Tag: Brushless

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.

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:

Voltlog #221 – Harvesting Electronic Components With a 3-Axis Gimbal

Hello everyone, welcome to a new Voltlog, this time it’s a bit different, I’m out in the nature, enjoying this beautiful day in the mountains and i want to show you something. So I’ve been hearing that there are certain areas here in Romania which may have been subjected to high levels of nuclear radiation, it might be related to the Chernobyl accident from 1986 but I’m not sure.

There are stories from people saying that they’ve encountered trees in certain areas growing strange fruits or items that you shouldn’t normally find in the nature. And I think I might have encountered such a tree, here on this trail hike.

Voltlog #97 – FT012 Brushless Racing Boat

This is a review of the Fei Lun FT012 RC brushless racing boat. The FT012 is actually an upgrade of the FT009. This new version has a brushless motor which makes it very fast at max speed of 45km/h

Checkout the FT012 on Banggood and here is a list of spare parts you can buy for this boat.

 

Voltlog #76 – InTheMail

This what happens when I left myself on a shopping spree, you get a month’s worth of InTheMail episodes. So let’s get started on the 4th episode in a row showing the stuff I get from China.

Here is a list with the items shown in this video:

  • Brushless Blower Fan 12V 5015S
  • Brushless Blower Fan 5V 6015S
  • Cooling Fan 5V 2 Pin 50x50x10mm
  • Fan Grill Guard 50mm
  • Aluminium Heatsink 150x60x25mm
  • TO-220 Aluminum Heatsink 34x12x30mm
  • 100W Wire Wound Aluminium Housing Resistor
  • 200x175x70mm Plastic Enclosure For Instrument
  • 170x130x75mm Metal Enclosure For Instrument
  • Rubber Feet Self Adhesive 15mm
  • LM2596 DC-DC Step-Down Converter Module
  • XL6009 Buck-Boost DC-DC Converter
  • 10A BMS 3S Battery Protection Module
  • Zener Diode Assortment – Through Hole
  • Zener Diode Assortment – SMD
  • PT4115 LED Driver IC

Links for all of the items will be in the video description on youtube.