EEVblog #899 - Extreme Mailbag

[EEVblog]

Extreme Mailbag!
2 minutes per mailbag item, can Dave do it?



SPOILERS:
Hobby Creek Pana Hand: http://amzn.to/2a3Grl2
PCB Rax from BenchWerks: https://store-benchwerx-com.3dcartstores.com/
SwissMicros HP Calculator replacements. Voyager landscape format scientific calcultors to replace the HP15C, HP16C, and HP41CX
https://www.swissmicros.com
Equil EMF Radation protection device Bullshit
Semikron IGBT hybrid VFD drivers bridge teradown,
https://www.semikron.com/products/product-lines/skiip.html
Silicon Labs Blue Gecko Bluetooth Smart Module Wireless Starter Kit:
https://www.silabs.com/products/wireless/bluetooth/Pages/bluegecko-bluetooth-smart-module-wireless-starter-kit.aspx
Low Jitter 10MHz Reference Clock:
http://www.bloguetronica.com/2016/05
Old ISA Bus POST Card
Simpson 269 High Sensitivity Volt-Ohm-Microammeter
Custom brass Widlarizer Hammer
GEVCU - the Generalized Electric Vehicle Control Unit
http://www.gevcu.org/
Garmin Edge 800 GPS
ISDN NT1 Teardown
DIY Custom Clock
http://www.eevblog.com/files/DigitalClockSchematic-DaniusKalvaitis.pdf
EEroots.com Integrated development platform
http://www.eeroots.com/EEroots.com Arduino

[dr.diesel]

That Simpson 269 is absolutely worth a complete series (2-3 eps maybe) of videos on restoration.  Very very cool.   

[ECEdesign]

Wonder if Chris has any more of those shirts they are pretty cool

[imidis]

Yeah, I like the normal format better myself. 

[dentaku]

It turned out better than I thought it would, I like not having to watch you open boxes but some of it seemed rushed.

Do this when you have an overwhelming backlog of stuff but otherwise I'm fine with your usual level of waffle.

[retrolefty]

Hey, I like this new 'fast food' version of the mailbag. No more watching you use a screwdriver, just get to the porn part. 

[boffin]

I'm going to say stick with the old format. I found it a bit too rushed. It is a bit like your channel in microcosm. I want the stuff I am interested in to go longer and I don't mind you rushing the stuff I am less interested in. The only advantage to rushing things would be to get through the backlog but you didn't do that so what is the point. I'll still skip past things that don't interest me so length is never an issue. Definitely no need to insert sped-up video in the mailbag.

I like to see the postcards. Inserting a full frame scanned image for a few seconds would be nice.

it seemed rushed to me.  Sort of like Dave on a lot of cups of coffee.

GOOD:
high-speed trying to cut into the box.  I like the fast-forward effect on (tricky) box opening, on 23 screws holding something down etc.

BAD:
lack of detail on anything

If I had to vote one way or the other, let's go with OLD FORMAT [X]

[10101]

Vote:

old format [X]

for the reasons given above 

[Roboshack]

Dave, it might be a bit overkill but maybe you can adapt the GEVCU for your Sinclair C5. It is easier and cheaper to mod something than it is to restore it.

My vote is for the old format.

[bktemp]

I prefer the old format. If something was boring I skipped forward, but now interesting stuff is simply missing because Dave skipped it.

If you look at the wiring of the IGBT module you can easily identify a 3 phase rectifier at the left, an IGBT + diode in the middle (braking chopper?) and the 3 phase halfbridge at the right side.
Semikron also makes custom modules. I found a similar looking module inside an online UPS. All power semiconductors for up/down conversion and even the bypass triac was on a single module.

[Towger]

Dave, it might be a bit overkill but maybe you can adapt the GEVCU for your Sinclair C5. It is easier and cheaper to mod something than it is to restore it.

My vote is for the old format.

+ and +

It would be nice to see the C5 restored, maybe by the time Saga would get use from it  Over all it seamed a little too rushed.  You could easily spend an hour+ on the on the principles and operation of the VFD drive, maybe in a separate episode.
Is Chris supposed to visit you this year, how about a two man episode/series along the lines of the microphone series with Doug?

Edit: As the saying goes, get him to sing for his supper [emoji57]

[vk2amv]

it seemed rushed to me.  Sort of like Dave on a lot of cups of coffee.

Agreed

GOOD:
high-speed trying to cut into the box.  I like the fast-forward effect on (tricky) box opening, on 23 screws holding something down etc.

Agreed 100%, that is one improvement at least.

BAD:
lack of detail on anything
If I had to vote one way or the other, let's go with OLD FORMAT [X]

Agreed completly.

If given the choice between the new format and the old format I vote the old format.

Though if given a third choice then I vote somwehere in between as per Boffin's post.

[StuUK]

I want the stuff I am interested in to go longer and I don't mind you rushing the stuff I am less interested in.

You'd better compile a personal interest list for Dave for your personal gratification then, otherwise how's he going to know what you like 

[T3sl4co1l]

I like it. I find myself fast-forwarding through things I don't much care about, or that I get the gist of, and on several occasions here, I found myself waiting it out instead of jumping ahead.


Hmm...  Structured video would be great, but that doesn't exist.  There's no way to do that without having people click constantly.  I suppose the easiest way would be to add a "jump to next item" annotation.  A "click here to see the teardown" (link to a separate video) would be great, but, you do that anyway (for the most interesting items), and those are entire extra videos, which would be a ton of extra work, so...

Tim

[Pinkus]

I prefer the old format. If something was boring I skipped forward, but now interesting stuff is simply missing because Dave skipped it.

+1

[Halcyon]

I think we can take a little from the old format and a little from the new one.

In the old format I thought there was too much time wasted actually cutting tape, opening boxes etc... more often than not I actually skipped that part so I could get to the good stuff (letters, postcards and the items enclosed).

Another point for the new format was that there were more items in the mailbag (which is a good way to get the pile down).

But, I think there should certainly be more than two minutes spent on the more interesting items (unless you plan to do a separate teardown), this is where the old format wins.

EDIT: Maybe come Christmas, you could do a "Santa's sack" mailbag episode where you've pre-opened the boxes and pull the items randomly out of a large sack? I think we'd all love to see you in a Santa hat.

[viila]

Another vote for the old format from me. You can be more discriminating when picking items to dedicate more time to than before, but definitely some items deserve more.

Especially the first industrial controller in the mailbag felt really rushed. It was like listening to a shopping list: "Atmel micro, motorola, interface card, d-connector, relay, resistor network, done!" 

[mairo]

The Atmel IC labelled VACON is probably related to VACON VSDs, which I think is part of Danfoss Group now.

[Dataforensics]

I think it was far too rushed and a little unfair to the people taking the time and trouble to send the stuff (although less so to the commercial samples seeking some advertising).
Mostly prefer the older slower format, although I would cut out the actual cutting of and fighting with the packaging using the mostly unsuitable tool. Still Dave likes to use the knife and seems to have fun doing so.

[Barny]

I may be a little bit old-fashion.

But I don't like the whole "extreme" thing.
I liked the whole mailbag section because there where manny different things shown in detail.
And that was exactly the thing that was different from other channels.

This mailbag looked a little bit rushed and was missing the whole interesting stuff when Dave found some interesting in a mailbag and took his time to make a mini-tear down and explain it.

If the whole Mailbag-thing is to slow for someone, there is a fast forwad funktion in the youtube player.
Sadly, there is no "show the interesting details" button in the player when they got cut out.

And the answer to the cell phone tear down:
Yes, it would be interesting to see the evolution of mobil phones in a tear down.

[woox2k]

Another +1 for the old format!
Speeding up unwrapping stuff is the only thing that's acceptable in the new format for me but i managed to live with it so far so theres no reason not to continue doing so. Like many others have said Youtube let's us skip things that do not interest us, so having a long video shouldn't bother anyone. Also it seemed you shot clips like in the old format and then just cut the "uninteresting" parts out of it. So you spend the same amount of time shooting the mailbag and probably bit more when editing to generate shorter video that has less content in it that might interest people... not a good way to go on.

[TheAmmoniacal]

Old format for me as well, feels a lot more natural. You should spend more time on the things that catches your attention and curiosity, less on the stuff that doesn't.

If you get another old mobile phone, chuck it in the bin asap!

When you get the old Simpson, spend a few minutes troubleshooting - see if it's worthwhile or not ('conclude' the item).

[tautech]

 
Like the quick overview Dave.

[Fungus]

Nah, didn't like it.

A fixed amount of time for every item can never work - all items aren't equal. eg. That multimeter could have had a lot more time spent on it.

If the mail is piling up then it's time to admit there's simply too much of it and some stuff gets no airtime. Maybe the last two minutes of the mailbag could be all the stuff you opened but decided not to spend any time on. Just pile it up on the table so people can see their stuff.

PS: Phones? No thanks. Not unless they're something really non-generic. Same goes for Walkmen, etc.

[techie1234]

it seemed rushed to me.  Sort of like Dave on a lot of cups of coffee.

I didn't watch but rather listened to the episode - and that's exactly what it sounded like without the visuals!  I say keep the old format as well.