15 OCTOBER 2018
With the very hot weather in the United Kingdom this summer we decided to try to improve the cooling on our computers by replacing our air cooled heatsinks with a sealed loop water cooler system.
At the end of July we...
11 MAY 2017
We recently designed a barcode scanner to use with our online store. To power the scanner, we decided to use 18650 size lithium ion batteries as they are high capacity for their weight and cheap to buy. This...
19 FEBRUARY 2017
For many years we have used our old HP MediaSmart EX475 (WHS) Windows Home Server box as a secondary NAS drive on our home network to keep a backup from our main Synology Diskstation NAS drive.
The Synology has 4 x...
09 DECEMBER 2016
For the past four years, we have been using a CIF CF02 reflow oven to reflow and cook our circuit boards which we sell on www.abelectronics.co.uk and for our own projects.
The oven initially needed a lot of tweaking...
04 SEPTEMBER 2016
Several months ago we purchased a FE-5680A Rubidium Frequency Standard from eBay, part number P/N 217400-30352-1. We planned to use the frequency standard as a reference for our frequency counter, spectrum analyser and our...
23 APRIL 2016
When building our Raspberry Pi expansion boards we use lead free solder paste and a C.I.F FT02 batch reflow oven to cook the boards.
The C.I.F promotional videos show the oven being used on a workbench without any...
16 APRIL 2016
We needed to be able to test some of our circuits for EMI issues via the power lines and after some research we found a product called TBOH01 5UH Line Impedance Stabilisation Network LISN from Tekbox (http://www.tekbox.net/test-equipment/tboh01-5uh-line-impedance-stabilisation-network-lisn-cispr25)...
01 JANUARY 2016
In November of last year we finished work on our Raspberry Pi based solar data logger, a part of our ongoing smart home project that we have been working on for several years now. The solar logger monitors all of...
04 DECEMBER 2015
Today the new 3rd Gen Nest Learning Thermostat with hot water control arrived which we had ordered last month when the new UK model with hot water control was announced.
We needed the Nest Thermostat with the hot water...
30 NOVEMBER 2015
Three years ago we designed a solar data logger based on a Raspberry Pi which monitored the solar heating and PV system in the house as well as measuring the amount of energy we were using. This system has served...