Electronics and technology blog    /    Materials for June 2016 year

This review continues my experiments with step-down voltage converters. Along the way, I’ll also explain a little about what a synchronous rectifier converter is.

As part of the “move” project, which I started in these two reviews — 1, 2 — I bought a small computer. The computer itself is basic, but it has a few rather nice features. They won’t be useful to many people, but I’m sure some will appreciate them.

A friend asked me to buy him an inexpensive TV box. It was no trouble, and I was also interested in tinkering with one for the sake of the stats. So here’s another short review, this time of a TV box built around the already familiar S905 SoC.

I use a soldering station with a hot air gun quite often. But since the station is rather bulky, and lately I’ve only been using its hot air gun, I decided to replace it with a standalone hot air gun, so to speak. Inspection, teardown, comparison—as usual.

After buying an expensive multimeter, I thought I might move on from reviewing this kind of measuring instrument. But apparently, my fascination with tools got the better of me, and when I saw an instrument from the well-known Fluke brand, I decided to get it for a review.

Last time, most of the information about using the phone came from someone else’s perspective. This time, all my impressions of the new DOOGEE X5 MAX will be entirely my own. I’m not exactly spoiled by modern phones—in fact, this is the first smartphone I’ve carried around as my main phone. So, I’ll show it, take it apart, and share my impressions.

About a year ago, I reviewed a small rotary tool. Though why small? If anything, it was actually a large one :) It served me perfectly well for almost a year, but while working with it I found that it wasn't always convenient to use in certain situations. I mentioned the problem to an acquaintance, and he suggested a couple of accessories that fit my rotary tool. So today I'll be showing you both of them in my review.

It all started about six months ago, when my daughter's Samsung Galaxy battery started dying again. Since the phone was outdated both in terms of hardware and software, we started looking for a replacement. Around April, I spotted the Vernee Thor among the new releases, and it really caught my eye. I asked if I could get one to review, and they sent it over. As always, I'll take a look, take it apart, run some tests, and share my impressions after a month of use.