06 November 2009

We take Roland's EGX-350 CNC milling machine on a test run making fast prototype PC boards. We found it surprisingly good – it can route, drill and cut out a complete PC board quickly, without using chemicals. It lets you move from concept to working prototype in a matter of hours.

01 November 2009

Now that HDMI sockets are standard on a wide range of LCD and plasma TV sets, set top boxes, DVD players and many computers, there is a need for a standard HDMI test source that can test this equipment. The Quantumdata 780 Handheld Test Instrument is a comprehensive solution which also provides digital audio test signals for DACs and Home Theatre receivers.

17 October 2009

FLIR Systems' new i5 camera is a compact handheld instrument weighing only 340g. You just aim and shoot with it and the result is a false colour picture showing the temperature gradients of a building, machinery, electrical equipment, a human body or whatever. You can use it as a precise non-contact thermometer which will also show the full temperature range of everything in the camera's view.

06 October 2009

Ever wondered how scope probes really work? Most textbooks treat scope probes as a combination of a resistive divider in combination with capacitors to provide an extended frequency response. But as will be revealed, the reality is that they are much more complex in principle. Read on.

02 October 2009

Provided you have the correct tools and a syringe of no-clean flux paste, soldering very small SMDs (eg, TSSOP devices) into place is easier than you think. Here's how to do it.

19 September 2009

Organic LED technology is now affordable for the hobbyist. In this article, we survey some available OLED screens and modules and give an example for a simple oscilloscope.

07 September 2009

Imagine being able to produce a professional quality diagram such as the one shown above to show how a circuit was laid out on a breadboard. You can - and the software to do it is FREE! And despite the name, it's not limited to PICAXE circuits, it's universal!

04 September 2009

If you ever yearned for a logic analyser you will know how expensive they can be, with professional units costing $5,000 or more. The good news is that a new crop of more affordable devices is becoming available and a good example of these is the Logic, from US company Saleae. It costs just US$149 and even after Australian dollar conversion that price is very attractive.

18 August 2009

The JTAGMaster is a boundary scan interface controller for your PC with ports for all IC manufacturers including Altera and Xilinx. As well as for in-circuit programming of FPGAs, CPLDs and selected microcontrollers, you can use it for training purposes and to create test flows for production PC boards. It will provide you with a thorough introduction to boundary scan technology.

10 August 2009

Australia, currently the country with largest population to adopt DAB+, was instrumental in the adoption of the DAB+ as a world standard. Switzerland, Malta, Hungary, Poland and Singapore already have DAB+. It is to be launched in Germany and Italy this year and will be the standard in the Czech Republic, Israel, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, much of Scandinavia and other European and Asian markets.