Review: Toolcraft Digital Soldering Station

What’s this? A multimeter with a graphic display? That sounds interesting… The PeakTech 3440 can not only display measured values, but also graphs of measured values. It can also act as a kind of ‘low speed oscilloscope’ or even a data logger with a graphics display and storage options.

For some time now, cheap USB devices have been available that are pitched as ‘microscopes’, but the early models were really too flimsy for practical use in the electronics lab, while the focus distance was generally too small to be able to solder under it. So for that fine-pitch soldering work (SMD) you needed to make do with a magnifying glass (lamp) or reading glasses, other optical aids were either unusable or not affordable.

The sudden death of my faithful lab power supply offered a good opportunity to try out the affordable PeakTech PSU 6225 A which has similar current specifications as my deceased PSU (5 A vs. 6 A). The small form factor of this PSU was also a point in its favour.

At the electronics production trade show productronica 2019 held in Munich in the second week of November, Elektor interviewed Andreas a.k.a. Andy Zueger from electronic component distributor Distrelec.

A liquid-resin 3D printer offers much higher resolution than a filament 3D printer. The Photon-S printer from Anycubic we tried out features a layer thickness of the order of 10 microns. Besides being very precise, it's very affordable as well.

A new test of PCBite filmed by Roger, an Elektor reader who checks if this accessory lives up to its promises. Does it give reliable, hands-free measurements without mechanical linkage, held firmly in place by gooseneck arms? Do the befits of this accessory justify investing in it? The answer to these questions is set out in this video from Kainka Labs.

The Elektor Start-Up Challenge 2019 provided an opportunity for French start-ups to showcase their technologies and compete for international recognition.

This is a submission from Rutronik. The distributor earned the title of “EMEA Distributor of the Year” from JAE, the Japanese manufacturer of connectors and cable assemblies, for the second year in a row. JAE’s high-precision connector solutions are used primarily in IoT, factory automation, telecommunications, medical equipment, consumer goods, and automotive applications.

This is a submission from Eurocircuits on their investment of 5 million euros to meet the growth in their Assembly service for PCB Prototypes & Small Series, along with improved capabilities in their PCB production services and online eC-Smart Tools such as their Visualizers.

This is a submission from Microchip on a new family of Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) EERAM memory products that offers system designers up to 25 percent cost savings over the current serial Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM) alternatives. The family introduces four reliable SPI densities to Microchip’s EERAM portfolio, ranging from 64 Kb up to 1 Mb.

This is a submission from Rutronik on the Nordic Semiconductor dual processor SoC (System on Chip) nRF5340. With the Preview Development Kit (PDK) developers can already test and evaluate designs based on the SoC.