Project ID numbering

Minor editing and corrections 03/11/05 -rr

List of ETI projects, type, name and publication date. [New: 4/8/07]

This document dated Jan 1 1995 provides a guide to the project identification numbering systems used by several Australian electronics magazines.

Written by Robert J BARNES of R.C.S. Radio Pty. Ltd., Sydney, extracted from one of their distributions of EasyTrax PCB layout software.

RCS make PCB's and front panels and continued distributing and supporting EasyTrax when its creator Protel in Tasmania discontinued support.

EA - Electronics Australia

They use the first 2 numbers as the indicated year this project will be published.

The next 1, 2, or 3 letters are a brief description as to what this project will be used for.

And lastly - the last 1 or 2 numbers after the letters are the intended month of publication that this project should appear in.

   89TFC10  : Year = 1989, Project = Transistor FET Checker, Month = 10 (Oct)
   76SA5    : Year = 1976, Project = Stereo Amplifier      , Month =  5 (May)
   94AT1    : Year = 1994, Project = Automotive Test Inst. , Month =  1 (Jan)

SC - Silicon Chip

Mostly now an 8 digit part number made up of the following...

The first 2 digits are the category/description - the next digit is an indicator as to how many projects are like this in this intended issue.

The next 2 digits are the month of intended publication and the next 2 are the year of intended publication.

The last digit is the number of the pcb required to make up the project.

Some examples:

   14103901 : 14 = Power Supply, 1 = Of this type in this mag,
              03 = month, 90 = year, 1 = board number in this project

   15204922 : 15 = Infrared Rem, 2 = Similar to this in this mag,
              04 = month, 92 = year, 2 = board number in this project

some project codes for Silicon Chip

   01 = Audio, Hi Fi   02 = TV, Video      03 = Security     04 = Test Equip.
   05 = Automotive     06 = Radio/Comms    07 = Computers    08 = Games
   09 = Models & R/C   10 = 24O Control    11 = Batt/Inv.    12 = Telephones
   13 = Photography    14 = Batt Chrgr     15 = Infrared     16 =
   17 =                18 =                19 = Nuclear      20 =

ETI - Electronics Today International

They use the first 1 number (later 2) to indicate the project style and the last 2 numbers to indicate a unique number to date. (a very shortsighted/stupid concept of PCB numbering. No wonder they folded.

   131 is a Test Instrument Project (excellent power supply)
   541 is a Misc Project (model train controller)

   0xx = Project Electronics   1xx = Test Equipments   2xx = Simple Projects
   3xx = Automotive Projects   4xx = Audio Projects    5xx = Misc/24Ov/I.R.
   6xx = Music/Mixers/CPU.     7xx = Radio Tx/Rx       8xx = Games

Later these dills realised the numbering system was limited to 99 projects so they added 1000 to the group number, e.g. 5xx became 15xx projects, etc., and this gave them another 99 projects to the master group.

AEM - Australian Electronics Monthly

Very similar to the ETI numbering system - resulting in the same fate of number allocation useage, very short sighted.

   1xxx = Misc Projects      2xxx = Test, P/S etc.   3xxx = Radio Tx/Rx
   4xxx = Computer Proj.     5xxx = 24Ov control.    6xxx = Amplifiers
   7xxx = not allocated      8xxx = Auto. proj.      9xxx = Batt. chargers

HE - Hobby Electronics

Very similar to the ETI numbering system - resulting in the same fate of number allocation useage, very short sighted.

   1xxx = Misc Projects/Test,P/S/Radio/Tx/Rx/24Ov/Amplifiers/Car/etc
   That's right all 1xxx Group number. An absolutely stupid number system.

Source: Robert J Barnes of R.C.S. Radio Pty. Ltd.

<<<OzValveAmps