Mat received his open 7400 contest prize, the Analog Discovery bench tool. He was quick to tear it down and find out how it ticks. The brain of the beast is a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA which works in conjunction with a few analog specific IC, like the AD9648 125 MSPS ADC, and a few ADG612 […]
Tag Archives: teardown
Voltcraft PS-1305/230 power supply teardown
Arhi tears apart the Voltcraft PS-1305/230 isolated 0-230 volts AC 4.5 Amp power supply. It also comes with a 0-30V 5A, and 5V 3A DC channels. The laboratory power unit is a combination of direct current power unit and safety variable isolating transformer with alternating current output. Via the forum.
DIY BGA soldering teardown
Andrew decided to write up a how-to on DIY BGA soldering. His article describes why it’s a bad idea to keep the vias unfilled with solder before reflow. Capilary force sucks up the ball of solder into the via, and there is no solder left to make contact between the IC and the pad. After […]
X-ray BMD assessment machine teardown
Hak8or got his hand on an X-ray bone mineral density assessment machine someone dumped. It seems the only problem is a faulty temperature sensor, but Hak80r decided to break it down and share the pictures with us. For an in-depth gallery check out the forum (56K warning).
HP 5328A universal frequency counter teardown
Kenneth scored two HP universal frequency counters and popped them open. One generates the timebase from an uncompensated oscillator in a TO-5 package, while the other uses a large temperature controlled oven oscillator: here is both of my counters measuring the same 1pps taken from my AdaFruit GPS receiver. The lower one with the oven-compensated […]
Tektronix 465 oscilloscope teardown
Mick bought and disassembled a Tektronix 465 oscilloscope. It’s a 100 MHz dual trace, dual timebase analog scope. He points out that most of the transistors are socketed instead of soldered. More pics below. Via the forum.
Weller RT type tip teardown and reverse engineering
Raj has been designing a soldering station that would support Weller’s RT type tips with temperature sensor and heater built into them. A stereo-type jack on the iron connects them to the soldering station cable. So far Raj has reverse engineered the pinout of the jack and how to read the temperature. The tip has […]
Troubleshoot and repair a defective LCD monitor
Victor took apart a defective LCD monitor and repaired it. The LCD didn’t respond at all to the power button, so chances were good something was off in the power supply. Sure enough there was a bulging cap, replacing it revived the monitor and saved it from the landfill. Some time ago I was donated […]
Kendal 852D hot-air rework station teardown
Schazamp bought a cheap Kendal 852D+ 2+1 hot-air and soldering iron rework tool. He opened it up and took some pictures. Most of the 852-whatever clones look pretty similar inside, there’s probably one factory churning out clones under a bunch of different brand names. Like our Aoyue 968, it’s made with through-hole parts. It’s a […]
Flat screen TV teardown and fix
Hak8or got his hands on a few broken down TVs. One of which is a Dell W3000 set. It’s panel was intact so he figured it was worth to try and fix. After some probing he figured out there was leftover Flux short-circuiting the HV CCFL driver. He cleaned it up and the TV started […]
Bravia LCD TV teardown
Hak80r has been busy disemboweling electronic stuff lately. His latest is a cracked Bravia LCD TV. There’s lots of pictures, users with a slow connections be advised. Via the forum.
Teardown of USB 3.0 Azio HDD enclosure
EETimes has posted their video of the teardown of the Azio USB 3.0 3.5″ HDD enclosure, one of the first devices using USB 3.0 (4 Gb/sec.), with a street price of about $25 USD.
Sure Electronics PICkit2 clone teardown
Today we have teardown photos of a Sure Electronics PICkit2 clone PIC programmer, the type commonly sold on eBay. Scopria, who took these pictures, reports that his programmer stopped working after a few months. He recommends a real Microchip PICkit2 because it’s only a couple dollars more. Teardown photos and a look at the circuit […]
Microchip PICkit2 teardown
PICkit2 is a programmer for Microchip PIC microcontrollers. It has limited debugging features and a low-speed serial protocol analyzer. It’s really useful for low-volume production programming because it can store firmware and program circuits while not attached to a PC. Buy it at Mouser for about $40, Digi-Key has the new PICkit3 for about $70. […]