EEVblog #686 - Mailbag

[nitro2k01]

A monster sized high definition 50fps Mailbag, with two special guest helpers!

SPOILERS:
uRad Radiation Monitor (Hack A Day Prize entry)
http://www.uradmonitor.com/

VFD Displays

Norand Pen Key 6100 USPS tablet computer
http://www.opalgmbh.de/datasheet/Inte...

Sagem & Keycorp EFTPOST pinpad

Electric Imp Internet of Things
http://electricimp.com/

Romanian MAVO30 Analog Multimeter

Casio FX-31 Calculator

2PrintBeta DIY BAM & DICE 3D Printer Controller for the Arduino Mega

[Porto]

Nice video! 

LOL @ 'the Unser Team' (= our team!)


PS: Mr. Wong for President! 

[nitro2k01]

Not your imagination! Let's increase the contrast a little. TIME NOW and AVG.

[MagFlux]

I have directed my purchasing department to add the Wun Hung-Lo Factory to our Preferred Vendor List of custom battery chargers. If they're good enough for Canon, they're good enough for us.

[84GKSIG]

mini blade fuses, I like that idea ill start using that when I run out of glass tube holders  as awesome dave awesome video, im getting ready to send you something for mail bag as well

[Flump]

i am not able to watch on the 1080p50 HD setting
as it goes all jerky, it's not a bandwidth problem
must be my video card i guess.

and dave sounds double hyper on 2x speed 

[84GKSIG]

^^ im having issues with my video card as well regardless of browser, net and computer are both fast enough had to push it down to 720 for it to be watchable for me 
full hd max frames even causes my audio to glitch with only half cpu usage

[RobertoLG]

Greetings EEVblog family

worked just fine for me, no issues with firefox 

[david77]

Those old analogue meters often used a transformer for the low AC ranges to transform the low voltages up before rectifying them. That was done to get a high enough voltage to turn the (often germanium) diodes on and to get into a more linear part of the rectifiers Vf/If curves.

In this romanian meter the transformer is used as a current transformer for the amps ranges, though.

[miguelvp]

When did the scope changed to right side up? I guess I didn't pay attention on the previous ones, but it's the first thing I noticed in this one.

[Detritus]

Dave,

I'd love to be able to watch your videos in 50 or 60 fps, I'd love the smoother video. The problem is my connection is awful out here in sticks and it just can't keep up with the higher data rates. A lot of mobile viewers will have the same issue.

[EEVblog]

I'd love to be able to watch your videos in 50 or 60 fps, I'd love the smoother video. The problem is my connection is awful out here in sticks and it just can't keep up with the higher data rates. A lot of mobile viewers will have the same issue.

You would be made to watch full HD on a mobile.
Nothing changes here, 720p, 480p etc at the normal 30fps are all still available.

[TheEnd]

The options I see are -

1080⁵⁰
720⁵⁰
480
... right down to glorious 144..

There doesn't seem to be a 720 (30fps) but it could be locality or connection dependent.

Certainly looks good in 50fps, it's a strange effect when you suddenly realise how choppy it was compared to now.


edit- ignore me.. as I'm just at the bit where Dave explains it...

[SL4P]

OK - here's  a new slant.    Content is far more important than the technology used to deliver it - even in a tech blog.

Sure - I can use 1.5Gbps HD-SDI to view EEVblog, but the information and personality that shines through has nothing to do with the 1920x1080 or 720x576 pixels 50i, 50p, ATSC, NTSC, PAL, ABC soup.   Stereo, quad, 5.1, 7.1
- To borrow from Dave' --- Who cares?

Marshall McLuhan (look him up) had it figured, but we've all trampled down the path of consumption over relevance.  Good on ya'

[Macbeth]

I have 100Mbps download - the last few videos in 1080 I had to switch down to 720p to stop the jitter. This video was perfectly good in all its glory. Though I doubt 60fps or even 1080p is really necessary for this kind of content.

I did like the cameo roles from SWMBO (with that Croc Dundee Bowie knife - haha - shame your Sheila only got to wield the craft knife in the video)

Also your good lad Sagan. I can imagine him presenting his own electronics vids for his peer group in a few years  Keep him interested

[delmadord]

Hello,
was there a spark gap in style you mentioned in one of the recent video on the motor board on 16:06 ?

Also an Electric Imp was mentioned on Hackaday a long time ago, seems to me that some superior IoT solutions popped out since then. Is there a really good software ecosystem around it to stand it out of the crowd or something?

The end of the video was hilarious  Great episode!

[LoyalServant]

Okay... the Wun Hung-Lo is a friggin riot. 

Whoever did that.... I love you.
I would frame that letter..... it's just classic.

[orion242]

Wun Hung-Lo

You have to be $hiting me.....

 

[Stonent]

Might be a bit hard to get much radiation through the uRad case. Info on the SBM20 tube used: http://www.gstube.com/data/2398/

I don't like that he is giving uSv as a measurement. You cannot calculate uSv unless you know what you're sampling, you can only count ticks.  Basically like trying to calculate traffic by counting vehicles and not accounting for mopeds vs big Kenworth trucks being different.

The standard is to calibrate against CS137. But then you can only read Sieverts for CS137 accurately. Sort of like saying you know the watts but don't know both volts and amps.

[Whales]

Representing the tiny proportion of Dave's audience that sometimes uses a video player, not a web browser, to watch videos:



All good at 50FPS here   No ad revenue for Dave though 

[84GKSIG]

can always contribute in other ways

[miguelvp]

So you are saying that the quality overall is good? because that's what the idiom refers to.

[Whales]

A continuation of my 50 hert experience: not much.  It didn't really bring anything to making the videos more enjoyable.

RE file size: IIRC doubling the frame-rate does not make an amazing impact on file-size as most of the 'extra' data is very similar to the frames either side of it (ie very little unique data is added compared to eg doubling the length of the video).

Side note: the highest quality YT provides (1920x1080 at 5541k per sec, 60fps) is also not worth it.  I think it's a higher quality preset than the original footage Dave recorded, or so close that the layers of video compression have rendered it no better than the other versions.  Most of all Dave's depth of focus seems to be very small so you have to tolerate the occasional blurriness anyway


[opinion]
@the ending sequence.  Some of the ideas were funny, but it does seem a little offensive in its generalisation of all Chinese products to be bad.  The language in the letter is not funny at all: this felt forced.

By all means keep up interesting gags and jokes, and if you are not the creator of jokes its great to play along with them, but I can see how mojo has had some issues in this particular case.  Be angry at my intolerance, it's just my few cents.
[/opinion]

[Hade]

Would have loved to see you get some characters appearing on that VFD display.

[iampoor]

I think Dave gets paid even if you don't see ads. At least, I hope so because I always watch on my Panasonic smart TV and it never shows any ads.

Regarding the video content... The bit at the end was borderline. Reminded me of those 1950s racist movies where they laugh at the funny little Chinese/Japanese man and his broken English and primitive ways. I know it's just a joke, but jeez...  I sort of wonder if in 20 or 30 years we will see nig-nog jokes come back as Africa starts to take over the low end of manufacturing, but perhaps the larger number of black people and decades of civil rights movements will be enough to prevent it.

Not cool bro. 

Borderline? I dont see how poking fun at the stereotypes of culture is offensive. Truth is the truth. I don think the Chinese are less intelligent (nor was that implied), but our languages are so different, it is mildly amusing to read. Whats next? Redneck jokes about Americans will become hateful?