New ElektorLabs Magazine Edition 5/2019 Available

LimeSDR Mini -- Functions Maxi! A pocket-sized SDR for transmitting and receiving

Although Elektor Magazine and their Labs have been relatively slow to jump the bandwagon called retro & vintage electronics, and specifically the revival of the Nixie tube, the projects and background articles we did see were delightful and well-engineered. The prime examples are the New Precise Nixie Clock and the Q and A on Nixie Tubes. In the wake of their Nixie and VFD clock projects, free-lance contributing designers Ilse Joostens and Peter S’heeren from Belgium (just around the corner from Elektor Labs) now surprise with another gem for in the living room: a thermometer with a traditional degrees C/F column but a “warm” readout. The secret: a perfect match of the old and the new.

The MightyOhm Geiger Counter is a device for detecting beta and gamma radiation levels. Because radiation is so harmful, you may want to keep an eye on the environment you live in and invest in a radiation detector like the MightyOhm Geiger Counter reviewed here.

This glowing new bargraph thermometer from Elektor Labs is based on an Arduino Nano. It offers a beautiful graphical representation of ambient temperature using a Russian IN-9 tube and an illuminated scale with various RGB-controlled colours. The temperature scale in degrees Celsius as well as Fahrenheit extends from 10 °C to 30 °C / 50 °F to 85 °F. The circuit consists of a 5-to-150 V "voltage doubler" step-up converter, an IN-9 tube driver based on a low-voltage rail-to-rail opamp, two RGB LEDs and of course the Nano.

Software Defined Radio allows you to create receivers for any radio signal. You just need a single peripheral connected to your personal computer. HackRF One, is such a SDR peripheral, connected through USB. It receives or transmits signals from 1 MHz to 6 GHz. Designed to enable test and development of modern and next generation radio technologies, HackRF One is an open source hardware platform that can also be programmed for stand-alone operation.

If (like most electronics buffs) you only have two hands with ten fingers on each, but lots of measurements to make on your boards, here is an interesting gadget for you. It’s the missing link between crocodile clip and contact point. It allows you to measure, continuously, hands free, with contact points without mechanical attachment, held in place by a flexible gooseneck arm. The probes are interchangeable and the support is very stable.

Help your children dream STEAM! Neither a toy nor a gadget, this WaterColorBot is an attractive educational project, involving girls, kids, adults, and teachers into active robotics and creative making. It not only provides opportunities for young people to build and learn about computer numerical control and to learn how to program a robot. It can be used far beyond that horizon. The WaterColorBot V2.0 is essentially a specialized pen plotter, using watercolors to paintbrush onto paper before your eyes. It dips its brush in water, goes and gets the right color. Standard watercolor paints and paper are used (no specialized supplies required).

This is a submission from Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH. They have entered into a global distribution agreement with the Taiwanese manufacturer of acoustic components Kingstate Electronics . The agreement encompasses all of Kingstate’s products and is already in effect.

This is a submission from Keysight Technologies, Inc. They announced that the company has joined the multi-party 6G Flagship Program – supported by the Academy of Finland and led by the University of Oulu, Finland – as a co-creator to advance wireless communications research beyond 5G.

This is a submission from Rutronik about their distribution agreement with the Chinese manufacturer of Bluetooth technologies Shenzhen Minew Technologies Co. Ltd. Founded in 2007, Minew counts Google, Here, Huawei, and Alibaba among its IoT customers from over 100 countries. The agreement encompasses all of Minew’s products.

This is a submission from Microchip Technology Inc about the announcement of an expanded data center portfolio and its entrance into the memory infrastructure market with the industry’s first commercially available serial memory controller.