Hi welcome to the ever popular mail bag segment where I open my mail live in quote marks um here on the blog and if you want to send me stuff, send it to here it is Dave Jones that crazy Aussie bloke P Box 7949 Borham Hills BC New South Wales 2153 Australia not Austria All right I've got uh, two uh mailbag items today. In fact I've got more than that. but uh, will? uh, you know I don't want to hog it and this thing looks like it contains three items. Who? exciting? So um yeah, we'll just limit it to two today.

Let's give it a go. Let's open this one first. it is from Ray Hobby Shop. There it is Raay Hobby Shop I assume it's Raay Hobby Shop.com I'm not I'm not quite sure um from the US Amherst ma which I believe is massach even I know that and I'm from Australia pretty sure I got it right and we have one printed circuit board.

thank you very much Ray have uh no idea he didn't clue me up on this. So let's uh, open it up and have a look. Tada and we have a partially assembled board and a note. Let's give it a go.

Hi Dave I was watching your video on the USB power supply. thought I'd send you this circuit board he called the Ablea Saver. Nice. It's a voltage booster that takes two AA batteries outputs 5 volts or 3.3 Vol selectable pin Hatters match the space in the standard breadboard.

Oh I like these? Um so that you can plug it directly in your breadboard. for circuit experiments. Output current is up to 350 milliamps with fresh batteries I Know it's not idea, not a new idea, but I've designed it to have dual functions. Ball can also hold two leads.

You can use it as a lead flashlight because it us it can work with quite low voltages. Awesome I assume like down to maybe you know 08 or single cell or something like that. So yeah, as he says, you can use uh, dead cells in these things typically. so let's have a look a a saver instructions of use instructions.

Ah, it's okay. it's got metal battery Clips up there and uh couple of LEDs let's have a look. nice photos I like it, use it doubles as a flashlight. neat And you can see the two pin headed there which are standard breadboard spacing and it mounts on a breadboard like that which is very very handy.

So um, no schematic unfortunately. so we don't actually know what's uh being used in here. but let's take a look. let's pour it all out here and nothing left.

We got our nice uh, these, uh PCB Mount battery holders just snap into there like that and uh, unfortunately we're not going to be able to see what the I see is. It's one of those um, six pin so 23s. um it'll have a marking on it but it won't actually have the real part number. So uh, unfortunately we don't know uh, what part it is, but they just snap in there like that.

Nice. Looks like he's got the footprint correct I Don't mind these at all, but I probably would have preferred to, um, see like a plastic, um, uh, able a holder or something maybe mount on top? maybe covering the circuitry? uh, thermally. It should wouldn't have been much of an issue. Um, but yeah.

Works any way you want to do it and uh, here's a switch. We got 5, Vols and 3.3 volts. There it is and onof pretty basic. um and it double A battery saver.

Now here's the two going to the breadboard. but I would I oh is it no hang on du? I was I Was just going to make the complaint that if they were here in the middle of the the board, then you're taking up space. You'd want them on the edges and duh, of course they're actually on the edges. I should uh, look before talking but H and there's his web address Raay Hobby.

Net couldn't get.com I guess uh, so had to getnet that can suck sometimes. but uh. anyway. I'm going to solder these two on here and uh, see if it plugs into the breadboard w w look what's happened.

It's clear, not designed for my type of breadboard so it's designed for this smaller type down here which has uh, got the narrower space between the top and the bottom I thought mine was a pretty darn standard uh breadboard. it is a uh, it is a K&h a very popular one K&h model RH 32 I've got a couple of these um and unfortunately it's not the right pitch. it needs to be a bit wider it uh I I Guess it would be nice if it uh supported. both pitches make the board a little bit.

Actually, it doesn't even need to be wider. it is just the correct width. just needs a couple of extra footprints on there. All right, let's give it a quick go here.

I've got my power supply killer! The BK Precision 8500 300 W programmable electronic load. Love it! So um, we can I put in that constant current mode. Here we go. we got I set constant current uh 0.1 amp, 100 milliamps so that should be uh, fine.

He said it was up to 300 milliamps or something and uh, we've got our input voltage here and our output voltage. This is the output voltage as well. Um, it just double checks that we don't really need this meter. so we'll give it a go here.

0.1 amps constant current 100 milliamps, 3.1 volts input voltage which will be a couple of fresh alkaline cells and uh, let's switch it on. It drops down a little bit, drops down 150 odd M volts or something like that and we want I'll wind the input voltage down and uh, we want it to go down to Um 0.8 Vols per cell. And there's two series cells on this uh circuit here. So a good alkaline well, an alkaline battery will be deemed to be completely dead at 0.8 volts.

So if it works down to 1.6 Vols then it's a winner. So let's some winding down. my input voltage still hanging in there, still hanging in there 1.6 Not a problem, it definitely work. Uses all of the H There we go stting to drop out.

Now there we go. So that's at 100 milliamps and Ray claims 350 milliamps um, output current. but uh, that's clearly not on the 5vt rail cuz I got 3 volts input and it's dropped down to 4 volts. so it's certainly not capable of.

uh, let me measure the temperature down there with my finger. It's not wet, but it's a finger. so no, it's not getting warm at all. but it's certainly not capable of delivering 350 milliamps at 5 volts, that's for sure.

If we switch on over to the Uh 3.3 Vol one Let's uh, restart that and there we go. It is able to do 3.3 Vols output at 350 milliamps though. and once again, we'll wind down the input voltage and oh, there there we go. 2.88 No, it's real.

No, it won't do 350 milliamps below at 3.3 below 2. Yeah, 2.5 odd volts there. So yeah, that's definitely not. uh, maximizing the usable capacity of the battery.

so I don't think it's uh, going to do 350 milliamps on either of the ranges. Well, actually, this comes as no surprise I Just checked Ray's website. He's got the schematic up there. You can download it as well as the board files and stuff.

and it uses the microchip mCP 1640 and uh, sure enough, it's um, at 3.3 Vols output. Uh, voltage. It's only rated uh for 350 milliamps. Um, for a 2.4 volt input voltage.

So as soon as it gets to 2. well, in our case, it's slight. You know it's like 2.5 or thereabouts. so you know it's near enough to the data sheet there.

And if you want 5 volts out um, at 350 milliamps, then it requires an input voltage of 3.3 Vol So we can try that. we can go up to 3. Let's let's go above that. let's Point 3.33 And uh, let's switch our output to Uh 5 volts.

It doesn't look like it likes switching that voltage with the load there. So let's there we go. Yeah, it's no. we're going to have to wind up.

it's low. There we go. 3 point. There we go.

it's climbing up so it's almost there. 3.5 Vols So it's not going to be spot on to the data sheet value because that depends on the type of type of inductor used and the components. and, uh, stuff like that. So you know the data sheet values are only going to be typical, but it seems to, uh, reason match that reasonably well.

It's a 96% maximum efficiency uh device. It's not bad at all. and it's uh Works down to .35 Vols input voltage. Um, but it doesn't start up at that.

it will start up at 0.65 Vol So it's not a bad little. uh DC todc converter. but you got to work within its limits. So there you have it.

There's uh Ray's little AA battery saver. Um, as I said uh I think it needs uh, the correct. It needs different footprint. uh, pitch headers on there for different types of breadboards.

Maybe there's only uh, two different, uh, generic types. Not 100% Sure, sure, but it certainly doesn't fit mine, which is a bit of a bummer. and uh, these metal, um, battery holders. It would have been nicer if maybe you got a standoff.

uh, plastic one cuz these can short out um, you know, if you're throwing, you know if this is just you know, around your bench and you've got uh, leads and things going everywhere. Um, you don't want to accidentally short out the uh battery terminals anywhere. That could be, uh, a bummer and ruin your day. But hey, not a bad little thing.

And uh, if you want to check it out, check out. And here there's the address saver. Ray Hobby. Net Thanks Ray Good one and our second package uh, looks like it comes from Sweden Swedish post there it is.

Everyone's got the Cn22 Customs form contains old mobile Computing devices M I love old Computing stuff. three pieces with a value of a 100 Um, what is that the Swedish uh KR Crona um I I think rings a bell um I thought Sweden used the Euro but no looks like they're using the Crona I guess and it comes from Frederick Frederick Petrini thank you very much Frederick from Sweden Hello to all my viewers in Sweden and uh I like by the way, I don't actually know what's on those stamps there What? I'm not sure what that uh word is, what are they? It looks looks weird. it's almost like a flower like thing or something cut open. I'm not sure Anyway, no idea but any this is interesting.

open here so well let's do just that. Oh who. it's a bit spongy so I guess and get in there with let's have a look. Don't know why I have to open it at a specific end could be a surprise.

who knows Tada ah I don't think it matters which way we open it hi Dave Time for another vintage tear down while digging around in my junk boxes. found some old gear I thought would be interesting for one of your Tuesday tear Downs Sove uh find devices from three generations of Pdas oo oldest device C organizer 2 cm from 86 a contains an 8bit CPU run at wiping 900 khz and 8K Ram This device is left over from my dad's computer shop. never been used a P. Next one is Palm Us Robotics Pilot 5,000 from 1996.

Oh, 10 years later this model was the very first in the Palm series. Okay, I've got a Palm Three I think it is as well as a Palm Five. Um, you know with the Nifty fold out thing Anyway, uh it has 16 MHz Motor Roller 68 328 512k Oh big step up in 10 years. Um keep track of his schedule at Uni Last item is a PDA GP yes combination from 2003 HP Ipac H 5550 with a 400 MHz X scale.

Whatever happened to the X scale processor? Is it still around I don't know 128 MGA Ram rest coming and nav man GPS Jacket wo car Navigator In my first Geoc GPS oh he's a fellow Geia excellent. My Geoc name is Eco team Nicole and I were uh well we were Eco team we still are Eco team haven't CED for quite some time but there you go. Reception was quite bad for Jer but the PDA keep track of him. Excellent Thank you very much.

Frederick A Beautiful Here we go. Oh there it is Palm Pilot Us Robotics Beautiful. That was before they changed. They used to be called Us Robotics right? I think and then they changed their name to Palm Orth they bought out by Palm or whatever I'm not uh made in Singapore Singapore made a lot of stuff back in the day.

There's a reset there powered from Two Aaa's and uh, what else have we got here? Ohy there we go. Look at that beautiful Us Robotics Palm Computing Division there you go I I Didn't know maybe that's um why they changed their name. they were the Palm Computing Division and they thought Palms a nicer name I don't know I have to check out the history of that or the history of the name. It's got the pen for all you youngsters out there.

Yes, they used to come with pens custom M Port what else have we got? Oh wow, Whoa. look at that man that is awesome. Almost want to use it I don't want to tear that down, but it might certainly might make an interesting tear down this. Trio to see the history of like I did with the mobile phones.

Maybe I can do a tear down Chronicle in the history of of uh, these Palm devices. Beautiful is that the the huge antenna on it? Absolutely massive. This is before they, uh, obviously discovered the fractal antennas cuz that's just that's ridiculous. Hey, you can see my reflection.

hey hello, these reflective screens and um yeah, that is huge. Is that another another antenna there? and uh oh. external antenna socket compact that looks like a compact flash card and uh, it sits obviously designed for the Cradle another custom connector down there. Ah beautiful.

Um, where's the battery? This is obviously got a uh, does it have a re? Oh no. There we go. slides. Oh oh, this is the Cradle duh Okay, silly me.

God thought this was the whole device. Of course not. I know what I'm talking about here Here it is H 5550 Beautiful. and uh I assume that um well.

the battery. The custom battery for it is. Maybe it's in there. Maybe it has got the custom battery.

What's that s organizer? Ah, this. that's a 32k data pack. Oh I Love it. It'll have a 32k um SRAM in it.

That's probably all that's all that's in that thing. But back then hey, a 32k SRAM chip? um, cost you and arm and leg? Well, they charged you a premium. wasn't that expensive around that time. That's all that's in the box.

and uh, we've got pocket spreadsheet module. there you go. made in the UK made in the Old Dart Hi to all my UK viewers and there you go there. Obviously you know it was like that program pack uh system.

And here is the Scion organizer. I Always wanted one of these I lust after these things when I was a a youngster and uh, it's it's no, this one doesn't Oh here we go there it is. Yes. I Remember this I L lusted after these things.

These were before like they were more for um uh, industrial. um these Scion um organizers and there were other brands as well I can't remember but they were really big in the industrial uh scene for industrial control and where wouse inventory systems and you can get barcode scanners and all sorts of uh stuff for them. And there's the there's the program packs they just slide into there nice I like it and uh yeah, these were big made in the UK back in their day. the model CM brilliant Yeah, these weren't really uh consumer type things back then there we go.

oh it's a Pp3 9V there you go. It' be interesting to uh, measure the current consumption of that thing. It's probably not much at all. Let's try and measure the uh power consumption of this thing.

First of all, standby: I've got it on microamp uh range here set to 9 volts and uh I'll try I'll have to hold it in there. it's a bit annoying so let's because it's got a soft uh power button. it'll uh, it won't power on automatically but it'll go into standby and there's a initial Uh current surge there cuz that's like an internal cap charging up and then it's it's going down down. looks like it's settling around 55 microamps standby and if you do the math on that, a standard alkaline um 9vt batteries I think around 800 milliamp hours or something like that.

um so if we uh, do 55 uh, microamps, um standby then the standby consumption is going to be like 14,000 hours. It's h Huge. It's basically uh, shelf life of the battery. Let's try and get this thing when it Powers up shall we? It's going to be hard I got to hold it hey.

Copyright Scion 1986 Brilliant English French Spanish Oh, what happened there? Something horrible happened. Maybe I took my finger off there. Anyway, we're talking 3.3 milliamps Beautiful. Can I get down there and press execute on that.

Maybe. Oh, there we go. fine. Save diary C prog erase Brilliant.

Anyway, it draws uh, 3.3 milliamps. And once again, if you do the math, uh, 800 Milah hour roughly for the battery assuming that you know you're the usable capacity. all that sort of stuff. 3.3 milliamps.

You know you're going to get a couple hundred hours use out of this thing. Brilliant. So thank you very much Frederick That's absolutely awesome I Always wanted one of these. Oh fantastic Now I got one and we've got a, um, you know, a chronological history of, uh, these sort of devices.

It's going to be really interesting to do the tear down I'm clearly not going to do it for the mail bag, but uh, definitely tear down Tuesday Material Thanks Frederick And uh, remember, if you want to, uh, send me stuff. the address was at the start there. Send me anything you want. Pretty much no more lingerie.

Thanks guys. But uh, if you enjoyed it, please give it a big thumbs up. If you enjoy the mailbag segment and um, if you want to discuss it, jump on over to the Eev blog Forum Made in the UK Catch you later.