EEVblog

[@Yannique1]

Hi, I work at BMW. The device serves a dual purpose. It receives the key fob signal and amplifies the AM/FM signal from the antenna (which is built into the rear windshield). The module sits in the cars C pillar. (Fun fact: In the BMW's from this era you lose your radio reception almost completely when you turn on the rear window heating/defrosting because they are the same circuit...)

[@Murphistic]

0:00 Some Back to the Future stuff from Vancouver :P 1:48 Vintage stuff from San José - 2:44 Qualitron four banger , 4:33 Sencore UHF prescaler 6:33 The WORLD'S MOST DODGEY BATTERY CHARGER from Louisville?, Kentucky 9:34 Multi-meter with ripoff switch mechanism and double ripoff action cam from Australia - 14:49 Data Precision multi-meter 18:06 Soviet ohm-meter from Lithuania 20:47 Book "the hardware hacker" by Andrew "Bunnie" Huang 23:44 probably from the UK - 29:05 Wrist-strap tester, 25:28 BMW key fob receiver 29:57 Upgrade kit for the pick and place machine from Finland 30:54 BS quality High voltage stabilizer from Singapore 35:06 HDD watch from croissant capital (Paris, France) 38:16 The killed Dell fan and candy from Morten Hjorth (host of My Playhouse KZbin channel) from Denmark 44:51 Panduino dev boards from Windsor, Canada

[@MyPlayHouse]

Nice overview! :-) and Hi

[@Murphistic]

Thank you and also hello to you! :) It's the third time I have done this under a mailbag video, but previously I did it much earlier after the video release. But actually, I stole the idea from the comment section of the Linus' WAN show... :)

[@tylerchad046]

thanks

[@Murphistic]

YouAreWastingYourTime ReadingMyReallyLongName You're welcome ;-) and I've just wasted my time reading your name :D

[@fazfaz1569]

Murphistic you are a legend

[@brainiac75]

Thanks for the input about the fan, Dave! Still not sure, why this particular fan model was more fragile than in the other servers. But there's more electronics and sensors inside the fan than I expected. And as always: the more complicated, the more likely to break when abused ;) Greetings from Denmark!

[@d0qtrx]

"dry as a dead dingo's donger" I really need to find a way to use that in my daily vernacular....

[@skoronesa1]

Your wife probably won't appreciate it ;)

[@rtesimpson]

love the sword he used to open the mail...

[@bryanst.martin7134]

It's a Bowie knife. Amusingly enough, Crock Dundee whipped one out in NYC.

[@rtesimpson]

never seen David Bowie with a knife that big 🐊

[@bryanst.martin7134]

:-) It was Jim Bowie, of Texas fame during the battle of Alamo.

[@rtesimpson]

yeah, David Bowie took his name from Jim Bowie...Good knife and sweet dreams...

[@bryanst.martin7134]

For an oddity he was well appreciated. Bit of an oddity myself, so I felt somehow a kindred spirit with him. Enjoyed almost everything he produced. Still love Space Oddity Oddity: not quite what you expected. ;-)

[@electronicsNmore]

I just saw that capacitor tester at a local Goodwill store in perfect condition. 14:58

[@proluxelectronics7419]

The SOT package on the fan board is the FB hall effect sensor, It's also shown on the datasheet.

[@hobbified]

9:33 59 is "loud and clear" - 5/5 on readability, 9/9 on strength.

[@BEdmonson85]

Take a second look at that fan; there's definitely a hall effect sensor on the board.

[@BEdmonson85]

It's even shown on the application schematic.

[@Graham_Langley]

Certainly is on both counts. You beat me to it.

[@Coolkeys2009]

Also I believe there were zenner diodes on the other side of the PCB that Big Clive found where shorted, I think the main IC was OK. Dave you were our last hope to find out the cause of the failure now all is lost :-)

[@MyPlayHouse]

There is still hope,, ONE FAN remains :-) and Hi

[@BEdmonson85]

Hi, Morten! :)

[@mikeselectricstuff]

There is a hall sensor on that fan

[@Graham_Langley]

Big Clive did an autopsy on one of those fans a few weeks back. My first thoughts were the BFO magnet saturated the coils meaning the driver FET current was limited only by the coil resistance. There is a Hall effect device shown on the cct as H and it looks like it's mounted at 3 o'clock on the PCB.

[@kwaaaa]

"When you get a rip off of a rip off, well, you get ripped off" Had me in stitches, LOL.

[@FirstPrincipleAlex]

OMG, the hyper voltage stabiliser is sooooo amazing. What to buy to get these ideas?

[@vk3hau]

TheSecondFunnyKing ~ Yes, it's so good it's full of Hype!

[@zeroangelmk1]

Japanese technology!

[@alexanderhiller883]

I would love to see the SJcam vs Clone of a clone teardown. Thanks for the good mailbag!

[@archyxwuff]

The BMW antenna amplifier (probably for the E61 5 series, mid 2000s model) seen at about 26:00 or so is installed on the outside of the tailgate frame under the lastic flap that contains the center brake light and the rear pane washer nozzle. The aging seals on the cover under that flap are crappy at best, which is why it's very common for those antenna amplifiers to get moisture in them. There's also been few odd cases of the washer hose breaking and soaking the amplifier. The coax connector on one end is the output either to a antenna splitter or directly to the radio receiver, depending on which options are installed in the car. The small connectors on the side are for connecting the antennas that are simply traces on the tailgate pane, similar to the heater on it. Unless I remember completely wrong the amplifier unit includes the complete transceiver for the key fob operations. The communications go digitally to the control unit responsible of controlling the access to the vehicle.

[@tursilion]

I haven't watched mailbag for a while - glad you're doing the mini-teardowns! Definitely enjoyed and will go back to watching them :)

[@CookingWithCows]

Anonymous canadian that we know.. does it happen to say "canuckistan" as the return address?

[@owencrawford8416]

Cooking With Cows uncle bumblefuck?

[@AMalas]

Cooking With Cows Ave?!

[@donwald3436]

Cooking With Cows Uncle Bumblef*ck lives in the interior, eh.

[@cameronwebster6866]

I think he'd have a problem going anywhere with his dick in a vice

[@sarah1390]

Funny. I just started watching that channel and I think he is hilarious in the salty sense.

[@alphadawg81]

19:53 What you read as "CCCP" are actually not the Latin letters CCCP but Cyrillic letters translate into SSSR in Latin letters and it stands for Soyuz Sovetzkikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik.

[@Mythricia1988]

"Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" - Soyuz meaning Union, sovet meaning soviet. Hence - CCCP - we just swap the order of the first two words when translating to English (or just romanizing the text in general).

[@brandonlewis2599]

Sometimes also rendered YCCP (ooh ess ess er). Any idea why?

[@Mythricia1988]

Brandon Lewis That's actually a different meaning - that's referring to the "Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic" - basically what eventually became Ukraine in 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. At least, that's what I think, it's been a long time since I read about it. Should probably Wiki it!

[@MichaDwuznik]

USSR is the reverse way round -> Union of Soviet Socialist Republics abbreviated to USSR and transliterated to Cyryllic: YCCP.

[@catlover10192]

I'm betting he knows that. Most English speaker render it as CCCP, as in the Latin letters.

[@flomojo2u]

@Dave, about the fan controller... It most definitely has a Hall effect sensor, it's visible at 44:49 on the outer left edge of the PCB near the coil as a 4-pin SMT device that also appears on the schematic in the lower-right section, a small square symbol labeled with an "H". It has power/GND pins as well as "IN+" and "IN-" connections going into the chip to allow it to sense what position the magnet is in and to allow reliable spin-up and physical feedback on the speed of the rotor.

[@yevgenylebedev9927]

Hello Dave! Thank you for your channel! Very interesting. I'm from Russia, 30 years I have interest in electronics. To remove the oxidation and corrosion of PCB using H3PO4, but it must be thoroughly rinsed with water and dried after processing.

[@stonent]

Morten's channel is good for people who like servers and vmware related stuff.

[@Tjousk]

Indeed.

[@khronscave]

Did they also send bigclive a dead fan? I seem to recall a(nother) post-huge-magnet dead-fan autopsy not long ago...

[@GeckonCZ]

Yep, they did.

[@EpicLPer]

Big Clive also got one of those fans :D

[@MyPlayHouse]

Yes he did,, It was suggested for me to send them to these two YT´s So I did :-)

[@mikeselectricstuff]

Other crap on that "stabiliser" looks like a 555 LED flasher

[@JimTheZombieHunter]

@2:52 - guffaw at "quality" all you want, but it is still working 42 years later. I think the model is 1437, manufactured 1975.

[@user-jt3nf7in5w]

36:32 for the hard drive watch

[@50shadesofbeige88]

5 years later, these are still super fun to watch.

[@bdot02]

How do you know they're copying the sjcam and not the GoPro?

[@vgamesx1]

Well, they tend to be falsely sold off as an sjcam and they look more alike the sjcam, although it's pretty easy to tell which are the fakes, because the fakes don't usually have the SJCAM logo under the lens.

[@DavidTelesPortugal]

29:00 You need to test the wireless wrist strap :p

[@dashcamandy2242]

43:25 - "Thermal shat down." That's your problem right there! LOL

[@sweatysocks8214]

Now that's a knife.

[@schmobot]

I wouldn't call that a knife

[@Fuckingenius]

its pretty stupid to open mail with it...

[@ikbendusan]

not sharp enough

[@Dalsir1]

I would say pirate dagger

[@mozkitolife5437]

18:44 Why do you smell it? What information are you hoping to receive by its aroma?

[@Keith_Ward]

Older/aging electronics often have a particular smell, new stuff not so much. The older you are and the more stuff you have cracked open the more you would run into it. Not burned electronics mind you, that's totally different.

[@mozkitolife5437]

I think I know what you mean. Different plastic formulations. But it's still not going to tell you much, is it? It's not like you can pinpoint its place of manufacture from a sniff.

[@Keith_Ward]

Jason Axford Yes, primarily phenolic, micarta, and bakelite were probably the most common. But yes, Dave is just being silly for the most part.

[@matthewkriebel7342]

You must be new here. Dave smells everything. And different eras of electronics have different smells. Not sure where it comes from, but theres also the circuit board resin (if it's new enough for circuit boards), solder flux, potting compounds...

[@mozkitolife5437]

Thanks for the info :) I wouldn't limit it to electronics. I remember a set of plastic toys I owned as a child (5 cm^3 hinged cubes with different animals inside with the first letter of the animal molded into the plastic on the outside) which had a very distinctive smell. When I sniffed another set (which happened to belong to my wife, and her Mum kept them and now my daughter plays with them) it took me waaaay back.

[@gravypod]

I'm no expert but I'm a ham (so this is most likely wrong)! The traces at 27:24 are as Dave said are part of an LC network. It'll probably be one of two things, it can be used to 1) filter the frequency coming in from the antenna as it will be reactant at frequencies above or below that of your signal like a notch filter, or 2) impedance match your feed line and antenna. If you're not transmitting 2 is completely unneeded. If you could get the lengths and thicknesses of the traces you can probably figure out what frequency that trace is built to allow through. It would probably be the exact same as the design for the antenna of this frequency ecept the other end won't just stop, it'll go into some other component. I would love if you could go over doing that with this document dave: cypress com file 136236 download.

[@enlightendbel]

"Dry as a dead dingo's donger" I'm writing that one down!

[@Boffin55]

Dave, that missing chip on the Voltage Stabilizer is a 555 timer (pin it out, it's a classic blinker circuit)

[@Rickmakes]

For the BMW receiver...on my Subaru, if the battery in the key fob battery dies, you can supposedly hold the fob up to a certain place in the car to allow you to start the car with the push button. I think it is some sort of RFID backup. Could that coil be a part of some RFID system?

[@Sixta16]

Regarding the fan: The hall effect sensor is that 4 pin SOT package on the side of the PCB. The only feedback from the coil is the current - for stall protection.

[@fredlllll]

good thing morten also sent a fan to bigclive, who actually took the time to see whats wrong with it.

[@MyPlayHouse]

Morten does as he is told,, Sometimes,, but Dave did look at and I do believe it got the two minutes and it was a lot of fun,,for me to see.

[@JOSEPH-vs2gc]

He gave a decent explanation for the time alotted, quit complaining.

[@AJ-kj1go]

I can't say I share his love of Back to the Future, but it's adorkable.

[@xjet]

Geeze Dave, your pool room must be getting pretty full by now eh?

[@meepk633]

Hyper Voltage Regulators were actually used for the SSMEs. A lot of people think they were turbo-pump rocket engines, but they were actually just 33 HVRs taped together.

[@id104335409]

Right off the bat you have THE BEST fanmail from all KZbinrs

[@uriituw]

4GB. Does the capacity of the watch really make a difference?

[@JohnnyX50]

Dont know if its already been mentioned but the block diagram for the fan thing at 43:25 says "Thermal SHAT down" lol Shat is a slang word for 'poo' here in some parts of the UK lol

[@cemx86]

DAVE, YOU ARE THE MAN. You didn't say "Lou-is-ville", you said the correct "Lou-e-ville" (Kentucky, USA, USA, USA). Great stuff.

[@Sherolox]

36:09 This is probably what you are here for, the object in the thumbnail.

[@Biela2008]

Dave! What do you do with all the sent in stuff after the mailbag has been filmed?

[@tatianatub]

i would love a real/ripoff comparison

[@Bob11808]

I'm in Vancouver BC! I almost spit my beer out when you named my city in the very first package in Mailbag. Keep up the good work Dave!

[@scottehm86]

I'm on the island! Did you guys get any snow yesterday?

[@bulwinkle]

FYI the watch retails at 150 Euros.

[@pie505]

Robert Langford where can I buy one

[@bulwinkle]

pie505 Follow the link to it below Dave's video. That's what I did. Simple really.

[@John_Ridley]

The letter in the video and the QR code both say www.hddwatches.com

[@JohnDoe-qx3zs]

+John Ridley It's also engraved/etched in big friendly letters on the back of the watch.

[@anthonyainsolar]

Robert Langford I want one...

[@Alshafi]

What do you do with all the tings you get in the mail? Do you store them or throw them away?

[@LunchBXcrue]

This is the first time ive ever seen you or your videos but they are entertaining as hell. Hello from Southern Ontario!

[@DoomFinger511]

That HDD watch is about $150. Not as expensive as I would of thought. Comes in polished black also at their website.

[@Nicolai0Nerland]

The server fan was also featured on BigClive's channel :3

[@mehashi]

omg thank you, I thought I was going nuts or having deja vu, but was definitely sure I'd seen this before lol.

[@MyPlayHouse]

No No it's all in you imagination. :-) He did my FAN mail joke,, awesome :-)

[@Skyliner_369]

You, sir, need to go do a collab with Big Clive!

[@ErikTheAndroid]

Wow Morten made it in, that guy is starting to pop up everywhere!

[@MyPlayHouse]

Everywhere!! just say "My PlayHouse" three times and I will be in your dreams :-) Thanx!

[@ErikTheAndroid]

Well speak of the devil

[@EscapeMCP]

Yeah, what did you want? Note: I couldn't get "TheDevil", "Devil" or even "Devil666" as my username, so had to settle with this instead (it's an old hellish commodore64 game that I used to play whilst taking a break from gathering souls)

[@DrLamalama]

From my earlier electronic-days, I remember disassembling some fans and all had this little 4-legged chip which was actually a hall sensor. On this board, it is even marked with an H. While its possible to run a brushless on coil feedback, i think this fan still has a hall sensor.

[@ArcAiN6]

they could have also magnetized the hall effect sensor in it

[@Whatsthegeek]

they do, you can see it on the schematic. It's that 4 pin IC. I think what happened is the magnet held the hall sensor in a single state and it meant the controller ran full current in one of the windings for too long

[@philpem]

3:58 - EA7055. I think the chip logo is Electronic Arrays?

[@dom3827]

The HDD Clock is really really nice !

[@MichaelSchlafli]

Immediately went and bought one of those HDD watches. As you put it, simply stunning.

[@tezza48]

So, Is that knife a Bushwakka in naitive ozzy?

[@longerino]

Love your videos, and your commentary. Keep up the good work. Cheers! From Montana, America.

[@ElGatoLoco698]

I'm glad you talked about the SJCAm. I've been saying GoPro's are extremely over priced. Now I think I'll get an SJCAm. Less than half the price for the same features.

[@vgamesx1]

If you can afford it, I'd recommend getting a gitup git1 or git2 they're much better and only slightly over $100 for the git2.

[@EscapeMCP]

If you are looking for cameras, TechMoan is a good bet. He maintains a list of the best cameras (mainly dashcams, but also action cams). His vids are good and often include a 2 finger salute to annoying commenters (WIN)... and if you see the muppets, you know you've been entertained.

[@MattExzy]

Runcams are fairly nice too.

[@bennysh]

22:04 How many actually paused each page flip to read half of the book? :)

[@EscapeMCP]

Yup. It read well.

[@antmallett6065]

14:20 I thought you were showing a vid from a 1980's camcorder, and I was thinking that the picture is so awful, that you would then show how good the rip off of the rip off is...the sound alone took me back 30 years.

[@SniperPIKACHU]

About that PCB coil in 27:00.... I've just came across to some SCR and transistor design (BJT and MOSFET alike) that need to prevent high transient rate (dv/dt). I guess the PCB coil is used to slow down the dv/dt. Ususally those recommanded dv/dt ratings for SCRs/ MOSFETs are in order of few micro volt per second. A really small coil before the Anode of an SCR or the Gate of a MOSFET will do the job...or ususally it's easier to add a snubber RC circuit in parallel with the non-linear component.... perhaps for some reason snubber cannot be used in parallel? idk...really interesting. I am gonna make a PCB coil in the holiday and see how well it will be as a "real" inductor.

[@wrovina]

You attack the packaging like Crockidile Dundee. I love watching your videos!!

[@tin701]

you say the qualitron looks dodgy with its shitty looking links and probably isnt a high quality calculator but as far as I am concerned if it still works after 40 years I think it's fair to give it some bloody credit

[@MrStaplez]

Nice of that bloke sending you the Christopher Lloyd signed photo. Good onya mate!

[@dizekat]

Re: the fan, a neodymium magnet can also re-magnetize the permanent magnet into a wrong field direction. As for voltage pulse it's proportional to change of field per time so just moving around a large permanent magnet is not likely to do much because the rate of change of magnetic field is not very high (not as bad as the fan spinning down when powered off).

[@LazerLord10]

I got one of those cameras based on the SJ4000, and it wasn't terrible, but not great. $40 though, and it looks at least 720p.

[@Brainstorm4300]

Need timestamp for the thumbnail.

[@mattomara227]

Brainstorm4300 35:00

[@flex209]

Brainstorm4300 35:06

[@whuzzzup]

i.ytimg.com/vi/t-vNo6H5gww/maxresdefault.jpg

[@tullgutten]

25:20 it is actually a reciever for sentral locking and a fm signal amplifier for the regular radio

[@KurisuDE]

What are those big square metal parts for you see at 9:23 ?

[@Gameboygenius]

Those are iron core laminate for the transformer. The iron core helps concentrate the magnetic field and improves efficiency of the transformer. However, if you made a transformer core of solid iron, the core itself would form a winding in the transformer and conduct a current, which would waste energy and possibly overheat the transformer. So what you do instead is to glue pieces of iron laminate together so you don't form a full loop. There will still be eddy currents in the laminates though, and efficiency can be increased further by using a powdered iron core.

[@Disthron]

You know, that "sports cam" would actually be pretty good if you wanted to have a scene in your movie that featured old Handycam footage. A quite a few of my old videos from the 90's look just like that now..... is it possible that's where they get their digital sensor stock?!

[@zawzero]

No.

[@metallitech]

17:45 If it's 200 "puff" then shouldn't there be 2000 "muff"?

[@michaelhofmann5091]

Will you write the book?

[@jimstone4496]

Do you have a review of that SJCAM SJ4000 ( the legit one not the knocker of the knocker)

[@zaprodk]

Sadly the magnet for the voice coil is located in the lid, so no moving arm without the lid fitted :/

[@Internettet]

I understand very little of this but I still enjoy watching these teardowns :D

[@MrPoutsesMple]

15:15 haha you're so happy I can feel it :DDDD I love the engineering of this "puppy" too !

[@TheEPROM9]

That is one sexy watch. May even rival my Nixie watch.

[@ChongMcBong]

coolest watch i have seen for years, very tasty :)

[@PatrickPoet]

So happy you're keeping your knife sharp. It _so_ reduces annoyance.

[@tarstakars]

on that BMW key fob module, there's a possibility that there was a bad window seal or perhaps the drain of the air conditioning condenser was plugged up allowing moisture to accumulate some place under the console. I've noticed that in some American cars that if the window is not mounted properly some moisture will collect under the console and damage the electronic components of the computer

[@kaizen9451]

I'm so happy for you Dave, getting Doc's signature. I did think it might be a forge but clearly not. You deserve it! Awesome.

[@alejandromartin6844]

27:15 Perhaps this is the AM receiver coil antenna ??

[@robbyschemonia3089]

Hi Dave! You've got a fan in the old U.S.A. here! I love the old vacuum tube type electronics, mainly C.B. radios. I actually have a Sencore TC-142 tube tester that works. I recently brought an old Browning Golden Eagle mark 3 back to life. It would have been nearly impossible without my old Sencore tester. I'd love to see you do some more stuff with tubes, small projects and such. As we say on 27mhz, 73's and keep jamming them airwaves.

[@NielsHeusinkveld]

Ok now I want to see Dave turn that 1989 IBM server harddrive into a wrist.. umm.. arm watch!

[@tohopes]

The PCB inductor at 26:45 seems to have 2 windings.

[@TheManLab7]

Why do people call old calculations 4 bangers?

[@StAlchemyst]

Why do you call the calculator a "four banger." Is it because it uses 4 AA batteries?

[@proper1226]

Stanley Scalf I believe it's for the four functions: +, -, x, ÷

[@hajzldekl]

43:11 I believe the sot-23 on the left there is hall sensor for feedback ;)

[@eskohc984]

can you try to devide by zero on that calculator ?

[@Monsterplod]

Out of curiosity, what you could do is print out a list of all the countries and give a tick next to the countries for every package you get from them respectively.

[@badmofo350]

Good on ya AvE! How thoughtful.

[@randomdodads]

regarding the BMW FOB board, The suspected inductor on the bord might be the remote keyfob energizer, in case the fob runs out of battery some cars have an area where you can place the fob to emergency start the car.

[@DirtyRobot]

Would love to see someone send in a Roland TB-303 for a tear down.

[@wernertrptube]

Where can a buy the red alarm bullshit knob ?

[@wernertrptube]

www.amazon.de/Bullshit-Button-Knopf-Soundeffekten-f%C3%BCrs/dp/B0032B2UOI

[@haxorflakes]

do a teardown of the fake of the fake cam.

[@PlasmaHH]

People actually recommended in the video to send one of these to you for diagnosing!