• Home
• Home Page
• You want to...
• Develop a new product
• Reduce cost & add value
• Speed up the design process
• Working with you
• Design Philosophy
• Development Process
• Services
• Electronic Design
• Turnkey Solutions
• Technical Services
• Experience
• Past Projects
• The WWL Team
• Resources
• Business Plan
• Non-Disclosure
• Intellectual Property
• Angel Investors
• Grants & Tax Relief
• Blogs
• News & Commentary
• Knowledge Base
• Technical Tips
• Contact Us
• Contact Details

Technical Tips

---

Microsoft updates no longer seem to support the Office 2000 suite automatically

---

As far as I can tell the updates you need are (install in order of name):

• MS Office 2000 Suite Updates
• Access
• ALL
• Excel
• Office
• Outlook
• Powerpoint
• Word

After this further updates seem to be updated automatically.

---

Turning on your WiFi

---

If you can't turn on WiFi from a limited account in XP, the following may help:

• Log in as an administrator & set up that profile exactly as you want it (desktop icons, wireless connections etc).
• Log in as a different administrator & copy the user profile from the previous step to the default user profile (you may need to set folder options to show hidden files and folders).
• Delete the limited user's profile.
• Log back in as the limited user & they should be able to enable WiFi.

---

Technical Quips We Hold Dear

---

• Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.
  Thomas Edison (1847-1931).
• I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone. (Bjarne Stroustrup.)
• If you code to the limit of your ability you will end up debugging beyond the limit of your ability. (Unattributed.)
• In theory, practice & theory are the same – in practice they tend to be rather different! (Unattributed.)

---

Preprocessor Directives

---

For conditional compilation #ifdef may be compact but the defined syntax is more flexible, consider:

#if (defined OPT1 && defined OPT2) || (defined OPT3 && !defined OPT4)

---

Short of scope channels when debugging serial receive

---

Here’s a nifty idea for squeezing more information onto a scope channel when debugging serial receive. Set up spare outputs to indicate receipt of start pattern, start edge, bit sampling, etc. Diode OR them into a multi-level resistive divider such that each output causes a different voltage. Ensure that the signal on which you wish to trigger gives rise to the highest voltage.

The circuit & scope trace shown below are a real-world example. The option DIP switch was temporarily disconnected & the micro pins thus freed were wired up as shown. The firmware was modified so that the outputs pulsed briefly as follows:

• PB0 - packet start (no edges detected for "blanking" period)
• PD7 - start bit edge
• PD5 - start & data bit value

The previously intransigent bug was quickly found.