pighixxx has posted a slide-rule template for Voltage, Resistance, Current, and Power calculations!

Head over to pddnet.com for a look at their top design tool picks including the Adafruit Bone Box, Nanotec StarterKit and more!

Featured Adafruit Products

Adafruit Bone Box – Enclosure for Beagle Bone/Beagle Bone Black – Pack up your Beagle Bone or Beagle Bone Black in this lovely clear plastic case. We designed this case to be the ideal enclosure, with plenty of elegant details to make it useful to you! (read more)

NEW PRODUCT – Autoranging Digital Multimeter Pen – MS8211D – Chances are you spent time today poking into a circuit with two hands and then craning your neck over looking over at a multimeter display, which causes you to slip and lose your spot. OK well at least we had to do that, and that’s when we decided it was time to pick up one of these pen-style digital multimeters. It’s small and light but has a full featured multimeter inside. The ground probe is actually a wired clamp (it has a nice sharp tip or you can grab onto a ground wire). So you can just poke around with one hand and see the values instantly.

Comes in a nice padded case and has a nifty retractable tip so you won’t accidentally stab something in your toolkit. Powered by 2 x AAA batteries, included.

Technical Details:

• DC Voltage Range 200mV/2V/20V/200V/600V: ±(0.7%)
• AC Voltage Range 200mV/2V/20V/200V: ±(0.8%)
• AC Voltage Range 600V: ±(1.0%)
• DC Current Range 20mA/200mA: ±(1.5%)
• AC Current Range 20mA/200mA: ±(2.0%)
• Resistance Range 200Ω: ±(1.0%)
• Resistance Range 2kΩ/20KΩ/200KΩ/2MΩ: ±(1.0%)
• Resistance Range 20MΩ: ±(1.0%)

• Display Counts: 2000
• Auto Ranging
• Manual Ranging
• Logic Level Test >3.5V is High Level <3.5V is Low Level
• Auto Power Off
• Diode Range: 2.7V
• Continuity Buzzer <50Ω
• Maximum Value Hold
• Data Hold
• Retractable Tip for Safe Storage

• Power Supply: 2 x 1.5AAA Batteries
• Product Size: 208mm / 8.2″ x 38mm / 1/5″ x 29mm / 1.1″
• Product Weight: 110g / 0.2lb
• Category: CE ETL

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – SMD Component Testing Tweezers – These tweezers are perfect for anyone who does a lot of work with SMD components (and hey, who isn’t these days?) Use these instead of squinting and trying to use clumsy multimeter probes to detect an LED’s color, polarity or resistor/cap value! The multimeter ‘probes’ are the two tips of a tweezer-shaped multimeter. Simply ‘grab’ a resistor, capacitor, diode or LED to test. It has a “scanning” mode where it will try to guess what type of component you have, or you can select the component type with the Function button and it will auto-range for you.

We find these ideal for checking unmarked-SMD values, and LED polarity/colors: there’s one on every production desk! Comes in a nice clear hard case with a CR2032 battery and an extra set of tips. These are a great investment for any E.E.

Technical Details:

• Max Dimensions: 32mm / 1.25″ x 175mm / 6.9″ x 20mm / 0.79″
• Weight: 46g

Multimeter specifications:

• Auto Scanning (detects component type), Auto ranging & Manual ranging
• 3000 Display Count
• Resistance Range: 300Ω/3K/30K/300KΩ/3MΩ/30MΩ
  Resolution: 0.1Ω
  Accuracy: ± 1.0%
• Capacitance Range: 3nF/30nF/300nF/3µF/30µF/300µF/3mF/30mF
  Best Resolution: 1pF
  Accuracy: ± 3%
• Continuity Buzzer sounds when < 50Ω
• Auto off, low battery indication
• Powered by single CR2032 battery

In stock and shipping now!

This is an Arduino porting of the excellent work by Markus Frejek.
The final aim is to create an economic component tester using Arduino and a few passive components;

You can see more about ArduTester in our Arduino Forum.

NEW PRODUCT – TV Microscope – 25x & 400x magnification / 8 LEDs – As electronics get smaller and smaller, you’ll need a hand examining PCBs and this little TV-output microscope is the perfect tool. It’s smaller and lighter than a large optical microscope but packs quite a bit of power in its little body. There’s a 1.3 megapixel sensor inside and an optical magnifier that can adjust to about 25x (for basic PCB inspection) or 400x (for detailed inspection). Eight white LEDs are angled right onto whatever you’re examining so you get enough lighting to see, and are smoothly adjustable via a dial on the side.

Compared to our popular USB microscope cameras, this one does not plug into a computer. Instead, there’s a composite video output. Connect it to any TV (including our lovely little displays) and the magnified output will appear in 4:3 aspect ratio. There’s a button on the side, when pressed, it will “freeze-frame” what is currently on the screen. Press again to release the freeze.

We tried a bunch of different AV microscopes and found this one to be the best combination of optical clarity, usability, and price. Because no computer is involved, it is near-instant responsive and much better for rework or soldering-while-inspecting. These microscopes are great for all electronics hacking, rework, SMT (de)soldering, inspection, and soon you’ll find yourself pulling it out to look at all sort of cool small stuff around your lab and home.

Package comes with a AV microscope with 4.5ft/140cm long cord, an adjustable metal stand, and a 5V 1A power supply with US prongs. The power adapter is 110-240V so if you have a prong adapter, you can use it in any country.

To demonstrate it, we show the microscope above with our articulated microscope stand and a 7″ TV, the TV is not included (but we have them in the shop and they’re great additions).

Technical Details:

• Image Sensor: 1.3 megapixel w/high-speed DSP
• 25x or 400x axis micro-lens
• Adjustable focal length, from 10mm-50mm
• Snapshot ‘freeze frame’ by pressing the button
• Video rate of 30f/s at a brightness of 600 lux
• Flicker control for 50Hz/60Hz
• 8 white LED light, 40000mLux
• 5V adapter 5.5mm/2.1mm jack powered
• Size: 112mm long x 33mm diameter

Color may vary

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – DSO Nano v3 – Pocket-size color digital oscilloscope. This cute pocket oscilloscope is a perfect companion to your tool box. For beginners, its a good starter scope – it is not as complicated as a benchtop scope so its easy to use. For advanced EE’s, its useful as a scope-on-the-go, for field-debugging, when you don’t want to drag your scope over, or when a floating-ground is needed (it will naturally do ‘differential’ measurements as long as its not plugged into a computer USB port). It’s not a terribly fast scope, best used for signals up to 100KHz, and it is only a single channel, but we still find uses for it all the time, especially with analog projects! The new version 3.0 has a nice fully-metal case for increased durability

• Portable and lightweight, only 76 grams and 95mm x 62mm x 13mm
• 2.8″ 320×240 Color TFT display
• Built in Lithium polymer battery, USB rechargeable
• Waveform storage and playback to microSD card slot (microSD card is not included)
• 6 triggering modes
• 1 channel input, 200Khz Analog Bandwidth, 1 Mega-sample-per-second. Best for use on signals from DC to 100 KHz
• Complete measurement markers and signal characteristic
• Built-in Signal Generator
• Comes complete with: 2 types of probes, one with hooks, one for plugging into a PCB, screwdriver, carrying bag, stand
• Updatable firmware! – check the Downloads tab above
• DSO Nano manual

In stock and shipping.

Titanium escape ring via Shannon Henry on Pinterest:

A useful tool for covert and undercover operators, those that travel abroad in unstable countries, or anyone at risk of being held unlawfully.

The Titanium Escape Ring adds another tool to the operator’s E&E options for escaping captivity. It’s a simple but elegant-looking ring made of titanium, cut from solid barstock and polished to a mirror finish. But unlike all other rings, this one contains a saw and handcuff shim pick combination tool which is completely hidden from view when worn. Located on a finger, its always in the exact area needed to quickly access and deploy, even when handcuffed. The shim can be used to open single-locked handcuffs, while the saw can cut zip-ties, disposable handcuffs, duct tape, rope, and other non-metallic materials. This stainless steel tool is 2″ x 1/8″ x 1/64″, and its unusual flexibility allows it to curve around and be seated in the ring’s interior.

I wish they were available in ladies’ sizes!

NEW PRODUCT – WiFi Portable Microscope – Usable With Android/iPad/iPhone – As electronics get smaller and smaller, you’ll need a hand examining PCBs and this little USB microscope is the perfect tool. Its smaller and lighter than a large optical microscope but packs quite a bit of power in its little body. There’s a high quality 640×480 camera sensor inside and an optical magnifier that can adjust from 5x (for basic PCB inspection) to 200x (for detailed inspection). Eight mini white LEDs are angled right onto whatever you’re examining so you get enough lighting to see, and are smoothly adjustable via a dial on the side.

Unlike our USB microscopes, this ‘scope is WiFi based. This means that instead of having a cable or wireless-usb-dongle type connection, there’s a WiFi access point inside the camera enclosure. When you turn it on, it will create a new hotspot just for the camera, so that any tablet or smartphone (such as an iPad/iPhone/Android/etc) can connect to the camera and view the microscope’s video output. This isn’t possible with a USB microscope as many tablets and phones don’t have a USB port and even if they did, there wouldn’t necessarily be drivers available for the camera.

Comes with the microscope, charging cable, CD with software and manual. A stand is not included, the photo above shows it with our articulated aluminum stand (which works great). While this camera is more expensive than a wired-variety, there’s nothing like it for when you want to view the output on a smartphone or tablet!

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – Hakko Soldering Tip: T18-D24 Screwdriver – For Lead or Lead-Free – Upgrade your Hakko with a new tip, you’ll get better & faster solder joints and the whole process will be much more enjoyable. This tip fits the FX-888 analog and digital irons, and they’re fast to swap, takes only 30 seconds to change out. All the tips are good for either lead or lead free (simply set the iron to the temperature required for the solder you are using).

This is a wide “Screwdriver” tip, great for thru-hole soldering or big SMT parts, especially big stuff you need to heat up fast or that have a heat-sink attached. It’s 150% wider than the tip that comes by default on the FX-888.

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – GoodFET v42 by Travis Goodspeed – v4.2 – The GoodFET is an open-source JTAG adapter, loosely based upon the TI MSP430 FET UIF and EZ430U boards, as described in their documentation. It has expanded to be useful as a microcontroller multitool, with ‘clients’ for programming/debugging MSP430 JTAG, Nordic RF, Chipcon 8051/SPI, AVR, PIC, etc.

A handy tool for advanced microcontroller work, and especially for MSP430 fans who want their own JTAG debugger for everyday use. Comes as a fully assembled and tested board. You may also want to pick up some female/male or female/female jumper cables to connect from the 14 pin header to your dev board.

For a lot more information including all schematics, layouts and firmware, check out the goodfet website.

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCTS – Hakko Soldering Tips: T18-C2 Hoof, T18-S4 Fine SMD, T18-D16 Screwdriver – For Lead or Lead-Free Use – Upgrade your Hakko with a new tip, you’ll get better & faster solder joints and the whole process will be much more enjoyable. These tips fit the FX-888 analog and digital irons, and they’re fast to swap, takes only 30 seconds to change out. All the tips are good for either lead or lead free (simply set the iron to the temperature required for the solder you are using).

NEW PRODUCT – Hakko Soldering Tip: T18-C2 Hoof – For Lead or Lead-Free Use – This is a “Hoof” tip, great for drag soldering and also has more mass at the end for quickly heating up large solder joints such as connectors.

NEW PRODUCT – Hakko Soldering Tip: T18-S4 Fine SMD – For Lead or Lead-Free Use – This is a “Fine Point” tip, great for any SMT soldering and other delicate work.

NEW PRODUCT – Hakko Soldering Tip: T18-D16 Screwdriver – For Lead or Lead-Free Use – This is a “Screwdriver” tip, great for everyday thru-hole soldering. It’s the tip that comes by default on the FX-888

In stock and shipping now!

New reflow oven setup! The picked and placed boards enter the oven on a conveyor belt.

Inside the oven, the boards move through three different temperature chambers in order to bake to perfection.

A finished board leaves the reflow oven.

This is a BIG upgrade from our homemade Reflowduino.

DIY-at-home metal stencil with beverage can aluminum by FelixEmman on Flickr.

Want to be featured on Flickr pool Friday? Add your Adafruits to the Adafruit Flickr pool.

NEW PRODUCT – Allen Wrench (Hex Key) – 2.5mm - To build all your fun CNC machines, you’ll need an Allen key! This one is 2.5mm in size and works with our M4 screws and will make assembling your extruded aluminum project a cinch.

In stock and shipping now!

Great gif explaining how keys and locks work! via Gizmodo

Toool Emergency Lock-Pick Card

NEW PRODUCT – Ratcheting Crimper Pliers – #18-28 AWG – Make cables and wiring harnesses with ease using smooth ratcheting crimpers. These precision machined crimpers will turn you into a pro, no more painful struggles with pliers and generic crimpers that smoosh your contacts so they wont fit properly. Once you’ve pressed enough, the ratchet releases, so you know when you’ve applied enough force.

This model will work best for smaller common connectors, from 0.1mm²-1.0mm² / AWG #18-28 – all those frighteningly small contacts used in fine pitch connectors.

There’s three slots and you can sort of eye-ball which one will fit your contact best. Can do female/socket or male/pin crimps. Check this document for some guidelines on good crimping hygiene.

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – ESD-Safe PCB Cleaning Brush – Neat-freaks! Put down that toothbrush and pick up this nice ESD-safe cleaning brush! If you want to have a nice clean board (or maybe you’re doing some repair) you can use this stiff-bristled brush without worries. Some people like to drip a little rubbing alcohol on their PCBs after soldering and then scrubbing to remove rosin/flux. Finally, you have the right tool for the job.

About 7″ long from end to end, scrubby part is 1.5″ x 0.5″ with 0.5″ bristles

In stock and shipping no

NEW PRODUCT – Digital Genuine Hakko FX-888D (936 upgrade) – Known by engineers for making excellent quality tools & soldering irons! This is a genuine Hakko FX-888D with digital temperature control! We worked hard to get the best and a great price, these are not Chinese/Taiwanese knock-offs. This iron is an upgrade to the venerable Hakko 936 – smaller footprint but more powerful for a faster heat up time.

The Hakkos have quality construction, this iron is the last one you’ll need for decades. Heats up in 30 seconds, with a calibrated temperature control knob gives precision heat to minimize cold solder joints. Once you know you’re on the path of electronics, this is the iron you’ll want beside you on your desk.

We got the medium tip on this iron, the most popular size, great for through-hole and some SMT. You can purchase replacement Hakko tips anywhere (we’ll carry some soon).

In stock and shipping now!

And now for some tool pr0n via Core77.

The PSS 3100e from MAFELL is the worlds first self-driven, rail-guided and mobile panel saw. In a single operation, the portable panel saw system handles cutting of lengths of up to 2800 mm (110 1/4 in.) and with the follow-on fence even longer cuts are possible.

Sam DeRose on Instructables writes:

Last week in my college physics lab we got to use these variable resistance ‘boxes’. They had two inputs and six dials, and could generate one million different resistances across the two inputs. I knew I had to have one, and why not make it myself? This tutorial demonstrates how to build one for yourself for pretty cheap.

Instructables user hailtothekngbby writes:

This instructable is dedicated to the mysterious art of lockpicking. In it, you will learn how to take a section of bra underwire, and turn it into a matched pair of Bogota Rakes.

Toool Emergency Lock-Pick Card

NEW PRODUCT – Hakko Brass Sponge Solder Tip Cleaner. This brass sponge is super glam and super useful. Preferred by many soldering pros for cleaning off the tips of their soldering irons, it never needs wetting, wont cool down the tip, and its slightly abrasive to remove caked-on flux.

This model is made by Hakko so you know it’s not only good-looking but a pleasure to use.

In stock and shipping now.

Comes with the metal stand, and sponge. Take a few minutes to put together with a screwdriver. Doesn’t include a soldering iron or solder!

In stock and shipping now.

NEW PRODUCT! Large Double-Sided Storage Tote Box – This tote is “totes awesome” – plenty large with lots of storage, double sided design, solid clips, clear tops and a pleasing, easy to carry shape. We love this tote for storing all of our goodies and keeping them safe from home to the studio to the workshop. One side has little ‘cups’ that can be removed. The other side has the classic divider system.

Outside dimensions: 13.5″x11.5″x3.25″

One side contains 15 compartments made with movable dividers. Each compartment’s capacity is 2.6″ x 1.9″ x 1.25″, they can be made larger by removing the dividers.

The other side contains five 2.3″ x 3.5″ x 1.25″ bins and five 2.3″ x 1.8″ x 1.25″ bins, which can be removed to make bigger compartments or while working on a project.

If you’re serious about electronics and engineering, you’re going to need some tools to help poke, prod, measure and coerce all those stray electrons into going to their proper destination or tracking them down when they go astray. While hardly exhaustive, this guide will hopefully point you to some of the keys tools you might need to design, build and test things more efficiently.

I’ve tried to list them in the order that I think they should be acquired from most frequently used to more specialized gear, but obviously it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.  Where relevant, I’ve tried to list at least two models, one lower cost but reliable option for people getting started or intermediate users, and one professional device that I know is tried and tested if you need something that you can rely on day in and day out year after year when the numbers really matter.

Digital Multi-Meter (DMM)

It’s important to buy good quality tools, but thankfully one of the most important tools on your bench is also one of the most affordable and easiest to find: the Digital Multi-Meter (often referred to as a DMM). The DMM lets you measure all kinds of critical information like voltage, resistance, continuity (testing if there is an electrical connection between two points), and depending on the model many other values like current draw, etc.  If you don’t already have a DMM, don’t be tempted by the $5 ebay specials.  Spend the money on a good entry level to intermediate model, since this is something you’ll find yourself pulling out again and again.

Learning to use a DMM should be your first step getting serious about electronics.  Learn how to check if a signal is actually high or low, make sure the voltage is what it should be before plugging something in, etc.

• Entry-Level: There are many options out there (not all being equal!), but for an affordable all-rounder check out the VIC830 DMM ($14.95!)
• Intermediate: The Extech EX330 12-Function Auto-Ranging Meter has all the measurement bells and whistles plus auto-ranging ($59.95)
• Professional:  OLED display, check. Tight tolerances, check.  Brick-sized and abuse-resistant, check.  I trust my Agilent U1253B day after day, and it’s a pleasure to use when you really need to trust your numbers.  Agilent’s main (and more perhaps more popular) handheld-DMM competitor is Fluke, which provides a number of competitively priced high-end meters, but I found feature for feature the Agilent U1253B was a slightly better value for money.  (Have a favorite Fluke meter and think I’m out to lunch?  Feel free to post it up in the comments!)  $450 for the Agilent, and $300-500 for competitive models.
• Test Lab: Are you setting up a shared lab space, and doing some complex characterization or test work with a lot of steps and data involved?  You might want a programmable DMM that you can control via USB or Ethernet.  The Agilent 34410A is a top-of-the-line bench-top DMM that won’t disappoint   There are less expensive options without USB and Ethernet, but if you’re serious about setting up a professional test lab and a shared working environment, it’s important to buy tools that can be programmed remotely with custom test SW, and Agilent has excellent libraries that allow you to program their devices in C++, C#, etc., or using Ethernet and LXI commands from any OS.  B&K Precision, Fluke and Keithley also have some excellent bench-top DMMs, but I looked into this in a lot of detail and found the 34410A was the best value for my needs and the level of precision and flexibility I was looking for.  If you don’t need USB/Ethernet, though, you’ll have more flexibility on price, but you want to be sure you have a DMM that you trust when the numbers and repeatability really matter. $1Kish and higher.

Soldering Station

Thanks to very hobbyist friendly platforms like Arduino that can be purchased pre-soldered, you can get your feet wet in electronics without having to learn how to solder, but if you want to start making anything yourself you’ll eventually have to pick up a soldering iron.  Although it’s intimidating for a lot of people at first, anyone can learn to do it.  It is  important to have a decent soldering iron, though, with enough heat to get the solder to reflow, otherwise the experience will be unnecessarily frustrating and unproductive.

• Entry-Level: There are many options out there for simple probes, but Adafruit’s 30W 110V soldering iron is a bargain and a safe first choice if you just don’t know if you’re going to stick with electronics as a hobby, and don’t want to spend $100 on a tool for something you’re just exploring.  At $22, this will allow you to solder header pins on your boards without breaking the bank.
• Intermediate: You can’t go wrong with the rock-solid Hakko FX-888.  It’s sleek, it’s reliable, it’s temperature adjustable (important if you work with lead and lead-free solder), and you can easily gets tips a plenty for it (which is one of the most important things when soldering … the right tip for the right job).  For the difference in price, don’t buy a crummy imitation off ebay or a $50 Chinese knock-off.  You’ll use and reuse this thing for ages, so the assurance of something well designed with quality heating elements is worth the extra money. I used Hakko for ages myself, and only upgraded because I needed SMT hot-tweezer adapters and wanted to be able to add a pre-heater, which meant going to a more flexible soldering station.  I still keep it as a backup unit, though! It’s $95 and a solid value.
• Professional/Test Lab: There’s a lot of debate here.  I have a Weller WX2021 that I’m very happy with (SMT Tweezers and dual heads, $900), but ladyada is very happy with her Metcal which I’ve used myself and found just as good (heats up very quickly and lots of accessories and tips).  I bought the Weller since I’m in Europe and it’s easier to get replacement tips and add-ons.  When you’re looking at $1,000 soldering stations,  make sure add-ons and repairs are readily available in your local market. A new professional grade units should put you out +/- $1K. Sometimes you can find a used units for less, just be sure it has the accessories you need!

Basic Hand Tools

Saleae Logic

I often mention Saleae’s Logic as one of the first tools I’d buy if my lab burned down, since it’s priceless if you ever have to work with sensors using common buses like I2C, SPI, I2S, etc.  It helps you to see exactly why a driver isn’t working and solve the problem in minutes, compared to hours of dull printf debugging or setting breakpoints in your code.  Logic lets you not only visualize the data transitions from high to low in an very attractive UI, it also interprets them to display the hexadecimal values of data being sent over SPI, etc., and can be used to check the timing constraints by measuring the delay between two capture points (perfect for verifying clock speeds, etc.).  I have a good mixed-signal oscilloscope with a 200MHz 8-channel logic analyzer and I do sometimes need to pull it out (Agilent MSO-X 2024A), but the Logic is always the first tool I go to since it’s so flexible and easy to use.

Writing you own drivers and don’t have one of these yet? Do yourself a favor and pick one up … it’s the best $150 you’ll spend and in an hour you’ll be wondering how you lived without it.

There are two models to choose from: The Logic 8 and the Logic 16.  They both use the same free software and function identically, but the Logic contains 16 channels and can capture signals up to 100MHz (less as you add channels).  The cheaper Logic 8 contains eight channels and is limited to 24MHz max.  Which one you require depends on the debugging you are doing, but if you only ever need to debug SPI and I2C sensors, the Logic 8 is probably all you will ever need.  The Logic 16 is more useful for debugging things like 8-bit buses with control lines or very fast signals, and is a nice upgrade but if you need it you probably understand the advantages and can decide yourself if it’s worth the extra money.

Oscilloscope

There was a joke at one of my former employers that every new engineer needs two standard pieces of equipment from day one: a good oscilloscope, and an intern. You’re on your own for finding interns, but there’s a reason oscilloscopes are so valued by engineers. They’re one of the most flexible and useful tools available during design, development and debugging, helping you spot difficult timing issues, and visualize data in a relatively easy to understand way. It’s most efficient way to find out if that buggy board is having issues because of noise on the lines, to quickly verify that values plugged into your MCU for the PWM output are right, to measure parameters like chip wake-up time and signal rise times, and many other things.

An oscilloscope isn’t a necessary purchase if you’re just casually interested in playing with Arduino, but if you become really serious about electronics and want to see and understand how things actually work and whats really going on with your HW, a good oscilloscope is the best investment you can make both financially and to bring your electronics know-how to the next level.

There are a lot of USB oscilloscopes out there, but if you can afford it, I’d personally recommend staying away from them and buying the right tool once and getting an entry level scope like the Rigol DS1052E. It’s a real HW oscilloscope, they’re an excellent value, and it will probably take a few years before you outgrow it, at which point you can likely sell it to upgrade since there’s always a market for oscilloscopes in the DIY and engineering community.  These can get very expensive very quickly, but the Rigol is a good value.  There are competitive units from companies like Owon that seem serious, but I only have first-hand experience with the 1052.  (Feel free to chime in in the comments section if you think the Owon’s or similar scopes are a better value than the Rigol!)

• Entry-Level: Honestly, save your pennies for a real HW oscilloscope, you won’t regret it.
• Mid-range: Rigol 1052E or similar scope ($400)
• Professional/Test Lab: Agilent MSO-X 2000 or 3000 series (can measure both analogue and digital signals, all the bells and whistles). Generally, $2K and up.

Microscope

I’m biased including this here.  I have absolutely terrible eye-sight and couldn’t get anything done without my bulky stereo microscope, but even for someone with vision better than mine a good stereo microscope with 5x and 10x magnification will give your hands superpowers, and imbue you with solder inspection prowess you never imagined you had.  Hand soldering 0402 or even 0201?  It’s all good with enough magnification!

While microscopes are a pretty standard fixtures for soldering and inspection in professional labs, there are actually two cases where you’ll probably want to different types of microscopes if you’re on a budget:

• Sometimes you need read part numbers of extremely small parts, inspect pads on a PCB, or just see that one solder joint on the edge of a QFN chip in much more detail than the naked eye will give you … this is where USB scopes come in handy since they can be viewed on large screens, and the display lag doesn’t matter.  Inspect but not soldering?  Go USB.
• Classic 10KG of metal stereo scope, though, are what you need for soldering.  USB scopes can be impressive tools for debugging and verifying HW, but you can’t solder with them since there is a delay before you see the image on your screen that makes it extremely awkward to solder with.  No such problems with a big chunk of analogue metal and glass and you’ll be soldering 0402 in no time!

• Entry-level USB microscope: Basic USB scope with LED illumination will get your eyes closer than you ever imagined.  Sniffing around bare dies?  No problem with this thing! $80
• Intermediate USB microscope: Aluminum USB Microscope with Precision Stand is a good investment since you often want something with precise movements and a solid base, particularly if you’re sewing several images together in post-production (such as photographing a die or large area of a PCB). $150
• Professional Stereo Microscope: Ebay is a great place to find stereo microscopes, but it can be confusing since you’re also competing with scientific instruments that aren’t as useful for electronics.  What you want for general purpose electronics work and precision soldering is something in the range of 5-20x magnification, and you should splurge for a ‘trinocular’ design.  The trinocular scopes have an optional third tube that can be used to insert USB cameras or DSLRs adapters (harder to find but they exist).  They’re not much more money the classic stereo microscopes, and the extra tube is worth the extra money.  You should also look for something called a barlow lens.  They come in a variety of factors but adjust working distance at the expense of magnification.  What I have myself is a 10-20x trinocular scope with a 0.5x barlow lense that cuts the magnification in hald to 5x and 10x, but doubles the working distance.  This gives me a perfect setup for soldering since these are ideal magnifications, and I have a lot of working space for my hands between the lense and the PCB. Also get some sort of LED illumination to shed some light on that board … the scope eats up a lot of light.  You really want the boom-stand version as well since you need to swivel the head around over the PCB!  $500 or so, and ebay is your friend in North America.
• Test Lab Setup: Mantis!  If you want to keep the backs of all your engineers happy and have deep pockets, this is where you should start your search.  If you need to ask the price you can’t afford it.

USB Analyzer

This is admittedly an extremely specialized item, but USB is also an extremely popular means of making your HW communicate with the outside world, and if you interested in commercializing anything, there’s a very good chance you’ll be using USB.  Unfortunately, debugging USB can be fraught with pain.  If you stop the device during initialization to debug it will probably stop the initialization process, or if you’re trying to spy on a USB device to get it work with USB Host you’ll find SW sniffers aren’t always up to the task.

The Beagle USB 12 Protocol Analyzer will allow you to capture and analyze any low or high-speed USB 2.0 traffic, and see what’s really going on frame by frame.  Not a tool that everyone needs, but if you’re serious about understanding USB and working with it and can deal with the 12MB/s limit (most small embedded MCUs can’t do more than full-speed USB anyway), the Beagle USB 12 Protocol Anaylzer is a good value. $400.

Still Can’t Decide? Get the Kitchen Sink!

If you’re a bit confused about what to buy and just getting started, have a look at Ladyada’s Electronics Toolkit.  A DMM, a soldering iron, a Panavise to hold that pesky PCB in place, wires, wire cutters … you can solder and test almost anything with this kit, and it’s sure to please anyone looking to get serious about electronics but not sure where to start for gear!

SHIPPING DEADLINES

Here are your 2012 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.

UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.

UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 19, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.

UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 20, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.

UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 21, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.

UPS International: Place orders by Monday 11am ET – December 17, 2012. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.

Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.

United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.

USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 23, 2012. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/12.

USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.

Gift Certificates are always available at any time.

When in doubt contact us!

NEW PRODUCT – Aluminum USB Microscope with Precision Stand – As electronics get smaller and smaller, you’ll need a hand examining PCBs and this little USB microscope is the perfect tool. Its smaller and lighter than a large optical microscope but packs quite a bit of power in its little body. There’s a high quality 640×480 camera sensor inside and an optical magnifier that can adjust from 20x (for basic PCB inspection) to 300x (for detailed inspection). Eight mini white LEDs are angled right onto whatever you’re examining so you get enough lighting to see, and are smoothly adjustable via a dial on the side. Watch the above video on YouTube (please subscribe!) and Vimeo.

If you plug this into any computer, it just shows up as a standard USB camera and the Windows/Mac software lets you take snapshots using the button on the side of the microscope or direct from the software (so you don’t move the camera).

We tried a bunch of different USB microscopes and when you need a thin camera, with a precision stand, this one is the best combination of optical clarity, usability, and price. It’s perfect for electronics hacking, rework, SMT (de)soldering, inspection, and soon you’ll find yourself pulling it out to look and photograph all sort of cool small stuff around your lab and home. Its small size means you can poke inside of enclosures to get a good peek!

We took some snaps of this ‘scope while looking at a tiny 0201-populated GPS board at 20x magnification and then at a raw die at 200x

Package comes with a USB microscope with 4.5ft/140cm long cord, an adjustable metal stand, and CDROM with drivers/software.

In stock and shipping now!

Dan Reetz writes:

I painted this monitor stand my favorite baby blue (Rustoleum 2X coverage satin Aqua). I quite like how it came out, especially with the cap piece left the original computer beige. I moved on to repaint my Weller, its pencil stand, my flux can, my other monitor arm, etc. I also painted another matching monitor arm for my oscilloscope, and swapped out the warm fluorescents for some 6500K T8s and “daylight” LEDs.

I’m pretty happy with the workstation overall. It embodies a few things that I’ve learned over the years, like:

Ample outlets – which can all be turned off by a single switch . Never worry if you turned off the solder station or glue gun again.

Very bright, cold lights, at least some of which are positionable. So many hacker workstations are too dark. Physiology of the eye says that bright lights mean small pupils – you can resolve more detail that way.

Solder station, oscilloscope and frequency counter all floating ABOVE the work surface, so they don’t waste precious bench or get stuck behind languishing projects.

And finally, tabletop at a height which can be used standing OR sitting at a stool. There’s nothing like hunching over a bench to eat inspiration alive.

UPDATED PRODUCT – Bus Pirate – BPv3.6. Interfacing a new microchip can be a hassle. Breadboarding a circuit, writing code, hauling out the programmer, or maybe even prototyping a PCB. We never seem to get it right on the first try.

The ‘Bus Pirate’ is a universal bus interface that talks to most chips from a PC serial terminal, eliminating a ton of early prototyping effort when working with new or unknown chips. Many serial protocols are supported at 0-5.5volts, more can be added.

Adafruit is the official US distributor of Ian Lesnet’s Bus Pirate, each purchase directly supports Dangerous Prototypes! You may also want to pick up a probe set.

Protocols:

1-Wire, I2C, SPI, JTAG, asynchronous serial (UART), MIDI, PC keyboard, HD44780 LCDs, and generic 2- and 3-wire libraries for custom protocols.

Features:

• USB interface, USB powered
• 0-5.5volt tolerant pins
• 0-6volt measurement probe
• 1Hz-40MHz frequency measurement
• 1kHz – 4MHz pulse-width modulator, frequency generator
• On-board multi-voltage pull-up resistors
• On-board 3.3volt and 5volt power supplies with software reset
• Macros for common operations
• Bus traffic sniffers (SPI, I2C)
• A bootloader for easy USB firmware updates
• Transparent USB->serial bridge mode
• 10Hz-1MHz low-speed logic analyzer
• Custom support in AVRDUDE, Flashrom
• AVR STK500 v2 programmer clone
• Scriptable from Perl, Python, etc.
• Translations (currently Spanish and Italian)

In stock and pirating now.

The Almost Useless Machine from tinkerlog

Leveraging solar power for mindless, non-urgent tasks, FTW (For The Woodcutting) …

(Via tinkerlog.)

We all know, we should use more renewable energy. Here is my contribution. Use solar power if you want to cut 20mm wooden rods. And plan ahead because it may take a while.

Computer Precision for Power Tools @ NYTimes.com.

WOODWORKING is a tricky skill to master. Students learn to measure carefully before they reach for a saw, and to cut as true to the design as hand and eye allow. But, even so, precise cutting is a painstaking job, full of pitfalls and mismatched moldings.

Alec Rivers, a Ph.D. student at M.I.T., guides a cutting tool through wood by watching a computer screen.

Now computers and their tireless calculations may bolster the skills of many people who want to create well-cut picture frames, inlays or furniture but lack the dexterity.

Alec Rivers, a Ph.D. student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and colleagues have created a prototype for a compact, computerized addition to power tools that automatically performs precision measuring and cutting.

The system, which has a tiny camera, motors and a video screen, takes part of the pain out of woodworking, by using what Mr. Rivers calls “tool GPS.”

NEW PRODUCT- Magnetic Project Mat. Repairs can be tough. You don’t need missing screws making it worse. iFixit designed this mat to make repairs easier. You won’t lose screws and won’t forget which screws go where.

• Magnetized to hold tight onto small screws.
• Dry erase surface lets you keep notes and stops mistakes.
• Reduces reassembly time by up to 40% while preventing errors.
• Magnetic surface is safe for hard drives, and other modern electronics.

Anyone who has done electronics repair knows how irritating lost screws can be—if you’re lucky, you’ll end up with a slightly lighter laptop. If you’re unlucky, your $1,000 laptop will be brought to its knees by a $0.05 clip hiding under a table leg. Designed by fixers, for fixers, the 8”x10” Magnetic Project Mat solves this repair problem. Spacious and secure, the mat will catch screws as you pull them out of a device and hold them there.

Use it as a workmat during cell phone repairs, and you’ll be able to stop worrying about screw tracking and focus on the cell phone; All the screws will be right where you left them. For laptops with up to hundreds of screws, use the whole mat as a screw guide and keep careful notes to not get lost. It will serve you as a dutiful partner, and you will lose fewer screws.

The pen is made by Staedtler, the German pen company that makes top-of-the-line artists’ pens and pencils, as well as the expensive precision pens architects use for blueprints. Their Lumocolor Correctable pen doesn’t smear or wipe away like most dry erase markers. If you brush your hand across the mat while performing a repair, the ink doesn’t scratch or smear. But the eraser tip or a dry cloth erases the ink clean every time. Designed and made by iFixit.

In stock and shipping now.

37 Holes – a set on Flickr. Jeremy writes -

Hi Adafruit, just wanted to say thanks for the USB microscope! It has proved useful in inspecting SMD soldering, capturing video for blog posts, and seeing all kinds of things I could never dream of seeing without it. This is a link to a Flickr Photo set (1X, 20X and 200X) of an “LED indicator” on a Apple Magic Trackpad. There are 37 holes laser cut into the aluminum that let light from an LED, mounted behind the aluminum, shine through, while remaining virtually invisible while off. Genius.

Get acquainted with our USB microscope in this video, and see electronics at 220x! Watch on YouTube (and please subscribe to our channel) or Vimeo.

USB Microscope – 5.0 Megapixel / 220x magnification / 8 LEDs. As electronics get smaller and smaller, you’ll need a hand examining PCBs and this little USB microscope is the perfect tool. Its smaller and lighter than a large optical microscope but packs quite a bit of power in its little body. There’s a 5.0 megapixel sensor inside and an optical magnifier that can adjust from 20x (for basic PCB inspection) to 220x (for detailed inspection). Eight white LEDs are angled right onto whatever you’re examining so you get enough lighting to see, and are smoothly adjustable via a dial on the side.

New! We’ve upgraded from the previous model we stocked, this is a microscope to 5.0 Megapixel (from 2.0M) and this one comes with two removable plastic caps to get close ups for a wider focusing range.

If you plug this into any computer, it just shows up as a standard USB camera (we used this for our weekly Ask an Engineer show) and the Windows/Mac software lets you take snapshots using the button on the side of the microscope or direct from the software (so you don’t move the camera).

We tried a bunch of different USB microscopes and found this one to be the best combination of optical clarity, usability, and price. It’s perfect for electronics hacking, rework, SMT (de)soldering, inspection, and soon you’ll find yourself pulling it out to look and photograph all sort of cool small stuff around your lab and home.

We took some snaps of this ‘scope while looking at a tiny 0201-populated GPS board at 20x magnification and then at a raw die at 200x

Package comes with a USB microscope with 4.5ft/140cm long cord, an adjustable metal stand, and CDROM with drivers/software.

• Image Sensor: 5.0 megapixel w/high-speed DSP
• 20x/220x axis micro-lens
• Adjustable focal length, from 10mm-500mm
• Snapshots via software or pressing the button
• Image capture: 2560×2048 (5M Pixel), 2304×1738 (4M Pixel), 1600×1200 (2MPixel), 1280×1024 (1.3MPixel), 1280×960, 1024×768, 800×600, 640×480, 352×288, 320×240, 160×120.
• Video rate of 30f/s at a brightness of 600 lux
• Flicker control for 50Hz/60Hz
• Video format: AVI
• Photo format: JPG or BMP
• 8 white LED light, 40000mLux
• 20x/200x magnification
• USB port powered
• TWAIN compatible
• Software available for Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista/Win7 & Mac OSX
• Size: 112mm long x 33mm diameter

Comes with driver/software on CDROM. Color may vary

We’re excited to see what you’ll do with the articulated arm stand for the USB microscope. See it in action in this video! Watch on YouTube (and subscribe to our channel) or Vimeo.

Articulated Arm Stand for USB Microscope. We love pulling out our 5 Megapixel USB microscope for inspecting PCBs once in a while, but we really got to use it every day when we picked up this beautiful machined aluminum 3D stand. It has multiple articulated ‘joints’ for positioning the microscope in any way and is very sturdy and solid with a large flat base.

A single hand-friendly knob is used to loosen all the joints for positioning, then tighten it up to fix the position. The microscope is clamped in solidly but it can easily be removed by releasing the clasp for hand positioning when you need it. This is the best stand available for this microscope and it makes an excellent companion! Instructions here (PDF).

This is just a microscope stand, a USB microscope is not included! Please check out our 5MP USB Microscope in the shop to pick up a matching microscope.

• Retaining bracket diameter: 30 – 35 mm
• Upper arm length: 120 mm
• Lower arm length: 120 mm
• Dimensions (W x D): 110 x 118 mm
• Weight: 443 g

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – Articulated Arm Stand for USB Microscope. We love pulling out our 5 Megapixel USB microscope for inspecting PCBs once in a while, but we really got to use it every day when we picked up this beautiful machined aluminum 3D stand. It has multiple articulated ‘joints’ for positioning the microscope in any way and is very sturdy and solid with a large flat base.

A single hand-friendly knob is used to loosen all the joints for positioning, then tighten it up to fix the position. The microscope is clamped in solidly but it can easily be removed by releasing the clasp for hand positioning when you need it. This is the best stand available for this microscope and it makes an excellent companion! Instructions here (PDF).

This is just a microscope stand, a USB microscope is not included! Please check out our 5MP USB Microscope in the shop to pick up a matching microscope.

• Retaining bracket diameter: 30 – 35 mm
• Upper arm length: 120 mm
• Lower arm length: 120 mm
• Dimensions (W x D): 110 x 118 mm
• Weight: 443 g

In stock and shipping now!

Caitlinsdad writes:

Based on the Adafruit Resistor Helper papercraft resistor calculator designed by Adafruit with Mathew Borgatti.

Nope, you can’t purchase one, you gotta make it yourself.

Unless you are one of those who can remember the entire color code for 4- and 5-band marked resistors (test later on how many possible combinations there are; I’m still working on wiring up CAT-5 correctly), you need the help of a reference chart or you can use the handy papercraft Adafruit Resistor Helper. Need a cool thing to wear to work or school? What better time to make or give the gift of a tie? Of course, for the geek and technically inclined, a hacked tie would be even better.

Position-Correcting Tools for 2D Digital Fabrication.

Overview: (a:) A position-correcting tool. The device consists of a frame and a tool (in this case a router) mounted within that frame. The frame is positioned manually by the user. A camera on the frame (top right in the figure) is used to determine the frame’s location. The device can adjust the position of the tool within the frame to correct for error in the user’s coarse positioning. (b): To follow a complex path, the user need only move the frame in a rough approximation of the path. In this example, the dotted blue line shows the path that the tool would take if its position were not adjusted; the black line is its actual path. (c): An example of a shape cut out of wood using this tool.

Using SMT component books for through-hole parts, isonno writes -

A few years ago I purchased a kit from Digi-Key with 70-some of the most common resistors in a small box. While it’s super convenient to have them all on hand, the packaging was tedious – little bags of bags of components.

On a hunch, I purchased AdaFruit’s blank SMT component book, and hired my son to trim the labels from the Digi-Key kit and place them in the book. It works really well.

The books are so much more convenient than boxes of packets of parts, and take up much less space than plastic containers with bins or drawers. I could imagine this working for other through-hole parts (small caps, diodes, etc.). With a slightly different layout – say, horizontal pockets for labels with square vertical pockets beneath – it’d work for transistors and other components.

Thanks to our friends at Hakko (USA) who sent us some helpful office supplies in celebration of their 28th birthday! Congrats!

We carry the following Hakko products:

Genuine Hakko FX-888 soldering iron

Hakko Professsional Quality 20-30 AWG Wire Strippers

“Me and my Adafruit Resistor Helper. vous pouvez le télécharger là” – @mathdabomb made one of our papercraft resistor helpers!

Updated tutorial – Multimeters @ Adafruit Learning System.

The most important debugging tool in any E.E.’s toolbox is a trusty multimeter. A multimeter can measure continuity, resistance, voltage and sometimes even current, capacitance, temperature, etc. It’s a swiss army knife for geeks!

Learn more.

Today’s partfinder isn’t an electrical part, or even a storage solution, it’s a notebook. National Brand #43648 Computation Notebook, to be precise. The greatest engineering notebook of all time. I have several dozen of these — one for each (non-humanities) course I took in college, plus many more filled with different project notes. I love these books because they’re well made and durable, and the pages are 9.25 x 11.75, so you can easily paste or tape A4 sheets inside. Excellent for engineering or math class notes, or project sketches, measurements, etc.

There are several different kinds of computation books available: spiral bound, three-hole, etc. I like this square-bound type the best because you can ‘crack’ the binding and make it lay flat — very helpful if you’re left-handed.

These are available sometimes from larger office supply stores, but you can always find them on Amazon — check ‘em out in the partfinder!

Updated tutorial! Papercraft Resistor Helper at the Adafruit Learning Systerm

Debugging USB devices via the Adafruit customer support forums… pm100 writes -

This is just a friendly FYI to all hackers. Once you get a little more adventurous you can get real confused about what usb devices are plugged in etc (which com ports,…)

my best new friend is usbdeview from nirsoft http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

It shows you everything about the plugged in usb devices, updates on the fly, v good

A great companion when debugging USB devices. Also check out our great USB analyzer tool, the Beagle!

Beagle USB 12 Protocol Analyzer. Remember when Adafruit reverse engineered the Kinect, put it up on GitHub and made an open-source driver bounty? That was a lot of fun and now we are stocking our FAVORITE tool for projects like that.

USB complexity got you down? Need a hand with enumeration? Reverse engineering a USB device? You will fall in love with the Beagle 12 USB Analyzer. This hardware analyzer is completely non-intrusive, and is much better than flaky software analyzers. Perfect for when a problem is bad enough it crashes the USB host, or for real time data capture analysis. We used the big-sister version (the Beagle 480) for our famous Open Kinect reverse-engineering bounty! It worked so well we decided to carry these in the shop.

The best part about this hardware analyzer is the excellent cross-platform software that runs equally well on Windows, Mac and Linux. Data is captured in real time, saved and parsed. Its trivial to sort through data to find the packet you’re looking for. We even have a tutorial on how we did it so you can follow our steps in using the Beagle 12′s Data Center Software

This particular model is good for Low-Speed & Full-Speed USB debugging. If you’re debugging something that runs at High Speed (such as video or other high speed data transport devices), check out the Beagle 480.

Comes with:

• Beagle USB 12 unit
• (1) 6 foot USB A->B cable
• (1) 1 foot USB A->B cable
• Software CD
  • Windows USB Drivers
  • Linux USB Hot Plug Configuration files
  • Data Center Software
  • Beagle LabVIEW Driver
  • Datasheets
  • Documentation

Beagle datasheet. Software available from Total Phase

Data is captured in real time, saved and parsed. Its trivial to sort through data to find the packet you’re looking for. We even have a tutorial on how we did it so you can follow our steps in using the Beagle Software

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! We include a free reverse engineer sticker!

In stock and shipping now!

BACK IN STOCK – Sugru – multicolor pack. Sugru! Soft-touch silicone rubber that molds and sets permanently. Sticks to aluminum, steel, ceramics, glass, wood and some fabrics + plastics! sugru is the incredible new air-curing rubber for hackers, makers, gadget lovers & anyone else who wants to make things or make their stuff work better. Self-adhesive to most other materials, and flexible when cured, sugru is a versatile tool for hackers and makers – Repair and strengthen damaged cables and housing, mount components where you want them, strengthen attachments and protect against vibration, and a hundred other uses we’re sure youʼll find for it. This is great for prototyping. Please read all of the following before purchasing…

Multi-colour 8 x 5g minipacks inside a lovely big pouch for $17.95. You get two red, two yellow, two blue and one black and one white packets. You can smoosh the colors together to make new colors! Sugru does have a ‘use by’ date – we guarantee that you will have at least 6 months (and often its 9 or 12 months) to use your Sugru!

Top 10 uses of sugru for hackers and makers:

• Repair and strengthen damaged cables
• Mount components semi-permanently e.g. webcam / microphones / wires / switches
• Replace missing feet on speakers, laptops etc
• Mount components, and add feet to PCBs
• Repair casing / housing on computers and earphones
• Insulate wires
• Strengthen attachments, protect against vibration
• Enclose prototype electronics, make them waterproof
• Add feet under harddrives to allow air to circulate underneath
• Make awesome custom housing on USB flash drives

Properties, self adhesive sugru bonds to:

• Aluminum
• Steel
• Ceramics
• Glass
• Wood
• Some fabrics
• Some plastics

Features:

• Form by hand – no tools needed
• Colors can be mixed
• Cures at room temperature to a tough flexible silicone overnight
• Waterproof and dishwasher proof when cured
• “Loves” a bit of heat or cold, sugru is resistant from -60 degrees C to 180 degrees C
• UV resistant

Includes:

• Two 5 gram mini-packs of Blue Sugru
• Two 5 gram mini-packs of Yellow Sugru
• Two 5 gram mini-packs of Red Sugru
• One 5 gram mini-pack of Black Sugru
• One 5 gram mini-packs of White Sugru

In stock and shipping!

Russm

In my tinkering with EFI I attempted to flash some backdoored firmware to a test MacBook that was kindly donated to science by a friend of mine. This resulted in the bastard doing the S.O.S. beeps and not booting, and it didn’t seem to be recoverable using the Firmware Restore CDs from Apple. I decided that since it was dead anyway I might as well try and recover it by re-flashing the firmware manually using the nifty Bus Pirate that I impulse-bought not long ago, and a copy of flashrom.

Adafruit is happy to be a distributor for the Bus Pirate.  You can pick yours up for $30 in the store.

Via Dangerous Prototypes

Adafruit USB Microscope – Work with Linux? Yes! We’ve posted about this and tested, but don’t take our word for it – David over on Adafruit’s Google+ page posted all about it too -

I can verify that this particular camera works under Linux (got it about a week ago from Adafruit). It is supported and recognized by uvcvideo. I tested taking snaps with cheese; guvcvideo works as well.

From my Fedora 16 workstation:
lsusb: Bus 002 Device 008: ID 0ac8:3420 Z-Star Microelectronics Corp. Venus USB2.0 Camera
dmesg: [  119.902075] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device Venus USB2.0 Camera (0ac8:3420)
[  119.903944] input: Venus USB2.0 Camera as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.3/2-1.3.1/2-1.3.1.4/2-1.3.1.4:1.0/input/input8
[  119.904013] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
[  119.904014] USB Video Class driver (1.1.1)

I poked around a bit and it looks like uvcvideo reports back a maximum of 1600×1200 (both photos and videos).. I did a bit of capture at that resolution to test and it works well. Also, here is lsusb with the -v flag if you’re interested in seeing more:
https://gist.github.com/2980348

Get acquainted with our USB microscope in this video, and see electronics at 220x! Watch on YouTube (and please subscribe to our channel) or Vimeo.

USB Microscope – 5.0 Megapixel / 220x magnification / 8 LEDs. As electronics get smaller and smaller, you’ll need a hand examining PCBs and this little USB microscope is the perfect tool. Its smaller and lighter than a large optical microscope but packs quite a bit of power in its little body. There’s a 5.0 megapixel sensor inside and an optical magnifier that can adjust from 20x (for basic PCB inspection) to 220x (for detailed inspection). Eight white LEDs are angled right onto whatever you’re examining so you get enough lighting to see, and are smoothly adjustable via a dial on the side.

New! We’ve upgraded from the previous model we stocked, this is a microscope to 5.0 Megapixel (from 2.0M) and this one comes with two removable plastic caps to get close ups for a wider focusing range.

If you plug this into any computer, it just shows up as a standard USB camera (we used this for our weekly Ask an Engineer show) and the Windows/Mac software lets you take snapshots using the button on the side of the microscope or direct from the software (so you don’t move the camera).

We tried a bunch of different USB microscopes and found this one to be the best combination of optical clarity, usability, and price. It’s perfect for electronics hacking, rework, SMT (de)soldering, inspection, and soon you’ll find yourself pulling it out to look and photograph all sort of cool small stuff around your lab and home.

We took some snaps of this ‘scope while looking at a tiny 0201-populated GPS board at 20x magnification and then at a raw die at 200x

Package comes with a USB microscope with 4.5ft/140cm long cord, an adjustable metal stand, and CDROM with drivers/software.

• Image Sensor: 5.0 megapixel w/high-speed DSP
• 20x/220x axis micro-lens
• Adjustable focal length, from 10mm-500mm
• Snapshots via software or pressing the button
• Image capture: 2560×2048 (5M Pixel), 2304×1738 (4M Pixel), 1600×1200 (2MPixel), 1280×1024 (1.3MPixel), 1280×960, 1024×768, 800×600, 640×480, 352×288, 320×240, 160×120.
• Video rate of 30f/s at a brightness of 600 lux
• Flicker control for 50Hz/60Hz
• Video format: AVI
• Photo format: JPG or BMP
• 8 white LED light, 40000mLux
• 20x/200x magnification
• USB port powered
• TWAIN compatible
• Software available for Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista/Win7 & Mac OSX
• Size: 112mm long x 33mm diameter

Comes with driver/software on CDROM. Color may vary

Kris82 on Instructables writes:

This Robot will be able to hold your saw blades as well as your scroll saw blades. This way you don’t have to sit them down some where and ruin your blades. Also this is a good way to have storage while having a piece that everyone will like and talk about.