EEVblog 1391 - Mailbag

[@BenHeckHacks]

That would have been a pretty sweet camcorder back in the day!

[@BlueScreenOfDead]

i had one to, well, partly dead, so i modded to be used as, eh, a security cam, not a succes, the cam turned off after some hours, but the quality was impressive for that time.

[@brantisonfire]

I wonder if the market, being as overpriced as it is, for SVHS home decks could be worked around by substituting a camcorder instead of a home deck for playback. I wouldn’t be surprised if SVHS camcorders are just as much sold at a premium.

[@cornflake75]

The Snapistor is both brilliant and ridiculous at the same time 🤪

[@thomasw6169]

I'm glad it made it to Australia in under five months 😀

[@shanejohns7901]

It has decent educational value, though. Modern resistors make it a bit difficult to create a mental image of resistance for someone entirely new to EE. I could easily see something like this being in use today for that purpose -- targeted directly to EE educators.

[@Arek_R.]

*WOW TIMESTAMPS FOR EACH ITEM :O* Now I can skip right to the clickbait!

[@GreenAppelPie]

What a classy man Dave is.

[@sammiller6631]

It's the snapistor of video progress bars.

[@AjinkyaMahajan]

Snapistor was a new component I just learned about. thanks

[@petersage5157]

I especially love how the speaker on that camcorder is placed right next to the ear. Somebody clearly had wrapped their head around how the machine wraps around your head.

[@andycristea]

On some models it whispers "low battery" and other such warnings from that speaker.

[@petersage5157]

@@andycristea I had assumed the speaker was primarily for audio playback; presumably one can review the tape through the viewfinder.

[@weeardguy]

@@petersage5157 These days, it's audio-monitoring during recording and when reviewing a recording and warning-alarm for whatever error. Back then it was most likely direct audio-monitoring during recording ánd playback. I don't expect warning-tones to be put out via it. You can indeed review your material via the viewfinder, which usually also showed the errors (drum-error, head-cleaning, capstan-problems, dew, and what not) Even (some, or all, I don't know) modern shoulder-mount camera's still feature a small speaker that sits close to the operators' ear. At least mine do ;)

[@petersage5157]

...and this is pretty much all I meant with the original comment. Considering how different people's heads, necks, and shoulders are, it must have taken a few design iterations to get the speaker placement right to fit most camera operators. It's a professional bit of kit, after all; surely they didn't just whack the speaker in there and say "She'll be right!"

[@weeardguy]

@@petersage5157 Yep ;) The same with the servo-units on those lenses. I can't help but wonder how long it took before they finally had a nice layout for the switches while also have a nice grip for your hand. Although they do miss out on that sometimes, Fujinon and JVC designed a completely new lens for the JVC GY HM850: it has not been met with great enthusiasm. Not only for the fact it lacks mechanical coupling of the zoom and focus-ring (it's a enconder>servo type of adjustment) but also because it just fits my hand weird compared to the standard JVC servo-units and their pro-range digi-power units, which I absolutely prefer with my (apparently) large-fingered hands.

[@1ytcommenter]

I want to see the next episode recorded on that panasonic camcorder.

[@rtechlab6254]

I did some mucking with an earlier one on my channel

[@nowt1002]

I do videos on a similar camera

[@1ytcommenter]

@@nowt1002 how cool is that!?

[@DavePoo]

I've been capturing some old VHS videos recently into digital format. VHS looks like crap (by modern standards)

[@peterg.8245]

We call KZbin 320p potato quality and you want it max quality?

[@n2n8sda]

Wow that LCR box is so nice inside it should be in a clear case

[@damowdotnet]

They describe the MHP30 as a preheater but honestly I have a bunch of aluminium blocks that are the same height as it (to sit the board on and slide it around) and it’s fantastic for reflowing/soldering basic small PCBs. I love it. Very convenient.

[@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365]

Yes you are THAT predictible. So much that many other KZbinrs have taken up your expressions and uses them while citing you ;)

[@OtherDalfite]

I see "a bit how-you-doing?" used almost everywhere. One of my favorite expressions because so much can be said by so little

[@nrdesign1991]

@@OtherDalfite ore one-hung-low

[@John_Ridley]

Heard Big Clive go very Dave yesterday, complete with a "Bobby Dazzler"

[@nrdesign1991]

@@John_Ridley I couldnt watch the entire stream sadly. But they're always fun.

[@EEVblog]

I'm sorry!

[@micsky99]

That pot is definitely an add in by someone along with the XLR. I spotted an extra switch also that was not stock.

[@max_kl]

Apparently, KainkaLabs was founded by Burkhard Kainka who also designed a few electronics kits for kids which were popular in Germany. One of these was a major reason for my interest in electronics and for me studying electrical engineering. Fascinating!

[@uwezimmermann5427]

I used "inverted snapistors" in the past - soldering several 0805s on top of each other until I got the desired value of resistance...

[@SomeMorganSomewhere]

Wouldn't that be more like a "stackistor" ;)

[@uwezimmermann5427]

@@SomeMorganSomewhere let's patent that name 😎

[@davidc9441]

also known as the poor man's multi-layerd board

[@JerryBiehler]

Putting it on ceramic means you can do automated laser trim as whole circuit. The company I work for makes a machine specifically for doing this, well, we did until we sold the trim division off last year. We also made machines that laser trimmed IC dies like what you would see in DAC and ADCs.

[@sairus6055]

Casio watch in teardown was very interesting and sorry Dave you not mention some things: 1 temperature sensor is simple crown. 2 "crystal oscillator" was antenna for radio time synchronization (DCF77). Every day watch at 2-4 am try to synchronize. 3 This watch has solar cell and not simple battery but rechargeable (life time of battery cell 10 years), watch was long time in dark box so it need to bee charged (placed on bright light).

[@maxtorque2277]

The reason they used that ceramic hybrid pcb is clearly because they hadn't heard of Snapistors!!!! :-)

[@RealZomBiE8192]

Snapistor is actually Swedish origin from the '60's. I remember those from my tradeschool. Never used ones, but funny little curiosity. CerMet trimmers in mid nineties were so cheap that those went obsolete.

[@ramsaygordon970]

I have to stop watching for a second to appreciate the accuracy of that autofocus there 2:13 😨

[@EEVblog]

It's impressive

[@mrfrog8502]

58:50 Isn't that 6 pin chip just above the USB connector that does the isolation? Looking at it metal tab isn't connected to the ground either. It goes throught some capacitor.

[@neiliewheeliebin]

That MHP30 looks awesome, good for soldering LED emitters

[@theantipope4354]

Jeez, I think I remember seeing Snapistors advertised as some new thing in some trade rag, back in the day. Maybe mid 70s?

[@digitalradiohacker]

1:00 Truly amazing. A portable television studio. No WONDER your president has to be an actor, he's got to look good on television....

[@thomashowlett8295]

Careful, you're dating yourself :-)

[@digitalradiohacker]

@@thomashowlett8295 Yes, but "thank God, I still have my hair".

[@KillerXtreme]

My uncle use to use that exact camera for filming weddings back in the day, I use to go with him sometimes to help film. he had several of them, was quite fun to do actually.

[@LasseHuhtala]

I used to lug around one of those camcorders back in the day. Those can be sold for a pretty penny sometimes, since businesses have started digitizing VHS-tapes and snapping up a lot of S-VHS machines. I just wish I had known that earlier and bought a kick ass player for cheap with TBC and all the bells and whistles.

[@Veptis]

I have opened by Casio watch as well. The spring contacts are tiny and I managed to somehow miss the connection for the light button. The gunk and smell in there after 8-9 years of wearing it (not daily) was absurd tho.

[@danielegger6460]

The MHP30 is described as a preheater but it's a totally usable hotplate for reflowing. Works much better than my (defunct) ReflowR did and the small size is actually a huge benefit since you don't need to mask off half of the board you actually don't want to fry the components on; it's brilliant!

[@nakrul987]

you can also snap away ceramic disk capacitors to trim their values

[@xenonram]

Elaborate....

[@nakrul987]

@@xenonram it's kind of a joke, but you can use a pair of old flush cutters and snip at the disk, not recommended for use on anything important or permanent or higher than logic voltage

[@station240]

Wow integrated tape mechanism, such joy compared to the very early VHS camera I used. The camera was the same size, but you got an entirely separate full size VHS player, the later was extremely heavy. A 1.8M cable connected the two units together, so moving it required two people. For added pain, we were using this setup in the rain! So everything was in garbage to keep the water off.

[@worm628]

The first camcorder my parents had was one that was a combo VCR. You took the entire VCR and put it in a bag over your shoulder, and then there was a separate camera unit. The thing was a beast.

[@frankowalker4662]

I worked in a small indie studio in the 80's, we used one of those camcorders. In the studio, it was camera 3, but it was also perfect for location work. We did corperate vids, promo work and the occasional music vid for local bands. It was great picture quality.

[@EEVblog]

"great" :-D

[@rangercv4263]

Dave, would be retro groovy baby if you do a project or a repair using the snapistor. Bonus points if you can work in the valves!

[@horrovac]

The Casio watches with temperature sensor can't measure temperature while on the wrist. The instructions state to take them off about 20 minutes (IIRC) before taking the measurement. Trying to thermally insulate the sensor is a fool's errand. No matter how much you try to keep the body heat getting at the sensor from the outside, the main body of the watch is more or less at your body temperature and will transfer to the sensor from the inside. The only kind of temperature sensor that I can imagine working halfway reliably on a watch is some kind of an IR sensor.

[@tomteiter7192]

I love the symbol they invented for the snapistor! Quite snappy!

[@modelrogers.19]

I ran with a few of those cameras back in the day. I loved it for what it was!

[@janbrittenson210]

Love the little preheater! Ordered.

[@johncoops6897]

That RLC Box at 25:18 is from Roger at KainkaLabs. Here is his video using it to demonstrate a problem with an EEVblog 121GW Multimeter kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3WYiWBtrN92aas

[@jeffm2787]

I watch most videos at 1.5 - 1.75x speed and they appear pretty Normal. If I watch one of Dave's video's at 1.5x it's like watching squirrels on crack.

[@0xbenedikt]

I don't understand people watching above 1x. You're missing out on the relaxing effects.

[@jeffm2787]

@@0xbenedikt Actually I find if I watch most video's at normal speed it's like I'm watching everything in slow motion. Dave's video's being one of the exceptions.

[@gglovato]

I thought I was the only one, I watch by default at 1.25x, and some channels at 1.5x, otherwise like you say it's like slow motion people communicate and move far too slowly

[@sammiller6631]

@@0xbenedikt The A.D.D. crowd doesn't get the relaxing effects at 1x viewing.

[@cornflake75]

Too bad the pitch does not change, this would be hilarious 😁

[@jlucasound]

That's Roger's substitution box from over at Kainka Labs! Hi Roger!

[@Rob2]

I remember the case used for the LCR box from when I was a kid, I think I used some of those for products. I'm surprised that they are still available!

[@CuriouserArchive]

Just a little correction: S-VHS doesn't have "625 pixels across". Being an analog medium, S-VHS doesn't have pixels at all. The 625 refers to the number of horizontal lines in a PAL signal, including the VBI. Even the "420 lines" and "240 lines" cited for S-VHS and VHS aren't really anything exact. These are approximate values for the horizontal resolution, and although these are often called "lines", it isn't really correct. You can think of it more like the approximate number of distinct elements that can be seen on screen within each horizontal line.

[@DaKILLaGod]

15:06 no, these contacts are unrelated to battery, that round shaped thing on the steel back is the piezo speaker that was pushed onto them.

[@andyjdhurley]

I used one very like that (can't remember the exact model) when my daughter was born (1997) to record the first baby shots at the hospital. It was borrowed from the mother in law so I didn't spend that long with it and within a few years we had a Sony Hi8 camcorder of our own which was much more convenient. Your video certainly brings back memories of lugging that around on my shoulder.

[@brentbiel5425]

I remember using the Panasonic M7 camera at high school in my film and TV subject. It was awesome.

[@ristojokinen1258]

About snapistors, I have used those in 80's, that was very stabile way to calibrate power supply or precision op once in the lifetime. Aspo was also relative big company making hybrid components for many companies, it was very common that when we run out of space on pcb, we where asked to put part of the circuits on hybrid components, it was time when we had fets, but run out of space so we made kind of ULN2xxx circuits but with many A outputs, and input circuits with high voltage inputs where also made (200..800V)

[@SeanBZA]

Gunk on the front is because there was a ND filter stuck there, to protect the optics from dirt and rain, as these were very likely to be used outdoors, and while you had a rain hood for them, the lens would stick out of the hood, while the XLR would lead to the on the point news reporter with the branded mic in hand, and with probably at least 4 covers for various news channels to do identity, plus a blank one for the take for the syndicated feeds.

[@tammymakesthings]

I used one of those Panasonic S-VHS camcorders when I was in college (I was a broadcasting major for a bit). I think that model was called the AG-456 in North America; Panasonic used the “AG” model number prefix for what they called “industrial” video gear - better than consumer-grade kit, but not quite high-end enough to be considered “broadcast” quality. The XLR audio input was definitely an aftermarket add-on. The “edit” jack on the back connected to an edit controller, which could start/stop/rewind/fast-forward the video with frame-level accuracy. The person editing the video would mark the “in” and “out” points of the video with the edit controller, and then the controller would cue the tape to assemble the edit onto another videotape recorder. The fancier edit controllers could trigger a video mixer (via IEEE-488 or proprietary bus) to do synchronized dissolves and the like. Back then, I worked in a college campus TV studio that contained something like $250,000 worth of gear; you could now achieve the same sorts of results with an iPad.

[@tomaszwota1465]

Oh I got triggered by Dave "cleaning" the viewfinder with his finger. xD

[@johndododoe1411]

That gunk on the lens edge is probably from the rubber cone that keeps out side light from the lens. It doesn't have to be rubber, but the old school rubber cones could be folded back over the lens to keep the storage / transport size down.

[@R2AUK]

Many thanks for the video. Never heard of snapistors here in Russia. Love the German valve kit!

[@randycarter2001]

Used! I actually repaired those camcorders. The cassette holder in that one is actually broken. It shouldn't be that loose. It's a pro-sumer model, halfway between professional and consumer models.

[@rpavlik1]

Ladyada over at Adafruit has been doing a ton of reflow of dev boards directly on that mini hot plate, looks like it's part of her daily workflow now. I wonder if it has temperature profiles, it looks like it's working pretty slick for lead free reflow. I'm rather tempted since I only make small stuff, just like the recent dev boards. Interesting that you saw it solely as a preheater. Ah, nice that the magic daq thing is isolated USB (it said it was isolated on the data sheet), that's a smart detail. Reminds me I need to get a USB isolator. Is U6 a really small isolator/optocoupler? Spotted the jlink on the home lab bench. The square mystery intrigues me, some kind of display? Man, I could go for having a pressure sensor on me for headache avoidance/mitigation. That's a beautiful RLC decade box, really pretty. Expensive but I assume worth every euro-penny. Ooh, and the tube dev kit doesn't have just regular headers. It's got the lovely round Swiss machine pin headers.

[@cambridgemart2075]

The 625 doesn't refer to pixels, it's 625 lines as in the PAL television system used in the UK and Aus.

[@Joliie]

In highschool we used these Panasonic Camcorder and in nightclass with Video sound project we could do and the awesome Amiga 2000 to do titles etc. and later got paid a few years to play around we these :) for the time they were really awesome.

[@philevans4021]

Remember to include the name "That crazy Aussie bloke" on your packages!

[@MarcoTedaldi]

Isn't that a pleonasm?

[@wildfire8694]

I am a pretty new to electronics and I really find your channel entertaining and educational . Big thank you for keeping it up ,you though me a lot. Big fan of yours.

[@mreriklundh]

The Miniware Hotplate: I recently saw Limor Fried reflowing a prototype RP2040 board on a Miniware MHP30 hotplate. Tried it myself. First I reflowed a ESP32-S2 module and some smt passives onto a board with the MHp30 as the only heater. I supported one end of the board with just a bit of wood, that I cut in the bandsaw to the same height as the hotplate. Then I put paste on the rest of the pads and successfully reflowed a Raspberry Pico onto it. Works like a charm for small prototypes. Good enough for Australia - as well as my part of the world.

[@rpavlik1]

Glad to hear somebody else reproduce her results, I've been fascinated by that thing. Not sure if I should build a toaster oven reflow first or just get the mini hot plate.

[@autarchex]

I built an insulated automatic toaster reflow oven. It was a bunch of work for something seemingly so simple. In retrospect I wish I had seen a video of someone just sticking a board on a $15 hotplate before I built it; this idea had not occurred to me and it appears to be much more convenient.

[@rpavlik1]

@@autarchex well that mini ware is not 15, but it's only like 70

[@weeardguy]

Nice crack in one of the leads from the PTC on that small pocket multimeter ;)

[@mfbfreak]

SVHS gave a really good picture for its time. A good professional SVHS deck was subjectively very close to DVD quality. The two are hard to compare because one is analog, and the other digital with compression, but on the TVs of those times SVHS was really good.

[@robbieaussievic]

...... Can't believe I've travelled from (no audio) 'Super-8' to 4K, must be close to a Zimmer frame.

[@tomteiter7192]

interestingly, there seems to be something like a programming connector and some labeled pins on the cheapo multimeter...

[@fredflintstone1]

625 was the number of lines TV unlike the old 405:-)

[@mfbfreak]

Yes, but in practice the vertical resolution wasn't actually 625 lines. Effectively the resultion was closer to 420 lines. Just some marketing wankery like 1000w pmpo desktop loudspeakers...

[@evilgremlin]

33:20 Nope Dave, you always want to heat whole board to replace BGA. If you don't - you'll need to roast your board for a hour or two on real big bottom heater to unwrap it. Lots of joy.

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

Yes, please more vintage camcorder teardowns.

[@paulkocyla1343]

The laser trimming: I saw similar hybrid modules from a company doing ultrasonic material testing. The whole module automatically runs into the laser machine and gets calibrated by burning the resistors. Probably it´s more accurate and convenient to have all the amplifier components on the same board.

[@ronsmith4325]

Wow, haven't seen one of those Panasonic cameras since my high school days... The school I went to had a small blue screen sound stage and broadcast/editing suite that the communications/tech classes got to use - these were the cameras that were used throughout. I will never forget the size of the camera's batteries, and the fact that they would only last about 30 minutes, lol. You should record the next episode on it, retro is all the rage these days and the video quality was actually pretty decent for the mid-90's. Hehe.

[@philkipnis740]

You're right, it was a hot camera in its day.i used it a d it's compatition, Sony and JVC camerass. They were huge in corporate and collage TV. Education was and still is a huge market for mid level cameras.

[@andrewbowen4592]

i used one of those all through my high school years ...... i'm now 40 lol .. nice find :)

[@CoolDudeClem]

Back in the day I would have drooled over a camcorder like that!

[@BruteClaw]

I forgot the exact model, but we used to use the NTSC equivalent of that camcorder in or high school video production class for the morning news reports/announcements and recording productions put on by the drama club back in the late 90s

[@FixitFrank]

We used a bunch of AG450's and one AG456(early to mid 90s). I scored one after I graduated and still have it.

[@Petertronic]

I hired a Panasonic S-VHS like that years ago to shoot a wedding. It had excellent picture quality.

[@chris746568462]

Did they make the Glueistor to fix over zealous snipping?

[@johndododoe1411]

No, but it looks like the snapistor can be easily replaced if oversnapped.

[@WizardTim]

I actually really like it when manufactures include all of the different plugs for PSUs as buying a good quality travel PSU from a local store can be expensive (especially important for general consumers) plus it can be useful when reselling the item later as there’s only 25M people in Australia that use our plug. If the plug connection was standardized and not manufacturer specific, I might have a different opinion.

[@mh.mahmoodi]

Hi David, I think the black thing in 20:15 in Casio watch isn't the crystal. Isn't it the coil for radio band time synchronization?

[@dhpbear2]

17:40 - At least the front didn't fall off! :)

[@GeorgeGeorge-xj2bc]

The so called BGA preheater probably is for soldering the new balls the bga chip when has been removed from the pcb and not for "preheating" the pcb because is very small and there are a lot of components soldered in the opposite side so the pcb must not touch the heating plate.Its job is a part of reballing procedure or a burned led removing from the led backlight strips of televisions.Preheating plates are a lot more large than this.

[@MrAlex3461]

Legend has it if your favourite segment isn't mailbag, you are not allowed to be a subscriber.

[@kyatto7708]

Yes dave, todays digital cameras does have a timestamp usually written in the file properties of the picture :)

[@TriskelionTech]

I used one of those SVHS cameras to record football games in HS - WAY after they were obsolete - somewhere around the 2008 era, ours worked pretty much flawlessly except that it had shite batteries. Filled up many SVHS tapes with it and used a capture card to digitize them after. Camera continued to work until the jocks decided that the geeky tech dude would be a perfect target for the ball...

[@Anthocyanina]

the snapistor begs the question: where's the snapacitor??

[@john_hind]

Generous of you to volunteer Australia (not to be confused with Austria) as landfill for the world's EE waste!

[@Zanzubaa]

I would absolutely set my mug on that pre-heater to keep coffee warm until I burnt my hand.

[@robbieaussievic]

..... Yeah, I was imagining a drop of vegetable oil, tiny hamburgers & sausages, buns, etc.

[@MichaelOfRohan]

Swear thats the camcorder the camerman in tony hawk had!! That would make a bad ass sponsorme, especially today!!!!

[@LA6UOA]

Are you sure it's the xtal? Could be an antenna for the VLF time adjustment.

[@veritanuda]

Whoa.. Went 5 mins in an I am already into Max Headroom flashback. Dave how did you not make the connection!!

[@alexandermonro6768]

Edison Carter. Live and direct...

[@lolaa2200]

We dont need date/time overlay anymore because those info are in the metadata of the file.

[@dr3d3d]

instructions for watch say to take it off for 30min for temperature.. meant to be a grab it in the morning and look sort of thing

[@Tyrienda]

Used to have Citizen Eco-drive, ended up being set aside as the insides of it needed replacing and official importer of it couldn't get one. Sad moment as i really loved the titanium watch.

[@francoisgervais1]

I assume portrait mode is when they run the feed through the neural network to get the blurry background 😀

[@PlasmaHH]

Whatever that ceramic board does, it was probably made like that to be trimmable. I have often seen these in telco systems where the circuit that would not need to be trimmed is about twice the size.

[@stevendouglas3878]

Hi Dave I have got that model casio mud master the part you were calling the heat censor is actually the Crown like you get on any normal watch . you un screw the crown then pull it until it clicks then u can use it to adjust the time and a few other functions as well. am not sure exactly where the temp is measured but the manual says the most accurate way to measure is to remove the watch from your wrist. could it be that the censor is close to the back of the watch ? ENJOY ALL YOUR VIDEOS KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK M8

[@EEVblog]

Ah. I just assumed it would be electronic hand adjustment like I have on my other EcoDrive. Didn't look at all like a crown!

[@lukelegg9915]

i have a few camcorders, still use them for videos today cause they are just so freakin cool!

[@BrianG61UK]

So many mistakes in the GSHOCK teardown. :( Dave didn't realise he'd removed the contacts for the big buttons and wrongly assumed the shaft itself was the contact. Didn't unscrew the bolts holding the PCB. Called the rotary encoder temperature sensor. Plus I'm not convinced what he called the crystal was actually the crystal.

[@nicholastalone2670]

On the MagicDAQ, I see on it that it is actually isolated. If you look at it you can see the ground shield going to an SMD cap. CHEERS! @EEVBlog

[@johanlaurasia]

Lol, no cameras don't muddy up photos with date/time overlays, but certainly most cameras these days generate EXIF data, which includes date, time, geolocation, camera make/model, f-stop, orientation, exposure, image resolution, etc, over 30 data points in the latest version of EXIF.

[@TheEPROM9]

Thouse old VHS camcorders are a gold mine for parts. So meany bits you can used in meany diffrent project. The CRT viewfinders make these worth saving allown.

[@avronaut]

Crocodile Dundee would say: " That's not a knife " 😁

[@supernumex]

for the magicdaq, is the isolation perhaps in the usb cable ?

[@markslab28]

That would be a huge design oversight considering you can use any type B USB cable.

[@supernumex]

@@markslab28 I agree. It was just Dave's comment that it was an extra thick cable, I thought maybe it's a special cable.

[@mikeepeck]

It's a Panasonic recorder, did they use Panasonic Caps?

[@bonnome2]

I could find a dutch article from 1975 that mentions the snapistor from Aspoparamic! So it probably is from that era

[@tgfcujhb7583]

I have a similar model , push is to close it , requires the power supply to power it up , I also have the character generator which is fun to play with.

[@Thefreakyfreek]

34:51 that wierd ass plug is a small euro plug its realy neet for small applications like lamps chargers and so on some outlets can have 3 of tose next to each other instead of one big one wich is a round plug same peg spacing so smal one fits in al big one its realy convenient

[@michaeltempsch5282]

Yep, rated for max 2.5A while the bigger round connector can do up to 16A. Also, pins are sleeved/conductive base, since fingers could get to them when used in a round socket as the plug doesn't fill/cover the round socket like the full size round plug does (which uses unsleeved pins)

[@rpavlik1]

I figured he knew that and was being sarcastic. (Plus: Everybody else's plugs look weird compared to your own.)

[@Sprchkn]

The labeling might be under the plug adapter too. I have at least one USB power supply that is like that.

[@Thefreakyfreek]

@@rpavlik1 true and true

[@WacKEDmaN]

some cool bits n pieces ...thanks Dave

[@sortofsmarter]

I purchase those old cameras from second hand shops, to take the eye viewer apart for the super small CRT that is in there to make miniature TV's in black and white.