In his "spare time" Ron Tipton writes magazine articles. Paper reprints may be requested by phone, FAX, mail, or email. Just refer to the list number, no need to use the title or magazine name. (We are posting reprints in Adobe Acrobat format for you to download if you want to -- the files are fairly large!!)

1. "Over/Under Voltage Protector", Electronics Now, Sep 1995. (This article is on the "original" protector circuit which uses a manual Reset switch.)

2. "Photographs: Darkroom or Electronic?", Midnight Engineering, Nov/Dec 1995. (Compares film and "SNAPPY" B&W photos for data sheets and ads.)

3. "SNAPPY for Color Photos", Midnight Engineering, Apr/May 1996.

4. "The DC Volt", Nuts & Volts, Jan 1997.

5. "Find NIST Data On- and Off-Line", Test & Measurement World, Jan 1997.

6. "Circuit tests power outage susceptibility", EDN, Mar 3, 1997 (Design Idea).

7. "The AC Volt", Nuts & Volts, Apr 1997. Click here to download ACVOLT.PDF , Size: 877 kB.

8. "Add an RS-232 Output to any PIC Microprocessor", Electronic Design, May 12, 1997 (Idea for Design). Selected "Best of The Issue" by reader votes! This article in ASCII text only may be downloaded by clicking on RS232.ZIP Size: 3.8 KB.

9. "Breadboards - Then and Now", Nuts & Volts, Oct 1997. (Breadboard your ideas faster and with less frustration with this updated 20 year old design.) Download the breadboard artwork in Gerber format by clicking on GERBERS.ZIP Size: 68 KB.

10. "All About Attenuators", Electronics Now, Sep 1998. Download the article as a 600 dpi Adobe pdf file by clicking here . (attenuat.zip, size about 4.8 MB) Download the PIC software for the LM1972 active attenuator and the design equations for the resistor values in Figure 1 by clicking on ATTEN.ZIP Size: 5.4 KB.

11. "New Life for a Vintage Audio Filter",Nuts & Volts, July 1999.

12. "An Improved AC/DC Voltage Reference",Nuts & Volts, Jan 2000. Download the PC board artwork, panel drilling drawings and artwork by clicking on MODEL305.ZIP Size: 39KB. (The voltage reference comparison table was omitted from the published article so I've added it and the circuit board Gerber files to MODEL305.ZIP on 02/25/00.)
    I have some new (Feb 00) information on finding used Kelvin-Varley voltage dividers in KEL-VAR.ZIP (zipped .pdf and .jpg files). Size: 76KB.
    An IC voltage reference comparison was published in the Nov 99 issue of Texas Instruments Analog Applications Journal. You can download the "zipped" pdf file TI_VREFS.ZIPSize: 584K.

13. "All About Correlation", Circuit Cellar, April 2000. Download the article as a 600 dpi pdf file by clicking here. Size is about 1.5 MB. Download the software mentioned in the article: CORRELAT.ZIP Size: 114 KB.

14. "Temperature Measurement and Control",Nuts & Volts, April 2000. Download the additional info file: TM&C.ZIP Size: 1.4 MB.

15. "Another AC-DC Voltage Reference", Nuts & Volts , June 2000. Download the PC board artwork, panel drilling drawings, software, etc. by clicking on BUILD306.ZIP, Size: 74kB. (Last updated 06/22/00.)
    You can also download the latest hardware and software information by clicking on USER306.ZIP and SOFT306.HTM.

16. "All About Electronically-Tunable Active Filters", Poptronics, August 2000. Download the PC board artwork, PIC software and SPICE models mentioned in the article by clicking on TUNABLE.ZIP, Size: 19kB. Download the full article as a 600 dpi Adobe pdf file by clicking here. Size is about 2.75 MB.

17. "Build this Simple, High-resolution DC Voltmeter", QEX (ARRL Technical Journal), Sep/Oct 2001. Circuit board is available from FAR Circuits, phone 847-836-9148 or online at www.cl.ais.net/farcir/ Download the full text as a 600 dpi Adobe pdf file by clicking here. (hires-vm.pdf, size about 2 MB.) Download the MS-DOS control program by clicking on CNTRL251.ZIP, 19 kB. Download the LTC2400 demo program written by Linear Technology Corp. by clicking on 2400.ZIP, 2.5 MB. (This is a Windows program that will also control this voltmeter.) Download the circuit board drawings by clicking on svmeter.zip, 14 kB.

18. "Masking Unwanted Sounds", Nuts & Volts, September 2002. You can download a copy of the article in Adobe pdf format, with two jpg color photos, by clicking on masking.zip . Size is about 310 kB. You can also download a copy of the model 803 User Guide in pdf format by clicking on USER803.ZIP.

19. "A High Performance Microphone Preamp", audioXpress Magazine, October 2002. Download a 600 dpi scan of the article in Adobe pdf format by clicking on preamp.zip . Size is about 1.99 MB. You can also download a copy of the model 401 User Guide in pdf format by clicking on USER401.ZIP.

20. "Build the CF-MOSFET Audio Power Amplifier" by G. Randy Slone, Nuts & Volts Magazine, Feb-Mar 2003. This information has been moved to our new Power Amplifiers page. Please click here to visit it.

21. "Software for Audio Testing", Nuts & Volts Magazine, August 2003. You can download the audiotst.zip file by clicking here. Download the full article as a 600 dpi Adobe pdf file by clicking here. Size is about 2.94 MB.

22. "Bisbee Calling" was written for a specific newsletter but not published. But it's an interesting audio-related article so I'm posting it here. The zip file contains the text and color photos as an Adobe pdf file. Click here to download it (about 314 kB).

23. "The MaxxBass Subwoofer" audioXpress, November 2004. The MaxxBass* control unit is our model 907. For more information, please click here to go to the 907 product page. Please click here to download the zipped circuit board layout and parts placement file (mbboards.zip).
    (* MaxxBass is a registered trademark of Waves, Ltd.)

24. "Designing the Hot Strings Guitar for Chet Atkins" Multi Media Manufacturer (a publication of Audio Amateur Inc.), May/June 2006. This took place between October or November 1975 and January 1977 but it took me 30 years to get around to writing the story. The article includes photos and circuit diagrams. Click here to download a copy of the article in "zipped" Adobe Acrobat pdf format (size about 1.89 MB).

25. "A Multiple "Wall-Wart" Power Supply" audioXpress, June 2008. This handy unit replaces ten DC output wall-warts in a 2RU rack-mount enclosure. Each regulated output is isolated from the others and each voltage is settable with two 1% resistors. Click here to download the article in "zipped" Adobe Acrobat pdf format. (Size: about 2.8MB) Click here to download the full-size pcb layouts for this article. The layouts are in CIRCAD .pcb format and they can be printed with a free version of CIRCAD available from Holophase.
    On January 14, 2010 the wallwart.zip file was updated to also contain the Gerber files for manufacturing the two circuit boards. These files are furnished "as-is" without warrantee of any kind -- please see the readme.text file. (Size: 102 kB)

26. "TIM Revisited" Multi Media Manufacturer (a publication of Audio Amateur Inc.), Nov/Dec 2008. In this article I take a look at measuring Transient Intermodulation Distortion (TIM) in modern audio power amps and it appears to be a non-issue with current designs. The article includes photos and circuit diagrams. Click here to download a copy of the article in "zipped" Adobe Acrobat pdf format (size about 3.33 MB). (The three photos did not scan too well so I included the original jpg files in the zip file.)
    You can also download meastim.zip, Size 90 kB. This file contains a system overview, parts list, circuit board layouts and the square-wave generator source code that go with the article.

27. "Mysterious Data Errors" EDN, Tales From The Cube, December 15, 2009. In this article I describe troubleshooting and fixing a digital data collecting system. The "fix" is good design practice in all digital and low-noise audio circuits. Click here to download a copy of the one-page article in "zipped" Adobe Acrobat pdf format (size about 3 MB -- it's a color scan).

28. "DIY Microphone Calibration" audioXpress, April 2009. This hands-on tutorial shows you how to inexpensively calibrate a microphone by the comparison method. I also describe calibration by electrostatic actuator. Click here to download the six page article in Adobe Acrobat pdf format (size about 397 kB).

29. "All About Stroboscopes" audioXpress, December 2010. This article reviews several commercial turntable rotational speed measuring devices. It also describes a DIY LED stroboscope light and two PC programs for printing stroboscope discs. These programs with documentation are included in strobe.zip which you can download by clicking here. Size about 1.6MB.

30. "Vertical Blending" by Don Walizer and Ron Tipton, audioXpress, December 2010. The TDL® Model 4010 "The Restoration Preamp"TM has a LR Blend Control for minimizing the noise from playing a lateral-cut phonograph record by blending the right and left pickup cartridge outputs. This article discusses whether blending is useful for playing vertical-cut records. Download a pdf copy of the article by clicking here. Size about 347 kB.

31. "Audio Testing With Noise" VoiceCoil, December 2010. This tutorial investigates the use of randon and pseudo-random noise for testing audio components and systems. Noise can be a very useful test signal because it is inherently broadband which is faster and perhaps more accurate than spot or swept frequency testing. Download a pdf copy of the article by clicking here. Download a copy of noisegen.zip (see Reference 11 on page 34) by clicking here. Size about 3.4MB.

32. "Restoration of a Vintage Turntable" audioXpress, February 2011. In this article I describe the restoration of an early 1970's direct-drive TT, the Netronics 350D. I reburbished the motor, rebuilt the suspension and replaced the tonearm. This is a work-in-progress. Since I wrote the article (January 2010), I've moved the tonearm closer to the platter for better tracking. With a Sumiko adjustable- azimuth headshell and Denon DL-103R MC cartridge, the performace is greatly improved over the original product. Download a pdf copy by clicking here. Size about 1.4MB.

Before you leave, please visit our "What's New at TDL" page by clicking here. Thanks!

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Editorial comment...

Ron at the helm of the 50 foot sloop Adlestrop somewhere off the western coast of Martinique, April 2002. Captain David was happy to let me sail as many hours as I wanted. For more info go to www.ondeck.co.uk

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