FAQ

FAQs (frequently asked questions) are answers to the most frequently asked questions about this website.

You can change your password and login name but not your nickname. Your nickname is fixed and can not be altered because your entries in the Forum will be shown and archived under this unique name. Your password and login name can be changed with "Edit Profile", when you are logged in you will see this in the lower left-hand corner of the screen ('My Elektor'). Clicking on it enables you to change your password and and login name.

No, in the registration process you can register as a website user and E-weekly subscriber at the same time.

No problem. Click on ‘Password forgotten?’ (you will see this in the lower left-hand corner of the screen). After supplying your e-mail address and submitting the request you will receive an e-mail containing your password. You cannot request your password from us by email, telephone, fax or other correspondence.

If you want to use our Forum or News Archive you will need to register once only. You will be able to select your own nickname and password.

Verification codes for site registration are sent by an automated system. It may take up to one hour before your code is sent.

Please note that you may not be able to receive your code if:

1. your email service is protected by a sender-authentication system

2. your inbox is full or otherwise inaccessible

3. your email/internet provider blocks our email for any reason, including spam filtering

Please make sure none of the above applies.

 

It is possible to resend the verification code. After finalising the registration on the website you are automatically are logged in, but you have limited user rights. If you are logged in, you can resend the verification code to your email address (your login). 

Yes, you can choose your own password as you like in the registration process. After registration you will receive an e-mail from us containing a verification code. After using this once, you have full access to our Forum and you will receive a weekly free electronic newsletter (E-weekly). Additionally you will receive 10 Elektor Credits for free, which gives you the possiblity to download an article from this website.

We have received more and more requests for a digital subscription to Elektor. People outside our national boundaries are especially interested in this, since delivering magazines to these countries takes a considerable length of time and in some cases is unreliable. Consequently, Elektor has launched the Elektor Digital subscription to meet the needs of our readers outside Europe, the United States and Canada. The digital subscription applies exclusively to readers outside Europe, the United States and Canada. In the stage of development of this type of subscription, it is only available in these countries because we recognise that it is difficult to provide the magazine to our subscribers in these countries in a timely manner.

A digital subscription via www.elektor-plus.com offers you numerous extra advantages:

• If you subscribe now, you automatically receive two additional issues entirely free of charge. After you log in, you can read the previous two issues as well as the current issue. This means you always have direct access to three issues of the magazine.
• No worries: you always have direct access to Elektor in a personalised PDF format, no matter when or where.
• Fast delivery: you receive your copy of Elektor weeks earlier than you used to with postal delivery. Your digital version is available on line as soon as it appears in Europe.
• Cost savings: an Elektor Digital subscription is much more economical than downloading the magazine each month. You pay only $85 instead of $93.60. This means that you receive nearly two issues of Elektor for free. Compared with an overseas subscription, your savings can be as much as $64.
• Eleven issues: you receive the ten regular issues of Elektor plus the double Summer Circuits issue (July/August), brim-full with interesting circuits and projects.
• Your personal archive: the three most recent issues are always available online. With a single mouse click, you can download individual articles or an entire issue.
• Proven high quality: all projects published in Elektor are tested in our own lab, and a team of professionals ensures the high quality of the published articles.
• Extended search function: you can easily search for specific terms in individual articles or the entire magazine – including back issues.
• Free extras: your digital subscription also gives you free access to extra articles and complete e-books at www.elektor-plus.com
• Subscriber benefits: you are a full-fledged subscriber with all of the associated benefits. For example, every month you can take advantage of discounts ranging up to 40% on various Elektor products and other special offers.
• Environmentally friendly: your digital subscription is kind to the environment. Fewer trees have to be cut down for digital delivery, which is a boon to the environment.
• Reliable: delayed, damaged and lost magazines are forever a thing of the past. With the elimination of long-distance postal delivery, your digital magazine arrives in perfect condition and always right on time.
• Must read: Elektor is a ‘must read’ for every electronics enthusiast with professional standards.

For only 23 cents a day, you have access to all articles and magazines for a full year.

You can take out an Elektor Digital subscription right now at the rate of USD 85.00 for a one-year term or USD 160.00 for a two-year term. That’s less than 25 cents a day! Your digital magazines are available 24/7 at www.elektor-plus.com. After we receive your payment, we will send you an e-mail with instructions on logging in and what to do after you log in. With these rates, an Elektor Digital subscription is much less expensive for our overseas readers than a regular subscription.

You save an impressive $64.00 compared with an airmail subscription. It’s also much less costly than downloading the magazine each month. Downloading the magazine each month for a full year costs nearly €95.00. In addition, with a digital subscription you are a full-fledged Elektor subscriber with all of the associated advantages, including many online advantages with discounts up to 40% on Elektor books and other products (click Question 2 for a full list of your advantages).

The value of Elektor doesn’t come from the paper, staples and postage stamps. We believe that the content is what interests and excites our readers, and we’re sure you’ll agree. In addition, the actual printing and shipping costs are a relatively small portion of the overall cost. More than 90% of our publishing costs are people costs, arising from our team of professionals that make Elektor what it is: a magazine that interests, excites and stimulates you each month and is full of passion for electronics. This is what forms the basis for our subscription rate: the value our inspired team of professionals creates for you. Consequently, the digital subscription rate must also be related to the local subscription rate, which is the UK subscription rate. This means that your savings can be as much as $64. For less than 25 cents a day, you can be assured of receiving the world’s leading electronics magazine – the only magazine with its own lab where everything is tested, and the only magazine with a worldwide network of electronics professionals.

   
Caption: In addition to a full editorial department, we have an extensive lab. This enables us to test every published project and offer you value for your money.

If you have any other questions about the Elektor Digital subscription, please contact us by e-mail at elektordigital@elektor.com.

The Elektor Digital subscription is intended for personal use, but we also offer licensing arrangements for use by larger groups of people. To learn more about the various options, please contact our sales department at elektordigital@elektor.com.

Elektor International Media bv will ensure that your data is stored safely by using SSL, an advanced security system for Internet, to protect data. To guarantee the safety of the ordering process, all critical data — including customer name, address, and credit card number — will be saved in encrypted form at a Secure Server. That way, all credit card and address data will be protected in Elektor’s order system.

For your convenience and safety, SSL has been implemented on the Subscription and Shop Checkout pages.

 

SSL is indicated by a padlock symbol in the lower status bar of MS Internet Explorer.

Yes, simply use the Search box in the left-hand top corner of the screen.
Note that you will get the best results when you enter correct, unique and complete information. The search engine will attempt to find a perfect match with the information you entered. At the same time it will look for items matching an alternative spelling as well as for highly similar words.

Yes. To find an Elektor product, type an asterisk (*) after the main article number. Do not use the hyphen and any of the numbers behind it, as found in the magazine articles.

For example: typing 030403* returns the products 030403-1 (PCB), 030403-11 (disk) and 030403-41 (PIC microcontroller).

Our ambition is to offer you optimum ease of surfing and on-line buying. Our website and help services are tailored to assisting you while shopping. If you have any suggestions, complaints or questions about our products or services, please go to the upper right-hand corner of the screen, click on ‘Service’, then on 'Feedback' and state your problem. We will answer you as quickly as possible.

Go to ‘SHOP’. You will find our complete product range in the left-hand column. On the left-hand side of the site you will also find shortcuts to the various categories of products.

On this website, Elektor Credits (a.k.a. 'E-Credits' or 'Credits') are used to download magazine articles as PDF files. The Elektor Credit is a virtual currency on this website.

It is no longer possible to order a PDF file using external payment providers (e.g. BT or Click&Buy). Response from  users of our previous release website indicated that the BT/Click&Buy payment procedures were cumbersome. That is why you can purchase Elektor Credits directly from us. The downloading of magazine articles is now also much cheaper. However, the biggest advantage to you  is a much faster payment process.

 

Elektor Credits can only be paid for using a credit card (Mastercard or Visa) or PayPal. Non-subscribers to the printed magazine can only buy Elektor Credits in batches of 10. Registered website users who are also subscribers to Elektor magazine may also buy batches of 60 and 120 E-Credits at discount rates.

 

How does it work?

You buy Elektor Credits in the SHOP section on this website. You will get 10 free Elektor Credits after a verified and confirmed registration to the website. Magazine subscribers even get 30 Elektor Credits.

 

After buying Elektor Credits or confirmation of registration you will immediately see the amount of Credits in de lower left-hand corner ('My Elektor').  If you have enough Elektor Credits you can download the magazine article(s) of your choice. The process is simple: on the webpage for the magazine article, click on the pdf file you would like and then on 'Download' .

 

How much does one article download cost?

Most magazine articles cost 10 Elektor Credits.

Through the printed magazine, subscribers and buyers of newsstand copies can browse and read published articles, circuit diagrams and PCB layouts.
Non-subscribers as well as subscribers / buyers wishing to have digital (PDF) copies of published articles and diagrams have to pay a small charge per file download.

Elektor invests in high-quality information and service, through the magazine and allied products as well as its website. To recover some of the substantial and permanent investments relevant to these services, a small compensation is necessary. With just a few exceptions, the software items belonging with published articles and projects remain free to download from our website.

 

When registering to this website you will get a complimentary batch of 10 Elektor Credits (once only per email address). Elektor Credits enable you to download a PDF version of a magazine article. After supplying the subscription number and surname, Elektor Electronics magazine subscribers receive 30 Elektor Credits for free.

 

Many software items, manuals, supplementary documents, updates, etc., related to published projects can be downloded at no charge. This is indicated at the right-hand side next to the article overview.

1. PCB artwork files (.pdf)
These downloads normally cost 10 E-credits as they represent additional value over the version printed in the magazine:

a. the coppertrack images are at true scale.

b. the file can be printed locally on a high-resolution printer.

c. reflected (true reading) and reflected (mirrored) versions of the copper track layouts are included in the file.

d. the image has no surrounding texts or graphics.
If PCB copper track layouts cannot be included in the relevant magazine article (usually for reasons of space), they are always available free of charge as a pdf file.

2. Software downloads (.zip)
No changes apply to most software downloads with published articles and projects. Note that some authors by contract do not allow us to distribute their software freely.

Elektor Credits as well as all paid, digital Elektor products cannot be revoked by the customer. Unclaimed Elektor Credits cannot be paid back in any way.

The virtual shopping cart is in principle the same as the real thing in a supermarket. You can drop several articles in the cart whithout any obligation to actually buy them. You can always view the current contents of your shopping cart, no matter where you are on the site. To view the contents of your shopping cart, just click on the shopping cart symbol on the left-hand side ('My Elektor'). If you are browsing through the shop and you want to drop an article in your shopping cart, simply click on the ‘shopping cart’ symbol. You will always be able to delete any article from the shopping cart by clicking on ‘shopping cart’, then click on ‘delete’ next to the relevant item. Now click on ‘order’.

It is possible to place your order from anywhere in the world. Subject to postal services, legislation and import restrictions, articles can in principle be delivered to any location in the world.

 

Orders to overseas destinations will only be supplied if they are payed for in advance by Credit Card or PayPal. This does not apply if you are an Elektor Electronics approved account holder.

- By credit card: By way of our SSL-protected web pages and server connections, you can safely enter your credit card data.

- By PayPal: After settlement through PayPal you will receive a confirmation on this website.

- By cheque:

• USA & Canada: please make it payable to Elektor LLC in US$ on a US bank only. Our address: Elektor USA, 4 Park Street, Vernon, CT06066.
• United Kingdom: Cheques should be made payable to "Elektor International Media" bv (the publishers of Elektor magazine). We can only accept cheques drawn un UK banks , from UK resident customers only.

All stated prices are inclusive of UK VAT (value added tax).

You have 7 days from receipt of your order to inform us you want to cancel the purchase. Article and software downloads are excluded from cancellation.

 

In case you want to cancel your agreement with our Terms of Business you need to report this in writing (by e-mail, letter or fax) to Elektor Customer Services immediately. The returning of goods to Elektor is at the customer’s cost and risk.

If you receive a product that is broken or faulty, you may return it to Elektor International Media.

 

Please enclose a note with a short explanation and the reason for returning the goods. Elektor Customer Services will reply as soon as possible and send you a replacement product.

You can. These are the alternatives:

- Using the Order Form found in any issue of Elektor magazine.
- By phone, simply call Elektor Customer Services on (+44) (0) 208 261 4509.
- By fax to (+44) (0) 208 261 4447.
- By e-mail: Go to ‘Service' and click on ‘Feedback'. You can use this form to order but not directly as you will merely enter into email correspondence with our sales staff. Please do not send personal data in this way, until requested to so so by ElektCustomer Services.

It is normal that customers are asked for an additional password or code while checking out from our online shop. This is an extra security measure implemented by credit card companies to protect their clients from fraudulent use of credit cards.

Should you need any assistance with this additional security measure we kindly ask you to contact your local bank or credit card company.

On the Elektor website you can download published articles (currently dating back to 2000) against 'payment'  in Elektor Credits. Go to ‘Magazine’ or ‘Construction Projects’ and pick the magazine article you want to download. With every article you’ll find this identifier:

download PDF (xxxxx-x) (article number).

Click on it and download the article for the number of Elektor Credits stated (usually 10 Elekor Credits). Elektor Credits can be purchased in the online shop in batches of 10, 60* or 120* units.

 

* for magazine subscribers only.

 

Unfortunately that is not yet possible. In the mean time, please send your name, subscription number, old and new address to:

 

Elektor Subscriptions Dept. Regus Brentford 1000 Great West Road Brentford TW8 9HH United Kingdom   Tel.: 00 44 (0) 208 261 4509 Fax: 00 44 (0) 208 261 4447

Subscribers USA/Canada: Elektor USA LLC 4 Park Street Vernon CT 06066 USA   Tel.: 860.875.2199 Fax: 860.871.0411

Please review the subscription conditions published in every issue of the printed magazine. Subscriptions are not automatically extended, but you may still cancel your subscription in writing. For this, send a note to our subscription department: 

 

Elektor Subscriptions Dept. Regus Brentford 1000 Great West Road Brentford TW8 9HH United Kingdom

Subscribers USA/Canada: Elektor USA LLC 4 Park Street Vernon, CT 06066 USA