Digital potmeter with on/off switch?

Hello Michael,

That sounds really Bavarian, makes me long for a Spaten Optimator. But I have to work late today so that won't be in the cards.

have

Bicycles, too. A neighbor has one with hydraulic brakes. The fluid is enviro-friendly, of course, in case he turfs it and the stuff leaks. An aunt had a bicycle with an automatic transmission. I didn't like that kind of "progress" at all.

The best ones are the radios with two knobs. "Station" and "Volume". And with dynamic range. Got to explain to some kid designers these days what that is.

Servus, Joerg (that's what they say at the Hofbraeuhaus)

Hello Jim,

First time I had that issue anywhere.

It's a combo card. The only place where they don't accept those is a few large car rentals at JFK. Which is why they don't get my business anymore.

Regards, Joerg

What's a "combo" card? I've not heard of that.

I know most car rental places won't take debit cards as the front end guarantee.

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | |

Hello Jim,

It is a card that can be used as ATM card and also as a credit card. That way you don't have to carry two cards.

They do take the combos, except the big companies in very few places. But I like the smaller ones anyway. The rate I got at Alamo was a third of what the big ones wanted for the same car. Similar for Fox and many others. Blows my mind, since they are all in one building now.

Regards, Joerg

Hi! ;-)

How about this - an 8-input CMOS OR gate, so that when the count reaches

Cheers! Rich

...

Ladies and gentlemen, this is yet another of Mother Nature's ways of saying, "You've got WAY too much money!"

Cheers! Rich

Hello Rich,

That part is done, all with HC14. But now I received some additional and revised items on the wish list. So it's another night shift and the weekend is toast. But on the bright side, my office is 10 seconds walking distance from home.

Regards, Joerg

Well, I dunno 'bout that but I did pick up that expression down south, in Wuertemberg(sp?). The first time I tried it out on a German, he let loose with a proper German sentence instead of just "hi", which all German students know perfectly well. I stood with my mouth open while my German girl friend laughed a streak. She translated for me: "He said, 'I'm not going that far'."

Spaten. Yes, I know that one. Gold label with a little spade and other stuff on it. I seem to have forgotten the "Optimator" part in the mean time. My favorite, when I could get genuine German stuff, was a Weinachts bock brewed in Sindelfingen. I can only describe it as delicious.

Hello Michael,

It's Baden-Wuerttemberg, a state in the south. I guess he was pulling your leg there, Gruess Gott is the usual greeting in southern Germany.

You can buy Optimator at Trader Joe's, I think it's around $6-7 per six-pack. Lots of volts, so don't drive afterwards. My favorite is Belgian beer of the Trappiste variety. But that has even more volts :-)

Regards, Joerg

Can't speak for any one else, but i would look into how solar calculators do it, some version should be public domain by now.

Hello Joseph,

It is quite easy to do with digital circuits. I have designed a lot of devices around 74HC and CD4000 logic that had an almost immeasurable current consumption after turning themselves dormant. Wake-up was so quick that the whole scheme remained transparent to the user.

When you have lots of analog components it becomes more tricky. Often all you can do is pulse certain things to monitor a particular parameter that must trigger a change of power state. That is also how modern uC such as the MSP430 work. They wake up and start their oscillator, look around and if nothing happened go back to sleep mode. The first uC I did that with was ye olde 89C51 but it would not go down to the 1uA range like the MSP430 does. The CMOS process was probably more leaky.

Regards, Joerg