EEVblog #464 - Mailbag

[EEVblog]

More mailbag
http://ros.org/wiki/Robots/TurtleBot
http://hacklace.org/
http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?Prod=ANALOG-DISCOVERY

[c4757p]

fuerte   

"Fwairtay" would probably be the closest you could get within the bounds of Australian English, though it's still a good distance from the proper Spanish. I like "ferty" though!

[c4757p]

The FT232H on that Digilent board is indeed serial only, but it can go quite fast, well beyond RS-232 speed (up to 12 Mbaud, according to the datasheet).

[rfbroadband]

attached the links to Agilent parts list webpage for the dual lead adapter and the mini grabber

Dual Lead Adapter : Agilent #0960-2923
http://www.home.agilent.com/myagilent/faces/partDetail.jspx?_afrWindowId=wjnrzq8w5_46&_afrLoop=1654448071717000&imageStatus=YES&partNumber=0960-2923&_afrWindowMode=0&_adf.ctrl-state=z2r1lc3rf_49#%40%3F_afrWindowId%3Dwjnrzq8w5_46%26_afrLoop%3D1654448071717000%26imageStatus%3DYES%26partNumber%3D0960-2923%26_afrWindowMode%3D0%26_adf.ctrl-state%3Dwjnrzq8w5_58

Micro Grabber : Agilent # 10467-68701
http://www.home.agilent.com/myagilent/faces/partDetail.jspx?partNumber=10467-68701&imageStatus=YES&_afrLoop=1654383659145000&_afrWindowMode=0&_afrWindowId=wjnrzq8w5_19#%40%3F_afrWindowId%3Dwjnrzq8w5_19%26_afrLoop%3D1654383659145000%26imageStatus%3DYES%26partNumber%3D10467-68701%26_afrWindowMode%3D0%26_adf.ctrl-state%3Dwjnrzq8w5_31

regards
Oliver

[Ed.Kloonk]

Did you say you're running a t-shirt competition?

A wet t-shirt competition?
 

[notsob]

picture of minigrabber shows 4 in the kit (if thats correct) makes them around $60 each, be very gentle with them dave.

[rramirez]

The Analog Discovery is an interesting product. I was able to pick one up at Newark for $89 with a discount coupon, but it looks like they will no longer be selling them at $99. I have been able to characterize crystal filters near the 10 MHz limit for the network analyzer and create nice Bode plots. Since Dave is reviewing in the future, I'll save my other comments for that vlog.

Russ

[davidmc]

The FT232H has a 40MB/sec parallel data FIFO mode in addition to all its various serial options. See bullet point seven on their produce page http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/ICs/FT232H.htm.

[xrunner]

Those little test clips are super cool! Lucky guy. 

[c4757p]

The FT232H has a 40MB/sec parallel data FIFO mode in addition to all its various serial options. See bullet point seven on their produce page http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/ICs/FT232H.htm.

Nice! Guess I missed that.

[PeteInTexas]

some guys have it easy...anniversary...electronics jewelry arrives in mailbag...

[Bored@Work]

The Analog Discovery is an interesting product. I was able to pick one up at Newark for $89 with a discount coupon, but it looks like they will no longer be selling them at $99. I have been able to characterize crystal filters near the 10 MHz limit for the network analyzer and create nice Bode plots. Since Dave is reviewing in the future, I'll save my other comments for that vlog.

Russ

Digilent sells it at three different prices:

$99 for US students
159$ for academics (probably includes no-US students)
199$ for the rest

Tthe discount for US students only, not for any student, makes Digilent and Analog first class nationalistic assholes in my book.

[Rasz]

The discount for US students only, not for any student, makes Digilent and Analog first class nationalistic assholes in my book.

Its like DVD regions. Im sure someone will make some money on ebay reselling them (after convincing English major students to order some for him)

[owlhawk]

Interestingly, to get the $99 student price you have to be in a class that requires using it. I got one for one of my classes this year. Even buying it at the university bookstore, I had to fill out a form with my student id, course number, etc to verify that I was in the class before I could buy it.

If you look it the component cost it is easy to see why though. ~$50 for the ADC in 750+ quantity, $12 for the DAC, plus the FPGA, FT232, case and cables, development costs... obviously it is heavily subsidized by both Analog and Xilinx. I'm guessing the requirements for student pricing are because they want to push schools to make it part of their curriculum. Random students buying it for their own use don't give the companies nearly as much benefit for their money as a school actually including it in classes.

As far as the USB interface, I'm guessing they are using the FT232 chip in parallel mode as mentioned above. I have used it with 2 scope channels and 2 function generator channels running at the same time and it still updates very fast. The scope display responds pretty much as quickly as any of the real scopes I've used.

[Jon86]

Those micro-grabbers are great, but kind of pricey don't you think? I wonder what they're like at high frequency...

[mgregg]

More mailbag
http://ros.org/wiki/Robots/TurtleBot

Dave, I wish I had a better fitting ROS shirt to send you. I like my shirts fitting better than that one I sent you as well. Wash it with the washer set to "nuclear" ,maybe it will shrink a bit for you.

Hopefully it will then fit Segan a bit better.

[Joules]

Another source for micro grabbers at a slightly more palatable price.

http://catalog.e-z-hook.com/item/test-hooks/e-z-micro-hooks-single-hook-style/x2015

Haven't got or even tried any, just happened on them whilst looking up details to make my own using hyperdermic syringe tube.

[hairykiwi]

Thanks for the heads-up on MECHANO test probes Dave and Oliver   

Here's the manufacturer's product page in English: http://www.mechano.co.jp/pdle2.html

Looks like they do a really extensive range - including a number of GHz rated probes. Here's one spec'd at DC - 13.5GHz:
http://www.mechano.co.jp/products-img/ngigae.html

Pics courtesy of the Mechano website:





The FP-5 model Dave features in the Mailbag Monday blog is described in the product listing page as a Micro Test Clip .
Here's the FP-5 product page (with specs): http://www.mechano.co.jp/products-img/pmc-cl.html
At the top of the FP-5 product page is some advice, (translated by google translate below)
"Note: FP-5L, FP-5 is accessible to IC pin of 1.0 ~ 0.3mm pitch but, 0.4mm pitch below, please use the (FP-2S or) FP-7S."

This model: http://www.mechano.co.jp/products-img/pmt.html
Looks like it could be really useful for probing IC legs without risk of the probe shorting the wrong pins. Been there, done that, got the new Dev Kit. 

So that's all nice to know, but who sells Mechano stuff? Google didn't find any distributor listing them.

The closest other micro test clips I've used are the XKM made by EZ-HOOK, but I'd be really interested in finding a supplier of the MECHANO micro test clips.

EZ-HOOK XKM  (1.25" | 32mm shaft length)

http://catalog.e-z-hook.com/item/test-hooks/e-z-micro-hooks-single-hook-style/xkm-1?
Available from from DigiKey individually, (around USD 2.80 ea) or in a coloured (BBROYGBVGW) set: http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/XKM-S/461-1012-ND/528233

[somlioy]

From their website:

You can buy our product at:
lists (in no particular order)Emulation Technology Inc.(U.S.A), Winslow Adaptics Ltd(U.K.), PMK Mess- und Kommunikationstechnik GmbH (Germany)
Please ask them.
About FP-5 and FP-5L (It might be known by other names in overseas.), you may be able to buy it from the following lists.
lists (in no particular order) Agilent Technologies, Tektronix, Lecroy
You also can buy our product directly from us.

[hairykiwi]

From their website:

You can buy our product at:
lists (in no particular order)Emulation Technology Inc.(U.S.A), Winslow Adaptics Ltd(U.K.), PMK Mess- und Kommunikationstechnik GmbH (Germany)
Please ask them.
About FP-5 and FP-5L (It might be known by other names in overseas.), you may be able to buy it from the following lists.
lists (in no particular order) Agilent Technologies, Tektronix, Lecroy
You also can buy our product directly from us.

Well spotted somlioy, thanks.

I see they also do free samples of ONE piece.

It would also be useful if they'd send the entire collection to Dave for a full review.

[tangent]

"Fwairtay" would probably be the closest you could get within the bounds of Australian English, though it's still a good distance from the proper Spanish. I like "ferty" though!

Another attempt: FWER-tay. It means "hard" in Spanish. I don't know if it's because ROS is supposed to be hard to use, or hardened.