EEVblog #756 - Mailbag

[EEVblog]

Another Mailbag. Something super cute arrived today!, what is it?



SPOILERS:
Pleo baby animatronic dinosaur!
http://www.pleoworld.com/

5260 Cable simulator teardown
https://supportforums.adtran.com/docs/DOC-6121

Hewlett Packard service manuals
Tektronix PAL Vectorscope
Siemens motor inverters
Fluke One Touch Network Assistant Analyser teardown

[Muttley Snickers]

You've probably thought of this already, but if the Fluke Networks TDR has a cable length feature then you might be able to check out the Cable Simulator with it.

Also possibly a new blog for the younger crowd, EE Veterinarian.

EEVet


Muttley

[orion242]

Nice score on the Siemens gear.  Brand spanking new no less.

Would like to see the IGTB and diode bridge.  From the couple modern vfds I have torn down, they seem to have have to special ICs that contain both in a single custom package tied right to the heatsink.  Far cry from the drives 15yrs ago that would take up 20x the space.  Have not had the luxury of tearing down something that new though or specifically designed for process control apps .  Should be interesting.

[boffin]

Centre Negative:

At 9v it's actually pretty common, as that's what's used with guitar effects pedals.

[SeanB]

Vintage 5.25in drive??? Vintage has to be full height, not a slimline one!

[coppice]

Did Pleo not reach Australia at all. They were sold in all sorts of shops here in HK, not just toy shops.

[station240]

I found the Pleo vs Pleo rb page
http://www.pleoworld.com/pleo_rb/eng/pleovspleorb.php

I can't see any obvious hardware change, other that to relocate the micro SD and USB port into the battery compartment.

[Halcyon]

Centre Negative:

At 9v it's actually pretty common, as that's what's used with guitar effects pedals.

Can't say I've seen too many in Australia. I have a bunch of KVM's here all using 9v DC and all centre positive.

[faheus]

Maybe you should run the Pleo at 8.4V (2 LiPo cells at full charge). It could be that he feel not as exhausted then now

[Fungus]

Maybe you should run the Pleo at 8.4V (2 LiPo cells at full charge). It could be that he feel not as exhausted then now

Yep. I thought that as well.

"Sleeping" looks like the sort of thing it would do when the battery is low. Raise the voltage a bit and see what happens.

[coppice]

That Adtran cable simulator must be for ADSL testing. The usual telephone cable testers are much lumpier, and only achieve 4kHz bandwidth.

[EEVblog]

Maybe you should run the Pleo at 8.4V (2 LiPo cells at full charge). It could be that he feel not as exhausted then now

Yep. I thought that as well.
"Sleeping" looks like the sort of thing it would do when the battery is low. Raise the voltage a bit and see what happens.

There would have been some loss in the leads and contacts too.

[128er]

Nice score with the Siemens stuff, Dave. Would like to see the teardown of them. I have taken apart some SEW brand VFDs in the past and love these custom made IGBT modules with the semiconductors on ceramic substrate.

A few years ago I worked on a really, really heavy machine. With 8 motors, each 185 kW power. The inverters for them were huge beasts. They were fed from a 600 VDC bus, with a common 1200 A 3-phase rectifier. Try to get your hands on one of those 

Sorry for the crude pictures, I took them from a video I made back then.

[pinchies]

Dave, I don't remember paying for mailbag express™ postage? Or is this a FIFO system   

I thought the nice backlit fluke LCD touchscreen seemed like overkill for such a simple device, but I'm sure it must do more than just continuity testing wires...

And from my letter:
Fluke vs Auspost
1 -- Nil

[Fungus]

I thought the nice backlit fluke LCD touchscreen seemed like overkill for such a simple device, but I'm sure it must do more than just continuity testing wires...

It's a network analyzer, not just a cable tester.

It will capture data packets and analyze them, do statistics, tell you about the traffic and if there's a lot of lost packets, that sort of thing.

[Hypernova]

Waiting with keen interest on the Siemens tear down. Where I work I am the main design engineer working on servo drives so this would be interesting.

[faheus]

Maybe you should run the Pleo at 8.4V (2 LiPo cells at full charge). It could be that he feel not as exhausted then now

Yep. I thought that as well.
"Sleeping" looks like the sort of thing it would do when the battery is low. Raise the voltage a bit and see what happens.

There would have been some loss in the leads and contacts too.

so, its time for a quick followup i guess 

[nitro2k01]

I think we have a little misunderstanding at 20:05. 
- You certainly know what David likes.
- Possibly what Sagan likes.
- Yeah, I can see this as a Sega game.

[Chris_PL]

Thumbs up for Ryan If it is really his first "public" video appearance then he did more than good. Good luck!

And kudos to Dave for letting a work experience kid actually do something, instead of "sit, watch, do not disturb and FFS be quiet" - very common thing these days, work experience done only on paper.

[edy]

Awesome video both of you! That Pleo dinosaur was really neat. Looks like it could have been a breakthrough hit but somehow the marketing, supply issues and high cost bungled it all up. I had a look online and the old one is about $350+ and the new one is $450+. Although I am sure it is worth every penny based on the crazy engineering and software that goes into it, I just think it is way out of the budget of most parents who want their kids to have an animatronic toy (as sophisticated and way more advanced as Pleo is to most of the animated plush toys today).

We happen to have a few ourselves.... But we didn't buy them. We have a FurReal Parrot that talks to you, repeats stuff you say, looks for changes in light, responds to petting and food in the mouth:



I had a look on Amazon and they want about $500-600!!!!! Oh my god! Something is definitely wrong with Amazon. By the way you can find used ones on eBay for about $50-70. I'm not sure which one of our friends gave us the parrot (after their kids were done with it) but I can't believe the cost for a new one. That is insanely expensive... Or am I completely out of touch with the price of kids toys these days?

We also have the FurReal Lulu Kitty Cat:



That cat is anywhere from $140 up to some sellers wanting $300 on Amazon. Yet Toys R Us lists it as $75, so something must be wrong with Amazon:

http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=10957836

Anyways, it is a cool toy but I'm not sure how the average working joe is supposed to buy their kid something that costly. If it's made for the 1%-ers....

[Someone]

To be sure, Tektronix still make video waveform monitors that will show a vectorscope:
http://www.tek.com/waveform-monitor/wfm8300-8200

[Alex Eisenhut]

Good grief, you CUT *AWAY* from you! Always!

[c4757p]

Good grief, you CUT *AWAY* from you! Always!

Yes, your little helper there is going to fillet himself if you let him use your knife again...

[Alex Eisenhut]

Good grief, you CUT *AWAY* from you! Always!

Yes, your little helper there is going to fillet himself if you let him use your knife again...

Maybe we should buy him one of these gloves:

[Stephan_T]

Maybe we should buy him one of these gloves:

It is Mailbag-Monday, you know.