Tektronix RSA real-time spectrum analyzer teardown from The Signal Path: In this episode Shahriar attempts a difficult repair of a Tektronix RSA real-time spectrum analyzer. This well-equipped instrument reports several error messages during startup POST including LO Unlock as well as Signal Path failures. The service manual of the instrument does not provide any detailed […]
Category Archives: Teardowns
Teardown, experiments and calibration of an Ist-Rees laser spectrum analyzer
Ist-Rees laser spectrum analyzer teardown from The Signal Path: In this short episode Shahriar takes a close look at an Ist-Rees laser spectrum analyzer. This simple instrument is based on a continuously rotating diffraction mirror to detect various wavelengths. A trigger signal is used to denote the beginning of the scan and the front-panel display shows […]
TI’s Little Professor
A teardown of TI’s Little Professor vintage calculator from KuzyaTech: This thing was sold for parts and repair since the seller did not think it was working. As it turned out, everything worked just fine, but not in an expected way. This is not your typical calculator, but rather a teaching one. More details at KuzyaTech.com.
Tear down of a super capacitor
A teardown video of a 1 Farad super capacitor from Electronupdate: In a recent video on the tear down of an electrolytic cap a viewer was wondering what a super capacitor looks like. They have much more capacitance: 10,000 time more on average for the same volume. Surely this means the physical construction must be amazing! Interestingly […]
Curtis 1231C-8601 500A PWM DC motor controller teardown
Jay did a teardown of a Curtis 1231C-8601 500A PWM DC motor controller: The Curtis 1231c-8601 power board is relatively simple. It uses 18 MOSFETS in parallel to switch current from the motor- terminal back to the battery- terminal (the motor+ lead is already connected to battery+). The MOSFETs it uses are IXYS IXTH50N20 SP9536 chips. […]
Solar battery charge controller teardown
A teardown video of a solar battery charge controller from Electronupdate: A solar battery charger: one side goes to a Solar Panel, the other to a lead-acid battery. A charge controller allows the battery to be safely charged. Snagged off of Amazon. Seemed really cheap at $17.36. A look at the assembly quality tells me […]
Mastr III repeater teardown
Kenneth Finnegan writes, “I recently purchased a pallet (!) of Mastr III repeaters for some parts. These are really unique radio systems since their so modular, so I thought you’d enjoy a video where I tear one apart and talk through its basic theory of operation.” More details at Kenneth’s blog.
Software Defined Radio IC Decap: R820/RTL2832U
Software Defined Radio teardown: R820/RTL2832U Decap Recently there has been much interest in two integrated circuit which were originally designed to receive FM radio and DVB-T TV (as used in Europe). Some enterprising people quickly realised that since they were based on software-defined techniques they could be quickly re purposed for all sorts of clever […]
Bad electrolytic capacitor teardown
Teardown and analysis of a bad electrolytic capacitor from Electronupdate: So, there sitting in a dumpster is what looks like a perfectly good monitor… some of the protective plastic on the base was never even peeled off. A quick power up showed why it was tossed: it simply did not turn on. I had been […]
Teardown of a Vivitar Rapid battery charger
Kerry Wong did a teardown of a Vivitar rapid battery charger for the NP-FW50 lithium-ion battery pack used in Sony A6000 digital camera: The circuit board itself though looks surprisingly clean and well designed. It does not use any dedicated lithium ion battery charging ICs however. Rather a MC34063A buck/boost DC-DC converter chip is used […]
LED candle effect: Tear down and decap of a controller
A teardown video from Electronupdate: A dollar store item which implements a flickering candle effect using and LED. A look at the technology: linear feedback shift register or ROM based? Let’s decap the controller and take a look at the silicon die to find out! More details at Electronupdate blog.
Bertan/Spellman 225-20R HV power supply teardown
Kerry Wong did a teardown of a Bertan 225-20R 20kV high voltage power supply: I just picked up another high voltage power supply, this time it is a working Bertan/Spellman 225-20R 20kV one. Unlike the Bertan 205A-05R that I did a teardown with last time which was entirely analog, this one can be controlled digitally […]
GPS Disciplined Oscillator review and teardown
Andy Brown did a teardown of a GPS Disciplined Oscillator: The design did actually surprise me. I was expecting to see an OCXO pulled from something else together with a modern GPS unit and an MCU to co-ordinate the synchronisation all mounted on a custom PCB. What we’ve actually got is an entire Symmetricom GPSDO pulled […]
XBOX 360 GPU die decap: A look at the graphics processor silicon
A teardown video of an XBOX 360 and analysis of GPU silicon die from Electronupdate. So, what makes an XBOX tick? One of the most notable parts will be the graphics sub system… and at the heart of it, the GPU. The GPU die is bonded onto a substrate with an associated frame buffer just […]
Tear down of a scientific calculator Integrated Circuit
A detailed video teardown of a scientific calculator Integrated Circuit from Electronupdate. More info at Electronupdate blog.
Sonicare toothbrush teardown: microcontroller, H bridge, and inductive charging
Ken Shirriff did a teardown of a Sonicare electric toothbrush: The photos below show the top and bottom of the toothbrush internals. I expected to find a simple, low-cost mechanism, so I was surprised at how much complexity there was inside. The vibration mechanism (right) is built from multiple metal and plastic parts screwed together, requiring […]
Teardown of a Static fieldmeter
A teardown of a Static fieldmeter from Kerry Wong: Static fieldmeters (or electrostatic fieldmeters) are typically used for non-contact measurements of the electrostatic field strength (usually in kV) of charged objects. These are highly specialized test instruments and most hobbyists probably seldomly have the opportunity of coming across one. So in this post and a companion video […]
Teardown and analysis of an Agilent 86109B Optical/Electrical DCA-X oscilloscope module
Teardown and analysis of an Agilent 86109B Optical/Electrical DCA-X oscilloscope module from The Signal Path: In this episode Shahriar presents the inner workings of an Agilent 86109B optical/electrical DCA-X oscilloscope module. This particular model offers up to 50GHz of electrical bandwidth and an optical input capable of receiving up to 40Gb/s data rates. The differences […]
Contactless transit card teardown
A RFID transit pass teardown from Electronupdate: Here is the die photo: super tiny. I bet they get thousands of dice off of each wafer. The chip appears to be part of the MIFARE protocol, commonly used for contactless smart cards. The vendor of these chips is NXP, and based on the size and features, […]
Dewalt DW9118 battery charger teardown
Dewalt DW9118 battery charger teardown video from Electronupdate: Tear down of a failed Dewalt DW9118 charger. A look at the circuit board, the fuse, circuit topology and a decap an analysis of the Zilog Z86C04 controller. More info at Electronupdate blog.