EEVblog 1420 - Mailbag

[@bobcarter6143]

The Power Supply review reminded me of walking down a manufacturing line in the early 80's and watching a test technician diving away from a freshly built box as a pair of pint pot capacitors in a similar switch mode power supply exploded a second later - very loudly ! Fortunately he was OK, just a little ringing in the ears, so I asked him how he knew it was going to go and he told me the transformer whistle just sounded wrong when he powered it up for the first time.....

[@altimmons]

I had some caps explode this week. Still unsure why, they were 50V caps across a 24V rail, small jobs but that scared the crap out of me and made me nervous I’d made some obscene miscalculation - still unsure what- I threw the whole part out- it was intended to smooth the output of a 24v psu. But I can’t imagine a cap that size going off. One blew and 5 seconds later the second blew. I don’t know maybe the ripple freq was too high and caused it to boil internally, I don’t know- not a pro with this stuff

[@martinvollderpro]

Exploding caps can also cause PTSD for sure😂

[@michaelf.2449]

@Robert C lol if it died a quiet death let it rest until you can look inside it. Bet you laughed your ass off after you quit panicking

[@OrbiterElectronics]

The vibrator is to help break down oxidisation on the joints for better probe contact 😃

[@wahyutriwibowo1803]

Yep for old crusty port that need it. The reading might be more satisfactory.

[@StevenOBrien]

That's what my wife told me too

[@robertjung8929]

also helps piercing through soldermask 😀

[@stevec5000]

Wonder where I can get one of those probe vibrators? Needed one just the other day!

[@redsquirrelftw]

I really thought it was for something not electronics related. lol. I guess it could be used for that too if you can get it to fit, I won't judge.

[@ric8868]

The pink thing is to prevent cold joints. If you attach it to the soldering iron, vibrating the tip increases the heat transfer, and spreads the flux promoting a better wetting of your components. Very important when you are doing trough-hole stuff.

[@calvinlove7904]

pretty sure its just a sex toy

[@timun4493]

i have always been fascinated by the concept of ultrasonic soldering since reading about it a couple of years back but never had an opportunity to try. This looks cheap enough to try even if it won't work. Do you have any idea what i should search for to find something like it ?

[@pickyyeeter]

@@calvinlove7904 I think that's the joke

[@Irilia_neko]

@@timun4493 Vibrator ring

[@mysticalrockhoundingfossil5464]

Good soldering is an art you dont need vibrations for it better is to have the Vibe for it

[@MickDownUnder]

@Marco Reps would find that lab to his liking.

[@reps]

paradise

[@SupremeRuleroftheWorld]

@@reps how long would it take for you to figure out the door was locked once you were let in?

[@HwAoRrDk]

What, like some kind of honey trap for voltnuts? 😄

[@tolkienfan1972]

That's what I was thinking

[@borisdg]

The screen brand/model was on the flex cable. It's from HanStar.

[@GeorgeStyles]

Does it look like the standard differential connector we find on raspberry pi?

[@excitedbox5705]

I suspected that as well. It is the same with DVD drive lasers. The model is always on the flex.

[@nikmilosevic1696]

Between TiN and Shahriar , two of the most drool worthy labs I have seen. 5V 135A, for charging all the phones.... 😁

[@TheDefpom]

Lol, even a special treat for Mrs EEVBlog.

[@zombicreature]

I was looking for such a vibrator for my probes all my life, makes your hand more relaxed after a day of work :D

[@krissolshaq4934]

Actually vibrations in tools are big Health and Safety issue. They can lead to damage of nervous system in affected limb, poor blood circulation and in extreme cases you may lose your hand! Therefore, make sure you dont use your lab vibrator more than 10 minutes on e a week!

[@oambrosia]

helps keep your hands from going numb...

[@martinkuliza]

57:59 - it goes around something - and it vibrates well..... of course, what else would it be other than a device that goes around your probe and gives you dithering averaging..............OBVIOUSLY :p

[@ZomB1986]

He should debunk this in his next video.

[@timb7085]

Lovw the VAX 11/750 5V PS... I ran one of those systems back in the day - a beast of a machine - built like a tank. Counter height chassis - about 3ft wide. Maxed at 8MB of RAM on 8 slots... "CPU" was about a half-dozen cards on the unibus backplane. Those were the days... :)

[@alfarobase]

Hello Dave, I was screaming in front of my computer: "be gentle with the screen, NOOOOO you started to shear the screen ribbon!! it's unusable now". my little advice: you should enjoy the connectors and do them the honor of disconnecting them, even during 2min teardown and especially with item in working condition to... keep them working. ;-)

[@loydsa]

Dave playing with a Plio priceless, good on you mate!

[@derofromdown-under2832]

Can you please do a repair on Pleo the dinosaur Dave. Might just be something simple wrong with him... 10/10

[@laustinspeiss]

I worked for DEC (in LSI systems) for a while, and as a second topic, I used to ‘play’ on a VAX 11/750 writing FORTRAN-77. A lot of great memories from that era.

[@oetken007]

03:00 I think it needs two voltages. Maybe 6V and 3V, because of the three terminals.

[@richie152]

Dear Dave, when you forget your po box it's time to go back to ZX81. No wackers Great content as usual thank you. Best wishes from Richard England GB.

[@PlaywithJunk]

I used to repair such DEC power supplies in the 1990s. They used the NE555's for PWM to regulate the switched power supply output. The power supply dates from the days before dedicated SMPS chips were imvented :-) The big capacitors were really dangerous and they could melt your screwdriver when fully charged. I used a large 50 Ohm resistor to discharge them. Most of the time, I had to replace capacitors and sometimes the BIAS voltage was not working. BIAS was used as some sort of standby power and to power the low voltage parts. Without that, nothing works.

[@AtaruMor0boshi]

SGS (Società Generale Semiconduttori) was established in 1957 by Olivetti and Telettra. Olivetti Elea 9000-series electronic calculators (1957) were arguably the first solid state machines to hit the market, and were completely based on in-house developed and produced semiconductors from SGS. Even Telettra telecommunication equipment (such as microwave links) were built with such components. Later, SGS merged with Thomson from France, becoming SGS-Thomson and nowadays STMicro. It still has many research centers and fabs in Italy, one not far from where I live.

[@Mike_Downey]

I was going to post something like this. I have an old SGS branded z80 cpu which I used in a ZX81 kit I built last year and looked into the history since I hadn't seen anything labelled SGS before.

[@AtaruMor0boshi]

​@@Mike_Downey One of Olivetti employees, physicist Federico Faggin, went to the USA on a collaboration program with Fairchild Semiconductors, where he led the group working on silicon MOS gates. He then jumped aboard Intel, a memory-oriented startup, leading the (very small) team that conceived i4004, the first commercial monolithic CPU. Its layout is entirely his work and was done almost on a per-transistor approach. He then founded Zylog, whose first product was Z80. He apparently maintained good ties with Olivetti and SGS...

[@richfiles]

xdev's lab is a flex of the most glorious kind! The Bobby has been dazzled!

[@LZ1SSA]

Дейв, Благодаря ти.

[@lvxleather]

Xdevs lab is freakin' awesome!

[@OneBiOzZ]

i could see that pocket meter as being useful for someone who wants a large screen on a meter that could actually easily slip in and out of a pocket for automotive or something

[@MrPhil604]

Cinterion was one of the incarnations of a 2G/3G/4G module manufacturer. Siemens->Cinterion->Gemalto->Thales who is still going today!

[@nikolaosstavrou5327]

Hey dave your face lit like a christmas tree when you saw the work bench!!! mine lit too1!!. and to add repairing is difficult but calibration i can be nightmare!!!.

[@randomelectronicsanddispla1765]

The way that flat flex on the lcd was being handled made me wince a little bit.

[@williamsquires3070]

Charge both of those big Mallory caps up to 200 VDC, then shunt a bus bar across ‘em; that’ll get your attention, mate!

[@Inf0H3ld]

You're doing this absolutely right!

[@ecurepair]

My kids always break toys like that dino and then just leave them on my desk in shop for me to repair... I'm going have to start charging them soon.

[@neil2742]

If all that is wrong is a flat battery, then charging sounds like a good thing.

[@Joe_HamRadioGuy]

Love the mail bag videos 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[@petersage5157]

Those blue Mallory electrolytics were pretty skookum back in the day, fairly equivalent to Matsushita or Nichicon. They tended to age better than Sprague, which most guitar amp techs know as the go-to label for restuffing snake oil.

[@karsnoordhuis4351]

Yea those screens are common as mud here in hardware stores and the like. They play short commercials for products you will rarely use of disappointing quality and are usually positioned right above said rubbish.

[@Keex11]

Having tried to use one of exactly those silicon removers I can attest that they are highly disappointing. Threw it in the bin after about 10 seconds xD

[@NiHaoMike64]

"As seen on TV" = Buyer beware!

[@mjrippe]

Yup, a local store had one on the display stand for "Green Gobbler" an eco-friendly drain cleaner. Blaring away all day long, it would have driven me nuts to work there.

[@TheManLab7]

I'm pretty sure Guy Martin wouldn't say "Grimsby is a place to visit on your holiday"

[@JusttheEdge]

TiN from xDevs helped develop the EVGA Classified GTX580-680-780-980-1080 and Kingpin edition VRMs, and EPower V external vrm powerboard.

[@artursmihelsons415]

Now there is two dead dinosaurs at laboratory.. 😂👍 We had, not only capacitors in corporation Christmas tree, but transistors, resistors and old CFL's too.. 😂

[@uwezimmermann5427]

we use one of the HP/Agilent/Keysight frames labelled #14 in our lab - it's not really weird, it is a frame which takes different modules, primarily SMUs which was quite an advantage in space when compared to individual SMUs.

[@AJHyland63]

T and R are for the old telecom 612 plug and stand for the old standard tip and ring used for the old manual exchanges. This points to the security panel being converted from a landline monitored unit to a 3G wireless monitored unit, probably done because landline systems are not compatible with Fibre optic VOIP phone lines. Tx Rd + gnd are usually RS485 protocol LAN for expansion units, keypads and touch pads.

[@gigaherz_]

I would enjoy one of those color screen multimeters IF it had 2 things: 1. a rotary encoder to switch between modes 2. fast beeper in continuity mode.

[@jort93z]

Why though? Only special thing I see about it, is that it is quite thin. Not even extremely portable, since it doesn't have a holder for the leads. I am quite happy with my an8008, not much larger.

[@gigaherz_]

@@jort93z Eh, I'm computer nerd, software engineer by profession, only meddle with electronics every now and then, but I like flashy screens.

[@jort93z]

@@gigaherz_ I am a computer science student, but that thing seems gimmicky to me, lol.

[@MaliciousAlfa]

Greetings from The Netherlands

[@dawnminilla9299]

sgs is st or used to be Sgs Thompson and Italian semiconductor manufacture

[@bobbybiggs4348]

I'd LOVE to see that giant PSU running! Then maybe glow some nails?

[@bevis71]

56:48 best prank ever with even better respond to it :)))))

[@flymypg]

You're killing me. Crazy Aussie Bloke.

[@boredfishdx]

With the GVDA multimeter, the screen isn't an LCD. It's a black mask that shines an LED through each hole. It's a rebranded kaiweets meter.

[@jacara1981]

Given that the wifi on the alarm sat right above the primary processors, wouldn't the metal can be there to shield them form interference caused by wifi board?

[@MrJohnBos]

I gotta get me a pair of those probe vibrators - brilliant!

[@kevincozens6837]

Regarding Kevin Lutzer's board and URL, the .ca ending isn't California. It is the country code for Canada.

[@tek4]

Ya had me in the first pic, and that last segment. Ya got me

[@jankcitycustoms]

that jump to the silicone scraper ad had me thinking Dave started doing fancy transitions. also those unmarked fuses. did they actually have sand inside?

[@GeorgeStyles]

Haha I went back and double checked my KZbin premium sub was still active

[@EEVblog]

Should have checked!

[@excitedbox5705]

A lot of flex pcb connectors on those LCDs have a model number on them that will help you find out who made it.

[@00Skyfox]

Yay for Commodore!

[@bobbybiggs4348]

Is the shielded can on the alarm system for tamper protection? I install fire and intruder alarms and have seen stuff like that on reasonably high end ones.

[@electronicbob6237]

awesome silicone remover.... :-)

[@jameswest848]

I thought that board in the thumbnail looked familiar. The Emizon unit isn't normally used as an alarm on it's own, but to connect alarm systems to a monitoring centre. It connects by 2 paths from a choice of 3 - Ethernet, GPRS or telephone line (the section under the white cover). With the correct serial connection, it also allows remote servicing by the alarm company when a customer runs into issues.

[@MatthewSuffidy]

I tried to post the link to the power supply manual but I think the filter deleted it. I posted the info on the power supply in the eevblog under eevblog specific mailbag 1420.

[@vincei4252]

That's and ignominious end to that Vax 11/730 :( We had a Vax 11/780,11/785, 11/750 and an 8600 at the very tail end of the 80's. I wrote a full 68K symbolic macro assembler in Turbo-C on my MSDOS PC and was so chuffed when I got the code to compile on the UNI vax so that it was easier to produce project material and print my final year report. They ran VMS sadly as they didn't want to try UNIX. Those were the days.

[@shodanxx]

I gotta get one of those probe dithering averager !

[@Ghozer]

Less looking at the labs, and more mailbag!!!

[@kira07]

I was watching this for good 3 minutes then I realized the background is a TV ... .:D

[@allthingstechandgadgets657]

Hi Dave. I have been watching your videos for quite a long time and I have been really enjoying them. As myself being a tech person and curious about how things work I have really learnt a lot from your videos. In regards to the Pleo dinosaur, what I have found out there is a real time clock battery under one of Pleo's feet (not sure which). Maybe check that and see if that battery needs to be replaced or removed and put back in. From memory it is a button cell battery, not sure which battery it is though? From what I understand Pleo has a inbuilt real time clock that enables Pleo to know the time of day and how to function in relation to what time of the day it is. If the real time battery clcok is flat which is what I might be expecting Pleo will most like not turn on as it relies on the real time clock battery for its operation. Hope that helps.

[@foxale08]

Going to need to see Pleo repaired

[@nicklinn]

10:57: That would be a TLA7SA16 a logic TLA7000 series analyzer plugin for the PCIe bus. Edit: Correction. TLA7BB4, TLA7AA4 or similar.

[@xDevscom_EE]

Was TLA7BB4 on bench opened up, and TLA7SA16 and TLA7AC4 on shelf :)

[@scottycashman]

Completely lost it at the vibrating ring. Handled like a champion.

[@stevenruhl8456]

Video is everywhere now, even refrigerator cases at shops with adverts on the doors.

[@AissaAzzaz]

13:50 the only that maybe could beat him, you've guessed it: Shahrihar and pooch

[@user-yr1uq1qe6y]

Oh my, the police know you have that giant knife?

[@Hardwayistheonlyway]

Hahaha 'Grimsby sounds like a lovely place' :D Yeah you would think right. The reality is it's in the under funded north. People are great, the place unfortunately leaves a bit to be desired.

[@johan56]

I want one of those Non Voltage Contact detectors!

[@marckaiser8278]

Ohh I had the Pleo for writing a review many years ago. It was funny, but nearly not what was promised. Cool toy...

[@radazeonv8821]

Nice unboxing session! That LCD multimeter was a chuckle. Speaking of which, are you going to review the Aneng AN870 by chance? Maybe an updated cheap/hobbyist multimeter shootout or ranking video from "spanking to wanking"?

[@WacKEDmaN]

looks like Pleo has a broken neck! did anyone else notice the background TV glitching .. like at 15:59 - 16:00 the bottom of the screen seems to flash..

[@electronicsNmore]

Lots of cool items. I hope you're doing well, what I see going on in AU, how the govt is acting, and what the police are doing to citizens, is absolutely disgraceful. There was a time I thought about moving to AU or NZ, not anymore. People better wake up downunder, a once beautiful place to live is turning into North Korea.

[@martykopka]

we here in oz are happy we have been kept safe by our gov and have a 60times lower death rate than the US. Glad your type aint comin here thanks. Have a nice day.

[@remco01]

..."Australia, not Austria".. I wonder if someone in Austria indeed receives boxes of weird stuff from time to time, hehe.

[@CookingWithCows]

In the famous village of Sydney/Austria

[@FabioNicolasSchmidt]

Cinterion is the company that bought Siemens GSM modules division.

[@laustinspeiss]

52:25 groan… CAnada, not CAlifornia !

[@P2PC]

Finally a dinosaur made from other decomposed dinosaurs

[@blockbertus]

14:00 I bet Carlsons Lab can exceed that.

[@raindogred]

by about 10 times, he has 2-3 sheds full of calibration gear..all tube of course :)

[@digitalradiohacker]

22:33 "Grimsby" I live about 20 minutes away from Grimsby. It is a complete shit-hole. I used to work vehicle recovery, and when on weekend callout, I would get at least 3 calls to the Grimsby / Cleethorpes / Immingham area to recover burnt-out stolen cars. It wasn't always so. Grimsby port used to be home to the largest fishing fleet in the world. People from all points of the intelligence spectrum could get a job in Grimsby, from marine design to manufacture, fish processing and maintainance of the facilities, sales, transport, administration. The fishing went away, and so did the surrounding jobs. Now, it is a forgotten industrial wasteland with empty buildings that are older than the USA either sat empty, or crawling with drug addicts and the homeless. Grimsby - Think Detroit, but with less money.

[@jjoeygold]

If you care to look at the alarm input you should find they are OP AMP window comparators

[@neil2742]

Further testing of that multimeter should involve a low impedance supply, a CDN and an 6 kV surge generator

[@Tore_Lund]

The Pleo has an USB serial port that accepts ATX commands. I made it work with an USB modem driver. Could issue commands to move motors and grab a frame from the low resolution camera. No high level stuff though, so I could not change behaviour. Guess the port was for testing motors and sensors when turned in for service?

[@shubhayudas6273]

If I'm not wrong, SGS merged with some other company and now is a part of ST Microelectronics?

[@florianf4257]

SGS merged with the French Thomson Semiconducteurs in 1987. They first were called SGS-Thomson, later (1998) shortened to ST.

[@dhpbear2]

2:51 - 3 terminals-maybe it runs off a split supply?

[@adriansmith31]

How come you don't have that KZbin counter with the Nixie tubes switched on in the background?

[@MoisesCaster]

The vibrator is a small version of the ultrasonic cleaning.

[@reprapmlp]

I got an "I void warranties" t-shirt from ThinkGeek many years ago, back before they were subsumed into the GameStop global corporate octopus.

[@stevec00ps]

Argh the LCD ribbon was torn @30:22! Looks like the end two traces are gone.

[@deepblueskyshine]

Foil conductor transformers and chokes - if that isn't high current power supply, what is ;) B.t.w. I'm watching electronics channels not only in english, but also in russian - russians DIY boys are big fans of this new GVDA (and obviously on a market with potentially more customers GVDA gets even cheaper publicity).

[@MattHollands]

Do a Pleo repair!

[@excitedbox5705]

Those new meters have so much potential but they always half ass them.

[@simontay4851]

Thats china for you. Never any attention to detail. They couldn't even be bothered to design holes in the plastic moulding for the fuses.

[@bradweir5579]

It's great to avoid premature discharges... I'm told.

[@Co265]

Have you ever done a tear down / test video about those programmable AC sources? What makes Chroma better than for example GWInstek ?

[@JAKOB1977]

Grimsby sounds very danish 22:27 like so many of the old english cities not least close to the coast.. you can useally decipher it, if it got "by" at the end, fx Derby etc.. as "by" means city in danish and most of England was previously part of the kingdom of Denmark, though England became a sovereign nation in 1066 but many of the cities are from back when they were part of Denmark.. same with York and Yoekshire etc.. its a verb from the old danish norse Yorvik, meaning pigalley or something like that.. the viking museum in York have a big display about it, also on their homepage... around 40 to 45% of the english genpool comes from old danish norse... quite a surprise for most scientists that is was so high when England published their study in late 2022 in "Nature" article: The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the English gene pool, way earlier then what was previous thought and many hundreds before the danish viking period.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

That's a kit you buy that ali sells 50 and 40 pin controllers Dave. They're dirt cheap. It comes with vga and hdmi

[@unmanaged]

can you start put 600 volts into these things? might need a fume hood :P

[@PlasmaHH]

The current shunt probably is the fuse

[@zaprodk]

The loose wires are for the backlight.

[@NielsHeusinkveld]

Didn't Dave once have a defibrilator for teardown? First thing that came to my mind when Pleo was unresponsive..

[@leppie]

@7:00 Wont that carpet get a massive static charge build up? Even when isolated, I would feel there could maybe be enough EM activity/radiation to disrupt very fine measurements? Maybe special grounded carpets? They do look lovely and comfy though given how deep the casters of thee chair sink into them. @xdevs

[@SeanBZA]

Dave, you are going to be the firmware changer on that meter. V2 will have all your talking points in there, except they will still not change out the fuses, add the MOV's or shorten those wires.

[@hgbugalou]

Always good when critical feed back is taken to improve a product and the manufacturer doesn't get butthurt about it. I thought the meter was pretty cool and something I might pick up for my garage. No reason to bring the expensive fluke from the lab down there.

[@digitalradiohacker]

@@hgbugalou Yes there is. The Fluke will still give you accurate results, even if there is a change in temperature or humidity. Also, the Fluke isn't expensive - The price they command is just "the going rate" for something that won't lie when subjected to temperature and humidity changes, and won't kill you if you make a mistake.

[@hgbugalou]

@@digitalradiohacker It really doesn't matter when 9 times out of 10 I am just measuring 12 volt on car and sealed lead acid batteries. I only need that accuracy in my lab. Plus I won't get grease and grim on my 117.

[@digitalradiohacker]

@@hgbugalou Car batteries are (obviously) capable of delivering enough energy to start an engine. If you probe one of those on the current setting with a ChingMeng meter, you will see results that "impress". I've never bought a brand-new meter. All my gear is at least second-hand, but is usually third or fourth hand. My "worst" meter is a Fluke 187 (0.025% baisic DC accuracy) and I paid peanuts for it on Ebay. There is no need to spend stupid money on this kind of gear, because of the amount of it on Ebay. I owned a string of cheap meters that ALL broke or lied to me, and I got bored of it. I treat that 187 like FILTH, to which it laughs and continues to lay out 50000 counts of goodness year after year after year. Really - Buy an old scopemeter with deep scratches in the screen and badly stained case rubber. Treat it like shit and watch as others cover their mouths when you abuse an instrument that when new, would have been a decent deposit on a car. It will NEVER let you down.

[@maxusboostus]

Aha thats what they mean by buzzing out a circuit.