Teardowns

Bad safety starter

In my earier posting LED tube replaces fluorescent I wrote that due real Fluorescent lamp fire danger I have pretty much tried to get rid of potentially dangerous tradtional starters in the fuorescent lamps. So I replaced the starter with electronic safety model – if bulb does not start, it will stay off without heating.

MS8209 teardown and repair

Mastech MS8209 is real multimeter that can measure almost anything. I have written some comments on Mastech MS8209 years ago. Some technical data on the back of the multimeter. The things I liked: – practically all the necessary multimeter measurements including frequency and capacitance measurements – good mechanical consruction, convient size and durable – the

Usb to ps2 adapter fail

I bought usb to ps2 keyboard plus mouse adapter “USB Male to PS2 Female Cable Adapter Converter Use For Keyboard Mouse” from Banggood to connect some older hardware (especially on old bar code reader with PS/2 keyboard interface) to new computer. This particular USB Male to PS2 Female Cable Adapter Converter Use For Keyboard Mouse was

Espressif ESP8266 WiFi-serial interface

Espressif ESP8266 WiFi-serial interface : weekend die-shot blog posting shows what is inside ESP8266 WiFi IoT chip. Die size 2050×2169 µm, half of which is occupied by transceiver and PA, 25% – on-chip memory (rough size estimations are ~300KiB), and the rest is Xtensa LX106 CPU core and other digital logic. Chip has marking ESP8089,

WeMo Introduction and Teardown

Belkin’s WeMo is a lot of talked about IoT product for home automation. Belkin’s WeMo Switch smart power plug is one of our favorite smart-home devices because it provides such a low-risk home automation entry point. After you associate a WeMo device with your wireless network via an Android or iOS application, you’re subsequently able

Opamp IC teardown

The 741 op amp is one of the most famous and popular ICs in 1968.It is arguably the canonical op-amp. A Peek Under the Hood of the 741 Op-Amp article takes a look what is inside of this famous IC case. Understanding silicon circuits: inside the ubiquitous 741 op amp article has more pictures and

Usb memory stick teardown

Old usb memory What is inside? On this side USB controller on the left next to USB connector and flash memory on the right. And on the other side… There seems to be crystal and some regulator. The switch is for normal read-write mode or read-only mode selection. Posted from WordPress for Android

RCD teardown

This is a teardown of 230V 16A AC RCD/GFCI based on CL4145 IC. The control IC senses fault current with differential current transformer and drives solenoid that keeps output contacts closed when everything is ok. Posted from WordPress for Android