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Small 10 mW thermogenerators available retail
This device is a tiny SMD thermogenerator that harvests heat energy to generate up to 10 milliwatts of power. Dev boards are available at Mouser for a mere $700 retail. In case of Micropelt devices,...
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PSoC3 system on chip dev-board: SSOP IC soldered
Kartik soldered the first prototype of his PSoC3 development board. He used a no-solder soldering technique to solder the SSOP IC. He had great success with this technique, after destroying a few...
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App note: Comprehensive manual for SMD components
Here is a comprehensive manual for SMD components. It covers most common SMD components used in the electronics industry today. Package dimensions as well as markings are covered. This brochure brings...
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App note: Technical guide to surface mount resistors
Here is a technical guide to surface mount resistors from Panasonic. It covers the theory behind various resistor materials and the manufacturing processes. Tables illustrate specifications for...
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X-ray BMD assessment machine teardown
Hak8or got his hand on an X-ray bone mineral density assessment machine someone dumped. It seems the only problem is a faulty temperature sensor, but Hak80r decided to break it down and share the...
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Head worn magnifying glasses comparison
Working with low pitch SMD components can be a pain on the eyes, and one way to make it more conferrable is to use head worn magnifying glasses. Arhi wrote an in depth comparison of the 3 models he...
View ArticleTips on speeding up SMD part placement
Mike made a video on how to speedup SMD assembly. He uses air/vacuum powered tools to for pickup, and placement, as well as for solder paste dispensing. Don’t be put of by thinking of expensive air...
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Organizing your surface mount component hoard
Keeping track of all the strips of surface mount components you’ve amassed can be a pain. Some people stick them in large compartmentalized boxes, others get the expensive metal storage drawers. Here...
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The surface mount component codebook
An illustrated guide to identifying surface mount components from our previous post on the topic. Thanks Celia! Via the comments.
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Tiny RGB stick string lighting
Pfriedel posted his RGB stick blinking lights in the project log forum: So to keep my iron hot and to give me something to keep practicing working with SMD devices, I’m about to order a run of about...
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Mini SMD version of the solderiron driver
My mini SMD version. Size=LCD : ) hakko 907 works great +- 0.5C , but weller pes 51 with +- 10 C. dtmf shared his mini SMD version of the solderiron driver in the project log forum.
View ArticleTips & tricks to sort and rework surface mount devices (SMD)
Tips & tricks to sort and rework surface mount devices (SMD): I’m a member of the Superstition Amateur Radio Club (SARC) and each month we have a presentation on a ham radio related subject. I...
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Will the SMD resistors marking become a history?
Will the SMD resistors marking become a history? Company YAGEO announced its intention to remove marking of RC/AC 0603,0805,1206 SMD chip resistors from July, 1-st, 2013. Everything implies, that the...
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Blingtag project
Mats posted the new version of his old project, the Blingtag: I wanted to redo an old project and convert it from SMD to “surface mounted thru hole parts” with the extra twist of having the parts...
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PCB a Week 18: SMD Practice Skull
Mats continues his challenge of designing one PCB every week. In week 18 he came up with SMD Practice Skull: I while ago I chatted with (Re:load) Nick Johnson about making some simple pcbs for...
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Kevin’s LED tester
Kevin Rye designed a simple LED tester: I decide to put together a small LED Tester board. It’ll be powered by a small coin cell battery. I can pick up an LED with a pair of tweezers and just simply...
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Surface-mount 555 PWM circuit
Nick Leijenhorst writes: I wanted to dim my room LED lighting with a potentiometer, and decided on creating a solution from scratch to make it more fun and educative. I decided to go with the fairly...
View ArticleSMD soldering on hot sand
This video by Oliver Krohn demonstrates how to solder SMD parts on hot sand: Soldering on hot sand using a bunsen burner or frying pan / oven. In this case I bought a SOIC breakout board and had to...
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Simple SMD LED tester
Peter over at Electronics-Lab posted an article describing how he designed and built his simple SMD LED tester: This project is a simple LED tester and LED polarity checker. It can be used to check...
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Experience with the TM240A pick and place
Chuck of LinearLogiX writes: We bought the TM240A and found it works pretty good for our needs. A couple items I found was that using the SMD type tant caps on a reel, I had to actually Grind the side...
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