Two New Designs

Just when you think you are all washed up ... I am pleased to see that two of my electronic designs are published in the July 2026 Silicon Chip Magazine: 

1. Random Traffic Lights, and 

2. A Proximity Sensor. 

They both have special features. At the push of a button, the Traffic Lights randomly fail (a nice South African touch), and the Proximity Sensor is diode-based: by using reversed diodes for a potential divider, an op-amp input becomes very sensitive to the nearness of a human body. I took the photo of South African traffic lights in Thembalethu.

Laser Microphone

Every now and then, a small electronic revolution comes along: say, transistors, LEDs, or Nd magnets. There is one about to burst on the scene: the sensiBel SBM100B laser microphone (pictured) -- which is small enough to fit on one's fingertip. It is due to go into full-scale production next year. OBSERVATION: If I myself had had this for my designs, it would have made a big difference. Its frequency ranges over a few Hz to nearly 200 kHz, and it delivers the same audio recording quality as professional studio microphones 50 to 100 times the size. 

Evolution of Electronics

The April Practical Electronics magazine (PE) has an interesting article on the evolution of electronics. I myself have done a lot of electronic design, using discrete components -- the "nuts and bolts" of electronics. The PE article describes how electronics today, compared with a generation ago, is "fundamentally uninterested" in that. The author Clive Maxfield concludes:

"So here we are, surrounded by devices which are smaller, smarter, quieter, and vastly more capable than anything our younger selves could have imagined, yet often sealed, abstracted, and inscrutable."

The photo shows a modern electronic "black box". Who needs to know what is going on inside?

Capacitor Torch

In October 2000, I published the world's first capacitor-powered wind-up torch, in EPE magazine. After that. I went on to publish a few variations. I always carry one of mine with me (shown) on travels. OBSERVATION: The reason why I designed a wind-up torch at all is that I was caught in a hurricane (cyclone) in Fiji -- Cyclone Ami -- and my battery torch failed on a dark dirt road as I tried to find my way home through the storm. I was determined not to rely on batteries again!

POSTSCRIPT: It was only around the year 2000 that the technology to build such a torch became available. I saw the possibilities.

Invention 49: Dog Repeller

Once in a while, I put up what I believe would be viable and profitable inventions -- that I don't, however, have the time to (fully) develop. Now the loudest whistle in the world (pictured) is the Hyperwhistle. This is more than 140 decibels, or some 100 times louder than an ambulance siren. The loudest dog whistle is less than 110 decibels, which is, say, 50 times softer than an ambulance siren. The Hyperwhistle is not designed for dogs -- it has a frequency of about 3 kHz -- while dog whistles have a frequency of well over 20 kHz. I have both owned and designed electronic dog repellers -- in fact, one of my designs is on this blog: Dog Repeller. This uses a small ultrasonic transmitter (0.5"), which cannot be very loud if it could be heard by humans. Yet it scares dogs. Now the invention here is: take the non-electronic Hyperwhistle, push up the frequency ten times, and create a Hyperwhistle for dogs. Even if it is "only" 120 decibels, it will be as loud as an ambulance siren for humans. OBSERVATION: There may be one problem, however. It may be thought to be unethical to hurt dogs' ears. At the same time, as a minister having visited many homes, I know what it is like to be nipped and even bitten by aggressive dogs -- and that hurts humans! The same for postal workers. A dog repeller can help.

Designs In Production

Spot the difference. Many of my designs have gone into production -- mostly with some additional engineering. This is one example among many. Top left is the Programmable Robot, designed by me, containing a microprocessor (its "brains") from Revolution Education. Top right is the Microbot, containing a microprocessor from ... Revolution Education. My design was merely copyrighted (not patented). So they were entitled to develop my idea.

Potential Inventions

Once in a while, on this blog, I put up (potential) inventions, which is ideas which could potentially be commercialised -- bearing in mind that many of my ideas have already been commercialised. This week I came up with a new musical instrument -- but I realised that it was too distinct, too elegant in its simplicity, to put up here. I intend to make a working prototype, and submit it to a publisher. OBSERVATION: It's one of those why-didn't-I-think-of-that designs. I'll say some more about it if and when it is published.

Caterpillar

Here's something that I designed many years ago. Without an explanation, one might wonder what on earth it is. It is designed to simulate the motion of a caterpillar -- the front and back sections being M1 (motor 1) and M2. VR1 controls, not the speed of the caterpillar (the speed of the motors does that), but the speed at which the front and back sections alternate. OBSERVATION: Front and back sections are mounted on two trays, which slide in and out of one another. The Chinese should convert this into a solar caterpillar. It would be more interesting than their solar beetles. You saw it first on this blog ...

POSTSCRIPT: With clever design, this would need only one motor.

More or Less

My nearest electronics store has the strange policy of selling one anything that is vaguely like the components they do not have. Then they seal them in plastic, before one pays for them at the till. So they have sold me, for example, 10μF capacitors instead of 100μF, 1W Zeners instead of 5W, 072 IC's instead of 071's, or one-core wire instead of two-core. For anyone with a basic knowledge of electronics, such are major differences. Their most recent swap was a classic: they gave me 4016 IC's instead of 40106's. As usual, they sealed them in plastic before payment. I went back and asked them for 40106 IC's. They would have to order them, they said. And so they ordered 4584's. There are no returns on semiconductors, mind you. That is policy. OBSERVATION: While I haven't ever tried 4584's, they should do what I want. But for someone like me, who is into experimental electronics, slight differences can be critical, such as input impedances or reverse voltages.

Magnetic Mountain

Back in 2018, I designed an "incredibly sensitive" magnetometer (said the publishers). It was published in Silicon Chip Magazine in December 2018. The first time I took it for a field test, I took it here -- to the lower slopes of Table Mountain. But the pebbles that one sees were all magnetic. My magnetometer picked up the whole mountain!

Proximity Sensor

Capacitive proximity sensors pick up the miniscule charge on the human body. Usually they have one of two types of front end: a sensitive transistor pre-amplifier, or an RC oscillator with a very small value of C. Whatever the case may be, their front ends use active components. I today submitted a capacitive proximity sensor to publishers, which almost entirely strips out the front end -- using no active components in this section of the design. OBSERVATION: My method is better than existing methods, and if published, will undoubtedly change capacitive proximity sensors forever. Watch this space.

Innovative Electronics

I tried some innovative electronics this week. What happens when I do innovative electronics is sometimes inexplicable. I intended to develop an innovative motion sensor. This worked. It detected a finger moving at about half a metre -- an ordinary result. However, it inexplicably -- and reliably -- switched when I touched the top of the table two metres away. OBSERVATION: If I were deliberately trying to invent that, I doubt that I could -- yet I invented it unintentionally.

Random Traffic Lights

This is what I call a proof-of-concept: it works. It is a set of random traffic lights -- which I have since mounted neatly in a project box. I did it for a friend -- and, knowing his disdain for our ruling ANC, I included a special "ANC button". Press it, and the traffic lights begin to randomly load-shed -- which is, cut out. OBSERVATION: I shall submit the design now to a publisher.

POSTSCRIPT: The random traffic lights were snapped up for publication, with the usual slippery acceptance: "This will be considered for publication in the next available issue."

Cancer Removal

Back in 2005, I had a Wart Remover published in the USA. This bombarded warts with a miniscule current at just over 20 kHz. It was so effective that one could hear a wart disintegrate. Today, the BBC featured a (click here) newly invented device which bombards cancer with ultrasound, which is 20 kHz and up. The cancer, similarly, disintegrates. In fact (click here) on this blog, in 2019, I proposed that my device could be used to treat cancer in similar fashion. The image shows a prototype device.

Electronic Innovation

In the field of electronics (see the previous post), I have made some fundamental contributions to the field. The previous post was about the diodic divider. I also invented RFL class logic gates. I invented digital IB metal detecting, regenerative BFO metal detecting -- and other things besides. It was simply a matter of letting my mind roam across the whole field of electronics. OBSERVATION: Take the diodic divider, for example. There already were resistive, capacitive, and inductive dividers. Well, there was one missing in that line-up. There surely must be many things besides which people (until now) have skipped. One may also skip basic applications ...

Diodic Divider

My last published invention was a diodic divider. The advantage is extremely high input impedance for a circuit -- or sensitivity, to put it simply. Lately I have been contemplating a new design, incorporating the diodic divider. OBSERVATION: AI claims that my diodic divider is a novel voltage divider type -- surpassing traditional resistive, capacitive, and inductive methods for ultra high impedance in particular. No prior diodic divider demonstrations appear in searches. In other words, it is a new invention. The diodes are twinned here for increased stability. The capacitor serves to stabilise the input.

Talking Vehicle

In the late 1990's, I found that people gave my three-wheel pickup a lot of attention. They would even climb inside and play with the controls. One boy let the hand-brake off, went careening down a hill, and hit a lamp post. Therefore I installed a device which said: "Would you kindly leave this vehicle alone." It was a sensitive, passive light sensor, switching a telephone answering module, which fed an amplifier. OBSERVATION: This, however, was somewhat counter-productive. People milled around the vehicle to hear it speak!

Stereo Microphone

I sought this morning to modify a stereo microphone of my design, which is essentially double of what is shown here. Try to find a stereo microphone -- it effectively doesn't exist. Consider that the sounds of speech are three-dimensional -- but there isn't anything out there that picks that up. OBSERVATION: Another example is guitar strings, which have two-dimensional sound -- but to this day, no one has exploited that.

Metal Detector

Son M, in Switzerland, wanted a metal detector. I built him one of my own designs -- however it was not that simple to take it over on a plane. I mailed him the innards, then improvised in Switzerland to make a complete metal detector. Here it is. It is a BFO design, with two important differences: it uses two coils for added stability, and radio regeneration for added sensitivity.

When Hobbyists Meet

Here is what happens when a photography enthusiast meets a metal detecting enthusiast. In the background is Table Mountain and Table Bay. OBSERVATION: In fact, I am a metal detecting enthusiast, too. I design the things. Recently, I introduced radio regeneration to BFO, which is a revolution rather than an innovation. You may click on the photo to enlarge.