Hi I'm at Electronics 2012 here in Australian Technology Park in Sydney Thought: I' show you around the show, show you all the stands, talk to a few people should be fun. Let's go and I'm here at the Amona stand with my mate John South Everyone John Hey, how's it going? What's new? Uh new new here? I guess um one of the new things we're showing off is the new Ds2000 series. Yep, um this new product launched relatively recently by Rigal. Um so two channels 60 to 200 MHz um intensity Graduated display: 28 MB uh Record standard: It drops at high sweep speed Yes, but your sample rate um with lower sweep speed can be up to the 2 gig of sample and that's display in a video waveform at the moment.

Yep, yep little video camera on the back so video field and then because of the long record length, we can look down to individual things like color burst. So if we do a single shot on this Mhm, we can actually look down to the benefit of the long record length. Yep, things like individual color bursts on it. There's also the option to go up to 56 Meg on the on the product.

Is that a software option or is that a right? Okay, so it's it's software limited to begin with and then correct. All the options on it is software. There's a Um serial bus trigger H sorry serial Buster code option for it Um I Squ Cnsi. We've also got the Um it's got the high input sensitivity down to 500 microvolt, 500 mic F that's there's obviously digitizer noise Um, these can run in a high resolution mode which I Know there's been a bit of talk about on the blog.

There has been some talk on the Forum about the high res. that's the high-res mode switched on at 500 microvolts per Division and we've used them in um, some universities where they're looking at low 2 Molt signals and we've seen them very successfully with the Um Excellent with that mode and there it's only two channel the that's right to go. no four, Channel option, no four Channel options are still the B series Y which are similar to The the E there. or there's the DS 4000, 4,000 series, 4,000 They're still selling well.

The 4,000 Well, yeah, yeah, very well. And what's the Um Australian Price for the 2000 2000 is starting out around $800 entry level around 1150 for the 100 Meg and around 1,600 for the 200 Meg Um, basically we should be matching the American pricing American Excellent, Well done. no more Australian uh h tax Lu the Australian tax and we've got a little demo running here of the Ry gold DG 102 and it's generating Um via the Uh. They've got a file on the USB Uh stick and it's generating an XY patent which is producing Ryon this is on the old Uh DS 1102e of course, but uh, because it's not that great.

We suspect due to the slow update rate of the 1,000, but John you want to try it on the Uh 2,000 Yep, sure we'll do that. Let's give it a go and we're trying it on the 2,000 here. We're just setting it up. That's what the Uh zoomed in part of the waveform looks like.

Hey, there we go, we got something. Now you can see the flyback lines. you have to change the Uh variable persistence uh, the intensity grading of the display I think to get rid of those fly back lines I suspect. but that is that is definitely much faster update rate.

And can we adjust the intensity? Is this the I'm not sure it does on XY Oh, it doesn't. Intensity doesn't work on XY No, the intensity doesn't work on XY Oh, okay, we close the manual. You will, uh, change the intensity. Got it? But that is much faster updating and uh, it actually looks better on camera I think and uh, that's really quite neat.

There you go. That's XY updating mode on the Uh DS 2202 and here we go. We managed to get a much better one. That's that's pretty good for a Ryo you know DS 1102e in XY mode with the DG 1022 Argen and we've got the little Uh TTI PSA 331 RF Spectrum analyzer.

Similar sort of bandwidth to the Uh Ry Gold DSA Um 815. it's only 1.3 gig. Can you tell us about this job? Yeah, there is also a 2.7 gig model as well. There's two models in the range.

Um, so they're uh, handheld, basically running off a palm. um compact Standalone Field analyzer. Got it? So so it's actually a palm. sort of uh, portable computer.

Is it? That's correct? Yes. Yep. So it runs a palm in the background so if we exit the application. okay, it's right.

so you can actually Run apps and Y things on it. Neat. That's correct. All right.

I I thought they were dead Palm Not for these because these guys use them. Basically they they are dead as a product for iPhone like that for Consumer but for these ones, they're they're not dead. So it's basically just a simple frequency spectrum analyzer. just really for Fied signal hunting.

Really, it's not a performance an that's correct, that's correct. So basically yep. Little compact, handheld, field Spectrum analyzer. and what price do they run in? Australia Um, they start out around about um $1,500 $1,500 and $2,000 for the two models.

Roughly, this is one for the we had everything going really. And here's the Mystery Stand V21 What's inside We have no idea. Tada Tools Tons of tools. Brilliant.

And we're back at the Agilant Stand. If you saw the setup, uh, video Behind the Scenes then uh, this is what they've got fully set up and there's CK hey CK how's it going and I recognize this video and there you go. It's a tear down of is that the 2,000 or the 3,000 scope I can't remember. There you go.

They've got my video running brilliant and we've got the Bluetooth adapter Yep This is neat. I have been promised one I will eventually get one. Tell us about a CK Okay so it's it's very easy. connections just at the back.

Uh, the infrared connections. You connect and you on the switch mhm and you download the software from the Google Play Store right? And is it only for Google or is it for um only for Android or is at the moment we we supporting Android uh is. uh iOS is working in progress. Work in progress.

All right progress. Uh, who has an Apple Anyway, right? Every everyone's got Android All right. Yep. so the application just download from the Uh Play Store yep, launch it and updates what's the sample rate? Do you know? can it s can it? It can data log through this software.

Yep. Uh, we have another application the loging application. So I actually can start logging the apps. Yeah, same thing.

Conect connect and we're connected and you can start and stop loging. You can change the interval time I presume and all that sort of stuff. True fantastic. And you can do that for voltage, current, resistance, all the parameters.

Yep. Terrific. I Like it all right. This looks like a sexy bit of Kit What is it? It's the Ed 16 28.

It's a 200, MHz 2.5 gig sample. Yep uh 2 G sample per second? Yep. So we launch uh two models. one is 100 Ma and this is the top end 200 mag.

Okay, what's the retail price on that? Wow! uh for this one is $478 so it's a it's a top. It's a good. It's not a cheap Port right? It looks it looks the part. It looks rugged.

yep all actually rug and actually have the IP 54 IP 54 rating and they're isolated BNC connectors Yes, very nice and uh full 200 M analog uh bandwidth. They do have separate buttons here for the uh time base and and this is this manufactured in your Malaysian yep plant. Yep, Malaysia plant and where? where where was it designed? Ah, it's actually designed in Malaysia It was designed by the hand, the handheld measurement group, not the Colorado not the Colorado oscilloscope right? Okay, all right so the power y the power is here and a USB port. What's the battery life on that? uh 3 and 1/2 hours 3 and 1/2 hours Mhm and I'm here with Ramsey from Embedded Logic Solutions.

We're going to have a look at some a PCB umy a pick and place prototyping machine. Can you tell us about it? Okay well this machine is basically a me a manual machine. um it has if I don't know if you can zoom in and have a look at down there see you can see the needle there. yep um the a binder.

This would be a Pneumatic machine at the moment we're not running the Um compressor so if you can just imagine there when you bring this down with it setting up its own vacuum suction, it will basically pick up the component yep and then you can bring that down to the actual PCB board and the same process. You press it down and it will let go and put it on top of where you want it to be got. um the as well. you got the option here of the Um camera right and this will be basically just give you a closer up a closer view of your Um component where you're placing the component.

So when you actually you can do the Um, the placement, the rotation here ah you can rotate the component to any angle and EXA make sure you put on top. Plus if you're doing the smaller pitch components I mean this can. you can do up to 0201 with it. Um what you can do as well is you can actually what they call it a brake So you could put the the brake on and that will do is basically lock the X and Y AIS in position and you've got these two uh here micrometers sort of adjustment screws and you can use those to actually very fine pitch.

exact stuff so and then. Plus you've got as well as a turntable here where you just put your component in. Bend You've got a you can use stick feeders here or the tape reels here different for different size. So how many reels can you fit in there if you got the Uh up to 12 up to 12 reels.

So that's you. Know that's not bad for a hand pick and hand pick and place machine. That's right. I Mean, if you're doing more complex stuff right now than you probably shouldn't be prototyping exactly.

So this is designed for what sort of volume Board like? Obviously, oneoff prototypes, Oneoff prototypes. Look. You can probably comfortably do up to 50 boards with it without it getting becoming too tedious and too slow. Got it? And how much does one of these units run for a typical setup? Uh, you'll be looking around.

Um, $8,000 for a typical setup? About $8,000 for setup. Does that include the vacuum compressor? No. the you have to supply your own your own you can prob right. And how do is this uh, that's very smooth that is is can you lock the rotation into like a 45 90 steps or no? No, it's it's free rotational thing but that is That's really very nice.

That would you know if you've got the money to spend on a prototype? uh, system? Yeah, that is absolutely brilliant. Great thanks for that. Ramsey Okay, I'm here with Pat from Hammond Hammond Instrument inclosures Who everyone knows? I'm sure. Well, I'm sure.

you will know them. Your father will know them and your grandparents will know them right because they're a quality producer of quality boxes and they're Canadian they are Canadian They started in Canada approximately 80 years ago right from the beginning about that time that's when they first started making Transformers Since then they've made a whole range of enclosures to put those Transformers in. so there are a lot of different boxes around and they're still predominantly made in Canada They are predominantly made in Canada although they're also made in Taiwan because you need that lower price point on some products. I Guess exactly is the quality as quality is as good.

Hammond Stand behind every box that they make so that is important. Okay, let's have a look at some of them. We've got some cool looking t-shaped boxes. The t-shaped boxes are very new, they are just out.

They come with a battery compartment with some and theyve got nice soft sides on them and the nice soft sides. excellent. They as you can see battery compartment are there the little fittings as well and then to a smaller to smaller range of project boxes. boxes once again with the soft soft.

once again some can be available with battery compartments going down to the very smallest one. This is the softsided version also available in in the blue color, translucent blue. It was all the rage 10 years ago. I Think I Think people going on away from translucent now.

Well, things change all the time. It was when the iMac came out the the original. The Wonderful Stomp Boxes. Now these are something unique to.

Hammond They are diecast. These are diecast aluminium. Nice solid boxes. wonderful for the musos that want to put all their fittings in.

Uh yeah, those foot pedal you know Stomp boxes STP H Different sizes, different shapes including this rather interesting shape. Terrific. So all available. and then the extrusions that are Hammond is famous for.

What the the extruded aluminium C cases. Yes, exactly these still made in Canada These These are made in Canada and you've got some. You're wearing some boxes. I'm wearing boxes.

the very latest in potting boxes made from a 1596 B 103 potting box. a potting box necklace. That's a first. Thanks Pat you And we're at the Circuit Lab stand and they got uh, then new.

oh we have a crash. They've got a cool little slot car set up where you can apparently race the competition. go figure. And apparently they, uh, they did knobble one of the cars I was secretly told one of the cars was nobbled so that, uh, the competition always loses against Circuit.

Labs I found someone. It's she who must be obeyed Mrs Eev blog. There you go, smile, say hi, hello, and there he is. He's hiding.

San alert he's in. Oh, he's shy. He saw the camera he's hiding. but he has turned up to the stand.

There you go. I've been uh, shooting stuff all morning and I haven't had time to man The Stand it's uh I've been going around talking to everyone and he's turned up there he is peekaboo and here he is. He loves the makeer. It's the coolest thing at home isn't it? Hey, you know Yoda yeah you know the make A B Yeah this is Daddy's stand.

Daddy's got a stand this year and did daddy mention it's bigger than outm stand? Yes it is. It's the makeer B look it's printing Yoda Yoda's your favorite you want to play with Yoda no no you don't want Yoda anymore. Okay I turn this off but the machine will still go and place every other. It is a real but it does a lot.

Who else that is on the new machine that is A and I'm here with Chris at the scientific devices. uh stand. he doesn't want to be on camera. he's a big camera shy but Chris tell us about this.

we got a Bo Okay got a B Boom to an RF power meter Bton have been in the industry many years and U have some of the best Peak power meters there are. this is this is sort of in the middle of the range and goes up to about 40. GHz From memory it's an 18 gig power sensor and Stanford research of course very very much been a long-term partner with Stanford research and uh, they're a very very reliable box, especially at the University level. Low cost, good product.

um I Love their service manuals cuz they they do great service manuals for their gear, full schematics and everything else so you know that's yet to change. but we're starting to I think you'll find the the IP doesn't allow that these days. but okay, they they're all starting to head that direction. The old gear definitely old, dip through hole GE cuz they all these are all still dip through hole technology inside.

I Think they haven't changed anything. That's that's the way they work. They build a product and they keep it forever. Exactly what's what's this? Adlink Adlink is a new company that we've picked up recently.

Um, the the the the direction of Test of measurement. Now appears that we're going down this Pxi type type way and having car different boards for the digital Iio and data acquisition and everything. and uh, we we've started representing Adlink and a company called Pickering we haven't actually got on the stand and they do switching up to Optical and reays up you know DC to 65 gig. they one of the industry leaders in relays and switching.

Mat Abely yeah you can pay 10 bucks a relay. I've done huge switching matrices with picker in there. There you go we we We've teamed up with them this year so Kly once again been stable for the whole time. Scientific Device has been around 30, 30 or 40 years.

Um, their their products are SEC Absolutely. Second To None Especially at the Uh. If you need a measure a amps or something like Nano amps, they're They're the people to talk to. They are indeed.

the Keithly Measurement handbook is a famous Absolutely. I Still I email that out on a weekly basis. Ah I bet you do. Got what do we got here in N N? Um, this particular product is for the measurement of the hotpots in Um, the windings of a transformer.

It's been work. It's been worked out that if you manage your tempature within your within the winding, you can increase the Um lifespan of a transformer by up to 30 odd years. So so it's A. It's A.

It's a very small investment for a Um for a very big saving over that period. So it's specifically designed for that task. That's all this particular product. That's all it does.

It's a Fi, It's uses fiber optics, and the temperature sensor is actually a tiny semiconductor on the very tip of that. So it's actually measuring it at that very point. So it's a P Injunction Semiconductor sensor. No, it's a very it's It's a different technology.

which lot lot different It actually it actually uses frequency. It's a frequency change so you don't have a Decay loss. Got it? And um, it's yeah. we they It's become the Indust.

It's one of the there's two companies that basically the industry standard. um yeah, we don't make many in Australia but it's all made over in Asia These days there's a niche product if there ever was one, that's what we try and be. The Scientific Devices tries to stay nich right. and the last product we've got we've got here on the stand today is from: Innovative Integration Innovative uh make high high-end DSP cards for for audio applications, telecom's applications, sonar um very very f a very very fast data transfer and lots of data basically through the Fpga and Etc Terrific.

And that's pretty much what we got on the stands at the moment. Scientific Devices Awesome! Thanks very much. Check out this shirt. it's awesome.

Look at it. TF I Love it. Beauty can't have till he's a nerd I Found Will Will's got the nerdy t-shirt Tell it what what does it mean Okay, so a 2 pi F is angular of velocity so it's uh, like a lowercase Omega which is looks like a w and so then a root minus one is obviously an I or well, it's actually J in engineering. So right? Yeah, but I know whatever.

So and then the l s is like an L * an L So l l And so then it comes two. It comes like a lower Coast w I l and that's my name. William Yeah, Fantastic. Brilliant.

That's the nerdiest thing I've ever seen. Thanks I Don't know if that's a compliment or that's a compliment. That's a compliment. We're we're all nerds.

Here're we're at: Electronics We're all nerds, right? That's what can you do. Yeah, James is a nerd too. Hey James to your big Go I'm getting. And yes folks, he still works it out here.

Did I mention that my Boo Figger? Yes, you did. Yeah, Okay, sorry. and I'm here with Jim Challenger again from Hawker Richardson and he's going to show us link Stereo Vision Link stereo Vision So it does from 7 to 40 in its normal configuration. Yep.

Well then in this oblique view that we're looking at at the moment, it 4 to 28 and it's got live cam output. Exactly. It feed simultaneously out actually so it tilts. You can.

wow, That's a massive tilt range that is huge so you've got that. and then it's just to a click. You can go straight over and you got a straight down view. Just a bigger brother of the Mantis using a multi lenticular disc that spins and feeds the expanded pup principle.

And what's uh, this worth price-wise compared to the Mantis. Oh, we can actually see in there. there. There we go.

Comes in many configurations. It starts around $99,000 and goes up from there depending on the configuration you have on it. Yeah, it's but it's worth every cent because they're absolutely brilliant. Doesn't get much better than that.

So what did you flip in there? A different lens? This is the this is the oblique viewer. So we have a straight lens. All right here. Oh okay.

And then we have an oblique viewing lens attachment here. So if I take this off to show you. yep, this is the most advanced lens that Vision do. Oh Oh nice.

Wow. Okay, Straight Objective: Yep. Then it goes through a second lens in there and feeds through this oblique mirror to give us our oblique view. Oh Fant right.

So that's how you can get the brilliant angles. so full. 360 rotation around the yep around the axis. Wow, That's it.

That is really impressive. And of course then we can still run with the standard one times objective yep and 10-point ring light. Okay, so how where's the optical path? Go here. We go right.

So it's coming through the bottom here. Yep. so we have one L there? Yep. and we have another.

Magnifi give it 40 times, 40 times. Yep. Straight or then it's only 28 times when that lens is out of the way. but using the focal length for the mirror, can you flip that one in while that's in as well? Is that no? Okay, right? Nice.

And there's the Uh power supply for the Illuminator. That's a pretty chunky power supply just for the Uh, just for the LED. Oh, and it's actually brightness adjustable too. What angle is that? Do you know what's 28? 28? where 34 I think sorry, 34 34 around 360 axis.

That's brilliant and it's got a groovy looking handle on top. What does that do that raises it up and down. This is go boom. This gives you the option.

Rather than doing the unclamp and lifting up, you just use the crank handle. It's all very industrial. It's all very uh, you know, steampunk like. And of course the image through the screen to the optical screen is Stereo is Stereo as well.

Yeah, that's you can't get that on camera obviously. But uh, if we Ro how do we rotate that? there we go, that's looking through the well. I Guess you call it the eyepiece. Is it called the eyepiece? correct? thece it is still called the eyepiece even though it's a um, if we call it a screen, it gives the illusion that it's digital, which it's not.

Y And of course, if you were, uh, actually, if your eyeballs were right here instead of the camera, you would actually see a true stereoscopic image of that. Correct. And I'm going to try and get that um on my Mantis review, but this one is a step up from the Mantis that's the links from Vision Engineering and Hawker Richardson Thanks Jim Thanks Dave I'm here with Chris from Hawker Richardson and we've got a Twws automation. really nice looking compact picking Place machine.

Tell us about it. Chris Hi Well this is a semi-automatic Twws Quadra so it's actually a twin head pick in place. can have up to 120 feers. It's got laser alignment on each head.

also has uh full camera alignment on the fix camera down here to the right. Yep got a full compliment of nozzles down in the nozzle changer fiducial alignment all component alignment can handle uh various size of tape feeder also tray components, tube components. It will also take Uh LED leaded components as well. Where do the trace sit tray sits just behind with the board so it just fits into the back in that back rear blue section program the pickup positions.

We can have Uh feeder components on all four sides of the machine. Got it configured to how you need it really and it's um, you can have feeders on all four Sid sides here so if we wander around you can. Actually it is a Uh foursided machine. It really is quite cool.

I like it. it's nice and Compact and you can see the Uh interfaces here for the Uh feeders. so as you add new feeder, Banks you can just clip them on depending on how many you need and configure the banks as you need them. Terrific! And how much does one of these run base machine sell? 55,000 Australian depending on your options, go up from there all right and how many feet is total uh maximum 120, 120 and depending on the as your feeder size get smaller.

they'll come down from 120 but that's 120 8 mm feers and minimum component size I Can do O21 o21 so we go right down O21 and it'll go up to 40 mm squared for Bga's Qfps and Fe component placement rate. Um do about 42,000 components per hour. Nice! That's an excellent little compact machine. CH I Like it thanks Chris and I'm here with Chan from Tech Mark they got tesy Tell us about some of the stuff you got here.

This is a Uh GW insect. Yeah this is a GW insect. The unique part about this scope is got the four individual screen. They have different time base.

You can individually click on different B frequency, different time base for each Channel Yes like four scope in one In other words so you can see all four Uh you can actually put them back into normal one and then we Al time or if you turn off individual ones so you got that turn off, turn off that one and then you go back to force and oh you can adjust individual time base, individual sample memory. or do they share the sample? They share the sample memory but yeah individual time Bas So you can put this one select that one. so then you change the time Bas that move with nice and how much sample memory in this uh this is 10K I think I think it's 10K and 5 G sample per second right? So only small sample memory. It's only right.

Okay so what's the going price for one of these? This particular one is about $4,000 about 4 grand and that's 350 MHz 350 MHz 5 gig samples per second. Is that 5 gig samples on each channel? Uh or does it share? Okay, it shares. but uh that that looks like a very nice scope. Where do GW Inc actually Design This themselves? Yes, this is their own design.

it's their. it's their own design. Okay so they man, where do they manufacture those they manufact this one is in Taiwan I believe manufactur in Taiwan some mod they have is smaller ones make in China Yeah and they they do an AR gen as well GW GW this there AR gen. this one is a 25.

MHz is new. come up. Yeah Okay, do Swip Swip uh function as well. Yeah and we got a hand.

Tech portable Ill scope. Yeah this a portable scope with isolated input. Yep. 120 MHz with the DMM bu in.

how much are they going for? About under $1,000 under 1,000 bucks? Yeah Okay so they they're decent. Make Doch actually design and manufacture these themselves. No they actually bought a Li well the license and bought over the whole technology from a company called Techway Techway. Yes, yeah, this one is their own.

They own that they do that. So Techway are the original designer designer manufacturers? Yeah, so they do that. Yeah, all right in here. we have what we call um this.

This is interesting. Yeah. multifunction test system This test PCB What you do is you do power. uh Power of testing.

Got it? So if you got a 4y PCB y you can hook it in here and check the individual IC and find out what's wrong with them without powering up so you don't see smoke. And we have Tectronics 5 We have Tonics 5,000 Yeah, when are they going to come out with something new? I Don't know, that's what everyone's asking. So yeah, the Tech 5000. It's a big beast.

It's not a well, it's well. it's not as deep as what they used to be. but they it is. You know that's a huge screen.

What's the resolution? This is a 1020 by 768, 10 by 768. and what we have here running is a power loss Switching Loss measurements y yeah Switching Loss measurements. So that's a software add-on software module you can buy. Yes, it's Analyzis package.

Yeah, then you. We have a demo things in here with a F switch here. yeah there's a current probe and yeah, current probe and the differential prob yeah, got it. and couple of tectronics uh, function generator function, gen and frequency counter and frequency counters.

We got more Tech stuff olated input uh handheld Scopes Yes, okay and then this is the one that you have seen before. 4,000 mix domain scope. You've seen my video looking nicely. it's I I Thought it was a very honest review.

I did it's the Mdo function is excellent but it's a slow scope it is. It need a bit more processing power. It needs more processing power. It's based on Old architecture and then we've got some big beasts over here.

Yeah this is a big beast. This is a protocol analyzer. Okay, it's um go up to 10 gbit per second data rate. You do your SATA and different things like that.

You can also create your own database so you can have your own protocol. You can have your own protocol in there and do protocol decoding so that's like just a it's a PC basically with with a PCI card plug in. kind of Yeah, you got multiple fiber channel on inside the input. got it.

and they still do big beast logic anal. You know it's still huge for when you need 200 channel or this go to 136 Channel only 136. It's got a 15in wide screen so enough prices to put your data in 15in wide screen. It's like why why do they bother putting it the screen in the Box Why not just make the Box smaller and then use an external monitor.

People expect to have some sort, expect to have it when they pay their $50,000 You know you got to make it look worthwhile. Exactly. And we got a real time analyzer. Yeah, real time.

Spectrum Yeah, 20 gig and um, it's very fast. It's about 200 92,000 Capture a second. Yep. and if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.

Yeah, it's also very heavy too. Yeah, and this is a monster arbitary wave. Have you seen a bigger arbitary waveform generator? This is absolutely. How much does that weigh? Like 30? This one, it's only about 20.

Kil Not to bad a DVD It's got a DVD Very old school. Well, it's better than a floppy drive that's for sure. Well, this one here is one of the fastest available in the market the moment. 24 gig, 24, 24 gig sample per second.

Very nice uses. SM they're not yeah, they're SMA modifi SMA modified SMA modified SMA yeah so to give a sped so this one go up to 9.6 gig analog output bandwidth okay and very much used for data things like Radars simulators and CH and generation and so on. Yeah, and I'm here with uh Elio from Impr printed Circuits. your probably the one of the few remaining Australian suppliers manufacturers of be printed circuit boards.

Is that right? That's correct. Yeah, we're down to the very last view. Um, there's uh, one smaller one in um Victoria that's still uh manufacturing. and we do have another competitor in the ACT But as far as um, our type of um processing goes, uh, we're probably one of the yeah, the largest left in Uh in Australia for manufacturing.

and to you know, we still have just just under 50% of our business is still locally manufa local. Okay, so what happened to the Australian printed Circuit board? PCB Manu for China happened right? Is it it didn't start with China I Mean it, it was. A lot of the Asian countries started producing printed circuit PS And one of the things about printed circuit boards is 50% of the cost is labor. So even though material prices aren't much different, if you can reduce your labor cost um significantly as uh, the Asians uh uh competitors did, then um, you're going to have you know a significantly cheaper product.

As such, very difficult to compete and you find people are coming back to Australia Though is it picking up again because there's a few companies leaving China now because they're not that cheap anymore in terms of labor labor, Pric is creeping up. That's true. But the thing is that even though their labor prices are are creeping up, it's still not reaching the same sort of levels as levels as uh, you know we are in Australia so they they're still competitive. Uh, still.

Um, you know a better price than Uh, we are on top of it. Um, the Technologies in Uh in China have have developed quite quite a bit over over time. They can do very good, high quality, very high lay account. um.

printed circuit boards and so if we have customers that need uh, something, um, higher layer count than eight eight layers is your Li eight is our limit then we we need to go to one of our Asian sources because it's not worthwhile investing in the technology the machines to do the higher layer counts is that the primary reason. Well, the thing is, the call for higher lay accounts is very limited, so the investment really wouldn't Um, wouldn't pay off locally? That's right, got it. So that's really what it boils down to is what are we going to get as a return for the higher investment? y But um, you know we're um, we're pretty pleased with the fact that we can um, you know, still say we're very busy with our manufacturing, air inhouse manufacturing and we have the support of our parent company which uh, which helps a great deal as well. So um, at the end of the day, uh, we feel that you know the manufacturing side of it will be an ongoing viable part of our business moving forward.

So so any in terms of like flexible Pcbs if people want those, they've still got to go over proed to get the flexible. P That's right, You know the flexible printed circuits are still something that, um, for us, it's it's it's A, it's A, it's an investment that uh, you know, would we get a return on and would we be able to be competitive with the imported pricing and uh, at this point in time, we wouldn't be. So that's um, you know, something that we will continue to import from Uh from China Excellent. And you can do How fast can you turn around a eight layer board? For example, How long does it take to manufacture an eight layer board? For us, eight layer boards are, um, uh, six working days right? From um, you know, new design to Uh to finished product.

But we can do double-sided board in 24 hours. So if a customer needed something urgently, uh, we could certainly turn around a double-sided board in 24 hours and a 4 layer in 48 hours. And U yeah, Does it actually take those six working days to manufacture the eight layer board? Or is there it depends on the other? Does it go through a pipeline? How does it can you explain? Does it take the full six days to manufacture the layers? No, not for the manufacturer of it. But there's the engineering side that's You know, we need to get our tooling made to, uh, manufacture the different layers.

Do you manufacture your own in-house uh, tooling? So you actually print your own? Yeah, we do. We do. We've got all that in house. and uh, we've got that capability in house.

And uh, it's um, you know it's It's something that we feel there's there's no alternative other than to keep that that in in uh, in our facility. So that's that's yeah. all part of the the process. but U the engineering side.

Firstly, you when we get the design, we've got to um, look at the Uh product and uh, make sure that we go through its design rule checks before we go into Manufactur. Make sure that once those design R checks are done and there's any questions that we, um, we generate from from doing those checks have been answered by the customer, then we can get into the process of manufacturing. so we allow ourselves that time. I've got to make sure that we we've got everything ready to go before we start.

Manufacturing Cuz as you can imagine, once you've made an eight layer board and you discover that something's gone wrong wrong. Yeah, I know exactly. just scrap? Yeah, what sort of uh, tolerances can you do inhouse? um as far as uh, track and space? Yeah, track and space? Well 5 track and space is and whole sizes. can you do micro? We can go down to um three .33 m if anybody wanted than that then we'd have to to laser drilling overseas and get okay.

Fantastic! So that's the last one of the few be board PB manufacturers in Australia I'm proud of it, proud of it. Excellent Thanks thank you And I'm here with Mark from RMS Parts Yes and you've got some soldering staff. Tell us about it. Uh, this is the The Thermatronic TMT 9000s soldering system.

Uh, a little bit different to standard Soling systems where it uses induction heating. Uh, to bring the tip to its cury Point temperature? Uh, it uses a cury point system. Correct? like the old Wellers. Yes, exactly.

Except with your little magnets clicking and clicking right. There's no magnetic corre right? So where are systems? You see that they're always variable temperature fixed. Power Systems These are actually fixed temperature variable power. So they apply the amount of power required for the load.

So when we hit, when we hit, that's a nice looking chunk that's a really thin iron. Yeah, yeah, so it's a nice little hand piece. Uh, when you see when you hit the load you see that the power ramps all the way up on on the power supply. Oh, to keep the temperature inside the tip.

Oh okay, got it. because the because the tip is the heater, it actually doesn't get hot down the shaft at all. Oh, there's right it does. Wow.

Okay, you can hold the bottom of that shaft no problems. and then and then changing over tips is nice and nice and quick. That's impressive. And then the heat up time is is within seconds, it's almost instant.

Oh there we go. Ready Go! Fantastic. That's a nice bit of Kit There's a huge range of systems. Uh, huge range of tips.

We do the the nice wave soldering tips as well with the the hoofs. where are these made? Uh, these are made in China Yep, so they are a Chinese thing. Yes, they are okay. um price range? Uh, the the this system sits around the $495 mark.

There's about four or five Distributors here, uh in Australia So speak to these guys and they'll probably be able to do you a nice little little special there. Uh, sold. Aold is nice and light. I Like that.

That's really quite neat. It's a solder desolder system so it it uses a shop air with a Venturi system inside to keep that as well. Uh, keep a look out for the TNT 200000 which is coming out soon which is the hobbiest and entry level system as well. So if if if at this price range it's a little bit pricey for you, then the TNT 2000 is going to do do the job for you as well.

at what half the price or there uh look it's it's it's not yet set up but probably around 295 or or and I'm sure some specials will be coming online on the forums and that as well. so he'll be on the forums too. Sounds good, Excellent. thank you very much.

And well, it's 5:00 p.m. on the second day and it's pack up time. People are, uh, start in furiously to pack stuff up and the show's over. And it finished at 5 p.m.

But uh, it is now 6:30 p.m. and as you can see everything is just gone. All the booze are uh, totally stripped and it it took everyone like a uh, a day or two well a full day basically to uh set up. but uh, only an hour and a half to pack out all this stuff.

and there goes the pick and place machine which was a yeah and there's my stand. it's it's all empty. it's so sad. but it was awesome.

I had uh great fun and uh thanks to everyone who turned up and said hi and uh I have no idea if I'll do this again? maybe not. but uh yeah, it is completely gone. It's all gone. There's the Amona stand.

Yeah, it was all like most of it. the majority of it was gone in like an hour. but and the show's over and I'm ready to head home. The car is packed, the MakerBot is strapped in place and uh, just about to fill up the boot.

Uh, don't ask about the feather Boer or if you want to ask about it, ask Mal And you know you're a nerd when you just find weird sensors sitting in the back of the booty your car. I mean what is that? I don't know anyone. can you guess what that is? It's got three, it's got three coaxes coming out of it and there you go. Weird ass sensor I Don't know how long it's been sitting in the corner of my boot.

No idea. Catch you next time.