by Andy on August 31, 2007
Greenlee has recently released its new advanced wiring troubleshooter. The NETcat Pro NC-500 is one of the newest members of Greenlee’s growing LAN product line. The NC-500 is designed for accurately checking cables, wiring, and network service in a fast, efficient manner. This product also has many other features that users will find informative, useful, and easy-to-use.
The purpose of the NC-500 is to troubleshoot a range of network wiring. It generates four distinct precision tones for tracing low-loss cables like Category 5 and 6. It can detect shorts, opens, reversed, crossed, and split pairs. Active network devices (Hub or PC) on 10/100 Base-T networks can also be identified with the NC-500.
Aesthetically, the NETcat Pro NC-500 is a very easy tool to work with. It has a back-lit touch screen display that can be used with a fingertip or the built-in stylus. The NC-500 proves its usability with the easily navigable screen. From the screen you can control a range of tests from fault finding to time domain reflectometer length measurement. The display language can be set to English, Spanish, French, or German.
The NETcat Pro NC-500 works best with its accessory kit, the NC-510. With this additional kit’s seven expansion remote test modules, you can uniquely test shielded or unshielded twisted pair and coaxial cables eight at a time from a central location. These remote units also let you identify each jack. It also provides full wire-map and fault display, as well as each pair’s length.
Some additional features of the NC-500 are:
-Tests UTP and STP wiring and coaxial cables
-TDR shows length of each pair for distances between zero and 2000 feet
-Office identification using remote ID units
-Uses a 9V battery and also has a low battery indicator
Visit Greenlee’s NC-500 page for more information on this product or check out more NC-500 stats here.
by Andy on August 23, 2007
It’s been a year since the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) have mandated that lead be eliminated from electronic systems. Consequently, this has led engineers to a high interest in using lead-free soldering alloys. Some of the harmful alloys that are used in normal soldering are tin, copper, silver bismuth, indium, zinc, and antimony.
So why are these dangerous to humans everywhere? Prior to 1930, all homes used lead pipes to transport water to and from houses. Now, most homes use copper piping. However, this is still a problem because most of these copper pipes were assembled using solder, which is approximately 50% lead. This harmful lead, whether through piping or from the solder used to blend the pipes, is especially prominent in the water a few years after installation of the pipes.
In addition to lead solder being applied in piping, it is often used in some basic household staples like canned food. Canned fruit and vegetables, canned juices, and tomato sauce are extremely likely to contain high levels of lead from the solder used to solder the tops of the cans on. In spite of these dangers, the FDA still has not banned lead solder in food packaging, but many manufacturers are taking precautions against this.
Some of the alloys that could replace soldering products containing lead are Sn95.5Ag3.9Cu0.6 for surface mount reflow soldering and Sn99.3Cu0.7 for wave soldering. Sn96.5Ag3.0Cu0.5 is recommended for reflow soldering with SnAg and SnZnBi as alternative alloys. The SnAgCu alloy family is the most popular choice at present for lead-free alternatives.
There are many lead-free products for sale including lead-free solder paste, lead-free flux, lead-free solder wire, and other lead-free products that can be used as substitutes for lead products. If you haven’t been living under a rock lately, you have probably heard of the Mattel fiasco where over a million toys were recalled because of the lead paint that was used on them. People are so worried about children being exposed to lead that they are pushing Mattel to set up a fund to test children for lead poisoning. This recent disaster will hopefully bring much needed attention to the dangers of lead.
For more information on how you can safely solder using lead-free products click here or for some technical information on lead-free alloys visit the NIST website. For ways to guard yourself against lead in your environment check out the Environmental Health Threats website.
by Andy on August 9, 2007
It isn’t easy being green these days, but you can take a step in this direction with the new green cell foam ESD box. These tiny shippers are used for transporting and protecting printed circuit boards. This is the only fully recyclable ESD box made from biodegradable foam made from non-GMO cornstarch. The boxes are RoHS, an acronym meaning “the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment.” When certain products are RoHS, they do not contain more than the agreed levels of harmful chemicals such as lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants. These shippers are virtually the same as the pink foam shippers made by Centurian except they cut down on environmental waste because they can be recycled, composted, or simply dissolved in water. Some other great features are:
- Instead of applying glue to bond the foam to the box, water is used.
- Price is comparable to polyethylene and polyurethane 1.7lb. boxes.
- Naturally anti-static
- Acts as a desiccant
- MARPOL approved (can be disposed in waterways)
So next time you’re in the market for circuit board shippers, be a friend to the environment and go green. Check out these new green shippers on All-Spec’s website.
– If you’d like to learn more about RoHS products, visit their official website here!
