Electronics and Embedded Programming V3 - Developers

Well you can get an early start on the Christmas decorations. I'm giving away three 50mm x 100mm (2x4") single sided PCB's for shipping cost only. If anyone is interested just say so and I'll pick three winners at random. Still waiting for my UV LEDs to arrive from China so there is no rush.

[QUOTE=Chryseus;34929605]Well you can get an early start on the Christmas decorations. I'm giving away three 50mm x 100mm (2x4") single sided PCB's for shipping cost only. If anyone is interested just say so and I'll pick three winners at random. Still waiting for my UV LEDs to arrive from China so there is no rush.[/QUOTE] Sign me up :dance:.

Yeah why the hell not :v:

[QUOTE=Chryseus;34929605]Well you can get an early start on the Christmas decorations. I'm giving away three 50mm x 100mm (2x4") single sided PCB's for shipping cost only. If anyone is interested just say so and I'll pick three winners at random. Still waiting for my UV LEDs to arrive from China so there is no rush.[/QUOTE] I'm so in!

I'm in :D

Why the hell not.

[QUOTE=Chryseus;34929605]Well you can get an early start on the Christmas decorations. I'm giving away three 50mm x 100mm (2x4") single sided PCB's for shipping cost only. If anyone is interested just say so and I'll pick three winners at random. Still waiting for my UV LEDs to arrive from China so there is no rush.[/QUOTE] Sweetness, I'm in. Of course, now I realize ARES is my only layout software. Oh well!

[url]http://www.repairfaq.org/[/url] Some good reading material here if you're interested in electronics repair. [b]Edit[/b] OP has been updated with new content! Cakes to Ddrl46 for the extra banners.

[URL="http://www.taydaelectronics.com/"]Here[/URL] is a store worth adding to OP

[QUOTE=Val67;34943055][URL="http://www.taydaelectronics.com/"]Here[/URL] is a store worth adding to OP[/QUOTE] I thought it looked familiar they also sell on ebay which is already in the OP. I'll add the store anyway.

[QUOTE=Val67;34943055][URL="http://www.taydaelectronics.com/"]Here[/URL] is a store worth adding to OP[/QUOTE] I ordered my stuff from there. Ordered on Sunday, I was opening the package on Friday. Nicely packaged, comes in ESD foam and bag, all bags labelled with model no. and quantity. Pretty nice.

Their site seems to work well, the prices appear to be decent, I couldn't help but start putting an order together.

[QUOTE=MIPS;34837106]Found a [url=http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/157059/BURR-BROWN/ADC84KG-12.html]12-bit A/D converter chip[/url] that had been tossed because someone had cut all the gold leads off it. I added new leads. [IMG]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/100_2534.jpg[/IMG] Not sure what I could use this for.[/QUOTE] Isn't it pretty worthless to strip it from gold leads? I mean, isn't the gold like one micron thick? Who would even bother... It looks rather interesting with all dem colours and such.

[QUOTE=Chezburger;34947705]Isn't it pretty worthless to strip it from gold leads? I mean, isn't the gold like one micron thick? Who would even bother...[/QUOTE] It could be that the chip was damaged or installed incorrectly and cutting the leads was simply part of the replacement process. If you don't have hot air rework equipment, it's easier to cut the chip off the board and remove the remaining leads individually than it is to get everything all heated up at once and remove the chip intact.

Where do people get collections of so many wire colors. I can't seem to find a place to get a decent assortment of wire spools for less then a fortune on my budget. My normal source for readily available hookup wire comes from separating the 4 solid core leads in standard phone cord(RJ-11?) .

[QUOTE=Tw34k;34948521]Where do people get collections of so many wire colors. I cant seem to find a place to get a decent assortment of wire spools for less then a fortune on my budget.[/QUOTE] I know how that is like, I always end up butchering Ethernet cable scraps for colored wires.

[QUOTE=Tw34k;34948521]Where do people get collections of so many wire colors. I can't seem to find a place to get a decent assortment of wire spools for less then a fortune on my budget.[/QUOTE] Ever stripped apart a VGA or DVI cable?

What is pictured soldered on to that chip must be what like 18 gauge? IIRC what i normally get from phone/ethernet cord is ~22? [QUOTE=ddrl46;34948586]Ever stripped apart a VGA or DVI cable?[/QUOTE] I have cut a DC-37 patch cord in half and assuming the wires are roughly the same size as a VGA they would still seem to small to handle much current.

[QUOTE=Tw34k;34948661]What is pictured soldered on to that chip must be what like 18 gauge?[/QUOTE] 18 AWG is huge. Typical interconnect wire for signalling is like 24AWG.

Ebay is your friend. Just search for stuff like telephone wire, signalling wire or similar.

Made it out to the surplus store today, ended up going a little crazy, picked up a power supply and some miscellaneous stuff, mostly buttons. I'm very much in love with those physical 7-segment displays, though they take 100+mA to switch each segment, so I'm not sure how I'm going to drive more than one until I get my hands on some transistor arrays. [img]http://imgkk.com/i/nryg.jpg[/img] I also picked up a little old broadcasting control panel that caught my eye, it's basically a 4x10 matrix of nice microswitch buttons with a 40-character red VFD across the top. It's got a power supply and driver board too, with all the ICs in convenient sockets, so I'll have to figure out how to drive that myself.

[QUOTE=Tw34k;34948521]Where do people get collections of so many wire colors. I can't seem to find a place to get a decent assortment of wire spools for less then a fortune on my budget. My normal source for readily available hookup wire comes from separating the 4 solid core leads in standard phone cord(RJ-11?) .[/QUOTE] Older office telephone and PBX systems used cabling that consisted of up to 50 solid copper wires in a single bundle. The stuff was used everywhere and is being replaced as IP systems are installed and lines are sometimes upgraded. A ten foot scrap piece of this cable will give you enough wire to last you a long, long time. I ended up getting two of my own version of the Raspberry Pi: The TS-2200 25mhz 386 SBC. [img]http://www.embeddedarm.com/images/boards/medium/ts-2200.gif[/img] They were free because they were both probably bad. One complains about bad ram but I'm hoping I can use one to read data from my car's ECU and display on an LCD or two-line LED panel.

[QUOTE=Lapsus;34953302]Made it out to the surplus store today, ended up going a little crazy, picked up a power supply and some miscellaneous stuff, mostly buttons. I'm very much in love with those physical 7-segment displays, though they take 100+mA to switch each segment, so I'm not sure how I'm going to drive more than one until I get my hands on some transistor arrays. [img]http://imgkk.com/i/nryg.jpg[/img] I also picked up a little old broadcasting control panel that caught my eye, it's basically a 4x10 matrix of nice microswitch buttons with a 40-character red VFD across the top. It's got a power supply and driver board too, with all the ICs in convenient sockets, so I'll have to figure out how to drive that myself.[/QUOTE] How much did you pay for that bench supply? Looks really nice.

[QUOTE=Lapsus;34953302]Made it out to the surplus store today, ended up going a little crazy, picked up a power supply and some miscellaneous stuff, mostly buttons. I'm very much in love with those physical 7-segment displays, though they take 100+mA to switch each segment, so I'm not sure how I'm going to drive more than one until I get my hands on some transistor arrays. [url]http://imgkk.com/i/nryg.jpg[/url] I also picked up a little old broadcasting control panel that caught my eye, it's basically a 4x10 matrix of nice microswitch buttons with a 40-character red VFD across the top. It's got a power supply and driver board too, with all the ICs in convenient sockets, so I'll have to figure out how to drive that myself.[/QUOTE] Double Rainbow Cable! What does it mean?

[QUOTE=VistaPOWA;34958595]How much did you pay for that bench supply? Looks really nice.[/QUOTE] It's not quite as nice as advertised, in that it's only 0-15A instead of 0-30A, and the fan is hugely loud and begging to be replaced with something a little more silent that doesn't try sucking papers up off the desk beside it. Not bad at all for $100 though, the voltage and current adjustments and readouts are within 50mA/0.05V according to my multimeter, and it doesn't give a fuck if you short it to itself, it just switches right over to constant-current mode. [QUOTE=DrLuke;34959136]Double Rainbow Cable! What does it mean?[/QUOTE] It means I've got a GPIO cable for my FPGA that lets me use all 40 pins of a gpio header from across the desk, instead of using old IDE cables with the key pin drilled out.

[QUOTE=Lapsus;34963197]It's not quite as nice as advertised, in that it's only 0-15A instead of 0-30A, and the fan is hugely loud and begging to be replaced with something a little more silent that doesn't try sucking papers up off the desk beside it. Not bad at all for $100 though, the voltage and current adjustments and readouts are within 50mA/0.05V according to my multimeter, and it doesn't give a fuck if you short it to itself, it just switches right over to constant-current mode. [/QUOTE] Do you have a touchless IR thermometer? Open it up, short circuit it and check the temperatures. [editline]2nd March 2012[/editline] Hint for everybody ordering from outside the US: If you stay below 100$, you aren't forced to select insured shipping, and pay 10$ instead of 30$. [img]http://i53.tinypic.com/1zqyhyo.png[/img] [img]http://i54.tinypic.com/15y8cu9.png[/img]

[table][tr][td][t]http://imgkk.com/i/oks5.jpg[/t][/td] [td]So yeah, not much inside other than the reassuringly gigantic transformer. Turns out the fan's so loud because there's no temperature sensing at all, and it's just on 100% all the time. I'd replace it if it weren't a 24V fan, but I'm stuck with it until I can get my hands on a fan controller than can take it. The only thing I've found that really scares me is the 4th picture, I'm thinking that I might want to get some electrical tape around that sooner or later. Oh, also, it's not a Sinometer supply, they don't make one like this. Hooray for counterfeit electronics I guess. There's a model number on the main control PCB, PS-3005DK, as well as a web address, but I can't get at it to read it, as I can't seem to get the front panel off of the unit. Also also, third picture, right below this text, is that how the TO-3 transistors should be mounted? The legs are insulated and all, but it still makes me uneasy.[/td][/tr] [tr][td][t]http://imgkk.com/i/qzqt.jpg[/t][/td] [td][t]http://imgkk.com/i/tgjx.jpg[/t][/td][/tr] [tr][td][t]http://imgkk.com/i/dwgx.jpg[/t][/td] [td][t]http://imgkk.com/i/b8fv.jpg[/t][/td][/tr][/table]

That's some fancy formatting

I saved a laptop today, woo! Basically my dad found a laptop at the junkyard that looked in good condition and sneakily took it (since it's illegal to take stuff from recycling centers in sweden). Turns out all that was wrong with it was a dead battery, I replaced 6/8 cells with healthy li-ion cells I had lying around and zapped the remaining two back into life with the 12v rail of a 300w psu. I plugged in a ghetto-rigged charger (wrong brand correct voltage charger with alligator clips soldered to a dc plug that fit the laptop). The BIOS lets me monitor individual cells voltage levels, the revived cells where at 1.5 volts when I got into bios and after charging for a few minutes it's at 3.1 volts. It remains to be seen if it will hold a charge as I know little about li-ion batteries but if all else fails I'll just get two new cells form deal extreme. Laptop is a 2003 ish HP pavilion ze4400 that looks practically unused, barely a scratch on it. [editline]3rd March 2012[/editline] Just ran it without a charger for a few minutes as a test, gonna let it charge for a few hours and see how well it works.

[QUOTE=DrLuke;34966269]That's some fancy formatting[/QUOTE] I wanted an excuse to mess with tables :v: I'm still minorly worried about that bit of exposed wiring on the rectifier though.