25 September 2010

Last month we introduced our new electrolytic capacitor reformer and tester - ideal for anyone working with vintage radios, valve equipment or indeed the hobbyist who has gathered a collection of electrolytics over the years. Now you can not only test them, you can (usually!) breathe new life into them if they've suffered from the ravages of time!

19 September 2010

This receiver is designed to pick up the signal from a hearing loop and will drive a pair of headphones. You can use it with a hearing loop you install in your own home or with commercial loops already installed in halls and churches.

13 September 2010

Some recording devices, especially computer sound cards, have poor sound quality or insufficient gain when used with certain microphones. This tiny module provides a line level output from an unbalanced or balanced microphone and has very low noise and distortion. It runs off 5-20V DC, consuming just 6mA.

07 September 2010

Marine growth on the hull is the bane of all boat owners. Left unchecked, marine growth slows the boat down considerably and if it's a power boat, leads to large increases in fuel consumption. If it's a yacht, marine growth will also slow it down and make it less manoeuvrable, to the point where it becomes very sluggish. The cure is to haul the boat out of the water every year and water-blast and scrape away all the growth and then coat the hull in toxic anti-fouling paint.

25 August 2010

Got a bunch of old electrolytic capacitors you'd like to use . . . but don't know if they are any good? Or do you need to re-form the electrolytics in an old valve amplifier or vintage radio set? This Electrolytic Capacitor Reformer and Tester will do the job for you, at any of 11 different standard voltages from 10V to 630V.

17 August 2010

Most readers would know that you can obtain small ultrasonic cleaners for jewellery and similar small items. So why not a much larger version? It would be great for cleaning automotive and other mechanical parts, fabrics which cannot be machine washed, ornate bric-a-brac and a host of other hard-to-clean items.

15 August 2010

This remote-controlled digital timer has a bright 20mm-high 7-segment red LED display & can count up or down from one second to 100 hours in 1-second steps. Its timing period can either be set and controlled using the remote control or it can be automatically controlled via external trigger/reset inputs. An internal relay and buzzer activate when the unit times out.

07 August 2010

Here's a 12-32V 30A speed controller that's easy to build. It's available in two versions – reversible and non-reversible – and features soft start, relay switching of motor direction and PWM speed control.

22 July 2010

Last month, we introduced our new Dual Tracking ±19V Power Supply and explained how it works. This month, we show you how to build the PC boards, install them in a case, wire it up and get it going. Both the mains-powered and plugpack-powered versions are covered.

18 July 2010

No, this is not some kind of fancy digital volume control for hifi systems. Instead, it's a low-cost digital programmable voltage divider. It's used to provide an accurate adjustable output from a precision voltage reference for meter calibration and other tasks.