Author Topic: News from Tinkertubes Lab  (Read 20436 times)

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Offline Radio Tech

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #25 on: October 26, 2016, 12:05:30 pm »
Will be watching this.

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« Last Edit: October 27, 2016, 01:01:53 am by Radio Tech »
 
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Offline YsjoelfirTopic starter

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #26 on: November 04, 2016, 02:17:27 pm »
Will be watching this.

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Thanks! :)


Today I got another build log for you.
I found this DIY kit in a pile of junk in my lab and thought it would be a relaxing build, so I decided to share it with you.

Sorry about the colors in this one, somehow I fucked this one up.. Also, a few seconds at the beginning and at the end are missing, so no "Hello and welcome to Tinkertubes Lab" today, and also no proper dismissal...
This one is also still made with the old lighting.

enjoy! :) Also, feel free to comment and give me feedback, I appreciate it very much.
https://youtu.be/qieIRL6ZBFc
Greetings, Kai \ Ysjoelfir
 

Offline YsjoelfirTopic starter

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Tinkertubes Lab [29] - A look inside an unearthed full metal outdoor LED light
« Reply #27 on: November 18, 2016, 10:43:27 pm »
I got those LED spotlights as a review sample, which was nice at first since one of my halogen lamps decided to go bang and disintegrated the glas in a rather violent way. But as those spots arrived at my lab I got suspicious - nice full metal casing, supposed to be water resistant or even water proof (chinglish wasn't clear at that point), useable outdoors - but only one of them had a earth cable sticking out. The other one didn't even have a outdoor useable cable at all... So I decided to get rid of the water sealing stuff and take a look inside.


https://youtu.be/zzLKxEOsYT0
Greetings, Kai \ Ysjoelfir
 

Offline MK14

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I got those LED spotlights as a review sample, which was nice at first since one of my halogen lamps decided to go bang and disintegrated the glas in a rather violent way. But as those spots arrived at my lab I got suspicious - nice full metal casing, supposed to be water resistant or even water proof (chinglish wasn't clear at that point), useable outdoors - but only one of them had a earth cable sticking out. The other one didn't even have a outdoor useable cable at all... So I decided to get rid of the water sealing stuff and take a look inside.

Thanks, I enjoyed watching that video.

As well as the missing Earth and proper water proofing, maybe it also needs a fuse.

I'm still completely confused how these Chinese imports, into Europe, with very high safety standards. Can get away with so poor safety.

I'm surprised (but pleased), it at least has got a transformer (but it may also NOT meet the EU safety specs). Most youtube video LED lamp tear down videos (e.g. bigclivedotcom), seem to have capacitor dropper circuits. Which I dislike.
« Last Edit: November 18, 2016, 11:53:38 pm by MK14 »
 
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Offline YsjoelfirTopic starter

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #29 on: November 19, 2016, 06:56:53 pm »

Thanks, I enjoyed watching that video.

As well as the missing Earth and proper water proofing, maybe it also needs a fuse.

I'm still completely confused how these Chinese imports, into Europe, with very high safety standards. Can get away with so poor safety.

I'm surprised (but pleased), it at least has got a transformer (but it may also NOT meet the EU safety specs). Most youtube video LED lamp tear down videos (e.g. bigclivedotcom), seem to have capacitor dropper circuits. Which I dislike.

thanks for your comment!
Now that you mention it, there wasn't even a fusing resistor in it... could definitely be quite violent if something goes wrong.
regarding the import problem... with enough money you can without any problem buy every certificate... sad as it is.
why do you dislike capacitive droppers? they have their issues, yes, but they are cheap as hell. i built some cap PSUs for DIY led lights, which work perfectly. and if you keep safety in mind, there shouldnt be a problem i guess?
even though, if I would have to choose I would always a proper isolated PSU.
Greetings, Kai \ Ysjoelfir
 

Offline MK14

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #30 on: November 19, 2016, 07:54:43 pm »
thanks for your comment!
Now that you mention it, there wasn't even a fusing resistor in it... could definitely be quite violent if something goes wrong.
regarding the import problem... with enough money you can without any problem buy every certificate... sad as it is.
why do you dislike capacitive droppers? they have their issues, yes, but they are cheap as hell. i built some cap PSUs for DIY led lights, which work perfectly. and if you keep safety in mind, there shouldnt be a problem i guess?
even though, if I would have to choose I would always a proper isolated PSU.

Transformers, tend to give isolation, often last many decades or longer and usually don't have too bad reactions if things go bad (but they SHOULD be fused).

Whereas capacitors (especially high voltage, normal (not X2/Y etc)/cheap ones, electrolytic's) tend to not last that long, even if not used at all (e.g. 5 years), don't usually provide electrical isolation (as you just mentioned), and can go dramatically wrong.
I.e. They present electric shock/fire hazards due to lack of isolation, can catch on fire or even explode, and can pass lots of excessive current (fail open or short circuit, if non-safety type), tending to make things worse.

The lower the current needed (e.g. <= 10 milliamps), the happier I am with capacitor droppers. Especially if it is properly designed with the correctly rated/safety components, as needed. But just to be clear, I still don't particularly like them.

I also perceive them to be inefficient.

But I concede that I am "old School", because a lot of my electronics, was in the days of transformers/bridge rectifiers, and smoothing capacitors, followed by (sometimes missed out, in cheaper items) linear regulator(s), were the norm.

But I also concede that some of the older (old nowadays, new or not so old, at the time) equipment I used, such as TVs (i.e. valves/tubes), also used techniques I don't like either.
Such as non-isolated half mains voltage chassis, mains dropper resistors, many series connected filaments across the mains (to save on having a proper 6.3 V mains transformer), etc.
Also because they were potentially dangerous, smelly (because of the high temperatures inside TVs) and very wasteful of energy. Which did not matter (Oil and hence electricity was cheap), pre-1972/3, before the oil price crash.

tl;dr
If the mains dropper is designed by people who know what they are doing, with the correct/decent components, properly double-insulated (or whatever safety techniques are needed for that application), and it meets the lifetime requirements. I am not too unhappy.
But there is much to worry about if it is poorly designed, weakly constructed and not safe to begin with, and made out of cheap/nasty components.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2016, 07:58:34 pm by MK14 »
 

Offline YsjoelfirTopic starter

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #31 on: November 20, 2016, 02:38:26 pm »
Sure, the benefits of transformers are well known, what I meant and as you also already mentioned was, that in some low power applications capacitive droppers are actually pretty good. If you calculate your circuit well and choose oversized caps, they can pretty reliable. I actually have a dropper circuit built over 10 years ago, still works every single day. The components are absolutely oversized, if I remember correctly I used a 1kV bridge rectifier which is good for around 3 Amps and a 2000V cap as well as some big ass resistors (except the little 10 ohm input resistor which acts as an el cheapo fuse - but never did until now) inside. Sure, today you could buy an isolated PSU at the same price with smaller dimmensions :)

What I want to say is, everything has it's way of being usefull. You mention tubes, which I absolutely love, even though I know about theie several drawbacks compared to modern technology. But they still have their place, even if its only in our hearts <3 *sheds a tear* And yes, the live chassis are a big PITA - made the mistake to touch one at the first radio I ever looked into... bad idea. ;)

So, basically exactly what your tl;dr states. ;)
Greetings, Kai \ Ysjoelfir
 

Offline MK14

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #32 on: November 20, 2016, 04:18:09 pm »
Sure, the benefits of transformers are well known, what I meant and as you also already mentioned was, that in some low power applications capacitive droppers are actually pretty good. If you calculate your circuit well and choose oversized caps, they can pretty reliable. I actually have a dropper circuit built over 10 years ago, still works every single day. The components are absolutely oversized, if I remember correctly I used a 1kV bridge rectifier which is good for around 3 Amps and a 2000V cap as well as some big ass resistors (except the little 10 ohm input resistor which acts as an el cheapo fuse - but never did until now) inside. Sure, today you could buy an isolated PSU at the same price with smaller dimmensions :)

What I want to say is, everything has it's way of being usefull. You mention tubes, which I absolutely love, even though I know about theie several drawbacks compared to modern technology. But they still have their place, even if its only in our hearts <3 *sheds a tear* And yes, the live chassis are a big PITA - made the mistake to touch one at the first radio I ever looked into... bad idea. ;)

So, basically exactly what your tl;dr states. ;)

You are raising some very good points.

As you just said, it is only relatively recently when we have potentially had a wide availability of rather cheap, switch mode power supplies, even in rather small packages. So older electronics, has good excuses, as to why they did not go that route.

I got curious about the TV transformers, so looked them up on the internet. I specifically looked at the "405 line televisions". Which were using the original 1936 (approx) era TV signals. Ironically it was called HD (High Definition), because it had at least 220 lines of definition. In practice it had about 377 lines (interlaced, the rest were used for giving it time to move the electron beams back to the top, left, etc).

Apparently (I read), that the magnetic fields that emanate from (especially the old ancient types) large transformers (maybe a few amps needed on the primary side), which a 6.3 V filament transformer, for all the valves in an old TV, would need. May have potentially messed around with the fine control of the electron beam (fluctuating stray magnetic fields), in such an early TV. So by having one less  transformer, maybe it helped improve the picture quality (significant speculation, I could easily be wrong, there are probably other important design factors as well).
The 50 Hz field rate, because it is the same 50 Hz of the transformer, is suppose to minimize the disruption, anyway. But some distortions still get through though.

Anyway, I agree with you. Almost any solution is probably workable/reliable, as long it has been properly engineered, and proper quality/speced components are used.

I am probably biased these days against the capacitive voltage droppers. Because so many of them come from China, and are not necessarily safely, reliably designed/built and may be using sub-standard components.

Because there is so little room inside a modern light bulb, and it will probably be LED based and relatively low power/current. Using capacitive droppers in them, probably makes a lot of sense, if done properly/safely etc.
After the 10,000 or 20,000 hours lifetime, it will probably be binned, anyway. So if the dropper can reliably last, at least as long as the LED's and other circuitry, then I guess it makes sense.
It also probably helps to keep the costs down.
As long as fingers can NOT contact any live metal of the bulb (and other safety issues, including kids messing with metal objects), and it is not a fire hazard when the components fail, it should be ok.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2016, 04:21:18 pm by MK14 »
 

Offline YsjoelfirTopic starter

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Tinkertubes Lab [30] - a look inside a translucent membrane air pump
« Reply #33 on: December 12, 2016, 06:01:15 pm »
Hey everyone, it has been a while since the last video, mainly because of some ongoing study work that has to be done...  :phew:
Still, I wanted to post at least a video every month, so I took one of my "preproduced" clips and edited it. A few weeks ago I got a nice membrane air pump for free and thought it is a nice attempt to show what is inside, since the case of it was translucent anyway.
Please note that the colors are somehow wrong in the first part of the video, I have no idea why that is the case... I fiddled around with the settings at the camera, especialy the white balance, but it didn't change. instead, it changed all of the sudden from itself. Strange.
Anyway, hope someone may enjoy the video!

https://youtu.be/t8B-3UrPFFI
Greetings, Kai \ Ysjoelfir
 

Offline ez24

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #34 on: December 18, 2016, 10:56:37 pm »
YouTube and Website Electronic Resources ------>  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/other-blog-specific/a/msg1341166/#msg1341166
 

Offline YsjoelfirTopic starter

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #35 on: December 19, 2016, 08:42:40 pm »
Thank you, I really appreciate it! If I get to the amount of viewers necessary to get a custom youtube url, can you edit that later?
Greetings, Kai \ Ysjoelfir
 

Offline ez24

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #36 on: December 19, 2016, 08:59:28 pm »
Thank you, I really appreciate it! If I get to the amount of viewers necessary to get a custom youtube url, can you edit that later?

Yes but what do you mean?  Is this why there are different type of  links ?

like some have "channel" in the URL and some have "user"   so if you have x number of videos you would go from "channel"  to "user" ?

I wondered what was going on.  How many do you need?

YouTube and Website Electronic Resources ------>  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/other-blog-specific/a/msg1341166/#msg1341166
 

Offline YsjoelfirTopic starter

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #37 on: December 19, 2016, 09:11:48 pm »
Yes, that is the reason. To get a so called custom URL you need to have at least 100 subscribers, be active for more than 30 days and you need to have a channel symbol and channel picture. The later three I already have, the first one I am currently working on :) When you have those you can switch over to a "channel"-URL which would be something like youtube.com/channel/*yourpreferedchannelname*.
If you are interested in that you may want to take a look at the youtube info page for this specific topic which can be found at https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2657968?hl=en
Greetings, Kai \ Ysjoelfir
 

Offline YsjoelfirTopic starter

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Tinkertubes Lab VLog - Why no new videos recently?
« Reply #38 on: January 07, 2017, 07:14:45 pm »
Since someone asked my why I didn't upload any new videos for quite a while even though I got a brand new batterizer which would be perfect for a debunking video, I thought I would share with you the reason why. Nothing to spectacular and I will definitely make new videos, but for now I have to pause a few more days/weeks.  :scared:

https://youtu.be/jNgc1eQj4ng
Greetings, Kai \ Ysjoelfir
 

Offline ez24

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Re: Tinkertubes Lab VLog - Why no new videos recently?
« Reply #39 on: January 07, 2017, 09:14:40 pm »
Since someone asked my why I didn't upload any new videos for quite a while even though I got a brand new batterizer which would be perfect for a debunking video, I thought I would share with you the reason why. Nothing to spectacular and I will definitely make new videos, but for now I have to pause a few more days/weeks.  :scared:


I added you to this list

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/other-blog-specific/dd/msg1093983/#msg1093983

Also I suggest you add your YT link to your profile so users can see it


YouTube and Website Electronic Resources ------>  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/other-blog-specific/a/msg1341166/#msg1341166
 

Offline YsjoelfirTopic starter

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New Tinkertubes Lab Logo - what do you think about it?
« Reply #40 on: February 01, 2017, 09:28:51 pm »
Thanks ez24, but I thought you already added me some time ago? :D However, thank you again :)

Today I worked again on the new logo for Tinkertubes Lab, this time trying to make it simple and in a way that it could easily be printed onto letters or something, yet memorable to give the channel a personality representing the concept of the whole thing, not the person behind it (as I had the feeling it was with my old "button" logo which I use as an avatar here.)
I also reinitiated my facebook page, which can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/TinkertubesLab/
That will be added to my signature soon, but I would like to add some more content there before i do that.

I would like to hear what you think about the logo, do you like it?
Greetings, Kai \ Ysjoelfir
 

Online Brumby

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #41 on: February 02, 2017, 08:09:29 am »
First impression is - I like it.

It will go well on dark backgrounds, but it you want to use it on light backgrounds, I would suggest the gear outline be a bit thicker, especially on smaller scale uses.
 

Offline YsjoelfirTopic starter

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #42 on: February 02, 2017, 04:16:20 pm »
Thank you for your comment Brumby! I actually noticed the same thing as I printed it onto a test document today to see how it looks, so I made a second version with a slightly bigger border in already smaller size. Since it looks identically in every other aspect I don't post it here again, I guess everyone can think how it looks like :)
Greetings, Kai \ Ysjoelfir
 

Offline FrankBuss

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #43 on: February 02, 2017, 05:19:05 pm »
Good idea, but I don't like the color combination, but maybe I just don't like yellow silkscreen, I always order green, and the traces are sometimes yellow, if gold plated. And I think the text is too small compared to the full logo size. All you see from a distance when you are as old as me and need glasses, is the large gear. See e.g. my logo, which is the opposite, the text might be even a little too big, but I like it  ;D



But then I didn't draw it myself, I have no talent, I ordered it from http://99designs.com
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
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Offline ez24

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #44 on: February 02, 2017, 07:43:11 pm »
I think the text is too small compared to the full logo size.

I agree
YouTube and Website Electronic Resources ------>  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/other-blog-specific/a/msg1341166/#msg1341166
 

Offline YsjoelfirTopic starter

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #45 on: February 02, 2017, 07:59:13 pm »
Hi Frank and thanks for your comment :) I personally love yellow silkscreen, so no problem with that ;) I also thought about the text size, thinking I might put it into / round the gear. Maybe I try that later.
I like your logo and the idea behind the site you ordered it is brilliant, especialy since I was working in the graphic design industry quite some years ago and would have loved to have a opportunity to give my work to someone for a few bucks, maybe that would have kept me there... But now I am just a poor student with not nearly enough money to give that amount for a logo :D
Greetings, Kai \ Ysjoelfir
 

Online Brumby

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #46 on: February 03, 2017, 02:28:09 am »
I think the text is too small compared to the full logo size.

I agree

I'll be honest and say I was thinking about that as well.  When you go into small sized versions, the text will become almost illegible - especially for people with less than 20/20 vision.
 

Online Brumby

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #47 on: February 03, 2017, 02:36:44 am »
Just throwing this up as a quick idea...

« Last Edit: February 03, 2017, 02:40:09 am by Brumby »
 

Offline YsjoelfirTopic starter

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #48 on: February 05, 2017, 01:04:21 am »
Thanks for your replys! I thought about a way to further improve the readability and came up with this versions. I decided to make three different sizes with minor differences to improve readability at the specific size.





Greetings, Kai \ Ysjoelfir
 

Online Brumby

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Re: News from Tinkertubes Lab
« Reply #49 on: February 05, 2017, 03:16:13 am »
Good idea.  The differences in each size aren't too drastic, so the overall appearance will be perceived as 'the same'.

However, I might suggest the lettering of the large version be more distinct.

I had a bit of a fiddle and came up with this.  I don't feel that it's a finished product - just something to look at.
 


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