The XJW01 LCR (0.3% accuracy) YouTube video is now uploaded

XJW01 LCR Bridge Meter

Hutale 4.2 LCR-DDS-F meter: LCR ESR Bridge Meter / DDS Function Generator / Frequency Meter

Another interesting LCR Bridge (without any case or 5V power supply) which has approx the same accuracy can be found here. Contact the developer - price is around 60 Euros delivered.

I have not tested this yet but it can also measure Frequency and be used as a frequency generator too!

English User Manual for the XJW01 LCR Bridge

I have spent a lot of time testing, experimenting and then writing this User Manual. I hope it is useful to the owners of this very useful XJW01 Bridge which comes in two case styles (as a kit or ready-made).

Type 2 Mains powered

Type 1 for external power source

Many owners have had difficulties with these, mainly because if you press the wrong button you can destroy all the preset calibration values without warning! With one button press, you can also overwrite the factory preset calibration values. This manual explains how to avoid this pitfall and other gotchas!

Once you understand how to use it, it is a very useful piece of kit.

You can now download my PDF manual from here for a modest fee.

The PDF also includes an example front panel template with the correct (or at least more easily understood) button labels.

Table of Contents

Getting to know the XJW01 LCR Bridge

I was looking for an accurate LCR Bridge recently which could also measure ESR values of capacitors.

I also wanted a low-voltage LCR so that I could test components whilst they were still on the PCB without exceeding any diode/transistor junction voltages and thus get false readings.

The XJW01 LCR bridge seems to be quite good and inexpensive. It is sold on many sites including eBay, Amazon and Ali Express.

E2B v1.B6e with .isoBSD bugfix

James reported a problem when using the .isoBSD file extension with E2B (flashing cursor on boot).

This file extension can be used to boot to FreeBSD and other BSD-based ISOs which are otherwise difficult to multi-boot from.

http://www.easy2boot.com/add-payload-files/freebsd/

The .isoBSD file extension actually uses E2B's \_ISO\e2b\grub\bsd.imgptn (fat12 disk image) file together with the original BSD ISO file to create two new partitions on the E2B drive.

The Beta version 1.6Be ('Latest Beta' folder) has a modified version of the bsd.imgptn file which fixes the issue.

If you are interested in more details, visit the thread at reboot.pro.

Boot KDE Neon with persistence from an ISO

Here is the .mnu file for booting KDE Neon with persistence.

It is essentially the same as the Ubuntu persistence .mnu file except that it loads the kernel file /casper/vmlinuz instead of vminux.efi (which does not exist in KDE Neon).

How I fixed the HP "incompatible ink cartridges' error

So, as you all know, HP and various other printer manufacturers sell their bottom-end printers at a loss. They often come with a 'starter pack' of ink which lasts long enough to print a few test pages and then the printer driver refuses to print any more until you buy some more ink.

However, when you try to buy more ink, you find that a black+tricolour cartridge set costs more than the printer did in the first place!

This is the well-established 'Razor and blades' tactic - you sell the razor at a loss but make a regular income from selling the blades.

To top it all, the firmware in my old printer does all it can to ensure that you only use 'compatible' (HP) ink cartridge replacements. However, in 2017 the Supreme Court in the USA (Impression products Ink Inc. v. Lexmark) frowned upon this practise. Since that court case, some manufacturers now provide firmware updates to 'unblock' their printers and more recent printers don't usually block refilled cartridges.

E2B v1.B6c Beta now available

Download v1.B6c

Changes from  v1.B5 (changes for v1.B6c in bold):

• SWITCH_E2B.exe v1.1.25 - bugfix if C: drive compressed/encrypted will still work after warning user
• Improve SIZE_E2B and SIZE_HD1 values to nearest GiB instead of nearest 4GiB
• Licence readme files added for 3rd-party s/w - see \_ISO\docs\Licenses
• Easy2Boot download self-extracting exe no longer adds the Make_E2B.exe program into the Windows Start Menu
• Now checks for 2019-08-09 version of grub4dos 0.4.6a or later
• MyPwd.g4b added to Sample mnu Files\E2B folder to show example of how to prompt for a master password and have different wallpapers
• Latest version of grub4dos (allows animation to play during user input before E2B menu is displayed  and supports the new grub4dos 'setmenu --keyhelp-on' and 'setmenu --keyhelp-off' commands)
• KBD_DVORAK_USA.g4b keyboard translation file added (thanks to Alex R).

Which is the best digital multimeter?

I hope this blog will help you to quickly find the meter you are looking for without wasting hours on YouTube or Google as I have just been doing!

The EEVBlog BM235

E2B v1.B6b Beta available

This v1.B6b Beta version has some GPL licensing text files and licensing information added. The E2B download contains some bundled GPL utilities which require me to add these text licence files.

I have added MyPwd.g4b to the Sample mnu Files\E2B folder to show an example of how to prompt for a master password and display different wallpapers. e.g.

1. Displays an 'Enter password' 800x600 wallpaper (the example file just uses an existing E2B background')

2. User types in a password

3. If good, displays the wallpaper you want for the main menu

4. If bad pwd, display an alternate wallpaper (could say 'bad password - please re-enter')

5. If good pwd then display Main menu

You can overwrite the wallpaper with any stamp by adding a splashimage --offset command (use 0x00=opaque or 0x80 for transparent background, e.g.

splashimage --offset=0x00=680=10 /_ISO/pwdOK.bmp

You can thus choose to keep the same background and just display a different small STAMP instead of changing the whole wallpaper. If the STAMPS overwrite each other but are not the same size, you will need to reload the original wallpaper and then apply the STAMP.

!BAT
# This can be called from MyE2B.cfg or \_ISO\MAINMENU\$$$$CONFIG\$.mnu using  'call /_ISO/MyPwd.g4b'
# copy it to \_ISO folder of E2B drive and then edit it as required

E2B eBook #1 'How to make a multiboot USB drive using Easy2Boot' v2.13 now available

I have made a few small tweaks to eBook #1 '

How to make a multiboot USB drive using Easy2Boot

'Getting started with Easy2Boot' v2.13

If you have already purchased this eBook, you can download v2.13 using the link that was sent to you in the confirmation email from Payhip.

Not my video...

E2B v1.B5 now released

Changes from  v1.B4:

• Allow file extension suffixes on .wim and .vhd files - e.g. boot.wim64, Windows 7 Ultimate.vhd64pwd.
• Spaces in .vhd and .wim filenames are now allowed.
• Bugfix - fix 'force'ing of file extension from menu - allows 'QRUN.g4b force.iso xxxxx._yyyy.iso' to override the yyyy file extension override. 
• Bugfix - animation sometimes not shown on submenus.
• New E2B_Editor.exe now displays opaque STAMPs (1-10) when a .cfg file with STAMPs is loaded (transparent stamp background is not supported).
• New default wallpaper background.
• New feature - display date & time anywhere on menu (updates each second)
• Add a $$TrueHidePtn2.mnu sample menu file
• Add Display_Disk_Partitions.mnu to Sample mnu Files\E2B to display MBR partition table of disks in system.
• Add Display_DateAndTime.mnu Sample mnu file
• Add latest grub4dos with enhanced setmenu command.

https://www.fosshub.com/Easy2Boot.html

v1.B5 will update both 1.B5 and 1.B5DPMS.

Easy2Boot is featured in today's WebUser magazine

This just arrived through my letterbox today!

'BOOT ANYTHING FROM A USB STICK'

I'm reading this with a nice cup of tea in my official E2B mug!

If anyone would like to buy an Easy2Boot mug (USA, Canada and UK only) then let me know. If there is enough interest I will try to set it up. OR Why not print your own mug with your own Easy2Boot menu\wallpaper on it?

E2B v1.B5c beta now available

Changes from  v1.B4:

• Allow file extension suffixes on .wim and .vhd files - e.g. boot.wim64, Windows 7 Ultimate.vhd64pwd.
• Spaces in .vhd and .wim filenames are now allowed.
• Bugfix - fix 'force'ing of file extension from menu - allows 'QRUN.g4b force.iso xxxxx._yyyy.iso' to override the yyyy file extension override. 
• Bugfix - animation sometimes not shown on submenus.
• New E2B_Editor.exe now displays opaque STAMPs (1-10) when a .cfg file with STAMPs is loaded (transparent stamp background is not supported).
• New default wallpaper background.
• New feature - display date & time anywhere on menu (updates each second) - see screenshot below.
• Add a $$TrueHidePtn2.mnu sample menu file
• Add Display_Disk_Partitions.mnu to Sample mnu Files\E2B to display MBR partition table of disks in system.
• Add Display_DateAndTime.mnu Sample mnu file
• Add latest grub4dos with enhanced setmenu command.

Time and Date can update every second

With the dynamic date&time command, you can use 24-hour or 12-hour time format and 2-digit month ("08") or three-letter English month ("Aug").

A simplified example to add to the end of your MyE2B.cfg file is:

SysRescueCD MBR+UEFI+persistence

The latest SysRescueCD v6.0.3  now uses Arch Linux, so I have updated the instructions in the previous SysRescueCD blog article.

WARNING! Don't buy this 'BAD USB' cable from Amazon - it could start a fire!

I purchased this USB cable from Amazon yesterday for use in the car with my smartphone.

TECHGEAR: USB C Cable, 30cm USB Type C 90 Degree Right Angle Sync & Fast Charge Reversible Cable

I was intrigued by the 'reversible' design of the USB 2.0 connector as well as the right-angle connectors. I have never seen a USB Type-A male connector with a set of contacts on each side and I wondered how it worked...

So today I used it to connect my phone (a Moto G7) to the USB socket of my new VW Golf, but the Golf console failed to detect that any USB device was connected to it!

So I disconnected the phone from the cable but left the USB 2.0 cable connected to the car's USB port.

After driving back home from the supermarket, I went to unplug the USB 2.0 connector from the car in order to test it...

Updated version of E2B_Editor.exe with support for STAMPs

E2B_Editor.exe v1.0.97 now displays any STAMPs that you have specified in your .cfg file.

It is also in E2B v1.B5a Beta.

All ten stamps (STAMP1 to STAMP10) are supported but the transparency value (0x80) will be ignored - all stamps will be opaquely overlaid onto the wallpaper when displayed by E2B_Editor.

You can quickly experiment with the position of your STAMPs by editing the MyE2B.cfg file and then reloading it back into the E2B_Editor.exe to see how it looks.

If a non-existent STAMP file is specified then there will be no error message or warning - it just won't appear.

Please let me know if you find any bugs!

E2B v1.B5a Beta now available

Booting Windows NT6 .VHD and .WIM files

Previously although .wim and .vhd files did not need to be contiguous, their file extension had to be unaltered so you could not use a file extension of say .wim64 so that it would only be listed on 64-bit systems, or perhaps  Win7Ult.vhd64ncq so that it would only be listed on 64-bit systems and so E2B would not complain about the fact that it was not contiguous.

E2B v1.B4 now available

I just noticed that the file extension suffixes '64', '32', '4GB' and '3GB' no longer work on recent versions of E2B!

e.g.  Ubuntu 64.iso64 should only be listed in the menu if the CPU is a 64-bit CPU. Similarly, Ubuntu.iso3GB should only be listed in the E2B menu if the system contains less than 4GB of RAM.

E2B extension suffixes (not case sensitive)

These should work with most file extensions (v1.B5 will also allow .wim and .vhd extensions to have these suffixes)...

32 - file is only listed in menu on systems with 32-bit CPU
64 - file is only listed in menu on systems with 64-bit CPU
3GB - file is only listed in menu on systems with less than 4GB of RAM
4GB - file is only listed in menu on systems with more than 4GB of RAM
pwd - user must enter a password before the payload file can be run
NCQ -  (non-contiguous+quiet), the payload will not prompt the user with suggestions, redir will be set and will not try to make the file contiguous
quiet - redir will be set so that most messages will be suppressed
quietp - redir and redirp will be set so that all messages including warnings will be suppressed

e.g.
Ubuntu amd64.iso4GB64pwdquietp
Ubuntu i386.iso3GBncq

Read more: http://www.easy2boot.com/add-payload-files/list-of-file-extensions-recognised-by-e2b/

New feature in v1.B4

I have also added support for Debian\Kali + persistence by using the new .isopersistdebian file extension in E2B v1.B4 (details here). Although you still have to create the persistence file, you don't need to create a .mnu file for it now.

I noticed the issue '64' extension suffix bug because I tested .isopersistdebian64 as a file extension and found it was still being listed on a 32-bit system!

The new 1.B4 version is also available on the two Alternate Download Areas.

Last Minute Amazon Prime deals!

Get them whilst they are hot!

Samsung 860 2TB SSD
Samsung 240GB SSD  (less than half-price!)
Crucial 1TB M.2 PCIe 
WD 500GB M.2 SATA  (combine with SilverStone USB for super-fast E2B drive)

P.S. If you are reading this you are too late now!

E2B UEFI multiboot video now available on YouTube

A new (pretty bad!) E2B video is now up.

It shows you how adding a 2nd FAT32 partition will allow you to UEFI-boot to any .imgPTN23 UEFI payload and how you can boot to WinPE to run SWITCH_E2B.exe and switch to any other UEFI .imgPTN23 file you have on the E2B drive.

Note that Secure Boot is supported when using this scheme (as long as the UEFI payload files are signed) so you don't need to turn off Secure Boot.

You do not need to MBR-boot or run SWITCH_E2B.exe under Windows first.

I had problems finding a camera that worked - all mine seemed to have auto-focus always on (no manual/fixed focus) and so didn't work very well on LCD screens! I also had problems with reflections too. In the end I used my webcam.

I guess I should invest in a fancy capture card, but it hardly seems worth it for the occasional video where I need to capture the screen output from a real BIOS.