Electronics and technology blog    /    Materials for June 2015 year

My regular readers know that I work with video surveillance systems. Since everyone is now switching to IP camera systems, simply having a TV is no longer enough to configure them. I thought it would be convenient to set up these cameras using a tablet, but tablets usually don't have a port for connecting a standard network cable. I thought I could solve this problem with a microUSB-LAN adapter. And I would have, too, but things didn't go quite as smoothly as I'd hoped. More after the jump.

I needed some powerful MOSFETs for one of my future projects. Of course, I could have bought them locally, but they cost almost three times as much here as they do in China. Since counterfeits are sometimes a possibility, and I could get them for a review, I decided to give them a try and test them while I was at it. There won't be any teardown, but there will be a build :)

Many DIYers have probably often found themselves needing a rotary tool for their projects. I use a small homemade drill, but I’ve often seen others use a Dremel or one of its clones. It looked convenient, but I wanted something a bit more powerful with a standard chuck. I spotted something similar in a well-known store and managed to get one for review. Well, let’s take a look at the outside and poke around inside a little to see whether it’s worth it.

With this review, I'm bringing my quest to get USB 3.0 working at home to a close. I use a USB hub all the time at home, and as the amount of data grows, I'd like to increase the transfer speed too. As always, the review, teardown, analysis, and conclusions are below the fold.

Since my work involves computers quite a bit, I'm interested in all sorts of unusual computer gadgets. Not long ago, I learned about an interesting device: a graphics card that connects to a computer's USB port. As soon as I got the chance to review one, I jumped at it. As usual, I'll take a look, take it apart, and test it.

Not long ago, I posted a review of a hard drive enclosure. Since it already had a USB 3.0 interface, while my home computer still only had USB 2.0, I decided to give my old computer a bit of an upgrade. From what I’ve gathered, Orico is something of a brand in the computer accessories world, so I decided to see what this Chinese brand was all about.

This time, I’m reviewing a rather controversial device. The manufacturer tried to please supporters of two different user groups at once and put an end to the Windows vs. Android flame war. The solution was a dual-boot device: a mini PC that runs both operating systems (well, almost). If you’re interested, read on.