... by Example $29.50 Understanding...... PS Programming $29.50 Good ways to communicate include trend today is tobolt-on duplexers that PostScript:...... A Visual Approach $22.50 PostScript...... Program Design $24.50 Ethernet, AppleTalk, and Shared SCSI upgrade existing machines. Thinking...... in PostScript $22.50 comm. High speed two-way serial is For instance, the duplexer for the LaserWriter...... Reference $19.50 Type...... 1 Font Format $15.50 also useful. For PC users, there is a Hewlett-Packard 4SI lists for $600 . The Acrobat...... Reference $24.50 new high speed two way IEEE.P1284 duplexers should eventually become Whole...... works (all PostScript) $350.00 PostScript...... Secrets Brochure FREE parallel interface. available for all popular printers. Hacking...... Secrets Brochure FREE But underno circumstances should There are temporary workarounds youever use PostScript with one-way if you do not have a duplexer. One is POSTSCRIPT SECRETS parallel ports! To eventhink of doing to rearrange the sequence your disk A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, so is ludicrous. Similarly,COPY ing to files are called up as "even" and "odd" workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any a serialCOM1 port is a no-no, because jobs. Another route isUNDUPLEX.PS . PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 of the lack of the reverse data channel. This software routine autoprints odd Certain print buffers and networking or even pages. BOOK-ON-DEMAND PUB KIT Ongoing details on Book-on-demand publishing, schemes can also be bad news, unless Note that any duplexer has to be a new method of producing books only when and they also clearly provide for a full and carefully integrated into the printer’s as ordered. Reprints, sources, samples. $39.50 fast return channel. firmware code. An add-on homebrew Many more details on all of this in kludge won’t hack it. For maximum BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering STARTUP.PS. speed, the pages have to print out in a columns. Includes the case against patents, book 2-4-1-3-6-8-7-5… pipelined sequence. on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm (4) The printer hard disk is essential– stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 And the positioning of the backsides Most users grossly underestimate the have to offer "normal" and "calendar" power of the hard disk dedicated to a tumble options. RESOURCE BIN I PostScript printer access. First and A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts columns to date, including a new index and his foremost, all of your jobs will print (6) Optimize speed– One of the really master names and numbers list. $24.50 faster if you read them off local hard great features ofBOD printing is that disk files, instead of having to resend it isself-collating . Your entire volume FREE SAMPLES all page descriptions each and every comes out of your printer ready to Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. time. File access times are five to ten bind. Because of this, each page prints The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 times better than the very fastest of once in sequence. You simply can’t cents. Modem access: (800) 638-8369, then a HHH. On prompt, XTX99005,SCRIPT. two-way comm. afford to spend any time making up FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA/MC Second, the hard disk can free up individual pages. You want the pages both your host and an operator. Just to pour out of the printer at maximum SYNERGETICS say "print up four copies of this book" mechanical speed. Box 809-NV Thatcher, AZ 85552 and walk away. Thirdly, your jobs Fortunately, all of those long page ()520 428-4073 will run faster because the font cache makeups most people wrongly blame gets preserved when you turn your on PostScript are totally unnecessary. Write in 146 on Reader Service Card.

86 October 1993 /Resource Bin I correctly, the makeup time is less than the paper mechanical feeding time. At any rate, they pour out of the printer BOOK-ON-DEMAND PUBLISHING RESOURCES at full speed. Page after page after page. From file sizes of12K or so. Access LaserPress Kroy Quick Printing See SPEEDUP.PS for more details 3502 W Earll Drive 14555 N Hayden Road 1680 SW Bayshore Blvd on insider speed secrets. Phoenix, AZ 85019 Scottsdale, AZ 85260 Port St Lucie, FL 34984 (602) 272-2525 (602) 951-1593 (407) 879-6666 (7) Refill your own toner cartridges– A Adobe Systems Paper Direct Quick Tickets new toner cartridge might cost you as 1585 Charleston Road 57 Romanelli Avenue G-3030 W Pasadena much as$145 and may only be good Mountain View, CA 94039 S Hackensack, NJ 07606 Flint, MI 48504 for2500 copies or so. Which gives you (800) 833-6687 (800) A-PAPERS (800) 521-1142 really poor economics. Instead, you Apple Computer Paper Plus Quill could refill your own toner cartridges 20525 Mariani Avenue 300 Oceangate #800 PO Box 4700 for as little as$4.50 a shot and do so Cupertino, CA 95014 Long Beach, CA 90802 Lincolnshire, IL 60197 (408) 996-1010 (213) 436-8291 (312) 634-4800 dozens of times. The20:1 or better cost savings here is a powerful incentive to Bennett LaserBrite Pelsaer Synergetics doing your own reloads. 720 4th Street SW 4125 Prospect Drive Box 809 Rochester, MN 55902 Carmichael, CA 95608 Thatcher, AZ 85552 To not do so is sheer lunacy. (507) 280-9101 (916) 967-6401 (520) 428-4073 Toner reloading is fast and simple. Blanks USA Photolabels Don Thompson Since the process can take less than 2722 Fernbrook Lane N 333 Kimberly Drive 23072 Lake Center Dr #100 two minutes, you just might end up Minneapolis, MN 55447 Carol Stream, IL 60188 El Toro, CA 92630 paying others as much as$1200 an (800) 328-7311 (708) 690-0132 (714) 855-3838 hour to recharge cartridges for you. CardsNow PosterWorks Triumph The bare bones fundamentals of 6401 Odana Road 1 Kendall Sq #323 Bl 60 54-21 48th Street recharging are shown in my Intro to Madison, WI 53719 Cambridge, MA 02139 Maspeth, NY 1378 (800) 233-9767 (617) 395-8350 (800) 223-2508 PostScript video. Recharger magazine has hundreds of ads for recharging Die-O-Perf Printers Exchange TypeWorld services and supplies. Used cartridges 1721 E Pioneer Drive 1306 Greenbrier Road One Technology Park Dr Irving, TX 75061 Anniston, AL 36201 Westford, MA 01886 are usually found via your local paper (800) 843-2807 (205) 831-5589 (508) 392-2157 classified ads for$5 each. Be sure to watch out for all those GEnie Printer's Hot Line U&lc 401 N Washington Street PO Box 1709 2 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza obscenely misleading "environmental Rockville, MD 20850 Fort Dodge, IA 50501 New York, NY 10017 recycling" hogwash ads. What these (800) 638-9636 (515) 955-1600 (212) 371-0699 folks are really trying to do is get the HDS Systems Printer's Shareware Unibind cartsoff the market to prevent their PO Box 42767 5019 W Lovers Lane 4125 Prospect Drive personal recycling and reuse. So they Tucson, AZ 85733 Dallas, TX 75209 Carmichael, CA 95608 (520) 881-2632 (214) 350-1902 (916) 967-6401 can instead sell more new units. This is ecopornography at its worst. Helene's Hotline Printers Shopper Velo-Bind 1680 SW Bayshore Blvd PO Drawer 1056 650 Almanor Avenue (8) Do all your own maintenance– A Port St Lucie, FL 34984 Chula Vista, CA 92012 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 typical laser printer can be used for (407) 879-6666 (800) 854-2911 (800) 538-1798 several million copies. Providing you Hewlett Packard Procom Technology Xerox do your own routine work on it and 19310 Pruneridge Avenue 2181 Dupont Drive 404 Washington Blvd bolt on new modules as they age. Cupertino, CA 94014 Irvine, CA 92715 Mundelein, IL 60060 (800) 752-0900 (510) 538-8916 (800) 323-1249 Simple stunts such as scraping the pickoff pawls with your fingernail can Horsetrader Queblo Martin Yale PO Box 11712 131 Heartland Blvd 500 N Spaulding Avenue triple the life of a fusion roller. And Santa Ana, CA 92711 Brentwood, NY 11717 Chicago, IL 60624 knowing where the smudged hidden (712) 921-3120 (800) 523-9080 (312) 826-4444 mirror is could greatly improve your print quality. So can routine care of the charging wires. Even the slightest All those makeup times have nothing ascompiling . You can run routines that amount of dirt on a duplex charging whatsoever to do with the PostScript create new textfiles which are much wire can really cause bizarre results language. They are caused by klutzy shorter and run much faster than the on second-side printing. applications generators and poorly originals. Key software here is the Many manufacturers will positively written code. Why anyone tolerates Adobe Distillery, orDISTILL.PS and refuse to make their repair manuals these at all is beyond me. its improved offspring inAcrobat . I available. Instead, the Hewlett Packard There are simple steps you can take also use aMAUDEDOC.PS "double manuals are both readily available to dramatically speed up your print distiller" to further improve all my file and outstanding. And they apply to times. Simply leaving your printer on lengths and speeds. most competing products. and using decent high speed two-way Ferinstance, on all of my own BOD Use HP both for manuals and larger comm can make a big difference. A volumes, three-column detailed pages replacement assemblies. Individual hard disk gives you further speedups with superb text justification, headers, parts are sold byDon Thompson and in because it eliminates comm times. footers, and one or two fancy figures the variousRecharger ads. But the real speed secret is known often make up inzero time. Er, more One little-known repair tip: If your

October 1993 /Resource Bin I 87 printer makes an intermittent and a seeking aps for their tiny and low cost business cards. Duplex stuff still gets muffled yowling noise, open up the Kittyhawk hard drives. done on an older LaserJetIIID . Higher lid and let the cat out. Street prices are around$1800 for volume products do get farmed out to the LaserJet 4M and$2050 or so for the Access LaserPress. (9) Aim for reasonable costs– $1900 is a LaserWriter Pro630. Because of that fair price for aBOD printer. Say hard disk, the Pro630 gives you more What about photos? another$300 for the bolt-on duplexer. bang for the buck. By now, you’ve probably seen some A maximum of0.15 cents per page H-P also has the largerLaserJet 4SI . dismal attempts at including photos toner costs. And a minimum effective This one is faster and offers a low cost on laser printed pages. And may have life (with care) of600,000 copies. bolt-on duplexer. The4SI has some concluded that the results are all just As for a computer, a Commodore-64 new ultra high speed andtwo-way (!) plain awful. is gross overkill. PostScript is such an parallel port comm under that new There have been some major photo incredibly powerful printer-resident IEEE 1284 standard. But it’s not at all software and firmware breakthroughs language, that any old dumb terminal clear that the unacceptably bad long in the past few weeks. These now can will serve as a jim-dandy host. term print quality problems of the 3SI let you laser print superb photos in The goal here is to actually end up have yet gotten cleared up in this yourBOD work. Yes, even at plain old cheaper than older jiffy printing. While upgrade. Once again, no hard disk 300 DPI. Although the results are far delivering a higher quality product at yet. Which temporarily places this better at600 DPI . a much faster turnaround. machine beyond the pale. The plug-in You will have to pay attention to Figure one penny per page for the hard disk slot is there. detail, follow a steep learning curve, machine amortization. Say0.6 cents I do not recommendany older or and pick up some PostScript smarts for the paper. And0.15 cents per page lower cost printer. Er, except possibly along the way. But top quality photos side for the toner. If you ignore such for a used LaserWriter G. Or an NT or are now definitely aBOD reality. frivolities as labor and overhead, that NTX upgraded to a LasG with a new The first of these breakthroughs is is a price of1.9 cents per double sided tray. As a group, the others simply do calledhistogram equalization . If you page. Add fifty cents for binding, and not deliver an acceptable bang for the only have a limited number of grays you’re looking at$2.40 for a 200 page buck. Besides missing many key BOD available, you have to make them all book. features from our list. Going away work equally hard. Histo does a photo With your costs certain to further fromCanon engines is risky and has dodge and burn for you, making sure improve in the future. worse refilling economics and fewer each gray does its part. Which printer? third party support sources. And fake The second is the Apple Photograde PostScript is unacceptable. system, which sets the standard for You can fill all of theseBOD needs If you’re on a very low budget, try what can be done with laser halftones. today. Each is a technical reality. But GhostScript GHOST261.EXE and your Sadly, Photograde is a real memory the bad news is that you can’t quite present printer. Later, you can work hog and is not yet600 DPI compatible. get each and every feature on any one your way up to a real machine. But the quality here is tops. printer. So, some compromise is still A final choice that meets all but one The third technique is called gamma needed. An idealBOD printer should of ourBOD printer goals is the Xerox correction. If you purposely throw a arrive "real soon now". Docutech system. Very fast printing. few of your printer’s grays away, the At this writing, I do feel the most AstonishingEmerald speeds. Does an rest of them become well centered and bang for the buck by far lies in that infinite loop in seventeen seconds flat. balanced. The fourth breakthrough is AppleLaserWriter Pro630 . PostScript Internal hard disk support. Enhanced in-printer retouching. Fancy software Level II, high speed two-way comm, 600 DPI resolution. And even an 11 x can help you individually darken or great externaland internal hard disk 17 option. Great print quality. lighten prints. Similar to opening up support,600 DPI , and high quality Two problems with this beast: The or closing down one stop or two. Or photo enhancements. first is its price of a house and two raise or lower contrast. Like printing The two negatives are no duplexer cars. The second is their really stupid one paper grade high or low. (you might temporarily use software per-copy pricing policy. Ten copies of Our final photo breakthrough is the duplexing and disk file rearranging a hundred page document cost much real biggie. This one is known as the instead), and no service manuals. But more than a hundred copies of a ten spotless halftone scheme. The old way, theHP manuals apply. page one. Totally dumb. you traded off your halftone spot size The most obvious choice in a laser There are service bureaus that offer versus the number of available grays. printer is theHewlett Packard LaserJet Docutech services. David Seid’s Access The best compromise was often not so 4M. Genuine Adobe PostScript level 2. LaserPress is one. He combines BOD great. Especially at300 DPI , where a 600 DPI. Outstanding repair manuals. with traditional binding and finishing 70 line screen of 19 grays was the best Aggressive pricing. Readily available services. He is a tad pricey, but is a that you used to be able to do. With replacement parts. Good toner refill rather good example of where people spotless halftones, you can get64 or economics. A very slight (and largely are going withBOD today. And more more grays out of the same photo. negligible) edge in print quality over than cost competitive with old line With totally negligible grain. Apple, owing to the modestly better printing in quantities of50-500 . Now, any sampled data system has resolution enhancer. No duplexer. My own setup? My main machine aliasing and quantizing noise. The big No hard disk! This makes the 4M is still a LaserWriter Pro630, backed problem with traditional halftones is almost totally useless for serious BOD up with a LaserWriter G and a QMS that the noise (or dot "grain") is very work. And incredibly stupid, because Turbo 820. And two old LaserWriters. regular and low in frequency. Spotless HP has another division desperately Which still seem best for covers and halftones make the noise much higher

88 October 1993 /Resource Bin I in frequency and much more random. it is best to jog all your pages before Helene’s Hotline finder service. Quick You simply do not notice it. binding. While those real joggers are Tickets for tickets and Quill for office Spotless halftones look ridiculously rather pricey, you can easily build up supplies.Recharger for parts or toner. better than traditional ones. You have your own from a$25 jitter sander. A Synergetics forBOD books, software, to see one to believe the improvement final edge trimming also can make an and consulting. here. These do use somewhat longer important addition to your products. Don Thompson for outstanding laser files and require a tad more front end Sadly, there aren’t any sanely priced printer training, kits, videos, and all processing. They work best in one size guillotine trimmers. The leader here repair parts.Triumph for rugged but on one selected printer.These remain seems to beTriumph , and a14 inch costly cutters.TypeWorld and U&lc as experimental. But the results speak semi-automatic cutter will cost you great typography mags.Unibind for for themselves. You could now even $1700 new, or $1100 used. Pelsaer binders.USI for laminating. beat Photograde at its own game. Used printshop gear is notorious Velobind for the non-perfect bindings. Examples of what you can do here for really bad ripoffs. If you do not Martin Yale for folders or joggers. includeLENAHIST.PS , RETOUCH.PS , know what you are doing here, you The flip side ofBOD is marketing. andSPOTLESS.PS . are pretty near certain to get done in. SeeBOOKMARK.PS for details. More Used cutters appear inHorsetrader . onBOD resources in BODRES1.PS and Binding and finishing There are a number of methods to BODRES2.PS. There are all sorts of really lousy make your covers more durable. One ways out there to bind books. Most of is to use real ink covers. Another is This month’s contest them are horribly overpriced and an Bakerizing, a new zero cost process in For this month’s contest just tell me outright ripoff. After testing dozens of which you place a sheet of slip-coated something new aboutBOD in 175,000 these systems, there are only three I mylar in contact with a toner image words or less. An idea. Or a concept. can genuinely recommend. and then apply heat and pressure. The Or a hack. Or whatever. The first of these is the old Personal resulting calandering melts the toner There will be a large pile of my new Velobinder system. This is a cheap but and makes it ultra black, glossy, and Incredible Secret Money Machine II non-perfect way to bind such things more durable. books going to the dozen or so better as reports or whatever. Size is limited Color hot stamps can dramatically entries, plus an all-expense-paid (FOB to a few dozen pages. Startup kits are improve your covers.Kroy Color is one Thatcher,AZ) tinaja quest for two that sometimes offered for$29 . Bindings possibility here, albeit an expensive will go to the very best of all. themselves cost a quarter. one. You could instead laminate your There are a number of the hot glue covers in the matte or gloss materials Getting started binding systems available, but I like fromUSI , or else use a varnish or a uv I’ve put together a Book-on-demand the one byUnibind the best. These are curing overlay. resource kit which can get you jump simply covers that include a hot glue There’s dozens of free print shop started inBOD . I also stock my own strip inside them. You put your text trade journals.Quick Printing is just PostScript stuff, along with the very into the cover and then apply heat. A about the best of the batch. best texts by other major PostScript special companion toaster is offered Bunches more on cover production, authors. Either by themselves, or all to do the job right. Covers are around jogging, shearing and related BOD together in our enormous Whole Works a dollar each. The toaster is$200 , but finishing appears inBINDCUT.PS . package. Check mySynergetics ad for Unibind will give you one free if you more details. Or you could call my buy enough covers. I particularly like Some resources voice helpline below. the matte covers. I underlay these Let’s briefly review several of the And, of course, there’s now over a with heavy parchment stock. more importantBOD resources: thousand files that areBOD related up The third product is by far the best Access LaserPress is a great new BOD on myGEnie PSRT . A large handful of BOD binding system I have ever seen. service bureau.Adobe for PostScript. these have been mentioned earlier in It is calledPelsaer and is also offered Apple for printers. Or Bennett for laser our story. ✦ byUnibind . It uses the same Unibind thermography. TryBlanks USA , Cards toaster. Pelsaer is simply a large sheet Now, or Die-o-Perf for business cards Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don of paper that has been folded into a mailers, or forms.Hewlett Packard for Lancaster is the author of30 books and "U" shaped pair of flysheets. Hot glue printers. AndHDS Systems for custom countless tech articles. Don maintains his has been added along the spline. Cost layout work andBOD consulting. no-charge tech helpline found at (520) is around thirty cents. Horsetrader for print shop products. 428-4073, besides offering all of his own To use Pelsaer, you’ll print up any Kroy for hot stamp foil overlays. Paper books, reprints, and all of his consulting old cover any way you like. With any Direct, Paper Plus , and Queblo for the services. He also has a free brochure full of spine lettering and overcoat you like. paper stocks.Photolabels for full color his resource secrets waiting for you. Your Drop the Pelsaer into the cover and stick-on photos.Posterworks for prints best calling times are8-5 on weekdays, your jogged text into the Pelsaer. Pop up to a quarter acre (!) in size. Mountain Standard Time. it in the toaster. Then nuke it. Procom for the internal printer hard Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, The ultimateBOD binding system disks.Printer’s Exchange , and Printer’s where a special Resource Bin topic has would be a peel-and-stick piece of hot Hotline for resources. Printer’s shopper been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. glue over cold glue. These are sold by as a pricey but full line distributor of For fast modem access, use (800) 638-8369 Planax. But with an utterly absurd print shop needs. Printer’s Shareware and enterHHH . When prompted, enter "What are they on and where can we for cheap software. XTX99005,SCRIPT. get some of it?" price. Quick Printing is the finest of those You can also reach Don at Synergetics, Regardless of your chosen method, print trade journals. Especially their Box809 , Thatcher, AZ 85552 .

October 1993/Resource Bin I 89 90 October 1993 /Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number twenty-two

A look at online resources & opportunities

ur usual reminder here that the transfer for convenience. Simply have and cheaper than usingXMODEM or Resource Bin is now a two-way your source machine upload and your its improved offspring. But note that a O column. You can get tech help, destination download. Naturally, the listing permits comm errors. Still, if consultant referrals and off-the-wall moved files may or may not be usable you have clean lines and are looking networking on nearly any electronic, on your second machine. But at least at tutorials, text, or at uncompressed tinaja questing, personal publishing, they are on disk and readable. code in a language that you are adept money machine, or computer topic by It never ceases to amaze me that I at, you might save big bucks. calling me at(520) 428-4073 weekdays can press one key on my GEnie PSRT At worst, you might have to relist 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider and instantly send email to zillions of every now and then. secret resources brochures waiting for users. At a cost per thousand of –zero . Most BBS stuff is extremely diffuse. you when you call or write. But do note that typicalBBS users do You have to wade through a lot of A portion of myPSRT RoundTable not take at all kindly to junk email. It chaff to get to the wheat. Just about all onGEnie has also been set aside for is very easy to do vastly more harm of the services need vastly improved youNuts & Volts readers. This is the than good. The secrets here are to (A) you are here coding, better sideways place to go for instant tech answers. keep it short,(B) limit it to genuinely navigation, and newglobal all-forum Among the many files in our library, usefulnews , and(C) use it rarely. search capability. Cross linked access you will find complete reprints and Let’s check into what I feel are the gateways between the main services preprints for all of my Resource Bin most important onlineBBS resources also need to be provided. There is no columns. I’ve just added a new "fast today. Before we do, though, let’s take sane reason why you should not be access" feature for you. Have your a closer look at… able to instantly flip between a GEnie modem dial(800) 638-8369 , followed Roundtable and aCompuServe Forum. byHHH . Then XTX99005,SCRIPT . The Downside User interfaces on most boards are A freeGEnie brochure if you voice What’s wrong with telecomputing still rather primitive. Cunieform and call(800) 638-9636 . today? Well, quite a bit. clay tablet even. Old text interfaces They are out there. Online access can be expensive. The are absurd in this day and age. And Tens of thousands of the online BBS only bigger surprise than your first those graphic user interfaces are still bulletin boards. Through which you $468.74 phone bill occurs when your poor. Most users quickly abandon any can immediately get in touch with the sixth grade son or daughter racks up a on-line graphic interfaces for better experts inany field. Or instantly pick $4,687.40 one instead. third party host-based ones. up the latest inside info onany topic. There are lots of ways to reduce all Your four most desirableBBS info Or meet new and unusual people. Or of your telecomm costs. Practice and interfaces are(A) Device independent, tap all sorts of entertainment services higher speed modems are the obvious camera-ready, and license free total fromG+ through XXX- . Or even buy a first steps. Use the cheaper and closer text/graphics pages;(B) Ready-to-use coconut-anchovy pizza. software program files;(C) CD quality The online services have gotten to digital audio; or(D) HDTV animated the point where you can not afford to NEXT MONTH: Don looks at MPEG compressed video. ignore them. All you’ll need for access the tools & test equipment I routinely offer(A) all the time on is a low cost modem and some comm that can be cost effective. myGEnie PSRT . Our ultra-short and software. If you can not find anything ultra fast textfiles instantly give you better, tryCrosstalk or ProComm on a camera ready art onany computer. At PC,Microphone on a Mac, or ProTerm services until you become comfortable 11K for routine uncompressed pages. on the Apple IIe. Just be certain your with yourBBS comm. Download all License free and with no special user comm software has ascrollback feature the instructions and the menus so you software. I use the triple distilled raw where you can see previous screens. can avoid relisting them online. There PostScript method we looked at in my Plus a way of logging to disk. are quite a few programs (such as previous columns and in those Blatant There’s also lots of nonobvious uses GEnie’sAlladin ) that can give you a Opportunist reprints. forBBS systems. Ferinstance, you can faster and automated access. Knowing Others will shortly begin offering use most any oldBBS to transfer files all your phone fees and the hours they Adobe’sAcrobat system, which is far between host machines with different apply can also help a lot. klutzier and requires special software operating systems. Or time shift the SimplyLIST ing files can be faster to run their longer and slower files.

November 1993 / Resource Bin I 91 As before, I’d be most happy to help largely unexplored caves. new from you offer cheap device-independent So, I can assure you first hand that and camera-ready text/graphic files. today, there is no location on, beneath, or DON LANCASTER All you have to do is ask. above this planet that is still "remote". ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK Compression remains an absolute Period. So don’t give me any "remote" The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog zoo. Among the main platforms, there bull. Tell it to your therapist. op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active are a dozen choices in use. Many BBS If you can’t find it, you ain’t lookin. filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 systems might serve a wide variety of The online research resource which users on an even wider assortment of has been the greatest equalizer for me CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS Millions of copies in print worldwide.THE two host computers. You’ll see everything has been theDialog Information Service . books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. from Crays to Commodores. Yes, they are obscenely expensive and About as hands-on as you can get.$24.50 each. Now, there are a very few system are woefully old line. Until you work specific files in which it might seem in that good old Uh, compared to what? INCREDIBLE SECRET reasonable to insist on one particular factor. Then it is no contest. MONEY MACHINE II compression scheme. But it makes far Dialog is largely a broker of online Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting more sense to offer a choice of global information compiled by others. They up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 compression to the user. have some400+ services they provide. Whereineverything requested gets Nearly everything from Medline to LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes squashed using their favorite scheme. the Denver Post. At last count, they the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active EachBBS would have some internal had a halfbillion references instantly Filter Cookbook, PostScript video, Case Against Patents, Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and compression they use. On a request, available. Areas covered are science, Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 they could decompress to raw text or technology, law, medicine, patents, re-encode to any desired format on history, reference works, political, LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES your downloading. economics, and bunches more. Ask...... the Guru I or II or III $24.50 I have found that compression can My three favorite data bases here Hardware...... Hacker II or III $24.50 The...... Case Against Patents $24.50 oftenincrease your downloading costs. areCOMPENDEX , MATHSCI , and PostScript...... Beginner Stuff $39.50 Especially if you canLIST a raw file, INSPEC. Not too long ago, I needed an PostScript...... Show and Tell $39.50 Intro...... to PostScript Video $39.50 instead of having toXMODEM one or update on fluxgate magnetometers for PostScript...... Reference II $29.50 PostScript...... Tutorial/Cookbook $18.50 more squashed file. myHardware Hacker column over in PostScript...... by Example $29.50 On myPSRT , we studiously avoid Electronics Now. These are the solution Understanding...... PS Programming $29.50 PostScript:...... A Visual Approach $22.50 compressing files under100K , unless to solid state compasses, robotic nav, PostScript...... Program Design $24.50 they are extremely host specific. We and archaeological exploration. Well, Thinking...... in PostScript $22.50 LaserWriter...... Reference $19.50 do try to make as many of our files as getting the key abstracts of the latest Type...... 1 Font Format $15.50 Acrobat...... Reference $24.50 device independent as possible. Most and best info available through Dialog Whole...... works (all PostScript) $350.00 of them will run equally well on any only took a few minutes and cost me PostScript...... Secrets Brochure FREE Hacking...... Secrets Brochure FREE Mac or PC, an Amiga or an Apple, an around$24 . Atari or a Commodore. And produce I also like the library resources that identical camera-ready output from Dialog offers. EspeciallyUhlricht’s , POSTSCRIPT SECRETS A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free the very same textfile. Books in Print, and the Encyclopedia of fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any Finally, you are likely to run into Associations. Others might find their PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 some very strange denizens on those extensive patent resources helpful. Or BBS systems. Many who prefer heat to all their employment listings. Or their BOOK-ON-DEMAND PUB KIT light. All bets are off anytime after 3 thesis abstracts. Or their listings for Ongoing details on Book-on-demand publishing, a new method of producing books only when and AM. Pretend it is a zoo. But watch out thousands of foundations which give as ordered. Reprints, sources, samples. $39.50 for those aardvarks. lots of money away. They will get to you every time. Dialog has recently shown up on BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I But don’t let any of these negatives CompuServe and GEnie. Actually, the The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering stop you. These are all problems that GEnie service is really a CompuServe columns. Includes the case against patents, book on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm are quickly getting repaired. Ignoring top secret crosslink. stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 telecomputing in this day and age is These new services are cash and sheer stupidity. carry, meaning that you pay only for RESOURCE BIN I On to the major players… results and nothing extra for online A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts columns to date, including a new index and his time. Ferinstance, a search that finds master names and numbers list. $24.50 Dialog Information Service something costs you$2.50 . If it misses, I still get all of these mind-numbing it is only$1.50 . A listing of found titles FREE SAMPLES helpline calls from people who claim is thirty cents per title. The abstracts Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. they live in such a "remote" area that do remain pricey at$3 each. The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 they can’t find technical information. All of which usually ends up only cents. Modem access: (800) 638-8369, then a HHH. On prompt, XTX99005,SCRIPT. From such places as Cambridge, MA somewhat cheaper than using Dialog FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA/MC and Palo Alto,CA even. from your local library. Searches cost Well, here I am sitting on my sand less, but the abstracts cost more. But it SYNERGETICS dune in the the Upper Sonorian desert sure is convenient to instantly have 24 Box 809-NV Thatcher, AZ 85552 watching Gila Monsters. I have done hour home access to all the significant ()520 428-4073 first rate research up on wilderness research ever done anywhere. fire towers or worked underground in Dialog also provides direct subs at Write in 146 on Reader Service Card.

92 November 1993/Resource Bin I the feds, even. The number of users is ON-LINE AND RELATED RESOURCES now exploding attwenty percent per month. Fast and easy access links are now offered all over the place. Most Adobe Systems Acrobat Electronics Now PC Techniques commuinity colleges and many high 1585 Charleston Road 500-B Bi-County Blvd 7721 E Gray Road #204 schools now have an InterNet access. Mountain View, CA 94039 Farmingdale, NY 11735 Scottsdale, AZ 85260 (800) 833-6687 (516) 293-3000 (602) 483-0192 Anyone who wants to get on Internet can now do so. Cheaply or even free. America Online GEnie Synergetics Most of the new users are a totally 8619 Westwood Center Drive 401 N Washington Street Box 809 Vienna, VA 22182 Rockville, MD 20850 Thatcher, AZ 85552 different breed of animal. Some of (800) 827-6364 (800) 638-9636 (520) 428-4073 them arelurkers who steal all they can but never contribute. Others are those CompuServe Midnight Engineering The WELL 5000 Arlington Center Blvd 1700 Washington Avenue 27 Gate Five Road flamers who go out of their way to be Columbus, OH 43220 Rocky Ford, CO 81067 Sausalito, CA 94965 obnoxious troublemakers. Yet others (800) 848-8199 (719) 254-4558 (415) 332-4335 are "free email" scamming refugees Dialog Nuts & Volts Whole Earth Review from theProdigy debacle. Still others 3460 Hillview Avenue 430 Princeland Court 27 Gate Five Road are junk mail marketing pros. Palo Alto, CA 94304 Corona, CA 91719 Sausalito, CA 94965 (415) 848-2700 (714) 371-8497 (415) 332-1716 Your bottom line is this: The few people still paying for the Usenet are vastly different than the many people several hundred dollars per year. Plus So, your private Usenet access is now using it for free. The new users two dollars a minute typical connect trivially easy to pick up today. Either are literally choking the network to time. They also now have a lot of info free or, at the very least, without any death. And it is going to get worse. available onCD ROM . Plus all sorts of surcharges. And several of the online No way can it continue. publication services. services are now switching from plain I don’t have an answer to this. I They have a really great index and gateways to total access setups. suspect what will happen is that some catalog. Free even. But you have to act There are now a dozen books out of the original Usenet people will start as if you areseriously interested in a on navigating Usenet. Check those upUsenet II with a highly restrictive direct subscription before they agree ads right here inNuts & Volts , or any access which once again restores the to send you one. larger technical bookstore. original caring and sharing scholarly My own current Usenet address is environment. Perhaps by demanding InterNet [email protected]. UNIX-only compression schemes to InterNet or Usenet is the largest BBS My answers to most Usenet email are keep out the riff raff. in the world. This one started out as a then posted at no charge to my GEnie Stay tuned on this one. federally fundedARPANET gateway PSRT where they can best be shared. for allUNIX users, especially teachers Response time averages an hour or so GEnie and researchers. Most of the original during normal use patterns. Private Your three best commercial online users get paid to participate through email answers are also available at my services areCompuServe , GEnie , and tax subsidies. Some carefully hidden, standard consulting rates. America Online. Because I am a GEnie others quite obvious. I’m often asked why I don’t make sysop, I tend to be biased here. Anything can and will happen on all my files available free on Usenet. CompuServe is the largest while Usenet.Anarchy 101 reigns. The time Well, I don’t slop at the public trough. America Online is the friendliest. But from when someone decides to keep a I am an independent and a for-profit GEnie is widely regarded as having secret until a vastly improved public venture that has to see an underlying the most and the finest of technical domain version is Usenet revealed cash flow to continue. Exactly like the downloads in their library files. GEnie often gets measured in nanoseconds. Safeway folks or those Purina Doggy is also the lowest cost service. At last In several cases, the response time Chow people. count, something like135,000 library has clearly exceeded the speed of files are now available onGEnie . light. Ferinstance, every math freak in The Imminent Disaster All three services have hundreds or the world knew about the probable A major disaster of unprecedented even thousands of local call numbers proof to theFermat’s Last Theorem less proportions is now stalking InterNet. across the country. So they are likely than five minutes after it happened. One that is certain to profoundly and to be a local call away for you. GEnie Usenet has no sysop as such. Nor dramatically alter Usenet forever. usually costs$3 per hour, starting off any central repository. Instead, each At one time, Usenet was largely a with an$8 per month flat fee which user can be a sysop if they want to. closed club of tightly knit researchers, gives you four free hours. Some elect to ride herd on specific file teachers, and similar academic types. Besides all their shopping services, collections or special interests. The average user went far out of their email and the Usenet gateway, GEnie At one time, Usenet was very hard way to contribute as much as they now offers many hundreds of special to access. It was mostly by invitation took. Caring and sharing were the RoundTables. Each of these will often only from sponsors that paid steep watchwords for the day. If someone include a news feature, some direct annual fees. Usenet gateways have had a problem, you personally did user-to-user message system, special recently been offered by all of the what you could for them. online group conferences, and an major online services. Including GEnie But all of a sudden, great hoards of extensive download library. andCompuServe . And also by high unwashed masses have discovered Of the many GEnie RoundTables, schools and colleges. the Usenet.Newsweek , talk radio, and tryIBM for PC , MAC for Mac, and A2

November 1993/Resource Bin I 93 orA2.PRO for you Apple II folks. The hardware and software that has to be may be an interesting thing to do. If it RADIO board has thousands of library tied up. And obscenely overestimate fills local needs. Especially if you can files. Especially for ham radio info just how many users will call for how charge local sponsors to prepay for and other hobby comm. long or how often. board services. Say ten bucks a month And there’s hundreds more where Figure a bare minimum of twenty to carry all of the activities of a local these came from. Everything from pet hours per week for each sysop. And church or club. Or school menus and advice to airline schedules to science that’s slicing itmighty thin. special events. Say twenty bucks per fiction to stock quotes. Most of the bigBBS services offer month to offer reviews of all videos a My own portion ofGEnie is called free local calls nationwide. So it will local rent-a-flick has in stock. PSRT. Short forPostScript RoundTable . cost your average national user more The rules here for success are to (1) We’ve now got a thousand files up to call your "free" board than using a Keep it local;(2) Seek out sponsors; (3) that include all of the latest and best commercial service. And hourly long Fill lots of urgent community needs; on PostScript. Which is by far the best distance phone rates aremuch higher (4) Don’t expect much in the way of Hacker’s universal general computing than typical commercialBBS charges. direct sales, and(5) Offer dozens (and language, anytime, ever. We also offer Alternatives such as theFidonet have preferably hundreds) of services. a unique forum for Book-on-demand their own limitations. There are national franchises that publishing and assistance to anyone With many thousands of bulletin sell computer work-at-home schemes who wants to cheaply send device boards currently active, your chances that involve email. These can end up independent camera-ready copy out are overwhelming that more info and quite expensive and the cash flows to anyone anywhere. better info is already on-line. may be overstated. We also do provide special reader If your board is typical, you can As always, look before you leap. services forNuts & Volts , Midnight plan on gettingone upload for each And talk to others about them. Engineering, Electronics Now , and PC 2000 downloads. Unless you offer an Much more on starting your own Techniques magazines. I also do stock extremely special interest, an absolute ventures of this type appears in my online reprints of most of my Resource minimum of one thousand downloads newly revised Incredible Secret Money Bin,, Blatant Opportunist Hardware in your library is essential. Machine II. Hacker, Ask the Guru , and other stories. Very few people actually buy stuff Plus ap notes and tutorials not offered online. This simply does not happen. This Month’s Contest elsewhere. And once again, available Ferinstance, myGEnie PSRT is now up Let’s have a pair of contests for this device independently and full camera to50,000 library downloads spread month. First, put me on to any cheap ready at an average downloading cost over one thousand files. Not half bad. sources for all the stuffDialog offers. oftwenty one cents each. Most of these files do include one or Most especiallyInspec , MathSci , and GEnie provides anAlladin scripting more hard sells for all my Synergetics Compendex. And all the library stuff supervisor free for the downloading. stuff. The total direct email sales these such asBooks in Print , Encyclopedia of Alladin can greatly reduce your costs. generate? Less thanone per week. Associations, and Uhlricht’s Periodicals This can automatically call up in the Not to mention that picking up a Dictionary. middle of the night, grab your email, VISA orMasterCard merchant status Or simply tell me about any other check into selected RoundTables, or for telephone or direct mail orders is unusual online resource that I may even download programs and other still very hard to do in most parts of not know about. library files. A number of new GEnie the country. Or that someBBS comm There will be a large pile of my new graphic interfaces are now available, software is easily tampered with by Incredible Secret Money Machine II but they are admittedly still weak in outsiders. Or that others might use books going to the dozen or so better this crucial area. your service for different purposes entries, plus an all-expense-paid (FOB For a free brochure, give them a call than you first intended. Especially for Thatcher,AZ) tinaja quest for two that at(800) 638-9636 . For online access, use junk mail, file transfers, or free email will go to the very best of all. the info in the end blurb below. mass distribution. Let’s hear from you. ✦ Or that you could conceivably be The Well held legally liable for any postings Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don One of my favorite west coast BBS that anyone takes an exception to. Lancaster is the author of30 books and resources isThe Well . Sysoped by the Alternates to your own board are countless tech articles. Don maintains his people who publish the Whole Earth becoming a sysop for someone else. no-charge tech helpline found at (520) Review. You’ll find lots here on new Or offering your information over the 428-4073, besides offering all of his own age topics, small-is-beautiful, home InterNet. If you do have access to a books, reprints, and all of his consulting power, alternate energy, and holistic specialized resource, the chances are services. He also has a free brochure full of topics. An unusualBBS for sure. But a fairly good that one of the commercial his resource secrets waiting for you. Your very well done one. online services might be interested in best calling times are8-5 on weekdays, These folks are a very important working with you. Besides paying Mountain Standard Time. resource and certainly deserve your you as much as twenty to thirty cents Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, support. Give them a try. an hour, the commercial services offer where a special Resource Bin topic has such perks as unlimited free access to been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. Your Own BBS? everything else online. Plus valuable For fast modem access, use (800) 638-8369 Starting your ownBBS is probably networking contacts. and enterHHH . When prompted, enter not a good idea. Most people grossly Nonetheless, if your main goal is XTX99005,SCRIPT. underestimate all of the time and the something other than making money You can also reach Don at Synergetics, effort required and the quantity of via direct email sales, your own BBS Box809 , Thatcher, AZ 85552 .

94 November 1993/Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number twenty-three

Tools for electronic prototyping.

ur usual reminder here that the to ask Is this trip really necessary? way to jump in with both feet. While Resource Bin is now a two-way Instead of building up some hardware you certainly can find lower cost tool O column. You can get tech help, kludge, would you be better off using sources, their all-at-once "one stop" consultant referrals and off-the-wall a$30 Commodore 64 from a yard sale service is a big plus. networking on nearly any electronic, instead? Or that superb Basic Stamp tinaja questing, personal publishing, from theParallax folks? Small Hand Tools money machine, or computer topic by Or modifying or rebuilding some We might as well start off with calling me at(520) 428-4073 weekdays already existing consumer electronics some screwdrivers. A small jeweler’s 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider product? There is no way you could set and a pair of pocket ones, regular secret resources brochures waiting for cheaply build a stopwatch that even andPhillips . Then some full size ones, you when you call or write. remotely approaches the performance again in regular and Phillips. Be sure A portion of myPSRT RoundTable of a$4 import fromK-Mart . And to pick up some extra long shaft ones onGEnie has also been set aside for individual liquid crystal displays can (these can bevery hard to find). The youNuts & Volts readers. This is the cost you far more than an entire mass long reach drivers are super handy for place to go for instant tech answers. marketed consumer electronics item. stuff like laser printer work. Among the many files in our library, On the other hand, there is a big In fact, I’ll be happy to trade you an you will find complete reprints and resurgence in the need for traditional Incredible Secret Money Machine II for a preprints for all of my Resource Bin hardware skills. Sure, Heathkit is now number one Phillips with a nine or ten columns. I’ve just added a new "fast gone and many community colleges inch long blade. access" feature for you. Have your have stupidly flushed their electronics On regular drivers, the flush cabinet modem dial(800) 638-8369 , followed programs. But that’s all history. The tip is usually preferable over the more byHHH . Then XTX99005,SCRIPT . reality is that there’s dozens of new commonkeystone tip. Particularly for By the way, be sure to enter your small kit outfits springing up. setscrews or close work. HHH immediately after your modem And typical employers now find it You may also want to add a special software reports a connection. This is impossibly difficult to locate decent purpose driver or two. Say a stubby howGEnie recognizes your baud rate. technical help with traditional hands regular and a stubby Phillips. Or an If you get gibberish on the screen, you on skills. What is sorely needed is offset screwdriver for more torque. were too slow with yourHHH . someone who can solderand write Or special drivers for tamperproof A freeGEnie brochure if you voice softwareand communicate. Torx screws or those oddball fasteners call(800) 638-9636 . This month, I thought we’d look at used for video games.Evco is one A reminder that all of our previous all those traditional hardware hacking source for special Torx bits;MCM or columns appear in my Resource Bin hand tools. At least those that I still Parts Express have the Nintendo tools. Book-on-demand published reprints. personally use. Most of which are Avoid junk tools. Use at least Xcelite You can check my nearby Synergetics orProto quality if you can possibly ad for more details. afford them. The bargain bins at the The tools needed by any hardware NEXT MONTH: Don looks at grocery store simply are not worth the hacker sure have changed. the opportunities and pitfalls trouble they are bound to cause. These days, your most important of electronic collectibles. While there are lots of different tools are tech publications, the online magnetized or screwholding drivers, resources, and your own self-written I’ve found most of these less than software. The stuff on your test bench available through our many Nuts & useless. The holders tend to trash if places a distant fourth. Volts advertisers. Three reasonably you look at them sideways. Instead, I As we’ve seen a number of times in priced sources areMouser , DigiKey , use a block of plain old beeswax. And the past, by far your most important andMCM Electronics . put atiny amount on the tip before hardware hacking tool anytime ever is There are also outfits that specialize you pick up a small screw. But don’t thatUlricht’s Periodicals Dictionary . in stocking nearly any higher quality try it on anything ultra-clean. Found on the reference shelf at your electronic tool. The two biggies here Try an apiary supply or some craft local library. Also newly available as areJensen Tools and TechniTool . Both candle store if you’ve got problems an easily searchableCD ROM . also offer all sorts of ready-to-go kits finding beeswax. And these days, you always want and assortments. This may be a good Nutdrivers are not as essential as

December 1993 / Resource Bin I 95 they used to be, but they still are a set to theminimum power level new from worthwhile addition to a hacker needed to do the job. Especially when bench. These are handy for volume idling between jobs. DON LANCASTER control nuts and sheet metal screws. An older and unregulated soldering ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK Start off with small and regular 1/4 iron plugged directly into the wall is sure The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog inch nutdrivers. Or get a complete set. to cause you no end of grief! op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active Some tool systems offer snap-on There are several styles of soldering filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 handles to keep the cost down. I don’t iron tips. These are usually replacable. care for these. First because changing If you ever burn the plating off a tip, it CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS Millions of copies in print worldwide.THE two handles is a real pain. And secondly, must be replaced. There are special books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. because the driver you need the most "anti-sieze" lubricants that should be About as hands-on as you can get.$24.50 each. will usually be misplaced or lost. put on a tip before it is installed. There are a few essential soldering INCREDIBLE SECRET Pliers accessories. A stand, of course. If it is MONEY MACHINE II The foremost electronic plier is the not already provided for by the Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting diagonal cutter. Aim for first quality soldering station. Some way to keep up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 here. The smaller four or five inchers the tip cleaned and brightly tinned. A are the best choice. Number two is a moist sponge, fine steel wool, a LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes needle nose plier. There are several polishing bar, or tip cleaners based on the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active variations possible here, including a Sal Ammoniac. Filter Cookbook, PostScript video, Case Against Patents, Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and chain nose or a duckbill. My third Chances are you will be doing a lot Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 choice is thetraverse cutting plier . This of unsoldering as well. Useful tools one nips at the end, and is particularly here are a bulb-type solder sucker, a LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES handy for pc board trimming. pump-style solder extractor, and a Ask...... the Guru I or II or III $24.50 Let’s see. You also may want a few rolls of desoldering braid. Hardware...... Hacker II or III $24.50 The...... Case Against Patents $24.50 heavy electricians plier. And maybe a You’ll also find various "soldering PostScript...... Beginner Stuff $39.50 slip-joint one or aChanneLock style. aide" tools, useful for pointing and PostScript...... Show and Tell $39.50 Intro...... to PostScript Video $39.50 PlusVise Grips , of course. probing. In metal, nylon, or wood. PostScript...... Reference II $29.50 PostScript...... Tutorial/Cookbook $18.50 I guess wire strippers are also pliers As to the solder itself,60/40 rosin PostScript...... by Example $29.50 of sorts. Those big expensive ones are core solder is a useful choice, with Understanding...... PS Programming $29.50 PostScript:...... A Visual Approach $22.50 probably not needed. Unless you are Kester the preferred brand. You will PostScript...... Program Design $24.50 involved with bunches of stranded probably want the "regular" thickness Thinking...... in PostScript $22.50 LaserWriter...... Reference $19.50 wire or special coax. The whole trick around50 to 60 mils. And some "fine" Type...... 1 Font Format $15.50 Acrobat...... Reference $24.50 here is to not nick any solid wire or solder in the20-30 mil range. Whole...... works (all PostScript) $350.00 break any strands on stranded wire. If Additional liquid flux just may be PostScript...... Secrets Brochure FREE ...... FREE you are careful, this can easily be needed if you are soldering shields or Hacking Secrets Brochure done with an ordinary pair of dikes. anything that’s not squeaky clean. Some people purposely notch their Flux remover may also be useful. One POSTSCRIPT SECRETS A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free diagonal cutting plier blade so it can supplier isMiller-Stephenson . fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any strip hookup wire. TheAmp crimping Needless to say, younever use acid PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 tool has a built-in wire stripper. Low core solder or acid fluxes for anything cost wire stripping tools are easy to electronic. Those products belong in a BOOK-ON-DEMAND PUB KIT find. Some include depth stops. sheet metal shop and can cause long Ongoing details on Book-on-demand publishing, a new method of producing books only when and Special strippers and related tools term electronic damage. as ordered. Reprints, sources, samples. $39.50 are usually needed for wirewrapping. Oddball Stuff Radio Shack has some in stock. BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I AnX-Acto knife with a#10 blade fer The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering Soldering sure. I also like that little X-Acto saw columns. Includes the case against patents, book on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm You will do far more damage than and miter box. And the modelmaker’s stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 good if you try to use the wrong size answer to a tiny hacksaw. Brookstone soldering iron. Or run it at the wrong has lots of this sort of stuff. As do the RESOURCE BIN I temperature. Or fail to keep it cleaned many ads inModel Railroader . A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts columns to date, including a new index and his properly. Most cheap soldering irons Sets of Allen wrenches in English master names and numbers list. $24.50 from the hardware store are less than and Metric. Ditto for an assortment of useless. Avoid these at all costs. small end wrenches. A magnifier. A FREE SAMPLES A temperature regulated system is micrometer. Needle files. A plastic Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. pretty much a must these days. The 20 nutstarter left from the glory days of The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 or 40 watt Controlled Output Soldering Heathkit. A small oiler. Tweezers. An cents. Modem access: (800) 638-8369, then a HHH. On prompt, XTX99005,SCRIPT. Station from Weller or that Electronic integrated circuit extractor. FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA/MC Soldering System from Ungar are both A pin vise. I usually use a double good choices. Watch for sales. ended one with a1/16 inch drill in SYNERGETICS If you try using an older or cheaper one end and a#67 in the other. Plus a Box 809-NV Thatcher, AZ 85552 unregulated iron, be absolutely certain miniature push drill, again with a #67 ()520 428-4073 you plug it into a lamp dimmer or a drill in it. A pushdrill acts like a pin power tool speed control. And keep it vise, but it has a slider that runs up Write in 146 on Reader Service Card.

96 December 1993/Resource Bin I sign up for some community college ELECTRONIC TOOL RESOURCES course that gives you access to the needed tools? Or work with a local machine shop, air conditioning firm, AMP Live Steam Roper-Whitney or blacksmith? My own favorite here PO Box 3608 2779 Aero Park Drive 2833 Huffman Blvd is a trailer hitch works. Who I have Harrisburg, PA 17105 Traverse City, MO 49685 Rockford, IL 61103 (717) 564-0100 (616) 941-7160 (815) 962-3011 found great for providing, cutting and shearing heavy sheet metal. Brookstone McMaster-Carr TechniTool 127 Vose Farm Road Box 54960 5 Apollo Road At least in smaller towns, you can Peterborough, NH 03460 Los Angeles, CA 90054 Plymouth, PA 19462 sometimes swap services. Say some (603) 924-9541 (213) 692-5911 (215) 825-4990 business cards for repairs to your Digi-Key MCM Electronics Tools Unlimited paper cutter. Or whatever. 701 Brooks Avenue S 650 Congress Park Drive PO Box 5757 You may want to check into leasing. Thief River Falls, MN 56701 Centerville, OH 45459 Toledo, OH 43613 (800) 344-4539 (513) 434-0031 (800) 537-1993 Either long term or hourly from your local rental outfit. Evco Miller-Stephenson Torx PO Box 36339 PO Box 950 Box 687 I will assume you already have the Birmingham, AL 35236 Denbury, CT 06813 Rochester, IN 46975 usual home shop stuff like hammers (205) 822-5381 (203) 743-4447 (219) 223-3131 and tinsnips and hacksaws and socket Fine WoodWorking Model Railroader Trend-lines sets and crescent wrenches. Plus, of PO Box 5506 21027 Crossroads Circle 357 Beacham Street course, a power hand drill. Preferably Newtown, CT 06470 Waukesha, WI 53187 Chelsea, MA 02150 variable speed and reversible. (203) 426-8171 (414) 769-8776 (800) 767-9999 Step number one in setting up a GEnie Mouser Ulricht's machine shop is a decent bench. With 401 N Washington Street 11433 Woodside Avenue 121 Chanlon Road Rockville, MD 20850 Santee, CA 92071 New Providence, NJ 07974 a decent bench vise on it. Something (800) 638-9636 (800) 346-6873 (800) 521-8110 rock solid for the bench, and a vise Home Shop Machinist MSC Wholesale Tool size of at least five or six inches. 2779 Aero Park Drive 151 Sunnyside Blvd PO Box 68 Traverse City, MI 49684 Plainview, NY 11803 Warren, MI 48089 A Drill Press (800) 447-7367 (800) 645-7270 (800) 521-3420 The most important tool for hacker Jensen Tools Parallax Wood prototyping is probably a good drill 7815 S 46th Street 6359 Auburn Blvd, Ste C 1912 Grand Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85044 Citrus Heights, CA 95621 Des Moines, IA 50309 press. I use thatJet USA five speed (800) 426-1194 (916) 721-8217 (800) 374-9663 import myself. Three very essential things to watch for: A way to change Kepro Parts Express Woodworkers' Store 630 Axminister Drive 340 East First Street 21801 Industrial Blvd the speed over a very wide range. A Fenton, MO 63026 Dayton, OH 45402 Rogers, MN 55374 chuck that can fully close. And a true (800) 325-3878 (513) 222-0173 (800) 279-4441 wobble-freequill feed . These are all Lindsay Publications Rivnut Woodworker's Supply important for circuit board drilling. PO Box 538 9921 Brecksville Road 5604 Alameda Place, NE I have added a rotary table to my Bradley, IL 60915 Brecksville, OH 44141 Albuquerque, NM 87113 (815) 935-5353 (216) 447-5000 (800) 645-9292 particular setup. This is a fancy bench vise that you can precisely adjust inX , Y, or circular directions. You can do a and down a helical track. As you raise include a long vise, a circuit board surprising amount of light milling or and lower the slider, the drill spins holder, and a plain old vise. precision drilling with these. and lets you do careful work. My personal choice here is a wide A circuit board shear can be rather footed base with a long vise top. expensive, so you may want to try to Vises and Such Being able to see just what you’re find one you can use elsewhere. If not, More often than not, you will be doing is essential. So you’ll want lots Kepro is the only way to go. One tip: soldering to or desoldering from a of good light and a magnifier or two. glue some mirrors to your benchtop small circuit board. It is extremely Besides adequate room lighting, you under the shear blade. Then cut with important to hold your board rock might want a high intensity lamp or your marks upside down. Be sure to solid while you are doing this. two and a circular fluorescent lamp clamp before you cut; otherwise you’ll My favorite here is a hinged clamp with a built-in large magnifier. get out of square in a hurry. that mounts on the edge of your test Plus, of course, a mini-mag and a Useful lighter tools are a scriber bench. This holds a circuit board by regular flashlight. and an automatic centerpunch. Plus the edge. You can easily flip the board the usual Moto-tool type beastie. A over for component test, insertion, or Mechanical Stuff nibbling tool for sure. And a reamer. soldering tasks. Larger and heavier tools are needed A pop riviter and a glue gun. Note Panavise makes an interesting series if you are going to build up your own that "instant threads" are now offered of electronic vises. You usually mix cases and enclosures. It’s usually best for all pop riveters, similar to the old and match all the individual pieces. to have a traditional "machine shop" GoodrichRivnut series. And that any There are three base types. Bolt-down, area that is separate from your "test glue gun can be fed polyethylene rod vacuum, and wide footed. bench" area. stock for plastic encapsulation, odd Those vacuum jobs are nice when It is super easy to buy a tool that connectors, and whatever. new, but they do tend to get skitterish you never really learn to use and that I also use aRoper-Whitney type XX with age. The positionable tops can never pays for itself. Can you instead punch. This dude is a remarkably low

December 1993/Resource Bin I 97 priced one ton bench mounted punch press. It does square and round holes, custom cutting, hogging out larger sheet metal areas, and scads more. TheXX has a much deeper throat than the smaller model usually offered in the catalogs. It can also be hand held. A Lathe? Machine lathes are probably the most highly overrated shop item. I’ve got an ancient six inchSears/Atlas , but don’t use it much except for a rare coil winding. If you get one, be sure it pays for itself, either in useful output or pleasure provided. Most of those little toy lathes are a sucker bet and are best avoided. Try the yard sales, auctions, and estate sales for used lathe bargains. If you have a lathe, you will also need a grinder. A milling attachment is also a good idea. Sources for the traditional shop stuff includeMcMaster-Carr , Master Specialties,, Woodworker’s Store Tools Unlimited, Wholesale Tool , Trendline , or Woodworker’s Supply. Low cost shop info is offered by Lindsay Publications. There’s also lots of specialty mags such as Home Shop Machinist, Live Steam , and Wood . This Month’s Contest For this month’s contest, just tell me about your favorite electronic tools. Or low cost sources for them. Or any unusual home shop publications that you have found useful. There will be a large pile of my new Incredible Secret Money Machine II books going to the dozen or so better entries, plus an all-expense-paid (FOB Thatcher,AZ) tinaja quest for two that will go to the very best of all. Let’s hear from you. ✦

Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don Lancaster is the author of32 books and countless tech articles. Don maintains his no-charge tech helpline found at (520) 428-4073, besides offering all of his own books, reprints, and all of his consulting services. He also has a free brochure full of his resource secrets waiting for you. Your best calling times are8-5 on weekdays, Mountain Standard Time. Don is now the sysop of GEnie PSRT, where a special Resource Bin topic has been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. For fast modem access, use (800) 638-8369 and enterHHH . When prompted, enter XTX99005,SCRIPT. You can also reach Don at Synergetics, Box809 , Thatcher, AZ 85552 .

98 December 1993/Resource Bin I Don Lancaster’s RESOURCE BIN

number twenty-four

A look at electronic collectibles.

ur usual reminder here that the they used to. Or you appreciate the greater fool theory. Blindly hoping that Resource Bin is now a two-way joy of finding a worn-out pile of junk someone even dumber eventually is O column. You can get tech help, scunging away in a barn and restoring bound to come along. consultant referrals and off-the-wall it back to factory fresh condition. Or So, one more time… networking on nearly any electronic, maybe the older gear brings back fond Collectibles areNOT investments! tinaja questing, personal publishing, memories of long, long ago. On the other hand, there are lots of money machine, or computer topic by The only reason or justification you creative ways you might make a buck calling me at(520) 428-4073 weekdays need to ever collect anything is simply off collectibles. You could do this by 8-5 MST. I’ve got a free pair of insider "Because I want to." either(A) filling one or more needs for secret resources brochures waiting for If it trips your trigger, have at it. other collectors, or(B) adding bunches you when you call or write. But do notever get snookered into of personal value added to increase A portion of myPSRT RoundTable thinking that you can make big bucks the perceived value of any collectible. onGEnie has also been set aside for by buying up bunches of old stuff, do Ferinstance, you might start a buy-sell youNuts & Volts readers. This is the nothing with it, and then wait around newsletter or run a swap meet. Or place to go for instant tech answers. for the price to jump up. It just ain’t offer exact dialplate replications or a Among the many files in our library, gonna happen. speaker reconing service. Or actually you will find complete reprints and Why? Well, firstoff because sales do the harder parts of the restoration preprints for all of my Resource Bin commissions on most collectibles are work yourself. Preferably done as an columns. I’ve just added a new "fast outrageously high. Instead of the 0.6 hourly charged service. access" feature for you. Have your percent on a stock or the6 percent of Much more on this sort of stuff is modem dial(800) 638-8369 , followed real estate, you are looking at more found in my newly revised Incredible byHHH . Then XTX99005,SCRIPT . like60 percent markups. Secret Money Machine II. By the way, be sure to enter your Sometimes much higher. There’s a lot of electronic collecting HHH immediately after your modem Second, because most collectibles going on. Let us look at some of the software reports a connection. This is areextremely non-liquid assets. There more important areas… howGEnie recognizes your baud rate. is simply no way to sell one in a hurry If you get gibberish on the screen, you without taking a big loss. Collectible Radios and TV Sets were too slow with yourHHH . prices vary wildly, depending on the Perhaps the most obvious electronic A freeGEnie brochure if you voice popularity and its availability. Worse collectibles are classic radios and tv call(800) 638-9636 . yet, everybody else is likely to want to sets. Collectors usually will draw the A reminder that all of our previous sell at the same time you do. distinction somewhere around 1930 columns appear in my Resource Bin There’s also a tendency for most withwireless radio being older and Book-on-demand published reprints. outsiders to grossly overvalue plain antique radio being newer. In general, You can check my nearby Synergetics an antique radio will be plug-and-go, ad for more details. while a wireless radio will typically This month, I’d thought we’d take a NEXT MONTH: Don looks at need some operator skill. look at some resources for electronic hacker friendly options The leading resource here is Antique and some other technical collectibles. in test equipment. Radio Classified, who offer free sample Before we do, though, I want to start copies. They are mostly a listing of off with a very strong warning: collector-to-collector classified ads, Collectibles areNOT investments! old junk. Or badly underestimate how along with announcements of shows There’s all sorts of reasons why you common their new discovery is. and swap meets. Plus commercial ads just might like to gather up old radios, Every field of collectibles has its for restoration services, schematics, wireless sets, televisions,WWII mil professional insiders whose entire loudspeaker rebuilding, and such. electronics, juke boxes, vacuum tube lives are centered on their work. They One "must-have" classic book is A amps, player pianos, video games, have the contacts and know what’s Flick of the Switch from Vintage Radio . pinball machines, steam tractors, or coming down. It is unlikely you can They also publish the Radio Collector’s even windmills. Perhaps you want to beat them at their own game. At least Guide, reprints from Gernsback’s 1927 save a slice of history. Or maybe you as a rank beginner. Radio Encyclopedia, and several books think they just don’t build ’em like Much of collecting is based on the of schematics. A great source for these

January 1994 / Resource Bin I 99 and a wide variety of other old radio test lamp across the filament pins new from and electronics books isLindsay . They (often pins 2 and 7). The lamp will also offer a free catalog. brightly light when you are across an DON LANCASTER A major supplier of vacuum tubes open filament, but should stay dark ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK and older replacement parts is Antique otherwise. The sixteenth (!) printing of Don’s bible on analog Electronics Supply. Note that a burned out pilot lamp op-amp lowpass, bandpass, and highpass active Onevery important gotcha: If you can also take out the rectifier tube in filters. De-mystified instant designs. $24.50 ever find an old radio scunging away these circuits. in a barn hayloft somewhere, do not After all your tubes light, a working CMOS AND TTL COOKBOOKS Millions of copies in print worldwide.THE two plug it in to see if it works! power supply should brightly light books for digital integrated circuit fundamentals. Those electrolytic capacitors in the up your neon test light when it gets About as hands-on as you can get.$24.50 each. power supply are absolutelycertain to placed between the positive lead or be shorted. If the set has a power terminal of the largest electrolytic and INCREDIBLE SECRET transformer, it is likely to burn out on ground. Naturally, if you cannot get MONEY MACHINE II power up if the electrolytics are bad. supply power, the rest of the radio Updated 2nd edition of Don’s classic on setting At the very least, the rectifier tube or will not work. Note that the lack of up your own technical or craft venture. $18.50 tubes will be ruined. supply voltage could be caused either A burned-out power transformer by a defect in the power supply or by LANCASTER CLASSICS LIBRARY Don’s best early stuff at a bargain price. Includes has a distinctive smell that lasts for a short or other load that is too high. the CMOS Cookbook, The TTL Cookbook, Active decades. All radio and tv collectors Fixing the supply without removing Filter Cookbook, PostScript video, Case Against Patents, Incredible Secret Money Machine II, and will instantly recognize this one. So the short will only blow out all the new Hardware Hacker II reprints. $119.50 sniff carefully before buying! replacement parts! By the way, if the smell seems more After you’re certain that your set is LOTS OF OTHER GOODIES like "overcooked cabbage" rather than plugged in, the chassis is safely cold, Ask...... the Guru I or II or III $24.50 "burned transformer", the culprit is all of the tubes light, and you measure Hardware...... Hacker II or III $24.50 The...... Case Against Patents $24.50 usually a shorted selenium rectifier. supply power, you might touch the PostScript...... Beginner Stuff $39.50 Before power can be safely applied, center arm of the mid-range volume PostScript...... Show and Tell $39.50 Intro...... to PostScript Video $39.50 every component in your radio or tv control. A loud hum here means the PostScript...... Reference II $29.50 PostScript...... Tutorial/Cookbook $18.50 must be carefully tested to make sure audio is working and you have a rf PostScript...... by Example $29.50 it will not overload the power supply. problem. Nothing means you have an Understanding...... PS Programming $29.50 PostScript:...... A Visual Approach $22.50 The first step is to use an ohmmeter to audio problem. This quickly divides PostScript...... Program Design $24.50 make pin-by-pin resistance checks to your task in half. Thinking...... in PostScript $22.50 LaserWriter...... Reference $19.50 try and spot anything strange. The usual audio problems are bad Type...... 1 Font Format $15.50 Acrobat...... Reference $24.50 A schematic is an absolute must! speakers or a leaky0.05 microfarad Whole...... works (all PostScript) $350.00 First time power should be applied coupling capacitor between the first PostScript...... Secrets Brochure FREE ...... FREE very gradually and carefully, using a and second audio stages. These caps Hacking Secrets Brochure Variac or other variable transformer. are often mechanically intermittent. While carefully monitoring all of the Typical rf problems are a missing or POSTSCRIPT SECRETS A Book/Disk combination crammed full of free supply voltages and currents. broken antenna. Or being badly out of fonts, insider resources, utilities, publications, workarounds, fontgrabbing, more. For most any Also, younever tighten any "loose alignment. Note thatWWII combo AM PostScript printer. Mac or PC format. $39.50 screws" you might find on top of the and shortwave receivers often had the metal canIF transformers. These are shortwave bands purposely disabled. BOOK-ON-DEMAND PUB KIT adjustments needed for proper tuning My favorite antique radio story? I Ongoing details on Book-on-demand publishing, a new method of producing books only when and oralignment of the circuit. was once reviving this 1939 Majestic as ordered. Reprints, sources, samples. $39.50 And a final warning: Most of the "Mighty Monarch of the Air" receiver, smaller"AC-DC" sets had a hot chassis and it suddenly started playing 1939 BLATANT OPPORTUNIST I that was connected to one side of the music! Seems an obscure station was The reprints from all Don’s Midnight Engineering ac power line. Any missing knob or a into golden oldies that night. columns. Includes the case against patents, book on demand publishing, toner secrets, paradigm cracked case can make these lethal! It is stalking, insider research, lots more. $24.50 better to doall of your radio testing Military Electronics with an isolation transformer. There’s long been lots of interest in RESOURCE BIN I Many quick and dirty repairs on an restoring or reusing military WWII A complete collection of all Don’s Nuts & Volts columns to date, including a new index and his AC-DC set can be done using nothing electronics gear. Usually to adapt or master names and numbers list. $24.50 but a neon test light. For instance, you modify in some way for ham radio. can hold one test light lead and touch For years, the ham magazines have FREE SAMPLES the other to the frame as a safe hot done conversion stories. We looked at Well, nearly free anyway. Almost. Do join us on GEnie PSRT to sample all of the Guru’s goodies. chassis test. If the lamp weakly lights, these resources a few columns back. The downloading cost on a typical Guru file is 21 remove your power plug, and then You can find this in my full Resource cents. Modem access: (800) 638-8369, then a HHH. On prompt, XTX99005,SCRIPT. plug it in the other way. Bin reprints or as myNUTS17.PS over FREE VOICE HELPLINE VISA/MC By far the most common problem onGEnie PSRT . found (assuming your power supply Two important magazines here are SYNERGETICS electrolytic is not yet shorted) is an Electric Radio and Radio Age . Box 809-NV Thatcher, AZ 85552 open filament tap on the35Z5 or 35W4 The best source of military surplus ()520 428-4073 rectifier tube. All of the tube filaments isFair Radio Sales . Who offer free are in series. Try placing your neon flyers. Yes, you can also buy military Write in 146 on Reader Service Card.

100 January 1994/Resource Bin I Juke Boxes ELECTRONIC COLLECTIBLE RESOURCES There are an amazing number of jukeboxes and jukebox collectors out Richard Alarain Gas Engine Play Meter there. Many working units are not in PO Box 7179 PO Box 328 PO Box 24970 the least rare. But absolute gems do Thousand Oaks, CA 91359 Lancaster, PA 17603 New Orleans, LA 70184 (805) 496-2121 (717) 392-0733 (504) 488-7003 remain to be found. The leading magazine seems to be Always Jukin' Glass Audio Player Piano Company Always Jukin, with Jukebox Collector a 221 Yesler Way PO Box 876 704 East Douglas Seattle, WA 98104 Peterborough, NH 03458 Wichita, KS 67202 close second.Always Jukin is in a two (206) 233-9460 (603) 924-9464 (316) 263-3241 section oversize newspaper format. It is chock full of detailed tech info. And Amusement Business Handmade Electronics Radio Age Box 24970 1825 Roth Avenue 636 Cambridge Road "who bought what" reports. Nashville, TN 37202 Allentown, PA 18104 Augusta, GA 30909 There’s bunches of parts suppliers (615) 321-4250 out there. Both originals and replicas Antique Electronic Supply Home Arcade Corp Ragtime of varying cost and accuracy. In fact, 6221 South Maple Avenue 1108 Front Street 4218 Jessup #AB it is just about as easy to pick up a Tempe, AZ 85283 Lisle, IL 60532 Ceres, CA 95307 (602) 820-5411 (708) 964-2555 (209) 668-0366 part for a classicSeeburg or Wurlitzer as it is for a ten year old Ford. There Antique Radio Classified Iron Man Album RePlay are literally hundreds of suppliers. PO Box 802 PO Box 328 22157 Clarendon Street Carlisle, MA 01741 Lancaster, PA 17603 Woodland Hills, CA 91365 You can also obtain replica systems (508) 371-0512 (717) 392-0733 (818) 347-3820 which look like classic jukes from the outside but have modernCD audio Audio Electronic Supply John Johnson's Slots Sound Practices 111-A Woodwinds Industrial Ct 6742 Fifth Avenue Box 19302 inside. And a zillion selections. Cary, NC 27511 Brooklyn, NY 11220 Alexandria, VA 22320 Yeah, there are even outfits that (919) 460-6461 (718) 833-8455 (512) 339-6229 specialize in re-releasing old records Coin Op Amusement Jukebox City Ten Thousand Hits in your choice of78 , 45 , or CD format. RR2, Bateman Circle 1950 First Avenue S PO Box 365A Yes, the original singers. Typical firms Barrington Hills, IL 60010 Seattle, WA 98134 Bellmawr, NJ 08099 includeWurco and Ten Thousand Hits . (708) 381-1234 (206) 625-1950 (609) 8- 45 HITS There’s a few non-obvious places to Crown Jewels of the Wire Jukebox Collector Vail Correspondent look for old jukeboxes. Try the candy PO Box 38312 2545 SE 60th Court PO Box 88 and tobacco ads in your local yellow Cleveland, OH 44138 Des Moines, IA 50317 Maynard, MA 01754 (216) 235-2595 (515) 981-4019 (617) 897-2226 pages. Or a nearby large city.

Elderly Instrument Lindsay Publications Vintage Radio Player Pianos and Orchestrons 1100 N Washington PO Box 538 Box 2045 Lansing, MI 48901 Bradley, IL 60915 Palos Verdes, CA 90274 Player pianos are another obvious (517) 372-7890 (815) 935-5353 technical collectible. I don’t know of any collector mags as such, but they Electric Radio Mechaniques Windmillers' Gazette 4 Aspen Place 26 Barton Hill PO Box 507 almost certainly exist. Several good Durango, CO 81301 East Hampton, CT 06424 Rio Vista, TX 76093 books are now out there, though. One (303) 247-4935 (203) 267-8682 important parts supplier here is the Factsheet Five Memory Lane Sodaware Wurco, Inc Player Piano Company. One source for PO Box 170099 PO Box 6239 908 Niagara Falls Blvd ready-to-go units isMechantiques . San Francisco, CA 94117 Laguna Niguel, CA 92607 N Tonawanda, NY 14120 (714) 348-1822 (716) 694-6247 A unique company who starts with conventional old upright pianos and Fair Radio Sales Optimistic Pezzimist Frank Zygmunt installs new orchestron components PO Box 1105 PO Box 606 PO Box 542 Lima, OH 45802 Dripping Springs, TX 78620 Westmont, IL 60559 (drums, symbols, air calliopes) into (419) 227-6573 (512) 858-7720 (708) 985-2742 them isRagtime . They also stock many thousands of player rolls. They have a beautiful full color$5 catalog. electronics directly from the military. to convert into super long range am Classic band calliopes sometimes More details on this inNUTS6.PS and broadcast band radio receivers for DX show up in the Amusement Business theResource Bin reprints. uses. The first time I fired one up, it trade journal. But most of the really ancient stuff got a station onevery channel. is long gone from fed auctions. These days, though, with dimmers Vacuum Tube Amps There once was an outfit over in and other local am noise sources, you There’s lots of enthusiasts out there Hunlock Creek, Pennsylvania that might not do quite as well. Especially who do feel that there was something stocked just about every manual and since those powerful "clear channel" special or unique about that sound conversion article on pretty near all stations are long gone. Be sure to get produced by the vacuum tube guitar military electronics. Uh, I seem to the essential remote tuning box with amps and similar "hi-fi" sets. have lost track of them. Do any of you either of these units. There are several magazines here. know their whereabouts? Recently I’ve been playing with mil One middle-of-the-road one is Glass My favorite piece of surplus gear? surplusF241/U tunable cavities for Audio, while the rabid extremists do Those oldBendix MN26-C or MN28-C improving distant FM reception. More appear to center onSound Practices . radio compasses. These are fairly easy on this whenever. These folks use mostly ancient ultra

January 1994/Resource Bin I 101 high voltage triodes in all their amps. junkers and as much as$8000 fully The favorite tube is the211 . restored. Let me know if there is a The sources of supply here include newsletter or trader pub here. Audio Electronic,, Handmade Electronics Old Coke machines are also getting andAntique Electronic Supply . popular, withMemory Lane Sodaware , One source for ready-to-run classic Home Arcade, and Richard Alarain all tube amps isElderly Instrument . being typical resources. I personally feel that the so-called Video games, both new and old, are vacuum-tube sound was just so much found in eitherPlaymeter or Replay noise, hum, and distortion added to magazines. I am sure there must be an otherwise clean audio channel. If mechanical pinball machine collector you like certain combinations of hum, newsletters and supply sources, but noise, and distortion, that’s just fine. so far I’ve been unable to find them. But recognize them for what they are. As with the video games, you start off And don’t pretend otherwise. withPlaymeter or Replay . Naturally, your best route to add Windmill collectors even have their hum, noise, and distortion to an audio Windmiller’s Gazette. Honest. Or, to channel is to pick a new digital signal really go off the deep end, there are processing chip and any decent DSP collectors out there who specialize in algorithm. You can even get vacuum Pez candy dispensers. Their magazine tube sounds from vacuum tubes that is called theOptimistic Pezzimist . haven’t been invented yet. At$3 per copy. Or answer questions like "What Detailed reviews of labor-of-love would a Williamson sound like if you newsletters on collectibles and just used hundreds of12AY7 ’s in parallel about anything else (and I do mean for its output stage? anything) appear in FactSheet Five . And similar profound topics. The best of earlier FactSheet Five reviews also appears in the World of Slot Machines Zines book. Uh, this one can get tricky. Many states have very stringent laws that A Contest prevent you from owning or using a Let’s see. What did I miss besides slot machine in any way, shape, or the pinball stuff? For our contest this form. But when and where you are month, just tell me about any odd allowed to do so, slots can make an technical collectible resource I don’t excellent collectible. know about. Or else just tell me a I suspect that slot machines will be repeatable story which involves some totally legal nearly everywhere in a electronic or technical collectible in very short time, say in five years. At one way or another. that time, they are likely to pick up There will be a largish pile of my sharply in popularity. But, be certain new Incredible Secret Money Machine II you know your local laws before you books going to the dozen or so better do anything here. entries, plus an all-expense-paid (FOB At any rate, five sources for classic Thatcher,AZ) tinaja quest for two that slots areCoin Op Amusement Co. , John will go to the very best of all. Johnson’s Vintage Slots,, Jukebox City Let’s hear from you. ✦ RJB, andFrank Zygmunt . Yet another obvious place to look, of course, are Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don the Las Vegas yellow pages. Lancaster is the author of32 books and countless tech articles. Don maintains his Tilting at Windmills no-charge tech helpline found at (520) People will collect nearly anything. 428-4073, besides offering all of his own Ferinstance, theIron Man Album is a books, reprints, and all of his consulting journal for collectors of steam tractors. services. He also has a free brochure full of But don’t try this if you live in a small his resource secrets waiting for you. Your apartment. The same folks also now best calling times are8-5 on weekdays, publishGas Engine , for antique gas Mountain Standard Time. engines, stationary and mobile. Even Don is now the sysop of GEniePSRT , oldMaytag washers appear here. where a special Resource Bin topic has Telegraph key folks have the Vail been reserved for Nuts & Volts readers. Correspondent and the insulator people For fast modem access, use (800) 638-8369 haveCrown Jewels of the Wire . I’ve got and enterHHH . When prompted, enter a friend who collects old gas pumps. XTX99005,SCRIPT. The hand-cranked, gravity-fed glass You can also reach Don at Synergetics, cylinder types go for$900 as absolute Box809 , Thatcher, AZ 85552 .

102 January 1994/Resource Bin I NEED HELP?

Phone or write Resource Bin questions to:

Don Lancaster SYNERGETICS Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552 (520) 428-4073

vii Resource Bin I

viii Resource Bin

Keywords – Index

A warm 807 ± 67 algorithms ± 31 antennas ± 23 Abbey, Ed ± 73 alias list ± 57 antique gas pump ± 24 Abeja ± 56 All Components ± 23 antique radio ± 22 abstracts ± 1 Alladin ± 55 Antique Radio Books ± 44 abusing car alternators ± 26 Allegheny County ± 44 Antique Radio Classified ± 17, 69 abysmally naive ± 52 Allegro Micro Systems ± 16, 81, 84 anti-shoplifting devices ± 13 ac induction motor ± 27 Allied ± 6 anti-spiking diode ± 25 accelerometers ± 14 Allied Radio ± 44 Apache Reclamation/Electronics ± 23 accepted credentials ± 3 All in Communications ± 69 Apple ± 34, 35, 45, 78, 89 Access LaserPress ± 48, 88, 89 Almanac of UFO Org & Pubs ± 71 Apple IIe ± 18, 33, 82 access times ± 86 alternate medicine ± 85 Apple LaserWriter G ± 35 access to tools ± 18 alternator ± 26, 65 Apple LaserWriter Pro630 ± 88 accuracy ± 34 Always Jukin' ± 18, 72 AppleTalk ± 86 accurate records ± 57 AM broadcast ± 18 AppleWriter ± 33, 82 Ace Electronics ± 23 AM radio receiver ± 15 Appliance ± 31, 32, 62, 64 ACP Components ± 23 Amateur Communication ± 69 Appliance Manufacturer ± 31, 32, 62, 64 Acme threaded ± 64 Amateur Radio ± 70 Appliance New Product Digest ± 32, 62, Acme threaded rod ± 76 Amateur Radio Action ± 70 64 acorn tubes ± 21 amateur radio astronomy ± 17, 69 application notes ± 15 Acrobat ± 81, 87 Amateur Radio Astronomers ± 69 applications engineering ± 16 Active ± 6, 44 amateur radio BBS ± 22 applied math ± 18 Active Filter Cookbook ± 41 Amateur Radio Communicator ± 68 applique ± 46 actuators ± 26, 64 amateur science ± 19 approximate quantity: one ± 22 A/D ± 82 amateur television ± 58, 68, 69 aquarium pump ± 12, 26, 64 A/D & D/A converters ± 15 Amateur Television Quarterly ± 69 Archie McPhee ± 23, 40, 71 A/D & D/A conversion ± 77 Amazing Archives ± 72 architectural mockups ± 38 ad agency ± 52 ambient ± 25 architectural models ± 46 ad copy ± 74 American Design Components ± 23 Aremco ± 39 additive-subtractive process ± 9 American Printer ± 48 Ark-Plas ± 26, 40 adequate ± 48 American Radio Relay League ± 68 Armatron ± 64 adhesives ± 38 American Safety Razor ± 39, 48 Armstrong ± 51 adjudicated ± 53 American Science & Surplus ± 23, 25, ARRL ± 68 Adobe Distillery ± 34 63 ARRL Experimenter's Exchange ± 69 Adobe PostScript ± 34, 45, 77, 85, 88 America's Hobby Center ± 64 Arrow ± 6 Adobe Showpage ± 35 AMI ± 84 Art of Electronics, The ± 41, 42 Adobe Systems ± 33, 35, 45, 75, 89 AMIGA ± 20 Art of Electronics Student Manual ± 42 Advance Process Supply ± 10, 62 Ammonium Persulfate ± 11 artisans ± 30 advertiser driven ± 17 ampere turns ± 76 artwork positive ± 10 advertisers ± 5, 9, 18 Amperex ± 15 ASCII textfile ± 12, 33, 34, 79 advertising dollars ± 74 AMSAT Journal ± 69 Asian Sources ± 76 AI ± 63 Amusement Business ± 72 Ask the Guru ± 5, 17 AIDS ± 72 analog delay line devices ± 15 asking for help ± 6 AIN Plastics ± 40 Analog Devices ± 15, 27 Association of Amateur Radio air accumulator ± 26 Analog Dialog ± 15 Astronomers ± 17 air actuator ± 25 analog switching circuits ± 15 AST Servo Systems ± 76 air components ± 40 Anarchy 101 ± 3 ATARI ± 20 air condition ± 27, 38, 59 ancient history ± 69 Atlas Steel Rule ± 48 Aircraft Spruce & Specialty ± 64, 73 ancient radio texts ± 74 atmospheric research ± 19 "Airn" ± 44 android ± 63 atrocities ± 85 Airpax ± 75 animation stands ± 65, 78 ATV ± 68, 70 alarm ± 82 annual directories ± 31 ATV texts ± 69

ix Resource Bin

A2 ± 20 battery charger circuits ± 14 BOD consulting ± 89 Au Pair girl ± 33, 79 baud rate limiting ± 36 BODRES1.PS ± 89 auctions ± 17, 23 BBS ± 34, 74 BODRES2.PS ± 89 Audio Amateur ± 30, 55 BBS data bases ± 81 bolt-on duplexer ± 35, 86, 88 audio equalizers ± 14 BBS system ± 79 Bonzai, Buckaroo ± 71 audio oscillator ± 60 beacons ± 18 book publisher catalogs ± 44 Australia ± 7 Bead Chain ± 39 BookCrafters ± 49 Austrailian ± 71 Bead Manufacturing ± 60 BOOKMARK.PS ± 89 Australian hobbyist magazine ± 59 bearings ± 40 Book-on-demand ± 11, 18, 35, 45, 48, author's royalties ± 85 beginning inventors ± 53 85 auto electronics ± 25 Bell Jar, The ± 17 Book-on-demand resource kit ± 89 auto radios ± 25 Bellofram ± 26 books ± 38 auto relays ± 25 bellows ± 26, 64 Books in Print ± 44 Automatic ID News ± 31, 32 bellows actuators ± 26 bookstore ± 44 automatic center punch ± 59 belt clips ± 59 boomerangs ± 48 Automation ± 65 bench vise ± 59 Bopla ± 59 automotive ± 40, 53 benchmark ± 77 Borderland Research ± 72 automotive books ± 28 benchtop etcher ± 11, 24 bound and determined ± 48 Auto Elect Troubleshooting ± 28 Bennett LaserBrite ± 48, 89 bound galleys ± 49 Automotive Electronics ± 27 Bennu ± 72 Bove & Rhodes Insider's Report ± 49 Automotive Industries ± 27, 28 Bennu's Stellar Messages ± 72 bowl float ± 26 autonomous nav ± 63, 64 Berg, Winfred M ± 64 Boyd, HS ± 48 autorouting ± 12 Berkeley Macintosh Users Group ± 18 Boy's Second Book of Radio ± 42 avalanche effect ± 1 Best of Analog Dialog ± 15 Brand, Stewart ± 74 awards ± 67 beta testing stage ± 53 Braniff Industires ± 23 beyond paper ± 46 breadboarding area ± 77 BA1404 FM stereo broadcaster ± 14, beyond yourself ± 48 breakthrough technique ± 34 26, 82 Bezier graphics ± 34 broadcast DX ± 69 backlash ± 75 Bicycle Mobile Hams ± 81 Brooktree ± 15 backlist ± 85 "big mutha" raw iron ± 23 brushes ± 26 backlist titles ± 55 bind ± 86 BSEE ± 29 bad ripoffs ± 89 BINDCUT.PS ± 48 BSEET degree ± 29 badge kits ± 46 bindery ± 48 Buckminster Fuller ± 44, 56, 77 Badge-a-Minit ± 46 binders ± 85 Buckaroo Bonzai ± 71 badges ± 46 binding and finishing ± 89 Bud ± 59 bagger ± 55 binding systems ± 48 Build Your Own Z80 Computer ± 41 Bakelite ± 59 bingo cards ± 5, 6, 16, 30, 31, 58 bulldozer ± 37 Bakerizing ± 48, 89 bizarre items ± 71 bumpersticker stocks ± 46 bale ± 52 Black Lightning ± 11, 17, 48 Burden's Surplus Center ± 23, 63, 75 balloon ± 64 black panel ± 62 Burstein Applebee ± 44 B&F Sales ± 23 Black Range Lodge ± 72 business ± 57 bank ± 57 blacksmith ± 37, 59 business cards ± 36, 46, 48, 57, 89 banking documents ± 47 Blanks USA ± 46, 57, 89 business checking accounts ± 57 bankruptcies ± 24 BLANKUSA.GPS ± 46 Business Forms ± 48 Barnum, PT ± 73 Blatant Opportunist ± 3, 5, 49, 52 bust ± 53 Barren Observer ± 74 Blick, Dick ± 38, 62 bypass valve ± 28 BASIC ± 33, 77 blocking photofilm ± 10 Basic AC Circuits ± 42 bludgeoned ± 60 C ± 36 Basic Electricity ± 42 blue book ± 36, 45 C Language Algorithms for DSP ± 42 Basic Electronics ± 41 BMUG ± 18 C sourcecode ± 79 Basic Electronics Technology ± 42 board prototypes ± 10 C++ ± 33, 63 BASIC Stamp ± 77, 79 Bob's Electronics ± 44 C++ Primer ± 42 Basic Machine Shop 102 ± 59 BOD ± 85, 88 C&H Sales ± 23, 25, 63, 76 battery cases ± 59 BOD binding system ± 89 "cabbage duster" flock ± 39 battery charger ± 28, 82 BOD books ± 89 Cable, TV, and Audio Handbook ± 14

x Resource Bin

CAD/CAM ± 33, 34, 39 Chilton ± 28 concept consultant ± 51 CAD/CAM mill ± 35, 65, 75 chlorine cleanser ± 11 cons and scams ± 74 Calcera ± 23 Ciarcia, Steve ± 55 Consolidated Electronics ± 13 calendaring ± 89 circuit board fundamentals ± 7 consulting ± 89 calibration charts ± 34 circuit board shear ± 59 consumer electronic products ± 14 California Microwave ± 82 circuit callout screening ± 12 controlled circulation ± 30 California Printers ± 48, 49 Circuit Cellar Ink ± 19, 30, 55, 77 converters ± 14 call progress detectors ± 14 Circuits Assembly ± 10, 31, 32 Converting ± 46 caller ID ± 82 citizens band ± 67 cookbooks ± 43 caller ID telephone chips ± 14 civil court action ± 52 cooling fans ± 25 Cameradio ± 44 clamshell ± 60 copies ± 88 Canadian Amateur ± 81 Classic Organ Builder ± 18, 72 copper cleaners ± 11 canis lupis ± 52 classified ad ± 7 cork ± 37 Canon ± 35 clear epoxy overcoat ± 62 cost/benefit ratio ± 29 Canon engine ± 35 clear overcoat ± 60 counters ± 14 Caplugs ± 39 clearing house ± 34 county registration ± 57 car alternator steppers ± 65, 76 Clippard Minimatic ± 26, 40 coupons ± 31 Cards Now ± 46, 57, 89 closepath ± 78 coursework ± 85 CARDSNOW.GPS ± 46 clutches ± 37 court of last resort ± 6 Carl and Jerry ± 55 CMOS Cookbook ± 30, 41, 43 cover stock ± 46 carnival midway ± 51 coast-to-coast directory ± 44 covers ± 89 Carnivorous Plant News ± 70, 73 Coburn ± 38, 47 CPU ± 77 carrying handle ± 60 coil winding ± 59 CQ ± 68 Carter Automotive ± 25 color hot stamps ± 89 CQ-TV ± 70 Carter Carburetor ± 25 Color Key ± 46 Cramer ± 6 cartridge recharges ± 45 color palette ± 82 Crane Duplicating ± 49 cartridge reloading ± 18 color separation ± 34 Crash Course: Digital Technology ± 41 cases and enclosures ± 59 color tv pattern generator ± 60 creating pc artwork ± 12 cash cow ± 32 comm ± 82, 84 crime against humanity ± 72 casino floor ± 51 comm channels ± 33 cross-genre classic ± 58 castable plastics ± 39 comm gear ± 18, 22 Crown Jewels of the Wire ± 70 Castolite ± 39 command set ± 21 Crystal Semiconductor ± 14, 82 catalogs ± 37, 43 commercial print job ± 85 crystal sets ± 18, 58 Catch 22 ± 29 Commodore C-64 ± 77 Crystal Set Builder's Association ± 18 cat ± 28, 88 common sense ± 34 crystals ± 21 CD ± 26 communication ± 14, 69 cubic splines ± 34, 74 CD audio quality ± 14 communications circuits ± 14 Cuniform-on-clay-tablet ± 46 CD machine ± 85 Communications Quarterly ± 69 current transducers ± 15 CD ROM ± 2, 6, 14, 43, 81, 82 community college ± 23, 55, 59, 68 curveto ± 78 cellular comm ± 14 companders ± 14 custom keyboard ± 59 cellular radio ± 69 compasses ± 17 cutter ± 48, 89 CEO ± 31 COMPENDEX ± 1 ceramics ± 37 compiled EPS file ± 12, 34 D/A ± 82 cereal contest ± 41 compiling ± 12, 87 D/A conversion ± 15 certificates ± 46 Complete Handbook of Electronics Dalbani ± 5 Challenge ± 48 Troubleshooting ± 42 Dallas Semicondutor ± 6, 13, 82 character ± 79 component callouts ± 12 Daniel, Kate ± 56 charging wire ± 87 compressors ± 14, 17 Dantech ± 56 charpath operator ± 78 CompuServe ± 2, 20, 43 darkroom ± 12 charts ± 33 computer clubs ± 30 data book alternates ± 81 cheap software ± 89 computer language ± 36 data books ± 43, 56, 81 chemical milling ± 19 Computer Literacy ± 47 data filtering ± 85 Cherry ± 82 Computer Reseller ± 31, 32, 36 data sheets ± 37, 81 chicken and egg problem ± 10 Computer Shopper ± 7 databook collection ± 81 children ± 54 con artist ± 72 Dayton Hamvention ± 22, 67

xi Resource Bin

DEA ± 22 disguise ± 51 efficient lamps ± 69 dealing direct ± 6 Display PostScript ± 44 ego driven ± 17 decal ± 48, 61 DISTILL.PS ± 87 egress ± 74 decal method ± 61 distilling ± 34 800 numbers ± 55 decorative sheeting ± 38 distressed yuppy surplus ± 35 807, a warm ± 67 decorator lamps ± 21 distributed amplification ± 67 Eisenbrand Hardwoods ± 73 Defense Logistics Supply Agency ± 21 distributors ± 37 Elector Electronics ± 30, 55, 59 dehumidifiers ± 38 dot grain ± 88 Electric Radio ± 70 Delta-Sigma Conversion ± 14 Dominick Argenio ± 46 Electrical Engineering Circuits ± 44 Delvies Plastics ± 62 DonJer ± 39 electrical products ± 37 dentist's air turbine ± 65 door hangers ± 46 Electronic BBS ± 2, 67 Derf Electronics ± 23 doorbell chips ± 14, 82 electronic bulletin boards ± 7 dessert topping ± 32 Dots & Dashes ± 81 Electronic Buyers Guide ± 5 Design News ± 1, 31, 32, 62, 64 double distilling ± 34 Electronic Buyer's News ± 6, 22, 24, 31 desktop publishing ± 17, 45, 74 double-sided boards ± 9 Electronic Component News ± 6, 27, 31, desktop publishing magazines ± 49 drafting ± 38 32, 81 desktop stuff ± 49 dreams ± 53 Electronic Communications Systems ± desktop supplies ± 45 drift problems ± 26 41 Devcon ± 39 drill press ± 59 electronic decals ± 62 device independence ± 78, 85 drilling ± 12 Electronic Design ± 1, 6, 31, 81 device independent ± 33 drilling guides ± 34, 61 Electronic Design Gold Book ± 5 Devtronix ± 7 dry film photoresist ± 10 Electronic Design Handbook ± 44 Dialog Information Services ± 1, 30, 43 "dry" wiper pad ± 11 Electronic Devices/Circuit Theory ± 42 dialplates ± 33, 34, 40 DTP ± 2, 20, 58 electronic distributors ± 5 dials and panels ± 61 dumbest blueberry recipes ± 32 electronic dog tags ± 13 diamond scam ± 56 duplex printer ± 35 electronic fuel pumps ± 25 Die-O-Perf ± 46, 89 duplex printing ± 45 Electronic Industry Telephone differentials ± 40 duplexer ± 86, 88 Directory ± 5, 31, 32 Digi-Key ± 6, 44 Dupont Riston ± 10 electronic layout workstations ± 12 digital comm ± 68 DynaArt Designs ± 13, 48, 61 electronic lock circuits ± 14 Digital Digest ± 71 Dynamark ± 48, 62 electronic music ± 82 Digital Electronics ± 41 dynamotor ± 21 Electronic Musical Instruments ± 44 digital filters ± 13 DX Magazine ± 71 Electronic News ± 22, 31 Digital Fundamentals ± 42 Electronic Pack and Prods ± 10, 31, 32 digital logic microlab ± 39 EAI ± 59 Electronic Principles ± 41, 42 digital mastering ± 34, 36 early radio titles ± 19 Electronic Products ± 1, 6, 27, 31, 81 digital receiver ± 82 early television ± 17 Electronic Publishing ± 49 digital signal processing ± 15 earthquake ± 18, 67 Electronic Servicing ± 55 digital signwave generator ± 82 ECG ± 7, 81 electronic surplus ± 21 digital sound effect chips ± 7 ECG Phillips ± 5 electronic trade journals ± 6 digital survey gear ± 69 ECN ± 31 Electronic Troubleshooting ± 42 digital wireless chip ± 15 ecopornography ± 87 Electronics ± 6, 31, 32 digitally controlled attenuators ± 14 edge trimming ± 89 Electronics Engineer's Handbook ± 41 Dimco-Gray ± 60 Edison ± 51 Electronics Now ± 30, 55, 59, 64, 71 dimmers ± 14, 82 editor ± 33, 85 electronics programs ± 55, 63 dino mainframe ± 24 EDLCO ± 38, 60, 73 electroplating ± 9 direct FAX interface ± 85 EDM Today ± 74 electro-therapeutics ± 41 direct mail bookstores ± 2 Edmund Scientific ± 23, 25, 63 Elektor Electronics ± 30, 55, 59, 71 direct order line ± 13 EDN ± 1, 6, 31, 81 Elements of Radio Servicing ± 43 direct toner method ± 10 EDN News Edition ± 31 email ± 20 direct transfer system ± 48 Educational Lumber Company ± 38 embedded microcontroller ± 77 directories ± 30, 37 EE degree ± 29 embroidery ± 35, 78 Directories in Print ± 43 EE Times ± 1, 6, 31, 81 embroidery machines ± 65 DIRECTPC.TXT ± 11 EEM Master ± 5, 31 Emerald ± 88 direct-to-press ± 46 EEPOTS ± 82 emergency comm ± 67

xii Resource Bin emmission control ± 28 fake PostScript ± 35, 85 font ± 36, 79, 85 employee morale ± 86 fake PostScript clones ± 85 font cache ± 86 EMT organizations ± 67 family genealogy ± 85 Foodservice Products News ± 31, 32, 74 emu ± 67 fancy figures ± 87 footers ± 87 Encyclopedia of Associations ± 1 fancy screens ± 10 foreign semiconductor ± 7 Encyclopedia of Organizations ± 37 fanzines ± 74 forms ± 89 end effectors ± 63 Fastex/ITW ± 39 Form-X Film ± 46 engine ± 86 FAX ± 15, 68 Forth ± 34 Engineer's Mini-Notebooks ± 41 fax services ± 81 Forthcoming Books in Print ± 44 engineering design ± 33 FCC ± 67 Fortune 500 ± 51, 52, 53 engineering samples ± 13 federal nudges ± 52 FotoFoil ± 40, 48, 62 engineering shortages ± 29 Felis Domesticus ± 25 foundry ± 14 engineering thermoplastic ± 59 Ferranti ± 15 fountains ± 25 England ± 7 Ferrell, Perry ± 73 $45 jeeps ± 22 engraver ± 78 ferric chloride ± 11 fractal fern ± 35 Entrepreneur ± 52 ferric chloride etchant ± 7 fractals ± 33 Entrepreneur's Digest ± 74 Feynman, Richard ± 56 free energy ± 72 envelope ± 30 Field Day ± 67 free newsletter ± 13 environmental recycling hogwash ± 87 fiberglass ± 9 free samples ± 1, 16 EPA ± 28 filament tap ± 58 Freedom of the Press ± 35, 36 EPA penalties ± 28 file length ± 79 fringe, the ± 71 epoxy splatter finish ± 60 file structuring conventions ± 44 fringe culture ± 74 EPS file format ± 34, 44 filthy rich ± 54 frivolities ± 29 EPS files ± 34 finding technical books ± 44 full service distributors ± 6 error correction ± 15, 78 finials ± 77 Fuller, Buckminster ± 44, 56, 73 error diffusion ± 86 Fire Engineering ± 1, 32 fundamentals of recharging ± 87 establishing credibility ± 3 first generation digital master ± 12 funkily cautious optimism ± 56 ET Alien Outpost ± 71 first to file ± 54 furnace room ± 24 ET Alien Quarterly Journal ± 72 Fischertech ± 64 furry ± 71 ET Teaching Lodge ± 71 50L6 ± 63 fusion roller ± 45 etch resist ± 9, 11 Flash, The ± 11, 17 fuzzy logic ± 27, 31, 63 etch resistant ink ± 10 flash memory ± 86 Etch-and-Peel ± 46 flattenpath ± 78 Gaines, William ± 73 Ethernet ± 86 flexographic printing ± 34 Galco ± 5, 77 etching ± 11 flocks and flocking ± 39 galley slaves ± 29 Ethone-OMI ± 12 flood ± 67 gama correction ± 88 evaluation specialist ± 51 flood control rip rap ± 35 gangbusters ± 19 even and odd ± 86 floor sweepings ± 21 Garden Fresh Replicas ± 39, 40, 70, 73 Evergreen Scale Models ± 38 Florida Skip ± 71 GBC ± 48 exotic hardwoods ± 38, 60 fluorescents ± 46 GE ± 15 exotic woods ± 73 fluorescent lamp ± 82 Gearloose, Gyro ± 17, 73 experimental ± 89 flutterwumper ± 75, 76 gears ± 37 Experimental Aircraft ± 73 flutterwumper resources ± 77 GEC Plessey ± 14, 15 Experimental Musical Instruments ± 72 fluxgates ± 64 General Electric ± 84 Experimental Rotorcraft ± 73 flying cars ± 73 General Instruments ± 15, 84 expert ± 53, 54 FM stereo broadcaster ± 14, 26 General Services Agency ± 22 express services ± 57 FM stereo transmitter ± 82 generator ± 26 extra memory ± 35 foam core plastics ± 38 GEnie ± 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 20, 22, 30, 35, 36, extrusions ± 62 focus stories ± 6 43, 55, 57, 63, 67, 68, 75, 81, 85 foil side layout ± 12 GEnie PSRT ± 5, 11, 12, 13, 20, 25, 27, Factsgeet Five ± 74 Foiled Again ± 18 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 36, 37, 43, 45, 46, 48, Fair Radio Sales ± 23, 63, 67, 76 foils ± 38 52, 58, 61, 62, 65, 70, 71, 74, 77, 89 fake kale ± 73 folders ± 89 Genius ± 56 fake name ± 51 FomeBords ± 38, 47, 60 geophysical ± 16, 18 fake Naugahyde vinyl ± 60 Font & Function ± 36, 49 geophysical fundamentals ± 17

xiii Resource Bin

Gerber ± 12, 48 GSA ± 24 headers ± 87 Gerber File Format ± 78 guarantee ± 21 headlights ± 28 germanium power devices ± 7 guillotine cutter ± 48 Hearst Business Publications ± 5 getting reprints ± 2 guillotine trimmers ± 89 heat and pressure ± 89 getting results ± 16 guru ± 53 heat press ± 11 getting started ± 36 Guru's and Swami's Union ± 72 heat transfer applique ± 47 Getting Started in Electronics ± 41 Gyro Gearloose ± 17, 73 heat transfer toners ± 49 ghetto improvement ± 23 Heathkit ± 21, 29, 55, 64, 68 GhostScript ± 36, 45, 79, 88 H&A Industries ± 72 Helene's Hotline ± 49, 89 GHOST261.EXE ± 88 H&R Enterprises ± 23 helicopters ± 17 GI sound chips ± 84 hacker resource ± 59 Hello Direct ± 40, 57 giant bookends ± 22 hacker robotic scene ± 63 helpline ± 7 giant stepper motor ± 27 hacker robotics ± 63 Herbach & Rademan ± 23 Gibson Girl rescue transmitters ± 21 hackers ± 30 herpes ± 72 Gila Valley ± 63 hacker's universal coprocessing Hewlett Packard ± 6, 12, 34, 45, 78, 82, gimmie cap ± 10, 49 computer ± 33 87, 89 Glass Audio ± 55 HACK44.PS ± 27 Hewlett Packard 4SI ± 86 glass etching ± 47 HACK44.TXT ± 27, 76 Hewlett Packard Journal ± 18 Glembocki, Tom ± 69 HACK52.PS ± 26 hidden mirror ± 87 Glick, James ± 56 HACK52.TXT ± 26 high-circulation marketplace ± 17 gloppy syrup ± 46 HACK66.PS ± 77 High Energy Enterprises ± 2, 19, 46, 72 glossy ± 89 halftone photo ± 45 high energy resources ± 18 Godzilla vs the Night Nurses ± 56, 58 Hall Effect ± 27, 81 high side driver ± 15, 28 Goes Lithography ± 46 Hallmark ± 6 high tech flea market ± 22 goncalo ± 73 ham gear ± 21 High Volume Printing ± 48 gonzo justification ± 36 ham radio ± 29, 67, 82 higher resolution ± 85 gonzo test page ± 35 ham radio club ± 6, 43 hinting ± 34 good ventillation ± 12 ham radio magazines ± 20, 22, 55, 68, hired guns ± 52 Goodrich, BF ± 61 71 histograms ± 36, 88 GoScript LaserGo ± 35, 36 ham radio publications ± 67 Hix ± 39, 48 Gould ± 84 hamfests ± 22, 67 hoarders ± 56 government bureaucrats ± 52 Hammond ± 59 hobby ± 57 government contractors ± 31 hand coded ± 36 hobby comm ± 69 GPS navigation ± 69 hand punches ± 40 hobby 500 firms ± 57 GPS receiver ± 68, 83 hand tools ± 59 hobby press ± 43 Grainger, WW ± 37, 64 handbasket ± 56 hobby kit suppliers ± 19 grandma's memoirs ± 85 handheld comm ± 68 hobby robotic scene ± 63 Graphic Arts Monthly ± 48 handholding ± 22 hobby shop ± 38 Graphic Arts News ± 48 handicapped aids ± 65 hog to bacon ± 39 Graphic Arts Products News ± 49 handle grip ± 60 holograhpics ± 38 Graphic Products ± 46 hands on experience ± 36, 43 home machinist ± 62 graphics ± 34, 85 Handy Book of Practical Electricity ± home office ± 6 graphics toner ± 11 41 home office deduction ± 57 graphs ± 33 hard disk ± 33, 86, 87, 88 home position ± 75 grays ± 34 hardbound books ± 18 home position sensor ± 78 grease trap clarifier ± 32 hardcore magazines ± 68 Home Power ± 18 great auk ± 67 hardware ± 30 homebrew kludge ± 86 great stuff ± 25 Hardware Hacker (II & III) ± 5 homebrew lashups ± 75 "greater fool" market ± 21 Harris ± 15, 84 Homebuilt Rotocraft ± 17 Greater Square, The ± 72 Harris Publications ± 5 Honeywell ± 23 Grecian urns ± 38, 73 Hartco ± 48 Horschnoggle's rules ± 51 Green, Wayne ± 68 hazardous areas ± 25 HorseTrader ± 48, 49, 89 grided mylar sheet ± 12 hazardous materials ± 22 HOSB ± 2, 20, 58 grinder ± 59 HDS Systems ± 56, 89 host recording ± 33 groove ± 60 HDTV ± 31 hot glue ± 89

xiv Resource Bin hot glue channel ± 48 infrared detectors ± 23 Japan Electronics ± 23 hot office products ± 56 injection molds ± 62 Japanese semiconductors ± 13 hot stamp foils ± 48, 89 innovation ± 53 JerryCo ± 23, 63 hot tub timer ± 59 innovation by individuals ± 53 jiffy printer ± 49, 88 house organ ± 18 innovative circuits ± 16 jitter sander ± 89 HP ± 35 In-Plant Printer ± 48 joggers ± 85, 89 HP manuals ± 36, 88 InPlant Reproductions ± 48 Journal of Alternate Publishing ± 49 HPGL ± 12 insider trade journals ± 24, 54 Journal of Communications HPGL Manual ± 78 INSPEC ± 1 Technology ± 69 HPGL plotter code ± 78 Inst & Sml Commercial Printer ± 49 jukebox ± 18, 72 HUCC ± 33 Instant Printer ± 48 jumpers ± 7 Hurst ± 64, 75 instant threads ± 61 junkyard dog ± 25, 28 HVAC Product News ± 31, 32 instant transfers ± 12 Hyatt ± 51 integrated circuits ± 22 K hydraulics ± 23, 75 Integrated Circuit Systems ± 14 kale ± 70 Hygenic Manufacturing ± 26, 39, 64 Intel ± 81, 82 K&S Engineering ± 38 hygrometers ± 40 Interdesign ± 15 Kepro ± 9, 10, 11, 40, 48, 59, 62 interlibrary loan ± 2 key secrets ± 54 IBM ± 2, 20, 58 intermittent motion device ± 75 Keystone Electronics ± 60 IBM PC From the Inside Out, The ± 42 intermittent muffled yowling ± 88 Kilbaud Klassroom Course in Digital IC Master ± 5, 31, 81 internal printer hard disk ± 89 Electronics, The ± 42 IC Sensors ± 14 Int'l Assn New Science ± 72 Kindt-Collins ± 39 ICUFON ± 72 International Films ± 46 Kimoto ± 46 ID Systems ± 31, 32 International Geophysical Year ± 67 kinematics ± 63 ideas ± 52 Int'l Standards Period Dict ± 30 kiss of death ± 52 ideas and concepts ± 53 Intersil ± 15, 82, 84 kits ± 38 Identification Journal ± 31, 32 Introduction to DSP ± 42 Kittyhawk ± 88 identification products ± 13 Introduction to Microprocessors ± 42 Klockit ± 40 IEEE.P1284 parallel interface ± 86 Introduction to PostScript video ± 38, klutzy applications ± 36, 87 illustrations ± 33 87 K-Mart ± 23 Illustrator ± 36 Introductory Circuit Analysis ± 41, 42 knife slits ± 12 image processing ± 33 INVENORG.PS ± 52 knobs ± 60 image sensing ± 15 invention fairs ± 52 Knollwood ± 44 Impressions ± 48, 49, 74 invention marketing services ± 52 Kroy Color ± 11, 48, 89 in-printer retouching ± 88 inventor ± 51 K3BYG ± 67 Incredible Secret Money Machine ± 3, Inventor-Entrepreneur Network ± 18 6, 7, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 30, 32, 38, 40, 44, Inventor's Assistance Program ± 52 L brackets ± 60 49, 51, 54, 58, 62, 63, 65, 70, 79 inventor's idea kit ± 52 labor-of-love newsletters ± 17, 55, 69 Incredible Secret Money Machine II ± inventor's organizations ± 52 lacquer ± 61 81, 84, 89 inventor's publications ± 18 Lambda ± 82 individual parts ± 45 inventor's resource ± 51 laminate ± 89 industrial auctions ± 24 inventory ± 85 laminating ± 48, 89 industrial ceramics ± 39 I/O lines ± 77 laminating machine ± 10 Industrial Education ± 62, 64 IQ ± 74 laminator ± 11 Industrial Product Bulletin ± 62, 64 IRS ± 57 lamp sensor ± 27 industrial product developer ± 51 ISBN directory ± 56 language ± 33 industrial training facilities ± 38 ISBN number ± 56 laser printed letterhead ± 3, 16 industrial waxes ± 39 ISMM ± 49 laser printer ± 45, 87 industry insider ± 53, 58 isoentropic heat death ± 72 laser printer repair ± 19 industry leaders ± 36 isometric ± 33, 36 laser printer training ± 45, 89 industry shows ± 53 ITW/Fastex ± 60 LaserJet IID ± 86 industry tools ± 53 LaserJet IIID ± 86, 88 infinite loop ± 88 J&C Electronics ± 23 LaserJet IV ± 45 information ± 17 JDR Microdevices ± 84 LaserJet 4M ± 78, 88 InfoWorld ± 35, 36 Jameco ± 6 LaserWriter ± 88

xv Resource Bin

LaserWriter Corner ± 17 loudspeaker rebuilding ± 17 meadow ± 52 LaserWriter G ± 88 lousy homebrew tools ± 9 Meadowlake ± 11 LaserWriter Pro ± 45 Lowdown ± 69 Measurement & Control ± 31, 32, 64, 75 LaserWriter Pro630 ± 78, 88 low melting alloys ± 37 measurement technologies ± 18 lathe ± 59 low noise ± 82 mechanical feeding time ± 87 lay-flat manuals ± 49 low noise amplifiers ± 15 mechanical ratios ± 75 layout tools ± 40 low pressure pneumatics ± 25, 64 medieval guild ± 30, 56 layouts ± 46 low pressure robotics ± 72 Menu Cover ± 46 laws of thermodynamics ± 72 low power ± 67 Menu Graphics ± 46 least squares curve fit ± 36 Lowdown, The ± 18 MenuTech ± 46 Lee Magic Factory, Hank ± 40 LSI Systems ± 14 mentor-apprentice ± 68 legal issues ± 52 lumber ± 38 MEOWRRR ± 35 legislated ± 53 ludicrous disimformation ± 51 mercury activator ± 12 LENAHIST.PS ± 89 ludicrousities ± 52 Merigraph ± 48 Leo Electronics ± 23 LVDT position transformer ± 75 metal ± 37 letterhead ± 30, 57 metal casting ± 38 level 1 awareness ± 72 M metal parts ± 62 level II ± 34, 45 MAC ± 2, 20, 58 Metalphoto ± 40, 48, 60, 62 level sensors ± 81 McDuck, Scrooge ± 73 Metric ± 37 liability hassels ± 53 McKnight, Bob ± 76 Michigan Inventor's Council ± 52 license free ± 79 McMaster-Carr ± 38, 64 MICR bank checks ± 13 light box ± 12 McPhee, Archie ± 23, 40, 71 Micro Computer Index ± 43 light emitting diode ± 22 MacWeek ± 35, 36 Micro Cookbook ± 77 light milling ± 59 machinable wax ± 40 Micro PDP-11 ± 24 lightenee ± 51 Machine Design ± 1, 31, 32, 62, 64 Micro Plastics ± 60 lifetime total commitment ± 54 machine language ± 63 Micro-Avionics Newsletter ± 17 limited volume production ± 62 machine shop techniques ± 19 Micro-C ± 23 Lindsay Publications ± 2, 19, 26, 44, 62, MAD ± 18 Microchip Technology ± 77, 82, 83, 84 74 magazines ± 37 microcontroller ± 77, 82 line item minimums ± 22 magic glop ± 62 Micro-Linear ± 82 linear ± 25, 82 Magnet Store, The ± 48 Microprocessor Architecture ± 42 linear actuator ± 75 magnetic refrigeration ± 1 microprocessors ± 31 linear circuit books ± 14 magnetic sheeting ± 48 micropower ± 82 linear motion ± 76 Mail Order Bulletin ± 74 micropower devices ± 13 linear steppers ± 64 mail order circle ± 73 microscaling ± 12 Linear Technology ± 15, 82 main chassis ± 60 microscope stage positioner ± 75 lineto ± 78 Main, Robert A ± 39, 64 microsizing ± 34 liquid coating ± 10 mainstream tools ± 54 microwave ± 68, 69, 82 LISP ± 33 maintenance ± 87 microwave amplifiers ± 15 litho camera ± 12 mark ± 51 microwave circuits ± 9 live steam ± 62 marketing realities ± 53, 54 Microwave Journal ± 31, 32 Live Steam ± 72 MARS ± 67, 68 Microwave New Product Digest ± 32 LJ Enterprises ± 23 mass flow sensors ± 28 Microwaves & RF ± 31, 32 LMB Heeger ± 59 math ± 55 MICRTECH Group ± 47 lobo ± 52 math concepts ± 33 MIDI ± 75 local reps ± 16 math courses ± 29 Midnight Engineering ± 3, 11, 12, 19, local sales reps ± 6 Mathematical Tables ± 44 49, 52, 55, 77 local surplus store ± 7 MATHSCI ± 1 Military Amateur Radio Service ± 67 locator service ± 5 matte covers ± 89 military bidders ± 22 locks ± 25 MAUDEDOC.PS ± 87 military electronics ± 29 locomotive ± 5 Maudedoc ± 34 military surplus ± 21, 22 long throw staplers ± 48 Maxim ± 82 milling machine ± 27, 78 Longwave Club of America ± 69 Maxim Design News ± 13 Mil-Spec ± 60 Lor'd ± 72 Maxim Integrated Products ± 13 miniature FM stations ± 14 lost wax casting ± 40 MCM Electronics ± 13 Mini-Circuits Lab ± 15

xvi Resource Bin mirrors ± 25 navigation satellites ± 18 on-line resources ± 53 MIX Bookshelf ± 2, 44 NE558 ± 14 one ounce copper ± 9 mixed bag ± 25 negative acting ± 10 one stop shopping ± 38 mixer ± 14, 82 neon displays ± 17 1:1 scale roadmaps ± 49 model railroad decal ± 61 net positive cash flow ± 52 op-amp ± 82 Model Railroader ± 19, 37, 62, 64 Network Analysis and Synthesis ± 44 Op-Amp Books ± 44 model remote control ± 75 new age firms ± 5 Op-Amps and Linear ICs ± 42 modeling materials ± 38 New England Circuit Sales ± 23 open font paths ± 78, 85 models ± 59 New Equipment Digest ± 31, 32, 62, 64 Oriental Rug ripoffs ± 56 Modern Elect Communication ± 41, 42 new idea ± 53 original digital masters ± 34 Modern Electronics ± 71 new integrated circuits ± 81 O-rings ± 26, 37 modules ± 87 New Mexico outback ± 72 oscilloscope ± 28 money machines ± 19 Newark ± 6, 44 oscilloscope kits ± 21 Money Maker's Monthly ± 74 newsletters ± 33 out-the-door results ± 29 Monitoring Times ± 69 nibbling tool ± 59 outline fonts ± 34 monumentally dumb ± 52 Nikola Tesla ± 51, 72 outright joke ± 45 more miles per gallon ± 28 $999 hot tub ± 35 outright lies ± 29 morphine-like endorphins ± 55 Noise Reduction Techniques ± 42 outright ripoffs ± 35 Morse Code ± 67 Nomadness Report ± 81 Outwater Plastics ± 38, 64, 73 Morsum Magnificat ± 81 non-military surplus ± 22 overlays ± 33 MOSFET transistor ± 77 nontraditional companies ± 29 Mostek ± 15, 84 non-volatile memory ± 19 Packet radio ± 18, 67 Motion ± 31, 32, 64, 76 NOPATENT.PS ± 54 PacTec ± 59 Motion Control ± 27, 31, 32, 64 NOPATENT.TXT ± 54 pad printers ± 48 Mother of Ashes Press ± 18 Northeastern Scale Models ± 38 padding compound ± 46 mother's little helper ± 78 Northern Hydraulics ± 63, 76 PADPRINT.TXT ± 48 Motor Techniques ± 31, 32, 64, 76 not quite newsletters ± 19 page description code ± 33 Motorola ± 6, 81, 82 NovaSensor ± 14 Pagemaker/Aldus ± 35, 36 motors ± 23, 25, 38 N7CFO Newsletter ± 81 pager ± 14 Mouser ± 6, 11, 44 NTE ± 5, 7, 81 pager encoders ± 82 moveto ± 78 NTSC data conversion ± 82 PAIA Electronics ± 7, 72 MSEE ± 29 nuke ± 89 Palantino ± 78 mugger ± 52 numeric oscillator ± 15 pancakes ± 54 multilayer boards ± 9, 10 numerically controlled oscillator ± 82 panels ± 62 multimedia ± 15, 56, 82 nutplate ± 64, 76 panels and artwork ± 61 museum exhibit ± 40 Nuts & Volts ± 11, 12, 16, 20, 22, 23, 24, pan-galactic happy faces ± 19 museum signs ± 62 28, 30, 32, 34, 40, 45, 54, 55, 68, 76 Paper Direct ± 45, 57, 61, 89 music ± 82 Nuts & Volts advertisers ± 9, 29, 59 Paper, Film, & Foil Converter ± 1, 46 music boxes ± 82 Nuts & Volts readers ± 25, 29, 37, 55, Paper Plus ± 45, 46, 57, 61, 89 music wire ± 37 59 paper stock ± 89 musical instruments ± 38 NUTS8.PS ± 62 paper-like stuff ± 46 MX-COM ± 14, 82 NUTS9.PS ± 45, 61, 77 papers ± 45 mylar ± 46 Parallax ± 77 Objects ± 85 parallel interface ± 86 Name brand scientists ± 74 obscene ± 56 parametric amplifiers ± 67 Names and Numbers ± 5, 37, 40, 44, 49 oddball trade journals ± 74 paranormal ± 74 NAMENUMS.GPS ± 1, 5 odds of winning ± 40 parchment ± 46, 89 NARA ± 68 odes ± 38 Parts Express ± 5 narcs ± 22 office supplies ± 89 patent ± 53, 54 National ± 27, 28, 82 old-line distributors ± 13, 16 patent mythology ± 52 Natl Amateur Radio Organization ± 68 OmniPress ± 49 patent search ± 53 National Marketplace ± 74 On-Demand! ± 49 patent searches ± 52 Nauga ± 62 on-demand published info ± 81 patents ± 51 Nauga pups ± 60 on-line BBS services ± 43 pathforall ± 78 Navicube ± 64 on-line options ± 20 PC Techniques ± 19, 42, 55

xvii Resource Bin

PCBTF-1000 ± 11 plastics ± 37, 38 power regulators ± 14 PCIM ± 31, 32, 64, 76 Plastock/Plastimatic ± 64 power supply ± 82 peace breakout ± 21 plated through holes ± 9, 10 Power Techniques ± 32 pecan ± 60 Play Meter ± 74 power transistors ± 77 pedigree ± 21 Player Piano Company ± 38, 64, 72 power windows ± 25 peel-and-stick ± 46, 89 Plessey ± 82 Power+Arrays ± 77, 82 Pelican Products ± 59 plinths ± 73 Practical Wireless ± 70 Pellon ± 46 PMI ± 7, 16 practitioner ± 52 Pelsaer ± 48, 89 PMI Laser Products ± 36 precise distance ± 59 pen up-down ± 78 pneumatic air valve ± 25 precision machining ± 76 Penguin Books ± 74 pneumatics ± 23, 75 precision molded parts ± 62 penguins ± 67 point-of-purchase signs ± 38 preheating ± 11 penpal ± 68 Pollution Equipment News ± 1, 31, 32 Pre-Owned Electronics ± 35 per-copy pricing ± 88 polyester ± 46 prepress proofing ± 46 perceived sound differences ± 55 polyethelene ± 11 preproduction prototypes ± 53 perforators ± 40 Polyline ± 38, 46 press releases ± 52 perpetual motion ± 19 polyphonic ± 14 pressure and heat ± 61 Personal Engineering ± 12 pop rivets ± 60 pressure transducer ± 14, 82 Personal Velobinder ± 48, 89 pop science ± 74 Price Club ± 45 perspective ± 33 Popular Communications ± 69 price lists ± 37 perspective illustration ± 36 Popular Electronics ± 30, 55, 59 PRINCRCT.GPS ± 12 Phaselock Techniques ± 44 Popular Mechanics ± 37, 52, 72 print buffers ± 86 phases ± 76 popular mythology ± 51 Print Equipment News ± 48 phenolic ± 9, 59 Popular Science ± 37, 52, 72 print quality ± 85 Philips/Signetics ± 7, 15 Porsche ± 34 print quality problems ± 88 phone ± 57 position info ± 78 printed circuit boards ± 33, 34 phone links ± 67 position sensors ± 27 Printed Circuit Design ± 10 photo emulsion ± 62 positive acting ± 10 printed circuit drill ± 59, 65, 75 photo halftone ± 85 positive cash flow ± 51, 53, 54 printed circuit layouts ± 36 photo process methods ± 10 Post Office ± 22, 57 printed circuit prototypes ± 9 Photo Shop ± 36 postal rate ± 1 printed circuit supplies ± 40 photo work ± 12 PosterWorks ± 48, 89 printed circuit transfer system ± 61 photochemical etch milling ± 37 Post-it Notes ± 46 printed circuits ± 18, 34 photoglop ± 62 PostScript ± 11, 12, 30, 33, 34, 44, 61, printer ± 33, 79 Photobrade ± 88 89 printer reviews ± 36 Photolabels ± 48, 89 PostScript artwork ± 62 printer test ± 36 Photoplotter Language ± 12 PostScript computer ± 34 Printer's Devil, The ± 18, 36, 49, 74 photoresist ± 10 PostScript Insider's Secrets ± 61 Printer's Exchange ± 89 photos ± 88 PostScript Laser Printer ± 33 Printer's Hot Line ± 48, 49, 89 piano tuning tools ± 40 PostScript Level II ± 35, 45, 86 Printer's Ink ± 18 piezo lighters ± 17 PostScript printer ± 49, 78 Printer's Shareware ± 49, 89 PIC ± 82 PostScript Reference Manual ± 36, 44, Printers Shopper, The ± 48, 49, 89 PIC Design ± 64 45 printer's trade journals ± 49 pickoff pawls ± 87 PostScript Secrets ± 36, 45, 79 Printing Impressions ± 48, 49 pig in a dish pan ± 2 PostScript Tutorial & Cookbook ± 36, Printing Journal ± 48 pinholes ± 10, 11 45 Printing News ± 48 Pioneer ± 26 PostScript-as-language ± 36 printing through the base ± 12 pipelined sequence ± 86 POSTVECT.PS ± 12, 79 Printwear ± 74 pitch shifting ± 15 potential buyer ± 56 prior art ± 52 plain old gray ± 62 Powder & Bulk Solids ± 1, 31, 32, 74 Procom ± 89 Planax ± 89 power antennas ± 25 production ± 12 plants ± 77 power control ± 82 production artwork ± 53 plastic cases ± 59 Power Conversion ± 32 professional appearance ± 59 plastic closures ± 39 power diodes ± 26 professional artwork ± 61 plastic fittings ± 40 power line controls ± 18 profit ± 56

xviii Resource Bin

Programming Pearls ± 42 Radio Electronics ± 55 resolution enhancement ± 86 projects ± 55 Radio Fun ± 71 resolution enhancer ± 88 prolog dictionary ± 12 radio ham ± 14 Resonance Research ± 72 proposals ± 33 Radio Observer ± 17, 69 Resource Bin ± 37, 44, 56, 74, 77 proprietorship ± 56 RADIO RoundTable ± 2, 20, 22, 30, 58 Resource Central ± 18 prototype panel art ± 61 radio receiver design ± 44 resource database ± 71 prototypes ± 59 "radio row" stores ± 21 response times ± 79 prototyping ± 12, 14 Radio Shack ± 5, 7, 44, 59, 64 retail surplus sale sources ± 6 prototyping components ± 62 Radiola ± 70 retail surplus stores ± 23 prototyping house ± 51 radioteletypes ± 68 Reticon ± 15 prototyping resource ± 62 Radiotron Designer's Handbook ± 43 retired machinist ± 59 provenance ± 21 rag chewing ± 68 RETOUCH.PS ± 89 pseudoscience ± 74, 85 Ragtime ± 70, 72 reverbs ± 15 PS-390 ± 35 random numbers ± 77 reverse technique ± 62 PSRT ± 5, 11, 12, 12, 20, 25, 27, 28, 29, rather vague ± 56 rewinding ± 76 30, 33, 34, 35, 36, 36, 37, 43, 45, 46, 48, rats nest ± 9 RF Circuit Design ± 32 52, 55, 57, 58, 59, 61, 65, 70, 75 raw iron ± 63 Rhodes Report ± 36 public domain ± 54 RCA ± 15, 82, 84 rich and famous ± 52 publish ± 33 R/C model ± 17, 68 RICO ± 22 publishing ± 12 reader driven ± 17 rigid heddles ± 76 publishing resources ± 87 real book publisher ± 56 right viewing ± 12 Publishing Technology ± 48 real business activities ± 56 ring detection ± 14 Pulse and Digital Circuits ± 44 real dumb ± 55 rinky-dink dumb terminal ± 33 Pulse & Switching Circuit Action ± 41 real ink ± 48 rip off ± 52 punches ± 40 real PostScript ± 45 RISC ± 77 pup ± 62 real thermography ± 13 Risch, H ± 46 Pure Unobtainium ± 84 real time computer clocks ± 13 risk reduction ± 53 Purina ± 25, 28 Recharger ± 19, 36, 45, 49, 87, 89 Rivnuts ± 61 pussy cat ± 63 recycling ± 25 RMS power detection ± 15 putumujo ± 73 red book ± 36, 45 Roadable Aircraft ± 70, 73 reentrant ± 34 Robert, Randy ± 69 QEX ± 69 Rees, John ± 76 Roberts, Steve ± 81 Q-5 ± 21 Reference Data Radio Engineers ± 42 Robomatrix Reporter ± 65 Q-5er ± 67 refill ± 87 Robot Times ± 65 QMS ± 35 refill costs ± 45 robotic elbows ± 25 QMS Turbo 820 ± 88 regional BBS ± 23 Robotica ± 65 QRP ± 67 registration marks ± 12 robotics ± 37, 67 QSL ± 68 regulator ± 26 Robotics ± 65 QST ± 68 regular scams ± 57 Robotics & Manufacturing ± 65 qual card ± 30 Reid, Frank ± 69 Robotics Database ± 65 qualification cards ± 37 REL Graphics ± 46 Robotics Experimenter ± 64, 65 quarter acre ± 48 relay rack ± 62 robotics hacking ± 63 Queblo ± 5, 46, 57, 89 religion ± 34 robotics magazines ± 64 Quick Printing ± 31, 32, 48, 49, 89 religious tracts ± 85 Robotics Newsletter ± 65 Quick Shooter ± 62 remainders ± 85 robotics potential ± 25 Quick Tickets ± 46, 89 remote control ± 14, 82 Robotics Today ± 65 quill feed ± 59 remote sensing ± 17 Robotics World ± 65 Quill Office Products ± 46, 89 repair manuals ± 87, 88 Rochester Electronics ± 6, 84 Repeater Journal ± 68 Rodgers ± 9 Rad Lab I ± 44 repeaters ± 67 Rohm ± 7, 14, 26 Radar Systems Engineering ± 44 Replay ± 74 rolling diaphragm ± 64 Radio Age ± 70 Research Centers Directory ± 43 Roper-Whitney ± 40 Radio Amateur's Handbook ± 30, 41, resist ± 11 Roper-Whitney XX ± 59 42, 43, 44, 68 resist removers ± 12 rotary table ± 59 radio control model ± 14 resolution ± 85, 88 rounded cans and boxes ± 40

xix Resource Bin royalties ± 53 scriber ± 59 sheep ± 52 royalty arrangement ± 54 Scrooge McDuck ± 73 shepards ± 52 royalty free ± 34 scope cart ± 24 sheriff ± 68 royalty free PostScript ± 75, 78 SCS electronic valves ± 25 shipping charges ± 21 royalty payment ± 54 SCSI hard disk ± 45 shopworn copies ± 85 RS-232 Solution, The ± 42 search and rescue ± 22, 67 short range telemetry ± 13 RTL integrated circuits ± 7 Search Electronics ± 23 short run book publisher ± 49 RTTY ± 69 Sears wrench dude ± 51 Short Wave ± 70 RTTY Digital Journal ± 68 Sears/Altas ± 59 shotgun technique ± 54 rubber gloves ± 12 Seattle Robotics Society ± 64 Shreve Systems ± 35 rubber iguanas ± 23, 40, 71 second degree burns ± 55 Sickel, Bob ± 69 rubber sheeting ± 39 second-rate results ± 62 sideshow ± 53 rubber stamps ± 48 second-side printing ± 87 Sierra Semiconductor ± 14, 82 rube ± 51 secret government conspiracy ± 72 sign ± 57 Rubylith ± 46 secret escapes ± 72 Sign Business ± 49 rugged phones ± 69 secret toner products ± 13 sign router ± 27 rusting junk piles ± 23 Secretary of State ± 56 signalling ± 14 SECRTEMP.PS ± 36 signature card ± 57 Saddle stapling ± 48 security ± 14 Signcraft ± 10, 49 SAE ± 2, 28, 44 SEER ± 27 Signetics/Philips ± 14, 82 SAE library ± 64 SEI ± 74 sigma ± 71 safety goggles ± 12 Seid, David ± 88 Silicon Chip ± 59, 71 Safeway ± 55 Select Information Exchange ± 74 Silicon Systems ± 14 Saga Stickybak ± 46 Selectric typewriters ± 24 Silicon Valley ± 24 sample packs ± 39, 46 self-collating ± 86 silk screen ± 61 samples ± 30, 37 self-help support groups ± 52 silk screen flock ± 39 Samsung ± 7, 14, 82 self-publishing ± 85 silk screen method ± 10 sandblasting ± 47 self-response mailers ± 46 Singing Wind ± 2, 44 Santa Claus device ± 35 self-stick ± 46 single sideband ± 67 Santa Claus machine ± 65, 78 semiconductor manufacturers ± 83 single-sided boards ± 9 sapphire ± 62 Seminconductor Reference Guide ± 5 560 DPI resolution ± 85 satellite ± 14, 68, 69 semiconductors ± 13 6056 Programming Manual ± 44 Satco ± 38, 62, 64 seminars ± 1, 15 6L6GTB ± 55 SAW filters ± 14 send $19.95 to ± 74 Skeptical Inquirer ± 74 scam operator ± 51, 56 Sensors ± 1, 31, 32, 64 skew ± 34 scanners ± 15, 22, 69 SenSym ± 14, 82 slick desktop magazines ± 36 SCAR ploy ± 20 sequence ± 86 slip coated mylar ± 89 SCAR technique ± 58 serial COM1 port ± 86 slip rings ± 27, 76 Schaedahl ± 9 serial drivers ± 13 slopping in the slush ± 12, 62 schematic capture ± 12 serial EEPROM ± 77 Slo-Syn ± 76 schematics ± 33, 34, 36 serial interface ± 78 small eyelets ± 9 scholarly organizations ± 53 Serpac ± 59 Small Parts ± 26, 37, 60, 63 scholarly pubs ± 7 service bureau ± 48, 85, 89 small scale research ± 3 School Shop ± 62, 64 servo loop ± 75 small scale startup ± 53, 56 schools ± 38 servos ± 23, 75 small presses ± 74 Science and Tech Index ± 43 seventh cow ± 2 small punch set ± 59 Science Citation Index ± 1 69 Amateur Radio Today ± 68 snowball's chance in hell ± 53 Science Probe ± 19, 30, 55, 59, 63 Seybold Report ± 49 Society Automotive Engineers ± 28, 64 Scientific American ± 19 SGS-Thomson ± 15, 28 socket pins ± 9 Scotch Color Key ± 62 shaft encoders ± 75 soduim triphophate ± 10 Scotchbrite ± 11 shared SCSI ± 86 software ± 30, 89 Scotchcal ± 48, 62 shared SCSI comm ± 86 software manuals ± 85 SCR Manual ± 44 security ± 82 solar pump controller ± 59 scrap rate ± 86 shears ± 85 Solar Trek ± 72 Screen Printing ± 10, 48 shedua ± 73 solder mask materials ± 12

xx Resource Bin solder masking ± 12 state lottery ± 51 synthetic cavier ± 40 soldering iron ± 29 static RAM ± 15 synthetic kale ± 40, 70, 72 solenoids ± 25, 64 stationery ± 57 syringe ± 71 Solid State Design for the Radio statistics ± 71 Amateur ± 43 Statistical Sources ± 43 Table mounted router ± 59 Solid State Electronic Theory ± 41 stator windings ± 27 table radios ± 56 Solid State Music ± 7, 16 steam calliopes ± 72 tabloid ± 31 Sony ± 26, 82 step angle ± 75 tail twisting ± 76 sound chips ± 82 stepper drivers ± 77 taillights ± 27 sound effects chips ± 14 stepper motor drivers ± 77 Tandy Leathercraft ± 40 SoEast Repeater Association ± 68 stepper phase± 78 tapioca pudding scene ± 56 Southern Sign Supply ± 10, 62 steppers ± 75 task completion ± 78 Southwest Memory ± 23 stepping motors ± 25 taste ± 73 spark advance ± 25 stereo broadcaster ± 14 tax stamps ± 38 Speaker Builder ± 55 Stewart Brand ± 74 TCS electronic valves speakers ± 23 Stewart, RA ± 48 TEC 200 ± 11 Spec-Com ± 69 stick-on photos ± 89 Teccor ± 82 Special Editions ± 56 stickum tape and dots ± 12 tech newsletters ± 69 special interest titles ± 44 stock analysis ± 36 tech ventures ± 49 special library ± 34 Stock Drive Products ± 40, 64 technical assistance ± 22 special 911 gear ± 14 stopwatch ± 15, 82 technical book publishers ± 55, 68 Specialized Bindery ± 49 street prices ± 88 technical books ± 41 specialty bookstores ± 30 strings as file objects ± 86 technical bookstores ± 44 specialty newsletters ± 17 sturdy work tables ± 59 technical editors ± 7 spectacular big win ± 53 subtractive-additive process ± 9 technical help ± 21 speech scrambling ± 82 sucker bet ± 29, 62 technical interests ± 68 speed ± 86 Sunray ± 48 technical literature ± 54, 58 Speed Controlled Spark ± 25 Sunset Silicon Products ± 84 technical training ± 68 speed of light ± 3 Super Badge & Button ± 46 technical writing ± 19, 62 SPEEDUP.PS ± 36 Super Science ± 72 technically literate ± 58 Speleonics ± 17, 69 superior Electric ± 76 Techniks Inc ± 11, 48 spelunkers ± 17 supporting math ± 53 technology run amuck ± 28 spent etchant ± 12 Supplementary Periodical Index ± 43 technonerd ± 17, 67 spline binding ± 48 Supplies Unlimited ± 19, 35, 36 TecSpec ± 17 spotless halftone ± 88, 89 surface mount components ± 9 Tektronix ± 28 SPOTLESS.PS ± 89 Surface Mount Design ± 10 telephone interface ± 82 Sprague ± 16 Surface Mount Technology ± 31, 32 telephone products ± 40 Sprague/Allegro ± 25, 27, 84 surplus ± 21 telephone request ± 16 SPRAT ± 70 surplus electronics ± 23 Television Engineering Handbook ± 44 spray on glop ± 48 surplus resource ± 24 television interference ± 68 spray-on photoresist ± 7 surplus stores ± 29 Teltone ± 14, 82 spread spectrum ± 18, 67, 69 Surplus Traders ± 6, 23 temperature sensors ± 15, 82 spread spectrum comm ± 68 survey instruments ± 17 temperature ± 28 Spread Spectrum Scene ± 18, 69 switchboard ± 57 templates ± 33, 34 SRS Encoder ± 64 switched reluctance drives ± 27 tennis elbow ± 12 Stacey's Bookstore ± 42, 44 switched reluctance motor ± 65 tents ± 46 stained glass artisans ± 37 switching regulators ± 13 Terra 14 ± 71 Standard Micro ± 82 synchronicity ± 53 Tesla, Nikola ± 51, 72 Standard Periodicals Dictionary ± 30, synchronous demodulator ± 14 Tesla Book Company ± 44, 72 58, 74 Synergetics ± 2, 5, 24, 32, 36, 37, 40, 44, Tesla coil ± 17 Stanford Bookstore ± 44 45, 54, 56, 61, 65, 70, 71, 79, 84, 89 Tesla Coil Builders Association ± 17, Stanford Telecomm ± 15, 82 Synergetics Press ± 56 72 Stanpat ± 46 Synergetics puddy tat ± 35 Tesla Society ± 72 StarSystem Sirian Rainbow Lodge ± 71 synthesized fakes ± 72 test kits ± 13 STARTUP.PS ± 79, 86 synthesizer chips ± 14 Texas Instruments ± 28, 81, 82

xxi Resource Bin text justification ± 87 touch controls ± 14 UFO ± 17 Textile World ± 31, 32 touchtone ± 82 UFO Bookstore ± 44 the fringe ± 71 touchtone coders ± 14 UFO Marathon ± 72 the unpublishable ± 85 track record ± 52 UFO resources ± 71 the zoo ± 71 trade groups ± 53 UHF data stream ± 13 theater lighting system ± 24 trade journals ± 1, 16, 30, 31, 37, 44, 53, UHF ham bands ± 68 "theft proof" car radio ± 28 56, 62, 64 Ulricht's Periodicals Dictionary ± 1, 27, theoretical underpinnings trade name registration ± 57 30, 32, 37, 58, 74 thermal binding ± 48 Trade Names Registry ± 56 Ulano ± 10 thermal transfer toners ± 48 trade schools ± 29 ultimate surplus source ± 23 thermography ± 13, 18, 48, 89 Trade Winners ± 7, 31, 32, 76 UMI ± 2 Therm-O-Type ± 48 traditional annodizing ± 62 unbearably stuffy ± 57 things that chomp in the night ± 73 traditional halftones ± 88 undercutting ± 11 Thiokol Dynachem ± 10 traditional printing ± 85 underground publication ± 17 third party support ± 88 traditional textbooks ± 43 undersized wimp ± 29 third-tier sources ± 13 trailer hitch works ± 59 Understanding Amateur Radio ± 43 Thomas Registry of Manufacturers ± 1, transfer film ± 11 undeveloped ideas ± 53 5, 37 Transfer Magic ± 47 UNDUPLEX.PS ± 86 Thompson, Don ± 35, 45, 87, 89 Transfer Print Foils ± 18 Unibind ± 48, 89 Thomson Consumers Publications ± 5 transfers ± 48 unijunction transistors ± 7 Thompon/SGS ± 7 Transistor Basics ± 41 unique idea ± 53 Thomson-Shore ± 18, 49 Transmission Controlled Spark ± 25 unique individuals ± 52 Thor Decision ± 85 trashcan ± 63 United Inventor's Association ± 52 threaded ± 34 treasures ± 21 Unitrode ± 14, 82 threaded cylinder ± 61 triac drivers ± 14 University Microfilms ± 2 IIID ± 35 tricky magic toys ± 40 unmitigated gall ± 74 35Z5 ± 58, 63 triple rinsing ± 12 unnecessary tools ± 51 3-M ± 46 Triumph ± 48, 89 unprofessional ± 62 three phase stepper ± 76 Troubleshooting Analog Circuits ± 42 unstack the odds ± 56 3SI ± 88 truck tire ± 26 unusual craft secrets ± 19 three-way valve ± 26, 64 T-shirt printing ± 18 unusual hardware ± 73 throughput ± 86 T-shirts ± 47, 49 unusual packaging ± 18 thyristors ± 82 TTL Cookbook ± 30, 41 unusual sources ± 37 Ticket Express ± 46 tube caddy ± 24 Upper and lower case ± 36, 49 tickets ± 89 tube sound ± 55 upright pianos ± 72 tilt-up base ± 60 tumble option ± 86 UPS ± 57 time code generators ± 82 tuna fish ± 35 urban lore ± 51 timer ± 82 tune generators ± 14 urethane clear coating ± 61 tin plating ± 12 Tuner's Supply ± 40 urethane overcoat ± 60 tinaja quest ± 3, 12, 16, 24, 28, 32, 58, tunnel diodes ± 7 US Government ± 22 72, 74, 84, 89 Turing Test ± 85 US patent system ± 52 toaster ± 89 turnaround ± 88 US Plastics ± 40, 64 token ± 77 turn-of-the-century shop info ± 74 used car dealer ± 52 tone coders ± 14 TV, Cable & Audio Handbook ± 82 Used Equipment Directory ± 24 tone signalling ± 82 two ounce copper ± 9 used printshop gear ± 89 toner ± 11, 86, 89 two meter band ± 68 useful tech info ± 56 toner cartridges ± 87 two-way comm ± 86, 87 UseNet ± 3 toner refill economics ± 88 two-way parallel comm ± 88 user group ± 18 toner recycling ± 19 two-way valve ± 26 user group newsletters ± 20 Toner Transfer System ± 13, 48, 61 TypeWorld ± 31, 32, 36, 49, 89 USI ± 48, 89 TONERTRX.PS ± 13, 48 typography mags ± 89 Using Electronics ± 42 tools ± 62 tyvek ± 46 utilities ± 36 top octave generators ± 15 u-v source ± 62 tornado ± 67 U shaped ± 60 total lifestyle basis ± 29, 30 U&lc ± 36, 49, 74, 89 Vacuum ± 25

xxii Resource Bin vacuum forming ± 62 Webril wipe ± 62 Zero Box ± 60 vacuum techniques ± 17 weight scale ± 82 Zero Corporation ± 40, 60 vacuum tubes ± 7, 44, 55 weird products ± 37 zero point energy ± 19 Vail Correspondant ± 81 Wel's Think Tank ± 41 zero switching ± 14 Value ± 26, 40 well executed scam ± 53 Zilog ± 84 VCR ± 67 Well, The ± 2, 20, 74 zoo, the ± 71 VCR chips ± 14 well-paying job ± 29 VCR front ends ± 23 wenge ± 73 Vector ± 59 Western Design ± 82 GEnie PSRT Related Files vector commands ± 78 "whaddyameanIcant" ± 36 vector segments ± 78 whistlers ± 18 162 NOPATENT.TXT ± 54 Velobind ± 89 Whitney, JC ± 26, 40 170 PADPRINT.TXT ± 48 Vero ± 59 Whole Earth ± 3, 44 vegging out ± 56 Whole Earth Catalog ± 74 269 DIRECTPC.TXT ± 11 vendor credit ± 55 Whole Earth Review ± 3, 18, 55, 74 284 HACK44.TXT ± 27 Ventura Publisher ± 35, 36 whole modules ± 45 285 HACK44.PS ± 27 VHF Communications ± 70 Whole Works ± 36, 79, 89 VHF altimeters ± 21 wholesale surplus bargains ± 31 330 NAMENUMS.GPS ± 1,5 VHS spine labels ± 38, 46 wholesale surplus sources ± 6, 22 337 SECRTEMP.PS ± 36 video ± 76 widest possible audience ± 54 337 STARTUP.PS ± 36, 79, 86 video camera ± 15 wild guess ± 55 387 POSTVECT.PS ± 12, 79 video controller ± 82 windshield washer ± 25 video games ± 65 windshield wiper guy ± 51 401 PRINCRCT.GPS ± 12 video interface ± 15 wire feedthroughs ± 9 414 HACK52.TXT ± 26 Video Scrambling & Descrambling ± 42 Wired ± 63 415 HACK52.PS ± 26 video switches ± 13 wireless broadcaster ± 14 435 TONERTRX.PS ± 13, 48 video switching centers ± 13 wireless comm bands ± 67 459 SPEEDUP.PS ± 36 videos ± 27 wireless LAN ± 15 471 NOPATENT.PS ± 54 vintage military vehicles ± 22 wireless modems ± 18 495 NUTS8.PS ± 62 vinyl sign cutters ± 65 Wireless World ± 30 vinyl wrap ± 60 wirewrap ± 9 505 CARDSNOW.GPS ± 46 virtual reality ± 65, 67 wish fulfillment ± 53 511 NUTS9.PS ± 45, 61, 77 VISA ± 13, 45 wolves ± 52 521 BLANKUSA.GPS ± 46 visual mouse ± 65 woodcarving routers ± 65 538 INVENORG.PS ± 52 visual screen interface ± 55 wooden end rail ploy ± 60 569 BINDCUT.PS ± 48 VLF field ± 13 word processor ± 33, 85 voice scrambling ± 14 workaround ± 86 HACK66.PS ± 77 Volkswagen ± 28 working prototypes ± 53 LENAHIST.PS ± 89 World of Zines, The ± 74 RETOUCH.PS ± 89 Walk-in bookstore ± 44 World Radio ± 68 SPOTLESS.PS ± 89 Wall Street Journal ± 24 World Wide ± 23 UNDUPLEX.PS ± 86 Wal-Mart ± 48 WPL ± 33 warming tray ± 12 WWII ± 23 warranty ± 21 wye connection ± 27 watchdogs ± 52 water soluble decal ± 13 Xerox Docutech ± 48, 88 water soluable waxes ± 40 Xicor ± 14, 82 water toys ± 26 X-rated vid rental ± 53 waterknife ± 75 Xtal Set Society ± 70 watermelons ± 48 Wausau Print Packs ± 46 Yagi FM antenna ± 36, 67 wavelets ± 33 Martin Yale ± 89 weapon systems ± 22 your own venture ± 56 Weather Sat Ink ± 69 weaving loom ± 76 Zener diodes ± 7

xxiii Resource Bin I

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