PCBite: Probes that hold themselves

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.

A cheap and simple function generator kit for DIY assembly with surprising features and user-friendly operation.

This is a submission from Distrelec about the arrival of the new Teledyne LeCroy T3 suite of products comprising of turnkey and ancillary test tools and equipment. The T3 portfolio has been designed to provide engineers and test technicians alike the ability to assemble a highly reliable, fully equipped test bench at an affordable price, making the suite ideal for schools, universities and developers working with budget constraints.  

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.

Researchers have changed the definition of the kilogram. Until a few days ago the kilogram was defined as the mass of a platinum/iridium prototype (‘Le grand K’) that is safely stored in a vault at the Bureau international des poids et mesures in Sèvres (France).

You must have heard about the SmartScope, the little box that liberated Measuring Man from the wall outlet. Since it became available, anyone can take his 'scope on the road: a single cable turns a tablet, a laptop or a smartphone into an oscilloscope. Despite its colour, it ain't no black box. By giving full access to the software framework of the SmartScope, a whole new dimension of possibilities is opening up.

I wrote previously that it is hard to pass the EXIT / AUSGANG gates at the embedded world trade show in Nuremberg and not have a few demo or dev kits in your sponsored rucksack. That’s why the show is a must-attend for serious electronicists of all ages. I consider myself one but this year I was unable to attend the show and what do you think, I still I received a kit — it simply arrived in the mail a few days later. It is the Otii Arc Demo kit from IoT developers Qoitech in Sweden hence the polar bear on the box. On the Arc box proper I saw “Sony Belgium” printed.

There are many low-cost SMD testers available, but their main drawback is that they can only distinguish and measure resistance and capacitance. That’s not handy with more and more inductors being used in modern circuits. The ability to recognise inductors is therefore a hard requirement. Now the Chinese company Mastech has launched the MS8911 tester for SMD passives, which costs less than 40 euros and is able to measure inductors, resistors and capacitors. That sounds too good to be true, so we wanted to put this instrument to the test.

Back in 2016 Elektor introduced ScanaQuad Logic Analyzers to its readers: tiny, low cost, but extremely powerful logic analyzers from Ikalogic, France. Today, we were happy to hear the company announcing that a new software release - ScanaStudio V3 - brings even more features to your logic analyzer.

At a price of less than 100 euros, a reasonably equipped smartphone seems to defeat all attempts are designing and building the above modules from scratch and building them into every new application you have in mind. Not surprisingly, a vast proportion of projects I get to see from engineers contributing to Elektor Magazine employ a smartphone, usually for its display functionality and/or its touch screen as part of a user interface (UI) through Bluetooth or WiFi. Knobs, dials, meters, sliders … why go through the trouble of drilling and soldering and even purchasing parts if you can have the entire UI on single device, in your hand, battery powered, wireless, and totally reconfigurable through software only?