Category Archives: Electronics

New motherboard: ASUS ProArt B550-CREATOR

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Ordered myself a new motherboard today, the ASUS ProArt B550-CREATOR. This new board will replace my ASUS PRIME B550M-A in my new/upgraded computer ‘lore‘ (which is replacing ‘longing‘).

This new board has 2x M.2 PCIe 4.0 (as with the old motherboard), 2x 2.5Gbps Ethernet (compared to 1x 1Gbps Ethernet in my old motherboard), and 3x PCIe 16x slots (compared to 1x PCIe 16x slot in my old motherboard).

I will put in 2x M.2 PCIe 4x adapters and 2x M.2 PCIe 1x adapters which will mean I am able to install 6x M.2 drives: 2x Kioxia 256GB, 2x Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, and 2x PNY 1TB.

I will also put in a quad 2.5Gbps PCIe Ethernet adapter which will give me six 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports in total (two onboard and four on PCIe 16x).

When I’m done all four RAM slots will be full (4x Corsair Vengeance 32GB 3200MHz DDR4), both the M.2 slots will be full, all three of the PCIe 16x slots will be full, all four SATA ports will be full (3x Western Digital WD Ultrastar DC HC550 16TB and 1x ASUS BW-16D1HT PRO 16X Blu-ray burner), and both PCIe 1x slots will be full too. Also there will be a bunch of high speed USB ports available on both the front and the back of the case. I feel like I have really squeezed a lot of juice out of this system, it’s operating very close to capacity.

I’m kinda dreading plugging in the USB attachments to the front panel, but I guess if I RTFM and apply some thought I will be able to figure that out.

BeagleV-Fire RISC-V and FPGA

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Today on IRC the BeagleV-Fire was brought to my attention. This computer system sports an FPGA and looks like just the thing to get as an entry-level system to learn about FPGA tech. These things seem to be hard to find at the moment but apparently they sell for around US$150 which is quite affordable for an entry-level system. And the manufacturer’s commitment to open hardware is encouraging. Click-through on the link to find a heap of developer resources.

Unboxing #9: Unboxing of Sudake SDK07 and SKD08 IC Clip SMD Gripper Test Probe | In The Lab

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This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video on this show’s homepage which is here.

You can support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/JohnElliotV

Silly Job Title: Hack In Residence

Today: another unboxing video! This time we’re taking a look at the Sudake SDK07 and SKD08 IC clips / SMD grippers / test probes.

Originally I was going to demo these things in this video too, but the test circuit took like two hours to make, and then when I turned it on it didn’t even work, so I cancelled that and now this is just an unboxing video and not a demo. Stay tuned for the demo which I will do, just when I can find some more time.

These test clips are really great, they let you attach a probe to the foot of an integrated circuit or a surface mount device.

Be warned: there’s a bit of swearing and bad language in this video. What can I say? I’m just a passionate individual, ya know? :P

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe!

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Yum Cha 100pcs Releasable Cable OrganizerThis is an image of the product.

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