Author Topic: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag  (Read 22004 times)

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Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« on: March 10, 2015, 02:22:08 pm »
A monster Mailbag, with extra waffle and advice for youngsters.

SPOILERS:
GPS based Back To The Future speedometer display
http://firmtec.co.uk/
Manual SMD Pick & Place reeling tool: https://www.tindie.com/stores/FemtoCow/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/femtocow/manual-smd-soldering-trays
Cypress Semiconductor PSoC Bluetooth Low Energy demo kit
http://www.cypress.com/?rid=102636&utm_source=PSoC_BLE_PioneerKit_Banner&utm_medium=Cypress_Homepage_Banner&utm_campaign=BLELaunch
PCB Backlit calendar
Geoaching waypoint altitude decoder
Who do strain gauges work?
Vintage components from the cold war eastern bloc
Radio Shack T-Shits: http://www.radioshack.com/t-shirts

 

Offline Moondeck

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2015, 02:28:48 pm »
First :D Great one Dave
« Last Edit: March 10, 2015, 02:40:37 pm by Moondeck »
I'm selling 100ml bottles of free energy, PM me for pricing.
 

Offline kayvee

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2015, 02:48:38 pm »
T-Shits  :-DD
 

Offline Towger

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2015, 03:10:19 pm »
Not available in safety mode. WTF. ...
 

Offline Barny

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2015, 03:33:48 pm »
Quote
24:00 -> Can anyone translate it?
The English text below the German text is a 1:1 translation.
I think, the other text is also a 1:1 translation.
 

Offline mrkva

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #5 on: March 10, 2015, 03:49:44 pm »
I for one like the recycled envelopes. I hate separating the plastic bubble wrap from the paper part, so I can put it into paper & plastic recycling bins.  :-+
 

Offline Hydrawerk

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2015, 03:57:03 pm »
That TDS3000 scope is still inverted.  ;)
Amazing machines. https://www.youtube.com/user/denha (It is not me...)
 

Offline optionen100

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #7 on: March 10, 2015, 04:05:05 pm »
Its sad they dont sell the GPS Speedo anymore....i think it was 2012 when they shut down the Shop.
Had to build one without GPS myself   :P
 

Offline Howardlong

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #8 on: March 10, 2015, 04:18:58 pm »
Isopropyl alcohol works well at removing permie marker.
 

Offline German_EE

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #9 on: March 10, 2015, 05:09:05 pm »
Who do strain gauges work?

Also the link to the backlit calendar is missing.
Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

Warren Buffett
 

Offline Neverther

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #10 on: March 10, 2015, 05:12:54 pm »
The 6145 bluetooth module looked too similar.

It is crap, atleast mine was. The firmware installed only gave option for mono audio output, where I needed the hands free and audio protocols.

Here are the pinouts on the module, function and in the parenthesis is the pin on chip itself.
Bonus pic of breadboard mounted one where I discovered it being not what it was advertised as.
Datasheets for the chip itself are easy to find.
 

Offline daqq

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #11 on: March 10, 2015, 06:18:06 pm »
Hi Dave,

Thanks for the mailbag. On the bag from Slovakia:

Tesla was the Czechoslovakian state company that made all things electronical - from resistors through radios, computers to military radars. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_%28company%29 . A lot of the components and systems made were copies of their western equivalent - we had a 8080 and all its friends. See http://hackaday.com/2014/12/15/home-computers-behind-the-iron-curtain/

After the fall of the regime the company desintegrated into smaller companies through stealing, privatization, stealing, management incompetence and in many cases just the market being opened and slow reactions to the new conditions :( Sad really. There are still offshoots of it though.

edit:
By the way, when in doubt as to a particular spelling, try the text to speech button on https://translate.google.com/# . Works generally close enough.
David
« Last Edit: March 10, 2015, 06:19:52 pm by daqq »
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Offline TASK

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #12 on: March 10, 2015, 06:26:50 pm »
Hello Dave!
Zdravím všechny Cechy a Slováky! : -)

I really like to see someone sending stuff from our "brother" republic Slovakia.

TESLA was our national Czechoslovakian firm, yeah big stuff. There was Tesla fabric in every big town. They still exist today but they do only satellite stuff etc..
They made everything, televisions, speakers, gramophones... Im a really big fan of it. (there is a lot of people collecting tesla stuff).
I am collecting speakers from Tesla. I also have a speakers from cinema! You can chech some out in my room http://task-ava.rajce.idnes.cz/Pokoj/
And here is my osciloscope (not working, there is really a lot of things missing) it have about 50 vacuum tubes!
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/117801715606905349610/albums/5967707300492847329 <- here is old photos where i take it apart and fixing something.
And even your favourite things! (tesla have really lot calculators, even with printers)
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/117801715606905349610/albums/5953683264834643361

Today really a lot people collecting tesla things, someones is doing it just for money...
I have an Tesla ARS 844 wich is like 2nd best speakers you can get back in the day to home. Theyre price today is like something about 10 000 crowns (about 450$)
http://task-ava.rajce.idnes.cz/Tesla_ARS_844

Please if you have some times, you can check a lot of my stuff here
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/+TaskTesla1/albums
And newer photos here
http://task-ava.rajce.idnes.cz/

Im really thinking to send you something, i have a lot of stuff from tesla. They do really good things, but they was really limitated by the regime back in the day.



btw that RFT loged thing - RFT is german firm : )

Have a nice day! : )

Offline elgonzo

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #13 on: March 10, 2015, 07:48:51 pm »
btw that RFT loged thing - RFT is german firm : )

Incoming nitpick >:D
RFT was a brand and name of an East German association of producers; it was not the name of a single company. :)
RFT is the abbreviation for "Rundfunk- und Fernmelde-Technik" (Broadcasting and telecommunication technologies).
 

Offline HighVoltage

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #14 on: March 10, 2015, 08:10:34 pm »

TESLA was our national Czechoslovakian firm, yeah big stuff. There was Tesla fabric in every big town. They still exist today but they do only satellite stuff etc..


I came across this TESLA company at the last electronica 2014 in Munich.
They presented themselves a a manufacturer for large high power, low ohm resistors and they showed a lot of automotive electronic parts.
There are 3 kinds of people in this world, those who can count and those who can not.
 

Offline Jacko

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #15 on: March 10, 2015, 08:15:31 pm »
Dave,

Alcohol will get the permanent marker off the mat. The sooner you clean it; the better it will work.

regards, Jack
 

Offline DanielS

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #16 on: March 10, 2015, 08:21:00 pm »
That TDS3000 scope is still inverted.  ;)
That's how you invert all four inputs at the same time!
 

Offline Zbig

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #17 on: March 10, 2015, 08:23:37 pm »
You can chech some out in my room http://task-ava.rajce.idnes.cz/Pokoj/

You have one hard rocking rabbit in there, it seems.
 

Offline aargee

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #18 on: March 10, 2015, 08:51:10 pm »
What do you mean, the TDS3000 is still inverted? It's the only Australian model there.
Not easy, not hard, just need to be incentivised.
 

Offline German_EE

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #19 on: March 10, 2015, 08:54:11 pm »
I know that we all like some music now and again, but I am so glad that Zbig is not my neighbor  :)
Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

Warren Buffett
 

Offline daqq

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #20 on: March 10, 2015, 09:09:23 pm »

TESLA was our national Czechoslovakian firm, yeah big stuff. There was Tesla fabric in every big town. They still exist today but they do only satellite stuff etc..


I came across this TESLA company at the last electronica 2014 in Munich.
They presented themselves a a manufacturer for large high power, low ohm resistors and they showed a lot of automotive electronic parts.
The one you saw was one of the many Teslas that still exist - well, rather parts of it, though the ownership is different and the entities that are left are mostly separate. For instance:

http://www.tesla.sk/sk/-about-us
http://www.teslalh.sk/web/index.php?open=3&id_menu=3&lng=eng
http://www.jj-electronic.com/ (electron tubes and stuff)
http://www.sev-litovel.cz/en/ (hi fi gear)
...

There are many parts that have been bought of by other companies.
Believe it or not, pointy haired people do exist!
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Offline mrkev

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #21 on: March 10, 2015, 09:26:19 pm »
Hi, I was really surprised that you've never heard about Tesla. In the USSR times, each socialistic region had one manufacturer that did basically everything F.e. in Yugoslavia, there was Iskra, in Czechoslovakia, there was Tesla.

They made everything from TVs, radios, audio reproduction systems (stuff for whole TV and radio broadcast - like TV cameras, amps, transmitters), small components, discrete parts, logic & analog IOs, oscilloscopes (I have one that goes up to 120MHz right on my bench),  precise measurement stuff, even their own computers (some things were often copied or build around some western part that was hard to make here). A lot of stuff they made was (and still is) legendary here, like f.e. tantalum caps (even after 30 years, still better than some new ones) and those cermet trimmers you've got.

TESLA as company didn't make it after the velvet revolution, IMHO mainly because it was company that could work like it did only under communism - it was kind of utopia based system  ;) ...
In which they basically designed without feedback. They produced huge number of devices and components that didn't have ANY economical potential (far too expensive, low demand or better equivalent already present on the market), often used old technologies and therefore had high expenses (f.e. they had to measure each part if it meets the spec as >10% didn't). Some accurate things were hard to make, so they made it just stable (temp.,time) and measured it with very precision tools - You could've buy "precision" resistor that had 10.5317xxx ohms (but you wouldn't be able to find another one with that value), two perfectly matched transistors, or zener diodes marked as f.e. 5.8563V. Best thing I saw was one zener diode and one normal diode together in series matched so they have almost 0 temp. drift. (sold as one part). And yes, they did that with a bunch of people who measured and selected those devices whole day long, by hand - after all, in communism, everybody had (and have to had) a job and people had to work somewhere and do something...
 
Btw. that marking on the MHB8255 at 22:18 is two crossed swords. Those parts were designated for army as they were measured as better than spec. standard. And since TESLA (as every other communistic company) was owned by state, army took those parts right away from the process.

A lot of former TESLA property was sold to big companies that make electronics, big part was taken over by ON-Semi (they make sil. wafers and design devices for switching apps and automotive stuff), and Honey Well (they make electronics for industrial boilers and other stuff).
« Last Edit: March 11, 2015, 03:26:28 am by mrkev »
 

Offline kjn4685

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #22 on: March 10, 2015, 09:50:28 pm »
Hey guys thanks for sharing. Very interesting stuff.
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #23 on: March 10, 2015, 10:25:46 pm »
Isopropyl alcohol works well at removing permie marker.

Not on rubber ESD mats it doesn't.
 

Offline TASK

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Re: EEVblog #722 - Mailbag
« Reply #24 on: March 10, 2015, 10:51:39 pm »
Yeah they do that sort of stuff, even for army.

There is today too a tesla what makes a products for kitchen etc. but this is an some china firm that buy logo tesla for that... Pile of crap.

btw. thanks for correcting me on that RFT :)
« Last Edit: March 10, 2015, 10:56:28 pm by TASK »
 


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