Tag: Banggood

InTheMail Stats For 2020 – Voltlog #346

Welcome to a new voltlog, this is the annual review to present some stats on the number of orders and spending with regards to my activity. The InTheMail videos are my most popular videos so as you can imagine there is quite a bit of spending and orders placed behind the scenes. Same as last year, please let me know in the comments if you have any stats on your own purchases, I would love to get a feel for how everyone else is doing.

This year I’m not going to show any stats for ebay, I’ve stopped using ebay, I do most of my orders on aliexpress.com starting with 2020 and I also place a few orders on banggood.com. In fact I’ve also stopped placing links to ebay items in my mailbag videos because I don’t really use the platform anymore.

Voltlog #293 – Buying From Banggood and Ebay Tips & Tricks

Welcome to a new Voltlog, this is a continuation of Voltlog #291 where I shared some tips and tricks about buying from Aliexpress, if you haven’t seen that video, I will link it on screen right now. Today I’m gonna share my experience with buying from Banggood or Ebay. These are my secondary buying channels, some of the stuff you see in my mailbag videos comes from Banggood or Ebay.

Voltlog #286 – How Is The Coronavirus Affecting PCB Production?

Welcome to a new Voltlog, I have a couple of projects in the pipeline right now that require PCBs and as usual I will be getting them from JLCPCB who have been sponsoring my videos for a while now and even if they weren’t I would still be ordering from them because I like how their service runs. But the problem right now as you may know is the Coronavirus infection. In order to contain the spread of the virus, companies in China have moved to a work from home scenario with only minimal required personnel present  on site. 

This coupled with the extended holiday which was issued after the spring festival means decreased manufacturing capacity which leads to long lead times as customers line up to get their PCBs manufactured.

So this video is more an update on the current situation because I am in contact with JLCPCB and I want to give you some info on the expected delays for pcb orders. Right now they offer production of 2 layer pcbs as well as smt assembly service and stencil production service but 4 layer, 6 layer and ENIG coated pcb manufacturing has been suspended until further notice.

Voltlog #285 – Is a Cheap Cordless Power Drill Any Good?

Is a cheap cordless power drill any good? That is a question I’ve been asking myself for a while now because I was in the market for a cordless power drill. I can get a well known brand like Makita which sells a kit with two 18V 3Ah batteries, the drill and a charger for about $200. The thing is I’m using a tool like this maybe once every 3-4 months for a couple of drills, generally soft materials or maybe to assemble some new piece of furniture and I don’t feel like spending $200 for a tool that’s not going to be used and worked for that money.

So I started looking at alternatives, there are the clones of Makitas and Dewalts available for probably less than half the price of the genuine stuff but why go that route? I don’t care about what’s written on the label and the color of the drill.  One thing I care about is the shipping of the item, preferably I would like something that can be ordered and shipped from the EU for fast delivery and no additional taxes being paid for customs.

So I started looking at Chinese brands, this particular model got my attention on banggood.com, they call this a 36V cordless drill, it comes with two batteries and it’s available from a warehouse in the EU.

Can The Coronavirus Travel With Packages Delivered From China?

Welcome to a new Voltlog and yes we are talking about the Coronavirus on this channel and you might think it’s completely unrelated but there is a connection as I will explain in a moment. You know I host a popular type of videos on my channel, that is the mailbag videos with electronic items that I get from China. I am ordering this stuff from Aliexpress, Ebay, Bangood but it doesn’t really matter which website we’re talking about, even on Amazon there are a bunch of shops that ship directly from China to the US or UK or whatever. 

Some of you might be asking is there a safety risk with the Coronavirus infection happening in China, is there a chance of that virus traveling with these products and infecting us the recipients of the packages? Well let’s look at the facts first.

Voltlog #279 – InTheMail Stats For 2019

Welcome to a new Voltlog, as you may remember last year I did a summary of all the orders placed in 2018, related to electronics items, the stuff that I show in my InTheMail segment. I did that video because I was interested in knowing the numbers and how they evolve over time but the viewers responded as well, they provided feedback with their own approximate stats so this year I’m doing it again. Same as last year, please let me know in the comments if you have any stats on your own purchases.

Voltlog #270 – 11.11 Shopping Festival Discounts Real or Fake?

Welcome to a new Voltlog, this will be just a short video, I want to talk about the prices and the discounts that we get on shopping festivals, because most of us think and myself included here, we think the price cuts we get for these shopping festivals are not actually true, we tend to think prices are inflated some time ahead only to be discounted on that day which makes them go back to roughly the same price they normally sell for.

Even in my past video with shopping suggestions Voltlog #269, I got such comments and I don’t blame people for thinking this, because like I said, I tend to think the same but I also want to find out the truth so what I did some time ago, beginning of September to be more precise, I save some screenshots of various items that I was interested in from A

liexpress.

Today it’s the 11th, the sale started so we’ll compare prices before and after, to see if the sellers actually raised their prices before the sale and are we really getting any discounts today.

 

Voltlog #269 – 11.11 Shopping Suggestions For Makers

Welcome to a new Voltlog, it’s November and that means the biggest shopping event happening in Asia is coming up, I’m talking about the 11th of november. There are some numbers published for last years event and it seems they registered more than 30 billion in 24 hours in sales, yes you heard right, billions. So it’s a very big event with nice discounts and opportunities for makers like us to get some new gear. That’s why I prepared this video which will be published 1-2 days before the event so you can get some ideas of stuff that you could purchase. I assembled a list, these are products that I’ve tested and used myself which I think are good value for money and a nice addition to any hobbyist lab.

Voltlog #267 – 60W Ultrasonic Cleaner For PCBs (review)

Welcome to a new Voltlog, today we’re going to take a closer look at an ultrasonic cleaner. This is the 1.3 litre, model number I believe is Y-009, the ultrasonic power is 60W while the heating power is rated for 100W. Usable area I’ve measured to be 125x115x40mm depth which is not a lot but I’ve thought about it and this is pretty much all I need. 99% of the PCBs I design fit within these dimensions so it’s not worth getting a bigger ultrasonic cleaner because it will take up more space and it will use up more cleaning liquid, it would be a waste of resources.

Voltlog #256 – Best BST-863 Hot Air Rework Station (Alternative to Quick 861DW)

Inside the box of the BST-863 we have the station, a really nice and heavy stand for the tool piece, a total of 3 nozzles, a grounding strap and a power cord. The first thing I notice is the hose which pretty thick, certainly thicker than what I had on my old Gordak station but seems to be softer material. The way it’s designed with the tool standing vertically in the stand makes the air hose forms this loop which depending on your bench setup might or might not bother you but it’s something to consider. But I like the quality of the stand, it’s heavy and feels very sturdy, you get this accessory here which allows you to remove the nozzles while hot and the station has a sensor to detect when the handle is in the stand.

Adjustment of temperature and air level is made through this touch screen control. I’m a bit anti touch screen control on test gear so I would’ve preferred some switches on the front panel but don’t get me wrong, the touch screen works well on this unit, it has nice big touch keys and after setting up your presets you are likely  not going to need to adjust the temperature you will just be using the presets like leaded, lead free and another one for heatshrink maybe.

Is this cheaper station a good alternative to the Quick 861DW? This video review should provide you with enough info to decide which one to buy.

Here are some high resolution images from the teardown: