Eric Gunnerson made this DIY pogo-pin test jig: I decided to build a pogo-pin test jig, and since the approach I came up with was different than the other approaches I’ve seen I thought it would be worth sharing. I’m going to be targeting my laser cutter for fabrication, though I could have chosen to […]
Category Archives: tools
Low cost high accuracy STM32 FFT LCR meter
Adil Malik made a low cost FFT LCR meter with an STM32 MCU: The approach I took was a mixed signal one where a capable analog front end would be paired up with a beefy DSP processor to compute the Impedance. Most importantly, in this scheme, the DSP is responsible for discriminating the phase between […]
Sweeperino, Arduino based test instrument
Ashhar Farhan (VU2ESE) made an Arduino based sweeper for ham radio homebrewing, that is available on GitHub: The Sweeperino a very useful Arduino based test instrument. It is the following: *A very stable, low noise signal generator from 4 MHz to 160 MHz without any spurs *A high precision power meter with 90 db with […]
A DIY SMD pick and place tool for electronics assembly
Here’s a DIY vacuum pick-up tool for SMD components: This video describes a DIY Vacuum Pick-up tool for picking and placing parts from an SMD component tape. The basic design for this tool involves using a vacuum pump and a solenoid to control the vacuum to a handpiece under control of a foot pedal. Via SDG […]
Guitar Amp builder notes — AF power amplifier dummy load
Vasily Ivanenko has written an article detailing his AF dummy load project: I’ll describe a simple 8, or 4 Ω dummy load to test your home brew guitar power amplifiers. Low cost 16 Ω / 25W wire wound, aluminum shell, chassis mount resistors seem abundant. I got mine on eBay. Wire wound resistors vary in quality, design […]
CurrentRanger: auto-ranging current meter
An auto-ranging nanoAmp meter from LowPowerLab: CurrentRanger is a nanoAmp current meter featuring auto-ranging, uni/bi-directional modes, bluetooth data logging options and more. It is a highly hackable and affordable ultra low-burden-voltage ammeter, appropriate for hobby and professional use where capturing fast current transients and measurement precision are important. More details on LowPowerLab site. Check out […]
A full review of EasyEDA: A circuit EDA online tool
Yahya Tawil wrote in to share his review of a web based EDA tool, the EasyEDA. He explains the general structure of this tool and some of its cool features: EDA cloud tools which are related to electronics are emerging exponentially in almost all aspects (i.e. simulation, PCB design, footprint creation, gerber files viewing and 3D […]
Getting control over a 50 watt CO2 laser cutter from China
Unboxing laser cutter Co2 50 watt from China: There are people around me who think I’m crazy. And they are probably right. Who else would buy a machine from someone he does not know. I have to pay upfront. It is not clear how things will get delivered, what gets delivered, or if it gets delivered […]
DIY robot design
A computational abstractions for interactive design of robotic devices by Ruta Desai, Ye Yuan and Stelian Coros from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute: We present a computational design system that allows novices and experts alike to easily create custom robotic devices. The core of our work consists of a design abstraction that models the way […]
Adjustable constant current source
Dilshan Jayakody has published a new build: The current source introduced in this article is capable to handle current up to 6A with maximum input voltage of 50V. This is an operational amplifier based adjustable current source and it uses LM358 in a general voltage follower configuration. To handle large currents we use four 0.1Ω […]
DIY polarity Led tweezers
Jesus Echavarria shared detailed instructions of how to make a simple tweezers for checking led polarity: I usually assemble by hand all the boards I make. I use SMD components, especially in 0805 format for resistors, capacitors and leds. With the last ones, I always have the same problem: I need to check the polarity of […]
Qinsi-QS5100 Sn63Pb37 solder profile
Alan Hawse from IOT Expert writes, “About 2 years ago, I bought a Qinsi QS5100 reflow oven from China via Amazon.com. My decision was based almost completely on the nice youtube video that Ian Lesnet from Dangerous Prototypes posted about his results. After I got the oven, I successfully built a series of Physics Lab […]
Review of NeoDen 4 pick and place machine with vision system
Ray Wang wrote up a review of NeoDen 4 pick and place machine with built-in vision system: Recently NeoDen released a new model called NeoDen 4 — it’s their first desktop model that has built-in computer vision system. The vision-based alignment makes it possible to place fine-pitched components with minimal manual work. It has four pick […]
DIY PCB inspection microscope
Saulius made a DIY PCB inspection microscope and wrote a post on his blog detailing its assembly: Despite how good microscope you have, stand is still very important part of final assembly. And while there are many commercial ones made of cast iron, they might cost more than a microscope head itself. I decided to make stand […]
ViaConnect circuit board test tool
David Spinden writes, “Wanted to pass along an open source hardware circuit board tool that allows a person that has a circuit board that has vias for .1 inch headers, but has no headers to prototype for their idea. Using a spring contact, the ViaConnect attaches directly to the via. It is great for students […]
USBuddy: USB development tool
Jakub has designed and built a USB breakout board with current monitor, an open hardware tool – USBuddy: Do you sometimes develop with USB? I do. So I need to access data lines, bus voltage and I’d like to easily monitor the current too. I made myself a small companion (43.5 mm × 22.5 mm, […]
Elektor 500ppm LCR meter case tips
NopHead wrote a blog post review of Elektor 500ppm LCR meter: I recently bought a 500ppm LCR meter from Elektor because I didn’t have anything for measuring inductors or the ESR (equivalent series resistance) of capacitors, both of which are important for modern electronics, particularly switch mode regulators that have become ubiquitous. It is also more accurate […]
Maker’s rule, the feature packed PCB multi-tool
Rohit Gupta made a more refined version of his tinker rule: My initial scale was big and not handy, So, this one should be small and compact and must not miss a single feature from its ancestor. This one has : 0.1 inch grid to quickly prototype/resolve parts for perf-boarding or part creation A collection […]
New Energia 17 release brings SensorTag, Red Bear CC3200 And F28069M support
The Energia team announces the availability of version 0101E0017. We wrote about it previously: A new version of Energia has been released. This version fixes alot of bugs from the previous version and also adds support for the following: Support for three new boards have been added added: – CC2650 based SensorTag (MT) – CC3200 based […]
X-Carve CNC mill build log & review
Jeremy Blum writes: A few months ago, I built and reviewed the Shapeoko2 CNC mill from Inventables. Now, I’m back to review its successor, the X-Carve. The X-Carve features new-and-improved mechanics, a much sturdier spindle mounting system, and a myriad of other improvements that make it easier than ever to venture into the world of […]