Hi Welcome to everyone's favorite segment mailbag. Let's get into it. Cut about eight of them. Here's something like this: Got a real old fashioned later.

Check it out. Thank you very much. Andy McBrain McFly Let's see what's inside an old fashioned limo. It feels like there's nothing in here.

There is a label. Hey Dave this was in a USB thumb drive. It's pretty cool. So I thought I'd send it in.

Cheers Andy What? Oh, hang on. No, it's a bit of tape in there. There we go that's inside a USB thumb drive. It's lost.

Small. It's lost in the dark carpet. Give me a close-up and there it is. Absolutely tiny.

Just a single chip. SanDisk Job' look I've got an unpopulated footprint here. You'll notice that there's no passives on this at all. There's no bypass in is nothing on the bottom, so they're actually using a just oh well, are they using? They don't even need a multi-layer board, do they could? There's absolutely nothing in this thing.

so let's take a look at a quick look at the data sheet for this job'. Not exactly sure what that is. a It's not a bypass cap. It's not a lead like a top emitting.

LED It seems to be a multi-layer construction in there. That's It's rather unusual. you can just tell it's one of these random Chinese one. Some people, just you know, send them in.

Could be one of those $2.00 delivered gadgets from eBay or something. expansion board module. Uh-huh. So look, spent your board for what? it's not something I order because it's got mail bag on it.

By the way, if you're gonna send something in, make sure you put mail bag on it. So oh, we've seen it before. it's it's the $2 TV will do another teardown but I'm sure I've done it before. so I shrink the wrap for our protection.

Oh oh, you can just I can feel the quality in that it's back. The $2 multimeter doesn't even have any batteries. and the classic transistor tester the hallmark of cheap multimeters everywhere. I've DM and that's absolutely hilarious.

Look at those are like just the press, formed and folded contacts like that and there's our current shot. What? What Was it? A 10 amp, 10 amp range? Anyway, a shared milliamp and voltage? Jack That's a guaranteed disaster waiting to happen. and of course, no input protection to be seen. We've got a Diode II over there, but that's about all she wrote.

Not nothing and of course the chip on board because that's you know, half a cent cheaper then get in the quad flat-pack package there and zebra strip and that's all she wrote. You can see how they can like sell this for two dollars and somebody's probably still making a profit. There we go. Rather complicated rain switch.

it's doing all the business there and well, yeah, there's a couple of passives and a chip on board and that's it. What do you want for your two bucks? I don't know Reed's a voltage? Yeah, you might think there's negative of this is that it's got no fuse for your 10 amp jack or your looks like no fuse for your milliamps either. but you'd be mistaken. Carefully crafted a fusible links on the jacks.

Yeah, yeah, wait, hang on I know you want to say how much couple we get inside this role. Yeah, it's not looking like much. it's ah yeah. what? Oh goodness, oh goodness, hey goodness that's not.

You're not only is it not your silicone, but yeah, that's what you know. Seven dates, trans or something of nothingness. but what do you want for your two bucks? Got no one from Strahl Yeah, thank you very much Andrew Donaldson From Baleen in Victoria oh my Bellini and Elaine Ian viewers anyway Oh once again Oh Fashion Oh Oh yes Miss Wide I am a big fan of YouTube Channel thought you might enjoy this. Had it since I was a kid and built a few of the included kits.

Thank you very much Andrew And here's the tricky dick: Smith Fun way into electronics and I was never into the fun way ones I was I was at Andy man I had the Teddy R15 151 and 200 in one kids. it's never into the Dick Smith fun way. And when Dick Smith sold off I've told this story before. but when Dick Smith sold off all of their assets I actually bid on the rights to the to the actual like the trademark to the and the Dick Smith name and website and stuff like that, it was me in partnership with someone else who shall remain nameless, but we were outbid by Cogan.

So now Kogan own dear said Dick Smith calmed on a you do see whatever it is um, but somebody a former employee I believe bought rights to the Dick Smith Fun Way books and they I think they did they rerelease? Oh well, going to or something and I had no idea that the Fun Way stuffed was available, but they've been a former employee. they probably had the contacts anyway. Um, I don't know if all of them but the original Fun Way kits were end. The books were written by Tricky Dick himself Beauty Tricky Vixen made of mine Anyway, he's got a new YouTube channel which I'll link it down below I helped him set it up.

good old Tricky Dick. but anyway, yeah, fun way into electronics. Looks pretty good so let's take a quick squeeze there. It is written by Tricky Dick Smith himself and includes pre-printed labels to give your projects a professional finish.

Fact: 19th printing Wow That's fantastic and that was 695. Well, was that 695 back in the day? or did they see you know increase the price over the years The Dick Head Love the Dick Head I Always wanted my head on a multimeter and I almost put my head on my myface on my own multimeter. but I know it's a little bit unprofessional so you know I didn't Anyway, there you go. First printed 1980 and a couple of printings in 1980 and then 19th printing in 1988 and that was that was all she wrote.

Yeah, as I said, a former employee now have the rights. There is this tricky dick. he's a Vk2 dick. Love it.

Anyway, um yeah, a place to work. You've got to have a lab which here, well, a soldering iron. There you go. got to use Dick Smith supersoul batteries.

Anyway, yeah, I was I was not into these as I said I was a I was a Tandy man and I had the Tandy kids by the time I sort of. you know it was finished with the Tandy kids I really didn't need it. will want the Dick Smith kids I sort of. you know, started doing my own projects and stuff like that.

but look, this is pretty good. You know I got the Ohm's law. Triangle reading state tells you how to read circuit diagrams. This is great so you know.

still completely relevant to a beginner today. except you know you'd be doing like SMD type star see it. update the solder in and things like that. but anyway, yeah.

multi-purpose LED flasher. So the first project Dingdong doorbell so flashing and ding-dongs and Morse code beautiful Universal timer in the jiffy box and either jiffy box was all the go still is of course electronic dies. That was a classic project back in the day. anyway.

Art: a monophonic organ anyway. it's in the you know got history and stuff like that? It's it. It's really quite well done. I Like it.

Mosquito Repeal of all the Birth of the Integrated circuit is that a Moore's law if in bug wireless microphone. but of course you know crappy design. not as good as the talking no electronics ones by the way. if you haven't seen my our interviews with that Colin Mitchell from Talking Electronics I might have to link immune if I Remember absolute classic and great stories from back in the day.

Anyway, there you go. Maybe I'll have to interview Tricky Dick Smith Give the video a thumbs up. If you want me to call up Tricky and see if you'll be up for up for an interview understanding radio this is. You know it's getting serious Wow and what like oh, how to make your own, how to etch your own boards? of course.

there you guys. I've got the del O pin and where's the where's the letter set characters and stuff. the bishop graphics and things like that I Sure a tricky dick sold him to Andy's dead I used to buy a lot of my letter set. they're not letter s it like it was.

you know it was like Tandy brands done awful as a genuine Bishop graphics or not but there yet. there's your panels. You know you just cut them out. Cut them straight out.

Look at that. Brilliant. They've even got a mean green fantastic for your front panel so that's fantastic. So that's volume two.

Very impressive stuff. Put on your tricky dick. Oh by the way I will link in my fantastic talk that dick Smith gave at local ham radio thing. It's an absolute epic tale.

Watch it. Do yourself a favor I'm telling you, thank you very much David Jacob wits if I'm getting that correctly from South Berkeley Electronics I Don't want my viewers in Berkeley I Make in California that is for those who don't know I'm holiday themed mailbag items in closed. please open before Christmas Okay, it's definitely. but for once I'm actually on time.

My god, that was way off. wouldn't it look at that? Well, we got Ries me first. Jesus Lengthy: what's only one page I Hope you open this in time for holiday Mo by a couple years ago I had no idea to make an electronics Chanukah men arose for some. um I have no idea what that is using skills I learn apart from Eevblog an EP blog forum I'm DJ Debo on the Ev1 forum.

Awesome simple design with a few Easter Egg features the electronic. Anyway, it looks like it's a Christmasy themed thing so got some batteries called the snowflake. Always multiple ones. Oh wow okay oh that looks pretty good.

The snowflake like and look at that electronic. Chanukah I Have no idea when electronic can occur is another electronic Chanukah modeled. They both model model one and model two Wow So apparently the Chanukah is if I'm pronouncing it correctly. also known as men are Us sorry I'm just pouring that.

Anyway, it's a Jewish light candle the type thing as part of some Jewish ceremony. It goes on a Christmas tree or whatever I don't know. Anyway, we've got various kits and let's check them out so thank you very much. Dave from Matt South Birth Berkley Electronics we've got two things.

One is the snowflake I rather like the look of the snowflake there and we've got the Chanukah thing as well. Let's take a squeeze. This is the Chanukah Looks like it's got some switches on there. It's got a pure pure mode should send one to purify Jesus sails that go through the roof and hacking as well.

Cool Yeah! Now turn the studio lights off here. We've got two different models and look, it's got a kind of a neat sort of flick candle flickering thing. It's kind of yeah. yeah.

I mean yeah, of course you don't want these things bright because they're designed to like light up your Christmas tree in the dark. Really? So yeah, that I kind of like the effect doublea's on the back that'll last forever if I turn the lights on. Oh yeah, see them if I turn the two studio lights on here to light up the yeah, it just gets a little bit duller. although it looks better to my eyes, it's still.

you're really still quite bright to my eyes so not sure if that's coming through on camera, but not as there's a night mode. Oh there we go. so we can turn on more so not I Pressing the night button just turns on more candles. So I'm wondering if like after time it like even if you have just one on it will like randomly jump around perhaps over time I don't know.

it's probably got various modes and things like that won't go into. So this is model one and this is the model two. It's same, a number of candles on each one, just physically larger. And here's where you could have done something with the silk screen because like silk screens that like a solder mask and silk screen coloring and artwork and stuff like that like you could have put in yeah they could have put it, could have put the chips on the bottom for example and then had like some like elaborate artwork on the top and different you know a different color solder mask and that stuff like that.

You can really do some quite fancy artwork and stuff these days for a not much cost. A lot of the prototype manufacturers will give you lots of different options in terms of solder, mask, and silkscreen colors and things like that. Anyway, that's just got an Atmel processor and some 595 serial latches there, which means you have to have the resistor droppers to get the current required. Could have just had, like used a LED constant current driver or something like that.

I squared C constant current driver perhaps. but six of one half dozen? They are this snowflake one. I Really like these look like RGB jobbies. You can tell by looking at the dye you go, you're gonna have multiple dyes on that.

And of course that's one of those. like neopixel eat things or whatever. It is one of these newfangled things. jeez.

back when I was a boy. Anyway, he had a flushing lid back in the 70s which had a little flusher in it, flush and red lid your front panel. huh? That was all the rage. Once again, we've got some at Mill processor thing on there and just some modes and things like that.

Let's turn that on. Quite excited by it all. Is that a photos Is that a photo sensor? I Think that's a photo trainee? I Think we have a photo trainee down there. it's labeled Q I Think that is so it could dim these things as the light goes down.

That'd be that'd be pretty jazzy. Haven't even read the instructions for this. but anyway, let's switch it on and like up. Nope.

There we go. There, we go. Hey, isn't that Jessie There you go. That's pretty cool and we can change the mode.

Sure, it's good. Ah, isn't that neat? Yep, you don't want it too in-your-face something like that. Yeah, it's pretty jazzy. Then you can get the variations in those patterns.

Whoo! This is great. I Like this. This will be going on the Jones family Christmas tree this year. Beauty: You can go to town on the instructions here for this.

All the modes and settings and all sorts of jazz is this open-source hardware. By the way, Github, Get up, Snowflake Full schematics, additional sample firma, all available. There you go. Knock yourself out.

thank you very much. Dave From South Berkeley Electronics Our Theory of Operation. Not enough people doing a theory of operation these days. Anyway, there you go.

It's a Ws 28 1/2 for those playing along at home. Everyman these dogs using those things these days and well come on, need more theory of operation in projects? These days, it used to be like and A given that any project would have a theater theory of operation. Now people just whack a schematic in a and a PCB file up on Github and that's it in the firmware, up and get up and that's it. Like job done, you know? Thank you very much.

No, this is nice. Oh, and I think there's a remote control - that's neat. But again, I probably would have put the electronics on the bottom side here. and by the way, if you go oh is not enough room because the battery holder.

well you put your circuitry down in these Saudia battery holder over your circuitry because they'd it's just a through-hole thing so you can like have it raised off. but anyway, it's got a USB input as well. There's there's your IR remote control there you go. so that must be a yes a photo sensor for year.

it dims in the darkness anyway. that's really well designed but yeah I would have put all that stuff on the bottom and shame it. Can you get these in a bottom emitter version because that'll be kind of neat. if you could get these in bottom emitter and then you can just have like a hole then you could put these on the bottom as well and just have a hole and that might look a bit neater I don't know I've never looked.

um if they don't make it, they should bottom. He made a version that would be real handy. Veteran may obey. Viewers will remember Josh Up medved I'm sure who's had at least one cycle they serve.

Maybe multiple sites of the servo has said multiple sucks of the serve now. So anyway, what's Joseph sent in? By the way, this knife is completely impractical for opening packages. Just uh, it's not recommended. Warranty void if removed Warranty void if removed Stickers No, Not warranty void if not removed Warranty void if removed Wow it's covered in warranty void If removed stickers, well definitely gonna screw the warranty on that.

What It the more warranty void if remove stickers, well go to town. It's a USB USB - it's the kanata I Can Bus USB - can bus interface Cool. So it looks like Joshua made a I Don't know if it's his, but he made a test utility made available on his website. I'll link it in down below.

So anyway, it's an isolated can bus interface. Cool. Let's check it out. This is gonna be pretty good to slice through two, four, six, eight different warranty void if not removed stickers.

Oh, that was satisfying. Wow We've got in here. Oh, it looks like that's the board that's inside here. No, not quite.

It looks like a different version of it. So Josh Up developed these two things years ago. It doesn't sell them, but thought they'd be interested in. the bigger one.

In here is just done because they need to fit it into a proper case. made a few improvements, and because it needs to work down under. He's installed all of the resistors and capacitors upside down and indeed, check it out upside down. We don't win a chicken dinner you I don't want my Spanish views and thank you very much Andre as' Dylan burger from Murcia it's almost America I'm from Spain Excellent! They get many ones from Spain engineering samples.

Nudge-nudge wink-wink If you don't know, you send stuff as engineering samples and you can often avoid legally avoid import taxes and that sort of stuff depends on your country and all that sort of jazz. But anyway, oh it's a Laura sensor node. Ok yep, oh jeez, jeez. got a whole bunch of stuff.

Ok it's a Laura it looks like yep, it's got a hacky do-it-yourself board on it. Looks like it's got a let's get a little antenna Joby Oh well, its tongue. ok a little expansion header board or something. Let's check it out.

Laura Modules RF yeah short range network e RF thing so on Joyce has designed these that Laura sensor nodes and and it's a little bit how you doing do-it-yourself E but apparently all we're going to do is feed 5 volts up. Its clacker and we should be able to read some sensors. So beauty, we've got an air temp sensor, just a thermocouple UV index our sensor and water liquid temperature census and apparently it somehow works with a Raspberry Pi because we've got another sensor module like a board here which basically is just like it's just hooking up. Look at all that it's really all over the shop so I'm not sure what's going on there anyway designed to plug into a Raspberry Pi but we do have a standalone job' here which should be able to read some stuff.

so this is not a Raspberry Pi header down here. Of course this ain't a Raspberry Pi I'm not sure what that module is actually so the Raspberry Pi it doesn't have analog GPIO is no it doesn't Solution is they use a four channel analog adapter and that somehow plugs into here does it? I Don't think we seem to have gotten that so not sure what's going on there anyway. I'm gonna pair up there since if it doesn't anything the problem is I presume this is just like a tree mitr and we do need to get like the Raspberry Pi solution up and running do we? Anyway, let's so there we go. starting up and initialize in.

it's taking this time. Was it booting up some artists or something? Not sure what the deal is there. Geez him not getting any younger. Aha the problem was I hadn't actually plugged in one of the modules over here.

It booted up straight away. so there you go. it's it. Bit confusing.

did include like a photo of how to install the modules but geez it's it's all over the shop. I Know it's an experimental platform but yeah, you gotta know what you're doing. Anyway, it count. There you go.

Humidity: 35% I'm guessing that's right I don't have anything to compare it against. 27 degrees? Well, 927. Oh it's going down. My finger was touching that before so yep, there's a problem.

Let me let me put my finger on that. Yep, it's going up yeppity-do that the quad temp UV index 0 Okay, yeah, because I haven't plugged in the other right UV sensor yet plug didn't the other UV sensor but nothing's doing there. so I'm not sure what the deal is. But anyway, and yeah, unfortunately, to get to actually use it as a law to demonstrate a law, a sensor node I would have to get this, plug it into a Raspberry Pi and get all that sort of stuff up and running.

And I'm afraid that's outside the scope of a male baggie. Um, so there's a YouTube video about it by the looks of it, and unfortunately, my internet is down at the moment. can't do anything. It's really annoying and it's the moduli.

Hill Tech Wi-Fi Laura 32 Is it? so? is that like an off-the-shelf Laura sort of Wi-Fi module. Anyway, thank you very much Andreas I can't if I'm pronouncing that correctly yet. Laura when like I've tried to set up some of these before and I've had real issues in terms of getting set up in Australia and stuff like that so it yeah, it's not. It's not the easiest thing in the world, but anyway, people can check it out over at the github is LinkedIn it down below.

Thanks! Oh there we go I Just plugged in my thermocouple and liquid temp. It's coming up a twenty four point one. That sounds a bit better. What it is here in the lab might be a bit off, but I could have been touching that probe.

second sock of a serve for Spain Oh thank you very much Electro Nudes There's electro noobs sent something in before possibly our this yeah this is gonna be. let me get maybe this bad boy look at that. There we go. Absolutely covered in tape and that's really annoying.

So Jlc peas nearby from buying stuff from Jlc. but this is not from Jlc. I'm sure our 3d printed 3d printed What? that's a that's a soldering iron Wow Oh I got a coin I got a Spanish coin did I thank you very much. It's a 20 cent Spanish coin.

Hmm, get it converted. It cost me more in fees to get it converted. Yeah, looks like an Electro noobs. There's a bare PCB and Electro Noobs is Donny's own soldering iron.

Excellent lecture and his YouTube channel of course. Alright and we've got instructions and schematics. The soldering iron. Let's check it out.

Hi Dave I'm electro noobs from Electro Noobs YouTube channel soldering iron is a Kickstarter attempt but I realize that making a Kickstarter is not the best way. That's why I'm now designing my own online store. maybe have this as a kit there from Spain Thank you for best speed. Use 5s Ah batteries.

Okay for best speed. The best O8 heating up spit thermal performance, thermal response performance. Basically use 5 cell batteries. Frequent questions no the 3d printer case never melted.

I've used the Buck converter for 5 hours because audio was very low efficiency. Thermocouple curve is not ideal. Code Function: There you go. Yes, the board has SP iPads for bootloader burn.

What? Also, we got the T12 soldering iron so it's designed to use the Hakko T12 tips plugged in. There you go, you can get both the genuine ones and ripoff versions of these. This one's being used. Look at that.

And yeah, genuine and ripoff versions available. Geez, that doesn't. No, no, there's no. there's no guide.

This is your first problem. There's no insertion guide in there anyway. Yeah, I'm not a fan of the 3d printed case vibration detector. that would be for you know, picking it up sort of like it'll go into like a lower temperature thermal sleep mode until you pick it up and you can detect that you've picked it up.

Anyway, that is the chunky Astraeus schematic I Have ever seen in my life? Look at the thick lines on there. Oh, that's terrible Muriel No. I mean the schematic itself is okay, but yes, thick lines. what's doing there? So anyway, yeah, can't say I'm a fan of the 3d printed case, but like assuming you know this was an injection you know, molded thingamabob then I do it like there's no finger guard or anything like that.

like you're trying to compete with the TS 100 and the TS 80 of course. which is like the I prefer the trad over the TS 100 just to annoy or the TS 100 fanboys. No, it is actually better portable soldering iron the knee up. It's your all metal case and stuff like that.

so you're trying to compete with that sort of thing and that's like hard to beat. Sure, it doesn't use the the T12 one, so to be commended on trying to reuse. Oh, there we go. I got it.

I got the right angle there and the buttons I They're a bit hard to access. no, not really a huge fan of that. Why have we got vent holes on there? anyway? Yeah, no you I wouldn't recommend anyone try and of up their own. Do it.

You're so solid. Sure, as an academic exercise and stuff like that, you know it's quite neat. and if you want to have fun building yourself, you know that's okay. But yeah, as a commercial product, it's just it's hard to compete with those existing Chinese designs.

They're really quite decent and good value for money. So yeah, unfortunately, like just that, having the top of the case like that from industrial design point of view, not that terrific, especially having a piece of that thin and that long as you can see you get sort of warpage problems and stuff like that. So yeah, it's just I don't know. sorry.

So yeah, let's go to DC Barrel Jack Hang on it shows. A USB mini-b pair adapter here. Where's L Where's a DC Barrel jack? What? There's the PCB for those playing along at home and apparently it's a 24 volt barrel adapter Center Positive of course. So there you go and open source hardware.

It doesn't use the day Eve open source hardware logo which is still a thing, but people still use that anyway. I'm yeah, that's in. kinda got the dick head on there. All right let's pair this thing on.

Got 20 hooked up to a 24 volt bench supply and there we go. Start, config, start, and config. Alright, well we will start it set temp temp 350 and the set temp in the temp tip era. Want want want want version 3.3 there? Nope.

nope, it's just rising. It's just rising right. Does it even melt anything? So they've been getting hot. It's not even getting hot.

So yeah, herein lies the most difficult bit about doing your own soldering iron. It's like the mechanical interface and everything. And of course you're just not going to get the strength with a 3d printed case like this, even an ABS plastic one. That's why I Prefer the TS 82 Ts 100 for example and those little buttons are falling out Anyway, let's take the board out sum of squares and well there's the bottom so maybe that wasn't making contact.

Maybe I had Oh oh oh okay yeah there is your problem. There was no in stop to do that. so like how was icy air. there's no in stopping the case or anything.

So I slide that in and well no fail you've got to have an end stop printed into the case like I would have moulded that in the case and you get a bonus that it's a a physical strut as well and like to add to the mechanical strength. So yeah I think that was the problem. of course it's not going to sense and and those Jesus nothing a lot of that's a bit how you doing now I do like yeah it's like getting the mechanicals right is you know half the job in a do it you saw soldering iron and the problem with this is with no stop no n stop in there. how am I supposed to use this thing like if I just a serie like there's no channel to keep it in there or anything like even so it like and and you put like force onto a soldering iron to try and get good contact with the surface and that that's just not going to do the business I'm sorry, that's just that just ain't gonna work.

No yep, no fail. Let's see if it actually heats up now. Shall we turn it on and up? Silly me. Push the wrong button.

There we go and on top temp. There we go. Now it's going up. It's taking its time.

Oh it's actually limiting my current limit up there. there you go now. I might be using I'm using it like a really long dodgy lead. So yeah, please don't take that as and it's only a it's a 33 what capable supply.

So yeah, anyway, it's limiting. so please don't take that as an example of this thing's thermal performance because I You know I couldn't be bothered going to find a battery or whatnot to do that. There we go. but you know it melts solder Oh Smellivision Anyway, will that certain? Is it going to overshoot three? Sixty three, Sixty five? Yeah, it's gonna.

it's going to come back Oh 370 And of course like I I could get out the temperature, calibrator and stuff like that, but it looks like by its own reading it's it's overshot the 350 set temperature and sure if we gave that a bit of thermal jolt it would might drop. But yeah, it's saying 370 so it could be out of cow or whatever. Not sure. Not there we go, it's gone back down.

and of course getting the getting the control loop right on a solder inline. That's probably so half your job is getting the mechanicals right and the other the other at least quarter is getting the loop control correct in a do-it-yourself soldering iron. And both of those are not easy task. I This is why I like I wouldn't recommend a do-it-yourself soldering iron I'm just you know, get just by a polished product.

It's it's one of those things which just isn't really worth doing yourself. You can of course get the door yourself controllers and then buy an off-the-shelf you know, ripoff even or a genuine TS like hey Co Iron and then plug it into a do-it-yourself controller. That's a much better solution than trying to mechanically implement something like this. So yeah, here you go I Just yeah.

I I Would not recommend doing a do-it-yourself design, but hats off to why Jashub for at least attempting this and it is an interesting educational design exercise to do that. But yeah, just be. Just know what you're getting yourself in for and I can hear it beeping? they're by the way. Skip a little.

BP I Presume that means it's like heating up or you know? Anyway, I can't test the thermal performance properly because the mechanical interface just isn't there anyway. I'll link it in down below if you want to have a play. I Don't want my Swiss viewers and thank you very much Jean-marc Ulrich I think I'm pronouncing that correctly. Anyway, we have a broken electronic device so obviously it's gonna be a two-minute teardown.

What sort of electronic device we don't know? That's the lucky dip of my oh babe. Looks like a power adapter or something. Yep, yeah, well. those weird-ass funny mains adapter things and what is it? It's in a pouch a sir.

I saw. Is this an organizer or something? I Know that looks like an iPod II and I Saw I body thing Wow Yeah, that's like it's got a custom lithium-ion battery. a Universe or a universal IO Mini-hdmi No, what is it? It's a. oh, it's a projector.

A digital projector. Wow Cool. two-minute an hour. Well, these are the newfangled digital projector things.

Of course these things. don't You know? you've got to have them in a pitch-black room. something like this I couldn't just project on the wall here. My studio lights are even normal lights on because you just can't get enough lumens out of these little micro projectors.

You can get them in phones now. and there's a like a 1 or 2 camcorders on the market that have a little projector building. and yeah, they're Yeah, they're OK for certain users. But anyway to material so thank you very much.

He's young Mike from Switzerland Hi to all my Swiss viewers and there's some AC mini DLP projector. Anyway, it needs I needs a replacement because apparently if you look at the output, that's what it is. So before I take it apart I am actually gonna power this sucker up and see if I can get it to do something. Find the right adapter though.

it's going to little tiny thing I'm sure I got one here somewhere that looks like one of those maybe? Alright, let's see if this thing projects anything. it's five volts of. well, it's yep. Told you.

5 volts, 1.5 amps I assume Center positive doesn't tell you. but yep. anyway. I'm gonna turn that on to end that I'm destroying like three milliamps.

So I assume I have to power on. Yeah, 400 milliamps, 5 volts. Oh there we go. Yeah yeah, it's working.

It's working. Look at that. Cool. Oh yeah.

I can already see all the crap on that. Let me project that on the wall. turn the lights off. Focus is way off.

It does have a focus control on the side. There you go. and yeah. Wow Oh yeah.

I'm holding an angle at the moment, so that's why it's probably a little bit how you're doing on the geometry. they're not bang on. If I move it over here, it'll be squarer. There you go, say yep that it works but that yep, it's as advertised.

that digital DLP a little digital projector which uses all little mirrors. It's like a good lot of them are buggered. Can you damage those? do do like physical impact and stuff like that I don't know. don't know about that.

If anyone knows, let us know. But yeah, that's one sick puppy. and obviously you're not gonna get too many lumens output there. Fear you know, 5 or 6 watts.

Hmm. and looks like we've got a couple of screws down in there. Need a smaller screwdriver? Alright, Teardown time. Tada.

Whoa. Look at all the coppery goodness in there. Very nice amount of Wow They've got a town on the shield in every way. Wow Let me flip that up.

There we go. We're in like Flynn you'd have to get the right light there on the various numbers I won't go, you know I'm not gonna go into they're not too fussed in Diop DOP There you go. Something like a custom DLP processor or something about, you know, controller driver II type thing I don't know. Anyway, um, that looks quite nice, but all the goodness is under the copy here.

Jesus Serious about the shielding and the focus control there? That's just a it's just a mechanical job' that just moves. You can see that little arm down in there. It's just gonna move a lens on the front. and that's about all she wrote.

But that's it. That's what you expect. You know that's cheap and simple. cheap and cheerful.

Good cop. A strap going over there that was just held down with some tape so not even soldered on it's a little bit how you doing. Oh, what's that? What is that? Yeah, sort of some sort of gunk. Tell you what? This looks interesting.

It's it. Look, it's a large sheet of copper so they're probably using that I'd be using that for a heatsink that ain't just shielding folks I think I really gone to town on that. That's like, you know, one knife millimeters 1.6 millimeter. It looks like I'm not gonna be able to just get that projector module out because it looks like that's all sort of integrated down there somehow.

So I might have to get all the board out as well to get the projector module out. Uh-huh That makes sense now. Did I break it? Anyway, there's our there's our projector. Yeah, Why? they've got the big amount of copper that's getting all the heat out.

Yeah. I think I might have I might have broke something trying to force that out. Dumbass. Dave Alright, where there's a will, there's a way.

look at that. You can see the thermal tape on the back of that that just touch via little ribbon cable and little connector on the end of that flat flex. So that's quite nice. So that looks like our projector, but it has another tape going off there.

Oh goodness, jeez, that's some fickle envelope design so that looks out like our lead there. You know there to be a couple of what lead job' and that's what's chewing all the power of course. And there is our board. the board in a connect for our DLP projector down in there.

and of course that's coming from our DLP drive a chip here and so that's that's a really quite a nice design. I Like that. Well, somebody had fun. You can see that the focus literally just moves as I said that lens back and forth and then there's a protective cover on the front.

But yeah, it's not much range there, so there's not a lot of resolution in that in that focus mechanism. It's not the best, but you know, yeah, good enough. Australia Hold on to your hat folks. There's a little right angle board there that it's your true connection.

So geez, it got to town. They're havin' they with that right angle flat flex. Neat. Good part about having the module separate like that.

You know you could mass plug these into test jigs you could have. you know, Boom. Like, you can have hundreds of these being tested at any one time. This is interesting.

Look, it's almost as if they've got a second lid up here. so my screws are stuck to my screwdriver. Gotta have your magnetic screwdriver. But yeah, sometimes.

So there you go. That is that. what? Yep, Yep, there you go, jewel lid. Wonder why they did that? I Assume there's some sort of prism in there.

Maybe they just needed the extra power and and that's the way to do it for thermal reasons or something or some sort of optical reason. If anyone knows why you'd want to do that, let us know. But yeah, project the light in there and there. Presumably there's some sort of prism II thing.

So anyway, we've got a light source coming in here and in here, and that's got to go down here and presumably bounce down here and off our project. which is down in here because a DLP is a DLP projector is just a little micro mirrors. Each pixel is a little mirror there that they can move and then project the light out. So yeah, so it looks like a light comes in here.

dual sauce. They combined it for some optically reason or just power reasons. Bounces off and then goes up the lens right out the clacker. Oh no no no, it's for those screws.

Gotta look before you leap on these things so that'll be holding on the back I wonder how they're connecting to you? There, We go. there, we go. does it? Let's try and pop it out like this. like you're supposed to know.

Yeah, that's just a bracket. That's what I expected and that our projector will be on that board. sorry. I'll project it out.

You know, a mirror sensor thing be on that board so looks like it's stuck in there. You have to pry. Well you're gonna surprise this baby open, have to get medieval on its ass. There you go.

that Tada. As predicted, here's our sensor and now well I can see little things on there already. I'm gonna have to get that under the microscope and have a look. but I can see some stuff on there already.

Well there you go and just had a bit of tape on the back there. you can see there's actually two little well, they're not lenses, they're sort of right. and they're not I can see through them. so a little like glass or plastic plates.

Anyway, here's your two lids going in here. They're obviously focused. Does one bounce off there and down here? Does one bounce off here and go over here? And what's this bit of you know, acrylic type stuff in there? I Had a bit of tape on there, so that's obviously a mirror. All right.

This is a little bit clearer. now. work with me and we've got two. LEDs Here one goes straight through presumably and one bounces off there and goes through.

Maybe for the evenness of light or something. Anyway, it goes through this acrylic diffuser. I'll call that and it bounces off this reflected this reflective mirror here and then it looks like it bounces off there and goes into here. Then we're going to split prism.

their light comes off. Here's our sense of here's our DLP module. So light comes in and reflects off there and then it comes back out through the same path and then out the out. the lens out here.

Wow That's complicated. Hang on. Gets a bit trickier. There's the back of that reflector thing, which I thought would just be a like a polished mirrored thing, but it looks to be something going on in the back of that.

Someone's having a disco party in there that is. Yeah. anyway. so anyway, it comes through the diffuser thing off this.

if anyone knows what that pattern ething is there, let us know. and then into this, this here is our little prism thing I'm gonna call it anyway that goes up against the DLP module and then shoots out and back out. so it comes in, bounces off and then back out like that. Alright, let's check out this thing under the Takano microscope, shall we? And you can see? that's the back of the board.

so it's on a ceramic substrate, classic looking ceramic substrate there, and various glass or laminate structures and they're held together with this epoxy on the side here. Then if we tilt this at all at all, it's all about the light angle and you can see they. You can see the image that we projected there and depends on the line angle of how much of the well you know what arrangement of the mirrors you can see. So yeah, yeah, that's it's.

fascinating. So unfortunately to see more I'm gonna do. you have to get all the epoxy out and everything like that. but clearly some of those mirrors like because that's not a permanent thing on there.

so some of those mirrors are still stuck on where they previously were. Which is that? which is those iconi things? That's great little DLP projector. But yeah, to see the detail in those mirrors I do. There's a separate video.

Maybe I might try and get those laminates apart and see if we can get under the I mean this is only this is. the Takano microscope is only got 40 times magnification, so the best we can get in there and see is that unfortunately that this is designed for PCB viewing and other whatnots. but you can see the those little specks. There are individual mirrors, so there we go.

Maybe that's better. So all depends on getting the right light angle. And but yeah, all those mirrors. there's kind of like stuck on.

It's almost as if like the whole thing could have just failed. and there's no. So that's just like the previous powered up state or whatever. Say yeah, whether or not how well some of them are just stucks, whether or not that's the driver chip, or whether or not that's the the actual DLP module itself and see the little connections on the inside in there.

Yeah, I'd really like to get in there and have a closer look at that, except it's fascinating. but it's all. it's all sandwiched together. So then that's not gunk.

that's hard epoxy. Yeah, that's hard epoxy so have to get really maybe evil on its ass to try and get that apart. But how yeah, that would be nice and we can get it under the trinocular microscope with a couple hundred times game. We should be able to see a little micro mirrors in there that'll be very cool.

so give me a thumbs up and a comment if you want to me, try and attempt that and I'll do that as a second channel video. but anyway, that's very cool. I'd say DLP projecting and that is just tiny I Love that. it's fantastic.

but yeah I'm Tim I still use DLP projectors these days in the tiny little pico projectors and stuff like that. I'm not sure, not up with the current technologies anyway. If you do have experience with these little DLP projectors, please let us know in the comments down below they are very cool. I mean any advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

I Mean you know it wasn't many decades ago where something like this would have been deemed near impossibly impossible. But yeah, we take technology for this for granted. I mean I don't know how many have hundreds of thousands of pixels? that is. don't know the resolution of this I have to look up the specs of that model.

but yeah, I don't think it's a doubt down, it's full HD It's not a full HD projector, but that's great. They love it anyway. Have you enjoyed that? If you did, give it a big thumbs up and as always, discuss it down below in the comments or over the Eevblog forum. Catch you next time you.