Initial review: Hakko FX-888 Soldering Station

Introduction

During many years of orbiting around the world of electronics and related fields, soldering was not really one of my strong points. After moving more seriously into this field it occurred to me that my choice of soldering weapons played a part in the end results. So a few days ago I pulled the trigger and ordered my first “real” station – the Hakko FX-888.

Opening…

After waving goodbye to the courier and opening the delivery carton, the following was presented:

Frankly it’s only a box and shouldn’t matter, but you can appreciate the effort involved from a retail perspective. Opening up we find a neatly and safely packaged station with the multilingual instructions on top:

Everything is included to get going without any surprises. The station itself:

This is quite solid and weighty – at 1.3kg, so will not be moved by accident. The colours are quite snazzy and in some markets you can choose different colour schemes. According to Hakko – this is a “High-performance soldering iron that, in the pursuit both “usability” and “appearance”, has evolved beyond being a mere working tool”…

As you can see the temperature can be adjusted between 200 and 480 degrees Celsius. There is a calibration adjustment below the temperature knob, and the tool for calibration (“thermal correction”) is hidden away underneath the station:

You can also see the power switch on the right-hand side of the unit (when positioned normally). A tiny Allen key is included which is used to lock the temperature control to a desired position, however there isn’t a spot to keep it – so for now I have used (once again) some blu-tac to stick it under the base (not shown in photograph). Finally there is one red LED above the Hakko logo which lights when the heater is on – however it turns off once at the required temperature.

Next we have the soldering iron with fixed lead to the station:

This is a very light iron – for me the lightest so far, with a weight of 44 grams excluding the cord. The iron ships with a 0.5mm conical tip (type T18-B) that is fine for normal through-hole work, however there are sixteen different tips available from Hakko. What took me by surprise is the flexibility of the cord bushing, no matter which direction you turned the iron in your hand – there was hardly if any at all resistance from the cord. When changing tips be careful when unscrewing the nut, it is easy to unscrew the handle instead.

Finally we have the iron holder and parts:

The holder is made from metal, although it may not look so in the image. There is space for the included sponge and brass cleaning wire. You can also use the rubber cleaner (the grey/green lip) for cleaning as well. You can fit a large cleaning wire in the holder, however only small amount is presented at any one time, so you will need to rotate it now and again by opening the bottom of the holder which reveals the wire space.

Specifications

For those who like the numbers, here they are:

• Station power consumption - 70W
• Temperature range – 200~480 degrees Celsius
• Temperature stability – +/- 1 degree Celsius at idle temperature
• Iron power consumption – 65W at 26V AC
• Cord length – 1.2m
• Tip to ground resistance – 2Ω

The system is designed to protect against anti-static discharge, and the handle and other parts are conductors – not insulators. For more details please see the Hakko website.

Other observations

The reheating speed is excellent, the iron can reach any selected temperature in less than sixty seconds. This also helps avoid cold joints by recovering from temperature loss at a rapid rate. Furthermore having such a light iron without the burden of an AC lead at the back allows much more tip control and reduces wrist and muscle fatigue over long sessions.

Finally, the user manual includes exploded diagrams for all parts and the matching part numbers, which tells me Hakko want this station to last and are happy for you to maintain it yourself. Unlike using my older iron, I am sure with extended use the FX-888 will be less of a physical drain and also help improve my confidence in soldering.

Dave Jones from eevblog.com has described a modification to the FX-888 that allows an LED to show when the iron is on, not just heating. (Note that this voids your warranty):

Conclusion

Although the FX-888 is not inexpensive, it is very easy to use and light-years ahead of using a normal hand-held soldering iron. If you are finding yourself doing more soldering than the occasional hobbyist or are looking to work with a wide variety or components and soldering joints then you could do a lot worse than considering the FX-888. At this juncture it was not the cheapest, however I feel it was a solid investment and will last me a long time. And here it is, ready for work:

The Hakko FX-888 Soldering Station is available worldwide. Residing in Australia I purchased mine from element14.

Disclaimer – The items in this review were purchased by myself and reviewed without notifying the manufacturer or retailer. 

Have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

Results – January 2012 Competition

Hello Readers

The January 2012 competition has now closed. For the curious, the questions and answers were:

Q – What does the acronym PWM mean?
A – Pulse-width modulation

Q – How many LEDs are contained in the Freetronics DMD?
A – 512

Q – How many digital I/O pins on an Arduino Mega2560?
A – 54

Q – What type of processor core does the PIC32 (from the Uno32 review) use?
A – MIPS (or to be more precise, 32-bit MIPS M4K Core)

Congratulations to Jack M. from the interesting state of South Australia! Jack has won the following prizes:

One v1.0 Akafugu Akafuino-X board as reviewed recently:

Jack’s Akafuino-X will have a companion on its journey which will be the Mayhew Labs “Go Between” Shield, as reviewed recently:

Thanks to Akafugu for offering the Akafuino-X prize!

The February 2012 competition will be announced soon, so in the meanwhile have fun and follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

January 2012 Competition

Hello Readers

The competition has now ended and the winning entry will be announced shortly. Thank you to all those who entered, and of course to Akafugu for their prize this month.

It’s that time of the month again so we are running another competition. Our prize for this month consists of two items:

One v1.0 Akafugu Akafuino-X board as reviewed recently:

The winner’s Akafuino-X will have a companion on its journey which will be the Mayhew Labs “Go Between” Shield, as reviewed recently:

— *** How to Enter *** —

There will be four questions for you to answer spread across articles published between the 1st and 31st of January. So you will need to review older posts. At the end of January and once you have answers to all four questions, email the answers along with your full name, email address and postal address to competition at tronixstuff dot com with the subject heading January.

During the second week of February, all the correct entries will be collated and one randomly chosen. The first correct entry drawn will win the prize. Entries will be accepted until 03/02/2012 0005h GMT.

As with any other competition, there needs to be some rules:

• Incomplete entries will be rejected, so follow the instructions!
• The winners’ first name and country will be announced publicly;
• Entries that contain text not suitable for minors or insulting to the competition will be rejected (seriously – it happens);
• Prizes will be delivered via Australia Post domestic or regular international air mail. We take absolutely no responsibility for packages that go missing or do not arrive. If you live in an area with a “less than reliable” domestic postage system, you can pay for registered mail or other delivery service at your expense.
• Winners outside of Australia will be responsible for any taxes, fees or levies imposed by your local Governments (such as import levies, excise, VAT, etc.) upon importation of purchased goods;
• Prizes may take up to 45 days to be received;
• No disputes will be entered in to;
• Prizes carry no warranty nor guarantee – and are to be used or abused at entirely your own risk;
• Entries will be accepted until 03/02/2012 0005h GMT.

Thanks to Akafugu for offering the Akafuino-X prize!

So have fun and keep an eye out for the four competition questions spread through the January posts… In the meanwhile, follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

December 2011 Competition Results

Hello readers

Well December has well and truly passed on so it is time to announce the winners of our December 2011 competition. The lucky winner of the first prize, which consists of the eleven modules from the new Freetronics Module/Sensor range, as reviewed recently:

Is Stephanie F. from Melbourne, Australia. I hope you enjoy working with the new modules.

And the lucky winner of the second prize, the awesome and still the world’s best all-in-one Arduino Uno/ethernet/PoE/uSD card board solution – the Freetronics EtherTen:

Is Jaroslav F. from Slovakia. Your EtherTen will be on the way around the globe shortly. In the meanwhile thanks to everyone for taking the effort to enter our competition and having some fun. As always we had a few ineligible entries and a few rude ones. Why? I don’t know.

The questions and answers were:

Question: What does the acronym ASCII mean?
Answer: American Standard Code for Information Interchange

Question: What is the unit of measure for sound pressure level?
Answer: decibels (dB)

Question: What is an ultrasonic sound?
Answer: sound waves above the normal range of human hearing.

Question: Who played along side Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon movies?
Answer: Danny Glover

Question: which soviet leader allegedly banged his shoe in the United Nations?
Answer: Nikita Kruschev

Question: Who is the editor of “Silicon Chip” magazine?
Answer: Leo Simpson

And of course thanks to our sponsor Freetronics! Stay tuned for the January competition which will be announced shortly. In the meanwhile I’d better get back to work and write something…

So have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

December 2011 Competition

Hello Readers

The competition for December 2011 has now closed, and the winners will be announced shortly. Thank you to all those who entered, and stay tuned for the January competition!

It’s that time of the year again so we are running another competition. First let’s look at the prizes, then review the rules of entry.

— *** Prize One *** —

Prize One consists of the eleven modules from the new Freetronics Module/Sensor range, as reviewed recently:

With this range of modules you will be able to sense temperature, humidity, magnetic fields, light and sound pressure levels, sound and shock. Plus light up with the RGB LED, get more I/O with the expansion module, interface with the level shifter board, control high currents with the N-MOSFET, and power the lot with the tiny switch mode power supply. Available from Freetronics or a reseller near you.

— *** Prize Two*** —

Prize Two consists of one Freetronics EtherTen:

This is the mother of all Arduino-compatible boards. Designed in Australia and manufactured to the highest quality standards the EtherTen replaces three boards – consider having an Arduino Uno SMD, Ethernet shield with PoE, and a microSD shield – all on the one board. From the Freetronics website:

The EtherTen is a 100% Arduino compatible board that can talk to the world. Do Twitter updates automatically, serve web pages, connect to web services, display sensor data online, and control devices using a web browser. The Freetronics EtherTen uses the same ATmega328P as the Duemilanove and the same Wiznet W5100 chip used by the official Arduino Ethernet Shield, so it’s 100% compatible with the Ethernet library and sketches. Any project you would previously have built with an Arduino and an Ethernet shield stacked together, you can now do all in a single, integrated board.

We’ve even added a micro SD card slot so you can store web content on the card, or log data to it.

All the good things about the Eleven and the Ethernet Shield have been combined into this one device so please see those pages for all the specific details, but the highlights include:

• Gold-plated PCB.
• Top and bottom parts overlays.
• Top-spec ATmega328P MCU.
• Mini-USB connector: no more shorts against shields!
• D13 pin isolated with a MOSFET so you can use it as an input.
• Power-over-Ethernet support, both cheapie DIY or full 802.3af standards-compliant.
• Ethernet activity indicators on the PCB and the jack.
• 10/100base-T auto-selection.
• Fully compatible with standard Ethernet library.
• Reset management chip.
• Fixed SPI behavior on Ethernet chipset.
• Robust power filtering.
• Sexy rounded corners.

Note that just like our Ethernet Shield with PoE support, the EtherTen provides a number of options for different Power over Ethernet. You can use the supplied jumpers and feed 7-12Vdc down the wire for cheap DIY version, or you can fit our PoE Regulator 24V and feed a bit more voltage down the wire, or you can use our PoE Regulator 802.3AF along with a proper commercial PoE injector or switch. It’s up to you.  Available from Freetronics or a reseller near you.

— *** How to Enter *** —

There will be six questions for you to answer spread across articles published in December. At the end of December and once you have answers to all six, email the answers along with your full name, email address and postal address to competition at tronixstuff dot com with the subject heading December. During the second week of January, all the correct entries will be collated and two randomly chosen. The first correct entry drawn will receive prize one, the second correct entry drawn receives prize two. Entries will be accepted until 05/01/2012 0005h GMT.

As with any other competition, there needs to be some rules:

• Incomplete entries will be rejected, so follow the instructions;
• The winners’ entry, first name and country will be announced publicly;
• Entries that contain text not suitable for minors or insulting to the competition will be rejected (seriously – it happens);
• Prizes will be delivered via Australia Post domestic or regular international air mail. We take absolutely no responsibility for packages that go missing or do not arrive. If you live in an area with a “less than reliable” domestic postage system, you can pay for registered mail or other delivery service at your expense.
• Winners outside of Australia will be responsible for any taxes, fees or levies imposed by your local Governments (such as import levies, excise, VAT, etc.) upon importation of purchased goods;
• Prizes may take up to 45 days to be received;
• If you have met John Boxall in person, or you have won a previous tronixstuff.com competition you cannot enter;
• No disputes will be entered in to;
• Prizes carry no warranty nor guarantee – and are to be used or abused at entirely your own risk;
• Entries will be accepted until 05/01/2012 0005h GMT.

So have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

September 2011 Competition Results

Hello readers

September has now passed by and it is time to announce the winners of the September competition. Congratulations to all those who entered – there was some great examples of creativity and enthusiasm. We narrowed it down to six entries, and then randomly selected two winners – so here they are:

First Prize

Jeremías from Buenos Aires, Argentina submitted:

Receiving Zigduinos, I will be very happy.
I will move a robot from far away.
I will fly a copter around a way.
Yeah! I’ll be the king that day.

Congratulations Jeremías, you won two Zigduinos:

For more information, please visit the Logos Electromechanical website.

Second Prize

Tim from Baskerville, Western Australia submitted:

zigduino keep baci safe
from koi thieves and poisoners
light with solar flood

Congratulations Tim, you have won the LoL Shield:

LoL Shields are available from Little Bird Electronics

Well that’s another competition for the year. In September we received quite a few invalid entries – always read the instructions and the rules when entering any future competitions. Otherwise have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

August 2011 Competition Results

Hello Readers

The month of August is now over and hence another competition. There were six questions hidden among the August articles, and for the curious the questions and answers were:

1. In which country is the Gravitech Nano MP3 board assembled? – United States;
2. If you had six pushwheel switches, how many numbers greater than zero can be displayed? – 999999;
3. Which SMD package type is the SAA1064 used on the Gravitech 7-segment shield? – SOIC (also accepted SO-24, SOT-137 1 etc.)
4. How many LEDs are on the Snootlab Rotoshield when constructed? Five – there are four bi-colour SMD LEDs on the PCB and the user solders in the power LED. Some people count the bi-colours as two LEDs, so I also accepted an answer of nine;
5. What does I²C stand for? – Inter-integrated Circuit;
6. What was the CPU speed of the original MITS Altair 8800 computer? – A scorching 2 MHz.

As always we had many entrants, however there can only be two winners. Thank you to all those who took part and kudos to those who answered all the questions correctly. And now …. *drum roll* winner of the first prize is:

Craig from Western Australia who has won a brand-new  Freetronics EtherTen!

This is the mother of all Arduino-compatible boards. Designed in Australia and manufactured to the highest quality standards the EtherTen replaces three boards – consider having an Arduino Uno SMD, Ethernet shield with PoE, and a microSD shield – all on the one board. From the Freetronics website:

The EtherTen is a 100% Arduino compatible board that can talk to the world. Do Twitter updates automatically, serve web pages, connect to web services, display sensor data online, and control devices using a web browser. The Freetronics EtherTen uses the same ATmega328P as the Duemilanove and the same Wiznet W5100 chip used by the official Arduino Ethernet Shield, so it’s 100% compatible with the Ethernet library and sketches. Any project you would previously have built with an Arduino and an Ethernet shield stacked together, you can now do all in a single, integrated board.

We’ve even added a micro SD card slot so you can store web content on the card, or log data to it.

All the good things about the Eleven and the Ethernet Shield have been combined into this one device so please see those pages for all the specific details, but the highlights include:

• Gold-plated PCB.
• Top and bottom parts overlays.
• Top-spec ATmega328P MCU.
• Mini-USB connector: no more shorts against shields!
• D13 pin isolated with a MOSFET so you can use it as an input.
• Power-over-Ethernet support, both cheapie DIY or full 802.3af standards-compliant.
• Ethernet activity indicators on the PCB and the jack.
• 10/100base-T auto-selection.
• Fully compatible with standard Ethernet library.
• Reset management chip.
• Fixed SPI behavior on Ethernet chipset.
• Robust power filtering.
• Sexy rounded corners.

Note that just like our Ethernet Shield with PoE support, the EtherTen provides a number of options for different Power over Ethernet. You can use the supplied jumpers and feed 7-12Vdc down the wire for cheap DIY version, or you can fit our PoE Regulator 24V and feed a bit more voltage down the wire, or you can use our PoE Regulator 802.3AF along with a proper commercial PoE injector or switch. It’s up to you.

And the second winner is Uday K-A from Germany – who has won a brand-new Freetronics LCD & Keypad shield

This LCD and Keypad Shield gives you a handy 16-character by 2-line display, 5 buttons and a controllable backlight, plug it straight in on top of your Arduino board or other project shields.
The display is set behind the shield for a low profile fitment and nice look and we’ve included panel mounting screw holes in the corners.

It’s great when you want to build a stand-alone project with its own user interface that doesn’t require a computer attached to send commands to your Arduino.

Works perfectly in 4-bit mode with the “LiquidCrystal” library included with the Arduino IDE, allowing you to control the LCD with a total of just 6 digital I/O lines. We’ve deliberately picked D4-D9 so that it doesn’t interfere with pins required by other popular products such as the Ethernet Shield and EtherTen, so you can stack this on top of other shields to give you a local display.

The buttons provide “left”, “right”, “up”, “down”, and “select” while using just one analog input. That leaves the other analog inputs free for you to use in your projects.

The LCD backlight is connected to D3 and can be controlled for on/off, brightness and flashing effects.

Features:

• 16×2 LCD using HD44780-compatible display module (white characters on blue background).
• 5 buttons on one analog input (A0).
• LCD backlight with current limiting, brightness and on/off controllable by D3, can be moved to D2, D10, A1, A2, A3, A4 or A5 for easy project pin compatibility.
• Recessed LCD, panel mount screw holes and button layout suitable for panel or cabinet mounting if desired.
• Reset button.
• Power supply smoothing capacitor.
• Gold-plated PCB for maximum durability.
• Overlay printed on both the top and the bottom.
• Pins used by shield clearly marked, LiquidCrystal library setup reference is on the bottom of the pcb for convenience.

So another month – another competition. The next competition will be announced soon with another group of great prizes.

And of course thanks to our generous competition sponsor Freetronics!

Visit the Freetronics website or resellers to see their full range of quality Arduino-related products.

So have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

August 2011 Competition

Hello Readers

The August competition has now closed and the winners will be drawn and notified very shortly. Stay tuned for the September competition!

Time for another competition! To enter is very easy. There will be six questions hidden within articles published in the month of August (but not this one!). Once you have answers to all six, email them to competition at tronixstuff dot com with “August 2011″ in the subject line before 2359h GMT September 4th. On the 5th of September, I will compile a list of people with the correct answers, and randomly select two winners. Please note competition rules at the end of this article.

The first winner drawn will receive a brand new Freetronics EtherTen!

This is the mother of all Arduino-compatible boards. Designed in Australia and manufactured to the highest quality standards the EtherTen replaces three boards – consider having an Arduino Uno SMD, Ethernet shield with PoE, and a microSD shield – all on the one board. From the Freetronics website:

The EtherTen is a 100% Arduino compatible board that can talk to the world. Do Twitter updates automatically, serve web pages, connect to web services, display sensor data online, and control devices using a web browser. The Freetronics EtherTen uses the same ATmega328P as the Duemilanove and the same Wiznet W5100 chip used by the official Arduino Ethernet Shield, so it’s 100% compatible with the Ethernet library and sketches. Any project you would previously have built with an Arduino and an Ethernet shield stacked together, you can now do all in a single, integrated board.

We’ve even added a micro SD card slot so you can store web content on the card, or log data to it.

All the good things about the Eleven and the Ethernet Shield have been combined into this one device so please see those pages for all the specific details, but the highlights include:

• Gold-plated PCB.
• Top and bottom parts overlays.
• Top-spec ATmega328P MCU.
• Mini-USB connector: no more shorts against shields!
• D13 pin isolated with a MOSFET so you can use it as an input.
• Power-over-Ethernet support, both cheapie DIY or full 802.3af standards-compliant.
• Ethernet activity indicators on the PCB and the jack.
• 10/100base-T auto-selection.
• Fully compatible with standard Ethernet library.
• Reset management chip.
• Fixed SPI behavior on Ethernet chipset.
• Robust power filtering.
• Sexy rounded corners.

Note that just like our Ethernet Shield with PoE support, the EtherTen provides a number of options for different Power over Ethernet. You can use the supplied jumpers and feed 7-12Vdc down the wire for cheap DIY version, or you can fit our PoE Regulator 24V and feed a bit more voltage down the wire, or you can use our PoE Regulator 802.3AF along with a proper commercial PoE injector or switch. It’s up to you.

And of course there is a second prize – the Freetronics LCD & Keypad shield

This LCD and Keypad Shield gives you a handy 16-character by 2-line display, 5 buttons and a controllable backlight, plug it straight in on top of your Arduino board or other project shields.
The display is set behind the shield for a low profile fitment and nice look and we’ve included panel mounting screw holes in the corners.

It’s great when you want to build a stand-alone project with its own user interface that doesn’t require a computer attached to send commands to your Arduino.

Works perfectly in 4-bit mode with the “LiquidCrystal” library included with the Arduino IDE, allowing you to control the LCD with a total of just 6 digital I/O lines. We’ve deliberately picked D4-D9 so that it doesn’t interfere with pins required by other popular products such as the Ethernet Shield and EtherTen, so you can stack this on top of other shields to give you a local display.

The buttons provide “left”, “right”, “up”, “down”, and “select” while using just one analog input. That leaves the other analog inputs free for you to use in your projects.

The LCD backlight is connected to D3 and can be controlled for on/off, brightness and flashing effects.

Features:

• 16×2 LCD using HD44780-compatible display module (white characters on blue background).
• 5 buttons on one analog input (A0).
• LCD backlight with current limiting, brightness and on/off controllable by D3, can be moved to D2, D10, A1, A2, A3, A4 or A5 for easy project pin compatibility.
• Recessed LCD, panel mount screw holes and button layout suitable for panel or cabinet mounting if desired.
• Reset button.
• Power supply smoothing capacitor.
• Gold-plated PCB for maximum durability.
• Overlay printed on both the top and the bottom.
• Pins used by shield clearly marked, LiquidCrystal library setup reference is on the bottom of the pcb for convenience.

As with any other competition, there needs to be some rules:

• Prizes will be delivered via Australia Post domestic or regular international air mail. Winners may elect for other methods upon payment of real cost;
• Winners outside of Australia will be responsible for any taxes, fees or levies imposed by your local Governments (such as import levies, excise, VAT, etc.) upon importation of purchased goods;
• Prizes may take up to 45 days to be received;
• If you have met me John Boxall in person, or you have won a previous competition you cannot enter;
• The Judge’s decision is final with regards to any dispute;
• Entries will be accepted until 2359h GMT on 4th September 2011.

And of course thanks to our generous competition sponsor Freetronics!

Visit the Freetronics website or resellers to see their full range of quality Arduino-related products.

So have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

tronixstuff.com Visitor feedback/survey competition

Hello Readers

Once more it is time to survey you, the reader to find out your opinions of what is published here on tronixstuff.com. Although some of you leave comments and sometimes write me an email, I am looking for further input and ideas to help make the site more interesting to you and perhaps incorporate good ideas from others. As the site is created by one person, now and again it is good to get some feedback from people of different thoughts and ideas.

Apart from general feedback, some questions for our readers include:

• Would you like to see articles about items by other people as well as my original posts? [For example, in a manner similar to hackaday.com or Engadget]
• Would you like the opportunity to submit your own articles? [Sorry, I can't pay you cash for them!]
• What are your thoughts about more direct advertising on the site?
• Is there anything that you really like or dislike about the site?
• If you have enjoyed or benefited from the articles, how about a donation?
• Or would you like to have a vehement spray about something? Now’s your chance.

If you would like to take part, please email your thoughts to survey at tronixstuff dot com. Due to the high volume of email received, I cannot respond to each one individually, however some follow-up questions may be asked of you if necessary. During September I will summarise the feedback and report the results for everyone to see.

And to keep it interesting, each email received will go into a random draw to win a prize – a large box of Arduino and related items with a value of at least Au$100. Even if you complain, you get an entry

In the meanwhile have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

July 2011 Competition Results

Hello readers

[Oops - this was originally published as August instead of July]

The month of July is now over and therefore another competition. There were six questions hidden within the posts for July, and for the curious the questions and answers were:

1. Which software was used to create the picture above? (Image of an Arduino and breadboard in this post) – Fritzing;
2. What large products are famously made in Toulouse, France and exported around the world? – Aircraft from EADS/Airbus Industries – such as the amazing A380;
3. Which movie did the quote printed in the video above come from? (“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy“) – “The Shining“;
4. What is larger, 1000 nanofarads or 1 microfarad? – Neither, they are the same;
5. What is the frequency of the crystal in this kit? – 32.768 kHz;
6. Where are the headquarters for NXP located? – Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

It was great to see a record number of entries, all with correct answers. Great work everyone! However, there can only be two winners…

The first winner drawn was Henrik from Sweden who will receive an ex-review Ikalogic “Scanalogic2” PC-based logic analyser and signal generator:

With the Scanalogic2, you can capture and analyse all sorts of signals, including I2C, CAN bus, SPI, UART, and more. The firmware is user-upgradable and allows the design team to add more features when they are developed. You can even capture data and play it back to recreate situations in the future, or transfer the data to other users for their analysis. For more information please visit the Ikalogic website, or read my quick review of the Scanalogic. Thanks to Little Bird Electronics for the Scanalogic2

The second winner drawn was Kevin from New Jersey, USA who will receive one brand new Gravitech Arduino Nano:

Made in the USA, the Gravitech Arduino Nano is a very, very small version of our Arduino Duemilanove boards. It contains the same microcontroller (ATmega328) but in SMD form; has all the I/O pins (plus two extra analogue inputs); and still has a USB interface via the FT232 chip. The prize version will have the pins soldered as shown above. Thanks to Gravitech for the Arduino Nano.

Congratulations to the lucky winners, and thank you to all those who took the time to enter the competition. I hope you enjoyed reading the posts, and look forward to running another competition in August. The prizes are two new products that will be very desirable, and will be reviewed in the next week or two. So stay tuned!

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