A teardown & analysis of a Keysight InfiniMax III N2802A 25GHz active probe from TheSignal Path: In this episode Shahriar takes a close look at one of Keysight (Agilent) InfiniMax III active probes. The model N2802A offers 25GHz of analog bandwidth, 17.5pS of rise time and a total differential input capacitance of 32fF at 10k-Ohm […]
Tag Archives: parts
Box of parts from Mouser for Bus Pirate edu kit
A box just rolled in from Mouser, two days early by FedEx. Mostly 8pin through-hole chips for the Bus Pirate educational kit. Sadly, not free.
Bus Pirate education kit parts
A new Bus Pirate educational/experimentation kit is in the works. Here, in no specific order, are the experiments/parts we plan to include. Almost all are from Microchip. This is mostly an accident, they seem to have the cheapest and most commonly available small serial devices in through hole packages. If you know of alternate devices […]
Simplify Eagle library part creation from BSDL files
Here’s a tutorial on how to automatically generate Eagle parts from manufacturers’ BSDL files. These files are available from some manufacturers and include tables listing pin names and numbers. This information is used by the make-symbol-device-package-bsdl.ulp to generate your device. On our wiki we have a tutorial on how to built devices for your Eagle […]
Hak8or’s scavenge of electronic parts from old computer hardware
Got an old computer collecting dust? Break out the hot air, and start scavenging for electronics gold. This is just what Hak8or did over the weekend. He took components form an old motherboard, and a SCSI PCI card. For a detailed component by component breakdown of his score check out his blog. I wanted to […]
Shopping TaoBao: Our first steps
Some time ago a forum member brought up Taobao as a cheap alternative to eBay. Since we like to shop on a budget, we decided to give it a go. Shopping on Taobao is not as easy as shopping on eBay, and consists of more steps between ordering, and receiving the item.
7 segment display controlled by simple SPI interface
Touch let us know about these 4 digit SPI controlled 7 segment displays that cost a little less then $1 a piece. They include decimal separators and a colon separator so it’s easy to display time. I picked up some cheap 4 digit 7 segment displays over on eBay for $10 + shipping. They Include […]
Medium box of parts
A Mouser order with parts for the atx breakout board case arrived. Also some odds and ends for the dp badges for NY. This is a test using a WordPress post instead of twitter. Let us know if it gets too petty.
Sourcing cheap parts on TaoBao, China’s eBay
Matseng wrote about the Chinese eBay equivalent TaoBao as a great source for cheap electronics components. While the pricing is cheap, the downside is that most sellers only sell locally, so using an agent is a must. Read his full report below.
Fixing cheap female pinheaders
Lindsay lets us know about a problem he ran into with cheap female pinheaders: I once had problems with a 0.1″ pin header connector – the sockets inside the female connector made extremely poor contact. It was for an LCD display and only about half of the pins were connected! Swapped it for a different […]
Component Organizer source code released
A while back we posted about an app, Component Organizer, that helps you organize datasheets, and app notes connected to various parts you may be interested in. Yesterday Msr let us know that he has released the source code. You can download it at github. He also added a tutorial to help contributors get started. […]
Connector sampler pack
We have an ongoing thread in the forum where you can share your latest electronics purchases. Here’s some stuff Zeta got recently: You know how hard it is to choose the right conector when all you have is an online catalog and well TE Conectivity (via Digikey) sent me a sample pack of their sotutions […]
Big box of parts: Leaves Netherlands for Spain
Jawi let us know that the “Big box of parts” is on it’s way to Spain. He took out the items pictured above, and then passed it along: The MCP2021 LIN transceiver The minuino board + 328 AVR; The AVR dev.board; Some SMD leds; An iPod dock connector; The bluetooth adapter from Roving Networks. We […]
HOW-TO: Create Eagle parts with pins that have the same name
Most chips have multiple power pins that need to be connected to the same power supply, but Eagle doesn’t allow you to give 2 different pins the same name. This short tutorial shows how to get around this and name multiple part pins the same thing. Keep reading below, see our other Eagle tutorials here.
HOW-TO: Create parts with separate power pins
Ever wonder how some designs group all the power supply pins in one corner of the schematic? They look organized, and it’s easier to understand how the circuit works because pins are grouped by function. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to make an Eagle part with separate power pins. This can be extended […]
Big box of traveling parts update
A while back we started a big box of traveling parts in the forum. We had lots of stuff we didn’t need so we packed it in a box and sent it along to Sjaak. He took some things out, added some goodies, and passed it to Riktw. Today Riktw posted pictures of his deposit […]
Ceramic, tantalum, and electrolytic capacitor comparison
Arhi made use of his precision LCR meter to measure capacitance and ESR values of ceramic, tantalum, and electrolytic capacitors. He made his measurements at various frequencies to help him graph the changes to the values over a wide frequency range. From the graph it can be extrapolated that the ceramic capacitors have the lowest […]
Sjaak’s shop-a-holic trip to Akihabara Electric Town
Sjaak stayed a little bit longer in Tokyo and had more time to score some nice parts. As we already said the big plus of shopping in Akihabara is you can actually touch the stuff, but it also has a major downside – you buy too much stuff… Please continue reading about our shop-a-holic trip to […]
PIC32s in DIP packages are available at microchipDIRECT
PIC32 microcontrollers in DIP packages are in stock at microchipDirect. The prices range from $2.51 in the singles to $1.82 in high volumes. This compares well to 8, and 16bit PICs which also range around $2 in the same package. Via the forum. Thanks Shaos.
Parts! November 2010
A box of parts arrived from Mouser today. We’re not affiliated with them in any way, just sharing our excitement over a big box of parts.