Steve did a teardown and refurbishment of a Cambridge Audio A4 Amplifier: In this video, Steve disassembles a Cambridge Audio A4 Integrated Amplifier which he rescued before it was thrown away. The amplifier is refurbished with new electrolytic capacitors and a clean inside before performing a modification to make the dials on the front panel glow. […]
Category Archives: Teardowns
Teardown, repair and analysis of an Anritsu MS2721A 7.1GHz portable spectrum analyzer
Teardown, repair and analysis of an Anritsu MS2721A 7.1GHz portable spectrum analyzer by Shahriar of TheSignalPath: In this episode Shahriar takes a look at an Anritsu MS2721A portable spectrum analyzer which does not completely boot up. After displaying the message “Application Running!” the unit no longer advances to the main measurement screen. After intentionally corrupting […]
Amrel PPS-2322 programmable power supply teardown
Kerry D. Wong did a teardown of a Amrel PPS-2322 programmable power supply: I picked up an Amrel PPS-2322 programmable power supply from eBay recently. You probably have not heard of the Amrel brand before as American Reliance (Amrel) no longer makes power supplies nowadays. Its power supply division was acquired by AMETEK Programmable Power, a subdivision […]
HP Agilent E3611A power supply teardown and calibration
Florin of YourITronics did a teardown and calibration of a HP Agilent E3611A power supply: I got this HP Agilent E3611A from Ebay. It was marked as not working and I was planing a repair video on it. Unfortunately the unit turned out to be fully functional so I only did a teardown and calibration.
Tektronix RSA 306 – GPS receiver and clock reference
KF5OBS writes, “The Tektronix RSA 306 is a great low-cost USB 3.0 spectrum analyzer for up to 6 GHz in an ultra low-profile format. If paired with the RSA Map function of SignalVu-PC and a GPS receiver, it becomes an extremely powerful tool for interference hunting and signal strength mapping. This article shows a possible way […]
Apple lightning connector hacked
A teardown of the lightning connector by Ramtin Amin. Via Hacked Gadgets. Check out the video after the break.
Review and teardown of the Analog arts SL987 USB oscilloscope AWG pattern generator and Logic analyzer
Review and teardown of the Analog arts SL987 USB oscilloscope AWG pattern generator and logic analyzer by Shahriar of TheSignalPath: In this episode Shahriar takes a close look at the Analog Arts USB based mixed-domain instrument. The SL987 offers an oscilloscope, arbitrary waveform generator, FFT-based spectrum analyzer, pattern generator and logic analyzer in a compact form factor. […]
Wavetek 1045 RF power meter teardown
Kerry Wong did a teardown of a Wavetek 1045 RF power meter: I bought a Wavetek 1045 RF power meter off eBay a few weeks ago. It came with a 13787 detector which is capable of measuring RF power between -50 dBm to 10 dBm with a frequency range of 1 MHz to 18 GHz. […]
Teardown and repair of an Agilent E4433B ESG-D synthesized signal generator
Teardown and repair of an Agilent E4433B ESG-D synthesized signal generator: In this episode Shahriar repairs an Agilent E4433B ESG-D Synthesized Signal Generator. This 4GHz unit shows the “UNLEVEL” error for all frequencies and at all output power levels. After a close look at the system block diagram the fault is traced to the main […]
Teardown of Kentli PH5 1.5 V Li-Ion AA battery
Jason over at Rip It Apart did a teardown of a Kentli PH5 1.5 V Li-Ion AA battery: The PCB that holds the 1.5 volt regulator is inside the end cap, with the rest made up of the Li-ion cell itself. Curiously enough, the cell inside is labeled “PE13430 14F16 2.66wh” which is interesting in more […]
Inside the Intel 1405: die photos of a shift register memory from 1970
Ken writes: In the Datapoint 2200, each memory board had 32 shift registers, providing 2K of storage. The processor board used a counter to keep track of the shift register position, and would stop processing until the right bits were available. (Kind of like a cache miss in modern processors.) I got a display board from […]
Schlage smart door lock hack/teardown
Teardown and hacking of Schlage smart door lock by Felix Rusu of LowPowerLab: As the title suggests it’s a smart door lock with a for coded entry and is based on “Iris” which in turn uses ZWave RF wireless technology (made by Zensys), a closed source patented protocol+hardware stack that is OEM-able to automation system makers who want […]
A look inside a ’70s voltage and current standard
SQKYBeaver did a teardown of a Techtron Standards type 51 voltage and current standard: Absolutely amazing inside! The wires to the front panel look like the were loomed by a professional Spacecraft mechanic. every one individually numbered it must have taken hours. only 4 rc4136 quad opamps for all this functionality, two dating back to 1973.
HP 8642B teardown
Kerry Wong writes: In my last post, I showed my LED backlight mod of the HP 8642B synthesized signal generator. And during the process, I also showed some pictures of the A1 (keyboard and LCD) module and A2 (modulator) module alone with an intriguing Easter egg message in the firmware. In today’s post, I will […]
FBI radio teardown – Motorola Spectra
KF5OBS did a teardown of a former FBI radio a Motorola Spectra: Tearing down a former FBI Radio, a 110 Watt FM / APCO25 (P25) VHF Motorola Spectra T99DX with DES hardware encryption module.
BT-C3100 intelligent battery charger teardown
Alan Parekh of Hacked Gadgets writes: Thanks to GearBest for sending in this Opus BT-C3100 V2.0 Intelligent Battery Charger for review. at a quick glance this charger might look like any other charger that you see at the grocery store. Your generic store bought brand probably also has 4 charging bays for AA and AAA batteries, it probably has 2 […]
MESR-100 ESR meter review and teardown
Alan Parekh of Hacked Gadgets did a teardown of a MESR-100 ESR meter: I purchased a MESR-100 Meter from eBay for around $55 USD shipped to my door in Winnipeg (Canada). The meter came well packaged in a retail box, this is a nice change from many other items from China that are simply wrapped in […]
Wavetek 907 repair, YIG oscillator teardown
Kerry Wong writes: As I mentioned in my previous posting, there was an issue with my Wavetek 907 microwave frequency generator. While everything was fine during my initial testing, the frequency display is now stuck with an out-of-range display and the adjustable frequency range is limited to between around 6.9 Ghz to 7.9 Ghz (instead […]
Wavetek 907 signal generator teardown
Kerry Wong did a teardown of a Wavetek 907 signal generator: This Wavetek 907 is absolutely humongous. It has the same width as my HP 5350B but is much deeper (23 in.) and weights around 50 pounds. It was built in 1980 and is clearly showing its age. It was sold as “used” so presumably it […]
Keithley 197 teardown and repair
Teardown and repair of Keithley 197 by Kerry Wong: After the meter arrived, I did a quick sanity check and everything appeared to be working fine except for those four silicone rubber momentary buttons on the left. The meter itself was well within spec as you can see from the picture shown below using the HP6113A 5V […]