Partners, Links, Affiliates and Recommendations
On this page you will find (some) partners and/or (promotional) sponsors of XNL Future Technologies (and our community). And you will also find links to product’s and/or brands used and endorsed by XNL Future Technologies.
Please note: A company, brand or product mentioned on this page does not per-see means that this company, brand or product is associated with XNL Future Technologies. When a company, brand or entity listed here is an official (and/or long-term) partner or sponsor, we will state this clearly at the section of the company, brand or entity.
Unless otherwise specified, you can safely assume that the links placed here are only endorsements made by XNL Future Technologies. This can be because we for example recommend the company/product, enjoy using their services or products or for any other reason.
JLCPCB – Official Sponsor
JLCPCB has been my/our main go-to for many years now when we need high quality PCB’s manufactured fast. And in July 2024 they offered to sponsor our content (which we are very grateful for or course), which means that we will be able to put out more PCB related projects due to this amazing offer from JLCPCB.
JLCPCB is not only insanely cheap when ordering your own PCB’s there (for example around €5 for 5 2-4 layer PCB’s up to 100x100mm), but they are also quite fast in delivering them with a very good quality. You can choose LOTS of the manufacturing steps and processes used for your PCB yourself while ordering (including things like board color, material, what kind of tests they need to perform for you and much more). They even offer assembly services (meaning that your boards can even be ordered assembled), and they also have 3D printing services. I personally never used their assembly and 3D printing service though, but once I have given it a try I will update on this also 😊
NOTE: The Link bellow is an affiliate link, it won’t cost you anything extra when ordering there, I won’t get paid if you click on it, I won’t get to receive/see your (personal) data or orders, but JLCPCB will be able to see that you came from one of my personal links, which will of course help my platform.
Website: https://www.jlcpcb.com/
Twitter: @JLCPCB
Keysight®
Keysight is one of our go-to company’s and brands for high quality measurement equipment, ranging from Digital Multimeter’s to oscilloscopes, logic analyzers and much more. We also know Keysight as an company with excellent service and support.
Whenever we need fast and reliable measurements, we always use our Keysight Multimeter’s for accurate results. One of the Multimeter’s we would definitely like to recommend for both beginners and professionals is the U1233A. This is an ‘relatively cheap’ multimeter for it’s class and capabilities, and it certainly lives up to the quality demands.
Website: https://www.keysight.com
Twitter: @Keysight
Youtube: Keysight Technologies, Inc.
Youtube: Keysight Labs (Educational & Informative)
Rigol®
Rigol is a Chinese manufacturere of test equipment with very high quality standards. Rigol for example produces Oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, signal generators, power supply’s and more. But besides that Rigol is also known to have several of the best entry level oscilloscopes on the market at very affordable prices. This makes Rigol a very interesting choice for beginners and business starters in the electronics world. This due to the fact that Rigol delivers lab quality equipment for very low prices (in regards to the entry level devices).
Two oscilloscopes we often use and are also widely used (and recommended) in the community are the Rigol DS1052E (50MHz) and the Rigol DS1102E (100MHz). Both are considered entry level oscilloscopes, but even for professionals these two legends can often still do the job just fine. So If you’re an beginner in electronics and want to invest in an (not to expensive) oscilloscope but also want it to last you a long time, we would definitely recommend taking a look at these two.
Website: https://www.rigolna.com
Twitter: @rigoltechusa
Hakko
Hakko is a soldering equipment manufacturer which delivers high quality, durability and most importantly (temperature) stability. Hakko is one of the well known company’s within the electronics scene, and is the preferred brand for many.
The service of Hakko is also outstanding, even when needing parts for soldering stations which are beyond warranty, it’s possible to contact them to purchase additional parts for self-repair (limitations might apply of course).
TIP: Even if you would not buy an Hakko (yet), we do recommend to always go for an temperature controlled soldering station.
If you want a good soldering station which will last for years, then we would definitely recommend you to get something like an Hakko FX-888D or an Hakko FX-951. Both have a very good thermal recovery, which means that are useful for both small SMD components, but also to work on large heat dissipating PCB’s.
Website: https://www.hakko.com/
Website: https://www.hakkoUSA.com/
Twitter: @HakkoUSA
Bellow we have also listed an Dutch reseller for Dutch customers, which sells original Hakko products. Hakko products can be a bit difficult to get your hands on in The Netherlands, but they are definitely worth it. Website: https://www.Eleshop.nl/
Microsoft® Visual Studio
Microsoft® Visual Studio is for XNL Future Technologies almost the go-to IDE and platform to develop applications and embedded with. It features a very wide range of target platforms and development languages.
We use Microsoft Visual Studio for nearly all (> 95%) of our software (and firmware) development, including many embedded and/or micro-controller based projects.
The best thing about Visual Studio is that there are even free version these days which can even be used for commercial productions*
When using Visual Micro (listed above) you can even use Microsoft® Visual Studio to program many different micro controllers and embedded platforms on a hardware level.
When you are an student, small company (5 users or less), individual or use it for educational purposes, we recommend the extremely powerful Visual Studio Community Edition.
If you might not qualify for the Community edition for some reason, we would still recommend to take an look at the Visual Studio Express Versions which are also free, and you might (still) be able to use those versions in your organization or situation.
* License coverage and allowed use might depend on your situation! Always read the license terms for third party applications!
License information given here is ‘as-is and without warranty’ and should ALWAYS be checked directly at the software developer/publisher!
WARNING:
Ensuring that you are using the correct license is your own responsibility! We have just listed the (free) Visual Studio options here to help beginners find their way to good development software.
Website: Visual Studio Community Edition
Website: Visual Studio Express Edition
Twitter: @VisualStudio
NOTE: The download links for the express version are still available a little further down the page!
Visual Micro
Visual Micro is a fully Arduino compatible plugin for Microsoft® Visual Studio and Atmel Studio. It is the perfect alternative to the Arduino IDE. XNL Future Technologies uses it as integration in Microsoft® Visual Studio. Visual Micro definitely speeds up development & prototype time significantly. By using Visual Micro for Arduino Development, you’ll have all the advantages of Microsoft® Visual Studio (for example IntelliSense, Error List Window, advanced debugging and much more).
Visual Micro is literally our ‘go-to’ when we’re developing on micro-controllers.
If you are an serious hobbyist using Arduino, MSP/Energia, ARM etc, or if you’re even a professional whom uses the Arduino Platform for rapid prototyping, then we definitely recommend investing in Visual Micro. You will not regret it.
Website: https://www.visualmicro.com/
Twitter: @VisualMicro
Arduino
Arduino is an open-source hardware and software company and it’s also a project & user-community which designs and manufactures single board Micro-controllers. Single Board Micro-controllers are better known as development or evaluation boards.
The most famous boards in their series are the Arduino UNO and the
Arduino MEGA 2560 (which is often used in complete DIY 3D Printer constructions and robotics projects). Next to this, many of our own programmer boards are also based on Arduino designs one way or the other.
With the birth of the Arduino Platform, electronics and micro-controller development has become much more available for the mainstream user. The Arduino platform has made micro-controller development much less complicated for beginners, and it’s also very suitable for rapid-prototyping.
Website: https://www.arduino.cc/
Twitter: @Arduino
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/arduino
Microchip®
Microchip (Microchip Technology Inc.) is an manufacturer of micro-controllers, mixed-signal, analog and various other integrated circuits. Some of the well known micro-controller series manufactured by Microchip are for example PIC, dsPIC and AVR (formerly owned by and known as Atmel®).
The most well known series in the AVR Family is probably the ATmega series, which is widely used on 90% (if not more) of the Arduino® based development boards.
Of course we use Microchip micro-controllers on the well known Arduino boards, but aside from that we also use them on our own Arduino Based development boards and in many of our projects and products.
In 2016 Microchip has acquired Atmel® and since then also became the manufacturer of all AVR based chips.
Website: https://www.microchip.com/
Twitter: @MicrochipTech
YouYube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MicrochipTechnology
Texas Instruments®
Texas Instruments is an (American) technology company that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits (IC’s). With over 45.000 patents held worldwide, Texas Instruments is quite a significant player in the field of electronics development.
Next to the very well known shift registers (74hc595), the 8-bit I/O expanders (PCF5874) and several other widely used components by many enthusiasts in the “Arduino Hobbyist world”, they have also developed their own ‘alternative’ platform to Arduino (which is mainly based on Atmel®* microcontrollers) but based on their own MSP platform.
We have developed (and still often develop) several low energy consumption devices using the well known Texas Instruments MSP430 Launchpad boards and platform.
One of the most popular examples of this is the MSP430G2553 Launchpad.
* Atmel® has been acquired by Microchip® in 2016.
Website: http://www.ti.com/
Website: Texas Instruments University
Twitter: @TXInstruments
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/texasinstruments
Ultimaker & Ultimaker Cura
Ultimaker is a 3D Printer manufacturer based in The Netherlands, with offices in the United States of America. Ultimaker offers a wide range high-quality 3D printers. Ultimaker mainly delivers ready-to-use printers of high quality, reliability and durability. So if you’re looking for an high quality 3D printer, and you don’t want the “DIY fuzz“, all the tweaking and ‘perfecting’ it to your needs. Then Ultimaker is definitely one of the go-to brands.
But Ultimaker doesn’t end there, they have also developed the worlds most used 3D Printing software (slicer) named Ultimaker Cura. Ultimaker Cura does NOT only support their own printers but offers support for nearly all 3D printers that are out there. And on top of that, Ultimaker Cura is also highly customizable to your own needs.
For us Cura is the go-to slicer.
Even if you don’t own an Ultimaker 3D printer (yet), we would still recommend you to try out the Ultimaker Cura Slicer software for your printer (Link bellow).
Website: https://ultimaker.com/
Ultimaker Cura Download: https://ultimaker.com/software
Twitter: @Ultimaker
Youtube: Ultimaker YouTube
Creality
Creality (Shenzhen Creality 3D Technology Co., Ltd) is an Chinese manufacturer of DIY 3D Printers. Because these printers are DIY it means that you will have to assemble them yourself (as a kit). However this also makes it possible to sell these printers for lower rates than most other brands.
Despite the fact that these printers are Chinese make and are DIY, they are extremely high quality (especially in their price range), and they print at absolute superior quality.
With some ‘handy DIY’ tweaks you are even able to get more performance out of them with just a little bit of extra costs.
And while several DIY 3D Printer Kits are made of CNC Wood plates, acrylic or even 3D printed parts, the Creality DIY 3D printers are made of professionally crafted aluminum frames and injection molded parts. This makes their printers very durable.
If you are considering to get into 3D printing, we would definitely recommend taking a look at the Creality Printers. Some of their 3D Printers are already available for prices bellow $200!
Website: https://www.creality.com
Website: https://www.creality3dofficial.com/ (Store)
Twitter: @Creality3dprint
YouTube: Creality YouTube
Adafruit Industries
Adafruit Industries is an in 2005 founded by Limor Fried open-source hardware company based in NYC. Adafruit designs, manufactures and sells a very wide assortment of electronics products. Next to that they also sell (and produce) various tools and accessories for electronics hobbyists.
Adafruit Industries and Limor Fried are both very influential in the open-source hardware community. Adafruit has for example also contributed to several new Arduino Boards (and variants) being introduced into the market, of which several even have been completely designed by Adafruit. Adafruit also offers lots of educational content where as the company’s main goal is practically the same as ours: Getting more people involved in electronics, technology, science and engineering. Next to this Adafruit has also developed and released several (read: many) library’s for the Arduino platform which are widely used within the Arduino community.
If you are an vivid ‘Arduino Tinkerer’, then there is a large chance that you have used more than one (hardware) module designed by Adafruit Industries, and the same goes for Arduino (code) library’s. If you for example have used a certain OLED LCD, or a keypad etc, then it’s quite likely that you’ve used Adafruit library’s for it.
Website: https://www.adafruit.com/
Twitter: @adafruit
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/adafruit
Sparkfun Electronics
Sparkfun Electronics often called ‘Sparkfun’ or sometimes SFE is an electronics retailer and manufacturer in the United States of America. Sparkfun develops, manufactures and sells micro-controller development and breakout boards.
Next to manufacturing and selling products, Sparkfun also has an extensive educational function within the maker community. Sparkfun also hosts several annual contests regarding electronics and engineering.
Website: https://www.sparkfun.com/
Twitter: @sparkfun
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sparkfun
Blender® / Blender Foundation
The Blender Foundation is a nonprofit organization located in The Netherlands which is responsible for the development of Blender together with the Blender community.
Blender is a extremely powerful free and open-source 3D graphics ‘toolset’. Blender enabled the user to create 3D models, animations, visual effects, (3D) art, motion graphics (movies), interactive 3D applications, (computer) game models but also 3D Print Models.
Despite being much more complicated than more simplistic tools like Tinkercad (listed bellow), Blender offers options to make much more detailed models and 3D art than most other CAD programs can ever achieve.
The best of this all is that Blender is completely free of charge.
For starters blender seems to be very difficult to learn, and the learning curve is indeed quite steep if you’re starting with 3D Modeling. However learning to master at-least the basics of Blender will definitely pay off in the long run.
We definitely recommend to download Blender and start practicing it, with the use of some YouTube tutorials if you are serious about 3D designing or 3D Print Models.
Website: https://www.blender.org/
Twitter: @blender_org
Youtube: Blender YouTube
Tinkercad®
Tinkercad is a free online 3D modeling program which requires no installation at all because it fully runs within your web-browser.
Tinkercad is an very easy to use CAD (Computer-Aided Design) program, which is specifically designed to make it easier to create 3D models (for printing for example).
Tinkercad is owned by Autodesk® which is also the developer of the industry leading CAD software: AutoCAD.
Even if you are a good 3D modeler (either with Blender or other CAD programs) we still recommend to give Tinkercad a try, because it’s just a super simplified and easy to use program to quickly develop or sketch designs with, even on-the-go.
Website: https://www.tinkercad.com/
Twitter: @tinkercad
YouTube: Autodesk Tinkercad YouTube
Bits & Parts
Bits & Parts is a Dutch store (and thus based in The Netherlands), which sells lots of electronic components, modules, Arduino’s, 3D Printer & CNC parts and much more for the Dutch market.
Bits & Parts is also an official Adafruit Reseller.
Their service is great. Bits & Parts also ships to several other country’s besides the Netherlands including Belgium, Germany and several others. However we do recommend to contact them first before you place an order if you are not located in one of the mentioned country’s!
123-3D
123-3D is an Dutch (and based in The Netherlands) web-shop which sells nearly everything regarding 3D Printing (and CNC) for Dutch (or Belgium) customers. They have a very wide assortment of filaments, 3D Printers, 3D Printer Components, CNC Machines & components and much more related to the world of 3D prototyping.
123-3D is our main partner for 99.5% of our filament supplies. If you are located in either The Netherlands or Belgium, we definitely recommend trying out their in-house brand of filament (123-3D Filaments). Their price vs quality ratio is near impeccable!
NOTE: 123-3D Only delivers to The Netherlands and/or Belgium!
Website: https://www.123-3d.nl/ (Dutch!)
Twitter: @123_3Dnl (Dutch!)
YouTube: 123-3D YouTube (Dutch!)
Home and Learn
We often get questions from either students, co-workers or even relatives if there are any ‘easy’ ways to learn programming with minimal to no costs.
Well as most know and understand; educations are often not cheap and especially not free. However, Ken Carney has developed several (online) courses for absolute beginners to programming (and several other courses) on his website Home and Learn. And guess what? They are all 100% free of charge!
Ken’s courses do not cover Arduino programming, but they do cover Visual Basic .NET, C# .NET (which is quite similar to Arduino!), Javascipt, Java for Complete Beginners, PHP and several other basic computer courses.
We have often passed his site along to people whom wanted to get into programming and 90% of them actually did learn the required basics to start programming fairly quickly from his courses. If you have a serious motivation and are devoted to it, these courses are by far the best and most easiest courses to understand for beginners.
The only people whom we know that did not managed to complete his courses, where people whom had no serious or hobby motivation or reason to learn programming. Those people mostly thought it was just an ‘easy and fun gimmick’ to be able to say ‘they can program software’. But if you do have a serious motivation or reason to learn programming, you will definitely be able to do so with his courses.
If you also found them to be useful then we would like to recommend you to support Ken Carney his efforts by buying the E-book versions of his courses which are offered on his website.
Website: https://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/
Twitter: @homeandlearn
