How to Access EPE Magazine’s New Forum on EEWeb and Find Old Chat Zone Content

We welcome EPE Magazine readers and electronics enthusiasts
to a new forum generously hosted for us by EEWeb. After well over a decade of
use, the legacy EPE Chat Zone forum had sadly reached its end of life, as server
and software compatibility problems were looming and the forum was somewhat
past its best.  We felt we could better serve
EPE Chat Zone users in bigger and more modern online surroundings, and what
better place than right here at EEWeb?

Here you’ll find masses of vibrant,
timely content and lively discussions about every branch of electronics, and
EEWeb has kindly given EPE Magazine its own space to support EPE’s magazine
readership just like we before on the old EPE Chat Zone forum.
It’s a really exciting new partnership and we hope EPE’s
readers will bookmark EEWeb as their go-to destination for the latest electronics
news, advice, data, design tools and lots more that the electronics community
will find indispensable. Rest assured that the EPE team is right here as usual and
we’re sure you will find plenty of surrounding online content to enthuse
readers, constructors, hobbyists and students everywhere. Thanks again to the
team at EEWeb for welcoming us on board!
EPE Chat Zone users, please register your new user account
using the Register link at the top right.
Welcome once again!
Alan Winstanley / EPE Maghazine Online Editor

Thanks Alan

I'm sure there will be a couple of teething troubles as people migrate, but it looks like a nice "home".

Regards
Iain

Great news - thanks Alan for all your hard work. I hope EPE readers will be happy once they get to grips with the new forum. Mike Kenward  

Hi, Alan.
Thank for setting this up.It's a shame to lose the old chatzone, but I do understand the reasons.I also understand members' objections to ads (as I type, I can see ads to the right of the screen, where google is trying to sell me a hotel I looked at a couple of days ago!!).  BUT these aren't overly intrusive and I'm not getting any popups, so not a major issue - EEWeb has to be funded somehow.
I do hope everyone will at least give this a try.By definition, most electronics enthusiasts should not "fear change" ;-)Thanks, again, for your work on this.

Thanks for your kind comments, and welcome aboard! Everyone is still finding their way around (including the folks here at EEWeb, grappling with new designs and new systems) but I'm sure it will bed down as a matter of course.  I'm hoping that EPE readers and Chat Zone forums will migrate over here slowly but surely.Fingers crossed!

Wow..Never thought I'd ever be the best contributor ever, but stats count..:)For those complaining about adverts, we all hate the intrusive data mining "stuff" that we understand occurs, but at the risk of being banned as the first person to respond, I'm using FF and have installed things like AdBlock etc. I haven't seen anything obtrusive to me.... No banners, no hee-haw. Just a nice new home,  well if others join.Regards,Me

LM3909

Alan...as someone (like Max) whose youth was so enriched by Practical Electronics, it's good to have you on board.

Thanks David - it's good to be here and we're very grateful for the
hospitality shown by EEWeb and its users! I hope the traffic and numbers
will  gradually rise over time, fingers crossed.

I still have some of these in my workshop, one of my favourite National Semiconductor chips. Also I've a much-prized National data book (the blue and white ones) which spelled out all sorts of applications for this fun chip. I still use them to this day.
Our November 2017 issue describes an MCU replacement for the LM3909, based on the PIC12F675. It also has an optional LDR for night-time only triggering.
Someone made the point that a PIC micro today costs less than an NE555V did in its time.Alan W

Good to see you, thank you for the kind feedback!

Thanks Alan.Reading your profile, your Dad and mine shared a common despair.You tell kids today that you cycle anywhere, and that you went to the tip to 'acquire' stuff and they are horrified. I suspect some of them wanted to, but weren't allowed.

Great news that  the EPE forum has been saved. Good luck in the new home.

Hi
I've just migrated across to the new forum and I have a couple of questions.

Will all the old topics/categories from Chat Zone be migrated over?

I've recently retired and I'm decluttering including some projects I built from EPE magazine.
Can I advertise those for sale on here at all?
(obviously this is non-commercial so I am hoping it doesn't fall foul of the T&Cs)

Thanks
Andy Whitfield

Hi Andy,  thanks for joining us on EE Web.  The forum is a questions & answers discussion area aimed at electronics engineers, students and hobbyists, and it has a very wide audience.  Unfortunately it probably isn't the best place to advertise things for sale, sorry about that     Max will tell me if he thinks differently.
The old EPE Chat Zone is open until the end of November if you want to post anything there (best not include personal email, phone etc.) , otherwise it's probably best on Planet Ebay I'm afraid. My old EPE prototypes date back 40+ years, maybe I will restore them in my retirement and/ or sell them off for charity on Ebay.
To answer your first question, if any topical threads are still live on the old forum then I will repost the OP here and hope users will continue the discussion over here.  Most topics seem to fall silent after a short time though. It isn't possible otherwise to import the old posts here, but we are keeping the old CZ in 'read only' mode as a reference for the foreseeable  future (or until the server OS finally kills off our forum Perl scripts, whichever comes first!).I'm looking to see if I can spider the old forum to take an offline copy that could maybe go on a disk or in a zip/ tar file. It works well in static HTML, so maybe my WebCopier software will be able to download everything. That's on the To-Do List.  Which, once completed, becomes aTa-Dah! list
Welcome aboard!Alan

Hi Alan,My old username and password doesn't seem to work anymore on chat zone.I've just registered for a new one and it says "Your
account application will be reviewed by appropriate moderators. You
will receive e-mail confirmation from the moderator when your account
application has been approved or rejected"Can that be speeded up please, so I can post a for sale advert on chat zone?    I registered as Andy55
And which category can I post a for sale in please?    the main EPE chat zone category?Regards,  Andy

Andy, the new account has been approved.  You could list items in the EPE Chat Zone area.Alan

Thanks Alan,
I will dig out tonight the metal detector I made back in the 1980s from the EPE article.
I better power it up and test it before advertising it on chat zone. 
Any chance chat zone could be continued until after Xmas?
I guess not many have moved across.  And I speculate many may read chat zone in those quiet days between Xmas and new year.
Regards
Andy

Andy,   some users have decided they won't move over regardless, but making more traffic on the old forum over the holidays / New Year increases the problem that we're currently trying to overcome, so I'll really have to wind it down as planned (which is still later than originally stated in the mid year). They'll find lots of pointers to the new area on EEWeb :-)Alan

Thanks very much for all your hard work on this Alan. You've done a great job on migrating most of us across over to EEWeb's forum. I'm looking forward to seeing what new people we attract and what interesting things we get talking about.
I really like the format EEWeb have going on. It's clear and easy to read. It will take a little getting used to.I shall work on being more present on the forums as well, although the next few months I may be a little quieter than usual with babies on the way.

Alan,  I've added a couple of photos to chat zone of my metal detector (I built from the EPE article back in the 1980s/1990s).  I'm keen to sell it as decluttering due to retirement.  Maybe a long shot, but would anyone in the EPE office be interested?     Perhaps you could mention it.  It's all tested and working.
Thanks, Andy

Hi
After subscribing to EPE I was tempted to build one of the projects.  Is this the place to get a bit of help?