A review and teardown of a cheap Hall effect clamp meter (ACM03 Plus) from Kerry Wong: I recently purchased a BSide ACM03 Plus clamp meter so that I could do some high current measurements for my tab welder project. This meter can be bought on eBay for around $25, which makes it one of the […]
Tag Archives: review
Akafugu modular VFD clock review
Manuel Azevedo did a review of Akafugu’s modular VFD clock: I discovered this wonderful tiny VFD clock by chance, while browsing Tindie for novelties. As I’m a newcomer to this Nixie/VFD world, I was not aware that Brian Stuckey already did an article in 2014 on a previous incarnation of this clock (Akafugu Modular VFD […]
Dallas Semiconductor DS1284 die decap: A look at a 30 year old design
Dallas Semiconductor DS1284 die decap from Electronupdate: The Dallas Semiconductor DS1284 (and related DS1286 which integrated a battery and crystal in the same package) found lots of use in industrial control and test equipment. 30 years ago processor chips contained not much other than the processor. Utility functions such as real time clocks, non volatile ram […]
Piezoelectric buzzer teardown
A teardown of piezoelectric buzzer from Electronupdate: An assembly commonly used on fire, burglar and similar alarm systems. Based around a piezoelectric disk coupled to a plastic cylinder with a hole on the end (used to amplify the sound). The controller appears to use a rom-based look up table to generate the sounds The pattern […]
Cross section and analysis of a SMT inductor
A look at the cross section of a surface mount inductor from Electronupdate.
Deepace KC901V 6.8GHz handheld network analyzer review, teardown and experiments
Teardown and analysis of Deepace KC901V 6.8GHz handheld network analyzer from the The Signal Path: In this episode Shahriar reviews the Deepace KC901V 6.8GHz handheld network analyzer. This battery-powered instrument is an RF multi-instrument integrating VNA, spectrum analyzer, field strength meter, and a low-frequency signal generator. It can also perform signal port vector measurement and 2-ports simple vector […]
Siglent SSA3032X Spectrum Analyzer review & experiments
Afroman did a review of the Siglent SSA3032X Spectrum. More details at Afrotechmods tutorial page.
Teardown and review of the new MHS5200A
Craig writes: I’ve gotten a lot of questions on the blog about the new version of the MHS5200A function generators available on eBay. Viewer Tolga was kind enough to send one in to me to review and tear down. Although some improvements have been made over the older models, there are some concerning issues with […]
Datum/Symmetricom 8040 Rubidium frequency standard teardown
Teardown: A look at the Datum/Symmetricom 8040 Rubidium frequency standard The 8040 used an LPRO 101 (low profile Rubidium oscillator) oscillator. Interestingly, there is a note written on the top of the LPRO case: “vibration test may have magnetized cover”. As you may know, Rubidium standards’s accuracy is very sensitive to external magnetic field. But […]
Keysight MXA revision-b signal analyzer / Spectrum analyzer review, analysis & experiments
Keysight MXA revision-b signal analyzer / Spectrum analyzer review, analysis & experiments from The Signal Path: In this episode Shahriar reviews the long awaited Keysight MXA Signal Analyzer (N9020B). The new X-Series Spectrum Analyzers from Keysight offer an entirely re-designed GUI interface which supports multiple tabs as well as multi-touch interaction. Check out the video after […]
Teardown and analysis of microwave (26.5GHz) electro-mechanical step attenuators
Teardown and analysis of microwave (26.5GHz) electro-mechanical step attenuators from The Signal Path: In this short episode Shahriar takes a close look at a pair of Hewlett Packard microwave electro-mechanical step attenuators operating up to 26.5GHz. Mechanical attenuators offer excellent repeatability, low insertion loss and nearly limitless linearity. The teardown reveals that the construction of […]
Teardown of a Peaktech 6225A
Teardown and analysis of a Peaktech 6225A power supply from ElectroBob: I got a Peaktech 6225A power supply to power some things, as it seemed like a good deal, going beyond what one might find normally in these types of supplies: more display resolution and supposedly, lower noise. For this price, this supply is a good […]
4-20ma panel meter teardown
Teardown of a 4-20ma panel meter from SteelCity Electronics: Below is a panel meter that has been used in some sort of industrial process. It was manufactured in 1980 and I’m not quite sure who the manufacturer was – the company’s logo is not easy to read but it might say, “Aumano”. What caught my attention with […]
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 […]
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.
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.