Author Topic: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag  (Read 17139 times)

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Offline gardner

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #25 on: September 05, 2017, 06:40:14 pm »
Please Dave, make another video of just the tester and compare it to some of your good gear, its an interesting piece of gear and many in the forum like it.

Agreed.  I was quite surprised to see Dave first not realise what it was and then go on to dismiss it so quickly as worthless crap -- after putting two different dead 9V batteries in it.  Maybe he was just in a bad mood after futzing with that IOT POS.

I think these are almost magical little gadgets that are super useful for identifying and testing recycled parts.  Much as I wish I could, I cannot justify owning a real LCR meter, but one of these doodads at $15 seems to do the business better than some of the cheaper ones I see reviewed.
--- Gardner
 

Offline Dubbie

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #26 on: September 05, 2017, 08:05:34 pm »
I have a lot of good gear in my lab and my stupid little $20 component tester is definitely in my top 3 most used tools. Probably behind my multimeter and my scope. So handy as a quick check when making repairs or double checking random components when throwing together a prototype on a breadboard. Often I can't be bothered looking up a part number and just know I want an NPN bjt, so I'll just grab what's nearest and shove it in to get the pinout and confirm that it really is a npn bjt.
 
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Offline b_force

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #27 on: September 05, 2017, 08:56:21 pm »
I have a lot of good gear in my lab and my stupid little $20 component tester is definitely in my top 3 most used tools. Probably behind my multimeter and my scope. So handy as a quick check when making repairs or double checking random components when throwing together a prototype on a breadboard. Often I can't be bothered looking up a part number and just know I want an NPN bjt, so I'll just grab what's nearest and shove it in to get the pinout and confirm that it really is a npn bjt.
Exactly this.

Offline Macbeth

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #28 on: September 05, 2017, 09:14:53 pm »
Please Dave, make another video of just the tester and compare it to some of your good gear, its an interesting piece of gear and many in the forum like it.

Agreed.  I was quite surprised to see Dave first not realise what it was and then go on to dismiss it so quickly as worthless crap -- after putting two different dead 9V batteries in it.  Maybe he was just in a bad mood after futzing with that IOT POS.

I think these are almost magical little gadgets that are super useful for identifying and testing recycled parts.  Much as I wish I could, I cannot justify owning a real LCR meter, but one of these doodads at $15 seems to do the business better than some of the cheaper ones I see reviewed.

It's astonishing that Dave doesn't even know what this is, despite in it's many configurations being instantly recognisable and probably the most popular cheap device ever for the world's budding electronic engineers and hobbyists. It has everything going for it including the longest running thread on EEVBlog itself ever.

Has Dave/EEVBlog jumped the shark?

I'm hoping he was just pissed off and narky because of his man-flu.  :-DD
 
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Offline HKJ

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Offline Dubbie

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EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #30 on: September 05, 2017, 11:55:14 pm »
All those links now seem to be broken HKJ
 

Offline ChrisLX200

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #31 on: September 06, 2017, 12:10:57 am »
I have looked at these small component testers some time ago:

http://lygte-info.dk/review/ComponentTester%20Fish8840%20UK.html
http://lygte-info.dk/review/ComponentTester%20MK-168%20UK.html
http://lygte-info.dk/review/ComponentTester%20Multifunction%20Tester%20T1%20UK.html

And the more professional Peak:
LCR: http://lygte-info.dk/review/ComponentTester%20Peak%20LCR45.html
Semiconductor: http://lygte-info.dk/review/ComponentTester%20Peak%20DCA75%20UK.html

Thanks for that, I have the third example you listed above and find it a very useful tool. Also cheap enough not to cry over should it self-destruct for some reason. The Peak models don't seem to offer much for the extra cost - and to get the full range of functions you essentially need to buy two different instruments.
 

Offline b_force

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #32 on: September 06, 2017, 12:21:56 am »
All those links now seem to be broken HKJ
Work totally fine here.

Offline Dubbie

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #33 on: September 06, 2017, 01:11:08 am »
Maybe it's because I am on tapatalk
 

Offline bjcuizon

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #34 on: September 06, 2017, 02:44:51 am »
Today's springy type speaker connectors were obviously "under development" at the time. ;)
Why didn't they use binding posts though?...As they were around since 1905ish. Are they concerned with the safety of the user? Well, they didn't use this in PA gear (with high output voltages), did they?

No, they were mainly used on those low-cost 3in1 (Record player, Tapedeck, Radio) Hifi units of the time that came with matching speakers, where you couldn't trust the owner to connect the leads the correct way around if you used seperate posts. We're not talking high-end gear here, just this type of low-end rubbish.

McBryce.
Right, I get your point.
Don't mess with an Electronics Engineer, it Megahertz!
 

Offline GreggD

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #35 on: September 06, 2017, 01:46:53 pm »
Did you see those SynCor power bricks, the inductors use pcb traces for windings. @time 14:20
Oh! You did see that.

Suppose all those FPGAs are on a single JTAG chain ?
You don't tent vias if you want to probe or bed of nails the board and there is no good reason to do so unless it is wave soldered (frown-ey face)
 

Offline Towger

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #36 on: September 06, 2017, 02:09:12 pm »
Those speaker connections on the Polish tuner were the standard speaker connection on most cheap European Hifi gear in the 80's and 90's. The connector looked like this. What was used in Australia?

Probably the exact same.  I think Dave was pulling our leg when he did not recognize a bog standard 2 Pin DIN socket.  They were used for all sorts of stuff, 'back in the day'.  More recently Ikea have been using them for their clip on gooseneck LED lamps.
 

Online Fungus

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #37 on: September 06, 2017, 02:32:06 pm »
Probably the exact same.  I think Dave was pulling our leg when he did not recognize a bog standard 2 Pin DIN socket. 

Maybe they don't have them in Australia.

I remember seeing them on just about every cheap stereo in the 1980s (here in Europe at least).
« Last Edit: September 06, 2017, 03:10:58 pm by Fungus »
 

Offline Brumby

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #38 on: September 06, 2017, 03:05:56 pm »
You won't see them much today - but they were not uncommon around the 70s and 80s.
 

Offline b_force

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #39 on: September 06, 2017, 03:19:19 pm »
Deutsches Institut für Normung.

So not totally weird that Aussies and Kiwis are not very familiar with it  ;D
Horrible plugs btw.

Offline Cerebus

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #40 on: September 06, 2017, 04:12:45 pm »
To cut Dave some slack, the function of the  AVR multitester isn't obvious if you don't know what it is, and the user interface doesn't give any particularly helpful clues.

On the other hand, he's dead wrong about that being a proper 3M TexTool socket. It's a (good) knock-off, I have a bunch of them. A genuine TexTool socket costs more than that whole board, even if you buy them in massive quantities.
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 

Offline tzok

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #41 on: September 06, 2017, 08:35:17 pm »
The Polish meter you showed was an Mera UM-203 Multimeter. It was meant rather for amateur usage. They were produced for about 10 years, between 1981 and 1991. Back then Poland was a people's republic (not really communistic, yet under a heavy influence of Soviet Union), and our technical level was very low, Soviets delegated us to produce food and some heavy industry products (like trains and ships).

As for the meters - they were not so bad for their price. In mid '80s they started to produce electronic meter in the same chassis. They were UM-Z2 and UM-Z3, both based on ULY7741 (locally manufactured uA741 clone) with 50k?/V and 100k?/V internal resistance. We've also produced a professional analog meters like UM-110 (10M?, uA776 based) and UM-112 (20k?/V) and famous V640 (for export they were branded Marconi TF-2650 or Convay model 639). As our money has no value in western world, we payed with these meters for components and patents we used.

Here's my collection of Polish multimeters:


From the top left: OM4, OM-V, UM-200, UM-202; UM-203, UM-206, UM-207, UM-221; UM-Z2, UM-Z3.

If you are interested in multimeters made in former People's Republic of Poland please visit my webpage: http://multimetry.tzok.eu/
« Last Edit: September 06, 2017, 08:58:05 pm by tzok »
 
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Offline Falcon69

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Re: EEVblog #1019 - Mailbag
« Reply #42 on: September 07, 2017, 01:37:57 am »
22nd July 2028, totality passes straight over Sydney 04:00 UT and it's a four minute long beauty.

I might have to be there!!

4 minutes of totality? wow!

It lasted less than 2 minutes here, and was only about 95% or so here in Portland, OR. It darkened the sky and made the shadows of my chain-link fence look like they were moving on the ground. I'm guessing because of the rays coming from the sun?! That was kinda cool.

The shadows through the trees and bushes were all crescent shaped. Like a bunch of little half circles everywhere.   The sky was twilight, almost dark, was kinda eerie being in the middle of the day. But, it wasn't like the twilight like you see near dusk. It was kinda strange, almost hypnotic. And no, I wasn't drinking.  My nephew went up on the mountain. He said He looked across Portland and could see the shadow creeping across.

If I had been able to drive to Salem, I would have seen it in totality and actually seen the stars out. But traffic was just horrible. There was like a million more people on the road traveling from all over (California/Washington, Nevada, etc.) to come see it.  Traffic was horrible. Took my friends nearly 6 hours to make the 45-60 minute drive back from Salem. So I'm glad I stayed in Portland. Would have been nice to see totality, but I remember seeing it when I was 4 years old in 1979. I'll see it again. They say one occurs every 18 months or so somewhere across the planet.

Maybe I'll save up and take a trip to Australia and see 4 minutes of it when it happens in 2028.

Dave, FYI, those are Forever stamps. Meaning a letter (basically with the weight of the envelope and about 3 or 4 pieces of letter size paper), you can mail within the US forever with one of those. Even if they raise the cost of shipping said letter to 50 bucks!

NivagSwerdna was very nice to go halves in on the cost and shipping it to ya.

Hope ya enjoy them.

Jason
 


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