Solder Sucker

Crafted in Germany by Amax, this solder sucker is a pump style solder remover. Use it on heated solder to remove the solder from your boards and components. It comes in the original manufacturer’s packaging with instructions for the use and care of your solder sucker.

Here are some basic desoldering instructions:
1. Heat your soldering iron. Push down on the plunger until it clicks to arm the soldering iron.
2. Clean your soldering tip. Place the soldering tip on the side of the old joint. Apply some fresh solder on the old joint to help the old solder soften.
3. Set the plunger on the solder sucker. Place the tip of the solder sucker on the old joint as close as possible to the soldering tip.
4. Release the plunger by pressing the button.
5. Repeat until much of the old solder is gone.
6. If any of the old solder is left in PCB holes, you can heat the old joint again and using the soldering tip on one side and a miniature flat screwdriver on the other, gently rock the joint back and forth lightly to loosen up the tiny leads on the components.
7. You may need to repeat this process again when there is a stubborn joint.
9. Remove your component carefully; taking care to not damage the board.

iPhone 4S

Take, for example, the Apple iPhone 4S. Looking beyond the plastic enclosures, the LCD screens and the cameras, there are hundreds of surface mount board level components needed to build just one iPhone 4S including capacitors, transistors, diodes, LEDS and magnetic components. Some are needed for RF purposes, some for switching, and others for power management. Even more components are needed for memory and app processing.

In all, this list is not much different from the requirements of past iPhones or other smartphones however, the size of the components and the vast array of components required will never cease to amaze us!

Here is a chart to use: http://www.westfloridacomponents.com/wire-bending-radius.html

You may wonder why his last name sounds so familiar. That is because Hertz’s name later became the term used for radio and electrical frequencies. Think of hertz (Hz), kilohertz (kHz) and megahertz (MHz). In 1933, long after his death, the Hertz officially became part of the metric system.

Google’s animated doodle is an homage to Hertz’s contributions to physics. The wavy animation, which is in Google’s trademark colors of red, blue, yellow and green, is in recognition of the German physicist’s work with electromagnetic waves. Very fitting!

We’re selling them in batches of 10 for $5.00. That’s only $0.50 for each perf board. It’s a great deal and they won’t last at that price.

The purpose of the monitoring is to be sure that patients are taking their medications properly and on time and to also monitor a range of additional patient information including respiration rate, heart rate, temperature, sleep patterns and physical activity. It is estimated that up to 50% of all patients take their medication improperly so this will assist health care professionals and family member with the patient’s drug regimen.

The sensors are about the size of a grain of sand. The sensor-enabled tablets are called Helius. The Helius can be taken with pills or incorporated into medications by the drug manufacturers. Once ingested, the sensors are activated by stomach acid. Each sensor contains a very small amount of copper and magnesium which react with stomach acid to create the power necessary to generate a digital signal. Through an adhesive patch on the skin, the digital signal is read and and the data transmitted through the patient’s cell phone.

Don’t look for the microchipped pill just yet. Proteus Biomedical will be introducing their new product in the UK first.

How do breadboards work?

A breadboard is constructed on hundreds of holes arranged in vertical and horizontal rows. The outer rows which run lengthwise across the circuit board are generally reserved for the circuit’s power supply. The interior rows of holes are where the electronic components are inserted. Each row of holes forms a node; that is, any components that reside on the same node will be connected when they are inserted into a hole in that same row, or node. This is because under each row is a copper plate that connects the holes to each other.

Robert Noyce is being honored by Google for his contributions to the electronic components industry on what would have been his 84th birthday. To commemorate his birthday, Google’s homepage has a doodle which etches the Google logo onto a microchip, a technology that Noyce is credited with co-inventing.

Known as the Mayor of Silicon Valley, Robert Noyce was the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel and is credited along with Jack Kilby with the invention of the integrated circuit. He earned his nickname for the work he did as a mentor to youths aspiring to succeed in Silicon Valley and in fact was a mentor to Apple founder, Steve Jobs. Jobs was one of many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs mentored by Noyce.

The holder of 15 patents related to the electronic components industry, Noyce was a major contributor to the industry and it is fitting that Google chose to honor him and his achievements.

Today, we will look at some of the other features and give you our overall impression.

Content available:
Both the iPad and the Kindle Fire can access movies, music, games, books and other reading material. The only difference is that the Kindle Fire uses Amazon to download the material and the Apple iPad uses Apple’s iTunes software. Amazon has sweetened the deal a by bundling all of its services and making them available to Fire users.

The real difference (for now) are the number of apps available to each device. With such a large jump on the competition, the iPad currently has many more apps available to it’s customers. It remains to be seen how many apps will be written for the Kindle Fire since developers are already stretched writing them for Apple products, Android, RIM, etc.

The downside of Amazon’s Fire is that there is no way to use alternative music apps such as Spotify or Pandora on the device. Amazon is, of course, pushing their own music services.

Point goes to: iPad

Web browsing and email:
Both the iPad and the Fire can access the web and email. They each use their own browsers. If you are familiar with any Apple products, you will immediately feel at home when you start up your Safari on iPad for the first time, however Amazon’s Silk browser is very easy to navigate.

Point goes to: tie

Flash:
Here’s where the Kindle Fire has a slight edge. It supports flash technology right out of the box, unlike the iPad.

Point goes to: Kindle Fire

USB:
This is something that has been missing from the iPad all along - a USB port. The Kindle comes not with a standard USB port but a micro-USB - still incredibly handy for backing up or transferring data.

Point goes to: Kindle Fire

Price:
The Kindle Fire is priced at $199 and the Apple iPad (entry level) at $499. Do we have to say anything else?

Point goes to: Kindle Fire

After reviewing all the specs and features of both products, we don’t have a clear winner! Many here at West Florida Components are Apple loyalists and would choose the iPad over any competition but there were a few that admitted that the Kindle Fire had some appeal and wouldn’t mind owning one.

Maybe the answer is to get one of each?

Get 8GB 204 Pin DDR3 1333 RAM Laptop Memory by G.SKILL for $24.99 including shipping!

If you have a laptop running 2 - 4GB of RAM right now, you can really give your notebook computer a major boost in performance.

Important: This will work only if you are currently running the 64-bit OS version of Windows - don’t waste your time if you are only running a 32-bit version. It won’t help you at all.

So how do you get this amazing deal? Go to newegg.com and search for F3-10600CL9D-8GBSQ. The item also qualifies for free shipping so the total is $24.99. This is a great deal!