EEVblog

More Mailbag Macarism
Forum: www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eev...
SPOILERS:
Namco Wireless TalkAid speech synthesisier
Chart of Electromagnetic Radiations Poster:
www.flickr.com/photos/llnl/94...
Dell & Wun Hung Lo tablets
Canon Notejet III CX notebook with bubblejet printer!
HD Quad helical silver printed helical antenna
www.hd-quad.com/
GSM RF amplifier teardown
Old Omron PLC teardown
Old earth resistance meter teardown
Hanna Instruments pH meter and conductivity meter teardowns
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[@Murphistic]

00:00 NAMCO wireless talk aid (speech synthesizer) and Russian Nixie tubes from California 09:07 Dave ordered a poster 10:43 Canadian Dave sent a solder sucker, LCD module, video converter (16:07), no idea, Samsung 5V adapter, DELL tablet (16:31), Bell mobile phone (16:13), heat sinks (19:05), Arduino mini thing, another tablet (bleeh quality) (18:00), ribbon cable Bonanza, mobile phone antenna, little motor, something which fell on floor, SMA cable 19:32 Canon NoteJet II CX from Australia - notebook and printer in one case (23:27 money shot) 26:35 printed antenna from Australia 29:07 Omron Sysmac C28K programmable controller (34:54), RF repeater (32:32) and candy from Poland (yes, Krówky included) 36:05 Hanna PH meter (39:43), Hanna conductivity meter (38:14) and Norma earth resistance meter (40:30) (also Lego for Sagan and a postcard) from Germany

[@tohopes]

👍 commenting to bump ↑

[@madmodders]

The "no idea" one looks exactly like a Zalman fan controller for 12V computer fans.

[@antiekeradio]

MadModders indeed. Zalman FanMate 2 by the looks of it.

[@Thesignalpath]

Hooray for Bell Labs! :)

[@00Skyfox]

And with this video, that takes me through EVERY EEVblog episode, plus most of the episodes not in the official count and the stuff on the second channel. It's only taken me what, a year and a half? So much stuff learned, and so many videos to re-watch because I'm forgetful and they have good information for my electronics hobby. Hey Dave, congrats on a very successful channel, blog, and forum. I hope all is well with the family, business, and knee. Keep up the great work! Your enthusiasm for electronics really helps keep me interested to learn more. I'd like to request more Fundamentals Friday videos that cover the very basic of the basics, the how and why of components and their interaction together, and how to figure out exactly what components a circuit needs, things like that.

[@galileo_rs]

I'm screaming at the screen, click the bloody cancel button, win95 had no security.

[@Bowowowification]

Absolutely hilarious that even Linux in 1995 was more secure than Windows. (Granted you could just boot into single user mode, but at least that would have required more brains than "Hit Cancel", lol.)

[@emmettturner9452]

Dragan Milivojević It's a network password, not a login password. It has nothing to do with the OS' security.

[@galileo_rs]

Emmett Turner Correct, hence the no security part.

[@emmettturner9452]

Dragan Milivojević You can still configure your phone with no security. Doesn't mean the features aren't there. Just like the network login is not default, neither are the actual user profiles.

[@galileo_rs]

Bowowowification Linux is based on UNIX philosophy so it was "always" a multi-user system. Single user mode is there by design and still present. Also a great way to explain to people that physical access means: end of the game, security wise.

[@mikeselectricstuff]

I'm sure that note-jet had some good niches - e.g. travelling salesman to print quotes etc. - remember email would have been a lot less common back then.

[@bonzaihb3432]

I remember insurance brokers running around with these kinds of things, to print your insurance application and rip you off while you are still numbed by their waffeling... ;)

[@ThePathfinderTF]

hehe yup, just wanted to add a similar comment :)

[@satibel]

it would've helped me as a student with dyspraxia, when I used a computer instead of handwriting, having the ability to print out exams instead of running to a printer or looking everywhere for an usb stick.

[@jamisusijarvi646]

I have had veterinarian visiting at home with this kind of pc. She was able to print all the official documents right away

[@IljaSara]

E. Lehtonen is from Finland (not Germany), Lappenranta. The part that's written in Finnish tells Merry X-Mas and Happy New Year.

[@LazerLord10]

Make a nixie tube multimeter!

[@spoderman15]

or frequency counter.. tho that'd be a lot of nixies xD

[@shana_dmr]

Nixie tube meters and frequency counter used to be popular in 70s. Frequency counter is actually a nice DIY project - you just need to cascade decade counters and some buffers - one per digit.

[@antiekeradio]

kroplaaaa I actually have a seventies vintage HP frequency counter with 6 nixies on my bench :-)

[@izimsi]

At Warsaw University of Technology we used those nixie tube counters to learn the basics as a freshmen a few years ago. They have been giving them away recently (got one), so probably they're all gone now.

[@martinda7446]

Or get an old meter and convert display to nixie and recase. Great idea though. Would sell to us anoraks if there was a kit or finished article.

[@Tom.N]

Thanks Dave, love the 2min tear downs.

[@zeuss194]

Futaba ?! that some big name in Radio controlled model world

[@magicwoody]

Erdungsmesser is the german word for ground resistance meter

[@stevencox75]

i don't watch for design tips i just like seeing stuff pulled apart

[@GeckonCZ]

You can just click on Cancel or press Escape to skip the login prompt in Win9x. These were the days indeed...

[@JennyEverywhere]

Great mailbag! I've missed these!

[@Psychlist1972]

I spent the first half minute repeating over and over in my head "I before E except after C" :)

[@Keith_Ward]

I wondered if anyone else would notice.

[@SuperAWaC]

everyone does nixie tube clocks. i want a nixie tube multimeter.

[@AF29007]

*EMI INTENSIFIES*

[@SuperAWaC]

eh just put the electronics in a can and she'll be right

[@EEVblog]

Yeah, not a clock, trying to think of something else...

[@AF29007]

Would something IoT related be too tacky? Could you integrate it with the Pi cluster you're building somehow?

[@rvprepperwayne]

How about a Freq. counter?

[@andrewhellershanks8315]

The cable you tried to use at 17:47 is the data sync cable for a Palm PDA. The round gray item shown in in the box at 19:22 is the docking station for a Palm PDA.

[@onesimpleclik]

Lenovo still use the nipple on their Think Pad series of laptops

[@PlasmaHH]

There are so many nice posters and so little wall space to hang them... I am really looking forward for someone inventing A0 true colour e-ink paper displays... For your collection of things a teardown suggestions: take a bunch of them and compare them and talk about design decisions they made and how one may be better than another, or not.

[@danielsullivan87]

Wow... that Canon laptop... so many memories of old school Windows

[@jeremyhall7259]

Ahh! Mailbag, cant wait to see what this one has in it! This is gonna be great as always!

[@dzhiurgis]

Build a subscriber counter using nixie tubes!

[@AstAMoore]

“Who the hell does center negative?” Well, virtually all Roland/Boss effect pedals take a center-negative PSU. That’s a few gazillion units throughout the world.

[@merlin07756]

Also most Roland Synthesizers are center negative.. :(

[@crimsun7186]

Most Electro Harmonix pedals are center positive.

[@nihonam]

Weren't those SONY Walkmans/CDmans power reversal either?

[@adam7868]

And digitech and Dunlop

[@HazeAnderson]

All of my synths (plenty of Rolands) are center positive. All of my guitar pedals (one Electro Harmonix) are center negative. Anyone can do anything ... but see the two Industry Trend Paths here? From what I understand, center negative is preferred for guitar pedals because they are wired to automatically disconnect optional battery power by removing the input jack. Not sure why this isn't also done (if possible) with center positive but I haven't fully investigated this yet.

[@cyndicorinne]

Love your circuit analysis of this equipment. Very entertaining AND enlightening! 💜 🌟

[@vineilan]

I love all your mailbag videos :)

[@nathantron]

Do it! Nixie Clock!!! :D I want a timelapse video of you working on it. please!!

[@twardysiusiak]

31:26 candies from Poland :) I love them.

[@Stylemaster911]

Thinkpads generally still have a trackpad and a nipple on most of their laptops.

[@RiyadhElalami]

If my memory serves me well, you could have just pressed escape.

[@steve24822]

Riyadh Elalami Cancel. It was just the network login box. Windows 95 doesn't have local security.

[@frenchcreekvalley]

I used to carry an early laptop (or "luggable")PC along with a tiny Kodak battery powered printer when I went out of town, which was often. I would meet with people to deal with problems,, work out solutions, then go back to my hotel room and build overheard projector presentations for the next day's meetings. That machine would have simplified my life to some degree.

[@matthewlangley3089]

I have one of those solder suckers. I love those. They seem to pull with a lot more force than the pump ones I've used leaving less solder on the joint.

[@vaatisucksatgames4163]

One of my favorite parts of the mailbag is the 2 minute tear down.

[@Grcbyte]

I like the two minutes teardown !!

[@Jones12ax7]

In Windows 95, just click cancel or Esc at login window and you'll get in with a default profile.

[@Viaexplore]

Im thing that dual part in the RF amplifier TD-X950 is due to different signal direction. So one path is from left to right and the other is from right to left. GSM is two way ;-) or not?

[@AnEnglishmanOverseas]

the cowprint bag contains Polish fudge its bloody lovely stuff

[@marco_evertus]

That physics lesson poster thingy is one of the most awesome retro posters I have ever seen.

[@onesimpleclik]

that poster is so awesome!

[@HonestAuntyElle]

That notejet was probably popular for people creating contracts onsite and going to negotiate, so able to print and sign the contract on site.

[@EEVblog]

Yeah, that would be about it.

[@PlasmaHH]

These days they have little printers in the approximate size of a too fat notebook keyboard. They are used a lot in the insurance industry where salesmen go to people to configure their contracts. Back in the days, big insurance companies got with their requirements to companies like canon and hp and they basically built those notebooks to their specs (like some had gprs modems built in)

[@funkyironman69]

What about when staying in hotels as well?

[@Craft4Cube]

On win 95 you can just hit ESC to log in

[@ShadowWhippler]

That canon was a beauty, cant wait for tear down!

[@LazerLord10]

Ah, there was one time I left my laptop charger somewhere and I needed to charge my laptop, so I use that chassis trick. Except it was the VGA port shield, so it looked even more dodgy.

[@kbhasi]

Dave, if you see this, you should know that you can just click cancel at the logon screen as Windows 95 and 98 usually had pretty crappy security...

[@Teth47]

Dave, protip on that canon, if you want to snoop. When you get to the login screen, just hit cancel, it logs you in anyway. Windows 95 was not a very secure OS.

[@emmettturner9452]

Teth47 You misunderstood. It has nothing to do with the OS security. It's a network login.

[@allesklarklaus147]

win95 had no multiuser support so yeah no login required

[@emmettturner9452]

alles klar klaus Not out of the box Win95A, but it certainly did have the option. Admins had to familiarize themselves with the Resource Kit and the Desktop Update and such, but it was there

[@Teth47]

Emmett Turner Type Administrator in the Username box, hit cancel, problem solved.

[@emmettturner9452]

Teth47 What "problem?"

[@DoRC]

The thing about the 2 minute teardown is we get to see things that wouldn't normally get taken apart.

[@jasonwarbird]

I like 2 minute tear downs Dave! I think its cool, especially when you do a 2 min tear down and then on really cool stuff you do a full vid on it.

[@toddberg3892]

The repeater looks like a bidirectional amp, thus the two paths (notice the symmetrical but reversed circuits.) Thanks for the video Dave!

[@aMondia]

That cheapy solder sucker, its amazing how much more effective they are with a little piece of heat resistant tube on the end, like silicone or something. Works a treat.

[@FrozenHaxor]

I still break out the good old solder sucker from time to time for a quckie when I don't want to wait for the vacuum pump one to warm up, pretty effective when maintained properly.

[@Xenro66]

That EM Spectrum poster is freaking awesome :)

[@pmgodfrey]

I totally have to print that poster on my HP 800PS! Thanks, Dave!

[@aaronactive]

WOO! You finally got the Canon laptop! Glad you enjoyed it

[@dogwalker666]

that omron sysmac is quite a new one compared to most we have at work , the connector on top is for the programmer expansion is on the side

[@KrzysztofDziuba----1-2-3]

Dave, for windows 95, as far as I remember it should be enough to press 'Esc' key to login. No password needed :)

[@robina.jensen6114]

It was normal back in the days to have the center as a negative pole. I don't know the exact time, but some at time down the road change that, so the centerpiece turned positive.

[@edvarim]

Some time ago Dave said what he is that greenish table covering, but I seem to be unable to find that video. Anyone recal what it is?

[@kevincornell1439]

i picked up 2 g5 xserve missing ram and hard drives is there any way to upgrade the single core 2.5 ghz cpu"s to some thing else to get some use out of them or am i better off scrapping them out?

[@RobertBardos]

youre the best dave thanks for another great episode 👍🎥

[@DrakkarCalethiel]

The "Erdungsmesser" is what you expected It's an earth resistance meter. Greetings from the now beautiful snowy Austrian alps.

[@christi198281]

A Nixie Tube Multimeter display would be awesome!!

[@douro20]

The US version of the Namco TalkingAid Wireless, which sold for $5100! It has a built-in GSM phone and seven DECtalk voices.

[@Bowowowification]

Charge your health insurance company. Oh wait, no Obamacare back in 2007. :-)

[@Iowahurler82]

Just wondering, by can you pull a cap off that cannon laptop thing? Curious what switches they used.

[@Stefan_Payne]

With windows 9x Login, there is a Magic Button for Login: ESCAPE. Just press it and try again. It works ;)

[@oldjd7745]

EM Chart is GREAT, better than the circular one I hung in my office. Thank.

[@AnthonyShuker]

more mailbags! 2 minute tear downs are good for small + simple devices plus they add something to the mailbag

[@graemeallan54]

can anyone supply the programning cable for the plc...I have one and wouild like to play

[@wheelitzr2]

love the clock idea!

[@NLRevZ]

Ah, the good old Canon BN series laptops! Nice one Dave! I still have a working example of the predecessor to the one you received: The BN22 from 1991 with a monochrome screen and an Intel 486 processor. It has a bubblejet printer and I still have a brand new cartridge for it!

[@AureliusR]

@34:17 nope, Dave, it's a REPEATER. Therefore one side is transmit, one side is receive.

[@aliveandwellinisrael2507]

I've only started to go back through all these older videos, and there's such good stuff! Definitely getting that poster printed. The Flickr account has a 6K image.. I think that'll do just fine

[@KOSMOS1701A]

i wonder if that omron thing would work with my old 87 toshiba with omron programmer software on it. I mean i haven't taken an extreme look at it and have no idea how it works.

[@chuckvanderbildt]

The front fell off? That's not very typical, i'd like to make that point. Some of them are built so that the front doesn't fall of at all...

[@luigipizzolito5597]

*drops mailbag item* "ooh, it's gone!" 15:38 Dave doesn't give a shit

[@FrozenHaxor]

The second device sent from Poland that you skipped is a corrosion protection system for cars, I've got exactly the same one installed on my car. Can't really say whether it works or not, it appears to have slowed active corrosion spots though.

[@leecyrille]

maybe the M, K and u buttons on the ground tester are for selecting the frequency. sometimes testing is done at higher frequencies to measure mostly the effectiveness of the nearby ground rods in a grounding system, whereas testing at lower frequencies will see lower impedance through all the inductive components bonding together other ground paths in the system.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

Seeing him unwrap the ribbon cables reminds me of my reaction while unwrapping socks as a kid for christmas. Come to think of it, I wish I had more socks, now I'm in my 30's!

[@ksbs2036]

Brad's Guitar Garage yeah, me too. Now I have to buy my own socks I appreciate the gift :-)

[@basshead.]

That's how we like EEVblog

[@basshead.]

13:12 It's Zalman PC fan controller .

[@Rizon1985]

Omg what a reward after having to go through that junkbag. A Canon laptop. Such a beauty.

[@IMCDundee]

The Canon PC/Printer were pretty common with service engineers in the UK,for printing out recipts etc

[@Electromech]

That poster is freaking cool!

[@vehasmaa]

Dammit Dave.... Now im drooling after that poster...

[@MrBrax]

That small black box with a knob on it in the big package was a fan controller :D

[@Griddens]

Not sure if everyone has asked the same question. but what do you do with most of your electronics after tear downs

[@SurajGrewal]

my dad bought a similar solder sucker as a kid, I had to repair it ones recently (you know how teenagers [me back then] are, they somehow manage break everything that normally doesn't), it's still in use

[@MisterTalkingMachine]

I have seen the HD63B03XP before. I found one of those time ago inside a Panasonic electronic typewriter.

[@ghosttwo2]

On the Canon laptop using windows 95, you can bypass the logon by clicking the [?] button, then navigating the help dialog until you navigate to the desktop. Logon screen goes away in most cases, would make a fun how-to-classic when you tear it down.

[@RobertBaruch]

You might need to feed the talky thing more volts. I think I used 12v and it did boot up!

[@silicongraphics]

For the canon laptop, you can push escape on the password prompt to bypass the login screen

[@AJ-kj1go]

Did he ever do a samsung battery explaination? I'm interested in what could have gone wrong from a technical perspective

[@TheOriginalEviltech]

If you look closer you'd see that the repeater has 2 identical lines going in both ways and there are signal switches on both ends of the RF lines.

[@AstralJaeger]

where is the link to the HV powersupply for the nixietubes?

[@maxine_red]

I can agree there Dave. I really love to watch your tear downs a) to see old school goodness, like DIP packages in use (if vintage) b) to see how stuff works and c) learn a few things myself Mail bags are more fun to see what cool stuff is there in whole and what obscure products where brought into the world.

[@darkhelmet169]

I had a Canon NoteJet! The older 486 model with a clip-on trackball. My mother bought it for writing on to replace a dedicated word processor, then the printer had quit working by 2002 when I got it.

[@stevetobias4890]

How many fans and other accessories do you salvage from these old notebooks and other stuff ?

[@TheEPROM9]

My boss use to programme VGA drivers back in the day. Use to be quite a challenge to get it to draw a circual.

[@sunhuatom]

It is rather clever to have the antenna printed. I made one from kitchen aluminum foil several years ago. That a very popular antenna design for digital TV. It has a name called DB2, with two dipoles, there are also db4 and db8 with more dipole elements. You may want to put a aluminum foil about 20cm away from the antenna as reflector to have higher gain(up to 11dbi if I remembered correctly).

[@davidblair8843]

Looking forward to the Canon teardown! Just hit cancel to get past that password prompt. Super secure, Win95 was.

[@BenHelweg]

I'm so with you on centre negative.

[@ethanmye-rs]

Any chance you're going to do more builds? Stuff like the MC34063 regulator design, etc is very helpful.

[@damianorsini4260]

..."that's not a box cutter, now this, this is a box cutter!"....

[@donaldfilbert4832]

What solder sucker do you use now ??

[@twistedlot]

I owned a Canon Notejet III cx with a Pentium 150Mhz processor back in 1998. The thing was noisy. Every time I powered it on, the printer head would make squealing noises and position itself to the center.